God is not personally present either in nature or in any of the forces of nature. [1] The creation of energy and life is the prerogative of God; both flow into all creation. [2] All men are children of God. [3] Creator Sons are God in his local universes. [4] He is only perceptibly present on Paradise and in Havona. [5] He is literally present in Paradise. [6] Divine qualities are perfectly unified in God. [7] God, as a superperson, eventuates; God, as a person, creates; God, as a preperson, fragments into Adjusters. [8] The Urantia Book offers a document, the 97th, on the evolution of the concept of God. [9]
In God's relationship with the local universes it seems that he withdraws from the activity in favor of the created beings and Creators of him, but there is also a real, literal and personal participation on God's part. [10]
God functions not only in parental capacities, but also in non-Father capacities such as God's relationships of force, energy, power, causality, reaction, potentiality, actuality, gravity, tension, the archetype, the principle and the unit. [11] God Fragments are Thought Adjusters.
Always denotes personality. [12] For the religious person it means the approach to the supreme reality. [13] The idea of the father is the highest human concept of God. [14]
The word God cannot be defined and represents the infinite concept of the Father, but since the word Father can be partially defined, it can be used to represent the human concept of the divine Father. [15] God is meant to be understood as the reality of values, the substance of meanings, and the life of truth. [16] Theological definitions of God must change with each age. [17]
God consciousness is best discovered in communion with the Adjuster. [47] For Amenemope it was the determining factor in all conduct. [48] The experience of God consciousness remains the same from generation to generation. [49]
God-consciousness must consist of mind-consciousness — understanding of the idea of God, soul-consciousness — understanding of the ideal of God, and spirit-consciousness — understanding of the spiritual reality of God. The unification of these understandings gives an understanding of the personality of God. [50] God consciousness is indispensable for true progress. [51] It is the inevitable result of consecration to the will of the Father. [52] God consciousness is equivalent to the integration of the self in the universe and in its highest levels of spiritual reality. [53] The secret of the incomparable religious life of Jesus was the awareness of the presence of God. [54]
Mysticism, as a technique for cultivating awareness of God's presence, is praiseworthy, but if it leads to social isolation and religious fanaticism, it is almost reprehensible. [55]
No human language possesses a word that can be used to designate that "sensation," "feeling," "intuition," or "experience" that we have chosen to call God-consciousness. [56] God consciousness is the ultimate achievement of the human mind. [57] We can attain the perfection of God consciousness. [58]
The presence of God is most discerned when fraternizing with the Adjuster, and an example of this attunement is the fruits of the spirit and the desire to do the will of the Father. [59] The degree of God's presence in a part of the universe is determined by mass loyalty to God. [60]
The mind presence of Deity is determined by the depth of individual intellectual experience and by the evolutionary level of the personality, by the spiritual capacity of receptivity and by the degree of consecration to doing the divine will. [61] The Master Spirits act so that the spiritual presence of the Deities is differential. [62]
The factor that determines the differential of the spiritual presence exists in our own heart and in our own mind. The spirit of divinity thus becomes humbly obedient to our choices. [63] Social consciousness is not inalienable like God consciousness. [64] It is not so important to know the fact of God, as to develop more and more the ability to feel the presence of God. [65] Living as if in the presence of God favors spiritual growth. [66] Man is seldom aware of God's presence. [67] The consciousness of God is more real than the consciousness that the neighbor exists. [68] God consciousness resides in the inner spirit. [69] One day we will see God face to face. [70]
To approach the knowledge of God, man must consecrate all his gifts. [71] Man's inability to approach God is due to our finitude, not to an attitude distant from the Father. [72] The race to understand God begins with recognizing the divinity of the Creator Son. [73] God can be believed because of human experience or revelation of truth. [74] For a long time, for an ascending creature it is only possible to locate the Father through faith. [75] We will all be drawn to the Father by the rebound impulse of the Thought Adjusters. [76] Recognizing truth, beauty and goodness, man must develop the recognition of a God of love and then progress to the realization of the Supreme. [77] God cannot be found through science. [78] Choosing the will of the Father is the spiritual discovery of the Father. [79] If we really want to find God, the consciousness of the Supreme must be born in our mind. [80] The desire to find God is evidence of having found him. [81] We must discern God through the creation of him and the revelations of the Sons of him. [82] Man achieves divine union through progressive and reciprocal spiritual communion, in accordance with the divine will. [83] Failure in the Deity adventure remains in the universes; the second attempt is always successful. [84] Faith reveals God in the soul. [85] There are few who have managed to find God in Paradise. [86] God can be found by submission to the spirit.
