© 2017 Claude Flibotte
© 2017 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
| The Term “Tension” Can It Enlighten Us on the Trinity | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 80 — December 2017 | Meeting in Italy |
Following the questioning of my friend Éric Tarissan and those raised by Guy Perron on the subject of God the Sevenfold, here is my understanding as of today. Despite the fact that I have been studying this theme and many others for several years within another study group, I do not consider myself an expert on the subject. I feel and see myself much more as a perpetual student facing the mysterious beauties that await me in the eternal future!
I believe that we must follow the example provided by our revelators and, first of all, grasp the meaning of the words used in order to clarify our thinking. Let us therefore look at some of these definitions.
IN THE MINDS of the mortals of Urantia—that being the name of your world—there exists great confusion respecting the meaning of such terms as God, divinity, and deity. Human beings are still more confused and uncertain about the relationships of the divine personalities designated by these numerous appellations. Because of this conceptual poverty associated with so much ideational confusion, I have been directed to formulate this introductory statement in explanation of the meanings which should be attached to certain word symbols as they may be hereinafter used in those papers which the Orvonton corps of truth revealers have been authorized to translate into the English language of Urantia. (UB 0:0.1)
The word “God” is a human philosophical concept to designate the First Cause of all things and beings.
Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible urge to symbolize their finite concepts of God. Man’s consciousness of moral duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level—an experiential reality—which is difficult of symbolization. (UB 0:2.1)
GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse co-ordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons—the local universe fathers. (UB 0:2.6)
Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value and relative divinity expression: (UB 0:2.2)
This First Cause, when it freed itself from the absolute personality in which it was confined, had three consequences. It made possible the existence of the Eternal Son as regards the spiritual aspect and that of the island of Paradise as regards the material aspect. It also made the First Source Center the father of the Second Source Center.
She thus became the Universal Father of the Eternal Son and of all personalities who would subsequently appear. She is called the Universal Father for this reason and the Son is called eternal, for both are eternal and infinite and are the cause of all subsequent creations. Be careful! Although this appears to have happened in sequences of time, it never took place in time, for God exists outside of time and space. It is precisely this condition that prevails on the Isle of Paradise.
The Eternal Son is that infinite personality from whose unqualified personality fetters the Universal Father escaped by the technique of trinitization, and by virtue of which he has ever since continued to bestow himself in endless profusion upon his ever-expanding universe of Creators and creatures. The Son is absolute personality; God is *father personality—*the source of personality, the bestower of personality, the cause of personality. Every personal being derives personality from the Universal Father just as the Original Son eternally derives his personality from the Paradise Father. (UB 6:7.1)
It appears to us that the First Source and Center has concentrated all absolute potential for cosmic reality in Paradise as a part of his technique of self-liberation from infinity limitations, as a means of making possible subinfinite, even time-space, creation. But it does not follow that Paradise is time-space limited just because the universe of universes discloses these qualities. Paradise exists without time and has no location in space. (UB 11:2.10)
In the eternity of the past, when the Universal Father gave infinite personality expression of his spirit self in the being of the Eternal Son, simultaneously he revealed the infinity potential of his nonpersonal self as Paradise. Nonpersonal and nonspiritual Paradise appears to have been the inevitable repercussion to the Father’s will and act which eternalized the Original Son. Thus did the Father project reality in two actual phases—the personal and the nonpersonal, the spiritual and the nonspiritual. The tension between them, in the face of will to action by the Father and the Son, gave existence to the Conjoint Actor and the central universe of material worlds and spiritual beings. (UB 11:9.3)
The Universal Father reveals himself in three levels of Deity-personality, of sub-infinity value, and of relative divinity expression. He is prepersonal by his ministry of personality fragmentation as expressed by the Thought Adjusters; he is personal as in the personally lived evolutionary experience of created and procreated beings; and he is superpersonal as in the eventuated existence of certain absonite beings (beings neither finite nor infinite nor absolute; they transcend time and space; they are transcendentals) and associates. God is, therefore:
1. *Prepersonal—*as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such as the Thought Adjusters.
2. *Personal—*as in the evolutionary experience of created and procreated beings.
3. *Superpersonal—*as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite and associated beings.
GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse co-ordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons—the local universe fathers. (UB 0:2.3-6)
Therefore, the word God may be used by designation as in the appellation God the Father or by context when used in a discussion of a particular level of Deity or association of Deities. The word God always designates personality unlike the words Deity and divinity.
The term God always denotes personality. Deity may, or may not, refer to divinity personalities. (UB 0:2.10)
Thus, in the Urantia Book papers the word God designates God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, God the Supreme, God the Sevenfold, God the Ultimate and God the Absolute (see UB 0:2.11-18).
