The Doctrine of God
Printer-friendly versionTHE DOCTRINE OF GOD
I. THE FIRST SOURCE AND CENTER
1. God, as the First Source and Center, is primal in relation to total reality—unqualifiedly; infinite as well as eternal and therefore limited or conditioned only by volition. (5.8) 0:3.9
2. The God of the First Source and Center exercises cosmic overcontrol by absolute Paradise gravity. (24.8) 1:2.10
3. The Universal Father is the personality of the First Source and Center. (5.9) 0:3.10
4. The First Source and Center is that infinity who unqualifiedly transcends all mind. all matter, and all spirit. (31.7) 1:7.7
5. Finite actualities are derived from the First Source and Center by means of self-existent free will. (1158.4) 105:5.4
II. THE I AM
1. The concept of the I AM is a philosophic concession which is made to the time-bound, space-fettered, finite mind of man, to the impossibility of creature comprehension of eternity existences, nonbeginning, nonending realities and relationships.(6.3) 0:3.23
2. The I AM achieves personality by becoming the Eternal Father of the Original Son and the Eternal Source of Paradise.(6.2) 0:3.22
3. Absolute causation resides in the Universal Father functioning as the I AM. (1152.4) 105:1.1
4. The sevenfold nature of the I AM is suggested by the Seven Absolutes of Infinity:
- The Universal Father.
- The Universal Controller.
- The Universal Creator.
- The Infinite Upholder.
- The Infinite Potential.
- The Infinite Capacity.
- The Universal One of Infinity. (1154.3) 105:2.4
5. The I AM postulate of the infinite and the absolute transcends all time-past, present and future. (1296.1) 118:1.9
BIBLE REFERENCE: Ex 3.4.
III. GOD THE FATHER
1. THE DIVINE IDENTITY
1. The Universal Father is the God of all creation. (21.1) 1:0.1
2. First think of God as a creator, then as a controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder. (21.1) 1:0.1
3. In science God is a cause, in philosophy. a reality; in religion, a loving Father. (59.3) 4:4.7
4. God is spirit. (25.1) 1:3.1
5. God is a universal spirit—an infinite spirit person. (25.5) 1:3.5
6. The spiritual luminosity of the Father’s personal presence is a light which no man can approach. (25.3) 1:3.3
BIBLE REFERENCES: Neh 9:6. John 4:24. I Tim 1:17. Ex 33:20. I Tim 6:16.
2. THE PERSONALITY OF GOD
1. God functions on three personality levels:
- Prepersonal—Thought Adjusters.
- Personal—as in evolutionary creatures.
- Superpersonal—absonite beings. (3.15) 0:2.2
2. God is personality. (28.4) 1:5.7
3. The concept of the personality of God is the measure of religious maturity. (28.7) 1:5.10
4. While God must be more than a personality, he cannot be anything less. (27.4) 1:5.2
5. The concept of the personality of Deity facilitates fellowship, favors intelligent worship, and promotes refreshing trustfulness. (31.1) 1:7.1
6. Only a person can love and be loved. (31.3) 1:7.3
7. God’s conduct is personal—conscious and volitional. He is not a slave to his own perfection and infinity. (138.1) 12:7.6
8. God is a person who can know and be known. (28.5) 1:5.8
3. THE NATURE OF GOD
1. God is not a synonym for nature, neither is he natural law personified. God is a transcendent reality, not mans traditional concept of supreme values. God is not a psychological focalization of spiritual meanings, neither is he “the noblest work of man.” God may be any or all of these concepts, but he is more. He is a saving and loving Father. (23.5) 1:2.2
2. God is neither manlike nor machinelike. (23.4) 1:2.1
3. The nature of God can best be understood by the revelation of the Father which Michael unfolded in his manifold teachings and in his superb mortal life in the flesh. (33.1) 2:0.1
A. The Infinity of God
1. The Father is infinite and eternal. (58.9) 4:4.42. The unstinted bestowal of himself upon his universes does not diminish his potential of power, wisdom, and love. (49.5) 3:4.1
3. The infinity of God should be the supreme assurance that throughout all endless futurity an ascending personality will have before him the possibility of Deity association which even eternity will neither exhaust nor transcend. (1169.5) 106:7.6
B. The Justice of God
1. Willful sin and unmitigated iniquity are inherently and automatically suicidal. (37.3) 2:3.52. The final result of wholehearted sin is annihilation. (37.2) 2:3.4
BIBLE REFERENCES: Ps 145:17; 103:6; 7:9. I Chron 19:7 (This may be an error. Ed.)
