Paper 3 Overview: The Attributes of God

The Universal Father manifests his infinite and eternal presence throughout the circle of eternity, though in the local universes he governs through the personalized expressions of himself in his Paradise Creator Sons. These Creator Sons, in whom God has invested his life-giving power, serve as discernible manifestations of the otherwise invisible Father to lower orders of created intelligences, compensating for the absolute and infinite nature of Deity that would otherwise remain imperceptible. This revelation through personalization represents a profound accommodation to finite creatures, enabling them to apprehend aspects of the divine that would otherwise transcend their comprehension capacities.

The divine attributes of God constitute an integrated totality of perfection wherein no single characteristic takes precedence over another, though creatorship might conceptually be considered antecedent if such prioritization were possible. His omnipresence enables simultaneous existence throughout all creation; his omnipotence demonstrates perfect control of all universal phenomena; his omniscience encompasses complete knowledge of all creation; his limitlessness remains undiminished despite infinite bestowal of himself; his supreme rule operates largely through delegated authority while maintaining ultimate control; and his primacy establishes him as the fountainhead of all reality. These attributes coalesce in a being who is both absolute in his perfection and personal in his expressions of love toward his creation—a cosmic paradox that culminates in the profound truth of the Fatherhood of God.

God's omnipresence throughout the universe manifests in the local universes through his Paradise Creator Sons, who function as personal expressions of the Father's authority and as channels for his life-bestowing powers. These highly personalized Sons provide a crucial interface between the infinite Father and his finite creation, rendering the otherwise invisible and absolute Deity perceptible to the limited consciousness of created intelligences. Through this mechanism of delegation and revelation, the Universal Father establishes an accessible pathway for creature recognition while maintaining his transcendent nature.

Creatorship, rather than being merely one attribute among many, constitutes the aggregate expression of God's active nature, eternally manifested and perfectly coordinated through all divine attributes of the First Source and Center. While no single characteristic of divinity can definitively be considered antecedent to the others, the creatorship nature of Deity might conceptually take precedence as the fundamental expression of divine reality. This creative function ultimately finds its most profound expression in the universal truth of God's Fatherhood—the culminating relationship that defines his connection to all personal beings throughout the cosmos and establishes the foundational reality of the universe family.

The Universal Father possesses the unique capacity for omnipresence—the ability to be simultaneously present throughout all creation while maintaining his unified identity. God alone can occupy numberless locations contemporaneously, being present "in heaven above and on the earth beneath," a reality expressed in the Psalmist's recognition of the inescapability of divine presence. This omnipresence extends beyond mere spatial distribution to an intimate permeation of "all parts and all hearts of his far-flung creation," though even this profound pervasiveness cannot exhaust the infinity of God. The Infinite can only be fully comprehended in infinity itself, as the divine cause infinitely transcends the sum total of creation that has emerged from his unfettered creative will.

The Father's omnipresence "unceasingly patrols the master universe," extending from the central Paradise to the furthest reaches of space, leaving nothing hidden from divine awareness. This universal presence manifests not merely as external observation but as intimate indwelling, for "the creature not only exists in God, but God also lives in the creature." Through the bestowal of his spirit, the Universal Father establishes himself as "man's inseparable companion," speaking from within the human consciousness as "the guiding spirit of eternal destiny." This indwelling presence creates a profound reciprocity wherein those who dwell in love simultaneously dwell in God while God dwells within them—an intimate communion disrupted only by creature choice that, even in wrongdoing, torments the divine Thought Adjuster who must experience the consequences of misaligned decisions within the human mind of its temporary residence.

The omnipresence of God, while limitless in potential, manifests with specific variations throughout the cosmos in recognition of the "sovereignty and divine prerogatives" of co-ordinate creators and rulers. This calibrated expression of divine presence operates through various "presence circuits" including those of the Eternal Son, the Infinite Spirit, and the Isle of Paradise, though the personality circuit and the Adjusters represent domains of direct and exclusive divine action. The Universal Controller maintains potential presence in the gravity circuits of Paradise proportionate to physical mass, while mind presence correlates with the absolute mind of the Conjoint Actor and spirit presence coordinates with the universal spirit presence of the Eternal Son and the divine potential of the Deity Absolute.

The omnipotence of the Universal Father pervades all universes, establishing the fundamental truth that "the Lord God omnipotent reigns" and that all cosmic affairs operate under divine supervision. This supreme power ensures that "with God all things are possible" within the boundaries of divine nature, guiding the extended evolutionary processes of planets and universes according to the eternal purpose of the Father. The universe unfolds not through chaotic happenstance but through the perfectly controlled administration of the universe creators, proceeding in harmonious order according to the all-wise plan of God who functions as the singular lawgiver, upholding worlds in space and orchestrating the endless circling of universes.

