PAPER 39
THE SERAPHIC HOSTS
39:0.1 AS FAR as we are cognizant, the Infinite
Spirit, as personalized on the local universe headquarters, intends to produce
uniformly perfect seraphim, but for some unknown reason these seraphic
offspring are very diverse. This diversity may be a result of the unknown
interposition of evolving experiential Deity; if so, we cannot prove it. But
we do observe that, when seraphim have been subjected to educational tests and
training discipline, they unfailingly and distinctly classify into the
following seven groups:
1. Supreme Seraphim.
2. Superior Seraphim.
3. Supervisor Seraphim.
4. Administrator Seraphim.
5. Planetary Helpers.
6. Transition Ministers.
7. Seraphim of the Future.
39:0.2 To say that any one seraphim is inferior to
an angel of any other group would hardly be true. Nevertheless every angel is
at first service-limited to the group of original and inherent classification.
My seraphic associate in the preparation of this statement, Manotia, is a
supreme seraphim and onetime functioned only as a supreme seraphim. By
application and devoted service she has, one by one, achieved all seven of the
seraphic services, having functioned in well-nigh every avenue of activity
open to a seraphim, and now holds the commission of associate chief of
seraphim on Urantia.
39:0.3 Human beings sometimes find it hard to
understand that a created capacity for higher-level ministry does not
necessarily imply ability to function on relatively lower service levels. Man
begins life as a helpless infant; hence every mortal attainment must embrace
all experiential prerequisites; seraphim have no such preadult life -- no
childhood. They are, however, experiential creatures, and by experience and
through additional education they can augment their divine and inherent
endowment of ability by the experiential acquirement of functional skill in
one or more of the seraphic services.
39:0.4 After being commissioned, seraphim are
assigned to the reserves of their inherent group. Those of planetary and
administrator status often serve for long periods as originally classified,
but the higher the inherent function level, the more persistently do the
angelic ministers seek assignment to the lower orders of universe service.
Especially do they desire assignment to the reserves of the planetary helpers,
and if successful they enroll in the celestial schools attached to the
headquarters of the Planetary Prince of some evolutionary world. Here they
begin the study of the languages, history, and local habits of the races of
mankind. Seraphim must acquire knowledge and gain experience much as do human
beings. They are not far removed from you in certain personality attributes.
And they all crave to start at the bottom, on the lowest possible level of
ministry; thus may they hope to achieve the highest possible level of
experiential destiny.
1. SUPREME SERAPHIM
39:1.1 These seraphim are the highest of the seven
revealed orders of local universe angels. They function in seven groups, each
of which is closely associated with the angelic ministers of the Seraphic
Corps of Completion.
39:1.2 1. Son-Spirit Ministers. The first
group of the supreme seraphim are assigned to the service of the high Sons and
Spirit-origin beings resident and functioning in the local universe. This
group of angelic ministers also serve the Universe Son and the Universe Spirit
and are closely affiliated with the intelligence corps of the Bright and
Morning Star, the universe chief executive of the united wills of the Creator
Son and the Creative Spirit.
39:1.3 Being of assignment to the high Sons and
Spirits, these seraphim are naturally associated with the far-flung services
of the Paradise Avonals, the divine offspring of the Eternal Son and the
Infinite Spirit. The Paradise Avonals are always attended on all magisterial
and bestowal missions by this high and experienced order of seraphim, who are
at such times devoted to organizing and administering the special work
connected with the termination of one planetary dispensation and the
inauguration of a new age. But they are not concerned in the work of
adjudication which might be incidental to such a change in dispensations.
39:1.4 Bestowal Attendants. Paradise Avonals,
but not Creator Sons, when on a bestowal mission are always accompanied by a
corps of 144 bestowal attendants. These 144 angels are the chiefs of all other
Son-Spirit ministers who may be associated with a bestowal mission. There
might possibly be legions of angels subject to the command of an incarnated
Son of God on a planetary bestowal, but all these seraphim would be organized
and directed by the 144 bestowal attendants. Higher orders of angels,
supernaphim and seconaphim, might also form a part of the attending host, and
though their missions are distinct from those of the seraphim, all these
activities would be co-ordinated by the bestowal attendants.
39:1.5 These bestowal attendants are completion
seraphim; they have all traversed the circles of Seraphington and have
attained the Seraphic Corps of Completion. And they have been further
especially trained to meet the difficulties and to cope with the emergencies
associated with the bestowals of the Sons of God for the advancement of the
children of time. Such seraphim have all achieved Paradise and the personal
embrace of the Second Source and Center, the Eternal Son.
39:1.6 Seraphim equally crave assignment to the
missions of the incarnated Sons and attachment as destiny guardians to the
mortals of the realms; the latter is the surest seraphic passport to Paradise,
while the bestowal attendants have achieved the highest local universe service
of the completion seraphim of Paradise attainment.
39:1.7 2. Court Advisers. These are the
seraphic advisers and helpers attached to all orders of adjudication, from the
conciliators up to the highest tribunals of the realm. It is not the purpose
of such tribunals to determine punitive sentences but rather to adjudicate
honest differences of opinion and to decree the everlasting survival of
ascending mortals. Herein lies the duty of the court advisers: to see that all
charges against mortal creatures are stated in justice and adjudicated in
mercy. In this work they are closely associated with the High Commissioners,
Spirit-fused ascendant mortals serving in the local universe.
