5:0. God’s Relation to the Individual
P62:1, 5:0.1
If the finite mind of man is unable to comprehend how a great and majestic God
as the Universal Father can descend from his eternal abode in infinite
perfection to fraternize with the individual human creature, then must such a
finite intellect rest assurance of divine fellowship upon the truth of the fact
that an actual fragment of the living God resides within the intellect of every
normal-minded and morally conscious Earth mortal. Man does not have to go
farther than his own inner experience of the soul's contemplation of this
spiritual-reality presence to find God and attempt communion with him.
P62:3, 5:1.1 The inability of the finite creature to approach the infinite Father is inherent, not in the Father's aloofness, but in the finiteness and material limitations of created beings. The magnitude of the spiritual difference between the highest personality of universe existence and the lower groups of created intelligences is inconceivable but it possible, as in the case of the Messengers, for the lower orders of intelligence’s spirit to be transported instantly into the presence of, and to be temporarily united with the Father himself. There is a long, long road ahead of mortal man before he can consistently and within the realms of possibility ask for safe conduct into the Paradise presence of the Universal Father. Spiritually, man’s spirit must first be cleansed of impurities; (born-again) before he can attain a plane that will yield the spiritual vision that will enable him to see God.
P62:4, 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 man, inseparable from the finite personality and material existence, that determine the time and place and circumstances in which one may achieve the goal of the journey of spiritual ascension and be united with the Father at the center of all things.
P63:1, 5:1.3 Although the approach to the Paradise presence of
the Father must await your attainment of the highest finite levels of spirit
progression, one should rejoice in the recognition of the ever-present
possibility of immediate communion with the bestowal spirit of the Father so
intimately associated with your inner soul and your spiritualizing self.
P63:2, 5:1.4 The mortals of the realms of time and space may
differ greatly in innate abilities and intellectual endowment, they may enjoy
environments exceptionally favorable to social advancement and moral progress,
or they may suffer from the lack of almost every human aid to culture and
supposed advancement in the arts of civilization; but the possibilities for
spiritual progress in the ascension career are equal to all; increasing levels
of spiritual insight and cosmic meanings are attained quite independently of all
differentials of the diversified material environments on the
evolutionary worlds.
P63:3, 5:1.5 Earth mortals may differ in their intellectual, social, economic, and even moral opportunities and endowments, forget not that their spiritual endowment is uniform and unique. They all enjoy the same divine presence of the gift from the Father, and they are all equally privileged to seek intimate personal communion with this indwelling spirit of divine origin; they may all equally choose to accept the uniform spirituality.
P63:4, 5:1.6 If mortal man is wholeheartedly spiritually motivated, unreservedly consecrated to the Father, then, since he is so certainly and so effectively spiritually endowed by the spirit, there cannot fail to materialize in that individual's experience the sublime consciousness of knowing God and the supernal assurance of surviving for the purpose of finding God by the progressive experience of becoming more and more like him.
P63:5, 5:1.7 Man is spiritually indwelt by a surviving Thought
Adjuster. If such a human mind is sincerely and spiritually motivated, if such a
human soul desires to know God and become like him, honestly wants unite with
the Father, there exists no negative influence of mortal deprivation nor
positive power of possible interference which can prevent such a divinely
motivated soul from securely ascending to the portals of Paradise.
P63:6, 5:1.8 The Father desires all his creatures to be in
personal communion with him. Our survival status and spiritual nature make
possible such attainment. Therefore settle in your philosophy now and forever:
To each and to all of us, God is approachable; the Father is attainable, the way
is open; the forces of divine love and the ways and means of divine
administration are all interlocked in an effort to facilitate the advancement of
every worthy intelligence to the Paradise presence of the Universal Father.
P63:7, 5:1.9 The fact that great effort is involved in the
attainment of God makes the presence and personality of the Infinite
none-the-less real. Some day, doubt not, you shall stand in the divine and
central presence and see him, figuratively speaking, face-to-face. It is a
question of the attainment of actual and literal spiritual levels; and these
spiritual levels are attainable by any being who has been indwelt by the spirit,
and who has subsequently eternally fused with that Thought Adjuster.
