PAPER 21
THE PARADISE CREATOR SONS
21:0.1 THE Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of
the local universes of time and space. These universe creators and sovereigns
are of dual origin, embodying the characteristics of God the Father and God
the Son. But each Creator Son is different from every other; each is unique in
nature as well as in personality; each is the "only-begotten Son" of the
perfect deity ideal of his origin.
21:0.2 In the vast work of organizing, evolving, and
perfecting a local universe, these high Sons always enjoy the sustaining
approval of the Universal Father. The relationship of the Creator Sons with
their Paradise Father is touching and superlative. No doubt the profound
affection of the Deity parents for their divine progeny is the wellspring of
that beautiful and well-nigh divine love which even mortal parents bear their
children.
21:0.3 These primary Paradise Sons are personalized
as Michaels. As they go forth from Paradise to found their universes, they are
known as Creator Michaels. When settled in supreme authority, they are called
Master Michaels. Sometimes we refer to the sovereign of your universe of
Nebadon as Christ Michael. Always and forever do they reign after the "order
of Michael," that being the designation of the first Son of their order and
nature.
21:0.4 The original or first-born Michael has never
experienced incarnation as a material being, but seven times he passed through
the experience of spiritual creature ascent on the seven circuits of Havona,
advancing from the outer spheres to the innermost circuit of the central
creation. The order of Michael knows the grand universe from one end to the
other; there is no essential experience of any of the children of time and
space in which the Michaels have not personally participated; they are in fact
partakers not only of the divine nature but also of your nature, meaning all
natures, from the highest to the lowest.
21:0.5 The original Michael is the presiding head of
the primary Paradise Sons when they assemble for conference at the center of
all things. Not long since on Uversa we recorded a universal broadcast of a
conclave extraordinary on the eternal Isle of one hundred fifty thousand
Creator Sons assembled in the parental presence and engaged in deliberations
having to do with the progress of the unification and stabilization of the
universe of universes. This was a selected group of Sovereign Michaels,
sevenfold bestowal Sons.
1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CREATOR SONS
21:1.1 When the fullness of absolute spiritual
ideation in the Eternal Son encounters the fullness of absolute personality
concept in the Universal Father, when such a creative union is finally and
fully attained, when such absolute identity of spirit and such infinite
oneness of personality concept occur, then, right then and there, without the
loss of anything of personality or prerogative by either of the infinite
Deities, there flashes into full-fledged being a new and original Creator Son,
the only-begotten Son of the perfect ideal and the powerful idea whose union
produces this new creator personality of power and perfection.
21:1.2 Each Creator Son is the only-begotten and
only-begettable offspring of the perfect union of the original concepts of the
two infinite and eternal and perfect minds of the ever-existent Creators of
the universe of universes. There never can be another such Son because each
Creator Son is the unqualified, finished, and final expression and embodiment
of all of every phase of every feature of every possibility of every divine
reality that could, throughout all eternity, ever be found in, expressed by,
or evolved from, those divine creative potentials which united to bring this
Michael Son into existence. Each Creator Son is the absolute of the united
deity concepts which constitute his divine origin.
21:1.3 The divine natures of these Creator Sons are,
in principle, derived equally from the attributes of both Paradise parents.
All partake of the fullness of the divine nature of the Universal Father and
of the creative prerogatives of the Eternal Son, but as we observe the
practical outworking of the Michael functions in the universes, we discern
apparent differences. Some Creator Sons appear to be more like God the Father;
others more like God the Son. For example: The trend of administration in the
universe of Nebadon suggests that its Creator and ruling Son is one whose
nature and character more resemble that of the Eternal Mother Son. It should
be further stated that some universes are presided over by Paradise Michaels
who appear equally to resemble God the Father and God the Son. And these
observations are in no sense implied criticisms; they are simply a recording
of fact.
21:1.4 I do not know the exact number of Creator
Sons in existence, but I have good reasons for believing that there are more
than seven hundred thousand. Now, we know that there are exactly seven hundred
thousand Unions of Days and no more are being created. We also observe that
the ordained plans of the present universe age seem to indicate that one Union
of Days is to be stationed in each local universe as the counseling ambassador
of the Trinity. We note further that the constantly increasing number of
Creator Sons already exceeds the stationary number of the Unions of Days. But
concerning the destiny of the Michaels beyond seven hundred thousand, we have
never been informed.
2. THE CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES
21:2.1 The Paradise Sons of the primary order are
the designers, creators, builders, and administrators of their respective
domains, the local universes of time and space, the basic creative units of
the seven evolutionary superuniverses. A Creator Son is permitted to choose
the space site of his future cosmic activity, but before he may begin even the
physical organization of his universe, he must spend a long period of
observation devoted to the study of the efforts of his older brothers in
various creations located in the superuniverse of his projected action. And
prior to all this, the Michael Son will have completed his long and unique
experience of Paradise observation and Havona training.
