The Urantia Book. Urantia Foundation
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we deem it wise to present in this initial statement an outline of the meanings to be attached to numerous English words which are to be employed in designation of Deity and certain associated concepts of the things, meanings, and values of universal reality.
0:0.4 (1.4) But in order to formulate this Foreword of definitions and limitations of terminology, it is necessary to anticipate the usage of these terms in the subsequent presentations. This Foreword is not, therefore, a finished statement within itself; it is only a definitive guide designed to assist those who shall read the accompanying papers dealing with Deity and the universe of universes which have been formulated by an Orvonton commission sent to Urantia for this purpose.
0:0.5 (1.5) Your world, Urantia, is one of many similar inhabited planets which comprise the local universe of Nebadon. This universe, together with similar creations, makes up the superuniverse of Orvonton, from whose capital, Uversa, our commission hails. Orvonton is one of the seven evolutionary superuniverses of time and space which circle the never-beginning, never-ending creation of divine perfection—the central universe of Havona. At the heart of this eternal and central universe is the stationary Isle of Paradise, the geographic center of infinity and the dwelling place of the eternal God.
0:0.6 (1.6) The seven evolving superuniverses in association with the central and divine universe, we commonly refer to as the grand universe; these are the now organized and inhabited creations. They are all a part of the master universe, which also embraces the uninhabited but mobilizing universes of outer space.
I. Deity and Divinity
0:1.1 (2.1) The universe of universes presents phenomena of deity activities on diverse levels of cosmic realities, mind meanings, and spirit values, but all of these ministrations—personal or otherwise—are divinely co-ordinated.
0:1.2 (2.2) DEITY is personalizable as God, is prepersonal and superpersonal in ways not altogether comprehensible by man. Deity is characterized by the quality of unity—actual or potential—on all supermaterial levels of reality; and this unifying quality is best comprehended by creatures as divinity.
0:1.3 (2.3) Deity functions on personal, prepersonal, and superpersonal levels. Total Deity is functional on the following seven levels:
0:1.4 (2.4) 1. Static—self-contained and self-existent Deity.
0:1.5 (2.5) 2. Potential—self-willed and self-purposive Deity.
0:1.6 (2.6) 3. Associative—self-personalized and divinely fraternal Deity.
0:1.7 (2.7) 4. Creative—self-distributive and divinely revealed Deity.
0:1.8 (2.8) 5. Evolutional—self-expansive and creature-identified Deity.
0:1.9 (2.9) 6. Supreme—self-experiential and creature-Creator-unifying Deity. Deity functioning on the first creature-identificational level as time-space overcontrollers of the grand universe, sometimes designated the Supremacy of Deity.
0:1.10 (2.10) 7. Ultimate—self-projected and time-space-transcending Deity. Deity omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. Deity functioning on the second level of unifying divinity expression as effective overcontrollers and absonite upholders of the master universe. As compared with the ministry of the Deities to the grand universe, this absonite function in the master universe is tantamount to universal overcontrol and supersustenance, sometimes called the Ultimacy of Deity.
0:1.11 (2.11) The finite level of reality is characterized by creature life and time-space limitations. Finite realities may not have endings, but they always have beginnings—they are created. The Deity level of Supremacy may be conceived as a function in relation to finite existences.
0:1.12 (2.12) The absonite level of reality is characterized by things and beings without beginnings or endings and by the transcendence of time and space. Absoniters are not created; they are eventuated—they simply are. The Deity level of Ultimacy connotes a function in relation to absonite realities. No matter in what part of the master universe, whenever time and space are transcended, such an absonite phenomenon is an act of the Ultimacy of Deity.
0:1.13 (2.13) The absolute level is beginningless, endless, timeless, and spaceless. For example: On Paradise, time and space are nonexistent; the time-space status of Paradise is absolute. This level is Trinity attained, existentially, by the Paradise Deities, but this third level of unifying Deity expression is not fully unified experientially. Whenever, wherever, and however the absolute level of Deity functions, Paradise-absolute values and meanings are manifest.
0:1.14 (3.1) Deity may be existential, as in the Eternal Son; experiential, as in the Supreme Being; associative, as in God the Sevenfold; undivided, as in the Paradise Trinity.
0:1.15 (3.2) Deity is the source of all that which is divine. Deity is characteristically and invariably divine, but all that which is divine is not necessarily Deity, though it will be co-ordinated with Deity and will tend towards some phase of unity with Deity—spiritual, mindal, or personal.
0:1.16 (3.3) DIVINITY is the characteristic, unifying, and co-ordinating quality of Deity.
0:1.17 (3.4) Divinity is creature comprehensible as truth, beauty, and goodness; correlated in personality as love, mercy, and ministry; disclosed on impersonal levels as justice, power, and sovereignty.
0:1.18 (3.5) Divinity may be perfect—complete—as on existential and creator levels of Paradise perfection; it may be imperfect, as on experiential and creature levels of time-space evolution; or it may be relative, neither perfect nor imperfect, as on certain Havona levels of existential-experiential relationships.
0:1.19 (3.6) When we attempt to conceive of perfection in all phases and forms of relativity, we encounter seven conceivable types:
0:1.20 (3.7) 1. Absolute perfection in all aspects.
0:1.21 (3.8) 2. Absolute perfection in some phases and relative perfection in all other aspects.
0:1.22 (3.9) 3. Absolute, relative, and imperfect aspects in varied association.
0:1.23 (3.10) 4. Absolute perfection in some respects, imperfection in all others.
0:1.24 (3.11) 5. Absolute perfection in no direction, relative perfection in all manifestations.
0:1.25 (3.12) 6. Absolute perfection in no phase, relative in some, imperfect in others.
0:1.26 (3.13) 7. Absolute perfection in no attribute, imperfection in all.
II. God
0:2.1 (3.14) Evolving mortal creatures experience an irresistible urge to symbolize their finite concepts of God. Man’s consciousness of moral duty and his spiritual idealism represent a value level—an experiential reality—which is difficult of symbolization.
0:2.2 (3.15) Cosmic consciousness implies the recognition of a First Cause, the one and only uncaused reality. God, the Universal Father, functions on three Deity-personality levels of subinfinite value and relative divinity expression:
0:2.3 (3.16) 1. Prepersonal—as in the ministry of the Father fragments, such as the Thought Adjusters.
0:2.4 (3.17) 2. Personal—as in the evolutionary experience of created and procreated beings.
0:2.5 (3.18) 3. Superpersonal—as in the eventuated existences of certain absonite and associated beings.
0:2.6 (3.19) GOD is a word symbol designating all personalizations of Deity. The term requires a different definition on each personal level of Deity function and must be still further redefined within each of these levels, as this term may be used to designate the diverse co-ordinate and subordinate personalizations of Deity; for example: the Paradise Creator Sons—the local universe fathers.
0:2.7 (4.1) The term God, as we make use of it, may be understood:
0:2.8 (4.2) By designation—as