© 2023 Claude Flibotte
© 2023 Urantia Association of Quebec
¶ Sincerity, Jesus Metaverse
Line St-Pierre
Sainte-Sophie
More than a year ago, I was invited to a virtual presentation of the project of Gabriel Rymberg, whom I met during our trip to Israel in 2014, where on a hill near Lake Tiberias he had a dream that is now coming true, that of building a Jesus museum in his country, the country of Jesus.
Since then, I have been following the developments of The Centre for Unity project, firstly to pay homage to Jesus, and to make him known to the whole world and to his Jewish contemporaries.
Rick Lyon’s article will amaze you, and above all, go explore the site Jesus Metaverse which you can translate into French in the search bar on the right where there is a small sign.
¶ Sincerity, more sincerity and more sincerity; service, more service and more service
Rick Lyon
Indiana, USA
Recently, my wife Susan and I have been part of a group working on Urantia projects that have the greatest potential to accomplish many of the things we have dreamed of for this revelation. This is generating the greatest excitement within the worldwide community of students of The Urantia Book that I have ever been a part of. I have been fortunate to be a part of many worthwhile and successful projects. This new opportunity is the Center for Unity and its four projects: the Jesus Metaverse, the Cinematic Jesus, the Jesus experience, and the Jesus Museum.
Susan and I already had enough going on to keep us busy longer than we had planned to stay on Urantia. However, sometimes something comes up that is simply too important to pass up.
Since I have been involved in serving this revelation, after spending the first fifteen years thinking that I had the only copy of the book on the planet, one of the great concerns has always been, “How do I reach young people?” We asked ourselves this question in 1993 when I first discovered other readers of The Urantia Book and we continue to ask ourselves this same question today.
When I was vice president of the Urantia Association United States, Pio Park challenged me to create a plan to reach young people and to energize our associations. My response was to reinvent the organization. As vice president of the Orvonton Society, I also shared this idea with the team there. I believed we needed to create an online presence, because that’s where the young people are. We needed to become more visual, because that’s what attracts young people to learning.
We have to use modern technology to be seen as a modern-day religious or spiritual philosophy. “We are not your grandfather’s religion,” is a big part of our message. We had to create an online community where we can work and meet as if we were sitting in the same room, but across time zones—between family and teamwork. When I was a kid, I could walk to my friends’ houses. Young people today have friends on other continents. We had to find a way to do something rather than be something. I had a lot of ideas about what to do, but not a lot about how to do it.
All successful businesses recreate themselves every few years in order to stay innovative, fresh, and current. Why do businesses change their name, remodel their store, or revise their menu? Because people get tired of the same old thing. We live in an ever-changing technological world that leaves behind those who stagnate or settle for the status quo. If you’re not growing and evolving, you’re dying.
I believe that for The Urantia Book and the Urantia community, it is time for a change—and an upgrade if you will. Let me be more specific: I don’t think the revelation is dying or failing. We know it will not fail. I think that in order to reach young people, we need to revise and modernize the way we deliver the revelation. We need to adapt to the new ways and technologies available today that can, for the first time in history, bring the teachings of Jesus to the entire world, in every language, and to every nation.
I remember when the motto in the Urantia community was “go slowly” and the wisdom of building the foundation of this revelation was to go one person and one study group at a time. This is still the most effective way to share this revelation individually.
In the early 1990s, when I first came on the scene as a student of The Urantia Book, if you said the word “Urantia,” people would run away from you. Today, when people see your Urantia cap, shirt, or pendant, they often ask, “What is that?” or say, “I’ve heard of that.”
In the early 1990s, a microwave was the most advanced technology in a home. Today, almost everyone has a large portion of the entire knowledge of the human race in their pocket on a cell phone. The Flintstones’ futuristic videophone is now in our hands and we can instantly and easily talk to a friend literally halfway around the world, for free. The word “impossible” has all but disappeared from our vocabulary. Teenagers are the technology experts in their families. We’re not going to reach them with a 2,097-page, 5-pound printed book. Just imagine a teenage boy in your family discovering a story, video, or movie about the Jesus who was a teenager, a Jesus they can relate to. When they get to read the book, it’s more than likely going to be an e-book or a website.
