Chapter Nine
The Urantia Book
Paper 56 – Universal Unity
by a Mighty Messenger with Machiventa Melchizedek
56.0.1 GOD is unity. Deity is universally co-ordinated. The universe of universes is one vast integrated mechanism which is absolutely controlled by one infinite mind. The physical, intellectual, and spiritual domains of universal creation are divinely correlated. The perfect and imperfect are truly interrelated, and therefore may the finite evolutionary creature ascend to Paradise in obedience to the Universal Father’s mandate: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”
(JRT) As we have seen, the chief concern of God is with the totality of Infinity in which He is the unifying Principle.
56.0.2 The diverse levels of creation are all unified in the plans and administration of the Architects of the Master Universe. To the circumscribed minds of time-space mortals the universe may present many problems and situations which apparently portray disharmony and indicate absence of effective coordination; but those of us who are able to observe wider stretches of universal phenomena, and who are more experienced in this art of detecting the basic unity which underlies creative diversity and of discovering the divine oneness which overspreads all this functioning of plurality, better perceive the divine and single purpose exhibited in all these manifold manifestations of universal creative energy.
1. Physical Co-ordination
56.1.1 The physical or material creation is not infinite, but it is perfectly co-ordinated. There are force, energy, and power, but they are all one in origin. The seven superuniverses are seemingly dual; the central universe, triune; but Paradise is of single constitution. And Paradise is the actual source of all material universes — past, present, and future. But this cosmic derivation is an eternity event; at no time — past, present, or future — does either space or the material cosmos come forth from the nuclear Isle of Light. As the cosmic source, Paradise functions prior to space and before time; hence would its derivations seem to be orphaned in time and space did they not emerge through the Unqualified Absolute, their ultimate repository in space and their revealer and regulator in time.
56.1.2 The Unqualified Absolute upholds the physical universe, while the Deity Absolute motivates the exquisite overcontrol of all material reality; and both Absolutes are functionally unified by the Universal Absolute. This cohesive correlation of the material universe is best understood by all personalities — material, morontia, absonite, or spiritual — by the observation of the gravity response of all bona fide material reality to the gravity centering on nether Paradise .
56.1.3 Gravity unification is universal and unvarying; pure-energy response is likewise universal and inescapable. Pure energy (primordial force) and pure spirit are wholly preresponsive to gravity. These primal forces, inhering in the Absolutes, are personally controlled by the Universal Father; hence does all gravity center in the personal presence of the Paradise Father of pure energy and pure spirit and in his supermaterial abode.
56.1.4 Pure energy is the ancestor of all relative, nonspirit functional realities, while pure spirit is the potential of the divine and directive overcontrol of all basic energy systems. And these realities, so diverse as manifested throughout space and as observed in the motions of time, are both centered in the person of the Paradise Father. In him they are one — must be unified — because God is one. The Father’s personality is absolutely unified.
56.1.5 In the infinite nature of God the Father there could not possibly exist duality of reality, such as physical and spiritual; but the instant we look aside from the infinite levels and absolute reality of the personal values of the Paradise Father, we observe the existence of these two realities and recognize that they are fully responsive to his personal presence; in him all things consist.
In that case duality of spirit and matter/energy must stem from the Father’s will to create, i.e. to share existence with other beings, and, therefore, it must be His eternal will. Without any dimunition of His absolute reality, He can thus make room for lesser realities. This seems to imply a motive of sharing.
56.1.6 The moment you depart from the unqualified concept of the infinite personality of the Paradise Father, you must postulate MIND as the inevitable technique of unifying the ever-widening divergence of these dual universe manifestations of the original monothetic Creator personality, the First Source and Center — the I AM.
2. Intellectual Unity
56.2.1 The Thought-Father realizes spirit expression in the Word-Son and attains reality expansion through Paradise in the far-flung material universes. The spiritual expressions of the Eternal Son are correlated with the material levels of creation by the functions of the Infinite Spirit, by whose spirit-responsive ministry of mind, and in whose physical-directive acts of mind, the spiritual realities of Deity and the material repercussions of Deity are correlated the one with the other.
(JRT) Creation really begins with the eternal Holy Spirit (the second eternal act of God), because it is the Holy Spirit who actuates all levels of reality into a coherent unity, the finite with the infinite, the imperfect with the perfect, the evolving with the actual. But what I can't understand is how Lao-tse understood that in the 6th century B.C.( unless Machiventa Melchizedek told him personally).
