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The Universal Father has not withdrawn from the management of the universes; he is not an inactive Deity. If God should retire as the present upholder of all creation, there would immediately occur a universal collapse. Except for God, there would be no such thing as reality. At this very moment, as during the remote ages of the past and in the eternal future, God continues to uphold. The divine reach extends around the circle of eternity. The universe is not wound up like a clock to run just so long and then cease to function; all things are constantly being renewed. The Father unceasingly pours forth energy, light, and life. The work of God is literal as well as spiritual. "He stretches out the north over the empty space and hangs the earth upon nothing."

At present, although the spheres of the seven circuits are maintained in all their supernal glory, only about one per cent of all planetary capacity is utilized in the work of furthering the Father's universal plan of mortal ascension. About one tenth of one per cent of the area of these enormous worlds is dedicated to the life and activities of the Corps of the Finality, beings eternally settled in light and life who often sojourn and minister on the Havona worlds. These exalted beings have their personal residences on Paradise.

On the headquarters of each superuniverse the reflective organization acts as a segregated unit; but on certain special occasions, under the direction of Majeston, all seven may and do act in universal unison, as in the event of the jubilee occasioned by the settling of an entire local universe in light and life and at the times of the millennial greetings of the Seven Supreme Executives.

When a local universe is settled in light and life, its glorified beings associate freely with the Union of Days, who then functions in an enlarged capacity in such a realm of evolutionary perfection. But he is still primarily a Trinity ambassador and Paradise counselor.

Under certain conditions these Inspired Spirits can individualize themselves sufficiently for recognition by beings of Trinity origin. I have seen them; but it would never be possible for the lower orders of celestial beings to recognize one of them. Certain circumstances also arise from time to time in the conduct of the evolving universes in which any being of Trinity origin may directly employ these Spirits in the furtherance of his assignments. We therefore know that they exist, and that under certain conditions we may command and receive their assistance, sometimes recognize their presence. But they are not a part of the manifest and definitely revealed organization intrusted with the conduct of the time-space universes before such material creations are settled in light and life. They have no clearly discernible place in the present economy or administration of the evolving seven superuniverses. They are a secret of the Paradise Trinity.

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:

The Trinity Teacher Sons seem to be so completely identified with the regime of mortal progression through the earlier stages of evolutionary ascension that we are often led to speculate regarding their possible association with the finaliters in the undisclosed career of the future universes. We observe that the administrators of the superuniverses are part Trinity-origin personalities and part Trinity-embraced ascendant evolutionary creatures. We firmly believe that the Teacher Sons and the finaliters are now engaged in acquiring the experience of time-association which may be the preliminary training to prepare them for close association in some unrevealed future destiny. On Uversa it is our belief that, when the superuniverses are finally settled in light and life, these Paradise Teacher Sons, who have become so thoroughly familiar with the problems of evolutionary worlds and have been so long associated with the career of evolutionary mortals, will probably be transferred to eternal association with the Paradise Corps of the Finality.

6. Trinitarian sovereignty — exercised subsequent to the settling of the entire local universe in light and life.

Though you will have earnest and progressively difficult tasks to perform on the morontia training worlds of Nebadon, you will always be provided with regular seasons of rest and reversion. Throughout the journey to Paradise there will always be time for rest and spirit play; and in the career of light and life there is always time for worship and new achievement.

IV. EVENTUATED TRANSCENDENTAL BEINGS. There is to be found on Paradise a vast host of transcendental beings whose origin is not ordinarily disclosed to the universes of time and space until they are settled in light and life. These Transcendentalers are neither creators nor creatures; they are the eventuated children of divinity, ultimacy, and eternity. These "eventuators" are neither finite nor infinite — they are absonite; and absonity is neither infinity nor absoluteness.

These six groups of glorified beings compose this unique body of eternal destiny. We think we know their future work, but we are not certain. While the Corps of the Mortal Finality is mobilizing on Paradise, and while they now so extensively minister to the universes of space and administer the worlds settled in light and life, their future destination must be the now-organizing universes of outer space. At least that is the conjecture of Uversa.