God cannot be revealed to those who do not seek it, they must have a hunger for the truth as a result of life experiences or contact with those who know God. [87] God as Father has priority over all phases of Deity. [88] God cannot be plural for personality, for whoever worships God, God is one. [89] God is always a reality of personal experience. [90] God is always accessible; he is not hidden. [91]
The divine presence that can be enjoyed by anyone at any given time is limited only by that creature's ability to receive and discern spiritual realities. [92] The sublime search for God is the supreme adventure, the greatest experience in human existence. [93] He who has seen a Creator Son has seen God. [94] He who has seen Jesus has seen God. [95] This is why the day John Mark spent alone with Jesus is called "the day a young man spent with God". [96] When a human being finds God he will be driven to seek loving service with his less enlightened fellows. [97] God's infinity separates him from direct communication with finite beings. [98] Approaching God is the understanding of reality, it is identity with reality, self-realization. [99] The discovery of the Universal Father is the mortal's fifth jubilee, the fifth major event in a mortal's life. [100] When God is encountered, a oneness with divinity is experienced through the cosmic mind. [101] One way to learn to love God is to first learn to love the brothers. [102] The man looks for a friend who happens to already live inside his heart. [103] Man's closest approach to God is through love. [104] Can be achieved by seeking superhuman help to resolve conflicts. [105] The labyrinth of superstition, tradition, and materialistic tendencies stand in the way of meeting God. [106] No one goes to God except through Michael. [107]
When a discouraged soul sincerely seeks God, there is nothing that can hold him in the bondage of his darkness, sooner or later he will free himself from the chains that bind him. [108] It is our inherent limitations that determine when we will see God. [109] It is our thoughts, not our feelings, that lead us to God. [110] Paternal and maternal experience is indispensable to find God. [111] The pure in heart will see God. [112] Seeking God is seeking everything, it is the greatest experience of human existence. [113] Seeking God makes us like him. [114]
To attain the presence of God, a sevenfold approach to Deity has been established in the universe, beginning with the Creator Sons, rising to the Ancients of Days, and ultimately attaining the Universal Father. [115] The evolving soul does not become divine by what it does, but by what it strives to do. [116] Deity is more than spirit, but the spiritual approach to God is the only possible one. [117] Those who seek God with all their hearts will find him. [118] We find God through the directions of spiritual insight, through love of beauty, pursuit of truth, fidelity to duty, and worship of divine goodness. [119]
To find God, man has no need to go beyond his own inner experience of him, it is enough with the contemplation of the soul of the inner spiritual reality. [120] We know God because we trust him. [121]
Each achievement in the evolutionary progress of a world or group of worlds is accompanied by a growth in the realization of God to the stages of light and life that culminate in the realization of the Supreme. [122]
All things consist in God. [123] All things are possible with God. [124] All true love is from God. [125] God is immutable. [126] God demands total fidelity. [127] He confers reality of existence on all other beings. [128] Divine forgiveness is inevitable. [129] The living God is the divine light whose interruptions constitute the shadows of creation. [130] As a non-spiritual phenomenon God is energy, but it is difficult to understand his energetic infinity. [131] God does not acquire experience like man but enjoys expansions of self-realization. [132] God gives his children the spirit and appropriate gifts and blessings. [133] God is supremely great and good. [134] It is a mystery how God guides and directs man, but without imposing himself. [135] He has created tensions in the creations circling Paradise. [136] In him we live, move and have our being. [137] God is infinite and full and complete, infinitely including all things except evil and creature experience. [138] God is spirit and invisible to man. [139] God is a Father. [140] God is love. [141] God is just and righteous, and his justice is no respecter of persons or acceptance of gifts. [142] About the laws of God, it is convenient to consult the divine law. God loves humanity and helps the afflicted. [143] God is perpetually merciful. [144] God is the most inescapable of all presences. [145] God and man need each other to fulfill the divine destiny of the universe. [146] God neither creates evil nor allows sin and rebellion. [147] He is never vindictive or angry. [148] No respecter of persons. [149] None is good but God. [150] Nothing separates us from his love. [151] God is omnipotent. God is omniscient. God is the only self-caused fact in the universe. [152] Although God is more than an elevated personality, in our experience he cannot be less than a person. [153] The highest concept of God is as a primordial and infinite personality. [154] God is infinite, he is an infinite spiritual reality. [155] God is primordial in relation to total reality, and is personal as the Universal Father. [156] On the purpose of God, see the divine plan. God is the source, nature, and destiny of all minds. [157] God is the source and destination of all that is good, beautiful, and true. [158] God is spirit. [159] He is the supreme ideal of religious loyalty. [160] God is absolute truth. [161] God is unity. Deity is universally coordinated. [162] God will not allow anyone to deprive another of free will. [163] God inhabits the present moment, without beginning or end. [164] Our supreme delight should be in the character of God. [165] God looks beyond the act to discover the motive. [166]
Man has been created in the image of God. [167] We still show some willingness to bargain with God. [168] A person can only begin to understand the unity of God through the personality approach. [169] Great things happen when man partners with God. [170] God is not only the one who determines destiny; he is the eternal destiny of man. [171]
Ancient tribes committed many atrocities executed in the name of God. [172] Everything unusual was attributed to God's personal intervention. [173] God is not a slave subject to habits. [174] It was believed that God was jealous of man, but the reality is that God is jealous for man, not of man. [175] God is not a cosmic accident. [176]
The error of pantheism is to consider that since God does not have a body, he therefore is not a person, but the reality is that the personality does not require a body. [177] Ancient belief stated that God was one of great wrath and intense fury. [178] Experiencing God may be totally valid, but the discourse on God is divergent and sometimes fallacious. [179] God is never the victim of attitudinal antagonisms. [180] Nothing can substitute for God in human society. [181] God's revelation is always partial, relative and progressive. [182] Revelators can only explain God with the help of Adjusters and the Spirit of Truth. [183] The soul concludes that man has no right not to believe in God. [184] To understand God one must explore the universal facts. [185] For science, God is a possibility; for psychology, a desirable thing; for philosophy, a probability; for religion, a certainty. [186]
See also: UB 1; UB 2; UB 3; UB 4; UB 5; UB 0:2.2; UB 5:2; UB 8:5; UB 2; UB 1:2.2; UB 4:5; UB 12:7.6; UB 102:6.3; UB 188:4.8; UB 188:5.1,11; UB 196:3.24.