21:2.2 When a Creator Son departs from Paradise to
embark upon the adventure of universe making, to become the head -- virtually
the God -- of the local universe of his own organization, then, for the first
time, he finds himself in intimate contact with, and in many respects
dependent upon, the Third Source and Center. The Infinite Spirit, though
abiding with the Father and the Son at the center of all things, is destined
to function as the actual and effective helper of each Creator Son. Therefore
is each Creator Son accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit,
that being who is destined to become the Divine Minister, the Mother Spirit of
the new local universe.
21:2.3 The departure of a Michael Son on this
occasion forever liberates his creator prerogatives from the Paradise Sources
and Centers, subject only to certain limitations inherent in the pre-existence
of these Sources and Centers and to certain other antecedent powers and
presences. Among these limitations to the otherwise all-powerful creator
prerogatives of a local universe Father are the following:
21:2.4 1. Energy-matter is dominated by the
Infinite Spirit. Before any new forms of things, great or small, may be
created, before any new transformations of energy-matter may be attempted, a
Creator Son must secure the consent and working co-operation of the Infinite
Spirit.
21:2.5 2. Creature designs and types are
controlled by the Eternal Son. Before a Creator Son may engage in the creation
of any new type of being, any new design of creature, he must secure the
consent of the Eternal and Original Mother Son.
21:2.6 3. Personality is designed and
bestowed by the Universal Father.
21:2.7 The types and patterns of mind are
determined by the precreature factors of being. After these have been
associated to constitute a creature (personal or otherwise), mind is the
endowment of the Third Source and Center, the universal source of mind
ministry to all beings below the level of Paradise Creators.
21:2.8 The control of spirit designs and
types depends on the level of their manifestation. In the last analysis,
spiritual design is controlled by the Trinity or by the pre-Trinity spirit
endowments of the Trinity personalities -- Father, Son, and Spirit.
21:2.9 When such a perfect and divine Son has taken
possession of the space site of his chosen universe; when the initial problems
of universe materialization and of gross equilibrium have been resolved; when
he has formed an effective and co-operative working union with the
complemental Daughter of the Infinite Spirit -- then do this Universe Son and
this Universe Spirit initiate that liaison which is designed to give origin to
the innumerable hosts of their local universe children. In connection with
this event the Creative Spirit focalization of the Paradise Infinite Spirit
becomes changed in nature, taking on the personal qualities of the Mother
Spirit of a local universe.
21:2.10 Notwithstanding that all Creator Sons are
divinely like their Paradise parents, none exactly resembles another; each is
unique, diverse, exclusive, and original in nature as well as in
personality. And since they are the architects and makers of the life plans of
their respective realms, this very diversity insures that their domains will
also be diverse in every form and phase of Michael-derived living existence
which may be created or subsequently evolved therein. Hence the orders of
creatures native to the local universes are quite varied. No two are
administered or inhabited by dual-origin native beings who are in all respects
identical. Within any superuniverse, one half of their inherent attributes are
quite alike, being derived from the uniform Creative Spirits; the other half
vary, being derived from the diversified Creator Sons. But such diversity does
not characterize those creatures of sole origin in the Creative Spirit nor
those imported beings who are native to the central or superuniverses.
21:2.11 When a Michael Son is absent from his
universe, its government is directed by the first-born native being, the
Bright and Morning Star, the local universe chief executive. The advice and
counsel of the Union of Days is invaluable at such times. During these
absences a Creator Son is able to invest the associated Mother Spirit with the
overcontrol of his spiritual presence on the inhabited worlds and in the
hearts of his mortal children. And the Mother Spirit of a local universe
remains always at its headquarters, extending her fostering care and spiritual
ministry to the uttermost parts of such an evolutionary domain.
21:2.12 The personal presence of a Creator Son in
his local universe is not necessary to the smooth running of an established
material creation. Such Sons may journey to Paradise, and still their
universes swing on through space. They may lay down their lines of power to
incarnate as the children of time; still their realms whirl on about their
respective centers. No material organization is independent of the
absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise or of the cosmic overcontrol inherent in
the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.
3. LOCAL UNIVERSE SOVEREIGNTY
21:3.1 A Creator Son is given the range of a
universe by the consent of the Paradise Trinity and with the confirmation of
the supervising Master Spirit of the superuniverse concerned. Such action
constitutes title of physical possession, a cosmic leasehold. But the
elevation of a Michael Son from this initial and self-limited stage of
rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned sovereignty comes as a
result of his own personal experiences in the work of universe creation and
incarnated bestowal. Until the achievement of bestowal-earned sovereignty, he
rules as vicegerent of the Universal Father.
