God’s Relation to the Universe

4:2.1Na­ture is in a lim­ited sense the phys­i­cal habit of God. The con­duct, or ac­tion, of God is qual­i­fied and pro­vi­sion­ally mod­i­fied by the ex­per­i­men­tal plans and the evo­lu­tion­ary pat­terns of a lo­cal uni­verse, a con­stel­la­tion, a sys­tem, or a planet. God acts in ac­cor­dance with a well-de­fined, un­chang­ing, im­mutable law through­out the wide-spread­ing mas­ter uni­verse; but he mod­i­fies the pat­terns of his ac­tion so as to con­tribute to the co-or­di­nate and bal­anced con­duct of each uni­verse, con­stel­la­tion, sys­tem, planet, and per­son­al­ity in ac­cor­dance with the lo­cal ob­jects, aims, and plans of the fi­nite projects of evo­lu­tion­ary un­fold­ing.

4:2.2There­fore, na­ture, as mor­tal man un­der­stands it, pre­sents the un­der­ly­ing foun­da­tion and fun­da­men­tal back­ground of a change­less De­ity and his im­mutable laws, mod­i­fied by, fluc­tu­at­ing be­cause of, and ex­pe­ri­enc­ing up­heavals through, the work­ing of the lo­cal plans, pur­poses, pat­terns, and con­di­tions which have been in­au­gu­rated and are be­ing car­ried out by the lo­cal uni­verse, con­stel­la­tion, sys­tem, and plan­e­tary forces and per­son­al­i­ties. For ex­am­ple: As God’s laws have been or­dained in Neb­a­don, they are mod­i­fied by the plans es­tab­lished by the Cre­ator Son and Cre­ative Spirit of this lo­cal uni­verse; and in ad­di­tion to all this the op­er­a­tion of these laws has been fur­ther in­flu­enced by the er­rors, de­faults, and in­sur­rec­tions of cer­tain be­ings res­i­dent upon your planet and be­long­ing to your im­me­di­ate plan­e­tary sys­tem of Sa­ta­nia.

4:2.3Na­ture is a time-space re­sul­tant of two cos­mic fac­tors: first, the im­mutabil­ity, per­fec­tion, and rec­ti­tude of Par­a­dise De­ity, and sec­ond, the ex­per­i­men­tal plans, ex­ec­u­tive blun­ders, in­sur­rec­tionary er­rors, in­com­plete­ness of de­vel­op­ment, and im­per­fec­tion of wis­dom of the ex­tra-Par­a­dise crea­tures, from the high­est to the low­est. Na­ture there­fore car­ries a uni­form, un­chang­ing, ma­jes­tic, and mar­velous thread of per­fec­tion from the cir­cle of eter­nity; but in each uni­verse, on each planet, and in each in­di­vid­ual life, this na­ture is mod­i­fied, qual­i­fied, and per­chance marred by the acts, the mis­takes, and the dis­loy­al­ties of the crea­tures of the evo­lu­tion­ary sys­tems and uni­verses; and there­fore must na­ture ever be of a chang­ing mood, whim­si­cal withal, though sta­ble un­der­neath, and var­ied in ac­cor­dance with the op­er­at­ing pro­ce­dures of a lo­cal uni­verse.

4:2.4Na­ture is the per­fec­tion of Par­a­dise di­vided by the in­com­ple­tion, evil, and sin of the un­fin­ished uni­verses. This quo­tient is thus ex­pres­sive of both the per­fect and the par­tial, of both the eter­nal and the tem­po­ral. Con­tin­u­ing evo­lu­tion mod­i­fies na­ture by aug­ment­ing the con­tent of Par­a­dise per­fec­tion and by di­min­ish­ing the con­tent of the evil, er­ror, and dishar­mony of rel­a­tive re­al­ity.

4:2.5God is not per­son­ally pres­ent in na­ture or in any of the forces of na­ture, for the phe­nom­e­non of na­ture is the super­im­po­si­tion of the im­per­fec­tions of pro­gres­sive evo­lu­tion and, some­times, the con­se­quences of in­sur­rec­tionary re­bel­lion, upon the Par­a­dise foun­da­tions of God’s uni­ver­sal law. As it ap­pears on such a world as Uran­tia, na­ture can never be the ad­e­quate ex­pres­sion, the true rep­re­sen­ta­tion, the faith­ful por­trayal, of an all-wise and in­fi­nite God.

4:2.6Na­ture, on your world, is a qual­i­fi­ca­tion of the laws of per­fec­tion by the evo­lu­tion­ary plans of the lo­cal uni­verse. What a trav­esty to wor­ship na­ture be­cause it is in a lim­ited, qual­i­fied sense per­vaded by God; be­cause it is a phase of the uni­ver­sal and, there­fore, di­vine power! Na­ture also is a man­i­fes­ta­tion of the un­fin­ished, the in­com­plete, the im­per­fect out­work­ings of the de­vel­op­ment, growth, and prog­ress of a uni­verse ex­per­i­ment in cos­mic evo­lu­tion.

4:2.7The ap­par­ent de­fects of the nat­u­ral world are not in­dica­tive of any such cor­re­spond­ing de­fects in the char­ac­ter of God. Rather are such ob­served im­per­fec­tions merely the in­ev­i­ta­ble stop-mo­ments in the ex­hi­bi­tion of the ever-mov­ing reel of in­fin­ity pic­tur­iza­tion. It is these very de­fect-in­ter­rup­tions of per­fec­tion-con­ti­nu­ity which make it pos­si­ble for the fi­nite mind of ma­te­rial man to catch a fleet­ing glimpse of di­vine re­al­ity in time and space. The ma­te­rial man­i­fes­ta­tions of di­vin­ity ap­pear de­fec­tive to the evo­lu­tion­ary mind of man only be­cause mor­tal man per­sists in view­ing the phe­nom­ena of na­ture through nat­u­ral eyes, hu­man vi­sion un­aided by mor­ontia mota or by rev­e­la­tion, its com­pen­satory sub­sti­tute on the worlds of time.

4:2.8And na­ture is marred, her beau­ti­ful face is scarred, her fea­tures are seared, by the re­bel­lion, the mis­con­duct, the mis­think­ing of the myr­i­ads of crea­tures who are a part of na­ture, but who have con­tributed to her dis­fig­ure­ment in time. No, na­ture is not God. Na­ture is not an ob­ject of wor­ship.