If you want to look something up in the book, you don’t spend your time flipping through the pages and trying to remember where you saw it, or asking people like Benet Rutenberg or Andre Radatus where to find it. You boot up the computer and, with a few clicks, you do more in a minute than you could do in an hour before. A person doing research for a side job can do in minutes what people like Ruth Renn spent months doing in 1975 with the Part IV study aid. We need to take the delivery of this revelation to the next level using the technology that people today use and are comfortable with. We’re not going to change the revelation, only the way it’s delivered.
How can we communicate to people of other faiths, especially Christians, the truth, beauty, and goodness of The Urantia Book and the life and teachings of Jesus?
I believe we need to share it in a way that they can investigate for themselves in whatever way they choose—in a way that allows them to compare what The Urantia Book says with what their religious text of choice tells them. When they see how compatible and improved Jesus’ new revelation is with the old, they will be less afraid of it. Give them a little bite, a taste, and then let the Spirit of Truth and the spirit within guide them to the whole book when no one is looking—much like the Pharisees who believed in Jesus in secret, but for political reasons hid their beliefs from others. Give them the ability to convince themselves that what they have discovered is true before they gain the confidence and courage to profess it to the world. This is just one of many things I believe the Jesus Metaverse will do.
I also see the potential of the Jesus Metaverse as a significant tool for in-depth study of The Urantia Book and the promotion of study groups. Most study groups these days are online. Just look at the statistics on the Urantia Book Study Group Directory.
Imagine an online group using an online tool to research the topic they are studying together. By connecting all the topics, people, events, times and dates with information about places in history and their culture in the modern world, the depth of study will be almost limitless, but more importantly, it will be tailor-made to fit the student; the student decides what they want to see and how they want to see it. Imagine that: an education designed by the student for the student!
We all have different ways of learning and we all have different things we want to learn. I truly believe that the Jesus Metaverse and the network of connections and information behind it will be a great advancement in the way we study not only The Urantia Book, but perhaps many other subjects as well. It starts with Part IV, but eventually the whole book will be part of the Jesus Metaverse.
Virtual reality and gamification for the study of certain subjects will be further developments and evolutionary improvements. Have you completed the study of the twelve apostles? Then you get ten thousand points. If we want to reach young people, we must go where they are and draw them to the light. The Jesus Metaverse will be a platform on which we can build and expand this revelation in the future, even as new technologies become available that will allow us to stay up to date.
As the fundraiser for the Center for Unity, I am often asked when is the best time to take this big step forward. I have a favorite saying that the best time to do something is now. Some of us, the old guard, as we have been called, come from the time when a great debate over how to advance the revelation was a major part of the issues that divided the Urantia community in the early 1990s. To go fast or to go slow? The Urantia Book itself, with the story of Adam and Eve, warns against impatience—of going too fast. It was not going fast that caused their problem, but going against God’s plan. The Urantia Book also warns against going too slow:
Jesus continued to teach the twenty-four, saying: “The pagans are not without excuse when they are furious with us. Because their viewpoint is limited and narrow, they can concentrate their energies with enthusiasm. Their goal is close at hand and more or less visible; therefore they make valiant efforts and are effective in execution. You, who have proclaimed your entrance into the kingdom of heaven, are absolutely too wavering and imprecise in the conduct of your teaching. The pagans strike direct blows to achieve their aims. You are guilty of having too many latent desires. If you want to enter the kingdom, why not seize it by a spiritual assault, as pagans seize a city and besiege it? You are hardly worthy of the kingdom when your service consists so largely in regretting the past, lamenting the present, and casting forth vain hopes for the future. Why are the heathen angry? Because they do not know the truth. Why do you languish in futile desires? Because you do not obey the truth. Put an end to your useless desires, and go boldly to do what concerns the establishment of the kingdom. (UB 155:1.3 [1725.4] (emphasis added))
The Centre for Unity is but a means in the battle for man’s freedom. I suggest that all Urantia projects pursue victory in this war to make the world safe again for the religion of Jesus. We must keep up with today’s times and technologies.
