The Urantia Book Fellowship

A Study of the Master Universe:
A Development of Concepts in the Urantia Book

Bill Sadler (William S. Sadler, Jr.)
Copyright © 1968 Second Society Foundation

Table of Contents for This Study

Chapter 7: The Second Antithesis

The present age (the Second Universe Age) is the time of the evolutionary growth of the Supreme Being. With this in mind, we might call the preceding age (the First Age) a pre-Supreme age; and, by the same line of reasoning, we could name the future ages of the outer space creations the post-Supreme ages. They are the ages that will follow the completed growth and final emergence of the Supreme. As we have noted (in Chapter 4), these four ages of the outer space levels are related; they are all post Supreme ages -- ages during which the First Experiential Trinity is working to accomplish three objectives:

These four post-Supreme ages -- the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth ages -- are the times of the great expansion of the Paradise creative forces and agencies into the domains of outer space. Associated with these creative personalities, and with other administrators from Paradise and Havona, are all the experiential veterans of the Second Universe Age -- the age of the evolution of the superuniverses. This is the first great combined venture, the first united effort on the part of the perfect and the perfected -- the perfect Paradise Havoners, and all the veterans of the evolutionary superuniverses. This is their joint venture, the Ultimate Adventure, the organization of the outer space creations.

1. CYTOPLASMIC NEED EXPANDS NUCLEAR FUNCTION

In the present universe age the creative personalities are working with certain potentials (unrealized possibilities) that come from the three Absolutes. These potentials, being absolute, would be of little or no use to creators who are working on the finite level. This means that these absolute potentials have to be modified in some manner before they can be useful to finite creators. This is where the emerging experiential Deities play an important part.

Long before the Supreme and the Ultimate emerge they are active and are working in relation to these absolute potentials. The Ultimate (who is in direct contact with the absolute level) starts to organize these absolute potentials so they will respond to creative action. Then the Supreme further modifies them so they are suitable for use on the finite level. This is how creators can "create;" there must be something out of which they create things and beings, and this "something" consists of the potentials that the Ultimate and the Supreme have prepared for their use.

The change in cosmic growth potential. When the Second Age gives way to the Third, an important change takes place in the available potential for creation and growth. During the Second Age (the present age) the Supreme Being is growing. Beings who are created and beings who evolve in the Second Age can share in this growth of the Supreme. But, at the close of the present universe age the Supreme will have completed his growth, and this potential (this capacity) for finite experience will be exhausted all used up. This particular potential is finite, therefore it can be exhausted.

For example: Let us imagine a Third Age Creative Spirit; she is working in the first outer space level. Let us compare her with a Second Age Creative Spirit working in one of the present evolutionary local universes. The present age Spirit can create seraphim who have the capacity to grow (evolve) by finite experience; she is working in, and with, the potentials of the growing Supreme. The Third Age Spirit is, in basic nature, just like her senior colleague, but she will never be able to create seraphim like those of the present local universes. That raw material (the potential) out of which the Second Age seraphim were created is no longer available. The Third Age Creative Spirit will be working with post-Supreme potentials; these potentials will likely be absonite, not finite. Her created children will be post Supreme in nature, hence post-finite beings, which means they will always be devoid of finite experience -- this finite experience will be outside of their inherent capacities.

The lack of finite experience. What are these outer space universes going to be like? What kind of beings will be native to them? It is impossible to speculate in any positive way about these unknowns, they are entirely outside our range of experience. We may be sure, however, that the outer-spacers will be unlike Havona natives or any beings native to the superuniverses. Outer-spacers are beyond our capacity to imagine. (We must have been unimaginable to the Havona natives, until they actually encountered the first of the ascending pilgrims on the circuits of the central universe.) But we do know there is one thing that will be missing in all the domains of outer space, lacking in all of its native beings -- finite experience.

This lack is our opportunity. We are especially endowed with the very quality that will be missing from the creations of outer space. We are the children of the Supreme; finite experience is the very heart of the nature of all the experiential and evolutionary beings of origin in the grand universe. We are like the Supreme because we have grown in him, even as he has grown in us. And the Supreme Being is the Finite God, the God of finite experience.

