Paper 21 Overview: The Paradise Creator Sons

The Paradise Creator Sons are the makers and rulers of the local universes of time and space, embodying the characteristics of both God the Father and God the Son. Each Creator Son is unique in nature and personality, referred to as Michaels, and they enjoy a profound relationship with the Universal Father. These high beings gain ultimate sovereignty over their universes only after completing seven bestowal missions where they experience life as their created beings.

When a Creator Son completes all bestowals, including one as a mortal, they become Master Sons with supreme authority over their domains. Our universe sovereign, Christ Michael, completed his final bestowal on Urantia (earth), after which he received full power over the universe of Nebadon. These Master Sons embody the divine nature plus experiential wisdom, making them both creators and experienced participants in the life of their realms.

The Creator Sons design, build, and govern the local universes throughout time and space. These universe creators and sovereigns have dual origin, embodying characteristics from both God the Father and God the Son, yet each Creator Son is distinct in nature and personality, being the "only-begotten Son" of the perfect deity ideal of his origin. In their extensive work of organizing and perfecting local universes, these high Sons maintain the sustaining approval of the Universal Father, with whom they share a touching and superlative relationship.

When Creator Sons leave Paradise to found their universes, they are known as Creator Michaels, and once established in supreme authority, they become Master Michaels. The sovereign of our universe, Nebadon, is sometimes called Christ Michael, and he reigns after the "order of Michael." The original Michael never experienced incarnation as a material being but passed through spiritual ascent on the seven circuits of Havona. The Michaels understand the grand universe completely, having participated in the essential experiences of the children of time and space, making them partakers of both divine nature and all other natures from highest to lowest.

When the absolute spiritual ideation of the Eternal Son meets the absolute personality concept of the Universal Father in perfect creative union, a new Creator Son comes into being without either deity losing anything of their personality or power. Each Creator Son is the only-begotten offspring of the perfect union of the original concepts of the two infinite and eternal minds of the universe Creators. There can never be another Son exactly like any existing Creator Son because each one embodies the final expression of every aspect of divine reality from the creative potentials that brought him into existence.

The divine natures of these Creator Sons derive equally from both Paradise parents, with all sharing the fullness of the Universal Father's divine nature and the Eternal Son's creative abilities. Despite this common heritage, practical differences emerge in how these sons function in their universes. Some Creator Sons appear more like God the Father, while others more closely resemble God the Son. The administration of Nebadon suggests that its Creator and ruling Son resembles the Eternal Mother Son in nature and character. There are over seven hundred thousand Creator Sons in existence, with more continually being created, exceeding the stationary number of Unions of Days who serve as Trinity ambassadors in each local universe.

The Paradise Sons of the primary order are permitted to choose the space location for their cosmic activity, but before beginning the physical organization of a universe, a Creator Son must spend an extended period observing the efforts of older brothers in various creations. Prior to this, the Michael Son will have completed a long and unique experience of Paradise observation and Havona training. When finally departing Paradise to begin universe making, the Creator Son finds himself dependent upon the Third Source and Center, the Infinite Spirit, who provides a Creative Daughter as a helper and companion.

The departure of a Michael Son from Paradise frees his creator prerogatives from the Paradise Sources and Centers, though certain limitations remain. Three primary limitations exist: energy-matter is controlled by the Infinite Spirit, creature designs and types are overseen by the Eternal Son, and personality is designed and bestowed only by the Universal Father. After taking possession of his chosen universe space and resolving initial materialization problems, the Universe Son and Universe Spirit form a working partnership designed to produce the many children of their local universe. Each Creator Son's unique nature ensures diversity among universes, affecting every form of Michael-derived existence created or evolved in these realms. When a Michael Son is absent from his universe, it continues functioning under the local universe chief executive with guidance from the Union of Days.

A Creator Son receives authority over a universe through the consent of the Paradise Trinity and confirmation from the supervising Master Spirit of the relevant superuniverse. This constitutes a physical possession, a cosmic leasehold. However, advancement from this initial self-limited rulership to the experiential supremacy of self-earned sovereignty comes through personal experience in universe creation and incarnated bestowals. Until achieving bestowal-earned sovereignty, the Creator Son rules as representative (vicegerent) of the Universal Father.

