© 1961 William S. Sadler Jr.
© 1968 Urantia Foundation
At this point in our study, we are passing from the past and the present into the future of time. In many parts of the ensuing study, however, it may be convenient to treat then-current events as though they were present events. We will, on occasion, use the present tense to narrate happenings that are current in the Chapter concerned; in the same context, we will speak of earlier Chapters in the past tense; and of later Chapters in the future tense. This adaptation of the present tense will not be followed uniformly, because there are some situations in which it would be quite awkward.
It seems reasonable to assume that there is a “quiet time” between universe ages, just as there is a “quiet zone” between adjacent space levels. If this is the case, then we may properly consider the full attainment of evolutionary destiny at the end of the Second Universe Age, without complicating this survey by having to reckon with events which have to do with the opening phases of the next age.
During such a “quiet time,” at the closing of the present universe age, the grand universe is experiencing the satisfaction of completed growth – attained destiny.
The long evolutionary effort and travail has finally won through to experiential victory! The Supreme Creators have met the challenge of Havona perfection, and the end result is 700,000 perfected local universes culminating in the settling of the seven superuniverses in light and life.
In a certain sense, the time-space creations are “resting on their oars.” For the duration of this quiet time the grand universe is a self-contained and self-sufficient creation, something like Havona in the First Age. This is the time when creators and creatures can taste the sweetness of goals attained. This is the momentary pause in the eternal growth of creation, when satisfaction displaces effort, and consummation (for the moment) takes precedence over the never-ending challenge of growth. The whole grand universe is pausing in time to consolidate its achievements and to complete its unification under the new sovereignty of the newly-emerged experiential Deity of finite existences – the Supreme Being.
¶ § 1. The Emergence of The Supreme Being
The event that brings the Second Universe Age to the zenith and culmination of all finite growth is the final emergence of the Supreme Being as the experiential ruler of the perfected superuniverses. This means this hitherto unapproachable Deity has become approachable and contactable by all creatures. God the Father is infinite and will always be a mystery to us, but God the Supreme is finite and is therefore comprehensible to finite creatures. Since all finite creatures have evolved with and within this finite Deity, there is a real and factual experiential kinship which serves as the basis for mutuality of understanding.
Supreme Deity. At this point in our study we are encountering a new level of the function of total Deity. We have been making careful note of these levels as we have encountered them. We first took note of the static level, then the potential and the associative levels, and then the creative and the evolutional levels. We are now at a point where we can examine the sixth level – the supreme level.
The first three levels are precreative: static, potential, and associative. They might be likened to the levels on which Deity “unfolded” and prepared for the adventure of expansion into time and space.
The next two levels are outgoing: creative and evolutional. On these levels God (Deity) is distributing himself to all creation; he is revealing himself to the universes; he is expanding outward into the post-Havona realms: he is going into partnership with his creatures – actually identifying himself with some of them through the indwelling of his spirit, the Adjuster. The activities of Deity on these outgoing levels are, perhaps, best disclosed in the ministry of God the Sevenfold.
Now, on the sixth level, the Supreme level, we observe an incoming – a gathering together of that which has been poured out upon all creation. The Supreme is the first great synthesis, the putting together of the thesis of perfection and the antithesis of imperfection – imperfection which, by evolutionary growth, has achieved a perfected status. On this level even Deity is experiential. On this level God and men can become one, as in the natures of the Paradise Bestowal Sons. (See Appendix VI., § 1. An Analysis of the Seven Levels of Total Deity Function.)
¶ § 2. Synthesis on the creature level of existence
However difficult it may be to visualize these events of the remote future, we may in principle examine the same type of synthesis that is taking place right now with respect to certain creatures. We have noted that Havona provides the original thesis of perfection; the antithesis of this is the imperfection of all the superuniverses, and this original imperfection can become perfected through evolutionary growth. Can we now find an example of the synthesis of the perfected and the perfect on creature levels?
Such a synthesis could take place between two creatures in the trinitizing union of a finaliter and a Havona native. UB 22:7.10 Can the reader think of anyone more unlike a perfect Havona native than some unwashed and unkempt cave dweller on some primitive planet? And yet, that primitive human could be Adjuster indwelt, could exhibit perfection hunger, could survive, ascend to Paradise, and be mustered into the Corps of the Finality. And as a finaliter, he might join some native of Havona in the adventure of trinitization, and experience actual union (spiritual bi-unification) with that Havona native. This would be a very literal synthesis of the perfected and the perfect.
But there will always be a difference between the perfect nature of eternal existence, and the perfected nature of experiential attainment. The attitude of the (perfect) Havoner might possibly be expressed as, “Things work, they always work, why would they be any different?” The attitude of the (perfected) ascender might be expressed as, “Things work because we have learned how to make them work, and it used to be very different!”