56.2.2 Mind is the functional endowment of the Infinite Spirit, therefore infinite in potential and universal in bestowal. The primal thought of the Universal Father eternalizes in dual expression: the Isle of Paradise and his Deity equal, the spiritual and Eternal Son. Such duality of eternal reality renders the mind God, the Infinite Spirit, inevitable. Mind is the indispensable channel of communication between spiritual and material realities. The material evolutionary creature can conceive and comprehend the indwelling spirit only by the ministry of mind.
(JRT) Since, by His first eternal act, the Infinite I AM God the Father had separated the control of the domains of infinite spirit and infinite matter/energy, He had to re-unite them through mind, because mind is the method by which spirit controls matter/energy. That is why the Holy Spirit then became Absolutely Necessary, and was constituted by the second eternal act of God the Father jointly with the Eternal Son. So when Infinity separated itself into two domains, infinite spirit domain and limitless matter/energy domain, it had also to add an Infinite Mind domain, the bridge between them, and THAT is the Holy Spirit. Now I understand the Holy Trinity. Eureka
56.2.3 This infinite and universal mind is ministered in the universes of time and space as the cosmic mind; and though extending from the primitive ministry of the adjutant spirits up to the magnificent mind of the chief executive of a universe, even this cosmic mind is adequately unified in the supervision of the Seven Master Spirits, who are in turn co-ordinated with the Supreme Mind of time and space and perfectly correlated with the all-embracing mind of the Infinite Spirit.
3. Spiritual Unification
56.3.1 As the universal mind gravity is centered in the Paradise personal presence of the Infinite Spirit, so does the universal spirit gravity center in the Paradise personal presence of the Eternal Son. The Universal Father is one, but to time-space he is revealed in the dual phenomena of pure energy and pure spirit.
56.3.2 Paradise spirit realities are likewise one, but in all time-space situations and relations this single spirit is revealed in the dual phenomena of the spirit personalities and emanations of the Eternal Son and the spirit personalities and influences of the Infinite Spirit and associated creations; and there is yet a third — pure-spirit fragmentations — the Father’s bestowal of the Thought Adjusters and other spirit entities which are prepersonal.
56.3.3 No matter on what level of universe activities you may encounter spiritual phenomena or contact with spirit beings, you may know that they are all derived from the God who is spirit by the ministry of the Spirit Son and the Infinite Mind Spirit. And this far-flung spirit functions as a phenomenon on the evolutionary worlds of time as it is directed from the headquarters of the local universes. From these capitals of the Creator Sons come the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Truth, together with the ministry of the adjutant mind-spirits, to the lower and evolving levels of material minds.
56.3.4 While mind is more unified on the level of the Master Spirits in association with the Supreme Being and as the cosmic mind in subordination to the Absolute Mind, the spirit ministry to the evolving worlds is more directly unified in the personalities resident on the headquarters of the local universes and in the persons of the presiding Divine Ministers, who are in turn well-nigh perfectly correlated with the Paradise gravity circuit of the Eternal Son, wherein occurs final unification of all time-space spirit manifestations.
(JRT) The Divine Ministers are the Divine Mothers of each local universe of approximately ten million worlds: (this is the standard size when finished). But our local universe is far from finished, so it probably has only about four million worlds.
56.3.5 Perfected creature existence can be attained, sustained, and eternalized by the fusion of selfconscious mind with a fragment of the pre-Trinity spirit endowment of some one of the persons of the Paradise Trinity. The mortal mind is the creation of the Sons and Daughters of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit and, when fused with the Thought Adjuster from the Father, partakes of the threefold spirit endowment of the evolutionary realms. But these three spirit expressions become perfectly unified in the finaliters, even as they were in eternity so unified in the Universal I AM ere he ever became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit.
(JRT) If this is so, the future seventh phase completion of the destiny of finaliters must be bound up with the evolutionary completion of God the Absolute, reuniting all actual, potential and experiential completion of Deity in a full manifestation of the Infinite I AM. This is the end of the beginning, because creation then goes on expanding forever. In that case our potential destiny must be much higher than we can even imagine. Our status could then be something beyond even our wildest dreams. So, my advice is:"Let's not miss the boat."
