Contents of this Study

  Angel Ministry

One of the most important things a destiny guardian does for her mortal subject is to effect a personal co-ordination of the numerous impersonal spirit influences which indwell, surround, and impinge upon the mind and soul of the evolving material creature. Human beings are personalities, and it is exceedingly difficult for nonpersonal spirits and prepersonal entities to make direct contact with such highly material and discretely personal minds. In the ministry of the guarding angel all of these influences are more or less unified and made more nearly appreciable by the expanding moral nature of the evolving human personality. [UB 113:3:1 (1244:2)]

The seraphic guardians correlate for their mortal ward the manifold agencies and influences of the Infinite Spirit:

        The domain of the physical controllers

        The domain of the adjutant mind-spirits

        The Holy Spirit of the Divine Minister

        The omnipresent spirit of the Infinite Spirit, the Paradise Third Source and Center

The history of humankind has been indelibly marked by its possession of spirit guardianship. Without this universal guardianship by the angels, life on this planet would be very different from what it is. It would be far more dismal! The same could be said for each human being. We enjoy our lives as they are because they have been given into the safekeeping of the angels. Although very few occasions in our mortal careers can be traced with certainty to the immediate activity of these ministers of the spirit, we have the assurance of our faith that we are in fact being guarded. We have never known any other kind of existence.

We cannot know what it is to be without the angels. This guardianship by the heavenly spirits is given to us as a final, unalterable dispensation of God's providence. The ever-correcting, ever-defending interventions of these benign powers are provided to keep the human race and each individual on the true pathway to perfection. This is a providence on the part of God that is absolute and independent of man's good will. It is our birthright.

The angels are anxiously bent on leading man to his eternal salvation. This attention of the angels, particularly of our guardian angels, is immediately for our temporal welfare. Their more principal and final object is the soul of man as that soul is destined for greater prospects. The guardian angels fight for us largely without our knowledge. Their mission is essentially one of guardianship of a lower being, and this is carried out quite independently of that lower being's active participation or direct recognition. It is truly a trust, and the guardian angels are responsible for the full discharge of that trust. Angelic inspiration remains in our lives in spite of our voluntary deafness to it. The angels have not received a mission to interfere with man's free action. They have received a mission to save man from the results of his own sins as far is compatible with the higher dictates of God's justice.

God and his angels work unceasingly for man's welfare, but the angelic ministry is most effective in the case of those who receive the inheritance willingly. Nevertheless, it is to be maintained that the ministry of the angels is not denied to other men, although in their case the ministry falls short of its final goal, the leading on to salvation. The sins of men are not signs that man is poorly guarded by the angels, for we can act against the good instigation of the angel who works outside of us as we can act against the good instincts that are within us in the presence of the divine Father fragments. An angel's influence may entice, may persuade, may tempt the will, but it can never touch it directly.

As we are called to the kingdom of heaven, the angels see us as their fellow participants in the graces of the Infinite Spirit, and they have an appointed incentive for leading us to our spiritual pilgrimage. Man's association with the angels is of a most intimate kind. It arises from a more profound dispensation from God. The mortal survivors of the human race will one day overstep the fringe of this material world, into a spiritual plane more compatible with that of the angels. With regard to the final destiny of transcendent union with God, the angels are in a similar position as man. They, too, seek progressive attainment for evolutionary perfection as fellow members in the all-embracing family of God. There is brought about a true community of condition between man and the angels.

When you deal with the practical affairs of your daily life, you are in the hands of the spirit personalities having origin in the Third Source and Center; you are co-operating with the agencies of the Conjoint Actor. And so it is: You worship God; pray to, and commune with, the Son; and work out the details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the Infinite Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe. [UB 5:3:5 (66:1)]

As the Third Person of the Paradise Trinity, the Infinite Spirit is the personification of the Father's love and the Son's mercy. We are told that the Infinite Spirit "is love applied to the creature creation." [UB 8:4:2 (94:4)]Although we worship the Father and pray to and commune with the Son, we all work out the details of our daily lives under the supervision of the ministering personalities of the Infinite Spirit. We will continue to do so for the fullness of our ascendancy careers throughout the entire universe creation.

