The Transcendent Goal of the Children of Time
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. ~ The Urantia Book, (1:0.3)
...Your short sojourn on Urantia, on this sphere of mortal infancy, is only a single link, the very first in the long chain that is to stretch across universes and through the eternal ages. It is not so much what you learn in this first life; it is the experience of living this life that is important. Even the work of this world, paramount though it is, is not nearly so important as the way in which you do this work. There is no material reward for righteous living, but there is profound satisfaction—consciousness of achievement—and this transcends any conceivable material reward. ~ The Urantia Book, (39:4.13)
TheTranscendence of Spiritual Values
Man can never wisely decidetemporal issues or transcend the selfishness of personal interestsunless he meditates in the presence of the sovereignty of God andreckons with the realities of divine meanings and spiritual values. ~ TheUrantia Book, (99:7.4)
The goal of humanself-realization should be spiritual, not material. The only realitiesworth striving for are divine, spiritual, and eternal. Mortal man isentitled to the enjoyment of physical pleasures and to the satisfactionof human affections; he is benefited by loyalty to human associations and temporal institutions; but these are not theeternal foundations upon which to build the immortal personality which must transcend space, vanquish time, and achieve the eternaldestiny of divine perfection and finaliter service. ~ TheUrantia Book, (100:2.6)
Religionand Transcendence
Religion must not become organically involved in the secular work of socialreconstruction and economic reorganization. But it must actively keeppace with all these advances in civilization by making clear-cut andvigorous restatements of its moral mandates and spiritual precepts, itsprogressive philosophy of human living and transcendent survival. Thespirit of religion is eternal, but the form of its expression must berestated every time the dictionary of human language is revised. ~ The Urantia Book,(99:1.6)
After all, it is what onebelieves rather than what one knows that determines conduct anddominates personal performances. Purely factual knowledge exerts verylittle influence upon the average man unless it becomes emotionallyactivated. But the activation of religion is superemotional, unifyingthe entire human experience on transcendent levels through contactwith, and release of, spiritual energies in the mortal life. ~ TheUrantia Book, (99:4.5)
Political science must effect the reconstruction of economics and industry by thetechniques it learns from the social sciences and by the insights andmotives supplied by religious living. In all social reconstructionreligion provides a stabilizing loyalty to a transcendent object, asteadying goal beyond and above the immediate and temporal objective.In the midst of the confusions of a rapidly changing environment mortalman needs the sustenance of a far-flung cosmic perspective. ~ TheUrantia Book, (99:7.2)
The feeling of religiousassurance is more than an emotional feeling. The assurance of religion transcends the reason of the mind, even the logic of philosophy.Religion is faith, trust, and assurance. ~ TheUrantia Book, (101:0.3)
Although religious experienceis a purely spiritual subjective phenomenon, such an experienceembraces a positive and living faith attitude toward the highest realmsof universe objective reality. The ideal of religious philosophy issuch a faith-trust as would lead man unqualifiedly to depend upon theabsolute love of the infinite Father of the universe of universes. Sucha genuine religious experience far transcends the philosophicobjectification of idealistic desire; it actually takes salvation for granted and concerns itself only with learning and doing the willof the Father in Paradise. The earmarks of such a religion are: faithin a supreme Deity, hope of eternal survival, and love, especially ofone's fellows. ~ The UrantiaBook, (103:9.5)
There is a reality in religiousexperience that is proportional to the spiritual content, and such areality is transcendent to reason, science, philosophy, wisdom, and all other human achievements. The convictionsof such an experience are unassailable; the logic of religious livingis incontrovertible; the certainty of such knowledge is superhuman; thesatisfactions are superbly divine, the courage indomitable, thedevotions unquestioning, the loyalties supreme, and the destiniesfinal—eternal, ultimate, and universal. ~ TheUrantia Book, (103:9.12)
It is only natural that mortalman should be harassed by feelings of insecurity as he views himselfinextricably bound to nature while he possesses spiritual powers whollytranscendent to all things temporal and finite. Only religiousconfidence—living faith—can sustain man amid suchdifficult and perplexing problems. ~ TheUrantia Book, (111:6.8)
...when religion is whollyspiritual in motive, it makes all life more worth while, filling itwith high purposes, dignifying it with transcendent values, inspiringit with superb motives, all the while comforting the human soul with a sublime and sustaining hope. True religion is designed to lessenthe strain of existence; it releases faith and courage for daily livingand unselfish serving. Faith promotes spiritual vitality and righteous fruitfulness.~ The Urantia Book,(155:3.7)
