Paper 4 Overview: God's Relation to the Universe

The Universal Father created all universes for a special purpose that we cannot fully understand. God is always active in managing the universes, and he maintains everything through his power. The purpose of creation includes helping humans grow spiritually and preparing them for future work.

God relates to his creation with love and as a perfect Father to all beings. He is unchanging in his perfect nature but allows the universes to change and grow. God is absolutely good, and what seems imperfect to us is part of his plan for helping us learn and grow.

The Universal Father has an eternal plan for all parts of the universe, which he carries out through all time. God created everything by his own choice and according to his wise and eternal purpose. Very few beings, except perhaps the highest Paradise beings, know much about God's eternal purpose.

It is easy to see that God created the perfect central universe of Havona to express his divine nature. Havona serves as a pattern for other universes and as a training place for time pilgrims on their way to Paradise. However, this perfect creation exists mainly for the pleasure of the perfect Creators.

People on Urantia have misunderstood God's providence for ages. God's providence is not the childish and arbitrary control many have thought. Instead, it is how celestial beings and divine spirits work together to honor God and help his universe children grow spiritually.

Can you see that the universe motto is progress? The human race has worked hard to reach its current position. God's providence always supports true human progress, both physical and spiritual. Divine providence never opposes real progress because it agrees with the perfect nature of the supreme Lawmaker.

Nature is, in a limited way, the physical habit of God. God's actions are changed by the plans and patterns of a local universe, constellation, system, or planet. God follows unchanging laws across the master universe, but he adjusts his actions to help each universe, planet, and person unfold according to local evolutionary plans.

Nature, as humans see it, shows a foundation of unchanging Deity and laws that are modified by local plans and conditions. For example, God's laws in Nebadon are changed by the plans of the Creator Son and Creative Spirit of this local universe. These laws are further changed by errors, rebellions, and problems in your planetary system of Satania.

Too many people have thought of God as being like themselves. God is not and never will be jealous of any being in the universe. Knowing that humans were meant to be the masterpiece of planetary creation and rule the earth, God and his Sons feel jealous for humans when they worship idols or give in to selfish desires.

The eternal God cannot feel anger or wrath as humans understand these emotions. These feelings are unworthy of being called human, much less divine. Such attitudes are completely foreign to the perfect nature and gracious character of the Universal Father.

God is the only unchanging and self-contained being in all the universes. He has no outside, no past, and no future. God is creative energy and absolute will, which exist by themselves and are universal.

Since God exists by himself, he is completely independent. God's very identity resists change. God does not change, but he reveals himself to the universe in different ways: through spirit, through his Son, and by working together as the Trinity. God can change how he shows himself because his unchanging nature does not mean he cannot move or act.

Religious tradition is an imperfect record of the experiences of God-knowing people from the past. These records are not reliable guides for religious living or for true information about the Universal Father. Ancient beliefs have been changed because primitive humans created myths.

One of the biggest causes of confusion on Urantia about God's nature is the failure of your sacred books to clearly distinguish between the Paradise Trinity beings and between Paradise Deity and local universe creators and administrators. In past times of partial understanding, priests and prophets did not clearly separate different types of celestial rulers from the Universal Father himself.