(33.1) 2:0.1
Inasmuch as man's highest possible concept of God is embraced within the human idea and ideal of a primal and infinite personality,
it is permissible, and may prove helpful, to study certain
characteristics of the divine nature which constitute the character of
Deity. The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which
Michael of Nebadon
unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the
flesh. The divine nature can also be better understood by man if he
regards himself as a child of God and looks up to the
Paradise Creator as a true spiritual Father.
(33.2) 2:0.2 The nature of God can be studied in a
revelation of supreme ideas, the divine character can be envisaged as a
portrayal of supernal ideals, but the most enlightening and spiritually
edifying of all revelations of the divine nature is to be found in the
comprehension of the religious life of Jesus of Nazareth, both before
and after his attainment of full consciousness of divinity.
If the incarnated life of Michael is taken as the background of the
revelation of God to man, we may attempt to put in human word symbols
certain ideas and ideals concerning the divine nature which may possibly
contribute to a further illumination and unification of the human
concept of the nature and the character of the personality of the
Universal Father.
(33.3) 2:0.3
In all our efforts to enlarge and
spiritualize the human concept of God, we are tremendously handicapped
by the limited capacity of the mortal mind.
We are also seriously handicapped in the execution of our assignment by
the limitations of language and by the poverty of material which can be
utilized for purposes of illustration or comparison in our efforts to
portray divine
values and to present spiritual
meanings
to the finite, mortal mind of man. All our efforts to enlarge the human
concept of God would be well-nigh futile except for the fact that the
mortal mind is indwelt by the bestowed Adjuster of the Universal Father
and is pervaded by the Truth Spirit of the Creator Son. Depending,
therefore, on the presence of these divine spirits within the heart of
man for assistance in the enlargement of the concept of God, I
cheerfully undertake the execution of my mandate to attempt the further
portrayal of the nature of God to the mind of man.
(33.4) 2:1.1
" Touching the Infinite, we cannot find
him out. The divine footsteps are not known. " " His understanding is
infinite and his greatness is unsearchable. " The blinding light of the
Father's presence is such that to his lowly creatures he apparently "
dwells in the thick darkness. " Not only are his thoughts and plans
unsearchable, but " he does great and marvelous things without number. "
" God is great; we comprehend him not, neither can the number of his
years be searched out. " " Will God indeed dwell on the earth? Behold,
the heaven (universe) and the heaven of heavens (universe of universes)
cannot contain him. " " How unsearchable are his judgments and his ways
past finding out! "
(34.1) 2:1.2 " There is but one God, the infinite
Father, who is also a faithful Creator. " " The divine Creator is also
the Universal Disposer, the source and destiny of souls. He is the
Supreme Soul, the Primal Mind, and the Unlimited Spirit of all creation.
" " The great Controller makes no mistakes. He is resplendent in
majesty and glory. " " The Creator God is wholly devoid of fear and
enmity. He is immortal, eternal, self-existent, divine, and bountiful. "
" How pure and beautiful, how deep and unfathomable is the supernal
Ancestor of all things! " " The Infinite is most excellent in that he
imparts himself to men. He is the beginning and the end, the Father of
every good and perfect purpose. " " With God all things are possible;
the eternal Creator is the cause of causes. "
(34.2) 2:1.3
Notwithstanding the infinity of the stupendous manifestations of the Father's eternal and universal personality,
he is unqualifiedly self-conscious of both his infinity and eternity;
likewise he knows fully his perfection and power. He is the only being
in the universe, aside from his divine co-ordinates, who experiences a
perfect, proper, and complete appraisal of himself.
(34.3) 2:1.4
The Father constantly and unfailingly
meets the need of the differential of demand for himself as it changes
from time to time in various sections of his master universe.
The great God knows and understands himself; he is infinitely
self-conscious of all his primal attributes of perfection. God is not a
cosmic accident; neither is he a universe experimenter. The Universe
Sovereigns may engage in adventure; the
Constellation Fathers may experiment; the system heads may practice; but the
Universal Father sees the end from the beginning, and his
divine plan
and eternal purpose actually embrace and comprehend all the experiments
and all the adventures of all his subordinates in every world, system,
and constellation in every universe of his vast domains.
