Author: Richard Urban

Let Us Make Man In Our Image, After Our Likeness

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2137

Prior to the Fall, Adam and Eve could
relate to God freely and directly, but no
longer after it. Likewise, due to the Fall,
Cain and Abel, the children of Adam
and Eve, inherited not God’s lineage,
but Satan’s instead; hence, Jesus’ words
according to John 3:3, “… unless one is
born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom
of God.”
People need to realize that they have
inherited a false life through a false lin-
eage, which originated in a false love
relationship. They should be ashamed of
the fact that they have come to occupy
the position of the enemy of love, life,
and lineage. God feels unspeakable pain
and sorrow when He sees free sex and
homosexuality that are so prevalent in
our world today. Yet He takes the posi-
tion of loving His enemy’s children more
than His own. His providence of salva-
tion is to recover all His lost children by
continuously investing Himself without
expecting any return. For Him to revive
a fallen person, He must invest a life
force stronger than false life. How mis-
erable He must have been at the sight of
Eve being pregnant with the baby con-
ceived through the Fall! Such children
have multiplied to the point that now
there are six billion fallen human beings
in the world.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1093

A long time ago, when the families
of loyal subjects received something
good, they first offered it to the king
of the nation. That was the rule of the
life of loyalty in Korea. From that per-
spective, Korean courtesy reflects some-
thing central to heaven that cannot be
found in any other nation. Confucians
follow the teachings of Confucius, and
there is quite a lot of traditional conduct
prescribed in Confucian teachings that
is close to heavenly law. You should ask
your descendants to perform a sacrifi-
cial rite for you in the future. So far, the
regulations of life and the procedure for
holding a funeral have not been estab-
lished centering upon the Principle, but
once the standard is established in the
future, you should follow it.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

The Creator

1. In the Beginning

In the beginning God created the heavens and
the earth. The earth was without form and void,
and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and
the Spirit of God was moving over the face of
the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light”; and there
was light. And God saw that the light was good;
and God separated the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness he
called Night. And there was evening and there
was morning, one day.
And God said, “Let there be a firmament in
the midst of the waters, and let it separate the
waters from the waters.” And God made the
firmament and separated the waters which were
under the firmament from the waters which were
above the firmament. And it was so. And God
called the firmament Heaven. And there was
evening and there was morning, a second day.
And God said, “Let the waters under the
heavens be gathered together into one place,
and let the dry land appear.” And it was so. God
called the dry land Earth, and the waters that
were gathered together he called Seas. And
God saw that it was good. And God said, “Let
the earth put forth vegetation, plants yielding
seed, and fruit trees bearing fruit in which is
their seed, each according to its kind, upon
the earth.” And it was so. The earth brought
forth vegetation, plants yielding seed according
to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in
which is their seed, each according to its kind.
And God saw that it was good. And there was
evening and there was morning, a third day.
And God said, “Let there be lights in the
firmament of the heavens to separate the day
from the night; and let them be for signs and
for seasons and for days and years, and let them
be lights in the firmament of the heavens to
give light upon the earth.” And it was so. And
God made the two great lights, the greater light
to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the
night; he made the stars also. And God set
them in the firmament of the heavens to give
light upon the earth, to rule over the day and
over the night, and to separate the light from
the darkness. And God saw that it was good.
And there was evening and there was morning,
a fourth day.
And God said, “Let the waters bring forth
swarms of living creatures, and let birds fly above
the earth across the firmament of the heavens.”
So God created the great sea monsters and
every living creature that moves, with which
the waters swarm, according to their kinds, and
every winged bird according to its kind. And
God saw that it was good. And God blessed
them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill
the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on
the earth.” And there was evening and there
was morning, a fifth day.
And God said, “Let the earth bring forth
living creatures according to their kinds, cattle
and creeping things and beasts of the earth
according to their kinds.” And it was so. And
God made the beasts of the earth according to
their kinds, and the cattle according to their
kinds, and everything that creeps upon the
ground according to its kind. And God saw that
it was good.
Then God said, “Let us make man in our
image, after our likeness; and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the
birds of the air, and over the cattle, and over
all the earth, and over every creeping thing
that creeps upon the earth.” So God created
man in his own image, in the image of God he
created him; male and female he created them.
And God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and
subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of
the sea and over the birds of the air and over
every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
And God said, “Behold, I have given you every
plant yielding seed which is upon the face of all
earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit; you
shall have them for food. And to every beast of
the earth, and to every bird of the air, and to
everything that creeps on the earth, everything
that has the breath of life, I have given every
green plant for food.” And it was so. And God
saw everything that he had made, and behold, it
was very good. And there was evening and there
was morning, a sixth day.
Thus the heavens and the earth were
finished, and all the host of them. And on the
seventh day God finished his work which he had
done, and he rested on the seventh day from all
his work which he had done. So God blessed the
seventh day and hallowed it, because on it God
rested from all his work which he had done in
creation.
Genesis 1.1-2.3