Chief among these ministering personalities are the supernaphim, seconaphim, and seraphim who are integral to the ascendancy scheme of progressive perfection for the children of time. They form an unbroken chain of spirit ministers extending from the local universes, through the seven superuniverses, and into the central universe, providing help and guidance for all who seek the attainment of the Universal Father. Angels and human beings share many emotional and personality traits, and these similarities will become even more pronounced when the mortal creature divests himself of his material body and takes on a more compatible spirit form.

Although angels do not possess material bodies as such, they remain definite and discrete beings. Their sentient forms are of a spirit nature and origin, and they are invisible to mortal eyes. On the other hand, they see you in the flesh as you really are. Through experience and contact, they grow to love their human associates, "they intellectually understand the mode of mortal life, and they share all of man's non sensuous emotions and sentiments." [UB 38:2:1 (419:1)]

Destiny Guardians

For every soul there is a guardian watching over it. [The Koran 86:1]

All angelic assignments for the status of destiny guardians are made from a group of volunteering seraphim. Both the conditions of the recipient human's particular needs and the standing of the angelic pair with regard to seraphic experience, skill, and wisdom, are taken into consideration.

All angelic assignments are made from a group of volunteering seraphim, and these appointments are always in accordance with human needs and with regard to the status of the angelic pair--in the light of seraphic experience, skill, and wisdom. Only seraphim of long service, the more experienced and tested types, are assigned as destiny guards. [UB 113:2:3 (1242:6)]

Although assigned in pairs, either of the guardian seraphim can more than adequately discharge all of the required ministering responsibilities, and under certain circumstances, they will work alone with their human contacts. It is only for communication and service on the higher circuits of the universes that both angels are required. Still, this guardian pair does provide for excellent complementary co-operation in their roles as the recording angels of the evolutionary worlds. While the primary (positive) guardian discharges her duties, the other seraphim, the complement of being, takes on the individual responsibility as the sponsoring recorder of the undertaking. These records are subsequently kept by a pair of cherubim (a cherubim and a sanobim respectively) who are always associated with the seraphic guardians.

For purposes of rest and recharging with the life energy of the universe circuits, the guardian is periodically relieved by her complement, and during her absence the associated cherubim functions as the recorder, as is also the case when the complemental seraphim is similarly absent. [UB 113:2:10 (1244:1)]

As you proceed throughout your mortal career, your guardian angels will attempt to influence you in "every possible manner consistent with the dignity of your personality." [UB 113:5:1 (1245:7)] However, they will always stop short of risking interference with the free action of your human will. They will seek only to influence you indirectly by acting to make the best possible uses of the life-directing choices to which you have already committed. The course you have charted for your life is yours alone, but the guardian seraphim will subsequently act by manipulating the circumstances of your mortal environment with the solemn hope that the human ascender will experience a resulting growth of cosmic insight. Their goal is to increase your sensitivity to and co-operation with your inner presence of the Father fragment, your Thought Adjuster, and thus to make you more receptive to the spiritual mission of this divine presence.

It would be a mistake to believe that supervision by the guardian seraphim will provide for the "easy" life, because such is not the case. Consistent with the real point to all of our lives, we are to be necessarily challenged if we are to grow in the spirit. We are encouraged to develop the fortitude to traverse "the rugged hills of moral choosing and spiritual progress" [UB 113:4:3 (1245:3)] and we are never given more of a challenge than we can actually deal with. Many of us learn by our own trials and tribulations that we turn out to be stronger than we ever thought we were, and this self-realized discovery makes us all the better prepared to participate in the following of God's personalized will for our lives and destinies.

These guardian angels also perform other important, critical functions in our lives. One of these responsibilities is to effect "a personal co-ordination of the numerous impersonal spirit influences which indwell, surround, and impinge upon the mind and soul of the evolving creature." [UB 113:3:1 (1244:2)] The guardians act to personalize both impersonal and prepersonal ministries provided for us in our lives. They will act to spiritually co-ordinate and unify the leadings of the prepersonal Thought Adjuster in a fashion that better directs these urgings to our highly material and discretely personal minds. Intellectually, they will enhance the correlation of mind and morontia, so important to nurturing the growth of our souls, in ways that will make us more appreciable to the expanding moral nature of the evolving human personality. Remember that "spiritual reason, soul intelligence, is the endowment of the Holy Spirit, the Creative Spirit's gift to man." [UB 101:3:2 (1108:1)] As the ministering daughters of this Creative Mother Spirit, our guardian angels are well prepared to interact with the adjutant mind-spirits for the purpose of correlating mind and morontia.

