- Emergence and purpose of adoration — Jean-Marie Chaise.
© 1998 François Le Rohellec, Jean Royer, Guy Bourhis, Anne-Marie Ronfet, Joseph Le Dain, Séverin Desbuisson
© 1998 French-speaking Association of Readers of the Urantia Book
Journal of the association L'A.F.L.L.U. French-speaking Association of Readers of the URANTIA Book
Member of the I.U.A.
Head office:
8, Passage of the Good Seed
75011 PARIS—France
¶ A Word from the President
Dear readers, For the A.F.L.L.U., it’s a bit like back to school… and the opportunity to undertake new projects.
Thus, we count on each of you to successfully begin a program of distribution of the Urantia Book in libraries. We also plan to gradually put in place the means to easily and inexpensively publish your studies and major works on the U.L. that could not fit into the link; a first work is already proposed to you.
Finally, it is with the vivid memory of this great moment of fraternity that was the international meeting of Helsinki - 4 short days were barely enough to penetrate a little the richness of the participants and to let oneself be invaded by the Spirit of the place - that I invite you to our next national meeting which will take place at the end of November in the south of Paris.
Francois Le Rohellec
President of the A.F.L.L.U.
¶ Summary
- The President’s word— François Le Rohellec
- August 21, 2005 — Jean Royer
- The Urantia Book and Children — Guy Bourhis
- A hot answer- Anne-Marie Ronfet
- Emergence and purpose of adoration — Jean-Marie Chaise.
- Could Jesus have avoided the cross? (transcribed and translated from a conference by Bill SADLER)
- The last lines that Emilie BRONTË wrote.
- Report of the IUA conferences held in Helsinki
- from 7 to 10/8/98 and in Karepa from 12 to 14/8/98 — Séverin and Joseph
- Questions-Answers…
- The Gazette with:
❧ 1955 URANTIA Foundation. All rights reserved. These materials from The URANTIA Book are used with permission. Any artistic representation(s), interpretation(s), opinion(s) or conclusion(s) implied or stated are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of URANTIA Foundation or its affiliates.
Legal deposit: December 1997 — ISSN 1285-1116
Subscription in 1998: 100 FF per year (approximately 4 issues)
¶ August 21, 2005
Among Urantians, the year 2000 was marked without excess. It must be said that the great fear had taken place a few years before and that some had forgotten these words of Jesus: The fall of nations, the collapse of empires, the destruction of the unbelieving Jews, the end of an age, or even the end of the world, in what way do these things concern the one who believes in the gospel and who has buried his life in the security of the eternal kingdom? UB 176:3.2
We are not, then, millenarians. Yet we do not escape them altogether. First, there is this comparison between the time elapsed since the bestowal of Machiventa and the bestowal of Jesus, 1973 years (UB 93:2.1), and the time elapsed between the birth of Jesus and the appearance of The URANTIA Book, 1962 years (1955 +7), and then there is this little remark which suggests, at least to some, that the Book is intended to have a direct impact for a thousand years: Such a conceptual expansion would deprive the mortal thinkers of the next millennium of the stimulus…(UB 30:0.2)
In perspective, the expectation of Urantians appears more sedate than that of Christian fundamentalists. The return in glory of the Creator Son does not seem essential for most of us. Curiously, while the leader of the seraphim says he expects the return of Melchizedek at any moment, (Attention ‘at any moment’ has been replaced by ‘again’ in the vinyl version, it is a mistake!; the English literally says any day at any hour) another Melchizedek assures us that he must return “in a little over a thousand years” (UB 93:10.10)
After reading the Book once or twice, many Urantians are more likely to look forward to the era of light and life than to the return of Jesus or Melchizedek. This very idea, however, fades rather quickly in the face of the vision of our planet that the media coverage offers us. So perhaps we can refer to the wait of the Vanites in the Garden of Eden, nearly 175,000 years before the promised arrival of Adam. What faith it took for Van and Amadon to continue to cultivate the garden while the world around them continued to happily massacre each other!
Faced with the sum of wars, famines, attacks, destructions of all kinds, will we be able to keep a positive vision of evolution? Will we be able to continue to be agondontaries?
Jean Royer
¶ THE URANTIA BOOK AND CHILDREN
Text of a conference given by Guy Bourhis in Paris in 1984. This text is a sort of introduction for a much longer study on the same subject. This study entitled “Journey into the heart of a child” will be available soon.
Michael, during his 7th and final outpouring, delivered to us a message that we must not lose sight of in preparing for our survival. This message is the example.
Indeed, tirelessly, Michael showed the men of Urantia and the evolutionary beings of the systems of Nebadon what it was necessary to do to merit this survival and to march toward the Father’s house, Paradise.