God it is who created the heavens and the
earth,
and that which is between them, in six days.
Then He mounted the throne.
You have not, beside Him, a protecting friend
or mediator.
Will you not then remember?
He directs the ordinance from the heaven to
the earth;
then it ascends to Him in a Day, whose measure is a thousand years of your reckoning.
Such is the Knower of the invisible and the visible, the Mighty, the Merciful,
who made all things good which He created.30
Qur’an 32.4-7

Tao gave them birth;
The power of Tao reared them,
Shaped them according to their kinds,
Perfected them, giving to each its strength.
Therefore of the ten thousand things there is
not one that does not worship Tao and do homage to its power. Yet no mandate ever went forth
that accorded to Tao the right to be worshiped,
nor to its power the right to receive homage. It
was always and of itself so.31
Tao Te Ching 51 (Taoism)

As the web issues out of the spider
And is withdrawn, as plants sprout from the
earth,
As hair grows from the body, even so,
The sages say, this universe springs from
The deathless Self, the source of life.
The deathless Self meditated upon
Himself and projected the universe
As evolutionary energy.
From this energy developed life, mind,
The elements, and the world of karma,
Which is enchained by cause and effect.
The deathless Self sees all, knows all. From him
Springs Brahma, who embodies the process
Of evolution into name and form
By which the One appears to be many.
Mundaka Upanishad 1.1.7-9 (Hinduism)

The Holy One went about creating worlds and
destroying them until He created heaven and
earth, of which He said, “These please Me.”32
Genesis Rabbah 9.2 (Judaism)

God Governs the World by the Same Creative Principle He Used in the Beginning

Exodus 32

19 When Moses approached the camp and saw the calf and the dancing, his anger burned and he threw the tablets out of his hands, breaking them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 And he took the calf the people had made and burned it in the fire; then he ground it to powder, scattered it on the water and made the Israelites drink it.

Isaiah 16

Send lambs[a] as gifts
    to the ruler of the land.
Send them across the desert
    from Sela[b] to Mount Zion.
2 The women of Moab
    crossing the Arnon River
are like a flock of birds
    scattered from their nests.
3 Moab’s messengers say
    to the people of Judah,
“Be kind and help us!
Shade us from the heat
    of the noonday sun.
Hide our refugees!
    Don’t turn them away.
4 Let our people live
in your country
    and find safety here.”

Richard: Our children are like the lambs described here. They have been cruelly decimated by the vaccine industrial complex. One half of all children born now will have a developmental disability. How did this happen? We must not let it continue:https://youtu.be/nrQJO1eIUG8.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

The Creator

This section on God as the Creator includes classic accounts of the creation of the universe and the creation of human beings. Some describe creation as beginning with a word; others from a desire within the Absolute Being. In some texts the Creator forms the universe out of nothing (ex nihilo), in others the world originated as an emanation from the Absolute, a portion of which emerged out of the void to take on the attributes of form and matter. Several texts describe the root of creation in the appearance of Mind, which then molds physical matter into its abode; others mention the motive of Love, which sought to divide Being from Non-Being in order to manifest itself. (For more texts on creation by the interaction of two poles which emerged from the One, see Chapter 2: Duality.) Finally, scriptures from Hinduism and Taoism describe creation in terms of divine self-emptying and sacrifice.
These creation stories are not mere explanations of how things came to be in the far remote past. They are to instruct us on the workings of God who even today governs this world by the same creative principle that He used in the beginning. As the biblical scholar Rudolph Bultmann said, “The real purpose of the creation story is to inculcate what God is doing all the time.”28 This in turn informs us about who we are. Father Moon, for his part, emphasizes the effort and love God invested in the creative process. If we are God’s children, then just as God invested effort and sincerity in creating, we too should invest 100 percent of our effort in order to realize fully our potential as creative beings. As creation proceeds from mind to matter, so too our life can accord with the cosmic order when it is centered on the mind. As God was motivated to create out of love, searching for a counterpart in the world of being with whom to rejoice, so we should strive to become God’s beloved, able to please His heart.

