© 2004 Séverin Desbuisson, Jeanmarie Chaise, Jean-Claude Romeuf, Chris Ragetly, Guy Bourhis, Michel Bezier, Éric Iannucci, Anne-Marie Ronfet, Jean Royer
© 2004 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:
48, rue Douy Delcupe
93110 MONTREUIL UNDER WOOD
FRANCE
¶ A Word from the President
Dear readers,
Here is the Spring Link which brings us its flowering of articles and young shoots… Don’t miss, for example, our next summer meeting on June 11, 12 and 13.
The activity of our association can sometimes be compared to the succession of seasons: long periods of maturation are often necessary to see projects come to fruition. Thus, new study groups are gradually formed after often several months of attempts and preparations. Other projects, such as the placement of books in libraries are also emerging.
You all know this constant of experimental worlds that nothing is achieved without effort and perseverance. So, do not hesitate to share your ideas and your good will with us because the AFLUB only exists through its volunteers.
Happy reading to all,
Severin Desbuisson
President of the A.F.L.L.U.
¶ Summary
- The President’s Word by Séverin Desbuisson
- What are “black holes”? by Jeanmarie Chaise
- Triptych by Jean-Claude Romeuf
- Reflections by Chris Ragetly
- Should we juggle with numbers? by Jean-Claude Romeuf
- A little simplicity by Guy Bourhis
- Relaxation corner: Stories, poetry and humor:
- For a Friend by Chris Ragetly
- Other eyes, other skies… by Michel Bezier
- A life must die by Eric Iannucci
- Parables of the mason by Éric Iannucci
- Love dissolves differences… by Anne-Marie Ronfet
- Questions and answers:
- The 100 factor by Jean Royer
- New example of the principle of evanescence by Jean Royer
- Gazette section:
- Brief Urantian News
❧ 1955 URANTIA Foundation. All rights reserved. These materials from The URANTIA Book are used with permission. Any artistic depiction(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)
Jeanmarie passed away on December 18, 2003, from a sudden illness. He had been a reader of The Urantia Book for many years. He was the author of many articles that appeared in The Link, and the Journal of the I.U.A., among others. He wrote several books related to The Urantia Book, including an Esperanto translation that he had just completed. This last work was the fruit of many years of work, and we hope that its publication will allow future readers throughout the world to benefit from the teachings of the fifth revelation.
May the mansion worlds be favorable to him, may he follow the counsel of his Thought Adjuster during his ascending career.
May Nicole, his partner for 30 years, find here the expression of our sincere friendship.
The Link Team
¶ What are “black holes”?
About “black holes”, The Urantia Book perhaps gives us an explanation without naming them. Indeed, in Paper 46 we learn that architectural planet groupings are not visible in space. We are told:
The lighting system of Jerusem should not be so difficult for you to comprehend. There are no days and nights, no seasons of heat and cold. The power transformers maintain one hundred thousand centers from which rarefied energies are projected upward through the planetary atmosphere, undergoing certain changes, until they reach the electric air-ceiling of the sphere; and then these energies are reflected back and down as a gentle, sifting, and even light of about the intensity of Urantia sunlight when the sun is shining overhead at ten o’clock in the morning. (UB 46:1.4)
Jeanmarie Chair
¶ Triptych
But all who receive it will be enlightened, purified and comforted.
¶ Truth and Spirit.
Truth is a quality, it is divine. It is inseparable from beauty and goodness. These three sisters form the three pillars of love. Truth is absolute. It has always existed in the Universal Father, the Eternal Son and the Conjoint Actor. It is total in the Trinity which encompasses all its values of actuality and potentiality.
It is unity, because like God it is one, but it does not engender uniformity because it presents the multiple faces of discovery.
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ Reflections
It was while reading in “Mighty Messenger” of the summer of 2003, the article entitled “Uncertainty in security is the essence of the adventure of Paradise…” (UB 111:7.1), that these few thoughts came to me:
During the 2003 Summer Session of the Fellowship, the participants were given the opportunity to study the topic of “Revelation and the Believer” and thus to delve deeper into the mystery of the use of human sources in The Urantia Book. Matthew Block, the pioneer of research on this subject, candidly shared his personal experiences in exploring dozens of these human sources. Other speakers shared their findings from this research, and it provided an opportunity for a genuine investigation of the full range of intellectual and emotional reactions to the discussions, workshops, and other lectures, a journey of the soul as well as an intellectual expedition.
Chris Ragetly
¶ Should we juggle with numbers?
