PAPER 27
MINISTRY OF THE PRIMARY SUPERNAPHIM
27:0.1 PRIMARY supernaphim are the supernal servants
of the Deities on the eternal Isle of Paradise. Never have they been known to
depart from the paths of light and righteousness. The roll calls are complete;
from eternity not one of this magnificent host has been lost. These high
supernaphim are perfect beings, supreme in perfection, but they are not
absonite, neither are they absolute. Being of the essence of perfection, these
children of the Infinite Spirit work interchangeably and at will in all phases
of their manifold duties. They do not function extensively outside Paradise,
though they do participate in the various millennial gatherings and group
reunions of the central universe. They also go forth as special messengers of
the Deities, and in large numbers they ascend to become Technical
Advisers.
27:0.2 Primary supernaphim are also placed in
command of the seraphic hosts ministering on worlds isolated because of
rebellion. When a Paradise Son is bestowed upon such a world, completes his
mission, ascends to the Universal Father, is accepted, and returns as the
accredited deliverer of this isolated world, a primary supernaphim is always
designated by the chiefs of assignment to assume command of the ministering
spirits on duty in the newly reclaimed sphere. Supernaphim in this special
service are periodically rotated. On Urantia the present "chief of seraphim"
is the second of this order to be on duty since the times of the bestowal of
Christ Michael.
27:0.3 From eternity the primary supernaphim have
served on the Isle of Light and have gone forth on missions of leadership to
the worlds of space, but they have functioned as now classified only since the
arrival on Paradise of the Havona pilgrims of time. These high angels now
minister chiefly in the following seven orders of service:
1. Conductors of Worship.
2. Masters of Philosophy.
3. Custodians of Knowledge.
4. Directors of Conduct.
5. Interpreters of Ethics.
6. Chiefs of Assignment.
7. Instigators of Rest.
27:0.4 Not until the ascending pilgrims actually
attain Paradise residence do they come under the direct influence of these
supernaphim, and then they pass through a training experience under the
direction of these angels in the reverse order of their naming. That is, you
enter upon your Paradise career under the tutelage of the instigators of rest
and, after successive seasons with the intervening orders, finish this
training period with the conductors of worship. Thereupon are you ready to
begin the endless career of a finaliter.
1. INSTIGATORS OF REST
27:1.1 The instigators of rest are the inspectors of
Paradise who go forth from the central Isle to the inner circuit of Havona,
there to collaborate with their colleagues, the complements of rest of the
secondary order of supernaphim. The one essential to the enjoyment of Paradise
is rest, divine rest; and these instigators of rest are the final instructors
who make ready the pilgrims of time for their introduction to eternity. They
begin their work on the final attainment circle of the central universe and
continue it when the pilgrim awakes from the last transition sleep, the
slumber which graduates a creature of space into the realm of the eternal.
27:1.2 Rest is of a sevenfold nature: There is the
rest of sleep and of play in the lower life orders, discovery in the higher
beings, and worship in the highest type of spirit personality. There is also
the normal rest of energy intake, the recharging of beings with physical or
with spiritual energy. And then there is the transit sleep, the unconscious
slumber when enseraphimed, when in passage from one sphere to another.
Entirely different from all of these is the deep sleep of metamorphosis, the
transition rest from one stage of being to another, from one life to another,
from one state of existence to another, the sleep which ever attends
transition from actual universe status in contrast to evolution through
various stages of any one status.
27:1.3 But the last metamorphic sleep is something
more than those previous transition slumbers which have marked the successive
status attainments of the ascendant career; thereby do the creatures of time
and space traverse the innermost margins of the temporal and the spatial to
attain residential status in the timeless and spaceless abodes of Paradise.
The instigators and the complements of rest are just as essential to this
transcending metamorphosis as are the seraphim and associated beings to the
mortal creature's survival of death.
27:1.4 You enter the rest on the final Havona
circuit and are eternally resurrected on Paradise. And as you there
spiritually repersonalize, you will immediately recognize the instigator of
rest who welcomes you to the eternal shores as the very primary supernaphim
who produced the final sleep on the innermost circuit of Havona; and you will
recall the last grand stretch of faith as you once again made ready to commend
the keeping of your identity into the hands of the Universal
Father.
