Category: Cheon Seong Gyeong

What is Idolatry? It Is to Abandon God and Worship Something Else

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In the past, I saw right through those people who came to the Unification Church with the motivation to use it for their own purposes; those people did all sorts of things. I knew who they were, yet I let them deceive me. Why did I do so? It is because God has been doing so to this day. When people betrayed me and turned their backs, I could have exploded in indignation and resentment saying, “Those reprobates should be struck by lightning.” Yet when I thought about the heart of God who longs for their return, I could not do that. Each time I grasped that suffering heart of God, and had the heart to forgive, a new segment, like that of a bamboo shoot, was created. Do you understand? A segment of the Unification Church was made. That is how we are making family segments, tribal segments and national segments. (197-312, 1990.1.20)

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Do you know how important the 430 Couples are? Originally, their Blessing should have taken place last year in 1967. Instead, it was held this year on February 22, which was the twentieth anniversary of my entry into Heungnam prison. Accordingly, there is great significance in completing twenty years of my course of restoration both spiritually and physically; you therefore stand in such a significant position in commemorating that important day with me. You should realize what an honor it is to have such a right of participation. That day is not a sad one. It is also George Washington’s birthday. Knowing this, all of you should work hard to form wonderful families of your own. (159-43, 1968.3.1)

Idolatry and Materialism

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is idolatry? It is to abandon God and worship something else, to revere it more than God. Today numerous people are worshipping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it… They take as their idols material things; they become slaves of civilization. Hence, they do not know where to find the center of their life. Without seeking Heaven they make frantic efforts, yet they do not know what direction to go or what goal to aim for. They are no different than the benighted Israelites in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. (6:31, March 15, 1959)
 
The world should center on the mind, but instead it is devoted to matter… Look at the reality of education, focused as it is on the needs and values of material civilization. The precious and invisible mind is being neglected for the sake of money that is visible to the eyes. (19:287, March 10, 1968)
 
First theism appeared; it emerged as a spin-off of history. Next, humanism emerged as a spin-off of history, and then materialism. They each appeared as separate and incompatible ways of thinking. Thus separated, each in turn perished.
    Human beings consist of body, mind and spirit. Our body consists of matter, our mind consists of character, and with our spirit we are to unite with God. When we try to become one with God without considering the material world and human beings we do not succeed, because that way does not fit our nature. We need God, but we also need human beings and the material world. For this reason, theism, humanism and materialism should not be separate. We need them all. Therefore, religion in the future should be equipped in all three areas, guiding us to fulfill the whole of human life in all its aspects.
    Human beings, having a complex culture, are higher than matter. God is higher than human beings. Therefore, God should govern human beings and all things; that is in keeping with the Principle.
    In earlier times, when people placed religion at the center of their life, they tended to deny the value of human beings. As a result, humanism emerged, putting human beings at the center and denying the importance of God. More recently, humanism has declined as people value material above all else. For materialists, money is everything. Nothing is as valuable as money, not even human beings. They see everything in terms of money.
    Yet after living materialistic lives, people find that material things are not everything. They begin to reexamine the human being to discover their original nature. They are faced with the limitations of materialism and realize that they need to recover human beings… They begin asking questions,  “What is a human being? Is there something about human beings that needs to be restored? Do we need to once again consider the question of God?” We are living in a transitional period when these trends are evident. American young people, hippies and yippies, do all sorts of things, and many are in search of religion. (103:226, March 1, 1979)
 
 

Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

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God created heaven and earth, not just to see human beings, but for the sake of love. God cannot possess love by Himself, nor can He feel it on His own. Certainly, He contains love, but He can-not experience the kind of love that overflows with the joy of being in per-fect harmony all by Himself. No matter how beautiful a flower may be, it must give off a fragrance; no matter how sweet its fragrance is, the wind must blow for that fragrance to be spread about. So, as the flower needs the wind, God, too, needs an object partner who sill stimulate Him.(210-223,1990.12.23)

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Instead of beating His enemy to death God must set the condition of having loved him. In the same way the person standing in the position of Adam has to set up a condition of having loved the enemy Satan. If you endure over and over again while being persecuted, and prevail over all the tears, blood and sweat, until the enemy naturally surrenders to you, and return embracing God’s love, then you can receive the blessing. That is when Satan will let you go. You must receive this public approval; “You can now become a child qualified to go to the heavenly kingdom.” Who must sign this approval? Satan must. After Satan signs this, you will sign it, and then True Parents must sign it. You can only stand before God only after getting this signature from True Parents. That is the heavenly kingdom. (141-202, 1986.2.22)

Ignorance and Atheism

2. False Views

Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!
    Isaiah 5.20

Beings who are ashamed of what is not shameful, and are not ashamed of what is shameful, embrace wrong views and go to a woeful state.

