Paper 35 Overview: The Local Universe Sons of God

This paper details the four orders of Sons created within the local universe by the Creator Son and Universe Mother Spirit: the Melchizedeks, Vorondadeks, Lanonandeks, and Life Carrier Sons. Unlike Paradise-origin Sons (Michaels, Avonals, and Daynals), these local universe Sons serve as the administrative backbone of Nebadon, functioning at various levels from constellations to individual planets. They form a hierarchical structure that supports the Creator Son's governance.

Each order possesses unique qualities tailored to their specific functions - Melchizedeks are versatile administrators and teachers, Vorondadeks serve as reliable Constellation Fathers, Lanonandeks function as System Sovereigns and Planetary Princes, and Life Carriers are specialists in life implantation. The paper examines their origins, characteristics, governing structures, and the educational worlds associated with each order, highlighting both their achievements and, in the case of Lanonandeks, their potential for error in exercising their significant personal liberty.

The Sons of God previously introduced had Paradise origins, including Creator Sons (with Michael being the only one in Nebadon), the 1,062 Avonal or Magisterial Sons, and between fifteen and twenty thousand Trinity Teacher Sons. These Paradise Sons occupy the highest positions in the universe hierarchy and originate from the divine Rulers of universal domains.

The Sons featured in this paper, however, are local universe creations, offspring of the Paradise Creator Son in association with the complemental Universe Mother Spirit. These include Melchizedek Sons, Vorondadek Sons, Lanonandek Sons, and Life Carrier Sons. While the first three orders result from the direct collaboration of the Son and Spirit, the Life Carriers emerge from a more complex creation process involving God the Sevenfold, representing a unique and original form of universe life.

After creating personal aides like the Bright and Morning Star and other administrative personalities, the Creator Son and Creative Spirit enter into a new creative union that produces the original Melchizedek—the Father Melchizedek. This unique being subsequently collaborates with the Creator Son and Creative Spirit to bring the entire group of Melchizedeks into existence, establishing a pattern where one of their own number participates in creating others of the same order.

In Nebadon, the Father Melchizedek functions as the first executive associate of Gabriel, the Bright and Morning Star. While Gabriel focuses on universe policies, the Father Melchizedek deals with practical procedures, and they never simultaneously leave Salvington because the Father Melchizedek serves as chief executive in Gabriel's absence. The Melchizedeks were all created within one millennial period and possess a unique form of self-government, electing their own administrative chief every seven years while the Father Melchizedek retains certain inherent coparental privileges, including occasionally designating individual Melchizedeks to serve as special Life Carriers to midsonite worlds.

The Melchizedeks occupy a strategic position in the universe hierarchy, being the first order of divine Sons close enough to lower creature life to minister directly to mortal uplift without requiring incarnation. They stand at approximately the midpoint between the highest Divinity and the lowest will-endowed creature life, making them natural intermediaries between higher divine levels and lower material forms of existence. All intelligent life forms, from seraphic angels to material beings, appreciate the Melchizedeks as understanding friends, sympathetic teachers, and wise counselors.

As a self-governing order, the Melchizedeks represent the first attempt at self-determination by local universe beings and demonstrate the highest type of true self-government. They have developed their own administrative machinery for their group and home planets, as well as for the six associated spheres and tributary worlds. Their impeccable record of trustworthiness has made them the hope and pattern for all universe groups aspiring to self-governance. They function like elder siblings in a large family, undertaking both routine and voluntary responsibilities, maintaining their own intelligence organization, serving as mobile review courts, and acting as chief aides to Gabriel in carrying out the Creator Son's mandates throughout the universe.

The Melchizedeks inhabit a world near Salvington called Melchizedek, which serves as the pilot sphere for a circuit of seventy primary worlds, each encircled by six tributary spheres devoted to specialized activities. This impressive complex of 490 worlds, often referred to as the Melchizedek University, provides comprehensive training for ascending mortals from all constellations as they work toward residential status on Salvington. The education of ascenders represents just one of many activities occurring on this architectural cluster.

The pilot world Melchizedek serves as the common meeting ground for all beings engaged in educating and spiritualizing ascending mortals, making it perhaps the most interesting place in all Nebadon for evolutionary beings. The six tributary worlds surrounding the Melchizedek sphere focus on specialized educational phases, including: reviewing initial planetary experiences, mansion world experiences, local system activities, and constellation experiences. The Melchizedek home world houses schools of universe administration, spiritual wisdom, and specialized research in areas such as energy, matter, organization, communication, records, ethics, and comparative creature existence, making it a comprehensive center of learning that prepares ascending mortals for the next stages of their universe journey.

A highly specialized branch of Melchizedek activities involves supervising the progressive morontia career of ascending mortals. While much of this training is conducted by patient seraphic ministers and ascended mortals, the entire educational process remains under the general supervision of the Melchizedeks in association with Trinity Teacher Sons. The Melchizedeks' primary educational focus ensures comprehensive preparation of ascending beings for their onward journey.

Beyond their educational responsibilities, Melchizedeks serve as emergency Sons, ready to respond to unusual circumstances and crises throughout the universe. They function as emergency ministers to all orders of universe intelligence and all worlds. In planetary crises, these Sons can serve as temporary custodians of defaulting planetary governments and can even make themselves visible to mortal beings. Seven times in Nebadon, a Melchizedek has incarnated in the likeness of mortal flesh, including Machiventa Melchizedek who lived on Urantia during Abraham's time, presiding over a colony of truth seekers in Salem and preserving the light of truth during a period of spiritual darkness.

