The Evolution of the Supreme Being
Stuart R. Kerr, III
Northeast Regional Conference for Readers of The Urantia Book
Simon's Rock of Bard's College
Great Barrington, Mass.
June 13, 1992
"The Supreme Being did not create man, but man was literally created out of, his very life was derived from, the potentiality of the Supreme. Nor does he evolve man; yet is the Supreme himself the very essence of evolution. From the finite standpoint, we actually live, move, and have our being within the immanence of the Supreme." [117:3.12](1283:1) |
Contents |
Introduction From eternity, God laid the foundations of the heavens and the earth; ''The Universal Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the material, intellectual, and spiritual phenomena of the universe of universes, which he is executing throughout all time. God created the universes of his own free and sovereign will, and he created them in accordance with his all-wise and eternal purpose." [4:0.1](54:1) God sets the stage for our creation as a finite reality; it is conditioned by time and space, it has a beginning and it has a foreordained destiny. This creation is experiential - events occur in time-conditioned sequences, and they are constrained within limiting spatial boundaries. The Universal Father is not restricted or conditioned by the limitations he has imposed on his time-space creations. He is above time and space; he is not handicapped, or bound, by his creation. His reality, as it exists on his eternal abode of Paradise, is absolute reality - it is eternity existence, it is existential. The finite reality that characterizes his creation can be envisioned as being projected in space and actualized in time, and this reality is intended to be experiencible. The experiential events of time flow ever onward as the moving image of eternity within a finite space that represents the fleeting shadows of Paradise realities. Finite reality is undergoing purposed mobilization and perfecting unification, and the energy that drives the reality of this finite cosmos originates within the eternal purposes of the Universal Father. "The eternal purpose of the eternal God is a high spiritual ideal. The events of time and the struggles of material existence are but the transient scaffolding which bridges over to the other side, to the promised land of spiritual reality and supernal existence." [32:5.2](364:5) The Universal Father's achievement of experiential expression occurs on two additional levels of creational reality besides just the level of finite existence; these include the absonite (supertime and transcended space) and the absolute (transcended superpersonal values and divinity meanings). All three levels are expressive of three modes of Deity manifestation, and each level is personalizing as three beings of expressed divinity;
All three of these derivative Deity personalities are not now fully existent; they are in process of actualization. They have a beginning, though they are eternal in destiny. This paper is an attempt to delineate as to how the mechanistic universe is evolving under the influence of the Almighty Supreme, is activated as a living and dynamic organism by the Supreme Mind in co-ordination with God the Supreme, and is divinely expressing itself in the power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being. |
The Supremacy of Deity The Supremacy of Deity is functioning right now, in our very own finite reality of time and space, on this, the first level of divine creature-identificational reality. Deity, at this level of the Supreme, is self-experiential, power-personalizing, and creature-Creator unifying. This finite level of reality is driven by the purposed overcontrol of absolute Paradise reality, and this divine process is being carried out under the directive urge of the evolving Supreme Being. The experiential evolution of the Supreme Being is made possible as a direct consequence of the Universal Father's absolute decision to free himself from the bonds of infinity and the fetters of eternity. "In the Deity of the Supreme the Father-I AM has achieved relatively complete liberation from the limitations inherent in infinity of status, eternity of being, and absoluteness of nature." [115:7.1](1266:3) But there is a price to pay for the Supreme's freedom; the existence of the Supreme has now become subject to the experiential qualifications of universal function in the confines of space and the barriers of time. Liberation from eternity is achieved, but only at the cost of nonabsoluteness of being; actualized existence is necessarily partial and the final nature of the Supreme Being is incomplete. On the other hand, this evolutionary-experiential status of the Supreme makes it possible for finite creatures such as ourselves to participate in the destined attainment of the Deity of Supremacy and the emergence of the contactable Supreme Being to all finite creatures. This is the supreme challenge: to bring the perfection of eternity and the divinity of Paradise out into the evolutionary domains of time and space, domains of unsettled physical development, of imperfect nature and potential evil where creatures of imperfection make their appearance. The actualizing Supreme Being is compelled to express himself as a sub eternal personality by virtue of his own emerging will and purpose in distributing himself to the time-space creations; his emerging being expands with the evolutionary universes and identifies with all creature growth. He grows as we