This blog is Nuggets of Gold 3. It is a
sample preview from my new book Increate
Love by John Thwaytes.
Love and Majesty of God:
5.1.2 Our Father is not in hiding;
he is not in arbitrary seclusion. He has mobilized the resources of divine
wisdom in a never-ending effort to reveal himself to the children of his
universal domains. There is an infinite grandeur and an inexpressible
generosity connected with the majesty of his love which causes him to yearn for
the association of every created being who can comprehend, love, or approach
him; and it is, therefore, the limitations inherent in you, inseparable from
your finite personality and material existence, that determine the time and
place and circumstances in which you may achieve the goal of the journey of
mortal ascension and stand in the presence of the Father at the center of all
things.
Helplessness of the devils:
53.8.7 Before the bestowal of
Michael these rulers of darkness sought to maintain their authority on Urantia,
and they persistently withstood the minor and subordinate celestial
personalities. But since the day of Pentecost this traitorous Caligastia and
his equally contemptible associate, Daligastia, are servile before the divine
majesty of the Paradise Thought Adjusters and the protective Spirit of Truth,
the spirit of Michael, which has been poured out upon all flesh.
53.8.8 But even so, no fallen spirit
ever did have the power to invade the minds or to harass the souls of the
children of God. Neither Satan nor Caligastia could ever touch or approach the
faith sons of God; faith is an effective armor against sin and iniquity. It is
true: “He who is born of God keeps himself, and the wicked one touches him
not.”
53.8.9 In general, when weak and
dissolute mortals are supposed to be under the influence of devils and demons,
they are merely being dominated by their own inherent and debased tendencies,
being led away by their own natural propensities. The devil has been given a
great deal of credit for evil which does not belong to him. Caligastia has been
comparatively impotent since the cross of Christ.
9. Existential Infinite Unification
106.9.1 In the concept of the
Trinity of Trinities we postulate the possible experiential unification of limitless
reality, and we sometimes theorize that all this may happen in the utter
remoteness of far-distant eternity. But there is nonetheless an actual and
present unification of infinity in this very age as in all past and future
universe ages; such unification is existential in the Paradise Trinity. Infinity
unification as an
experiential
reality is unthinkably remote, but an unqualified unity of infinity now
dominates the present moment of universe existence and unites the divergencies
of all reality with an existential majesty that is absolute.
Animals in heaven:
37.10.3 The Spornagia. The
architectural headquarters worlds of the local universe are real worlds — physical
creations. There is much work connected with their physical upkeep, and herein
we have the assistance of a group of physical creatures called spornagia. They
are devoted to the care and culture of the material phases of these
headquarters worlds, from Jerusem to Salvington. Spornagia are neither spirits
nor persons; they are an animal order of existence, but if you could see them,
you would agree that they seem to be perfect animals.
43.6.4 The architectural worlds
enjoy ten forms of life of the material order. On Urantia there is plant and
animal life, but on such a world as Edentia there are ten divisions of the
material orders of life. Were you to view these ten divisions of Edentia life,
you would quickly classify the first three as vegetable and the last three as
animal, but you would be utterly unable to comprehend the nature of the
intervening four
groups
of prolific and fascinating forms of life.
43.6.5 Even the distinctively animal
life is very different from that of the evolutionary worlds, so different that
it is quite impossible to portray to mortal minds the unique character and
affectionate nature of these nonspeaking creatures. There are thousands upon
thousands of living creatures which your imagination could not possibly
picture. The whole animal creation is of an entirely different order from the
gross animal
species
of the evolutionary planets. But all this animal life is most intelligent and
exquisitely serviceable, and all the various species are surprisingly gentle
and touchingly companionable. There are no carnivorous creatures on such
architectural worlds; there is nothing in all Edentia to make any living being
afraid.
43.6.6 The vegetable life is also
very different from that of Urantia, consisting of both material and morontia
varieties. The material growths have a characteristic green coloration, but the
morontia equivalents of vegetative life have a violet or orchid tinge of
varying hue and reflection. Such morontia vegetation is purely an energy
growth; when eaten there is no residual portion.
43.6.7 Being endowed with ten
divisions of physical life, not to mention the morontia variations, these architectural
worlds provide tremendous possibilities for the biologic beautification of the
landscape and of the material and the morontia structures. The celestial
artisans direct the native spornagia in this extensive work of botanic
decoration and biologic embellishment. Whereas your artists must resort to
inert paint and lifeless marble to portray their concepts, the celestial
artisans and the univitatia more frequently utilize living materials to
represent their ideas and to capture their ideals.
