paper 104 - growth of the trinity concept, paralleled · 2020. 1. 28. · the elohim doctrine had...

WORK-IN-PROGRESS (JANUARY 27, 2020) PARALLEL CHART FOR

Paper 104 — Growth of the Trinity Concept

© 2013, 2020 Matthew Block

Source for Paper 104

(1) E. Washburn Hopkins, Ph.D., LL.D., Origin and Evolution of Religion (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1923)

Key

(a) Green indicates where a source author first appears, or where he/she reappears.

(b) Yellow highlights most parallelisms.

(c) Tan highlights parallelisms occurring further apart, usually not in the same row.

(d) An underlined word or words indicates where the source and the UB writer pointedlydiffer from each other.

(e) Blue indicates original (or “revealed”) information, or UB-specific terminology andconcepts. (What to highlight in this regard is debatable; the highlights are tentative.)

Note: Most of section 2 and all of sections 3, 4 and 5 appear to be original. For ease ofreading, they have been left unblued.

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SOURCE OR PARALLEL URANTIA PAPER 104

Work-in-progress Version 26 Oct. 2013© 2013 Matthew BlockRevised 27 Jan. 2020

PAPER 104 — GROWTHOF THE TRINITYCONCEPT

XVII: THE TRIAD (Hopkins 291)

104:0.1 The Trinity concept of revealedreligion must not be confused with thetriad beliefs of evolutionary religions.

The ideas of triads arose from manysuggestive relationships but chieflybecause of

[contd] Why Three should havebecome a “holy number” has long beenthe subject of speculation. One moderntheory suggests that, as man has threefinger-joints, his reckoning arose from hisfingers and three became the base oforder, hence holy.

the three joints of the fingers,

because three legs were the fewest whichcould stabilize a stool, because threesupport points could keep up a tent;

Another contends that three is the base ofall rhythmic movements and man is arhythmical creature. Still another theoryis that, as some savages cannot countbeyond two, three became synonymouswith the all or perfection (H 291).

furthermore, primitive man, for a longtime, could not count beyond three.

Now it is true that we think in triads,because three are natural divisions,yesterday, today, and tomorrow; child-hood, youth, and age; here, above, below;sunrise, noon, sunset; sun, moon, stars;earth, air, sky; father, mother, child; threeis the whole, the all. But is it not quite asnatural to think in pairs, as savages areapt to do,

104:0.2 Aside from certain naturalcouplets,

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past and present, here and elsewhere, dayand night, sun and moon, earth and sky,strength and weakness, male and female?(H 291)

such as past and present, day and night,hot and cold, and male and female,

man generally tends to think in triads:yesterday, today, and tomorrow; sunrise,noon, and sunset; father, mother, andchild.

Three cheers are given the victor.

In the case of the death-ritual, the specialsanctity of three may be based on naturalcauses, since the corpse clearly demandsburial within three days except in coldclimates (H 293).

The dead are buried on the third day,

The Chinese ghost is placated by athreefold oblation of water (H 293).

and the ghost is placated by threeablutions of water.

104:0.3 As a consequence of thesenatural associations in human experience,the triad made its appearance in religion,and this long before the Paradise Trinityof Deities, or even any of theirrepresentatives, had been revealed tomankind.

Failure to recognize the distinctionbetween a triadic group of heterogeneousgods and a real trinity has vitiated thework of various scholars. Anu, Enlil, Ea,and the corresponding Japanese gods andthe Homeric group (above), formrespective triads, not trinities. Osiris, Isis,and Horus are distinct gods, later joinedin a family relationship. The severalZoroastrian triads, such as Ormuzd,Anahita, Mithra, are far from being atrinity, as may be seen clearly in the triad,Ormuzd, Mithra, Ahriman (H 295-96).

Later on, the Persians,

Hindus,

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The triad Zeus, Poseidon, Hades yieldedto Zeus, Hera, Athene, [Footnote: TheRoman triad, Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, copies

the Greek model.] and this in turn to Zeus,Athene, Apollo.

Greeks, Egyptians,

Scandinavia had its Odhin, Thor, Frey;Babylonia had sundry triads besides theone mentioned, Shamash, Sin, Ramman(sun, moon, storm), Sin, Shamash, Ishtar,etc. (H 299).