C. The Mercy of God
1. The creature’s need is wholly sufficient to insure the full flow of the Father’s tender mercies and his saving grace. (38.2) 2:4.22. Mercy is not a contravention of justice, but rather an understanding interpretation of the demands of supreme justice as it is fairly applied to material creatures. (38.5) 2:4.5
BIBLE REFERENCES: 2 Cor 1:3.
D. The Love of God
1. God is love. (38.6) 2:5.12. The Father’s love follows us now and throughout the endless circle of the eternal ages. (40.1) 2:5.9
3. Love identifies the volitional will of God. (42.1) 2:6.9
4. The face which the Infinite God turns toward all personalities is the face of a loving Father. (1153.5) 105:1.8
5. It is wrong to think that God loves us only because of the sacrifices of his Sons. (39.1) 2:5.2
BIBLE REFERENCES: John 3:1. Ps 103:17. John 16:27.
E. The Goodness of God
1. God is related to the universe as the being of final goodness plus a free will of creative infinity. (58.8) 4:4.32. In bestowing himself upon the universes, God reserves only that which is required to insure the bestowal. (364.2) 32:4.12
BIBLE REFERENCES: Rom 2:4. Ps 68:20; 111:4; 34:8. I Peter 1:15.
4. THE ATTRIBUTES OF GOD
A God’s Omnipresence
1. The omnipresence of God is in reality a part of his infinite nature; space constitutes no barrier to Deity. (45.1) 3:1.62. God alone can be in two places, in numberless places, at the same time. (44.4) 3:1.1
3. The Universal Controller is present in the gravity circuits of the universes. (45.1) 3:1.7
BIBLE REFERENCES: Ps 139:7.
B. God’s Omnipotence
1. God is omnipotent. (47.1) 3:2.32. The divine omnipotence is only limited by the love of God, the will of God. and the law of God. (48.3) 3:2.11
3. God is omnipotent, but not omnificent; he does not do all that is done. (1299.4) 118:6.1
4. He upholds the worlds in apace and swings the universes around the endless circle of the eternal circuit. (46.6) 3:2.2
5. God is unlimited in power, divine in nature, final in will, infinite in attributes, eternal in wisdom. and absolute in reality. (48.6) 3:2.15
BIBLE REFERENCES: Matt 19:26. Dan 4:35. Job 42:2.
C. God’s Omniscience
1. God knows all things. The divine mind is conscious of all creation. (48.8) 3:3.12. The Father sees the end from the beginning. (35.5) 2:2.1
3. Only God actually knows the number of the stars. (49.1) 3:3.2
4. Omniscience does not imply the knowing of the unknowable. (49.4) 3:3.5
BIBLE REFERENCES: I John 3:20. Heb 4:13.741 (?...Ed.) Job 37:16. Ps 33:13; 147:4. Prov 15:3. Matt 6:8.
D. The Primacy of God
1. God is the universal unity of unqualified Reality. (645.6) 56:9.112. The Universal Father is still primal; his hand is on the mighty lever of the circumstances of the universal realms. (52.4) 3:6.1
3. The divine reach extends around the circle of eternity. (55.4) 4:1.6
5. GOD’S RELATION TO THE UNIVERSE
A. God and Nature
1. Nature is in a limited sense the physical habit of God. (56.5) 4:2.12. Nature is a combination of Paradise perfection and evolutionary imperfection. (56.7) 4:2.3
3. Nature is not God. Nature is not an object of worship. (57.5) 4:2.8
B. God’s Changelessness
1. God is the only stationary, self-contained, and changeless being in the whole universe. (58.6) 4:4.12. God and the universe are not identical—one is cause and the other effect. (1126.1) 102:7.1
3. There is a finality of completeness and a perfection of repleteness in the mandates of the Father. (35.6) 2:2.2
BIBLE REFERENCES: Mal 3:6. Jas 1:17. I Pet 4:19. Deut 32:4. Ps 33:4. John 1:9. I Cor 1:9. I John 1:9. Lam 3:21. Ps 33:4; 119:90.
C. God’s Eternal Purpose
1. Do not get the idea that, since God delegates so much of himself and his power to others, he is a silent member of the Deity partnership. (362.5) 32:4.12. God never does that which others can do. (362.5) 32:4.1
3. The Father has an eternal purpose pertaining to the universe of universes. (54.1) 4:0.1
BIBLE REFERENCE: Eph 3:11.