39:1.8 The seraphic court advisers serve extensively
as defenders of mortals. Not that there ever exists any disposition to be
unfair to the lowly creatures of the realms, but while justice demands the
adjudication of every default in the climb towards divine perfection, mercy
requires that every such misstep be fairly adjudged in accordance with the
creature nature and the divine purpose. These angels are the exponents and
exemplification of the element of mercy inherent in divine justice -- of
fairness based on the knowledge of the underlying facts of personal motives
and racial tendencies.
39:1.9 This order of angels serves from the councils
of the Planetary Princes to the highest tribunals of the local universe, while
their associates of the Seraphic Corps of Completion function in the higher
realms of Orvonton, even to the courts of the Ancients of Days on
Uversa.
39:1.10 3. Universe Orientators. These are
the true friends and postgraduate counselors of all those ascending creatures
who are pausing for the last time on Salvington, in their universe of origin,
as they stand on the brink of the spirit adventure stretching out before them
in the vast superuniverse of Orvonton. And at such a time many an ascender has
a feeling which mortals could understand only by comparison with the human
emotion of nostalgia. Behind lie the realms of achievement, realms grown
familiar by long service and morontia attainment; ahead lies the challenging
mystery of a greater and vaster universe.
39:1.11 It is the task of the universe orientators
to facilitate the passage of the ascending pilgrims from the attained to the
unattained level of universe service, to help these pilgrims in making those
kaleidoscopic adjustments in the comprehension of meanings and values inherent
in the realization that a first-stage spirit being stands, not at the end and
climax of the local universe morontia ascent, but rather at the very bottom of
the long ladder of spiritual ascent to the Universal Father on
Paradise.
39:1.12 Many of the Seraphington graduates, members
of the Seraphic Corps of Completion who are associated with these seraphim,
engage in extensive teaching in certain Salvington schools concerned with the
preparation of the creatures of Nebadon for the relationships of the next
universe age.
39:1.13 4. The Teaching Counselors. These
angels are the invaluable assistants of the spiritual teaching corps of the
local universe. Teaching counselors are secretaries to all orders of teachers,
from the Melchizedeks and the Trinity Teacher Sons down to the morontia
mortals who are assigned as helpers to those of their kind who are just behind
them in the scale of ascendant life. You will first see these associate
teaching seraphim on some one of the seven mansion worlds surrounding
Jerusem.
39:1.14 These seraphim become associates of the
division chiefs of the numerous educational and training institutions of the
local universes, and they are attached in large numbers to the faculties of
the seven training worlds of the local systems and of the seventy educational
spheres of the constellations. These ministrations extend on down to the
individual worlds. Even the true and consecrated teachers of time are
assisted, and often attended, by these counselors of the supreme
seraphim.
39:1.15 The fourth creature bestowal of the Creator
Son was in the likeness of a teaching counselor of the supreme seraphim of
Nebadon.
39:1.16 5. Directors of Assignment. A body of
144 supreme seraphim is elected from time to time by the angels serving on the
evolutionary and on the architectural spheres of creature habitation. This is
the highest angelic council on any sphere, and it co-ordinates the
self-directed phases of seraphic service and assignment. These angels preside
over all seraphic assemblies pertaining to the line of duty or the call to
worship.
39:1.17 6. The Recorders. These are the
official recorders for the supreme seraphim. Many of these high angels were
born with their gifts fully developed; others have qualified for their
positions of trust and responsibility by diligent application to study and
faithful performance of similar duties while attached to lower or less
responsible orders.
39:1.18 7. Unattached Ministers. Large
numbers of unattached seraphim of the supreme order are self-directed servers
on the architectural spheres and on the inhabited planets. Such ministers
voluntarily meet the differential of demand for the service of the supreme
seraphim, thus constituting the general reserve of this order.
2. SUPERIOR SERAPHIM
39:2.1 Superior seraphim receive their name, not
because they are in any sense qualitatively superior to other orders of
angels, but because they are in charge of the higher activities of a local
universe. Very many of the first two groups of this seraphic corps are
attainment seraphim, angels who have served in all phases of training and have
returned to a glorified assignment as directors of their kind in the spheres
of their earlier activities. Being a young universe, Nebadon does not have
many of this order.
39:2.2 The superior seraphim function in the
following seven groups:
39:2.3 1. The Intelligence Corps. These
seraphim belong to the personal staff of Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star.
They range the local universe gathering the information of the realms for his
guidance in the councils of Nebadon. They are the intelligence corps of the
mighty hosts over which Gabriel presides as vicegerent of the Master Son.
These seraphim are not directly affiliated with either the systems or the
constellations, and their information pours in direct to Salvington upon a
continuous, direct, and independent circuit.
39:2.4 The intelligence corps of the various local
universes can and do intercommunicate but only within a given superuniverse.
There is a differential of energy which effectively segregates the business
and transactions of the various supergovernments. One superuniverse can
ordinarily communicate with another superuniverse only through the provisions
and facilities of the Paradise clearinghouse.
39:2.5 2. The Voice of Mercy. Mercy is the
keynote of seraphic service and angelic ministry. It is therefore fitting that
there should be a corps of angels who, in a special manner, portray mercy.
These seraphim are the real mercy ministers of the local universes. They are
the inspired leaders who foster the higher impulses and holier emotions of men
and angels. The directors of these legions are now always completion seraphim
who are also graduate guardians of mortal destiny; that is, each angelic pair
has guided at least one soul of animal origin during the life in the flesh and
has subsequently traversed the circles of Seraphington and has been mustered
into the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:2.6 3. Spirit Co-ordinators. The third
group of superior seraphim are based on Salvington but function in the local
universe anywhere they can be of fruitful service. While their tasks are
essentially spiritual and therefore beyond the real understanding of human
minds, you will perhaps grasp something of their ministry to mortals if it is
explained that these angels are intrusted with the task of preparing the
ascendant sojourners on Salvington for their last transition in the local
universe -- from the highest morontia level to the status of newborn spirit
beings. As the mind planners on the mansion worlds help the surviving creature
to adjust to, and make effective use of, the potentials of morontia mind, so
do these seraphim instruct the morontia graduates on Salvington regarding the
newly attained capacities of the mind of the spirit. And they serve the
ascendant mortals in many other ways.