When an advanced evolutionary world attains the later eras of the age of light and life, the Material Sons, the Planetary Adam and Eve, may elect to humanize, receive Adjusters, and embark upon the evolutionary course of universe ascent leading to the Corps of Mortal Finaliters. Certain of these Material Sons have partially failed or technically defaulted in their mission as biologic accelerators, as Adam did on Urantia; and then are they compelled to take the natural course of the peoples of the realm, receive Adjusters, pass through death, and progress by faith through the ascendant regime, subsequently attaining Paradise and the Corps of the Finality.

The physical systems of time and space are all evolutionary in origin. They are not even physically stabilized until they are swung into the settled circuits of their superuniverses. Neither is a local universe settled in light and life until its physical possibilities of expansion and development have been exhausted, and until the spiritual status of all its inhabited worlds has been forever settled and stabilized.

When an evolutionary planet is finally settled in light and life, the Life Carriers are organized into the higher deliberative bodies of advisory capacity to assist in the further administration and development of the world and its glorified beings. In the later and settled ages of an evolving universe these Life Carriers are intrusted with many new duties.

The Midway Creatures. In the early days of most inhabited worlds, certain superhuman but materialized beings are of assignment, but they usually retire upon the arrival of the Planetary Adams. The transactions of such beings and the efforts of the Material Sons to improve the evolutionary races often result in the appearance of a limited number of creatures who are difficult to classify. These unique beings are often midway between the Material Sons and the evolutionary creatures; hence their designation, midway creatures. In a comparative sense these midwayers are the permanent citizens of the evolutionary worlds. From the early days of the arrival of a Planetary Prince to the far-distant time of the settling of the planet in light and life, they are the only group of intelligent beings to remain continuously on the sphere. On Urantia the midway ministers are in reality the actual custodians of the planet; they are, practically speaking, the citizens of Urantia. Mortals are indeed the physical and material inhabitants of an evolutionary world, but you are all so short-lived; you tarry on your nativity planet such a short time. You are born, live, die, and pass on to other worlds of evolutionary progression. Even the superhuman beings who serve on the planets as celestial ministers are of transient assignment; few of them are long attached to a given sphere. The midway creatures, however, provide continuity of planetary administration in the face of ever-changing celestial ministries and constantly shifting mortal inhabitants. Throughout all of this never-ceasing changing and shifting, the midway creatures remain on the planet uninterruptedly carrying on their work.

The primary midwayers are the planetary historians who, from the time of the arrival of the Planetary Prince to the age of settled light and life, formulate the pageants and design the portrayals of planetary history for the exhibits of the planets on the system headquarters worlds.

After attainment of the Father of spirits and admission to the seraphic service of completion, angels are sometimes assigned to the ministry of worlds settled in light and life. They gain attachment to the high trinitized beings of the universes and to the exalted services of Paradise and Havona. These seraphim of the local universes have experientially compensated the differential in divinity potential formerly setting them apart from the ministering spirits of the central and superuniverses. Angels of the Seraphic Corps of Completion serve as associates of the superuniverse seconaphim and as assistants to the high Paradise-Havona orders of supernaphim. For such angels the career of time is finished; henceforth and forever they are the servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities, and the peers of the Paradise finaliters.

When such an Adam and Eve are wholly successful in their joint planetary mission as biologic uplifters, they share the destiny of the inhabitants of their world. When such a world is settled in the advanced stages of light and life, this faithful Material Son and Daughter are permitted to resign all planetary administrative duties, and after being thus liberated from the descending adventure, they are permitted to register themselves as perfected Material Sons on the records of the local universe. Likewise, when planetary assignment is long delayed, may the Material Sons of stationary status — the citizens of the local systems — withdraw from the activities of their status spheres and similarly register as perfected Material Sons. After these formalities such liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of God and may immediately begin the long journey to Havona and Paradise, starting at the exact point of their then present status and spiritual attainment. And they make this journey in company with the mortal and other ascending Sons, continuing until they have found God and have achieved the Corps of Mortal Finality in the eternal service of the Paradise Deities.