43.6.8 If
you enjoy the flowers, shrubs, and trees of Urantia, then will you feast your
eyes upon the botanical beauty and the floral grandeur of the supernal gardens
of Edentia. But it is beyond my powers of description to undertake to convey to
the mortal mind an adequate concept of these beauties of the heavenly worlds.
Truly, eye has not seen such glories as await your arrival on these worlds of
the mortalascension
adventure.
7. The Rectangles — The Spornagia
46.7.1 The one thousand rectangles
of Jerusem are occupied by the lower native life of the headquarters
planet, and at their center is situated the vast circular headquarters of the
spornagia.
46.7.2 On Jerusem you will be amazed
by the agricultural achievements of the wonderful spornagia. There the land is cultivated
largely for aesthetic and ornamental effects. The spornagia are the landscape gardeners
of the headquarters worlds, and they are both original and artistic in their
treatment of the open spaces of Jerusem. They utilize both animals and numerous
mechanical contrivances in the culture of the soil. They are intelligently
expert in the employment of the power agencies of their realms as well as in
the utilization of numerous orders of their lesser brethren of the lower animal
creations, many of which are provided them on these special worlds. This order
of animal life is now largely directed by the ascending midway creatures from
the evolutionary spheres.
46.7.3 Spornagia are not Adjuster
indwelt. They do not possess survival souls, but they do enjoy long lives,
sometimes to the extent of forty to fifty thousand standard years. Their number
is legion, and they afford physical ministry to all orders of universe
personalities requiring material service.
46.7.4 Although spornagia neither possess nor
evolve survival souls, though they do not have personality, nevertheless, they
do evolve an individuality which can experience reincarnation. When, with the
passing of time, the physical bodies of these unique creatures deteriorate from
usage and age, their creators, in collaboration with the Life Carriers,
fabricate new bodies in which the old spornagia re-establish their residences.
46:7.5 Spornagia are the only creatures in all the universe of Nebadon who
experience this or any other sort of reincarnation. They are only reactive to
the first five of the adjutant mind-spirits; they are not responsive to the
spirits of worship and wisdom. But the five-adjutant mind equivalates to a
totality or sixth reality level, and it is this factor which persists as an experiential
identity. ***
46.7.6 I am quite without
comparisons in undertaking to describe these useful and unusual creatures as there
are no animals on the evolutionary worlds comparable to them. They are not
evolutionary beings, having been projected by the Life Carriers in their
present form and status. They are bisexual and procreate as they are required
to meet the needs of a growing population.
(JRT)
This is another example of sex in heaven.
46.7.7 Perhaps I can best suggest to
Urantia minds something of the nature of these beautiful and serviceable
creatures by saying that they embrace the combined traits of a faithful horse
and an affectionate dog and manifest an intelligence exceeding that of the
highest type of chimpanzee. And they are very beautiful, as judged by the
physical standards of Urantia. They are most appreciative of the attentions
shown them by the material and semimaterial sojourners on these architectural
worlds. They have a vision which permits them to recognize — in addition to material
beings — the morontia creations, the lower angelic orders, midway creatures,
and some of the lower orders of spirit personalities. They do not comprehend
worship of the Infinite, nor do they grasp the import of the Eternal, but they
do, through affection for their masters, join in the outward spiritual
devotions of their realms.
46.7.8 There are those who believe
that, in a future universe age, these faithful spornagia will escape from their
animal level of existence and attain a worthy evolutional destiny of
progressive intellectual growth and even spiritual achievement.
The animals look after the children also:
47.2.3 On the nursery world, probationary
creatures are grouped according to whether or not they have Adjusters, for the
Adjusters come to indwell these material children just as on the worlds of
time. Children of pre-Adjuster ages are cared for in families of five, ranging
in ages from one year and under up to approximately five years, or that age
when the Adjuster arrives.
47.2.4 All children on the evolving
worlds who have Thought Adjusters, but who before death had not made a choice
concerning the Paradise career, are also repersonalized on the finaliter world
of the system, where they likewise grow up in the families of the Material Sons
and their associates as do those little ones who arrived without Adjusters, but
who will subsequently receive the Mystery Monitors after attaining the requisite
age of moral choice.
