© 2024 Claude Flibotte
© 2024 Urantia Association of Quebec
Claude Flibotte
Sainte-Julie
Hello dear readers!
If there is a section of the Urantia Book that is complex to understand, but nevertheless essential for the rest of the work, it is the introduction! Recently, I came across a simplified version given by William S. Sadler, Jr. several years ago. I thought it would be good to present it to you, because being written in simple and human words, the spiritual concepts of the revelators seem more accessible to me. For those who would like to consult the original text in English, you will find it at this Web address.
I wish you a good read!
This document is a transcript of a lecture given by William S. Sadler, Jr. to young people, clarifying and simplifying the teachings of the Foreword to The Urantia Book.
(This simplification was compiled by William S. Sadler, Jr., and he accepts responsibility for the sacrifice of meaning, the dilution of facts, and the distortion of truth. Much meaning has been sacrificed to make some meaning clearer. Much fact has been diluted to make some fact easier to understand. Much truth has been distorted in order to make some truth easier to understand.)
¶ Introduction
Human beings are not very clear about what the words “God,” “deity,” and “divinity” mean. People are even more confused about how the divine personalities work together and how they are related. People do not have many ideas about this, and the ones they do have are confused. So I have written this story to explain what we mean when we use certain words. These words will be used in the materials that we, the people of Orvonton, have written in English for you, the people of Urantia.
We want to give you more truth. We want to expand your ideas about the universe. We want to help you reach for more spiritual things. But it’s hard to do that when we have to use your poor language. We’ve been told we have to tell our story in your language. We’re only allowed to use new words when we can’t find any English words that fit—even in part.
We want to help you understand what we have to say. We want to help you not to get confused. That’s why we think it’s good to explain to you what we mean when we use certain English words. The story I’m writing here is the story of what we mean when we use these English words to talk about Deity. We’ll also tell you what we mean when we use certain words to talk about things, meanings, and values that are valid everywhere.
To tell this story from the beginning, we must rely on our own means. We must use these same words when we speak of them. So this story cannot be complete. It is simply the story of what we mean when we use these words in the papers. These articles are going to be about Deity and the great creation. Some of the articles are written by my group—a group of beings who have come from Orvonton to Urantia to do this work.
Your world, Urantia, is one of many worlds on which people like you live. Your world, with many others, constitutes the local universe of Nebadon. This local universe, with many others, constitutes the superuniverse of Orvonton. The superuniverse of Orvonton is not all there is. There are six others like it, seven in all. All seven revolve around a place called Havona. Havona is the central universe. Havona, the central universe, never had a beginning and never will have an end. It is a universe of divine perfection. At the very center of this central universe is the island of Paradise. Paradise does not move. It is the central point of infinity. God lives there.
The seven superuniverses are expanding and changing. The central universe is perfect. When we consider them all together, we call them the grand universe. The grand universe is inhabited by people. It has a government. But it is not the whole of creation. The grand universe itself is only a part of something even greater. It is part of the master universe. The master universe includes universes where no one yet lives. These universes are in space.
¶ I. Deity and divinity
There is a lot going on in the universe of universes. Divinity is at work. This work involves matter, soul, and spirit. Some of this work is personal, some of it is not. But it all has the same flavor: it is the flavor of divinity. And it is all regulated so that the different parts work together.
Deity can be real as personality, as God. But that’s not all. Deity can also exist before and beyond personality, but humans won’t quite understand that. When you get beyond the material level, everything Deity does becomes part of it, sooner or later. What brings all the work of Deity together is divinity—at least that’s the best way I can tell you.
Deity acts in a personal way. Deity also acts in a way that might be called “before being personal.” Deity acts in a third way that might be called “beyond being personal.” When you try to think of how total Deity would act, you might as well think of a seven-story house. Total Deity is in action all the time on each of these seven levels. Let’s talk about these seven levels:
- Static. We must begin at this level. Static means “not moving.” At this level, it is better to think of Deity as being, rather than acting; as existing, rather than doing something. But it makes sense: we must begin by saying that Deity IS something before we can say that Deity DOES something.
