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The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space must of themselves — in their own hearts — recognize, love, and voluntarily worship him. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission of the spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate dedication of the human will to the doing of the Father's will is man's choicest gift to God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man's only possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives, moves, and has his being; there is nothing which man can give to God except this choosing to abide by the Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the intelligent will creatures of the universes, constitute the reality of that true worship which is so satisfying to the love-dominated nature of the Creator Father.

The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest by the motive power of fear. The religions of revelation allure men to seek for a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not merely a passive feeling of "absolute dependence" and "surety of survival"; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment predicated on humanity service.

God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is man's eternal destination. All nonreligious human activities seek to bend the universe to the distorting service of self; the truly religious individual seeks to identify the self with the universe and then to dedicate the activities of this unified self to the service of the universe family of fellow beings, human and superhuman.

In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think not so much of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his loving service. Jesus upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God who is the Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer.

The Eternal Son is infinite, but he is approachable through the persons of his Paradise Sons and through the patient ministry of the Infinite Spirit. Without the bestowal service of the Paradise Sons and the loving ministry of the creatures of the Infinite Spirit, beings of material origin could hardly hope to attain the Eternal Son. And it is equally true: With the help and guidance of these celestial agencies the God-conscious mortal will certainly attain Paradise and sometime stand in the personal presence of this majestic Son of Sons.

3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal plan had been formulated and proclaimed, alone and of himself, the Infinite Spirit projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise of mercy ministry. This is the service so essential to the practical and effective operation of both the attainment and the bestowal undertakings, and the spiritual personalities of the Third Source and Center all partake of the spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third Person of Deity. Not only in creation but also in administration, the Infinite Spirit functions truly and literally as the conjoint executive of the Father and the Son.

More of the character and merciful nature of the Eternal Son of mercy you should comprehend as you meditate on the revelation of these divine attributes which was made in loving service by your own Creator Son, onetime Son of Man on earth, now the exalted sovereign of your local universe — the Son of Man and the Son of God.

Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise gravity holds all things together is the spiritual universe wherein the word of the Son interprets the thought of God and, when "made flesh," demonstrates the loving mercy of the combined nature of the associated Creators. But in and through all this material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the Infinite Spirit and his spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy, patience, and everlasting affection of the divine parents towards the intelligent children of their co-operative devising and making. Everlasting ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit's divine character. And all the spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake of this desire to minister, this divine urge to service.

In the administration of universes the Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly and eternally interassociated. Though each is engaged in a personal ministry to all creation, all three are divinely and absolutely interlocked in a service of creation and control which forever makes them one.

The secrets of Sonarington include the secret of the incarnation of the divine Sons. When a Son of God becomes a Son of Man, is literally born of woman, as occurred on your world nineteen hundred years ago, it is a universal mystery. It is occurring right along throughout the universes, and it is a Sonarington secret of divine sonship. The Adjusters are a mystery of God the Father. The incarnation of the divine Sons is a mystery of God the Son; it is a secret locked up in the seventh sector of Sonarington, a realm penetrated by none save those who have personally passed through this unique experience. Only those phases of incarnation having to do with your ascension career have been brought to your notice. There are many other phases of the mystery of the incarnation of the Paradise Sons of unrevealed types on missions of universe service which are undisclosed to you. And there are still other Sonarington mysteries.

You might assume that Creator Sons, being of Father-Son origin, would regard Vicegerington as their home, but such is not the case in this universe age of the function of God the Sevenfold. And there are many similar problems that will perplex you, for you are sure to encounter many difficulties as you attempt to understand these things which are so near Paradise. Nor can you successfully reason out these questions; you know so little. And if you knew more about the Father's worlds, you would simply encounter more difficulties until you knew all about them. Status on any of these secret worlds is acquired by service as well as by nature of origin, and the successive universe ages may and do redistribute certain of these personality groupings.

When intelligent beings first attain the central universe, they are received and domiciled on the pilot world of the seventh Havona circuit. As the new arrivals progress spiritually, attain identity comprehension of their superuniverse Master Spirit, they are transferred to the sixth circle. (It is from these arrangements in the central universe that the circles of progress in the human mind have been designated.) After ascenders have attained a realization of Supremacy and are thereby prepared for the Deity adventure, they are taken to the fifth circuit; and after attaining the Infinite Spirit, they are transferred to the fourth. Following the attainment of the Eternal Son, they are removed to the third; and when they have recognized the Universal Father, they go to sojourn on the second circuit of worlds, where they become more familiar with the Paradise hosts. Arrival on the first circuit of Havona signifies the acceptance of the candidates of time into the service of Paradise. Indefinitely, according to the length and nature of the creature ascension, they will tarry on the inner circuit of progressive spiritual attainment. From this inner circuit the ascending pilgrims pass inward to Paradise residence and admission to the Corps of the Finality.