39:2.7 4. Assistant Teachers. The assistant
teachers are the helpers and associates of their fellow seraphim, the teaching
counselors. They are also individually connected with the extensive
educational enterprises of the local universe, especially with the sevenfold
scheme of training operative on the mansion worlds of the local systems. A
marvelous corps of this order of seraphim functions on Urantia for the purpose
of fostering and furthering the cause of truth and righteousness.
39:2.8 5. The Transporters. All groups of
ministering spirits have their transport corps, angelic orders dedicated to
the ministry of transporting those personalities who are unable, of
themselves, to journey from one sphere to another. The fifth group of the
superior seraphim are headquartered on Salvington and serve as space
traversers to and from the headquarters of the local universe. Like other
subdivisions of the superior seraphim, some were created as such while others
have risen from the lower or less endowed groups.
39:2.9 The "energy range" of seraphim is wholly
adequate for local universe and even for superuniverse requirements, but they
could never withstand the energy demands entailed by such a long journey as
that from Uversa to Havona. Such an exhaustive journey requires the special
powers of a primary seconaphim of transport endowments. Transporters take on
energy for flight while in transit and recuperate personal power at the end of
the journey.
39:2.10 Even on Salvington ascending mortals do not
possess personal transit forms. Ascenders must depend upon seraphic transport
in advancing from world to world until after the last rest of sleep on the
inner circle of Havona and the eternal awakening on Paradise. Subsequently you
will not be dependent on angels for transport from universe to
universe.
39:2.11 The process of being enseraphimed is not
unlike the experience of death or sleep except that there is an automatic time
element in the transit slumber. You are consciously unconscious during
seraphic rest. But the Thought Adjuster is wholly and fully conscious, in
fact, exceptionally efficient since you are unable to oppose, resist, or
otherwise hinder creative and transforming work.
39:2.12 When enseraphimed, you go to sleep for a
specified time, and you will awake at the designated moment. The length of a
journey when in transit sleep is immaterial. You are not directly aware of the
passing of time. It is as if you went to sleep on a transport vehicle in one
city and, after resting in peaceful slumber all night, awakened in another and
distant metropolis. You journeyed while you slumbered. And so you take flight
through space, enseraphimed, while you rest -- sleep. The transit sleep is
induced by the liaison between the Adjusters and the seraphic transporters.
39:2.13 The angels cannot transport combustion
bodies -- flesh and blood -- such as you now have, but they can transport all
others, from the lowest morontia to the higher spirit forms. They do not
function in the event of natural death. When you finish your earthly career,
your body remains on this planet. Your Thought Adjuster proceeds to the bosom
of the Father, and these angels are not directly concerned in your subsequent
personality reassembly on the identification mansion world. There your new
body is a morontia form, one that can enseraphim. You "sow a mortal body" in
the grave; you "reap a morontia form" on the mansion worlds.
39:2.14 6. The Recorders. These personalities
are especially concerned with the reception, filing, and redispatch of the
records of Salvington and its associated worlds. They also serve as special
recorders for resident groups of superuniverse and higher personalities and as
clerks of the courts of Salvington and secretaries to the rulers thereof.
39:2.15 Broadcasters -- receivers and
dispatchers -- are a specialized subdivision of the seraphic recorders, being
concerned with the dispatch of records and with the dissemination of essential
information. Their work is of a high order, being so multicircuited that
144,000 messages can simultaneously traverse the same lines of energy. They
adapt the higher ideographic techniques of the superaphic chief recorders and
with these common symbols maintain reciprocal contact with both the
intelligence co-ordinators of the tertiary supernaphim and the glorified
intelligence co-ordinators of the Seraphic Corps of Completion.
39:2.16 Seraphic recorders of the superior order
thus effect a close liaison with the intelligence corps of their own order and
with all subordinate recorders, while the broadcasts enable them to maintain
constant communication with the higher recorders of the superuniverse and,
through this channel, with the recorders of Havona and the custodians of
knowledge on Paradise. Many of the superior order of recorders are seraphim
ascended from similar duties in lower sections of the universe.
39:2.17 7. The Reserves. Large reserves of
all types of the superior seraphim are held on Salvington, instantly available
for dispatch to the farthermost worlds of Nebadon as they are requisitioned by
the directors of assignment or upon the request of the universe
administrators. The reserves of superior seraphim also furnish messenger aids
upon requisition by the chief of the Brilliant Evening Stars, who is intrusted
with the custody and dispatch of all personal communications. A local universe
is fully provided with adequate means of intercommunication, but there is
always a residue of messages which requires dispatch by personal messengers.
39:2.18 The basic reserves for the entire local
universe are held on the seraphic worlds of Salvington. This corps includes
all types of all groups of angels.
3. SUPERVISOR SERAPHIM
39:3.1 This versatile order of universe angels is
assigned to the exclusive service of the constellations. These able ministers
make their headquarters on the constellation capitals but function throughout
all Nebadon in the interests of their assigned realms.
39:3.2 1. Supervising Assistants. The first
order of the supervising seraphim are assigned to the collective work of the
Constellation Fathers, and they are the ever-efficient helpers of the Most
Highs. These seraphim are primarily concerned with the unification and
stabilization of a whole constellation.
