BACK in eternity, when the Universal Father's "first" infinite and absolute thought finds in the
Eternal Son such a perfect and adequate word for its divine expression, there ensues the supreme desire of both the Thought-God and the Word-God for a universal and infinite agent of mutual expression and combined action.
In the dawn of eternity both the Father and the Son become infinitely cognizant of their mutual
interdependence, their eternal and absolute oneness; and therefore do they enter into an infinite and
everlasting covenant of divine partnership. This never-ending compact is made for the execution of their united concepts throughout all of the circle of eternity; and ever since this eternity event the Father and the Son continue in this divine union.
We are now face to face with the eternity origin of the Infinite Spirit, the Third Person of Deity.
The very instant that God the Father and God the Son conjointly conceive an identical and infinite action
— the execution of an absolute thought-plan — that very moment, the Infinite Spirit springs fullfledgedly into existence.
In thus reciting the order of the origin of the Deities, I do so merely to enable you to think of
their relationship. In reality they are all three existent from eternity; they are existential. They are
without beginning or ending of days; they are co-ordinate, supreme, ultimate, absolute, and infinite.
They are and always have been and ever shall be. And they are three distinctly individualized but
eternally associated persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Spirit.
THE GOD OF ACTION
In the eternity of the past, upon the personalization of the Infinite Spirit the divine personality
cycle becomes perfect and complete. The God of Action is existent, and the vast stage of space is set for the stupendous drama of creation — the universal adventure — the divine panorama of the eternal ages.
The first act of the Infinite Spirit is the inspection and recognition of his divine parents, the
Father-Father and the Mother-Son. He, the Spirit, unqualifiedly identifies both of them. He is fully
cognizant of their separate personalities and infinite attributes as well as of their combined nature and
united function. Next, voluntarily, with transcendent willingness and inspiring spontaneity, the Third
Person of Deity, notwithstanding his equality with the First and Second Persons, pledges eternal loyalty
to God the Father and acknowledges everlasting dependence upon God the Son.
Inherent in the nature of this transaction and in mutual recognition of the personality
independence of each and the executive union of all three, the cycle of eternity is established. The
Paradise Trinity is existent. The stage of universal space is set for the manifold and never-ending
panorama of the creative unfolding of the purpose of the Universal Father through the personality of the
Eternal Son and by the execution of the God of Action, the executive agency for the reality
performances of the Father-Son creator partnership.
The God of Action functions and the dead vaults of space are astir. One billion perfect spheres
flash into existence. Prior to this hypothetical eternity moment the space-energies inherent in Paradise
are existent and potentially operative, but they have no actuality of being; neither can physical gravity be
measured except by the reaction of material realities to its incessant pull. There is no material universe at
this (assumed) eternally distant moment, but the very instant that one billion worlds materialize, there is
in evidence gravity sufficient and adequate to hold them in the everlasting grasp of Paradise.
There now flashes through the creation of the Gods the second form of energy, and this
outflowing spirit is instantly grasped by the spiritual gravity of the Eternal Son. Thus the twofold gravityembraced
universe is touched with the energy of infinity and immersed in the spirit of divinity. In this
way is the soil of life prepared for the consciousness of mind made manifest in the associated
intelligence circuits of the Infinite Spirit.
Upon these seeds of potential existence, diffused throughout the central creation of the Gods, the
Father acts, and creature personality appears. Then does the presence of the Paradise Deities fill all
organized space and begin effectively to draw all things and beings Paradiseward.
The Infinite Spirit eternalizes concurrently with the birth of the Havona worlds, this central
universe being created by him and with him and in him in obedience to the combined concepts and
united wills of the Father and the Son. The Third Person deitizes by this very act of conjoint creation,
and he thus forever becomes the Conjoint Creator.
These are the grand and awful times of the creative expansion of the Father and the Son by, and
in, the action of their conjoint associate and exclusive executive, the Third Source and Center. There
exists no record of these stirring times. We have only the meager disclosures of the Infinite Spirit to
substantiate these mighty transactions, and he merely verifies the fact that the central universe and all
that pertains thereto eternalized simultaneously with his attainment of personality and conscious
existence.