- Potential. This is the second level and is different from the first. What does the word “potential” mean? It means that there is room for something. A bowl has value because it is empty; you can put something in it. Before Deity could do anything, there had to be a void that could be filled. In the presence of this void, Deity now has a plan. The universe (in theory) does not yet exist, but its plan is there.
- Associative. Here, on the third level, we have the picture of the personality being born. It is here that Deity attains fatherhood. God becomes the Universal Father of the Eternal Son. The Trinity is here suggested. God is no longer alone; he has associates with whom he can experience brotherhood.
- Creative. At this fourth level, divinity begins to act in the sense that we understand it. The gods begin to share themselves with other beings. They begin to give themselves, to distribute themselves to other personalities. They begin to show themselves to other beings and to make themselves known to creatures.
- Evolutionary. Deity now extends beyond the limits of the central universe. At this level Deity associates even with creatures.
- Supreme. At this level Deity learns to experience; it escapes the necessity of always knowing everything in advance. At this level Deity learns what it is to be a creature—to start small and grow. Here Deity gathers what man gets out of life and blends it with what God gets out of being. At this level divinity works in time and space. Here Deity does not rule the grand universe directly, but rather works behind the scenes—coordinating and directing the rulers of the grand universe. This is what we sometimes call the supremacy of Deity.
- Ultimate. This is the last level of total Deity activity. One way to think of this level is that Deity projects itself into the future. Another thing that happens at this level is that Deity rises above time and space. This means that Deity is all-powerful, all-knowing, and everywhere present. At the previous level (the sixth), Deity coordinates everything that happens in the grand universe. At this level (the seventh), Deity does the same work of coordination, but for the entire master universe. Deity acts here in a more than finite (absonite) way. This means that it has the final say and ensures that everything works—without limit. We call this activity of the seventh level the Ultimacy of Deity.
Now that we have talked about the seven levels on which Total Deity operates, let’s talk about three other ways of looking at “levels.”
The Finite Level. We are now more interested in the different levels of creation than in the levels of divinity action. On the finite level we have creatures—people like you, Urantians, humans, and other types of creatures. On the finite level, things happen one after another; they happen in time. Also, one can only be in one place at a time. Finite things and people may not have an end, but you can be sure that they always have a beginning. They are created. You remember our discussion of the sixth level of total Deity function; we talked about Deity Supremacy. Well, the Deity Supremacy level functions at this finite level of existence.
The Absonite Level. It is perhaps best to regard this level as something intermediate between the finite and the absolute. At this absonite level there are things and beings which have neither beginning nor end. Here, too, things can happen which are not limited by time or space. These events do not ignore time and space, they simply rise above time and space—they transcend time and space. We call the beings who exist at this level absonitarians. Absonitarians are not created; they are “eventuated.” We could use a new word here, but perhaps the word “happen” will do. In any case, absonitarians simply are. You will recall our discussion of the seventh level of total Deity action; we spoke of the ultimacy of Deity. Well, the level of Deity ultimacy is related to this absonite level of existence. Wherever you are in the master universe, if you see something happening that takes no time and/or something that seems to happen everywhere at once — if you see that, you can be sure that it is an absonite action. You can also be sure that it is an act of Deity Ultimacy.
The Absolute Level. This is the third and final level of existence. It lies beyond the absonite level. The absonite level transcends time; the absolute level simply ignores time—it is timeless. The absonite level transcends space; the absolute level simply ignores space—it is spaceless. The absolute level is entirely beyond all matters of beginning or ending. For example, there is no time and space: there is no time and space on the Isle of Paradise. Paradise is absolute as regards time and space; it is “outside” space and “before” time. The Paradise Trinity (Father, Son, and Spirit) works at this absolute level. This level cannot be coordinated by any act of Deity that develops through experience.
Whenever Deity acts on this absolute level, events occur which are final in the fullest sense—there is nothing beyond.
Divinity may not grow, always be the same (existential), as in the case of the Eternal Son. Divinity may grow through experience, change (experiential), as in the Supreme Being. Divinity may consist of an amalgamation of many divine creators (associative), as in God the Sevenfold. Divinity may be a complete unity (undivided) as in the case of the Paradise Trinity.
