Author: Richard U.

Align Yourself With the Principle that Governs the Universe

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The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics-Part 7 with Philip Sharp

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2220

In going the way of filial piety for the sake of God, even if you have to die away from home, you should protect whatever environment you are in such a way that will earn you the appreciation of its inhabitants. Only by bequeathing such a legacy can you go to heaven. If you do not, you will not. (280-41, 1996.10.13)

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You have been bought. You have been bought, along with humanity and the universe. That is why God wants to judge the universe with you. He bought you, who were in the position of slaves in the satanic world, to become His sons and daughters. Therefore, you are the blessed children of glory and you should be ready to give yourselves for the world when it asks for you. You should be ready to give everything you have even to Satan. You were bought with the blood and sweat of True Father. You were bought with my own flesh and blood. Therefore, you should carry out the same work as I. I would like to take pride in the members. Let us make a commitment in this regard. (11-164, 1961.7.20)

Predestination

3. The Relationship between Destiny and Free Will

Rabbi Akiba says, Everything is foreseen, yet freedom of choice is given; the world is judged by grace, yet all is according to the preponderance of works.
    Mishnah, Avot 3.19 (Judaism)

No affliction befalls, except by the leave of God. Whoever believes in God, He will guide his heart. God has knowledge of everything.
    Qur’an 64.11

O my servants, every one of you is in error, except the one I have guided, so ask guidance from Me and I will guide you. O my servants, every one of you is hungry, except him whom I have fed, so ask food of Me and I will feed you. O my servants, every one of you is naked except him whom I have clothed, so ask clothing of Me and I will clothe you. O my servants, you sin day and night, and I pardon your sins; so ask pardon of Me and I will pardon you.
    Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 24 (Islam)

All by Thee is accomplished, Thine is the might,
Thou watcheth Thy handiwork,
With chess pieces raw and ripe.
All that into the world have come, must depart
hence—
All shall by turns go.
Why put out of mind the Lord, master of life
and death?
By one’s own hands is one’s affairs set straight. 
Adi Granth, Asa-ki-Var, M.1, p. 473-74 (Sikhism)

Even though God foresees the free acts of the human will, freedom of choice remains, for God sees all time concurrently and through eternity.
    Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy (Christianity)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
God is the absolute Being, unique, eternal and unchanging; therefore, the purpose of His creation must also be absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging… It follows that God’s predestination of His Will—that the purpose of creation one day be fulfilled—must also be absolute, as it is written, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Isa. 46.11) Since God predestines His Will absolutely, if the person who has been chosen to accomplish His Will fails, God must continue to carry on His providence until its fulfillment, even though it may require Him to choose another person to shoulder the mission.
    For example, God willed that His purpose of creation be fulfilled through Adam. Although this did not come to pass, God’s predestination of this providential will has remained absolute. Hence, God sent Jesus as the second Adam…
    Although God’s Will to realize the purpose of the providence of restoration is absolute, God predestines the process of its accomplishment conditionally, contingent upon the five percent responsibility of the central figure, which must be completed in addition to the ninety-five percent responsibility of God. 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…
    To what extent does God determine the fate of an individual? The fulfillment of God’s Will through an individual absolutely requires that he complete his responsibility. Hence, even though God predestines someone for a particular mission, God’s ninety-five percent responsibility and the person’s five percent responsibility must be accomplished together before the person can complete his given mission and fulfill God’s Will. If the person does not complete his responsibility, he cannot become the person God has purposed him to be. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination)
 
No matter what people may say or do, they are subject to the rhythm of heavenly fortune, which power flows throughout the universe. No one has the power to stand against it, so they are inclined to follow along with it. People who follow the right path in alignment with heavenly fortune grow and prosper along with it. Since they move with its rhythm as it pulses throughout the universe, they are bound to live forever. Nevertheless, many Western people want to be masters of their own destiny, but since they disregard the rhythm of heavenly fortune, things will not go as they want. Therefore, clever and wise Westerners will align themselves with the Principle that governs the universe…
    No one wants to perish. No nation wants to perish. Nevertheless, today so many people are perishing, and nations are on the path of decline. Why are they perishing? It is not because of anything I do. But when the very universe opposes them, how can they stand against it? Only people who are aligned with heavenly fortune and who are obedient to the Principle that governs the universe can expect to survive and prosper. This has been the case for the heroes and saints throughout history. Wouldn’t you like to become a hero or a saint? (94:19-20, June 19, 1977
 
 
 

Meetings Don’t Happen by Accident

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Therefore, blessed couples should become ‘plus’ couples who take the initiative in serving the world. To be completely reborn, we should practice absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience centering on God. I have personally practiced this throughout my life.