6. GOD’S RELATION TO THE INDIVIDUAL
A. The Presence of God
1. God is not in hiding; he craves to reveal himself. (62.4) 5:1.22. The Father dwells within us. (139.1) 12:7.12
3. God is in intimate touch with his evolutionary children. (139.2) 12:7.13
4. In him we live and move and have our being. (139.1) 12:7.12
5. The eternal God is incapable of wrath and anger. (57.7) 4:3.2
BIBLE REFERENCES: Deut 33:27.
B. God in Religion
1. It is a great blunder to humanize God, but that is not so stupid as to mechanize him. (53.3) 3:6.52. Neither science nor logic can prove the existence of God; only human experience can validate his reality. (24.5) 1:2.7
3. The Urantia Benediction. (53.6) 3:6.8
C. The God of Personality
1. The Father is bestower and conservator of every personality. (70.2) 5:6.12. Personality is an unsolved mystery. (70.3) 5:6.2
3. The personality circuit of all creation centers in the person of the Universal Father. (71.5) 5:6.10
4. And when all is said and done. there is nothing more helpful than to reiterate that God is our Father—we are all his planetary children. (72.1) 5:6.13
IV. GOD THE SON
1. IDENTITY OF THE SON
1. The Eternal Son is the original and only-begotten Son of God. (73.5) 6:1.1
2. The Eternal Son is the perfect and final expression of the first personal and absolute concept of the Universal Father. (73.3) 6:0.3
3. As the upholder of spiritual realities, the Second Source and Center is the eternal counterpoise of the Isle of Paradise, which so magnificently up—holds all things material. (81.3) 7:0.3
4. The Son is the spiritual and personal nature of God made manifest to the universes. (79.3) 6:7.3
5. The Eternal Son is the eternal Word of God. (74.7) 6:2.2
6. The Eternal Son is the great mercy minister to all creation.(75.7) 6:3.2
2. THE ATTRIBUTES OF THE SON
1. The Son is the fullness of God’s absoluteness in personality and spirit. (75.2) 6:2.5
2. Spiritually the Eternal Son is omnipresent. (76.6) 6:4.6
3. The Son knows all, he is never surprised. (76.7) 6:4.7
4. The Son is omnipotent only in the spiritual realm. (76.2) 6:4.2
5. The Eternal Son is an absolute personality. (79.1) 6:7.1
3. SPIRIT GRAVITY
1. The Eternal Son motivates the spirit level of cosmic reality. (76.1) 6:4.1
2. The pure and universal spirit gravity of all creation leads directly back to the person of the Son. Thus does the Son exercise absolute spiritual sovereignty. (81.6) 7:1.1
3. The gravity control of spiritual things operates independently of time and space. Spirit gravity never suffers time delays, nor does it undergo space diminution. (82.1) 7:1.2
4. There is a direct attractiveness of a spirit nature between spiritually minded persons of like tastes and longings. (82.5) 7:1.6
5. The spirit-gravity circuit is the basic channel for transmitting genuine prayers. (84.3) 7:3.3
6. Spirit gravity is absolute. (82.1) 7:1.2
7. The spiritual-gravity pull of the Eternal Son constitutes the inherent secret of the Paradise ascension of surviving mortals. (84.2) 7:3.2
4. THE SON’S RELATION TO INDIVIDUALS
1. The personal nature of the Eternal Son is incapable of fragmentation. (86.4) 7:5.3
2. But he does draw near to created personalities. He is able to stand in man’s presence, and, at times, as man himself. (86.3) 7:5.2
3. The Eternal Son is the personal trustee, the divine custodian, of the Father’s universal plan of creature ascension. (86.1) 7:4.7
4. The Eternal Son is the exclusive, universal, and final revelation of the spirit and the personality of the Universal Father. (88.7) 7:7.1
5. The sons of the Eternal Son can incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh. (86.5) 7:5.4
V. GOD THE SPIRIT
1. THE GOD OF ACTION
1. 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—the Infinite Spirit springs full-fledgedly into existence. (90.3) 8:0.3
2. The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. (91.1) 8:1.4
3. The Conjoint Creator is the manipulator of energy. (101.5) 9:3.5
4. As the divine Sons are the Word of God, the Infinite Spirit is the Act of God. (111.1) 10:3.3
5. The Infinite Spirit is the effective agent for the execution of the Father-Son plan of perfection attainment. (93.7) 8:3.5
2. THE SPIRIT OF DIVINE MINISTRY
1. God is love, the Son is mercy, the Spirit is ministry. (94.4) 8:4.2
2. The Infinite Spirit is the correlator of all actual reality. (99.2) 9:1.3
3. The Infinite Spirit is a personalized spiritualization of the Eternal Son and the Universal Father. (100.4) 9:2.2