21:3.2 A Creator Son could assert full sovereignty
over his personal creation at any time, but he wisely chooses not to. If,
prior to passing through the creature bestowals, he assumed an unearned
supreme sovereignty, the Paradise personalities resident in his local universe
would withdraw. But this has never happened throughout all the creations of
time and space.
21:3.3 The fact of creatorship implies the fullness
of sovereignty, but the Michaels choose to experientially earn it,
thereby retaining the full co-operation of all Paradise personalities attached
to the local universe administration. We know of no Michael who ever did
otherwise; but they all could, they are truly freewill Sons.
21:3.4 The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local
universe passes through six, perhaps seven, stages of experiential
manifestation. These appear in the following order:
21:3.5 1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty -- the
solitary provisional authority exercised by a Creator Son before the
acquirement of personal qualities by the associated Creative
Spirit.
21:3.6 2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty -- the
joint rule of the Paradise pair subsequent to the personality achievement of
the Universe Mother Spirit.
21:3.7 3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty -- the
advancing authority of a Creator Son during the period of his seven creature
bestowals.
21:3.8 4. Supreme sovereignty -- the settled
authority following the completion of the seventh bestowal. In Nebadon,
supreme sovereignty dates from the completion of Michael's bestowal on
Urantia. It has existed just slightly over nineteen hundred years of your
planetary time.
21:3.9 5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty -- the
advanced relationship growing out of the settling of a majority of the
creature domains in light and life. This stage pertains to the unachieved
future of your local universe.
21:3.10 6. Trinitarian sovereignty -- exercised
subsequent to the settling of the entire local universe in light and
life.
21:3.11 7. Unrevealed sovereignty -- the unknown
relationships of a future universe age.
21:3.12 In accepting the initial vicegerent
sovereignty of a projected local universe, a Creator Michael takes an oath to
the Trinity not to assume supreme sovereignty until the seven creature
bestowals have been completed and certified by the superuniverse rulers. But
if a Michael Son could not, at will, assert such unearned sovereignty, there
would be no meaning in taking an oath not to do so.
21:3.13 Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator Son
rules his domain well-nigh supremely when there is no dissent in any of its
parts. Limited rulership would hardly be manifest if sovereignty were never
challenged. The sovereignty exercised by a prebestowal Creator Son in a
universe without rebellion is no greater than in a universe with rebellion;
but in the first instance sovereignty limitations are not apparent; in the
second, they are.
21:3.14 If ever the authority or administration of a
Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally pledged
to uphold, protect, defend, and if necessary retrieve his personal creation.
Such Sons can be troubled or harassed only by the creatures of their own
making or by higher beings of their own choosing. It might be inferred that
"higher beings," those of origin on levels above a local universe, would be
unlikely to trouble a Creator Son, and this is true. But they could if they
chose to. Virtue is volitional with personality; righteousness is not
automatic in freewill creatures.
21:3.15 Before the completion of the bestowal career
a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty, but
subsequent to his finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of his actual
experience in the form and likeness of his manifold creatures. When a Creator
has seven times sojourned among his creatures, when the bestowal career is
finished, then is he supremely settled in universe authority; he has become a
Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.
21:3.16 The technique of obtaining supreme
sovereignty over a local universe involves the following seven experiential
steps:
21:3.17 1. Experientially to penetrate seven
creature levels of being through the technique of incarnated bestowal in the
very likeness of the creatures on the level concerned.
21:3.18 2. To make an experiential consecration to
each phase of the sevenfold will of Paradise Deity as it is personified in the
Seven Master Spirits.
21:3.19 3. To traverse each of the seven experiences
on the creature levels simultaneously with the execution of one of the seven
consecrations to the will of Paradise Deity.
21:3.20 4. On each creature level, experientially to
portray the acme of creature life to Paradise Deity and to all universe
intelligences.
21:3.21 5. On each creature level, experientially to
reveal one phase of the sevenfold will of Deity to the bestowal level and to
all the universe.
21:3.22 6. Experientially to unify the sevenfold
creature experience with the sevenfold experience of consecration to the
revelation of the nature and will of Deity.
21:3.23 7. To achieve new and higher relationship
with the Supreme Being. The repercussion of the totality of this
Creator-creature experience augments the superuniverse reality of God the
Supreme and the time-space sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme and factualizes
the supreme local universe sovereignty of a Paradise Michael.