AMONG the courtesy colonies of the various divisional and universe headquarters worlds may be found the unique order of composite personalities denominated the celestial artisans. These beings are the master artists and artisans of the morontia and lower spirit realms. They are the spirits and semispirits who are engaged in morontia embellishment and in spiritual beautification. Such artisans are distributed throughout the grand universe — on the headquarters worlds of the superuniverses, the local universes, the constellations, and systems, as well as on all spheres settled in light and life; but their chief realm of activity is in the constellations and especially on the seven hundred seventy worlds surrounding each headquarters sphere.*

When a system is settled in light and life, and as the mansion worlds one by one cease to serve as mortal-training stations, they are taken over by the increasing finaliter population which accumulates in these older and more highly perfected systems.

During the sojourn on world number six the mansion world students achieve a status which is comparable with the exalted development characterizing those evolutionary worlds which have normally progressed beyond the initial stage of light and life. The organization of society on this mansonia is of a high order. The shadow of the mortal nature grows less and less as these worlds are ascended one by one. You are becoming more and more adorable as you leave behind the coarse vestiges of planetary animal origin. "Coming up through great tribulation" serves to make glorified mortals very kind and understanding, very sympathetic and tolerant.

All inhabited worlds are basically grouped for celestial administration into the local systems, and each of these local systems is limited to about one thousand evolutionary worlds. This limitation is by the decree of the Ancients of Days, and it pertains to actual evolutionary planets whereon mortals of survival status are living. Neither worlds finally settled in light and life nor planets in the prehuman stage of life development are reckoned in this group.

With the establishment of the planetary era of light and life, many go to the universe morontia worlds by the primary modified order of translation. Further along in the advanced stages of settled existence, when the majority of the mortals leaving a realm are embraced in this class, the planet is regarded as belonging to this series. Natural death becomes decreasingly frequent on these spheres long settled in light and life.

After serving their spheres through successive dispensations of world history and the progressing epochs of planetary progress, the Planetary Princes are elevated to the position of Planetary Sovereigns upon the inauguration of the era of light and life.

Your world has been visited by four orders of sonship: Caligastia, the Planetary Prince; Adam and Eve of the Material Sons of God; Machiventa Melchizedek, the "sage of Salem" in the days of Abraham; and Christ Michael, who came as the Paradise bestowal Son. How much more effective and beautiful it would have been had Michael, the supreme ruler of the universe of Nebadon, been welcomed to your world by a loyal and efficient Planetary Prince and a devoted and successful Material Son, both of whom could have done so much to enhance the lifework and mission of the bestowal Son! But not all worlds have been so unfortunate as Urantia, neither has the mission of the Planetary Adams always been so difficult or so hazardous. When they are successful, they contribute to the development of a great people, continuing as the visible heads of planetary affairs even far into the age when such a world is settled in light and life.

FROM the inception of life on an evolutionary planet to the time of its final flowering in the era of light and life, there appear upon the stage of world action at least seven epochs of human life. These successive ages are determined by the planetary missions of the divine Sons, and on an average inhabited world these epochs appear in the following order:

The Teacher Sons come in groups to the spiritualizing worlds. A planetary Teacher Son is assisted and supported by seventy primary Sons, twelve secondary Sons, and three of the highest and most experienced of the supreme order of Daynals. This corps will remain for some time on the world, long enough to effect the transition from the evolutionary ages to the era of light and life — not less than one thousand years of planetary time and often considerably longer. This mission is a Trinity contribution to the antecedent efforts of all the divine personalities who have ministered to an inhabited world.

