Far Be It From You to Slay the Righteous With the Wicked

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 2104

In your family you are told, “Be a child of filial piety!” What does this mean? It means to practice true love. Then, what does it mean to say, “Be an heir” or “Be a patriot”? It is saying that we should inherit the nation. What does it mean to say, “Be a saint?” It means that we should love the world; if we do, we will inherit the world. We will be the owner of the world. If we say, “Be a holy son and daughter” and “Be God’s son”… what does that mean? It is saying that we should participate in God’s love and receive the right to inherit the entire universe. Based on the traditional way to inherit all these things, God has been preparing the foundation to develop this logical stage in the fallen world of humanity. From this we can draw the conclusion that the purpose of religion or the path of spiritual attainment is possible. On what basis? On the basis of love. (142-337, 1986.3.14)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 782

    In general, people throughout history, when focusing on the eternal nature of life, have tended to think not only in terms of ten or a hundred years, but of thousands, tens of thousands, or hundreds of billions of years. Yet when a person dies, it’s the same as when an animal dies; what use are the remains? Nowadays, even people who do not believe in God say, “Ah, I have to leave behind an honorable legacy,” but what use is it to leave that behind?
    Even if one became a patriot for America and was honored with a monument, that monument would be destroyed totally if America perished. Only the American people would know of you. It would not mean much to leave your name behind. Even if you accomplished that, as the ages of history rise and fall, a good name can be treated like a bad one. All rulers will die in less than a hundred years, and nations perish within several hundred or a few thousand years. What would you do if there were someone who would neither die nor perish for eternity? If there were such a person, you would want to bring your name and your legacy to him and leave it all behind with him. Have you ever thought about that? (103-16, 1979.1.28)

Arguing with God

SINCE WE CAN EXPERIENCE GOD AS A REAL PERSON, who loves and cares for human beings as His children, it is not enough to respond only with simple devotion and blind faith. Having questions we cannot answer, struggling by ourselves and making no headway, we stop and demand that God give us the answer. With our feet firmly planted we take a stand, questioning the way things are and arguing that they can be better. The prophets and sages who disputed with God were neither doubters nor atheists, nor were they complainers of little faith. Rather, they dared to stand up and confront God, motivated by a burning desire for deeper insight into Gods’ truth and the experience of His Presence.
Abraham argued with God; he challenged God to be merciful on the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Moses pleaded with God; he took the blame upon himself for the Israelites’ apostasy when they made the golden calf. Muhammad argued with God to reduce the number of obligatory prayers from fifty down to five. Job argued with God because conventional wisdom said that his suffering must be the just punishment for his sins, yet he knew himself to be innocent. The Talmudic sages argued with God to uphold the value of human free will.
In all these encounters, the prophets and sages of old showed the way to relate to God while upholding their personal integrity. They argued based upon righteousness and deeply held beliefs. They stood before God with a clean conscience and took their life in their hands to challenge the conventional doctrines, because they knew that God transcended the limited human teachings about Him.

The Lord said, “Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry which has come to me; and if not, I will know.” So the men turned from there, and went toward Sodom; but Abraham still stood before the Lord. Then Abraham drew near, and said, “Will you indeed destroy the righteous with the wicked? Suppose there are fifty righteous within the city; will you still destroy the place and not spare it for the fifty righteous who are in it? Far be it from you to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous fare as the wicked! Far be that from you! Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?”
    Genesis 19.20-25

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God Did not Create Denominations or Religious Sects

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 2169

And next, who can become the people, the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven? That is the congregation, the followers. Then who are the rulers? You are. You are the representatives of the village head, the representatives of the tribal head, the representatives of the county head and the representatives of the provincial governor. People, have you become the subjects, the centers? When someone comes along with a bomb from the satanic world, you have to be the first to jump forward. Do you understand? Do you feel like you can do that?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1544

If you focus on spirituality in religion, you will reject materialism. In attaching importance to its spiritual civilization, the Orient rejected materialism. That materialism was embraced by the West. Many nations in the West, including the United States, have managed to achieve a high standard of living because they secured all the natural resources of the East as their own and used them to develop and advance Western Civilization. However, they have reached their limit. The spiritual civilization of the Orient has also reached its limit. The Orient has gradually come to pursue Western material civilization, while the West has come to pursue Oriental spiritual civilization. Consequently, we have reached the time when these two civilizations are engaged in a mutual cultural exchange. (Blessed Family II – 381)

Heresy

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Enemies will certainly appear on the path you travel. Enemies will appear challenging your faith and your finances. Furthermore, some members of our Unification Church will become each other’s enemies. Satan will seize the moment when you make a small mistake and drive you to the path of Cain.
    How should you lead your life to defeat these enemies and not stand in the position of Cain? Do not live for your own comfort, but live a life of sacrifice for the sake of the whole. (3:212, November 1, 1957)

Some people, after they learned the Divine Principle taught in the Unification Church, use it to advance their own interests. Such people are swindlers and thieves. They use the Principle that I brought to build a comfortable domain for themselves inside the realm of Unificationism. They steal the Word, the Divine Principle, although it does not belong to them but belongs to Heaven. Pretending as if it was their own teaching, they use it for their own purposes. They create devious groups, which use guile to snatch up followers whom they swindle [with a counterfeit of the truth]. Their bodies are like the skeletons in the valley of dry bones. They appear to be alive, but their spirits are dead. (June 21, 2001)

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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


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 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!

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 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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