By service in the outer universes we escape from the limitations of growth that we encounter in the present age. As finaliters (in the present age) we are sixth stage spirits, but we are still incomplete beings. We have attained destiny, but only within the limits of the present age. We are still unfinished creatures despite all of our evolutionary growth toward perfection. We still fall short of the attainment of three goals:

These are the goals that are still ahead of us when we are finaliters. The attainment of these goals awaits our sometime service in the expanding creations of outer space. As we there minister to make up for the total lack of finite experience, we will rise above our present limitations. This is exactly what happened to our predecessors from Paradise and Havona when they came out into the superuniverses that were so lacking in divine perfecthe perfection that is inherent in the natures of our predecessors.


2. THE CHALLENGE OF THE ULTIMATE ADVENTURE

Back in the dawn of time, the citizens of the settled and established creations of eternity were challenged by God's unfolding purpose: the original imperfection of the seven superuniverses. Long ago these Paradise-Havona beings (beings of inherent perfection) were challenged, and they responded to this challenge by embarking on the time-space adventure -- the Supreme Adventure -- of facing up to the uncertainties and the unpredictabilities of the (then) unorganized and unsettled realms of the superuniverse space level.

At the same time, God challenged all creatures of imperfect nature with that great command of invitation, "Be you perfect, even as I am perfect." God personifies this challenge through the invasion of the superuniverse space level by the forces and personalities of Paradise Havona perfection, who carried it right on down to the evolutionary worlds. (When God's infinite perfection is humanized, as Jesus humanized it, it becomes comprehensible even to us.)

Now, for a second time God is challenging all creation, this time to embark on the adventure of the outer universes the Ultimate Adventure in the invasion of the wide spreading domains of outer space. In his first challenge, he set up a problem by subtracting the quality of inherent and innate perfection from the new superuniverses. The problem he devised was the problem of perfecting the imperfect through finite growth and experience, by evolution in time and space. In this new challenge, this second challenge, God has again subtracted something; this time he has subtracted the possibility of growth through finite experience. He has challenged the entire citizenry of the grand universe to the task of compensating for this lack in the outer creations. This deficiency is our opportunity. We should have the capacity to respond to this challenge, because, by then we will truly be the children of the Supreme Being. Even our minds will be affiliated with the mind of the Supreme. The Papers tell us that we will portray God the Supreme just as naturally as Jesus portrayed the Universal Father. And our mission will be to reveal the Supreme Being to the new creatures of the new universes of outer space.

The Papers instruct us that we will be well equipped for this duty and service. We combine the Adjuster endowment of divinity with the hard-won experiential wisdom of the evolutionary ascent to Paradise, plus the long service in the growing superuniverses. We may aspire to become effective, efficient, and understanding administrators in these frontier creations. We may expect to be confronted with new problems of immensity; new situations of uncertainty; a new adventure of coping with the unexpected, the unpredictable, and the inexplicable. Once again we will be young and growing, like new creatures in the fresh dawn of a new creation. Once again we will experience the sudden expansion of horizons as we begin to sense the immensity of the task before us.

And this challenge is not only an extensive one, it is also intensive. We are not only confronted with the massive magnitudes of time and space and mass in the outer universes, we are also confronted with the new challenge of the new quest for the Universal Father. We have found the Father as Supreme; now can we find the Father as Ultimate? This new quest for the Universal Father, on levels beyond the finite, will become the absorbing personal adventure for all the citizens of the post-Supreme ages.

3. ADMINISTRATION OF THE FIRST OUTER SPACE LEVEL

We have considered the post-Supreme ages in general terms. Let us now, in more careful detail, look at the events of the Third Age the organization of the Primary Space Level. What do we know, and what may we deduce, about the first of the post-Supreme ages? Based on what we do know, what can we project concerning the administration of the next outer space level?

Present administration of the Primary Space Level. We are told a few facts about this next outer space level. At the present time, there are some 70,000 large galaxies of matter that are mobilizing in these regions. Each one of them is, presumably, still growing; and, already, each one is larger than a superuniverse. Since 70 of the Architects of the Master Universe are assigned to this space level, it appears likely that each Architect is concerned with the oversight of 1,000 of these large aggregations of physical matter.

