Teacher-Brother Dave's Compilation of TOPICAL STUDIES from THE NEW EPOCHAL REVELATION OF TRUTH. Topical Study number 108 “Three" Then Seven, Infinity Studies [Part 14] Part 1 - on of Study 106 on "Worship" starts about 30% down this page; click this link: Topical Study 106 PAPER 102. The Foundations of Religious Faith 2. Religion and Reality [PAPER:Section.Paragraph (page, full paragraph number on that page) numbers] 102:2.5 (1120.2) Even the discoveries of science are not truly real in the consciousness of human experience until they are unraveled and correlated, until their relevant facts actually become meaning through encircuitment in the thought streams of mind. Mortal man views even his physical environment from the mind level, from the perspective of its psychological registry. It is not, therefore, strange that man should place a highly unified interpretation upon the universe and then seek to identify this energy unity of his science with the spirit unity of his religious experience. Mind is unity; mortal consciousness lives on the mind level and perceives the universal realities through the eyes of the mind endowment. The mind perspective will not yield the existential unity of the source of reality, the First Source and Center, but it can and sometime will portray to man the experiential synthesis of energy, mind, and spirit in and as the Supreme Being. But mind can never succeed in this unification of the diversity of reality unless such mind is firmly aware of material things, intellectual meanings, and spiritual values; only in the harmony of the triunity of functional reality is there unity, and only in unity is there the personality satisfaction of the realization of cosmic constancy and consistency. 3. Knowledge, Wisdom, and Insight 102:3.15 (1122.11) Science is only satisfied with first causes, religion with supreme personality, and philosophy with unity. Revelation affirms that these three are one, and that all are good. The eternal real is the good of the universe and not the time illusions of space evil. In the spiritual experience of all personalities, always is it true that the real is the good and the good is the real. PAPER 103. The Reality of Religious Experience 6. Philosophic Co-ordination 103:6.7 (1136.2) Your difficulty in arriving at a more harmonious co-ordination between science and religion is due to your utter ignorance of the intervening domain of the morontia world of things and beings. The local universe consists of three degrees, or stages, of reality manifestation: matter, [the lowest] morontia, [intermediate soul level] and spirit. [the highest.]The morontia angle of approach erases all divergence between the findings of the physical sciences and the functioning of the spirit of religion. Reason is the understanding technique of the sciences; faith is the insight technique of religion; mota [soul super-philosophy] is the technique of the morontia level. Mota is a supermaterial reality sensitivity which is beginning to compensate incomplete growth, having for its substance knowledge-reason and for its essence faith-insight. Mota is a superphilosophical reconciliation of divergent reality perception which is nonattainable by material personalities; it is predicated, in part, on the experience of having survived the material life of the flesh. But many mortals have recognized the desirability of having some method of reconciling the interplay between the widely separated domains of science and religion; and metaphysics is the result of man’s unavailing attempt to span this well-recognized chasm. But human metaphysics has proved more confusing than illuminating. Metaphysics stands for man’s well-meant but futile effort to compensate for the absence of the mota of morontia. 103:6.14 (1137.4) When the philosophy of man leans heavily toward the world of matter, it becomes rationalistic or naturalistic. When philosophy inclines particularly toward the spiritual level, it becomes idealistic or even mystical. When philosophy is so unfortunate as to lean upon metaphysics, it unfailingly becomes skeptical, confused. In past ages, most of man’s knowledge and intellectual evaluations have fallen into one of these three distortions of perception. Philosophy dare not project its interpretations of reality in the linear fashion of logic; it must never fail to reckon with the elliptic symmetry of reality and with the essential curvature of all relation concepts. 