2 Timothy
4 When Christ Jesus comes as king, he will be the judge of everyone, whether they are living or dead. So with God and Christ as witnesses, I command you 2 to preach God’s message. Do it willingly, even if it isn’t the popular thing to do. You must correct people and point out their sins. But also cheer them up, and when you instruct them, always be patient. 3 The time is coming when people won’t listen to good teaching. Instead, they will look for teachers who will please them by telling them only what they are itching to hear. 4 They will turn from the truth and eagerly listen to senseless stories. 5 But you must stay calm and be willing to suffer. You must work hard to tell the good news and to do your job well.
Isaiah 11
Like a branch that sprouts
from a stump,
someone from David’s family[a]
will someday be king.
2 The Spirit of the Lord
will be with him
to give him understanding,
wisdom, and insight.
He will be powerful,
and he will know
and honor the Lord.
3 His greatest joy will be
to obey the Lord.
God and Humanity Should Live Together
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
January 11, 1959
Peter, special among the twelve disciples, could freely listen to and believe the words of Jesus. Yet he failed to advance to the stage where he could receive Jesus into his heart without hesitation. Likewise, since the substance of the Word could not be embraced, when Mary Magdalene tried to hold the resurrected Jesus, she was prevented from doing so. Humanity has been unable to embrace the substantial being. This is the second tragedy of humankind.
The first tragedy was to have lost Adam in the Garden of Eden. The second was to have lost Jesus, who was the perfected substance of the Word. This is why he has to come again. This fact, when understood, is a matter for endless weeping. For people living on earth, there cannot be anything more sorrowful.
God had been going over hills of tears, grief and wailing for 4,000 years, hoping for the day of liberation. He installed Jesus on the earth as the substance of hope. Yet the nation of Israel sent him to his death. He sent Jesus to Israel as the Messiah, representing the life of God and the promised ideal. He told them to prepare themselves to follow and serve the Messiah. Yet where did Israel go? They should have cried and wailed with Jesus. Where did the nation of Israel go, the nation that had served God for 4,000 years after the loss of Adam? They became victims of Satan. Israel became a traitor to Heaven.
Today’s faithful people believe that Jesus came to die on the cross. This shows ignorance of the purpose for the appearance of Jesus. You should believe in the way of resurrection, rather than the way of the cross. You should know that the cross came about because of Israel’s sin of having abused Jesus’ body. Orthodox Christianity believes in the descending of the Holy Spirit, which occurred forty days after Jesus overcame the cross and resurrected, and they believe in the resurrected Jesus. This is the correct faith of Christianity, but Christianity says that Jesus came to die. If he had come to die, would God have led the Israelites in such a way that He struck them when they did not believe, made them suffer and shed tears in Egypt? Would He have desperately admonished them when they were exiled to Babylon? Was the 4,000- year history one of preparation for the killing of Jesus? It is time to re-consider.
Christians are scattered all over the world. Who can guarantee that they are not the second Israel, just like the first Israelites, who abandoned and betrayed Heaven? We must know this grave fact. Jesus should have spoken God’s Words as the substance who perfected God’s Word. That Word is not something Satan can test. Satan cannot test the one who believes the Word and comes forward. Among those followers of Jesus, has there been anyone who was not tested? No, everyone has been subjected to a test.
What we need is the Word that Satan can never test, no matter how many times he tries. However, since the Christians are going by the word Jesus gave while being tested by Satan, Satan can attack them. When will we become the substance and go past Satan’s test? That is the day of the Second Coming.
We should plant in our body the seed of the Word that Satan can never invade and reap God’s Words. We should plant in our body the substance of the Word and reap God’s substance. We should become the perfect substance with united spirit and flesh, whom God can embrace and love with delight. Such are the ones who can become the brides and bridegrooms of the last days.
The work of the Holy Spirit is present in the last days. Thus, there should be saints among us who can press the Holy Spirit to work with us one hundred percent. Do you understand this? What is the standard of ideal by which the Holy Spirit will work for us? We should ask the Holy Spirit. This is one of the tasks of the faithful in the last days.