Richard Urban | Daily Inspiration

Beware of False Prophets in Sheep’s Clothing

The recordings of the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop are now available:
You can view the recordings for free at https://www.visionroot.org/workshop-recordings/
Day 1: Abstinence-centered curriculum training,
Day 2: Unification Principle Study
Day 3: Strengthening Families and Communities Forum.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2256

You must not only be filial toward your parents, but you also need your spouse. Thus, you must form a four-position foundation. This is the absolute Principle. When we understand this, we need to ask what has happened today to the individual, family, and national four-position foundations. The expansion of the family four-position foundation creates the nation, the expansion of the national four-position foundation creates the world, and the expansion of the global four-position foundations is the cosmos. The family is the base.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 706

Between teachers and students, there are rules for teachers to observe and rules for students to observe. Likewise, in the Unification Church, there are rules that I should observe, and rules that you should observe. Therefore you who hear the Word are subject to judgment by the Word. If you hear it wrongly, you will be judged.
Then, what activities should we undertake next? We are to realize substance. That being the case, if we fail to undertake activities that substantiate the Word, there will be a judgment of substance. There is judgment by the Word, judgment of substance, and judgment of heart. We must undergo the three great processes of judgment.
First, the word of the Principle will judge you and after that, you will be subjected to the judgment of substance. Who will judge? Those who substantiated the word by working hard in fundraising and witnessing, and who followed all the rules, they will judge you. Those who worked hard will judge you; that is judgment. If you do not follow the Word, even Satan will judge you and others will accuse you. I will judge Unification Church members; the Unification Church leaders will judge them, and those who followed the will of the Unification Church will judge them.

Heresy

THE MOST INSIDIOUS CAUSE OF DEVIATION from the religious path is the lure of false teaching, or heresy. The scriptures of every major religion warn against it. “Heresy” means opinion, and the wisdom of God’s revelation to the founding saint of the religion is not something to be altered or revised on the basis of someone else’s opinion.
It is true that every genuine religion at its birth was branded a heresy by the leaders of the orthodox establishment. Yet in addition, heretical offshoots of these new religions usually sprang up within a generation of the Founder’s passing, or even in the Founder’s lifetime. Yet by the Will of God, the mainstream religions became established while the heresies that beset them did not. Nowhere do we find that a heresy ever defeated a major religion’s line of orthodox development. Despite their theological attraction, there must be good reasons why heresies were branded as such.
A number of the passages gathered here attack false prophets and heretics for having base motives: they are hypocrites using religion for worldly gain (although orthodox teachers could have the same flaw). Some attribute these false teachings to the work of demons and evil spirits. Others point to their rotten fruits: licentious living, greed, and the sowing of dissension. On the other hand, some heresies deceive through advocating a standard of conduct even more austere or a faith even more extreme than what is called for in the correct path—Devadatta being a prime example. Still other passages attack heretics for fomenting schism and breaking down the unity of the faith.

Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep’s clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits.
Matthew 7.15-16

God’s Messenger is reported as saying, “In the last times men will come forth who will fraudulently use religion for worldly ends and wear sheepskins in public to display meekness. Their tongues will be sweeter than sugar, but their hearts will be the hearts of wolves. God will say, ‘Are they trying to deceive Me, or are they acting presumptuously towards Me? I swear by Myself that I shall send trial upon those people which will leave the intelligent men among them confounded.’”
Hadith of Tirmidhi (Islam)

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The Purpose of Religion Is to Clean Out Satan’s Den Within My Body

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2226

Satan has blocked the level of the family. However perfect a person may have become on the individual level, it is of no use if he is unfilial to his parents. This is how it is: no matter how filial a person may have been in his family, his piety is of no use if he is disloyal to his country; and no matter how loyal a person is to his country, if he is disloyal to humankind, then he will be unable to go to Heaven. (158-143, 1967.12.26)

Richard: Community welfare should come before your own family welfare. If the community is healthy, our own family will naturally benefit.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1567

How would democracy, which has unfolded through a history of wars, be brought to an end? Democracy would naturally conclude with the advent of the parents, the coming of the parent-centered ideology. Hence, the Unification Church declared to this world that the era of the providence of salvation has ended and has given way to the era of the providence of restoration through love. Many religions are unaware of this truth. Pastors of established churches do not understand what is meant by the era of the providence of salvation by love or the era of the ideology centered on the Heavenly Father, do they? They wouldn’t know what the Ceremony of the Settlement of the Eight Stages is. (194-325, 1989.10.30)

Richard: Jesus came to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That work was not completed. Jesus came again to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That work is done through forming true families. Rev. Moon and his wife have succeeded at establishing True Parents, which means the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is already successfully established. But we have to be aware and study and understand that a new age has come. Request a password to view the Unification Principle study from the Peaceful Families; Peaceful World workshop here: https://www.visionroot.org/unification-principle-workshop-recordings/.

Hypocrisy

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If you convey God’s words to someone only with the intention to use him or her in some way, you will never be able to establish the standard of the Way. Give what you have to others with a sincere heart. (Way of God’s Will 3.3)

Satan is clever and smart. Using his cunning, he manipulates God’s methods to put himself at the center. Likewise, people who act on their selfish desires cause the worst harm within the world of religion. They will speak about the will of God or the advancement of their nation, but actually they are doing things only to benefit themselves. Ignoring the fact that God is the starting-point of everything, they act only for themselves. Anyone who collects believers’ money for the greater purpose Faith 777 of God and uses that money unscrupulously for himself is a thief. The same applies to anyone who takes church property for his own use without getting permission. Such people will be destroyed from within. (God’s Will and the World, April 3, 1983)

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Who to You, Scribes and Pharisees, Hypocrites!