The characteristic of Deity is its quality of unity. It can be personal as God and impersonal, I was going to write the island of Paradise, but the Perfecter of Wisdom corrects me by revealing this:
When reality is differentiated into the personal and the nonpersonal (Eternal Son and Paradise), it is hardly proper to call that which is nonpersonal “Deity” unless somehow qualified. The energy and material repercussions of the acts of Deity could hardly be called Deity. Deity may cause much that is not Deity, and Paradise is not Deity; neither is it conscious as mortal man could ever possibly understand such a term. (UB 11:9.4)
Deity may be existential as God the Father, God the Son or God the Spirit. It may be experiential as God the Supreme, God the Ultimate or God the Absolute. It may be associative as God the Sevenfold or undivided as in the Paradise Trinity.
Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity. (UB 0:1.14)
Total Deity is functional on seven levels.
1. Static, the original state of God before anything or anyone. William S. Sadler Junior puts it this way on page 8 of his book “A Study of the Master Universe”:
At the heart of the Zero Age, we find tranquility, absolute stability, nothing moves. There, God is entirely self-sufficient. He lives in himself, he is contained in himself. He has an inside, but no outside; an interior, but no beyond; an eternal presence, but neither past nor future. He exists in himself. God is.
This static state of God always exists, because God IS outside of time and space. Everything that has been, is and will be is contained in Him and for eternity. Here is what William S. Sadler Jr. wrote about this on page 9 of the same book:
Now here is a point we must keep in mind: what we have just expressed is not something theoretical, something that existed long ago and ceased to be; it is just as true now as it was long ago in the heart of eternity to come. This means that we must broaden our way of thinking about God: he can be static and yet be all other things. He does all these many things at the same time, and he continues to do them all the time. He does not need to move from one thing to another.
2. Potential, the state of God conceptualizing the infinite cosmos. He has made a plan for the cosmos, but has not yet put it into execution. It is a potential not yet realized. Let’s see what W. S. Sadler Jr. wrote about this on page 9:
Here we think of God after he has made a plan. He has not yet done anything to carry it out, but he is making plans to do something and, as a result, this “something” becomes a possibility, it becomes a potential. At that moment we think of God after he has decided to express his will, he is Deity willing himself. The Potentials have come into existence and Deity has become Potential.
3. Associative, the state of God after he has dissociated himself from the unqualified or absolute personality, trinitizes the Eternal Son and his material counterpart the Paradise Isle and thus becomes the Universal Father. He associates with him in the presence of the Eternal Isle to externalize and create a next step. Another way to conceptualize this association as W. Sadler Jr. mentions on page 11 is to visualize it on the plane of absolutes. God is as much spiritual as energy. God is absolute, he exists as the Deity Absolute (encompassing all beings) and as the Unqualified Absolute (encompassing all things) and necessarily there is also something that unifies and balances the tension between the two and that is the Universal Absolute. So the connection between these three absolutes or reservoirs from which God draws to complete his divine plan constitutes an association. The Deity becomes associative.
4. Creative, the state where Deity sets the divine plan in motion. Four simultaneous events occur at this point. The Father and Son unite as Father-Son in the presence of Paradise; the Infinite Spirit appears as their equal in divinity; the central universe appears and the Father, Son and Spirit unite as the Paradise Trinity. Of course, it must be kept in mind that this apparently sequential moment never existed since the Father, Son, Spirit, Paradise and Havona are existential and therefore eternal. It is also likely that the space power of Paradise was poured out into the infinite cosmos in preparation for the next step. Deity becomes creative.
5. Evolutionary, the state of Deity marking the end of the first universe age or Havona age and the beginning of the second age or grand universe age. God plans to create no longer by divine fiat, but with time and space thus giving his creatures the opportunity to participate fully in their becoming unlike the creatures of Paradise and Havona who exist perfect and fully developed. The first act of God at this time was probably to create the Seven Master Spirits who preside over the space level of the superuniverses divided into seven divisions, a Master Spirit for each of them. The seventh superuniverse bearing the name of Orvonton. Deity becomes evolutionary.
W.S. p. 34 Probably the first event to be truly post-eternal (post Havona) was the creation of the Seven Master Spirits. These elevated Spirits are not absolute beings: yet they represent Paradise Deity on every level below the absolute, the finite, the absonite, and the finite-absonite. (Or, to state it in common language: the Supreme, the Ultimate, and the Supreme-Ultimate.) The Master Spirits are not existential; they are experiential. They are the first expression of experiential Deity…
6. Supreme, the state where Deity projects itself and achieves unification of the existential and experiential through the experience of a host of creators and creatures inhabiting the Grand Universe. The superuniverse space level is the first level of expression of the unifying divinity. The finite level is characterized by the life and experience of creatures limited by space-time conditions. It is the progressive emergence of God the Supreme. Let us refer to what W. Sadler Jr. writes on this subject:
W.S p. 35 Formerly, during the twilight period, something else happened: God the Supreme appeared in Havona. His presence was derived from the Trinity, and he was brought into existence as a spirit person. He resided in the central universe before the superuniverses were formally organized. Then, as now, he was not contactable by creatures.
