Paper 39 Overview: The Seraphic Hosts

Paper 39 provides a comprehensive exposition of the seraphic orders that minister throughout the local universe of Nebadon and beyond. The Infinite Spirit, through local universe personalization, creates seraphim with inherent diversity despite intentions toward uniformity. These angelic beings are classified into seven distinct orders: Supreme Seraphim, Superior Seraphim, Supervisor Seraphim, Administrator Seraphim, Planetary Helpers, Transition Ministers, and Seraphim of the Future. Each order fulfills specific functions within the universe administration, from the exalted service of Supreme Seraphim in collaboration with high Sons and Spirits to the more direct ministry of Planetary Helpers who interact with evolving mortals on inhabited worlds.

The narrative details the experiential nature of seraphic development, whereby angels, though created with inherent capacities, can augment their divine endowment through functional experience and additional education. This evolutionary capacity enables seraphim to transcend their initial classification and serve across multiple orders, with many higher-order seraphim deliberately seeking service in lower orders to enhance their experiential qualifications. The ultimate seraphic aspiration typically culminates in service as guardians of destiny for mortals, facilitating their own Paradise attainment through the evolutionary technique while simultaneously guiding human souls toward divine perfection. Upon completion of their universe service, seraphim pass through Seraphington, their angelic threshold to Paradise, before either joining the Corps of Seraphic Completion or returning to their native universes with enhanced experiential wisdom to complement their original divine endowment.

As far as it is cognizant to celestial observers, the Infinite Spirit, in personalized form at local universe headquarters, intends to produce uniformly perfect seraphim. Yet, these seraphic offspring manifest notable diversity of attributes and capacities. This diversity potentially results from the unknown interposition of evolving experiential Deity, though this causality remains unproven in the current universe age. When subjected to educational tests and training discipline, seraphim invariably and distinctly classify into seven fundamental groups: Supreme Seraphim, Superior Seraphim, Supervisor Seraphim, Administrator Seraphim, Planetary Helpers, Transition Ministers, and Seraphim of the Future. Each order fulfills specific functions within the complex administration of the local universe.

While comparative evaluation might suggest hierarchical value among these orders, the distinction primarily reflects functional specialization rather than inherent superiority or inferiority. Each seraphim begins with service limitations corresponding to their inherent classification, but through application and dedicated service, they can progressively master additional functional capacities across all seven seraphic services. This is exemplified by Manotia, the narrator's seraphic associate, who began as a supreme seraphim but now holds the commission of associate chief of seraphim on Urantia. Unlike humans, who progressively develop from helpless infancy through necessary developmental stages, seraphim begin existence with full capacity for service yet must still acquire experiential prerequisites to enhance their divine endowment. Higher-functioning seraphim persistently seek assignment to lower orders of universe service, particularly desiring planetary helper roles where they study the languages, history, and customs of evolving mortals, thereby gaining the experiential wisdom necessary for more effective universal ministry.

Supreme seraphim constitute the highest of the seven revealed orders of local universe angels, functioning in seven distinct groups with close affiliation to the Seraphic Corps of Completion. The first group, Son-Spirit Ministers, serves the high Sons and Spirit-origin beings resident in the local universe, including the Universe Son, the Universe Spirit, and the Bright and Morning Star, who embodies the united wills of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit. These seraphim naturally associate with the far-reaching services of Paradise Avonals during their magisterial and bestowal missions to the evolutionary worlds, organizing and administering the special work associated with terminating one planetary dispensation and inaugurating another. They do not, however, participate in the adjudicatory aspects that may coincide with dispensational transitions.

Six additional groups of supreme seraphim fulfill equally vital roles throughout Nebadon. Bestowal Attendants comprise 144 completion seraphim who accompany Paradise Avonals (though not Creator Sons) on bestowal missions, having traversed the circles of Seraphington and achieved the Seraphic Corps of Completion. Court Advisers serve all orders of adjudication from conciliators to the highest tribunals, ensuring that charges against mortal creatures are stated with justice and adjudicated with mercy, working closely with Spirit-fused ascendant mortals serving as High Commissioners. Universe Orientators assist ascending pilgrims preparing to depart their native universe for the superuniverse, facilitating the difficult transition from attained to unattained levels of universe service.

