Paper 38 Overview: Ministering Spirits of the Local Universe

There are three distinct orders of personalities of the Infinite Spirit. These include angels (the ministering spirits of time), authorities (the messenger hosts of space), and powers (the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit). In a local universe, seraphim are the angels, aided by cherubim and sanobim. These beings form the angelic corps of a local universe.

Seraphim are fairly uniform in design throughout all seven superuniverses. They are the most nearly standard of all spirit types of personal beings. Their various orders make up the corps of skilled and common ministers of the local creations. Angels do not have material bodies but are definite beings of spirit nature who can perceive humans as they are in the flesh without needing any special tools.

There are three distinct orders of the personalities of the Infinite Spirit. The apostle understood this when he wrote about Jesus, "who has gone to heaven and is on the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers being made subject to him." Angels are the ministering spirits of time, authorities are the messenger hosts of space, and powers are the higher personalities of the Infinite Spirit.

As the supernaphim serve in the central universe and the seconaphim in a superuniverse, the seraphim, with the associated cherubim and sanobim, make up the angelic corps of a local universe. The seraphim are fairly uniform in design across all seven superuniverses. They show very little variation and are the most nearly standard of all spirit types of personal beings. Their various orders form the corps of skilled and common ministers of the local creations.

Seraphim are created by the Universe Mother Spirit and have been produced in units of 41,472 at a time since the creation of the "pattern angels" and certain angelic models in the early times of Nebadon. The Creator Son and the universe representation of the Infinite Spirit work together to create many Sons and other universe personalities. After they finish this joint effort, the Son creates the Material Sons, the first of the sex creatures, while the Universe Mother Spirit begins her initial effort alone to reproduce spirits.

This marks the beginning of the creation of the seraphic hosts of a local universe. These angelic orders are designed at the time of planning for the evolution of mortal will creatures. The creation of seraphim dates from the time when the Universe Mother Spirit attains relative personality, not as the later equal partner of the Master Son, but as the early creative helper of the Creator Son. Before this event, the seraphim serving in Nebadon were temporarily borrowed from a neighboring universe.

Angels do not have material bodies, but they are definite and distinct beings of spirit nature and origin. Though they are invisible to mortals, they can see humans as they are in the flesh without needing the help of transformers or translators. They understand human life intellectually and share all of humanity's non-sensuous emotions and feelings. They appreciate and greatly enjoy human efforts in music, art, and real humor, and they fully understand moral struggles and spiritual difficulties.

Though seraphim are very affectionate and sympathetic beings, they are not sex-emotion creatures. They are much like mortals will be on the mansion worlds, where they will "neither marry nor be given in marriage but will be as the angels of heaven." When dealing with sex creatures, it is customary to speak of those beings more directly descended from the Father and the Son as the sons of God, while referring to the children of the Spirit as the daughters of God. Angels are therefore commonly referred to with feminine pronouns on worlds with sexes.

Many orders of spirit beings function throughout the domains of the local universe that are not revealed to mortals because they are not connected with the evolutionary plan of Paradise ascension. In this paper, the word "angel" is purposely limited to those seraphic and associated offspring of the Universe Mother Spirit who are largely concerned with the operation of the plans of mortal survival. There are six other orders of related beings, the unrevealed angels, who serve in the local universe.

These six groups of angelic associates are never called seraphim, nor are they referred to as ministering spirits. These personalities are fully occupied with the administrative and other affairs of Nebadon, duties that are not related to man's progressive career of spiritual ascent and perfection attainment. These beings are not part of the ascension path for mortals.

The ninth group of seven primary spheres in the Salvington circuit are the worlds of the seraphim. Each of these worlds has six satellite spheres, where special schools devoted to all phases of seraphic training are located. While the seraphim have access to all forty-nine worlds in this group of Salvington spheres, they exclusively occupy only the first cluster of seven. The remaining six clusters are occupied by the six orders of angelic associates who are not revealed on Urantia.

Each type of angel has free access to all the worlds of these seven different groups. These headquarters worlds are among the magnificent realms of Nebadon. The seraphic estates are characterized by both beauty and vastness. Here each seraphim has a real home, and "home" means the place where two seraphim live, for they live in pairs.