27:1.5 The last rest of time has been enjoyed; the
last transition sleep has been experienced; now you awake to life everlasting
on the shores of the eternal abode. "And there shall be no more sleep. The
presence of God and his Son are before you, and you are eternally his
servants; you have seen his face, and his name is your spirit. There shall be
no night there; and they need no light of the sun, for the Great Source and
Center gives them light; they shall live forever and ever. And God shall wipe
away all tears from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow
nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have
passed away."
2. CHIEFS OF ASSIGNMENT
27:2.1 This is the group designated from time to
time by the chief supernaphim, "the original pattern angel," to preside over
the organization of all three orders of these angels -- primary, secondary,
and tertiary. The supernaphim, as a body, are wholly self-governing and
self-regulatory except for the functions of their mutual chief, the first
angel of Paradise, who ever presides over all these spirit
personalities.
27:2.2 The angels of assignment have much to do with
glorified mortal residents of Paradise before they are admitted to the Corps
of the Finality. Study and instruction are not the exclusive occupations of
Paradise arrivals; service also plays its essential part in the prefinaliter
educational experiences of Paradise. And I have observed that, when the
ascendant mortals have periods of leisure, they evince a predilection to
fraternize with the reserve corps of the superaphic chiefs of
assignment.
27:2.3 When you mortal ascenders attain Paradise,
your societal relationships involve a great deal more than contact with a host
of exalted and divine beings and with a familiar multitude of glorified fellow
mortals. You must also fraternize with upwards of three thousand different
orders of Paradise Citizens, with the various groups of the Transcendentalers,
and with numerous other types of Paradise inhabitants, permanent and
transient, who have not been revealed on Urantia. After sustained contact with
these mighty intellects of Paradise, it is very restful to visit with the
angelic types of mind; they remind the mortals of time of the seraphim with
whom they have had such long contact and such refreshing association.
3. INTERPRETERS OF ETHICS
27:3.1 The higher you ascend in the scale of life,
the more attention must be paid to universe ethics. Ethical awareness is
simply the recognition by any individual of the rights inherent in the
existence of any and all other individuals. But spiritual ethics far
transcends the mortal and even the morontia concept of personal and group
relations.
27:3.2 Ethics has been duly taught and adequately
learned by the pilgrims of time in their long ascent to the glories of
Paradise. As this inward-ascending career has unfolded from the nativity
worlds of space, the ascenders have continued to add group after group to
their ever-widening circle of universe associates. Every new group of
colleagues met with adds one more level of ethics to be recognized and
complied with until, by the time the mortals of ascent reach Paradise, they
really need someone to provide helpful and friendly counsel regarding ethical
interpretations. They do not need to be taught ethics, but they do need to
have what they have so laboriously learned properly interpreted to them
as they are brought face to face with the extraordinary task of contacting
with so much that is new.
27:3.3 The interpreters of ethics are of inestimable
assistance to the Paradise arrivals in helping them to adjust to numerous
groups of majestic beings during that eventful period extending from the
attainment of residential status to formal induction into the Corps of Mortal
Finaliters. Many of the numerous types of Paradise Citizens the ascendant
pilgrims have already met on the seven circuits of Havona. The glorified
mortals have also enjoyed intimate contact with the creature-trinitized sons
of the conjoint corps on the inner Havona circuit, where these beings are
receiving much of their education. And on the other circuits the ascending
pilgrims have met numerous unrevealed residents of the Paradise-Havona system
who are there pursuing group training in preparation for the unrevealed
assignments of the future.
27:3.4 All these celestial companionships are
invariably mutual. As ascending mortals you not only derive benefit from these
successive universe companions and such numerous orders of increasingly divine
associates, but you also impart to each of these fraternal beings something
from your own personality and experience which forever makes every one of them
different and better for having been associated with an ascending mortal from
the evolutionary worlds of time and space.