(34.4) 2:1.5
No thing is new to God, and no cosmic
event ever comes as a surprise; he inhabits the circle of eternity. He
is without beginning or end of days. To God there is no past, present,
or future; all time is present at any given moment. He is the great and
only I AM.
(34.5) 2:1.6
The Universal Father is absolutely and
without qualification infinite in all his attributes; and this fact, in
and of itself, automatically shuts him off from all direct personal
communication with finite material beings and other lowly created
intelligences.
(34.6) 2:1.7
And all this necessitates such
arrangements for contact and communication with his manifold creatures
as have been ordained, first, in the personalities of the Paradise Sons of God, who, although perfect in
divinity,
also often partake of the nature of the very flesh and blood of the
planetary races, becoming one of you and one with you; thus, as it were,
God becomes man, as occurred in the bestowal of Michael, who was called
interchangeably the Son of God and the
Son of Man. And second, there are the personalities of the
Infinite Spirit, the various orders of the
seraphic hosts
and other celestial intelligences who draw near to the material beings
of lowly origin and in so many ways minister to them and serve them. And
third, there are the impersonal
Mystery Monitors,
Thought Adjusters,
the actual gift of the great God himself sent to indwell such as the
humans of Urantia, sent without announcement and without explanation. In
endless profusion they descend from the heights of glory to grace and
indwell the humble minds of those mortals who possess the capacity for
God-consciousness or the potential therefor.
(35.1) 2:1.8 In these ways and in many others, in ways unknown to you and utterly beyond finite comprehension, does the Paradise
Father lovingly and willingly downstep and otherwise modify, dilute,
and attenuate his infinity in order that he may be able to draw nearer
the finite minds of his creature children. And so, through a series of
personality distributions which are diminishingly absolute, the infinite
Father is enabled to enjoy close contact with the diverse intelligences
of the many realms of his far-flung universe.
(35.2) 2:1.9
All this he has done and now does, and
evermore will continue to do, without in the least detracting from the
fact and reality of his infinity, eternity, and primacy. And these
things are absolutely true, notwithstanding the difficulty of their
comprehension, the mystery in which they are enshrouded, or the
impossibility of their being fully understood by creatures such as dwell
on Urantia.
(35.3) 2:1.10 Because the First Father is infinite
in his plans and eternal in his purposes, it is inherently impossible
for any finite being ever to grasp or comprehend these divine plans and
purposes in their fullness. Mortal man can glimpse the Father's purposes
only now and then, here and there, as they are revealed in relation to
the outworking of the plan of creature ascension on its successive
levels of universe progression. Though man cannot encompass the
significance of infinity, the infinite Father does most certainly fully
comprehend and lovingly embrace all the finity of all his children in
all universes.
(35.4) 2:1.11 Divinity and eternity the Father
shares with large numbers of the higher Paradise beings, but we question
whether infinity and consequent universal primacy is fully shared with
any save his co-ordinate associates of the Paradise Trinity.
Infinity of personality must, perforce, embrace all finitude of
personality; hence the truth—literal truth—of the teaching which
declares that " In Him we live and move and have our being. " That
fragment of the pure
Deity of the Universal Father which indwells mortal man
is a part of the infinity of the First Great Source and Center, the Father of Fathers.
Bible References and Comparison
(35.5) 2:2.1
Even your olden prophets understood the eternal, never-beginning, never-ending, circular nature of the Universal Father. God is literally and eternally present in his
universe of universes.
He inhabits the present moment with all his absolute majesty and
eternal greatness. " The Father has life in himself, and this life is
eternal life.
