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TOPICAL STUDIES from
THE NEW EPOCHAL REVELATION OF TRUTH.
NOW UPDATED TOPICAL STUDIES INDEX Check these out:
"LOVE -- A New
Comprehensive Revelation",
Part 2
NOTE: This preliminary study will be upgraded tomorrow, Jan 16 by 2:00 PM CST The Urantia Book PAPER 4 GOD’S RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE 1. THE UNIVERSE ATTITUDE OF THE FATHER [Paper:Section.Paragraph] 4:1.4 There is no limitation of the forces and personalities which the Father may use to uphold his purpose and sustain his creatures. “The Eternal God is our refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms.” “He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.” “Behold, he who keeps us shall neither slumber nor sleep.” “We know that all things work together for good to those who love God,” “for the eyes of the Lord are over the righteous, and his ears are open to their prayers.” 3. GOD’S UNCHANGING CHARACTER 4:3.5 The Universal Father never does anything that causes subsequent sorrow or regret, but the will creatures of the planning and making of his Creator personalities in the outlying universes, by their unfortunate choosing, sometimes occasion emotions of divine sorrow in the personalities of their Creator parents. But though the Father neither makes mistakes, harbors regrets, nor experiences sorrows, He is [I AM] a Being with a Father’s [all-loving] affection, and his heart is undoubtedly grieved when his children fail to attain the spiritual levels they are capable of reaching with the assistance which has been so freely provided by the spiritual-attainment plans and the mortal-ascension policies of the universes. 4. THE REALIZATION OF GOD 4:4.6 In God the Father freewill performances are not ruled by power, nor are they guided by intellect alone; the Divine Personality is defined as consisting in Spirit and manifesting himself to the universes as love. Therefore, in all his personal relations with the creature personalities of the universes, the First Source and Center is always and consistently a loving Father. God is a Father in the highest sense of the term. He is eternally motivated by the perfect idealism of divine love, and that tender nature finds its strongest expression and greatest satisfaction in loving and being loved. 4:4.7 In science, God is the First Cause; in religion, the Universal and loving Father; in philosophy, the One Being who exists by himself, not dependent on any other being for existence but beneficently conferring reality of existence on all things and upon all other beings. But it requires Revelation to show that the First Cause of science and the self-existent Unity of philosophy are the God of religion, full of mercy and goodness and pledged to effect the eternal survival of his children on Earth. 5. ERRONEOUS IDEAS OF GOD 4:5.7 But the inhabitants of Earth are to find deliverance from these ancient errors and pagan superstitions respecting the nature of the Universal Father. The Revelation of the Truth about God is appearing, and the human race is destined to know the Universal Father in all that beauty of character and loveliness of attributes so magnificently portrayed by the Creator Son [our Sovereign Savior and very Elder Brother Jesus] who sojourned on Earth as the Son of Man and the Son of God. PAPER 5 GOD’S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL 1. THE APPROACH TO GOD 5:1.2 Our Father is not in hiding; he is not in arbitrary seclusion. He has mobilized the resources of divine wisdom in a never-ending effort to Reveal himself to the children of his universal domains. There is an infinite grandeur and an inexpressible generosity connected with the majesty of his love which causes him to yearn for the association of every created being who can comprehend, love, or approach him; and it is, therefore, the limitations inherent in you, inseparable from your finite personality and material existence, that determine the time and place and circumstances in which you may achieve the goal of the journey of mortal ascension and stand in the [Luminous Spirit] Presence of the Father at the center of all things. [Some would call that a Spirit-Birth or Born-Eternal Destiny Event; but it is actually ineffable ...] 5:1.8 [Very important !] The Father desires all his creatures to be in personal Communion with him. He has on Paradise a place to receive all those whose survival status and spiritual nature make possible such attainment. Therefore settle in your philosophy now and forever: TO EACH OF YOU and to all of us, God is approachable, the Father is attainable, the way is open; the forces of divine love and the ways and means of divine administration are all interlocked in an effort to facilitate the advancement of every worthy intelligence of every universe to the Paradise Presence of the Universal Father. [There are, roughly, 7 x 10 to the 22nd power humans on seven trillion human-inhabited planets in this first, Supreme-level, Grand Universe Age ! Then, very much higher cosmic and transcendental and Absolute spiritual Realities will unfold without end to our advancing comprehensions !] 5:1.12 The great God makes direct contact with mortal man and gives a part of his infinite and eternal and incomprehensible self to live and dwell within him. God has embarked upon the eternal adventure with man. If you yield to the leadings of the spiritual forces in you and around you, you cannot fail to attain the high destiny established by a loving God as the universe goal of his ascendant creatures from the evolutionary worlds of space. 3. TRUE WORSHIP 5:3.3 Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a self- or creature-interest element; that is the great difference between worship and prayer. There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal interest in true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to be. Worship asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous reaction to the recognition of the Father’s matchless Personality and because of his lovable nature and adorable attributes. 4. GOD IN RELIGION 5:4.1 The morality of the religions of evolution drives men forward in the God quest by the motive power of fear. The religions of Revelation allure men to seek for a God of love because they crave to become like him. But religion is not merely a passive feeling of “absolute dependence” and “surety of survival”; it is a living and dynamic experience of divinity attainment predicated on humanity service.
