P21:1, 1:0.1The Universal Father is the God of all, the First
Source and Center of all things and beings. First think of God as a creator,
then as a controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the
Universal Father had begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said:
"You, God, are alone; there is none beside you. You have created the
heavens, with all their hosts; you preserve and control them. The Creator covers
himself with light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens as a
curtain." Only the concept of the Universal Father -- one God in the place
of many gods -- enabled mortal man to comprehend the Father as divine creator
and infinite controller.
P21:2, 1:0.2 The myriads of planetary systems were all made to
be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings
who could know God, receive the divine affection, and love him in return. The
universe of universes is the work of God and the dwelling place of his diverse
creatures. "God created the heavens and formed the earth; he established
the universe and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be
inhabited."
P21:3, 1:0.3 The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship
the Universal Father, the eternal maker and infinite upholder of all creation.
The will creatures of universe upon universe have embarked upon the long, long
Paradise journey, and the fascinating struggle of the eternal adventure of
attaining God the Father. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to
find the eternal God, to comprehend the divine nature, to recognize the
Universal Father. God-knowing creatures have only one supreme ambition, just one
consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him
as he is in his Paradise perfection of personality and in his universal sphere
of righteous supremacy. From the Universal Father who inhabits eternity there
has gone forth the supreme mandate, "Be you perfect, even as I am
perfect." In love and mercy the messengers of Paradise have carried this
divine exhortation down through the ages and out through the universes, even to
such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Earth.
P22:1, 1:0.4 This magnificent and universal injunction to
strive for the attainment of the perfection of divinity is the first duty, and
should be the highest ambition, of all the struggling creature creation of the
God of perfection. This possibility of the attainment of divine perfection is
the final and certain destiny of all man's eternal spiritual progress.
P22:2, 1:0.5 Earth mortals can hardly hope to be perfect in
the infinite sense, but it is entirely possible for human beings, starting out
as they do on this planet, to attain the supernal and divine goal which the
infinite God has set for mortal man; and when they do achieve this destiny, they
will, in all that pertains to self-realization and mind attainment, be just as
replete in their sphere of divine perfection as God himself is in his sphere of
infinity and eternity. Such perfection may not be universal in the material
sense, unlimited in intellectual grasp, or final in spiritual experience, but it
is final and complete in all finite aspects of divinity of will, perfection of
personality motivation, and God-consciousness.
P22:3, 1:0.6 This is the true meaning of that divine command,
"Be you perfect, even as I am perfect," which ever urges mortal man
onward and beckons him inward in that long and fascinating struggle for the
attainment of higher and higher levels of spiritual values and true universe
meanings. This sublime search for the God of universes is the supreme adventure
of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time and space.
P22:4, 1:1.1
Of all the names by which God the Father is known throughout the universes,
those which designate him as the First Source and the Universe Center are most
often encountered. The First Father is known by various names in different
universes and in different sectors of the same universe. The names which the
creature assigns to the Creator are much
dependent on the creature's concept of the Creator. The First Source and
Universe Center has never revealed himself by name, only by nature. If we
believe that we are the children of this Creator, it is only natural that we
should eventually call him Father. But this is the name of our own choosing, and
it grows out of the recognition of our personal relationship with the First
Source and Center.
P22:5, 1:1.2
The Universal Father never imposes any form of arbitrary recognition, formal
worship, or slavish service upon the intelligent will creatures of the
universes. The evolutionary inhabitants of the worlds of time and space may of
themselves -- in their own hearts -- recognize, love, and voluntarily worship
him, if they so desire. The Creator refuses to coerce or compel the submission
of the spiritual free wills of his material creatures. The affectionate
dedication of the human will to the doing of the Father's will is man's choicest
gift to God; in fact, such a consecration of creature will constitutes man's
only possible gift of true value to the Paradise Father. In God, man lives,
moves, and has his being; there is nothing which man can give to God except this
choosing to abide by the Father's will, and such decisions, effected by the
intelligent will creatures of the universes, constitute the reality of that true
worship which is so satisfying to the loving
nature of the Creator Father.
P22:6, 1:1.3
When you have once become truly God-conscious, after you really discover the
majestic Creator and begin to experience the realization of the indwelling
presence of the divine controller, then, in accordance with your enlightenment
and in accordance with the manner and method by which the divine spirits reveal
God, you will find a name for the Universal Father which will be adequately
expressive of your concept of the First Great Source and Center. And so, on
different worlds and in various universes, the Creator becomes known by numerous
appellations, in spirit of relationship all meaning the same but, in words and
symbols, each name standing for the degree, the depth, of his enthronement in
the hearts of his creatures of any given realm.