Everything you recognize (and more) as divine comes from Deity. It is always the nature of Deity to be divine. But something can be divine and not be Deity. But even if it is not Deity, it will be related to Deity and will always try to get closer to Deity in some spiritual, mental or personal way.
DIVINITY is the flavor of Deity. All acts of Deity are divine. It is this divinity which causes all acts of Deity to function together, never in opposition. To human beings divinity is truth, beauty, and goodness. When personality exhibits divinity, it appears as love, mercy, and ministry. But when divinity is not acting as personality (as in the Trinity), it reveals itself as justice, power, and sovereignty. Divinity can be perfect and complete; this is the case when a Paradise Creator acts. Divinity can also be imperfect; this is how it appears on your level of creature existence. Divinity can be relative—neither perfect nor imperfect; this is how it presents itself on certain intermediate levels. The central universe of Havona is such an intermediate level; it is not absolutely perfect like the island of Paradise, but neither is it incomplete and imperfect as are the evolving superuniverses.
When we try to think about perfection, we discover that there are a number of possible combinations. There is absolute perfection, relative perfection, and imperfection. These can be combined in seven different ways:
- Absolute perfection
- Part absolute perfection and part relative perfection.
- All three at once — absolute, relative and imperfect.
- Part absolute perfection, part imperfection.
- Relative perfection.
- A little relative perfection, a little imperfection
- Imperfection.
¶ II. God
Human beings like you are always looking for words to describe God. You have ideas about moral duty. You also have ideals about spiritual value. When you put these two together, you get something that is difficult to describe in words.
If you think much about the universe, you will soon think that someone created it. And soon after, you have the idea that nothing started the “someone who started the universe.” This someone who started everything, this First Cause, is God. God is the Universal Father. He acts without limits, infinitely. But what we want to talk to you about now is how he acts with limits: how he acts as a personality, how he acts in a less than infinite way, and how he acts to show, not absolute divinity, but relative divinity. From this point of view, we can talk about his actions on three levels:
- Prepersonal. When God detaches a part of himself, he creates a Thought Adjuster. The Adjuster is not a person, and God is not the “father” of such an Adjuster. Persons are fathers only of other persons. God is the “source” of the Adjuster, but not the father of the Adjuster. This is a good illustration of how God works prepersonally.
- Personal. God is the father of all personalities. This is true both for created beings (such as angels) and for procreated beings (such as humans). When God acts in relation to a person, he acts at this second level. When God loves man, this act of love is at this level.
- Superpersonal. At this level, God relates to beings who are more than finite. These absonite beings are more than personalities.
God is a word we never use without referring to the personality of deity in some way. Deity has several levels of personal action. The word God must be defined differently for each of these levels. It must also be more precisely defined within each of these levels. The word God is used not only to designate the Universal Father, but also to designate the co-ordinate and subordinate deity personalities. For example, the word God might be used to designate the Paradise Creator Sons—the local universe fathers.
The term God, as we use it, can be understood as follows:
A. By designation, as when we say God the Father.
B. By the context. Here the other words in the sentence make it clear who we are talking about. But if there is any doubt as to what we mean, then the word God represents the Universal Father.
The word God is smaller than the word Deity. God is always synonymous with personality. Deity can refer to personality or not.
The word GOD is used in these documents with the following meanings:
God the Father — Creator, controller, and protector. The Universal Father, the first person of Deity.
God the Son. Co-ordinate Creator, spiritual controller, and spiritual administrator. The Eternal Son, second person of the Deity.
God the Spirit. Conjoint Actor, universal integrator and bestower of spirit. The Infinite Spirit, third person of Deity.
God the Supreme. He is the God of the finite. He has a beginning and develops in time and space. God the Supreme brings together all the experiences of creators and creatures in time and space. He blends and unifies these experiences. He binds all these experiences together. He is Deity-like and yet He is creature-like, evolving and growing. The assembling of all these things is a personal realization of the Supreme Being.