4. DIRECTORS OF CONDUCT
27:4.1 Having already been fully instructed in the
ethics of Paradise relationships -- neither meaningless formalities nor the
dictations of artificial castes but rather the inherent proprieties -- the
ascendant mortals find it helpful to receive the counsel of the superaphic
directors of conduct, who instruct the new members of Paradise society in the
usages of the perfect conduct of the high beings who sojourn on the central
Isle of Light and Life.
27:4.2 Harmony is the keynote of the central
universe, and detectable order prevails on Paradise. Proper conduct is
essential to progress by way of knowledge, through philosophy, to the
spiritual heights of spontaneous worship. There is a divine technique in the
approach to Divinity; and the acquirement of this technique must await the
pilgrims' arrival on Paradise. The spirit of it has been imparted on the
circles of Havona, but the final touches of the training of the pilgrims of
time can be applied only after they actually attain the Isle of
Light.
27:4.3 All Paradise conduct is wholly spontaneous,
in every sense natural and free. But there still is a proper and perfect way
of doing things on the eternal Isle, and the directors of conduct are ever by
the side of the "strangers within the gates" to instruct them and so guide
their steps as to put them at perfect ease and at the same time to enable the
pilgrims to avoid that confusion and uncertainty which would otherwise be
inevitable. Only by such an arrangement could endless confusion be avoided;
and confusion never appears on Paradise.
27:4.4 These directors of conduct really serve as
glorified teachers and guides. They are chiefly concerned with instructing the
new mortal residents regarding the almost endless array of new situations and
unfamiliar usages. Notwithstanding all the long preparation therefor and the
long journey thereto, Paradise is still inexpressibly strange and unexpectedly
new to those who finally attain residential status.
5. THE CUSTODIANS OF KNOWLEDGE
27:5.1 The superaphic custodians of knowledge are
the higher "living epistles" known and read by all who dwell on Paradise. They
are the divine records of truth, the living books of real knowledge. You have
heard about records in the "book of life." The custodians of knowledge are
just such living books, records of perfection imprinted upon the eternal
tablets of divine life and supreme surety. They are in reality living,
automatic libraries. The facts of the universes are inherent in these primary
supernaphim, actually recorded in these angels; and it is also inherently
impossible for an untruth to gain lodgment in the minds of these perfect and
replete repositories of the truth of eternity and the intelligence of
time.
27:5.2 These custodians conduct informal courses of
instruction for the residents of the eternal Isle, but their chief function is
that of reference and verification. Any sojourner on Paradise may at will have
by his side the living repository of the particular fact or truth he may wish
to know. At the northern extremity of the Isle there are available the living
finders of knowledge, who will designate the director of the group holding the
information sought, and forthwith will appear the brilliant beings who
are the very thing you wish to know. No longer must you seek
enlightenment from engrossed pages; you now commune with living intelligence
face to face. Supreme knowledge you thus obtain from the living beings who are
its final custodians.
27:5.3 When you locate that supernaphim who is
exactly what you desire to verify, you will find available all the
known facts of all universes, for these custodians of knowledge are the final
and living summaries of the vast network of the recording angels, ranging from
the seraphim and seconaphim of the local and superuniverses to the chief
recorders of the tertiary supernaphim in Havona. And this living accumulation
of knowledge is distinct from the formal records of Paradise, the cumulative
summary of universal history.
27:5.4 The wisdom of truth takes origin in the
divinity of the central universe, but knowledge, experiential knowledge,
largely has its beginnings in the domains of time and space -- therefore the
necessity for the maintenance of the far-flung superuniverse organizations of
the recording seraphim and supernaphim sponsored by the Celestial
Recorders.
27:5.5 These primary supernaphim who are inherently
in possession of universe knowledge are also responsible for its organization
and classification. In constituting themselves the living reference library of
the universe of universes, they have classified knowledge into seven grand
orders, each having about one million subdivisions. The facility with which
the residents of Paradise can consult this vast store of knowledge is solely
due to the voluntary and wise efforts of the custodians of knowledge. The
custodians are also the exalted teachers of the central universe, freely
giving out their living treasures to all beings on any of the Havona circuits,
and they are extensively, though indirectly, utilized by the courts of the
Ancients of Days. But this living library, which is available to the central
and superuniverses, is not accessible to the local creations. Only by
indirection and reflectively are the benefits of Paradise knowledge secured in
the local universes.