39:3.3 2. Law Forecasters. The intellectual
foundation of justice is law, and in a local universe law originates in the
legislative assemblies of the constellations. These deliberative bodies codify
and formally promulgate the basic laws of Nebadon, laws designed to afford the
greatest possible co-ordination of a whole constellation consistent with the
fixed policy of noninfringement of the moral free will of personal creatures.
It is the duty of the second order of supervisor seraphim to place before the
constellation lawmakers a forecast of how any proposed enactment would affect
the lives of freewill creatures. This service they are well qualified to
perform by virtue of long experience in the local systems and on the inhabited
worlds. These seraphim seek no special favors for one group or another, but
they do appear before the celestial lawmakers to speak for those who cannot be
present to speak for themselves. Even mortal man may contribute to the
evolution of universe law, for these very seraphim do faithfully and fully
portray, not necessarily man's transient and conscious desires, but rather the
true longings of the inner man, the evolving morontia soul of the material
mortal on the worlds of space.
39:3.4 3. Social Architects. From the
individual planets up through the morontia training worlds, these seraphim
labor to enhance all sincere social contacts and to further the social
evolution of universe creatures. These are the angels who seek to divest the
associations of intelligent beings of all artificiality while endeavoring to
facilitate the interassociation of will creatures on a basis of real
self-understanding and genuine mutual appreciation.
39:3.5 Social architects do everything within their
province and power to bring together suitable individuals that they may
constitute efficient and agreeable working groups on earth; and sometimes such
groups have found themselves reassociated on the mansion worlds for continued
fruitful service. But not always do these seraphim attain their ends; not
always are they able to bring together those who would form the most ideal
group to achieve a given purpose or to accomplish a certain task; under these
conditions they must utilize the best of the material available.
39:3.6 These angels continue their ministry on the
mansion and higher morontia worlds. They are concerned with any undertaking
having to do with progress on the morontia worlds and which concerns three or
more persons. Two beings are regarded as operating on the mating,
complemental, or partnership basis, but when three or more are grouped for
service, they constitute a social problem and therefore fall within the
jurisdiction of the social architects. These efficient seraphim are organized
in seventy divisions on Edentia, and these divisions minister on the seventy
morontia progress worlds encircling the headquarters sphere.
39:3.7 4. Ethical Sensitizers. It is the
mission of these seraphim to foster and to promote the growth of creature
appreciation of the morality of interpersonal relationships, for such is the
seed and secret of the continued and purposeful growth of society and
government, human or superhuman. These enhancers of ethical appreciation
function anywhere and everywhere they may be of service, as volunteer
counselors to the planetary rulers and as exchange teachers on the system
training worlds. You will not, however, come under their full guidance until
you reach the brotherhood schools on Edentia, where they will quicken your
appreciation of those very truths of fraternity which you will even then be so
earnestly exploring by the actual experience of living with the univitatia in
the social laboratories of Edentia, the seventy satellites of the Norlatiadek
capital.
39:3.8 5. The Transporters. The fifth group
of supervisor seraphim operate as personality transporters, carrying beings to
and from the headquarters of the constellations. Such transport seraphim,
while in flight from one sphere to another, are fully conscious of their
velocity, direction, and astronomic whereabouts. They are not traversing space
as would an inanimate projectile. They may pass near one another during space
flight without the least danger of collision. They are fully able to vary
speed of progression and to alter direction of flight, even to change
destinations if their directors should so instruct them at any space junction
of the universe intelligence circuits.
39:3.9 These transit personalities are so organized
that they can simultaneously utilize all three of the universally distributed
lines of energy, each having a clear space velocity of 186,280 miles per
second. These transporters are thus able to superimpose velocity of energy
upon velocity of power until they attain an average speed on their long
journeys varying anywhere from 555,000 to almost 559,000 of your miles per
second of your time. The velocity is affected by the mass and proximity of
neighboring matter and by the strength and direction of the near-by main
circuits of universe power. There are numerous types of beings, similar to the
seraphim, who are able to traverse space, and who also are able to transport
other beings who have been properly prepared.
39:3.10 6. The Recorders. The sixth order of
supervising seraphim act as the special recorders of constellation affairs. A
large and efficient corps functions on Edentia, the headquarters of the
constellation of Norlatiadek, to which your system and planet belong.
39:3.11 7. The Reserves. General reserves of
the supervisor seraphim are held on the headquarters of the constellations.
Such angelic reservists are in no sense inactive; many serve as messenger aids
to the constellation rulers; others are attached to the Salvington reserves of
unassigned Vorondadeks; still others may be attached to Vorondadek Sons on
special assignment, such as the Vorondadek observer, and sometimes Most High
regent, of Urantia.
4. ADMINISTRATOR SERAPHIM
39:4.1 The fourth order of seraphim are assigned to
the administrative duties of the local systems. They are indigenous to the
system capitals but are stationed in large numbers on the mansion and morontia
spheres and on the inhabited worlds. Fourth-order seraphim are by nature
endowed with unusual administrative ability. They are the able assistants of
the directors of the lower divisions of the universe government of a Creator
Son and are mainly occupied with the affairs of the local systems and their
component worlds. They are organized for service as follows:
39:4.2 1. Administrative Assistants. These
able seraphim are the immediate assistants of a System Sovereign, a primary
Lanonandek Son. They are invaluable aids in the execution of the intricate
details of the executive work of the system headquarters. They also serve as
the personal agents of the system rulers, journeying back and forth in large
numbers to the various transition worlds and to the inhabited planets,
executing many commissions for the welfare of the system and in the physical
and biologic interests of its inhabited worlds.