P23:1, 1:1.4 Near the center of the universe, the Universal
Father is generally known by names which may be regarded as meaning the First
Source. Farther out in the universes of space, the terms employed to designate
the Universal Father more often mean the Universal Center. Still farther out in
the starry creation, he is known as in your universe, as the First Creative
Source and Divine Center. In one near-by constellation God is called the Father
of Universes; in another, the Infinite Upholder, and the Divine Controller.
He has also been designated the Father of Lights, the Gift of Life, and the
All-powerful One.
P23:2, 1:1.5 On the world where a Messenger has lived a
bestowal life, God is generally known by some name indicative of personal
relationship, tender affection, and fatherly devotion. God is referred to as the
Universal Father, the Father of Fathers, the Paradise Father, the Spirit Father.
Those who know God through the revelations of the bestowals of the Messengers,
eventually yield to the sentimental appeal of the touching relationship of the
creature-Creator association and refer to God as "our Father."
P23:3, 1:1.6 On a planet of sex creatures, in a world where
the impulses of parental emotion are inherent in the hearts of its intelligent
beings, the term Father becomes a very expressive and appropriate name for the
eternal God. He is best known, most universally acknowledged, on planet Earth by
the name God or Allah. The name he is given is of little importance; the
significant thing is that you should know him and aspire to be like him. Your
prophets of old truly called him "the everlasting God" and referred to
him as the one who "inhabits eternity."
P23:4, 1:2.1
God is primal reality in the spirit world; God is the source of truth in the
mind spheres; God overshadows all throughout the material realms. To all created
intelligences God is a personality, and to the universe of universes he is the
First Source and Center of eternal reality. God is neither manlike nor
machinelike. The First Father is universal spirit, eternal truth, infinite
reality, and father personality.
P23:5, 1:2.2 The eternal God is infinitely more than reality
idealized or the universe personalized. God is not simply the supreme desire of
man, the mortal quest objectified. Neither is God merely a concept, the
power-potential of righteousness. The Universal Father is not a synonym for
nature, neither is he natural law personified. God is a spiritual unity, a
transcendent reality, not merely man's traditional concept of supreme values.
God is not a psychological focalization of spiritual meanings; neither is he
"the noblest work of man." God may be any or all of these concepts in
the minds of men, but he is more. He is a saving person and a loving Father to
all who enjoy spiritual peace on earth, and who crave to experience personality
survival in death.
P24:1, 1:2.3 The actuality of the existence of God is
demonstrated in human experience by the indwelling of the divine presence, the
spirit Monitor sent from Paradise to live in the mortal mind of man and there to
assist in evolving the immortal soul of eternal survival. The presence of this
divine Adjuster in the human mind is disclosed by three experiential phenomena:
P24:5, 1:2.4
The existence of God can never be proved by scientific experiment or by the pure
reason of logical deduction. God can be realized only in the realms of human
experience; nevertheless, the true concept of the reality of God is reasonable
to logic, plausible to philosophy, essential to religion, and indispensable to
any hope of personality survival.
P24:6, 1:2.5
Those who know God have experienced the fact of his presence; such God-knowing
mortals hold in their personal experience the only positive proof of the
existence of the living God which one human being can offer to another. The
existence of God is utterly beyond all possibility of demonstration except for
the contact between the God-consciousness of the human mind and the God-presence
of the Thought Adjuster that indwells the mortal intellect and is bestowed upon
man as the free gift of the Universal Father.
P24:7, 1:2.6 In theory you may think of God as the Creator, and he is the creator of Paradise and the central universe of perfection, but the universes of time and space are all created and organized by the Paradise unity. Though the Father does not personally create the evolutionary universes, he does control them in many of their universal relationships and in certain of their manifestations of physical, mental, and spiritual energies. God the Father is the personal creator of the Paradise universe and the creator of all other universes.
P24:8, 1:2.7 As a physical controller in the material universe of universes, the First Source and Center functions in the patterns of the eternal Isle of Paradise, and through this absolute gravity center the eternal God exercises cosmic overcontrol of the physical level equally throughout the universe. As mind, God functions in the Deity of the Infinite Spirit; as spirit, God is manifest in the person of the Messengers and in the persons of the divine children of the Messengers. This interrelation of the First Source and Center with the co-ordinate Persons and Absolutes of Paradise does not in the least preclude the direct personal action of the Universal Father throughout all creation and on all levels thereof. Through the presence of his fragmentized spirit the Creator Father maintains immediate contact with his creature children and his created universe.
