Category: Eight Great Textbooks

The End Aim Should Be God’s Glory and the Recreation of the Mind

View or listen to the latest Richard Urban Show video and podcast:
God in the Public Square-Interview with Philip Sharp.

1 Corinthians 16

19 Greetings from the churches in Asia.

Aquila and Priscilla, together with the church that meets in their house, send greetings in the name of the Lord.

Isaiah 61
21 Your people will live right
    and always own the land;
they are the trees I planted
    to bring praise to me.
22 Even the smallest family
    will be a powerful nation.
I am the Lord,
and when the time comes,
    I will quickly do all this.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Creativity and Art

Artists, scientists and inventors take after the creativity of God. The universe was created beginning with an idea in the divine Mind, followed by the expenditure of energy to make that idea a reality. Likewise, artists and scientists give all their heart and effort to create a new existence that manifests the images and thoughts in their mind.
This section focuses on the arts, and so includes alongside scripture some selected passages from famous artists reflecting on the meaning of their art. Yet, creativity is not the sole possession of these elite personages; we find creativity in the athlete who plays exuberantly for the love of sport, in the merchant who finds better ways to market his wares, and in children as they dance and sing. Father Moon, who has established ballet companies and art schools and who himself loves to sing duets with his wife, is cognizant of the role the arts can play in creating a God-centered culture.
Topics include: art as harmony of opposites, art’s emotional core and emotional power; the muse, or spirituality of art; and the problem of art and values.

1. The Spirituality of Art

All art is concerned with coming into being.
Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics 6.4 (Hellenism)

Life is art.
The whole life of man is Self-Expression.
The individual is an expression of God.
We suffer if we do not express ourselves.
Precepts 1-4 (Perfect Liberty Kyodan)

We composers are projectors of the infinite into
the finite.
Edvard Grieg

The sole and end aim of figured bass should be
Nothing else than God’s glory and the recreation
of the mind.
Johann Sebastian Bach

True art is made noble and religious by the
mind producing it… the endeavor to create
something perfect; for God is perfection, and
whoever strives after perfection is striving for
something divine.
Michelangelo

Be filled with the Spirit, addressing one another in
psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and
making melody to the Lord with all your heart.
Ephesians 5.18-19

And whenever the evil spirit from God was upon
Saul, David took the lyre and played it with his
hand; so Saul was refreshed, and was well, and
the evil spirit departed from him.
1 Samuel 16.23

Men can be evil—more evil than their animal
brothers can ever be—but they can also rise
in the ecstasy of creation. The cathedrals of
England stand as monuments to man’s worship
of what is above himself.
One does feel proud to belong to the human
race when one sees the wonderful things human
beings have fashioned with their hands. They
have been creators—they must share a little the
holiness of the Creator, who made the world
and all that was in it, and saw that it was good.
But He left more to be made.
Agatha Cristie

In eloquence there is magic, in knowledge
ignorance;
in poetry wisdom, and in speech weariness.
Hadith of Abu Dawud (Islam)

If I create from the heart, nearly everything
works; if from the head, almost nothing.
Marc Chagall

Let our artists be those who are gifted to discern
the true nature of the beautiful and graceful; then
will our youth dwell in a land of health, amid fair
sights and sounds, and receive the good in every-
thing; and beauty, the effluence of fair works,
shall flow into the eye and ear, like a health-giv-
ing breeze from a purer region, and insensibly
draw the soul from earliest years into likeness and
sympathy with the beauty of reason.
Musical training is a more potent instrument
than any other, because rhythm and harmony
find their way into the inward places of the
soul, on which they mightily fasten, imparting
grace, and making the soul of him who is rightly
educated graceful.
Plato, The Republic (Hellenism)

Living for Others Determines the Beauty of Our Character in the Next World

Happy Seonghwa Anniversary (Sept. 4, 2020) to True Father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon (1920- 2012), who cam as the True Parent of all humanity. Here is an inspiring video about his life, in his own words. Also see this summary of Rev. Moon’s life and work.