56.3.6 Spirit must always and ultimately become threefold in expression and Trinity-unified in final realization. Spirit originates from one source through a threefold expression; and in finality it must and does attain its full realization in that divine unification which is experienced in finding God — oneness with divinity — in eternity, and by means of the ministry of the cosmic mind of the infinite expression of the eternal word of the Father’s universal thought.
(JRT) Here again we come across the idea of the Father as Thought, the Son as Word, and the Holy Spirit as Act.
4. Personality Unification
56.4.1 The Universal Father is a divinely unified personality; hence will all his ascendant children who are carried to Paradise by the rebound momentum of the Thought Adjusters, who went forth from Paradise to indwell material mortals in obedience to the Father’s mandate, likewise be fully unified personalities ere they reach Havona.
(JRT) I just love that "rebound momentum" bit. That is like a bungey jump. My TA is doing a bungey jump from Paradise , and he is grabbing hold of me to take me up there with him. Thanks a lot!
56.4.2 Personality inherently reaches out to unify all constituent realities. The infinite personality of the First Source and Center, the Universal Father, unifies all seven constituent Absolutes of Infinity; and the personality of mortal man, being an exclusive and direct bestowal of the Universal Father, likewise possesses the potential of unifying the constituent factors of the mortal creature. Such unifying creativity of all creature personality is a birthmark of its high and exclusive source and is further evidential of its unbroken contact with this same source through the personality circuit, by means of which the personality of the creature maintains direct and sustaining contact with the Father of all personality on Paradise .
56.4.3 Notwithstanding that God is manifest from the domains of the Sevenfold up through supremacy and ultimacy to God the Absolute, the personality circuit, centering on Paradise and in the person of God the Father, provides for the complete and perfect unification of all these diverse expressions of divine personality so far as concerns all creature personalities on all levels of intelligent existence and in all the realms of the perfect, perfected, and perfecting universes.
56.4.4 While God is to and in the universes all that we have portrayed, nevertheless, to you and to all other God-knowing creatures he is one, your Father and their Father. To personality God cannot be plural. God is Father to each of his creatures, and it is literally impossible for any child to have more than one father.
56.4.5 Philosophically, cosmically, and with reference to differential levels and locations of manifestation, you may and perforce must conceive of the functioning of plural Deities and postulate the existence of plural Trinities; but in the worshipful experience of the personal contact of every worshiping personality throughout the master universe, God is one; and that unified and personal Deity is our Paradise parent, God the Father, the bestower, conservator, and Father of all personalities from mortal man on the inhabited worlds to the Eternal Son on the central Isle of Light.
5. Deity Unity
56.5.1 The oneness, the indivisibility, of Paradise Deity is existential and absolute. There are three eternal personalizations of Deity — the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit — but in the Paradise Trinity they are actually one Deity, undivided and indivisible.
56.5.2 From the original Paradise-Havona level of existential reality, two subabsolute levels have differentiated, and thereon have the Father, Son, and Spirit engaged in the creation of numerous personal associates and subordinates. And while it is inappropriate in this connection to undertake the consideration of absonite deity unification on transcendental levels of ultimacy, it is feasible to look at some features of the unifying function of the various Deity personalizations in whom divinity is functionally manifest to the diverse sectors of creation and to the different orders of intelligent beings.
56.5.3 The present functioning of divinity in the superuniverses is actively manifest in the operations of the Supreme Creators — the local universe Creator Sons and Spirits, the superuniverse Ancients of Days, and the Seven Master Spirits of Paradise. These beings constitute the first three levels of God the Sevenfold leading inward to the Universal Father, and this entire domain of God the Sevenfold is co-ordinating on the first level of experiential deity in the evolving Supreme Being.
(JRT) I am giving this list of members of God the Sevenfold for your convenience in the order in which we discover them during our ascension career:
7) The Paradise Creator Sons and their consorts, the Divine Mother;
6) The Ancients of Days;
5) The Master Spirits;
4) God the Supreme;
3) The Holy Spirit;
2) The Eternal Son;
1) The Almighty Father.
In chapter fourteen you will see that Christ Michael tells us this is only an ad hoc voluntary collaboration of Deity and divine sub-absolutes to effect the ascension programme for us. In the same way God the Metatron is also an ad hoc voluntary collaboration set up temporarily to cope with cosmic emergencies and restore the health and vitality of creation whenever it has been injured. These examples can help us to realize that God, as a spirit, can pervade a collective group of persons who are united by WILL. This concept can help us to understand the nature of the evolving Supreme Being.