When creating the universe, God did so with absolute faith. He went on to create us to be the absolute partners of His love. Absolute obedience means investing ourselves completely to the extent of total self-denial. Furthermore, we forget about the investment we made and reinvest; such a process continues until reaching the zero point without any concept 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 surrender 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 central being, the one who inherits everything, and the child of greatest piety. In a family with ten members including the grandparents, the one most exemplifying altruism will be its center. The same principle applies with respect to patriots in the nation. The more we invest without expecting a direct return, the higher we can rise as loyal citizens, saints, and God’s holy sons and daughters.

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The realm of direct dominion is a place where Adam and Eve can participate together, united in love. Thus, the realm of indirect dominion is the realm in which their portion of responsibility has yet to be completed. When the portion of responsibility is fulfilled and Adam and Eve become husband and wife centered on love, God becomes the internal Father and Adam and Eve become the external parents. When these unite as the inner and the outer, the realm of direct dominion is established for the first time. In this process, marriage is therefore absolutely necessary. You cannot enter this realm as a single person. (139-262, 1986.1.31)

Predestination

2. The Seemingly Chance Events of Life Are Actually the Workings of Destiny

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Our meeting together here is the unfolding of destiny through which God is weaving all things into one. This is not a chance encounter. The destiny that brought you here was formed over a long history. Among the multitudes of people of the world, why were you in particular able to come here? 
Wherever you lived before you came here, Heaven checked your background [and determined that you had merit]. (November 4, 1990)
 
Despite all the difficulties and sufferings I endured after I came to America, I knew that I was destined to meet there with people who would appear out of the countless destined relationships (inyun, in Korean) that composed America’s history. It was my mission to guide them all to the path of God’s blessings. Since I knew these things with certainty, I accepted every challenge and took it as my cross to bear, in order that in my lifetime I could give blessings to the people who represented such greatness.
    I thought that I would meet some direct descendants of the Pilgrims, born of survivors among the 102 souls who endured such tribulations that half of them died either at sea or during that first winter. I thought about how fascinating it would be to meet them. The knowledge of what they went through encouraged me to overcome the obstacles in my path. No amount of rejection, persecution and cursing could weaken my determination to fulfill my responsibility to seek out and care for the descendants of the Pilgrims who came to my church through the working out of their destiny.
    When I was released from the prison at Danbury, I did not want to return to Korea straight away. I preferred to stay in America one more week, even one more year, in hopes of meeting someone beloved of Heaven. I waited in America because still I sought to inherit her historical tradition. Even now, whenever I meet someone new, I think about how long his or her ancestors have waited for this moment. Since they waited, should I not also wait to receive them? Do you understand what I am saying?
    When you have that kind of attitude throughout your life, you have no cause for complaint. If you bump into someone on the street, even a troublemaker who tries to pick a fight with you, you should think, “What is this situation going to bring me?” Instead of rejecting it, be open to the moment as an opportunity for the unfolding of destiny. Maybe you look around and suddenly see a long-lost relative, separated fifty years ago during the Korean War when you both had become refugees. What is the likelihood of such an “accidental” meeting? If that person had not bothered you on the street, you would have missed your only chance to meet your long-lost relative. Yet what was behind that incident? What made that man accost you? He may not know himself; he was playing a part in the unfolding of destiny.
    When something like that happens, you should stop and think about your involvement in the encounter. If you did not keep an attitude to welcome destiny, it would have passed you by. Since a seemingly chance encounter may be fraught with destiny, you should not take anything casually.
    You know the story of Joseph. His brothers put him in a well thinking to kill him, but they sold him instead and he was brought to Egypt as a slave. There the wife of his master Potiphar tried to seduce him, and when he would not be tempted she had him imprisoned. While in prison and waiting for the day of his execution, he interpreted Pharaoh’s dream and was raised to the rank of Prime Minister of Egypt. How, in the midst of his misery, could Joseph have even imagined that such good fortune would befall him? Yet these things opened the way for him to save the Israelites. Who could have known that it would turn out that way? (November 4, 1990)❖
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Do Not Say About Anything Without Saying “If God Wills”