God the Sevenfold. Wherever you find the personality of Deity working in time and space, there you have found God the Sevenfold. This is the Father, the Son, and the Spirit working with their creative associates in the grand universe. These combined activities add up to form the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being personally builds his sovereign power out of the activities of God the Sevenfold. This growing Supreme Being becomes the first complete revelation of Deity in time and space. God the Sevenfold works in the grand universe. There are two streams of personality movement in the grand universe. A descending stream of perfected personalities flows from Paradise. Then, toward Paradise, flows the ascending creature stream.
God the Ultimate. The Supreme Being evolves; the Ultimate “comes to pass.” (Remember the word “eventually” in the discussion of absonite beings who are not created—they simply are!) God the Ultimate works in relation to, but apart from, time and space. He works in supertime and transcends space. The Supreme is the first revelation of the unity of Deity in time and space; the Ultimate is the second. If you would attempt to think of what this means, you must think big. The completed growth of God the Ultimate awaits the completed growth of at least the master universe. It means the completion of all that is finite and all that is absonite.
God the Absolute. Absonite beings are superpersonal; they have a relationship with God the Ultimate. But these absonites would have to become super-superpersonal in order to have a similar relationship with God the Absolute. This is what we mean by the phrase “superpersonal values transcended.” The Supreme represents a first level of expression and expansion of unifying Deity; the Ultimate a second such level; God the Absolute represents a third and final such level. God the Absolute would be experienceable, but he is not present in that sense. He exists, however, as absolute (unexperienceable) Deity. This third level (the level of God the Absolute) is the end of the line as far as Deity growth and expansion are concerned. There is nothing more to personalize. There is no divinity left. God has fully revealed himself. Beyond this level we go beyond Deity itself. Beyond this level we encounter something outside Deity; we encounter the Unqualified Absolute.
¶ III. The first source and the first center
If we consider everything that is (was or will be), it represents, in the final analysis, seven types of reality; it represents the Seven coordinate Absolutes:
- The First Source and the First Center.
- The Second Source and the Second Center.
- The Third Source and the Third Center.
- Paradise Island.
- The Absolute of Deity.
- The Universal Absolute.
- The Unqualified Absolute.
God, as the First Source and Center, is truly First. There is simply no exception to this statement. The First Source and Center is infinite and eternal. The only thing that limits Him in any way is His own free will.
God, the Universal Father, is the personality of the First Source and Center. As such, he has personal relationships with all co-ordinate and subordinate sources and centers. He also exercises infinite control over them. He may never have to use this control. Why should he? These associated sources and centers function in unfailing perfection. But the final control is there, all the same, even if it is never used.
The First Source and Center are truly first, everywhere. It matters not whether one is in the realm of Deity action or outside it, whether one is dealing with personal or impersonal activities, whether one is working with things that exist or with things that are to come, whether one is working below on the finite level or above on the infinite. Everything, simply everything, depends for its existence directly or indirectly on the First Source and Center.
The Source and the First Center are linked to the universe in different ways:
- The physical universe. The gravity which holds the material creation is tied to the bottom of the Isle of Paradise. This is the center of gravity of the universe of universes. Therefore the person of the Father never moves from this center of gravity. But the center of gravity is on the lower or material side of Paradise. The Father lives on the upper or spiritual side of Paradise.
- The intellectual universe. The mental forces of the universes are (finally) gathering in the Infinite Mind. But there are also secondary mental centers. The type of mind which operates in the superuniverses (the cosmic mind) is concentrated in the Seven Master Spirits. The developing mind of the Supreme Being is centered in Majeston on Paradise. (Majeston is the chief of Paradise reflectivity.)
- The spiritual universe. All the spiritual forces of the universe are gathered in the person of the Eternal Son.
- Capacity for action. The Deity Absolute provides unlimited space or capacity for all future activities on the part of Deity.
- Response to infinity. There is no limit to the extent to which infinity can respond to the action of Deity. This unlimited capacity for response exists in the Unqualified Absolute.