View or listen to the latest Richard Urban Show video and podcast:
God in the Public Square-Interview with Philip Sharp.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1442

When registering, the order in which
you register determines who the ances-
tors are going to be. Yes, it is determined
by who is the first to become a tribal
messiah and be registered. Jesus tried to
register his 120 followers, but could not
accomplish this; in the era of the Sec-
ond Coming, you need to register based
on 160 or 180 couples. It came to be 160
couples because everyone wanted 160,
not 180. The number 6 is the number of
Satan, and so you need to perfect it in
the satanic world. The number 4 is the
ideal number. Therefore, four times the
number 4 symbolizes the whole. (253-83,
1994.1.7)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1517

If Adam and Eve had fulfilled their
responsibility as children, as siblings,
as husband and wife, and parents, then
their children would have been in a
different situation. As it was, Adam’s
children could not reach the realm of
God’s love. If they had been the chil-
dren of unfallen Adam, they would all
have been connected horizontally and
would have established God’s Kingdom
on earth; instead, the vertical and the
horizontal were not connected, and so it
could not be established. That is why the
sons and daughters need to inherit two
kingdoms.
Since they are destined to inherit
God’s Kingdom in heaven and on earth
– the vertical and horizontal kingdoms
– and the lineages of the vertical and
horizontal parents, the sons and daugh-
ters are eligible to inherit every inter-
nal aspect of the vertical Parents and
every external aspect of the horizontal
parents. Being a part of the royal fam-
ily signifies leading the life of having
inherited the two kingdoms. The fact
that you have become the royal fam-
ily would mean that you stand on the
perfected foundation, and you can be
accepted by both kingdoms at all times.
(240-17, 1992.12.11)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Beauty

2. The Beauty of Human Beings

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

People appear beautiful when they receive God’s grace, when God loves them. They are beautiful because they radiate light. In a world where all things radiate love’s light, no one would discriminate between beauty and ugliness. (33:88, August 9, 1970)

What is original beauty? It is to become embodiments of beauty, to express our beauty through laughter, dance and song, and with it to glorify God. This was the beauty God intended for the original Garden of Eden. (2:245, June 9, 1957)

If you look at people with the glasses of love, there is no one who displeases you. Even an ugly woman looks beautiful; even a misshapen man looks handsome. (162:47, March 22, 1987)

There is nothing attractive about a lake filled with muddy water. Yet if a lotus blooms in the midst of the mud, it makes the lake truly amazing. One flower can make a lake come alive. One flower can transform an ugly lake into a beautiful lake. From this point of view, evil human beings, if they have even an ounce of love in their hearts, can be beautiful. (354:21, September 16, 2001)

A woman may have great beauty, but if there is no purpose to her beauty, does it have meaning? Would any of the women here like to be a beautiful doll that stayed all day in a glass box? None of you could tolerate it. Beauty is not a passive thing just to be admired; it is active, pursuing a goal. Some think that the purpose for a woman’s beauty is to attract a husband. If that were all, would she be happy? No. In her beauty a woman dreams of something more than merely securing a man; she dreams of finding something within that man—love. The goal of beauty is love. Beauty’s dream comes true in the happiness of love. (116:10-11, December 1, 1981)

Looking with a genuine heart of love, who is more beautiful, the smiling face of a woman who has artfully adorned herself with makeup or the smile of a woman who suffers and works hard to care for her family? The hard-working woman has the more beautiful smile. Although she is busy day and night with laundry, cleaning the house and looking after her children, she has a most noble appear-ance. (129:176, October 30, 1983)

How serious we are to live for others in this world determines the beauty of our character in the next world. It does not matter if a person is plump or slender; his or her heart to live for others is the supreme beauty of all beauty, because it is the way to perfect love. (307:166, November 8, 1998)

The major topic in the spirit world is harmony. It is balance and unity. What is the center of har-mony? Could you say, “Since my face is beautiful, the harmony of the universe should revolve around me?” In the spirit world, though you may boast of your beauty, you will meet many who are more beautiful than you. The environment there is exceptionally beautiful. You should learn to appreciate it; nevertheless, because you tend to see only one dimension you are likely to miss its multidimensionality. (217:143, May 19, 1991)

It Is an Amazing Fact that True Parents Have Appeared on This Earth

Happy Seonghwa Anniversary to True Father, Rev. Sun Myung Moon (1920- 2012), who cam as the True Parent of all humanity. Here is an inspiring video about his life, in his own words. Also see this summary of Rev. Moon’s life and work.

