Episode:God the Father—The Universal Father (Part 3)

From Symmetry of Soul


The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The fact that a fragment of God can sojourn with a creature of time is the most profound of all universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of mysteries.

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Keywords: Urantia, God, Father Fragments, Inner Temple, Divine Presence

Note: Ann filled in for Brad, who was away.

Summary by Kermit

Commentary after Review

We followed up last week’s discussion regarding the terminology in the 5th ER referring to sons and daughters of God. Our take away suggestion on this issue is to consider the words of the revelation in a philosophic frame of reference rather than a scientific one. We seek the truth in the revelation beyond the facts.

We also discussed some of the particulars of Thought Adjuster indwelling and survival, remembering that personality survival depends on a creature having a soul. And souls are not created without the presence of an Adjuster. Further, all values realized in non-surviving mortals who do not receive Adjusters are conserved in the Supreme.

The topic of personality bestowal was briefly considered. As noted many times in prior SoS broadcasts the term personality, as used in common parlance, refers to temperament. Because of the transcendent nature of personality, it is not a thing to be observed, but its presence is observable from its effects. Attempts to specify in time the arrival or appearance of personality in the life events of a mortal are essentially without basis. It is helpful to consider personality to be an influence from eternity. The particulars of that which we call human character are observable and can profitably be considered actualities in time derived from the eternity predicate of personality.

1:3.5 (cont.) God is a Universal Spirit

God is a universal spirit; God is the universal person. Our author is here attempting to help us recognize the most appropriate way to us to think about the relationship between personality and spirit. Think of personality as spirit pattern. It functions primarily in human experience by engaging spirit first. Spirit thus engaged contributes purpose to mind action resulting in meaningful activity in the external world. With God however he shares his spirit nature with the other two persons, but he is THE universal person, the predicate for all personalities. In this transcendence God as the universal person is above and before any distinction between spirit pattern and energy pattern. Mortal personality thus has the potential for eventually encompassing the three aspects of triune reality more holistically than the more linear sequence described above of personality patterning spirit, which purposes mind, which in turn moves matter.

God the Father is in potential the overcontroller of the three elements of triune reality. Through his personality circuit he deals with the personalities of his creatures. But contact with him (outside of Paradise) is accomplished only in the presences of his fragmented entities. The personality circuit (volitional circuit) can be thought of as power of the action of will, something above choice. The power of choice is reserved for the creature himself.

In the inner experience of man, mind is engaged with matter. In order to survive mortal death human will and mortal mind must become spirit taught and eventually spirit led. Herein is the secret of the mechanism of the evolution of mind from its association with matter to union with spirit resulting in the transmutation of the potentially spirit phases of the mortal mind into the morontia realities of the immortal soul. This is nothing less than the Thought Adjuster (subservient to your will) copying the potentially spirit phases of your mind into your soul, leading ultimately to Adjuster fusion and eternity of personality existence. We note that this process is a gradual one.

In the final paragraph of this section the Divine counselor, in first person voice, testifies to the actuality and personality of the Universal Father, along with the truth of the declarations we find recorded in the New Testament—God is spirit and God is love. But he throws us a curveball by declaring that these two attributes are most completely revealed to the universe in the Eternal Son! Listen to our discussion of why and how the purely existential God must rely on the Eternal Son’s access to temporal reality for expression in time. So transcendent is the Universal Father!

1:4. The Mystery of God

Now, stop to consider what it means that from the transcendent Father comes a fact that directly engages the mind of the creature. This fact of the existence in our minds of the Thought Adjuster has been recognized by our spiritual teachers down through the ages. The Apostle Paul likens our bodies to the temples of God in our hosting the divine Adjuster. Here we find the promise of divine union and eternal survival through our fusion with this part and parcel of divinity.

In spite of the vast differences between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal, the time-space creature and the Universal Creator, the material and the spiritual, the imperfection of man and the perfection of Paradise Deity, God’s manifestations are limited only by our inherent limitations, our capacity.

We can experience God as a reality in human spiritual experience, but attempting the understanding of the realities of the spiritual world brings us face to face with profound mystery. Only by faith-grasp can we achieve the philosophic miracle of the recognition of the infinite and the discernment of the eternal God while yet in the flesh.