¶ § 3. The completed Grand Universe
All during the long period of evolutionary growth in the Second Age, each superuniverse has developed entirely on its own, under the unique influence of one of the Master Spirits. These Seven Master Spirits are uniquely diverse in nature because they personalize the seven possible combinations (singular and plural) of the Three Paradise Deities. In the illustration, we have symbolized the unique nature of each Master Spirit by the arrangement of three circles. These three circles are so drawn that there are seven areas – three areas where there is no overlap, three areas where there is a double overlap, and one area that has a triple overlap. This is a reasonably good symbol for the Master Spirits, just as the three concentric circles are a meaningful symbol for the Three Persons of Deity in, and as, the Paradise Trinity.
Divergence and convergence. Each Master Spirit is unique in nature. Since each Spirit pervades and dominates the entire environment of one superuniverse, it follows that each superuniverse and its native beings are also unique – they are forever stamped with the individual nature and character of the supervising Master Spirit. Each superuniverse would also tend to develop its own distinctive culture, its own unique “civilization.”
With the emergence of the Supreme Being as the sovereign of all superuniverses, the barriers separating the supercreations during the Second Age are going to be removed. Then, for the first time, all seven can begin to function as a single unit, as an administrative and cultural whole.
This intermingling of all seven cultures should result in a new stimulus to growth, growth in terms of the Second Age. We would identify this transaction as a good illustration of the principle of divergence and convergence. Growth is first encouraged to become individualistic and distinctive by divergence, and then, in the fullness of time, all that has developed in relative isolation is brought together and consolidated.
This is an interesting parallel to what happens in the development of a normal inhabited world. First, the evolutionary races are encouraged to diverge, to go their separate ways. While so isolated each race tends to develop its own unique culture and civilization. Later in planetary development all races and cultures are blended with the Adamic peoples and the Edenic civilization.
(See Appendix IV., § 5-B. The Superuniverses in Light and Life; § 6-A. Local Universes in Light and Life; Appendix XIV., § 1. The Principle of Divergence-Convergence; § 3. Superuniverse Administration: Present and Future.)
¶ § 4. Creative associations of Dual-Deity
We have noted the principle of divergence and convergence. We should take notice, at this point, of another principle. Certain creative associations of Dual-Deity appear to be of prime importance in certain of the universe ages.
In the First Age, the significant association of Dual-Deity was that of the Father-Son. The union of the Father-Son trinitizes the Infinite Spirit and eternalizes the central universe of perfection.
In the Second Age, the significant association of Dual-Deity appears to be the working partnership of the Son and the Spirit. We are informed that the Spirit sustains the same relationship to the Son in the post-Havona creations that the Son sustains to the Father in the central creation. But, the active co-operation between the Son and Spirit does not seem to be taking place on Paradise as much as in the local universes in the collaboration of the Creator Sons and the Creative Spirits – the creators, organizers, and perfecters of these evolutionary domains.
The result of the Father-Son association is the appearance of the Infinite Spirit and Havona. What will be the final result of the consummation of 700,000 Son-Spirit partnerships in time and space? (See Appendix V., Dual-Deity of the Universe Ages.)
¶ § 5. Son and Spirit in the Second Universe Age
The event which terminates the Zero Age and begins the First Universe Age is the trinitizing union of the Father and the Son that produces the Infinite Spirit and the central universe of perfection. We are informed that in the Second Age the Spirit has the same relations to the Son that the Son has to the Father in the First Age. If this is the case, what will result from such a Son-Spirit partnership? Does this mean some new liaison between the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit on Paradise? We think not. The observable partnership between the Son and the Spirit is not being worked out on Paradise; it is seemingly being worked out in time and space and in the local universes. The Paradise Son and Spirit are going into partnership in the persons of their Universe Sons and Spirits – the creators and organizers of the local universes.
The Father-Son union is an existential relationship, and is an eternity event taking place on Paradise. The Son-Spirit unions are experiential relationships, and are time events taking place in space. The Dual-Deity partnership of the Second Age could result in the trinitizing unions of 700,000 Universe Sons and Spirits, sometime following the establishment of all local universes in light and life. But the trinitizing episode that begins the First Age will probably not find its analogue until the close of the Second Age. It is not until the very end of the Second Age that the local universes will have achieved a perfected status that is (finitely) comparable to the eternal perfection of the central creation.
(a) The evolution of Creator Sons. If we go back again to the Zero Age, we may observe that the Eternal Son is a fully personal being before the times of Havona. A Creator Son is also a fully personal being before his local universe is even started, much less settled in light and life. This means that the entire evolutionary growth of Michael, even his pre-creator experience and training, is as a personal being.