Babylonians, Romans, and Scandinaviansall had triad gods,

but these were still not true trinities.

Triad deities all had a natural origin andhave appeared at one time or anotheramong most of the intelligent peoples ofUrantia. Sometimes the concept of anevolutionary triad has become mixed withthat of a revealed Trinity; in theseinstances it is often impossible todistinguish one from the other.

1. URANTIAN TRINITYCONCEPTS

104:1.1 The first Urantian revelationleading to the comprehension of theParadise Trinity was made by the staff ofPrince Caligastia about one-half millionyears ago. This earliest Trinity conceptwas lost to the world in the unsettledtimes following the planetary rebellion.

[The Sethites and their followers never

entirely lost the Trinity concept revealed by

Adam (92:5.9).]

104:1.2 The second presentation of theTrinity was made by Adam and Eve in thefirst and second gardens. These teachingshad not been wholly obliterated even inthe times of Machiventa Melchizedekabout thirty-five thousand years later, forthe Trinity concept of the Sethitespersisted in both Mesopotamia and Egyptbut more especially in India, where it waslong perpetuated in

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But there is one three-headed godwho actually is trinitarian in that heappears in three distinct manifestationsembodying one spiritual power. This isthe Vedic “three-headed Fire-god” Agni(Latin ignis), whose threefoldness giveshim a number of epithets and invocationsbased thereon, “with threefold protectionbe kind,” etc. (H 299).

Agni, the Vedic three-headed fire god.

104:1.3 The third presentation of theTrinity was made by Machiventa Melchi-zedek,

[[Melchizedek] dressed much as did the

Canaanite priests except that on his breast he

wore an emblem of three concentric circles, the

Satania symbol of the Paradise Trinity

(93:2.5).]

and this doctrine was symbolized by thethree concentric circles which the sage ofSalem wore on his breast plate.

But Machiventa found it very difficult toteach the Palestinian Bedouins about theUniversal Father, the Eternal Son, and theInfinite Spirit.

[To the extent that Melchizedek taught the

Trinity concept symbolized in his insignia, he

usually associated it with the three

Vorondadek rulers of the constellation of

Norlatiadek (93:3.3).]

Most of his disciples thought that theTrinity consisted of the three Most Highsof Norlatiadek;

a few conceived of the Trinity as theSystem Sovereign, the ConstellationFather, and the local universe CreatorDeity; still fewer even remotely graspedthe idea of the Paradise association of theFather, Son, and Spirit.

104:1.4 Through the activities of theSalem missionaries the Melchizedekteachings of the Trinity gradually spreadthroughout much of Eurasia and northernAfrica.

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[Still other [Babylonian] triads grew up in

different localities, all reminiscent of the

trinity teachings of the Andites and the

Sumerians and based on the belief of the

Salemites in Melchizedek’s insignia of the

three circles (95:1.4.).]

It is often difficult to distinguish betweenthe triads and the trinities in the laterAndite and the post-Melchizedek ages,when both concepts to a certain extentintermingled and coalesced.

XVIII: THE HINDU TRINITY (Hopkins302)

104:1.5 Among the Hindus thetrinitarian concept took root as

Not only did [the idealist philosophers]grant that Rama and Krishna were bothforms of Vishnu to all seeming, but theysaid that Vishnu and Shiva were bothequally divine forms of the All-Soul,whose lack of all qualities makes it (asBrahma) indefinable, though it may beexplained or postulated as being, intel-ligence, joy, which is the sum total thatcan be said of Brahma as All-Soul (H311).

Being, Intelligence, and Joy.

The Trimurti or “Three form” trinity[made up of Brahman, Vishnu and Shiva]is, as has been intimated, a lateradaptation of Vedic gods of a popular sortto a priestly conception of a creator;primarily it is two thirds phenomenal, onethird philosophical. [Etc.] (H 302)

(A later Indian conception was Brahma,Siva, and Vishnu.)

While the earlier Trinity portrayals werebrought to India by the Sethite priests, thelater ideas of the Trinity were importedby the Salem missionaries and weredeveloped by the native intellects of Indiathrough a compounding of these doctrineswith the evolutionary triad conceptions.