5:4.6 The Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the Greeks on beauty; both religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love, and love is all-embracing of truth, beauty, and goodness. 5:4.15 In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think not so much of his sinlessness as of his righteousness, his loving service. Jesus upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God who is the Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer. [The living Gospel of Jesus is that each and every human being living on this planet is now a divinely beloved son of God ! (type male or type female, all are classified as sons of God. The many types of angels and super-angels are the daughters of God)] 5. THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF GOD 5:5.3 The fact-seeking scientist conceives of God as the First Cause, a God of force. The emotional artist sees God as the ideal of beauty, a God of aesthetics. The reasoning philosopher is sometimes inclined to posit a God of universal Unity, even a pantheistic Deity. The religionist of faith believes in a God who fosters survival, the Father in Heaven, the God of love. [Even our faith is a Gift from God to all who could use it !] 6. THE GOD OF PERSONALITY 5:6.1 The Universal Father is the God of personalities. The domain of universe personality, from the lowest mortal and material creature of personality status to the highest persons of Creator dignity and divine status, has its center and circumference in the Universal Father. God the Father is the bestower and the conservator of every personality. And the Paradise Father is likewise the destiny of all those finite personalities who wholeheartedly choose to do the divine will, those who love God and long to be like him. [We each and all may realize the Father-son personality relationship: I am a son of I AM and so are you !!] 5:6.12 Concerning those personalities who are not Adjuster indwelt: [not Father-fused; but Son-fused or Spirit-fused candidates] The attribute of choice-liberty is also bestowed by the Universal Father, and such persons are likewise embraced in the great circuit of divine love, the personality circuit of the Universal Father. God provides for the sovereign choice of all true personalities. No personal creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure; the portal of Eternity opens only in response to the freewill choice of the freewill sons of the God of free will. 6:3.1 The Son shares the justice and righteousness of the Trinity but overshadows these divinity traits by the infinite personalization of the Father's love and mercy; the Son is the Revelation of divine love to the universes. As God is love, so the Son is mercy. The Son cannot love more than the Father, but he can show mercy to creatures in one additional way, for he not only is a primal Creator like the Father, but he is also the Eternal Son of that same Father, thereby sharing in the sonship experience of all other sons of the Universal Father. [We humans are also Divinely Beloved sons of God with potential for eternal life and a glorious final Destiny !] 6:3.3 To comprehend the love of the Eternal Son, you must first perceive its divine Source, the Father, who is love, and then behold the unfolding of this infinite affection in the far-flung ministry of the Infinite Spirit and his almost limitless host of ministering personalities. 6:3.4 The ministry of the Eternal Son is devoted to the Revelation of the God of love to the universe of universes. This divine Son is not engaged in the ignoble task of trying to persuade his gracious Father to love his lowly creatures and to show mercy to the wrongdoers of time. How wrong to envisage the Eternal Son as appealing to the Universal Father to show mercy to his lowly creatures on the material worlds of space! [All concepts of intercession and blood atonement are barbaric and totally false !] Such concepts of God are crude and grotesque. Rather should you realize that all the merciful ministrations of the Sons of God [including our Sovereign Universe Creator Father-Son Jesus Christ Michael] are a direct Revelation of the Father's heart of universal love and infinite compassion. The Father's love is the real and eternal source of the Son's mercy. 6:3.5 God is love, the Son is mercy. Mercy is applied love, the Father's love in action in the person of his Eternal Son. The love of this universal Son is likewise universal. As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God is more comparable to the love of a father, while the love of the Eternal Son is more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations, but I employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that there is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son. PAPER 6 THE ETERNAL SON 2. NATURE OF THE ETERNAL SON 6:2.7 In the love of truth and in the creation of beauty the Father and the Son are equal except that the Son appears to devote himself more to the realization of the exclusively spiritual beauty of universal values. 6:2.8 In divine goodness I [a Paradise-level Divine Counselor in our Superuniverse] discern no difference between the Father and the Son. The Father loves his universe children as a Father; the Eternal Son looks upon all creatures both as Father and as Brother. 