7. Science and Religion 103:7.11 (1139.3) All divisions of human thought are predicated on certain assumptions which are accepted, though unproved, by the constitutive reality sensitivity of the mind endowment of man. Science starts out on its vaunted career of reasoning by assuming the reality of three things: matter, motion, and life. Religion starts out with the assumption of the validity of three things: mind, spirit, and the universe — the Supreme Being. [Later Divine Epochal Revelations disclose the higher and highest Realities of God the Universal Father, God the Eternal Son, God the Infinite Spirit, Paradise, Eternity, Supreme, Ultimate, Absolute levels, and more.] 103:7.14 There is a real proof of spiritual reality in the presence of the Thought Adjuster, [God’s pure Spirit Essence indwelling your mind – the will of God] but the validity of this presence is not demonstrable to the external world, only to the one who thus experiences the indwelling of God. The consciousness of the Adjuster is based on the intellectual reception of truth, the supermind [soul] perception of goodness, and the personality motivation to love. 103:7.15 Science discovers the material world, religion evaluates it, and philosophy endeavors to interpret its meanings while co-ordinating the scientific material viewpoint with the religious spiritual concept. But history is a realm in which science and religion may never fully agree. PAPER 104. Growth of the Trinity Concept 0. Introduction 104:0.1 (1143.1) The Trinity concept of revealed [epochal] religion must not be confused with the triad beliefs of evolutionary religions. The ideas of triads arose from many suggestive relationships but chiefly because of the three joints of the fingers, because three legs were the fewest which could stabilize a stool, because three support points could keep up a tent; furthermore, primitive man, for a long time, could not count beyond three. 104:0.2 (1143.2) Aside from certain natural couplets, such as past and present, day and night, hot and cold, and male and female, man generally tends to think in triads: yesterday, today, and tomorrow; sunrise, noon, and sunset; father, mother, and child. Three cheers are given the victor. The dead are buried on the third day, and the ghost is placated by three ablutions of water. 104:0.3 (1143.3) As a consequence of these natural associations in human experience, the triad made its appearance in religion, and this long before the Paradise Trinity of Deities, or even any of their representatives, had been revealed to mankind. Later on, the Persians, Hindus, Greeks, Egyptians, Babylonians, Romans, and Scandinavians all had triad gods, but these were still not true trinities. Triad deities all had a natural origin and have appeared at one time or another among most of the intelligent peoples of Urantia [Earth.] Sometimes the concept of an evolutionary triad has become mixed with that of a revealed Trinity; in these instances it is often impossible to distinguish one from the other. 1. Urantian Trinity Concepts 104:1.1 (1143.4) The first Urantian revelation leading to the comprehension of the Paradise Trinity was made by the staff of Prince Caligastia about one-half million years ago. This earliest Trinity concept was lost to the world in the unsettled times following the planetary rebellion. [200,000 years ago, junior administrative Sons of God – Lucifer. Satan and Caligastia all rebelled against the rule of God and Jesus. Jesus removed and replaced them with loyal Sons of God in A.D. 30 – on. See John 12:31-32 and 16:11 and greater details in this Fifth Epochal Revelation of Truth: “The Urantia Book”, which is public domain to allow sharing.] 104:1.2 (1143.5) The second presentation of the Trinity was made by [our biological uplifters] Adam and Eve in the first and second gardens. [38,000 years ago. They were only partly successful because of the rebel, fallen Sons of God working back then.] These teachings had not been wholly obliterated even in the times of Machiventa Melchizedek about thirty-five thousand years later, [He came here about 4,000 years ago,] for the Trinity concept of the Sethites persisted in both Mesopotamia and Egypt but more especially in India, where it was long perpetuated in Agni, the Vedic three-headed fire god. 104:1.3 (1143.6) The third presentation of the Trinity was made by Machiventa Melchizedek, and this doctrine was symbolized by the three concentric circles which the sage of Salem wore on his breast plate. But Machiventa found it very difficult to teach the Palestinian Bedouins about the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit. Most of his disciples thought that the Trinity consisted of the three Most Highs of Norlatiadek; [Our Constellation of 100 systems. The Most Highs are one level above Lucifer, two levels above Satan, three levels above Caligastia] a few conceived of the Trinity as the System Sovereign, the Constellation Father, and the local universe Creator Deity; [our Christ Michael] still fewer even remotely grasped the idea of the Paradise association of the Father, Son, and Spirit. 