grow and we grow as an integral part of his growth. As the Supreme Being evolves within the grand universe, all finite reality within the grand universe grows with him. When this process reaches full completion in the far-distant future, when all growth within the Supreme is forever exhausted, the Supreme Being will have actualized as a contactable person of Deity that we will all perceive and know. Finite experience as such will end. "The Supreme is both actual and potential, a being of personal supremacy and of almighty power, responsive alike to creature effort and Creator purpose; self-acting upon the universe and self-reactive to the sum total of the universe; and at one and the same time the supreme creator and the supreme creature. The Deity of Supremacy is thus expressive of the sum total of the entire finite." [117:1.9](1279:8) The reality of the finite cosmos originates within the eternal purposes of the Universal Father. These purposes are brought to fruition in time and space and the total and evolved finite is culminated in the Supreme. The Deity of the Supreme is the great avenue through which the love of the Father flows outward to all creation, and the Supreme is the great avenue through which finite creatures pass inward in their quest of the Father, who is love. "And to the time creatures of space the Supreme Being is a revelation of the unity of the I AM." [104:5.6](1151:13) |
The Existential Triodities All of the growth of the Supreme is essentially a transaction involving the transfer of reality from the potential to the actual. ''The great struggle of this universe age is between the potential and the actual--the seeking for actualization by all that is as yet unexpressed." [117:4.11](1284:8) This growth of the Supreme can best be understood by a careful examination of the two existential triodities. These consist of the functional groupings of the three Absolutes of potentiality - the Deity Absolute, the Universal Absolute, and the Unqualified Absolute - and the three Absolute Actuals - the Eternal Son, the Paradise Isle, and the Conjoint Actor. Together, these functional relationships of the Six Absolutes of Infinity (in conjunction with the focusing direction of the First Source and Center) co-ordinate the eventuation of the sum total of potential and actualized existential reality - spirit, cosmic, or mindal. All evolution is simply the transfer of reality from one triodity to the other, from the potential to the actual, "and the evolutionary Supreme is the culminating and personally volitional focus of the transmutation--the transformation of potentials to Actuals in and on the finite level of existence." [115:4.1](1264:1) The Universal Father's eternity act provides for a reality whereby the separation of potential from actual yields divinity-tensions within infinity, and this creates a primal emptiness which can be filled with the possibility for all universe growth. This exposed possibility for experiential growth is the very nature of the Supreme. "The Supreme is the divine channel through which flows the creative infinity of the triodities that crystallizes into the galactic panorama of space, against which takes place the magnificent personality drama of time: the spirit conquest of energy-matter through the mediation of mind.'' [117:3.2](1281:50) |
The Supreme Being "The Supreme Being is the unification of three phases of Deity reality: God the Supreme, the spiritual unification of certain aspects of the Paradise Trinity; the Almighty Supreme, the power unification of the grand universe Creators; and the Supreme Mind, the individual contribution of the Third Source and Center and his co-ordinates to the reality of the Supreme Being." [22:7.11](251:1) The spirit personality of the Supreme Being, God the Supreme, originates from the Paradise Deities and functions in the present universe age in Havona only on spiritual levels. The spirit personality of God the Supreme is directly derived from the Paradise Trinity, "for the Trinity is original Deity while the Supreme is derived Deity." [115:4.1](1263:8) He depends on the Trinity for his personal and spirit nature. His derived personality and spirit attributes are in the process of actualizing in time and space through the combined efforts of the Creator Sons, Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits to unify creature experience with Creator divinity. God the Supreme is the actualizing God of time and space; he is personal Deity associatively realizing the time-space experiential achievement of creature-Creator identity. God the Supreme strives to achieve reality of self and completion of sovereignty within a finite cosmos which is expanding to the outermost limits of possibility. He is the emerging Deity of the finite level of existence; he is evolutionary Deity, God in time, not God in eternity. He is God in space, not God in infinity. '"God the Supreme is the personalization of all universe experience, the focalization of all finite evolution, the maximation of all creature reality, the consummation of cosmic wisdom, the embodiment of the harmonious beauties of the galaxies of time, the truth of cosmic mind meanings, and the goodness of supreme spirit values." [118:9.9](1304:2) The emergence of the fully actualized Supreme Being is drawing heavily upon these spirit potentials of Paradise Deity as embodied in the person of God the Supreme. Along with the power potentials of the Almighty Supreme, God the Supreme is jointly contributing to the