5. Personalityˆ of the Universal Fatherˆ

^1:5.1 Do not permit the magnitude of Godˆ, his infinity, either to obscure or eclipse his personalityˆ. “He who planned the ear, shall he not hear? He who formed the eye, shall he not see?” The Universal Fatherˆ is the acme of divineˆ personalityˆ; he is the origin and destinyˆ of personalityˆ throughout all creation. Godˆ is both infinite and personal; he is an infinite personalityˆ. The Father is truly a personalityˆ, notwithstanding that the infinity of his person places him forever beyond the full comprehension of material and finiteˆ beings.

^1:5.2 Godˆ is much more than a personalityˆ as personalityˆ is understood by the human mind; he is even far more than any possible concept of a superpersonalˆity. But it is utterly futile to discuss such incomprehensible concepts of divineˆ personalityˆ with the minds of material creatures whose maximum concept of the reality of being consists in the idea and ideal of personalityˆ. The material creature’s highest possible concept of the Universal Creatorˆ is embraced within the spiritˆual ideals of the exalted idea of divineˆ personalityˆ. Therefore, although you may know that Godˆ must be much more than the human conception of personalityˆ, you equally well know that the Universal Fatherˆ cannot possibly be anything less than an eternalˆ, infinite, true, good, and beautiful personalityˆ.

^1:5.3 Godˆ is not hiding from any of his creatures. He is unapproachable to so many orders of beings only because he “dwells in a light which no material creature can approach.” The immensity and grandeur of the divineˆ personalityˆ is beyond the grasp of the unperfected mindˆ of evolutionaryˆ mortalsˆ. He “measures the waters in the hollow of his hand, measures a universeˆ with the span of his hand. It is he who sits on the circle of the earth, who stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a universeˆ to dwell in.” “Lift up your eyes on high and behold who has created all these things, who brings out their worlds by number and calls them all by their names”; and so it is true that “the invisible things of Godˆ are partially understood by the things which are made.” Today, and as you are, you must discern the invisible Maker through his manifold and diverse creation, as well as through the revelation and ministration of his Sons and their numerous subordinates.

^1:5.4 Even though material mortalsˆ cannot see the person of Godˆ, they should rejoice in the assurance that he is a person; by faithˆ accept the truth which portrays that the Universal Fatherˆ so loved the world as to provide for the eternalˆ spiritˆual progression of its lowly inhabitants; that he “delights in his children.” Godˆ is lacking in none of those superhumanˆ and divineˆ attributes which constitute a perfectˆ, eternalˆ, loving, and infinite Creatorˆ personalityˆ.

^1:5.5 In the local creations (excepting the personnel of the superuniverses) Godˆ has no personal or residential manifestation aside from the Paradiseˆ  Creatorˆ Sonsˆ who are the fathers of the inhabited worlds and the sovereigns of the local universesˆ. If the faithˆ of the creature were perfectˆ, he would assuredly know that when he had seen a  Creatorˆ Sonˆ he had seen the Universal Fatherˆ; in seeking for the Father, he would not ask nor expect to see other than the Son. Mortalˆ man simply cannot see Godˆ until he achieves completed spiritˆ transformation and actuallˆy attains Paradiseˆ.

^1:5.6 The natures of the Paradiseˆ  Creatorˆ Sonsˆ do not encompass all the unqualified potentials of the universal absoluteness of the infinite nature of the First Great Source and Center, but the Universal Fatherˆ is in every way  divinelˆy present in the  Creatorˆ Sonsˆ. The Father and his Sons are one. These Paradiseˆ Sons of the order of Michael are perfectˆ personalities, even the patternˆ for all local universeˆˆ personalityˆ from that of the Bright and Morning Star down to the lowest human creature of progressing animal evolution.

^1:5.7 Without Godˆ and except for his great and central person, there would be no personalityˆ throughout all the vast  universeˆ of universesˆ.  Godˆ is personalityˆ.

^1:5.8 Notwithstanding that Godˆ is an eternalˆ powerˆ, a majestic presence, a transcendent ideal, and a glorious spiritˆ, though he is all these and infinitely more, nonetheless, he is truly and everlastingly a perfectˆ Creatorˆ personalityˆ, a person who can “know and be known,” who can “love and be loved,” and one who can befriend us; while you can be known, as other humans have been known, as the friend of Godˆ. He is a real spiritˆ and a spiritˆual reality.