In 1767, Georges Louis Leclerc undertook to date the age of the Earth and the planets. With the help of the laboratory experiment on the cooling of incandescent balloons and with the help of mathematics, this man of genius, but full of buffoonery (without o), concluded at an age of ten million years. Some conclude more quickly, it is a matter of feelings and means.
Yet, in 1778, in his “Epoques de la Nature”, he only admits 75,000 years, which is a lot compared to the biblical 6,000 years. Why this lie, carefully considered and wanted by such a man?: quite simply because the mind of his time was not ready to accept and understand such large numbers!
Jean-Claude Romeuf
¶ A little simplicity
If we refer to science, the complexity of the universe is such that even the greatest scientists are unable to grasp and understand it. Is it not because our system of thought has not been able to imagine anything other than complex theories to try to explain the world?
If one has to digest both Einstein’s general theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum physics to see the beginnings of a solution, it is obvious that the average human brain will either refuse to make the necessary effort or will “crack” after a few pages of indigestible mathematical exposition. Not everyone is Robert Clarke, Stephen Hawking or Hubert Reeves…
So, one cannot fail to turn once again to this magnificent work that is the “Urantia Book” so simple is it in its approach to Havona, the 7 Superuniverses and the levels of exterior space… Nucleus, cytoplasm, nucleus, cytoplasm…
The reading of the Urantia Book should be recommended to these astrophysicists and futurologists so that light may be shed… But let us be confident that, as soon as they seek and in good faith, their divine Gift will work to “alert” their minds to the virtues of simplicity.
Guy Bourhis
¶ Tales, Poems and Humor
¶ For a friend
Why am I assailed by doubts and uncertainties?
It seems to me that others don’t have any, or at least not as many.
How can I strengthen my faith and make it a habit?
I tried meditation, yoga and what else,
but all of them left me hanging, with a bitter taste.
Why finally this incessant quest?
Do I have to search endlessly?
Who will show me the way?
Chris Ragetly
¶ Other eyes, other skies
“The eleven had scarcely ceased their discussions of the discourse on the vine and the branches when the Master, indicating that he was desirous of speaking to them further and knowing that his time was short, said: “When I have left you, be not discouraged by the enmity of the world. Be not downcast even when fainthearted believers turn against you and join hands with the enemies of the kingdom. If the world shall hate you, you should recall that it hated me even before it hated you. If you were of this world, then would the world love its own, but because you are not, the world refuses to love you. You are in this world, but your lives are not to be worldlike. I have chosen you out of the world to represent the spirit of another world even to this world from which you have been chosen. But always remember the words I have spoken to you: The servant is not greater than his master. If they dare to persecute me, they will also persecute you. If my words offend the unbelievers, so also will your words offend the ungodly. And all of this will they do to you because they believe not in me nor in Him who sent me; so will you suffer many things for the sake of my gospel. But when you endure these tribulations, you should recall that I also suffered before you for the sake of this gospel of the heavenly kingdom.” (UB 180:3.1)
I wait for the night. I walk in a city that chokes a little more each day. I walk in the streets, the boulevards. You walk in the streets, the boulevards. You will not recognize me. Like you I walk quickly. I know where to go. We all know where to go. No questions. Mired in the mirror of our vain contemplation we pile up, ever more greedy, our desires for possession in a bottomless pit. Behind our facades of prestige, a meaningless nothingness devours us. We are terribly weakened and we know it deep inside ourselves. The fluidity of life has left us.
Michel Bezier
¶ A life must die
There are “lives” made for experimenting,
There are “nights” made for escape,
There are “rains” made for crying,
There are “ifs” just to doubt,
And this is to love you,
But only if I can love.
Eric Iannucci
¶ Parable of the Mason
A King, rich in gold and goods, desired the most illustrious and luminous of treasure rooms. Dissatisfied with not being able to contemplate the brilliance of his fortunes in the light of day, he decided to build a monumental bull’s eye. The cream of the craftsmen was dispatched. The skylight had to be the most noble and glorious possible. While architects and masons were busy opening the opening, an apprentice was dazzled by the striking beauty of the orifice, so much so that in his house, he decided to reproduce it.
As he finished his modest overture, the king heard of the replica. Flattered that his creation could inspire one of his subjects, he decided to make himself proud and prompt at the unknown imitator’s house… Once there, the king was dismayed. When he saw the hovel in which the usurper lived, he ordered in a black rage the ruin of the dwelling, claiming that such a hovel was not worthy of being illuminated by such a beautiful work. The house was torn to pieces. The king’s wrath did not subside until the roof and walls were knocked down. Deprived of his home, the unfortunate disciple cried out:
“Oh Sir, I owe you so much… More light has entered this modest dwelling than I could have hoped for.”