At almost all times it is possible to find representatives of all groups of created beings on the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses. The routine ministering work of the superuniverses is performed by the mighty seconaphim and by other members of the vast family of the Infinite Spirit. In the work of these marvelous centers of superuniverse administration, control, ministry, and executive judgment, the intelligences of every sphere of universal life are mingled in effective service, wise administration, loving ministry, and just judgment.

3. Unselfish love, brotherhood service.

These seven orders are known on Uversa as the seven Supreme Spirit groups. Their functional domain extends from the personal presence of the Seven Master Spirits on the periphery of the eternal Isle, through the seven Paradise satellites of the Spirit, the Havona circuits, the governments of the superuniverses, and the administration and supervision of the local universes, even to the lowly service of the adjutants bestowed upon the realms of evolutionary mind on the worlds of time and space.

Majeston is a true person, the personal and infallible center of reflectivity phenomena in all seven superuniverses of time and space. He maintains permanent Paradise headquarters near the center of all things at the rendezvous of the Seven Master Spirits. He is concerned solely with the co-ordination and maintenance of the reflectivity service in the far-flung creation; he is not otherwise involved in the administration of universe affairs.

The personnel of the reflectivity service, with the exception of Majeston and the Reflective Spirits, are all the creatures of the Infinite Spirit and his immediate associates and subordinates. The Reflective Spirits of each superuniverse are the creators of their Reflective Image Aids, their personal voices to the courts of the Ancients of Days.

During the present universe age the space range of the extra-Paradise reflectivity service seems to be limited by the periphery of the seven superuniverses. Otherwise, the function of this service seems to be independent of time and space. It appears to be independent of all known subabsolute universe circuits.

7. The Unrevealed Career. We know of these six phases of the career of a local universe Mother Spirit. It is inevitable that we should ask: Is there a seventh career? We are mindful that, when finaliters attain what appears to be their final destiny of mortal ascension, they are of record as entering upon the career of sixth-stage spirits. We conjecture that there awaits the finaliters still another and unrevealed career in universe assignment. It is only to be expected that we would likewise regard the Universe Mother Spirits as having ahead of them some undisclosed career which will constitute their seventh phase of personal experience in universe service and loyal co-operation with the order of the Creator Michaels.

All Trinity-origin beings are created in Paradise perfection in all their divine attributes. Only in the realms of experience has the passing of time added to their equipment for cosmic service. There is never any danger of default or risk of rebellion with Trinity-origin beings. They are of divinity essence, and they have never been known to depart from the divine and perfect path of personality conduct.

Most of the Celestial Guardians and the High Son Assistants are assigned to the service of the major and the minor sectors, but the Trinitized Custodians (Trinity-embraced seraphim and midwayers) are the officers of the courts of all three divisions, functioning in the tribunals of the Ancients of Days, the Perfections of Days, and the Recents of Days. The Trinitized Ambassadors (Trinity-embraced ascendant mortals of Son- or Spirit-fused nature) may be encountered anywhere in a superuniverse, but the majority are in the service of the minor sectors.

These high Trinity-origin personalities are the Paradise advisers to the rulers of the one hundred constellations in each local universe. There are seventy million Faithfuls of Days, and like the Unions of Days, not all are in service. Their Paradise reserve corps is the Advisory Commission of Interuniverse Ethics and Self-government. Faithfuls of Days rotate in service in accordance with the rulings of the supreme council of their reserve corps.

These beings are the only group of the Sons of God revealed to you whose origin is in the Paradise Trinity. They range the central and superuniverses, and an enormous corps is assigned to each local universe. They also serve the individual planets as do the other Paradise Sons of God. Since the scheme of the grand universe is not fully developed, large numbers of Teacher Sons are held in the reserves on Paradise, and they volunteer for emergency duty and unusual service in all divisions of the grand universe, on the lone worlds of space, in the local and superuniverses, and on the worlds of Havona. They also function on Paradise, but it will be more helpful to postpone their detailed consideration until we come to the discussion of the Paradise Sons of God.

The versatility of the Perfectors of Wisdom enables them to participate in practically all of the celestial services of the ascendant creatures. The Perfectors of Wisdom and my order of personality, the Divine Counselors, together with the Universal Censors, constitute the highest orders of beings who may and do engage in the work of revealing truth to the individual planets and systems, whether in their earlier epochs or when settled in light and life. From time to time we all make contact with the service of the ascending mortals, from an initial-life planet on up through a local universe and the superuniverse, particularly the latter.