104:1.4 (1144.1) Through the activities of the Salem missionaries the Melchizedek teachings of the Trinity gradually spread throughout much of Eurasia and northern Africa. It is often difficult to distinguish between the triads and the trinities in the later Andite and the post-Melchizedek ages, when both concepts to a certain extent intermingled and coalesced. 104:1.5 (1144.2) Among the Hindus the trinitarian concept took root as Being, Intelligence, and Joy. (A later Indian conception was Brahma, Siva, and Vishnu.) While the earlier Trinity portrayals were brought to India by the Sethite priests, the later ideas of the Trinity were imported by the Salem missionaries and were developed by the native intellects of India through a compounding of these doctrines with the evolutionary triad conceptions. 104:1.7 (1144.4) And these ideas of the Hindus and Buddhists were real trinitarian postulates, that is, the idea of a threefold manifestation of a monotheistic God. A true trinity conception is not just a grouping together of three separate gods. [First think of the Eternal Paradise Trinity as One Deity Unity, then three coequal Spirits of Father, Son and Spirit.] 104:1.8 (1144.5) The Hebrews knew about the Trinity from the Kenite traditions of the days of Melchizedek, [Elohim, stated 2500 times, is the Trinity. Eloah, stated only 250 times, is God, singular,] but their monotheistic zeal for the one God, Yahweh, so eclipsed all such teachings that by the time of Jesus’ appearance the Elohim doctrine had been practically eradicated from Jewish theology. The Hebrew mind could not reconcile the trinitarian concept with the monotheistic belief in the One Lord, the God of Israel. [Not the Truth of God the Universal Father in Jesus Christ Michael here always in Spirit !] 104:1.9 (1144.6) The followers of the Islamic faith likewise failed to grasp the idea of the Trinity. It is always difficult for an emerging monotheism to tolerate trinitarianism when confronted by polytheism. The trinity idea takes best hold of those religions which have a firm monotheistic tradition coupled with doctrinal elasticity. The great monotheists, the Hebrews and Mohammedans, found it difficult to distinguish between worshiping three gods, polytheism, and trinitarianism, the worship of one Deity existing in a triune manifestation of divinity and personality. 104:1.10 (1144.7) Jesus taught his apostles the truth regarding the persons of the Paradise Trinity, but they thought he spoke figuratively and symbolically. Having been nurtured in Hebraic monotheism, they found it difficult to entertain any belief that seemed to conflict with their dominating concept of Yahweh. And the early Christians inherited the Hebraic prejudice against the Trinity concept. [The earliest concept of Yahweh was the “demon fire god of wrath and destruction” every time their Mt. Horeb active volcano erupted !. As the later prophets, especially Isaiah, elevated their God to the Universal Father of all Reality, they still called this God, “Yahweh” !] 104:1.11 (1144.8) The first Trinity of Christianity was proclaimed at Antioch and consisted of God, his Word, and his Wisdom. Paul knew of the Paradise Trinity of Father, Son, and Spirit, but he seldom preached about it and made mention thereof in only a few of his letters to the newly forming churches. Even then, as did his fellow apostles, Paul confused Jesus, the Creator Son of the local universe, with the Second Person of Deity, the Eternal Son of Paradise. [True in Spirit Union, but not that fact that our Creator Son is a different Person than the Paradise Eternal Son. When Jesus completed his final Bestowal of Incarnation here on Urantia, He was elevated to a higher Master Son, the fullness of God to all in his/our local universe of Nebadon. The full Spirit Presence of God the Universal Father and God the Eternal son now always indwell our Master Son Jesus Christ Michael. Michael is a high Deity Title which means: “HE Who IS just like GOD”] 104:1.12 (1144.9) The Christian concept of the Trinity, which began to gain recognition near the close of the first century after Christ, was comprised of the Universal Father, the Creator Son of Nebadon, and the Divine Minister of Salvington — Mother Spirit of the local universe and creative consort of the Creator Son. [Our universe Creative (Holy) Spirit is also the full Presence of God the Infinite Spirit on Paradise to us. In sharing Oneness with our Creator Father-Son Jesus, They are the same as if the Paradise Trinity were here running our local universe as the Trinity Government of All Reality.] 