Cheon Seong Gyeong 450

You should understand why human beings are born. They are not born for the sake of knowledge or political power. They are born because of love and from love. Then what makes love so great? It is the fact that love is the original source of life. You are born in the midst of your parents’ love. You are not born out of your parents’ desire for money or knowledge. Since you are born in love like this, you should bear fruits of love. This is why you need children. A husband and wife become complete when they become one and have sons and daughters as their object partners. (Blessed Family – 1062)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1422

Registration will take place from now on. When South and North Korea are reunited, the members of the Unification Church across the world, the Blessed Families who have conducted themselves in an appropriate manner, will all be registered regardless of tribe. This will happen, if the North and South are united through the authority of True Father. Then heavenly law will decree that the loyal subjects of the Unification Church around the world [are] the representative race, the race that passes on the lineage. Who would oppose that? From the historical point of view, I have worked so hard for the independence of Korea and to establish it as the homeland, so who could possibly oppose me? (197-212, 1990.1.14)

Hypocrisy

WHEREVER PEOPLE SUBSCRIBE TO A RELIGION or doctrine of moral excellence, there is always the danger of hypocrisy. The hypocrite wishes to enjoy the approval of his peers and even the benefits of a religious office by appearing outwardly moral or religious, while inwardly he is not. Where religion makes serious demands upon people’s lives, such as Jesus’ call to love your enemy, Islam’s call to jihad or Buddhism’s strict precepts of monastic discipline, the hypocrite tries to circumvent these demands while appearing outwardly righteous. The hypocrite does not pay the price of commitment to the religious life and hence does not reap its spiritual benefits; hence he remains at a low state.
Furthermore, when hypocrisy becomes prevalent and lowers the standards expected of religious people, it brings religion itself into disrepute. In Father Moon’s survey of history, he teaches that the decline of the Christian spirit, accompanied by hypocrisy of the rich who tolerated and justified widespread poverty and racism, was the direct cause for the spread of materialistic ideologies in the 19th and 20th centuries. (See Chapter 8: Christianity) Only by recovering the true godly spirit of religion Father Moon teaches, can we establish a spiritual civilization that can bring lasting peace to this planet.

Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. So you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but within you are full of hypocrisy and iniquity.
Matthew 23.27-28

He who has the character of a sinner, though he lays great stress on the outward signs of his religious calling as a means of living, he who does not control himself though he pretends to do so, will come to grief for a long time.
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 20.43 (Jainism)

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Do You Believe in God, or Do You Know God?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2160

Jesus knew that individual enemies were not the only enemies. He knew that family enemies, clan enemies, ethnic enemies, national enemies, and global enemies surrounded him on all four sides. This means that there are many enemies awaiting those who want to follow his path. It also means that if you go the family path, there are family enemies waiting, and if you go the clan path, there are clan enemies waiting. You can expect fierce battles, but you must love those enemies whenever you encounter them. If you possess this kind of spirit, someday victory can be yours.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1514

All the creation would appear beautiful in your eyes at the time of your marriage, just as it was when God created the universe. The whole of creation, including you, exists through love. When you realize this, then through that love the fundamental feelings God nurtured at the time of Creation can be re-created and shared with your partner and all forms of existence on earth, all united together as one. In other words, it is possible for you to experience the deepest feelings of God at the time of Creation. You are also a part of the creation who inherited every ideal conceived by God when He created the universe. If you were to pull true love towards yourself, heaven and earth would also be drawn towards you. Even the furthest things would be drawn to you if they were pulled by true love, and things nearby could be sent far away by the power of true love. (216-192, 1991.3.31)

Doubt

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Do you believe in God, or do you know God? You say you know Him; then, do you believe in His love, or do you know it? You say God is alive; do you believe He is alive, or do you know it? By the same token, you say you are of God’s lineage, but do you just believe you are of His lineage, or do you know it?
What is faith? According to Hebrews chapter 11, “Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” It is something provisional, not connected to the reality we experience. (359:87, 011106)

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O Man of Little Faith, Why Did You Doubt?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2110

When you go to your hometown, you should go there with true love. If you bring true love to your hometown, plant it and practice it, you will become ancestors. You will be the first generation ancestors. If you are a Park, your generation will be engrafted to the heavenly kingdom with the family name Park. Then, your father would be in the position of your son. (177-161, 1988.5.17)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1456

From the theoretical perspective, there will no longer be anything to explain with regard to God’s will. Everything has been completed. The time has now come for us to turn over a new leaf. Now that we are carrying on the history bequeathed to us from God and True Parents, the era of registration will soon arrive. Then you will have to be registered. Have you all become like God and True Parents in the position of sons and daughters of God? It is easy to say, but not to fulfill. Whether asleep or awake, you must always keep this in mind. These thoughts must accompany you wherever you go, and whatever you do, whether you are eating or sleeping. In order to do so, you need to experience residing in the homeland before passing on to the next world. (201-234, 1990.4.22)

Doubt

FAITH IN THE INTANGIBLE IS INEVITABLY MET BY DOUBT. Doubts arise from faith’s unrealistic claims, from the challenges that living a life of faith entails, and from the skepticism that abounds in today’s secular environment. Unresolved doubts can weigh down and even sink a believer sailing on the voyage of faith, as symbolized by Peter’s unsuccessful attempt to walk on water.
Every believer is responsible to confront and overcome his or her doubts. Intellectually, we can find answers to satisfy our unresolved questions. Ultimately, we should graduate from the level of belief to attain knowledge of God based upon lived experience.

Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and place my finger in the mark of the nails, and place my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Eight days later, his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. The doors were shut, but Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed.”
John 20.24-29

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