|
P.90 – §1 Back in eternity, when the
Universal Father’s "first" infinite and absolute thought finds
in the Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine expression,
there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and the Word-God
for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and combined action.
P.90 – §2 In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become
infinitely cognizant of their mutual interdependence, their eternal and
absolute oneness; and therefore do they enter into an infinite and everlasting
covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending compact is made for
the execution of their united concepts throughout all of the circle of
eternity; and ever since this eternity event the Father and the Son continue
in this divine union.
P.90 – §3 We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the
Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity. The very instant that God
the Father and God the Son conjointly conceive an identical and infinite
action–the execution of an absolute thought-plan–that very moment, the
Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly into existence.
P.90 – §4 In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities,
I do so merely to enable you to think of their relationship. In reality
they are all three existent from eternity; they are existential. They
are without beginning or ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme,
ultimate, absolute, and infinite. They are and always have been and ever
shall be. And they are three distinctly individualized but eternally associated
persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
|
 |
|
1. THE GOD OF ACTION – P.90
P.90 – §5 In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization
of the Infinite Spirit the divine personality cycle becomes perfect and
complete. The God of Action is existent, and the vast stage of space is
set for the stupendous drama of creation–the universal adventure–the
divine panorama of the eternal ages.
|
|
P.90 – §6 The first act of the Infinite Spirit is
the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the Father-Father
and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedly identifies both of them.
He is fully cognizant of their separate personalities and infinite attributes
as well as of their combined nature and united function. Next, voluntarily,
with transcendent willingness and inspiring spontaneity, the Third Person
of Deity, notwithstanding his equality with the First and Second Persons,
pledges eternal loyalty to God the Father and acknowledges everlasting dependence
upon God the Son. |
|
|
P.90 – §7 Inherent in the nature of this transaction
and in mutual recognition of the personality independence of each and
the executive union of all three, the cycle P.91 – §0 of eternity
is established. The Paradise Trinity is existent. The stage of universal
space is set for the manifold and never-ending panorama of the creative
unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the personality
of the Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the executive
agency for the reality performances of the Father-Son creator partnership.
|
|
P.91 – §1 The God of Action functions and the dead
vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres flash into existence.
Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in
Paradise are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality
of being; neither can physical gravity be measured except by the reaction
of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe
at this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one
billion worlds materialize, there is in evidence gravity sufficient and
adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise. |
|
P.91 – §2 There now flashes through the creation of
the Gods the second form of energy, and this outflowing spirit is instantly
grasped by the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravity-embraced
universe is touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit
of divinity. In this way is the soil of life prepared for the consciousness
of mind made manifest in the associated intelligence circuits of the Infinite
Spirit. |
|
|
P.91 – §3 Upon these seeds of potential existence,
diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the Father acts,
and creature personality appears. Then does the presence of the Paradise
Deities fill all organized space and begin effectively to draw all things
and beings Paradiseward.
|
|
|
P.91 – §4 The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently
with the birth of the Havona worlds, this central universe being created
by him and with him and in him in obedience to the combined concepts and
united wills of the Father and the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this
very act of conjoint creation, and he thus forever becomes the Conjoint
Creator.
|
|
|
P.91 – §5 These are the grand and awful times of
the creative expansion of the Father and the Son by, and in, the action
of their conjoint associate and exclusive executive, the Third Source
and Center. There exists no record of these stirring times. We have only
the meager disclosures of the Infinite Spirit to substantiate these mighty
transactions, and he merely verifies the fact that the central universe
and all that pertains thereto eternalized simultaneously with his attainment
of personality and conscious existence.
P.91 – §6 In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies
that, since he is eternal, so also is the central universe eternal. And
this is the traditional starting point of the history of the universe
of universes. Absolutely nothing is known, and no records are in existence,
regarding any event or transaction prior to this stupendous eruption of
creative energy and administrative wisdom that crystallized the vast universe
which exists, and so exquisitely functions, at the center of all things.
