Paper 21 — The Paradise Creator Sons

P.234 – §1 The Creator Sons are the
makers and rulers of the local universes of time and space. These universe
creators and sovereigns are of dual origin, embodying the characteristics
of God the Father and God the Son. But each Creator Son is different from
every other; each is unique in nature as well as in personality; each
is the "only-begotten Son" of the perfect deity ideal of his
origin.

P.234 – §2 In the vast work of organizing, evolving,
and perfecting a local universe, these high Sons always enjoy the sustaining
approval of the Universal Father. The relationship of the Creator Sons
with their Paradise Father is touching and superlative. No doubt the profound
affection of the Deity parents for their divine progeny is the wellspring
of that beautiful and well-nigh divine love which even mortal parents
bear their children.

P.234 – §3 These primary Paradise Sons are personalized
as Michaels. As they go forth from Paradise to found their universes,
they are known as Creator Michaels. When settled in supreme authority,
they are called Master Michaels. Sometimes we refer to the sovereign of
your universe of Nebadon as Christ Michael. Always and forever do they
reign after the "order of Michael," that being the designation
of the first Son of their order and nature.

P.234 – §4 The original or first-born Michael has
never experienced incarnation as a material being, but seven times he
passed through the experience of spiritual creature ascent on the seven
circuits of Havona, advancing from the outer spheres to the innermost
circuit of the central creation. The order of Michael knows the grand
universe from one end to the other; there is no essential experience of
any of the children of time and space in which the Michaels have not personally
participated; they are in fact partakers not only of the divine nature
but also of your nature, meaning all natures, from the highest to the
lowest.
P.234 – §5 The original Michael is the presiding head of the primary
Paradise Sons when they assemble for conference at the center of all things.
Not long since on Uversa we recorded a universal broadcast of a conclave
extraordinary on the eternal Isle of one hundred fifty thousand Creator
Sons assembled in the parental presence and engaged in deliberations having
to do with the progress of the unification and stabilization of the universe
of universes. This was a selected group of Sovereign Michaels, sevenfold
bestowal Sons.

1. ORIGIN AND NATURE OF CREATOR SONS – P.234

P.234 – §6 When the fullness of absolute spiritual
ideation in the Eternal Son encounters the fullness of absolute personality
concept in the Universal Father, when such a creative union is finally
and fully attained, when such absolute identity of spirit

P.235 – §0 and such infinite oneness of personality
concept occur, then, right then and there, without the loss of anything
of personality or prerogative by either of the infinite Deities, there
flashes into full-fledged being a new and original Creator Son, the only-begotten
Son of the perfect ideal and the powerful idea whose union produces this
new creator personality of power and perfection.

P.235 – §1 Each Creator Son is the only-begotten
and only-begettable offspring of the perfect union of the original concepts
of the two infinite and eternal and perfect minds of the ever-existent
Creators of the universe of universes. There never can be another such
Son because each Creator Son is the unqualified, finished, and final expression
and embodiment of all of every phase of every feature of every possibility
of every divine reality that could, throughout all eternity, ever be found
in, expressed by, or evolved from, those divine creative potentials which
united to bring this Michael Son into existence. Each Creator Son is the
absolute of the united deity concepts which constitute his divine origin.

P.235 – §2 The divine natures of these Creator Sons
are, in principle, derived equally from the attributes of both Paradise
parents. All partake of the fullness of the divine nature of the Universal
Father and of the creative prerogatives of the Eternal Son, but as we
observe the practical outworking of the Michael functions in the universes,
we discern apparent differences. Some Creator Sons appear to be more like
God the Father; others more like God the Son. For example: The trend of
administration in the universe of Nebadon suggests that its Creator and
ruling Son is one whose nature and character more resemble that of the
Eternal Mother Son. It should be further stated that some universes are
presided over by Paradise Michaels who appear equally to resemble God
the Father and God the Son. And these observations are in no sense implied
criticisms; they are simply a recording of fact.