3. MINISTRY OF THE FATHER’S LOVE 6:3.1 The Son shares the justice and righteousness of the Trinity but overshadows these divinity traits by the infinite personalization of the Father's love and mercy; the Son is the Revelation of divine love to the universes. As God is love, so the Son is mercy. The Son cannot love more than the Father, but he can show mercy to creatures in one additional way, for he not only is a primal Creator like the Father, but he is also the Eternal Son of that same Father, thereby sharing in the sonship experience of all other sons of the Universal Father. [We humans are also Divinely Beloved sons of God with potential for eternal life and a glorious final Destiny !] 6:3.3 To comprehend the love of the Eternal Son, you must first perceive its divine Source, the Father, who is love, and then behold the unfolding of this infinite affection in the far-flung ministry of the Infinite Spirit and his almost limitless host of ministering personalities. 6:3.4 The ministry of the Eternal Son is devoted to the Revelation of the God of love to the universe of universes. This divine Son is not engaged in the ignoble task of trying to persuade his gracious Father to love his lowly creatures and to show mercy to the wrongdoers of time. How wrong to envisage the Eternal Son as appealing to the Universal Father to show mercy to his lowly creatures on the material worlds of space! [All concepts of intercession and blood atonement are barbaric and totally false !] Such concepts of God are crude and grotesque. Rather should you realize that all the merciful ministrations of the Sons of God [including our Sovereign Universe Creator Father-Son Jesus Christ Michael] are a direct Revelation of the Father's heart of universal love and infinite compassion. The Father's love is the real and eternal source of the Son's mercy. 6:3.5 God is love, the Son is mercy. Mercy is applied love, the Father's love in action in the person of his Eternal Son. The love of this universal Son is likewise universal. As love is comprehended on a sex planet, the love of God is more comparable to the love of a father, while the love of the Eternal Son is more like the affection of a mother. Crude, indeed, are such illustrations, but I employ them in the hope of conveying to the human mind the thought that there is a difference, not in divine content but in quality and technique of expression, between the love of the Father and the love of the Son. 4. ATTRIBUTES OF THE ETERNAL SON 6:4.9 The Eternal Son, as a loving, merciful, and ministering spiritual personality, is wholly and infinitely equal with the Universal Father, while in all those merciful and affectionate personal contacts with the ascendant beings of the lower realms the Eternal Son is just as kind and considerate, just as patient and long-suffering, as are his Paradise Sons [700,000 local universe Creator Sons] in the local universes who so frequently bestow themselves upon the evolutionary worlds of time. 8. REALIZATION OF THE ETERNAL SON 6:8.4 The Eternal Son is infinite, but he is approachable through the persons of his Paradise Sons and through the patient ministry of the Infinite Spirit. Without the bestowal service of the Paradise Sons and the loving ministry of the creatures of the Infinite Spirit, [Divine Ministers coordinate with the universe Creator Son,] beings of material origin could hardly hope to attain the Eternal Son. And it is equally true: With the help and guidance of these celestial agencies the God-conscious mortal will certainly attain Paradise and sometime stand in the personal Presence of this majestic Son of Sons. [! We each have a very Glorious Final Destiny of being eternally Resident on Paradise with God the Father-Son-Spirit ! And also to go out into the larger, transcendental Master Universe with Jesus as our eternal Leader ! Then there is more, impossible to much convey to any finite human mind on Earth.] PAPER 7 RELATION OF THE ETERNAL SON TO THE UNIVERSE 3. RELATION OF THE ETERNAL SON TO THE INDIVIDUAL 7:3.1 [Important !] In the [one physical Earth and then 570 advancing soul-level Heavens] local universe ascent the mortals of time look to the Creator Son as the personal representative of the Eternal Son. [and also of the Universal Father and of the Father-Son Union !] But when they begin the [first-stage Spirit] ascent of the superuniverse training regime, the pilgrims of time increasingly detect the supernal Presence of the inspiring Spirit of the Eternal Son, and they are able to profit by the intake of this ministry of spiritual energization. In [the one billion high spheres of] Havona the ascenders become still more conscious of the loving embrace of the all-pervading Spirit of the Original Son. At no stage of the entire mortal ascension does the spirit of the Eternal Son indwell the mind or soul of the pilgrim of time, but his beneficence is ever near and always concerned with the welfare and spiritual security of the advancing children of time. [The Eternal Son is around us; but not indwelling us; as we always have indwelling us He the Spirit of Truth who is our Sovereign Universe Creator Jesus Christ Michael; and within Him are indwelling both God the Universal Father and God the Eternal Son of Paradise !!!] 