6. MASTERS OF PHILOSOPHY
27:6.1 Next to the supreme satisfaction of worship
is the exhilaration of philosophy. Never do you climb so high or advance so
far that there do not remain a thousand mysteries which demand the employment
of philosophy in an attempted solution.
27:6.2 The master philosophers of Paradise delight
to lead the minds of its inhabitants, both native and ascendant, in the
exhilarating pursuit of attempting to solve universe problems. These
superaphic masters of philosophy are the "wise men of heaven," the beings of
wisdom who make use of the truth of knowledge and the facts of experience in
their efforts to master the unknown. With them knowledge attains to truth and
experience ascends to wisdom. On Paradise the ascendant personalities of space
experience the heights of being: They have knowledge; they know the truth;
they may philosophize -- think the truth; they may even seek to encompass the
concepts of the Ultimate and attempt to grasp the techniques of the
Absolutes.
27:6.3 At the southern extremity of the vast
Paradise domain the masters of philosophy conduct elaborate courses in the
seventy functional divisions of wisdom. Here they discourse upon the plans and
purposes of Infinity and seek to co-ordinate the experiences, and to compose
the knowledge, of all who have access to their wisdom. They have developed a
highly specialized attitude toward various universe problems, but their final
conclusions are always in uniform agreement.
27:6.4 These Paradise philosophers teach by every
possible method of instruction, including the higher graph technique of Havona
and certain Paradise methods of communicating information. All of these higher
techniques of imparting knowledge and conveying ideas are utterly beyond the
comprehension capacity of even the most highly developed human mind. One
hour's instruction on Paradise would be the equivalent of ten thousand years
of the word-memory methods of Urantia. You cannot grasp such communication
techniques, and there is simply nothing in mortal experience with which they
may be compared, nothing to which they can be likened.
27:6.5 The masters of philosophy take supreme
pleasure in imparting their interpretation of the universe of universes to
those beings who have ascended from the worlds of space. And while philosophy
can never be as settled in its conclusions as the facts of knowledge and the
truths of experience, yet, when you have listened to these primary supernaphim
discourse upon the unsolved problems of eternity and the performances of the
Absolutes, you will feel a certain and lasting satisfaction concerning these
unmastered questions.
27:6.6 These intellectual pursuits of Paradise are
not broadcast; the philosophy of perfection is available only to those who are
personally present. The encircling creations know of these teachings only from
those who have passed through this experience, and who have subsequently
carried this wisdom out to the universes of space.
7. CONDUCTORS OF WORSHIP
27:7.1 Worship is the highest privilege and the
first duty of all created intelligences. Worship is the conscious and joyous
act of recognizing and acknowledging the truth and fact of the intimate and
personal relationships of the Creators with their creatures. The quality of
worship is determined by the depth of creature perception; and as the
knowledge of the infinite character of the Gods progresses, the act of worship
becomes increasingly all-encompassing until it eventually attains the glory of
the highest experiential delight and the most exquisite pleasure known to
created beings.
27:7.2 While the Isle of Paradise contains certain
places of worship, it is more nearly one vast sanctuary of divine service.
Worship is the first and dominant passion of all who climb to its blissful
shores -- the spontaneous ebullition of the beings who have learned enough of
God to attain his presence. Circle by circle, during the inward journey
through Havona, worship is a growing passion until on Paradise it becomes
necessary to direct and otherwise control its expression.
27:7.3 The periodic, spontaneous, group, and other
special outbursts of supreme adoration and spiritual praise enjoyed on
Paradise are conducted under the leadership of a special corps of primary
supernaphim. Under the direction of these conductors of worship, such homage
achieves the creature goal of supreme pleasure and attains the heights of the
perfection of sublime self-expression and personal enjoyment. All primary
supernaphim crave to be conductors of worship; and all ascendant beings would
enjoy forever remaining in the attitude of worship did not the chiefs of
assignment periodically disperse these assemblages. But no ascendant being is
ever required to enter upon the assignments of eternal service until he has
attained full satisfaction in worship.