How Much Have You Empathized With God’s Situation?

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2007

Do you know where the providence
has come to at the present time? The
first goal is to have the basis on which
we can bring about the restoration of the
homeland in heaven’s nation and liber-
ate God’s Kingdom on earth. This must
be done even if you have to sacrifice time
with your family and relatives. Even if
you end up as a refugee, this must be
accomplished. (300-309, 1999.4.11)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1059

You should offer all your devotion in
witnessing to your parents. There is no
greater happiness than receiving heav-
en’s blessings with them, in the presence
of God’s will, and creating a protective
fence as a Blessed Family. (16-329, 1966.7.31)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

3. God’s Loving Heart toward Humanity

When Israel was a child, I loved him, and out of Egypt I called my son. The more I called them, the more they went from me; they kept sacrificing to the Baals, and burning incense to idols. Yet it was I that taught Ephraim to walk, I took him up in my arms; but they did not know that I healed them. I led them with cords of compassion, with the bands of love, and I became to them as one who eases the yoke on their jaws, and I bent down to them and fed them.
Hosea 11.1-4

In the perilous round of mortality, In continuous, unending misery, Firmly tied to the passions As a yak is to its tail; Smothered by greed and infatuation, Blinded and seeing nothing; Seeking not the Buddha, the Mighty, And the Truth that ends suffering, But deeply sunk in heresy, By suffering seeking riddance of suffering; For the sake of all these creatures, My heart is stirred with great pity.
Lotus Sutra 2 (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

How hard is it to educate just one child? Children share their parents’ flesh and blood. Their hearts are linked to their mother, so when mother cries they cry too. Their hearts are naturally connected to their father, so they respond to his cares and sorrows. Even so, it is still extremely hard to teach and raise them, is it not?
Then consider the magnitude of God’s task. Today’s human beings are not God’s children. Although God cries out in bitterness, they act as if they do not hear anything. Although God weeps with grief and sorrow, they just ignore it. This is because human beings stem from Satan’s flesh and blood. They may sense God’s grief, yet all they do is praise Him. They may notice that other people are perishing, yet still they laugh and make merry.
Think how difficult it is for God, who has to train workers and raise leaders from among such people. Without a heart of utmost compassion, God would not have even a foothold to develop His providential work. Yet it is God’s heart to consider every single detail—from one to one hundred to one thousand to even ten thousand—in arranging things for you. (42:257, March 21, 1971)

God elected Cain and Abel, Noah, and many other families as He pursued the providence of restoration. At every dispensation God led of this providential history, His heart was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God endured with great patience.
Who on this earth today feels the fretful heart of our patient God? Who would hug God and weep with Him? Anyone who knows God’s heart like this and shed tears would understand: God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in heaven and earth, but due to the Human Fall God now grieves; His sorrow encompasses all in heaven and earth. (4:239, May 18, 1958)

[Until the coming of Jesus], what had been God’s heart toward humanity? He did not have the attitude to live for His own sake. Although we fallen human beings deserved to suffer and die, God poured out all of His heart and strength to save us. Persevering through the four thousand years of Old Testament history, He fought every step of the way to separate humanity from Satan. You should understand the nature of God who loved us, persevered for us and fought for us with an unchanging heart…
During Jesus’ life of 33 years, he did not try to distinguish himself before the people, but in silence he sought to experience the heart of God… At difficult moments Jesus might have felt the urge to seek his own welfare, but because he was ever immersed in God’s heart, he could not even think of doing it. Jesus knew that God had persevered for four thousand years for the purpose of finding one man—Jesus himself. Knowing that, Jesus spent thirty years preparing himself, so that he could emerge as the man of substance who could liberate God from that history.
God never made excuses for His situation or complained about His suffering, not to anyone. Because Jesus was trying to understand everything about the heart of God, when he was lonely he too persevered and never made any excuses. You should follow the example of his life. (1:78, May 27, 1956)
Even though human beings sinned, God does not accuse us, saying, “Hey, you! Why did you sin?” He knows the situation of sinners. He cares about humanity more than for Himself. He comes in sorrow to sorrowful people, in suffering to suffering people, and in sympathy with those who feel victimized and angry.
How much have you empathized with God’s situation? God comes into our sphere of life in this way. Not only that—he comes to us with His heart: “Although you betrayed Me, I am your Father. With a father’s heart I have been searching for you for six thousand years.” (9:231, May 29, 1960)