" Throughout the eternal ages it has been the Father who " gives to all
life. " There is infinite perfection in the divine integrity. " I am
the Lord; I change not. " Our knowledge of the universe of universes
discloses not only that he is the Father of lights, but also that in his
conduct of interplanetary affairs there " is no variableness neither
shadow of changing. " He " declares the end from the beginning. " He
says: " My counsel shall stand; I will do all my pleasures " " according
to the eternal purpose which I purposed in my Son. " Thus are the plans
and purposes of the
First Source and Center like himself: eternal, perfect, and forever changeless.
(35.6) 2:2.2 There is finality of completeness and
perfection of repleteness in the mandates of the Father. " Whatsoever
God does, it shall be forever; nothing can be added to it nor anything
taken from it. " The Universal Father does not repent of his original
purposes of wisdom and perfection. His plans are steadfast, his counsel
immutable, while his acts are divine and infallible. " A thousand years
in his sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the
night. " The perfection of
divinity and the magnitude of eternity are forever beyond the full grasp of the circumscribed mind of mortal man.
(36.1) 2:2.3
The reactions of a changeless God, in
the execution of his eternal purpose, may seem to vary in accordance
with the changing attitude and the shifting minds of his created
intelligences; that is, they may apparently and superficially vary; but
underneath the surface and beneath all outward manifestations, there is
still present the changeless purpose, the everlasting plan, of the
eternal God.
(36.2) 2:2.4
Out in the universes, perfection must necessarily be a relative term, but in the central universe and especially on Paradise, perfection is undiluted; in certain phases it is even absolute.
Trinity manifestations vary the exhibition of the divine perfection but do not attenuate it.
(36.3) 2:2.5 God's primal perfection consists not in
an assumed righteousness but rather in the inherent perfection of the
goodness of his divine nature. He is final, complete, and perfect. There
is no thing lacking in the beauty and perfection of his righteous
character. And the whole scheme of living existences on the worlds of
space is centered in the divine purpose of elevating all will creatures
to the high destiny of the experience of sharing the Father's Paradise
perfection. God is neither self-centered nor self-contained; he never
ceases to bestow himself upon all self-conscious creatures of the vast
universe of universes.
(36.4) 2:2.6
God is eternally and infinitely
perfect, he cannot personally know imperfection as his own experience,
but he does share the consciousness of all the experience of
imperfectness of all the struggling creatures of the evolutionary
universes of all the Paradise Creator Sons.
The personal and liberating touch of the God of perfection overshadows
the hearts and encircuits the natures of all those mortal creatures who
have ascended to the universe level of moral discernment. In this
manner, as well as through the contacts of the divine presence, the
Universal Father actually participates in the experience
with immaturity and imperfection in the evolving career of every moral being of the entire universe.
(36.5) 2:2.7 Human limitations, potential evil, are not a part of the divine nature, but mortal experience with evil and all man's relations thereto are most certainly a
part of God's ever-expanding self-realization in the children of
time—creatures of moral responsibility who have been created or evolved
by every Creator Son going out from Paradise.
Bible References and Comparison
(36.6) 2:3.1
God is righteous; therefore is he just.
" The Lord is righteous in all his ways. " " `I have not done without
cause all that I have done,' says the Lord. " " The judgments of the
Lord are true and righteous altogether. " The justice of the
Universal Father
cannot be influenced by the acts and performances of his creatures, "
for there is no iniquity with the Lord our God, no respect of persons,
no taking of gifts. "
(36.7) 2:3.2
How futile to make puerile appeals to
such a God to modify his changeless decrees so that we can avoid the
just consequences of the operation of his wise natural laws and
righteous spiritual mandates! " Be not deceived; God is not mocked, for
whatsoever a man sows that shall he also reap. " True, even in the
justice of reaping the harvest of wrongdoing, this divine justice is
always tempered with mercy. Infinite wisdom is the eternal arbiter which
determines the proportions of justice and mercy which shall be meted
out in any given circumstance. The greatest punishment (in reality an
inevitable consequence) for wrongdoing and deliberate rebellion against
the government of God is loss of existence as an individual subject of
that government. The final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation.
In the last analysis, such sin-identified individuals have destroyed
themselves by becoming wholly unreal through their embrace of iniquity.