P64:1, 5:1.10 The Father is not in spiritual hiding, but so
many of his creatures have hidden themselves away in the mists of their own
willful decisions and for the time being have separated themselves from the
communion of his spirit by the choosing of their own perverse ways and by the
indulgence of the self-assertiveness of their intolerant minds and unspiritual
natures.
P64:2, 5:1.11 Mortal man may draw near God and may repeatedly
forsake the divine will so long as the power of choice remains. Man's final doom
is not sealed until he has lost the power to choose the Father's will. There is
never a closure of the Father's heart to the need and the petition of his
children. Only do his offspring close their hearts forever to the Father's
drawing power when they finally and forever lose the desire to do his divine
will -- to know him and to be like him. Likewise is man's eternal destiny
assured when Adjuster fusion proclaims to the universe that such an ascender has
made the final and irrevocable choice to live the Father's will.
P64:4, 5:2.3 The physical presence of the Infinite is the reality of the material universe. The mind presence of Deity must be determined by the depth of individual intellectual experience and by the evolutionary personality level. The spiritual presence of Divinity must of necessity be differential in the universe. It is determined by the spiritual capacity of receptivity and by the degree of the consecration of the creature's will to the doing of the divine will. The spirit of the Universal Father lives within your own mind.
P64:7, 5:2.4 It is because of the God fragment that indwells
you that you can hope, as you progress in harmonizing with the Adjuster's
spiritual leadings, more fully to discern the presence and transforming power of
those other spiritual influences that surround you and impinge upon you but do
not function as an integral part of you. The fact that you are not
intellectually conscious of close and intimate contact with the indwelling
Adjuster does not in the least disprove such an exalted experience. The proof of
fraternity with the divine Adjuster consists wholly in the nature and extent of
the fruits of the spirit that are yielded in the life experience of the
individual believer. "By their fruits you shall know them."
P65:1, 5:2.5 It is exceedingly difficult for the meagerly
spiritualized, material mind of mortal man to experience marked consciousness of
the spirit activities of such divine entities as the Paradise Adjusters. As the
soul of joint mind and Adjuster creation becomes increasingly existent, there
also evolves a new phase of soul consciousness that is capable of experiencing
the presence, and of recognizing the spirit leadings and other super material
activities of the Monitors.
P65:2, 5:2.6 The entire experience of Adjuster communion is
one involving moral status, mental motivation, and spiritual experience. The
self-realization of such an achievement is mainly, though not exclusively,
limited to the realms of soul consciousness, but the proofs are forthcoming and
abundant in the manifestation of the fruits of the spirit in the lives of all
such inner-spirits.
P65:3, 5:3.1 In the highest sense, we worship the Universal
Father and him only. True, some mortals do sometimes pray to the Father’s
Messenger, but it is the Father, directly or indirectly, who is worshiped and
adored.
P65:4, 5:3.2 Prayers, all formal communications, everything
except adoration and worship of the Universal Father, are matters that concern a
local universe; they do not ordinarily proceed out of the realm of its
jurisdiction. But worship is undoubtedly encircuited and dispatched to the
Creator by the function of the Father's personality circuit. We further believe
that such registry of the homage of an Adjuster-indwelt creature is facilitated
by the Father's spirit presence. There exists a tremendous amount of evidence to
substantiate such a belief, and we know that all orders of Father fragments are
empowered to register the bona fide adoration of their subjects acceptably in
the presence of the Universal Father. The Adjusters undoubtedly also utilize
direct prepersonal channels of communication with God, and they are likewise
also able to utilize the spirit-gravity circuits.
P65:5, 5:3.3 Worship is for its own sake; prayer embodies a
self- or creature-interest element; that is the great difference between worship
and prayer. There is absolutely no self-request or other element of personal
interest in true worship; we simply worship God for what we comprehend him to
be. Worship asks nothing and expects nothing for the worshiper. We do not
worship the Father because of anything we may derive from such veneration; we
render such devotion and engage in such worship as a natural and spontaneous
reaction to the recognition of the Father's matchless personality and because of
his lovable nature and adorable attributes.