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XIX: THE BUDDHISTIC TRINITY(Hopkins 318)

104:1.6 The Buddhist faith developedtwo doctrines of a trinitarian nature:

[contd] The Buddhistic trinity revertsto an incredibly simple beginning,namely, to the formula of confirmationwhich the professing Buddhist took whenhe became a member of the Congregation(Church): “I take my refuge in (Gotama)Buddha and in the Dhamma (Law) and inthe Church.” This was the formula whenGotama Buddha, a venerable but notdivine teacher, was instructing the worldthat there was no God and that man didnot have an immortal soul. Later, yet stillearly, came the conception of Buddha asSupreme Lord, of the Bodhisat as thecorporeal but superior Holy Spirit, and ofGotama (the man Buddha) as anincarnation of the divine Buddha. These,be it observed, are both triads, Teacher,Law, and Congregation,

The earlier was Teacher, Law, andBrotherhood; that was the presentationmade by Gautama Siddhartha.

The later idea, developing among thenorthern branch of the followers ofBuddha, embraced

and Supreme Lord, Holy Spirit, IncarnateSavior (H 318)

Supreme Lord, Holy Spirit, and IncarnateSavior.1

104:1.7 And these ideas of the Hindusand Buddhists were real trinitarianpostulates,

[See 104:1.2, above.] that is, the idea of a threefold manifest-ation of a monotheistic God.

Failure to recognize the distinctionbetween a triadic group of heterogeneousgods and a real trinity has vitiated thework of various scholars (H 295).

A true trinity conception is not just agrouping together of three separate gods.

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[Many of the advances which Moses

made over and above the religion of the

Egyptians and the surrounding Levantine

tribes were due to the Kenite traditions of the

time of Melchizedek (96:5.3).] [Compare also 96:0, 96:1.]

104:1.8 The Hebrews knew about theTrinity from the Kenite traditions of thedays of Melchizedek,

[Compare 96:1.8, 142:3.6.] but their monotheistic zeal for the oneGod, Yahweh, so eclipsed all such teach-ings that by the time of Jesus’ appearancethe Elohim doctrine had been practicallyeradicated from Jewish theology.

The Hebrew mind could not reconcile thetrinitarian concept with the monotheisticbelief in the One Lord, the God of Israel.

[The followers of Mohammed stumbled at the

advanced teachings of the Trinity; they could

not comprehend the doctrine of three divine

personalities and one Deity. It is always

difficult to induce evolutionary minds

suddenly to accept advanced revealed truth

(92:6.8).]

104:1.9 The followers of the Islamicfaith likewise failed to grasp the idea ofthe Trinity.

It is always difficult for an emergingmonotheism to tolerate trinitarianismwhen confronted by polytheism.

As we saw in the analysis of theHindu trinity that it reverts not so much toa polytheistic basis as to a strong mono-theistic trend in Hindu thought, so (as justexplained) in Buddhism there was beforethe completed trinity an almost mono-theistic expression, shown in theutterances of the Lotus, where a Father-god Creator Spirit is really the deityadored (H 325).

The trinity idea takes best hold of thosereligions which have a firm monotheistictradition

coupled with doctrinal elasticity.

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The great monotheists, the Hebrews andMohammedans, found it difficult todistinguish between worshiping threegods, polytheism, and trinitarianism, theworship of one Deity existing in a triunemanifestation of divinity and personality.

XX: THE CHRISTIAN TRINITY(Hopkins 335)

[Compare 142:3.6, 161:1.6., 169:4.5. See also

Matt. 28:19.] 104:1.10 Jesus taught his apostles the

truth regarding the persons of theParadise Trinity, but they thought hespoke figuratively and symbolically.Having been nurtured in Hebraic mono-theism, they found it difficult to entertainany belief that seemed to conflict withtheir dominating concept of Yahweh. Andthe early Christians inherited the Hebraicprejudice against the Trinity concept.

The expression “only beloved son”was first applied to Israel, chosen toreveal to the world the Unknown Father,a conception adopted by Christianity andapplied to Christ in whom rests the Spiritof Wisdom (as in Israel).... A trinity wasestablished at Antioch consisting of God,his Word, his Wisdom (H 337, footnote).

104:1.11 The first Trinity of Christian-ity was proclaimed at Antioch andconsisted of God, his Word, and hisWisdom.

[Philo led the way for Paul more fully to

restore the concept of the Paradise Trinity,

which had long been dormant in Jewish

theology (121:6.5).]

