The Urantia Book

26. Ministering Spirits of the Central Universe

9. The Father Guides

^26.9.1 When the pilgrim soul attains the third circle of Havona, he comes under the tutelage of the Father guides, the older, highly skilled, and most experienced of the superaphic ministers. On the worlds of this circuit the Father guides maintain schools of wisdom and colleges of technique wherein all the beings inhabiting the central universe serve as teachers. Nothing is neglected which would be of service to a creature of time in this transcendent adventure of eternity attainment.

^26.9.2 The attainment of the Universal Father is the passport to eternity, notwithstanding the remaining circuits to be traversed. It is therefore a momentous occasion on the pilot world of circle number three when the transit trio announce that the last venture of time is about to ensue; that another creature of space seeks entry to Paradise through the portals of eternity.

^26.9.3 The test of time is almost over; the race for eternity has been all but run. The days of uncertainty are ending; the temptation to doubt is vanishing; the injunction to be perfect has been obeyed. From the very bottom of intelligent existence the creature of time and material personality has ascended the evolutionary spheres of space, thus proving the feasibility of the ascension plan while forever demonstrating the justice and righteousness of the command of the Universal Father to his lowly creatures of the worlds: “Be you perfect, even as I am perfect.”

^26.9.4 Step by step, life by life, world by world, the ascendant career has been mastered, and the goal of Deity has been attained. Survival is complete in perfection, and perfection is replete in the supremacy of divinity. Time is lost in eternity; space is swallowed up in worshipful identity and harmony with the Universal Father. The broadcasts of Havona flash forth the space reports of glory, the good news that in very truth the conscientious creatures of animal nature and material origin have, through evolutionary ascension, become in reality and eternally the perfected sons of God.

10. The Counselors and Advisers

^26.10.1 The superaphic counselors and advisers of the second circle are the instructors of the children of time regarding the career of eternity. The attainment of Paradise entails responsibilities of a new and higher order, and the sojourn on the second circle affords ample opportunity to receive the helpful counsel of these devoted supernaphim.

^26.10.2 Those who are unsuccessful in the first effort at Deity attainment are advanced from the circle of failure directly to the second circle before they are returned to superuniverse service. Thus the counselors and advisers also serve as the counselors and comforters of these disappointed pilgrims. They have just encountered their greatest disappointment, in no way differing from the long list of such experiences whereon they climbed, as on a ladder, from chaos to glory - except in its magnitude. These are they who have drained the experiential cup to its dregs; and I have observed that they temporarily return to the services of the superuniverses as the highest type of loving ministrators to the children of time and temporal disappointments.

^26.10.3 After a long sojourn on circuit number two the subjects of disappointment are examined by the councils of perfection sitting on the pilot world of this circle and are certified as having passed the Havona test; and this, so far as nonspiritual status is concerned, grants them the same standing in the universes of time as if they had actually succeeded in the Deity adventure. The spirit of such candidates was wholly acceptable; their failure was inherent in some phase of the technique of approach or in some part of their experiential background.

^26.10.4 They are then taken by the counselors of the circle before the chiefs of assignment on Paradise and are remanded to the service of time on the worlds of space; and they go with joy and gladness to the tasks of former days and ages. In another day they will return to the circle of their greatest disappointment and attempt anew the Deity adventure.

^26.10.5 For the successful pilgrims on the second circuit the stimulus of evolutionary uncertainty is over, but the adventure of the eternal assignment has not yet begun; and while the sojourn on this circle is wholly pleasurable and highly profitable, it lacks some of the anticipative enthusiasm of the former circles. Many are the pilgrims who, at such a time, look back upon the long, long struggle with a joyous envy, really wishing they might somehow go back to the worlds of time and begin it all over again, just as you mortals, in approaching advanced age, sometimes look back over the struggles of youth and early life and truly wish you might live your lives over once again.

^26.10.6 But the traversal of the innermost circle lies just ahead, and soon thereafter the last transit sleep will terminate, and the new adventure of the eternal career will begin. The counselors and advisers on the second circle begin the preparation of their subjects for this great and final rest, the inevitable sleep which ever intervenes between the epochal stages of the ascendant career.