The factual disappearance of such a creature is, however, always delayed
until the ordained order of justice current in that universe has been
fully complied with.
(37.1) 2:3.3
Cessation of existence is usually decreed at the dispensational or epochal adjudication
of the realm or realms. On a world such as Urantia it comes at the end
of a planetary dispensation. Cessation of existence can be decreed at
such times by co-ordinate action of all tribunals of jurisdiction,
extending from the planetary council up through the courts of the
Creator Son to the judgment tribunals of the
Ancients of Days.
The mandate of dissolution originates in the higher courts of the
superuniverse following an unbroken confirmation of the indictment
originating on the sphere of the wrongdoer's residence; and then, when
sentence of extinction has been confirmed on high, the execution is by
the direct act of those judges residential on, and operating from, the
headquarters of the superuniverse.
(37.2) 2:3.4 When this sentence is finally
confirmed, the sin-identified being instantly becomes as though he had
not been. There is no resurrection from such a fate; it is everlasting
and eternal. The living energy factors of identity are resolved by the
transformations of time and the metamorphoses of space into the cosmic potentials whence they once emerged. As for the
personality
of the iniquitous one, it is deprived of a continuing life vehicle by
the creature's failure to make those choices and final decisions which
would have assured
eternal life.
When the continued embrace of sin by the associated mind culminates in
complete self-identification with iniquity, then upon the cessation of
life, upon cosmic dissolution, such an isolated personality is absorbed
into the
oversoul of creation,
becoming a part of the evolving experience of the Supreme Being. Never
again does it appear as a personality; its identity becomes as though it
had never been. In the case of an Adjuster-indwelt personality, the
experiential spirit
values survive in the reality of the continuing Adjuster.
(37.3) 2:3.5
In any universe contest between actual
levels of reality, the personality of the higher level will ultimately
triumph over the personality of the lower level. This inevitable outcome
of universe controversy is inherent in the fact that divinity
of quality equals the degree of reality or actuality of any will
creature. Undiluted evil, complete error, willful sin, and unmitigated
iniquity are inherently and automatically suicidal. Such attitudes of
cosmic unreality can survive in the universe only because of transient
mercy-tolerance pending the action of the justice-determining and
fairness-finding mechanisms of the universe tribunals of righteous
adjudication.
(37.4) 2:3.6 The rule of the Creator Sons in the
local universes is one of creation and spiritualization. These Sons devote themselves to the effective execution of the
Paradise
plan of progressive mortal ascension, to the rehabilitation of rebels
and wrong thinkers, but when all such loving efforts are finally and
forever rejected, the final decree of dissolution is executed by forces
acting under the jurisdiction of the Ancients of Days.
Bible References and Comparison
(38.1) 2:4.1 Mercy is simply justice tempered by
that wisdom which grows out of perfection of knowledge and the full
recognition of the natural weaknesses and environmental handicaps of
finite creatures. " Our God is full of compassion, gracious,
long-suffering, and plenteous in mercy. " Therefore " whosoever calls
upon the Lord shall be saved, " " for he will abundantly pardon. " " The
mercy of the Lord is from everlasting to everlasting "; yes, " his
mercy endures forever. " " I am the Lord who executes loving-kindness,
judgment, and righteousness in the earth, for in these things I delight.
" " I do not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men, " for I
am " the Father of mercies and the God of all comfort. "
(38.2) 2:4.2
God is inherently kind, naturally
compassionate, and everlastingly merciful. And never is it necessary
that any influence be brought to bear upon the Father to call forth his
loving-kindness. The creature's need is wholly sufficient to insure the
full flow of the Father's tender mercies and his saving grace. Since God
knows all about his children, it is easy for him to forgive. The better
man understands his neighbor, the easier it will be to forgive him,
even to love him.