47.2.5 The Adjuster-indwelt children
and youths on the finaliter world are also reared in families of five, ranging
in ages from six to fourteen; approximately, these families consist of children
whose ages are six, eight, ten, twelve, and fourteen. Any time after sixteen,
if final choice has been made, they translate to the first mansion world and
begin their Paradise ascent. Some make a
choice before this age and go on to the
ascension
spheres, but very few children under sixteen years of age, as reckoned by
Urantia standards, will be found on the mansion worlds.
47.2.6 The guardian seraphim attend
these youths in the probationary nursery on the finaliter world just as they
spiritually minister to mortals on the evolutionary planets, while the faithful
spornagia minister to their physical necessities. And so do these children grow
up on the transition world until such time as they make their final choice.
The animals enjoy the big celebrations:
10. Jerusem Citizenship
47.10.1 The reception of a new class
of mansion world graduates is the signal for all Jerusem to assemble as a
committee of welcome. Even the spornagia enjoy the arrival of these triumphant
ascenders of evolutionary origin, those who have run the planetary race and
finished the mansion world progression. Only the physical controllers and
Morontia Power Supervisors are absent from these occasions of rejoicing.
47.10.2 John the Revelator saw a
vision of the arrival of a class of advancing mortals from the seventh mansion
world to their first heaven, the glories of Jerusem. He recorded: “And I saw as
it were a sea of glass mingled with fire; and those who had gained the victory
over the beast that was originally in them and over the image that persisted
through the mansion worlds and finally over the last mark and trace, standing
on the sea of glass, having the harps of God, and singing the song of
deliverance from mortal fear and death.” (Perfected space communication is to
be had on all these worlds; and your anywhere reception of such communications
is made possible by carrying the “harp of God,” a morontia contrivance compensating
for the inability to directly adjust the immature morontia sensory mechanism to
the reception of space communications.)
Chaos:
9.8.25 The spirit personalities of
the vast family of the Divine and Infinite Spirit are forever dedicated to the
service of the ministry of the love of God and the mercy of the Son to all the
intelligent creatures of the evolutionary worlds of time and space. These
spirit beings constitute the living ladder whereby mortal man climbs from chaos
to glory.
26.10.2 Those who are unsuccessful
in the first effort at Deity attainment are advanced from the circle of failure
directly to the second circle before they are returned to superuniverse
service. Thus the counselors and advisers also serve as the counselors and
comforters of these disappointed pilgrims. They have just encountered their
greatest disappointment, in no way differing from the long list of such
experiences whereon they climbed, as on a ladder, from chaos to glory — except
in its magnitude. These are they who have drained the experiential cup to its
dregs; and I have observed that they temporarily return to the services of the
superuniverses as the highest type of loving ministrators to the children of
time and temporal disappointments.
70.8.18 But these measures can bear
their true fruits only in the distant millenniums of the future, although much
social improvement will immediately result from the intelligent, wise, and patient
manipulation of these acceleration factors of cultural progress. Religion
is the mighty lever that lifts civilization from chaos, but it is powerless
apart from the fulcrum of sound and normal mind resting securely on sound and
normal heredity.
99.4.6 During the psychologically
unsettled times of the twentieth century, amid the economic upheavals, the
moral crosscurrents, and the sociologic rip tides of the cyclonic transitions
of a scientific era, thousands upon thousands of men and women have become
humanly dislocated; they are anxious, restless, fearful, uncertain, and unsettled;
as never before in the world’s history they need the consolation and
stabilization of sound religion. In the face of unprecedented scientific
achievement and mechanical development there is spiritual stagnation and
philosophic chaos.
117.7.17 The perfected grand
universe of those future days will be vastly different from what it is at present.
Gone will be the thrilling adventures of the organization of the galaxies of
space, the planting of life on the uncertain worlds of time, and the evolving of
harmony out of chaos, beauty out of potentials, truth out of meanings, and
goodness out of values. The time universes will have achieved the fulfillment
of finite destiny! And perhaps for a space there will be rest, relaxation from
the agelong struggle for evolutionary perfection. But not for long! Certainly,
surely, and inexorably the enigma of the emerging Deity of God the Ultimate
will challenge these perfected citizens of the settled universes just as their struggling
evolutionary forebears were once challenged by the quest for God the Supreme.