39:4.3 These same seraphic administrators are also
attached to the governments of the world rulers, the Planetary Princes. The
majority of planets in a given universe are under the jurisdiction of a
secondary Lanonandek Son, but on certain worlds, such as Urantia, there has
been a miscarriage of the divine plan. In the event of the defection of a
Planetary Prince, these seraphim become attached to the Melchizedek receivers
and their successors in planetary authority. The present acting ruler of
Urantia is assisted by a corps of one thousand of this versatile order of
seraphim.
39:4.4 2. Justice Guides. These are the
angels who present the summary of evidence concerning the eternal welfare of
men and angels when such matters come up for adjudication in the tribunals of
a system or a planet. They prepare the statements for all preliminary hearings
involving mortal survival, statements which are subsequently carried with the
records of such cases to the higher tribunals of the universe and the
superuniverse. The defense of all cases of doubtful survival is prepared by
these seraphim, who have a perfect understanding of all the details of every
feature of every count in the indictments drawn by the administrators of
universe justice.
39:4.5 It is not the mission of these angels to
defeat or to delay justice but rather to insure that unerring justice is dealt
out with generous mercy in fairness to all creatures. These seraphim often
function on the local worlds, commonly appearing before the referee trios of
the conciliating commissions -- the courts for minor misunderstandings. Many
who at one time served as justice guides in the lower realms later appear as
Voices of Mercy in the higher spheres and on Salvington.
39:4.6 In the Lucifer rebellion in Satania very few
of the justice guides were lost, but more than one quarter of the other
administrator seraphim and of the lower orders of seraphic ministers were
misled and deluded by the sophistries of unbridled personal
liberty.
39:4.7 3. Interpreters of Cosmic Citizenship.
When ascending mortals have completed the mansion world training, the first
student apprenticeship in the universe career, they are permitted to enjoy the
transient satisfactions of relative maturity -- citizenship on the system
capital. While the attainment of each ascendant goal is a factual achievement,
in the larger sense such goals are simply milestones on the long ascending
path to Paradise. But however relative such successes may be, no evolutionary
creature is ever denied the full though transient satisfaction of goal
attainment. Ever and anon there is a pause in the Paradise ascent, a short
breathing spell, during which universe horizons stand still, creature status
is stationary, and the personality tastes the sweetness of goal
fulfillment.
39:4.8 The first of such periods in the career of a
mortal ascender occurs on the capital of a local system. During this pause you
will, as a citizen of Jerusem, attempt to express in creature life those
things which you have acquired during the eight preceding life experiences --
embracing Urantia and the seven mansion worlds.
39:4.9 The seraphic interpreters of cosmic
citizenship guide the new citizens of the system capitals and quicken their
appreciation of the responsibilities of universe government. These seraphim
are also closely associated with the Material Sons in the system
administration, while they portray the responsibility and morality of cosmic
citizenship to the material mortals on the inhabited worlds.
39:4.10 4. Quickeners of Morality. On the
mansion worlds you begin to learn self-government for the benefit of all
concerned. Your mind learns co-operation, learns how to plan with other and
wiser beings. On the system headquarters the seraphic teachers will further
quicken your appreciation of cosmic morality -- of the interactions of liberty
and loyalty.
39:4.11 What is loyalty? It is the fruit of an
intelligent appreciation of universe brotherhood; one could not take so much
and give nothing. As you ascend the personality scale, first you learn to be
loyal, then to love, then to be filial, and then may you be free; but not
until you are a finaliter, not until you have attained perfection of loyalty,
can you self-realize finality of liberty.
39:4.12 These seraphim teach the fruitfulness of
patience: That stagnation is certain death, but that overrapid growth is
equally suicidal; that as a drop of water from a higher level falls to a lower
and, flowing onward, passes ever downward through a succession of short falls,
so ever upward is progress in the morontia and spirit worlds -- and just as
slowly and by just such gradual stages.
39:4.13 To the inhabited worlds the quickeners of
morality portray mortal life as an unbroken chain of many links. Your short
sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal infancy, is only a single link,
the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and
through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life;
it is the experience of living this life that is important. Even the work of
this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so important as the way in
which you do this work. There is no material reward for righteous living, but
there is profound satisfaction -- consciousness of achievement -- and this
transcends any conceivable material reward.
39:4.14 The keys of the kingdom of heaven are:
sincerity, more sincerity, and more sincerity. All men have these keys. Men
use them -- advance in spirit status -- by decisions, by more decisions, and
by more decisions. The highest moral choice is the choice of the highest
possible value, and always -- in any sphere, in all of them -- this is to
choose to do the will of God. If man thus chooses, he is great, though he be
the humblest citizen of Jerusem or even the least of mortals on Urantia.
39:4.15 5. The Transporters. These are the
transport seraphim who function in the local systems. In Satania, your system,
they carry passengers back and forth from Jerusem and otherwise serve as
interplanetary transporters. Seldom does a day pass in which a transport
seraphim of Satania does not deposit some student visitor or some other
traveler of spirit or semispirit nature on the shores of Urantia. These very
space traversers will sometime carry you to and from the various worlds of the
system headquarters group, and when you have finished the Jerusem assignment,
they will carry you forward to Edentia. But under no circumstances will they
carry you backward to the world of human origin. A mortal never returns to his
native planet during the dispensation of his temporal existence, and if he
should return during a subsequent dispensation, he would be escorted by a
transport seraphim of the universe headquarters group.