P25:1, 1:3.1
"God is a spiritual unity." He is a universal spiritual presence. The
Universal Father is an infinite spiritual reality; he is "the sovereign,
eternal, immortal, invisible, and only true God." Even though you are
"the offspring of God," you ought not to think that the Father is like
yourselves in form and physique because you are said to be created "in his
image" -- indwelt by Mystery Monitors dispatched from the central abode of
his eternal presence. Spirit beings are real; notwithstanding they are invisible
to human eyes; even though they have not flesh and blood.
P25:2, 1:3.2
Said the seer of old: "Lo, he goes by me, and I see him not; he passes on
also, but I perceive him not." We may constantly observe the works of God,
we may be highly conscious of the material evidences of his majestic conduct,
but rarely may we gaze upon the visible manifestation of his divinity, not even
to behold the presence of his delegated spirit of human indwelling.
P25:3, 1:3.3
The Universal Father is not invisible because he is hiding himself away from the
lowly creatures of materialistic handicaps and limited spiritual endowments. The
situation rather is: "You cannot see my face, for no mortal can see me and
live." No material man could behold the spirit God and preserve his mortal
existence. The glory and the spiritual brilliance of the divine personality
presence is impossible of approach by the lower groups of spirit beings or by
any order of material personalities. The spiritual luminosity of the Father's
personal presence is a "light which no mortal man can approach; which no
material creature has seen or can see." But it is not necessary to see God
with the eyes of the flesh in order to discern him by the faith-vision
of the spiritualized mind.
P25:5, 1:3.4 God is a universal spirit; God is the universal person. The supreme personal reality of the finite creation is spirit; the ultimate reality of the personal cosmos is absolute spirit. The levels of infinity are absolute, but only on such levels is there finality of oneness between matter, mind, and spirit.
P25:6, 1:3.5 In the universes God the Father is, in potential, the over controller of matter, mind, and spirit. Only by means of his far-flung personality circuit does God deal directly with the personalities of his vast creation of will creatures, but he is contactable (outside of Paradise) only in the presences of his fragmented entities, the will of God abroad in the universes. This Paradise spirit that indwells the minds of the mortals of time and there fosters the evolution of the immortal soul of the surviving creature is of the nature and divinity of the Universal Father. But the minds of such evolutionary creatures originate in the local universes and must gain divine perfection by achieving those experiential transformations of spiritual attainment that are the inevitable result of a creature's choosing to do the will of the Father in heaven.
P26:1, 1:3.6 In the inner experience of man, mind is joined to
matter. Such material-linked minds cannot survive mortal death. The technique of
survival is embraced in those adjustments of the human will and those
transformations in the mortal mind whereby such a God-conscious intellect
gradually becomes spirit taught and eventually spirit led. This evolution of the
human mind from matter association to spirit union results in the transmutation
of the potentially spirit phases of the mortal mind into the realities of the
immortal soul. Mortal mind subservient to matter is destined to become
increasingly material and consequently to suffer eventual personality
extinction; mind yielded to spirit is destined to become increasingly spiritual
and ultimately to achieve oneness with the surviving and guiding divine spirit
and in this way to attain survival and eternity of personality existence.
P26:3, 1:4.1
The infinity of the perfection of God is such that it eternally constitutes him
mystery. And the greatest of all the unfathomable mysteries of God is the
phenomenon of the divine indwelling of mortal minds. The manner in which the
Universal Father sojourns with the creatures of time is the most profound of all
universe mysteries; the divine presence in the mind of man is the mystery of
mysteries.
P26:4, 1:4.2
The physical bodies of mortals are "the temples of God." Mortal
men have something from God himself that actually dwells within them; their
bodies are the temples thereof.
P26:5, 1:4.3
When you are through down here, when your course has been run in temporary form
on earth, when your trial trip in the flesh is finished, when the dust that composes
the mortal tabernacle "returns to the earth whence it came"; then, it
is revealed, the indwelling "Spirit shall return to God who gave it."
There sojourns within each moral being of this planet a fragment of God, a part
and parcel of divinity. It is not yet yours by
right of possession, but it is designedly intended to be one with you if you
survive the mortal existence.
