Paper 40 Overview: The Ascending Sons of God

Paper 40 provides a comprehensive examination of the seven general classes of ascending sons of God as they journey through the universes toward Paradise. These ascending orders include Father-fused, Son-fused, and Spirit-fused mortals, as well as evolutionary seraphim, ascending Material Sons, translated midwayers, and Personalized Adjusters. Each group follows distinct pathways of progression, though all are moving toward greater spiritual attainment and closer relationship with the Universal Father.

The narrative illustrates how beings from the lowliest animal-origin mortals to the highest spiritual entities can achieve immortality and eternal service in the universe. This Paper emphasizes that while the destinies of these ascending sons may differ, none is inherently superior to another, as each fulfills specific and valuable roles in the divine plan. The Father's love for each of his ascending sons is described as unique, personal, and unfathomable, regardless of their origin or ultimate destination.

Seven general classes of the Ascending Sons of God have been revealed in the universe: Father-fused mortals, Son-fused mortals, Spirit-fused mortals, evolutionary seraphim, ascending Material Sons, translated midwayers, and Personalized Adjusters. The story of these beings, from the simplest animal-origin mortals to the Personalized Adjusters of the Universal Father, represents a glorious recital of divine love and gracious condescension throughout all time and across all universes of creation. This narrative continues the ongoing description of the eternal purpose of the Gods concerning the ascending orders of sonship.

The narrator, once a mortal from an evolutionary world, has been sent from Salvington to elaborate on the eternal purpose of the Gods respecting the ascending orders of sonship, particularly regarding the mortal creatures of time and space. While most of this narrative will focus on the three basic orders of ascending mortals, consideration will first be given to the nonmortal ascending orders of sonship—seraphic, Adamic, midwayer, and Adjuster. This approach provides a comprehensive overview of all beings who ascend toward Paradise.

Guardian seraphim, through their experience and service with ascending mortals, can achieve the status of ascendant sonship and attain Paradise. These angels progress through Seraphington, and many eventually join the Corps of Mortal Finality alongside the very mortals they once guarded. This path represents an extraordinary accomplishment for angelic beings, allowing them to transcend their original created status.

For an angel to reach the heights of finaliter sonship with God is a masterly achievement that far exceeds the attainment of eternal survival through the plan of the Eternal Son and the help of the indwelling Adjuster. While this path is difficult and rare, guardian seraphim and occasionally other angels do successfully accomplish such ascensions, demonstrating that service to others can lead to the highest spiritual attainments. Their journey illustrates that even created spiritual beings can evolve and progress beyond their original design.

The Material Sons of God, created in local universes alongside Melchizedeks and their associates, are initially classified as descending Sons when they come to the inhabited worlds from their spheres of origin. When an Adam and Eve successfully complete their planetary mission as biological uplifters, they eventually share the destiny of the inhabitants of their world. After a world reaches the advanced stages of light and life, these faithful beings may resign their administrative duties.

After being liberated from their descending adventure, they register as perfected Material Sons in the local universe. Similarly, Material Sons who experience long delays in planetary assignment may withdraw from their status spheres and register as perfected Material Sons. Following these formalities, these liberated Adams and Eves are accredited as ascending Sons of God and begin their journey to Havona and Paradise, starting from their current level of spiritual attainment. They travel alongside mortals and other ascending Sons until they find God and achieve membership in the Corps of Mortal Finality.

Although midway creatures must wait longer than some beings for their Paradise ascent, they are eventually released from planetary duty when their evolutionary world reaches the intermediate epochs of light and life. The majority of midwayers are often translated along with their human cousins when the temple of light descends and the Planetary Prince is elevated to Planetary Sovereign. Upon being freed from their planetary service, both primary and secondary midwayers register in the local universe as ascending Sons of God.

After registration, midwayers immediately begin their long Paradise ascent by following the same routes arranged for the progression of the mortal races from the material worlds. The primary group of midwayers are destined for various finaliter corps in future service, while the secondary or Adamic midwayers are all directed toward enrollment in the Mortal Corps of Finality. This demonstrates how beings who serve faithfully on an evolutionary world can eventually progress toward Paradise alongside those they once served.

When mortals fail to achieve eternal survival, this failure is never due to neglect or inadequate service by their indwelling Thought Adjusters. At mortal death, Adjusters from non-surviving individuals return to Divinington and may later be reassigned to other worlds of time and space. Sometimes, after repeated services of this kind or following an unusual experience such as indwelling an incarnated bestowal Son, these efficient Adjusters are personalized by the Universal Father himself.

Personalized Adjusters constitute a unique and unfathomable order of beings in the universe hierarchy. Originally existing in a prepersonal status, they gain experiential growth through participation in the lives of mortal beings on the material worlds. The personality bestowed upon these experienced Thought Adjusters originates directly from the Universal Father's personal and continuing ministry of bestowing experiential personality upon his creation. Because of this divine origin of their personality, Personalized Adjusters are classified as ascending Sons of God, representing the highest order of such sonship.

Mortals represent the final link in the chain of beings called sons of God, with the personal touch of the Original and Eternal Son passing down through increasingly human personalizations until reaching beings much like humans. Similarly, the Original and Infinite Spirit draws nearer to struggling creatures through a series of increasingly human orders, culminating in the angels who personally guard and guide mortals through their life journey. The Universal Father makes personal contact with his lowly creatures through the indwelling Thought Adjusters, drawing nearest to humans through inner communion with their souls.