Beyond this event lie the unsearchable transactions of eternity and the
depths of infinity–absolute mystery.
P.91 – §7 And we thus portray the sequential origin
of the Third Source and Center as an interpretative condescension to the
time-bound and space-conditioned mind of mortal creatures. The mind of
man must have a starting point for the visualization of universe history,
and I have been directed to provide this technique of approach to the
historic concept of eternity. In the material mind, consistency
P.92 – §0 demands a First Cause; therefore do we
postulate the Universal Father as the First Source and the Absolute Center
of all creation, at the same time instructing all creature minds that
the Son and the Spirit are coeternal with the Father in all phases of
universe history and in all realms of creative activity. And we do this
without in any sense being disregardful of the reality and eternity of
the Isle of Paradise and of the Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes.
P.92 – §1 It is enough of a reach of the material
mind of the children of time to conceive of the Father in eternity. We
know that any child can best relate himself to reality by first mastering
the relationships of the child-parent situation and then by enlarging
this concept to embrace the family as a whole. Subsequently the growing
mind of the child will be able to adjust to the concept of family relations,
to relationships of the community, the race, and the world, and then to
those of the universe, the superuniverse, even the universe of universes.
|
|
|
2. NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT – P.92
P.92 – §2 The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and
is wholly and without qualification one with the Universal Father and
the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects in perfection not only the
nature of the Paradise Father but also the nature of the Original Son.
P.92 – §3 The Third Source and Center is known by
numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, the Supreme Guide, the Conjoint
Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the Spirit of Spirits,
the Paradise Mother Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, the Final Co-ordinator,
the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute Intelligence, the Divine Action;
and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic mind.
P.92 – §4 It is altogether proper to denominate the
Third Person of Deity the Infinite Spirit, for God is spirit. But material
creatures who tend towards the error of viewing matter as basic reality
and mind, together with spirit, as postulates rooted in matter, would
better comprehend the Third Source and Center if he were called the Infinite
Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the Personality Co-ordinator.
P.92 – §5 The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation
of divinity, is unsearchable and utterly beyond human comprehension. To
sense the absoluteness of the Spirit, you need only contemplate the infinity
of the Universal Father and stand in awe of the eternity of the Original
Son.
P.92 – §6 There is mystery indeed in the person of
the Infinite Spirit but not so much as in the Father and the Son. Of all
aspects of the Father’s nature, the Conjoint Creator most strikingly discloses
his infinity. Even if the master universe eventually expands to infinity,
the spirit presence, energy control, and mind potential of the Conjoint
Actor will be found adequate to meet the demands of such a limitless creation.
P.92 – §7 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.
P.93 – §1 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.
P.93 – §2 The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father’s
beauty of thought and character of truth. And these sublime traits of
divinity are co-ordinated in the near-supreme levels of the cosmic mind
in subordination to the infinite and eternal wisdom of the unconditioned
and limitless mind of the Third Source and Center.
|
|
|
3. RELATION OF THE SPIRIT TO THE FATHER AND THE SON
– P.93
P.93 – §3 As the Eternal Son is the word expression
of the "first" absolute and infinite thought of the Universal
Father, so the Conjoint Actor is the perfect execution of the "first"
completed creative concept or plan for combined action by the Father-Son
personality partnership of absolute thought-word union. The Third Source
and Center eternalizes concurrently with the central or fiat creation,
and only this central creation is eternal in existence among universes.
P.93 – §4 Since the personalization of the Third
Source, the First Source no more personally participates in universe creation.
The Universal Father delegates everything possible to his Eternal Son;
likewise does the Eternal Son bestow all possible authority and power
upon the Conjoint Creator.
P.93 – §5 The Eternal Son and the Conjoint Creator
have, as partners and through their co-ordinate personalities, planned
and fashioned every post-Havona universe which has been brought into existence.
The Spirit sustains the same personal relation to the Son in all subsequent
creation that the Son sustains to the Father in the first and central
creation.
