Category: Eight Great Textbooks

Turn to Me to Be Saved, For I Am God

Urban Life Training Newsletter-March 18, 2021

2 Chronicles 25

14 After Amaziah had defeated the Edomite army, he returned to Jerusalem. He took with him the idols of the Edomite gods and set them up. Then he bowed down and offered them sacrifices. 15 This made the Lord very angry, and he sent a prophet to ask Amaziah, “Why would you worship these foreign gods that couldn’t even save their own people from your attack?”

16 But before the prophet finished speaking, Amaziah interrupted and said, “You’re not one of my advisors! Don’t say another word, or I’ll have you killed.”

The prophet stopped. But then he added, “First you sinned and now you’ve ignored my warning. It’s clear that God has decided to punish you!”

Ezekiel 20

39 Go ahead and worship your idols for now, you Israelites, because soon I will no longer let you dishonor me by offering gifts to them. You will have no choice but to obey me!40 When that day comes, everyone in Israel will worship me on Mount Zion, my holy mountain in Jerusalem. I will once again call you my own, and I will accept your sacred offerings and sacrifices. 41 When I bring you home from the places where you are now scattered, I will be pleased with you, just as I am pleased with the smell of the smoke from your sacrifices. Every nation on earth will see that I am holy, 42 and you will know that I, the Lord, am the one who brought you back to Israel, the land I promised your ancestors. 43 Then you will remember your wicked sins, and you will hate yourselves for doing such horrible things. They have made you unacceptable to me, 44 so you deserve to be punished. But I will treat you in a way that will bring honor to my name, and you will know that I am the Lord God.

Richard: We are currently in a period of separation of good and evil and of judgement. The core teaching of this age is absolute sexual ethics . All the things that are an affront to God and His ideal have to be cleaned up. This will happen, for sure. As always, our own response and and responsibility is key.

Universal Salvation

The compassion and grace of God knows no bounds. The heavenly Father’s heart yearns to save all his children. These passages from scripture praise the extent of God’s saving work and predict it eventually to embrace all humankind. In Buddhist terms, the essential purpose of absolute truth is to liberate all sentient beings, and Mahayana Buddhist scriptures express the universality of grace in the bodhisattva vow of the Buddha Amitabh to save all beings.
Salvation may come to all people through one central point: thus in Abraham “shall all the families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12.3). For those who believe in one religion as the only way, the divine mandate to save all humankind is a powerful impetus to missionary activity. On the other hand, God may express his saving will by sending multiple prophets and sages to all nations, warning each to return to God using the means suitable to their different cultures.
If salvation is to be available universally, to every soul who has ever lived regardless of his or her earthly life, the doctrine may appear at odds with beliefs about hell and the Last Judgment. If God is most essentially just, how can the wicked ever receive salvation? On the other hand, if God is most essentially gracious and compassionate, how can he permit any creature to suffer in hell eternally? To understand the heart of God our heavenly Father, Father Moon asks us to imagine how we would feel if one of our children were a condemned criminal. We would want to save our child, even take his place at the gallows.
Father Moon also discusses the difficulty of the path of salvation in terms of the methods which God is constrained to use, because he created human beings with the sovereign freedom to live and mold our lives as each sees fit. Nevertheless, ultimately God’s purpose shall be done: all people will be saved and even hell will be emptied of its occupants.

The daily concern of the Parent is single-heartedly how best I can advance arrangements to save all of you.
    Ofudesaki 14.35 (Tenrikyo)

The Dharma of the Buddhas
by the constant use of a single flavor
causes the several worlds
universally to attain perfection.
By gradual practice
all obtain the Fruit of the Way.
    Lotus Sutra 5 (Buddhism)

The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
    2 Peter 3.9

God is on the watch for the nations of the world to repent, so that He may bring them under His wings.
Numbers Rabbah 10.1 (Judaism)

I testify that Thou art the Lord of all creation, and the Educator of all beings, visible and invisible. I bear witness that Thy power hath encompassed the entire universe, and that the hosts of the earth can never dismay Thee, nor can the dominion of all peoples and nations deter Thee from executing Thy purpose. I confess that Thou hast no desire except the regeneration of the whole world, and the establishment of the unity of its peoples, and the salvation of all them that dwell therein.
    Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 115 (Baha’i Faith)