The social characteristics of atrue religion consist in the fact that it invariably seeks to convert the individualand to transform the world. Religion implies the existence ofundiscovered ideals which far transcend the known standards of ethicsand morality embodied in even the highest social usages of the mostmature institutions of civilization. Religion reaches out forundiscovered ideals, unexplored realities, superhuman values, divinewisdom, and true spirit attainment. ~ TheUrantia Book, (160:5.5)
The religion of Jesus transcends all our former concepts of the idea of worship in that henot only portrays his Father as the ideal of infinite reality butpositively declares that this divine source of values and the eternalcenter of the universe is truly and personally attainable by everymortal creature who chooses to enter the kingdomof heaven on earth, therebyacknowledging the acceptance of sonship with God and brotherhood withman. That, I submit, is the highest concept of religion the world hasever known, and I pronounce that there can never be a higher since thisgospel embraces the infinity of realities, the divinity of values, and theeternity of universal attainments. Such a concept constitutes theachievement of the experience of the idealism of the supreme and theultimate. ~ The Urantia Book,(160:5.7)
Christianityand Jesus' Transcendent Religion
Christianity has dared to lower its ideals before the challenge of human greed,war-madness, and the lust for power; but the religion of Jesus stands as the unsullied and transcendent spiritual summons, calling tothe best there is in man to rise above all these legacies of animal evolution and, by grace, attain the moral heights of true human destiny. ~ TheUrantia Book, (195:9.9)
The beauty and sublimity, thehumanity and divinity, the simplicity and uniqueness, of Jesus' life onearth present such a striking and appealing picture of man-saving andGod-revealing that the theologians and philosophers of all time shouldbe effectively restrained from daring to form creeds or createtheological systems of spiritual bondage out of such a transcendentalbestowal of God in the form of man. In Jesus the universe produced amortal man in whom the spirit of love triumphed over the materialhandicaps of time and overcame the fact of physical origin. ~ TheUrantia Book, (195:10.2)
The time is ripe to witness thefigurative resurrection of the human Jesus from his burial tomb amidstthe theological traditions and the religious dogmas of nineteencenturies. Jesus of Nazareth must not be longer sacrificed to even thesplendid concept of the glorified Christ. What a transcendent serviceif, through this revelation, the Son of Man should be recovered from the tomb of traditionaltheology and be presented as the living Jesus to the church that bearshis name, and to all other religions! Surely the Christian fellowshipof believers will not hesitate to make such adjustments of faith and ofpractices of living as will enable it to "follow after" the Master inthe demonstration of his real life of religious devotion to the doing of his Father's will and of consecration to the unselfishservice of man. ~ The UrantiaBook, (196:1.2)
Jesus offered no rules forsocial advancement; his was a religious mission, and religion is anexclusively individual experience. The ultimate goal of society's mostadvanced achievement can never hope to transcend Jesus' brotherhood ofmen based on the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The ideal of allsocial attainment can be realized only in the coming of this divinekingdom. ~ The Urantia Book,(196:2.11)
TheSupremacy of Religion
Personal, spiritual religiousexperience is an efficient solvent for most mortal difficulties; it isan effective sorter, evaluator, and adjuster of all human problems. Religion does not remove or destroy human troubles, but it does dissolve,absorb, illuminate, and transcend them. True religion unifies the personality for effective adjustment to all mortal requirements. Religiousfaith—the positive leading of the indwelling divinepresence—unfailingly enables the God-knowing man to bridgethat gulf existing between the intellectual logic which recognizes theUniversal First Cause as It and those positive affirmations of the soul which aver this First Cause is He, the heavenly Father of Jesus'gospel, the personal God of human salvation. ~ TheUrantia Book, (196:3.1)
Some men's lives are too greatand noble to descend to the low level of being merely successful. Theanimal must adapt itself to the environment, but the religious mantranscends his environment and in this way escapes the limitations ofthe present material world through this insight of divine love. Thisconcept of love generates in the soul of man that superanimal effort to find truth, beauty, and goodness; andwhen he does find them, he is glorified in their embrace; he isconsumed with the desire to live them, to do righteousness. ~ TheUrantia Book, (196:3.32)
TheAdjuster and Transcendence
Throughout all religiousexperience, from its earliest inception on the material level up to thetime of the attainment of full spirit status, the Adjuster is thesecret of the personal realization of the reality of the existence ofthe Supreme; and this same Adjuster also holds the secrets of yourfaith in the transcendental attainment of the Ultimate. Theexperiential personality of evolving man, united to the Adjuster essence of the existential God,constitutes the potential completion of supreme existence and isinherently the basis for the superfinite eventuation of transcendentalpersonality. ~ The UrantiaBook, (101:6.2)