^1:5.9 As we see the Universal Fatherˆ revealed throughout his universeˆ; as we discern him indwellˆing his myriads of creatures; as we behold him in the persons of his Sovereign Sons; as we continue to sense his divineˆ presence here and there, near and afar, let us not doubt nor question his personalityˆ primacy. Notwithstanding all these far-flung distributions, he remains a true person and everlastingly maintains personal connection with the countless hosts of his creatures scattered throughout the  universeˆ of universesˆ.

^1:5.10 The idea of the personalityˆ of the Universal Fatherˆ is an enlarged and truer concept of Godˆ which has come to mankind chiefly through revelation. Reason, wisdom, and religious experience all infer and imply the personalityˆ of Godˆ, but they do not altogether validate it. Even the indwellˆing Thought Adjusterˆˆ is prepersonal. The truth and maturity of any religion is directly proportional to its concept of the infinite personalityˆ of Godˆ and to its grasp of the absoluteˆ unity of Deityˆ. The idea of a personal Deityˆ becomes, then, the measure of religious maturity after religion has first formulated the concept of the unity of Godˆ.

^1:5.11 Primitive religion had many personal gods, and they were fashioned in the image of man. Revelation affirms the validity of the personalityˆ concept of Godˆ which is merely possible in the scientific postulate of a First Cause and is only provisionally suggested in the philosophic idea of Universal Unity. Only by personalityˆ approach can any person begin to comprehend the unity of Godˆ. To deny the personalityˆ of the First Source and Centerˆ leaves one only the choice of two philosophic dilemmas: materialismˆ or pantheismˆ.

^1:5.12 In the contemplation of Deityˆ, the concept of personalityˆ must be divested of the idea of corporeality. A material body is not indispensable to personalityˆ in either man or Godˆ. The corporeality errorˆ is shown in both extremes of human philosophy. In materialismˆ, since man loses his body at death, he ceases to exist as a personalityˆ; in pantheismˆ, since Godˆ has no body, he is not, therefore, a person. The superhumanˆ type of progressing personalityˆ functions in a union of mindˆ and spiritˆ.

^1:5.13 Personalityˆ is not simply an attribute of God; it rather stands for the totality of the co-ordinated infinite nature and the unified divineˆ will which is exhibited in eternityˆ and universality of perfectˆ expression. Personalityˆ, in the supremeˆ sense, is the revelation of Godˆ to the  universeˆ of universesˆ.

^1:5.14 Godˆ, being eternalˆ, universal, absoluteˆ, and infinite, does not grow in knowledge nor increase in wisdom. Godˆ does not acquire experience, as finiteˆ man might conjecture or comprehend, but he does, within the realms of his own eternalˆ personalityˆ, enjoy those continuous expansions of self-realization which are in certain ways comparable to, and analogous with, the acquirement of new experience by the finiteˆ creatures of the evolutionaryˆ worlds.

^1:5.15 The absoluteˆ perfectˆion of the infinite Godˆ would cause him to suffer the awful limitations of unqualified finality of perfectness were it not a fact that the Universal Fatherˆ directly participates in the personalityˆ struggle of every imperfect soulˆ in the wide universeˆ who seeks, by divineˆ aid, to ascend to the spiritˆually perfectˆ worlds on high. This progressive experience of every spiritˆ being and every mortalˆ creature throughout the  universeˆ of universesˆ is a part of the Father’s ever-expanding Deityˆ-consciousness of the never-ending divineˆ circle of ceaseless self-realization.

^1:5.16 It is literally true: “In all your afflictions he is afflicted.” “In all your triumphs he triumphs in and with you.” His prepersonal divineˆ spiritˆ is a real part of you. The Isle of Paradiseˆˆ responds to all the physical metamorphoses of the  universeˆ of universesˆ; the  Eternalˆ Sonˆ includes all the spiritˆ impulses of all creation; the Conjoint Actorˆ encompasses all the mindˆ expression of the expanding cosmos. The Universal Fatherˆ realizes in the fullness of the divineˆ consciousness all the individual experience of the progressive struggles of the expanding minds and the ascendingˆ spiritsˆ of every entity, being, and personalityˆ of the whole evolutionaryˆ creation of time and spaceˆ. And all this is literally true, for “in Him we all live and move and have our being.”

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