Do You Not Know that You Are God’s Temple?

Today is the last day to register for the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn materials that teach about the physical, intellectual, emotional and long term benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage. Learn about setting up a Chapter of Urban Life Training to teach this material to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .

Romans 4

Are these blessings meant for circumcised people or for those who are not circumcised? Well, the Scriptures say that God accepted Abraham because Abraham had faith in him. 10 But when did this happen? Was it before or after Abraham was circumcised? Of course, it was before.

Richard: What is the universal religion in this new age? On the external level, it is the teaching of sexual abstinence and purity before marriage, and absolute fidelity and faithfulness within marriage. This is what we will be teaching about in the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop.
Internally, the universal religion is the teachings of the Eight Sacred Textbooks and the Blessing of Marriage taught by Rev. Sun Myung Moon as the True Parent.

Isaiah 41

He goes after them so quickly
that his feet
    barely touch the ground—
he doesn’t even get hurt.

Who makes these things happen?
Who controls human events?
    I do! I am the Lord.
I was there at the beginning;
    I will be there at the end.
Islands and foreign nations
saw what I did
and trembled
    as they came near.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

The Temple of God

Human beings are meant to be the living temples of God. At the creation of man God injected a special element of His Spirit that endows the human mind with divine qualities, such as love, creativity, and the desire for the eternal. God wants to make His home in human beings. With the Spirit of God resonating with the mind, the body sees, hears and acts as God would see, hear and act. By thus acting on behalf of the formless and invisible God, human beings are sanctified, and through them God is able to sanctify others.
In Hinduism and other eastern faiths, this indwelling presence of Ultimate Reality is called the Self or Atman. However, most people live in ignorance of the Self, and they live entirely from egoistic motives. To misconstrue the personal ego as the Holy Spirit would be a serious error and even a mark of insanity. For Father Moon, we are like temples that suffered desecration due to the tragedy of the human fall. God’s Spirit cannot dwell in fallen people. Originally, Adam and Eve were to become temples of God and act as God’s earthly body to beautify this world and transform it into a Garden of Eden. Jesus came as God’s temple; therefore he could reveal God in his person. Through God’s grace and human efforts at restoration, we too can attain the position of God’s temples.

Do you not know that you are God’s temple and
that God’s Spirit dwells in you?
1 Corinthians 3.16

Let a man always consider himself as if the Holy
One dwells within him.
Talmud, Ta’anit 11b (Judaism)

I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer
I who live, but Christ who lives in me. 3
Galatians 2.20

Heaven and earth contain Me not, but the heart
of my faithful servant contains Me.
Hadith of Suhrawardi (Islam)

Just as God fills the whole world, so the soul fills
the body. Just as God sees but is not seen, so the
soul sees but is not itself seen. Just as God feeds
the whole world, so the soul feeds the whole
body. Just as God is pure, so the soul is pure.
Just as God dwells in the innermost precincts
[of the Temple], so also the soul dwells in the
innermost part of the body.
Talmud, Berakot 10a (Judaism)

When I love him, I am his hearing by which he
hears, his sight by which he sees, his hand by which
he strikes, and his foot with which he walks.
40 Hadith of an-Nawawi 38 (Islam)

I have breathed into man of My spirit.
Qur’an 15.29

The l ord God formed man of dust from the
ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath
of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2.7

Smaller than the smallest, greater than the great-
est, this Self forever dwells within the hearts of
all. When a man is free from desire, his mind
and senses purified, he beholds the glory of the
Self and is without sorrow.
Though seated, he travels far; though at rest, he
moves all things. Who but the purest of the pure
can realize this Effulgent Being, who is joy and
who is beyond joy.
Formless is he, though inhabiting form. In the midst
of the fleeting he abides forever. All-pervading
and supreme is the Self. The wise man, knowing
him in his true nature, transcends all grief.
Katha Upanishad 1.2.20-22 (Hinduism)

Bright but hidden, the Self dwells in the heart.
Everything that moves, breathes, opens, and
closes
lives in the Self. He is the source of love
and may be known through love but not
through thought.
He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!
The shining Self dwells hidden in the heart.
Everything in the cosmos, great and small,
lives in the Self. He is the source of life,
truth beyond the transience of this world.
He is the goal of life. Attain this goal!
Mundaka Upanishad 2.2.1-2 (Hinduism)

The rich build temples to Shiva,
What shall I, a poor man, do?
O my Lord! my legs are the pillars,
My torso, the shrine,
And my head, the golden pinnacle!
Things standing shall fall,
But the moving ever shall stay! 4
Basavanna, Vacana 820 (Hinduism)

Abdullah bin Omar saw the Messenger (PBUH)
walking around the Ka’ba saying, “How blessed
you are, O Ka’ba, and your fragrant wind. How
great, how great is your sacredness! By Allah,
owner of my soul, to Allah the sacredness of a
believer has greater holiness than you.”
Sunnan Ibn Majah 5 2.3932 (Islam)