View or listen to the latest Richard Urban Show video and podcast:
God in the Public Square-Interview with Philip Sharp.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 227

Now the time has come when you can
develop a vision for the nation. It is an
amazing fact that you can stand in the
front line as a fighter for sake of the inde-
pendence and deliverance of the nation.
Those who do this become representa-
tives of human history and the history of
the universe. When God sees this, how
proud and content He will feel!
It is also an amazing fact that True
Parents have appeared on this earth. We
have severed that which has come from
the false parents. Based on this accom-
plishment, we want to bring everyone
through the gate to the True Parents on
the opposite side. Accordingly, we aim
to turn the path to hell back toward
heaven.
Without passing through the gate of
the True Parents, you cannot enter the
Heavenly Kingdom. However, Chris-
tianity does not have this gate. Only
the Unification Church does. Passing
through this gate will enable you to go
directly to the Kingdom of Heaven. In
return, however, you must completely
clear up your past. You should not even
remember the names of the friends you
have known. Married women should not
be thinking of the man they first loved.
They must reach the point of completely
forgetting him. Those who think about
how they lived in the past cannot enter
the Heavenly Kingdom.
This is why we must put together all
our devoted effort to focus our thoughts
solely on True Parents and God. If some-
thing else is mixed in, you will not be
able to travel in a straight line. You will
not be able to walk the path of love. Just
because you have received the Blessing
on earth does not mean that everything
is finished. You must also pass through
a church-level Blessing, a national-lev-
el Blessing and ultimately a world-level
Blessing. You will need to go through
these three stages. Why? So that you can
effectively reach the point of total self-
denial. Just because you have sons and
daughters does not mean that they are
your possessions. You must reach the
point of total self-denial. These sons and
daughters belong to God and True Par-
ents. (208-342, 1990.11.21)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1554

The only ideology that should remain
is Godism, which provides us with the
absolute ideal of love and the realm of
heart for our brothers and sisters in all
nations. Only Godism and no other
should govern this world! Amen! (137-196,
1986.1.1)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Beauty

  1. The Beauty of Nature

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

No matter how precious a work of art in a museum may be, can it be equal to a living work of art? This world is God’s work of art; it is like a museum containing all God’s beloved creations. (175:187, April 16, 1988)

Listen to the sound of the cicada. When it sings, all other creatures sing along with it. No orchestra on earth can compare to the orchestra of nature. (285:243, June 5, 1997)

Beholding all things of the natural world, nature’s beauty and harmony through the changing sea-sons, we should appreciate their profundity. A bird in flight, a butterfly or bee, the flowing streams and the towering mountains—know that each is God’s creation and a manifestation of God’s inner heart. (5:343, March 3, 1959)

If you ever feel as if you are dying of loneliness, go out into a garden and find a flower. Smell its fragrance and talk with it, “What a beautiful fragrance! Where are you from?” It might respond, “I come from my grandma and grandpa.” This means its ultimate origin was from God. God created this world as a beautiful garden for us; it is a museum of living things, given for our enjoyment. Picasso’s paintings may be beautiful, but he could not create even a patch of grass. Have you ever considered that you are looking at God’s museum? Have you ever been astonished at the beauty of a pussy willow? It blooms on a cold spring day by the ice-melting stream. How marvelous! Have you wondered for whom is it blooming? Imagine: when your beloved child is thirsty, he breaks the ice with his fist and drinks the water. Afterwards he sees that pussy willow in bloom, a symbol of spring, and sings its praises. It is wonderful! Seeing it enriches our life.Our living environment is a museum of love. Talk with its exhibits and make them your friends. Once you understand that you were born on earth to build relationships with this world of love, how can you be lonely? (112:220, April 12, 1981)