These specialized functions of the seraphic guardians on the spiritual, intellectual, and material levels of mortal ministry help explain why they are so ideally suited to become the personal custodians of the mind patterns, memory formulas, and soul realities of the surviving mortal during that period of time elapsed between physical death and morontia resurrection.

None but the ministering children of the Infinite Spirit could thus function in behalf of the human creature during this phase of transition from one level of the universe to another and higher level. [UB 113:3:4 (1244:5)]

As the custodians of creature identity and personal integrity, seraphic guardians are functionally replete to initiate the transit sleep of mortal survivor transport, that unconscious slumber while in the state of being enseraphimed.

Circle Attainment

  Seraphim are mind stimulators; they continually seek to promote circle-making decisions in human mind. They do this, not as does the Adjuster, operating from within and through the soul, but rather from the outside inward, working through the social, ethical, and moral environment of human beings.  [UB 113:4:1 (1245:1)]

Self-realization and mind-attainment are the supernal and divine goals that the Universal Father sets before his mortal children. The psychic circles have to do with the harmonious functioning of the entire mortal personality with regard to personality status, mind attainment, soul growth, and Adjuster attunement. A human being progressively strives to attain ever-higher levels of associated intellectual, social, spiritual, and cosmic insight values, and this evolution of a primarily material creature into the mature human of immortal potentiality is measured by the successive attainment and mastery of seven cosmic circles of mortal progression. These circles are attained from the outermost seventh and inward to the first. The embryonic spirit nature of an initial seventh circler gradually emerges and manifests into the emerging morontia nature of a local universe citizen.

The mortal progression through the seven psychic circles brings about a growing sense of cosmic consciousness and a greater kinship of the evolutionary soul with the emerging Supreme Being. As the mortal progresses to the soul-level of morontia consciousness, he becomes better able to grasp universe meanings and to realize divine values. These accomplishments provide such a mortal a greater awareness of his true universe citizenship and his ensuing promise of local universe progression. In the premorontia universe career of an ascending mortal, the ascension candidate begins to recognize with ever-increasing clarity and comprehension the true nature of God as this nature is revealed in the aspects of universal truth, beauty, and goodness. The ministry of the seven adjutant mind-spirits, as unified under the directing influence of the spirit of wisdom, assists the mortal creature in the completion of the seven circles of premorontia attainment.

From the standpoint of seraphic ministry, most men and women are grouped in seven classes in accordance with their status in making the circles of human progress and spiritual development. [UB 113:1:4 (1241:6)]

The developed personality characteristics that provides for successful entry into the seventh outermost circle signify the united functioning of all seven adjutant mind-spirits under the direction of the spirit of wisdom:

        The powers of personal choice

        Individual decision capability

        Moral responsibility

        The capacity for attainment of spiritual individuality

On the inward attainment of the third circle of human intellectuality and acquired spirituality, the mortal mind finally breaks through the inertia of animal legacy, and it is here where the indwelling Adjuster begins to more effectively morontiaize the mind of man for the remainder of his natural life-span. This event also marks the individual assignment of a pair of personal guardians of destiny who will henceforth be wholly and exclusively devoted to only this ascending mortal. Third circle mortals have earned the right to "receive the undivided assistance of these personal guardians of destiny in all their efforts to finish the third circle, traverse the second, and attain the first" [UB 113:1:8 (1242:3)], and they can expect to be repersonalized after mortal death into the morontia life without delay, independent of dispensational or other adjudications.

Mastery of the first and innermost cosmic circle, the final cosmic level of creature mastery, signals the well-earned attainment of premorontia mind maturity. This achievement effectively terminates the collective ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits as the sole and exclusive influence of mind-activity in the human personality. Beyond the first circle, mortal mind becomes increasingly akin to the intelligence of the morontia stage of identity evolution. It becomes increasingly sensitive to the superimposition of the endowment of morontia mind upon adjutant mind. This new mind begins to enjoy the ministry of a superadjutant endowment of the local universe Mother Spirit, an endowment of mind more harmonious in alignment with cosmic mind.