The Master Spirits. There is very strong evidence to warrant the belief that the Seven Master Spirits are concerned with the segments in outer space that are correlated with their spheres of jurisdiction in the superuniverses. If this is so, then it is logical to assume that each Master Spirit would have jurisdiction over one seventh of the Primary Space Level. This would mean a domain that would include one seventh of 70,000 galaxies, and one seventh of 70 Architects. The jurisdiction of one Master Spirit would then encompass the domain of 10 Architects, and 10,000 galaxies each one of which is an oversized superuniverse.

(In our calculations of the space magnitudes of the master universe, in the next chapter, we have computed that the Primary Space Level is 100 times the size of the grand universe. This calculation may be much too conservative; there is a distinct possibility that it may be more than 10,000 times as large! However, we will let our conservative calculations stand, since even they take us into sizes and magnitudes that are formidable.)

Each Master Spirit would tend to dominate the environmental trend of his outer space domain, just as be now dominates the environmental trend of his present superuniverse. (See Chapter 3, 3) This means the Primary Space level will duplicate the superuniverses by providing seven diverse environments, each of which is derived from the diverse nature of one of the Master Spirits. Each environment will be expressive of one aspect of the diverse manifestation of Paradise Deity: Fatherlike, Sonlike, Spiritlike, Father-Sonlike, Father-Spiritlike, Son-Spiritlike, and Father-Spiritlike. Each such environment will place an indelible stamp upon every native being. This is a nice, comfortable way of looking at the organization of the Primary Space Level; just the seven superuniverses all over again, but on a much larger scale. This picture, however, becomes much more complicated when we consider the Son-Spirit Creative Trios who may be assigned to these new universes. (See Appendix XIV, 4; Administration of the Primary Space Level.)

Son-Spirit Creative Trios. In the study of the partnership of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits in the Second Age (Chapter 3, 5.) we deduced that all of these 700,000 pairs were likely to consummate their Dual Deity association by trinitizing a Third Being, an Associate Creator. By uniting as Son-Spirit they are constituting themselves a Son-Spirit Creative Trio. If this reasoning is valid, there will be exactly 700,000 of these Creative Trios available for assignment to outer space. One point we did not cover in Chapter 3, is the fact that all of these 700,000 Trios are not going to be alike. There will be seven types, because there are seven types of Creative Spirits. Each Creative Spirit is, in nature, like the Master Spirit who had jurisdiction of the superuniverse in which this Creative Spirit served. This means there are 100,000 each of seven types of Son-Spirit Creative Trios.

Since the whole evolutionary creative trend of the master universe seems to favor diversity rather than uniformity, it seems likely these seven types of Trios will be distributed evenly in the outer space domains of each Master Spirit. For example: all seven types of Trios will serve in the domain of the First Master Spirit; 100,000 diverse Trios will be assigned to this particular domain, a domain embracing 10,000 galaxies. Accordingly, we would deduce that each Son-Spirit Trio would have jurisdiction around one tenth of a galaxy (a realm considerably larger than one tenth of a superuniverse, which embraces 10,000 local universes with their 100 billion inhabited worlds). Each Trio will tend to dominate the environment within this realm, and since there will be seven types of Trios in service, it follows there will be seven environmental trends in the domain of the First Master Spirit.

What is true of the domain of one Master Spirit will hold true of the domains of all seven. Since there will be seven environmental trends in the domain of the First Master Spirit and since there are seven Master Spirits, there will be 49 (7 x 7) environmental trends all together. We believe this is most significant, because it could have an important influence on the creators and the creatures who would be working and growing under these influences.

The seven superuniverses are producing seven different types of creatures and seven types of Creative Spirits. The Primary Space Level will produce 49 such diverse and individual types. We advance the opinion that all of this will have a pronounced effect on the development of the following ages the Fourth Age and those that follow. We believe that the factor of seven will continue to be superimposed on itself. We observe that there are seven basic environments in the superuniverse; we project 49 (7 x 7) such environments in the Primary Space Level. Will there be seven nine (7x7x7) in the Secondary Space Level? We believe this is very likely. It is significant that the number of Master Architects assigned to these levels seems to parallel the augmenting products of seven-times-seven.