Paul knew of the Paradise Trinity ofFather, Son, and Spirit,

[To Jesus and Paul the doctrine of the trinity wasapparently unknown; at any rate, they say nothing

about it (H 336).] [Compare 2 Cor. 13:14.]

but he seldom preached about it and mademention thereof in only a few of hisletters to the newly forming churches.

Even then, as did his fellow apostles, Paulconfused Jesus, the Creator Son of thelocal universe, with the Second Person ofDeity, the Eternal Son of Paradise.

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[Compare: The beginning of the doctrine of theTrinity appears already in John (c.100).... The wordtrinity is not used before 180-200, in Greek andLatin form (H 336).]

104:1.12 The Christian concept of theTrinity, which began to gain recognitionnear the close of the first century afterChrist,

was comprised of the Universal Father,the Creator Son of Nebadon, and theDivine Minister of Salvington—

Christ to Origen was a secondary God, aNous between God and world. In this“mottled Christianity” the Spirit issometimes one with the Logos, as theLogos in Christ is identified with theFather, and sometimes a mere creature ormanifestation of God, and even inter-preted as a Mother Spirit, uniting withFather and Son in a triad; but again, bythe Semi-Arians, its divinity is denied (H337-38).

Mother Spirit of the local universe andcreative consort of the Creator Son.

104:1.13 Not since the times of Jesushas the factual identity of the ParadiseTrinity been known on Urantia (except bya few individuals to whom it wasespecially revealed) until its presentationin these revelatory disclosures.

But though the Christian concept of theTrinity erred in fact, it was practicallytrue with respect to spiritual relationships.Only in its philosophic implications andcosmological consequences did thisconcept suffer embarrassment: It has beendifficult for many who are cosmic mindedto believe that the Second Person ofDeity, the second member of an infiniteTrinity, once dwelt on Urantia; and whilein spirit this is true, in actuality it is not afact. The Michael Creators fully embodythe divinity of the Eternal Son, but theyare not the absolute personality.

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2. TRINITY UNITY ANDDEITY PLURALITY

104:2.1 Monotheism arose as aphilosophic protest against theinconsistency of polytheism.

[In conceiving of Deity, man first includes

all gods, then subordinates all foreign gods to

his tribal deity, and finally excludes all but the

one God of final and supreme value (96:0.1).]

It developed first through pantheonorganizations with the departmental-ization of supernatural activities, thenthrough the henotheistic exaltation of onegod above the many, and finally throughthe exclusion of all but the One God offinal value.

[Compare 97:0.1.] 104:2.2 Trinitarianism grows out of theexperiential protest against the impossi-bility of conceiving the oneness of adeanthropomorphized solitary Deity ofunrelated universe significance. Given asufficient time, philosophy tends toabstract the personal qualities from theDeity concept of pure monotheism, thusreducing this idea of an unrelated God tothe status of a pantheistic Absolute. It hasalways been difficult to understand thepersonal nature of a God who has nopersonal relationships in equality withother and co-ordinate personal beings.

[Compare 161:1.2, 161:1.6.] Personality in Deity demands that suchDeity exist in relation to other and equalpersonal Deity.

[Thus in the Trinity, as man would view it, the

personalities of Father, Son, and Spirit are

adjusted to co-ordinate ministry of love and

law in the experiential universes of time

(10:6.18).]

104:2.3 Through the recognition of theTrinity concept the mind of man can hopeto grasp something of the interrelation-ship of love and law in the time-spacecreations.

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Through spiritual faith man gains insightinto the love of God but soon discoversthat this spiritual faith has no influenceon the ordained laws of the materialuniverse. Irrespective of the firmness ofman’s belief in God as his ParadiseFather, expanding cosmic horizonsdemand that he also give recognition tothe reality of Paradise Deity as universallaw, that he recognize the Trinitysovereignty extending outward fromParadise and overshadowing even theevolving local universes of the CreatorSons and Creative Daughters of the threeeternal persons whose deity union is thefact and reality and eternal indivisibilityof the Paradise Trinity.

[The illustration is crude, but a father, son, and

grandson could form a corporate entity which

would be nonpersonal but nonetheless subject

to their personal wills (10:4.3).]

