Episode:Existential Deity—The Paradise Trinity (Part 3)
Beings have attributes; but as Deity, the Paradise Trinity may more properly be regarded as having functions—such as justice administration, totality attitudes, co-ordinate action, and cosmic overcontrol. These functions are not simply the sum of the Father’s apparent endowment of divinity plus those specialized attributes that are unique in the personal existence of the Son and the Spirit.
Keywords: Urantia, Trinity Attitudes, The Trinity Infinite, Stationary Sons of the Trinity, Justice
Opening thought: (speaking to God) If I am the branch, you are the vine, and I am connected to what truly satisfies. Shape me to your vision, even if it hurts. Cut away distraction. Father, prune me to your word. —from Reflection, a new evangelical Christian song. Listen here.
Summary by Kermit
Commentary after Review
Much of the difficulty encountered in this arc on Existential Deity stems from SoS’s efforts at presenting a top-down Deity perspective in a reciprocating and contrasting mode to the evolutional bottom-up Reality perspective presented by our Universal Censor author.
A shared anecdote by one of our SoS team prompted a discussion of genuine righteousness vs. works righteousness, which focused on the distinctions between the inner and outer life.
Current religious thinking all too often defines righteousness and faith in terms of outer-life manifestations, fruits of the spirit. Such a perspective fails in the recognition of the inner-life workings of genuine faith and righteousness. Failure to recognize the implications and significance of the inner and outer domains often leads believers to erroneously identify Jesus’ teachings or 5th ER pronouncements as contradictory. The faith foundation of true religion is found in the inner life of personal spiritual experience. When faith and righteousness are erroneously ascribed to behavioral doings in the external world, righteousness becomes works righteousness and faith becomes ardently held belief in a code of conduct. With such a focus on the outer life the hope, the inner-life recognition insight of real potentiality, devolves to a yearning for a reordering of external life events and circumstances, and the goodness of God is redefined as that which is subjectively pleasurable. This misdirecting the religious impulse has the effect of decreasing the influence of spirit gravity and leaving the individual increasingly subject to material gravity.
Prior to our reading for additional clarification we revisited [10:4.1] where the author parenthetically refers to the Paradise Trinity as the first triunity, and [10:4.5] where the Trinity mystery is characterized—three as one and in one, and one as two and acting for two.
In the first case this initial use of “the first triunity” we are directed to [4:4.2] where the changelessness of God can encompass emergence from unity to duality to triunity (an understanding which must await our achievement of Paradise status). In the second case, a parallel is drawn between the Father and Son functioning in and through the Infinite Spirit (the impersonal face of the 3rd Person) and the Trinity mystery as previously mentioned. This points to the tight coupling of the Infinite Spirit and the Trinity mentioned numerous times in this arc.
10:5 Functions of the Trinity
Reality beings have attributes, the Trinity association of the personal Deities has functions. Our author lists four functions of the Trinity:
- justice administration,
- totality attitudes,
- coordinate action, and
- cosmic overcontrol.
Of these four modes, the last three can be recognized from previous study as expressions of Mother Deity. Association of the supreme, ultimate, and absolute with levels of personality activity on the finite, absonite and co-absolute is suggested from clues found in [30:1.IV].
The Paradise Trinity association is a supersummative consequence of the three Persons. Even in the case of human association groups, the potential of such associations is always far in excess of the sum of the components. Top-down reciprocation of this bottom-up narrative begins with the Paradise Trinity as a facet of Deity, a fourth fact entirely transcendent of any supersummative association.
The totality attitudes of the Trinity are existential, encompassing past, present, and future. These multiple attitudes (e.g. towards the finite, absonite, etc.) are simultaneous. These totality attitudes provide context for the other functions. Note the individualities of the whole, the wombs of Mother Deity provide the context for that which happens within.
The Trinity’s attitude towards the finite and the absonite are spoken of as the Trinity of Supremacy and Ultimacy respectively. The Ultimate and Supreme are not wholly representative of the Trinity but in a qualified sense they do so prior to personal actualization of the Supreme and Ultimate. Trinity function goes beyond the Mother Deity function when it includes justice administration. As might be anticipated, the Trinity’s attitude towards absolute existences might be denominated the Trinity of Absoluteness.
The Trinity Infinite is mentioned in the same paragraph as the phrase the Trinity as infinite. Listen to the broadcast to hear why those two terms must be differentiated and not conflated.
The remainder of this section are given to an examination of top-down reciprocation of the bottom-up mode in which the revelation is intended to be initially engaged, particularly with respect to the two points of focus in [10:4] dealt with in the beginning of the broadcast. In bottom-up terms the first triunity as expressed in this paper is considered in the perspective of the Trinity in absoluteness. Reciprocating to the top-down perspective we are asked to consider the Trinity in infinity, whereupon the first triunity as found in [Paper 104] is valid.
We should all take some solace in the final paragraph of the section where our author admits to not having suitable language to enable us limited human humans to receive the full truth concerning the nature of the never-ending interassociation of the three beings of infinite perfection that is the Paradise Trinity.
10:6 The Stationary Sons of the Trinity
The First Source and Center is law. The second Source and Center is given to the administration of spiritual law, and the revelation, promulgation, and interpretation of the divine statues is the function of the Third Source and Center. The application of the law, justice, is province of the Trinity and executed by the designated Sons of the Trinity. Justice is never a personal function; hence its function is the responsibility of the impersonal Trinity.
In the administration of justice evidence is gathered and presented by certain personalities of the Third Source and Center. According to such evidence it is the Stationary Sons of the Trinity who apply the justice of the Trinity. Here again we see the coupling association of the Third Source and Center and the Trinity. The Stationary Sons of the Trinity consist of ten types of personalities each of which is revealed in greater detail in subsequent sections of the revelation. They do not represent the attitude of the Trinity in a universal sense, only the domains of justice administration. These personalities are designed specifically for their precise function. Our author, a Universal Censor is described in [Paper 19] “Whenever and wherever a Universal Censor is present, then and there is the judgment of Deity.”
It is the Ancients of Days who mete out justice in the evolutionary universes, and do we not enjoy referring to them as the capital-J Judges? Of course in the Central universe, Havona perfection precludes all possibility of disharmony.
Forget not that the collective thought of righteousness is the justice of the Trinity and mercy is its personal expression. When fully perceived and completely understood, the righteous justice of the Paradise Trinity and the merciful love of the Universal Father are coincident. Today we have a planetary emergency where in the minds of many the love of God is divorced from the righteousness of the Trinity.