P65:6, 5:3.4 The moment the element of self-interest intrudes
upon worship, that instant devotion translates from worship to prayer. In
practical religious experience there exists no reason why prayer should not be
addressed to God the Father as true worship.
P66:1, 5:3.5 When you deal with the practical affairs of your
daily life you worship God; pray to, and commune with him and work out the
details of your earthly sojourn in connection with the intelligences of the
Infinite Spirit operating on your world and throughout your universe.
P66:2, 5:3.6 The Father hears the adoration of worship and gives ear to the pleas of their petitioning subjects throughout their respective creations. The Infinite Spirit maintains personal contact with the children of the realms through the Universe Spirits.
P66:3, 5:3.7 Sincere worship connotes the mobilization of all
the powers of the human personality under the dominance of the evolving soul and
subject to the divine directionization of the associated Thought Adjuster. The
mind of material limitations can never become highly conscious of the real
significance of true worship. Man's realization of the reality of the worship
experience is chiefly determined by the developmental status of his evolving
immortal soul. The spiritual growth of the soul takes place wholly independently
of the intellectual self-consciousness.
P66:4, 5:3.8 The worship experience consists in the sublime
attempt of the betrothed Adjuster to communicate to the divine Father the
inexpressible longings and the unutterable aspirations of the human soul -- the
conjoint creation of the God-seeking mortal mind and the God-revealing immortal
Adjuster. Worship is, therefore, the act of the material mind's assenting to the
attempt of its spiritualizing self, under the guidance of the associated spirit,
to communicate with God as a faith child of the Universal Father. The mortal
mind consents to worship; the immortal soul craves and initiates worship; the
divine Adjuster presence conducts such worship in behalf of the mortal mind and
the evolving immortal soul. True worship, in the last analysis, becomes an
experience realized on four cosmic levels: the intellectual, the morontial, the
spiritual, and the personal -- the consciousness of mind, soul, and spirit, and
their unification in personality.
P66:5, 5:4.1 The morality of the religions of evolution drives
men forward in the God quest by the motive power of fear. The religions of
revelation allure men to seek for a God of love because they crave to
become like him. But religion is not merely a passive feeling of "absolute
dependence" and "surety of survival"; it is a living and dynamic
experience of divinity attainment predicated on humanity service.
P66:6, 5:4.2 The great and immediate service of true religion
is the establishment of an enduring unity in human experience, a lasting peace
and a profound assurance. With primitive man, even polytheism is a relative
unification of the evolving concept of Deity; polytheism is monotheism in the
making. Sooner or later, God is destined to be comprehended as the reality of
values, the substance of meanings, and the life of truth.
P67:1, 5:4.3 God is not only the determiner of destiny; he is
man's eternal destination. All nonreligious human activities seek to bend
the universe to the distorting service of self; the truly religious individual
seeks to identify the self with the universe and then to dedicate the activities
of this unified self to the service of the universe family of fellow beings.
P67:2, 5:4.4 The domains of philosophy and art intervene between the nonreligious and the religious activities of the human self. Through art and philosophy the material-minded man is inveigled into the contemplation of the spiritual realities and universe values of eternal meanings.
P67:3, 5:4.5 Most religions teach the worship of Deity and some doctrine of human salvation. The Buddhist religion promises salvation from suffering, unending peace; the Jewish religion promises salvation from difficulties, prosperity predicated on righteousness; the Greek religion promised salvation from disharmony, ugliness, by the realization of beauty; Christianity promises salvation from sin, sanctity; Islam provides deliverance identical to the rigorous moral standards of Judaism and Christianity.
P67:4, 5:4.6 The Hebrews based their religion on goodness; the
Greeks on beauty; both religions sought truth. Jesus revealed a God of love, and
love is all-embracing of truth, beauty, and goodness.
P67:5, 5:4.7 The Zoroastrians have a religion of morals; the
Hindus a religion of metaphysics; the Confucianists a religion of ethics. Jesus
lived a religion of service. All these religions are of value in that
they are equally valid. Religion should be destined to become the reality of the
spiritual unification of all that is good, beautiful, and true in human
experience.
