© 1995 Pekka Markus
© 1995 International Urantia Association (IUA)
By Pekka Markus
Oulu, Finland
The idea that evolution has a goal, even a supertime goal, is not novel with mankind. Among those who have elaborated this idea we may perhaps single out the French scientist and mystic Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881-1955). In his view, evolution is a self-spiritizing process that concerns the entire cosmos. He viewed evolution as an axis whereon the “ascending flood of consciousness” comes into touch with and finally becomes embraced by the “descending flood of revelation.” In evolution, God becomes cosmic, and evolution itself turns personal.
In the West there has prevailed an overall tendency to keep terrestrial evolution separated from spiritual evolution, it was not so with Teilhard; his view was that the two are actually one. He passionately glorifies matter, while he sees it at every stage to be impregnated with spirit. The outward manifestation of the growth of consciousness, in the opinion of Teilhard, is matter which is in the process of becoming structurally organized and constantly more complex. The terminal point of evolution is what he calls the Omega point, which consequently is the point where evolution becomes a thing of the past. The Omega point is a centre exercising independent influence, and under this influence the personalization of the universe and the personalizations of its component parts reach their culmination. Being a Christian, Teilhard identifies the Omega point with Christ the Total.
It may be that Teilhard’s ideas have for some readers of The URANTIA Book served as a kind of propedeutic course to the ideas on the Supreme, the way these ideas are presented in the book. Teilhard’s approach to the Total is, in a way, up from below, The URANTIA Book’s approach is down from above instead. The first premise in putting these concepts and descriptions into test is faith, for through faith we understand that the world has been created by the word of God; the visible emerged from the invisible. Heb. 11:3.
The URANTIA Book makes use of concepts like existential and experiential in description of the reality. The former is applicable where the Infinite is discussed; the latter has to do with the finite. An effort to determine the lines between these two concepts will take us to amazing visions with regards to growth, and will lead us to discover a completely new level and phase of reality, viz. that of absonity.
Where The URANTIA Book describes the technique whereby the Infinite becomes partially manifest, it resorts to a concept of dual Deity, or Deity combinations (e.g. UB 106:8.12). We are told that the Father-Son partnership gives origin to the Son-Spirit, and then to the Spirit-Supreme, the Supreme-Ultimate, and finally the Ultimate-Absolute partnerships. The cycle of reality is beyond all future eternities, but would be consummated and completed by the partnership of the Absolute and the Father-Infinite. The pioneering work of each of the partnerships is unified and consolidated by a respective Trinity: on the absolute level by the Paradise Trinity, and subsequently, by the experiential Trinities. Currently we are living and experiencing the age of the emergence of the Supreme, the Supreme Being.
How did we land at this concept, the concept of the Supreme? What is that cosmic reality which is alternately referred to as the Supreme Being, the Supreme God, God the Supreme, or the Almighty Supreme?
Right at the outset we have to make it clear that the concept of the Supreme is used here only as it is related to the finite. The Supreme represents our maximum understanding of God; the Supreme is what we, finite beings, are able to perceive about Deity. But this need not discourage us, for, in the words of the Foreword, it is probable that only the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit know the Father as an infinity. UB 0:3.25.
The URANTIA Book discusses these concepts in many different ways. One view opens at the hypothetical beginning of the great scheme of things: the First Source and Centre, the Father-Force manifests himself in two opposites, yet equally perfect expressions, the Eternal Son and the Isle of Paradise. The first act of the Father and the Son, the Infinite Spirit, the third component of the Paradise Trinity, unites the spirit nature of the Son with the energies of Paradise. And right then and there, there eventuates Havona, the core and the pattern of all subsequent universes. In Havona, energy-matter and mind constitute a harmonious whole. All these transactions belong to the existential level, and consequently, they have no beginning in time.
It was the Father’s will that there be an abyss between energy-matter and spirit in the first time repercussion of these eternity events, that is to say, in the seven finite universes. This abyss has to be bridged through evolutionary growth.