27:7.4 It is the task of the conductors of worship
so to teach the ascendant creatures how to worship that they may be enabled to
gain this satisfaction of self-expression and at the same time be able to give
attention to the essential activities of the Paradise regime. Without
improvement in the technique of worship it would require hundreds of years for
the average mortal who reaches Paradise to give full and satisfactory
expression to his emotions of intelligent appreciation and ascendant
gratitude. The conductors of worship open up new and hitherto unknown avenues
of expression so that these wonderful children of the womb of space and the
travail of time are enabled to gain the full satisfactions of worship in much
less time.
27:7.5 All the arts of all the beings of the entire
universe which are capable of intensifying and exalting the abilities of
self-expression and the conveyance of appreciation, are employed to their
highest capacity in the worship of the Paradise Deities. Worship is the
highest joy of Paradise existence; it is the refreshing play of Paradise.
What play does for your jaded minds on earth, worship will do for your
perfected souls on Paradise. The mode of worship on Paradise is utterly beyond
mortal comprehension, but the spirit of it you can begin to appreciate even
down here on Urantia, for the spirits of the Gods even now indwell you, hover
over you, and inspire you to true worship.
27:7.6 There are appointed times and places for
worship on Paradise, but these are not adequate to accommodate the
ever-increasing overflow of the spiritual emotions of the growing intelligence
and expanding divinity recognition of the brilliant beings of experiential
ascension to the eternal Isle. Never since the times of Grandfanda have the
supernaphim been able fully to accommodate the spirit of worship on Paradise.
Always is there an excess of worshipfulness as gauged by the preparation
therefor. And this is because personalities of inherent perfection never can
fully appreciate the tremendous reactions of the spiritual emotions of beings
who have slowly and laboriously made their way upward to Paradise glory from
the depths of the spiritual darkness of the lower worlds of time and space.
When such angels and mortals of time attain the presence of the Powers of
Paradise, there occurs the expression of the accumulated emotions of the ages,
a spectacle astounding to the angels of Paradise and productive of the supreme
joy of divine satisfaction in the Paradise Deities.
27:7.7 Sometimes all Paradise becomes engulfed in a
dominating tide of spiritual and worshipful expression. Often the conductors
of worship cannot control such phenomena until the appearance of the threefold
fluctuation of the light of the Deity abode, signifying that the divine heart
of the Gods has been fully and completely satisfied by the sincere worship of
the residents of Paradise, the perfect citizens of glory and the ascendant
creatures of time. What a triumph of technique! What a fruition of the eternal
plan and purpose of the Gods that the intelligent love of the creature child
should give full satisfaction to the infinite love of the Creator Father!
27:7.8 After the attainment of the supreme
satisfaction of the fullness of worship, you are qualified for admission to
the Corps of the Finality. The ascendant career is well-nigh finished, and the
seventh jubilee prepares for celebration. The first jubilee marked the mortal
agreement with the Thought Adjuster when the purpose to survive was sealed;
the second was the awakening in the morontia life; the third was the fusion
with the Thought Adjuster; the fourth was the awakening in Havona; the fifth
celebrated the finding of the Universal Father; and the sixth jubilee was the
occasion of the Paradise awakening from the final transit slumber of time. The
seventh jubilee marks entrance into the mortal finaliter corps and the
beginning of the eternity service. The attainment of the seventh stage of
spirit realization by a finaliter will probably signalize the celebration of
the first of the jubilees of eternity.
27:7.9 And thus ends the story of the Paradise
supernaphim, the highest order of all the ministering spirits, those beings
who, as a universal class, ever attend you from the world of your origin until
you are finally bidden farewell by the conductors of worship as you take the
Trinity oath of eternity and are mustered into the Mortal Corps of the
Finality.
27:7.10 The endless service of the Paradise Trinity
is about to begin; and now the finaliter is face to face with the challenge of
God the Ultimate.
27:7.11 Presented
by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.