39:4.16 6. The Recorders. These seraphim are
the keepers of the threefold records of the local systems. The temple of
records on a system capital is a unique structure, one third material,
constructed of luminous metals and crystals; one third morontial, fabricated
of the liaison of spiritual and material energy but beyond the range of mortal
vision; and one third spiritual. The recorders of this order preside over and
maintain this threefold system of records. Ascending mortals will at first
consult the material archives, Material Sons and the higher transition beings
consult those of the morontia halls, while seraphim and the higher spirit
personalities of the realm peruse the records of the spirit section.
39:4.17 7. The Reserves. The reserve corps of
administrator seraphim on Jerusem spend much of their waiting time in
visiting, as spirit companions, with the newly arrived ascending mortals from
the various worlds of the system -- the accredited graduates of the mansion
worlds. One of the delights of your sojourn on Jerusem will be to talk and
visit, during recess periods, with these much-traveled and many-experienced
seraphim of the waiting reserve corps.
39:4.18 It is just such friendly relationships as
these that so endear a system capital to the ascending mortals. On Jerusem you
will find the first intermingling of Material Sons, angels, and ascending
pilgrims. Here fraternize beings who are wholly spiritual and semispiritual
and individuals just emerging from material existence. Mortal forms are there
so modified and human ranges of light reaction so extended that all are able
to enjoy mutual recognition and sympathetic personality understanding.
5. PLANETARY HELPERS
39:5.1 These seraphim maintain headquarters on the
system capitals and, though closely associated with the resident Adamic
citizens, are primarily assigned to the service of the Planetary Adams, the
biologic or physical uplifters of the material races on the evolutionary
worlds. The ministering work of angels becomes of increasing interest as it
nears the inhabited worlds, as it nears the actual problems faced by the men
and women of time who are preparing themselves for the attempt to attain the
goal of eternity.
39:5.2 On Urantia the majority of the planetary
helpers were removed upon the collapse of the Adamic regime, and the seraphic
supervision of your world devolved to a greater extent upon the
administrators, the transition ministers, and the guardians of destiny. But
these seraphic aids of your defaulting Material Sons still serve Urantia in
the following groups:
39:5.3 1. The Voices of the Garden. When the
planetary course of human evolution is attaining its highest biologic level,
there always appear the Material Sons and Daughters, the Adams and Eves, to
augment the further evolution of the races by an actual contribution of their
superior life plasm. The planetary headquarters of such an Adam and Eve is
usually denominated the Garden of Eden, and their personal seraphim are often
known as the "voices of the Garden." These seraphim are of invaluable service
to the Planetary Adams in all their projects for the physical and intellectual
upstepping of the evolutionary races. After the Adamic default on Urantia,
some of these seraphim were left on the planet and were assigned to Adam's
successors in authority.
39:5.4 2. The Spirits of Brotherhood. It
should be apparent that, when an Adam and Eve arrive on an evolutionary world,
the task of achieving racial harmony and social co-operation among its diverse
races is one of considerable proportions. Seldom do these races of different
colors and varied natures take kindly to the plan of human brotherhood. These
primitive men only come to realize the wisdom of peaceful interassociation as
a result of ripened human experience and through the faithful ministry of the
seraphic spirits of brotherhood. Without the work of these seraphim the
efforts of the Material Sons to harmonize and advance the races of an evolving
world would be greatly delayed. And had your Adam adhered to the original plan
for the advancement of Urantia, by this time these spirits of brotherhood
would have worked unbelievable transformations in the human race. In view of
the Adamic default, it is indeed remarkable that these seraphic orders have
been able to foster and bring to realization even as much of brotherhood as
you now have on Urantia.
39:5.5 3. The Souls of Peace. The early
millenniums of the upward strivings of evolutionary men are marked by many a
struggle. Peace is not the natural state of the material realms. The worlds
first realize "peace on earth and good will among men" through the ministry of
the seraphic souls of peace. Although these angels were largely thwarted in
their early efforts on Urantia, Vevona, chief of the souls of peace in Adam's
day, was left on Urantia and is now attached to the staff of the resident
governor general. And it was this same Vevona who, when Michael was born,
heralded to the worlds, as the leader of the angelic host, "Glory to God in
Havona and on earth peace and good will among men."
39:5.6 In the more advanced epochs of planetary
evolution these seraphim are instrumental in supplanting the atonement idea by
the concept of divine attunement as a philosophy of mortal
survival.
39:5.7 4. The Spirits of Trust. Suspicion is
the inherent reaction of primitive men; the survival struggles of the early
ages do not naturally breed trust. Trust is a new human acquisition brought
about by the ministry of these planetary seraphim of the Adamic regime. It is
their mission to inculcate trust into the minds of evolving men. The Gods are
very trustful; the Universal Father is willing freely to trust himself -- the
Adjuster -- to man's association.
39:5.8 This entire group of seraphim was transferred
to the new regime after the Adamic miscarriage, and they have ever since
continued their labors on Urantia. And they have not been wholly unsuccessful
since a civilization is now evolving which embodies much of their ideals of
confidence and trust.
39:5.9 In the more advanced planetary ages these
seraphim enhance man's appreciation of the truth that uncertainty is the
secret of contented continuity. They help the mortal philosophers to realize
that, when ignorance is essential to success, it would be a colossal blunder
for the creature to know the future. They heighten man's taste for the
sweetness of uncertainty, for the romance and charm of the indefinite and
unknown future.
39:5.10 5. The Transporters. The planetary
transporters serve the individual worlds. The majority of enseraphimed beings
brought to this planet are in transit; they merely stop over; they are in
custody of their own special seraphic transporters; but there are a large
number of such seraphim stationed on Urantia. These are the transport
personalities operating from the local planets, as from Urantia to Jerusem.
