Magisterial Sons

• are › judges of survival in creations of time and space
• are › personalizations of Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit

7:6.5Much as the Cre­ator Sons are per­son­al­ized by the Fa­ther and the Son, so are the Mag­is­te­rial Sons per­son­al­ized by the Son and the Spirit. These are the Sons who, in the ex­pe­ri­ences of crea­ture in­car­na­tion, earn the right to serve as the judges of sur­vival in the cre­ations of time and space.

• self-governing order based on Paradise

10:2.2Af­ter the Fa­ther has be­stowed upon the per­son­al­ity of his Son the full­ness of him­self, and when this act of self-be­stowal is com­plete and per­fect, of the in­fi­nite power and na­ture which are thus ex­is­tent in the Fa­ther-Son union, the eter­nal part­ners con­jointly be­stow those qual­i­ties and at­tri­butes which con­sti­tute still an­other be­ing like them­selves; and this con­joint per­son­al­ity, the In­fi­nite Spirit, com­pletes the ex­is­ten­tial per­son­al­iza­tion of De­ity.

• are › Avonal Sons, Paradise Sons of God

20:1.32. Mag­is­te­rial Sons—the Avo­nals.

• are › personalizations of Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit

20:1.11The Par­a­dise Sons of God are of three­fold ori­gin: The pri­mary or Cre­ator Sons are brought into be­ing by the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther and the Eter­nal Son; the sec­ondary or Mag­is­te­rial Sons are chil­dren of the Eter­nal Son and the In­fi­nite Spirit; the Trin­ity Teacher Sons are the off­spring of the Fa­ther, Son, and Spirit. From the stand­point of ser­vice, wor­ship, and sup­pli­ca­tion the Par­a­dise Sons are as one; their spirit is one, and their work is iden­ti­cal in qual­ity and com­plete­ness.

• service of Magisterial Sons › serve under Creator Sons in local universes

20:1.12As the Par­a­dise or­ders of Days proved to be di­vine ad­min­is­tra­tors, so have the or­ders of Par­a­dise Sons re­vealed them­selves as di­vine min­is­ters—cre­ators, servers, be­stow­ers, judges, teach­ers, and truth re­veal­ers. They range the uni­verse of uni­verses from the shores of the eter­nal Isle to the in­hab­ited worlds of time and space, per­form­ing man­i­fold ser­vices in the cen­tral and super­uni­verses not dis­closed in these nar­ra­tives. They are var­i­ously or­ga­nized, de­pen­dent on the na­ture and where­abouts of their ser­vice, but in a lo­cal uni­verse both Mag­is­te­rial and Teacher Sons serve un­der the di­rec­tion of the Cre­ator Son who pre­sides over that do­main.

• are › judges of survival in creations of time and space
• are › personalizations of Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit
• service of Magisterial Sons › not creators in personal sense

20:2.1Ev­ery time an orig­i­nal and ab­so­lute con­cept of be­ing for­mu­lated by the Eter­nal Son unites with a new and di­vine ideal of lov­ing ser­vice con­ceived by the In­fi­nite Spirit, a new and orig­i­nal Son of God, a Par­a­dise Mag­is­te­rial Son, is pro­duced. These Sons con­sti­tute the or­der of Avo­nals in con­tradis­tinc­tion to the or­der of Mi­chael, the Cre­ator Sons. Though not cre­ators in the per­sonal sense, they are closely as­so­ci­ated with the Mi­cha­els in all their work. The Avo­nals are plan­e­tary min­is­ters and judges, the mag­is­trates of the time-space realms—of all races, to all worlds, and in all uni­verses.

• number about 1 billion; 1062 in Nebadon
• service of Magisterial Sons › serve under Creator Sons in local universes

20:2.2We have rea­sons for be­liev­ing that the to­tal num­ber of Mag­is­te­rial Sons in the grand uni­verse is about one bil­lion. They are a self-gov­ern­ing or­der, be­ing di­rected by their su­preme coun­cil on Par­a­dise, which is made up of ex­pe­ri­enced Avo­nals drawn from the ser­vices of all uni­verses. But when as­signed to, and com­mis­sioned in, a lo­cal uni­verse, they serve un­der the di­rec­tion of the Cre­ator Son of that do­main.

• bestowal missions › are born of woman
• service of Magisterial Sons › each M.S.’s work is unique since no two are alike

20:2.3Avo­nals are the Par­a­dise Sons of ser­vice and be­stowal to the in­di­vid­ual plan­ets of the lo­cal uni­verses. And since each Avo­nal Son has an ex­clu­sive per­son­al­ity, since no two are alike, their work is in­di­vid­u­ally unique in the realms of their so­journ, where they are of­ten in­car­nated in the like­ness of mor­tal flesh and some­times are born of earthly moth­ers on the evo­lu­tion­ary worlds.

20:2.4In ad­di­tion to their ser­vices on the higher ad­min­is­tra­tive lev­els, the Avo­nals have a three­fold func­tion on the in­hab­ited worlds:

• are › dispensational adjudicators
• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › may close dispensations on same world hundreds of times

20:2.51. Ju­di­cial Ac­tions. They act at the close of the plan­e­tary dis­pen­sa­tions. In time, scores—hun­dreds—of such mis­sions may be ex­e­cuted on each in­di­vid­ual world, and they may go to the same or to other worlds times with­out num­ber as dis­pen­sa­tion ter­mi­na­tors, lib­er­a­tors of the sleep­ing sur­vivors.

