Paper 21 Overview: The Paradise Creator Sons

The Paradise Creator Sons are special beings who make and rule local universes. They come from both God the Father and God the Son, and each one is unique and different from all others. These Creator Sons are also called Michaels, and they have a close relationship with the Universal Father who loves them deeply.

Creator Sons go through seven special experiences where they live as different creatures. After finishing these seven experiences, they earn the right to rule their universes completely. Our universe ruler, Christ Michael, completed his last experience on our planet earth (Urantia).

The Creator Sons make and rule the local universes of time and space. They come from both God the Father and God the Son, combining qualities from both. Each Creator Son is different from all others, making each one unique. These high Sons enjoy the love and approval of the Universal Father, and this divine parent-child love is similar to the love human parents feel for their children.

Creator Sons are called Michaels when they leave Paradise to start their universes. Once they gain full authority, they are known as Master Michaels. The ruler of our universe is sometimes called Christ Michael. The first Michael has never lived as a material being, but has experienced all levels of spiritual life. All Michaels understand the entire universe because they have experienced all types of life, from the highest to the lowest.

When God the Father's absolute idea of personality meets God the Son's spiritual ideation, a new Creator Son comes into being. This Son contains all the perfect qualities of both divine parents. Each Creator Son is unique and cannot be repeated, as they contain every possibility of divine reality from their parents.

Creator Sons get their divine nature equally from both Paradise parents. They have the fullness of the Father's divine nature and the Son's creative abilities. Though they are similar, some seem more like the Father while others more like the Son. The creator of our universe, Nebadon, seems more like the Eternal Mother Son. There are more than seven hundred thousand Creator Sons, and their number keeps growing.

Creator Sons are the designers and builders of local universes. Before creating a universe, a Creator Son must spend time studying the work of older brothers and completing training in Paradise and Havona. When ready to begin universe creation, the Creator Son leaves Paradise and becomes like the God of his new universe.

When a Creator Son leaves Paradise, he works with the Infinite Spirit, who provides a special helper called the Creative Daughter or Divine Minister. The Creator Son's powers are limited in three ways: the Infinite Spirit controls energy-matter, the Eternal Son controls creature designs, and the Universal Father designs and gives personality. After settling in their chosen universe location and solving basic problems, the Creator Son and the Universe Spirit work together to create many children of their local universe. Each Creator Son is unique, which makes each universe different in how it is run and what kinds of beings live there.

A Creator Son receives control of a universe with the agreement of the Paradise Trinity. However, to earn full authority, the Creator Son must complete personal experiences through seven creature bestowals. Until then, he rules as a representative of the Universal Father. The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local universe goes through six or seven stages of development.

The stages of sovereignty start with initial vicegerent (acting for another) sovereignty when the Creator Son rules alone. It then moves through joint rule with the Universe Mother Spirit, growing authority during bestowals, supreme sovereignty after the seventh bestowal, growing supreme sovereignty as the universe develops, Trinitarian sovereignty when the entire universe reaches perfection, and finally unrevealed sovereignty in future ages. In our universe of Nebadon, supreme sovereignty began after Michael's bestowal on earth (Urantia) about nineteen hundred years ago. When a Creator Son completes all seven bestowals, he becomes a Master Son with full authority over his universe.

There are seven groups of bestowal Creator Sons, classified by how many times they have given themselves as creatures in their realms. They range from initial experience through five additional bestowals until they reach the seventh and final experience. Every Creator Son goes through all seven bestowals before gaining full control over their universe.

While these seven bestowals vary in different universes, they always include living as a mortal. In the final bestowal, a Creator Son is born as a member of one of the higher mortal races. Only once does a Paradise Michael live and die as a low-level creature with will, as happened with the babe of Bethlehem on earth. After each bestowal, the Creator Son returns to the Father for approval and instructions. After the seventh bestowal, the Son receives full authority over his universe, no longer ruling as a stand-in for the Father but as the "King of Kings and Lord of Lords."

The power of a Master Michael is unlimited because it comes from experience with the Paradise Trinity. Their sovereignty is supreme because it combines the sevenfold viewpoint of Paradise Deity with the sevenfold attitude of time-space creatures, perfectly bringing together both Paradise and creature perspectives. Their sovereignty is like the future sovereignty of the Supreme Being.

When a Creator Son achieves supreme sovereignty, he loses the ability to create completely new types of beings. Instead, he focuses on developing what has already been created or designed. This marks the beginning of settled administration in a local universe. After gaining full sovereignty, a Master Son has complete control over his universe except for limitations that existed before creation. A Master Son can change how planets develop and are spiritually judged, especially the worlds where he lived as a creature. These Masters also maintain a spiritual connection with all worlds where either they or a Magisterial Son has lived.

No one can fully understand the nature or future of the Master Michaels who rule local universes. They contain aspects of God the Father and God the Son's infinity. While they currently seem to work only on the finite level, they likely have powers beyond this that haven't been revealed yet. After completing their bestowals and gaining supreme sovereignty, these limits on their abilities may change.

It seems the Master Sons have creator powers that are being held back during our current universe age. In the future, when the Creator Sons work with seventh-stage Creative Spirits, they may reach new levels of service with new meanings and values. Just as the Supreme Being is becoming real through experience, the Creator Sons are realizing their Paradise-divinity potential through their experiences. Christ Michael once said on earth, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and we believe the Michaels will truly become "the way, the truth, and the life" for all universe beings.