21:3.24 In settling the question of sovereignty in a
local universe, the Creator Son is not only demonstrating his own fitness to
rule but is also revealing the nature and portraying the sevenfold attitude of
the Paradise Deities. The finite understanding and creature appreciation of
the Father's primacy is concerned in the adventure of a Creator Son when he
condescends to take upon himself the form and experiences of his creatures.
These primary Paradise Sons are the real revealers of the Father's loving
nature and beneficent authority, the same Father who, in association with the
Son and the Spirit, is the universal head of all power, personality, and
government throughout all the universal realms.
4. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS
21:4.1 There are seven groups of bestowal Creator
Sons, and they are so classified in accordance with the number of times they
have bestowed themselves upon the creatures of their realms. They range from
the initial experience up through five additional spheres of progressive
bestowal until they attain the seventh and final episode of creature-Creator
experience.
21:4.2 Avonal bestowals are always in the likeness
of mortal flesh, but the seven bestowals of a Creator Son involve his
appearing on seven creature levels of being and pertain to the revelation of
the seven primary expressions of the will and nature of Deity. Without
exception, all Creator Sons pass through this seven times giving of themselves
to their created children before they assume settled and supreme jurisdiction
over the universes of their own creation.
21:4.3 Though these seven bestowals vary in the
different sectors and universes, they always embrace the mortal-bestowal
adventure. In the final bestowal a Creator Son appears as a member of one of
the higher mortal races on some inhabited world, usually as a member of that
racial group which contains the largest hereditary legacy of the Adamic stock
which has previously been imported to upstep the physical status of the
animal-origin peoples. Only once in his sevenfold career as a bestowal Son is
a Paradise Michael born of woman as you have the record of the babe of
Bethlehem. Only once does he live and die as a member of the lowest order of
evolutionary will creatures.
21:4.4 After each of his bestowals a Creator Son
proceeds to the "right hand of the Father," there to gain the Father's
acceptance of the bestowal and to receive instruction preparatory to the next
episode of universe service. Following the seventh and final bestowal a
Creator Son receives from the Universal Father supreme authority and
jurisdiction over his universe.
21:4.5 It is of record that the divine Son of last
appearance on your planet was a Paradise Creator Son who had completed six
phases of his bestowal career; consequently, when he gave up the conscious
grasp of the incarnated life on Urantia, he could, and did, truly say, "It is
finished" -- it was literally finished. His death on Urantia completed his
bestowal career; it was the last step in fulfilling the sacred oath of a
Paradise Creator Son. And when this experience has been acquired, such Sons
are supreme universe sovereigns; no longer do they rule as vicegerents of the
Father but in their own right and name as "King of Kings and Lord of Lords."
With certain stated exceptions these sevenfold bestowal Sons are unqualifiedly
supreme in the universes of their abode. Concerning his local universe, "all
power in heaven and on earth" was relegated to this triumphant and enthroned
Master Son.
21:4.6 Creator Sons, subsequent to the completion of
their bestowal careers, are reckoned as a separate order, sevenfold Master
Sons. In person the Master Sons are identical with the Creator Sons, but they
have undergone such a unique bestowal experience that they are commonly
regarded as a different order. When a Creator deigns to effect a bestowal, a
real and permanent change is destined to take place. True, the bestowal Son is
still and none the less a Creator, but he has added to his nature the
experience of a creature, which forever removes him from the divine level of a
Creator Son and elevates him to the experiential plane of a Master Son, one
who has fully earned the right to rule a universe and administer its worlds.
Such beings embody all that can be secured from divine parentage and embrace
everything to be derived from perfected-creature experience. Why should man
bemoan his lowly origin and enforced evolutionary career when the very Gods
must pass through an equivalent experience before they are accounted
experientially worthy and competent finally and fully to rule over their
universe domains!
5. RELATION OF MASTER SONS TO THE UNIVERSE
21:5.1 The power of a Master Michael is unlimited
because derived from experienced association with the Paradise Trinity, is
unquestioned because derived from actual experience as the very creatures
subject to such authority. The nature of the sovereignty of a sevenfold
Creator Son is supreme because it:
1. Embraces the sevenfold viewpoint of
Paradise Deity.
2. Embodies a sevenfold attitude of
time-space creatures.
3. Perfectly synthesizes Paradise attitude
and creature viewpoint.
21:5.2 This experiential sovereignty is thus
all-inclusive of the divinity of God the Sevenfold culminating in the Supreme
Being. And the personal sovereignty of a sevenfold Son is like the future
sovereignty of the sometime-to-be-completed Supreme Being, embracing as it
does the fullest possible content of the power and authority of the Paradise
Trinity manifestable within the time-space limits concerned.