P67:6, 5:4.8 The Greek religion had a watchword "Know
yourself"; the Hebrews centered their teaching on "Know your
God"; the Christians preach a gospel aimed at a "knowledge of the
Jesus; Jesus proclaimed the good news of "knowing God, and yourself as a
child of God." These differing concepts of the purpose of religion
determine the individual's attitude in various life situations and foreshadow
the depth of worship and the nature of his personal habits of prayer. The
spiritual status of any religion may be determined by the nature of its prayers.
P67:7, 5:4.9 The concept of a semi human and jealous God is an inevitable transition between polytheism and sublime monotheism.
P67:8, 5:4.10 The Christian concept of God is considered by some religions as a selfish attempt to combine three separate teachings:
P68:2, 5:4.11 It must therefore be evident that composite Christian theology encounters great difficulty in attaining consistency. This difficulty is further aggravated by the fact that the doctrines of early Christianity were generally based on the personal religious experience of three different persons: Philo of Alexandria, Jesus of Nazareth, and Paul of Tarsus.
P68:3, 5:4.12 In the study of the religious life of Jesus, view him positively. Think of his righteousness, his loving service. Jesus upstepped the passive love disclosed in the Hebrew concept of the heavenly Father to the higher active and creature-loving affection of a God who is the Father of every individual, even of the wrongdoer.
P68:3, 5:5.1 Morality has its origin in the reason of
self-consciousness; it is super animal but wholly evolutionary. Human evolution
embraces in its unfolding all endowments antecedent to the bestowal of the
Adjusters and to the pouring out of the Spirit of Truth. But the attainment of
levels of morality does not deliver man from the real struggles of mortal
living. Man's physical environment entails the battle for existence; the social
surroundings necessitate ethical adjustments; the moral situations require the
making of choices in the highest realms of reason; the spiritual experience
(having realized God) demands that man find him and sincerely strive to be like
him.
P68:4, 5:5.2 Religion is not grounded in the facts of science,
the obligations of society, the assumptions of philosophy, or the implied duties
of morality. Religion is an independent realm of human response to life
situations and is unfailingly exhibited at all stages of human development that
are post moral. Religion may permeate all four levels of the realization of
values and the enjoyment of universe fellowship: the physical or material level
of self-preservation; the social or emotional level of fellowship; the moral or
duty level of reason; the spiritual level of the consciousness of universe
fellowship through divine worship.
P68:5, 5:5.3 The fact-seeking scientist conceives of God as
the First Cause, a God of force. The emotional artist sees God as the ideal of
beauty, a God of aesthetics. The reasoning philosopher is sometimes inclined to
posit a God of universal unity, even a pantheistic Deity. The religionist of
faith believes in a God who fosters survival, the Father in heaven, the God of
love.
P68:6, 5:5.4 Moral conduct is always an antecedent of evolved
religion and a part of even revealed religion, but never the whole of religious
experience. Social service is the result of moral thinking and religious living.
Morality does not biologically lead to the higher spiritual levels of religious
experience. The adoration of the abstract beautiful is not the worship of God;
neither is exaltation of nature nor the reverence of unity the worship of God.
P68:7, 5:5.5 Evolutionary religion is the mother of the
science, art, and philosophy which elevated man to the level of receptivity to
revealed religion, including the bestowal of Adjusters and the coming of the
Spirit of Truth. The evolutionary picture of human existence begins and ends
with religion, albeit very different qualities of religion, one evolutional and
biological, the other revelational and periodical. And so, while religion is
normal and natural to man, it is also optional. Man does not have to be
religious against his will.
