Paper 118 Overview: Supreme and Ultimate—Time and Space

The Supreme is an evolutionary-experiential form of Deity that grows as the universe develops. The Supreme and Ultimate work together to connect the beginnings and completions of all creative growth in the universe. Both help create satisfying moments of goal achievement during our endless growth in the universe, giving us a taste of completion even as we continue growing forever.

Creative growth never ends, but it always provides satisfying moments of achievement along the way. This is like how numbers can always have one more added to them without end, yet at any point we can add up what we have so far and enjoy that total. The Supreme and Ultimate help connect all the different ages of the universe, with each age preparing for the next stage of growth.

Deity exists in several different forms or natures throughout the universe. The Father is self-existent, the Son is coexistent with the Father, and the Spirit emerges from both of them. The Supreme grows through experience, the Sevenfold Deity works through many beings, the Ultimate exists beyond time and space, and the Absolute contains both actual and potential reality.

The Supreme and Ultimate work together to help all creation grow and develop. They form a bridge between the beginnings and completions of creative growth. Growth in the universe never stops, but it provides satisfying moments along the way that feel like reaching a goal, even though there are always new goals ahead.

It helps humans to understand how Deity relates to the universe. While absolute Deity is eternal in nature, the Gods also relate to time through their experiences in eternity. In the growing universes, eternity appears as everlastingness - the never-ending now.

Human personalities can connect with eternity by choosing to do God's will. This choice makes their purpose eternal, unchanging through all the moments of time. When the choice to serve God becomes fixed, time no longer changes the person's deepest purpose. This is how creature choice and God's choice create eternal realities and lead to everlasting service.

God's presence is everywhere in the universe but this is different from his absolute omnipresence. The Universal Father has arranged for the Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute to coordinate his presence throughout time and space, and beyond time and space.

As humans grow spiritually, they discover God through different levels. First through the Sevenfold, then the Supreme in Havona, then as a person on Paradise. After that, finaliters seek the Ultimate. No finaliter worries about finding God the Absolute because they already found the Father through their previous growth experiences.

Only through being everywhere at once can Deity unify time and space for finite understanding. Time is a succession of moments while space is a system of connected points. Humans understand time by analysis and space by synthesis, and connect them through personality.

Truth is timeless, but when truth connects with facts, both time and space affect their meanings and values. These realities of truth combined with fact become concepts that belong to the realm of relative cosmic realities. The Supreme helps coordinate the unchanging divine world with the ever-changing finite world.

Many problems in human thinking come from misunderstanding Deity's personality and assigning infinite attributes to lesser forms of Divinity. While there is a true First Cause, there are also many secondary causes that work with the First Cause.

First causes produce original effects free from any previous causation. Secondary causes produce effects that show influence from previous causation. The universe evolves in three stages: first, the activation of static potentials by Deity; second, the transformation of potentials into defined plans; and third, the creation and evolution of actual universe realities from these matured potentials.

God's omnipotence does not mean he can do things that are logically impossible. Within time and space, even the infinite God cannot create square circles or make evil that is inherently good. God cannot do ungodlike things because that would contradict his nature.

God first creates the concept of a finite cosmos, then his Creator Sons make it real in time and space with the help of Creative Spirits. When humans partner with God, there are no limits to what this partnership can achieve. When a person fuses with the Father's presence, they break free from time and begin their eternal progression toward finding the Universal Father.

God is truly all-powerful but he does not personally do everything that is done. His omnipotence includes the power potential of the Almighty Supreme and Supreme Being, but the acts of God the Supreme are not personally done by the infinite God.

God is not the only cause in the universe – he has given creative power to his Creator Sons and many others. Human free will is limited by what is possible to choose, but when humans choose to find God and become like him, this choice reaches beyond finite limitations. Only eternity can show if this choice also reaches beyond the limits of the absonite.

Creator will and creature will in the universe work within limits set by the Master Architects. This does not take away the sovereignty of creature will within these boundaries. God's foreknowledge of our choices does not make these choices any less free or genuine.

Even with all past, present, and future choices coordinated, our choices are still authentic. Error in finite choosing is limited by time and shows the incomplete nature of the Supreme. Sin shows the freedom of finite will, revealing the immaturity of beings dazzled by their relatively sovereign will while failing to see their cosmic duties.

In time-space creations, free will has limits and restrictions. Material life first evolves mechanically, then becomes mind-activated, and can eventually be spirit-directed. Physical evolution on inhabited worlds is limited by the potentials planted by the Life Carriers.

Humans are living mechanisms with roots in the physical world of energy, but they are much more than machines. They have minds and indwelling spirits. Though humans can never completely escape their physical existence, they can learn to direct their physical nature through the wisdom gained from experience, by committing their minds to follow the spiritual urges of their indwelling Thought Adjusters.

Time and space work together as a mechanism of the master universe. They allow finite creatures to exist in the cosmos with the Infinite by effectively separating them from absolute levels. Without time and space, no mortal could exist, but they also limit what creatures can do.

Mechanisms made by higher minds both liberate their creators and limit what lower intelligences can do. Humans do not have unlimited free will - there are boundaries to their choices. But within those boundaries, their will is relatively sovereign. The human body, a product of supermortal creative design, can never be perfectly controlled by humans themselves.

Providence does not mean God has decided everything for us in advance. God loves us too much to do that, as it would be cosmic tyranny. Humans have relative powers of choice, and divine love is not shortsighted affection that would spoil people.

Providence becomes more visible as the universe mechanisms reach precision through mind overcontrol, as creature mind reaches perfection through integration with spirit, and as the Supreme emerges as a unifier of universe phenomena. Most of what humans call providential is not, and their judgment is limited by their inability to see the true meanings of life circumstances.