In their relationship to fusioncreatures they reveal a supernal love and spiritual ministry that isprofoundly confirmative of the declaration that God is spirit. Butthere is much that takes place in addition to this transcendentministry that has never been revealed to Urantia mortals. Neither do wefully understand just what really transpires when the Universal Fathergives of himself to be a part of the personality of a creature of time. Nor has the ascending progression of theParadise finaliters as yet disclosed the full possibilities inherent inthis supernal partnership of man and God. In the last analysis, theFather fragments must be the gift of the absolute God to thosecreatures whose destiny encompasses the possibility of the attainmentof God as absolute. ~ TheUrantia Book, (107:1.6)
The inevitable result of such acontactual spiritualization of the human mind is the gradual birth of asoul, the joint offspring of an adjutant mind dominated by a human will thatcraves to know God, working in liaison with the spiritual forces of theuniverse which are under the overcontrol of an actual fragment of thevery God of all creation—the Mystery Monitor. And thus doesthe material and mortal reality of the self transcend the temporallimitations of the physical-life machine and attain a new expressionand a new identification in the evolving vehicle for selfhoodcontinuity, the morontia and immortal soul. ~ TheUrantia Book, (111:2.10)
The exquisite and transcendentexperience of loving and being loved is not just a psychic illusionbecause it is so purely subjective. The one truly divine and objectivereality that is associated with mortal beings, the Thought Adjuster,functions to human observation apparently as an exclusively subjectivephenomenon. Man's contact with the highest objective reality, God, isonly through the purely subjective experience of knowing him, ofworshiping him, of realizing sonship with him. ~ TheUrantia Book, (196:3.21)
TheHuman Paradox
Many of the temporal troublesof mortal man grow out of his twofold relation to the cosmos. Man is apart of nature—he exists in nature—and yet he isable to transcend nature. Man is finite, but he is indwelt by a sparkof infinity. Such a dual situation not only provides the potential forevil but also engenders many social and moral situations fraught withmuch uncertainty and not a little anxiety.
The courage required to effectthe conquest of nature and to transcend one's self is a courage thatmight succumb to the temptations of self-pride. The mortal who cantranscend self might yield to the temptation to deify his ownself-consciousness. The mortal dilemma consists in the double fact thatman is in bondage to nature while at the same time he possesses aunique liberty—freedom of spiritual choice and action. On material levels man finds himselfsubservient to nature, while on spiritual levels he is triumphant overnature and over all things temporal and finite. Such a paradox isinseparable from temptation, potential evil, decisional errors, andwhen self becomes proud and arrogant, sin may evolve. ~ TheUrantia Book, (111:6.1)
Of all the dangers which besetman's mortal nature and jeopardize his spiritual integrity, pride isthe greatest. Courage is valorous, but egotism is vainglorious andsuicidal. Reasonable self-confidence is not to be deplored. Man'sability to transcend himself is the one thing which distinguishes himfrom the animal kingdom. ~ TheUrantia Book, (111:6.9)
Patience is exercised by those mortals whose time units are short; true maturitytranscends patience by a forbearance born of real understanding. ~ TheUrantia Book, (118:1.6)
TheTranscendence of the Soul
The material self, theego-entity of human identity, is dependent during the physical life onthe continuing function of the material life vehicle, on the continuedexistence of the unbalanced equilibrium of energies and intellectwhich, on Urantia, has been given the name life. But selfhood ofsurvival value, selfhood that can transcend the experience of death, is only evolved by establishing a potential transfer of the seat of theidentity of the evolving personality from the transient life vehicle—the materialbody—to the more enduring and immortal nature of the morontiasoul and on beyond to those levels whereon the soul becomes infused with,and eventually attains the status of, spirit reality. This actualtransfer from material association to morontia identification iseffected by the sincerity, persistence, and steadfastness of theGod-seeking decisions of the human creature. ~ TheUrantia Book, (112:2.20)
JesusIntroduces the Transcendent Reactions of Fatherly Love
The Master introduced thismomentous discourse by calling attention to four faith attitudes as theprelude to the subsequent portrayal of his four transcendent andsupreme reactions of fatherly love in contrast to the limitations ofmere brotherly love.
He first talked about those whowere poor in spirit, hungered after righteousness, endured meekness,and who were pure in heart. Such spirit-discerning mortals could be expected to attain such levels of divineselflessness as to be able to attempt the amazing exercise of fatherly affection; that even as mourners they would be empowered to show mercy, promote peace, and endure persecutions, and throughout all of these trying situationsto love even unlovely mankind with a fatherly love. A father'saffection can attain levels of devotion that immeasurably transcend abrother's affection.