We will make offering unto You with worship,
O Lord, and to the Right,
That you may achieve through Good Mind the
destiny of all creatures in the Dominion.
For the salvation of the man of insight among such as you,
O Wise One, will hold good for everyone. 
    Avesta, Yasna 34.3 (Zoroastrianism)

“As I live,” says the Lord God, “I have no
pleasure in the death of the wicked.”
    Ezekiel 33.11

Turn to me and be saved,
all the ends of the earth!
for I am God, and there is no other.
By myself I have sworn,
from my mouth has gone forth in righteousness
an irrevocable decree:
“To me every knee shall bow,
every tongue shall swear.”
    Isaiah 45.22-23

God it is who has sent His Messenger with the guidance and the Religion of Truth, that He may cause it to prevail over all [false] religion, however much the idolators may be averse.   
    Qur’an 9.33

The Lordsaid to Abram… “In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
    Genesis 12.3

And there never was a people, without a warner having lived among them.
    Qur’an 35.24

Are you not like the Ethiopians to me,
O people of Israel?” says the l ord .
“Did I not bring up Israel from the land of Egypt,
and the Philistines from Caphtor and the
Syrians from Kir?” 
    Amos 9.7

The Tathagatas do not enter ultimate liberation until all living beings have entered ultimate liberation.
    Holy Teaching of Vimalakirti 4 (Buddhism)

Behold my servant, whom I uphold,
my chosen, in whom my soul delights;
I have put my Spirit upon him,
he will bring forth justice to the nations.
He will not cry or lift up his voice,
or make it heard in the street;
a bruised reed he will not break,
and a dimly burning wick he will not quench;
he will faithfully bring forth justice.
He will not fail or be discouraged
till he has established justice in the earth;
and the coastlands wait for his law. 
    Isaiah 42.1-4

I establish the Vows unexcelled,
And reach the highest path, Bodhi.

Were these Vows unfulfilled,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

I will be the great provider
Throughout innumerable ages.
Should I fail to save all in need,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

Upon my attaining Enlightenment,
If my Name were not heard anywhere
In the ten quarters of the universe,
I would never attain Enlightenment.

Practicing the Holy Way—selflessness,
Depth in right reflection and pure wisdom,
Aspiring toward the highest path,
I will be the teacher of devas and men.

My wondrous power by its great light
Brightens countless lands throughout,
Removes the darkness of the three defilements
And delivers all from suffering and pain. 
    Larger Sukhavativyuha Sutra 9.1-5: Juseige (Buddhism)

He Who Does Not Love Abides In Death


Urban Life Training Newsletter-March 18, 2021

Cheon Seong Gyeong 615

What should you do to reach this state? You need to cultivate your mind. Some religions have expanded in step with God’s providence and others in step with Satan. Since these religions are all mixed up, it is extremely difficult to differentiate the good and bad. The same is true within the realm of our mind. There are good minds and at the same time evil minds. Your mind may think, “Yes, I am good,” but that thought itself is not good. Our minds were formed as a result of the Fall. Consequently, there are some whose minds are influenced by evil and the evil realm of Satan, and others by goodness. There are all types of minds. Then what is of utmost importance? The way you set the gate to your mind is the most important matter in your life of faith. Therefore, in your life of faith, always be alert to those times when the gate of your mind opens and how to tune it to the gate of God’s mind. Always be prepared for this. You always need to have a mindset in your daily life of seeking and adjusting your mind to God at any given time.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1643

Within the elements of the mineral world may be found pairs of positive and negative ions. The 107 chemical elements identified in the Periodic Table will not react with just anything, however hard you may try to fuse them in the laboratory. Yet with the appropriate object, there is nothing you could do – not even God – to prevent them from fusing together. You already know about this, don’t you? Everything is incorporated within the pair system, whether mineral, plant or animal. All things exist in pairs, in accordance with the principle of positive and negative. (203-295, 1990.6.27)

Richard: There is no confusion in God’s creation about male and female. There are two genders, and that is what always has and always will ‘make the world go round’.