(38.3) 2:4.3
Only the discernment of infinite wisdom
enables a righteous God to minister justice and mercy at the same time
and in any given universe situation. The heavenly Father is never torn
by conflicting attitudes towards his universe children; God is never a
victim of attitudinal antagonisms. God's all-knowingness unfailingly
directs his free will in the choosing of that universe conduct which
perfectly, simultaneously, and equally satisfies the demands of all his
divine attributes and the infinite qualities of his eternal nature.
(38.4) 2:4.4
Mercy is the natural and inevitable
offspring of goodness and love. The good nature of a loving Father could
not possibly withhold the wise ministry of mercy to each member of
every group of his universe children. Eternal justice and divine mercy
together constitute what in human experience would be called fairness.
(38.5) 2:4.5
Divine mercy represents a fairness
technique of adjustment between the universe levels of perfection and
imperfection. Mercy is the justice of Supremacy
adapted to the situations of the evolving finite, the righteousness of
eternity modified to meet the highest interests and universe welfare of
the children of time. Mercy is not a contravention of justice but rather
an understanding interpretation of the demands of supreme justice as it
is fairly applied to the subordinate spiritual beings and to the
material creatures of the evolving universes. Mercy is the justice of
the
Paradise Trinity
wisely and lovingly visited upon the manifold intelligences of the
creations of time and space as it is formulated by divine wisdom and
determined by the all-knowing mind and the sovereign free will of the
Universal Father and all his associated Creators.
Bible References and Comparison
(38.6) 2:5.1
" God is love "; therefore his only
personal attitude towards the affairs of the universe is always a
reaction of divine affection. The Father loves us sufficiently to bestow
his life upon us. " He makes his sun to rise on the evil and on the
good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. "
(39.1) 2:5.2
It is wrong to think of God as being
coaxed into loving his children because of the sacrifices of his Sons or
the intercession of his subordinate creatures, " for the Father himself
loves you. " It is in response to this paternal affection that God
sends the marvelous Adjusters to indwell the minds of men. God's love is
universal; " whosoever will may come. " He would " have all men be
saved by coming into the knowledge of the truth. " He is " not willing
that any should perish. "
(39.2) 2:5.3
The Creators are the very first to
attempt to save man from the disastrous results of his foolish
transgression of the divine laws. God's love is by nature a fatherly
affection; therefore does he sometimes " chasten us for our own profit,
that we may be partakers of his holiness. " Even during your fiery
trials remember that " in all our afflictions he is afflicted with us. "
(39.3) 2:5.4 God is divinely kind to sinners. When
rebels return to righteousness, they are mercifully received, " for our
God will abundantly pardon. " " I am he who blots out your
transgressions for my own sake, and I will not remember your sins. " "
Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we
should be called the sons of God. "
(39.4) 2:5.5
After all, the greatest evidence of the
goodness of God and the supreme reason for loving him is the indwelling
gift of the Father—the Adjuster who so patiently awaits the hour when
you both shall be eternally made one. Though you cannot find God by
searching, if you will submit to the leading of the indwelling spirit,
you will be unerringly guided, step by step, life by life, through
universe upon universe, and age by age, until you finally stand in the
presence of the Paradise
personality of the
Universal Father.
(39.5) 2:5.6 How unreasonable that you should not
worship God because the limitations of human nature and the handicaps of
your material creation make it impossible for you to see him. Between
you and God there is a tremendous distance (physical space) to be
traversed. There likewise exists a great gulf of spiritual differential
which must be bridged; but notwithstanding all that physically and
spiritually separates you from the Paradise personal presence of God,
stop and ponder the solemn fact that God lives within you; he has in
his own way already bridged the gulf. He has sent of himself, his
spirit, to live in you and to toil with you as you pursue your eternal
universe career.
(39.6) 2:5.7
I find it easy and pleasant to worship
one who is so great and at the same time so affectionately devoted to
the uplifting ministry of his lowly creatures. I naturally love one who
is so powerful in creation and in the control thereof, and yet who is so
perfect in goodness and so faithful in the loving-kindness which
constantly overshadows us. I think I would love God just as much if he
were not so great and powerful, as long as he is so good and merciful.