The sovereignty of a Creator Son in a local universe progresses through six, possibly seven, stages of experiential manifestation. These stages include: initial vicegerent sovereignty (provisional authority before the Universe Mother Spirit gains personality); conjoint vicegerent sovereignty (joint rule with the Paradise pair after the Universe Mother Spirit gains personality); augmenting vicegerent sovereignty (advancing authority during the seven creature bestowals); supreme sovereignty (settled authority following the seventh bestowal, which in Nebadon dates from Michael's bestowal on Urantia just over nineteen hundred years ago); augmenting supreme sovereignty (advanced relationship as creature domains settle in light and life); Trinitarian sovereignty (exercised after the entire local universe reaches light and life); and unrevealed sovereignty (unknown relationships in a future universe age). After completing all seven bestowals, a Creator Son rules by virtue of actual experience and becomes a Master Son with sovereign and supreme authority.

Creator Sons are classified into seven groups based on how many times they have bestowed themselves upon the creatures of their realms. They range from the initial experience up through five additional spheres of progressive bestowal until reaching the seventh and final episode. Avonal bestowals always take the form of mortal flesh, but a Creator Son's seven bestowals involve appearing on seven creature levels, revealing seven expressions of deity will and nature. All Creator Sons must complete these seven self-giving experiences before assuming complete jurisdiction over their universes.

While these seven bestowals vary across universes, they always include a mortal-bestowal adventure. In the final bestowal, a Creator Son appears as a member of one of the higher mortal races on an inhabited world, usually from the racial group with the largest hereditary Adamic legacy. Only once in his sevenfold career does a Paradise Michael experience birth from a woman, as recorded in the story of the babe of Bethlehem. After each bestowal, a Creator Son returns to the "right hand of the Father" to receive acceptance and prepare for the next phase of universe service. Following the seventh bestowal, a Creator Son receives supreme authority and jurisdiction over his universe, becoming a "King of Kings and Lord of Lords" with all power in heaven and on earth delegated to this triumphant Master Son.

The power of a Master Michael is unlimited because it derives from experienced association with the Paradise Trinity. Their sovereignty is unquestioned because it comes from actual experience as the very creatures under their authority. The nature of their sovereignty is supreme for three reasons: it embraces the sevenfold viewpoint of Paradise Deity, it embodies the sevenfold attitude of time-space creatures, and it perfectly synthesizes Paradise attitude with creature viewpoint. This experiential sovereignty fully encompasses the divinity of God the Sevenfold culminating in the Supreme Being.

Upon achieving supreme local universe sovereignty, a Creator Son loses the power to originate entirely new types of creature beings. This loss does not interfere with the ongoing work of life elaboration already established, but indicates the beginning of settled administration in the local universe. The elevation of a sevenfold bestowal Son to unquestioned sovereignty marks the beginning of the end of uncertainty and relative confusion in the universe. From this point, anything that cannot eventually be spiritualized will be disorganized, and what cannot be coordinated with cosmic reality will ultimately be destroyed. Master Michaels become supreme in their local universes after installation as sovereign rulers, with their only limitations being those inherent in the pre-existence of certain forces and personalities.

No one can definitively discuss either the natures or destinies of the sevenfold Master Sovereigns of the local universes. Each Paradise Michael embodies actual phases of the infinity of God the Father and the Eternal Son, though they must be partial in relation to total infinity. Their actions in the present universe age appear finite, but they likely possess superfinite capacities that remain self-contained and unrevealed. The completion of creature-bestowal careers and elevation to supreme universe sovereignty likely signals the liberation of their finite-action capacities accompanied by the appearance of capacity for more-than-finite service.

The undisclosed creator powers of Master Sons will likely remain self-contained throughout the present universe age. In the distant future, however, the relationship between a sevenfold Master Son and a seventh-stage Creative Spirit may achieve absonite levels of service, introducing new things, meanings, and values of transcendental significance. Just as the Supreme Being is actualizing through experiential service, the Creator Sons are achieving personal realization of the Paradise-divinity potentials in their unfathomable natures. Christ Michael once said on Urantia, "I am the way, the truth, and the life," and the Michaels are destined to literally become "the way, the truth, and the life," blazing the path for all universe personalities from supreme divinity through ultimate absonity to eternal deity finality.