Paper 20 Overview: The Paradise Sons of God

Paper 20 provides a comprehensive explication of the Paradise Sons of God, delineating their tripartite classification into Descending Sons of direct divine creation, Ascending Sons who evolve through experiential participation, and Trinitized Sons who arise from a variety of sources. The paper elaborates on the nature and function of the Descending Sons, particularly focusing on the Magisterial Sons (Avonals) and the Trinity Teacher Sons (Daynals), while only briefly referencing the Creator Sons (Michaels), who are discussed more thoroughly in subsequent papers. Each order fulfills specific roles in the grand universe administration and the progressive spiritual evolution of time-space realms.

The complex interrelationships between these divine orders reveal a meticulously orchestrated cosmic plan for universe administration and planetary spiritual development. The paper explains the threefold mission types of the Magisterial Sons, judicial actions, magisterial missions, and bestowal missions, and explains how these missions contribute to dispensational transitions and spiritual advancement on evolutionary worlds. Similarly, it examines the educational and enlightening functions of the Trinity Teacher Sons, whose service initiates and sustains spiritual ages on evolutionary planets. Throughout the paper, the complementary nature of these Paradise Sons is emphasized, demonstrating how their united ministry manifests the divine characteristics of the Paradise Deities—the love of the Universal Father, the mercy of the Eternal Son, and the ministry of the Infinite Spirit—to the furthest corners of the grand universe.

Within the superuniverse of Orvonton, the Sons of God are functionally categorized into three principal classifications that reflect their origins and cosmic purposes. The Descending Sons of God emerge through direct divine creation, the Ascending Sons of God, which include mortal creatures such as humans, attain their status through experiential participation in the evolutionary technique, and the Trinitized Sons of God constitute a composite group encompassing all beings related to the Paradise Trinity, even if not directly derived from it. This taxonomic framework establishes the fundamental ontological distinctions between these orders while simultaneously acknowledging their interconnected roles within the cosmic hierarchy.

The paper primarily addresses the Descending Sons of God, with particular emphasis on the Magisterial Sons and Trinity Teacher Sons, while relegating more extensive discussion of the Creator Sons to subsequent papers. This organizational approach reflects the cosmic significance of these divine orders and their progressive revelation through the narrative structure of The Urantia Book, ensuring a comprehensive understanding of each category before moving to more complex interrelationships between different orders of Paradise sonship.

All Descending Sons of God originate from exalted divine sources and are dedicated to the descending ministry of service that facilitates the Paradise-bound journey of evolutionarily originated beings, the ascending sons of God. Of the numerous orders of Descending Sons, seven are delineated in these narratives, beginning with the three orders of Paradise Sons: Creator Sons (Michaels), Magisterial Sons (Avonals), and Trinity Teacher Sons (Daynals), who emerge directly from the central Isle of Light and Life. Following these are the four orders of Local Universe Sons: the Melchizedek Sons, jointly created by a local universe Creator Son, Creative Spirit, and Father Melchizedek; the Vorondadek Sons, known as Most Highs or Constellation Fathers; the Lanonandek Sons, serving as System Sovereigns and Planetary Princes; and the Life Carriers, brought into existence through collaboration between a Creator Son, Creative Spirit, and one of the three Ancients of Days from the superuniverse of jurisdiction.

The Paradise Sons exhibit different origins within the Trinity: Creator Sons emerge from the Universal Father and Eternal Son; Magisterial Sons are produced by the Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit; and Trinity Teacher Sons result from the unified action of all three Trinity personalities. Nevertheless, they function with a singular purpose in service, worship, and supplication. These Paradise Sons perform multifaceted roles throughout the universe of universes, functioning as divine administrators and ministers: creators, servers, bestowers, judges, teachers, and truth revealers. Creator Sons possess a unique spiritual endowment centered in their persons, enabling conscious awareness of every act and emotion of all descending Sons serving within their domains.

The Magisterial Sons, formally designated as Avonals, come into existence when an original and absolute concept of being formulated by the Eternal Son combines with a new divine ideal of loving service conceived by the Infinite Spirit. Though not creators in the personal sense, these Sons work in close association with the Michaels in all their universe endeavors. The Avonals constitute the order of planetary ministers and judges, the magistrates of the time-space realms, serving all races across all worlds throughout all universes. Estimates from Uversa suggest the existence of approximately one billion Magisterial Sons operating throughout the grand universe, governed by their self-administered supreme council on Paradise, though they serve under the jurisdiction of the Creator Son when assigned to a local universe.