Beings who see fear in what is not to be feared, and see no fear in the fearsome, embrace false views and go to a woeful state.

Beings who imagine faults in the faultless and perceive no wrong in what is wrong, embrace false views and go to a woeful state.
    Dhammapada 316-18 (Buddhism)

Whenever people are deceived and their notions are at variance with reality, it is clear that the error slips in through resemblances [to reality].
    Plato, Phaedrus (Hellenism)
 
When the Tao was lost, there was virtue; 
When virtue was lost, there was benevolence;
When benevolence was lost, there was
rectitude;
When rectitude was lost, there were rules of
propriety.
Propriety is a wearing thin of loyalty and good
faith,
And the beginning of disorder.
    Tao Te Ching 38 (Taoism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Philosophers, saints and sages set out to pave the way of goodness for the people of their times. Yet so many of their accomplishments have become added spiritual burdens for the people of today. Consider this objectively. Has any philosopher ever arrived at the knowledge that could solve humanity’s deepest anguish? Has any sage ever clearly illuminated the path by resolving all the fundamental questions of human life and the universe? Have not their teachings and philosophies raised more unsettled questions, thus giving rise to skepticism? (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

Despite the fact that human beings are meant to live attending God as their Parent and to follow His guidance day by day, many people are ignorant of God’s existence. Taking one more step, they proclaim, “God is dead.” More and more, God is being removed from human society. Who made such a world, God or human beings? (135:268, December 15, 1985)

Serious problems are rampant in society, including the confusion of value systems, moral corruption, drug addiction, terrorism, racial discrimination, unequal distribution of wealth, atheistic communism, violations of human rights, war and genocide. These evils, which threaten humanity’s destruction, are the inevitable consequences of atheistic materialism, secular humanism and hedonism,which have at their core the rejection of God. All these are the effects of the declining faith and spiritual exhaustion of this generation. (135:221, November 16, 1985)

I am not one to condemn humanism altogether, but the problem with the humanism we see today is that it is based on a thoroughly atheistic outlook. Once we deny the existence of God and the significance of the Creator’s creative acts, human beings are reduced to just a handful of dust. It is a perspective that considers human beings no better than mere machines. This was precisely the fallacy in Marxist-Leninism. If we say there is no God, and that human beings are no better than machines or animals, then there is no basis for morality. Without a belief in the spirit and eternal life, people cease to feel responsible for each other and commit atrocities against other human beings. (234:232, August 22, 1992)

Only Rev. Moon’s Ideology Is the Hope

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There are 3 billion people living in Asia. We are now living in the time of the Pacific cultural sphere. Such a time has come. History has passed through a riv-er culture, through the Mediterranean cultural sphere, and has come around to the Atlantic cultural sphere. Now we are entering an age where we can leap into the cultural sphere of outer space, centering on the Pacific cultural sphere. How to continue linking all this together is a question for the world’s political tacticians to explore, but they will not find an answer. I have gathered the prominent politicians of the world to countless international conferences. Their conclusion is that only Rev. Moon’s ideology is the hope for this age – and not America, France, Germany, Britain or even the Soviet Union. (174-48, 1988.2.23)

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What do true parents signify? They are the symbol of hope for everyone. They are the absolute symbol of hope for fallen humankind. They are the fruit of past history, the center of this era, and the starting point of the future of hope which connects to the world we live in today. (35-236, 1970.10.19)

Egoism and Pride

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In your walk of faith, regard arrogance as the enemy, regard stubbornness as the enemy, and regard insisting on your own way as the enemy. (67:139, June 1, 1973)\

Because people are self-centered in their thinking, they speak ill of others. When others have some-thing good, they want to take it from them. Such people are doomed. What about you? Is your mind self-centered or other-centered? No one can solve this problem but you. (36:183, November 29, 1970)

