Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon
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Cheon Seong Gyeong – Sun Myung Moon |
The closer we are to the truth, and the more we come under its spell, the more it will become our center which nobody can snatch from us. Even if the earth were to fail into chaos millions of times and the universe were suddenly destroyed, people whose minds are securely centered on the truth will never be changed or shaken.
However, if you cannot be prepared to accept such a center in your heart, however genuine a truth may appear, you would not recognize it. Even if true life appeared you would not be able to know it. Even if true love appeared, you would not be able to understand it.
If today's Christianity is seeking genuine truth, true life, and true love, it must completely deny itself to the end and become a religion that establishes the mind's center that nobody could snatch away.
When new continents were being discovered, it seemed the earth was gradually expanding. Now however, the earth seems to be shrinking day by day. In other words, when civilization was not developed the world seemed huge, but as history and civilization developed, the world seemed to be gradually shrinking. In this regard we can know that the ideal world, realized through the history of the truth, will be of the universal era when everything is forming direct ties with us.
Our standard as the citizens of heaven -- that is, the life and love of the Kingdom of Heaven -- must bear fruit within us. Because truth, life, and love are like one family, love and life should necessarily follow truth. Life and truth should necessarily follow love. And likewise, love and truth should necessarily follow life.
Why are truth, love, and life connected to one another in this manner? As you know, in order for a thing to exist, there should be above and below, front and back, and right and left, centering on it. No existing thing can escape the realm of the number three. This is the fundamental form of existence.
Likewise, these three elements get together and make the unified form. However, if a force proceeds in the reverse way, an action of the force different from the original one occurs. Accordingly, God is the origin of love, life, and truth. Yet after the Fall, people failed to form a triangle that holds love, life and truth in equilibrium. Thus, God could not fulfill His will. (2-133, 1957.3.17)
The disciples following Jesus thought that he would dominate the Roman Empire instantly and become the king of Israel, and that they would come to hold high positions. Such things are not an issue. First of all, we have to make the foundation for God's Kingdom within our mind. And then, centering on that mind, we should make the foundation for unity between our body and God. This is the foremost issue. The Kingdom begins from us. I know, our mind is its stronghold. (47-272, 1971.5.29)
Where is the stronghold of God's Kingdom? Many Christians say, "I believe in Jesus so I'm going to heaven." Then where is that stronghold? When Peter asked, "Where is the Kingdom of Heaven?" Jesus answered, "It is not in heaven but in your heart," so where is that stronghold located? Can it be formed by a sad heart, or by a self-aggrandizing mind, or by a mind that denies society? Those are not the strongholds of the content we desire or of the Kingdom that God can endorse.
People seeking the stronghold of God's Kingdom must meet with solitude more than anyone else on earth. Why? As God is solitary, they too must be solitary; and since God has undergone the history of subjugation, they too must undergo subjugation.
Then, if people were to just feel sad, repent and shed tears of lamentation because heaven and earth are filled with sadness, can that become the stronghold of God's Kingdom? Even that cannot. When serving the church, while desiring the time of being blessed anew with joy, we must be able to be determined to solve the problems of sin and evil in this world. Without a single direction of determination to bear that responsibility, the stronghold of heaven cannot exist.
Some people confidently assert that -- because they are conscientious and have a respectable social position -- the Kingdom of Heaven starts from them. That thinking is based on their understanding that good and evil begin together. Yet good and evil cannot start simultaneously. When evil goes east, good must go west, and when evil moves, good has to stop. Moreover, when evil has a desire, good must not have it. Good and evil are opposites.
The search for the heavenly nation started from the point where God lost all His hope in relation to the world of humankind. Thus, people who are satisfied with their present lives cannot be truly religious people. When confronted by the intersecting fortunes of life and death, which cause you to sink into despair, losing the meaning of your existence, you should not be excessively attached to your habitual lifestyle, but instead proceed to seek new values, denying even your life. By proceeding in this way true goodness can start.
Viewed from this standpoint, are there people who can confidently say that their character is the stronghold of heaven? None. There is also no one who can insist that their family is the stronghold of heaven. There is no one who could claim that God, if He existed, could not say that He did not recognize their family. No tribe can insist that God must recognize it because of their good achievements. There are no races, nations, ideologies or philosophies that can demand God's recognition. When I think about this, I am dumbfounded.