104:1.13 (1145.1) Not since the times of Jesus has the factual identity of the Paradise Trinity been known on Urantia (except by a few individuals to whom it was especially revealed) until its presentation in these revelatory disclosures. [with was given to our world circa A.D. 1935.] But though the Christian concept of the Trinity erred in fact, it was practically true with respect to spiritual relationships. Only in its philosophic implications and cosmological consequences did this concept suffer embarrassment: It has been difficult for many who are cosmic minded to believe that the Second Person of Deity, the second member of an infinite Trinity, once dwelt on Urantia; and while in spirit this is true, in actuality it is not a fact. The Michael Creators fully embody the divinity of the Eternal Son, but they are not the absolute personality. [NOTE: From here down in this study, it gets very difficult to understand; I struggle with much of this after 43 years of continual study. If you read it slowly and reflect on it, you will grasp some of it.] 2. Trinity Unity and Deity Plurality 104:2.3 (1145.4) Through the recognition of the Trinity concept the mind of man can hope to grasp something of the interrelationship of love and law in the time-space creations. Through spiritual faith man gains insight into the love of God but soon discovers that this spiritual faith has no influence on the ordained laws of the material universe. Irrespective of the firmness of man’s belief in God as his Paradise Father, expanding cosmic horizons demand that he also give recognition to the reality of Paradise Deity as universal law, that he recognize the Trinity sovereignty extending outward from Paradise and overshadowing even the evolving local universes of the Creator Sons and Creative Daughters of the three eternal persons whose deity union is the fact and reality and eternal indivisibility of the Paradise Trinity. 104:2.4 (1145.5) And this selfsame Paradise Trinity is a real entity — not a personality but nonetheless a true and absolute reality; not a personality but nonetheless compatible with coexistent personalities — the personalities of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. The Trinity is a supersummative Deity reality eventuating out of the conjoining of the three Paradise Deities. The qualities, characteristics, and functions of the Trinity are not the simple sum of the attributes of the three Paradise Deities; Trinity functions are something unique, original, and not wholly predictable from an analysis of the attributes of Father, Son, and Spirit. 104:2.5 (1146.1) For example: The Master, when on earth, admonished his followers that justice is never a personal act; it is always a group function. Neither do the Gods, as persons, administer justice. But they perform this very function as a collective whole, as the Paradise Trinity. 104:2.6 (1146.2) The conceptual grasp of the Trinity association of Father, Son, and Spirit prepares the human mind for the further presentation of certain other threefold relationships. Theological reason may be fully satisfied by the concept of the Paradise Trinity, but philosophical and cosmological reason demand the recognition of the other triune associations of the First Source and Center, those [fifteen, only seven revealed here, very complex] triunities in which the Infinite functions in various non-Father capacities of universal manifestation — the relationships of the God of force, energy, power, causation, reaction, potentiality, actuality, gravity, tension, pattern, principle, and unity. 3. Trinities and Triunities 104:3.1 (1146.3) While mankind has sometimes grasped at an understanding of the Trinity of the three persons of Deity, consistency demands that the human intellect perceive that there are certain relationships between all seven Absolutes. But all that which is true of the Paradise Trinity is not necessarily true of a triunity, for a triunity is something other than a trinity. In certain functional aspects a triunity may be analogous to a trinity, but it is never homologous in nature with a trinity. 104:3.14 (1147.6) It would seem that triunity of absolute relationships is inevitable. Personality seeks other personality association on absolute as well as on all other levels. And the association of the three Paradise personalities eternalizes the first triunity, the personality union of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. For when these three persons, as persons, conjoin for united function, they thereby constitute a triunity of functional unity, not a trinity — an organic entity — but nonetheless a triunity, a threefold functional aggregate unanimity. 