Third-Age Sons and Spirits. We know that the number of Creator Sons (and Creative Spirits) is already in excess of 700,000 and more are being created all the time. We also know there will be exactly 700,000 local universes in the present seven superuniverses -- exactly this number, and no more. This must mean all Universe Sons and Spirits in excess of 700,000 must be destined to be commissioned as universe organizers in the outer space levels. Accordingly, we project there will be two (or perhaps three) kinds of Universe Sons and Spirits serving in the Primary Space Level. We would further suggest the younger Sons and Spirits may serve uinder the jurisdiction of the Son-Spirit Creative Trios.

This means each Creative Trio may sustain a relationship to the younger Sons and Spirits somewhat like the relationship which is now sustained by the rulers of the major sectors of the superuniverses to the rulers of the local universes. If this is the case, there will be a very large number of younger Creator Sons and Creative Spirits commissioned as universe organizers, for the first time, in outer space. There may be 10,000 times as many as those who saw service in the seven superuniverses. (See Appendix XIII, Evolution of Universe Sons and Spirits.)

4. THE SPIRIT AND THE SUPREME: DUAL-DEITY IN OUTER SPACE

We have observed that certain creative associations of Dual-Deity appear to be particularly active in certain universe ages. In the First Age (the age of Havona) it was the partnership of the Father-Son that took the initiative. In the Second Age it was the local universe partnership of the Son-Spirit that seemed to predominate. In the post-Supreme ages, the ages after the emergence of the Supreme Being, it seems likely that the new Dual-Deity association will be that of the Spirit-Supreme. (See Appendix V; Dual-Deity in the Universe Ages.)

The outer space activities of the Supreme. We are informed the Supreme Being has (or will have) three functions apart from his associations in the experiential trinities:

He may act as a personality of superpower, as a super-Almighty, or he may function as some unknown mind potential, or (we believe) he will do both. In either event, or both, we believe the Supreme Being will be operating in the outer universes as a direct and positive influence, and will be working in partnership with the Spirit.

The Spirit in outer space. In studying the possible relationship between the Supreme and the Spirit, we should remember the Seven Master Spirits distribute the Infinite Spirit to the extra-Havona universes. We have the belief that the Spirit-Supreme liaison is going to take place between the Master Spirits and the Supreme Being. This does not deny the Supreme's continued collaboration with the Infinite Spirit, nor does it mean he will sustain no relationship to the Creative Spirits. We do not know what the end product of the relationship of Spirit and Supreme might be. The Father-Son partnership personalizes the Infinite Spirit and leads to the formation of the Paradise Trinity. The Son-Spirit partnership may result in the trinitization of 700,000 Associate Creators, and the formation of a like number of Son-Spirit Creative Trios. The results of the Spirit-Supreme Dual-Deity association cannot be forecast; the Papers give us no grounds whatsoever for speculation.

5. STAGES IN THE EMERGENCE OF THE ULTIMATE

So far in our study we have grouped the four post-Supreme ages and the four outer space levels together, and have dealt with them as a single unit. For the most part we think this is sound; but there is one particular relationship which requires us to think of these time spans and these space areas as four distinct ages and four separate space levels. This particular relationship concerns the emergence of God the Ultimate.

The Supreme Being is emerging as the evolutionary consequence of the events of one universe age, and the developments of one space level. The Ultimate is emerging as the result of the completed growth and development of creation through five ages, and in five space levels. This may mean the Ultimate is emerging in several distinct steps, or phases; and this is quite unlike the emergence of the Supreme which takes place in one phase, in one universe age, and in one universe space level.

For example: There could be some interesting relationships between the Primary and Secondary Space Levels. Suppose the sovereignty of the Ultimate is established in the Primary Space Level before the opening of the Secondary, this would be a condition that has no parallel in the evolution of the Supreme. The sovereignty of the Ultimate has factualized with respect to the Primary Space Level, but is unattained with regard to the Secondary. Of course, this same relationship could later exist between the Secondary Space Level and the Tertiary.

This suggests four stages in the unification of the First Experiential Trinity, and four stages in the emergence of God the Ultimate.