People whose philosophy of life is “me first” are doomed to perish. In pursuing their own desires they harm others and damage their nation—such people will perish. Individuals should not take advantage of their nation; rather, individuals should offer themselves for their nation. That is a duty of citizens.
    People are not meant to live for themselves. Yet today many live only for their own sake. They say, “I live for me.” They are people to be pitied, like orphans who have no parents or siblings. (24:20-21, June 22, 1969)

The first step towards the Fall was the appearance of individualism. It was thinking that nothing in the world matters but me. The next step was to think people have unlimited freedom: “What’s this with God telling us we cannot eat that fruit? Why should there be any rules to restrict us? We can do as we please.” Is it freedom when people do just as they please? It should not be that way. (49:190, October 10, 1971)
 
From the day the first human ancestors fell and received the blood of Satan, people unconsciously became arrogant and have used others to satisfy their needs. They have pursued that direction throughout human history. (46:142, August 13, 1971)
 
What is the Fall? It is to unlawfully take what belongs to someone else. Self-centeredness ruined the world. Knowing this universal principle, human beings should return to the world of oneness, but instead they continue to play the game of pulling the world for themselves. That is evil. (170:174, November 15, 1987)
 
Human beings have inherited Satan’s nature: the inclination to regard everything, even God, from a self-centered viewpoint. (91:242, February 23, 1977)
 
Are Americans proud of their money? Do not be proud of it before God. God can create money as much as He wants. Nor should Americans be proud of their power and military might: God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing: who can challenge Him with knowledge? It doesn’t matter that you earned a Ph.D. from Harvard; you are all the same when you stand naked before Him. Your knowl-edge will not gain you admission into the Kingdom of Heaven. All who are proud of these things will fall into hell. (358:162, October 14, 2001)
 
I know that American culture upholds individualism. However, there must not be individualism that disregards the relationship between God, the Subject, and human beings, His objects. Selfish individualism is destructive, and its prevalence is driving America into a corner.
    Now America should recover the essence of Christianity by seeking for God’s original way of life: The individual lives for the sake of the family; families contribute to the community; communities give their strength to the nation; nations exist to benefit the world; and the world exists for the sake of God. These are God’s heavenly ethics. If we practice it, then what is God’s is also mine, and whatever I do for God also benefits me. Living for the sake of God is ultimately living for my own benefit. (69:88-89, October 20, 1973)
Selfish individualism is Satan’s creation, a result of the Fall. As Satan centers on himself, he divides people by having them center on themselves. Thus one [an individual] becomes two [mind and body in conflict.] Two [a couple] become four [the man’s mind, the man’s body, the woman’s mind and the woman’s body.]
    Why did America become such an individualistic nation? It is because Satan is exerting his dominion there. The so-called right of privacy is at the heart of American individualism. Yet this individualism is causing the family to break down, the society to break down, and the nation to weaken. Individualism is a most fearful thing; it leads people to hell. (361:234, November 25, 2001) 
 
What is the origin of the dirt that has stained human history? It begins from ourselves. Dirt did not just fall on our first ancestors; they made themselves dirty. How did they become dirty? They thought of themselves as being the center of everything; egoism and selfishness are what stained them.
    If our ancestors had lived in service to what is more precious than themselves, then they would not have taken the path to defilement. What is more precious than oneself? We are resultant beings; therefore, we should live for the Causal Being. God is that most precious existence, and we should live for Him. Had people truly lived for God and thought of God before thinking of themselves, we could never have become evil. (92:58-59, March 13, 1977)
 
Many of you soon become arrogant and think, “I am a member of the Unification Church. I have worked for the church for three years, so it’s about time that Reverend Moon gives me the Blessing. Then he should recognize me, and so should the church.” What a pity if you think that way! In our church there are two ways of life: arrogance and humility. The way of arrogance leads to hell, while the way of humility leads to heaven. What about you: do you belong to heaven or to hell? (92:71, March 13, 1977)
 
 

We Find a Great Contradiction in Every Person

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God exists in front of human beings for their sake. This is why we want to follow God forever. If you want to main-tain your own position of existence within natural law and in front of the universe’s realm of existence, you must exist for the sake of others as does the universe. In serving others, you connect to the East and West and to the past and the present. Because God has the same love in the past and at present, and in the East and in the West, He can overcome the East and the West and overcome the past, present, and even the future. God can overcome the past, present, and future, and can, therefore, always make progress. He can overcome the East and the West, and therefore unify them. This is possible only in love. (187-89, 1989.1.6)