All descending Sons of God have high and divine origins. They are dedicated to the descending ministry of service on the worlds and systems of time and space, there to facilitate the progress in the Paradise climb of the lowly creatures of evolutionary origin — the ascending sons of God. Of the numerous orders of descending Sons, seven will be depicted in these narratives. Those Sons who come forth from the Deities on the central Isle of Light and Life are called the Paradise Sons of God and embrace the following three orders:

As the Paradise orders of Days proved to be divine administrators, so have the orders of Paradise Sons revealed themselves as divine ministers — creators, servers, bestowers, judges, teachers, and truth revealers. They range the universe of universes from the shores of the eternal Isle to the inhabited worlds of time and space, performing manifold services in the central and superuniverses not disclosed in these narratives. They are variously organized, dependent on the nature and whereabouts of their service, but in a local universe both Magisterial and Teacher Sons serve under the direction of the Creator Son who presides over that domain.

Every time an original and absolute concept of being formulated by the Eternal Son unites with a new and divine ideal of loving service conceived by the Infinite Spirit, a new and original Son of God, a Paradise Magisterial Son, is produced. These Sons constitute the order of Avonals in contradistinction to the order of Michael, the Creator Sons. Though not creators in the personal sense, they are closely associated with the Michaels in all their work. The Avonals are planetary ministers and judges, the magistrates of the time-space realms — of all races, to all worlds, and in all universes.

There is no limit to the number of times the Avonal Sons may serve on magisterial and on bestowal missions, but usually, when the experience has been seven times traversed, there is suspension in favor of those who have had less of such service. These Sons of multiple bestowal experience are then assigned to the high personal council of a Creator Son, thus becoming participants in the administration of universe affairs.

The arrival of a Paradise Avonal on an evolutionary world for the purpose of terminating a dispensation and of inaugurating a new era of planetary progression is not necessarily either a magisterial mission or a bestowal mission. Magisterial missions sometimes, and bestowal missions always, are incarnations; that is, on such assignments the Avonals serve on a planet in material form — literally. Their other visits are "technical," and in this capacity an Avonal is not incarnated for planetary service. If a Magisterial Son comes solely as a dispensational adjudicator, he arrives on a planet as a spiritual being, invisible to the material creatures of the realm. Such technical visits occur repeatedly in the long history of an inhabited world.

Though the possibility of disaster always attends these Paradise Sons during their bestowal incarnations, I have yet to see the record of the failure or default of either a Magisterial or a Creator Son on a mission of bestowal. Both are of origin too close to absolute perfection to fail. They indeed assume the risk, really become like the mortal creatures of flesh and blood and thereby gain the unique creature experience, but within the range of my observation they always succeed. They never fail to achieve the goal of the bestowal mission. The story of their bestowal and planetary service throughout Nebadon constitutes the most noble and fascinating chapter in the history of your local universe.

When the mortal incarnation is finished, the Avonal of service proceeds to Paradise, is accepted by the Universal Father, returns to the local universe of assignment, and is acknowledged by the Creator Son. Thereupon the bestowal Avonal and the Creator Son send their conjoint Spirit of Truth to function in the hearts of the mortal races dwelling on the bestowal world. In the presovereignty ages of a local universe, this is the joint spirit of both Sons, implemented by the Creative Spirit. It differs somewhat from the Spirit of Truth which characterizes the local universe ages following a Michael's seventh bestowal.

These Sons of the Trinity partake of the combined natures of the three Paradise Deities, but in Havona they seem more to reflect the nature of the Universal Father. In the superuniverses they seem to portray the nature of the Eternal Son, while in the local creations they appear to show forth the character of the Infinite Spirit. In all universes they are the embodiment of service and the discretion of wisdom.

The Paradise Spiritual Sons are unique Trinity-origin beings and the only Trinity creatures to be so completely associated with the conduct of the dual-origin universes. They are affectionately devoted to the educational ministry to mortal creatures and the lower orders of spiritual beings. They begin their labors in the local systems and, in accordance with experience and achievement, are advanced inward through the constellation service to the highest work of the local creation. Upon certification they may become spiritual ambassadors representing the local universes of their service.

9. Planetary Service of the Daynals

All the Paradise Sons of God are divine in origin and in nature. The work of each Paradise Son in behalf of each world is just as if the Son of service were the first and only Son of God.

Before the completion of the bestowal career a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but subsequent to his finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual experience in the form and likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator has seven times sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is finished, then is he supremely settled in universe authority; he has become a Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.

The completion of the creature-bestowal careers and the elevation to supreme universe sovereignty must signify the completed liberation of a Michael's finite-action capacities accompanied by the appearance of capacity for more-than-finite service. For in this connection we note that such Master Sons are then restricted in the production of new types of creature beings, a restriction undoubtedly made necessary by the liberation of their superfinite potentialities.

