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A Ship Which Is Not Prepared Goes to Destruction

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State Legislators Do Your Job

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God’s love is stronger than the sun. When the sun rises in the morning, the buds of plants turn towards the sun. Likewise, God’s love is the source of life, the source of our original mind, and the core source of ideal elements. That is the way it is. (99-230, 1978.9.25)

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The mass holy wedding is held to find and establish the new family of God. In other words, the ceremony is held so that you can learn to love God more than anyone else in the world. (Blessed Family – 563)

Preparation and Making a New Beginning

For any venture to succeed it must begin well. The oriental proverb, “Well begun is half done,” describes the theme of the passages in this section. A good beginning means, first of all, internal preparation. We should purify our heart, steel ourselves with firm resolution, and be clear about our philosophy and methods of proper action. Then we should take the measure of the task and gather sufficient resources to surmount the obstacles in our path. This is practical advice, but it applies especially to the spiritual aspirant. Those who regard life lightly and frivolously are liable to fall into straits worse than when they started. Father Moon teaches that to become a person of significance, someone who makes a difference in the world, we need to prepare well. Without fixing our purpose, our life becomes ordinary and of no consequence, and without setting our determination and preparing a foundation of self-discipline, we are liable to be defeated by the challenges that await us. He provides the example of his own life, describing the preparations he made to take on the entire corrupt world-system.

1. Prepare Yourself for Life’s Challenges

The superior man does not embark upon any affair until he has carefully planned the start.
I Ching 6: Conflict (Confucianism)

Success is the result of foresight and resolution; foresight depends upon deep thinking and planning to keep your secrets to yourself.
Nahjul Balagha, Saying 46 (Shiite Islam)

Check the edge of the axe before splitting wood.
Njak Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

The superior man gathers his weapons together in order to provide against the unforeseen.
I Ching 45: Gathering Together (Confucianism)

For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation, and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, “This man began to build, and was not able to finish.” Or what king, going to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and take counsel whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand?
Luke 14.28-31

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil… that you may be able to withstand the evil day.
Ephesians 6.10, 13

He who wants to expand the field of happiness, let him lay the foundation of it on the bottom of his heart.
Tract of the Quiet Way (Taoism)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. Well, I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air; but I pommel my body and subdue it, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
1 Corinthians 9.24-27

A ship, which is not well prepared, in the ocean
goes to destruction, together with its goods and merchants.
But when a ship is well prepared, and well joined together,
then it does not break up, and all the goods get to the other shore.
Just so a bodhisattva, exalted in faith, but deficient in wisdom, swiftly comes to a failure in enlightenment.
But when he is well joined to wisdom, the foremost perfection,
he experiences, unharmed and uninjured, the enlightenment of the Jinas.
Verses on the Perfection of Wisdom which is the Storehouse of Precious Virtues 14.7-8 (Buddhism)

The Self Is Your Greatest Enemy

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What is the greatest obstacle to entering heaven? The self is your greatest enemy. The reason hell and the satanic world were created was because of the awareness of the self. The archangel thought centered on himself. He thought about himself intensely. What is a traitor? You call a person who puts himself before his nation and sovereign, a traitor! Rising up from the paths of a traitor is the summit based on the self. It is the road that leads to hell. For human beings it is the path that leads to ruin. This foundation called the self, and centered on the self, leads to death. (122-20, 1982.10.31)

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As heaven is the world of living for others, we must go forth making that notion our first consideration. Those who have the idea of being served will be destroyed.

Synergy of Grace and Effort

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

You must participate in God’s great creative undertaking… Although God provides 95 percent of the ideal form necessary to reach perfection, human beings must still complete the remaining 5 percent by their own responsibility. God alone cannot bring about human perfection; each person has the responsibility to make a contribution in perfecting him or herself. (115:66, November 4, 1981)

The spirit grows through give and take action between two types of nourishment: life elements of a yang type that come from God and vitality elements of a yin type that come from the physical self. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)

As long as you complain and lament over your situation while just sitting in your chair, you will not make progress. God will not help you. God wants you to make new efforts each day. (327:48, July 24, 2000)

God creates to the level of 95 percent and then human beings should add their efforts in accordance with God’s basic rules for creation in order to establish a value standard of 100 percent. In this way, God wants to give human beings the value of having participated in the completion of His Will. (130:19, December 11, 1983)

The proportion of five percent is used to indicate that the human portion of responsibility is extremely small when compared to God’s portion of responsibility. Yet for human beings, this five percent is equivalent to one hundred percent of our effort…