104:2.4 And this selfsame ParadiseTrinity is a real entity—not a personalitybut nonetheless a true and absolutereality; not a personality but nonethelesscompatible with coexistent personal-ities—the personalities of the Father, theSon, and the Spirit.

The Trinity is a super-summative Deityreality eventuating out of the conjoiningof the three Paradise Deities.

[The functions of the Paradise Trinity are

not simply the sum of the Father’s apparent

endowment of divinity plus those specialized

attributes that are unique in the personal

existence of the Son and the Spirit.... The

group potential is always far in excess of the

simple sum of the attributes of the component

individuals (10:5.2).]

The qualities, characteristics, andfunctions of the Trinity are not the simplesum of the attributes of the three ParadiseDeities;

Trinity functions are something unique,original, and not wholly predictable froman analysis of the attributes of Father,Son, and Spirit.

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104:2.5 For example: The Master, whenon earth, admonished his followers that

[“Ganid, it is true, you do not understand.

Mercy ministry is always the work of the

individual, but justice punishment is the

function of the social, governmental, or

universe administrative groups...” (133:1.2).]

justice is never a personal act; it isalways a group function.

[No one of the Paradise Deities fosters the

administration of justice. Justice is never a

personal attitude; it is always a plural function

(10:6.2).]

Neither do the Gods, as persons,administer justice.

But they perform this very function as acollective whole, as the Paradise Trinity.

104:2.6 The conceptual grasp of theTrinity association of Father, Son, andSpirit prepares the human mind for thefurther presentation of certain otherthreefold relationships.

[In the contemplation of the Trinity as infinite,

do not ignore the seven triunities; thereby

certain difficulties of understanding may be

avoided, and certain paradoxes may be

partially resolved (10:5.7).]

Theological reason may be fully satisfiedby the concept of the Paradise Trinity, butphilosophical and cosmological reasondemand the recognition of the other triuneassociations of the First Source andCenter, those triunities in which theInfinite functions in various non-Fathercapacities of universal manifestation—

the relationships of the God of force,energy, power, causation, reaction,potentiality, actuality, gravity, tension,pattern, principle, and unity.

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3 . T R I N I T I E S A N DTRIUNITIES

104:3.1 While mankind has sometimesgrasped at an understanding of the Trinityof the three persons of Deity, consistencydemands that the human intellect perceivethat there are certain relationshipsbetween all seven Absolutes. But all thatwhich is true of the Paradise Trinity is notnecessarily true of a triunity, for a triunityis something other than a trinity. Incertain functional aspects a triunity maybe analogous to a trinity, but it is neverhomologous in nature with a trinity.

104:3.2 Mortal man is passing througha great age of expanding horizons andenlarging concepts on Urantia, and hiscosmic philosophy must accelerate inevolution to keep pace with the expansionof the intellectual arena of humanthought. As the cosmic consciousness ofmortal man expands, he perceives theinterrelatedness of all that he finds in hismaterial science, intellectual philosophy,and spiritual insight. Still, with all thisbelief in the unity of the cosmos, manperceives the diversity of all existence. Inspite of all concepts concerning theimmutability of Deity, man perceives thathe lives in a universe of constant changeand experiential growth. Regardless ofthe realization of the survival of spiritualvalues, man has ever to reckon with themathematics and premathematics offorce, energy, and power.

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104:3.3 In some manner the eternalrepleteness of infinity must be reconciledwith the time-growth of the evolvinguniverses and with the incompleteness ofthe experiential inhabitants thereof. Insome way the conception of totalinfinitude must be so segmented andqualified that the mortal intellect and themorontia soul can grasp this concept offinal value and spiritualizing significance.

104:3.4 While reason demands amonotheistic unity of cosmic reality,finite experience requires the postulate ofplural Absolutes and of their co-ordination in cosmic relationships. With-out co-ordinate existences there is nopossibility for the appearance of diversityof absolute relationships, no chance forthe operation of differentials, variables,modifiers, attenuators, qualifiers, ordiminishers.

104:3.5 In these papers total reality(infinity) has been presented as it exists inthe seven Absolutes:

104:3.6 1. The Universal Father.

104:3.7 2. The Eternal Son.

104:3.8 3. The Infinite Spirit.

104:3.9 4. The Isle of Paradise.

104:3.10 5. The Deity Absolute.

104:3.11 6. The Universal Absolute.