Soul Guardianship

"Great is the dignity of souls, so great indeed that each of them has an angel assigned for its protection from the moment it is born." [Saint Jerome's "In Matt 18, 10"]

It is at the conception of the soul, that moment when the creature mind of moral status is indwelt by the Father fragment, that the morontia life of an ascender is really initiated on the inhabited worlds. During the mortal life in the flesh, this conceived soul is essentially of embryonic estate, though it does show an enigmatic capacity for supermortal function for the recognition of the higher levels of morontia reality. It is enabled to reinforce the supermaterial decisions of its associated mortal mind, and it can make final decisions of cosmic importance provided that "this material mind delegates such authority freely and willingly to such a morontia soul of associated function." [UB 111:3:2 (1219:1)]

As the life of a mortal being unfolds, that individual is increasingly urged to identify with its future morontia self. This gradual birthing of a soul emerges jointly as the offspring of the adjutant mind, as dominated by the God-craving human will, in concert with the "spiritual forces of the universe which are under the overcontrol of an actual fragment of the very God of all creation--the Mystery Monitor." [UB 111:2:10 (1218:8)]

The mortal will, being the personality power of decision-choice resident in the material mind circuits, initiates this transference of its seat of identity from the temporal material intellect system to the higher morontia-soul system. Thus, in accordance with the influence of our angelic helpers' continuing struggle in conjunction with the Thought Adjuster, the embryonic soul transforms itself into the future morontia vehicle of personality identity.

Mortal man, subject to Adjuster leading, is also amenable to seraphic guidance. The Adjuster is the essence of man's eternal nature; the seraphim is the teacher of man's evolving nature--in this life the mortal mind, in the next the morontia soul. On the mansion worlds you will be conscious and aware of seraphic instructors, but in the first life men are usually unaware of them. [UB 113:4:2 (1245:2)]

There exists a mysterious, but nevertheless very real, relationship between the ministry of the personal seraphic guardians and the ministry of the Adjusters. They both appear to effect their mutual ministries in perfect harmony and exquisite accord, without the apparent benefit of any direct communication. Each respective ministration to the mortal being takes on a most active role precisely when the other is least active, and this superb co-operation can hardly be viewed as either accidental or incidental.

Cherubim and sanobim are evolving spirit beings and the most senior of these may begin their attainment of the heights of universal seraphic service by being attached to the seraphic guardians of destiny in the roles as record keepers. They gain valuable experience at those special times when they are allowed to temporarily function as acting recorders during the absence of one or the other of the seraphic guardian pair.

Sometimes, a child of time with an undeveloped soul may pass away on an evolutionary world of space before the acquirement of individual status in the universe records (as signified by the reception of an indwelling Adjuster). Where either or both of such a child's parents have survived the mortal transition to the mansion worlds, "the guardian of destiny deputizes her associated cherubim as the custodian of the child's potential identity, charging the cherubim with the responsibility of delivering this undeveloped soul into the hands of the Mansion World Teachers on the probationary nurseries of the morontia worlds." [UB 47:2:1 (531:5)] In many ways, this undeveloped soul may be seen as analogous to a pre-fertilized ovum in its potent state of potentiality, waiting for the initiating act of conception.

Cherubim and sanobim are able assistants to the guardian seraphim in the carrying out of their responsibilities on the worlds of mortal existence. Nevertheless, this association is usually temporal, lasting up to that moment when the seraphim's mortal ward is delivered from the bonds of the flesh in preparation for the ascendant career. The guardians of destiny have no need for cherubim as helpers when their mortal wards attain the morontia life on the mansion worlds. When decommissioned by their seraphic seniors, these cherubim are duly placed in direct line for spirit ministry advancement.

