Episode:God the Father—The Universal Father (Part 2)
God is a transcendent reality, not merely man’s traditional concept of supreme values. God is not simply the supreme desire of man, the mortal quest objectified. God may be any or all of these concepts in the minds of men, but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father to all who enjoy spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience personality survival in death.
Keywords: Urantia, God, Father Personality, Infinite Reality, Universal Spirit
Note: Ann filled in for Brad, who was away.
Summary by Kermit
Commentary after Review
We observed that the title of section one is The Father’s Name, not the Universal Father’s Name. What is the significance of this? Both designations The Father and The Universal Father are referring to an the same individual. With the term “the Father” we begin to explore a little more deeply the Deity fact that is the Father. Deity is a complex fact. The numerous names given to God (as a Deity fact) reflect differences in relationships. Deity is very complex and designations for the Father are likewise complex. Approaching the Universal Father as a Deity fact requires a perspective that is foreign to traditional and historical modes of attempting the understanding God. In the course of many discussions SoS has referred to bottom up and top down modes of approaching the understanding of Deity and cosmic reality. In the case of “doing the Father’s will”, the Deity perspective (top down) signifies a will of transcendence which is the functioning of ubiquitous Deity, not an individual. In a top down perspective the individual wills of the three infinite Paradise personalities are downstepped expressions of the will of Deity (Paradise Trinity). Viewing one’s self from the top down perspective should serve to prevent any tendency for self-exaltation. Listen to the archive for the finer points of our discussion and a more complete exposition of these foundational principles.
1:2. The Reality of God
We devoted thirty minutes to a discussion of this section. We are asked to appreciate that the individual, the Universal Father exists prior to the differentiation of reality into spirit, mind, and matter. Therefore is He a predicate to triune reality as is expressed in the first sentence. “God is primal reality in the spirit world; God is the source of truth in the mind spheres; God overshadows all throughout the material realms. Note with God’s relation to the three reality domains it is most immediate to spirit which has a more direct connection to eternity, becoming somewhat less direct with mind as the source of truth, and even less so with matter as He overshadows all material through Paradise pattern.
The section ends with the sentence: “The First Father is universal spirit, eternal truth, infinite reality, and father personality.” Our discussion focused primarily on father personality. From a philosophical viewpoint father can be thought of as initiator and directionizer. Personality can be thought of as individuated will by the Father. The First Father personality is not individuated will, rather is the will (un-individuated) that which remains subsequent to the bestowal of other personalities. The Father’s personality circuit—the volitional absolute is the directionizing fact of the Father. As the existential initiator, the Father is transcendent, not micromanaging in time. The basics of sexual reproduction illustrates the initiating aspect of the Father in relation to the mother, who sustains that which has been initiated. The Father is God transcendent (without), the Mother is God immanent (within). Our relationship to the God of transcendence is that of a Son of the Father. Our relationship to the God of immanence is that of a child of the Mother. We discussed the terminology of sons and daughters of God. In relation to the existential Father both males and females are designated sons of God. In cases where the creature is functioning as an extension or in the stead of Mother ministry as with the angels and procreating females the term daughter is appropriate and is used in the revelation as referenced when speaking of the Material Sons and Daughters. Note the Adams and Eves are also referred to as ascending sons of God. We further noted that throughout history male and females deities represent exalted concepts of Adam and Eve and do not reflect the truth of Mother Deity.
Our Divine Counselor author speaking to the recent (by his timetable) popularization of agnosticism, and atheism dismisses the skeptical notions of God as concepts of man’s creation. Again, listen to the archive for the interesting discussion concerning the origin of the quoted phrase in “neither is he ‘the noblest work of man.’”
We examined in some detail, the idea that the actuality of the existence of God is demonstrated in human experience by the indwelling of the divine presence. Referring to the definition of human experience in the revelation we identified the element of a questioning self instead of a believing self as being critical to the demonstration, noting that it is the actuality of God’s existence and not the recognition of the Adjuster’s doings per se that is demonstrated.
Adjuster presence is disclosed by three experiential phenomena: God consciousness, God seeking, and the personality craving to be like God. The second and third phenomena in the above list we noted were still possible for individuals without Adjusters, (Holy Spirit encircuitment) albeit Adjuster presence makes these experiences much more tangible. However, the first fact, God consciousness extrapolated from the intellectual capacity for God knowing requires the Adjuster’s presence. Our detailed discussion is worth re-visiting.
Though God’s existence cannot be proven scientifically, or deduced logically, a true concept of the reality of God is reasonable to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion and indispensable to any hope of personality survival. Only in the realm of the inner life is God-consciousness demonstrated as enabled by the God-presence of the Thought Adjuster. And the sharing of this inner life consciousness, or even knowingness is best done for the mutual edification of believers, rather than the conversion of non-believers.
The final two paragraphs address the creator and controller aspects of the Universal Father. As a creator we are disabused of the overly simplified picture of God creating things and beings with the wave of his hand. His creative attributes are existential in the creation of Paradise and the central universe, and executed in the time-space creations through the agency of his Paradise Creator Sons. As physical controller he functions through the patterns of the eternal Isle of Paradise. As mind the Universal Father operates through the Deity of the Infinite Spirit, and as spirit through the person of the Eternal Son and persons of the Son’s offspring. His prerogative to act personally and directly throughout all creation and on all levels thereof remains, albeit in a very transcendent way, remembering that the Universal Father is antecedent to the other six absolutes of infinity and the separation of reality into matter and spirit. His spirit ministry is collectively accomplished in the work of the numerous Father fragments, and material overcontrol as pure energy (primordial force).
1:3. God is a Universal Spirit
As a universal spirit we can think of the collective function of the Deity fragments. As infinite upholder, his time-space upholding is accomplished by the other two infinite persons who are not purely existential as is the Father.
Our inability to see God in a material sense or the rare visible manifestation of his divinity (providence) or the likewise rare beholding of his delegated spirit of human indwelling does not prevent the creature from discerning him by the faith-vision of the spiritualized mind.
The Universal Father’s spirit nature is fully shared with the other two Paradise Deities. God’s spirit is, in and of himself, absolute; in the Son it is unqualified, in the Spirit, universal, and in and by all of them, infinite.
