Romans 5
9 But there is more! Now that God has accepted us because Christ sacrificed his life’s blood, we will also be kept safe from God’s anger. 10 Even when we were God’s enemies, he made peace with us, because his Son died for us. Yet something even greater than friendship is ours. Now that we are at peace with God, we will be saved by his Son’s life. 11 And in addition to everything else, we are happy because God sent our Lord Jesus Christ to make peace with us.
Richard: But we should recognize also that Jesus came to fulfill God’s purpose of creation and create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. As such, he did not come to die primarily; that was the result of the faithlessness of the people.: See Chapter 4 of the Divine Principle: The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming .
Matthew 28
11 While the women were on their way, some soldiers who had been guarding the tomb went into the city. They told the chief priests everything that had happened. 12 So the chief priests met with the leaders and decided to bribe the soldiers with a lot of money. 13 They said to the soldiers, “Tell everyone that Jesus’ disciples came during the night and stole his body while you were asleep. 14 If the governor[a] hears about this, we will talk to him. You won’t have anything to worry about.” 15 The soldiers took the money and did what they were told. The Jewish people still tell each other this story.
World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon
Part 1
God and Creation
Chapter 1
God
Unchanging and Eternal
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
God is eternal. He was eternal in the past, He is eternal in the present, and He will be eternal in the future. (22:317, May 11, 1969)
Eternity cannot be captured within time, but time exists within eternity. (41:285)
God’s ideal is eternal. God is the center of absolute and eternal life. Yet the center of that ideal is true love, with “me” as its counterpart. (216:115, March 9, 1991)
To love means to take responsibility for eternity. Love is unchanging. If God changed the way people do, how could we ever trust Him? But God is unchanging and eternal. He wants to make a relationship with mankind through true love. Nevertheless, people are constantly changing, day in and day out. How can God trust us? (31:210, May 31, 1970)
Eternal life is essentially an attribute of love. Even God, when He created the universe, adhered to the standards of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. God lives this way, always desiring to invest more love for the world, even though everything in the world is transient. For this reason, every creature without exception attends Him as the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal Lord. (330:262, August 18, 2000)
How old is God? For billions of years He has been growing old, waiting. If God had a beard, I am sure it would have grown all the way down to His feet, and if God grew taller every year, there’s no telling how tall He would have grown. By what power has He been able to endure and wait for so long? It is nothing else but love. (111:77, January 25, 1981)
If your day-to-day life has only a transient value, you cannot make a connection with eternity. Your life should connect with God’s eternal love. Only then will the eternal God be with you. (2:13, January 6, 1957)
When God decides something, His decision is unchanging for eternity. Can you meet God’s standard if you change your mind a dozen times a day? Truth is truth whether you live or die; it is eternal. Truth is beyond death, beyond changeability. Thus, in order for you to be a true person, you should be beyond death, and be unchangeably steadfast. This means there will be a collision at some point between your changeability and unchangeability. Unchanging elements will overcome changing elements. Changing elements will vanish. It is as if life and death collide. When you overcome death you will have life. Once you pass through this stage, then you can have a connection with God. (66:43-44, March 18, 1973)
Being absolute, God is tested continually by the world. Everyone—even Satan—tests whether God’s love is unchanging. If God were ever unable to overcome a test and stopped loving, then He would be changeable. Yet God remains calm and unperturbed by anything. When I contemplated why God permits Himself to be put through intolerable difficulties, I realized that He had to endure them in order to secure His unchangeability. Satan and God are completely opposite. God is eternal, while Satan is transient; God is unchanging, while Satan is ever changing; God is unique, while Satan is not. There is a clear contrast between the characteristics of God and Satan. Is your mind changing or unchanging? An unchanging mind is closer to God. You prefer to be unchanging, not changing, to be absolute, not relative, because you want to take after God’s character. You would resemble God because you wish to be His object partner. God is unchanging, eternal, unique and absolute, but for what end? If God possessed these attributes purely for His own sake, they would have no meaning. These attributes are for the sake of His object partners. Likewise, we seek to be unchanging and absolute for the sake of our counterpart, not for ourselves. Therefore, no matter how many people in the world oppose God, He must endure in silence. Evil people swear, accuse and lash out at God, but He just takes it all in and remains silent. All people are meant to make the journey to true love. Therefore, even evil people seek to become absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging. Were we solitary beings, what difference would it make if we were changing or unchanging? When we say we want to be unchanging, we automatically have a relationship in mind. Because of the unchanging relationship between God and human beings, love can be possible. And love—true love—is eternal. (123:330-32, January 9, 1983)
All the ideologies, doctrines and rights that people hold— all these will disappear. But Father, we yearn that Thou dost put in our minds power ever flowing and ever bursting forth, the Eye of resurrection, that our minds and bodies may rise to the place where we can live eternally. (4:65, March 9, 1958)