The Avonals function as Paradise Sons dedicated to service and bestowal on individual planets within local universes, each possessing a unique personality that renders their work distinctively individualized in their realms of sojourn. They sometimes incarnate in the likeness of mortal flesh and occasionally experience birth through mortal women on evolutionary worlds. Their planetary service encompasses three primary functions: judicial actions at the conclusion of planetary dispensations, often involving multiple missions to the same world; magisterial missions that typically precede a bestowal Son's arrival, during which they appear as adult inhabitants of the realm through incarnation techniques not involving mortal birth; and bestowal missions where they incarnate through birth as members of a mortal race, similar to Michael of Nebadon's incarnation on Urantia (i.e., Jesus' bestowal on earth). After completing seven bestowal experiences, these Sons are typically elevated to the high personal council of a Creator Son, participating in the administration of universe affairs.

The Avonals earn their designation as Magisterial Sons through their function as high magistrates of the realms, adjudicating the successive dispensations on evolutionary worlds. Their judicial responsibilities include presiding over the awakening of sleeping survivors, rendering judgment on the realm, concluding dispensations of suspended justice, implementing the mandates of probationary mercy, reassigning planetary ministering creatures to new dispensational tasks, and returning to their local universe headquarters upon mission completion. While they pronounce judgments that determine the evolutionary races' destiny, they do not execute sentences that extinguish personal creature identity, as this authority resides exclusively with superuniverse authorities.

The arrival of a Paradise Avonal on an evolutionary world to conclude a dispensation and initiate a new era of planetary progression may constitute either a magisterial mission or a bestowal mission, both involving incarnation in material form. In contrast, "technical" visits occur when an Avonal arrives solely as a dispensational adjudicator, manifesting as a spiritual being invisible to the material inhabitants of the realm. Such technical visits may occur repeatedly throughout a planet's inhabited history. Whether through technical visits, magisterial missions, or bestowal experiences, the Avonal Sons may function as planetary judges; however, in all cases where a Paradise Son visits an evolutionary world and adopts the form of its inhabitants, his presence terminates a dispensation and constitutes a judgment of that realm.

Prior to a bestowal Son's appearance on an inhabited world, that planet typically hosts a Paradise Avonal on a magisterial mission. During an initial magisterial visitation, the Avonal incarnates as a material being, manifesting as a fully developed male member of the mortal races, entirely visible and capable of physical interaction with the inhabitants of his generation. Throughout such an incarnation, the Avonal Son maintains uninterrupted connection with both local and universal spiritual forces. A planet may experience numerous magisterial visitations both before and after a bestowal Son's appearance, potentially involving multiple visits by the same or different Avonals acting as dispensational adjudicators, though they do not always incarnate during these missions. When they do assume mortal form, they invariably appear as fully formed adults of the realm, never experiencing birth as helpless infants.

Urantia has never hosted an Avonal Son on a magisterial mission, a deviation from the standard protocol for inhabited worlds, which would have included such a mission sometime between Adam's era and Christ Michael's bestowal. This anomaly stems from the disruption of the regular sequence of Paradise Sons visiting Urantia, caused by the Creator Son's terminal bestowal nineteen hundred years ago. The future appearance of Paradise Sons on Urantia remains uncertain, particularly since Michael-bestowal worlds become the personal and individual wards of a Master Son, subject entirely to his plans and determinations. Regardless of the misconceptions surrounding Michael of Nebadon's sojourn on Urantia, his promise to return remains incontrovertibly authentic, though only time will reveal the future sequence of Paradise Sons' visitations to this world.

The Eternal Son represents the perfect expression of the Universal Father's "first" absolute and infinite thought. When a personal duplication or divine extension of this Original Son embarks on a mortal incarnation bestowal mission, the divine "Word is made flesh" quite literally, dwelling among the humble beings of animal origin. Contrary to widespread belief on Urantia, these bestowals do not aim to influence the Universal Father's attitude. Rather, they constitute a necessary component of the experiential process designed to prepare these Sons to serve as safe and sympathetic magistrates and rulers for the peoples and planets of time and space. For Paradise Creator Sons, the sevenfold bestowal career represents their supreme goal, and the Magisterial Sons share this motivation through their service-oriented spirit.