104:3.12 7. The Unqualified Absolute.

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104:3.13 The First Source and Center,who is Father to the Eternal Son, is alsoPattern to the Paradise Isle. He ispersonality unqualified in the Son butpersonality potentialized in the DeityAbsolute. The Father is energy revealedin Paradise- Havona and at the same timeenergy concealed in the UnqualifiedAbsolute. The Infinite is ever disclosed inthe ceaseless acts of the Conjoint Actorwhile he is eternally functioning in thecompensating but enshrouded activities ofthe Universal Absolute. Thus is theFather related to the six co-ordinateAbsolutes, and thus do all seven encom-pass the circle of infinity throughout theendless cycles of eternity.

104:3.14 It would seem that triunity ofabsolute relationships is inevitable.Personality seeks other personalityassociation on absolute as well as on allother levels. And the association of thethree Paradise personalities eternalizesthe first triunity, the personality union ofthe Father, the Son, and the Spirit. Forwhen these three persons, as persons,conjoin for united function, they therebyconstitute a triunity of functional unity,not a trinity—an organic entity—butnonetheless a triunity, a threefold func-tional aggregate unanimity.

[Contrast: Of all absolute associations, the

Paradise Trinity (the first triunity) is unique as

an exclusive association of personal Deity

(10:4.1).]

104:3.15 The Paradise Trinity is not atriunity; it is not a functional unanimity;rather is it undivided and indivisibleDeity.

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The Father, Son, and Spirit (as persons)can sustain a relationship to the ParadiseTrinity, for the Trinity is their undividedDeity. The Father, Son, and Spirit sustainno such personal relationship to the firsttriunity, for that is their functional unionas three persons. Only as the Trinity—asundivided Deity—do they collectivelysustain an external relationship to thetriunity of their personal aggregation.

104:3.16 Thus does the Paradise Trinitystand unique among absolute relation-ships; there are several existentialtriunities but only one existential Trinity.A triunity is not an entity. It is functionalrather than organic. Its members arepartners rather than corporative. Thecomponents of the triunities may beentities, but a triunity itself is anassociation.

104:3.17 There is, however, one pointof comparison between trinity andtriunity: Both eventuate in functions thatare something other than the discerniblesum of the attributes of the componentmembers. But while they are thuscomparable from a functional standpoint,they otherwise exhibit no categoricalrelationship. They are roughly related asthe relation of function to structure. Butthe function of the triunity association isnot the function of the trinity structure orentity.

104:3.18 The triunities are nonethelessreal; they are very real. In them is totalreality functionalized, and through themdoes the Universal Father exerciseimmediate and personal control over themaster functions of infinity.

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4. THE SEVEN TRIUNITIES

104:4.1 In attempting the description ofseven triunities, attention is directed tothe fact that the Universal Father is theprimal member of each. He is, was, andever will be: the First Universal Father-Source, Absolute Center, Primal Cause,Universal Controller, Limitless Energizer,Original Unity, Unqualified Upholder,First Person of Deity, Primal CosmicPattern, and Essence of Infinity. TheUniversal Father is the personal cause ofthe Absolutes; he is the absolute ofAbsolutes.

104:4.2 The nature and meaning of theseven triunities may be suggested as:

104:4.3 The First Triunity—thepersonal-purposive triunity. This is thegrouping of the three Deity personalities:



104:4.6 3. The Infinite Spirit.

104:4.7 This is the threefold union oflove, mercy, and ministry—the purposiveand personal association of the threeeternal Paradise personalities. This is thedivinely fraternal, creature-loving,fatherly-acting, and ascension-promotingassociation. The divine personalities ofthis first triunity are personality-bequeathing, spirit-bestowing, and mind-endowing Gods.

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104:4.8 This is the triunity of infinitevolition; it acts throughout the eternalpresent and in all of the past-present-future flow of time. This associationyields volitional infinity and provides themechanisms whereby personal Deitybecomes self-revelatory to the creaturesof the evolving cosmos.

104:4.9 The Second Triunity—thepower-pattern triunity. Whether it be atiny ultimaton, a blazing star, or awhirling nebula, even the central orsuperuniverses, from the smallest to thelargest material organizations, always isthe physical pattern—the cosmicconfiguration—derived from the functionof this triunity. This association consistsof:

104:4.10 1. The Father-Son.