associative-creative expression of universe potentials that will someday actualize the power-personality unification of the Supreme Being himself. The Almighty Supreme represents the evolution of the non-personal physical universe and the power unification of the grand universe Creators. The unifying experiential nature of the Supreme Being is correlative of both the personal qualities of experientia1 divinity as embodied in God the Supreme as well as all the other-than personal qualities which characterize the Almighty Supreme. The impersonal aspects of the universe of universes are equally destined to undergo unification within the cosmos. The power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being is the unification of non-personal physical universe evolution with the personal overcontrol of the Paradise personalities evolving the universe. The power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme are being generated by the Supreme Creator Personalities (the Seven Master Spirits, the 21 Ancients of Days, and the Creator Sons of the local universes) throughout the evolving universe of universes. These creative activities of the Supreme Creators are co-ordinated with the spirit person of God the Supreme on the pilot world of the outer Havona circuit by means of the Supreme Mind. "The spirit-personal qualities of the Supreme are inseparable from the power prerogatives of the Almighty, and both are complemented by the unknown potential of Supreme Mind." [106:5.2](1167:4) This divine activity of power-personality synthesis eventuates the growing power presence of the evolving Deity of the Supreme Being in the nuclear grand universe. The power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme are power-personalized with the spirit of God the Supreme by the Supreme Mind as it is bestowed by the ministry of the Infinite Spirit. "The creative synthesis of power and personality is a part of the creative urge of the Supreme Mind and is the very essence of the evolutionary growth of unity in the Supreme Being." [116:1.1](1269:1) Cosmic mind, the infinite and universal mind of the Infinite Spirit, is ministered to the universes of time and space under the supervision of the Seven Master Spirits. These Master Spirits are themselves perfectly coordinated with the Supreme Mind of time and space. The experiential mind of the Supreme was likely bestowed by the Infinite Spirit at the very beginning of finite time, and it appears to have been evolving ever since in parallel with the growing relationship between the finite cosmic mind and the divine absolute mind. "The Infinite Spirit is the perfect expression of the mind of the Creator to all creatures: the Supreme Being is the evolving expression of the mind of all creatures to their Creator." [9:7.5](104:8) ''The evolution of the Almighty power of Supremacy by diverse divinity synthesis in the evolving universes eventuated in a new power presence of Deity which co-ordinated with the spiritual person of the Supreme in Havona by means of the Supreme Mind, which concomitantly translated from the potential resident in the infinite mind of the Infinite Spirit to the active functional mind of the Supreme Being."' [56:6.2](641:4) The actualizing Supreme Being expresses personal will and purpose of his own in revealing himself to the time-space creation. He is an active participant in the converging inflow of almighty power which emanates from the divinity successes of the Supreme Creators in time and space. This experiential Deity of the Supreme Being is the partial portraiture of the Paradise Trinity as he evolves the synthesis of finite matter, mind, and spirit in the grand universe. The Supreme Being is not the finite personalization of the Universal Father. He is more properly the evolving finite equivalent of the personalization of the Deity of the Paradise Trinity. In accordance with this unifying urge of personality, the Supreme Being is the resultant Deity synthesis of grand universe evolution whereby the whirling domains of physical creation are eventually dominated by a spirit nucleus. This is a unified synthesis of evolutionary power with dominant spirit personality. Four levels of personality drive this attainment of divine destiny;
It is conjectured that the final settling of the grand universe, the seven superuniverse as dependent on Havona, in light and life will inaugurate the emergence of the fully actualized Supreme Being from his central universe origin to his projected residence on the headquarters world of the seventh superuniverse, followed by the removal of all barriers currently existing between these superuniverses. From there, he would reign as the almighty and experiential sovereign of the perfected creations of time and space. The emergence of the Supreme Being will signal the final victory of spirit over matter through the mediation of mind, by virtue of the will of volitional personality. This will represent the final synthesis of personality and power in a perfectly unified universe. "When finally actualized, this evolutionary Deity will constitute the eternal fusion of the finite and the infinite--the everlasting and indissoluble union of experiential power and spirit personality." [F:VII.7](11:4) |