God of creation! Thy beauty is manifested in all the created beings: Everywhere Thy hands have touched teems with mysterious and radiant beauty. Let us fathom the distressed heart of the Father who, even today, ceaselessly tries to find beauty in us, who were created for this purpose. Allow us, we pray, to return beauty to Thee, for Thy love. (1:102, June 10, 1956)

The Purpose of Creation is Being Trampled

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(Video): God in the Public Square
Podcast: God in the Public Square

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1271

Jesus told Nicodemus that unless one
is reborn, one cannot enter the Kingdom
of God. The “I” who has lived until now
must be denied. Even if you have excus-
es, and even if you have many accom-
plishments to your name, you must deny
yourself. Because you are fallen human
beings, you cannot escape from this fate.
Your whole life should be denied, your
daily life should be denied; you are liv-
ing a spiritually dead life that should be
denied. (6-278, 1959.6.7)

Richard: This is about real “cancel culture”. You are supposed to cancel your (fallen) self, not “cancel” other people.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1441

Those who are registered centering
on True Parents will become the ances-
tors of the future. They will become
ancestors of the next world, and based
on the mainstream tribe and everyone
from the collateral family lines, tribes
will be created. That is why you need to
be registered. You cannot be registered
without doing anything for it. You first
need to restore 160 or 180 couples. Those
who have failed to accomplish this will
be eliminated. The era in which you
could assert your position as one of the
36 Couples has already passed. We are
now living in the era of equalization,
and the only issue in this era is who will
be the first to fulfill that responsibility.
(286-247, 1997.8.11)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Stewardship

3. To Restore the Garden of Eden

The Lord God took the man and put him in the
Garden of Eden to till it and keep it.
Genesis 2.15

When God created the first man, He took him
and led him round all the trees of the Garden of
Eden, and said to him, “Behold My works, how
beautiful and commendable they are! All that I
have created, for your sake I created it. Pay heed
that you do not corrupt or destroy My universe;
for if you corrupt it there is no one to repair it
after you.”
Ecclesiastes Rabbah 7.13 (Judaism)

In the days when natural instincts prevailed, men
moved quietly and gazed steadily. At that time,
there were no roads over mountains, nor boats,
nor bridges over water. All things were produced,
each for its own proper sphere. Birds and beasts
multiplied; trees and shrubs grew up. The former
might be led by the hand; you could climb up and
peep into a raven’s nest. For then man dwelt with
the birds and beasts, and all creation was one.
There were no distinctions of good and bad men;
being all equally without knowledge, their virtue
could not go astray. Being all equally without evil
desires, they were in a state of natural integrity,
the perfection of human existence.
Chuang Tzu 9 (Taoism)

The wolf shall dwell with the lamb,
and the leopard shall lie down with the kid,
and the calf and the lion and the fatling
together,
and a little child shall lead them.
The cow and the bear shall feed;
their young shall lie down together;
and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
The sucking child shall play over the hole of
the asp,
and the weaned child shall put his hand on the
adder’s den.
They shall not hurt or destroy
in all My holy mountain;
for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of
the Lord
as the waters cover the sea. 14
Isaiah 11.6-9

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Our planet Earth faces serious environmental problems. Environmental pollution and injury to nature show contempt for the beautiful and holy world that God created. People without true love abuse the natural world; they take it as merely something to be used.
One serious consequence of the Fall is that Adam and Eve could not inherit God’s true love. As a result, people are unable to love their fellow human beings, and they are unable to love the creation.
All creatures still yearn to receive true love from human beings. I would like to build an ideal community in South America, one that demonstrates the appropriate relationship of love between human beings and nature. (271:75-76, August 22, 1985)

Live in the countryside rather than in the city. Embrace, nurture and protect the natural world with the same love that God had when He first created it. You and I have the responsibility to protect endangered species from becoming extinct. Only when we love all creation and all people in God’s stead can we return to our rightful positions as owners.
Love nature. Love the sea, the mountains and the fields—all three. Love all living things, so that they may grow. As the descendants of Adam and Eve, you have the responsibility to love the water, the air and the earth in God’s stead, restoring them to their original condition before the Fall. They will supply nutrients for all things to grow, and all creation will return to the blessed world of Eden. (May 10, 2003)