104:4.11 2. The Paradise Isle.

104:4.12 3. The Conjoint Actor.

104:4.13 Energy is organized by thecosmic agents of the Third Source andCenter; energy is fashioned after thepattern of Paradise, the absolutematerialization; but behind all of thisceaseless manipulation is the presence ofthe Father-Son, whose union firstactivated the Paradise pattern in theappearance of Havona concomitant withthe birth of the Infinite Spirit, theConjoint Actor.

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104:4.14 In religious experience,creatures make contact with the God whois love, but such spiritual insight mustnever eclipse the intelligent recognitionof the universe fact of the pattern whichis Paradise. The Paradise personalitiesenlist the freewill adoration of allcreatures by the compelling power ofdivine love and lead all such spirit-bornpersonalities into the supernal delights ofthe unending service of the finaliter sonsof God. The second triunity is thearchitect of the space stage whereon thesetransactions unfold; it determines thepatterns of cosmic configuration.

104:4.15 Love may characterize thedivinity of the first triunity, but pattern isthe galactic manifestation of the secondtriunity. What the first triunity is toevolving personalities, the second triunityis to the evolving universes. Pattern andpersonality are two of the great manifes-tations of the acts of the First Source andCenter; and no matter how difficult it maybe to comprehend, it is nonetheless truethat the power-pattern and the lovingperson are one and the same universalreality; the Paradise Isle and the EternalSon are co-ordinate but antipodalrevelations of the unfathomable nature ofthe Universal Father-Force.

104:4.16 The Third Triunity—thespirit-evolutional triunity. The entirety ofspiritual manifestation has its beginningand end in this association, consisting of:


104:4.18 2. The Son-Spirit.


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104:4.20 From spirit potency toParadise spirit, all spirit finds realityexpression in this triune association of thepure spirit essence of the Father, theactive spirit values of the Son-Spirit, andthe unlimited spirit potentials of the DeityAbsolute. The existential values of spirithave their primordial genesis, completemanifestation, and final destiny in thistriunity.

104:4.21 The Father exists before spirit;the Son-Spirit functions as active creativespirit; the Deity Absolute exists asall-encompassing spirit, even beyondspirit.

104:4.22 The Fourth Triunity—thetriunity of energy infinity. Within thistriunity there eternalizes the beginningsand the endings of all energy reality, fromspace potency to monota. This groupingembraces the following:

104:4.23 1. The Father-Spirit.



104:4.26 Paradise is the center of theforce-energy activation of the cosmos—the universe position of the First Sourceand Center, the cosmic focal point of theUnqualified Absolute, and the source ofall energy. Existentially present withinthis triunity is the energy potential of thecosmos-infinite, of which the granduniverse and the master universe are onlypartial manifestations.

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104:4.27 The fourth triunity absolutelycontrols the fundamental units of cosmicenergy and releases them from the graspof the Unqualified Absolute in directproportion to the appearance in theexperiential Deities of subabsolutecapacity to control and stabilize themetamorphosing cosmos.

104:4.28 This triunity is force andenergy. The endless possibilities of theUnqualified Absolute are centered aroundthe absolutum of the Isle of Paradise,whence emanate the unimaginableagitations of the otherwise staticquiescence of the Unqualified. And theendless throbbing of the material Paradiseheart of the infinite cosmos beats inharmony with the unfathomable patternand the unsearchable plan of the InfiniteEnergizer, the First Source and Center.

104:4.29 The Fifth Triunity—thetriunity of reactive infinity. Thisassociation consists of:

104.4.30 1. The Universal Father.



104:4.33 This grouping yields theeternalization of the functional infinityrealization of all that is actualizablewithin the domains of nondeity reality.This triunity manifests unlimited reactivecapacity to the volitional, causative,tensional, and patternal actions andpresences of the other triunities.

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104:4.34 The Sixth Triunity—thetriunity of cosmic-associated Deity. Thisgrouping consists of:




104:4.38 This is the association ofDeity-in-the-cosmos, the immanence ofDeity in conjunction with thetranscendence of Deity. This is the lastoutreach of divinity on the levels ofinfinity toward those realities which lieoutside the domain of deified reality.