We all love the Father more because of his nature than in recognition of
his amazing attributes.
(39.7) 2:5.8
When I observe the Creator Sons and their subordinate administrators struggling so valiantly with the manifold difficulties of time inherent in the
evolution
of the universes of space, I discover that I bear these lesser rulers
of the universes a great and profound affection. After all, I think we
all, including the mortals of the realms, love the Universal Father and
all other beings, divine or human, because we discern that these
personalities truly love us. The experience of loving is very much a
direct response to the experience of being loved. Knowing that God loves
me, I should continue to love him supremely, even though he were
divested of all his attributes of supremacy,
ultimacy, and absoluteness.
(40.1) 2:5.9 The Father's love follows us now and
throughout the endless circle of the eternal ages. As you ponder the
loving nature of God, there is only one reasonable and natural
personality reaction thereto: You will increasingly love your Maker; you
will yield to God an affection analogous to that given by a child to an
earthly parent; for, as a father, a real father, a true father, loves
his children, so the Universal Father loves and forever seeks the
welfare of his created sons and daughters.
(40.2) 2:5.10
But the love of God is an intelligent
and farseeing parental affection. The divine love functions in unified
association with divine wisdom and all other infinite characteristics of
the perfect nature of the Universal Father. God is love, but love is
not God. The greatest manifestation of the divine love for mortal beings
is observed in the bestowal of the Thought Adjusters,
but your greatest revelation of the Father's love is seen in the
bestowal life of his Son Michael as he lived on earth the ideal
spiritual life. It is the indwelling Adjuster who individualizes the
love of God to each human
soul.
(40.3) 2:5.11
At times I am almost pained to be
compelled to portray the divine affection of the heavenly Father for his
universe children by the employment of the human word symbol love. This term, even though it does connote man's highest
concept of the mortal relations of respect and devotion, is so
frequently designative of so much of human relationship that is wholly
ignoble and utterly unfit to be known by any word which is also used to
indicate the matchless affection of the living God for his universe
creatures! How unfortunate that I cannot make use of some supernal and
exclusive term which would convey to the mind of man the true nature and
exquisitely beautiful significance of the divine affection of the
Paradise Father.
(40.4) 2:5.12
When man loses sight of the love of a
personal God, the kingdom of God becomes merely the kingdom of good.
Notwithstanding the infinite unity of the divine nature, love is the
dominant characteristic of all God's personal dealings with his
creatures.
Bible References and Comparison
(40.5) 2:6.1
In the physical universe we may see the
divine beauty, in the intellectual world we may discern eternal truth,
but the goodness of God is found only in the spiritual world of personal
religious experience. In its true essence, religion is a faith-trust in
the goodness of God. God could be great and absolute, somehow even
intelligent and personal, in philosophy,
but in religion God must also be moral; he must be good. Man might fear
a great God, but he trusts and loves only a good God. This goodness of
God is a part of the
personality of God, and its full revelation appears only in the personal religious experience of the believing sons of God.
(40.6) 2:6.2
Religion implies that the superworld of
spirit nature is cognizant of, and responsive to, the fundamental needs
of the human world. Evolutionary religion may become ethical, but only
revealed religion becomes truly and spiritually moral. The olden concept
that God is a Deity
dominated by kingly morality was upstepped by Jesus to that
affectionately touching level of intimate family morality of the
parent-child relationship, than which there is none more tender and
beautiful in mortal experience.
(41.1) 2:6.3
The " richness of the goodness of God
leads erring man to repentance. " " Every good gift and every perfect
gift comes down from the Father of lights. " " God is good; he is the
eternal refuge of the souls of men. " " The Lord God is merciful and
gracious. He is long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth. " "
Taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who trusts him. "
" The Lord is gracious and full of compassion. He is the God of
salvation. " " He heals the brokenhearted and binds up the wounds of the
soul. He is man's all-powerful benefactor. "
(41.2) 2:6.4
The concept of God as a king-judge,
although it fostered a high moral standard and created a law-respecting
people as a group, left the individual believer in a sad position of
insecurity respecting his status in time and in eternity. The later
Hebrew prophets proclaimed God to be a Father to Israel; Jesus revealed
God as the Father of each human being. The entire mortal concept of God
is transcendently illuminated by the life of Jesus. Selflessness is
inherent in parental love. God loves not like a father, but as a father.