- Unified action-response. The Universal Absolute perfectly balances and coordinates the other two Absolutes. The Deity Absolute is the Qualified Absolute; qualified in the sense that it has been set apart from the other Absolute—the Unqualified Absolute.
- The universe of personality. All personalities (moral beings) are directly related to the personality of the Universal Father.
REALITY is not very well understood by human beings—even by finite beings far above the human level. What you consider to be reality is far from all that you understand. Even when you think of Deity, you cannot understand it. The greatest part of Deity that you can ever truly understand is the Supreme Being. Likewise, there are many things that lie behind the Supreme Being. Those things that existed before the Supreme Being are eternal realities and superfinite realities. We want to speak to you about these eternal and superfinite realities. But in trying to speak to you about these things, we run into difficulties. We speak of things outside of time and space, but we must use your language of time and space to speak of them. We must therefore relate the events of eternity as if they had taken place in time. We have to twist our story, but if we don’t, we can’t tell you anything at all.
For a human being, the way things originally began was this: The I AM was, as it were, imprisoned by the Infinite. He could not command because there was no “command-follower.” So he moves away from a part of the Infinite. That changes the picture. We now have two parts of the Infinite. We have the part he enters and the part he moves away from. The part he enters, he has changed; he changed it by entering; that is the Qualified Absolute part of the Infinite. That is the part of the Infinite that commands. The part of the Infinite that he has not moved into, he has not changed; that is the Unqualified Absolute part of the Infinite; that is the “command-follower.” The Qualified Absolute is (at this stage) Total Deity, the “order-giver.” The Unqualified Absolute is total non-deity, the “order-executor.” This division of infinity into two parts produces a tension, a strain. This tension is released by the appearance of the Universal Absolute (the third Absolute). The Universal Absolute always acts to equalize the tension between the two parts of Infinity—the part into which the I AM has moved, and the part from which the I AM has moved away.
But the I AM did not stop there. Hitherto he is the Absolute Person. Now he separates himself from the Absolute Personality; he thus becomes the Father of the Absolute Personality. The Absolute Personality thus becomes the Eternal Son of the Universal Father. While all this was going on, the Father was building the absolute machine—the Isle of Paradise. The Father and the Son now reside on the Isle of Paradise. The stage is set for creation. The first creative act of the Father and the Son is personalizing as the Infinite Spirit and materializing as the central universe of Havona. The Father has now completed his escape from the chains of the Infinite. He has not only escaped from Total Infinity but also from Total Deity. The Son and the Spirit are now with him to fill the totality of Total Deity. When the Father joins with the Son and the Spirit in the Paradise Trinity, then, as the Trinity, they fill all of Deity. And having done this, the Father proceeded to add more to Deity. He set in motion growth, evolution, and experience so that additional Deity could appear—the Deity of the Supreme, the Deity of the Ultimate, and the Deity of the Absolute.
The concept of the I AM, useful as it is, is hardly factual, but you need this concept. You need it because you cannot think outside of time, space, or finite realities. You cannot comprehend eternity. You cannot grasp something that has no beginning and no end. To a human being, everything must have a beginning. That is, everything except the ONE ESSENTIAL—the Original Cause of all other causes. So we give you this concept of the I AM. We tell you the story of a time when the I AM was completely alone. But now we must add something to this story: The Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit are just as eternal as the Universal Father, no more and no less. In other words, there never was a time when the I AM was not the Father of the Son and, with him, of the Spirit.
The Infinite. This term has real meaning; it is not a concession to the limitations of your thinking. We use it when we want to suggest the unlimited “primacy” of the First Source and Center. The concept of I AM is something you must have in order to answer the question, “How did things begin in the first place?” It is not a factual concept. But the term “the Infinite” does mean something. The Universal Father really does have free will and there are simply no limits to his free will. When we think of him in this way, we also sometimes use the term “InfiniteFather.”
We all struggle to understand the full meaning of this term. None of us are really big-minded enough to grasp what the “Father-Infinity” really means. And then, the Universal Father does not appear as the Infinite at levels lower than the Infinite. We believe that there are only two beings who truly know the Father as the Infinite. For the rest of us, this belief is an act of faith.