Just as the Deity of the Supreme is actualizing by virtue of experiential service, so are the Creator Sons achieving the personal realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their unfathomable natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life." And we believe that in eternity the Michaels are literally destined to be "the way, the truth, and the life," ever blazing the path for all universe personalities as it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity finality.

The Trinitized Sons of Perfection. The Celestial Guardians and their co-ordinates, the High Son Assistants, comprise a unique group of twice-trinitized personalities. They are the creature-trinitized sons of Paradise-Havona personalities or of perfected ascendant mortals who have long distinguished themselves in the Corps of the Finality. Some of these creature-trinitized sons, after service with the Supreme Executives of the Seven Master Spirits and after serving under the Trinity Teacher Sons, are retrinitized (embraced) by the Paradise Trinity and then commissioned to the courts of the Ancients of Days as Celestial Guardians and as High Son Assistants. Trinitized Sons of Perfection are assigned directly to the superuniverse service without further training.

Under the direction of the Ancients of Days all seven orders function very much as self-governing groups. Their scope of service is far-flung; Trinitized Sons of Perfection do not leave the superuniverse of assignment, but their trinitized associates range the grand universe, journeying from the evolutionary worlds of time and space to the eternal Isle of Paradise. They may function in any of the superuniverses, but they do so always as members of the supergovernment of original designation.

Every ascendant mortal of insurrectionary experience who functions loyally in the face of rebellion is eventually destined to become a Mighty Messenger of the superuniverse service. Likewise is any ascendant creature who effectively prevents such upheavals of error, evil, or sin; for action designed to prevent rebellion or to effect higher types of loyalty in a universe crisis is regarded as of even greater value than loyalty in the face of actual rebellion.

Mighty Messengers are fully conscious of their entire ascendant careers, and that is why they are such useful and sympathetic ministers, understanding messengers, for service on any world of space and to any creature of time. As soon as you are delivered from the flesh, you will communicate freely and understandingly with us since we spring from all the races on all the evolutionary worlds of space, that is, from those mortal races that are indwelt by, and subsequently fused with, Thought Adjusters.

The Trinitized Custodians are Trinitized Sons of Selection. Not only do your races and other mortals of survival value traverse Havona, attain Paradise, and sometimes find themselves destined to superuniverse service with the Stationary Sons of the Trinity, but your faithful seraphic guardians and your equally faithful midway associates may also become candidates for the same Trinity recognition and superb personality destiny.

The Trinitized Custodians are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in groups of seventy thousand, and one seventh of each group is assigned to a superuniverse. There are now in the service of Orvonton slightly over ten million of these trusted and high Custodians. They serve on Uversa and on the major and minor headquarters spheres. In their labors they are assisted by a corps of several billion seconaphim and other able superuniverse personalities.

These adopted sons of high and glorified creature origin are the apprentices, student helpers, of the Teacher Sons, and as regards classification they are often temporarily numbered with these Sons. They may and do execute many noble assignments in self-denial in behalf of their chosen realms of service.

Creature-trinitized sons are embraced by the Paradise Trinity in classes of seven thousand. These trinitized offspring of perfected humans and of Paradise-Havona personalities are all equally embraced by the Deities, but they are assigned to the superuniverses in accordance with the advice of their former instructors, the Trinity Teacher Sons. Those of more acceptable service are commissioned High Son Assistants; those of less distinguished performance are designated Celestial Guardians.

The High Son Assistants are the superior group of the retrinitized trinitized sons of glorified ascendant beings of the Mortal Corps of the Finality and of their eternal associates, the Paradise-Havona personalities. They are assigned to the superuniverse service and function as personal aids to the high sons of the governments of the Ancients of Days. They might fittingly be denominated private secretaries. They act, from time to time, as clerks for special commissions and other group associations of the high sons. They serve Perfectors of Wisdom, Divine Counselors, Universal Censors, Mighty Messengers, Those High in Authority, and Those without Name and Number.

Solitary Messengers are not isolated in their service; they are constantly in touch with the wealth of the intellect of all creation as they are capable of "listening in" on all the broadcasts of the realms of their sojourn. They can also intercommunicate with members of their own immediate corps, those beings doing the same kind of work in the same superuniverse. They could communicate with others of their number, but they have been directed by the council of the Seven Master Spirits not to do so, and they are a loyal group; they do not disobey or default. There is no record that a Solitary Messenger ever stumbled into darkness.

Solitary Messengers are assigned by the Infinite Spirit to the following seven divisions of service:

There is no limitation upon the service of Solitary Messengers in the superuniverses; they may function as executioners of the high tribunals or as intelligence gatherers for the good of the realm. Of all the supercreations they most delight to serve in Orvonton because here the need is greatest and the opportunities for heroic effort are greatly multiplied. In the more needy realms we all enjoy the satisfaction of a more replete function.