^26.10.7 When those ascendant pilgrims who have attained the Universal Father complete the second-circle experience, their ever-attendant Graduate Guides issue the order admitting them to the final circle. These guides personally pilot their subjects to the inner circle and there place them in the custody of the complements of rest, the last of those orders of secondary supernaphim assigned to the ministry of the pilgrims of time on the world circuits of Havona.

11. The Complements of Rest

^26.11.1 Much of an ascender's time on the last circuit is devoted to a continuation of the study of the impending problems of Paradise residence. A vast and diverse host of beings, the majority unrevealed, are permanent and transient residents of this inner ring of Havona worlds. And the commingling of these manifold types provides the superaphic complements of rest with a rich situational environment which they effectively utilize in furthering the education of the ascending pilgrims, especially with regard to the problems of adjustment to the many groups of beings soon to be encountered on Paradise.

^26.11.2 Among those who dwell on this inner circuit are the creature-trinitized sons. The primary and the secondary supernaphim are the general custodians of the conjoint corps of these sons, including the trinitized offspring of the mortal finaliters and similar progeny of the Paradise Citizens. Certain of these sons are Trinity embraced and commissioned in the supergovernments, others are variously assigned, but the great majority are being gathered together in the conjoint corps on the perfect worlds of the inner Havona circuit. Here, under the supervision of the supernaphim, they are being prepared for some future work by a special and unnamed corps of high Paradise Citizens who were, prior to the times of Grandfanda, first executive assistants to the Eternals of Days. There are many reasons for conjecturing that these two unique groups of trinitized beings are going to work together in the remote future, not the least of which is their common destiny in the reserves of the Paradise Corps of Trinitized Finaliters.

^26.11.3 On this innermost circuit, both the ascending and the descending pilgrims fraternize with each other and with the creature-trinitized sons. Like their parents, these sons derive great benefits from interassociation, and it is the special mission of the supernaphim to facilitate and to insure the confraternity of the trinitized sons of the mortal finaliters and the trinitized sons of the Paradise Citizens. The superaphic complements of rest are not so much concerned with their training as with promoting their understanding association with diverse groups.

^26.11.4 Mortals have received the Paradise command: “Be you perfect, even as your Paradise Father is perfect.” To these trinitized sons of the conjoint corps the supervising supernaphim never cease to proclaim: “Be you understanding of your ascendant brethren, even as the Paradise Creator Sons know and love them.”

^26.11.5 The mortal creature must find God. The Creator Son never stops until he finds man - the lowest will creature. Beyond doubt, the Creator Sons and their mortal children are preparing for some future and unknown universe service. Both traverse the gamut of the experiential universe and so are educated and trained for their eternal mission. Throughout the universes there is occurring this unique blending of the human and the divine, the commingling of creature and Creator. Unthinking mortals have referred to the manifestation of divine mercy and tenderness, especially towards the weak and in behalf of the needy, as indicative of an anthropomorphic God. What a mistake! Rather should such manifestations of mercy and forbearance by human beings be taken as evidence that mortal man is indwelt by the spirit of the living God; that the creature is, after all, divinity motivated.

^26.11.6 Near the end of the first-circle sojourn the ascending pilgrims first meet the instigators of rest of the primary order of supernaphim. These are the angels of Paradise coming out to greet those who stand at the threshold of eternity and to complete their preparation for the transition slumber of the last resurrection. You are not really a child of Paradise until you have traversed the inner circle and have experienced the resurrection of eternity from the terminal sleep of time. The perfected pilgrims begin this rest, go to sleep, on the first circle of Havona, but they awaken on the shores of Paradise. Of all who ascend to the eternal Isle, only those who thus arrive are the children of eternity; the others go as visitors, as guests without residential status.

^26.11.7 And now, at the culmination of the Havona career, as you mortals go to sleep on the pilot world of the inner circuit, you go not alone to your rest as you did on the worlds of your origin when you closed your eyes in the natural sleep of mortal death, nor as you did when you entered the long transit trance preparatory for the journey to Havona. Now, as you prepare for the attainment rest, there moves over by your side your long-time associate of the first circle, the majestic complement of rest, who prepares to enter the rest as one with you, as the pledge of Havona that your transition is complete, and that you await only the final touches of perfection.

^26.11.8 Your first transition was indeed death, the second an ideal sleep, and now the third metamorphosis is the true rest, the relaxation of the ages.

^26.11.9 [Presented by a Perfector of Wisdom from Uversa.]