Guy Bourhis
¶ A hot response
This text has undoubtedly aroused a great deal of interest among readers who have children. It invites reflection on the parental experience but also on free will. Many UB readers have not imposed or even encouraged their children to read the Book. Because they did not feel that the time could be right. Are they therefore poor parents? An individual sometimes walks for so long before finding a semblance of truth… Moreover, a child raised in a serene climate and open to higher values, even if he does not read the Book, unconsciously perceives its value and one day, perhaps much later, will he come to it on his own when his parents are no longer there to influence him… If not, too bad. To each his own path. It is true that Guy’s children were really very young and that it is a magical age. It seems that the big questions of life are already asked for a child of seven years old, the age of reason. Why not set some milestones at this time? The idea of the inner guide for example can be interesting and it is common to many religious teachings (The spirit that inhabits us…) but talking to one’s Adjuster even for a child can turn out to be a little dangerous… It doesn’t happen like that…And then why create a divide between our children and their classmates or their little neighbors. That would be wonderful in a world bathed in light but that is not the case and we live in a kind of tension between the world as it is and what we would like it to be. Children must learn this too and position themselves in front of their little friends not because they do not know the Adjuster but because they discover that each individual has his own character. We can be attentive to their problems, answer their questions as best we can when they ask us, arouse their curiosity by being curious ourselves. The globality of the UB is immense and it must be said it is still marginal in our societies. We must deal with fraternity and not become fundamentalists. Our children are like those of others.
Anne-Marie Ronfet
¶ Emergence and finality of worship
(What is personal fusion with the Adjuster)
“In time, thought leads to wisdom and wisdom leads to worship. In eternity, worship leads to wisdom and results in the finality of thought.”
| We are given to think that while the effort of the Personality to merge with the Adjuster can be accomplished only through the coordinated action of worship and wisdom, this action itself will really be accomplished only with the oh-so-effective assistance of the Adjuster. The Personality and the Adjuster are allied the moment the Personality acknowledges the presence of the Adjuster.
Jean-Marie Chair
¶ Could Jesus have avoided the cross?
(Transcribed [and translated] from a lecture by Bill Sadler during a study group)
Could Jesus have saved Himself from the cross, and gone off to die a natural death, and still have the sum total of human experience?
No, not without violating the decisions he made during the forty days in the wilderness after his baptism. Jesus made decisions that, in part, boil down to this: He would not use his creative powers to help himself. He could use them to help his fellow human beings, but he would never use them to help himself—and he never did.
I think he could have humanly avoided the torment of the cross, but he chose not to do so. And having invoked this chain of circumstances, he accepted the consequences. He would not have had to enter Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, and teach there during that last week, nor tarry in Gethsemane. And having done these things, he accepted the course of human events.
And I think he was doing this to prove a point. I think he was trying to show all human beings that he understands what it’s like to have a “hard blow” in life—a really hard blow. And it hurts, too.
When he prayed in Gethsemane, it wasn’t an empty prayer. It was a prayer of a human being who didn’t like what was coming in the immediate future, and being crucified was the most vile way they had of putting a human being to death. A Roman citizen couldn’t be crucified. He could be beheaded, but he couldn’t be crucified. The human Jesus was a little bit aghast at what was coming and he just wanted to check, you know—is this really what I’m getting now? I was always very glad he asked that question. He was just checking to make sure.
When he prayed in Gethsemane and said, “Father, shall I drink this cup?” Excuse me for using ordinary language. “Is this really the final cure?” No, he could not have saved himself from the cross in the situation he was in, without violating his own fundamental position, which he had made at the beginning of his public career.
¶ The last lines that Emily Brontë wrote (according to her sister Charlotte)
are known, but deserve, I believe, to be read, especially in the light of The Urantia Book. Here is a free translation.
I am not a coward at heart,
Trembling in a world given over to storms!
I see the celestial Wonders shining,
And Faith shines there, arming me against fear.
O God who is in me,
Eternal and Almighty Deity!
Life that has taken up residence in me,
Like me, Eternal Life, finds its power in you.
Vain are the thousands of beliefs
Which agitate human hearts, unspeakably vain;
No more validity than withered grass
Or the idlest foam of the limitless ocean
To arouse doubt in someone
Who participates so surely in your infinity,
Who is so firmly anchored
To the unshakable rock of Immortality.
In the embrace of love
Your spirit generates eternal years,
Impregnates and incubates them
Changes, maintains, dissolves, creates and protects.
If the earth and the moon disappeared,
And that suns and universes ceased to be,
You, existing alone,
There is no room for Death,
There is not an atom that it can annihilate;
Since you are the Being and the Breath
And that what you are cannot be destroyed.
