Spiritual Advice and Guidance Blog: Urantia Book: How much time will we have to live in heaven/paradise? forever or a certain amount of time?

Q: How much time will we have to live in heaven/paradise? forever or a certain amount of time?

A: Thanks for this note to Truthbook.com. Your question is a very good and thoughtful one. I suppose most people imagine that once they get to Paradise, that the adventure is over, and that they will be in God's embrace forever. And that might be an obvious imagining before the revelation of The Urantia Book.

The Urantia Book reveals to us a near-endless journey of spiritual growth, universe education, and fellowship provided by God's plan of ascension. It is a plan that is provided for all who will accept their sonship with God - all who choose to survive after death. But, there will come a time when we will have achieved our initial goal - we will step onto the shores of Paradise, there to stand in the Presence of God, and be embraced as the true spirit beings that we have become through countless ages of adventure and determination. One might think that this is the end - we have reached our goal. But, such is likely not the case in the Father's plan...

Part of the revelation of The Urantia Book is the Corps of the Finality. This Corps is comprised of, among others, spiritual beings who in their former life were human mortals - mortals born into the worlds of time and space - mortals like you and me.

The Corps of the Finality appears to be the next goal that we will have before us, once we arrive and become permanent residents of Paradise.

(31:0.1) "THE CORPS OF MORTAL Finaliters represents the present known destination of the ascending Adjuster-fused mortals of time."

The authors of this paper do not say that they know for certain, but they conjecture that the ultimate goal of this Paradise corps of mortal ascenders is to serve in an expanded way in the now-forming universes of time and space in the outer space levels of the master universe:

(31:3.2) We of Uversa do not know the "finality destiny" of the ascendant mortals of time. At present they reside on Paradise and temporarily serve in the Corps of Light and Life, but such a tremendous course of ascendant training and such lengthy universe discipline must be designed to qualify them for even greater tests of trust and more sublime services of responsibility.

We see from this passage that our eternal residence will be on Paradise, but is that our final goal? They further state:

(31:10.8) But though we really know nothing about the plans of the Architects of the Master Universe respecting these outer creations, nevertheless, of three things we are certain:

1. There actually is a vast and new system of universes gradually organizing in the domains of outer space. New orders of physical creations, enormous and gigantic circles of swarming universes upon universes far out beyond the present bounds of the peopled and organized creations, are actually visible through your telescopes. At present, these outer creations are wholly physical; they are apparently uninhabited and seem to be devoid of creature administration.

2. For ages upon ages there continues the unexplained and wholly mysterious Paradise mobilization of the perfected and ascendant beings of time and space, in association with the six other finaliter corps.

(31:10.12)...can we be criticized for anticipating that something new and unrevealed is approaching culmination in the master universe? ...It is increasingly the belief of all Uversa that the assembling Corps of the Finality are destined to some future service in the universes of outer space, where we already are able to identify the clustering of at least seventy thousand aggregations of matter, each of which is greater than any one of the present superuniverses.

(31:10.13) Evolutionary mortals are born on the planets of space, pass through the morontia worlds, ascend the spirit universes, traverse the Havona spheres, find God, attain Paradise, and are mustered into the primary Corps of the Finality, therein to await the next assignment of universe service. There are six other assembling finality corps, but Grandfanda, the first mortal ascender, presides as Paradise chief of all orders of finaliters. And as we view this sublime spectacle, we all exclaim: What a glorious destiny for the animal-origin children of time, the material sons of space!

If you have read any of the cosmology of The Urantia Book - specifically those cosmologies having to do with the vast and almost unimaginable size of our present superuniverse, it might seem reasonable to think that within these evolving and gigantic creations, countless worlds will evolve - worlds that may even be something like our earth - worlds that will one day benefit from visitations of spiritual beings who will be sent as ambassadors from Paradise. Could this be our destiny? To travel the vast universe as ambassadors from Paradise, helping, revealing and educating evolving civilizations in the ways of God? Here is why we may qualify for this thrilling destiny:

(31:3.7) 3. The glorified mortals of the Paradise corps of finality are ascendant beings in possession of experiential knowledge of every step of the actuality and philosophy of the fullest possible life of intelligent existence, while during the ages of this ascent from the lowest material worlds to the spiritual heights of Paradise, these surviving creatures have been trained to the limits of their capacity respecting every detail of every divine principle of the just and efficient, as well as merciful and patient, administration of all the universal creation of time and space.

Again, the authors consider such thinking as conjecture, but they do invite us to conjecture freely, and add up the things that we DO know in an effort to discern what it all means.

Personally, I find such a thought very thrilling indeed. One thing we do know is that in God's universe, "progress" is the watchword. It seems reasonable to assume that, even after attaining Paradise, we will be expected to progress in some way. Even though our universe home will be on Paradise, this idea of serving as ambassadors to these now-forming creations, just as we have been visited and served by other spiritual orders of universe beings throughout our earth history seems both reasonable, and quite exciting!

I cannot say for certain whether this destiny truly awaits us, but I invite you to go HERE, which is the link to Paper 31, which deals exclusively with the Corps of the Finality, and the adventure that might await us as Finaliters. And HERE, is the specific section that deals with the Corps and glorified mortals. You can then make up your own mind as to the destiny that awaits you. It also might be a fun exercise for you to use our convenient SEARCH feature to find all the references to the Corps of the Finality. I guarantee that you will find it a fascinating journey!

Again, I thank you for this most interesting, and important, question.

Labels: ascension scheme, Corps of the Finality, heaven, The Urantia Book

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