God the Sevenfold The evolutionary growth of the Supreme generates consequences in the universes of finite time and space in two contra positive directions: intensively inward to Paradise and original Deity, and extensively outward to the limitless possibilities of experiential Deity (the Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute) in the ever-expanding master universe. This dual transmutation of Deity potential to Deity actuality in experiential reality is revealed in the descension and ascension of present universe personalities on the seven-rung ladder of God the Sevenfold. The Supreme Creator Personalities (the Seven Master Spirits, the Ancients of Days, the Paradise Creator Sons), along with their divine associates, are integral participants in the outward, diverging growth of the Supreme. The ascending mortals from the seven superuniverses, on the other hand, are key contributors to the inward, converging growth of the Supreme. The Paradise Trinity is ''the absolute center-source of perfect and infinite stability around which the evolutionary growth of the Supreme progressively unfolds." [115:5.1](1265:1) By virtue of the reciprocal time-space descension of the personal Paradise Deities and their creative associates in association with the time-space ascension of evolutionary creatures, existential Paradise Deity is experientially evolving throughout the grand universe in two phases of Supremacy - in the growing power of the Almighty Supreme and in the actualizing person of God the Supreme. This self-experiential and creature-Creator unifying functioning of Deity at the level of the Supreme (the Supremacy of Deity) is power-personality unifying as the Supreme Being. The first three levels of God the sevenfold, comprising the Supreme Creator Personalities, are essential to the power of the Almighty Supreme. They provide the universe activities that forever accompany and sustain his administrative acts. As Deity personality, they are actively functioning in the grand universe; their actions are power-personalizing as the Supreme Being on the first creature levels of unifying Deity revelation in time and space. The Supreme Creator Personalities, functioning as co-creators of the finite realms of time and space in liaison with the Paradise Trinity, are co-participants in the actualizing of the Supreme Being. "The Supreme ever intervenes as the experiential spirit personalization of the Paradise Trinity and as the experiential focus of the evolutionary almighty power of the creator children of the Paradise Deities.". [116:2.5](1270:10) In the universes of time and space, God the sevenfold provides an experientially progressive approach to the finding of the Universal Father. The Supreme derives his spirit person from the Paradise Trinity and his almighty power from the Sevenfold, and these are united by the Supreme Mind. God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the Universal Father, and this evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme. The Supreme Being is the midpoint of God the Sevenfold; his completion is consummated by the completed co-operation of the Supreme Creators in experiential finite reality on one hand and the Paradise Deities on the other. From this central position, he is optimally capable to co-ordinate finite evolution within God the Sevenfold. The corps of the Supreme Creators do their part to organize and perfect the seven superuniverses and the projected 700,000 local universes under their jurisdiction, and the Supreme Being is slowly emerging as a result of the successes of the these Supreme Creators in the time-space realms in collaboration with the Paradise Deities. Ascending mortals are destined to comprehend the power of the Almighty Supreme on the capitals of the superuniverses, and they will achieve personality recognition of God the Supreme on the outer Havona circuits. The Supreme Being will remain invisible until he has become fully actualized at the final settling of the superuniverses in light and life. It will be then that finaliters, as sixth stage spirits, will be able to seek final seventh-stage-spirit status. They will serve successively in superuniverses other than those of nativity, thereby superimposing experience upon experience until the fullness of the sevenfold diversity of possible creature experience has been encompassed. With the emergence of the Supreme Being as the sovereign of all finite creation, the barriers between each of the seven superuniverses, each with one of the Seven Master Spirits presiding over it, will be removed. The grand universe will begin to function as a single unit, as an administrative and cultural whole. "Ascendant finaliters, having been born in the local universes, nurtured in the superuniverses, and trained in the central universe, embrace in their personal experiences the full potential of the comprehension of the time-space divinity of God the Sevenfold unifying in the Supreme." [56:8.2](643:6) |