• bestowal missions › appear as male adults
• bestowal missions › each planet has only 1 bestowal Son
• bestowal missions › initial planetary mission involves physical incarnation, subsequent ones may not

20:2.62. Mag­is­te­rial Mis­sions. A plan­e­tary vis­i­ta­tion of this type usu­ally oc­curs prior to the ar­rival of a be­stowal Son. On such a mis­sion an Avo­nal ap­pears as an adult of the realm by a tech­nique of in­car­na­tion not in­volv­ing mor­tal birth. Sub­se­quent to this first and usual mag­is­te­rial visit, Avo­nals may re­peat­edly serve in a mag­is­te­rial ca­pac­ity on the same planet both be­fore and af­ter the ap­pear­ance of the be­stowal Son. On these ad­di­tional mag­is­te­rial mis­sions an Avo­nal may or may not ap­pear in ma­te­rial and vis­i­ble form, but on none of them will he be born into the world as a help­less babe.

• bestowal missions › are born of woman

20:2.73. Be­stowal Mis­sions. The Avo­nal Sons do all, at least once, be­stow them­selves upon some mor­tal race on some evo­lu­tion­ary world. Ju­di­cial vis­its are nu­mer­ous, mag­is­te­rial mis­sions may be plu­ral, but on each planet there ap­pears but one be­stowal Son. Be­stowal Avo­nals are born of woman as Mi­chael of Neb­a­don was in­car­nated on Uran­tia.

• bestowal missions › 7 creature bestowals is usually the limit

20:2.8There is no limit to the num­ber of times the Avo­nal Sons may serve on mag­is­te­rial and on be­stowal mis­sions, but usu­ally, when the ex­pe­ri­ence has been seven times tra­versed, there is sus­pen­sion in fa­vor of those who have had less of such ser­vice. These Sons of mul­ti­ple be­stowal ex­pe­ri­ence are then as­signed to the high per­sonal coun­cil of a Cre­ator Son, thus be­com­ing par­tic­i­pants in the ad­min­is­tra­tion of uni­verse af­fairs.

• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 2 Brilliant Evening Stars
• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 12 Melchizedeks
• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 100 archangels
• service of Magisterial Sons › just as effective and powerful on bestowals as Creator Son

20:2.9In all their work for and on the in­hab­ited worlds, the Mag­is­te­rial Sons are as­sisted by two or­ders of lo­cal uni­verse crea­tures, the Mel­chiz­e­deks and the arch­an­gels, while on be­stowal mis­sions they are also ac­com­pa­nied by the Bril­liant Evening Stars, like­wise of ori­gin in the lo­cal cre­ations. In ev­ery plan­e­tary ef­fort the sec­ondary Par­a­dise Sons, the Avo­nals, are sup­ported by the full power and au­thor­ity of a pri­mary Par­a­dise Son, the Cre­ator Son of their lo­cal uni­verse of ser­vice. To all in­tents and pur­poses their work on the in­hab­ited spheres is just as ef­fec­tive and ac­cept­able as would have been the ser­vice of a Cre­ator Son upon such worlds of mor­tal habi­ta­tion.

• are › Avonal Sons, Paradise Sons of God
• are › dispensational adjudicators
• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › may close dispensations on same world hundreds of times

20:3.1The Avo­nals are known as Mag­is­te­rial Sons be­cause they are the high mag­is­trates of the realms, the ad­ju­di­ca­tors of the suc­ces­sive dis­pen­sa­tions of the worlds of time. They pre­side over the awak­en­ing of the sleep­ing sur­vivors, sit in judg­ment on the realm, bring to an end a dis­pen­sa­tion of sus­pended jus­tice, ex­e­cute the man­dates of an age of pro­ba­tion­ary mercy, re­as­sign the space crea­tures of plan­e­tary min­istry to the tasks of the new dis­pen­sa­tion, and re­turn to the head­quar­ters of their lo­cal uni­verse upon the com­ple­tion of their mis­sion.

• are › judges of survival in creations of time and space

20:3.2When they sit in judg­ment on the des­tinies of an age, the Avo­nals de­cree the fate of the evo­lu­tion­ary races, but though they may ren­der judg­ments ex­tin­guish­ing the iden­tity of per­sonal crea­tures, they do not ex­e­cute such sen­tences. Ver­dicts of this na­ture are ex­e­cuted by none but the au­thor­i­ties of a super­uni­verse.

