Introduction

^1:0.1 THE Universal Fatherˆ is the Godˆ of all creation, the First Source and Centerˆ of all things and beings. First think of Godˆ as a creatorˆ, then as a controller, and lastly as an infinite upholder. The truth about the Universal Fatherˆ had begun to dawn upon mankind when the prophet said: “You, Godˆ, are alone; there is none beside you. You have created the heaven and the heaven of heavens, with all their hosts; you preserve and control them. By the Sons of Godˆ were the universesˆ made. The Creatorˆ covers himself with light as with a garment and stretches out the heavens as a curtain.” Only the concept of the Universal Fatherˆ — one Godˆ in the place of many gods — enabled mortalˆ man to comprehend the Father as divineˆ creatorˆ and infinite controller.

^1:0.2 The myriads of planetary systems were all made to be eventually inhabited by many different types of intelligent creatures, beings who could know Godˆ, receive the divineˆ affection, and love him in return. The  universeˆ of universesˆ is the work of Godˆ and the dwelling place of his diverse creatures. “Godˆ created the heavens and formed the earth; he established the universeˆ and created this world not in vain; he formed it to be inhabited.”

^1:0.3 The enlightened worlds all recognize and worship the Universal Fatherˆ, the eternalˆ maker and infinite upholder of all creation. The will creatures of universeˆ upon universeˆ have embarked upon the long, long Paradiseˆ journey, the fascinating struggle of the eternalˆ adventure of attaining  Godˆ the Fatherˆ. The transcendent goal of the children of time is to find the eternalˆ Godˆ, to comprehend the divineˆ nature, to recognize the Universal Fatherˆ. God-knowingˆ creatures have only one supremeˆ ambition, just one consuming desire, and that is to become, as they are in their spheres, like him as he is in his Paradiseˆ perfectˆion of personalityˆ and in his universal sphere of righteous supremacyˆ. From the Universal Fatherˆ who inhabits eternityˆ there has gone forth the supremeˆ mandate, “Be you perfectˆ, even as I am perfectˆ.” In love and mercy the messengers of Paradiseˆ have carried this divineˆ exhortation down through the ages and out through the universesˆ, even to such lowly animal-origin creatures as the human races of Urantiaˆ.

^1:0.4 This magnificent and universal injunction to strive for the attainment of the perfectˆion of divinityˆ is the first duty, and should be the highest ambition, of all the struggling creature creation of the Godˆ of perfectˆion. This possibility of the attainment of divineˆ perfectˆion is the final and certain destinyˆ of all man’s eternalˆ spiritˆual progress.

^1:0.5 Urantiaˆ mortalsˆ can hardly hope to be perfectˆ in the infinite sense, but it is entirely possible for human beings, starting out as they do on this planet, to attain the supernal and divineˆ goal which the infinite Godˆ has setˆ for mortalˆ man; and when they do achieve this destinyˆ, they will, in all that pertains to self-realization and mindˆ attainment, be just as replete in their sphere of divineˆ perfectˆion as Godˆ himself is in his sphere of infinity and eternityˆ. Such perfectˆion may not be universal in the material sense, unlimited in intellectual grasp, or final in spiritˆual experience, but it is final and complete in all finiteˆ aspects of divinityˆ of will, perfectˆion of personalityˆ motivation, and God-consciousness.

^1:0.6 This is the true meaning of that divineˆ command, “Be you perfectˆ, even as I am perfectˆ,” which ever urges mortalˆ man onward and beckons him inward in that long and fascinating struggle for the attainment of higher and higher levels of spiritˆual values and true universeˆ meanings. This sublime search for the Godˆ of universesˆ is the supremeˆ adventure of the inhabitants of all the worlds of time and spaceˆ.