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The Blessing is the most precious thing in heaven and earth. It is also the most fearful. If a blessed member is attracted to others besides his or her spouse, it is an emotional violation of the spouse. Good ancestors, the territory and the nation stem from you, the Blessed Families. That is why blessed members should think about the universe during every waking moment. You have received the Blessing so that you can share blessings with others. (13-67, 1963.10.17)

The War Within

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Human beings inherently tend to avoid evil and seek goodness. Our minds are ever eager to establish a world of goodness and eradicate the world of evil. On the other hand, we also experience an evil mind within us, which struggles powerfully against our good mind. To the degree that we hold fast to our good mind, our evil mind opposes with proportionate strength. (36:51, November 15, 1970)

Since the beginning of time, not even one person has abided strictly by his original mind. As St. Paul noted, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.” (Rom. 3.10-11) Confronted with the human condition, he lamented, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7.22-24)

We find a great contradiction in every person. Within the self-same individual are two opposing inclinations: the original mind that desires goodness and the evil mind that desires wickedness. They are engaged in a fierce battle, striving to accomplish two conflicting purposes. Any being possessing such a contradiction within itself is doomed to perish. Human beings, having acquired this contradiction, live on the brink of destruction.         
    Can it be that human life originated with such a contradiction? How could beings with a self-contradictory nature come into existence? If burdened by such a contradiction from its inception, human life would not have been able to arise. The contradiction, therefore, must have developed after the birth of the human race. Christianity sees this state of destruction as the result of the Human Fall. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

The conscience is that faculty of the mind that presents God’s thought. It does not exist for you, but for the righteousness of Heaven. Your conscience always pursues goodness. The body rebels against the conscience. Your body is self-centered; it seeks its own comfort; it follows instinctive desires. Your conscience strives to have your body obey the mind and reproaches it when it does not. From this point, conflicts and struggles arise within the self. (219:118, August 28, 1991)

Our body has become the stage of Satan’s activities. It has become Satan’s dance hall. Had there not been the Human Fall, our mind and body would be one. They would become one automatically centering on God’s love, life and lineage. (235:203, September 20, 1992)

Why do human beings need religion? We need religion to conquer our body. Otherwise, due to the body, human history would be doomed; due to the body, society would be doomed; and due to the body, humankind would be doomed. Accordingly, you should deeply realize that your body is the womb of the enemy and the seedbed of sins and evils. (18:322, August 13, 1967)

Regard yourself as the problem. You can be your own worst enemy. If you cannot unite your mind and body, you become your own enemy. (128:108, June 5, 1983)

Even though [at the Fall] we received Satan’s evil seed, each person, deep in his original mind, covets God’s original, ideal seed of life. This is the basis of our internal struggles. Within each individual, two opposing elements are struggling: the original mind on God’s side, and the body on Satan’s side. For this reason, as long as we do not bring oneness in our mind and body, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (235:203, September 20, 1992)

 

Eve Inherited from the Archangel all the Proclivities Incidental to His Transgression

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There is a term cherished in our Unification Church. Some of you might be hearing it for the first time; it is the term “True Parents.” We say, Our True Par-ents! Did Jesus have True Parents? We have something that Jesus did not. Did Jesus have True Parents? Are not parents responsible when they do not protect their children? Parents ought to protect their children. They must be a protective barrier against Satan and say to their children, “Be happy in our embrace.” Did Jesus have that experience? For his entire life Jesus grew up and was treated as a stepson. This is why the Bible does not contain the words true parents. It does not contain the words true parents or true brothers and sisters. These words are a part of our Unification Church terminology. They are not something I invented. They are words discovered to be part of the heavenly Principle. We use the words true parents and true children. We should understand how true children should act. True chil-dren should be able to offer their lives and everything they have for the sake of God’s Son and should be grateful even if they themselves end up in hell. Without going through such a process, nothing can be accomplished. In this way, you can return to the Father through having the heart of true children. (76-73, 1975.1.26)

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As viewed from God’s original ide-al of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first-born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

Selfish Desires and Fallen Nature

2. Degraded and Fallen Nature

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God’s one son and daughter, who should have been the true ancestors of humankind, committed sin, they were expelled from His Kingdom. From that moment, all men and women lost their potential to become God’s temples. Instead, they became dens of Satan, headquarters of selfishness. (219:117, August 28, 1991)