104:3.15 (1147.7) The Paradise Trinity is not a triunity; it is not a functional unanimity; rather is it undivided and indivisible Deity. The Father, Son, and Spirit (as persons) can sustain a relationship to the Paradise Trinity, for the Trinity is their undivided Deity. The Father, Son, and Spirit sustain no such personal relationship to the first triunity, for that is their functional union as three persons. Only as the Trinity — as undivided Deity — do they collectively sustain an external relationship to the triunity of their personal aggregation. 104:3.16 (1147.8) Thus does the Paradise Trinity stand unique among absolute relationships; there are several existential triunities but only one existential Trinity. A triunity is not an entity. It is functional rather than organic. Its members are partners rather than corporative. The components of the triunities may be entities, but a triunity itself is an association. 104:3.17 (1147.9) There is, however, one point of comparison between trinity and triunity: Both eventuate in functions that are something other than the discernible sum of the attributes of the component members. But while they are thus comparable from a functional standpoint, they otherwise exhibit no categorical relationship. They are roughly related as the relation of function to structure. But the function of the triunity association is not the function of the trinity structure or entity. 4. The Seven Triunities 104:4.3 (1148.2) The First Triunity— the personal-purposive triunity.  This is the grouping of the three Deity personalities: 104:4.4 1. The Universal Father. 104:4.5 2. The Eternal Son. 104:4.6 3. The Infinite Spirit. 104:4.7 (1148.6) This is the threefold union of love, mercy, and ministry — the purposive and personal association of the three eternal Paradise personalities. This is the divinely fraternal, creature-loving, fatherly-acting, and ascension-promoting association. The divine personalities of this first triunity are personality-bequeathing, spirit-bestowing, and mind-endowing Gods. 104:4.8 (1148.7) This is the triunity of infinite volition; it acts throughout the eternal present and in all of the past-present-future flow of time. This association yields volitional infinity and provides the mechanisms whereby personal Deity becomes self-revelatory to the creatures of the evolving cosmos. 104:4.9 (1148.8) The Second Triunity — the power-pattern triunity.  Whether it be a tiny ultimaton, a blazing star, or a whirling nebula, even the central or superuniverses, from the smallest to the largest material organizations, always is the physical pattern — the cosmic configuration — derived from the function of this triunity. This association consists of: 104:4.10 1. The Father-Son. 104:4.11 2. The Paradise Isle. 104:4.12 3. The Conjoint Actor. 104:4.13 Energy is organized by the cosmic agents of the Third Source and Center; energy is fashioned after the pattern of Paradise, the absolute materialization; but behind all of this ceaseless manipulation is the presence of the Father-Son, whose union first activated the Paradise pattern in the appearance of Havona concomitant with the birth of the Infinite Spirit, the Conjoint Actor. 104:4.14 (1148.13) In religious experience, creatures make contact with the God who is love, but such spiritual insight must never eclipse the intelligent recognition of the universe fact of the pattern which is Paradise. The Paradise personalities enlist the freewill adoration of all creatures by the compelling power of divine love and lead all such spirit-born personalities into the supernal delights of the unending service of the finaliter sons of God. The second triunity is the architect of the space stage whereon these transactions unfold; it determines the patterns of cosmic configuration. 104:4.15 (1148.14) Love may characterize the divinity of the first triunity, but pattern is the galactic manifestation of the second triunity. What the first triunity is to evolving personalities, the second triunity is to the evolving universes. Pattern and personality are two of the great manifestations of the acts of the First Source and Center; and no matter how difficult it may be to comprehend, it is nonetheless true that the power-pattern and the loving person are one and the same universal reality; the Paradise Isle and the Eternal Son are co-ordinate but antipodal revelations of the unfathomable nature of the Universal Father-Force. 104:4.16 (1149.1) The Third Triunity — the spirit-evolutional triunity.  The entirety of spiritual manifestation has its beginning and end in this association, consisting of: 104:4.17 1. The Universal Father. 104:4.18 2. The Son-Spirit. 104:4.19 3. The Deity Absolute. 104:4.20 (1149.5) From spirit potency to Paradise spirit, all spirit finds reality expression in this triune association of the pure spirit essence of the Father, the active spirit values of the Son-Spirit, and the unlimited spirit potentials of the Deity Absolute. The existential values of spirit have their primordial genesis, complete manifestation, and final destiny in this triunity. 