Today, August 20, 1985, Rev. Sun Myung Moon was released from unjust imprisonment for trumped up charges of tax evasion and was welcomed by 1700 religious leaders and prominent laypeople at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC. I was also present at the celebration: Read a report here.
2 Samuel 21
5 They replied, “Saul tried to kill all our people so that none of us would be left in the land of Israel. 6 Give us seven of his descendants. We will hang[d] these men near the place where the Lord is worshiped in Gibeah, the hometown of Saul, the Lord’s chosen king.”
“I’ll give them to you,” David said.
7 David had made a promise to Jonathan with the Lord as his witness, so he spared Jonathan’s son Mephibosheth, the grandson of Saul. 8 But Saul and Rizpah the daughter of Aiah had two sons named Armoni and Mephibosheth. Saul’s daughter Merab[e] had five sons whose father was Adriel the son of Barzillai from Meholah.[f] David took Rizpah’s two sons and Merab’s five sons and 9 turned them over to the Gibeonites, who hanged[g] all seven of them on the mountain near the place where the Lord was worshiped. This happened right at the beginning of the barley harvest.[h]
Richard: Here the Israelites were punished for the crime of murder committed by Saul. We may have murder in our own ancestry, and could be liable for those sins. For instance, the crime of abortion is murder. The real solution to the problem of abortion is the teaching of abstinence before marriage and faithfulness within marriage promoted by Urban Life Training, and explained in the teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and specifically, Peace Message 10.
Isaiah 64
Rip the heavens apart!
Come down, Lord;
make the mountains tremble.
2 Be a spark that starts a fire
causing water to boil.[a]
Then your enemies will know
who you are;
all nations will tremble
because you are nearby.
3 Your fearsome deeds
have completely amazed us;
even the mountains shake
when you come down.
4 You are the only God
ever seen or heard of
who works miracles
for his followers.
5 You help all who gladly obey
and do what you want,
but sin makes you angry.
Rev Sun Myung Moon
July 26, 1959
What does humanity hope for? It is to do away with this notion of being an adopted son before God and become the true children of His direct lineage. This is the ultimate purpose which humanity wants and history pursues; this is the central purpose of God, who has been fulfilling the providential will. Only then can we say that the purpose of salvation has been achieved and the providence of salvation brought to a conclusion.
If the almighty God, the origin and center of love, loves us as adopted sons, we do not want that kind of love. We seek to become sons and daughters who can penetrate deep into the core of His heart.
No matter how religious one’s life may be, and even if one calls God his father, there are many different kinds of fathers. Some will call Him “Father” from a position of not being His son. Some may call Him “Father” from the position of an adopted son. However, what is the ultimate purpose which Heaven demands, which will not disappear until the end? It is not to have an adopted son but to have true sons and daughters of the direct lineage. This stands above and beyond the position of an adopted son.
In the Bible, it is written that Jesus restores the relationship of an adopted son. Even if the world is satisfied with achieving only that, this salvation cannot be complete. Many Christians have passed away to the next world, but the Paradise they went to is only a waiting room before entrance into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, the reason Jesus said that he would return was not to make us adopted sons but to forge direct relationships.
God longs for sons and daughters who are one with Him in heart, who do not act based on lessons or commands but who act and build relationships based on the manifestation.
For this reason, even the saints and sages of the past did not attain their ideal if they were not worthy of calling God their father and if God could not call them His own son or daughter. You have to understand this clearly.
This is what is unique about Christianity. Jesus called God his own father and proclaimed himself God’s only son. Jesus was the incarnation. He established the one standard to pierce through the core of Heaven and the foundation of the universe, and to conquer the world of the heart. From this we can understand that Jesus was the Messiah for all people.
What is the Messiah or savior? He is someone who can be the standard to save people who dwell in the realm of death. Therefore, if there is something unique and worthy of pride that Christianity possesses it is this. When the relationship of parent-child is forged with God, no matter how lofty God is, even if He is the absolute subject partner of goodness, He is our Father. Then what belongs to God belongs to us, and we will belong to God. This is the highest hope of humanity. Even if God has been relating to people with the highest standard of love, if He cannot guide humanity to the destination of that love, He must be false. If He cannot do this, then we can only conclude that God has guided the providence only to satisfy His own desires and greed, not for the sake of establishing the ideal of human beings and for everyone’s sake. For this reason, God seeks true sons and daughters.