56.5.4 On Paradise and in the central universe, Deity unity is a fact of existence. Throughout the evolving universes of time and space, Deity unity is an achievement.
6. Unification of Evolutionary Deity
56.6.1 When the three eternal persons of Deity function as undivided Deity in the Paradise Trinity, they achieve perfect unity; likewise, when they create, either associatively or severally, their Paradise progeny exhibit the characteristic unity of divinity. And this divinity of purpose manifested by the Supreme Creators and Rulers of the time-space domains eventuates in the unifying power potential of the sovereignty of experiential supremacy which, in the presence of the impersonal energy unity of the universe, constitutes a reality tension that can be resolved only through adequate unification with the experiential personality realities of experiential Deity.
56.6.2 The personality realities of the Supreme Being come forth from the Paradise Deities and on the pilot world of the outer Havona circuit unify with the power prerogatives of the Almighty Supreme coming up from the Creator divinities of the grand universe. God the Supreme as a person existed in Havona before the creation of the seven superuniverses, but he functioned only on spiritual levels. 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.
56.6.3 The material-minded creatures of the evolutionary worlds of the seven superuniverses can comprehend Deity unity only as it is evolving in this power-personality synthesis of the Supreme Being. On any level of existence God cannot exceed the conceptual capacity of the beings who live on such a level. Mortal man must, through the recognition of truth, the appreciation of beauty, and the worship of goodness, evolve the recognition of a God of love and then progress through ascending deity levels to the comprehension of the Supreme. Deity, having been thus grasped as unified in power, can then be personalized in spirit to creature understanding and attainment.
(JRT) It seems possible to me that this idea of the evolving Supreme is similar to the concept of El Hai Shaddai in the Holy Kabbalah.
56.6.4 While ascending mortals achieve power comprehension of the Almighty on the capitals of the superuniverses and personality comprehension of the Supreme on the outer circuits of Havona, they do not actually find the Supreme Being as they are destined to find the Paradise Deities. Even the finaliters, sixthstage spirits, have not found the Supreme Being, nor are they likely to until they have achieved seventhstage- spirit status, and until the Supreme has become actually functional in the activities of the future outer universes.
(JRT) In that case, since the outer space universes will be of Ultimate quadra construction, the Supreme will not be fully functional until He is united with the Ultimate, his brother, as the Supreme-Ultimate. Or so it seems. Once again we come across the mysterious blending of the finite and the ultimate, which I mentioned in the Preface.
56.6.5 But when ascenders find the Universal Father as the seventh level of God the Sevenfold, they have attained the personality of the First Person of all deity levels of personal relationships with universe creatures.
7. Universal Evolutionary Repercussions
56.7.1 The steady progress of evolution in the time-space universes is accompanied by ever-enlarging revelations of Deity to all intelligent creatures. The attainment of the height of evolutionary progress on a world, in a system, constellation, universe, superuniverse, or in the grand universe signalizes corresponding enlargements of deity function to and in these progressive units of creation. And every such local enhancement of divinity realization is accompanied by certain well-defined repercussions of enlarged deity manifestation to all other sectors of creation. Extending outward from Paradise , each new domain of realized and attained evolution constitutes a new and enlarged revelation of experiential Deity to the universe of universes.
56.7.2 As the components of a local universe are progressively settled in light and life, God the Sevenfold is increasingly made manifest. Time-space evolution begins on a planet with the first expression of God the Sevenfold — the Creator Son-Creative Spirit association — in control. With the settling of a system in light, this Son-Spirit liaison attains the fullness of function; and when an entire constellation is thus settled, the second phase of God the Sevenfold becomes more active throughout such a realm. The completed administrative evolution of a local universe is attended by new and more direct ministrations of the superuniverse Master Spirits; and at this point there also begins that ever-expanding revelation and realization of God the Supreme which culminates in the ascender’s comprehension of the Supreme Being while passing through the worlds of the sixth Havona circuit.
56.7.3 The Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit are existential deity manifestations to intelligent creatures and are not, therefore, similarly expanded in personality relations with the mind and spirit creatures of all creation.
56.7.4 It should be noted that ascending mortals may experience the impersonal presence of successive levels of Deity long before they become sufficiently spiritual and adequately educated to attain experiential personal recognition of, and contact with, these Deities as personal beings.
