THE URANTIA BOOK: A COSMIC PERSPECTIVE

The Son Does Not Become the Father

Paper 10 then becomes very specific about the Eternal Son. The Father bestows what the book calls the “personality of infinity” upon the Son. Yet the Son does not become the Father. The Son remains a unique personality. The book describes him as the unqualified personality-absolute and the perfect revelation of the personal nature of God. This gives us an important structural distinction. Something can originate in the Source, be fully bestowed upon another component, and then operate through that component without destroying the distinction between them.

In programming terms, one system can provide a fundamental capability that another system uses within its own operation. The capability may originate elsewhere. But its implementation now participates in the unique function of the system using it.

This is very close to what we were beginning to picture with Life, Personality and Mind. The Source provides. The differentiated system uses. The resulting function remains uniquely expressed through that system.

Then the Spirit Appears

The relationship becomes even more interesting with the Infinite Spirit. Paper 10 says that after the Father-Son relationship is established, Father and Son conjointly bestow qualities and attributes that constitute another being: The Infinite Spirit. Again, the important thing for us is the structure. We begin with differentiated components. Those components enter relationship. And the relationship produces another functional reality.

The Spirit is not merely another copy of the Father. Nor another Son. The Spirit has a unique function precisely because the relationship that produces the Spirit is different.

Paper 10 even calls the Spirit the “superadditive consequence” of the Father-Son union. That word is worth remembering: Superadditive. Something has appeared that cannot be understood merely by looking at the two components independently. Relationship has produced additional function.

Unique, Yet United

Paper 10 summarizes the relationship remarkably clearly. The Father, Son and Spirit are each unique. None is a duplicate. Each is original. Yet all are united. That is almost a direct statement of the structural principle we have been following since the Foreword. Unity does not require sameness. In fact, a functioning system requires differentiation. If every component performed exactly the same function, there would be little reason for the components to exist separately.

Difference allows specialization. Specialization allows relationship. Relationship allows coordination. And coordination allows something larger to emerge.

So we can express the progression as: UNITY
↓
DIFFERENTIATION
↓
SPECIALIZATION
↓
RELATIONSHIP
↓
COORDINATION
↓
LARGER FUNCTION Paper 10 is beginning to show us what that looks like at the Paradise level.

Seven Ways to Function

And then something very interesting happens. Paper 10 says the Father, Son and Spirit can function in seven different singular and plural capacities. This is one of those places where we should not simply point at the number seven and declare a connection. We should ask: Why seven?

If we represent the three Paradise Deities as: A — Father B — Son C — Spirit then the possible nonempty combinations are: A
B
C
A + B
A + C
B + C
A + B + C There are seven.

Mathematically: 2³ − 1 = 7 That does not require anything mystical. It follows from having three differentiated components capable of functioning individually and in combination. And Paper 10 says these seven associations exhaust the possible combinations.

That makes this appearance of seven particularly interesting for our investigation. Seven is not merely being used as decoration. Here it emerges from all possible functional relationships among three components. And the book then connects those seven associations with variations of values, meanings and personality throughout universe reality. This is exactly the kind of seven we have been looking for. Not merely seven things. Seven produced by function.

Word and Act

Paper 10 also returns to language we encountered in the previous Papers. The divine Sons are described as the Word of God. The children of the Spirit are associated with the Act of God. God speaks through the Son. God acts through the Spirit. So our earlier functional progression remains visible: SOURCE → EXPRESSION → ACTION

But now we can see more clearly how those functions are interconnected. The Father can function through the Son. Father and Son can function through the Spirit. The Spirit can simultaneously represent their conjoint relationship while remaining a unique functioning personality.

This is not a simple linear chain. It is becoming a network of interacting functions.

Mind Appears Explicitly

Then Paper 10 gives us something especially relevant to our previous section. It lists seven ways in which the First Source and Center functions outside Havona. Among them: As Creator, through the Creator Sons. As controller, through Paradise gravity. As spirit, through the Eternal Son. As mind, through the Conjoint Creator. As Father, through the personality circuit. Personally, through his fragments. And as total Deity, through the Paradise Trinity.

For our investigation, that fourth function deserves to be marked. Mind operates through the Third Source and Center. We had already begun seeing that relationship in Papers 8 and 9. Paper 10 makes it explicit. That means our previous discussion of Mind as a fundamental capability of conscious life now has something concrete to follow as we continue through the book.

The same applies to personality. Paper 10 repeatedly associates the Eternal Son with absolute personality while describing the Father as maintaining contact with creatures through the personality circuit. So rather than treating Life, Personality and Mind as three words we have arbitrarily attached to the Deities, we can begin tracking how The Urantia Book itself distributes these functions throughout its architecture.