¶ IV. The reality of the universe
When we look at the universe today, we see different kinds of realities; they are not all the same. Reality begins because the Universal Father decided to begin it. From our perspective, there are three main types of reality:
- Undeified Reality. Generally, this refers to the material side of creation. It is the part of creation that is not personal. This type of reality also suggests something that could not even be made personal. Ultimately, this type of reality results in the presence of the Unqualified Absolute—the part of infinity from which the I AM has moved away.
- Deified Reality. Overall, this is the personal side of creation. It is personality from bottom to top, from lowest infinity to highest infinity, if anything is even personable, then it falls into this general category. But deified reality also goes beyond personality. (Deified reality ultimately finds itself in the presence of the Deity Absolute — the part of Infinity into which the I AM has moved…
- Interassociated Reality. Reality is supposed to be either deified or undeified. But for beings below the level of Deity there is a boundary zone. Deified and undeified realities seem to be mixed. This interassociated reality seems to be the province of the Universal Absolute—the third Absolute which seems to equalize the tension between the other two.
This is the primitive concept of original reality: The Father created it and keeps it active. The fundamental and original division of reality is between deified reality and undeified reality—between the Deity Absolute and the Unqualified Absolute. The original relationship is the tension between these two Absolutes. This tension caused by the Father is completely relieved by the Universal Absolute (the third Absolute). This is how the Universal Absolute came into being, by compensating for this tension.)
From the point of view of time and space, we can further subdivide reality:
- Actual and Potential. Some things are already here, others are yet to come. For example, the Eternal Son is complete and final as a spirit being. But mortal man is not yet a spirit being; at present, man is a potential spirit being.
- Absolute and subabsolute. That which is absolute is from all eternity; it has always been; it has nothing to do with time. Subabsolute realities are of two kinds: first, there are the absonites. Absonite realities have a relationship to both time and eternity; they occupy an intermediate zone. And then, there are the finite. Finite realities exist in space and have a beginning in time.
- Existential and experiential. That which knows before experience is existential; that which grows by virtue of experience is experiential. The deities of Paradise are existential in nature. The Supreme and the Ultimate are experiential in nature.
- Personal and impersonal. The expansion of Deity, the expression of personality, and the evolution of universes—all these things flow eternally through the channels which the Father has provided. There are two main channels, the personal channel and the impersonal channel. The Father created these channels when he created Paradise alongside the Eternal Son. Paradise is the impersonal pattern; it begins the current which flows through the impersonal channel. The Son is the personality pattern; he causes the current to flow through the personal channel.
PARADISE. This word can be used as an adjective or as a noun. In this paragraph, we want to use it as an adjective. We can refer to the forces and energies of Paradise. We are talking about the center of gravity of Paradise. We can talk about the deities of Paradise. We can talk about the deity of Paradise, the personality of Paradise, or the energy of Paradise—spiritual, mental, or material. Everything began in Paradise, but Paradise (the central island) did not begin everything.
The Island of Paradise. We now want to define Paradise as a noun. This central island is the machine which the Father personally built. He built this machine for the same reason that any personality builds a machine. He built it to control, like a machine, the material universes. Since the Father is absolute, so is his machine. It is the center of his system of controlling the gravity of the universes. Paradise does not move. It is the only stationary thing in the universe of universes. The Island of Paradise is located in a universe; it can be reached physically if one travels in the right direction and has means of transportation. But the Island of Paradise is not in space; space reaches its inner limit just before it reaches Paradise. Paradise is surrounded by something, but that “something” is not space. All matter and energy in the material universes originate from Paradise. So do all past and future universes. This island of nuclear light was created by the acts of Deity. But Paradise is not Deity. Nor are material creations part of Deity; they are a consequence of Deity’s action…
Heaven is not a creator; it creates nothing at all. But there is nothing else quite like it when it comes to exercising control over many things that happen in the universes. To some extent, it reacts to what happens in the universes. But it does not react as much as it controls. Everywhere you go, Heaven influences the actions of everyone who has anything to do with force, energy, and power. There is nothing else like Heaven in all the universes. Heaven represents nothing and nothing represents Heaven. We have nothing else to compare it to. There is only Heaven.