Eric Iannucci
¶ Love dissolves differences
Love dissolves differences
Love bathes creatures.
Love transcends all lacks.
Sympathy is good
Empathy is good too.
Anne-Marie Ronfet
¶ Questions — Answers
¶ The 100 factor
Response to Robert Gallo’s article
It is true that the factor 100 plays an important role in The Urantia Book, but it is doubtful whether it can be applied as such to judge the time needed to reach Paradise.
Just a few considerations:
The first Mighty Messengers from Nebadon belong to the last group of ascending Pilgrims to arrive on Paradise.
The senior Mighty Messengers were chosen from those ascendant mortals of time and space who were among the earlier Paradise arrivals, many having traversed Havona in the times of Grandfanda. But the first trinitizing of Mighty Messengers was not effected until the candidate corps contained representatives from each of the seven superuniverses. And the last group of this order to qualify on Paradise embraced ascendant pilgrims from the local universe of Nebadon. ([UB 22:2.4)
It is true that we are not told exactly when this took place, but we do know that the first inhabited planets of Nebadon date back 200 billion years (cf. UB 57:3.10) and we also know that we will have to accomplish a specific task on each of the spheres of Havona, and there are a billion of these spheres. If we divide the proposed number of 757,575 years by a billion, this leaves us with 0.00075th of a year on each sphere, or 0.27th of a day on each, less than an Earth hour. This is a very long journey for a very short stay. It is more likely that, give or take a few billion years, it will take, for the most gifted among us, about 200 billion years to reach Paradise.
A final argument would be that Andon and Fonta, born almost a million years ago, are still on Jerusem.
Jean Royer
¶ New example of the Principle of Evanescence
Are we not told in 112:3.6 that the presence of the guardian seraphim, personal or collective, is “indispensable” for the resurrection? Seraphim are indispensable for reconstituting the personality. (UB 112:3.6)
Now, what do we read in 2024? Then all the survivors of the human races of Urantia who had fallen asleep since the days of Adam and who had not yet stood trial appeared in the resurrection halls of mansonia, ready for morontia investiture. And in a split second the seraphim and their associates prepared to depart for the mansion worlds. Ordinarily these seraphic guardians once assigned to the collective care of these surviving mortals would have been present at the time of their awakening in the resurrection halls of mansonia, but they were now on Urantia because the presence of Gabriel was there needed in connection with the morontia resurrection of Jesus. UB 189:3.2 [emphasis added]
If we read the tense correctly, in French, it is indeed a first form past conditional which, if my memory of my distant grammar studies does not fail me, expresses an action dependent on a condition that has not been realized in the past. Some grammarians called it “the unreal mode of the past”.
So, these seraphic guardians were not present at the time of the mortals’ awakening. We lack at least an explanation. But perhaps you have the solution, so pass it on to the Link for the edification of all its readers. Thank you in advance.
Jean Royer
¶ La Gazette section
On January 22, 2004, Baukje Begemann left us for the mansion worlds. Thirty-two years ago, together with her husband Henry, they had considered translating The Urantia Book into Dutch. They had begun the translation when Henry’s death in 1990 put a stop to it. But Baukje and her daughter Nienke completed the translation, which was published in 1998 under the title /Het Urantia Boek/. Baukje passed away peacefully, bathed in the love of the Father and knowing that she would awaken in the ascending life.
¶ Urantia News Briefs
On October 6, 2003, the United States Supreme Court denied Urantia Foundation’s appeal, with the result that the copyright in “The Urantia Book” is no longer valid, but the copyright in the translations is not affected by this decision.
2300 books have been donated by the Foundation to students in India through the Indian Society for Promotion of Christian Knowledge (ISPCK), and another 1500 books are expected to be provided by the end of the year.
As of mid-February, 700 Spanish books had been placed in libraries in Mexico, 500 in Argentina, 260 in Colombia and 100 in Uruguay. The program would like to place 4,500 books in this part of the world, if finances permit. Attention generous donors.
In April 2004, the Urantia Association of Mexico celebrates its 2nd anniversary. This association has 35 members, 22 friendly members and more than 200 readers.
¶ National meeting in Goult-Lumières
Reserve your weekend of June 11, 12, 13, 2004 for our national meeting in Goult-Lumières (Vaucluse).
Theme of the meeting: The role of the Adjuster in our earthly life.
Three sub-themes are currently available to you, but they are not exhaustive.
- Role in time: Changer, Adjuster, Controller
- The human response or responses
- What the Adjuster Brings, or Uncertainty in Security
Reading booklet 110 is recommended.