The Sevenfold Creator Son, a Master Michael, is experientially much more than he was when he first appeared on Paradise as a new Creator Son of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. In his work of organizing and perfecting his local universe he has experienced much. In his seven bestowals in the likeness of his creatures he has added much to his nature that was not a part of his original endowment of Paradise divinity.
A Master Michael still personifies that original and individual thesis of divinity that was jointly conceived by the Paradise Father and Son, and which gave him origin. He has added to this original endowment all of his acquired experiential nature which encompasses the antithesis of Paradise divinity, for it is drawn out of the evolutionary imperfection of the time-space creations. A Master Michael has had experience with the imperfections inherent in the evolutionary growth of his own creatures; he knows what it is like to be a creature; his complex and composite nature includes the nature of the creature – even as Joshua ben Joseph still lives in Michael of Nebadon. In his personal synthesis of these opposite (antithetical) qualities such as a Master Michael becomes akin to, and is expressive of, the experiential divinity of the Supreme Being. The Supreme Being is the finite Deity-synthesis of an original spirit personality of Havona perfection plus the attained experiential sovereignty of the seven superuniverses – imperfection evolving into a perfected estate.
(b) The evolution of Creative Spirits. If we return once again to the Zero Age we may observe that the Infinite Spirit is not yet a personality, and that the Sprit attains personality status by functioning as a co-operative creator in the actualizing of Havona. A Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, a Creative Spirit, earns personality status in like manner by working as a co-operative creator in the perfecting of a local universe.
The fiat (sudden non-growth and timeless) appearance of Havona is an eternity event, and the Infinite Spirit likewise achieves personal status as an eternity event – simultaneously with the appearance of perfect Havona. The evolutionary perfection of a local universe is a time event, and its Creative Spirit likewise achieves personality status as a time even when her local universe (and, perhaps all others) is settled in light and life. Thus, each Creative Being resembles the universe and achieves personality status in the creation of this universe.
All of this means that the training and early local universe experience of the Creative Spirit are as prepersonal beings. In this respect, their evolutionary growth is very unlike that of the personal growth-experiences of the associated Creator Sons. (See Appendix VIII., § 6-B. A Comparison: The Infinite Spirit and Creative Spirits.)
The present growth-limit of a Creative Spirit appears to be the sixth stage of being. Such a matured Spirit is experientially quite different from a first-stage colleague, one that has just differentiated within the Infinite Spirit in response to the concurrent birth of the complemental Creator Son. The growth of a Universe Son adds the experiential natures of time-space creatures to the original endowment of Paradise divinity. The growth of a Universe Spirit adds the experience of achieving experiential personality-in-time – of personalizing the original focalization of the Infinite Spirit that is the segregated presence of a new Creative Spirit.
The Universe Sons and Spirits both grow – they both evolve. The growth of each, however, is very different from that of the other; because it is so very different, it should be highly complementary. Together, they may likely encompass all growth that is possible to a creative being in the Second Universe Age.
(c) The Son-Spirit union. Not since the Universal Father and the Eternal Son united in the trinitizing of the Conjoint Actor have two creators produced a third being who is their equal in creative nature and creator attributes. The trinitizing union of the Universe Sons and Spirits must likely await the close of the Second Age, or even the beginning of the Third. It will probably not take place until all 700,000 local universes have been settled in light and life.
The trinitizing union of the local universe Sons and Spirits would transform their Dual-Deity association into a triune relationship – the duo would become a trio – by the appearance of a co-ordinate third being, an Associate Creator of co-ordinate status. We have elected to name such a triune association a “Son-Spirit Creative Trio.” The newly-appearing Associate Creator would be expressive of:
- (1) The original Paradise divinity endowment of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.
- (2) The experience of organizing and perfecting a local universe on the part of the Universe Son and Spirit.
- (3) The experiential creature natures which the Creator Son has acquired in the course of his seven bestowals.
- (4) The experiential personality status of the Creative Spirit which she has acquired in time as a co-operating creator.
- (5) The “superadditive consequence of the union” of the Creator Son and the Creative Spirit.
Such a third being might be “provisionally subordinate in sovereignty but (could) in many ways (be) the most versatile in action.” This Associate Creator might well disclose attributes of a Supreme-Ultimate nature. We forecast that the Son-Spirit Creative Trios are going to play an important part in the opening of the Primary Space Level and in the further development of all the universes of outer space.
(For references to the Papers in support of this section, see Appendix V., Associations of Dual-Deity; Appendix VIII., § 6-A. The Personalization of a Focalization; Appendix XIII., The Evolution of Universe Sons and Spirits.)