Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon |
There are various questions raised against religious doctrine. They include the question "Does God really exist?" God is said to be omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, possessing utmost goodness and beauty. He is said to be a being of love, the Lord of judgment, and the Father of humankind. Yet how do we know these descriptions are correct? Why did God create the universe, when He could have just remained quietly by Himself? What is the purpose for which God created the world? There must have been a certain method to the creation. What would that method have been? Why does the phenomenon of the so-called law of the jungle appear in this world created by the God of absolute goodness? It is said that the Fall has led to the world of sin, but why did human beings, created by the perfect God, fall? (122-302, 1982.11.25)
God has many problems. If He is all-knowing and all-powerful, why did He allow Jesus to be nailed to the cross? Is salvation impossible without the cross? How are you going to answer this? If God is all-knowing and all-powerful yet still unable to save Jesus from the cross, such a God is a cruel God whom we should chase away. How can we believe in Him? (136-128, 1985.12.22)
There has been no one who sought to understand, by digging into the root cause of God's grief after the Fall, what the relationship between God and human beings is, and how the supposedly all-knowing and all-powerful God has become so impotent. (133-216, 1984.7.19)
So far, although many theologians and spiritual mediums have known about the existence of Satan, they have not been able to understand why the all-knowing and almighty God could not prevent Satan from opposing Him. This is a problem even throughout the spirit world. Whenever you try to go to God's side, Satan will surely interfere. Satan opposes us from many directions, not just one. But why is God unable to intervene and punish him? This has been a riddle until now. This is one thing that cannot be known even through relating with the spirit world. (133-86, 1984.7.10)
The all-knowing and all-powerful God has been leading humankind throughout the tens of thousands of years of history. Why then is it that history is not heading toward a world where goodness is realized but instead has ended up heading toward a world of despair and hopelessness? This is a serious problem that can lead to people concluding that there is no God. If there were no God, would humankind have the possibility to dream of the ideals we long for, the peaceful world and utopia that we seek, in the future? Throughout our long history, thinking people and numerous philosophers have failed in their pursuit of such a world and left the world in its present state. Considering this fact, we cannot assume that such a world of hope will come about in the future. (130-18, 1983.12.11)
Why does the all-knowing and all-powerful God leave Satan alone? He could just execute him one night by cutting off his head, but why does He leave him be? Why just leave him be? This is the most difficult question in religion. Is it a simple matter? (127-112, 1983.5.5)
Many faithful people think of God as sitting on the throne of glory as an omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being with absolute authority. This is why they think that God has nothing to do with such concepts as suffering or sorrow. If Christians ask what kind of being God is, they would say, "God is our Father." They say that all believers who call Him Father should repent and practice faith in the sinful world. God and man are related as parent and child, yet they are said to be in contradiction. (123-154, 1983.1.1)
Today Christianity pronounces, "God is the holy, all-knowing, and omnipotent being, and the Judge who sits on His throne as the righteous Lord of Judgment who judges all people." Do you like judges? If a judge serves for ten years, he will get sick and die; if he does not die, he will at least become seriously ill. If he does not get sick, he is a fake. Judges sometimes pass death sentences, and yet their verdicts cannot be absolutely right.
There are many different ways of seeing the situation, and still their judgments decide whether someone lives or dies. It is a serious matter. Judgment, from the human perspective of universal laws often misses the true mark in light of universal law. For this reason, a righteous person would get sick after being a judge for ten years. (198-285,1990.2.5)
We should ask Him about this. Today's Christians say that God is sitting on the throne as the all-knowing and all-powerful God. They say that, as the Judge, He sends bad people to hell and good people to heaven. But if God were joyful to see this, He would be a crazy God. God dwells in the place of absolute goodness, which transcends good and evil. (194-32, 1989.10.15)
Christian pastors say that God is sitting on the throne as the omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent being, but would that be interesting? If He sat on a throne for tens of thousands of years doing nothing, would not His buttocks become flabby? If you like sitting, try sitting for just three days. (192-29, 1989.7.2)
So what is God doing? According to Christianity, God is sitting on the throne in eternal glory... But if He is alone, what kind of glory is that? Is God sitting in one spot for eternity and saying, "Oh, I so much like my power, my omniscience, mysterious..."? Really? What use is that? God, too, has always been living centered on love. The logic of this is undeniable. (191-22, 1989.6.24)
If it seems God can do everything as He pleases, why did He allow human beings to become like they are over our long, drawn-out history, said by some to be 850,000 to one and a half million years? This could lead us to conclude that God does not exist; we could not even talk about an all-knowing and all- powerful God. But that would be faulty logic. Why is it that God cannot do as He pleases? Why can't He? It is because He is constrained by circumstances. (162-186, 1987.4.12)
What would happen if man had not fallen? Today, Christianity teaches that God is all-knowing, all-powerful and holy, while we human beings are profane, but they are wrong. Go to the spiritual world and see. They, too, call God "Father" just as people do on earth today.