Therefore, while the one who wants to die will live, the one who wants to live will die. Then what does that mean? Those who work to protect themselves from the evil world for more than a millennium can dream such a dream, and only those who gratefully sacrifice themselves for more than ten thousand years can find hope to live for ten thousand years.
Likewise, those who cry out for eternal life, eternal happiness, and the eternal Kingdom of Heaven must overcome the current situation with eternity as their goal, and they must surmount with endurance the present point in time, sacrificing themselves. Only from such a standpoint can the eternal stronghold emerge. (17-20. 1971.1.29)
Without loving God, we cannot free ourselves from the satanic realm. Thus, we must love Him more than our spouse. From the snares of love within the satanic realm, fallen people have emerged as far as the edge of that realm, but they have yet to come out of it completely. Hence, we cannot love our parents more than God. (41-299, 1971.2.17)
What kind of people can enter heaven? First of all, those people who are in harmony with God's mind. To what extent are they harmonized? As God works towards the eternal ideal based on His eternal purpose, our minds must be in harmony with His for eternity, not just for a decade. Our minds must be eternally in harmony with the eternal God. To achieve that, what must we do? We must become the children who can eternally like and be liked by God. To become such children, we should not appear as objects of sadness.
Next, we must be in step with God's body. Here, 'body' means direction. While thoughts represent the central point of all directions, the body is manifested by the direction it takes. To be children in step with God, when He goes east, we must go east with Him. If God liked something warm, but Jesus liked something cold, would it be right? If He wanted to laugh and chat, and Jesus wanted to sleep, would it be right? Everything manifested through the external body must be in step.
Would everything be all right with just that? No. When God is being amiable, we should not be hot-tempered. If He is amiable, we should also be amiable. The internal and external must match. Would that alone make everything work out?
Next, we must do things that are in line with God's will. For that to happen can there be things we are reluctant to do? Can there be things that our bodies detest? We must do things that both our mind and body like to do. As God exists, there must be things that He likes. Also, as Jesus is God's Son, he also has to like such things. (47-255, 1971.3.29)
We can never go to heaven without sacrificing our lives. If you could go there you would see for yourselves whether anyone there did not do that. That is how it is with the essence of faith. (37-248, 1970.12.27)
From where can the Kingdom of Heaven begin? Without dissolving God's anguish, we cannot enter heaven. Since we have woven a history of sorrow since the Fall, we must restore all its ties. All the ties of the six millennia since Adam and Eve have to be restored. The Unification Church Principle teaches about a God of such sorrow.
Secular people detest sorrow and run away from it. The Unification Church Principle teaches about God's sorrow, which is more miserable than any other sorrowful situation. If something sorrowful happened in the world, most people would avoid it and run away from it, but the motto of the Unification Church Principle is to go through such places of sorrow.
All people in the world try to avoid sorrow, but they are originally not supposed to be like that. The more we understand God's sorrow and the contents of His misery, the stronger the force that actually emerges in the Unification Church to dissolve His anguish. That force becomes the motive of unlimited explosive action. This is the great force of the Unification Church. (21-112, 1968.11.17)
What kind of world is the Kingdom of Heaven? As it is the original world, individuals, families and tribes accused by Satan cannot go there. To enter heaven, these must all become one -- in other words, three generations must become one. In Adam's family, Adam was the first generation, Cain and Abel the second, and their children the third. These three generations were to become one. From God's standpoint, He was the first generation, Adam and Eve, the second, and Cain and Abel, the third. (21-54, 1965.9.1)
As heaven is the world of living for others, we must go forth making that notion our first consideration. Those who have the idea of being served will be destroyed.
Heaven is the world filled with God's love. The essence of love is not to be served, but rather to live for the sake of all. Thus, heaven differs from the secular world.
The religious teachings of living for the sake of others, being absolutely obedient, sacrificing, and serving do not exist in the secular world. They are perceived as games played by groups of beggars who know nothing of this world. Yet this was God's secret strategy against Satan so that people could be blessed even if they were ignorant of heaven's laws. (46-11, 1971.7.18)
We have not restored the original homeland. As such, we have lost the homeland of our original hometown, by which we mean God's Kingdom on earth. When speaking of God's Kingdom, we are referring to that which is on earth and that which is in heaven.
Three major elements are required to establish a nation: first sovereignty, next territory, and then citizenry.
Yet God has no sovereignty over which can govern. He has no people whom He can govern. This amounts to not having a homeland. This is not the world in which original people should live. (155-25, 19??.10.6)