P.93 – §6 A Creator Son of the Eternal Son and a
Creative Spirit of the Infinite Spirit created you and your universe;
and while the Father in faithfulness upholds that which they have organized,
it devolves upon this Universe Son and this Universe Spirit to foster
and sustain their work as well as to minister to the creatures of their
own making.
P.93 – §7 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 to the divine heights of Paradise perfection.
P.93 – §8 The Infinite Spirit is a complete, exclusive,
and universal revelation of the Universal Father and his Eternal Son.
All knowledge of the Father-Son partnership must be had through the Infinite
Spirit, the conjoint representative of the divine thought-word union.
P.93 – §9 The Eternal Son is the only avenue of approach
to the Universal Father, and the Infinite Spirit is the only means of
attaining the Eternal Son. Only by the
P.94 – §0 patient ministry of the Spirit are the
ascendant beings of time able to discover the Son.
P.94 – §1 At the center of all things the Infinite
Spirit is the first of the Paradise Deities to be attained by the ascending
pilgrims. The Third Person enshrouds the Second and the First Persons
and therefore must always be first recognized by all who are candidates
for presentation to the Son and his Father.
P.94 – §2 And in many other ways does the Spirit
equally represent and similarly serve the Father and the Son.
|
|
|
4. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY – P.94
P.94 – §3 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 co-operative
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 service.
P.94 – §4 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.
P.94 – §5 On Urantia the Infinite Spirit is known
as an omnipresent influence, a universal presence, but in Havona you shall
know him as a personal presence of actual ministry. Here the ministry
of the Paradise Spirit is the exemplary and inspiring pattern for each
of his co-ordinate Spirits and subordinate personalities ministering to
the created beings on the worlds of time and space. In this divine universe
the Infinite Spirit fully participated in the seven transcendental appearances
of the Eternal Son; likewise did he participate with the original Michael
Son in the seven bestowals upon the circuits of Havona, thereby becoming
the sympathetic and understanding spirit minister to every pilgrim of
time traversing these perfect circles on high.
P.94 – §6 When a Creator Son of God accepts the creatorship
charge of responsibility for a projected local universe, the personalities
of the Infinite Spirit pledge themselves as the tireless ministers of
this Michael Son when he goes forth on his mission of creative adventure.
Especially in the persons of the Creative Daughters, the local universe
Mother Spirits, do we find the Infinite Spirit devoted to the task of
fostering the ascension of the material creatures to higher and higher
levels of spiritual attainment. And all this work of creature ministry
is done in perfect harmony with the purposes, and in close association
with the personalities, of the Creator Sons of these local universes.
P.94 – §7 As the Sons of God are engaged in the gigantic
task of revealing the Father’s 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
P.95 – §0 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 co-ordinate Spirits do downstep themselves,
do joyfully undergo an amazing series of divinity attenuations, until
they appear as angels to stand by your side and guide you through the
lowly paths of earthly existence.
P.95 – §1 By this very diminishing series the Infinite
Spirit does actually, and as a person, draw very near to every being of
the animal-origin spheres. And all this the Spirit does without in the
least invalidating his existence as the Third Person of Deity at the center
of all things.
P.95 – §2 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.
P.95 – §3 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."
|
|
|
5. THE PRESENCE OF GOD – P.95
P.95 – §4 The outstanding attribute of the Infinite
Spirit is omnipresence. Throughout all the universe of universes there
is everywhere present this all-pervading spirit, which is so akin to the
presence of a universal and divine mind. Both the Second Person and the
Third Person of Deity are represented on all worlds by their ever-present
spirits.
P.95 – §5 The Father is infinite and is therefore
limited only by volition. In the bestowal of Adjusters and in the encircuitment
of personality, the Father acts alone, but in the contact of spirit forces
with intelligent beings, he utilizes the spirits and personalities of
the Eternal Son and the Infinite Spirit. He is at will spiritually present
equally with the Son or with the Conjoint Actor; he is present with the
Son and in the Spirit. The Father is most certainly everywhere present,
and we discern his presence by and through any and all of these diverse
but associated forces, influences, and presences.