Teaching Counselors assist all orders of instructors from Melchizedeks and Trinity Teacher Sons to the morontia mortals assigned as helpers to slightly less advanced beings. Directors of Assignment, a body of 144 elected supreme seraphim, coordinate self-directed phases of seraphic service and preside over angelic assemblies, while Recorders document supreme seraphic affairs. Unattached Ministers serve as a general reserve, meeting the differential demand for supreme seraphic service throughout the local universe.

Superior seraphim derive their designation not from qualitative superiority over other angelic orders but from their responsibility for higher activities within the local universe. Many in the first two groups are attainment seraphim—angels who have completed service in all phases of training and returned to glorified assignments directing their kind in previously mastered spheres of activity. As a relatively young universe, Nebadon possesses comparatively few superior seraphim, though these function effectively in seven specialized groups that address crucial aspects of local universe administration and development.

The Intelligence Corps belongs exclusively to Gabriel's personal staff, gathering information throughout Nebadon to guide the deliberations of the universe councils. While intelligence corps across different local universes can intercommunicate within a single superuniverse, energy differentials effectively segregate business between superuniverses, allowing communication between superuniverses only through Paradise clearinghouse provisions. The Voice of Mercy angels, now typically completion seraphim who have served as guardians of mortal destiny, embody the keynote of seraphic service by fostering higher impulses and holier emotions among both mortals and angels. Spirit Co-ordinators prepare ascending sojourners on Salvington for their final transition from highest morontia levels to newborn spirit status, while Assistant Teachers support the teaching counselors throughout the educational enterprises of the local universe.

Transporters serve as space traversers for personalities unable to journey independently between spheres, inducing transit sleep that renders travelers consciously unconscious until awakening at their destination. Recorders of the superior order maintain and transmit essential information throughout Salvington, with specialized Broadcasters capable of simultaneously transmitting 144,000 messages along the same energy lines. The Reserves of superior seraphim stand ready for dispatch throughout Nebadon, also serving as messenger aids upon requisition by the chief of the Brilliant Evening Stars.

This versatile order of universe angels serves exclusively the constellations, maintaining headquarters on constellation capitals while functioning throughout Nebadon to advance the interests of their assigned realms. Supervising Assistants, the first order, serve as immediate aides to the Constellation Fathers (the Most Highs), primarily focusing on unifying and stabilizing the entire constellation. Law Forecasters, the second order, work with the legislative assemblies of the constellations that formulate and promulgate the basic laws of Nebadon, forecasting how proposed legislation would affect the lives of freewill creatures based on extensive experience in local systems and on inhabited worlds. They represent the interests of those who cannot speak for themselves, faithfully portraying not merely human transient desires but the true longings of the evolving morontia soul.

The remaining five orders fulfill equally vital functions across the constellation administration. Social Architects labor from individual planets through morontia training worlds to enhance sincere social contacts and divest associations of intelligent beings of all artificiality, facilitating relationships based on genuine self-understanding and mutual appreciation. Though they cannot always bring together ideal groupings, these seraphim persist in their efforts across mansion worlds and morontia spheres, overseeing any undertaking involving three or more persons. Ethical Sensitizers foster appreciation for the morality of interpersonal relationships—the seed and secret of continued purposeful growth of society and government.

Transporters carry personalities between constellation spheres, maintaining full consciousness during flight and able to vary speed and direction, attaining velocities between 555,000 and 559,000 miles per second. Recorders maintain special documentation of constellation affairs, including those of Norlatiadek, to which Urantia belongs. The Reserves provide a general pool of supervisor seraphim available for special assignments, including observation duties for the Most Highs, such as when a Vorondadek serves as Most High regent of Urantia.

Administrator seraphim, the fourth order, specialize in administrative duties within local systems, primarily residing on system capitals but also stationed throughout mansion and morontia spheres and inhabited worlds. Endowed with exceptional administrative capacity, these seraphim serve as valuable assistants to directors of lower divisions within the Creator Son's universe government, functioning through seven specialized groups that address different aspects of system administration and planetary governance.

