Episode:God the Father—Nature of God (Part 1)

From Symmetry of Soul


The nature of God can be studied in a revelation of supreme ideas, the divine character can be envisaged as a portrayal of supernal ideals, but the most enlightening and spiritually edifying of all revelations of the divine nature is to be found in the comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of Nazareth, both before and after his attainment of full consciousness of divinity.

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Keywords: Urantia, God, Infinity, Eternity, Primacy

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

Following observations by the SoS team of the emotional and spiritual tension arising from the disparity between the inner life aspirations of seeking knowledge and wisdom, and the outer life activities consumed with so many material concerns, it was suggested to attempt the inner life contemplation of ideals or an ideal.

Seeking the presence or manifestation of ideals in the outer life is a fool's errand. Our failure to distinguish between our inner life and outer life phenomena leads to a futile attempt to idealize the outer life, a form of material idealism, impossible of achieving. To help with the contemplation of the ideals refer to [161:1.3] where Jesus reminds Thomas and Nathaniel regarding their discussions with Rodan that: "It matters little what idea of the Father you may entertain as long as you are spiritually acquainted with the ideal of his infinite and eternal nature." Note the first two section titles of our paper. The Infinity of God, and The Father’s Eternal Perfection.

Paper 2 The Nature of God

Preparatory to our reading we briefly addressed the distinction between nature and attributes. Nature can be thought of as more axiomatic, consisting of qualities accepted without the process of reasoning, while attributes, which we will encounter in [Paper 3], are qualities derived through reason and logic.

Our author directs our attention to God’s personality, the idea of its primacy and the ideal of its infinity as encompassing man’s highest possible concept of God. The author further attempts to enlarge our capacity for the task of contemplating the nature of God by introducing the idea of approaching characteristics of the divine nature in the context of the character of Deity rather than the character of God (personalized Deity). As persons we are mindal selves. The Universal Father is a Deity-self.

Further assistance in approaching the nature of God is proffered by directing the seeker to find the divine characteristics as they are revealed in the life and teachings of Jesus. We are further encouraged to regard ourselves as children of God, a true spiritual Father.

The religious life of Jesus is again put forward as the most enlightening and spiritually edifying revelation of the divine nature. Michael’s incarnation thus serves best when taken as a background for the revelation of God to man. Fixate not on the facts of his life, but follow the facts to connect with his truth, for in this truth we connect with eternity where the Father is. The Master’s pre- and post-baptismal life reflects God as the Son of God and touches our religious lives as the Son of Man.

We are reminded of the Divine Counselor’s difficulty in enlarging and spiritualizing our human concept of God because of the limited capacity of our mortal minds, limitations of language, and paucity of material available for illustration or comparison in portraying divine values and spiritual meanings. However, the spirit ministries of our indwelling Thought Adjusters and the Truth Spirit of the Creator Son mightily assist our author in his task and our task of enlarging our concept of God.

2:1. The Infinity of God

The first two paragraphs of this section consist of the Divine Counselor’s harvest of passages penned by human sources expressing their recognition of various aspects of God’s infinite nature.

We commented on the nature of the Father’s unqualified self-consciousness of his infinity and eternity as well as his full knowledge of his perfection and power from the standpoint of the observer and that which is observed—a capability he shares only with his divine coordinates.

The changeless Father, through his self-experiential Deity encompasses and comprehends all of his creatures and creations outside of time. The adventures of his Creator Sons, and experiments of the Constellation Fathers are fully known to him. He thus embodies the essence of all experience if not the substance thereof by from the existential foundation of all experience which is the I AM. God alone at his core embodies God the Infinite, representing the entirety of the concept of the I AM literalized. However, in the interest of permitting all creatures and creations to exist this feature of his Deity is bound away, forever sequestered by his volition.

The Father’s infinity effectively prevents all direct personal communication with finite material beings and other lowly created intelligences. From the unity perspective it is the mechanism of Mother Deity which is the whole wherein the Father is enabled to downstep himself and communicate indirectly with his creatures and creation, as exemplified in the passage [112:1.17] “..in a cosmic system the individual members are not connected with each other except in relation to the whole and through the individuality of the whole.”

Through the agencies of the Creator Sons, personalities of the Infinite Spirit, and the Mystery Monitors has the Father ordained the contact and communication with his manifold creatures. Listen to the archive for the nuanced discussion concerning the distinction between capacity and potential for God-consciousness.

Note that such modification, dilution, or attenuation of the Father’s infinity which enables the Father to draw near the finite minds of his creature children in no way detracts from his infinity, eternity, and primacy. So when we recall that the young child Jesus was fond of having a little talk with his Father in heaven, it was in truth by virtue of this downstepping process if not in fact directly that he did so.

No creature can comprehend or grasp the Father’s infinite plans and eternal purposes in their fullness, but he grasps our finity. Pause to consider eternity, not as the summation of all time, but a fact which exists now.