P26:6, 1:4.4 We are constantly confronted with this mystery of God; we are nonplused by the increasing unfolding of the endless panorama of the truth of his infinite goodness, endless mercy, matchless wisdom, and superb character.
P26:7, 1:4.5 The divine mystery consists in the inherent
difference which exists between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and
the eternal, the time-space creature and the Universal Creator, the material and
the spiritual, the imperfection of man and the perfection of Paradise Deity. The
God of universal love unfailingly manifests himself to every one of his
creatures up to the fullness of that creature's capacity to spiritually grasp
the qualities of divine truth, beauty, and goodness.
P27:1, 1:4.6 To every spirit being and to every mortal
creature in every sphere and on every world of the universes, the Universal
Father reveals all of his gracious and divine self that can be discerned or
comprehended by such spirit beings and by such mortal creatures. God is no
respecter of persons, either spiritual or material. The divine presence, which
any child of the universe enjoys at any given moment, is limited only by the
capacity of such a creature to receive and to discern the spirit actualities of
the super material world.
P27:2, 1:4.7 As a reality in human spiritual experience God is
not a mystery. But when an attempt is made to make plain the realities of the
spirit world to the physical minds of the material order, mystery appears:
mysteries so subtle and so profound that only the faith-grasp of the God-knowing
mortal can achieve the philosophic miracle of the recognition of the Infinite by
the finite, the discernment of the eternal God by the evolving mortals of the
material worlds of time and space.
P27:3, 1:5.1
Do not permit the magnitude of God, his infinity, either to obscure or eclipse
his personality. "He who planned the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed
the eye, shall he not see?" The Universal Father is the acme of divine
personality; he is the origin and destiny of personality throughout all
creation. God is both infinite and personal; he is an infinite personality. The
Father is truly a personality, notwithstanding that the infinity of his person
places him forever beyond the full comprehension of material and finite beings.
P27:4, 1:5.2
God is much more than a personality as personality is understood by the human
mind; he is even far more than any possible concept of a super personality. But
it is utterly futile to discuss such incomprehensible concepts of divine
personality with the minds of material creatures whose maximum concept of the
reality of being consists in the idea and ideal of personality. The material
creature's highest possible concept of the Universal Creator is embraced within
the spiritual ideals of the exalted idea of divine personality. Therefore,
although you may know that God must be much more than the human conception of
personality, you equally well know that the Universal Father cannot possibly be
anything less than an eternal, infinite, true, good, and beautiful personality.
P27:5, 1:5.3
God is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable
to so many orders of beings only because he "dwells in a light which no
material creature can approach." The immensity and grandeur of the divine
personality is beyond the grasp of the unperfected
mind of evolutionary mortals. He "measures the waters in the hollow of his
hand, measures a universe with the span of his hand. It is he who sits on the
circle of the earth, who stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them
out as a universe to dwell in." "Lift up your eyes on high and behold
who has created all these things, who brings out their worlds by number and
calls them all by their names"; and so it is true that "the invisible
things of God are partially understood by the things which are made."
Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold
and diverse creation, as well as through the revelation.
P28:1, 1:5.4
Even though material mortals cannot see the person of God, they should rejoice
in the assurance that he is a person; by faith accept the truth which portrays
that the Universal Father so loved the world as to provide for the eternal
spiritual progression of its lowly inhabitants; that he "delights in his
children." God is lacking in none of those superhuman and divine attributes
that constitute a perfect, eternal, loving, and infinite Creator personality.
P28:2, 1:5.5 In the local creations God has no personal or residential manifestation aside from the Messengers who are inhabitants of the world. Mortal man simply cannot see God until he achieves completed spirit transformation and actually attains Paradise.
P28:4, 1:5.6 Without God and except for his great and central person, there would be no personality throughout all the vast universe of universes. God is personality.
P28:5, 1:5.7 Notwithstanding that God is an eternal power, a majestic presence, a transcendent ideal, and a glorious spirit, though he is all these and infinitely more, nonetheless, he is truly and everlastingly a perfect Creator personality, a person who can "know and be known," who can "love and be loved," and one who can befriend us; while you can be known, as other humans have been known, as the friend of God. He is a real spirit and a spiritual reality.
P28:6, 1:5.9 As we see the Universal Father revealed throughout his universe; as we discern him indwelling his myriads of creatures; as we continue to sense his divine presence here and there, near and afar, let us not doubt nor question his personality primacy. Notwithstanding all these far-flung distributions, he remains a true person and everlastingly maintains personal connection with the countless hosts of his creatures scattered throughout the universe of universes.