In brief, the Infinite Spirit testifies that, since he is eternal, so also is the central universe eternal.
And this is the traditional starting point of the history of the universe of universes. Absolutely nothing is
known, and no records are in existence, regarding any event or transaction prior to this stupendous
eruption of creative energy and administrative wisdom that crystallized the vast universe which exists,
and so exquisitely functions, at the center of all things. Beyond this event lie the unsearchable
transactions of eternity and the depths of infinity — absolute mystery.
And we thus portray the sequential origin of the Third Source and Center as an interpretative
condescension to the time-bound and space-conditioned mind of mortal creatures. The mind of man
must have a starting point for the visualization of universe history, and I have been directed to provide
this technique of approach to the historic concept of eternity. In the material mind, consistency demands
a First Cause; therefore do we postulate the Universal Father as the First Source and the Absolute Center
of all creation, at the same time instructing all creature minds that the Son and the Spirit are coeternal
with the Father in all phases of universe history and in all realms of creative activity. And we do this
without in any sense being disregardful of the reality and eternity of the Isle of Paradise and of the
Unqualified, Universal, and Deity Absolutes.
It is enough of a reach of the material mind of the children of time to conceive of the Father in
eternity. We know that any child can best relate himself to reality by first mastering the relationships of
the child-parent situation and then by enlarging this concept to embrace the family as a whole.
Subsequently the growing mind of the child will be able to adjust to the concept of family relations, to
relationships of the community, the race, and the world, and then to those of the universe, the
superuniverse, even the universe of universes.
NATURE OF THE INFINITE SPIRIT
The Conjoint Creator is from eternity and is wholly and without qualification one with the
Universal Father and the Eternal Son. The Infinite Spirit reflects in perfection not only the nature of the
Paradise Father but also the nature of the Original Son.
The Third Source and Center is known by numerous titles: the Universal Spirit, the Supreme
Guide, the Conjoint Creator, the Divine Executive, the Infinite Mind, the Spirit of Spirits, the Paradise
Mother Spirit, the Conjoint Actor, the Final Co-ordinator, the Omnipresent Spirit, the Absolute
Intelligence, the Divine Action; and on Urantia he is sometimes confused with the cosmic mind.
It is altogether proper to denominate the Third Person of Deity the Infinite Spirit, for God is
spirit. But material creatures who tend towards the error of viewing matter as basic reality and mind,
together with spirit, as postulates rooted in matter, would better comprehend the Third Source and
Center if he were called the Infinite Reality, the Universal Organizer, or the Personality Co-ordinator.
The Infinite Spirit, as a universe revelation of divinity, is unsearchable and utterly beyond human
comprehension. To sense the absoluteness of the Spirit, you need only contemplate the infinity of the
Universal Father and stand in awe of the eternity of the Original Son.
There is mystery indeed in the person of the Infinite Spirit but not so much as in the Father and
the Son. Of all aspects of the Father's nature, the Conjoint Creator most strikingly discloses his infinity.
Even if the master universe eventually expands to infinity, the spirit presence, energy control, and mind
potential of the Conjoint Actor will be found adequate to meet the demands of such a limitless creation.
Though in every way sharing the perfection, the righteousness, and the love of the Universal
Father, the Infinite Spirit inclines towards the mercy attributes of the Eternal Son, thus becoming the
mercy minister of the Paradise Deities to the grand universe. Ever and always — universally and
eternally — the Spirit is a mercy minister, for, as the divine Sons reveal the love of God, so the divine
Spirit depicts the mercy of God.
It is not possible that the Spirit could have more of goodness than the Father since all goodness
takes origin in the Father, but in the acts of the Spirit we can the better comprehend such goodness. The
Father's faithfulness and the Son's constancy are made very real to the spirit beings and the material
creatures of the spheres by the loving ministry and ceaseless service of the personalities of the Infinite
Spirit.
The Conjoint Creator inherits all the Father's beauty of thought and character of truth. And these
sublime traits of divinity are co-ordinated in the near-supreme levels of the cosmic mind in
subordination to the infinite.
THE URANTIA BOOK
TruthPerfected in no way endorses or promotes the beliefs of THE URANTIA BOOK, it is only highlighted for educational purposes.