P.95 – §6 In your sacred writings the term Spirit
of God seems to be used interchangeably to designate both the Infinite
Spirit on Paradise and the Creative Spirit of your local universe. The
Holy Spirit is the spiritual circuit of this Creative Daughter of the
Paradise Infinite Spirit. The Holy Spirit is a circuit indigenous to each
local universe and is confined to the spiritual realm of that creation;
but the Infinite Spirit is omnipresent.
P.95 – §7 There are many spiritual influences, and
they are all as one. Even the work of the Thought Adjusters, though independent
of all other influences, unvaryingly coincides with the spirit ministry
of the combined influences of the Infinite Spirit and a local universe
Mother Spirit. As these spiritual presences operate in the
P.96 – §0 lives of Urantians, they cannot be segregated.
In your minds and upon your souls they function as one spirit, notwithstanding
their diverse origins. And as this united spiritual ministration is experienced,
it becomes to you the influence of the Supreme, "who is ever able
to keep you from failing and to present you blameless before your Father
on high."
P.96 – §1 Ever remember that the Infinite Spirit
is the Conjoint Actor; both the Father and the Son are functioning in
and through him; he is present not only as himself but also as the Father
and as the Son and as the Father-Son. In recognition of this and for many
additional reasons the spirit presence of the Infinite Spirit is often
referred to as "the spirit of God."
P.96 – §2 It would also be consistent to refer to
the liaison of all spiritual ministry as the spirit of God, for such a
liaison is truly the union of the spirits of God the Father, God the Son,
God the Spirit, and God the Sevenfold–even the spirit of God the Supreme.
|
|
|
6. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT – P.96
P.96 – §3 Do not allow the widespread bestowal and
the far-flung distribution of the Third Source and Center to obscure or
otherwise detract from the fact of his personality. The Infinite Spirit
is a universe presence, an eternal action, a cosmic power, a holy influence,
and a universal mind; he is all of these and infinitely more, but he is
also a true and divine personality.
P.96 – §4 The Infinite Spirit is a complete and perfect
personality, the divine equal and co-ordinate of the Universal Father
and the Eternal Son. The Conjoint Creator is just as real and visible
to the higher intelligences of the universes as are the Father and the
Son; indeed more so, for it is the Spirit whom all ascenders must attain
before they may approach the Father through the Son.
P.96 – §5 The Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of
Deity, is possessed of all the attributes which you associate with personality.
The Spirit is endowed with absolute mind: "The Spirit searches all
things, even the deep things of God." The Spirit is endowed not only
with mind but also with will. In the bestowal of his gifts it is recorded:
"But all these works that one and the selfsame Spirit, dividing to
every man severally and as he wills."
P.96 – §6 "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, 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."
P.96 – §7 Even though we behold the phenomenon of
the ministry of the Infinite Spirit to the remote worlds of the universe
of universes, even though we envisage this same co-ordinating Deity acting
in and through the untold legions of the manifold beings who take origin
in the Third Source and Center, even though we recognize the omnipresence
of the Spirit, nonetheless, we still affirm that this same Third Source
and Center is a person, the Conjoint Creator of all things and all beings
and all universes.
P.96 – §8 In the administration of universes the
Father, Son, and Spirit are perfectly and eternally interassociated. Though
each is engaged in a personal ministry to
P.97 – §0 all creation, all three are divinely and
absolutely interlocked in a service of creation and control which forever
makes them one.
P.97 – §1 In the person of the Infinite Spirit the
Father and the Son are mutually present, always and in unqualified perfection,
for the Spirit is like the Father and like the Son, and also like the
Father and the Son as they two are forever one.
P.97 – §2 [Presented on Urantia by a Divine Counselor
of Uversa commissioned by the Ancients of Days to portray the nature and
work of the Infinite Spirit.]
|
|
| |
|
| |
|