The faith and the love of thesebeatitudes strengthen moral character and create happiness. Fear andanger weaken character and destroy happiness. ~ TheUrantia Book, (140:5.4)
SaidJesus:
"I have called upon you to be bornagain, to be bornof the spirit. I have called you out of thedarkness of authority and the lethargy of tradition into thetranscendent light of the realization of the possibility of making foryourselves the greatest discovery possible for the human soul to make—the supernal experience of finding God for yourself,in yourself, and of yourself, and of doing all this as a fact in yourown personal experience." ~ Jesus,The Urantia Book, (155:6.3)
" I declare that the kingdomof heaven is the realization andacknowledgment of God's rule within the hearts of men. True, there is aKing in this kingdom, and that King is my Father and your Father. Weare indeed his loyal subjects, but far transcending that fact is thetransforming truth that we are his sons. In my life this truth is tobecome manifest to all. " ~ Jesus,The Urantia Book, (141:2.1)
The Transcendence of Jesus and His Teachings
Keep in mind: It is loyalty, not sacrifice, that Jesus demands. The consciousness of sacrifice implies the absence of thatwholehearted affection which would have made such a loving service asupreme joy. The idea of duty signifies that you are servant-minded andhence are missing the mighty thrill of doing your service as a friendand for a friend. The impulse of friendship transcends all convictions of duty, and the service of a friend for afriend can never be called a sacrifice. The Master has taught the apostles that they are the sons of God. He has called them brethren, and now,before he leaves, he calls them his friends. ~ TheUrantia Book, (180:1.6)
The cross forever shows thatthe attitude of Jesus toward sinners was neither condemnation norcondonation, but rather eternal and loving salvation. Jesus is truly a savior in the sense that his life and death do win menover to goodness and righteous survival. Jesus loves men so much that his love awakensthe response of love in the human heart. Love is truly contagious andeternally creative. Jesus' death on the cross exemplifies a love which is sufficiently strong anddivine to forgive sin and swallow up all evil-doing. Jesus disclosed to this world a higherquality of righteousness than justice—mere technical rightand wrong. Divine love does not merely forgive wrongs; it absorbs andactually destroys them. The forgiveness of love utterly transcends the forgiveness of mercy. ~ TheUrantia Book, (188:5.2)
In the earthly life of Jesus,religion was a living experience, a direct and personal movement fromspiritual reverence to practical righteousness. The faith of Jesus borethe transcendent fruits of the divine spirit. ~ TheUrantia Book, (196:0.11)
Jesus does not require hisdisciples to believe in him but rather to believe with him, believe inthe reality of the love of God and in full confidence accept thesecurity of the assurance of sonship with the heavenly Father. TheMaster desires that all his followers should fully share histranscendent faith. Jesus most touchingly challenged his followers, notonly to believe what he believed, but also to believe as he believed.This is the full significance of his one supreme requirement, "Followme." ~ The Urantia Book,(196:0.13)
Jesus' life in the fleshportrays a transcendent religious growth from the early ideas ofprimitive awe and human reverence up through years of personalspiritual communion until he finally arrived at that advanced andexalted status of the consciousness of his oneness with the Father. Andthus, in one short life, did Jesus traverse that experience ofreligious spiritual progression which man begins on earth andordinarily achieves only at the conclusion of his long sojourn in thespirit training schools of the successive levels of the pre-Paradisecareer. Jesus progressed from a purely human consciousness of the faithcertainties of personal religious experience to the sublime spiritualheights of the positive realization of his divine nature and to theconsciousness of his close association with the UniversalFather in the management of auniverse. He progressed from the humble status of mortal dependencewhich prompted him spontaneously to say to the one who called him GoodTeacher, "Why do you call me good? None is good but God," to thatsublime consciousness of achieved divinity which led him to exclaim,"Which one of you convicts me of sin?" And this progressing ascent fromthe human to the divine was an exclusively mortal achievement. And whenhe had thus attained divinity, he was still the same human Jesus, the Son of Man as well as the Son of God. ~ TheUrantia Book, (196:2.2)
Rodanon the Transcendence of the Gospel
The social characteristics of atrue religion consist in the fact that it invariably seeks to convertthe individual and to transform the world. Religion implies theexistence of undiscovered ideals which far transcend the knownstandards of ethics and morality embodied in even the highest socialusages of the most mature institutions of civilization. Religionreaches out for undiscovered ideals, unexplored realities, superhumanvalues, divine wisdom, and true spirit attainment. True religion doesall of this; all other beliefs are not worthy of the name. You cannothave a genuine spiritual religion without the supreme and supernalideal of an eternal God. A religion without this God is an invention of man, a human institution oflifeless intellectual beliefs and meaningless emotional ceremonies. ~ TheUrantia Book, (160:5.5)
This new gospel of the kingdom renders a great service to the art of living in that itsupplies a new and richer incentive for higher living. It presents anew and exalted goal of destiny, a supreme life purpose. And these newconcepts of the eternal and divine goal of existence are in themselvestranscendent stimuli, calling forth the reaction of the very best thatis resident in man's higher nature. On every mountaintop ofintellectual thought are to be found relaxation for the mind, strengthfor the soul, and communion for the spirit. From such vantage points of high living,man is able to transcend the material irritations of the lower levelsof thinking—worry, jealousy, envy, revenge, and the pride ofimmature personality. These high-climbing souls deliver themselves from a multitude of the crosscurrent conflicts ofthe trifles of living, thus becoming free to attain consciousness ofthe higher currents of spirit concept and celestial communication. Butthe life purpose must be jealously guarded from the temptation to seekfor easy and transient attainment; likewise must it be so fostered asto become immune to the disastrous threats of fanaticism. ~ TheUrantia Book, (160:3.5)
"I am convinced. I will confessGod as a person if you will permit me to qualify my confession of sucha belief by attaching to the meaning of personality a group of extended values, such as superhuman, transcendent, supreme,infinite, eternal, final, and universal. I am now convinced that, whileGod must be infinitely more than a personality, he cannot be anythingless. I am satisfied to end the argument and to accept Jesus as thepersonal revelation of the Father and the satisfaction of all unsatisfied factors in logic,reason, and philosophy." ~ TheUrantia Book, (161:1.11)
Sooneror Later...