He is the Paradise Father of every universe personality.
(41.3) 2:6.5 Righteousness implies that God is the
source of the moral law of the universe. Truth exhibits God as a
revealer, as a teacher. But love gives and craves affection, seeks
understanding fellowship such as exists between parent and child.
Righteousness may be the divine thought, but love is a father's
attitude. The erroneous supposition that the righteousness of God was
irreconcilable with the selfless love of the heavenly Father,
presupposed absence of unity in the nature of Deity and led directly to
the elaboration of the atonement doctrine, which is a philosophic
assault upon both the unity and the free-willness of God.
(41.4) 2:6.6
The affectionate heavenly Father, whose
spirit indwells his children on earth, is not a divided personality—one
of justice and one of mercy—neither does it require a mediator to
secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice; God as a father transcends God as a judge.
(41.5) 2:6.7
God is never wrathful, vengeful, or
angry. It is true that wisdom does often restrain his love, while
justice conditions his rejected mercy. His love of righteousness cannot
help being exhibited as equal hatred for sin. The Father is not an
inconsistent personality; the divine unity is perfect. In the Paradise Trinity there is absolute unity despite the eternal identities of the co-ordinates of God.
(41.6) 2:6.8
God loves the sinner and hates the sin:
such a statement is true philosophically, but God is a transcendent
personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is
not a person. God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality
(potentially eternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal
attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality; it is not personal;
therefore does only the justice of God take cognizance of its existence.
The love of God saves the sinner; the law of God destroys the sin. This
attitude of the divine nature would apparently change if the sinner
finally identified himself wholly with sin just as the same mortal mind
may also fully identify itself with the indwelling spirit Adjuster.
Such a sin-identified mortal would then become wholly unspiritual in
nature (and therefore personally unreal) and would experience eventual
extinction of being. Unreality, even incompleteness of creature nature,
cannot exist forever in a progressingly real and increasingly spiritual
universe.
(42.1) 2:6.9
Facing the world of personality, God is
discovered to be a loving person; facing the spiritual world, he is a
personal love; in religious experience he is both. Love identifies the
volitional will of God.
The goodness of God rests at the bottom of the divine free-willness—the
universal tendency to love, show mercy, manifest patience, and minister
forgiveness.
Bible References and Comparison
(42.2) 2:7.1 All finite knowledge and creature understanding are relative. Information and intelligence, gleaned from even high
sources, is only relatively complete, locally accurate, and personally
true.
(42.3) 2:7.2 Physical facts are fairly uniform, but truth is a living and flexible factor in the philosophy
of the universe. Evolving personalities are only partially wise and
relatively true in their communications. They can be certain only as far
as their personal experience extends. That which apparently may be
wholly true in one place may be only relatively true in another segment
of creation.
(42.4) 2:7.3
Divine truth, final truth, is uniform
and universal, but the story of things spiritual, as it is told by
numerous individuals hailing from various spheres, may sometimes vary in
details owing to this relativity in the completeness of knowledge and
in the repleteness of personal experience as well as in the length and
extent of that experience. While the laws and decrees, the thoughts and
attitudes, of the First Great Source and Center are eternally,
infinitely, and universally true; at the same time, their application
to, and adjustment for, every universe, system, world, and created
intelligence, are in accordance with the plans and technique of the Creator Sons as they function in their respective universes, as well as in harmony with the local plans and procedures of the
Infinite Spirit and of all other associated celestial personalities.
(42.5) 2:7.4
The false science of materialism would
sentence mortal man to become an outcast in the universe. Such partial
knowledge is potentially evil; it is knowledge composed of both good and
evil. Truth is beautiful because it is both replete and symmetrical.