Havona and the Supreme Creator Personalities Upon the organization of the seven superuniverses at the beginning of time, the creative Deity association of God the Sevenfold began to function. God the Sevenfold is representative of the Paradise Deities reaching out into time and space to provide a living ladder of divine personalities that bridges the gap between creature and Creator, between man and the Paradise Father. The Paradise Father is revealing himself to the universes, and he has provided for the perfect platform from which to initiate his plan for perfecting the evolving universes of his own handiwork - and this is embodied in the perfection of Havona. "Havona is a perfect pattern of the universality potential of the Supreme. This universe is a finished portrayal of the future perfection of the Supreme and is suggestive of the potential of the Ultimate." [14:6.22](161:13) Havona is the Father's divine projection of the final evolutionary destiny of the universe of universes; it is representative of all the potentials of finite evolution, creative realities, cosmic mind meanings, and supreme spirit values that are in process of actualizing in time and space. Havona perfectly reveals the symmetrical spirit nature of God the Supreme and the power potentials of the Almighty Supreme before the initiation of their experiential power-personality synthesis in the evolving universes of time and space. In Havona, their future-eternal unity within the Supreme is perfectly foreshadowed as the future perfection of the unified Supreme: "The Havona creation is the eternal and perfect proof of the spiritual reality of the Supreme Being." [14:6.20](161:11) The probable event that initiated the first universe age of finite reality, the age of superuniverse evolution, was the creation of the Seven Master Spirits. These Master Spirits, one assigned for each of the superuniverses, are not existential; they are experiential - they had beginnings in time. They are the very first expressions of experiential Deity. They are representative of Paradise Deity on all levels below the existential absolute - finite (Supreme), absonite (Ultimate), and finite-absonite (Supreme-Ultimate). The Seven Master Spirits each personally express one of seven possible combinations of the three persons of Paradise Deity (as do, collaterally, each of the seven superuniverses);
In Havona, Master Spirit number seven personally sponsors all ascension candidates from the worlds of time in their attempts to find God the Supreme. Despite the noncontactability of the actualized person of the Supreme in the present universe age, the Seventh Master Spirit is in the meantime revelatory of the spirit person of the Supreme by virtue of his triune nature; this nature discloses "the marvelous symmetry of the co-ordinate blending of the divine natures of Father, Son, and Spirit." [16:3.20](189:2) He will be instrumental in empowering the pilgrims of time with the eventual ability to penetrate the Trinity and to discover the three infinite persons of Deity. Along with the Seven Master Spirits, there were also created the 21 Ancients of Days, a triad for each of the seven superuniverses. These are the triune rulers of the seven superuniverses. "The Ancients of Days provide the co-ordinated and perfect administrative overcontrol of the evolving universes of time and space." [18:3.9](210:3) The creation of the Ancients of Days was followed by the commissioning of the complemental Creator Son/Creative Spirit liaisons as rulers of the 700,000 projected local universes. With the stage now prepared for creature-Supreme evolution, finite mortals soon followed on the worlds of space to begin their long Paradise ascent as the pilgrims of time in their quest for the Universal Father. Also, with the onset of the present universe age of creation, God the Supreme appears in Havona as a resident of the central universe, his presence deriving from the Paradise Trinity. In the establishment of sovereignty in his own local universe, a Creator Son is also augmenting the evolving sovereignty of the Supreme. Our own Creator Son, Christ Michael, provided for the possible sovereignty of the Supreme in Nebadon by the completion of his seven bestowals. "On none of Michael's bestowals did he reveal God the Supreme, but the sum total of all seven bestowals is a new Nebadon revelation of the Supreme Being." [119:8.5](1318:5) Michael reveals the will of the Supreme through the full combination of his seven bestowals, and in so doing he has forever identified himself with the Supreme; he will continue to participate in the actualization of the sovereignty of Supremacy in the universe of universes: "And the personal sovereignty of a sevenfold Son is like the future sovereignty of the sometime-to-be-completed Supreme Being, embracing as it does the fullest possible content of the power and the authority of the Paradise Trinity manifestable within the time-space limits concerned." [21:5.2](240:8) Jesus is the perfect example of creature-Creator synthesis. Human nature has become an eternal aspect of his divine nature; he will forevermore be identified as both Michael, the divine Creator Son, and Jesus, the son of Joseph the carpenter. Our sovereign Lord is supremely unified as both Son of God and son of man. |
Creature-Creator Synthesis The synthesis of creature and Creator eventuates in the unified Deity of the Supreme Being. This eventuation yields a union of Paradise perfection and time-space experience whose will is expressive of one divine personality. This is a will of Supremacy that is supersummative of the combined will of divinity and humanity. Unpredictably, new Deity values and meanings are yielded by this creature-Creator synthesis on the finite level of reality. The partnership of man and God, as they conjointly pursue the eternal quest for perfection and completeness in time-space experience, together resolve the manifold problems which beset all finite creation. "Experiential growth implies creature-Creator partnership--God and man in association. Growth is the earmark of experiential Deity."' [116:0.3](1268:3) It will be by virtue of the Supreme Being that man will consummate his perfecting future; the personality of man will creatively unify his being as drive by spirit, through