39:5.11 Your conventional idea of angels has been
derived in the following way: During moments just prior to physical death a
reflective phenomenon sometimes occurs in the human mind, and this dimming
consciousness seems to visualize something of the form of the attending angel,
and this is immediately translated into terms of the habitual concept of
angels held in that individual's mind.
39:5.12 The erroneous idea that angels possess wings
is not wholly due to olden notions that they must have wings to fly through
the air. Human beings have sometimes been permitted to observe seraphim that
were being prepared for transport service, and the traditions of these
experiences have largely determined the Urantian concept of angels. In
observing a transport seraphim being made ready to receive a passenger for
interplanetary transit, there may be seen what are apparently double sets of
wings extending from the head to the foot of the angel. In reality these wings
are energy insulators -- friction shields.
39:5.13 When celestial beings are to be enseraphimed
for transfer from one world to another, they are brought to the headquarters
of the sphere and, after due registry, are inducted into the transit sleep.
Meantime, the transport seraphim moves into a horizontal position immediately
above the universe energy pole of the planet. While the energy shields are
wide open, the sleeping personality is skillfully deposited, by the
officiating seraphic assistants, directly on top of the transport angel. Then
both the upper and lower pairs of shields are carefully closed and
adjusted.
39:5.14 And now, under the influence of the
transformers and the transmitters, a strange metamorphosis begins as the
seraphim is made ready to swing into the energy currents of the universe
circuits. To outward appearance the seraphim grows pointed at both extremities
and becomes so enshrouded in a queer light of amber hue that very soon it is
impossible to distinguish the enseraphimed personality. When all is in
readiness for departure, the chief of transport makes the proper inspection of
the carriage of life, carries out the routine tests to ascertain whether or
not the angel is properly encircuited, and then announces that the traveler is
properly enseraphimed, that the energies are adjusted, that the angel is
insulated, and that everything is in readiness for the departing flash. The
mechanical controllers, two of them, next take their positions. By this time
the transport seraphim has become an almost transparent, vibrating,
torpedo-shaped outline of glistening luminosity. Now the transport dispatcher
of the realm summons the auxiliary batteries of the living energy
transmitters, usually one thousand in number; as he announces the destination
of the transport, he reaches out and touches the near point of the seraphic
carriage, which shoots forward with lightninglike speed, leaving a trail of
celestial luminosity as far as the planetary atmospheric investment extends.
In less than ten minutes the marvelous spectacle will be lost even to
reinforced seraphic vision.
39:5.15 While planetary space reports are received
at noon at the meridian of the designated spiritual headquarters, the
transporters are dispatched from this same place at midnight. That is the most
favorable time for departure and is the standard hour when not otherwise
specified.
39:5.16 6. The Recorders. These are the
custodians of the major affairs of the planet as it functions as a part of the
system, and as it is related to, and concerned in, the universe government.
They function in the recording of planetary affairs but are not concerned with
matters of individual life and existence.
39:5.17 7. The Reserves. The Satania reserve
corps of the planetary seraphim is maintained on Jerusem in close association
with the reserves of the Material Sons. These abundant reserves repletely
provide for every phase of the manifold activities of this seraphic order.
These angels are also the personal message bearers of the local systems. They
serve transition mortals, angels, and the Material Sons as well as others
domiciled on the system headquarters. While Urantia is, at present, outside
the spiritual circuits of Satania and Norlatiadek, you are otherwise in
intimate touch with interplanetary affairs, for these messengers from Jerusem
frequently come to this world as to all the other spheres of the system.
6. TRANSITION MINISTERS
39:6.1 As their name might suggest, seraphim of
transitional ministry serve wherever they can contribute to creature
transition from the material to the spiritual estate. These angels serve from
the inhabited worlds to the system capitals, but those in Satania at present
direct their greatest efforts toward the education of the surviving mortals on
the seven mansion worlds. This ministry is diversified in accordance with the
following seven orders of assignment:
1. Seraphic Evangels.
2. Racial Interpreters.
3. Mind Planners.
4. Morontia Counselors.
5. Technicians.
6. Recorder-Teachers.
7. Ministering Reserves.
39:6.2 More about these seraphic ministers to
transitional ascenders you will learn in connection with the narratives
dealing with the mansion worlds and the morontia life.
7. SERAPHIM OF THE FUTURE
39:7.1 These angels do not minister extensively
except in older realms and on the more advanced planets of Nebadon. Large
numbers of them are held in reserve on the seraphic worlds near Salvington,
where they are engaged in pursuits relevant to the sometime dawning of the age
of light and life in Nebadon. These seraphim do function in connection with
the ascendant-mortal career but minister almost exclusively to those mortals
who survive by some one of the modified orders of ascension.
39:7.2 Inasmuch as these angels are not now directly
concerned with either Urantia or Urantians, it is deemed best to withhold the
description of their fascinating activities.
8. SERAPHIC DESTINY
39:8.1 Seraphim are of origin in the local
universes, and in these very realms of their nativity some achieve service
destiny. With the help and counsel of the senior archangels some seraphim may
be elevated to the exalted duties of Brilliant Evening Stars, while others
attain the status and service of the unrevealed co-ordinates of the Evening
Stars. Still other adventures in local universe destiny may be attempted, but
Seraphington ever remains the eternal goal of all angels. Seraphington is the
angelic threshold to Paradise and Deity attainment, the transition sphere from
the ministry of time to the exalted service of eternity.