¶ Report of the IUA conferences held in Helsinki from 7 to 10/8/98 and in Karepa from 12 to 14/8/98
On August 7, 8, 9, and 10, 1998, the first IUA international conference outside the United States took place in Helsinki. About one hundred and fifty readers gathered to meet and discuss the theme: facts, meanings, and values.
By Thursday evening, most of us had already arrived at the Unitas conference center. Located in the east of the city, this conference complex is pleasantly bordered by the sea and the surrounding forests. After having relievedly discharged the burden of heavy suitcases, we joined the other participants to discover their travel itineraries and enjoy the buffet that awaited us. But already, we had to separate; reason reminded us of the constraints of the next day’s agenda. That evening, the moonlight and the gaze of the sea observing us with its calm eye, through the edge of trees was our last memory.
Joseph and Severin.
¶ “Revelation is given to us for 1000 years.”
In issue 6 of The Link, we asked the following question: On page 330§2, the author indicates that the Urantia Book is probably a revelation given to us for a thousand years. What does this information inspire in you?
Christine Baussain gives us her thoughts on this:
“I think it is tricky to translate the UB 30:0.2-3rd sentence as an indication that ”the revelation is given to us for a thousand years.“ This formulation would tend to mean that the revelation would be ”valid" for a thousand years, which would be absurd. But if we simply take the sentence at face value, namely that too much information would risk stifling the imagination of the audience concerned for a thousand years, then we are left to accept that we have another thousand years of work ahead of us before we are ready for more information. Which means, in other words, for a 2000-page book, the Mighty Messengers assign us a cruising intellectual speed of two pages per year.
What do we tell them?
P.S. As for me, I read ½ hour to 1 o’clock every evening, but I think that this question of rhythm can only be very personal. For the second question, I’m thinking…"
Claude Castel, from Geneva, answers it in part:
“At the rate of development among the truly interested population, it does not surprise me that 1000 years will be necessary for the full completion of this revelation. Planned therefore for at least a millennium, we must no longer fear a possible mass destruction of the planet, nor a hypothetical Armageddon…” It will therefore take this amount of time for the entire planet to be made “aware” of The Urantia Book, on the one hand, and on the other hand to form the hundreds of thousands of study groups that will work with the dozens of translations. There are undoubtedly other reasons that will gradually come to light. Reading pace: Everyone can read at their own pace and according to their availability, both mental and temporal. There are passages in The Urantia Book that require more or less concentration, so each person’s ability to concentrate will result in an effort that will necessarily vary over time.
Another question:
Jesus to Judas:
“This morning he greeted each of the twelve with a personal salutation. To Andrew he said: “Be not dismayed by the events just ahead. Keep a firm hold on your brethren and see that they do not find you downcast.” To Peter he said: “Put not your trust in the arm of flesh nor in weapons of steel. Establish yourself on the spiritual foundations of the eternal rocks.” To James he said: “Falter not because of outward appearances. Remain firm in your faith, and you shall soon know of the reality of that which you believe.” To John he said: “Be gentle; love even your enemies; be tolerant. And remember that I have trusted you with many things.” To Nathaniel he said: “Judge not by appearances; remain firm in your faith when all appears to vanish; be true to your commission as an ambassador of the kingdom.” To Philip he said: “Be unmoved by the events now impending. Remain unshaken, even when you cannot see the way. Be loyal to your oath of consecration.” To Matthew he said: “Forget not the mercy that received you into the kingdom. Let no man cheat you of your eternal reward. As you have withstood the inclinations of the mortal nature, be willing to be steadfast.” To Thomas he said: “No matter how difficult it may be, just now you must walk by faith and not by sight. Doubt not that I am able to finish the work I have begun, and that I shall eventually see all of my faithful ambassadors in the kingdom beyond.” To the Alpheus twins he said: “Do not allow the things which you cannot understand to crush you. Be true to the affections of your hearts and put not your trust in either great men or the changing attitude of the people. Stand by your brethren.” And to Simon Zelotes he said: “Simon, you may be crushed by disappointment, but your spirit shall rise above all that may come upon you. What you have failed to learn from me, my spirit will teach you. Seek the true realities of the spirit and cease to be attracted by unreal and material shadows.” And to Judas Iscariot he said: “Judas, I have loved you and have prayed that you would love your brethren. Be not weary in well doing; and I would warn you to beware the slippery paths of flattery and the poison darts of ridicule.”” (UB 174:0.2)
Question: What can we say about this prayer from a creator of the universe?
What about God praying that one of his creatures would obey his golden rule?
What can we say about God’s prayer which clearly does not succeed when we know that the least of his desires was followed by its “miraculous” execution?
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