104:4.39 The Seventh Triunity—thetriunity of infinite unity. This is the unityof infinity functionally manifest in timeand eternity, the co-ordinate unificationof actuals and potentials. This groupconsists of:




104:4.43 The Conjoint Actoruniversally integrates the varyingfunctional aspects of all actualized realityon all levels of manifestation, from finitesthrough transcendentals and on toabsolutes. The Universal Absoluteperfectly compensates the differentialsinherent in the varying aspects of allincomplete reality, from the limitlesspotentialities of active-volitional andcausative Deity reality to the boundlesspossibilities of static, reactive, nondeityreality in the incomprehensible domainsof the Unqualified Absolute.

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104:4.44 As they function in thistriunity, the Conjoint Actor and theUniversal Absolute are alike responsiveto Deity and to nondeity presences, asalso is the First Source and Center, whoin this relationship is to all intents andpurposes conceptually indistinguishablefrom the I AM.

104:4.45 These approximations aresufficient to elucidate the concept of thetriunities. Not knowing the ultimate levelof the triunities, you cannot fullycomprehend the first seven. While we donot deem it wise to attempt any furtherelaboration, we may state that there arefifteen triune associations of the FirstSource and Center, eight of which areunrevealed in these papers. These un-revealed associations are concerned withrealities, actualities, and potentialitieswhich are beyond the experiential level ofsupremacy.

104:4.46 The triunities are thefunctional balance wheel of infinity, theunification of the uniqueness of the SevenInfinity Absolutes. It is the existentialpresence of the triunities that enables theFather-I AM to experience functionalinfinity unity despite the diversificationof infinity into seven Absolutes. The FirstSource and Center is the unifying memberof all triunities; in him all things havetheir unqualified beginnings, eternalexistences, and infinite destinies—“inhim all things consist.”

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104:4.47 Although these associationscannot augment the infinity of theFather-I AM, they do appear to makepossible the subinfinite and subabsolutemanifestations of his reality. The seventriunities multiply versatility, eternalizenew depths, deitize new values, disclosenew potentialities, reveal new meanings;and all these diversified manifestations intime and space and in the eternal cosmosare existent in the hypothetical stasis ofthe original infinity of the I AM.

5. TRIODITIES

104:5.1 There are certain other triunerelationships which are non-Father inconstitution, but they are not realtriunities, and they are alwaysdistinguished from the Father triunities.They are called variously, associatetriunities, co-ordinate triunities, andtriodities. They are consequential to theexistence of the triunities. Two of theseassociations are constituted as follows:

104:5.2 The Triodity of Actuality. Thistriodity consists in the interrelationship ofthe three absolute actuals:




104:5.6 The Eternal Son is the absoluteof spirit reality, the absolute personality.The Paradise Isle is the absolute ofcosmic reality, the absolute pattern. TheConjoint Actor is the absolute of mindreality, the co-ordinate of absolute spiritreality, and the existential Deity synthesisof personality and power.

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1. Hopkins discusses two Buddhist trinities (see pp. 326-334): (1) The Body of Law (or the Buddha Absolute), theBody of Bliss (the Lord Buddha as the active, personal force of this Absolute), and the Body of Transformation (theAbsolute in personal, incarnate appearance); and (2) the Lord of eternity (Amida), the Spirit of Mercy (Kuannon),and Gotama Buddha (Saka).

This triune association eventuates theco-ordination of the sum total ofactualized reality—spirit, cosmic, ormindal. It is unqualified in actuality.

104:5.7 The Triodity of Potentiality.This triodity consists in the association ofthe three Absolutes of potentiality:




104:5.11 Thus are interassociated theinfinity reservoirs of all latent energyreality—spirit, mindal, or cosmic. Thisassociation yields the integration of alllatent energy reality. It is infinite inpotential.

104:5.12 As the triunities are primarilyconcerned with the functional unificationof infinity, so are triodities involved inthe cosmic appearance of experientialDeities. The triunities are indirectlyconcerned, but the triodities are directlyconcerned, in the experiential Deities—Supreme, Ultimate, and Absolute. Theyappear in the emerging power-personalitysynthesis of the Supreme Being. And tothe time creatures of space the SupremeBeing is a revelation of the unity of the IAM.

104:5.13 [Presented by a Melchizedekof Nebadon.]

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paper 104 - growth of the trinity concept, paralleled · 2020. 1. 28. · the elohim doctrine had...

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