But even before the universes were created, there existed in Havona the spirit nucleus of finity, a spirit personality: God the Supreme. His origin is in the Paradise Trinity, and it became his assignment and his function—he himself being involved all through—to gather into a grand synthesis and summary the whole of the evolutionary experience which will transpire on the grand universe level. Perfection attainment, which is the goal and objective of all finite struggle and striving, happens on the intellectual and spirit levels, yet not only there, and we do well to note it, but also on the physical level of energy-matter. On the finite level, spirit in the presence of personality, works, through mind and in the presence of personality, to seize and to gain control over the physical level of energy-matter. This seizure, which requires power, and the co-ordination of control with personal spirit through the Supreme Mind, constitutes the power-actualization of God the Supreme as the Almighty Supreme. The final outcome of this development will be one, unified, and personal Deity, the Supreme Being.
This gigantic synthesis happens because of the Paradise Trinity, and as a consequence of the successes scored by the Creator offspring of that very Trinity. God the Supreme, who was in the beginning devoid of any prerogatives of authority, gains those prerogatives through achievements. It is as if the Supreme had cast out a net, the Supreme Mind, which penetrates all of finity, and which will hold as catch the achievements of all persons who strive for perfection and spiritual attainment. But this is not the whole picture. God the Supreme is even now, through his acts and through the Supreme Mind, in control of the superuniverses.
We may think of the grand universe as a living mechanism, activated by the Supreme Mind, and in the process of becoming coordinated by a personal spirit. If we look upon the Almighty Supreme as a person, we have concurrently to look upon God the Supreme as the person of power, the power personality. Wherefore do we then need the concept of the Almighty Supreme? The concept of the Supreme must provide for the differential recognition of spirit person, evolutionary power, and powerpersonality synthesis—the unification of evolutionary power with, and its dominance by, spirit personality. UB 106:2.2
Comprehension of the concept of the Almighty seems to be linked with a grasp of the nature and functions of the Trinity, for [w]hen… we desire to view the Trinity as one God, and if we limit this concept to the present known and organized grand universe, we discover that the evolving Supreme Being is the partial portraiture of the Paradise Trinity. UB 118:10.3
Trinity is not a person, although it involves and includes co-ordinate persons. A person has qualities and attributes, but Trinity is rather characterized by functions, such as the cosmic overcontrol, the administration of justice, and coordination of activities. The relationship between the immutable and just laws of the Deity and the divine mercy becomes understandable thanks to the Trinity concept.
The Supreme Being is not exclusively a finite personalization, rather, he is a focalization of power and personality. Our relationship with God the Supreme, the way it will one day actualize, is a personality relationship. The Almighty Supreme as an impersonal manifestation of Deity invites us to pay attention to the whole. But at present, the Almighty is still “the form of the yet unformed, the pattern of the yet uncreated”. UB 117:6.1
When man finally, through faith, does experience the Father’s love, he may tend to become forgetful of the material world around him, and embraces him as an incomprehensibly vast cosmos; a thing whereupon his faith seems to have no influence or bearing at all.: If a believer’s behaviour is like that, he is about to turn his back on the Supreme, even though the believer’s acts of faith should explicitly manifest the Supreme. The Father presence we discover within ourselves; the Supreme has to be sought for without ourselves.
The farther we get in the attainment of the goals of the grand universe, the more God the Supreme becomes manifest as a meaningful unifier. And finally, he will, as the Supreme Being, represent the deity culmination of the grand universe evolution. When we, by the way of Christ Michael, ascend from our local universe to the embrace of the Father, we are going to find the cause of our ascension. When we finally find the Supreme, we have found the consequence of that very ascension, and it will be like returning home. UB 117:6.1. Then shall we find ourselves at the threshold of a new universe age: in quest of the Father in the Ultimate and as the Ultimate.
Before I sign off, I present a picture of what the quest for Infinity might be like; for that purpose I borrow a parable presented by Bill Sadler, but modify it a little bit: When finally God the Ultimate will be endowed with full powers, there will appear two brothers, both equipped with enormous mallets, the sum total of the experience with the finite and the transcendental levels. They will be facing a wall with just one inscription: Infinity. They know that they are incapable of demolishing the wall, but they are equally confident that they can make a hole in it. Again, a new beginning.
The question remains:
Does the Supreme Being have even a chance of getting onto the level of the Absolutes?