P69:1, 5:5.6 Religious experience, being essentially spiritual, can never be fully understood by the material mind; hence the function of theology, the psychology of religion. The essential doctrine of the human realization of God creates a paradox in finite comprehension. It is well nigh impossible for human logic and finite reason to harmonize the concept of divine immanence, God within and a part of every individual, with the idea of God's transcendence, the divine domination of the universe. These two essential concepts of Deity must be unified in the faith-grasp of the concept of the transcendence of a personal God and in the realization of the indwelling presence of a fragment of that God in order to justify intelligent worship and validate the hope of personality survival. The difficulties and paradoxes of religion are inherent in the fact that the realities of religion are utterly beyond the mortal capacity for intellectual comprehension.
P69:2, 5:5.7 Mortal man secures three great satisfactions from religious experience, even in the days of his temporal sojourn on earth:
P69:3, 5:5.8 1. Intellectually he acquires the satisfactions of a more unified human consciousness.
P69:4, 5:5.9 2. Philosophically he enjoys the substantiation of his ideals of moral values.
P69:5, 5:5.10 3. Spiritually he thrives in the experience of divine companionship, in the spiritual satisfactions of true worship.
P69:6, 5:5.11 God-consciousness, as it is experienced by an
evolving mortal of the realms, must consist of three varying factors, three
differential levels of reality realization. There is first the mind
consciousness -- the comprehension of the idea of God. Then follows the
soul consciousness -- the realization of the ideal of God. Last, dawns
the spirit consciousness -- the realization of the spirit reality of God.
By the unification of these factors of the divine realization, no matter how
incomplete, the mortal personality at all times overspreads all conscious levels
with a realization of the personality of God. In those mortals who have
attained all this, will in time lead to the realization of the supremacy of
God and may subsequently eventuate in the realization of the ultimacy of
God, some phase of the absonite super consciousness of the Paradise Father.
P69:7, 5:5.12 The experience of God-consciousness remains the
same from generation to generation, but with each advancing epoch in human
knowledge the philosophic concept and the theological definitions of God must
change. God-knowingness, religious consciousness, is a universe reality, but
no matter how valid (real) religious experience is, it must be willing to
subject itself to intelligent criticism and reasonable philosophic
interpretation; it must not seek to be a thing apart in the totality of human
experience.
P69:8, 5:5.13 Eternal survival of personality is wholly
dependent on the choosing of the mortal mind, whose decisions determine the
survival potential of the immortal soul. When the mind believes God and the soul
knows God, and when, with the fostering Adjuster, they all desire God,
then is survival assured. Limitations of intellect, curtailment of education,
deprivation of culture, impoverishment of social status, even inferiority of the
human standards of morality resulting from the unfortunate lack of educational,
cultural, and social advantages, cannot invalidate the presence of the divine
spirit in such unfortunate and humanly handicapped but believing individuals.
The indwelling of the spirit constitutes the inception and insures the
possibility of the potential of growth and survival of the immortal soul.
P70:1, 5:5.14 The ability of mortal parents to procreate is
not predicated on their educational, cultural, social, or economic status. The
union of the parental factors under natural conditions is quite sufficient to
initiate offspring. A human mind discerning right and wrong and possessing the
capacity to worship God, in union with a divine Adjuster, is all that is
required in that mortal to initiate and foster the production of his immortal
soul of survival qualities if such a spirit-endowed individual seeks God and
sincerely desires to become like him and elects to live righteously.
P70:2, 5:6.1 The Universal Father is the God of personalities. The domain of universe personality, from the lowest mortal and material creature of personality status to the highest persons of creator dignity, has its center and circumference in the Universal Father. God the Father is the Bestower and the conservator of every personality. And the Paradise Father is likewise the destiny of all those finite personalities who wholeheartedly choose to do the divine will, those who love God and long to be like him.
P70:3, 5:6.2 Personality is one of the unsolved mysteries of the universes. We are able to form adequate concepts of the factors entering into the make-up of various orders and levels of personality, but we do not fully comprehend the real nature of the personality itself. We clearly perceive the numerous factors which, when put together, constitute the vehicle for human personality, but we do not fully comprehend the nature and significance of such a finite personality.
P70:4, 5:6.3
Personality is potential in all creatures who possess a mind endowment ranging
from the minimum of self-consciousness to the maximum of God-consciousness. But
mind endowment alone is not personality, neither is spirit nor physical energy.