Administrative Assistants directly support System Sovereigns (primary Lanonandek Sons), executing intricate details of executive work at system headquarters and traveling as personal agents to transition worlds and inhabited planets. On worlds like Urantia, where Planetary Princes defaulted, these seraphim assist Melchizedek receivers who assume planetary authority. Justice Guides present summaries of evidence concerning the eternal welfare of humans and angels in system or planetary tribunals, preparing statements for preliminary hearings on mortal survival. Their mission is not to defeat justice but to ensure unerring judgment tempered with mercy and fairness. Interpreters of Cosmic Citizenship guide ascendant mortals who have completed mansion world training and now experience the first pause in their Paradise ascent at the system capital, helping them understand the responsibilities of universe government while working with Material Sons in system administration.

Quickeners of Morality teach ascending mortals on system headquarters about cosmic morality, the interactions between liberty and loyalty, emphasizing that stagnation leads to certain death while overrapid growth proves equally suicidal. System Transporters carry passengers between Jerusem and other worlds, including temporary visitors to Urantia. Recorders maintain the threefold archives of local systems: material records for ascending mortals, morontial records for intermediate beings, and spiritual documentation for seraphim. The Reserves often associate with newly arrived ascending mortals on Jerusem, where material beings, angels, and ascending pilgrims first meaningfully intermingle, achieving mutual recognition and sympathetic understanding despite their diverse origins and natures.

Planetary Helpers maintain headquarters on system capitals while working closely with resident Adamic citizens, though their primary mission involves serving Planetary Adams—the biologic uplifters of material races on evolutionary worlds. As angel ministry approaches inhabited worlds, it confronts the actual problems faced by men and women preparing for eternity, making this service increasingly interesting and meaningful. On Urantia, most planetary helpers were withdrawn following the collapse of the Adamic regime, with supervisory responsibility largely transferring to administrators, transition ministers, and guardians of destiny. Nevertheless, seven groups of these seraphic aids to the defaulting Material Sons continue to serve Urantia in specialized capacities.

The Voices of the Garden originally assisted Adam and Eve in their mission to augment planetary evolution through contributions of superior life plasm, with their personal seraphim known as the "voices of the Garden of Eden." After Adam's default on Urantia, some remained assigned to his successors in authority. The Spirits of Brotherhood help Adamic regimes achieve racial harmony and social cooperation among diverse populations, accomplishing remarkable progress despite the Adamic default. Souls of Peace help primitive worlds realize "peace on earth and good will among men." Vevona, the chief of these seraphim in Adam's time, remained on Urantia and now serves on the resident governor general's staff, having announced Michael's birth to the watching worlds. Spirits of Trust teach evolving humans to trust one another, helping civilization evolve ideals of confidence and trust.

Transporters serve individual worlds, handling beings in transit and those stationed locally. The human conception of angels with wings derives from observing these seraphim preparing for transport, when energy insulators or friction shields extend from head to foot, appearing as double sets of wings. Recorders document major planetary affairs as they relate to system and universe governance, while Reserves stand ready on Jerusem to serve in all phases of planetary ministry, also functioning as personal message bearers throughout the local system.

As their name implies, transition ministers serve wherever they can contribute to creature transition from material to spiritual estate, operating from inhabited worlds to system capitals but currently focusing primarily on educating surviving mortals throughout the seven mansion worlds of Satania. Their ministry diversifies according to seven distinct orders of assignment, each specializing in specific aspects of the transition process that bridges the gap between material existence and morontia life.

These specialized seraphic orders include Seraphic Evangels, Racial Interpreters, Mind Planners, Morontia Counselors, Technicians, Recorder-Teachers, and Ministering Reserves, though detailed exposition of their specific functions awaits narratives dealing directly with mansion worlds and morontia life. Their collective ministry provides essential guidance and support for newly arrived survivors navigating the initial stages of post-mortal existence, facilitating adjustment to the profound changes entailed in transition from material to more spiritualized forms of being. This crucial phase of creature development requires particularly sensitive and specialized angelic ministry to ensure successful adaptation to the radically different conditions and requirements of ascending morontia life.

These angels do not minister extensively except in older realms and on the more advanced planets of Nebadon, with large contingents held in reserve on seraphic worlds near Salvington. There they engage in pursuits relevant to the eventual dawning of the age of light and life in Nebadon, a future dispensation toward which the entire universe gradually progresses. These seraphim function primarily in connection with the ascendant-mortal career but minister almost exclusively to mortals who survive through modified orders of ascension rather than the standard Adjuster-fusion pathway.