104:4.22 (1149.7) The Fourth Triunity — the triunity of energy infinity.  Within this triunity there eternalizes the beginnings and the endings of all energy reality, from space potency to monota. This grouping embraces the following: 104:4.23 1. The Father-Spirit. 104:4.24 2. The Paradise Isle. 104:4.25 3. The Unqualified Absolute. 104:4.26 (1149.11) Paradise is the center of the force-energy activation of the cosmos — the universe position of the First Source and Center, the cosmic focal point of the Unqualified Absolute, and the source of all energy. Existentially present within this triunity is the energy potential of the cosmos-infinite, of which the grand universe and the master universe are only partial manifestations. 104:4.27 (1149.12) The fourth triunity absolutely controls the fundamental units of cosmic energy and releases them from the grasp of the Unqualified Absolute in direct proportion to the appearance in the experiential Deities of subabsolute capacity to control and stabilize the metamorphosing cosmos. 104:4.28 (1149.13) This triunity is force and energy. The endless possibilities of the Unqualified Absolute are centered around the absolutum of the Isle of Paradise, whence emanate the unimaginable agitations of the otherwise static quiescence of the Unqualified. And the endless throbbing of the material Paradise heart of the infinite cosmos beats in harmony with the unfathomable pattern and the unsearchable plan of the Infinite Energizer, the First Source and Center. 104:4.29 (1149.14) The Fifth Triunity — the triunity of reactive infinity.  This association consists of: 104:4.30 1. The Universal Father. 104:4.31 2. The Universal Absolute. 104:4.32 3. The Unqualified Absolute. 104:4.33 (1149.18) This grouping yields the eternalization of the functional infinity realization of all that is actualizable within the domains of nondeity reality. This triunity manifests unlimited reactive capacity to the volitional, causative, tensional, and patternal actions and presences of the other triunities. 104:4.34 (1150.1) The Sixth Triunity — the triunity of cosmic-associated Deity.  This grouping consists of: 104:4.35 1. The Universal Father. 104:4.36 2. The Deity Absolute. 104:4.37 3. The Universal Absolute. 104:4.38 This is the association of Deity-in-the-cosmos, the immanence of Deity in conjunction with the transcendence of Deity. This is the last outreach of divinity on the levels of infinity toward those realities which lie outside the domain of deified reality. 104:4.39 (1150.6) The Seventh Triunity — the triunity of infinite unity.  This is the unity of infinity functionally manifest in time and eternity, the co-ordinate unification of actuals and potentials. This group consists of: 104:4.40 1. The Universal Father. 104:4.41 2. The Conjoint Actor. 104:4.42 3. The Universal Absolute. 104:4.43 The Conjoint Actor universally integrates the varying functional aspects of all actualized reality on all levels of manifestation, from finites through transcendentals and on to absolutes. The Universal Absolute perfectly compensates the differentials inherent in the varying aspects of all incomplete reality, from the limitless potentialities of active-volitional and causative Deity reality to the boundless possibilities of static, reactive, nondeity reality in the incomprehensible domains of the Unqualified Absolute. 104:4.44 (1150.11) As they function in this triunity, the Conjoint Actor and the Universal Absolute are alike responsive to Deity and to nondeity presences, as also is the First Source and Center, who in this relationship is to all intents and purposes conceptually indistinguishable from the I AM. 104:4.45 (1150.12) These approximations are sufficient to elucidate the concept of the triunities. Not knowing the ultimate level of the triunities, you cannot fully comprehend the first seven. While we do not deem it wise to attempt any further elaboration, we may state that there are fifteen triune associations of the First Source and Center, eight of which are unrevealed in these papers. These unrevealed associations are concerned with realities, actualities, and potentialities which are beyond the experiential level of supremacy. The next part of this study, will be published here Monday, Oct. 21, 2019 at about 8:00 PM CDT (new Study material here usually each Mon. Wed. and Fri. at 8:00 PM CDT)] Past TOPICAL STUDIES 93 and 94 Past TOPICAL STUDY 1-on Spiritual High-Lights of Jesus Christ Spiritual High-Lights of the Fifth Epochal Revelation FIFTH EPOCHAL REVELATION (full text and my added comments) INSPIRATIONAL QUOTES (shorter, with some FER)