No matter what the special natural history of an individual planet may be, no difference whether a realm has been wholly loyal, tainted with evil, or cursed by sin — no matter what the antecedents may be — sooner or later the grace of God and the ministry of angels will usher in the day of the advent of the Trinity Teacher Sons; and their departure, following their final mission, will inaugurate this superb era of light and life.

Lucifer's folly was the attempt to do the nondoable, to short-circuit time in an experiential universe. Lucifer's crime was the attempted creative disenfranchisement of every personality in Satania, the unrecognized abridgment of the creature's personal participation — freewill participation — in the long evolutionary struggle to attain the status of light and life both individually and collectively. In so doing this onetime Sovereign of your system set the temporal purpose of his own will directly athwart the eternal purpose of God's will as it is revealed in the bestowal of free will upon all personal creatures. The Lucifer rebellion thus threatened the maximum possible infringement of the freewill choice of the ascenders and servers of the system of Satania — a threat forevermore to deprive every one of these beings of the thrilling experience of contributing something personal and unique to the slowly erecting monument to experiential wisdom which will sometime exist as the perfected system of Satania. Thus does the Lucifer manifesto, masquerading in the habiliments of liberty, stand forth in the clear light of reason as a monumental threat to consummate the theft of personal liberty and to do it on a scale that has been approached only twice in all the history of Nebadon.

This era of light and life, inaugurated by the Teacher Sons at the conclusion of their final planetary mission, continues indefinitely on the inhabited worlds. Each advancing stage of settled status may be segregated by the judicial actions of the Magisterial Sons into a succession of dispensations; but all such judicial actions are purely technical, in no way modifying the course of planetary events.

There are seven stages in the unfoldment of the era of light and life on an evolutionary world, and in this connection it should be noted that the worlds of the Spirit-fused mortals evolve along lines identical with those of the Adjuster-fusion series. These seven stages of light and life are:

Natural, physical death is not a mortal inevitability. The majority of advanced evolutionary beings, citizens on worlds existing in the final era of light and life, do not die; they are translated directly from the life in the flesh to the morontia existence.

Many fusion candidates may be assembled in the spacious temple at the same time. And what a beautiful occasion when mortals thus forgather to witness the ascension of their loved ones in spiritual flames, and what a contrast to those earlier ages when mortals must commit their dead to the embrace of the terrestrial elements! The scenes of weeping and wailing characteristic of earlier epochs of human evolution are now replaced by ecstatic joy and the sublimest enthusiasm as these God-knowing mortals bid their loved ones a transient farewell as they are removed from their material associations by the spiritual fires of consuming grandeur and ascending glory. On worlds settled in light and life, "funerals" are occasions of supreme joy, profound satisfaction, and inexpressible hope.

By the time a world attains the fourth stage of light and life, more than half the mortals leave the planet by translation from among the living. Such diminishment of death continues on and on, but I know of no system whose inhabited worlds, even though long settled in life, are entirely free from natural death as the technique of escape from the bonds of flesh. And until such a high state of planetary evolution is uniformly attained, the morontia-training worlds of the local universe must continue in service as educational and cultural spheres for the evolving morontia progressors. The elimination of death is theoretically possible, but it has not yet occurred according to my observation. Perhaps such a status may be attained during the faraway stretches of the succeeding epochs of the seventh stage of settled planetary life.

Human government in the conduct of material affairs continues to function throughout this age of relative progress and perfection. The public activities of a world in the first stage of light and life which I recently visited were financed by the tithing technique. Every adult worker — and all able-bodied citizens worked at something — paid ten per cent of his income or increase to the public treasury, and it was disbursed as follows:

The great handicap confronting Urantia in the matter of attaining the high planetary destiny of light and life is embraced in the problems of disease, degeneracy, war, multicolored races, and multilingualism.

In the third and subsequent stages, some of the midwayers are still functioning, chiefly as contact personalities for the finaliters, but as each stage of light and life is entered, new orders of liaison ministers largely replace the midwayers; very few of them ever remain beyond the fourth stage of light. The seventh stage will witness the coming of the first absonite ministers from Paradise to serve in the places of certain universe creatures.