Eternal Life

2. Love: The Basis of Eternal Life

We know that we have passed out of death into life, because we love the brethren. He who does not love abides in death. Any one who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that no murderer has eternal life abiding in him. By this we know love, that he [Jesus] laid down his life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.1 John 3.14-16

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Eternity does not exist apart from true love. (August 18, 1988)

When you are united with your beloved, you do not care if the world is perishing. Even if your parents demanded that you separate, threatening you with a knife, you would not be afraid of that knife. You would be determined to stay together, even if you died and went to the next world. You are not concerned about your earthly life, because you believe that you will be together in the spirit world. You actually prefer life in eternity to finite earthly life. (380:88, June 5, 2002)

May we discover by ourselves and prove by ourselves,
not only by faith or conviction but also from experience,
that Thou and I have a relationship extending front and back, right and left.
Thou and I were living, are living and shall ever live
in a relationship eternal and unchanging. (40:350, February 11, 1971)

Leave the Dead to Bury Their Own Dead

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2121

If this is true with parents in the fallen world, how can we ever grow tired of giving and receiving God’s love in the essential world? When we establish the realm of God’s true objective partner in our own lives and understand the unchanging glory of true love for the first time, we will then be able to validate the logic of eternal life. In 1984, I was lying in bed alone unjustly incarcerated in prison in the United States, when God came and told me that I was the only person He could trust and that He wanted me to resolve the situation in Nicaragua. Am I really the only person God can come to with such a command? The United States is said to be a great country standing at the forefront of all developed countries. It has a population of 240 million and innumerable religious leaders. How wretched God must have been that He could not go to any of those people but had to come to me. Yet as God knows how to find people who have a great love for humanity, He came to me, who had been worrying about the world day and night. Had I not already established the Washington Times, and extended help at that time, South America would have fallen into ideological chaos

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1086

As buds, you have not yet bloomed. Do not become wicked like those who write love letters and have illicit love relationships. You should blossom naturally. When God sees you, He should be able to exclaim, “Oh! You have blossomed purely and naturally. Since I can smell the fragrance, I can tell that you are a virgin.” In this case, God feels so much hope. Does God want something pure or something damaged? What about you, then? Do you want something pure or something damaged? Even fallen men want to have something pure. Would God not value that even more?

Eternal Life

For many the goal of religion is immortality or eternal life. People have always chafed under the limitations of mortality, and have found in religion the means to transcend the death which seems to proscribe the possibilities of human existence. As with resurrection, eternal life is not simply about the survival of the soul at death and its journey into the afterlife. Eternal life is not about eternal existence per se, but rather about the quality of that existence.
We find that the scriptures of many religions give two meanings to the terms “life” and “death.” there is physical life—existence on this earthly plane, and there is spiritual life—the state of blessedness which endures from life to life and transcends death. There is physical death—the dropping of the body which is an event in the voyage of every soul, and spiritual death—the condition of distance from God, ignorance, and a hellish existence in the hereafter.
“Eternal life” and “immortality” are thus ciphers to describe the condition of blessedness. this condition is present already in the physical life of the person who realizes truth or lives in God’s grace, and it will continue, unabated, in the hereafter. The person who gains eternal life has accomplished the goal of life, and hence death is not to be feared as a limitation, as it is for a worldly person who has tied all hopes to his possessions and pleasures in the world. We note, however, that Buddhist scriptures generally avoid speaking of this state of blessedness as eternal life, for Buddhism views the desire for life as a kind of grasping, and hence a fetter to liberation. instead, they speak of Nirvana.
Father Moon’s teaches that eternal life is rooted in our relationship with the eternal God, based upon God’s love for us and our love for God. “eternity does not exist apart from true love,” he states. Then he expands upon this concept to describe the relationship between human lovers as aspiring for the eternal. this is so because we human beings are designed for eternal life, eternal love with God, and eternal community with the ones we love under God.

1. Eternal Life in God

For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life.
    John 3.16
 
He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.
    John 11.25-26
 
Those who have faith and do righteous deeds, they are the best of creatures. Their reward is with God: Gardens of Eternity, beneath which rivers flow; they will dwell therein for ever; God well pleased with them, and they with Him; all this for such as fear their Lord and Cherisher.
    Qur’an 98.7-8
 
The Supreme Being does not die; I will there-fore not die.
    Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)
 
Being in accord with Tao, he is everlasting.
    Tao Te Ching 16 (Taoism)
 
Where one sees nothing but the One, hears nothing but the One, knows nothing but the One—there is the Infinite. Where one sees another, hears another, knows another—there is the finite. The Infinite is immortal; the finite is mortal.
 