mind, and over matter. Ascendant finaliters are enabled to find the Universal Father by virtue of the ministry of their indwelling Adjusters, but it is only by the technique of continued experience that they truly come to know the Supreme Being. Upon the eventual fusion and resultant oneness with this indwelling Adjuster, such a onetime mortal being is assured of his eternal birthright for the endless pursuit of finality of universe service for and with the Supreme - thus results the sublime synthesis of man and the essence of God. God the Father is infinite and will always be a mystery to us, even after we will have sometime found him. But God the Supreme is finite and is therefore comprehensible to finite creatures. We can never fully comprehend the Universal Father, but we will all someday understand the Supreme Being because, like us, he has an origin, he has growth, and he has a destiny - he can achieve completion of perfection. The Supreme Being is God as he can be understood by finite creatures. Our inability to ever really know the Father is compensated by our sometime ability to know the Supreme Being (it takes infinite understanding to know an infinite God). We will understand the Supreme, and we will be expository of the Supreme. "Though man's spiritual nature reaches up in the worship experience to the Father who is infinite, man's intellectual comprehension capacity is exhausted by the maximum conception of the Supreme Being." [115:3.4](1262:1) Beyond the Supreme, man's conceptual grasp becomes his projection of finite understanding toward the superfinite (the absonite). And this comprehensive extension of reach thus initiates man's search for the Ultimate. God the Supreme will not be attainable to any individual creature until that day when the grand universe reaches completed perfection and all creatures will consequently find him at the same time. God the Father is discoverable, though not fully comprehensible, by any individual who has attained the requisite level of divine perfection; in like manner are God the Son and God the Spirit discoverable. These Paradise personalities are existential and thereby absolutely real and contactable from all eternity. The Supreme Being, on the other hand, requires final universal attainment of perfection before all ascenders can simultaneously find maximum universe maturity which qualifies them to collectively participate in his eventual discovery. All finite creatures will someday find the Supreme simultaneously; no one will find the Supreme until all find the Supreme. Evolutionary mortals will sometime attain kinship with the experiential Supreme because they will truly share in his evolutionary perfection. The Supreme, being experiential, is completely experiencible. The Father has a relationship with each of us as individuals. The Supreme will not interact personally with any of us until he is contactable by all of us. |
Creature-Supreme Identification The individual creature participants in the actualization of the finite God are progressively augmented by this very participatory Deity adventure. The union of man with God causes no sacrifice of individuality or volitional selfhood of the creature; rather, the mortal creature "exalts, enriches, spiritualizes, and unifies his evolving self to the very threshold of supremacy." [117:5.2](1285:6) Additionally, the Supreme will in turn compensate finite creatures for their finite limitations. Ascending mortals are destined to someday find the Paradise Father, but their evolutionary minds are insufficient to fully comprehend an infinite and absolute Father. The attainment of God the Supreme, on the other hand, will correspond with a true understanding of his being as well. The Supreme Being provides three basic functions for the benefit of mortal man;
The evolution of man in many ways parallels the growth of the Supreme Being. Man must rise above the material domination of body and environment towards the greater reality of the spirit. Each human must mentally exercise his free-will decisions towards this goal. For this end, he is endowed with adjutant mind, and the ever-present Thought Adjuster supplies the spirit impetus that eventually brings the morontial soul into being. In like manner, the Supreme exercises his own power-personality prerogatives. His spirit nature is dependent on the pre-existent unity of the Paradise Trinity and his sovereign power grows in and out of the acts and achievements of the Supreme Creator Personalities within the confines of the material superuniverses. And in all of this, he is a volitional and creative participant in his own Deity actualization by the co-ordinating activities of his Supreme Mind through the ministry of the infinite and universal cosmic mind of the Infinite Spirit. The attainment of the psychic circles of mortal progression are indicative of an ascendant mortal's progressive grasp of cosmic meanings and the realization of divine values, and these result in a growing morontia consciousness of that ascendant mortal's growing relationship with the emerging Supreme Being. The gradual attainment of the seven cosmic circles is a true measure of that individual's universe citizenship. "Action, completion of decisions, is essential to the evolutionary attainment of consciousness of progressive kinship with the cosmic actuality of the Supreme Being." [110:6.17](1211:3) It is only through the realization of choice experience that potentials transmute to Actuals in the finite realms of the Supreme. The