When man searches for truth, he pursues the divinely real.
(42.6) 2:7.5
Philosophers commit their gravest error
when they are misled into the fallacy of abstraction, the practice of
focusing the attention upon one aspect of reality and then of
pronouncing such an isolated aspect to be the whole truth. The wise
philosopher will always look for the creative design which is behind,
and pre-existent to, all universe phenomena. The creator thought
invariably precedes creative action.
(42.7) 2:7.6
Intellectual self-consciousness can
discover the beauty of truth, its spiritual quality, not only by the
philosophic consistency of its concepts, but more certainly and surely
by the unerring response of the ever-present Spirit of Truth. Happiness ensues from the recognition of truth because it can be
acted out; it can be lived. Disappointment and sorrow attend
upon error because, not being a reality, it cannot be realized in
experience. Divine truth is best known by its
spiritual flavor.
(42.8) 2:7.7
The eternal quest is for unification, for divine coherence. The far-flung physical universe coheres in the Isle of Paradise; the intellectual universe coheres in the God of mind, the
Conjoint Actor; the spiritual universe is coherent in the
personality of the
Eternal Son. But the isolated mortal of time and space coheres in
God the Father through the direct relationship between the indwelling Thought Adjuster and the
Universal Father. Man's Adjuster is a fragment of God and everlastingly seeks for divine unification; it coheres with, and in, the
Paradise Deity of the
First Source and Center.
(43.1) 2:7.8
The discernment of supreme beauty is
the discovery and integration of reality: The discernment of the divine
goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty. Even the charm
of human art consists in the harmony of its unity.
(43.2) 2:7.9
The great mistake of the Hebrew
religion was its failure to associate the goodness of God with the
factual truths of science and the appealing beauty of art. As
civilization progressed, and since religion continued to pursue the same
unwise course of overemphasizing the goodness of God to the relative
exclusion of truth and neglect of beauty, there developed an increasing
tendency for certain types of men to turn away from the abstract and
dissociated concept of isolated goodness. The overstressed and isolated
morality of modern religion, which fails to hold the devotion and
loyalty of many twentieth-century men, would rehabilitate itself if, in
addition to its moral mandates, it would give equal consideration to the
truths of science, philosophy, and spiritual experience, and to the
beauties of the physical creation, the charm of intellectual art, and
the grandeur of genuine character achievement.
(43.3) 2:7.10 The religious challenge of this age is to those farseeing and forward-looking men and women of spiritual insight
who will dare to construct a new and appealing philosophy of living out
of the enlarged and exquisitely integrated modern concepts of cosmic
truth, universe beauty, and divine goodness. Such a new and righteous
vision of morality will attract all that is good in the mind of man and
challenge that which is best in the human
soul.
Truth, beauty, and goodness are divine realities, and as man ascends
the scale of spiritual living, these supreme qualities of the Eternal
become increasingly co-ordinated and unified in God, who is love.
(43.4) 2:7.11
All truth—material, philosophic, or
spiritual—is both beautiful and good. All real beauty—material art or
spiritual symmetry—is both true and good. All genuine goodness—whether
personal morality, social equity, or divine ministry—is equally true and
beautiful. Health, sanity, and happiness are integrations of truth,
beauty, and goodness as they are blended in human experience. Such
levels of efficient living come about through the unification of energy
systems, idea systems, and spirit systems.
(43.5) 2:7.12
Truth is coherent, beauty attractive, goodness stabilizing. And when these values
of that which is real are co-ordinated in personality experience, the
result is a high order of love conditioned by wisdom and qualified by
loyalty. The real purpose of all universe education is to effect the
better co-ordination of the isolated child of the worlds with the larger
realities of his expanding experience. Reality is finite on the human
level, infinite and eternal on the higher and divine levels.
(43.6) 2:7.13
[Presented by a Divine Counselor acting by authority of the Ancients of Days on
Uversa. ]
Bible References and Comparison
Paper 3. The Attributes of God