P.235 – §3 I do not know the exact number of Creator
Sons in existence, but I have good reasons for believing that there are
more than seven hundred thousand. Now, we know that there are exactly
seven hundred thousand Unions of Days and no more are being created. We
also observe that the ordained plans of the present universe age seem
to indicate that one Union of Days is to be stationed in each local universe
as the counseling ambassador of the Trinity. We note further that the
constantly increasing number of Creator Sons already exceeds the stationary
number of the Unions of Days. But concerning the destiny of the Michaels
beyond seven hundred thousand, we have never been informed.

2. THE CREATORS OF LOCAL UNIVERSES – P.235

P.235 – §4 The Paradise Sons of the primary order
are the designers, creators, builders, and administrators of their respective
domains, the local universes of time and space, the basic creative units
of the seven evolutionary superuniverses. A Creator Son is permitted to
choose the space site of his future cosmic activity, but before he may
begin even the physical organization of his universe, he must spend a
long period of observation devoted to the study of the efforts of his
older brothers in various creations located in the superuniverse of his
projected action. And prior to all this, the Michael Son will have completed
his long and unique experience of Paradise observation and Havona training.

P.235 – §5 When a Creator Son departs from Paradise
to embark upon the adventure of universe making, to become the head–virtually
the God–of the local universe

P.236 – §0 of his own organization, then, for the
first time, he finds himself in intimate contact with, and in many respects
dependent upon, the Third Source and Center. The Infinite Spirit, though
abiding with the Father and the Son at the center of all things, is destined
to function as the actual and effective helper of each Creator Son. Therefore
is each Creator Son accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the Infinite
Spirit, that being who is destined to become the Divine Minister, the
Mother Spirit of the new local universe.

P.236 – §1 The departure of a Michael Son on this
occasion forever liberates his creator prerogatives from the Paradise
Sources and Centers, subject only to certain limitations inherent in the
pre-existence of these Sources and Centers and to certain other antecedent
powers and presences. Among these limitations to the otherwise all-powerful
creator prerogatives of a local universe Father are the following:

P.236 – §2 1. Energy-matter is dominated by the Infinite
Spirit. Before any new forms of things, great or small, may be created,
before any new transformations of energy-matter may be attempted, a Creator
Son must secure the consent and working co-operation of the Infinite Spirit.

P.236 – §3 2. Creature designs and types are controlled
by the Eternal Son. Before a Creator Son may engage in the creation of
any new type of being, any new design of creature, he must secure the
consent of the Eternal and Original Mother Son.

P.236 – §4 3. Personality is designed and bestowed
by the Universal Father.

P.236 – §5 The types and patterns of mind are determined
by the precreature factors of being. After these have been associated
to constitute a creature (personal or otherwise), mind is the endowment
of the Third Source and Center, the universal source of mind ministry
to all beings below the level of Paradise Creators.

P.236 – §6 The control of spirit designs and types
depends on the level of their manifestation. In the last analysis, spiritual
design is controlled by the Trinity or by the pre-Trinity spirit endowments
of the Trinity personalities–Father, Son, and Spirit.

P.236 – §7 When such a perfect and divine Son has
taken possession of the space site of his chosen universe; when the initial
problems of universe materialization and of gross equilibrium have been
resolved; when he has formed an effective and co-operative working union
with the complemental Daughter of the Infinite Spirit–then do this Universe
Son and this Universe Spirit initiate that liaison which is designed to
give origin to the innumerable hosts of their local universe children.
In connection with this event the Creative Spirit focalization of the
Paradise Infinite Spirit becomes changed in nature, taking on the personal
qualities of the Mother Spirit of a local universe.

P.236 – §8 Notwithstanding that all Creator Sons
are divinely like their Paradise parents, none exactly resembles another;
each is unique, diverse, exclusive, and original in nature as well as
in personality. And since they are the architects and makers of the life
plans of their respective realms, this very diversity insures that their
domains will also be diverse in every form and phase of Michael-derived
living existence which may be created or subsequently evolved therein.
Hence the orders of creatures native to the local universes are quite
varied. No two are administered or inhabited by dual-origin native beings
who are in all respects identical. Within any superuniverse, one half
of their inherent attributes are quite alike, being derived from the uniform
Creative Spirits; the other half

P.237 – §0 vary, being derived from the diversified
Creator Sons. But such diversity does not characterize those creatures
of sole origin in the Creative Spirit nor those imported beings who are
native to the central or superuniverses.