Personality is that quality and value in cosmic reality that is exclusively
bestowed by God the Father upon these living systems of the associated and
co-ordinated energies of matter, mind, and spirit. Neither is personality a
progressive achievement. Personality may be material or spiritual, but there
either is personality or there is no personality. The other-than-personal never
attains the level of the personal except by the direct act of the Paradise
Father.
P70:5, 5:6.4
The bestowal of personality is the exclusive function of the Universal Father,
the personalization of the living energy systems which he endows with the
attributes of relative creative consciousness and the freewill control thereof .
The fundamental attributes of human selfhood, as well as the absolute Adjuster
nucleus of the human personality, are the bestowals of the Universal Father,
acting in his exclusively personal domain of cosmic ministry.
P70:6, 5:6.5 The Adjusters of prepersonal status indwell
numerous types of mortal creatures, thus insuring that these same beings may
survive mortal death to personalize as morontial creatures with the potential of
ultimate spirit attainment. For, when such a creature mind of personality
endowment is indwelt by a fragment of the spirit of the eternal God, the
prepersonal bestowal of the personal Father, then does this finite personality
possess the potential of the divine and the eternal and aspire to a destiny akin
to the Ultimate, even reaching out for a realization of the Absolute.
P71:1, 5:6.6 Capacity for divine personality is inherent in the prepersonal Adjuster; capacity for human personality is potential in the cosmic-mind endowment of the human being. But the experiential personality of mortal man is not observable as an active and functional reality until after the material life vehicle of the mortal creature has been touched by the liberating divinity of the Universal Father, being thus launched upon the seas of experience as a self-conscious and a (relatively) self-determinative and self-creative personality. The material self is truly and unqualifiedly personal.
P71:2, 5:6.7 The material self has personality and identity,
temporal identity; the prepersonal spirit Adjuster also has identity, eternal
identity. This material personality and this spirit prepersonality are capable
of so uniting their creative attributes as to bring into existence the surviving
identity of the immortal soul.
P71:3, 5:6.8 Having thus provided for the growth of the
immortal soul and having liberated man's inner self from the fetters of absolute
dependence on antecedent causation, the Father stands aside. Now, man having
thus been liberated from the fetters of causation response, at least as pertains
to eternal destiny, and provision having been made for the growth of the
immortal self, the soul, it remains for man himself to will the creation or to
inhibit the creation of this surviving and eternal self which is his for the
choosing. No other being, force, creator, or agency in all the wide universe of
universes can interfere to any degree with the absolute sovereignty of the
mortal free will, as it operates within the realms of choice, regarding the
eternal destiny of the personality of the choosing mortal. As pertains to
eternal survival, God has decreed the sovereignty of the material and mortal
will, and that decree is absolute.
P71:4, 5:6.9 The bestowal of creature personality confers relative liberation from slavish response to antecedent causation, and the personalities of all such moral beings, evolutionary or otherwise, are centered in the personality of the Universal Father. They are ever drawn towards his Paradise presence by that kinship of being which constitutes the vast and universal family circle and fraternal circuit of the eternal God. There is a kinship of divine spontaneity in all personality.
P71:5, 5:6.10 The personality circuit of the universe of universes is centered in the person of the Universal Father, and the Paradise Father is personally conscious of, and in personal touch with, all personalities of all levels of self-conscious existence. And this personality consciousness of all creation exists independently of the mission of the Thought Adjusters.
P71:6, 5:6.11 As all gravity is circuited in the Isle of Paradise, so is all personality circuited in the personal presence of the Universal Father and this circuit unerringly transmits the worship of all personalities to the Original and Eternal Personality.
P71:7, 5:6.12 Concerning those personalities who are not Adjuster indwelt: The attribute of choice-liberty is also bestowed by the Universal Father, and such persons are likewise embraced in the great circuit of divine love, the personality circuit of the Universal Father. God provides for the sovereign choice of all true personalities. No personal creature can be coerced into the eternal adventure.
P72:1, 5:6.13 God is your universe Father and all are his planetary children.