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2110

When you return to your hometown, you should be able to say, “Ah, this is God’s gift to me” while looking at its mountains and rivers. Looking at grandfather trees that are older than you, pebbles in the river that are older than you, and the fields, you should say, “How have you been?” This is love. You have to know how to love nature and to love people. You have to do this again. This is restoration. You should love all creation because Adam and Eve were not able to. You should return to your hometown and love nature. Love everything there from the grass to the mountains, rivers, and trees. When you finish, love the people next. If you have attained the position of being able to love the mountains, rivers, trees, and animals, then love people on that foundation. The people are to be loved after all things have been restored. (175-31, 1988.4.6)

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If I had not chosen Japan as the Eve nation, it would have been a miserable nation. If the Christian foundation had accepted me, England would have been the Eve nation. The Adam nation is Korea. England the Eve nation, France the archangel nation, Germany the Adam nation on the Cain side, all should have automatically become one, but these countries all went against God’s will and opposed it. That is why the enemy took what he loved the most: the Eve nation, and Germany, the male nation. Don’t forget that the Adam, Eve and archangel nations centered on the Unification Church were raised within the framework of God’s will. Thus, I didn’t bless Japan for the sake of Japan itself. It was for the sake of the world, the Unification Church, and Korea. Japan will perish if it doesn’t use that blessing for the unification of Korea. (186-116, 1989.1.29)

Predestination

2. The Seemingly Chance Events of Life Are Actually the Workings of Destiny

No man bruises his finger here on earth unless it was so decreed against him in Heaven.
    Talmud, Hullin 7b (Judaism)

Where you fall, there your God pushed you down.
    Igbo Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

The order that God has arranged, mortal man cannot upset.
    Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Whatever you do not wish to do because of
your delusions,
You will do even against your will, bound by
your karma.
The Lord, Arjuna, is present inside all beings,
Moving them like puppets by his magic power.
Bhagavad-Gita 18.60-61 (Hinduism

Yüeh-cheng Tzu saw Mencius. “I mentioned you to the prince,” said he, “and he was to have come to see you. Amongst his favorites is one Tsang who dissuaded him. That is why he failed to come.”
    “When a man goes forward,” said Mencius, “there is something which urges him on; when he halts, there is something which holds him back. It is not in his power either to go forward or to halt. It is due to Heaven that I failed to meet the Marquis of Lu. How can this fellow Tsang be responsible for my failure?”
   Mencius I.B.16

Do not say about anything, “I am going to do that tomorrow,” without adding, “If God will.” Remember your Lord whenever you forget, and say, “Perhaps my Lord will guide me even closer than this to proper conduct.”
    Qur’an 18.23-24

Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and get gain;” whereas you do not know about tomorrow. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and we shall do this or that.” As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil.
    James 4.13-16

For not of your will were you formed, and not of your own will were you born, and not of your will do you live, and not of your own will will you die, and not of your will are you to give account and reckoning before the Supreme King of kings, the Holy One, Blessed be He.
    Mishnah, Avot 4.29 (Judaism)

Time is no one’s friend and no one’s enemy; when the effect of his acts in a former existence, by which his present existence is caused, has expired, he snatches a man away forcibly. A man will not die before his time has come, even though he has been pierced by a thousand shafts; he will not live after his time is out, even though he has only been touched by the point of a blade of grass. Neither drugs, nor magical formulas, nor burnt offerings, nor prayers will save a man who is in the bonds of death or old age. An impending evil cannot be averted even by a hundred precautions; what reason then for you to complain?
    Institutes of Vishnu 20.43-46 (Hinduism)

The Biblical Verse about Predestination Does Not Mention Human Responsibility

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2032

When you do your Home Church work, do you receive opposition? Even if someone says, “I don’t need you. I don’t need you,” you still visit them often. Even when they tell you not to come, you grab a broom and sweep their yard or garden. If it snows, you shovel the snow. You do everything. If rainwater stagnates in their gutters, you clean out their gutters. If the man of the house voices his discontentment saying, “Hey you! I said I don’t like it! Why do you keep doing these things?” and if he tries to fight against you, the people of the village will fight for you, saying to him, “What is wrong with you?” That kind of thing has happened many times. Isn’t this an amazing war strategy? Those types of things happen, right? Why is that? (105-191, 1979.10.21)