¶ V. Realities of personality
Let’s go back and talk about deified reality again (deified reality is that part of infinity in which the I AM has settled). There are many subdivisions of deified reality. Personality realities are one of these subdivisions. When you visualize personality reality, it begins with the type of mind that has qualities of worship and wisdom.
This is the human and midway type of mind. It rises through the morontia and spiritual levels of growth until you reach the finality of personality status. This is how human beings, midwayers, and other kindred creatures develop. But there are many other types of personalities which do not develop in this way.
Reality can be expanded without limits. Personalities can be infinitely varied. Both reality and personality can be related to Deity. Both can be eternally stabilized. There is a limit to the changes that can be made in nonpersonal reality. But we know of no limit to the progression and growth of a personality.
As personalities truly grow and reach advanced levels of experience, it becomes increasingly possible for them to associate. Within certain limits, they may even be able to create something new and someone new. Even God and man—the divine nature and the human nature—can live together in the same personality. Christ Michael proves this, for he is even today both the Son of man and the Son of God.
Below the level of Infinity, two personalities can develop the ability to associate. They can even develop the ability to create together. This goes even beyond personality as such. It also encompasses the prepersonal and superpersonal beings. The prepersonal, the personal, and the superpersonal are all related to each other. There are three things that connect them: first, they can work together, sooner or later. Second, they can all progress and grow. And finally, third, they have the ability to be relational. But there is a very clear line between these three relationships and something impersonal. That which is impersonal can never become personal in the process of growth. Personality never arises spontaneously. Personality is always a gift from the Paradise Father. Personality is added to energy; it is something that is added to a living energy system. Nonliving energy patterns can have an identity, but they never have a personality. What personality is is a secret of the Universal Father. He gives it and knows what the destiny of personality is. The Eternal Son is the absolute personality. The Eternal Son knows the secrets of spirit energy and how morontia spirits become perfected spirits. The Conjoint Actor is the spirit-mind personality. He is the source of intelligence, reason, and the universal spirit. But the Isle of Paradise is neither personal nor spiritual. The Isle of Paradise is the essence of the universal body. It is from there that all physical matter originated. It is also the master pattern that has been copied in the construction of the material creations.
These four qualities of universal reality can be described as matter, mind, spirit and personality. Human beings know them as follows:
Body. Material or physical organism of man. Living electrochemical mechanism of animal nature and of animal origin.
Mind. Part of the living body that thinks, feels and senses. It includes the conscious and unconscious levels of the mind. It is the intelligence and emotions that rise through worship and wisdom to the level of the spirit.
The spirit. This is the divine spirit that lives in the mind of man. This divine spirit is called the Thought Adjuster. This spirit is immortal. It is not a personality; it is pre-personal. It has a chance of becoming a part of the personality of man if that human being chooses to survive.
The Soul. The soul of man is built by experience. When a human being chooses to do the will of his Heavenly Father, the spirit within him becomes the father of something new. The human mind is the mother of this same new reality. This new reality is the child of the indwelling spirit and the human mind. It is neither material nor spiritual. It is something intermediate from — morontia. It is the nascent soul. It is destined to be immortal. It can survive mortal death and begin the long ascent to Paradise.
Personality. The personality of a human being is neither a body nor mind nor soul. Personality does not change, while everything else in a creature’s experience does. Personality unifies all that composes a creature. Personality is something unique; is something the Father gives; he gives it to the living energies associated with matter, mind, and spirit. Personality survives with the survival of the morontia soul.
Morontia. There is a great gap between matter and spirit. Many things exist in this intermediate zone. We call these intermediate realities “morontia.” This word can be used to describe any morontia reality—personal or impersonal, living or nonliving. The warp of morontia is spiritual; its weft is physical.
(Editor’s note: the rest of this text will continue in the next issue of Réflectivité.)
¶ References
- Réflectivité Bulletin
- This issue (PDF)
- Another version of this study aid by Bill Sadler in French on Urantiapedia