It is written, He who has realized eternal Truth does not see death, nor illness, nor pain; he sees everything as the Self, and obtains all.
    Chandogya Upanishad 7.23, 27 (Hindusm)
 
Those who are free from desire are free because all their desires have found fulfillment in the Self. They do not die like the others; but realizing Brahman, they merge in Brahman. So it is said: When all the desires that surge in the heart
Are renounced, the mortal becomes immortal.
When all the knots that strangle the heart
Are loosened, the mortal becomes immortal,
Here in this very life.
    Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 4.4.6-7 (Hinduism)
 
For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
    Romans 6.23
 
From the unreal lead me to the Real!
From darkness lead me to light!
From death lead me to immortality!
Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.3.28 (Hinduism)
 
Higher than this is Brahman, the Supreme, the
Great.
Hidden in all things, body by body,
The One embracer of the universe—
By knowing Him as Lord men become
immortal.
I know this mighty Person
Of the color of the sun, beyond darkness.
Only by knowing Him does one pass over
death.
There is no other path for going there.
Than whom there is nothing else higher,
Than whom there is nothing smaller, nothing
greater,
The One stands like a tree established in
heaven.
By Him, the Person, this whole world is filled.
That which is beyond this world
Is without form and without ill.
They who know That, become immortal;
But others go only to sorrow.
    Svetasvatara Upanishad 3.7-10 (Hindusm)
 
The supreme stage of the Soul is free from birth, old age and death; he is supreme, pure, and devoid of eight karmas; he possesses infnite knowledge, intuition, bliss, and potency; he is indivisible, indestructible, and inexhaustible. Besides, he is supersensuous and unparalleled, is free from obstructions, merit, demerit, and rebirth, and is eternal, steady, and independent.
    Kundakunda, Niyamasara 176-77 (Jainism)
 
“For the living know that they shall die” (Ecc. 9.5): these are the righteous who in their death are called living… “but the dead know nothing”: these are the wicked who in their lifetime are called dead.
    Talmud, Berakot 18ab (Judaism)
 
Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.
    Luke 9.60
 
 

Those Who Are Willing to Die Shall Live

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1566

These eight months of January through August have all been part of a new era in 1989. It is now the end of August isn’t it? The course of global indemnity has been completed in these eight months. In connection with this we were able to hold many events last year, including the cross-cultural “exchange” Holy Blessing and the declaration of the Foundation Day for the Nation of the Unified World. Thus, all conditions of indemnity were fulfilled. In this way, everything was brought to completion in August. This includes the marine and water related activities. I have accomplished so much up to this point. (193-100, 1989.8.31)The Way in the Completed Testament Age

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1662

The position of a married couple is truly a great one. There, the fulfillment of hope that humankind has yearned for throughout history blossoms in the form of children, siblings and spouses. In this way, just as God began His work of creation with love, the couple that represents Adam and Eve will begin to create on their own through the act of giving birth to their children. They take the position of substantial creators, and in the position of horizontal creators in relation to their children, they bear them. This is the making of the third creators, namely the children.

Resurrection

1. The Dead Return to Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Many have hitherto believed that the death caused by the Fall was physical death. Consequently, they have interpreted the biblical concept of resurrection as revival from physical death, and believed that resurrection of the dead involves the biological regeneration of their decomposed bodies. However, the Fall of the first human ancestors did not cause this kind of death. According to the Principle of Creation, the human body was created to return to dust after it grows old. A decomposed body cannot be restored to its original state. Furthermore, it is not necessary for a spirit to take on another physical body when he is meant to enjoy eternal life in the vast spirit world.
    Resurrection may be defined as the process of being restored from the death caused by the Fall to life, from the realm of Satan’s dominion to the realm of God’s direct dominion, through the providence of restoration. Accordingly, whenever we repent of our sins and rise to a higher state of goodness, we are resurrected to that degree.
    The Bible illustrates the process of resurrection: “He who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5.24) Based on this verse, we can affirm that resurrection means to leave the bosom of Satan and return to the bosom of God. It is also written, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15.22) This verse means that because we inherited Satan’s lineage as a result of Adam’s fall, we are dead; when we return to the lineage of God through Christ, we shall be resurrected to life…
    The changes a person experiences when he is resurrected and enters the governance of God take place in his heart and spirit. These internal changes also purify his body, transforming it from a haunt of Satan into a temple of God. In this sense, we may say that our physical body is also resurrected. We may compare it to a building that was previously used for evil purposes and is now used as a place of worship. Although there may be no change in its outward appearance, it is now sanctified as a sacred building. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.3-4)
 