4. On the anvils of justice the hammers of suffering are wielded by the children of mercy. (100.2) 9:1.8
3. PERSONALITY OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
1. The Infinite Spirit is a complete and perfect personality and reacts to the universe as a person. (96.6) 8:6.4
2. The Infinite Spirit is a universe presence, an eternal action, a cosmic power, a holy influence, and a universal mind; but he is also a true and divine personality. (96.3) 8:6.1
3. All of the personal and nonpersonal doings of the Infinite Spirit are volitional acts. (101.7) 9:3.7
4. ATTRIBUTES OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
1. The outstanding attribute of the Infinite Spirit is omnipresence. (95.4) 8:5.1
2. The Spirit inclines towards the mercy of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the mercy minister of the Paradise Deities. (92.7) 8:2.6
3. The Infinite Spirit possesses a unique and amazing power—antigravity. (101.2) 9:3.2
4. Paradise is the pattern of infinity; the God of Action is the activator of that pattern. (101.8) 9:3.8
5. THE MINISTER OF MIND
1. The absolute mind is the mind of the Third Person of Deity. (102.2) 9:4.2
2. Mind does not have to be added to pure spirit. Spirit is always minded in some way. (102.2) 9:4.2
3. The Conjoint Actor is absolute only in the domain of mind. (102.3) 9:4.3
4. Infinite mind ignores time, ultimate mind transcends time, cosmic mind is conditioned by time. (102.4) 9:4.4
5. All these activities of mind are grasped in the absolute mind-gravity circuit of the Third Source and Center. (103.6) 9:6.1
6. Mind alone can interassociate physical energies with spiritual powers. (136.1) 12:6.3
7. Universe reflectivity is that unique and inexplicable power to see, hear, sense, and know all things as they transpire throughout a superuniverse. (105.4) 9:7.4
8. The functional family of the Third Center falls into three groups: Supreme Spirits, Power Directors, and other personalities which include Ministering Spirits. (107.2) 9:8.14
9. God the Sevenfold functionally co-ordinates finite evolution. (1164.4) 106:2.1
VI. GOD THE SUPREME
1. THE FINITE GOD
1. God the Supreme is the actualizing or evolving God of time and space. (4.9) 0:2.15
2. The Supreme is the experiential God of evolutionary creatures. (4.9) 0:2.15
3. As the Trinity was the absolute inevitability, the Supreme is the evolutionary inevitability. (1266.6) 115:7.5
4. God the Supreme will not be discovered by one creature until all creatures find him. (1290.2) 117:6.16
5. The Supreme co-ordinates the unchanging overworld with the ever-changing underworld. (1297.5) 118:3.4
6. With God the Supreme, one must do something as well as be something. (1260.1) 115:0.1
7. The personality of the nonsurvivor is absorbed into the oversoul of creation—the Supreme. (1283.4) 117:4.2
8. The evolving mind of the Supreme is a relationship between finite and absolute mind. (105.4) 9:7.4
9. God the Supreme is the personalization of the totality of evolutionary universe experience. (1304.2) 118:9.9
10. The Supreme evolves as the personality synthesis of finite mind, matter, and spirit. (1304.5) 118:10.3
2. NATURE OF THE SUPREME
1. The Supreme Being is the unification of three phases of Deity reality: God the Supreme, the spiritual unification of certain finite aspects of the Paradise Trinity; the Almighty Supreme, the power unification of the grand universe Creators; and the Supreme Mind, the individual contribution of the Third Source and Center and his co-ordinates to the reality of the Supreme Being. (251.1) 22:7.11
2. This evolutionary Deity does appear to reflect the attitude of the Trinity of Supremacy. (115.5) 10:7.3
3. The Supreme Being is absolutely dependent on the existence and action of the Paradise Trinity. (1264.7) 115:5.1
4. God the Supreme is the personalization of all universe experience, the focalization of all finite evolution. (1304.2) 118:9.9
5. The Almighty Supreme is a living and evolving Deity of power and personality. (1268.4) 116:0.4
6. The Supreme is the beauty of physical harmony, the truth of intellectual meaning, and the goodness of spiritual value. (1278.5) 117:1.1
7. The Supreme knows you because he is creaturelike as well as creatorlike. (1287.6) 117:6.1
8. God the Supreme was a spiritual person in Havona before the creation of the grand universe. (641.3) 56:6.2