21:5.3 With the achievement of supreme local
universe sovereignty, there passes from a Michael Son the power and
opportunity to create entirely new types of creature beings during the present
universe age. But a Master Son's loss of power to originate entirely new
orders of beings in no way interferes with the work of life elaboration
already established and in process of unfoldment; this vast program of
universe evolution goes on without interruption or curtailment. The
acquirement of supreme sovereignty by a Master Son implies the responsibility
of personal devotion to the fostering and the administering of that which has
already been designed and created, and of that which will subsequently be
produced by those who have been thus designed and created. In time there may
develop an almost endless evolution of diverse beings, but no entirely new
pattern or type of intelligent creature will henceforth take direct origin
from a Master Son. This is the first step, the beginning, of a settled
administration in any local universe.
21:5.4 The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal Son to
the unquestioned sovereignty of his universe means the beginning of the end of
agelong uncertainty and relative confusion. Subsequent to this event, that
which cannot be sometime spiritualized will eventually be disorganized; that
which cannot be sometime co-ordinated with cosmic reality will eventually be
destroyed. When the provisions of endless mercy and nameless patience have
been exhausted in an effort to win the loyalty and devotion of the will
creatures of the realms, justice and righteousness will prevail. That which
mercy cannot rehabilitate justice will eventually annihilate.
21:5.5 The Master Michaels are supreme in their own
local universes when once they have been installed as sovereign rulers. The
few limitations upon their rule are those inherent in the cosmic pre-existence
of certain forces and personalities. Otherwise these Master Sons are supreme
in authority, responsibility, and administrative power in their respective
universes; they are as Creators and Gods, supreme in virtually all things.
There is no penetration beyond their wisdom regarding the functioning of a
given universe.
21:5.6 After his elevation to settled sovereignty in
a local universe a Paradise Michael is in full control of all other Sons of
God functioning in his domain, and he may freely rule in accordance with his
concept of the needs of his realms. A Master Son may at will vary the order of
the spiritual adjudication and evolutionary adjustment of the inhabited
planets. And such Sons do make and carry out the plans of their own choosing
in all matters of special planetary needs, in particular regarding the worlds
of their creature sojourn and still more concerning the realm of terminal
bestowal, the planet of incarnation in the likeness of mortal
flesh.
21:5.7 The Master Sons seem to be in perfect
communication with their bestowal worlds, not only the worlds of their
personal sojourn but all worlds whereon a Magisterial Son has bestowed
himself. This contact is maintained by their own spiritual presence, the
Spirit of Truth, which they are able to "pour out upon all flesh." These
Master Sons also maintain an unbroken connection with the Eternal Mother Son
at the center of all things. They possess a sympathetic reach which extends
from the Universal Father on high to the lowly races of planetary life in the
realms of time.
6. DESTINY OF THE MASTER MICHAELS
21:6.1 No one may with finality of authority presume
to discuss either the natures or the destinies of the sevenfold Master
Sovereigns of the local universes; nevertheless, we all speculate much
regarding these matters. We are taught, and we believe, that each Paradise
Michael is the absolute of the dual deity concepts of his origin; thus
he embodies actual phases of the infinity of the Universal Father and the
Eternal Son. The Michaels must be partial in relation to total infinity, but
they are probably absolute in relation to that part of infinity concerned in
their origin. But as we observe their work in the present universe age, we
detect no action that is more than finite; any conjectured superfinite
capacities must be self-contained and as yet unrevealed.
21:6.2 The completion of the creature-bestowal
careers and the elevation to supreme universe sovereignty must signify the
completed liberation of a Michael's finite-action capacities accompanied by
the appearance of capacity for more-than-finite service. For in this
connection we note that such Master Sons are then restricted in the production
of new types of creature beings, a restriction undoubtedly made necessary by
the liberation of their superfinite potentialities.
21:6.3 It is highly probable that these undisclosed
creator powers will remain self-contained throughout the present universe age.
But sometime in the far-distant future, in the now mobilizing universes of
outer space, we believe that the liaison between a sevenfold Master Son and a
seventh-stage Creative Spirit may attain to absonite levels of service
attended by the appearance of new things, meanings, and values on
transcendental levels of ultimate universe significance.
21:6.4 Just as the Deity of the Supreme is
actualizing by virtue of experiential service, so are the Creator Sons
achieving the personal realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials bound
up in their unfathomable natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said,
"I am the way, the truth, and the life." And we believe that in eternity the
Michaels are literally destined to be "the way, the truth, and the life," ever
blazing the path for all universe personalities as it leads from supreme
divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity finality.
21:6.5 Presented by
a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