• bestowal missions › initial planetary mission involves physical incarnation, subsequent ones may not
• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › no incarnation if visit is solely to terminate dispensation

20:3.3The ar­rival of a Par­a­dise Avo­nal on an evo­lu­tion­ary world for the pur­pose of ter­mi­nat­ing a dis­pen­sa­tion and of in­au­gu­rat­ing a new era of plan­e­tary pro­gres­sion is not nec­es­sar­ily ei­ther a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion or a be­stowal mis­sion. Mag­is­te­rial mis­sions some­times, and be­stowal mis­sions al­ways, are in­car­na­tions; that is, on such as­sign­ments the Avo­nals serve on a planet in ma­te­rial form—lit­er­ally. Their other vis­its are “tech­ni­cal,” and in this ca­pac­ity an Avo­nal is not in­car­nated for plan­e­tary ser­vice. If a Mag­is­te­rial Son comes solely as a dis­pen­sa­tional ad­ju­di­ca­tor, he ar­rives on a planet as a spir­i­tual be­ing, in­vis­i­ble to the ma­te­rial crea­tures of the realm. Such tech­ni­cal vis­its oc­cur re­peat­edly in the long his­tory of an in­hab­ited world.

20:3.4Avo­nal Sons may act as plan­e­tary judges prior to both the mag­is­te­rial and be­stowal ex­pe­ri­ences. On ei­ther of these mis­sions, how­ever, the in­car­nated Son will judge the pass­ing plan­e­tary age; like­wise does a Cre­ator Son when in­car­nated on a mis­sion of be­stowal in the like­ness of mor­tal flesh. When a Par­a­dise Son vis­its an evo­lu­tion­ary world and be­comes like one of its peo­ple, his pres­ence ter­mi­nates a dis­pen­sa­tion and con­sti­tutes a judg­ment of the realm.

• bestowal missions › appear as male adults
• bestowal missions › in unbroken connection with spiritual forces when incarnated
• bestowal missions › initial planetary mission involves physical incarnation, subsequent ones may not

20:4.1Prior to the plan­e­tary ap­pear­ance of a be­stowal Son, an in­hab­ited world is usu­ally vis­ited by a Par­a­dise Avo­nal on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion. If it is an ini­tial mag­is­te­rial vis­i­ta­tion, the Avo­nal is al­ways in­car­nated as a ma­te­rial be­ing. He ap­pears on the planet of as­sign­ment as a full-fledged male of the mor­tal races, a be­ing fully vis­i­ble to, and in phys­i­cal con­tact with, the mor­tal crea­tures of his day and gen­er­a­tion. Through­out a mag­is­te­rial in­car­na­tion the con­nec­tion of the Avo­nal Son with the lo­cal and the uni­ver­sal spir­i­tual forces is com­plete and un­bro­ken.

• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › may close dispensations on same world hundreds of times
• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › the same or other Avonals may visit a planet

20:4.2A planet may ex­pe­ri­ence many mag­is­te­rial vis­i­ta­tions both be­fore and af­ter the ap­pear­ance of a be­stowal Son. It may be vis­ited many times by the same or other Avo­nals, act­ing as dis­pen­sa­tional ad­ju­di­ca­tors, but such tech­ni­cal mis­sions of judg­ment are nei­ther be­stowal nor mag­is­te­rial, and the Avo­nals are never in­car­nated at such times. Even when a planet is blessed with re­peated mag­is­te­rial mis­sions, the Avo­nals do not al­ways sub­mit to mor­tal in­car­na­tion; and when they do serve in the like­ness of mor­tal flesh, they al­ways ap­pear as adult be­ings of the realm; they are not born of woman.

• bestowal missions › incarnate with experienced Adjusters

20:4.3When in­car­nated on ei­ther be­stowal or mag­is­te­rial mis­sions, the Par­a­dise Sons have ex­pe­ri­enced Ad­justers, and these Ad­justers are dif­fer­ent for each in­car­na­tion. The Ad­justers that oc­cupy the minds of the in­car­nated Sons of God can never hope for per­son­al­ity through fu­sion with the hu­man-di­vine be­ings of their in­dwelling, but they are of­ten per­son­al­ized by fiat of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther. Such Ad­justers form the su­preme Di­vin­ing­ton coun­cil of di­rec­tion for the ad­min­is­tra­tion, iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, and dis­patch of Mys­tery Mon­i­tors to the in­hab­ited realms. They also re­ceive and ac­credit Ad­justers on their re­turn to the “bo­som of the Fa­ther” upon the mor­tal dis­so­lu­tion of their earthly taber­na­cles. In this way the faith­ful Ad­justers of the world judges be­come the ex­alted chiefs of their kind.

• none have visited Urantia on magisterial missions

20:4.4Uran­tia has never been host to an Avo­nal Son on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion. Had Uran­tia fol­lowed the gen­eral plan of in­hab­ited worlds, it would have been blessed with a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion some­time be­tween the days of Adam and the be­stowal of Christ Mi­chael. But the reg­u­lar se­quence of Par­a­dise Sons on your planet was wholly de­ranged by the ap­pear­ance of your Cre­ator Son on his ter­mi­nal be­stowal nine­teen hun­dred years ago.