When considered as a non-spiritual phenomenon manifesting in the material realm, God can be understood as primal energy, the fundamental cause of all physical phenomena throughout space. This divine activity generates all physical energy and material manifestations, including light without heat and other non-spiritual energies not yet recognized on Urantia. God's control of all power extends to creating "a way for lightning" and ordaining the circuits of all energy, which he eternally holds in gravitational control centered on nether Paradise. These energies perpetually circulate around the "Paradise-Personality center of all things," creating the "endless but orderly procession of the starry hosts" comprising the universe of universes.

The Universal Father's power transcends simplistic characterizations as "a transient force, a shifting power, or a fluctuating energy." Rather, his power and wisdom operate with perfect adequacy to address any universe contingency, responding not with detached reaction but according to "the dictates of eternal wisdom" and "the mandates of infinite judgment." What may appear as emergency interventions, suspension of natural laws, or rectification of misadaptations merely reflects the limited perspective of finite minds incapable of comprehending the higher laws governing cosmic reality. God's divine omnipotence finds its fullest expression in perfect coordination with his other attributes, limited in its spiritual manifestation only by God's own nature, will, and the righteousness of the Paradise Trinity.

The Universal Father possesses comprehensive awareness of all thoughts and events throughout creation, maintaining perfect knowledge of every facet of existence. "God knows all things" because the divine entities emanating from him remain intrinsically connected to his consciousness, making him simultaneously "perfect in knowledge" while intimately attentive to specific details—from naming each star to observing the fall of a sparrow to numbering the hairs on human heads. This omniscience encompasses both the cosmic scale of universal awareness and the personal scale of individual experience, creating a divine cognizance that is simultaneously infinite in scope and intimate in focus.

The Father stands as the sole personality in the universe who possesses exact knowledge of the totality of stars and planets throughout space, maintaining constant awareness of all worlds within his consciousness. Yet this cosmic awareness exists in perfect balance with his attention to individual creatures, allowing him to declare, "I have surely seen the affliction of my people, I have heard their cry, and I know their sorrows." For every creature, the reality remains that "he knows the way I take" and "understands our thoughts afar off," holding complete familiarity with all aspects of our existence. This profound intimacy of knowledge should provide genuine comfort to humanity, establishing the foundational truth that God "knows your frame; he remembers that you are dust," and as Jesus taught, knows our needs even before we articulate them.

God's unlimited capacity to know all things functions through his universal consciousness, which encompasses all personalities and extends through multiple supplementary channels. This knowledge flows through "the descending series of divine Sons" and directly through the indwelling Thought Adjusters, while the Infinite Spirit maintains omnipresent awareness. Though we cannot determine with certainty whether God specifically chooses to foreknow events of sin, even if such foreknowledge exists, it "does not in the least abrogate their freedom" as creatures possessing free will. One certainty remains amid these considerations of divine omniscience: "God is never subjected to surprise," though this perfect knowledge does not imply "the knowing of the unknowable"—a concept incomprehensible to finite minds that struggle to grasp the full range and limitations of the Creator's will.

The successive bestowal of the Universal Father upon emerging universes never diminishes his potential power or wisdom, which remain fully intact within his central personality. Throughout the continuous expansion of creation, God has never reduced any attribute or divested himself of any aspect of his glorious personality, regardless of how extensively he has bestowed himself upon the Paradise Sons and the manifold creatures of his creation. The Father's infinite nature remains undiminished by his creative activity, establishing a divine paradox wherein unlimited sharing results in no reduction of the original source.

Even if creation were to continue indefinitely, extending to infinity with material creation existing without limitation, the power of control residing in the Isle of Paradise would remain fully adequate for the mastery and coordination of such a boundless universe. Following such unlimited bestowal of power upon an infinite creation, the Infinite would maintain the same degree of force and energy, with the Unqualified Absolute remaining undiminished and God retaining his infinite potential exactly as if no force or power had ever been distributed. Similarly, the continual bestowal of mind upon countless thinking beings throughout the realms does not impoverish the central source of divine wisdom, as God's central personality eternally maintains the same infinite and all-wise mind.

