The System Sovereigns are true to their names; they are well-nigh sovereign in the local affairs of the inhabited worlds. They are almost paternal in their direction of the Planetary Princes, the Material Sons, and the ministering spirits. The personal grasp of the sovereign is all but complete. These rulers are not supervised by Trinity observers from the central universe.
Quote from The URANTIA Book, 0393:05
At the time of his rebellion Lucifer was the System Sovereign of Satania, which then consisted of 607 inhabited worlds. Our world, Urantia, is world number 606. Caligastia, our Planetary Prince, was under Lucifer’s direction, one step down in the hierarchy of celestial authority. The Material Sons are the Adams and Eves; our ministering spirits are our cherubim and seraphim and guardian angels, ascending in levels of divinity to archangels and higher; our midwayers would be considered ministering spirits.
But presumably, one of those higher ministering spirits, such as an archangel, even if functioning on our world, would not be under the direction of someone so (relatively) low in the hierarchy as our System Sovereign. The mere presence of an archangel would indicate the affair is more than “local.” Which brings to mind this arresting anomaly regarding our planet: There is located on Urantia “a circuit and divisional headquarters of the archangels” (1259:01). Why? and where?
These “Trinity observers from the central universe” (in the quote above) are designated Supreme Trinity Personalities and “are created in Paradise perfection in all their divine attributes” (0207:11). Only the Deities of Paradise are able to create perfection, but out here in time and space they do so only when functioning together, as unity in the Paradise Trinity.
To employ the terminology of the revelation, our Paradise Trinity consists of the Universal Father, the Eternal Son, and the Infinite Spirit, all three of whom are infinite and coeternal and resident on the eternal Isle of Paradise. Paradise exists in eternity, not in time, and is located, but not in space. Existence on Paradise is perfect, not conditioned by time or space.
But where we are, natives of a local universe, “time-bound, space-fettered” (0006:03), all of us are striving for perfection. And within our local universe, the lowest level at which there is a “Trinity observer,” a personality who is created perfect, is at the level of our constellation: There we have “a Faithful of Days in observation, an ambassador of the Paradise Trinity” (0166:03). One step lower, at the level of our system, our System Sovereign is not directly observed by perfection. Lucifer may have felt that he had a free hand; that he had no Big Brother peering over his shoulder at his every move.
Lucifer and Satan and Caligastia are creations of our local universe and were all of the same order: they are Lanonandek Sons, designated as local universe Sons of God. Our Creator Son and our local universe Mother Spirit, our Creative Spirit, created the Lanonandeks, and at the time of their creation our Creator Son had himself not yet earned, in time, his own perfection. Now our Creator Son has seven times bestowed himself to his own creation in the likeness of his creatures. By these bestowals our Creator Son has in time achieved his own perfection and earned personal sovereignty of his universe. He is now a Master Son. This achievement brought his era of creation to a close.
During our Creator Son’s era of creation, the Lanonandek Sons were created with a high degree of personal latitude, with many divine attributes of a high order, but were not created perfect. Which was not a mistake—there are no regrets—yet there have been rebellions. Lucifer’s was the third and the last. There will be 10,000 systems of inhabited worlds in this local universe; three System Sovereigns have rebelled and been found in contempt of our Creator Son. There will be no more.
Ernest Clement
Look some more into this fascinating universe of powerful spirits in “Part 16A—The Paradise Trinity.” Click Block 3 below. Or you may return to the >> Table of Essays.