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When I proclaimed that three years after blessing the 30,000 Couples, I would bless 360,000 Couples, not one person believed that I could actually accomplish this. Not one person believed in me. So was it accomplished or not? There is no one in this world except me who would take on such a mission. Who on earth except me would take on such a daunting challenge? Not even a whole nation would presume to take responsibility for such a task. It was truly a record-breaking event. We climbed to the top, treading on the families in the satanic world. Now that we have successfully blessed the 360,000 Couples, accomplishing the growth stage, we can climb to the top, stepping on the nations of the satanic world. Now all that is left for us to accomplish is the Blessing of 3.6 Million Couples. That would mean the beginning of the era of absolute authority. We are entering the era of God’s absolute authority over marriage. (275-282, 1996.1.1)

Predestination

1. God’s Absolute Predestination

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God looks at a person, He sees the person’s past, He penetrates his present mind, and based on these He foresees his future. (100:93, October 8, 1978)
 
Do you think that I was born to fulfill a certain purpose, which predetermined the way I grew up and what I have become? Or am I the product of my circumstances and the sum total of the things that happened to me as I went about my life? My life was predestined before I was born. Therefore even the features of my face14 were predestined… I am not the man I am today because of things that happened to me in the course my life. I am the man whom I was predestined to become. I grew up holding on to the Principle; I did not go my own way unconnected to the Principle. (161:159, February 1, 1987)
 
God, being omniscient, foreknows who has the qualifications necessary to become a central figure in the providence of restoration. God predestines those whom He foreknows; then He calls upon them to fulfill the purpose of His providence. Calling the person is God’s responsibility, but that alone does not entitle the person to be justified before God and be given glory. Only when the person completes his responsibility after being called by God is he justified and then glorified. God’s predestination concerning an individual’s glorification is thus contingent upon the completion of his portion of responsibility. Because the biblical verse does not mention the human portion of responsibility, people may misinterpret it to mean that all affairs are determined solely by God’s absolute predestination. (Exposition of the Divine Principle,Predestination 4)
 
It is written that God loved Jacob and hated Esau even when they were still inside their mother’s womb and had not done anything good or evil. God favored one and disfavored the other and told Rebecca that “the elder will serve the younger.” (Romans 9.10-13) What was the reason for this favoritism? God favored one over the other in order to set up a certain course in the Providence of Restoration.
    God gave Isaac twin sons, Esau and Jacob, with the intention of having them stand in the positions of Cain and Abel. They were to make the conditions of indemnity necessary for accomplishing His Will to recover the birthright of the elder brother, which was lost when Cain killed Abel in Adam’s family. God intended to realize this Will by having Jacob (in the position of Abel) win over his elder brother Esau (in the position of Cain). Since Esau was in the position of Cain, he was “hated” by God. Since Jacob was in the position of Abel, he could receive God’s love.
    Nevertheless, whether God would in the end favor or disfavor them depended on whether or not they completed their given portions of responsibility. In fact, because Esau obediently submitted to Jacob, he was able to rise above his previous condition of being hated by God and receive the blessing of God’s love equal to Jacob’s. Conversely, even though Jacob was initially in the position to receive God’s favor, he would have ceased to receive it had he failed in his responsibility. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Predestination 4)
 
 
 

Fulfillment of Predestination Requires Human Responsibility

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1594

The significance of tomorrow, the tenth day of the month, is that this number ten allows us to pass into the year 2000 from the year 1999. Then God can restore unhindered the physical world vertically from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation and world, and connect it to the spirit world. This can happen based on the love of the ideal of Adam’s family, the original ideal of creation, untainted by the Fall. God’s original will to recover the world of cosmic unity could be fulfilled, together with liberation, at the June 14 ceremony of the Congratulatory Declaration of the Cosmic Victory of the Parents of Heaven and Earth, greeted with cheers from the liberated realm of heaven and earth. This could then form the foundation for the Declaration of the Realm of Liberation and Unification of the Cosmos by the Parents of Heaven and Earth, which has been made today. With this declaration, fortune has turned in favor of the unification of North and South Korea

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The holy wine ceremony is carried out in the reverse order of the Fall of Adam and Eve. Before you can get married, you need to be engaged. Then there is the holy wine ceremony. Only then can you attend the holy wedding ceremony. You could not become the original Adam and Eve because of the Fall. Through the engagement ceremony, you present yourselves before God and True Parents, who are trying to reclaim their children, saying, “We will become a better Adam and Eve, who are better than your fallen children.” Adam and Eve were still in the state of engagement. Through the engagement, a new world is created. You must therefore understand that the holy wine ceremony establishes the conditions that restore all these relationships. (120-167, 1982.10.13)