Sooner or later another andgreater John the Baptist is due to arise proclaiming "the kingdom ofGod is at hand"—meaning a return to the high spiritualconcept of Jesus, who proclaimed that the kingdom is the will of hisheavenly Father dominant and transcendent in the heart of thebeliever—and doing all this without in any way referring either to the visiblechurch on earth or to the anticipated second coming of Christ. ~ TheUrantia Book, (170:5.19)
TheTranscendent Nature of the Life of Man
A mechanistic philosophy oflife and the universe cannot be scientific because science recognizesand deals only with materials and facts. Philosophy is inevitablysuperscientific. Man is a material fact of nature, but his life is aphenomenon which transcends the material levels of nature in that itexhibits the control attributes of mind and the creative qualities ofspirit. ~ The Urantia Book,(195:7.9)
TheTranscendent Universal Father
The eternal God is infinitelymore than reality idealized or the universe personalized. God is notsimply the supreme desire of man, the mortal quest objectified. Neitheris God merely a concept, the power-potential of righteousness. The UniversalFather is not a synonym fornature, neither is he natural law personified. God is a transcendentreality, not merely man's traditional concept of supreme values. ~ TheUrantia Book, (1:2.2)
The affectionate heavenly Father, whose spirit indwells his children on earth, is not adivided personality—oneof justice and one of mercy—neither does it require amediator to secure the Father's favor or forgiveness. Divine righteousness is not dominated by strict retributive justice;God as a father transcends God as a judge. ~ TheUrantia Book, (2:6.6)
God loves the sinner and hatesthe sin: such a statement is true philosophically, but God is atranscendent personality, and persons can only love and hate other persons. Sin is not a person.God loves the sinner because he is a personality reality (potentiallyeternal), while towards sin God strikes no personal attitude, for sin is not a spiritual reality;it is not personal; therefore does only the justice of God takecognizance of its existence. ~ TheUrantia Book, (2:6.8)
Finite appreciation of infinitequalities far transcends the logically limited capacities of thecreature because of the fact that mortal man is made in the image ofGod—there lives within him a fragment of infinity. Thereforeman's nearest and dearest approach to God is by and through love, forGod is love. And all of such a unique relationship is an actualexperience in cosmic sociology, the Creator-creaturerelationship—the Father-child affection. ~ TheUrantia Book, (3:4.7)
No matter how much you may growin Father comprehension, your mind will always be staggered by theunrevealed infinity of the Father-I AM, the unexplored vastness ofwhich will always remain unfathomable and incomprehensible throughoutall the cycles of eternity. No matter how much of God you may attain,there will always remain much more of him, the existence of which youwill not even suspect. And we believe that this is just as true ontranscendental levels as it is in the domains of finite existence. Thequest for God is endless! ~ TheUrantia Book, (106:7.5)
TheTranscendent Eternal Son
The Son not only possesses allthe Father's infinite and transcendent righteousness, but the Son isalso reflective of all the Father's holiness of character. The Sonshares the Father's perfection and jointly shares the responsibility ofaiding all creatures of imperfection in their spiritual efforts toattain divine perfection. ~ TheUrantia Book, (6:2.4)
The bestowals of the EternalSon in Havona are not within the scope of human imagination; they weretranscendental. ~ The UrantiaBook, (7:5.7)
Whatever else this originalMichael revealed, he made the transcendent bestowal of the OriginalMother Son real to the creatures of Havona. So real, that forevermoreeach pilgrim of time who labors in the adventure of making the Havonacircuits is cheered and strengthened by the certain knowledge that theEternal Son of God seven times abdicated the power and glory ofParadise to participate in the experiences of the time-space pilgrimson the seven circuits of progressive Havona attainment. ~ TheUrantia Book, (7:5.9)
TheTranscendence of the Infinite Spirit