Some order of Paradise Son must be bestowed upon each mortal-inhabited world to enable Thought Adjusters to indwell normal human minds, as these Adjusters only come to all legitimate human beings after the Spirit of Truth has been poured out universally—an event dependent upon a Paradise Son's successful completion of a mortal bestowal mission and return to universe headquarters. Throughout an inhabited planet's extended history, it may experience numerous dispensational adjudications and multiple magisterial missions, but generally only one bestowal Son serves on each sphere. Urantia holds special significance in Nebadon's history as Jesus of Nazareth's mortal homeworld, where the Creator Son completed his final and triumphant bestowal, securing supreme personal sovereignty over the universe of Nebadon.

The mechanism through which a Paradise Son prepares for mortal incarnation as a bestowal Son remains a universal mystery; any attempt to penetrate the Sonarington technique inevitably results in failure. The sublime knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth's mortal existence should suffice, without futile speculation about the method of Michael of Nebadon's incarnation. Instead, we should rejoice in the certainty that such divine achievements remain within the capacity of the divine nature. During mortal-bestowal missions, Paradise Sons invariably experience birth through women and develop as male children of their respective realms, exactly as Jesus did on Urantia. In every respect, they become identical to the mortals of their birth race, submitting petitions to the Father as do all children of the realms they serve, with only one exception: they do not procreate offspring on their bestowal worlds, a universal restriction imposed on all orders of Paradise bestowal Sons.

These Paradise Sons engage in various occupations during their bestowal missions, just as Jesus worked as a carpenter's son on Urantia. Upon mastering mortal life experience and achieving perfect attunement with their indwelling Adjusters, they commence the phase of their planetary mission devoted to illuminating minds and inspiring the souls of their mortal brethren. Despite similarities in their mortal-bestowal careers, fundamental distinctions exist between Michaels and Avonals: a Magisterial Son never proclaims, "Whosoever has seen the Son has seen the Father," as did the Creator Son during his Urantia incarnation. Instead, a bestowed Avonal declares, "Whosoever has seen me has seen the Eternal Son of God." Furthermore, while bestowal Sons must experience death and pass through the portals of resurrection on the third day, they need not encounter the violent and unusually cruel end that Jesus faced on Urantia, as most planets afford them more considerate reception and allow natural completion of their mortal careers.

The Trinity Teacher Sons emerge as highly personal and intensely spiritual beings created by the Paradise Trinity. These Sons are identified as Daynals in Havona, registered as Trinity Teacher Sons in Orvonton, and occasionally designated as Paradise Spiritual Sons on Salvington. Their numbers continuously increase, with the most recent universal census recording more than twenty-one billion functioning in the central and superuniverses, excluding the Paradise reserves which comprise more than one-third of all existing Trinity Teacher Sons. Unlike the stationary nature of other Trinity-origin beings whose creation represents a concluded event, the Daynal order experiences ongoing expansion, reflecting their evolving cosmic purpose.

The Daynal order does not constitute an organic component of local or superuniverse administrations, as their focus extends beyond administrative functions to moral enlightenment and spiritual development. They serve as universal educators dedicated to spiritual awakening and moral guidance across all realms, with their ministry intricately connected to the personalities of the Infinite Spirit and closely associated with creature beings' Paradise ascension. In Havona, they appear to reflect the Universal Father's nature; in the superuniverses, they embody the Eternal Son's character; and in local creations, they manifest the Infinite Spirit's qualities, thus representing service embodiment and wisdom's discretion throughout all universes. Unlike their Paradise brothers (Michaels and Avonals), Trinity Teacher Sons receive no preliminary central universe training but are dispatched directly to superuniverse headquarters for subsequent commissioning to local universe service.