The curtain of cosmic destiny will draw back to reveal the transcendent
grandeur of the alluring absonite quest for the attainment of the Universal
Father on those new and higher levels revealed in the ultimate of creature
experience.
118.10.19 Providence becomes increasingly discernible
as men reach upward from the material to the spiritual. The attainment of
completed spiritual insight enables the ascending personality to detect harmony
in what was theretofore chaos. Even morontia mota represents a real advance in
this direction.
Harmony:
118.10.15 3): Man’s universe
integration — the increase of human insight plus the increase of human
experiential achievement brings him into closer harmony with the unifying
presences of Supremacy — Paradise Trinity and Supreme Being. And this is what
establishes the sovereignty of the Supreme on the worlds long settled in light
and life. Such advanced planets are indeed poems of harmony, pictures of the
beauty of achieved goodness attained through the pursuit of cosmic truth. And
if such things can happen to a planet, then even greater things can happen to a
system and the larger units of the grand universe as they too achieve a
settledness indicating the exhaustion of the potentials for finite growth.
Stoicism:
121.4.3 2): The Stoic. Stoicism
was the superior philosophy of the better classes. The Stoics believed that a
controlling Reason-Fate dominated all nature. They taught that the soul of man was
divine; that it was imprisoned in the evil body of physical nature. Man’s soul
achieved liberty by living in harmony with nature, with God; thus virtue came
to be its own reward. Stoicism ascended to a sublime morality, ideals never
since transcended by any purely human system of philosophy. While the Stoics
professed to be the “offspring of God,” they failed to know him and therefore
failed to find him. Stoicism remained a philosophy; it never became a religion.
Its followers sought to attune their minds to the harmony of the Universal
Mind, but they failed to envisage themselves as the children of a loving
Father. Paul leaned heavily toward Stoicism when he wrote, “I have learned in
whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content.”
Perfection, harmony, and unity of will:
130.4.3 The highest level to which a
finite creature can progress is the recognition of the Universal Father and the
knowing of the Supreme. And even then such beings of finality destiny go on
experiencing change in the motions of the physical world and in its material
phenomena. Likewise do they remain aware of selfhood progression in their
continuing ascension of the spiritual universe and of growing consciousness in
their deepening appreciation of, and response to, the intellectual cosmos. Only
in the perfection, harmony, and unanimity of will can the creature become as
one with the Creator; and such a state of divinity is attained and maintained
only by the creature’s continuing to live in time and eternity by consistently
conforming his finite personal will to the divine will of the Creator. Always
must the desire to do the Father’s will be supreme in the soul and dominant
over the mind of an ascending son of God.
Power of group action:
133.5.6 Mathematics asserts that, if
one person stands for a certain unit of intellectual and moral value, ten
persons would stand for ten times this value. But in dealing with human
personality it would be nearer the truth to say that such a personality
association is a sum equal to the square of the number of personalities
concerned in the equation rather than the simple arithmetical sum. A social
group of human beings in co-ordinated working harmony stands for a force far
greater than the simple sum of its parts.
Salvation:
133.6.6 “The saving or losing of a
soul has to do with whether or not the moral consciousness attains survival
status through eternal alliance with its associated immortal spirit endowment.
Salvation is the spiritualization of the self-realization of the moral
consciousness, which thereby becomes possessed of survival value. All forms of
soul conflict consist in the lack of harmony between the moral, or spiritual,
selfconsciousness
and
the purely intellectual self-consciousness.
Expanding consciousness of Jesus in 34AD,
his thirtieth year:
134.1.7 This was one of the more
unusual years in the inner experience of the Son of Man; great progress was
made in effecting working harmony between his human mind and the indwelling
Adjuster. The Adjuster had been actively engaged in reorganizing the thinking
and in rehearsing the mind for the great events which were in the not then
distant future. The personality of Jesus was preparing for his great change in
attitude toward the world. These were the in-between times, the transition
stage of that being who began life as God appearing as man, and who was now
making ready to complete his earth career as
man
appearing as God.
Jesus was not a communist:
140.8.16 He never taught his
followers to avoid earthly possessions, only his twelve apostles. Luke, the
physician, was a strong believer in social equality, and he did much to
interpret Jesus’ sayings in harmony with his personal beliefs. Jesus never
personally directed his followers to adopt a communal mode of life; he made no
pronouncement of any sort regarding such matters.