growth of the Supreme is dependent upon the decisions of the finite mind. The Supreme depends upon the integrity of human volition, man's exercised wisdom of "decision-actions., for his very actuality of experiential evolution. The finite creature can err in his free-will choosing because he is time-bound and time-limited, and this is a conditional repercussion of the evolving presence of the Supreme Being. This is a necessary condition that provides immature creatures to freely participate and contribute to universe progression, to discover his supreme obligations and duties of cosmic citizenship. Ascending finaliters are destined to the service and the revelation of the Supreme Being in and to the future universe of outer space. ''In time you mortals may begin the revelation of the Supreme to your fellows, and increasingly may you augment this revelation as you ascend Paradiseward. In eternity you may be permitted to make increasing revelations of this God of evolutionary creatures on supreme levels--even ultimate--as seventh-stage finaliters." [56:8.4](644:2) Each perfected mortal finaliter, evolved in time and space and fused with a fragment of Deity, will express Supreme Deity just as Michael, during his mortal incarnation, expressed the Universal Father |
Eternal Survival Choice The Supreme Being's very struggle for personal expression in the grand universe, the very evolution of his sovereign divinity, is directly dependent upon the will-decisions of every personality in finite existence - the whole of his being is predicated on the totality of their combined actions. The Supreme Being carries on the struggle to achieve actualization of all that is yet to be expressed. "When a human being chooses eternal survival, he is co-creating destiny; and in the life of this ascending mortal the finite God finds an increased measure of personality self-realization and an enlargement of experiential sovereignty." [117:4.2](1283:5) The act of the creature's choosing to do the will of the Father is of cosmic value and universe meaning. The choice by man to seek the Paradise Father, to seek the adventure of the ascending career, promotes the inevitable destiny of the Supreme in the inexorable flow of time within the stream of eternity. Mortal man has been given '"control over the destiny of an infinitesimal fraction of the future of the Supreme. For as man attains human destiny, so does the Supreme achieve destiny on deity levels."' [117:4.12](1285:2) If a mortal creature chooses to reject his eternal career, the Supreme is inevitably delayed, accorded by the loss of this creature's experiential contribution to the evolution of this finite God of Supremacy. This experiential depravation must eventually be compensated by substitutional or collateral experience; the Supreme must await the action of another creature at some future time who will present an equivalent contribution to the Supreme. Man's personality comes from the father and is therefore eternal; it will eventually achieve Deity destiny. Man's personality, with regard to identity, is a conditioned eternal reality, and man must choose to be individually present at the attainment of such destiny. ''The cycle is foreordained, but man's participation therein is optional, personal, and experiential." [112:5.2](1232:4) The personality of each human being represents a unique, irreplaceable expression of meaning-value to the finite, and the personality of such a non-surviving mortal being will be absorbed into the oversoul of creation - it will coalesce into the unifying Deity of the Supreme as a drop of water returns to the sea." This absorbed personality will never again find identical expression as it did in conjunction with the rejecting mortal creature. When the sentence of annihilation is decreed for a sin-identified being, he instantly ceases to be a cosmic personality entity. That creature who had become completely self-identified with iniquity is deprived forevermore of a continuing life vehicle as his personal assurance of eternal life. The insular personality of that individual is absorbed into the oversoul of the Supreme Being; it becomes an integral part of the evolving experience of the Supreme. The personality values of the non-survivor persist as a factor in the personality of the actualizing Supreme Being, whereas the identity of that personality-endowed creature ceases to exist forevermore. Our Thought Adjusters bring with them to those mortal candidates for indwelling predetermined plans for their intellectual and spiritual development. the plans for these model careers have been determined and foreordained by themselves and the Personalized Adjusters of Divinington, and these offered programs for attaining the ideal life have been duly certified by the attached Personalized Adjuster to Urantia. However, mortal beings are not enforced to adopt these plans. "Will you decide to personalize the experiencible value meanings of the cosmos into your own evolving selfhood?" [117:4.10](1284:7) "Will you fail the God of time, who is so dependent upon the decisions of the finite mind?" [117:4.13](1285:3) |
