Paper 32 Overview: The Evolution of Local Universes

A local universe represents the creative enterprise of a Paradise Creator Son of the Michael order, comprising one hundred constellations with one hundred systems each, ultimately encompassing approximately one thousand inhabited worlds per system. These universes of time and space embody the principle of evolutionary development rather than instantaneous perfection, with Creator Sons implementing gradual and progressive development of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual capacities of their diverse inhabitants. The evolutionary pattern follows a meticulous divine plan that begins with the physical organization of energy into matter and worlds, progresses through the establishment of life, and culminates in the spiritual advancement of conscious personalities.

Urantia belongs to the local universe of Nebadon, whose sovereign is the God-man Michael of Salvington, better known on our world as Jesus of Nazareth. The revelation emphasizes that Michael's plans for Nebadon received complete approval from the Paradise Trinity before he embarked on his supreme creative adventure. This paper details the structural organization, physical emergence, evolutionary principles, and divine oversight that characterize local universes, highlighting the interrelationship between the Universal Father's transcendent purposes and the hands-on administration of Creator Sons who serve as the localized divine presence in the realms of time and space.

A local universe represents the handiwork of a Creator Son of the Paradise order of Michael, constituting an extensive administrative structure that encompasses one hundred constellations, each embracing one hundred systems of inhabited worlds. Each system will eventually contain approximately one thousand inhabited spheres, creating a vast cosmic organization designed for the nurture and development of diverse forms of life. This hierarchical arrangement provides the framework for universal administration and evolutionary progression.

These universes of time and space are fundamentally evolutionary in nature, embodying the principle of gradual development rather than instantaneous perfection. The creative plan implemented by the Paradise Michaels invariably proceeds along the path of gradual evolution and progressive advancement of the physical, intellectual, and spiritual nature and capacities of the manifold creatures inhabiting the various orders of spheres. Urantia belongs to the local universe whose sovereign is the God-man of Nebadon, Jesus of Nazareth and Michael of Salvington, whose plans for this local universe received full approval from the Paradise Trinity before he embarked on his supreme creative adventure. While Creator Sons may choose the realms of their creative activities, the material creations were originally projected and planned by the Paradise Architects of the Master Universe.

The preuniverse manipulations of space-force and primordial energies represent the specialized work of the Paradise Master Force Organizers, who prepare the cosmic foundations for subsequent creation. When emergent energy becomes responsive to local or linear gravity within the superuniverse domains, these Master Force Organizers retire in favor of the power directors of the particular superuniverse, marking a crucial transition in cosmic development. These specialized power directors function independently during the prematerial and postforce phases of local universe creation, establishing the energetic prerequisites for the Creator Son's organizational work.

A Creator Son cannot initiate universe organization until the power directors have successfully mobilized sufficient space-energies to provide a material foundation—literal suns and material spheres—for the emerging universe. Local universes possess approximately equivalent energy potential, although they may differ significantly in physical dimensions and visible-matter content at various stages of development. The power charge and potential-matter endowment of a local universe are determined by the manipulations of the power directors and their predecessors, the Creator Son's activities, and the inherent physical control possessed by his creative associate. In the specific case of Nebadon, the mass materialization is slightly less than the standard for Orvonton creations, yet Nebadon possesses all the physical endowment of energy and matter necessary for its developmental expansion, limited only by the quantitative charge of space-energy held captive by the gravity control of the combined universe mechanism.

When energy-matter reaches a certain stage of mass materialization, a Paradise Creator Son appears, accompanied by a Creative Daughter of the Infinite Spirit, marking the transition to the biological and spiritual phases of creation. Simultaneously with the Creator Son's arrival, work commences on the architectural sphere destined to become the headquarters world of the projected local universe. For long ages, this local creation evolves, with suns becoming stabilized, planets forming and entering their orbits, while the architectural worlds designed to serve as constellation headquarters and system capitals continue to develop according to the divine plan.

The Creator Sons are preceded in universe organization by the power directors and other beings originating from the Third Source and Center, who establish the physical foundations for subsequent creation. From these previously organized energies, Michael, your Creator Son, established the inhabited realms of Nebadon and has since devoted himself painstakingly to their administration and development. These divine Sons possess the remarkable ability to materialize visible matter from pre-existent energy, project living creatures, and, with the cooperation of the universe presence of the Infinite Spirit, create a diverse retinue of spirit personalities essential for universal governance.

The power directors and energy controllers who preceded the Creator Son in the preliminary physical organization of Nebadon continue to serve in magnificent liaison with him, forever maintaining associated control over the energies they originally organized and circuitized. On Salvington, one hundred power centers now function who cooperated with Michael in the original formation of this local universe, providing continuity in physical oversight. The first completed physical creative act in Nebadon consisted in the organization of its headquarters world, Salvington, with its satellites, occurring over one billion years ago by Urantia time reckoning. The construction of Salvington was immediately followed by the creation of the one hundred headquarters worlds for the projected constellations and the ten thousand headquarters spheres for the local systems of planetary control and administration, along with their architectural satellites. These architectural worlds were specifically designed to accommodate physical, spiritual, and morontia personalities, providing suitable environments for all transitional states of being.

