The eighteenth century British novelist Henry Fielding, in his famous satire Tom Jones, uses the pontifications of a Christian minister to illustrate a classic religious arrogance. The minister declaims:

"When I mention religion, I mean the Christian religion, and not only the Christian religion, but the Protestant religion; and not only the Protestant religion, but the Church of England."

Although Fielding's portrait is a comic exaggeration of religious bias, it is nevertheless reflective of a type of bigotry not uncommon to many believers, whether they be Christian, Jewish, Buddhist or whatever. Such has been the religious fragmentation of the human family.

Divine Principle teaches that the time for such a divided state is nearly up. In an age when we are seen, in Archibald MacLeish's words, as "riders on the earth together," the future of the religious faiths is necessarily an interdependent one.

For Divine Principle, an integrated religious vision is the very tool necessary to bring the human family into a healthy wholeness. If religion fails to play this role, some other power, perhaps even a totalitarian force like communism, is likely to attempt to fill the gap.

Therefore, our age calls for a religious unity. A practical harmonization of the world's faiths will both release new energies against the problems facing humankind, and realize fully the spiritual values common to the religions themselves.

At the time of the Second Advent, Divine Principle teaches, traditional religious barriers are to be overcome. This process will no doubt be aided by input from the spirit side, perhaps even by the founders of the different religions themselves.

As was previously explained, spirit persons who have remained in Paradise are inevitably to return to earth and cooperate with the faithful at the time of the Second Advent, thereby to advance their own spiritual growth.

Through this intervention, sincere seekers on earth can be led by spirit persons to the Lord of the Second Coming. The time and type of guidance that a person on earth receives from a spirit person vary depending on a person's attitude, faith and disposition. In any event, Divine Principle suggests that through such guidance the unification of religions will gradually occur.

For Divine Principle, all religions have arisen through God's providence and have enlightened the consciousness of man. Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism, Islam, Shinto and Hinduism have all contributed to the spiritual development of man. These religions have laid the foundation for the fulfillment of the last dispensation, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

However, while all great religions are thus based upon certain degrees of truth from God and have served His purposes in various ways, Divine Principle sees the Judeo-Christian revelation as the central revelation from God for humankind. Christianity is thus not a religion for Christians alone. Rather, it is the central religion whose insights enable it to be the core around which other faiths can make their own contributions most fully.

Accordingly, messages concerning the Second Advent are likely to come not only from Jesus but from founders of all other religions as well. These religious founders will fulfill their own missions and complete their own resurrection through the sincere participation of their followers in the ministry of the Second Advent.

Since the Second Advent of the Lord is universal in scope, its effects are not to be confined to the Christian world. Eventually all mankind will participate in this cosmic event in order to bring about the resurrection of each individual and the restoration of the universe.

For the first time in history, then, divergent religions will be harmonized, thereby leading mankind into one universal brotherhood. Ultimately, Divine Principle anticipates that the unity of the two worlds, the invisible and the visible, will be accomplished. Matured men and women will serve as the mediators between them, resulting in complete harmony and communication between the two worlds.

Consequently, the new world of perfection will be highly spiritual; it will be the Garden of Eden or heaven on earth. The life God has planned for all of His children will have been established and God's ideal of creation fulfilled at last.

 Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Information
Tparents Home