Predestination and Providence From an eternity perspective, the someday-to-be-completed evolution of the Supreme Being is a foregone conclusion. The exact path by which he evolves, however, is not determined. There are many pathways for reaching the top of a mountain; the final achievement of this effort remains the same regardless of the method of approach. In certain aspects, the actions precipitated by the human mind are unpredictable. We are far more than isolated material beings bound by unbreakable chains in a tyrannical river of time. We are not inexorably circumscribed to a personal fate that is inflexibly fixed from all eternity. "God loves us too much to do that, for that would be nothing short of cosmic tyranny. Man does have relative powers-of choice." [118:9.1](1304:3) This freedom from absolute predestination may be primarily due to the Universal Father's eternity decision to lovingly provide for a creation where creature free-will is of tantamount sanctity. It is more certainly a possible repercussion of the incomplete evolution status of the Supreme Being. There appears to be a providential unity in the evolving universes of time and space which is providing a base of purposed continuity to the whole fabric of cosmic events. There is a powerful indication that all experiences, lives, ages, and epochs that successively occur in the cosmos are demonstrating an accounting for and correlation with "the transactions of time with the underlying purposes and basic reactions of eternity." [32:5.3](364:6) The Supreme appears to have some ability to forecast and, to a limited extent, anticipate future evolutionary trends in his cosmos. This process is referred to as the "Immanence of the Projected Incomplete", and it is conjectured to originate from the Supreme's sometime destiny to interact with and participate on the level of the superfinite reality of the abstained; this is the Ultimate level of transcended time and space. this predictive ability of the Supreme "appears to be an amazingly fortuitous co-ordination of apparently unsettled universe happenings. This must be the function of Providence--the realm of the Supreme Being and the Conjoint Actor." [4:1.10](56:2) Man himself develops a growing ability, over time, to become supremely foresighted regarding both his own future along with the evolving trends of the universe itself in its relentless march toward perfection. "There is a providence in the evolving universes, and it can be discovered by creatures to just the extent that they have attained capacity to perceive the purpose of the evolving universes." [118:10.10](1305:6) This cosmic providence of the Supreme, though, deals strictly with the totality of the cosmos, and lone individuals only become involved if their functional involvement has importance to some higher total, be it the total race, nation, planet, or higher. "The mortal mind can immediately think of a thousand and one things--catastrophic physical events, appalling accidents, horrific disasters, painful illnesses, and world-wide scourges-and ask whether such visitations are correlated in the unknown maneuvering of this probable functioning of the Supreme Being. Frankly, we do not know; we are not really sure. But we do observe that, as time passes, all these difficult and more or less mysterious situations always work out for the welfare and progress of the universes. It may be true that the circumstances of existence and the inexplicable vicissitudes of living are all interwoven into a meaningful pattern of high value by the function of the Supreme and the overcontrol of the Trinity" [10:7.5](115:7) The above quote poses a truly challenging philosophical question to all of us. When it comes down to the very heart of the Supreme's conjectured foreknowledge of all events in the cosmos, fortuitous and disastrous, we may find it best to exercise our faith that all things and events are, in the long run, contributory to the overall betterment for each and every one of us. We ought to place our full trust in our Universal Father's divine love and care for us; we should encourage our faith that all manifestations of his handiwork can only be targeted for enticing us to perfection and eternal satisfaction. |
The Dynamics of Love "Bear in mind, all that God the Father and his Paradise Sons do for us, we in turn and in spirit have the opportunity to do for and in the Emerging Supreme Being. The experience of love, and service in the universe is mutual. God the Father does not need that his sons should return to him all that he bestows upon them, but they do (or may) in turn bestow all of this upon their fellows and upon the evolving Supreme Being." [56:8.3](644:1) "Man can discover the Father in his heart, but he will have to search for the Supreme in the hearts of all other men; and when all creatures perfectly reveal the love of the Supreme, then will he become a universe actuality to all creatures. And that is just another way of saying that the universe will be settled in light and life." [117:6.23](1290:9) "All true love is from God, and man receives the divine affection as he himself bestows this love upon his fellows. Love is dynamic. It can never be captured; it is alive, free, thrilling, and always moving. Man can never take the love of the Father and imprison it within his heart. The Father's love can become real to mortal man only by passing through that man's personality as he in turn bestows this love upon his fellows. The great circuit of love is from the Father, through sons to brothers, and hence to the Supreme. The love of the Father appears in the mortal personality by the ministry of the indwelling Adjuster. Such a God-knowing son reveals this love to his universe brethren, and this fraternal affection is the essence of the love of the Supreme." [117:6.10](1289:3) |
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