Who is this father? If the holy God were unable to enter a relationship with people, could we call Him Father? There is a logical contradiction there from the outset. It is completely contradictory. But what I am saying makes sense. (240-191, 1992.12.13)
Why am I saying this? God created human beings as His sons and daughters, but do you think God has seen them dancing and singing while praising God, or not? Because they fell and were expelled, God still has not seen such a day. But Christians do not know this about God. They think that God is in glory and that because He is all-knowing and all-powerful, He is able to do anything. But then, they need to ask why He has not been able to save humankind during all these thousands of years. How would you answer this? It is because human beings committed sin. Since it is they who committed sin, it is they who must liquidate it. (226-304, 1992.2.9)
What is it that God absolutely wants? That is the question. What is it that God wants? What does God absolutely want? Is it ability? Today, Christian churches and Christian theology teach that since God is all-knowing and all-powerful, as the righteous Lord of Judgment He sends good people to the Kingdom of Heaven and evil people to hell. Would you like that kind of judge? Do you like the judges in the secular world? Wouldn't it be nasty of God to have made it so that He sends some people to hell and some to the Kingdom of Heaven? We conclude that this would be unfair. (211-75, 1990.12.29)
Christian theology claims that God the Creator is holy and the things He created are profane. This view, however, contradicts the original principle of the formation of the universe. The traditional, mainstream idea of Christianity is said to be based on love, even loving one's enemy, but how can the profane sinner and the holy God become one? Without establishing a basis for answering this serious question, any conclusion advanced is futile, false. This is why there must be a partner for the absolute God to absolutely obey, serve and have with Him even at the cost of His own life. (204-100, 1990.7.1)
Christian theologians are today saying, "Now is the time to critique faith as a whole. Now is the time to re-examine all previous doctrines of God and views of life." Theological trends have so far upheld the view that created beings cannot stand in an equal position to the holy Creator. Then how is love to be given? Do you think God can share love by Himself? What are those things we call peace and happiness? Can God have these on His own? How would you answer this question? God needs an object partner. (77-317, 1975.4.30)
What motivation led to the birth of this created world? God created heaven and earth because He needed love. Based on this, the doctrine of God in modern Christian theology is in error. They say that the absolute God of power can subsist on power alone. This is why, wherever Christian culture has gone, blood has been spilled. Based on this logic we can foresee that, although Western Civilization has developed in accordance with Christian culture, Christian culture will now have a devastating impact on the world in the Last Days. (209-29, 1990.11.25)
History is heading into the age of science. With the advent of the age of scientific development, in which the fundamental roots of everything are investigated and our basic origins are pursued through studying the origins of species, religion must inevitably keep pace.
In this situation, a religion must appear having a commanding outlook that can explain the reality of the world and creation, and prove God's existence. Since there is as yet no such religion, God should prepare the substance of such a religion because He is a living God. (211-139, 1990.12.30)
If humankind was created by the Absolute Being in such a way as to practice the love of the Absolute Being, it is clear that there was motivation and purpose behind our creation. To reveal that motivation and purpose, a correct view of God, explaining who the Absolute Being is, should first be developed. Establishing the correct understanding of God will reveal His purpose and motivation for the creation, and thereby clarify the reason we must practice absolute love for the sake of peace. (110-253, 1980.11.27)
If the absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging God exists, we must be able to view the origin of true love, true ideals, true peace and true happiness from a new standpoint centering on such a God. From that point of view, we can secure perspectives of God, life, and material things that are aligned with God's own viewpoint, and from there finally be able to welcome a world of new peace and new happiness. (77-260, 1975.4.14)
The root cause of religious conflict lies in the vagueness of the doctrines of the ultimate reality. The absolute being is only one; there cannot be two or three absolute beings. However, the leaders of each religion claim that only their absolute being is the true God and that other gods are not true gods. This results in each religion having its own absolute being, and fosters further contradictory ideas of the existence of many absolute beings. Since this leads to the conclusion that the gods of all religions are nothing but relative gods, the system of absolute values -- that should have been developed through religion based on the doctrine concerning God's love and truth -- still remains relative.
In other words, we conclude that religions to this day have not established an absolute value system to settle the confusion. This inevitably results from the fact that no religion has been able to present the correct explanation about the Absolute Being. (122-302,1982.11.25)
Each religion has its own absolute being as the basis of its doctrine. The absolute being in Judaism is Jehovah, that of Christianity, God, and that of Islam, Allah. Buddhism and Confucianism do not specify an absolute being, but with the basic Confucian virtue, benevolence, being connected to the heavenly mandate, heaven can be taken as the absolute being in Confucianism. Moreover, since Buddhism teaches that all dharmas constantly change while the truth is found in the "suchness" behind dharmas, we can say that "suchness" constitutes the absolute being in Buddhism. (122-300, 1982.11.25)
The doctrine of ultimate reality for the new religion must reveal that the absolute beings of the different religions are not separate gods but one and the same God. The new religion will reveal the fact that all religions constitute a brotherhood established by God, with the theologies of each having embraced one particular aspect of God's attributes. The new religion will complete the picture of God. Moreover, in revealing God's attributes and the motivation, purpose, and laws of creation, the doctrine of ultimate reality must explain that this purpose and these laws govern the movement of everything in the universe, and that human norms are, in the end, in accordance with this universal law -- that is, the heavenly way. (122-303, 1982.11.25)
The greatness of the Divine Principle taught by the Unification Church is that it explains creativity in concrete terms and serves us in our understanding of the process of creation. Next, it provides a substantial explanation of how the Fall came about and then also presents a view of history. It clearly explains how God, rather than abandoning human beings in their fallen state, has been working diligently for their re-creation throughout the course of history. It logically and plainly reveals that through this process of restoration we will arrive at the world He purposed to achieve. (208-296, 1990.11.20)