Human beings were degraded by the Fall to a status lower than the things of creation, as it is writ-ten, “the heart is deceitful above all things.” (Jer. 17.9) (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Restoration 1.2.1)

Have you heard that when an ocean-going ship is about to be wrecked, the rats on board the ship try to escape along the mooring ropes to the land, seeking safety? Even lowly creatures are aware of their destiny in terms of life and death, but what about human beings, who are the masters of all creation? Having fallen, they became as dull as a baby squid. (215:53, February 6, 1991)

Our mind and body can become completely one through the power of God’s love, but we have never really experienced that oneness because of the division between them that resulted from the Fall of the human ancestors. If not for the Fall, our mind and body would have completely united based on God’s intrinsic love. In the world of love centered around that intrinsic love, there would be no need for moral education. God would suffice as a teacher. People would know love without being taught.
    When the mind and body become one, we understand everything. There would be no need for education about how human beings should live. There would be no need for instruction in ethics and the rules of morality. Do the animals need to be taught moral lessons? They know how to protect themselves and group themselves among members of their own species. Why are human beings, the lords of creation, so ignorant in this regard? It is because of the Fall that we fight and struggle. (162:223, April 12, 1987)

We have fallen nature. What are the four aspects of fallen nature? They are arrogance, jealousy, anger and lying. We should remove all of them. (150:126, September 4, 1960)

Eve inherited from the Archangel all the proclivities incidental to his transgression against God when he bound her in blood ties through their sexual relationship. Adam in turn acquired the same inclinations when Eve, assuming the role of the Archangel, bound him in blood ties through their sexual relationship. These proclivities have become the root cause of the fallen inclinations in all people. They are the primary characteristics of our fallen nature.
    The fundamental motivation which engendered these primary characteristics of the fallen nature lay in the envy the Archangel felt toward Adam, the beloved of God. How can there be anything such as envy and jealousy in an archangel, whom God created for a good purpose? The Archangel was endowed with desire and intellect as a part of his original nature. Because the Archangel possessed an intellect, he could compare and discern that God’s love for human beings was greater than the love God gave to him. Because he also possessed desires, he had a natural yearning for God to love him more. This desire of the heart was naturally conducive to envy and jealousy. Envy is an inevitable byproduct of the original nature, like the shadow cast by an object in the light.
    After human beings reach perfection, however, they will never be induced to fall because of incidental envy. They will know deep inside that the temporary gratification they might feel by attaining the object of their desire is not worth the agony of self-destruction that would ensue. Hence, they would never commit such crimes…
    The primary characteristics of the fallen nature can be divided broadly into four types: The first is failing to take God’s standpoint. A principal cause of the Archangel’s fall was his failure to love Adam with the same heart and perspective as God; instead, he felt jealous of Adam. This led him to tempt Eve. An example of this characteristic of the fallen nature is when a courtier feels jealous of the king’s favorite instead of sincerely respecting him as one whom the king loves.
    The second is leaving one’s proper position. Seeking more of God’s love, Lucifer desired to enjoy the same position of love in the human world. This unrighteous desire caused him to leave his position and fall. People are induced by unrighteous desires to step beyond the bounds of what is right and overreach themselves because of this primary characteristic of the fallen nature.
    The third is reversing dominion. The angel, who was supposed to come under the dominion of human beings, instead dominated Eve. Then Eve, who was supposed to come under the dominion of Adam, dominated him instead…
    The fourth is multiplying the criminal act. After her fall, had Eve not repeated her sin by seducing Adam, Adam would have remained whole. The restoration of Eve alone would have been relatively easy. However, Eve spread her sin to others by inducing Adam to fall. The proclivity of evil people to entangle others in an expanding web of crime stems from this primary characteristic of the fallen nature. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Fall 4.6)

We now know the characteristics of fallen nature: The Fall began, first with self-centered owner-ship; next, speaking lies; next, an immoral relationship; next, taking all things from God; and finally, in the second generation, murder. All dictators throughout history lied, violated love, stole others’ possessions, and murdered good people. Considering this, we should not follow the same pattern of historical error. We wish to inherit a heavenly tradition of love by overcoming these transgressions within ourselves. (121:257-58, October 27, 1982)