Since these seraphim do not currently concern themselves with either Urantia or its human inhabitants, the revelators have withheld detailed description of their fascinating activities as irrelevant to current planetary needs and interests. Their reservation for future universe epochs suggests the progressive nature of creation itself, with specialized seraphic ministers prepared in advance for evolutionary developments yet to manifest on the worlds of time and space. This forward-looking preparation exemplifies the meticulous planning that characterizes universe administration, with specialized ministers ready to serve emerging needs before they fully materialize in the evolutionary scheme.

Seraphim originate within local universes, and in these same realms of their nativity, some achieve service destiny through various pathways of advancement and attainment. With the counsel and assistance of senior archangels, some seraphim ascend to the exalted duties of Brilliant Evening Stars, while others attain service as unrevealed co-ordinates of the Evening Stars, but Seraphington invariably remains the eternal goal of all angels. This sacred sphere serves as the angelic threshold to Paradise and Deity attainment, a transition domain from the ministry of time to the exalted service of eternity, bridging the experiential realms of space and the perfected realms of Paradise.

While seraphim may reach Paradise through numerous pathways, three predominate in the narratives. First, they may gain admission to Paradise seraphic abode by achieving perfection in specialized service as celestial artisans, Technical Advisers, or Celestial Recorders, becoming Paradise Companions and potentially eternal ministers to seraphic orders. Second, under certain conditions, they may receive direct summons to Seraphington, though only successful destiny guardians can be certain of progressing to Paradise through evolutionary ascent, with others awaiting Paradise messengers bearing the summons to appear on high. Third, the supreme choice for seraphim in the career of time involves becoming guardians of destiny to attain the career of finality and qualify for eternal seraphic service. These personal guides, drawn from experienced angelic personalities of all orders who have qualified for this service, guard mortal creatures on the path of divine destiny while simultaneously determining their own high destiny.

It is not possible for angels to attain God from the human level of origin, as they are created "a little higher than you." However, the divine plan wisely arranges that while seraphim cannot start from the absolute bottom of conscious existence, they may descend to those who do and pilot such creatures step by step toward the portals of Havona. When mortal ascenders leave Uversa for Havona circles, their guardian angels bid them temporary farewell to journey to Seraphington, where they attempt to achieve the seven circles of seraphic light, leading to their own completion and eventual reunion with their mortal associates. Many, but not all, destiny guardians accompany their mortal associates through the Havona circles, though all evolutionary seraphim must traverse Seraphington, with most following this route rather than the Havona circuits. No angel attaining Seraphington has ever been known to go astray, with graduates variously assigned, many rejoining their mortal associates on Paradise while others enter various nonmortal finaliter corps or join the Corps of Seraphic Completion.

After attaining the Father of spirits and gaining admission to seraphic service of completion, angels may receive assignment to minister on worlds settled in light and life or achieve attachment to high trinitized beings and the exalted services of Paradise and Havona. Through their extensive experience, these local universe seraphim have compensated for the differential in divinity potential that previously distinguished them from the ministering spirits of central and superuniverses. As members of the Seraphic Corps of Completion, they serve as associates of superuniverse seconaphim and assistants to the high Paradise-Havona orders of supernaphim. For these angels, the career of time is finished; henceforth and forever they serve as the servants of God, the consorts of divine personalities, and the peers of the Paradise finaliters in the eternal service of the Paradise Deities.

Large numbers of completion seraphim return to their native universes to complement the ministry of divine endowment with the additional perspective of experiential perfection. Nebadon, being comparatively young among universes, has fewer returned Seraphington graduates than would be found in older realms. Nevertheless, our local universe receives an adequate supply of these completion seraphim, whose presence becomes increasingly vital as evolutionary realms approach the status of light and life. These master seraphim of planetary supervision, organized into twelve specialized groups, currently provide extensive ministry on Urantia and accompany each newly commissioned Planetary Prince to inhabited worlds. While all seraphim once craved assignment as destiny guardians during their pre-Paradise development, in their post-Paradise experience, they most desire to serve as bestowal attendants of incarnated Paradise Sons, remaining supremely devoted to the universal plan that guides mortal creatures from evolutionary worlds toward the Paradise goal of divinity and eternity.