Jesus' spiritual purpose:
140.8.32 The Master came to create
in man a new spirit, a new will — to impart a new capacity for knowing the
truth, experiencing compassion, and choosing goodness — the will to be in
harmony with God’s will, coupled with the eternal urge to become perfect, even
as the Father in heaven is perfect.
Jesus' idea about spiritual harmony:
141.5.1 One of the most eventful of
all the evening conferences at Amathus was the session having to do with the
discussion of spiritual unity. James Zebedee had asked, “Master, how shall we
learn to see alike and thereby enjoy more harmony among ourselves?” When Jesus
heard this question, he was stirred within his spirit, so much so that he
replied: “James, James, when did I teach you that you should all see alike? I
have
come into the world to proclaim spiritual liberty to the end that mortals may
be empowered to live individual lives of originality and freedom before God. I
do not desire that social harmony and fraternal peace shall be purchased by the
sacrifice of free personality and spiritual originality. What I require of you,
my apostles, is spirit unity — and that you can experience in the joy of
your united dedication to the wholehearted doing of the will of my Father in
heaven. You do not have to see alike or feel alike or even think alike in order
spiritually to be alike. Spiritual unity is derived from the
consciousness that each of you is indwelt, and increasingly dominated, by the
spirit gift of the heavenly Father. Your apostolic harmony must grow out of the
fact that the spirit hope of each of you is identical in origin, nature, and
destiny.
False expectations of the Gospel writers:
170.2.10 The apostles were unable to
grasp the real meaning of the Master’s utterances regarding the kingdom. The
subsequent distortion of Jesus’ teachings, as they are recorded in the New
Testament, is because the concept of the gospel writers was colored by the
belief that Jesus was then absent from the world for only a short time; that he
would soon return to establish the kingdom in power and glory — just such an
idea as they held while he was with them in the flesh. But Jesus did not
connect the establishment of the kingdom with the idea of his return to this
world. That centuries have passed with no signs of the appearance of the “New
Age” is in no way out of harmony with Jesus’ teaching.
Religion keeps us in harmony with the
Infinite:
195.7.20 Science lives by the
mathematics of the mind; music expresses the tempo of the emotions. Religion is
the spiritual rhythm of the soul in time-space harmony with the higher and
eternal melody measurements of Infinity. Religious experience is something in
human life which is truly supermathematical.
Rediscovery of Jesus:
195.9.5 The modern age will refuse
to accept a religion which is inconsistent with facts and out of harmony with
its highest conceptions of truth, beauty, and goodness. The hour is striking
for a rediscovery of the true and original foundations of present-day distorted
and compromised Christianity — the real life and teachings of Jesus.
Friendship requires spiritual harmony:
1.6.5 Some degree of moral affinity
and spiritual harmony is essential to friendship between two persons; a loving
personality can hardly reveal himself to a loveless person. Even to approach
the knowing of a divine personality, all of man’s personality endowments must
be wholly consecrated to the effort; halfhearted, partial devotion will be
unavailing.
Ultimate
Beauty:
2.7.8 The discernment of supreme
beauty is the discovery and integration of reality: The discernment of the
divine goodness in the eternal truth, that is ultimate beauty. Even the charm
of human art consists in the harmony of its unity.
Perfect
harmony in Havona:
7.2.2 In the central universe the
personal activity of the Original Son is discernible in the exquisite spiritual
harmony of the eternal creation. Havona is so marvelously perfect that the
spiritual status and the energy states of this pattern universe are in perfect
and perpetual balance.
Harmony
gives God joy:
14.6.8 The Father enjoys the Havona
reciprocation of the divine beauty. It satisfies the divine mind to afford a
perfect pattern of exquisite harmony for all evolving universes.
The
purpose of creation is to exist in divine harmony:
26.9.4 Step by step, life by life,
world by world, the ascendant career has been mastered, and the goal of Deity
has been attained. Survival is complete in perfection, and perfection is
replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is lost in eternity; space is
swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony with the Universal Father. The
broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space reports of glory, the good news that
in
very
truth the conscientious creatures of animal nature and material origin have,
through evolutionary ascension, become in reality and eternally the perfected
sons of God.
Signed at Malbazar on May 16,2012 – John Robert Thwaytes