20:4.5Uran­tia may yet be vis­ited by an Avo­nal com­mis­sioned to in­car­nate on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion, but re­gard­ing the fu­ture ap­pear­ance of Par­a­dise Sons, not even “the an­gels in heaven know the time or man­ner of such vis­i­ta­tions,” for a Mi­chael-be­stowal world be­comes the in­di­vid­ual and per­sonal ward of a Mas­ter Son and, as such, is wholly sub­ject to his own plans and rul­ings. And with your world, this is fur­ther com­pli­cated by Mi­chael’s prom­ise to re­turn. Re­gard­less of the mis­un­der­stand­ings about the Uran­tian so­journ of Mi­chael of Neb­a­don, one thing is cer­tainly au­then­tic—his prom­ise to come back to your world. In view of this prospect, only time can re­veal the fu­ture or­der of the vis­i­ta­tions of the Par­a­dise Sons of God on Uran­tia.

• bestowal missions › each planet has only 1 bestowal Son
• bestowal missions › every planet in local universe will have, except the one on which the Creator Son incarnates

20:5.4Dur­ing the course of the long his­tory of an in­hab­ited planet, many dis­pen­sa­tional ad­ju­di­ca­tions will take place, and more than one mag­is­te­rial mis­sion may oc­cur, but or­di­nar­ily only once will a be­stowal Son serve on the sphere. It is only re­quired that each in­hab­ited world have one be­stowal Son come to live the full mor­tal life from birth to death. Sooner or later, re­gard­less of spir­i­tual sta­tus, ev­ery mor­tal-in­hab­ited world is des­tined to be­come host to a Mag­is­te­rial Son on a be­stowal mis­sion ex­cept the one planet in each lo­cal uni­verse whereon a Cre­ator Son elects to make his mor­tal be­stowal.

• service of Magisterial Sons › just as effective and powerful on bestowals as Creator Son

20:5.6At the head­quar­ters of his lo­cal uni­verse a Cre­ator Son, es­pe­cially af­ter the com­ple­tion of his own mor­tal be­stowal, spends much of his time in coun­sel­ing and in­struct­ing the col­lege of as­so­ciate Sons, the Mag­is­te­rial Sons and oth­ers. In love and de­vo­tion, with ten­der mercy and af­fec­tion­ate con­sid­er­a­tion, these Mag­is­te­rial Sons be­stow them­selves upon the worlds of space. And in no way are these plan­e­tary ser­vices in­fe­rior to the mor­tal be­stowals of the Mi­cha­els. It is true that your Cre­ator Son se­lected for the realm of his fi­nal ad­ven­ture in crea­ture ex­pe­ri­ence one which had had un­usual mis­for­tunes. But no planet could ever be in such a con­di­tion that it would re­quire the be­stowal of a Cre­ator Son to ef­fect its spir­i­tual re­ha­bil­i­ta­tion. Any Son of the be­stowal group would have equally suf­ficed, for in all their work on the worlds of a lo­cal uni­verse the Mag­is­te­rial Sons are just as di­vinely ef­fec­tive and all wise as would have been their Par­a­dise brother, the Cre­ator Son.

• he who has seen a M.S. has seen Eternal Son

20:6.5The mor­tal-be­stowal ca­reers of the Mi­cha­els and the Avo­nals, while com­pa­ra­ble in most re­spects, are not iden­ti­cal in all: Never does a Mag­is­te­rial Son pro­claim, “Whoso­ever has seen the Son has seen the Fa­ther,” as did your Cre­ator Son when on Uran­tia and in the flesh. But a be­stowed Avo­nal does de­clare, “Whoso­ever has seen me has seen the Eter­nal Son of God.” The Mag­is­te­rial Sons are not of im­me­di­ate de­scent from the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther, nor do they in­car­nate sub­ject to the Fa­ther’s will; al­ways do they be­stow them­selves as Par­a­dise Sons sub­ject to the will of the Eter­nal Son of Par­a­dise.

• Spirit of Truth is spirit of Creator Son and spirit of bestowal Son

20:6.8When the mor­tal in­car­na­tion is fin­ished, the Avo­nal of ser­vice pro­ceeds to Par­a­dise, is ac­cepted by the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther, re­turns to the lo­cal uni­verse of as­sign­ment, and is ac­knowl­edged by the Cre­ator Son. There­upon the be­stowal Avo­nal and the Cre­ator Son send their con­joint Spirit of Truth to func­tion in the hearts of the mor­tal races dwell­ing on the be­stowal world. In the presovereignty ages of a lo­cal uni­verse, this is the joint spirit of both Sons, im­ple­mented by the Cre­ative Spirit. It dif­fers some­what from the Spirit of Truth which char­ac­ter­izes the lo­cal uni­verse ages fol­low­ing a Mi­chael’s sev­enth be­stowal.

20:6.9Upon the com­ple­tion of a Cre­ator Son’s fi­nal be­stowal the Spirit of Truth pre­vi­ously sent into all Avo­nal-be­stowal worlds of that lo­cal uni­verse changes in na­ture, be­com­ing more lit­er­ally the spirit of the sov­er­eign Mi­chael. This phe­nom­e­non takes place con­cur­rently with the lib­er­a­tion of the Spirit of Truth for ser­vice on the Mi­chael-mor­tal-be­stowal planet. There­after, each world hon­ored by a Mag­is­te­rial be­stowal will re­ceive the same spirit Com­forter from the sev­en­fold Cre­ator Son, in as­so­ci­a­tion with that Mag­is­te­rial Son, which it would have re­ceived had the lo­cal uni­verse Sov­er­eign per­son­ally in­car­nated as its be­stowal Son.

• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › accompany Trinity Teacher Sons to terminate dispensations

20:9.2Trin­ity Teacher Sons have noth­ing to do with ter­mi­nat­ing plan­e­tary dis­pen­sa­tions. They nei­ther judge the dead nor trans­late the liv­ing, but on each plan­e­tary mis­sion they are ac­com­pa­nied by a Mag­is­te­rial Son who per­forms these ser­vices. Teacher Sons are wholly con­cerned with the ini­ti­a­tion of a spir­i­tual age, with the dawn of the era of spir­i­tual re­al­i­ties on an evo­lu­tion­ary planet. They make real the spir­i­tual coun­ter­parts of ma­te­rial knowl­edge and tem­po­ral wis­dom.

• are › personalizations of Eternal Son and Infinite Spirit

20:10.3In the Cre­ator Sons the love of the Uni­ver­sal Fa­ther is blended with the mercy of the Eter­nal Son and is dis­closed to the lo­cal uni­verses in the cre­ative power, lov­ing min­istry, and un­der­stand­ing sov­er­eignty of the Mi­cha­els. In the Mag­is­te­rial Sons the mercy of the Eter­nal Son, united with the min­istry of the In­fi­nite Spirit, is re­vealed to the evo­lu­tion­ary do­mains in the ca­reers of these Avo­nals of judg­ment, ser­vice, and be­stowal. In the Trin­ity Teacher Sons the love, mercy, and min­istry of the three Par­a­dise De­i­ties are co-or­di­nated on the high­est time-space value-lev­els and are pre­sented to the uni­verses as liv­ing truth, di­vine good­ness, and true spir­i­tual beauty.

• bestowal missions › are born of woman

21:4.2Avo­nal be­stowals are al­ways in the like­ness of mor­tal flesh, but the seven be­stowals of a Cre­ator Son in­volve his ap­pear­ing on seven crea­ture lev­els of be­ing and per­tain to the rev­e­la­tion of the seven pri­mary ex­pres­sions of the will and na­ture of De­ity. With­out ex­cep­tion, all Cre­ator Sons pass through this seven times giv­ing of them­selves to their cre­ated chil­dren be­fore they as­sume set­tled and su­preme ju­ris­dic­tion over the uni­verses of their own cre­ation.

• in personality registers

30:1.322. Mag­is­te­rial Sons.

• in personality registers

30:2.402. Mag­is­te­rial Sons—Avo­nals.

• number about 1 billion; 1062 in Nebadon
• referred to as “lesser Christs”
• service of Magisterial Sons › just as effective and powerful on bestowals as Creator Son

35:0.1The Sons of God pre­vi­ously in­tro­duced have had a Par­a­dise ori­gin. They are the off­spring of the di­vine Rulers of the uni­ver­sal do­mains. Of the first Par­a­dise or­der of son­ship, the Cre­ator Sons, there is in Neb­a­don only one, Mi­chael, the uni­verse fa­ther and sov­er­eign. Of the sec­ond or­der of Par­a­dise son­ship, the Avo­nal or Mag­is­te­rial Sons, Neb­a­don has its full quota—1,062. And these “lesser Christs” are just as ef­fec­tive and all-pow­er­ful in their plan­e­tary be­stowals as was the Cre­ator and Mas­ter Son on Uran­tia. The third or­der, be­ing of Trin­ity ori­gin, do not reg­is­ter in a lo­cal uni­verse, but I es­ti­mate there are in Neb­a­don be­tween fif­teen and twenty thou­sand Trin­ity Teacher Sons ex­clu­sive of 9,642 crea­ture-trin­i­tized as­sis­tants of rec­ord. These Par­a­dise Day­nals are nei­ther mag­is­trates nor ad­min­is­tra­tors; they are super­teach­ers.

• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 12 Melchizedeks

35:2.6When a Cre­ator Son en­ters upon the be­stowal ca­reer on an evo­lu­tion­ary world, he goes alone; but when one of his Par­a­dise broth­ers, an Avo­nal Son, en­ters upon a be­stowal, he is ac­com­pa­nied by the Mel­chiz­e­dek sup­port­ers, twelve in num­ber, who so ef­fi­ciently con­tribute to the suc­cess of the be­stowal mis­sion. They also sup­port the Par­a­dise Avo­nals on mag­is­te­rial mis­sions to the in­hab­ited worlds, and in these as­sign­ments the Mel­chiz­e­deks are vis­i­ble to mor­tal eyes if the Avo­nal Son is also thus man­i­fest.

• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 2 Brilliant Evening Stars
• bestowal missions › Evening Stars bid M.S. be about brother’s business

37:2.8One of the high du­ties of the Evening Stars is to ac­com­pany the Avo­nal be­stowal Sons on their plan­e­tary mis­sions, even as Ga­briel ac­com­pa­nied Mi­chael on his Uran­tia be­stowal. The two at­tend­ing super­an­gels are the rank­ing per­son­al­i­ties of such mis­sions, serv­ing as co­com­man­ders of the arch­an­gels and all oth­ers as­signed to these un­der­tak­ings. It is the se­nior of these super­an­gel com­man­ders who, at the sig­nif­i­cant time and age, bids the Avo­nal be­stowal Son, “Be about your brother’s busi­ness.”

• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › 100 archangels

37:3.5In gen­eral, the arch­an­gels are as­signed to the ser­vice and min­istry of the Avo­nal or­der of son­ship, but not un­til they have passed through ex­ten­sive pre­lim­i­nary train­ing in all phases of the work of the var­i­ous min­is­ter­ing spir­its. A corps of one hun­dred ac­com­pa­nies ev­ery Par­a­dise be­stowal Son to an in­hab­ited world, be­ing tem­porar­ily as­signed to him for the du­ra­tion of such a be­stowal. If the Mag­is­te­rial Son should be­come tem­po­rary ruler of the planet, these arch­an­gels would act as the di­rect­ing heads of all ce­les­tial life on that sphere.

37:3.6Two se­nior arch­an­gels are al­ways as­signed as the per­sonal aids of a Par­a­dise Avo­nal on all plan­e­tary mis­sions, whether in­volv­ing ju­di­cial ac­tions, mag­is­te­rial mis­sions, or be­stowal in­car­na­tions. When this Par­a­dise Son has fin­ished the judg­ment of a realm and the dead are called to rec­ord (the so-called res­ur­rec­tion), it is lit­er­ally true that the se­raphic guard­i­ans of the slum­ber­ing per­son­al­i­ties re­spond to “the voice of the arch­an­gel.” The roll call of a dis­pen­sa­tion ter­mi­na­tion is pro­mul­gated by an at­ten­dant arch­an­gel. This is the arch­an­gel of the res­ur­rec­tion, some­times re­ferred to as the “arch­an­gel of Mi­chael.”

• bestowal missions › accompanied on bestowals by › supreme seraphim

39:1.3Be­ing of as­sign­ment to the high Sons and Spir­its, these ser­a­phim are nat­u­rally as­so­ci­ated with the far-flung ser­vices of the Par­a­dise Avo­nals, the di­vine off­spring of the Eter­nal Son and the In­fi­nite Spirit. The Par­a­dise Avo­nals are al­ways at­tended on all mag­is­te­rial and be­stowal mis­sions by this high and ex­pe­ri­enced or­der of ser­a­phim, who are at such times de­voted to or­ga­niz­ing and ad­min­is­ter­ing the spe­cial work con­nected with the ter­mi­na­tion of one plan­e­tary dis­pen­sa­tion and the in­au­gu­ra­tion of a new age. But they are not con­cerned in the work of ad­ju­di­ca­tion which might be in­ci­den­tal to such a change in dis­pen­sa­tions.

39:1.4Be­stowal At­ten­dants. Par­a­dise Avo­nals, but not Cre­ator Sons, when on a be­stowal mis­sion are al­ways ac­com­pa­nied by a corps of 144 be­stowal at­ten­dants. These 144 an­gels are the chiefs of all other Son-Spirit min­is­ters who may be as­so­ci­ated with a be­stowal mis­sion. There might pos­si­bly be le­gions of an­gels sub­ject to the com­mand of an in­car­nated Son of God on a plan­e­tary be­stowal, but all these ser­a­phim would be or­ga­nized and di­rected by the 144 be­stowal at­ten­dants. Higher or­ders of an­gels, super­na­phim and se­con­a­phim, might also form a part of the at­tend­ing host, and though their mis­sions are dis­tinct from those of the ser­a­phim, all these ac­tiv­i­ties would be co-or­di­nated by the be­stowal at­ten­dants.

39:1.5These be­stowal at­ten­dants are com­ple­tion ser­a­phim; they have all tra­versed the cir­cles of Seraph­ing­ton and have at­tained the Se­raphic Corps of Com­ple­tion. And they have been fur­ther es­pe­cially trained to meet the dif­fi­cul­ties and to cope with the emer­gen­cies as­so­ci­ated with the be­stowals of the Sons of God for the ad­vance­ment of the chil­dren of time. Such ser­a­phim have all achieved Par­a­dise and the per­sonal em­brace of the Sec­ond Source and Cen­ter, the Eter­nal Son.

• residence in Jerusem circles

46:5.12The first cir­cle of the do­main of the Sons is oc­cu­pied by the Mag­is­te­rial Sons and their per­sonal staffs. Here cen­ter all of the plans and im­me­di­ate ac­tiv­i­ties of the be­stowal and ad­ju­di­ca­tional ser­vices of these ju­ridi­cal Sons. It is also through this cen­ter that the Avo­nals of the sys­tem main­tain con­tact with the uni­verse.

• service of Magisterial Sons › planetary progress depends on missions of

49:4.7Hu­man be­ings are all gre­gar­i­ous, both tribal and racial. These group seg­re­ga­tions are in­her­ent in their ori­gin and con­sti­tu­tion. Such ten­den­cies can be mod­i­fied only by ad­vanc­ing civ­i­liza­tion and by grad­ual spir­i­tu­al­iza­tion. The so­cial, eco­nomic, and gov­ern­men­tal prob­lems of the in­hab­ited worlds vary in ac­cor­dance with the age of the plan­ets and the de­gree to which they have been in­flu­enced by the suc­ces­sive so­journs of the di­vine Sons.