The first act of the InfiniteSpirit is the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, theFather-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedlyidentifies both of them. He is fully cognizant of their separatepersonalities and infinite attributes as well as of their combinednature and united function. Next, voluntarily, with transcendentwillingness and inspiring spontaneity, the Third Person of Deity,notwithstanding his equality with the First and Second Persons, pledgeseternal loyalty to God the Father and acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God theSon. ~ The Urantia Book,(8:1.2)
As man learns more of theloving and tireless ministry of the lower orders of the creature familyof this Infinite Spirit, he will all the more admire and adore thetranscendent nature and matchless character of this combined Action ofthe Universal Father and the Eternal Son. Indeed is this Spirit "theeyes of the Lord which are ever over the righteous" and "the divineears which are ever open to their prayers." ~ The Urantia Book,(8:4.8)
TheInfinite Spirit and Mind
Spirit is always intelligent,minded in some way. It may be this mind or that mind, it may be premindor supermind, even spirit mind, but it does the equivalent of thinkingand knowing. The insight of spirit transcends, supervenes, andtheoretically antedates the consciousness of mind. ~ TheUrantia Book, (9:4.2)
Infinite mind ignores time,ultimate mind transcends time, cosmic mind is conditioned by time. Andso with space: The Infinite Mind is independent of space, but asdescent is made from the infinite to the adjutant levels of mind,intellect must increasingly reckon with the fact and limitations ofspace. ~ The Urantia Book,(9:4.4)
Spirit is the fundamentalreality of the personality experience of all creatures because God is spirit. Spirit isunchanging, and therefore, in all personality relations, it transcendsboth mind and matter, which are experiential variables of progressiveattainment. ~ The Urantia Book,(12:8.14)
TheFather's Love Portrays the Transcendent Value of Man
The love of God strikinglyportrays the transcendent value of each will creature, unmistakablyreveals the high value which the UniversalFather has placed upon each andevery one of his children from the highest creator personality of Paradise status to the lowest personality of will dignity among thesavage tribes of men in the dawn of the human species on some evolutionary world of time and space. ~ TheUrantia Book, (12:7.9)
The"Transcendentalers"
IV. EVENTUATED TRANSCENDENTALBEINGS. There is to be found on Paradise a vast host of transcendentalbeings whose origin is not ordinarily disclosed to the universes oftime and space until they are settled in light and life. TheseTranscendentalers are neither creators nor creatures; they are theeventuated children of divinity, ultimacy, and eternity. These"eventuators" are neither finite nor infinite—they areabsonite; and absonity is neither infinity nor absoluteness.
These uncreated noncreators areever loyal to the ParadiseTrinity and obedient to theUltimate. They are existent on four ultimate levels of personality activity and are functional on the seven levels of the absonite intwelve grand divisions consisting of one thousand major working groupsof seven classes each. These eventuated beings include the followingorders:
- The Architects of the MasterUniverse.
- Transcendental Recorders.
- Other Transcendentalers.
- Primary Eventuated MasterForce Organizers.
- Associate TranscendentalMaster Force Organizers. ~ TheUrantia Book, (30:1.14)
Part of the perfected mortal'sexperience on Paradise as a finaliter consists in the effort to achievecomprehension of the nature and function of more than one thousandgroups of the transcendental supercitizens of Paradise, eventuatedbeings of absonite attributes. In their association with thesesuperpersonalities, the ascendant finaliters receive great assistancefrom the helpful guidance of numerous orders of transcendentalministers who are assigned to the task of introducing the evolvedfinaliters to their new Paradise brethren. The entire order of theTranscendentalers live in the west of Paradise in a vast area whichthey exclusively occupy.
In the discussion ofTranscendentalers we are restricted, not only by the limitations ofhuman comprehension, but also by the terms of the mandate governingthese disclosures concerning the personalities of Paradise. Thesebeings are in no way connected with the mortal ascent to Havona. Thevast host of the Paradise Transcendentalers have nothing whatever to dowith the affairs of either Havona or the seven superuniverses, beingconcerned only with the superadministration of the affairs of themaster universe.