9. The Supreme embraces all of infinity that a finite creature can ever really comprehend. (1290.5) 117:6.19
3. THE ALMIGHTY SUPREME
1. God the Supreme is power-actualizing in the doings of the Creator Sons, the Ancients of Days, and the Master Spirits. (1269.6) 116:2.2
2. The Almighty Supreme is evolving as the overcontroller of the physical power of the grand universe. (1274.1) 116:5.11
3. The Infinite Spirit compensates for the incompleteness of the evolving Supreme. (1272.1) 116:4.2
4. SOURCE OF EVOLUTIONARY GROWTH
1. The Supreme grows as the Creators and creatures of the evolving universes attain to Godlikeness. (1265.5) 115:6.4 The Supreme is the sum total of all finite growth. (1281.3) 117:3.1
2. The Supreme Being becomes the finite synthesis of the experience of the perfect-Creator cause and the perfecting-creature response. (1278.6) 117:1.2
3. As man attains human destiny, so does the Supreme achieve Deity destiny. (1285.1) 117:4.12
4. The Supreme is the catalyzer of all universe growth. (1283.2) 117:3.13
5. The experience of every evolving mortal is a part of the experience of the Almighty Supreme. (1268.6) 116:1.1
6. As God is our Father, the Supreme Being is our universe Mother. (1289.1) 117:6.8
7. The Adjuster, the Holy Spirit, and the Spirit of Truth are unified in human experience by the ministry of the Supreme. (1107.2) 101:2.12
8. God the Supreme is truth beauty, and goodness—the finite maximum of ideational experience. (1279.5) 117:1.7
9. Rejection of ascension is cosmic suicide. The personality of a nonascender returns to the Supreme as a drop of water returns to the sea. (1283.6) 117:4.4
10. God the Father journeys through the cosmos with man, while the very way traversed is the presence of the Supreme. (1291.4) 117:6.27
5. REFLECTIVITY
1. Reflectivity is an association of energy, mind, and spirit under the overcontrol of the Supreme. (105.5) 9:7.5
2. The reflectivity of the Supreme explains the consciousness of the cosmos. (105.4) 9:7.4
6. THE FUTURE OF THE SUPREME
1. At the end of the present universe age the Supreme Being will function as an experiential sovereign of the grand universe. (1280.7) 117:2.7
2. In the eternal future, God the Supreme will be actualized in the spiritualized minds and the immortal souls of ascenders. (1286.2) 117:5.4
3. In the next universe age, outer-spacers will pass through the Supreme rule of the grand universe. (1280.7) 117:2.7
4. After attaining God the Supreme, the challenge will be to find God the Ultimate. (1293.1) 117:7.17
5. The Supreme may not be omnipresent, but he is ubiquitous. (1296.5) 118:2.3
VII. GOD THE ULTIMATE
1. GOD THE ULTIMATE
1. The Ultimate is the unification of the Paradise Trinity comprehended by absonite beings. (12.5) 0:9.2
2. God the Ultimate exists in transcendence of time and space, but is subabsolute. (1167.1) 106:4.4
3. The Ultimate is identified with transcendentals. (1160.1) 105:7.3
4. The Ultimate will eventually extend throughout the master universe. (137.3) 12:6.13
5. The Ultimate is spiritually present in Havona—and we know of the Qualified Vicegerents of the Ultimate. (1166.6) 106:4.3
2. THE TRANSCENDENTAL LEVEL
1. The Architects of the Master Universe are the governing corps of the Paradise Transcendentalers. (351.2) 31:9.1
2. On absonite levels things and beings are without beginnings and endings. Absoniters are not created—they are eventuated. (2.12) 0:1.12
3. The universe exists in three levels: finite, transcendental, and absolute. (1160.13) 105:7.15
VIII. GOD THE ABSOLUTE
1. God the Absolute would be the experientialization of divinity realities now existential as the Deity Absolute. (4.12) 0:2.18
2. God the Absolute is the attainment goal of all superabsonite beings. (13.5) 0:10.2
IX. DEITY
1. Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity. (3.1) 0:1.14
2. Deity is the source of all that which is divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity. (3.2) 0:1.15
3. Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty. (3.4) 0:1.17
4. The equivalent of mind, the ability to know and be known, is indigenous to Deity. (78.5) 6:6.2
5. The ubiquity of Deity must not be confused with the ultimacy of the divine omnipresence. (1296.3) 118:2.1
6. Compossibility is innate in divine power. (1299.1) 118:5.1
7. Deity is personalizable as God and is characterized by unity—actual or potential. (2.2) 0:1.2
8. In contemplating Deity, the concept of personality must be divested of the idea of corporeality. (29.2) 1:5.12