Then came the mandate of the Paradise Trinity, organizing the grand universe—the seven superuniverses in relation to Havona. About this time the Trinity must have created the 21 Ancients of Days, the triune rulers of the seven supercreations. Shortly thereafter the headquarters worlds of the seven superuniverses were constructed, and the Ancients of Days probably left Paradise to take possession of their respective capital spheres…
Soon afterward in time the Father and the Son must have begun to create the creator Sons, with the response of the complementary production of the Creative Spirits by the Infinite Spirit. In due time these universe Sons and Spirits were delegated as governors of the local universes—the most ancient of the focal creations. Now the Second Age is in full bloom. Soon afterward the evolutionary mortals made their appearance on the worlds of space and then began the long Paradise ascent of the pilgrims of time in search of the Universal Father.
7. Ultimate, the state where Deity projects itself and achieves transcendence of space-time. This is the second level of expression of the unifying divinity. This is the level of progressive emergence of God the Ultimate. It corresponds to the four outer space levels beyond the level of the superuniverses. At this level, Deity is omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. God the Ultimate, once emerged at the end of the Sixth Age (one age for each of the four outer space levels), will act as supercontroller and supersustainer of the Master Universe.
The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated—they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity. (UB 0:1.12)
The reality of the universe also exists on a third level, the absolute level. This is the level of existence of God Himself.
The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is absolute. This level is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest. (UB 0:1.13)
This term is the one that we understand best as humans since it comes close to the more or less elevated concepts that humanity has made of the qualifiers of the gods throughout time.
DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity.
Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
Divinity may be perfect—complete—as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships. (UB 0:1.16-18)
God the Sevenfold is a creative associative expansion of the Paradise Deities in time and space. It is the method the Paradise Deities have set forth to bridge the enormous gap between the consciousness of God and that of man. God the Sevenfold is the means by which man knows his creator, loves him, and seeks to become like him. God the Sevenfold began to function when the seven superuniverses were organized. He is composed of a host of personalities, as follows:
- The Paradise Creator Sons.
- The Ancients of Days.
- The Seven Master Spirits.
- The Supreme Being.
- God the Spirit.
- God the Son.
- God the Father. (UB 0:8.2-8)
Now, Eric’s question is: Is God the Sevenfold a person? Since it is an association of several personalities, the answer that immediately comes to mind would be negative. But, looking a little closer, and as W. Sadler Jr. suggests in his Appendix XII to Section 2 entitled: Is there a mental aspect of God the Sevenfold? Consider the following quotes:
- Les Maitres Physiques, le mental préadjuvat.
- Les esprits mentaux adjuvats, les mentaux humains et médians.
- Les Esprits Créatifs, les mentaux de l’univers local.
- Les Sept Maitres Esprits, le mental cosmique. LU 42:10.3-6
- The mind forces are convergent in the Infinite Spirit; the differential and divergent cosmic mind in the Seven Master Spirits; the factualizing mind of the Supreme as a time-space experience in Majeston. (UB 0:3.14)
The Conjoint Creator is absolute only in the domain of mind, in the realms of universal intelligence. The mind of the Third Source and Center is infinite; it utterly transcends the active and functioning mind circuits of the universe of universes. The mind endowment of the seven superuniverses is derived from the Seven Master Spirits, the primary personalities of the Conjoint Creator. These Master Spirits distribute mind to the grand universe as the cosmic mind, and your local universe is pervaded by the Nebadon variant of the Orvonton type of cosmic mind. (UB 9:4.3)
The mindedness of the Thought Adjuster is like the mindedness of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son—that which is ancestral to the minds of the Conjoint Actor. (UB 107:5.3)
From these references, it is likely that God the Sevenfold may hold a “mental aspect” inherited from all of these beings constituting him and that, collectively, he represents a legal entity just as an earthly business company is a legal entity in the eyes of the law and not a real person like you and me. This “company” exists through the grouping of its multiple personalities and acts through the function of the reason for its existence. Furthermore, when one looks carefully at the UB 0:2.9-15 quotes from the introduction to The Urantia Book, it is possible to see that God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit, God the Supreme, God the Ultimate and God the Absolute are all designated by a single personality, but that God the Sevenfold, although designated by “Deity personality” is defined as functioning through the personal Deities of Paradise and their creative associates which is not the case for the other six.
Fraternally!
Claude Flibotte
Saint Julie
03/26/2017
| The Term “Tension” Can It Enlighten Us on the Trinity | Le Lien Urantien — Issue 80 — December 2017 | Meeting in Italy |