Seraphim spend their first millennium as non-commissioned observers on Salvington and its associated world schools. The second millennium is spent on the seraphic worlds of the Salvington circuit. Their central training school is now led by the first one hundred thousand Nebadon seraphim, and at their head is the original or first-born angel of this local universe. The first created group of Nebadon seraphim were trained by a corps of one thousand seraphim from Avalon.

After this period of training on the seraphic worlds of Salvington, seraphim are organized in the conventional groups and units of the angelic organization and assigned to one of the constellations. They are not yet commissioned as ministering spirits, although they have well entered upon the pre-commissioned phases of angelic training. Seraphim start as ministering spirits by serving as observers on the lowest of the evolutionary worlds, then return to the associate worlds of the assigned constellation headquarters to begin their advanced studies.

After the second millennium of stay at seraphic headquarters, seraphim are organized under chiefs into groups of twelve (12 pairs, 24 seraphim), and twelve such groups make a company (144 pairs, 288 seraphim), which is commanded by a leader. Twelve companies under a commander form a battalion (1,728 pairs or 3,456 seraphim), and twelve battalions under a director equal a seraphic unit (20,736 pairs or 41,472 individuals). Finally, twelve units, subject to the command of a supervisor, constitute a legion numbering 248,832 pairs or 497,664 individuals.

Jesus referred to such a group of angels that night in the garden of Gethsemane when he said: "I can even now ask my Father, and he will presently give me more than twelve legions of angels." Twelve legions of angels make up a host numbering 2,985,984 pairs or 5,971,968 individuals, and twelve such hosts (35,831,808 pairs or 71,663,616 individuals) make up the largest operating organization of seraphim, an angelic army. A seraphic host is commanded by an archangel or by some other personality of similar rank.

In all essential qualities, cherubim and sanobim are similar to seraphim. They have the same origin but not always the same destiny. They are wonderfully intelligent, marvelously efficient, touchingly affectionate, and almost human. They are the lowest order of angels, hence they are closer to the more advanced types of human beings on the evolutionary worlds.

Cherubim and sanobim are naturally associated and functionally united. One is a positive energy personality; the other is negative energy. The right-hand deflector, or positively charged angel, is the cherubim—the senior or controlling personality. The left-hand deflector, or negatively charged angel, is the sanobim—the complement of being. Each type of angel is very limited when functioning alone, so they usually serve in pairs.

There are three great classes of cherubim and sanobim regarding their evolutionary potential: Ascension Candidates, Mid-phase Cherubim, and Morontia Cherubim. These represent different growth paths for these beings, with Ascension Candidates having the opportunity to become full seraphim through application and experience. Mid-phase cherubim have limited ascension potential, while Morontia Cherubim retain their quasi-material characteristics.

While the second and third groups are somewhat limited in growth potential, the ascension candidates may reach the heights of universal seraphic service. Many of the more experienced of these cherubim are attached to the seraphic guardians of destiny and are thus placed in direct line for advancement when their seraphic seniors leave them. Guardians of destiny do not have cherubim and sanobim as helpers when their mortal wards attain the morontia life. When other types of evolutionary seraphim are cleared for Seraphington and Paradise, they must leave their former companions when they pass beyond Nebadon.

The midway creatures have a threefold classification: They are properly classified with the ascending Sons of God; they are factually grouped with the orders of permanent citizenship, and they are functionally counted with the ministering spirits of time because of their close association with the angelic hosts in serving humans on the individual worlds of space. These unique creatures appear on most inhabited worlds and are always found on the decimal or life-experiment planets, such as Urantia.

Midwayers are of two types—primary and secondary—and they appear by specific methods. Primary Midwayers, the more spiritual group, are a somewhat standardized order of beings who are uniformly derived from the modified ascendant-mortal staffs of the Planetary Princes. The number of primary midway creatures is always fifty thousand, and no planet enjoying their ministry has a larger group. Secondary Midwayers, the more material group, vary greatly in numbers on different worlds, though the average is around fifty thousand.