After creating the Melchizedeks, the Creator Son and local universe Creative Spirit planned and brought into existence the second major order of universe sonship—the Vorondadeks. These Sons are generally known as Constellation Fathers because a Son of this order uniformly heads each constellation government throughout every local universe. Nebadon contains exactly one million Vorondadeks, and like the Melchizedeks, they possess no power of reproduction and cannot increase their numbers.

In many respects, the Vorondadeks are a self-governing body with significant self-determination, similar to the Melchizedeks. While they lack the brilliant versatility of their Melchizedek brethren, they compensate with greater reliability and efficiency as rulers and administrators. They excel all orders of universe sonship in stability of purpose and divinity of judgment. Though their decisions have occasionally been cited for error and sometimes reversed on appeal to higher tribunals, not once in Nebadon's history has a Vorondadek rebelled against the universe government, demonstrating their exceptional loyalty and dependability in administrative roles.

At least three Vorondadeks are assigned to govern each of the one hundred constellations in a local universe. The Creator Son selects these Sons, and Gabriel commissions them as the Most Highs of the constellations for service during one dekamillennium—10,000 standard years, approximately 50,000 Urantia years. The governing trio consists of a reigning Most High (the Constellation Father), a senior associate, and a junior associate, with a structured progression of authority and responsibility.

At each administrative change, the senior associate becomes the constellation head, the junior assumes senior duties, and a new junior is selected from the unassigned Vorondadeks on Salvington. This rotation provides each Most High ruler with approximately 150,000 Urantia years of constellation leadership experience. The one hundred Constellation Fathers constitute the Creator Son's supreme advisory cabinet, meeting frequently at universe headquarters to discuss constellation welfare and universe administration. When a Constellation Father attends duties at universe headquarters, the senior associate becomes the acting director of constellation affairs, typically overseeing spiritual matters while the junior associate handles physical welfare concerns.

The second group of seven worlds in the circuit of seventy primary spheres surrounding Salvington comprises the Vorondadek planets. Each sphere, with its six encircling satellites, focuses on a specific phase of Vorondadek activities. On these forty-nine realms, ascending mortals achieve their highest education regarding universe legislation after having observed legislative assemblies on constellation headquarters.

Under senior Vorondadek tutelage, ascending mortals participate in enacting actual general legislation for the local universe, designed to coordinate the varied pronouncements of the autonomous legislative assemblies of the one hundred constellations. The instruction available in the Vorondadek schools surpasses even that found on the superuniverse capital of Uversa. The training progresses systematically from the first sphere through all seven primary worlds and their satellite groups, introducing pilgrims to numerous new activities and pursuits that transcend human comprehension and have no analogous earthly engagements.

After creating the Vorondadeks, the Creator Son and Universe Mother Spirit united to produce the third order of universe sonship—the Lanonandeks. Though assigned various tasks connected with system administrations, they are best known as System Sovereigns (local system rulers) and Planetary Princes (administrative heads of inhabited worlds). As a later and lower order of sonship creation, they underwent mandatory training courses on Melchizedek worlds before beginning service.

Nebadon began with exactly twelve million Lanonandeks who, after passing through the Melchizedek sphere, were divided into three classes based on final tests: Primary Lanonandeks (709,841) serve as System Sovereigns and higher administrators; Secondary Lanonandeks (10,234,601) function as Planetary Princes and reserves; and Tertiary Lanonandeks (1,055,558) handle subordinate duties like assistants, messengers, custodians, and observers. Unlike evolutionary beings, Lanonandeks cannot progress from one group to another; they serve permanently in their assigned rank and do not reproduce, keeping their universe number stationary.

The Lanonandeks function as continuous rulers of planets and rotating sovereigns of systems throughout the local universe. System Sovereigns typically govern in commissions of two or three on the headquarters of inhabited world systems, with the Constellation Father designating one as chief every dekamillennium. This leadership structure remains relatively stable unless circumstances necessitate changes, as system governments do not abruptly alter their personnel.

These System Sovereigns exercise nearly sovereign authority in local affairs of inhabited worlds, operating almost paternally in directing Planetary Princes, Material Sons, and ministering spirits. Unfortunately, Nebadon has experienced rebellion among the Lanonandek order, with over seven hundred Sons—primarily Planetary Princes rather than System Sovereigns—rebelling against universe government and causing disruption in several systems and on numerous planets. Despite these failures, these Sons were deliberately created with substantial personal liberty to better understand and connect with the evolutionary creatures they govern, a design choice that, while causing initial difficulties, is expected to yield greater long-term loyalty and service from these thoroughly tested Sons.

The third group of seven worlds in the Salvington circuit, with their forty-two satellites, constitutes the Lanonandek cluster of administrative spheres. On these realms, experienced Lanonandeks from the ex-System Sovereign corps serve as administrative teachers to ascending pilgrims and seraphic hosts. Beyond merely observing system administrators at work on system capitals, evolutionary mortals participate in coordinating the administrative pronouncements of the ten thousand local systems.

These administrative schools, supervised by Lanonandeks with extensive experience as System Sovereigns and constellation counselors, are second only to the administrative schools of Ensa. The practical, progressive educational system sponsored by the Melchizedeks embraces training in material, intellectual, morontial, and spiritual matters. Many rehabilitated defaulting Planetary Princes and their rebellious associates serve in custodial and administrative capacities on these worlds, while numerous Lanonandek Sons in older systems have established admirable records of service, administration, and spiritual achievement despite their tendency toward error through fallacies of personal liberty and fictions of self-determination.