39:8.2 Seraphim may attain Paradise in scores --
hundreds -- of ways, but the most important as elaborated in these narratives
are the following:
39:8.3 1. To gain admission to the Paradise seraphic
abode in a personal capacity by achieving perfection of specialized service as
a celestial artisan, a Technical Adviser, or a Celestial Recorder. To become a
Paradise Companion and, having thus attained the center of all things, perhaps
then to become an eternal minister and adviser to the seraphic orders and
others.
39:8.4 2. To be summoned to Seraphington. Under
certain conditions seraphim are commanded on high; in other circumstances
angels sometimes achieve Paradise in a much shorter time than mortals. But no
matter how fitted any seraphic pair may be, they cannot initiate departure for
Seraphington or elsewhere. None but successful destiny guardians can be sure
of proceeding to Paradise by a progressive path of evolutionary ascent. All
others must patiently await the arrival of the Paradise messengers of the
tertiary supernaphim who come with the summons commanding them to appear on
high.
39:8.5 3. To attain Paradise by the evolutionary
mortal technique. The supreme choice of seraphim in the career of time is the
post of guardian angel in order that they may attain the career of finality
and be qualified for assignment to the eternal spheres of seraphic service.
Such personal guides of the children of time are called guardians of destiny,
signifying that they guard mortal creatures in the path of divine destiny, and
that in so doing they are determining their own high destiny.
39:8.6 Guardians of destiny are drawn from the ranks
of the more experienced angelic personalities of all orders of seraphim who
have qualified for this service. All surviving mortals of Adjuster-fusion
destiny have temporary guardians assigned, and these associates may become
permanently attached when mortal survivors attain the requisite intellectual
and spiritual development. Before mortal ascenders leave the mansion worlds,
they all have permanent seraphic associates. This group of ministering spirits
is discussed in connection with the Urantia narratives.
39:8.7 It is not possible for angels to attain God
from the human level of origin, for they are created a "little higher than
you"; but it has been wisely arranged that, while they cannot possibly start
up from the very bottom, the spiritual lowlands of mortal existence, they may
go down to those who do start from the bottom and pilot such creatures, step
by step, world by world, to the portals of Havona. When mortal ascenders leave
Uversa to begin the circles of Havona, those guardians of attachment
subsequent to the life in the flesh will bid their pilgrim associates a
temporary farewell while they journey to Seraphington, the angelic destination
of the grand universe. Here will these guardians attempt, and undoubtedly
achieve, the seven circles of seraphic light.
39:8.8 Many, but not all, of those seraphim assigned
as destiny guardians during the material life accompany their mortal
associates through the Havona circles, and certain other seraphim pass through
the circuits of the central universe in a way that is wholly different from
the mortal ascent. But irrespective of the route of ascent, all evolutionary
seraphim traverse Seraphington, and the majority pass through this experience
instead of the Havona circuits.
39:8.9 Seraphington is the destiny sphere for
angels, and their attainment of this world is quite different from the
experiences of the mortal pilgrims on Ascendington. Angels are not absolutely
sure of their eternal future until they have attained Seraphington. No angel
attaining Seraphington has ever been known to go astray; sin will never find
response in the heart of a seraphim of completion.
39:8.10 The graduates of Seraphington are variously
assigned: Destiny guardians of Havona-circle experience usually enter the
Mortal Finaliter Corps. Other guardians, having passed their Havona separation
tests, frequently rejoin their mortal associates on Paradise, and some become
the everlasting associates of the mortal finaliters, while others enter the
various nonmortal finaliter corps, and many are mustered into the Corps of
Seraphic Completion.
9. THE CORPS OF SERAPHIC COMPLETION
39:9.1 After attainment of the Father of spirits and
admission to the seraphic service of completion, angels are sometimes assigned
to the ministry of worlds settled in light and life. They gain attachment to
the high trinitized beings of the universes and to the exalted services of
Paradise and Havona. These seraphim of the local universes have experientially
compensated the differential in divinity potential formerly setting them apart
from the ministering spirits of the central and superuniverses. Angels of the
Seraphic Corps of Completion serve as associates of the superuniverse
seconaphim and as assistants to the high Paradise-Havona orders of
supernaphim. For such angels the career of time is finished; henceforth and
forever they are the servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities,
and the peers of the Paradise finaliters.
39:9.2 Large numbers of the completion seraphim
return to their native universes, there to complement the ministry of divine
endowment by the ministry of experiential perfection. Nebadon is,
comparatively speaking, one of the younger universes and therefore does not
have so many of these returned Seraphington graduates as would be found in an
older realm; nonetheless our local universe is adequately supplied with the
completion seraphim, for it is significant that the evolutionary realms
disclose increasing need for their services as they near the status of light
and life. Completion seraphim now serve more extensively with the supreme
orders of seraphim, but some serve with each of the other angelic orders. Even
your world enjoys the extensive ministry of twelve specialized groups of the
Seraphic Corps of Completion; these master seraphim of planetary supervision
accompany each newly commissioned Planetary Prince to the inhabited
worlds.
39:9.3 Many fascinating avenues of ministry are open
to the completion seraphim, but just as they all craved assignment as destiny
guardians in the pre-Paradise days, so in the post-Paradise experience they
most desire to serve as bestowal attendants of the incarnated Paradise Sons.
They are still supremely devoted to that universal plan of starting the mortal
creatures of the evolutionary worlds out upon the long and enticing journey
towards the Paradise goal of divinity and eternity. Throughout the whole
mortal adventure of finding God and of achieving divine perfection, these
spirit ministers of seraphic completion, together with the faithful
ministering spirits of time, are always and forever your true friends and
unfailing helpers.
39:9.4 Presented by
a Melchizedek acting by request of the Chief of the Seraphic Hosts of
Nebadon.
