Leviticus 23
23 The Lord told Moses 2 to say to the community of Israel:
I have chosen certain times for you to come together and worship me.
3 You have six days when you can do your work, but the seventh day of each week is holy because it belongs to me. No matter where you live, you must rest on the Sabbath and come together for worship. This law will never change.
Isaiah 40
13 Has anyone told the Lord[b]
what he must do
or given him advice?
14 Did the Lord ask anyone
to teach him wisdom
and justice?
Who gave him knowledge
and understanding?
15 To the Lord, all nations
are merely a drop in a bucket
or dust on balance scales;
all of the islands
are but a handful of sand.
16 The cattle
on Lebanon’s mountains
would not be enough
to offer
as a sacrifice to God,
and the trees would not
be enough for the fire.
17 God thinks of the nations
as far less than nothing.
God’s Possession and Our Possession
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
November 9, 1958
Although that nation perished, civilization continued to develop with the progress of history. While the Assyrian and Babylonian civilizations developed in the Orient, Hebraism, centered on Judaism, was formed in Palestine, and a God-centered civilization developed. In Greece, civilization centered on the ideology of an external god. This developed and later harmonized with various trends of thought and worship of the arts. The realm of knowledge is the unique religious ideology founded by the Greeks.
The worldwide sphere of civilization was formed in such a manner. While passing through a period of confusion, it merged with Christian thought. This later traversed Rome and Christian civilization was thus established.
In medieval times, Christianity absorbed everyone under it indiscriminately and brought about homogeneity. However, because it could not actualize its purpose and became very worldly, God had to strike medieval Christianity.
If the papal court at Rome had not been corrupt and had a sense of mission to exist for the sake of the world and the good of the humankind, subscribing to and promulgating the thought of putting the benefit of others before one’s own benefit, it would not have collapsed.
Since the Roman papal court could not do thus, God deemed it too reprehensible to be left alone. He struck it externally by bringing about the Renaissance and internally by bringing about the Reformation. After that, the Puritans crossed over to the American continent, and came to build a nation there centering on Christian ideology. The political ideology of Rome, the religious ideology of Christianity, and the intellectualism of Greece all blended into one and led to the formation of Pan-Americanism, which controls the democratic world today.
Now, to fulfill its national responsibility and mission and to be able to exercise the authority of ownership until today’s democracy can be connected to the heavenly principles, what kind of thought must America have? First, it must discard its “America First” policy. This is the most important thing, above all else, for the American people.
If America insists that its economy, culture, technology, scientific advancement and political system exist only for the sake of its people, America will be struck. That was why the Renaissance sprang up to awaken people. Today communism has appeared and has been awakening people. From now on, ideologies and religions will be invaded by a movement. In times like these, we must discern heavenly movements with the mind of a seer.
From where will the religious ideology that can land America a blow emerge? People will have to consider this with an open mind.
This is a processional phenomenon of the development of history that takes place because human beings could not recover the authority of the Absolute Being’s ownership. This takes place to lead them to that position, even if they must be struck.
What was the Renaissance? It was the restoration of Hellenism; that is, it was a movement to restore the original human nature, based on the Greek ethos, emphasizing human consciousness. Similarly, within the domain of today’s America-centered democracy, Christianity must return to the original Christian spirit. A movement must take place in which people believe, not only in the words already revealed, but find the thoughts contained in the words and re-arm themselves centering on that. If the present Christianity cannot do so, it will end up in the same position as Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages.
Why is that? What is required is not God’s Word, but God’s person, God’s people and God’s nation. The words emerge for that purpose.