P28:7, 1:5.10 The idea of the personality of the Universal
Father is an enlarged and truer concept of God which has come to mankind chiefly
through revelation. Reason, wisdom, and religious experience all infer and imply
the personality of God, but they do not altogether validate it. Even the
indwelling Thought Adjuster is prepersonal. The truth and maturity of any
religion is directly proportional to its concept of the infinite personality of
God and to its grasp of the absolute unity of Deity. The idea of a personal
Deity becomes, then, the measure of religious maturity after religion has first
formulated the concept of the unity of God.
P29:1, 1:5.11 Primitive religion had many personal gods, and
they were fashioned in the image of man. Revelation affirms the validity of the
personality concept of God which is merely possible in the scientific postulate
of a First Cause and is only provisionally suggested in the philosophic idea of
Universal Unity. Only by personality approach can any person begin to comprehend
the unity of God. To deny the personality of the First Source and Center leaves
one only the choice of two philosophic dilemmas: materialism or pantheism.
P29:2, 1:5.12 In the contemplation of Deity, the concept of personality must be divested of the idea of corporeality. A material body is not indispensable to personality in either man or God. The corporeality error is shown in both extremes of human philosophy. In materialism, since man loses his body at death, he ceases to exist as a personality; in pantheism, since God has no body, he is not, therefore, a person. The superhuman type of progressing personality functions in a union of mind and spirit.
P29:3, 1:5.13 Personality is not simply an attribute of God;
it rather stands for the totality of the coordinated infinite nature and the
unified divine will which is exhibited in eternity and universality of perfect
expression. Personality, in the supreme sense, is the revelation of God to the
universe of universes.
P29:4, 1:5.14 God, being eternal, universal, absolute, and infinite, does not grow in knowledge nor increase in wisdom. God does not acquire experience, as finite man might conjecture or comprehend, but he does, within the realms of his own eternal personality, enjoy those continuous expansions of self-realization that are in certain ways comparable to, and analogous with, the acquirement of new experience by the finite creatures of the evolutionary worlds.
P29:5, 1:5.15 The absolute perfection of the infinite God would cause him to suffer the awful limitations of unqualified finality of perfectness were it not a fact that the Universal Father directly participates in the personality struggle of every imperfect soul in the wide universe who seeks, by divine aid, to ascend to the spiritually perfect worlds on high. This progressive experience of every spirit being and every mortal creature throughout the universe of universes is a part of the Father's ever-expanding Deity-consciousness of the never-ending divine circle of ceaseless self-realization.
P29:6, 1:5.16 It is literally true: "In all your afflictions he is afflicted." "In all your triumphs he triumphs in and with you." His prepersonal divine spirit is a real part of you. The Isle of Paradise responds to all the physical metamorphoses of the universe of universes; the Conjoint Actor encompasses all the mind expression of the expanding cosmos. The Universal Father realizes in the fullness of the divine consciousness all the individual experience of the progressive struggles of the expanding minds and the ascending spirits of every entity, being, and personality of the whole evolutionary creation of time and space. And all this is literally true, for "in him we all live and move and have our being."
P29:7, 1:6.1 Human personality is the time-space image-shadow cast by the divine Creator personality. And no actuality can ever be adequately comprehended by an examination of its shadow. Shadows should be interpreted in terms of the true substance.
P30:1, 1:6.2 God is to science a cause, to philosophy an idea,
to religion a person, even the loving heavenly Father. God is to the scientist a
primal force, to the philosopher a hypothesis of unity, to the religionist a
living spiritual experience. Man's inadequate concept of the personality of the
Universal Father can be improved only by man's spiritual progress in the
universe and will become truly adequate only when the pilgrims of time and space
finally attain the divine embrace of the living God on Paradise.
P30:2, 1:6.3 Never lose sight of the antipodal viewpoints of
personality as it is conceived by God and man. Man views and comprehends
personality, looking from the finite to the infinite; God looks from the
infinite to the finite. Man possesses the lowest type of personality; God, the
highest, even supreme, ultimate, and absolute. Therefore the better concepts of
the divine personality have patiently to await the appearance of improved ideas
of human personality, especially the enhanced revelation to human Messengers.
P30:3, 1:6.4 The prepersonal divine spirit which indwells the
mortal mind carries, in its very presence, the valid proof of its actual
existence, but the concept of the divine personality can be grasped only by the
spiritual insight of genuine personal religious experience. Any person, human or
divine, may be known and comprehended quite apart from the external reactions or
the material presence of that person.