Father! We have been like pitiful orphans,
knocked about this way and that,
ignorant of our purpose, our direction, and our historical situation,
unable to grasp the center of life, pushed here and there—
still Thou didst hold on to us.
Yet we did not know that Thou wast there,
sorrowful when we were sad,
not averse to toiling day and night to seek us out,
even as we were ensnared and groaning in the realm of death. (5:337, March 8, 1959)

God Drives Away Flies for a Cow that Has No Tail

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Acts 20

20 When the uproar had ended, Paul sent for the disciples and, after encouraging them, said goodbye and set out for Macedonia. 2 He traveled through that area, speaking many words of encouragement to the people, and finally arrived in Greece, 3 where he stayed three months.

Johah 2

2 1 [a]From inside the fish Jonah prayed to the Lord his God. 2 He said:

“In my distress I called to the Lord,
    and he answered me.
From deep in the realm of the dead I called for help,
    and you listened to my cry.
3 You hurled me into the depths,
    into the very heart of the seas,
    and the currents swirled about me;
all your waves and breakers
    swept over me.
4 I said, ‘I have been banished
    from your sight;
yet I will look again
    toward your holy temple.’
5 The engulfing waters threatened me,[b]
    the deep surrounded me;
    seaweed was wrapped around my head.
6 To the roots of the mountains I sank down;
    the earth beneath barred me in forever.
But you, Lord my God,
    brought my life up from the pit.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

2. Divine Mercy

God is All-gentle to His servants, providing for whomsoever He will.
Qur’an 42.19

God is the best to take care of man, and He is the Most Merciful of those who show mercy!
Qur’an 12.64

If we are faithless, he remains faithful—for he cannot deny himself.

2 Timothy 2.13

No one is more patient over injury which he hears than God.
Hadith of Bukhari and Muslim (Islam)

God drives away flies for a cow that has no tail.
Yoruba Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted
beyond your strength, but with the temptation
will also provide the way of escape, that you may
be able to endure it.
1 Corinthians 10.13

God charges no soul save to its capacity;
standing to its account is what it has earned,
and against its account what it has deserved.
Our Lord! Take us not to task if we forget, or
make mistake.
Our Lord! Charge us not with a load as that
which You laid upon those before us.
Our Lord! Burden us not beyond what we have
the strength to bear. Pardon us, forgive us, and have mercy on us.
Qur’an 2.286

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is God? God is the existence that absolutely lives for others. (175:158, March 16, 1988)

No matter what happens in the human world, God is patient because He is who He is. He sees tragic and heart-breaking things, yet He remains calm and composed, never losing His dignity. If God were to open His mouth and express His suffering, He could pour out tragic stories for millions of years, weeping all the while. Would God weep out of self-pity? No, God weeps only for humankind, His
children. (124:60, January 23, 1983)

What kind of being is God? Does He say, “I am God Almighty! I created you to serve Me, to love Me and sacrifice everything for Me”? Such a being cannot be God.
In fact, God has set the tradition of humbly serving and loving the world. His tradition is that of changing diapers and cleaning up the baby’s feces, and washing the dirt off a sick and infirm old man. That tradition should form the core of our education. (116:90-91, December 20, 1981)

God, the Creator of the universe, still remembers the wonderful process by which His creation unfolded, how each creature arose and what He did to further their development. He invested such great love for His creation; love was the motivation, and love the goal. Even though humankind fell, God just cannot put aside His abiding love for human beings; to do so would be against His Principle and His standard of love. Therefore, when He sees fallen people living
in misery, He does not condemn. Rather, He is merciful to them. (115:320-21, November 29, 1981)

God Needs Object Partners

Watch or Listen to the podcast of the Richard Urban Show from May 7, 2020: Moral Posturing Does Not Improve Our Health: https://www.visionroot.org/2020/05/08/is-governor-justice-moral-posturing/ .