Guardians of destiny do not have cherubim and sanobim as helpers when their mortal wards attain the morontia life. And when other types of evolutionary seraphim are granted clearance for Seraphington and Paradise, they must forsake their former subordinates when they pass out of the confines of Nebadon. Such deserted cherubim and sanobim are usually embraced by the Universe Mother Spirit, thus achieving a level equivalent to that of a Mansion World Teacher in the attainment of seraphic status. [UB 38:8:5 (423:5)]

With growing experience and advancement in this capacity as faithful servants on the mansion worlds, these once-embraced senior cherubim and sanobim are periodically summoned in groups of seven thousand for the honorable administration of the oath of personality administration and are then re-embraced by the Universe Mother Spirit, emerging as full-fledged seraphim. These twice-embraced cherubim and sanobim "may be assigned as guardians of destiny to some mortal being, and if that mortal ward attains survival, then do they become eligible for advancement to Seraphington and the seven circles of seraphic attainment, even to Paradise and the Corps of The Finality." [UB 38:8:6 (423:6)]

Soul Rebirth

The phenomenon of mortal death, that transaction on the borderland of the physical and morontia realms, remains in many aspects a supernal mystery to humankind. The revelators of truth have been plainly restricted by the celestial governing authorities of Urantia from disclosing to us its full exposition in The Urantia Book.

There are many interesting details which might be presented, but I withhold them upon the advice of your immediate planetary supervisors. [UB 112:5:11 (1234:0)]

Various orders of seraphim are capable of enveloping within their spirit forms nonmaterial personalities and to transport the across the vast expanses of cosmic space. These angels cannot carry combustible bodies (such as our mortal bodies of flesh and blood). This process of enseraphiming results in the experience of transit slumber for the passenger personality who remains fully unconscious during the passage. Upon our mortal death, our destiny guardians transport our surviving souls to the Mansion Worlds for resurrection. The guardian seraphim are essential to terrestrial escape.  The spiritual values and eternal realities of the newly evolved and immortal souls of the sleeping survivors are held as a sacred trust by these guardian seraphim. After man's spirit has been released from the tabernacles of the flesh, the soul is summarily escorted to the heavenly mansion worlds.

"Also are these angels very much concerned with the means whereby man's spirit is released from the tabernacles of the flesh and his soul escorted to the mansions in heaven. Angels are the sure and heavenly guides of the soul of man during that uncharted and indefinite period of time which intervenes between the death of the flesh and the new life in the spirit abodes." [UB 167:7:6 (1841:5)]

It is here where your records, identity, specifications, and the morontia entity of the human soul are faithfully conserved by the destiny seraphim. This entails everything that constitutes the real you except for the Adjuster entrusted identity of continuing existence and the actuality of your eternally unique personality. All surviving mortals in the custody of personal guardians can expect to be repersonalized on the mansion worlds on the third period. Otherwise, such surviving souls that have failed to attain the requisite level of intelligence mastery and spirituality endowment must "rest in unconscious sleep until the judgment day of a new epoch, a new dispensation, the coming of a Son of God to call the rolls of the age and adjudicate the realm, and this is the general practice throughout all Nebadon." [UB 30:4:11 (341:1)]These sleeping survivors are entrusted to group guardians who may become custodians of thousands upon thousands of slumbering souls, encompassing age after planetary age.

Group guardians may serve on a planet age after age and eventually become custodians of the slumbering souls of thousands upon thousands of sleeping survivors. They can so serve on many different worlds in a given system since the resurrection response occurs on the mansion worlds.

[UB 113:6:9 (1247:7)]

In those instances where there is no immortal spirit within the mortal watch care present to function with the group guardians of destiny, these associated creature personalities are considered nonsalvable and this constitutes cessation of individualized existence. The assigned guardian angel must then be adjudicated regarding these failures of survival. She must then be vindicated as to the faithful execution of her trust, but "Thought Adjusters are not thus subjected to examination when their subjects fail to survive. [UB 108:5:10 (1192:5)]If their human wards fail to survive, these guardians will often repeat their ministries in similar capacities on the same planet where they were once stationed.

When human beings fail to survive, their personal or group guardians may repeatedly serve in similar capacities on the same planet. The seraphim develop a sentimental regard for individual worlds and entertain a special affection for certain races and types of mortal creatures with whom they have been so closely and intimately associated.