In contemplating the Father’s infinity of personality, it must include all finitude of personality which brings us face to face with our familiar “literal truth”, “In him we live and move and have our being.” Remember that the Thought Adjuster is also referred to as a fragment of infinity.

Notes by Brad

  • This author reports tension between his outer and inner lives these days.
    • It's as if the tension is stronger than ever; this weekly study as a firm reminder that they are different.
    • Remember: Don't look for your ideals in the outer life. That are forever within.
      • Even if you looked Jesus in the eye during his life here, you wouldn't find an ideal there. That's the outer life.
    • Search within for the ideals. It's a fool's errand to search in the outer life.
    • If you try to make the outer life ideal, you'll tear it apart. That's part of the emergency.
    • What you can strive for is to predicate your ideas more and more on true ideals you recognize.


  • How does the nature of God [Paper 2] differ from the attributes of God [Paper 3]?
    • Nature: the qualities you simply recognize as self-evident, or you accept from revelation. The predicates. Fundamental, foundational quality
    • Attribute: more derived through (and possibly validated by) reasoning. The "well, given that nature quality, therefore it follows..."
    • But both papers are about the nature of God.
      • Paper 2: The fundamental elements of the nature of God
      • Paper 3: The attributes of the nature of God


  • Infinity is not an idea, but an ideal. Hence "idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality," where the first and second words pair with one another.
  • The word "concept" often refers to the generalization of an idea. But there is a higher, more compassing sense of a concept being above an ideal.
  • Why "the character of Deity?" The word Deity seems unexpected at first glance (why not "God?")
    • You and I have a mindal self that presents character.
    • But the Universal Father has a Deity self (not a mindal self).


  • The religious life of Jesus is, again here, held up as a specially helpful thing (Of all human knowledge...)
  • Can you go between the lines of the facts of his life, as presented in the 5th ER, to discover the truth of his life?
  • The religious life of Jesus before his public ministry: this resembles something we can find within ourselves. Because we are humans, as we he was too.
    • Our 2017 "Jesus the Tutor" arc covered this well.
    • After the baptism, it's because you're seeing Michael--Father-like Deity--here on Earth.


  • So this ideal concept seems elusive. Is there anywhere int he 5th ER than can help us get started?
    • Sure, see what Jesus said when talking to Rodan.
    • "It matters little what idea of the Father you may entertain, as long as you are acquainted with the ideal of his infinite and eternal nature."
      • Emphasis added. It indicates the male, he, outside, transcendent God.
    • Start with that little nucleus of God's infinite and eternal nature.


  • Animal-origin selves comprehend things. Not meanings and values so much.
    • Hence, the lack of pre-existing human-source material material our author can use to build this paper.


  • Don't wait for your Adjuster to whisper sweet nothings in your ear. You're not a first circler.
    • Just let the Adjuster work in the superconscious of your mind. Be patient, etc. Favorable conditions, as always.
    • Allow it to develop in you a more unified and focused mind. You aren't building that yourself.


  • This author notes the essence of the titles of each section... nature-like concepts:
    • Infinity, Perfection, Justice, Righteousness, Mercy, Love, Goodness, Truth, and Beauty


  • Thinkers of old have long challenged themselves to capture, in words, the infinity of God.
    • God is the opposite of thick darkness; he is blinding light!
    • But He is so transcendent he might appear to be thick darkness.


  • Paragraph 2 in Section 2 is sourced from all kinds of texts, not just the Bible.
    • Our author can digest all that's ever been written on Earth, all before breakfast so to speak. Fascinating to read the writings of such an author.


  • Why can be never have a perfect, proper, and complete appraisal of ourselves (only God can do this)? Because the observer is not the thing observed.
    • Only 3 persons in the master universe can do this. And you aren't one of them!
    • Some geometry ideas were invoked to explain the words "perfect, proper, and complete."
      • This author never did especially well in 9th grade geometry class...


  • God doesn't experiment. But lots of his subordinate divine persons do. We are experimented upon by them, but not by God himself.


  • Direct communication with God the Father is not possible. But plenty of compensation has been made for this.
    • The design of the universes of time and space.
    • In Section 2, Paragraph 7, we see three downstepped expressions:
      • Son: Paradise Sons of God
      • Infinite Spirit: Seraphic hosts, etc
      • Father: Thought Adjuster


  • "Capacity comes from God the mother." A reminder that capacity is a tricky, deep word in the the 5th ER.


  • Don't exalt your ignorance (and don't limit yourself to the ignorance of others.)
    • While you cannot fully understand all this, you can somewhat understand it.
    • Allow your capacity to be filled.
    • Exaltation of ignorance is one of the most unfortunate things that can happen, early on, with a budding spiritual consciousness.
      • "I'm all about gauzy, unsearchable, spooky mystery," is something you ought to stop saying if you are. Aim higher.


  • God is eternal in his purposes. Don't misunderstand. He has no temporal purposes whatsoever. He's outside of all this.