Watch the latest Richard Urban show: Announcing a Tribal Messiah Association: https://youtu.be/3n8HcTeVJd4.
John 17
11 Holy Father, I am no longer in the world. I am coming to you, but my followers are still in the world. So keep them safe by the power of the name that you have given me. Then they will be one with each other, just as you and I are one. 12 While I was with them, I kept them safe by the power you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost, except the one who had to be lost. This happened so that what the Scriptures say would come true.
13 I am on my way to you. But I say these things while I am still in the world, so that my followers will have the same complete joy that I do. 14 I have told them your message. But the people of this world hate them, because they don’t belong to this world, just as I don’t.
15 Father, I don’t ask you to take my followers out of the world, but keep them safe from the evil one. 16 They don’t belong to this world, and neither do I. 17 Your word is the truth. So let this truth make them completely yours. 18 I am sending them into the world, just as you sent me. 19 I have given myself completely for their sake, so that they may belong completely to the truth.
20 I am not praying just for these followers. I am also praying for everyone else who will have faith because of what my followers will say about me. 21 I want all of them to be one with each other, just as I am one with you and you are one with me. I also want them to be one with us. Then the people of this world will believe that you sent me.
Matthew 1
6b-11 From David to the time of the exile in Babylonia, the ancestors of Jesus were:
David, Solomon (his mother had been Uriah’s wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram;
Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.
12-16 From the exile to the birth of Jesus, his ancestors were:
Jehoiachin, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim;
Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.
17 There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. There were also fourteen from David to the exile in Babylonia and fourteen more to the birth of the Messiah.
God’s Will Which We Must Untangle
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959
If God has presented the history of reform and of liberation, then the period that centered upon and venerated the church leader should end. Just as God waged the struggle to enlighten the feudal society which served the feudal lords, in the last days, religion is needed that allows equal value to the followers, as well as the esteemed church leaders. God will look for a people of character who can transcend all denominations and sects. Wouldn’t that be true? Only then, God’s dispensation of liberation would be concluded in the historical last days.
The Christians now and in the past have regarded other religions as inferior. However, if their attitude does not change, then the efforts of a million-fold would be required to open their mind when the time comes for a new day.
Combining everything of the past is not the way; however, all should be resolved as one and become open in the end. The one who shows the open-mindedness to history, the ideology, the world view, and our mind will be on the side of God. The religion which is led by that kind of person will be the religion that all humanity will worship.
Therefore, if the Christians today realize God’s dispensation has been moving toward reform and openness, then stretching and opening their limited concept of faith would be their most urgent task. At the same time, they would have the responsibility to reform and uncover all the general conditions of their society to make these acceptable to God. Wouldn’t that be so? Religion and politics have been separated until now, but they will merge together from now. The Catholic kingdom of the Vatican will establish its own political form in the not-so-distant future. The time will come when it will fight against the system that asserts a different ideology and world view. Wait and see.
For these reasons, the direction of reform and openness has been divided in two main directions in history: one is right, the other left. These directions, however, should not divide without limit and become destroyed; they should be guided, centering on one common purpose to the position where they would need each other. In other words, we should know that the purpose of division into the right and the left is not the destruction, but the unity into complete one. This is true, not only in the area of ideology, but also in the area of religious world view.
For Christianity which claims to be a world religion and for the Christians who claim to have that kind of value system, the question is to what extent they can open their minds and their denominations and be flexible. There will come a time when God will proclaim this to every religion, denomination, and the believers at the forefront of the last days. The time will surely come.
When we observe Christianity today, they are tied down to certain forms and concepts, just as the Catholic church was bound by certain rituals and forms. She cannot stand in front of God, if she is entrenched in such rituals and forms. The person of character who subjugates the formality and ritual may stand in front of God, but the one who is subjugated by those things cannot. That is why Luther insisted that we should abolish formality and the unnecessary concepts and return to God by faith alone, centering on the Bible.
Those who lean on the words, those who are subjugated by the words, those who are restricted by the word, and those who move by the word cannot become God’s children. Jesus was the one who could subjugate the word, and those who could give the word. Those who can stand his place can become God’s children. God is demanding such a people.
For what are we all, regardless of being Protestant or Catholic? We need the words of Bible; but we also need the substantiation of the word, which is the core. That means, we need the person Jesus. We should long for that one person. Words may pass us by, but the one thing which should not pass us by is the Subject of the word.
What then is the final purpose of Christianity? It is not the completion of the Bible. It is not the completion of the words. It is the one substantiation that passed through the word and that can control the word. The final purpose is the Lord of the Second Advent, i.e., the standard of the hope of Christianity. Moreover, that substantiation is the standard of hope not only for Christianity, but also for Buddhism, Confucianism, or any other religion. The perspective of that one substantiation might have been different, but the content they testified and introduced was the one and the same. This is evident by the standard of character that must be met for that one substantiation, regardless of the kind of religion or denomination.
In respect to what Father said in this speech, and also our upholding the ‘Eight Great Sacred Texts’, I would like to offer these passages from the Divine Principle which address the same point.
EDP p.324 ” The popes and priests, sunk in immorality, gradually lost the confidence of the people. The authority of the papacy sank even lower due to the repeated defeats of the Crusades. The end of the Crusades saw the gradual collapse of the feudal system in Europe and the emergence
of modern nation-states”.
EDP p. 341 “Accordingly, after the Protestant Reformation, the
way was open for people to freely seek God through their own reading of the Bible, without the mediation of the priesthood. People were no longer subjected to the authority of others in their religious life, but could freely seek their own path of faith. Democratic Christianity has
thus created a social environment which allows all people to seek freely
for Christ at his return, regardless of the manner in which he may come”.
EDP p. 348 “In the late Middle Ages, man’s original mind was repressed,
its free development blocked by the social environment of feudalism and
the secularization and corruption of the Roman church. Faith is the path
each person must walk in search of God. Faith should be nurtured
through a direct vertical relationship between God and each individual.
Yet in that age, the papacy and the clergy, with their rituals and dogmas, constrained the people’s devotional life. Moreover, the rigid social
stratification of feudalism did not allow for religious freedom.
Meanwhile, religious offices were bought and sold. Bishops and priests
often exploited their offices to lead lives of luxury and decadence. As a
consequence, the papacy lost its sanctity and became no different than
other institutions of worldly power. It lost the ability to guide the spiritual lives of the people”.
EDP p. 352 ” This medieval movement
to revive Hebraism began with John Wycliffe (1324-1384), a professor
of theology at Oxford University, who translated the Bible into English.
He asserted that neither the papacy nor the priesthood could determine
the standard of faith, but only the Bible itself. Demonstrating that many
of the dogmas, ceremonies and rules of the Church had no basis in
Scripture, he denounced the priesthood for its decadence, exploitation
of the people and abuse of power”.
These are the very same issues of corruption, ignorance and institutionalised faith that the various factions of our movement are now exhibiting and facing.
Yes, exactly. The same thing that Rev. Moon talked about in this speech are happening right now, not just in traditional Christian churches, but also in the Unification movement. Let us be prayerfully aware.