P.237 – §1 When a Michael Son is absent from his
universe, its government is directed by the first-born native being, the
Bright and Morning Star, the local universe chief executive. The advice
and counsel of the Union of Days is invaluable at such times. During these
absences a Creator Son is able to invest the associated Mother Spirit
with the overcontrol of his spiritual presence on the inhabited worlds
and in the hearts of his mortal children. And the Mother Spirit of a local
universe remains always at its headquarters, extending her fostering care
and spiritual ministry to the uttermost parts of such an evolutionary
domain.

P.237 – §2 The personal presence of a Creator Son
in his local universe is not necessary to the smooth running of an established
material creation. Such Sons may journey to Paradise, and still their
universes swing on through space. They may lay down their lines of power
to incarnate as the children of time; still their realms whirl on about
their respective centers. No material organization is independent of the
absolute-gravity grasp of Paradise or of the cosmic overcontrol inherent
in the space presence of the Unqualified Absolute.

3. LOCAL UNIVERSE SOVEREIGNTY – P.237

P.237 – §3 A Creator Son is given the range of a
universe by the consent of the Paradise Trinity and with the confirmation
of the supervising Master Spirit of the superuniverse concerned. Such
action constitutes title of physical possession, a cosmic leasehold. But
the elevation of a Michael Son from this initial and self-limited stage
of rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned sovereignty
comes as a result of his own personal experiences in the work of universe
creation and incarnated bestowal. Until the achievement of bestowal-earned
sovereignty, he rules as vicegerent of the Universal Father.

P.237 – §4 A Creator Son could assert full sovereignty
over his personal creation at any time, but he wisely chooses not to.
If, prior to passing through the creature bestowals, he assumed an unearned
supreme sovereignty, the Paradise personalities resident in his local
universe would withdraw. But this has never happened throughout all the
creations of time and space.

P.237 – §5 The fact of creatorship implies the fullness
of sovereignty, but the Michaels choose to experientially earn it, thereby
retaining the full co-operation of all Paradise personalities attached
to the local universe administration. We know of no Michael who ever did
otherwise; but they all could, they are truly freewill Sons.

P.237 – §6 The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a
local universe passes through six, perhaps seven, stages of experiential
manifestation. These appear in the following order:

P.237 – §7 1. Initial vicegerent sovereignty–the
solitary provisional authority exercised by a Creator Son before the acquirement
of personal qualities by the associated Creative Spirit.

P.237 – §8 2. Conjoint vicegerent sovereignty–the
joint rule of the Paradise pair subsequent to the personality achievement
of the Universe Mother Spirit.

P.238 – §1 3. Augmenting vicegerent sovereignty–the
advancing authority of a Creator Son during the period of his seven creature
bestowals.

P.238 – §2 4. Supreme sovereignty–the settled authority
following the completion of the seventh bestowal. In Nebadon, supreme
sovereignty dates from the completion of Michael’s bestowal on Urantia.
It has existed just slightly over nineteen hundred years of your planetary
time.

P.238 – §3 5. Augmenting supreme sovereignty–the
advanced relationship growing out of the settling of a majority of the
creature domains in light and life. This stage pertains to the unachieved
future of your local universe.

P.238 – §4 6. Trinitarian sovereignty–exercised
subsequent to the settling of the entire local universe in light and life.

P.238 – §5 7. Unrevealed sovereignty–the unknown
relationships of a future universe age.

P.238 – §6 In accepting the initial vicegerent sovereignty
of a projected local universe, a Creator Michael takes an oath to the
Trinity not to assume supreme sovereignty until the seven creature bestowals
have been completed and certified by the superuniverse rulers. But if
a Michael Son could not, at will, assert such unearned sovereignty, there
would be no meaning in taking an oath not to do so.