56.7.5 Each new evolutionary attainment within a sector of creation, as well as every new invasion of space by divinity manifestations, is attended by simultaneous expansions of Deity functional-revelation within the then existing and previously organized units of all creation. This new invasion of the administrative work of the universes and their component units may not always appear to be executed exactly in accordance with the technique herewith outlined because it is the practice to send forth advance groups of administrators to prepare the way for the subsequent and successive eras of new administrative overcontrol. Even God the Ultimate foreshadows his transcendental overcontrol of the universes during the later stages of a local universe settled in light and life.
56.7.6 It is a fact that, as the creations of time and space are progressively settled in evolutionary status, there is observed a new and fuller functioning of God the Supreme concomitant with a corresponding withdrawing of the first three manifestations of God the Sevenfold. If and when the grand universe becomes settled in light and life, what then will be the future function of the Creator-Creative manifestations of God the Sevenfold if God the Supreme assumes direct control of these creations of time and space? Are these organizers and pioneers of the time-space universes to be liberated for similar activities in outer space? We do not know, but we speculate much concerning these and related matters.
56.7.7 As the frontiers of experiential Deity are extended out into the domains of the Unqualified Absolute, we envision the activity of God the Sevenfold during the earlier evolutionary epochs of these creations of the future. We are not all in agreement respecting the future status of the Ancients of Days and the superuniverse Master Spirits. Neither do we know whether or not the Supreme Being will therein function as in the seven superuniverses. But we all conjecture that the Michaels, the Creator Sons, are destined to function in these outer universes. Some hold that the future ages will witness some closer form of union between the associated Creator Sons and Divine Ministers; it is even possible that such a creator union might eventuate in some new expression of associate-creator identity of an ultimate nature. But we really know nothing about these possibilities of the unrevealed future.
(JRT) He refers to the domains of the Unqualified Absolute. Although the Unqualified Absolure is everywhere in space and even beyond space, Its active domain is in the parts of cosmos that are still under physical construction and not yet inhabited, nor even included in measurable physical gravity.
56.7.8 We do know, however, that in the universes of time and space, God the Sevenfold provides a progressive approach to the Universal Father, and that this evolutionary approach is experientially unified in God the Supreme. We might conjecture that such a plan must prevail in the outer universes; on the other hand, the new orders of beings that may sometime inhabit these universes may be able to approach Deity on ultimate levels and by absonite techniques. In short, we have not the slightest concept of what technique of deity approach may become operative in the future universes of outer space. *
(JRT) They do not know, because this pertains to a future phase of creation. The Unqualified Absolute is always in the future, and in supergravity. Only the three Infinite Persons of the Holy Trinity know the future as Now, and they never tell.
56.7.9 Nevertheless, we deem that the perfected superuniverses will in some way become a part of the Paradise-ascension careers of those beings who may inhabit these outer creations. It is quite possible that in that future age we may witness outer-spacers approaching Havona through the seven superuniverses, administered by God the Supreme with or without the collaboration of the Seven Master Spirits.
8. The Supreme Unifier
56.8.1 The Supreme Being has a threefold function in the experience of mortal man: First, he is the unifier of time-space divinity, God the Sevenfold; second, he is the maximum of Deity which finite creatures can actually comprehend; third, he is mortal man’s only avenue of approach to the transcendental experience of consorting with absonite mind, eternal spirit, and Paradise personality.
56.8.2 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. Finaliters 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. Through the ministry of the indwelling Adjusters the finaliters are enabled to find the Universal Father, but it is by these techniques of experience that such finaliters come really to know the Supreme Being, and they are destined to the service and the revelation of this Supreme Deity in and to the future universes of outer space.
56.8.3 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, joy, 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.
(JRT) I may be putting it a bit crassly, but it seems to me that, just as our loving God is creating us, as well as giving us the opportunity to co-create ourselves, He also allows us to participate in the co-creation of His own final manifestation after realizing all His inherent potentialities. This is indeed a high honor.
56.8.4 All creational phenomena are reflective of antecedent creator-spirit activities. Said Jesus, and it is literally true, “The Son does only those things which he sees the Father do.” 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.
(JRT) This is a great and incomprehensible mystery that was included in the philosophy of Saint Thomas
I have only included about half of this chapter. It is enough for a blog. If my book ever gets published and you can't afford it, I hope you will encourage your local library to get a copy.
Signed by John Robert Thwaytes at Malbazar on Thursday, January 26th 2012 (Republic Day).