The creation of Johann Gutenberg’s new printing press sparked a revolution in society and in the church. There was both commotion and excitement when the printing press brought the Bible into the hands of the masses of ordinary people for the first time. I’m sure many people thought it was a mistake. But oh, how it changed the world and brought us out of the dark ages of religion! I don’t know if the Jesus Metaverse, the Cinematic Jesus, Jesus Experience, and Jesus Museum will change the world in any radical way, but perhaps these projects, if supported by the Urantia community, will be the next level of advancement in the evolution of organized religions about Jesus to the personal religion of Jesus, a move away from the stagnant truths of the past to the new revelation of God and Jesus. We read in The Urantia Book:
This period of waiting and teaching was especially hard for Simon Peter. He tried many times to persuade Jesus to go and preach the kingdom in Galilee while John continued to preach in Judea. But Jesus always answered Peter, "Simon, be patient. Make progress. We will not be too ready when the Father calls. (UB 137:7.3)
Even then, the “go fast or go slow” debate was a problem for those entrusted with new revelation. The truth is that any endeavor can only progress as quickly or successfully as God allows. I believe we have seen, through the coincidences of our progress in this project, that God is present within the Center for Unity, as are the angels and midwayers who are part of our team. I believe this so much that I personally dedicate my efforts to the angels and midwayers of this world who have loyally and steadfastly endured so much.
We are doing these projects to celebrate and honor Jesus, and because of the love that Susan, myself, and our Thought Adjusters have for all who read this and for all who will benefit from what we do. For the midwayers, who I understand are permanent members of this planet, what greater gift can we give them than the only thing they can have in this entire universe, a Jesus museum? How can it be that on the World of the Cross there is no memorial to Jesus and no Jesus museum? I pledge to do everything in my power to remedy this situation.
One final note: Those of us who have been involved in this revelation for over thirty years are familiar with the unfortunate discord that was, in part, caused by the “go fast or go slow” debate of the late 1980s. I have been involved in several unity efforts that all agree on spiritual unity, but not on organizational unity. I have come to believe that organizational unity is no longer to our advantage as it once was.
Today we need organizations that meet the needs of people with diverse views about how things should be done—not “one-size-fits-all” or “cookie-cutter” methods of spreading the gospel and this new revelation.
The trick is for each of us to do what we want without criticizing or competing with each other. Our goals and purposes are the same (unity), but our methods are different (not uniformity).
From the beginning, the Centre for Unity has attracted leaders from the larger Urantia organizations. The members of each of these organizations serve together in a loving service that well represents the teamwork and unity that should exemplify the entire Urantia community. The Centre for Unity will never replace the important mission of the organizations, but I believe it is the one place, the one organization, where we can all work together in peace and harmony, with love and friendship, that will make our light shine for all to see.
The religion of Jesus is the most powerful unifying influence the world has ever known. (UB 194:3.17)
For me, I began by answering the question: Why am I involved with the Center for Unity and its projects? It is our mission to educate, enlighten, inspire, and transform the individual in order to transform nations, even the world. Through the use of modern technology that appeals to younger generations, through all the different ways people learn, and through inspiring films and interactive, immersive museum exhibits, we will bring the religion of Jesus, straight out of The Urantia Book, to the world; and in doing so, we can change the world.
For us to ignore modern technology, the best methods and tools available for the fulfillment of our God-given mission, would not be wise or in keeping with Jesus’ admonition to go into all the world preaching the gospel. Serving with the Centre for Unity is my way, as an individual, of going into all the world via the internet with the visual and audio tools available to us. The time has come and I believe we are the people who can make it happen.
I believe the Centre for Unity is the most important project to come out of the gate in many years. The Centre for Unity projects will:
- promote the personal spiritual growth of the individual,
- contribute to the encouragement and success of study groups,
- modernize and expand our dissemination methods,
- allow us to reach young people and meet them where they are,
- create tools that large Urantian organizations can use in their missions,
- show ourselves harmless to Christianity and other beliefs,
- to provide a gift to our angels and middle cousins, and
- honor Jesus.
I believe this is what the Urantia community has been waiting for. We are just beginning. And finally, please consider this passage from The Urantia Book:
What an awakening the world would experience if they could only see Jesus as He actually lived on earth and know firsthand His life-giving teachings! Words describing beautiful things cannot thrill as much as the sight of those things. (UB 195:9.8)
I am truly blessed to be a part of this whole story, of the Urantia community, with the team of teachers and leaders at the Centre for Unity.
You will always have the choice between “go fast or go slow”, but go for it. Personally, like in the end of the movie Schindler’s List, I don’t want to die saying: “I could have saved one more person.”