We should recognize how minuscule the human portion of responsibility is in comparison to God’s toil and grace, which is His portion of responsibility. On the other hand, when we consider the fact that over and over again central figures in the providence could not cope with their responsibility, we can appreciate how extremely difficult it was for them to fulfill even this comparatively small portion. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination 2)

No matter how great the saving grace of the cross of Christ, the salvation knocking at our door will be for naught unless we fortify our faith, which is our portion of responsibility. It was God’s responsibility to grant the benefit of resurrection through the crucifixion of Jesus, but to believe or not to believe is strictly one’s own portion of responsibility. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 5.2.2)

We are endowed with the nature to empathize with God. We should develop that nature; then when God rejoices we also will rejoice, and when God is sorrowful we also will be sorrowful. Unless you become a person who can intimately experience God’s deep inner heart, you are in no position to become one with God and live in harmony with God, regardless of how much God loves you. (39:8-9, January 9, 1971)

God has borne all the responsibility for His sons and daughters on the road of restoration. But now surely the time has come when we should take on that responsibility. God has borne all that responsibility to help us, but now, by taking on Satan’s attack, we can stand up as God’s sons and daughters. (31:50, April 12, 1970)

You Have to Inspire People by Love

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Do Not Concede or Consent

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Since I had to open the way for all humankind, I even befriended condemned criminals. I was chained together with thieves, ate with them and comforted them. Recently, I even went to Las Vegas to pray for those imprisoned there. I bought the New Yorker Hotel to clear away the worst dens of Satan in New York and lay a new foundation. I had to go there to mingle with them and comfort them. Only in this way could I open and pave the way for people from all walks of life, even those headed for destruction in the satanic world. By my paving the way on earth, barriers in the spirit world will be opened and the world can be unified. Hence, I will marry blacks and whites interracially, and buy houses for them. In this way, I am doing things that have never been done before in this world. (91-160, 1977.2.6

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Cain represents Satan’s side. It is the position of the elder brother. Abel represents God’s side. This is the battle. Originally, God would have loved the first-born son, and then the younger son. Due to the Fall, the first son, Cain, stands on Satan’s side. He belongs to Satan’s side. In order to save him, God designated Abel. God designates Abel to restore the right of the firstborn son. This cannot be achieved by force; you have to inspire people by love. You have to achieve restoration by melting them with love. If you cannot stand in the position of having loved them, if you cannot win their heart through offering your love, then you will not be in a position to truly love your own son or daughter. As viewed from God’s ideal of creation, the first-born son was originally to be loved first rather than the second child. (140-38, 1986.2.1)

Synergy of Grace and Effort

The relationship between divine grace and human effort is what Thomas Aquinas called synergy: effort calls forth grace, and grace prompts effort. a number of texts stress human initiative as calling forth grace—”God helps those who help themselves”; others describe God’s grace as preceding and calling for our response. Father Moon teaches that God’s grace and power contribute some ninety-five percent towards the fulfillment of a work, leaving five percent as the human portion of responsibility. By leaving a small portion of the work unfinished as our portion, God provides a way for human beings to share in the work of creation and enjoy the glory of co-creators. However, in the course of salvation history, the requirement that we human beings do our portion has sometimes been a cause of frustration to God when we fail or fall short; it means that God cannot unilaterally complete the task by himself. God will reliably do his portion, but human beings are unreliable. Therefore, giving human beings a portion of responsibility means that God is essentially placing the fate of the universe in our hands.

Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.

Matthew 7.7

He who conforms to the Way is gladly accepted
by the Way;
he who conforms to virtue is gladly accepted by
virtue;
he who conforms to loss is gladly accepted by loss.
Tao Te Ching 23 (Taoism)

If a man sanctify himself a little, he becomes much sanctified; if he sanctify himself below, he becomes sanctified from above; if he sanctify himself in this world, he becomes sanctified in the world to come.

Talmud, Yoma 39a (Judaism)

Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; for God is at work in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.

Philippians 2.12-13

God changes not what is in a people, until they change what is in themselves.

Qur’an 13.11

Remembering me, you shall overcome all
difficulties through my grace.
But if you will not heed me in your self-will,
nothing will avail you.

Bhagavad-Gita 18.58 (Hinduism)

If you wish to find the true way,
Right action will lead you to it directly;
But if you do not strive for Buddhahood
You will grope in the dark and never find it.
Sutra of Hui Neng 2 (Buddhism)

Heaven helps the man who is devoted; men help the man who is true. The man who walks in truth and is devoted in his thinking, and furthermore reveres the worthy—he is blessed by Heaven.
I Ching, Great Commentary 1.12.1 (Confucianism)

God has declared: I am close to the thought that my servant has of Me, and I am with him whenever he recollects Me. If he remembers Me in himself, I remember him in Myself, and if he remembers Me in a gathering I remember him better than those in the gathering do, and if he approaches Me by as much as one hand’s length, I approach him by a cubit… If he takes a step towards Me, I run towards him.