P.238 – §7 Even in the prebestowal ages a Creator
Son rules his domain well-nigh supremely when there is no dissent in any
of its parts. Limited rulership would hardly be manifest if sovereignty
were never challenged. The sovereignty exercised by a prebestowal Creator
Son in a universe without rebellion is no greater than in a universe with
rebellion; but in the first instance sovereignty limitations are not apparent;
in the second, they are.

P.238 – §8 If ever the authority or administration
of a Creator Son is challenged, attacked, or jeopardized, he is eternally
pledged to uphold, protect, defend, and if necessary retrieve his personal
creation. Such Sons can be troubled or harassed only by the creatures
of their own making or by higher beings of their own choosing. It might
be inferred that "higher beings," those of origin on levels
above a local universe, would be unlikely to trouble a Creator Son, and
this is true. But they could if they chose to. Virtue is volitional with
personality; righteousness is not automatic in freewill creatures.

P.238 – §9 Before the completion of the bestowal
career a Creator Son rules with certain self-imposed limitations of sovereignty,
but subsequent to his finished bestowal service he rules by virtue of
his actual experience in the form and likeness of his manifold creatures.
When a Creator has seven times sojourned among his creatures, when the
bestowal career is finished, then is he supremely settled in universe
authority; he has become a Master Son, a sovereign and supreme ruler.

P.238 – §10 The technique of obtaining supreme sovereignty
over a local universe involves the following seven experiential steps:

P.238 – §11 1. Experientially to penetrate seven
creature levels of being through the technique of incarnated bestowal
in the very likeness of the creatures on the level concerned.

P.238 – §12 2. To make an experiential consecration
to each phase of the sevenfold will of Paradise Deity as it is personified
in the Seven Master Spirits.

P.239 – §1 3. To traverse each of the seven experiences
on the creature levels simultaneously with the execution of one of the
seven consecrations to the will of Paradise Deity.

P.239 – §2 4. On each creature level, experientially
to portray the acme of creature life to Paradise Deity and to all universe
intelligences.

P.239 – §3 5. On each creature level, experientially
to reveal one phase of the sevenfold will of Deity to the bestowal level
and to all the universe.

P.239 – §4 6. Experientially to unify the sevenfold
creature experience with the sevenfold experience of consecration to the
revelation of the nature and will of Deity.

P.239 – §5 7. To achieve new and higher relationship
with the Supreme Being. The repercussion of the totality of this Creator-creature
experience augments the superuniverse reality of God the Supreme and the
time-space sovereignty of the Almighty Supreme and factualizes the supreme
local universe sovereignty of a Paradise Michael.

P.239 – §6 In settling the question of sovereignty
in a local universe, the Creator Son is not only demonstrating his own
fitness to rule but is also revealing the nature and portraying the sevenfold
attitude of the Paradise Deities. The finite understanding and creature
appreciation of the Father’s primacy is concerned in the adventure of
a Creator Son when he condescends to take upon himself the form and experiences
of his creatures. These primary Paradise Sons are the real revealers of
the Father’s loving nature and beneficent authority, the same Father who,
in association with the Son and the Spirit, is the universal head of all
power, personality, and government throughout all the universal realms.

4. THE MICHAEL BESTOWALS – P.239

P.239 – §7 There are seven groups of bestowal Creator
Sons, and they are so classified in accordance with the number of times
they have bestowed themselves upon the creatures of their realms. They
range from the initial experience up through five additional spheres of
progressive bestowal until they attain the seventh and final episode of
creature-Creator experience.

P.239 – §8 Avonal bestowals are always in the likeness
of mortal flesh, but the seven bestowals of a Creator Son involve his
appearing on seven creature levels of being and pertain to the revelation
of the seven primary expressions of the will and nature of Deity. Without
exception, all Creator Sons pass through this seven times giving of themselves
to their created children before they assume settled and supreme jurisdiction
over the universes of their own creation.