Since Thought Adjusters are the only spirits with fusion potential to be identified with humans during physical life, mortals are primarily classified according to their relationship with these divine Monitors. This classification includes mortals of the transient or experiential Adjuster sojourn, mortals of the non-Adjuster-fusion types, and mortals with Adjuster-fusion potential. Each category represents different stages of spiritual development and potential destinies in the universal scheme. The first series inhabits worlds during the earlier epochs of human evolution, the second series includes specialized types who cannot fuse with their Adjusters, and the third series includes those with the potential for eternal union with their indwelling fragment of God.

Mortal races stand as representatives of the lowest order of intelligent and personal creation, yet they are divinely beloved by the Universal Father. Though entirely mortal in nature, humans are counted as ascending sons the moment fusion occurs with their Adjusters or other immortal spirits. Prior to this event, their status is that of faith sons, demonstrating their transitional position in the grand hierarchy of universal intelligence. This status as faith sons is a solemn and profound fact that illustrates the extraordinary love the Father has bestowed upon his material children.

All evolutionary worlds of mortal habitation harbor these faith sons of God, who are counted as sons of grace and mercy belonging to the divine family. Humans qualify as sons of God for several significant reasons: they are sons of spiritual promise through faith; they are related to Christ as brothers; they have received the spirit of a divine Son; they possess a measure of the divine spontaneity of freewill action; and they are indwelt by a fragment of the Universal Father himself. These five factors establish the sonship relationship between mortal beings and the Universal Father, demonstrating that even creatures of material origin have a direct connection to the divine.

The sending of Thought Adjusters to indwell mortal minds represents one of the unfathomable mysteries of God the Father's relationship with his creation. These fragments of the divine nature carry the potential for creature immortality, and fusion with them confers eternal life upon the soul of the mortal who achieves this union. Father-fused mortals include the surviving races of human beings who possess the potential to ascend to the highest heights of glory and divinity attainment through faith and freewill cooperation with their indwelling Adjusters.

When a mortal and their Adjuster are finally and forever fused, becoming as one similar to how Christ Michael united the divine and human natures, they truly become ascending sons of God. The Universal Father has commanded these beings to strive for ultimate perfection, and fusion with the Adjuster represents divine validation of eventual Paradise attainment. For Adjuster-fused mortals, the career of universal service stands wide open, offering a dignity of destiny and glory of attainment that awaits every person who currently navigates the challenges of material existence. This represents an extraordinary opportunity that many fail to fully comprehend or appreciate.

While most surviving mortals fuse with their Adjusters either on the mansion worlds or soon after arriving on higher morontia spheres, some experience delayed fusion. In certain cases, mortal candidates for endless life fail to achieve identity fusion with their faithful Adjusters even after reaching the final educational worlds of the universe headquarters. These mortals have been deemed worthy of survival by adjudicational authorities, and even their Adjusters concur with their ascension to the mansion worlds, yet fusion remains elusive despite numerous opportunities.

When it becomes apparent that some synchronizing difficulty is preventing Father fusion, the survival referees of the Creator Son convene to investigate. If this court determines the ascending mortal is not responsible for the failure to attain fusion, they certify this finding in the local universe records. The indwelling Adjuster then returns to Divinington for confirmation, and the morontia mortal immediately fuses with an individualized gift of the Creator Son's spirit. Son-fused mortals, while not numerous (less than one million in Orvonton), share the services of the superuniverse with their Adjuster-fused brethren, though they remain generally confined to their native superuniverse rather than proceeding to Paradise.

Spirit-fused mortals, while included in the Father's personality circuit, represent beings who fuse with individualizations of the premind spirit of the Third Source and Center rather than with Thought Adjusters. This Spirit fusion never occurs during natural mortal life but takes place during morontia existence on the mansion worlds. During mortal life, Adjusters work within these beings just as they do with potential Adjuster-fusion candidates, building up the spirit counterpart of mortal nature—the soul—but upon mortal death, they depart permanently.

When Spirit-fusion candidates are repersonalized on the mansion worlds, the departed Adjuster's place is filled by an individualization of the Divine Minister's spirit. These Spirit-fused mortals differ significantly from other ascenders in that they lack the memory of human experience on material worlds, as the departed Adjuster took with it the experiential transcript of spiritually significant events. They must recover their past through the testimony of associated seraphim and by consulting angelic records, relying on a residual experiential-recognition-response within their souls that validates these unremembered events when they are described. Despite these limitations, Spirit-fused mortals serve as permanent citizens of local universes rather than proceeding to Paradise.

The spirits of mortal fusion always ascend to their level of origin, meaning Spirit-fused mortals generally remain within the local universe, Son-fused survivors are restricted to a superuniverse, and Adjuster-fused mortals are destined to penetrate the entire universe of universes. The Thought Adjuster, originating from the Father on Paradise, never stops its journey until its mortal partner stands face to face with the eternal God. While some might view these varied destinies as representing inequality in the ascension plan, they actually reflect the divine wisdom in providing permanent ascendant citizens for different levels of universe administration.

The different destinies of these ascending sons do not indicate that one path is greater or lesser than another, only that they differ in purpose and function. Adjuster-fused finaliters enjoy the widest service opportunity but are excluded from participating in the settling of individual universes. Spirit-fused and Son-fused mortals develop unique wisdom through their focused experience in their respective realms, contributing to the maintenance of experiential equilibrium in the universes. The Father loves each of his creature sons with a true, holy, divine, unlimited, and unique affection that eclipses all other considerations. This supreme relationship of sonship with the Creator provides every facility and power necessary for the ultimate attainment of the Paradise goal of divine perfection.