P30:4, 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.
P30:5, 1:6.6 The more completely man understands himself and
appreciates the personality values of his fellows, the more he will crave to
know the Original Personality, and the more earnestly such a God-knowing human
will strive to become like the Original Personality. You can argue over opinions
about God, but experience with him and in him exists above and beyond all human
controversy and mere intellectual logic. The God-knowing man describes his
spiritual experiences, not to convince unbelievers, but for the edification and
mutual satisfaction of believers.
P30:6, 1:6.7 To assume that the universe can be known, that it is intelligible, is to assume that the universe is mind made and personality managed. Man's mind can only perceive the mind phenomena of other minds, be they human or superhuman. If man's personality can experience the universe, there is a divine mind and an actual personality somewhere concealed in that universe.
P30:7, 1:6.8 God is spirit, a spiritual unity -- spirit personality; man is also a spirit -- potential spirit personality. Many Messengers have attained the full realization of this potential of spirit personality in human experience; therefore their life of achieving the Father's will becomes man's most real and ideal revelation of the personality of God. Even though the personality of the Universal Father can be grasped only in actual religious experience, in a Messenger's earth life we are inspired by the perfect demonstration of such a realization and revelation of the personality of God in a truly human experience.
P31:1, 1:7.1
When God's Messenger Jesus talked about "the living God," he referred
to a personal Deity -- the Father in heaven. The concept of the personality of
Deity facilitates fellowship; it favors intelligent worship; it promotes
refreshing trustfulness. Interactions can be had between nonpersonal things, but
not fellowship. The fellowship relation of father and son, as between God and
man, cannot be enjoyed unless except through their spirit. Only spiritual
personalities can commune with each other, albeit this personal communion may be
greatly facilitated by the presence of just such an impersonal entity as the
Thought Adjuster.
P31:2, 1:7.2
Man does not achieve union with God as a drop of water might find unity with the
ocean. Man attains divine union by progressive reciprocal spiritual communion,
by personality intercourse with the personal God, by increasingly attaining the
divine nature through wholehearted and intelligent conformity. Such a sublime
relationship can exist only between personalities.
P31:3, 1:7.3 The concept of truth might possibly be entertained apart from personality, the concept of beauty may exist without personality, but the concept of divine goodness is understandable only in relation to personality. Only a person can love and be loved. Even beauty and truth would be divorced from survival hope if they were not attributes of a personal God, a loving Father.
P31:4, 1:7.4 We cannot fully understand how God can be primal,
changeless, all-powerful, and perfect, and at the same time be surrounded by an
ever-changing and apparently law-limited universe, an evolving universe of
relative imperfections. But we can know such a truth in our own personal
experience since we all maintain identity of personality and unity of will in
spite of the constant changing of both ourselves and our environment.
P31:5, 1:7.5 Ultimate universe reality cannot be grasped by
mathematics, logic, or philosophy, only by personal experience in progressive
conformity to the divine will of a personal God. Neither science or philosophy
nor theology can validate the personality of God. Only the personal experience
of the spirit can effect the actual spiritual realization of the personality of
God.
P31:6, 1:7.6 The higher concepts of universe personality
imply: identity, self-consciousness, self-will, and possibility for
self-revelation. And these characteristics further imply fellowship with other
and equal personalities, such as exists in the personality associations of the
Paradise Deities. And the absolute unity of these associations is so perfect
that divinity becomes known by indivisibility, by oneness. "The Lord God is
One, a spiritual unity." Indivisibility of personality does not
interfere with God's bestowing his spirit to live in the hearts of mortal men.
Indivisibility of a human father's personality does not prevent the reproduction
of mortal sons and daughters.
P31:7, 1:7.7 This concept of indivisibility in association
with the concept of unity implies transcendence of both time and space by the
Ultimacy of Deity; therefore neither space nor time can be absolute or infinite.
The First Source and Center is that infinity that unqualifiedly transcends all
mind, all matter, and all spirit.
P31:8, 1:7.8 No language adequate to make clear to the
mortal mind how these universe problems appear to us. But do not become
discouraged; not all of these things are wholly clear to even the high
personalities of Paradise beings. Ever bear in mind that these profound truths
pertaining to Deity will increasingly clarify as your minds become progressively
spiritualized during the successive epochs of the long mortal ascent to
Paradise.