Hadith (Islam)

God gives each person a hook with which to pluck his fruit.

Igbo Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3.20

Prayer indeed is good, but while calling on the gods a man should himself lend a hand.Hippocrates

It is from below that the movement starts, and thereafter is all perfected. If the community of Israel failed to initiate the impulse, the one from above would also not move to go her. It is thus the yearning from below which brings about the completion above.

Zohar (Judaism)

All undertakings in this world depend both on the ordering of fate and on human exertion; but among these two the ways of fate are unfathomable; in the case of man’s work action is possible.

Laws of Manu 7.205 (Hinduism)

The Most Important Thing Is to Discern Between Good and Evil

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True Adam is the True Parent. The True Parents will pass down their language to the True Children. That is the Principle. The True Parent did not come down as Rev. Moon. He came from heaven sent by God. Hence, it can be presumed that those who do not know God cannot recognize the True Parents. (129-20, 1983.10.4)

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You must bear in mind that only those who carry out the restoration of the right of the eldest son, the right of parents and the right of king are relatives. Then, the world will be united naturally even without me. I have now blessed more than 24,000 couples. The number 24 is 3 multiplied by 8. I have restored the number eight centering on the three ages of formation, growth and completion. In this way I completed the establishment of the rights of tribal messiahs on the world level. Now, even if I am not here, if you work day and night following God’s will to save your country, this world will come to one place. Furthermore, in the whole of history, there has been no other cultural foundation which included global academic, political and cultural organizations possessing a philosophical content greater than that of Rev. Moon. From whatever perspective we look at this, everything is now concluded. (206-272, 1990.10.14)

Good and Evil

1. Goodness Is Selfless and Altruistic, while Evil Is to Gratify Selfish Desires

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How do the directions of good and evil differ? Good always centers on God, the Absolute Being, or puts itself in the other person’s shoes. Evil centers on the self, or puts itself in the subject position. What is good? It is to advance the purpose of the whole by sacrificing yourself. What is evil? It is to pull everything toward you. Thus, good and evil have different directions.

Your body wants to do everything it desires, while your mind tries to restrain you from acting to satisfy the body. Thus they also have different directions, one good and the other evil. (16:137, January 2, 1966)

For human beings, the most important thing is to be able to discern between good and evil. Yet until now, the standard for determining good and evil has been unclear. Evil is to present conditions that enable Satan to accuse human beings. What is sin? It is something that provides grounds for Satan to accuse. Christians more than anyone must know clearly what sin is, especially the root of sins.

Evil began at the Human Fall, when not only Satan but also Eve thought, “I will be the subject partner. I will be the center.” God’s Principle of Creation is to live for the sake of others, while the attitude of living for one’s own sake is Satan’s nature. You must know clearly the origin of good and evil.

An evil person tells others to live for his sake. God and Jesus work to subdue this kind of spirit, which is why they teach us not to be arrogant, to sacrifice for others and to serve others. (69:85, October 20, 1973)

How do we determine if someone is good or evil? It is whether he or she lives for a public purpose or for an individual purpose. That is the norm of human ethics.

A good person sacrifices him or herself for the sake of others while an evil person exploits others for his or her own benefit. This is my way of teaching about good and evil. (102:234, January 1, 1979)

There are two basic types of people in the world: those who think and act altruistically for the sake of the greater good, and those who think and act to benefit themselves.

Most people do not like to think about the world and act for its benefit. They prefer to think about themselves and act out of their self-centered thinking.

The altruistic person admires the saints who were dedicated to the welfare of the world, patriots who lived for their nation, and righteous leaders of the current era, taking them as role models for his own life. The self-centered person could care less about saints, patriots or today’s leaders. He acts only to benefit himself.

Which type of person are you? Which type of person would you like as a friend?… You know the altruistic way is correct and a self-centered life is wrong, but what is your reality? You answer that you are altruistic, but your self-concept does not match your reality. The fact is, you are walking a self-centered path. You know the truth, but your reality does not match it. (117:214-15, March 7, 1982)

By the criterion of goodness, we can classify all people in the world into three groups: first, people who oppose goodness; second, people who know goodness but don’t actively pursue it to make it their own (they end up living in the buffer zone between heaven and hell); and third, people who want to take responsibility for accomplishing goodness. It is people of this third group whom God needs to accomplish His will. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

What makes someone a good person? Someone who just takes a bite out of what he receives is an evil person, while someone who adds to what he receives and passes it on to others is a good person. This is why every parent wants their children to grow up to be better than themselves. (315:211, February 2, 2000)

Does the president of the United States think centering on himself or centering on the United States? Does he act for his next election or for the future of the nation? These matters determine good and evil.