P.239 – §9 Though these seven bestowals vary in the
different sectors and universes, they always embrace the mortal-bestowal
adventure. In the final bestowal a Creator Son appears as a member of
one of the higher mortal races on some inhabited world, usually as a member
of that racial group which contains the largest hereditary legacy of the
Adamic stock which has previously been imported to upstep the physical
status of the animal-origin peoples. Only once in his sevenfold career
as a bestowal Son is a Paradise Michael born of woman as you have the
record of the babe of Bethlehem. Only once does he live and die as a member
of the lowest order of evolutionary will creatures.

P.239 – §10 After each of his bestowals a Creator
Son proceeds to the "right hand of the Father," there to gain
the Father’s acceptance of the bestowal and to receive instruction

P.240 – §0 preparatory to the next episode of universe
service. Following the seventh and final bestowal a Creator Son receives
from the Universal Father supreme authority and jurisdiction over his
universe.

P.240 – §1 It is of record that the divine Son of
last appearance on your planet was a Paradise Creator Son who had completed
six phases of his bestowal career; consequently, when he gave up the conscious
grasp of the incarnated life on Urantia, he could, and did, truly say,
"It is finished"–it was literally finished. His death on Urantia
completed his bestowal career; it was the last step in fulfilling the
sacred oath of a Paradise Creator Son. And when this experience has been
acquired, such Sons are supreme universe sovereigns; no longer do they
rule as vicegerents of the Father but in their own right and name as "King
of Kings and Lord of Lords." With certain stated exceptions these
sevenfold bestowal Sons are unqualifiedly supreme in the universes of
their abode. Concerning his local universe, "all power in heaven
and on earth" was relegated to this triumphant and enthroned Master
Son.

P.240 – §2 Creator Sons, subsequent to the completion
of their bestowal careers, are reckoned as a separate order, sevenfold
Master Sons. In person the Master Sons are identical with the Creator
Sons, but they have undergone such a unique bestowal experience that they
are commonly regarded as a different order. When a Creator deigns to effect
a bestowal, a real and permanent change is destined to take place. True,
the bestowal Son is still and none the less a Creator, but he has added
to his nature the experience of a creature, which forever removes him
from the divine level of a Creator Son and elevates him to the experiential
plane of a Master Son, one who has fully earned the right to rule a universe
and administer its worlds. Such beings embody all that can be secured
from divine parentage and embrace everything to be derived from perfected-creature
experience. Why should man bemoan his lowly origin and enforced evolutionary
career when the very Gods must pass through an equivalent experience before
they are accounted experientially worthy and competent finally and fully
to rule over their universe domains!

5. RELATION OF MASTER SONS TO THE UNIVERSE – P.240

P.240 – §3 The power of a Master Michael is unlimited
because derived from experienced association with the Paradise Trinity,
is unquestioned because derived from actual experience as the very creatures
subject to such authority. The nature of the sovereignty of a sevenfold
Creator Son is supreme because it:

P.240 – §4 1. Embraces the sevenfold viewpoint of
Paradise Deity.

P.240 – §5 2. Embodies a sevenfold attitude of time-space
creatures.

P.240 – §6 3. Perfectly synthesizes Paradise attitude
and creature viewpoint.

P.240 – §7 This experiential sovereignty is thus
all-inclusive of the divinity of God the Sevenfold culminating in the
Supreme Being. And the personal sovereignty of a sevenfold Son is like
the future sovereignty of the sometime-to-be-completed Supreme Being,
embracing as it does the fullest possible content of the power and authority
of the Paradise Trinity manifestable within the time-space limits concerned.

P.240 – §8 With the achievement of supreme local
universe sovereignty, there passes from a Michael Son the power and opportunity
to create entirely new types of

P.241 – §0 creature beings during the present universe
age. But a Master Son’s loss of power to originate entirely new orders
of beings in no way interferes with the work of life elaboration already
established and in process of unfoldment; this vast program of universe
evolution goes on without interruption or curtailment. The acquirement
of supreme sovereignty by a Master Son implies the responsibility of personal
devotion to the fostering and the administering of that which has already
been designed and created, and of that which will subsequently be produced
by those who have been thus designed and created. In time there may develop
an almost endless evolution of diverse beings, but no entirely new pattern
or type of intelligent creature will henceforth take direct origin from
a Master Son. This is the first step, the beginning, of a settled administration
in any local universe.