You, being a creature, canconceive of a Creator, but you can hardly comprehend that there existsan enormous and diversified aggregation of intelligent beings who areneither Creators nor creatures. These Transcendentalers create nobeings, neither were they ever created. In speaking of their origin, inorder to avoid using a new term—an arbitrary and meaninglessdesignation—we deem it best to say that Transcendentalerssimply eventuate. The Deity Absolute may well have been concerned intheir origin and may be implicated in their destiny, but these uniquebeings are not now dominated by the Deity Absolute. They are subject toGod the Ultimate, and their present Paradise sojourn is in every wayTrinity supervised and directed.
Although all mortals who attainParadise frequently fraternize with the Transcendentalers as they dowith the Paradise Citizens, it develops that man's first seriouscontact with a Transcendentaler occurs on that eventful occasion when,as a member of a new finaliter group, the mortal ascender stands in thefinaliter receiving circle as the Trinity oath of eternity isadministered by the chief of Transcendentalers, the presiding head ofthe Architects of the Master Universe ~ TheUrantia Book, (31:8.1)
TheTranscendent Pattern for the Human Family
After this pledge ofsubordination by the Creative Mother Spirit, Michaelof Nebadon nobly acknowledgedhis eternal dependence on his Spirit companion, constituting the Spiritcoruler of his universe domains and requiring all their creatures topledge themselves in loyalty to the Spirit as they had to the Son; andthere issued and went forth the final "Proclamation of Equality."Though he was the sovereign of this local universe, the Son publishedto the worlds the fact of the Spirit's equality with him in allendowments of personality and attributes of divine character. And this becomes the transcendentpattern for the family organization and government of even the lowlycreatures of the worlds of space. This is, in deed and in truth, thehigh ideal of the family and the human institution of voluntarymarriage. ~ The Urantia Book,(33:3.6)
TheFruits of the Spirit and Transcendence
The consciousness of the spiritdomination of a human life is presently attended by an increasingexhibition of the characteristics of the Spirit in the life reactionsof such a spirit-led mortal, "for the fruitsof the spirit are love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and temperance." Such spirit-guided and divinelyilluminated mortals, while they yet tread the lowly paths of toil andin human faithfulness perform the duties of their earthly assignments,have already begun to discern the lights of eternallife as they glimmer on thefaraway shores of another world; already have they begun to comprehendthe reality of that inspiring and comforting truth, "The kingdom of Godis not meat and drink but righteousness, peace, and joy in the HolySpirit." And throughout every trial and in the presence of everyhardship, spirit-born souls are sustained by that hope which transcends all fear because the loveof God is shed abroad in all hearts by the presence of the divineSpirit. ~ The Urantia Book,(34:6.13)
Angels'Abilities Far Transcend Human Abilities
The seraphim are so created asto function on both spiritual and literal levels. There are few phasesof morontia or spirit activity which are not open to theirministrations. While in personal status angels are not so far removed from human beings, in certain functionalperformances seraphim far transcend them. They possess many powers farbeyond human comprehension. For example: You have been told that the"very hairs of your head are numbered," and it is true they are, but aseraphim does not spend her time counting them and keeping the numbercorrected up to date. Angels possess inherent and automatic (that is,automatic as far as you could perceive) powers of knowing such things;you would truly regard a seraphim as a mathematical prodigy. Therefore,numerous duties which would be tremendous tasks for mortals areperformed with exceeding ease by seraphim. ~ TheUrantia Book, (38:2.3)
OurSometime Transcendent Achievement
While the seventh segment ofthe grand universe may, in many respects, be tardy in development,thoughtful students of our problems look forward to the evolution of an extraordinarily well-balanced creation in the ages to come. Wepredict this high degree of symmetry in Orvonton because the presidingSpirit of this superuniverse is the chief of the Master Spirits onhigh, being a spirit intelligence embodying the balanced union andperfect co-ordination of the traits and character of all three of theeternal Deities. We are tardy and backward in comparison with othersectors, but there undoubtedly awaits us a transcendent development andan unprecedented achievement sometime in the eternal ages of thefuture. ~ The Urantia Book,(34:2.6)
The mortal-survival plan has apractical and serviceable objective; you are not the recipients of allthis divine labor and painstaking training only that you may survivejust to enjoy endless bliss and eternal ease. There is a goal oftranscendent service concealed beyond the horizon of the presentuniverse age. If the Gods designed merely to take you on one long andeternal joy excursion, they certainly would not so largely turn thewhole universe into one vast and intricate practical training school,requisition a substantial part of the celestial creation as teachersand instructors, and then spend ages upon ages piloting you, one byone, through this gigantic universe school of experiential training. ~ TheUrantia Book, (48:8.3)