3. The third stage of light and life. During this epoch the inhabited worlds arrive at a new appreciation of the Ancients of Days, the second phase of God the Sevenfold, and the representatives of these superuniverse rulers enter into new relationships with the planetary administration.

5. The fifth stage of light and life. The readjustments of this stage of settled existence pertain almost entirely to the physical domains and are of primary concern to the Master Physical Controllers.

7. The seventh stage of light and life. Early in the seventh epoch the Trinity Teacher counselor of the Planetary Sovereign is joined by a volunteer adviser sent by the Ancients of Days, and later on they will be augmented by a third counselor coming from the superuniverse Supreme Executive.

As worlds advance in the settled status of light and life, society becomes increasingly peaceful. The individual, while no less independent and devoted to his family, has become more altruistic and fraternal.

The Adjusters continue to come as in former evolutionary eras, and as the epochs pass, these mortals are increasingly able to commune with the indwelling Father fragment. During the embryonic and prespiritual stages of development the adjutant mind-spirits are still functioning. The Holy Spirit and the ministry of angels are even more effective as the successive epochs of settled life are experienced. In the fourth stage of light and life the advanced mortals seem to experience considerable conscious contact with the spirit presence of the Master Spirit of superuniverse jurisdiction, while the philosophy of such a world is focused upon the attempt to comprehend the new revelations of God the Supreme. More than one half of the human inhabitants on planets of this advanced status experience translation to the morontia state from among the living. Even so, "old things are passing away; behold, all things are becoming new."

If the mortals of distraught Urantia could only view one of these more advanced worlds long settled in light and life, they would nevermore question the wisdom of the evolutionary scheme of creation. Were there no future of eternal creature progression, still the superb evolutionary attainments of the mortal races on such settled worlds of perfected achievement would amply justify man's creation on the worlds of time and space.

This epoch extends from the appearance of the morontia temple at the new planetary headquarters to the time of the settling of the entire system in light and life. This age is inaugurated by the Trinity Teacher Sons at the close of their successive world missions when the Planetary Prince is elevated to the status of Planetary Sovereign by the mandate and personal presence of the Paradise bestowal Son of that sphere. Concomitant therewith the finaliters inaugurate their active participation in planetary affairs.

This settled age continues on and on until every inhabited planet in the system attains the era of stabilization; and then, when the youngest world — the last to achieve light and life — has experienced such settledness for one millennium of system time, the entire system enters the stabilized status, and the individual worlds are ushered into the system epoch of the era of light and life.

On the inhabited worlds the Teacher Sons become voluntary collaborators with the finaliters, and these same Teacher Sons also accompany the finaliters to the mansion worlds when those spheres are no longer to be utilized as differential receiving worlds after an entire system is settled in light and life; at least this is true by the time the entire constellation has thus evolved. But there are no groups that far advanced in Nebadon.

The universe administration, as far as concerns Gabriel and the Father Melchizedek, is quite unchanged. This council of unlimited authority is chiefly concerned with the new problems and the new conditions arising out of the advanced status of light and life.

Minor and major sectors of the superuniverse do not figure directly in the plan of being settled in light and life. Such an evolutionary progression pertains primarily to the local universe as a unit and concerns only the components of a local universe. A superuniverse is settled in light and life when all of its component local universes are thus perfected. But not one of the seven superuniverses has attained a level of progression even approaching this.

If and when a superuniverse should be settled in light and life, we believe that the now advisory Unqualified Supervisors of the Supreme would become the high administrative body on the headquarters world of the superuniverse. These are the personalities who are able to contact directly with the absonite administrators, who will forthwith become active in the settled superuniverse. Although these Unqualified Supervisors have long functioned as advisers and counselors in advanced evolutionary units of creation, they do not assume administrative responsibilities until the authority of the Supreme Being becomes sovereign.

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.