4. THE DIVINE PERFECTION PLANS 7:4.1 The Eternal Son is in everlasting liaison with the Father in the successful prosecution of the divine plan of progress: the universal plan for the creation, evolution, ascension, and perfection of will creatures. And, in divine faithfulness, the Son is the eternal equal of the Father. 7:4.2 The Father and his Son are as one in the formulation and prosecution of this gigantic attainment plan for advancing the material beings of time to the perfection of Eternity. This project for the spiritual elevation of the ascendant souls of space is a joint creation of the Father and the Son, and they are, with the cooperation of the Infinite Spirit, engaged in associative execution of their divine purpose. 7:4.3 This divine plan of perfection attainment embraces three unique, though marvelously correlated, enterprises of universal adventure: 7:4.4 1. The Plan of Progressive Attainment. This is the Universal Father’s plan of evolutionary ascension, a program unreservedly accepted by the Eternal Son when he concurred in the Father’s proposal, “Let Us make mortal creatures in our own Image.” This provision for upstepping the creatures of time involves the Father’s bestowal of the Thought Adjusters [the pure Spirit Essence of God, the will of God living within you and as you !!] and the endowing of material creatures with the prerogatives of [a forever unchanging and absolutely unique] personality. 7:4.5 2. The Bestowal Plan. The next universal plan is the great Father-Revelation enterprise of the Eternal Son and his coordinate Sons. This is the proposal of the Eternal Son and consists of his bestowal of the Sons of God [our Creator Son of God Jesus] upon the evolutionary creations, there to personalize and factualize, to incarnate and make real, the love of the Father and the mercy of the Son to the creatures of all universes. Inherent in the bestowal plan, and as a provisional feature of this ministration of love, the Paradise Sons act as rehabilitators of that which misguided creature will has placed in spiritual jeopardy. Whenever and wherever there occurs a delay inthe functioning of the attainment plan, if rebellion, [of junior administrating Sons of God -- Lucifer, Satan & Caligastia] perchance, should mar or complicate this enterprise, then do the emergency provisions of the bestowal plan become active forthwith. The Paradise Sons stand pledged and ready to function as retrievers, to go into the very realms of rebellion and there restore the spiritual status of the spheres. And such a heroic service a Coordinate Creator Son [Master Jesus] did perform on Earth in connection with his experiential bestowal career of Sovereignty acquirement. 7:4.6 3. The Plan of Mercy Ministry. When the attainment plan and the bestowal plan had been formulated and proclaimed, alone and of himself, the Infinite Spirit projected and put in operation the tremendous and universal enterprise of mercy ministry. This is the service so essential to the practical and effective operation of both the attainment and the bestowal undertakings, and the spiritual personalities [many types of angels and other ministering spirits] of the Third Source and Center all partake of the spirit of mercy ministry which is so much a part of the nature of the Third Person of Deity. Not only in creation but also in administration, the Infinite Spirit functions truly and literally as the Conjoint Executive of the Father and the Son. 7:4.7 The Eternal Son is the personal trustee, the divine custodian, of the Father’s universal plan of creature ascension. Having promulgated the universal mandate, “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect,” the Father intrusted the execution of this tremendous undertaking to the Eternal Son; and the Eternal Son shares the fostering of this supernal enterprise with his Divine Coordinate, the Infinite Spirit. Thus do the Deities effectively cooperate in the work of creation, control, evolution, revelation, and ministration — and if required, in restoration and rehabilitation. 7. THE SUPREME REVELATION OF THE FATHER 7:7.6 [Important !] More of the character and merciful nature of the Eternal Son of mercy you should comprehend as you meditate on the Revelation of these divine attributes which was made in loving service by your own Creator Son, onetime Son of Man on earth, now the exalted Sovereign of [Nebadon] your local universe — the Son of Man and the Son of God. [Our Creator-Savior Jesus Christ Michael !] PAPER 8 THE INFINITE SPIRIT 2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT 8:2.6 Though in every way sharing the perfection, the righteousness, and the love of the Universal Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy attributes of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the Mercy Minister of the Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always — universally and eternally — the Spirit is a Mercy Minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of God, so the divine Spirit depicts the mercy of God. 8:2.7 It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of goodness than the Father since all goodness takes origin in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we can the better comprehend such goodness. The Father’s faithfulness and the Son’s constancy are made very real to the Spirit beings and the material creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. 