Man was also in the beginning with God.
Intelligence, or the light of truth, was not cre-
ated or made, neither indeed can be. All truth
is independent in that sphere in which God has
placed it, to act for itself, as all intelligence also;
otherwise there is no existence.
Behold, here is the agency of man, and here
is the condemnation of man; because that which
was from the beginning is plainly manifest unto
them, and they receive not the light. And every
man whose spirit receives not the light is under
condemnation.
For man is spirit. The elements are eternal,
and spirit and element, inseparably connected,
receive a fullness of joy; and when separated,
man cannot receive a fullness of joy. The
elements are the tabernacle of God; yea, man
is the tabernacle of God, even temples; and
whatsoever temple is defiled, God shall destroy
that temple. 6
Doctrine and Covenants 93.29-35
(Latter-day Saints)

Only When a Man and a Woman Become One Do They Resemble God

Just two days until the Urban Life Training Chapter Workshop, online or in-person on July 3rd 2020. Learn materials that teach about the physical, intellectual, emotional and long term benefits of sexual abstinence before marriage. Learn about setting up a Chapter of Urban Life Training to teach this material to middle and high school youth: https://www.urbanlifetraining.org/index.php/109-training/351-urban-life-training-chapter-workshop .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 391

When is the most beautiful time, the
time of youth when the flower is in full
bloom? It is young adulthood. This peri-
od is the seven years from age eighteen
to twenty-four. This seven year period is
a time never to be repeated in your life,
a time when the beautiful flower of your
love will blossom. How precious is this
beautiful time that will come only once
in your life. You know peonies, don’t
you? Their buds are wrapped tightly
in dozens of layers so they cannot be
opened up easily. The same is true for
men and women. Then when should you
fully reveal the crimson bud of your love
that blossoms like a yellow flower? The
time when beauty is best revealed with-
in the harmony of heaven and earth is
the time of youth. For human beings, it
is a time when the blossoms are at their
peak. Youth is a time when you shine as
the central pinnacle of God’s great work
of art. It is at this time that you should
be in full bloom under God’s blessings.
(26-151, 1969.10.25)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1410

Of the 36 Couples, the Adam couples
were already married couples, the Noah
couples were engaged but not married,
and the Jacob couples were virgin men
and women. Noah’s family did not fulfill
the Will. When you look at the people
in the world today you see that there are
already married couples, those who are
in informal relationships or are engaged,
and the completely pure single men and
women. From this time on, the foremost
kind of people that True Parents should
be seeking for are not the Adam couples
but the true sons and daughters, in oth-
er words, pure single men and women.
(242-104, 1993.1.1)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

The Image of God

2. God’s Image More Completely Reflected in the Family

So God created man in his own image, in the
image of God he created him, male and female
he created them.
Genesis 1.27

I am He, you are She;
I am Song, you are Verse,
I am Heaven, you are Earth.
We two shall here together dwell,
becoming parents of children.
Atharva Veda 14.2.71 (Hinduism)

The gospel of Love… presents the unity of male
and female as no longer two wedded individu-
als, but as two individual natures in one; and
this compounded spiritual individuality reflects
God as Father-Mother, not as a corporeal being.
In this divinely united spiritual consciousness,
there is no impediment to eternal bliss—to the
perfectibility of God’s creation.
Science and Health, 576 (Christian Science)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

It is only when a man and woman become one that they come to resemble God, who created us male and female in His image. (135:122)

In human beings, God’s internal nature and external form are manifested separately as man and woman. When the time is ripe, they are to become a father and a mother, Parents of Heaven and Earth. Then, God dwells in their bones. (341:239, January 2, 2001)

God is the harmonious union of the dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity. Creation occurs by the principle that God’s internal nature divides into two separate characteristics, which then re-unite in a form that resembles God’s original internal nature. Man and woman are born each resembling one of God’s characteristics. That is, the union of God’s son and God’s daughter is the union of God’s masculinity and God’s femininity. In their harmonious union they resemble God. For this reason, husband and wife are a unified body that represents God in His entirety. (9:83, April 16, 1960)

Even secular people wish that their loved ones would live forever. They want to go through life with one partner only, and would dislike it if he or she were to change. If even fallen human beings want their beloved partners to be eternal, unchanging, absolute, and unique, how much more so would God, who is the Center of the universe? There is no possibility that God would want His beloved partners, human beings, to be changeable. Nor would God want His object partners to be limited in any way. Instead, God wants us to be absolute. God wants us to be unchanging. (77:185, April 6, 1975)

What is God’s purpose in creating human beings? He did not create them just to watch them go about their daily lives. He did not create them to just grow old and die. God created human beings to have us build a God-centered haven of love. We are created to grow to maturity in love, communicate with each other through heart, and then build God’s Kingdom on earth. Adam, the male, represents heaven, and Eve, the female, represents earth. Therefore, when the two become one horizontally in God’s love, they bring unity to the entire cosmos, heaven and earth. (21:44-45, September 1, 1968)

Since we human beings resemble God, by the power of God’s omniscient and almighty love we can do anything. Just as God created Adam and Eve, we human beings receive the power to create when we give birth to sons and daughters. (57:111, May 29, 1972)