At the inconceivably distantfuture eternity moment of the final completion of the entire masteruniverse, no doubt we will all look back upon its entire history asonly the beginning, simply the creation of certain finite andtranscendental foundations for even greater and more enthrallingmetamorphoses in uncharted infinity. At such a future eternity momentthe master universe will still seem youthful; indeed, it will be alwaysyoung in the face of the limitless possibilities of never-endingeternity. ~ The Urantia Book,(106:7.8)
The time-space concept of amind of material origin is destined to undergo successive enlargementsas the conscious and conceiving personality ascends the levels of the universes. When man attains the mindintervening between the material and the spiritual planes of existence,his ideas of time-space will be enormously expanded both as to qualityof perception and quantity of experience. The enlarging cosmicconceptions of an advancing spirit personality are due to augmentationsof both depth of insight and scope of consciousness. And as personalitypasses on, upward and inward, to the transcendental levels ofDeity-likeness, the time-space concept will increasingly approximatethe timeless and spaceless concepts of the Absolutes. Relatively, andin accordance with transcendental attainment, these concepts of theabsolute level are to be envisioned by the children of ultimatedestiny. ~ The Urantia Book,(130:7.8)
TheTranscendental Wisdom of the Master Architects
Physical stability associatedwith biologic elasticity is present in nature only because of thewell-nigh infinite wisdom possessed by the Master Architects ofcreation. Nothing less than transcendental wisdom could ever designunits of matter which are at the same time so stable and so efficientlyflexible. ~ The Urantia Book,(42:9.5)
Loveand Understanding are Transcendent Civilizers
Spiritual insight. The brotherhoodof man is, after all, predicatedon the recognition of the fatherhood of God. The quickest way torealize the brotherhood of man on Urantia is to effect the spiritualtransformation of present-day humanity. The only technique foraccelerating the natural trend of social evolution is that of applyingspiritual pressure from above, thus augmenting moral insight whileenhancing the soul capacity of every mortal to understand and love every other mortal.Mutual understanding and fraternal love are transcendent civilizers andmighty factors in the world-wide realization of the brotherhood of man.~ The Urantia Book,(52:6.7)
TheTranscendent Devotion of Amadon
At the time of these momentoustransactions I was stationed on Edentia, and I am still conscious ofthe exhilaration I experienced as I perused the Salvington broadcastswhich told from day to day of the unbelievable steadfastness, thetranscendent devotion, and the exquisite loyalty of this onetime semisavage springing from theexperimental and original stock of the Andonic race. ~ TheUrantia Book, (67:8.2)
TheProfit Motive Makes Way for more Transcendent Motives
The profit motive of economicactivities is altogether base and wholly unworthy of an advanced orderof society; nevertheless, it is an indispensable factor throughout theearlier phases of civilization. Profit motivation must not be takenaway from men until they have firmly possessed themselves of superiortypes of nonprofit motives for economic striving and socialserving—the transcendent urges of superlative wisdom,intriguing brotherhood, and excellency of spiritual attainment. ~ TheUrantia Book, (71:6.3)
ThePromise of the Chinese Culture
This ancient culture hascontributed much to human happiness; millions of human beings have lived and died, blessed by itsachievements. For centuries this great civilization has rested upon thelaurels of the past, but it is even now reawakening to envision anewthe transcendent goals of mortal existence, once again to take up theunremitting struggle for never-ending progress. ~ TheUrantia Book, (79:8.17)
Guilt - A Badge of Transcendent Distinction
The possibility of therecognition of the sense of guilt is a badge of transcendentdistinction for mankind. It does not mark man as mean but rather setshim apart as a creature of potential greatness and ever-ascendingglory. Such a sense of unworthiness is the initial stimulus that shouldlead quickly and surely to those faith conquests which translate themortal mind to the superb levels of moral nobility, cosmic insight, andspiritual living; thus are all the meanings of human existence changedfrom the temporal to the eternal, and all values are elevated from thehuman to the divine. ~ TheUrantia Book, (89:10.4)
TheBook of Psalms Transcends All Sacred Books
No collection of religiouswritings gives expression to such a wealth of devotion andinspirational ideas of God as the Book of Psalms. And it would be very helpful if, in the perusal of this wonderfulcollection of worshipful literature, consideration could be given tothe source and chronology of each separate hymn of praise andadoration, bearing in mind that no other single collection covers sucha great range of time. This Book of Psalms is the record of the varyingconcepts of God entertained by the believers of the Salem religionthroughout the Levant and embraces the entire period from Amenemope to Isaiah. In the PsalmsGod is depicted in all phases of conception, from the crude idea of atribal deity to the vastly expanded ideal of the later Hebrews, wherein Yahweh is pictured as a loving ruler and merciful Father.
And when thus regarded, thisgroup of Psalms constitutes the most valuable and helpful assortment ofdevotional sentiments ever assembled by man up to the times of the twentiethcentury. The worshipful spirit of this collection of hymns transcendsthat of all other sacred books of the world. ~ TheUrantia Book, (96:7.3)