3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND THE SON 8:3.5 The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent of the all-loving Father and the all-merciful Son for the execution of their conjoint project of drawing to themselves all truth-loving souls on all the worlds of time and space. The very instant the Eternal Son accepted his Father’s plan of perfection attainment for the creatures of the universes, the moment the ascension project became a Father-Son plan, that instant the Infinite Spirit became the Conjoint Administrator of the Father and the Son for the execution of their united and eternal Purpose. And in so doing the Infinite Spirit pledged all his resources of divine Presence and of Spirit personalities to the Father and the Son; he has dedicated all to the stupendous plan of exalting surviving will creatures [countless humans and others] to the divine heights of Paradise perfection. 4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY 8:4.1 Paralleling the physical universe wherein Paradise gravity holds all things together is the spiritual universe wherein the Word of the Son interprets the Thought of God and, when “made flesh,” demonstrates the loving mercy of the combined nature of the associated Creators. But in and through all this material and spiritual creation there is a vast stage whereon the Infinite Spirit and his Spirit offspring show forth the combined mercy, patience, and everlasting affection of the Divine Parents towards the intelligent children of their cooperative devising and making. Everlasting Ministry to mind is the essence of the Spirit’s divine character. And all the Spirit offspring of the Conjoint Actor partake of this desire to Minister, this divine urge to [Supreme] Service. 8:4.2 God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry — the ministry of divine love and endless mercy to all intelligent creation. The Spirit is the personification of the Father’s love and the Son’s mercy; in him are they eternally united for universal service. The Spirit is love applied to the creature creation, the combined love of the Father and the Son. 8:4.5 As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic task of revealing the Father’s [I AM] Personality of love to a universe, so is the Infinite Spirit dedicated to the unending ministry of revealing the combined love of the Father and the Son to the individual minds of all the children of each universe. In these local creations the Spirit does not come down to the material races in the likeness of mortal flesh as do certain of the Sons of God, but the Infinite Spirit and his Coordinate Spirits [our Holy Spirit Partner of Jesus] do downstep themselves, do joyfully undergo an amazing series of divinity attenuations, until they appear as [many levels of] angels to stand by your side and guide you through the lowly paths of earthly existence. 8:4.7 The Conjoint Creator is truly and forever the great ministering personality, the universal mercy minister. To comprehend the ministry of the Spirit, ponder the truth that he is the combined portrayal of the Father’s unending love and of the Son’s eternal mercy. The Spirit’s ministry is not, however, restricted solely to the representation of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father. The Infinite Spirit also possesses the power to minister to the creatures of the realm in his own name and right; the Third Person is of divine dignity and also bestows the universal ministry of mercy in his own behalf. 8:4.8 As man learns more of the loving and tireless ministry of the lower orders of the creature family of this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more admire and adore the transcendent nature and matchless character of this combined Action of the Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is this Spirit “the eyes of the Lord which are ever over the righteous” and “the divine ears which are ever open to their prayers.” 6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT 8:6.4 “The love of the Spirit” is real, as also are his sorrows; therefore “Grieve not the Spirit of God.” Whether we observe the Infinite Spirit as Paradise Deity or as a local universe Creative Spirit, we find that the Conjoint Creator is not only the Third Source and Center but also a divine Person. This divine Personality also reacts to the universe as a Person. The Spirit speaks to you, “He who has an ear, [spiritual ear, not physical sounds,] let him hear what the Spirit says.” “The Spirit himself makes intercession for you.” The Spirit exerts a direct and personal influence upon created beings, “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God.” The next part of this Study will be published here Monday, Jan. 18, 2021 at about 8:00 PM CST (new Study material here usually each Mon. Wed. and Fri. at 8:00 PM CST)] Past TOPICAL STUDIES 93 and 94 Spiritual High-Lights of Jesus Christ Spiritual High-Lights of the Fifth Epochal Revelation FIFTH EPOCHAL REVELATION (full text and my added comments)
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