Salvington, the administrative center of Nebadon, is situated at the exact energy-mass center of the local universe, though Nebadon itself does not constitute a single astronomic system but rather encompasses multiple star systems with a large central system at its core. While the Creator Son's presence was essential during the early phases of physical organization to achieve gravity stabilization, once this was accomplished, Michael gained the freedom to temporarily leave Salvington as the smooth functioning of the universe no longer required his constant physical presence. After completing the physical plan, the Creator Son, in association with the Creative Spirit, projects his plan of life creation, initiating the biological phase of universal development.

The only creation that exists in a state of perfect settlement is Havona, the central universe, which was brought into being directly by the thought of the Universal Father and the word of the Eternal Son. In contrast to this existential perfection, the seven superuniverses are characterized by their finite, evolutionary, and consistently progressive nature, representing a fundamentally different approach to creation. The physical systems of time and space originate through evolutionary processes and achieve physical stabilization only when they are incorporated into the settled circuits of their respective superuniverses, a status that coincides with the spiritual stabilization of their inhabited worlds.

Outside the central universe, perfection constitutes a progressive attainment rather than an initial condition, requiring the developing beings to achieve it through established methods appropriate to their particular worlds or universes. The Creator Sons employ an almost infinite variety of approaches in organizing, evolving, disciplining, and settling their respective local universes, demonstrating divine creativity within the evolutionary paradigm. Despite the Universal Father's absence in person from local universes, a profound compensation exists in the spiritual economy: while he does not personally dwell in the central universe with the minds of its perfect inhabitants, he intimately indwells the minds of his mortal children in the time-space realms through the Thought Adjusters, creating a profound spiritual connection.

On the headquarters of a local universe reside all creator and creative personalities who represent self-contained authority and administrative autonomy, except for the personal presence of the Universal Father. Local universes contain representatives of almost every class of intelligent being that exists in the central universe, with the notable exception of the Universal Father himself. While the Father is not personally present, he is personally represented by the Creator Son, who initially serves as the Father's vicegerent and subsequently becomes the supreme and sovereign ruler in his own right. This arrangement necessitates that creatures must often perceive the Universal Father through his Creator Sons, a situation that can create spiritual challenges for beings who have not yet achieved spiritual maturity.

Although the Universal Father has delegated significant aspects of himself and his power to others, this delegation does not render him a silent or inactive partner in the Deity association. Apart from personality domains and Adjuster bestowal, he appears to be the least active of the Paradise Deities only in that he permits his coordinate and subordinate associates to perform extensive work in executing his eternal purpose. His apparent silence stems not from disinterest but from his perfect understanding of the need for creature development through experience and function.

In every situation concerning universe destiny or creature welfare, God strategically withdraws from direct activity to favor the galaxy of creature and Creator personalities positioned between himself and any given universe situation. This retirement, however, does not indicate absence but rather represents a profound exhibition of infinite coordination through ordained agencies and personalities. In matters pertaining to the policies, conduct, and administration of a local universe, the Universal Father acts through the person of his Creator Son, never intervening in the relationships between Sons of God, personalities originating from the Third Source and Center, or any other creature relationships such as those involving human beings. The established laws of the Creator Son, Constellation Fathers, System Sovereigns, and Planetary Princes—the ordained policies and procedures for that universe—invariably prevail without division of authority or conflict in divine purpose.

The Creator Son maintains supreme authority in all matters concerning ethical associations and creature relationships, though this does not prevent the Universal Father from intervening in his own way with any individual creature throughout creation. In mortal will creatures, the Father is actually present through the indwelling Thought Adjuster, a fragment of his prepersonal spirit that constitutes the source of human personality. These Thought Adjusters, while comparatively isolated in their function within human minds, represent one of God's separate but unified modes of contact with his nearly infinite creation. Through the personality circuit, the Father maintains personal knowledge of all thoughts and acts of all beings in all systems of all universes, fulfilling the assurance that "the Lord knows his children," taking note of each one's origin and nature.

A great and glorious purpose pervades the progression of universes through space, infusing meaning into mortal struggles and challenges. All beings participate in an immense plan, a gigantic enterprise under divine supervision, as the entire universal mechanism advances majestically through space guided by the infinite thought and eternal purpose of the First Great Source and Center. This purpose, far from arbitrary, represents the highest spiritual ideal, transcending the temporal events and material struggles that serve merely as transient scaffolding bridging to the promised land of spiritual reality and supernal existence.

Mortals naturally find it difficult to grasp the concept of eternity—something without beginning or end—because every familiar experience appears temporally bounded. Regarding individual lives, realms, or connected events, we perceive isolated stretches of time with apparent beginnings and endings. However, this limited perspective fails to account adequately for the transactions of time in relation to the underlying purposes and fundamental reactions of eternity. A more fitting conceptualization for the mortal mind might be to envision eternity as a cycle and eternal purpose as an endless circle, somehow synchronized with the transient material cycles of time. The sectors of time represent flash-like manifestations of personality in temporal form, appearing briefly before human sight, only to reappear later as new actors and continuing factors in the higher life of the endless cycle around the eternal circle.

There exists in the divine mind a comprehensive plan embracing every creature in all his vast domains, an eternal purpose offering boundless opportunity, unlimited progress, and endless life to those who strive to attain it. The infinite treasures of such a matchless career await all who undertake the race of faith and trust, depending on the guidance of the indwelling Adjuster and the good spirit of the Universe Son. This divine plan provides assurance that mortal existence, despite its challenges, serves as preparation for higher achievements and continued spiritual growth throughout eternity.