P.241 – §1 The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal
Son to the unquestioned sovereignty of his universe means the beginning
of the end of agelong uncertainty and relative confusion. Subsequent to
this event, that which cannot be sometime spiritualized will eventually
be disorganized; that which cannot be sometime co-ordinated with cosmic
reality will eventually be destroyed. When the provisions of endless mercy
and nameless patience have been exhausted in an effort to win the loyalty
and devotion of the will creatures of the realms, justice and righteousness
will prevail. That which mercy cannot rehabilitate justice will eventually
annihilate.

P.241 – §2 The Master Michaels are supreme in their
own local universes when once they have been installed as sovereign rulers.
The few limitations upon their rule are those inherent in the cosmic pre-existence
of certain forces and personalities. Otherwise these Master Sons are supreme
in authority, responsibility, and administrative power in their respective
universes; they are as Creators and Gods, supreme in virtually all things.
There is no penetration beyond their wisdom regarding the functioning
of a given universe.

P.241 – §3 After his elevation to settled sovereignty
in a local universe a Paradise Michael is in full control of all other
Sons of God functioning in his domain, and he may freely rule in accordance
with his concept of the needs of his realms. A Master Son may at will
vary the order of the spiritual adjudication and evolutionary adjustment
of the inhabited planets. And such Sons do make and carry out the plans
of their own choosing in all matters of special planetary needs, in particular
regarding the worlds of their creature sojourn and still more concerning
the realm of terminal bestowal, the planet of incarnation in the likeness
of mortal flesh.

P.241 – §4 The Master Sons seem to be in perfect
communication with their bestowal worlds, not only the worlds of their
personal sojourn but all worlds whereon a Magisterial Son has bestowed
himself. This contact is maintained by their own spiritual presence, the
Spirit of Truth, which they are able to "pour out upon all flesh."
These Master Sons also maintain an unbroken connection with the Eternal
Mother Son at the center of all things. They possess a sympathetic reach
which extends from the Universal Father on high to the lowly races of
planetary life in the realms of time.

6. DESTINY OF THE MASTER MICHAELS – P.241

P.241 – §5 No one may with finality of authority
presume to discuss either the natures or the destinies of the sevenfold
Master Sovereigns of the local universes; nevertheless,

P.242 – §0 we all speculate much regarding these
matters. We are taught, and we believe, that each Paradise Michael is
the absolute of the dual deity concepts of his origin; thus he embodies
actual phases of the infinity of the Universal Father and the Eternal
Son. The Michaels must be partial in relation to total infinity, but they
are probably absolute in relation to that part of infinity concerned in
their origin. But as we observe their work in the present universe age,
we detect no action that is more than finite; any conjectured superfinite
capacities must be self-contained and as yet unrevealed.

P.242 – §1 The completion of the creature-bestowal
careers and the elevation to supreme universe sovereignty must signify
the completed liberation of a Michael’s finite-action capacities accompanied
by the appearance of capacity for more-than-finite service. For in this
connection we note that such Master Sons are then restricted in the production
of new types of creature beings, a restriction undoubtedly made necessary
by the liberation of their superfinite potentialities.

P.242 – §2 It is highly probable that these undisclosed
creator powers will remain self-contained throughout the present universe
age. But sometime in the far-distant future, in the now mobilizing universes
of outer space, we believe that the liaison between a sevenfold Master
Son and a seventh-stage Creative Spirit may attain to absonite levels
of service attended by the appearance of new things, meanings, and values
on transcendental levels of ultimate universe significance.

P.242 – §3 Just as the Deity of the Supreme is actualizing
by virtue of experiential service, so are the Creator Sons achieving the
personal realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials bound up in their
unfathomable natures. When on Urantia, Christ Michael once said, "I
am the way, the truth, and the life." And we believe that in eternity
the Michaels are literally destined to be "the way, the truth, and
the life," ever blazing the path for all universe personalities as
it leads from supreme divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity
finality.

P.242 – §4 [Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from
Uversa.]