What happens to us after we die? Up to the moment we die, we belong to ourselves. But after we die, we belong to God. Because we were born of a fallen lineage, until death we cannot sever our ties with Satan. After death, however, we can establish ties with God. Therefore, unless we die we cannot be resurrected…
    Therefore, when the Bible teaches, “Those who are willing to die shall live, while those who want to live shall die,” it means by death not the end of our God-given eternal life, but rather the end of our fallen life into which we were born from a fallen lineage in a fallen world. (December 19, 1998)
 
The Bible teaches that those who are willing to die shall live, and those who want to live shall die. This means that in order to escape from the fallen realm we must be willing to give up our lives. There is no true life in the fallen realm. Hence, when we deny this fallen life, we can be resurrected. Jesus was resurrected because he denied his own life. Jesus could not resurrect himself; it was God who raised him. (307:167, November 8, 1998)
 
 
 

We Are Reborn Through the Path of Love

The Richard Urban Show
#91-Seth Rich Murder and Cover-Up-New Evidence

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2166

So if you, in the position of a special emissary, send a request that you urgently need such and such, don’t you think He would brave troubles and difficulties from every sector to send it to you? In the same way, if you have that conviction and recognize that you are sons and daughters of God’s special glory and ask, saying, “This is what I need, Father; please make it possible,” then it will come into being. In this way, you can discover God as He lives and see God working.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1648

What are the fundamentals of the universe? Since all creation originated from love, then, in order to find and fulfill love, there must be male and female. In the case of animals, it would be male and female; so what would it be in the case of plants? It would be pistil and stamen. In the case of the mineral kingdom, the male and female would be the positive and negative ions in a molecule. Everything exists as male and female. (273-91, 1995.10.22)

Rebirth

3. Rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…

And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
    Acts 2.1-4, 38-39

We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
    Titus 3.3-7

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.
    Revelation 22.17

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.
    John 6.53-58

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

We are reborn through the path of love. It begins when we yearn for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Bride, and the resurrected Jesus is the Bridegroom. They are our spiritual parents, and their love is the basis of our rebirth. As conception and birth originate in the love between a woman and a man, we are reborn through the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they become one.
    Once we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, we naturally feel great affection and yearning for Jesus. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, moving our hearts to welcome Jesus the Bridegroom. When we are spiritually united with them, rejoicing in that state of oneness, we can regain the lost standard of original love. That is the experience of rebirth in Christianity. According to the Principle, in that moment we are resurrected to new life. (October 13, 1970)

Jesus gives the bridegroom’s love and the Holy Spirit gives the bride’s love: that love must become my bone and flesh. That is, as Jesus said, “I am in you and you are in me.” Unless this foundation of heart-felt love is established, there is no rebirth. People easily say, “You must be born again,” but in fact, to be reborn you need to love Jesus more than anyone else. Satan’s dominion over humankind is based on his false love, so unless your love centered on God surpasses any human love in the fallen world, there is no way for you to connect to God. (114:28, May 14, 1981)

Christianity began from Jesus’ blood on the cross. Why is Jesus’ blood so meaningful? Jesus came as the True Father. Jesus’ blood signifies the blood of the perfected father, with no trace of the Fall. However, can a father alone bequeath a lineage? Not without a mother! That is why the goal of the Old Testament was to have the Marriage of the Lamb. (193:57, August 20, 1989)

In Christianity, the Holy Spirit has been taking the role of mother. We are born again on the spiritual level through the mother, the Holy Spirit, and the father’s spirit, Jesus’ spirit.
    Of course, we were born from our mother’s womb. However, even beyond the womb, our life originated from our father’s seed. Hence, while going back to the mother’s womb exchanges the false lineage for the true lineage, it does not yet give us the father’s seed.
    Therefore, Christians have been longing for the True Father, who appears as the Second Coming of the Lord. He is the origin of new life. As Adam before the Fall already held in his body the seed of his children, the True Father holds within His body the seed that will bear fruit as the sons and daughters of God. (55:117-18, April 1, 1972)