The Father's distribution of spirit messengers to indwell humans and other beings creates no limitation on his ability to function as a divine spirit personality, as "there is absolutely no limit to the extent or number" of such Monitors he can dispatch. This divine self-giving establishes "a boundless, almost inconceivable future possibility of progressive and successive existences" for recipients of this indwelling presence. Yet, this prodigal distribution in no way diminishes the wisdom and perfection residing in the all-wise, all-knowing, and all-powerful Father. While finite creatures remain temporally bound, "God inhabits eternity," possessing an infinite nature that finite mind cannot fully comprehend. Yet paradoxically, while the finite human cannot intellectually grasp divine infinitude, the same limited being can genuinely experience "the full and undiminished impact of such an infinite Father's LOVE"—an experience limited only by human capacity for spiritual receptivity and the ability to return that divine love.

In his relationships with the post-Havona creations, the Universal Father typically exercises his infinite power and final authority through delegation rather than direct transmission, working through his Sons and their subordinate personalities. This delegation represents God's free choice, not limitation, as any powers entrusted to others could be exercised directly if divine wisdom deemed it necessary. Direct intervention generally occurs only when delegated personalities fail to fulfill their divine trust, at which point the Father acts independently with "unfailing perfection and infinite wisdom," maintaining his sovereign oversight through an unbroken chain of rulers extending from himself down to the Planetary Princes who guide evolutionary spheres.

The apparent uncertainties and hardships of evolutionary existence do not contradict divine sovereignty but rather serve as intentional components of spiritual development. The Father has designed the evolutionary experience to include specific challenges that cultivate essential spiritual qualities: courage through hardship, altruism through social inequality, hope through uncertainty, faith through incomplete knowledge, love of truth through the presence of error, idealism through imperfect surroundings, loyalty through the possibility of betrayal, unselfishness through the clamors of self-recognition, and pleasure through the alternative of pain. These contrasts create the necessary tension for experiential growth, distinguishing creatures who "earn even their status as ascension candidates" through faith and hope from the inherently perfect beings of Havona who possess goodness by virtue of their intrinsic nature rather than through experiential attainment.

The only evolutionary world free from the possibility of error would be "a world without free intelligence," demonstrating that fallibility represents an inherent aspect of experiential growth rather than a flaw in divine design. In the perfect Havona worlds, inhabitants naturally possess virtues that evolutionary beings must actively develop through choice and experience: bravery rather than courage, kindness rather than altruism, expectation rather than hope, faith without salvation quality, love of truth without its soul-saving dimensions, inherent idealism rather than transformative aspiration, loyalty without the thrill of devotion amid temptation, unselfishness without self-conquest, and pleasure without the sweetness of escaping pain. These distinctions highlight the unique value of experiential attainment, establishing the "unique possession" of personal spiritual achievement as fundamentally different from the "inherent goodness and righteousness of the inerrant personalities of Havona."

With consummate generosity and divine selflessness, the Universal Father relinquishes substantial authority and delegates significant power throughout the administrative hierarchy of the universes, yet he retains primacy as the foundation of all reality. His hand remains firmly positioned on "the mighty lever of the circumstances of the universal realms," reserving all final decisions and wielding "the all-powerful veto scepter of his eternal purpose with unchallengeable authority" concerning the welfare and destiny of his creation. This balance between delegation and ultimate control establishes a cosmic order that harmonizes divine sovereignty with creature development, maintaining the integrity of the divine plan while allowing for genuine evolutionary progress.

The universe exists neither through inevitability nor accident, but stands as a deliberate work of creation wholly subject to the Creator's will. This divine will manifests as "divine truth, living love," which produces evolutionary universes characterized by goodness in proportion to their proximity to divinity and potential evil in relation to their remoteness from the divine source. All religious philosophy inevitably converges on the concept of unified universe rule under a single God, recognizing that universal causes must transcend universal effects, and that the source of cosmic life and mind necessarily exceeds the manifestation of these qualities in creation. The human mind remains inexplicable without acknowledging the reality of the Universal Father, whose existence provides the only adequate foundation for understanding moral consciousness.

The Universal Father transcends simplistic characterization as merely "power, form, energy, process, pattern, principle, presence, and idealized reality," though he incorporates all these aspects. More fundamentally, he manifests as a personal being who "exercises a sovereign will, experiences self-consciousness of divinity, executes the mandates of a creative mind, pursues the satisfaction of the realization of an eternal purpose, and manifests a Father's love and affection for his universe children." This integration of absolute power with personal love establishes the cosmic roles of the Trinity: "God the Father loves men; God the Son serves men; God the Spirit inspires the children of the universe to the ever-ascending adventure of finding God the Father" through divinely established pathways. This revelation of divine attributes culminates in the profound reality of a universe ordered by wisdom, energized by power, and suffused with the personal love of a Universal Father.