Predestination

The doctrine of predestination provides an explanation for the fact that people have different fortunes, moral endowments, are born into different circumstances, and respond differently to religion. It ascribes these differences to the hand of God—who is omnipotent and controls all, and who is omniscient and sees the future. Someone who degenerates into a sinner does so because God eases him into sin. Someone who becomes a hero of faith can be so because God strengthens him. Absolute predestination holds that a person’s eternal destiny—to salvation or damnation—is predetermined before his birth. It is already written down in God’s ledger— along with the span of the person’s life and the day of his death.
A believer who recognizes the hand of destiny never regards the occasions in life as accidental. Everything that happens, happens for a reason. An apparently chance meeting may have been decreed long ago. A sudden death or a stroke of good luck are not random events, but happen by God’s decree. Since all human plans and designs only bear fruit if they are within God’s will, Muslims commonly say, inshallah, “if it is the will of God.” Day by day we can examine every event to discern the hand of God, and make every effort to conform our lives to the flow of his destined Will.
How is predestination reconciled with human free will? One answer that is consistent with absolute predestination counsels us to accept human ignorance as the context within which we strive in freedom. The omniscient God who knows everything through eternity already knows the outcome of our life, however as we can never possess such foreknowledge, we should still make our best effort. Then there are qualified doctrines of predestination, for which human freedom enters into the calculation of destiny. Such doctrines describe God as apportioning blessings and hardships as he wills, and then permitting us limited freedom to make the best of our lot. Father Moon, who rejects absolute predestination, teaches such a form of qualified predestination: God predestines everyone to salvation, but requires human responsibility as a necessary condition to realize that destiny.

1. God’s Absolute Predestination
 
I will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and I will show mercy to whom I will show mercy.
    Exodus 33.19
 
Lo! this is an admonishment, that whosoever will may choose a way unto his Lord; yet you will not, unless God wills. Lo! God is Knower, Wise. He makes whom He will to enter His mercy, and for evildoers has prepared a painful doom.
    Qur’an 76.29-31
 
We know that in everything God works for good with those who love him, who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the first-born among many brethren. Those whom He predestined He also called; and those whom He called He also justified; and those whom He justified He also glorified.
    Romans 8.28-30
 
The Lord is the Doer, cause of all:
what avail man’s designs?
As is the Lord’s will, so it happens.
The Lord is Almighty, without impediment to
His will.
All that is done is by His pleasure:
From each He is far, to each close.
All He considers, watches over, discriminates—
Himself He is sole and all.
Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani, M.5, p. 279
(Sikhism)
 
When Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac, though they were not yet born and had done nothing either good or bad, in order that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but because of his call, she was told, “The elder will serve the younger.” As it is written, “Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated.”
    Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So it depends not upon man’s will or exertion, but upon God’s mercy. For the scripture says to Pharaoh, “I have raised you up for the very purpose of showing my power in you, so that my name may be proclaimed in all the earth.” So then he has mercy upon whomever he wills, and he hardens the heart of whomever he wills.
    Romans 9.10-16
 
Thou knowest me right well;
my frame was not hidden from thee,
when I was being made in secret,
intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
Thy eyes beheld my unformed substance;
in thy book were written, every one of them,
the days that were formed for me,
when as yet there was none of them.
Psalm 139.15-16
 
Allah’s Apostle, the true and truly inspired said, “Every one of you is collected in the womb of his mother for the first forty days, and then he becomes a clot for another forty days, and then a piece of flesh for another forty days. Then is sent to him the angel who breathes the soul into his body and is commanded to write down four words: his livelihood, his life span, his deeds, and whether he will be wretched or blessed (in religion). Verily, it may be that one of you will be performing the works of the people of Paradise, so that between him and Paradise there is the distance of only an arm’s length, but then what is written for him overtakes him, and he begins to perform the works of the people of hell, into which he will go. Or maybe one of you will be performing the works of the people of hell, so that between him and hell there is the distance of only an arm’s length, but then what is written for him overtakes him, and he will begin to perform the works of the people of Paradise, into which he will go.
    Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 4 (Islam)
 
Richard:  These verses, which will be tempered by the readings from Rev. Sun Myung Moon tomorrow, which explain the crucial role of man’s portion of responsibility.