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2138

We were originally to grow up so that
men and women would meet each oth-
er to become kings and queens, and, as
heavenly princes and princesses, inherit
everything in God’s Kingdom. For this,
we must start at the bottom of hell and
work our way up through the eight-stage
indemnity process until God’s Kingdom
is established, which is possible only
through the Blessing of the True Par-
ents, who come as the Messiah.
Therefore, blessed couples should
become ‘plus’ couples who take the ini-
tiative in serving the world. To be com-
pletely reborn, we should practice abso-
lute faith, absolute love, and absolute
obedience centering on God. I have per-
sonally practiced this throughout my
life.
When creating the universe, God did
so with absolute faith. He went on to cre-
ate us to be the absolute partners of His
love. Absolute obedience means invest-
ing ourselves completely to the extent of
total self-denial. Furthermore, we for-
get about the investment we made and
reinvest; such a process continues until
reaching the zero point without any con-
cept of self. If our love were rejected, we
would continue to love even more; even
if we have already invested, we should
continue to invest everything that we
have, until we can make our enemy sur-
render voluntarily. God walked such a
path, and the Parents of heaven and earth
have also walked such a path. The person
who invests love continuously without
expecting a direct return becomes a cen-
tral being, the one who inherits every-
thing, and the child of greatest piety. In
a family with ten members including the
grandparents, the one most exemplify-
ing altruism will be its center. The same
principle applies with respect to patriots
in the nation. The more we invest with-
out expecting a direct return, the higher
we can rise as loyal citizens, saints, and
God’s holy sons and daughters.

Richard: What did God have faith in? Himself? Hardly. He has faith in us, created as His images, that we will (eventually, and hopefully sooner than later) fulfill His original ideal of creation. Doing Home Church work definitely involves having obedience (to your conscience) and pushing your own self/ego down. And what is real love. Giving and investing without expecting a direct return.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1617

Between you and me, who is supe-
rior? In what respect? Why would one
be superior to another when all of us
are of the same mind? The only differ-
ence between us is to what extent we
put into action what our mind tells us
to do; otherwise we are no different at
all. Our minds are all the same. The
basis of the person and of the mind
is the same; the only difference lies
in the degree to which we follow the
instructions of our minds, how much
we convert our thoughts into action,
and how much we cultivate our envi-
ronment. (222-303, 1991.11.6)

Richard: Again, Home Church is all about cultivating your environment: https://inspiration.visionroot.org/2020/01/21/only-through-home-church-can-you-return-home/ .

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God

Divine Love and Compassion

1. Love: The Essence of God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God knows everything. Omniscient and omnipotent, He is the Supreme King of knowledge and power. Omnipresent, He exists everywhere. What does God need? Diamonds? He can make them any time. Gold or jewels? No. What God needs is love. Dwelling all by Himself, would God say, “I have love and it’s great” and laugh? No, there is something that God needs. God is a personal God; then He should have a mouth, shouldn’t He? He also should have anose, eyes, ears, hands and feet, a mind—and a heart. Surely, God must have them, because He isa personal God. (142:30)

God is the Original Being of love, and out of love He created human beings. A solitary being cannot love. Therefore, there is one thing that even God absolutely needs: a partner whom He can love. He can only love in a relationship with a counterpart. God, the Original Being of love and heart, created the universe with love as His motivation. In doing so, He created human beings in His image as His substantial object partners, as it is recorded in Genesis 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” God is our eternal, formless and internal Parent, and [he created] Adam and Eve to be perfected as our visible and external parents. (135:10-11, August 20, 1985)

If what God needs is love, then He needs object partners with whom He can relate and share love. What sort of beings could these be? Animals? God would love beings that resemble Him. If God’s partners are indeed human beings, then we are led to the conclusion that God has a human-like personality. God, who is in complete harmony within Himself, must also have attributes that can harmonize one hundred percent with the innate faculties of the human mind and body. Hence, God must have intellect, emotion and will. (162:271, April 17, 1987)\

Love cannot be completed without a partner. Even God absolutely needs a counterpart in order to attain the most precious love; that is why He created. God seeks out a partner, so that He can experience absolute love through relating with another. In this sense, God exists for human beings and human beings exist for God. True love begins when we live for the sake of another. What is the origin of human beings? God’s love. We were born for love. Love is the origin. Life is not the most precious thing. Our life derived from God’s idea of love; therefore, love precedes life. Love is the root of life. We are born from love, grow up in love, and meet a partner for love—that should be our life. If God is the first generation, then human beings are the second generation. God always loves us, His sons and daughters, but do we experience God’s love? Human beings need to experience that love if we are to become God’s perfect partners. (143:310, March 21, 1986)