To go one step further, if the president focuses only on the benefit of the United States, then he will only be a respected president within the United States. However, if he centers on the world and the benefit of the world, then the world will admire him as an American president who has worldwide influence. Otherwise, although he serves his nation’s best interests, his actions will cause friction in the rest of the world.

All human beings are subject to this law and will be judged accordingly. What will ensnare you in the judgment? The main thing is the self-centered thinking. You will be judged for focusing on yourself. How can you confidently say that you will not be caught by this universal law? You will be liberated from the law when you become the type of person about whom people say, “He does not live for himself. He lives for the welfare of the world.” (93:302, June 12, 1977)

Jesus Did not Even Let Death Stop His Unwavering Efforts

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Who is the Messiah? The True Parents. Then, why are they necessary? It is because human beings must receive new grafts through the love of the True Parents. Thus, unless the True Parents – the Messiah – appear, fallen human beings will not be able to eliminate their original sin or be liberated from sin and receive the Blessing at the completion stage. (35-215, 1970.10.19)

Richard: Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Mrs. Moon are the True Parents.

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Why do people do penance by inflicting pain on their bodies? This is because they have inherited the blood of Satan, the blood of the enemy of God. Who is this enemy of God? He is the adulterer. He is the enemy of the love of God. He is the adulterer. We inherited the blood of the adulterer.

Jesus

15. Jesus’ Resurrection

On the cross, Jesus prayed for the people and determined to fulfill his responsibility for them even after his death; indeed, his concern for God’s Will transcended even death. Therefore, God could resurrect Jesus, and Satan did not dare accuse the resurrected Jesus. When you attain a level of perfection that you have the same value as Jesus, Satan cannot accuse you, either. (2:141, March 17, 1957)

Satan exercised his maximum power to crucify Jesus, thereby attaining the goal he had sought through-out the four-thousand-year course of history. On the other hand, by delivering Jesus to Satan, God set up as compensation the condition to save sinful humanity. How did God achieve this? Because Satan had already exercised his maximum power in killing Jesus, according to the principle of restoration through indemnity, God was entitled to exercise His maximum power. While Satan uses his power to kill, God uses His power to bring the dead to life. As compensation for Satan’s exercise of his maximum power in killing Jesus, God exercised His maximum power and resurrected Jesus. God thus opened the way for all humanity to be engrafted with the resurrected Jesus and thereby receive salvation and rebirth. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Moses and Jesus 3.3.1.1)

After his death, Jesus was concerned about his scattered disciples. Even during the three days in the tomb, he was determined to protect them for eternity. Hence, he went to the shores of Galilee after his resurrection and searched for them.

Today from a humanistic perspective we might wonder how Jesus could care for his disciples, when they showed no sense of responsibility and betrayed him the moment they faced difficulty. Yet this did not stop Jesus from fulfilling his responsibility toward them by visiting them in Galilee.

This is the character of Jesus, who did not let even death stop his unwavering efforts at raising his disciples to also be unwavering. We should take a lesson from Jesus’ admirable character in this regard. (1:38, May 16, 1956)

Due to the sin and blindness of the people, God permitted His Son to be a sacrifice. That was the significance of the crucifixion: God allowed Jesus to die on the cross as the ransom paid to Satan. In exchange, upon Jesus’ resurrection, God could claim the souls of humankind—though redemption of the body was not possible. Therefore God’s victory, and our salvation, was not in the cross but in the resurrection…

Our salvation comes from Jesus’ victorious resurrection. This is Christ’s victory, and Satan’s power can never affect it. But the body of Jesus Christ was given up as a sacrifice and a ransom. In giving up his body, Jesus also gave up the body of humankind. Our salvation is limited to spiritual redemption, because the redemption of the body remained unfulfilled 2,000 years ago. And our world still suffers under Satan’s power. Sin still rages within our bodies and dominates this world.

Therefore Paul cried out in anguish, “Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death? Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, I of my self serve the law of God with my mind, but with my flesh I serve the law of sin.” (Rom. 7.24-25) Paul was living in the grace of the Lord. Still he confessed that he could serve God only with his mind, and his flesh served the law of sin. His body yearned to be redeemed; he still anguished over sin.

And so it is for us. By accepting Christ, we receive spiritual salvation. But our body still serves the law of sin under Satan’s domain, until Christ returns and liberates us from the bondage of sin. The Lord of the Second Advent alone can give total salvation, in spirit and in body. (September 18, 1974)

Richard: Redemption of the body is now possible by grafting our lineage on to that of the True Parents.