The Paradise Spiritual Sons occupy a unique position as Trinity-origin beings who are extensively involved with dual-origin universes. Their educational ministry begins in local systems and progresses through constellation service to the highest responsibilities within the local creation as their experience and achievements warrant advancement. Upon certification, they may become spiritual ambassadors representing their service local universes. The exact number of Teacher Sons in Nebadon remains undisclosed, though they number in the thousands, with many heading departments in the Melchizedek schools and over one hundred thousand serving on the regularly constituted University of Salvington staff. While significantly engaged in mortal creatures' spiritual and intellectual advancement, they equally dedicate themselves to instructing seraphic beings and other local creation natives, often drawing assistants from the creature-trinitized beings ranks.

The Teacher Sons constitute the faculties that administer all examinations and conduct all tests for qualifying all subordinate phases of universe service, from outpost sentinel duties to star student responsibilities. They conduct an agelong educational program ranging from planetary courses to the high College of Wisdom on Salvington, granting recognition indicative of effort and achievement to all who complete these adventures in wisdom and truth, whether ascending mortals or ambitious cherubim. All Sons of God acknowledge their indebtedness to these ever-faithful and universally efficient Trinity Teacher Sons, who function as exalted teachers for all spirit personalities, including the Sons of God themselves. The extensive domain of Daynal-sonship activities will become more comprehensible to Urantia when its inhabitants advance in intelligence and after the planet's spiritual isolation terminates.

When progressive events on an evolutionary world indicate readiness for initiating a spiritual age, the Trinity Teacher Sons volunteer for this specialized service. Urantia remains unfamiliar with this order of sonship because it has never experienced a spiritual age or millennium of cosmic enlightenment. Nevertheless, Teacher Sons currently visit your world to formulate plans for their projected sojourn, scheduled to commence after Urantians achieve comparative liberation from animalistic limitations and materialistic constraints. Unlike other Paradise Sons, Trinity Teacher Sons bear no responsibility for terminating planetary dispensations or performing functions like judging the dead or translating the living; instead, they focus exclusively on initiating spiritual ages and manifesting the spiritual counterparts of material knowledge and temporal wisdom.

The Teacher Sons typically remain on their visitation planets for one thousand years of planetary time, with a single Teacher Son presiding over the millennial reign supported by seventy associates of the same order. They neither incarnate nor materialize in forms visible to mortal inhabitants; instead, they maintain planetary contact through the Brilliant Evening Stars, local universe personalities associated with Trinity Teacher Sons. After multiple visits culminating in a final mission, the planet transitions to the settled status of light and life—the evolutionary goal for all mortal-inhabited worlds in the current universe age. The Mortal Corps of the Finality maintains significant involvement with light-and-life spheres, and their planetary activities intersect with Teacher Sons' work, indicating an intimate connection between the entire Daynal sonship order and all phases of finaliter activities in time-space evolutionary creations.

Every Paradise Son of God manifests divine origin and nature, performing his service for each world as if he were the singular and exclusive Son of God. These Sons constitute the divine presentation of the three persons of Deity's active natures to the domains of time and space, serving as divine ministers unceasingly dedicated to helping time creatures attain the lofty spiritual goal of eternity. Within each Paradise Son category, distinctive characteristics of the Paradise Deities become manifest: Creator Sons embody the Universal Father's love blended with the Eternal Son's mercy; Magisterial Sons manifest the Eternal Son's mercy united with the Infinite Spirit's ministry; and Trinity Teacher Sons coordinate the love, mercy, and ministry of all three Paradise Deities at the highest time-space value-levels, presenting them to the universes as living truth, divine goodness, and true spiritual beauty.

In local universes, these sonship orders collaborate to reveal the Paradise Deities to space creatures: Creator Sons, as local universe Fathers, portray the Universal Father's infinite character; Avonals, as bestowal Sons of mercy, reveal the Eternal Son's matchless compassionate nature; and Trinity Daynal Sons disclose the Infinite Spirit's teacher personality. Through their divinely perfect cooperation, Michaels, Avonals, and Daynals contribute to actualizing and revealing the personality and sovereignty of God the Supreme throughout the time-space universes. In their triune activities' harmony, these Paradise Sons of God perpetually function at the vanguard of Deity personalities, accompanying the never-ending expansion of the First Great Source and Center's divinity from Paradise's everlasting Isle into space's unknown depths.