[UB 113:2:4 (1243:1)]

The reassembly of a surviving being takes place in the resurrection hall of the first mansion world that serves as the rendezvous point for the seraphic destiny guardians, the Thought Adjusters, the archangels of the resurrection, and the Life Carriers. The first step in the reassembly of the constituent parts of a onetime material personality begins with the fabrication of a suitable form, a morontia energy pattern, which the seraphim of assignment sponsors as the new life vehicle for the immortal soul and for the indwelling of the returning Adjuster. The attending seraphim actually provides, with the assistance of the Morontia Power Supervisors, the undifferentiated morontia material wherewith the new morontia life can be initiated. It is within this suitable morontia form, as projected by the guardian of destiny, that the new survivor can "make contact with nonspiritual reality, and within which the morontia variant of the cosmic mind can be encircuited." [UB 112:5:16 (1234:5)] This morontia mind individualizes the morontia form for all mortal survivors, being of the same creature mind-matrix and passive potentials of identity that were entrusted to the keeping of the seraphic destiny guardians.

When you thus awaken, when you are thus reconsciousized, you will then see for the first time your long-loved and ever-present angelic companions of your days on Urantia. You will also become keenly aware of the identity and presence of your divine Father fragment who so long indwelt the mind of your mortal existence. This is a true rebirth in all respects, a true spiritual transformation of such magnitude that it is only by the close and loving presence of your destiny guardians and your Thought Adjuster that you will be able to effectively connect your new morontia consciousness with the reviving memory of your previous identity.

It is indeed an epoch in the career of an ascending mortal, this first awakening on the shores of the mansion world; there, for the first time, actually to see your long-loved and ever-present angelic companions of earth days; there also to become truly conscious of the identity and presence of the divine Monitor who so long indwelt your mind on earth. Such an experience constitutes a glorious awakening, a real resurrection. [UB 113:7:1 (1248:1)]

Seraphic Destiny

Man and angel may or may not be reunited in eternal service, but wherever seraphic assignment may take them, the seraphim are always in communication with their former wards of the evolutionary worlds, the ascendant mortals of time. The intimate associations and the affectionate attachments of the realms of human origin are never forgotten nor ever completely severed. In the eternal ages men and angels will co-operate in the divine service as they did in the career of time. [UB 113:7:6 (1248:6)]

Seraphim candidates for the ascension career yearn to attain the heights of universal seraphic service with the exalted goal of being sometime granted clearance for Seraphington and Paradise. Their most assured path for attaining a career of finality is by the supreme choice for the post of guardian angel. As the personal guides along the paths of divine destiny for the children of time, these angels are also determining their own high destiny for achieving the Paradise Deities. Their success as destiny guardians, the most highly prized of all seraphic duties, practically assures them access to Paradise by the progressive path of evolutionary ascent, the highest possible level of experiential destiny. Their ministry to their mortal wards of time and space will continue for many an age, and this provides them a wonderful and educational introduction to their future work and personality association.

It is not possible for angels to attain God from the human level of origin, for they are created a "little higher than you"; but it has been wisely arranged that, while they cannot possibly start up from the very bottom, the spiritual lowlands of mortal existence, they may go down to those who do start from the bottom and pilot such creatures, step by step, world by world, to the portals of Havona. [UB 39:8:7 (441:1)]

As we proceed with our mortal ascendancy careers, many of our faithful seraphic guardians will join us in their quest to become our finaliter associates in eternity as children of the Supreme and perfected sons of the Paradise Father. [UB 113:7:9 (1249:3)] Seraphington is the primary goal for such seraphic pairs who are engaging in the supreme adventure of identity at-oneness. Seraphington is the destiny sphere for all angels, and their attainment of this world is quite different from the experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington.

Seraphington is the destiny sphere for angels, and their attainment of this world is quite different from the experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington. Angels are not absolutely sure of their eternal future until they have attained Seraphington. [UB 39:8:9 (441:3)]

It is on Seraphington where these angels will undergo a process of spiritual bi-unification whereby their respective complemental natures achieve ultimate spirit unification. In the selective case of the destiny guardians, this transition of two-into-oneness is followed by fusion with a non-Adjuster fragment of the Paradise Father, thus securing their longed for eternal status of sonship and subsequent mustering into the Corps of Mortal Finality.

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