• service of Magisterial Sons › planetary progress depends on missions of

49:5.16All such com­par­a­tive es­ti­mates con­cern­ing the in­tel­lec­tual prog­ress or the spir­i­tual at­tain­ments of any world or group of worlds should in fair­ness rec­og­nize plan­e­tary age; much, very much, de­pends on age, the help of the bi­o­logic up­lifters, and the sub­se­quent mis­sions of the var­i­ous or­ders of the di­vine Sons.

• non-bestowal planetary missions › arrive when intellectual and ethical progress has reached limits of evolutionary development

49:5.25When the in­tel­lec­tual and eth­i­cal prog­ress of a hu­man race has reached the lim­its of evo­lu­tion­ary de­vel­op­ment, there comes an Avo­nal Son of Par­a­dise on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion; and later on, when the spir­i­tual sta­tus of such a world is near­ing its limit of nat­u­ral at­tain­ment, the planet is vis­ited by a Par­a­dise be­stowal Son. The chief mis­sion of a be­stowal Son is to es­tab­lish the plan­e­tary sta­tus, re­lease the Spirit of Truth for plan­e­tary func­tion, and thus ef­fect the uni­ver­sal com­ing of the Thought Ad­justers.

• service of Magisterial Sons › planetary progress depends on missions of

50:6.4Cul­ture pre­sup­poses qual­ity of mind; cul­ture can­not be en­hanced un­less mind is el­e­vated. Su­pe­rior in­tel­lect will seek a no­ble cul­ture and find some way to at­tain such a goal. In­fe­rior minds will spurn the high­est cul­ture even when pre­sented to them ready-made. Much de­pends, also, upon the suc­ces­sive mis­sions of the di­vine Sons and upon the ex­tent to which en­light­en­ment is re­ceived by the ages of their re­spec­tive dis­pen­sa­tions.

• bestowal missions › initial planetary mission involves physical incarnation, subsequent ones may not
• bestowal missions › may remain an age on first mission if universally accepted

51:7.1From time to time the Avo­nal Sons of Par­a­dise come to the in­hab­ited worlds for ju­di­cial ac­tions, but the first Avo­nal to ar­rive on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion in­au­gu­rates the fourth dis­pen­sa­tion of an evo­lu­tion­ary world of time and space. On some plan­ets where this Mag­is­te­rial Son is uni­ver­sally ac­cepted, he re­mains for one age; and thus the planet pros­pers un­der the joint ruler­ship of three Sons: the Plan­e­tary Prince, the Ma­te­rial Son, and the Mag­is­te­rial Son, the lat­ter two be­ing vis­i­ble to all the in­hab­i­tants of the realm.

51:7.2Be­fore the first Mag­is­te­rial Son con­cludes his mis­sion on a nor­mal evo­lu­tion­ary world, there has been ef­fected the union of the ed­u­ca­tional and ad­min­is­tra­tive work of the Plan­e­tary Prince and the Ma­te­rial Son. This amal­ga­ma­tion of the dual super­vi­sion of a planet brings into ex­is­tence a new and ef­fec­tive or­der of world ad­min­is­tra­tion. Upon the re­tire­ment of the Mag­is­te­rial Son the Plan­e­tary Adam as­sumes the out­ward di­rec­tion of the sphere. The Ma­te­rial Son and Daugh­ter thus act jointly as plan­e­tary ad­min­is­tra­tors un­til the set­tling of the world in the era of light and life; where­upon the Plan­e­tary Prince is el­e­vated to the po­si­tion of Plan­e­tary Sov­er­eign. Dur­ing this age of ad­vanced evo­lu­tion, Adam and Eve be­come what might be called joint prime min­is­ters of the glo­ri­fied realm.

• non-bestowal planetary missions › world-wide peace indicates ripeness for

52:3.11Dur­ing the clos­ing cen­turies of the post-Adamic age there de­vel­ops new in­ter­est in art, mu­sic, and lit­er­a­ture, and this world-wide awak­en­ing is the sig­nal for the ap­pear­ance of a Mag­is­te­rial Son. The crown­ing de­vel­op­ment of this era is the uni­ver­sal in­ter­est in in­tel­lec­tual re­al­i­ties, true phi­los­o­phy. Re­li­gion be­comes less na­tion­al­is­tic, be­comes more and more a plan­e­tary af­fair. New rev­e­la­tions of truth char­ac­ter­ize these ages, and the Most Highs of the con­stel­la­tions be­gin to rule in the af­fairs of men. Truth is re­vealed up to the ad­min­is­tra­tion of the con­stel­la­tions.

52:3.12Great eth­i­cal ad­vance­ment char­ac­ter­izes this era; the broth­er­hood of man is the goal of its so­ci­ety. World-wide peace—the ces­sa­tion of race con­flict and na­tional an­i­mos­ity—is the in­di­ca­tor of plan­e­tary ripeness for the ad­vent of the third or­der of son­ship, the Mag­is­te­rial Son.

• are › Avonal Sons, Paradise Sons of God

52:4.2When an evo­lu­tion­ary world be­comes thus ripe for the mag­is­te­rial age, one of the high or­der of Avo­nal Sons makes his ap­pear­ance on a mag­is­te­rial mis­sion. The Plan­e­tary Prince and the Ma­te­rial Sons are of lo­cal uni­verse ori­gin; the Mag­is­te­rial Son hails from Par­a­dise.

• bestowal missions › appear as male adults
• bestowal missions › initial planetary mission involves physical incarnation, subsequent ones may not

52:4.3When the Par­a­dise Avo­nals come to the mor­tal spheres on ju­di­cial ac­tions, solely as dis­pen­sa­tion ad­ju­di­ca­tors, they are never in­car­nated. But when they come on mag­is­te­rial mis­sions, at least the ini­tial one, they are al­ways in­car­nated, though they do not ex­pe­ri­ence birth, nei­ther do they die the death of the realm. They may live on for gen­er­a­tions in those cases where they re­main as rulers on cer­tain plan­ets. When their mis­sions are con­cluded, they yield up their plan­e­tary lives and re­turn to their for­mer sta­tus of di­vine son­ship.

• service of Magisterial Sons › accompany Teacher Sons on planetary missions

52:7.8From time to time through­out their dis­pen­sa­tion, Teacher Sons con­tinue to come to these peace­ful worlds. They do not leave a world un­til they ob­serve that the evo­lu­tion­ary plan, as it con­cerns that planet, is work­ing smoothly. A Mag­is­te­rial Son of judg­ment usu­ally ac­com­pa­nies the Teacher Sons on their suc­ces­sive mis­sions, while an­other such Son func­tions at the time of their de­par­ture, and these ju­di­cial ac­tions con­tinue from age to age through­out the du­ra­tion of the mor­tal regime of time and space.

• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › accompany Trinity Teacher Sons to terminate dispensations

55:0.2This era of light and life, in­au­gu­rated by the Teacher Sons at the con­clu­sion of their fi­nal plan­e­tary mis­sion, con­tin­ues in­def­i­nitely on the in­hab­ited worlds. Each ad­vanc­ing stage of set­tled sta­tus may be seg­re­gated by the ju­di­cial ac­tions of the Mag­is­te­rial Sons into a suc­ces­sion of dis­pen­sa­tions; but all such ju­di­cial ac­tions are purely tech­ni­cal, in no way mod­i­fy­ing the course of plan­e­tary events.

• service of Magisterial Sons › personally present on bestowal planet for inauguration of morontia temple

55:1.1The pres­ence of a mor­ontia tem­ple at the cap­i­tal of an in­hab­ited world is the cer­tifi­cate of the ad­mis­sion of such a sphere to the set­tled ages of light and life. Be­fore the Teacher Sons leave a world at the con­clu­sion of their ter­mi­nal mis­sion, they in­au­gu­rate this fi­nal epoch of evo­lu­tion­ary at­tain­ment; they pre­side on that day when the “holy tem­ple comes down upon earth.” This event, sig­nal­iz­ing the dawn of the era of light and life, is al­ways hon­ored by the per­sonal pres­ence of the Par­a­dise be­stowal Son of that planet, who comes to wit­ness this great day. There in this tem­ple of un­par­al­leled beauty, this be­stowal Son of Par­a­dise pro­claims the long-time Plan­e­tary Prince as the new Plan­e­tary Sov­er­eign and in­vests such a faith­ful La­non­an­dek Son with new pow­ers and ex­tended au­thor­ity over plan­e­tary af­fairs. The Sys­tem Sov­er­eign is also pres­ent and speaks in con­fir­ma­tion of these pro­nounce­ments.

• service of Magisterial Sons › personally present on bestowal planet for inauguration of morontia temple

55:7.1This epoch ex­tends from the ap­pear­ance of the mor­ontia tem­ple at the new plan­e­tary head­quar­ters to the time of the set­tling of the en­tire sys­tem in light and life. This age is in­au­gu­rated by the Trin­ity Teacher Sons at the close of their suc­ces­sive world mis­sions when the Plan­e­tary Prince is el­e­vated to the sta­tus of Plan­e­tary Sov­er­eign by the man­date and per­sonal pres­ence of the Par­a­dise be­stowal Son of that sphere. Con­comi­tant there­with the fi­nal­i­ters in­au­gu­rate their ac­tive par­tic­i­pa­tion in plan­e­tary af­fairs.

• are › dispensational adjudicators
• non-bestowal planetary missions › judicial actions › may close dispensations on same world hundreds of times
• service of Magisterial Sons › counselors in local system light and life

55:10.5Dur­ing this and sub­se­quent ages the Mag­is­te­rial Sons con­tinue to func­tion as dis­pen­sa­tional ad­ju­di­ca­tors, while one hun­dred of these Avo­nal Sons of Par­a­dise con­sti­tute the new high coun­cil of the Bright and Morn­ing Star on the uni­verse cap­i­tal. Later on, and as re­quested by the Sys­tem Sov­er­eigns, one of these Mag­is­te­rial Sons will be­come the su­preme coun­selor sta­tioned on the head­quar­ters world of each lo­cal sys­tem un­til the sev­enth stage of unity is at­tained.