This planet earth is becoming barren. Year by year the deserts are growing, and plants are disappear-ing. Therefore, we should collect all the varieties of seeds that God created and sow them. With the loving heart that God had when He created all things on earth, we should increase the trees and plants, transplanting them and propagating their cuttings. We should protect the land. The land should contain a balance of plants, animals and human beings. If the plants die away, then human life and civilization will inevitably perish.
We are now faced with a situation in which the purpose of creation is being trampled. Therefore, as we love God, His nation and His sovereignty, we should also love and protect His people and His land. By restoring the entire creation, we should create a lush and prosperous natural world where animals roam free, as God originally intended us to build. (304:254-55, November 8, 1999)

Wasting Anything Is a Sin

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(Video): God in the Public Square
Podcast: God in the Public Square

Romans 16

25 Praise God! He can make you strong by means of my good news, which is the message about Jesus Christ. For ages and ages this message was kept secret, 26 but now at last it has been told. The eternal God commanded his prophets to write about the good news, so that all nations would obey and have faith. 27 And now, because of Jesus Christ, we can praise the only wise God forever! Amen.

Joshua 8

21-24 One region of Benjamin’s tribal land had twelve towns with their surrounding villages. Those towns were Jericho, Beth-Hoglah, Emek-Keziz, Beth-Arabah, Zemaraim, Bethel, Avvim, Parah, Ophrah, Chephar-Ammoni, Ophni, and Geba.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 4

God’s Creation and Human Creativity

Stewardship

2. Conservation and Sustainable Development

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Nature always seeks balance, and has been doing so unceasingly for billions of years. What about you Americans: are you in balance or not? You waste excessively. Once when I went to a public rest-room, I saw someone tear off a long strip of toilet paper and use only the end of it, leaving two-thirds unused on the floor. (339:165, December 20, 2000)

Wasting anything is a sin, from the principled viewpoint. When we were born, we are allotted only a certain amount of material for our use. If we use more than the allotted amount, we are committing sin. We should conserve resources for our posterity. (June 13, 2000)

How to solve environmental pollution is one of the biggest problems facing humanity. According to scientists, once the ozone layer is depleted, humankind will not be able to survive the sun’s ultra-violet rays. Pollution is even changing the climate. We should, therefore, change our lifestyle. We should live a simple life in nature, as people did in the ancient times. We should even go to the bathroom in nature, which recycles human waste as fertilizer, rather than causing pollution to the environment. (203:56, June 14, 1990)

We should not allow animal species to become extinct. We should nurture them and then set them free. Zoos should not just exhibit animals; they should breed them to set free in the wild. We should likewise protect insect species. We should protect and nurture all the species of plants, which are food for animals. We should protect the seeds of the world, that no plant species becomes extinct. (324:118, June 17, 2000)

Already, some species of insects, fish and animals have become extinct. If this phenomenon con-tinues unabated, then in 600 years, or even 300 years, human beings will also become extinct. (326:152, July 7, 2000)

We should raise fish in farms and then let them loose. We can hatch them from eggs like we raise chickens. After letting them loose, we love them, then catch and eat them. The things of creation serve as living offerings to compensate their owner for the love they have received: thus does the creation provide food for people. Now, instead of just catching fish, we should first farm them…Krill is high in protein; it is a good resource that can be food for animals. This foodstuff exists for the sake of humanity. By supplying the world with krill, we can solve the world’s food problems. We can lay water pipelines to the desert and create fish farms. Just as petroleum is brought to the American mainland from Alaska, it should be possible to pipe seawater or freshwater to any place in the world. Amazon River water can be piped to the desert. Then it can be developed for fish farming. We should breed and grow fish with a loving heart, before we eat them. By creating fish farms in the desert, we can also use the water to irrigate the land to grow vegetables and grass. Every year, more land is turning into desert. Through human ingenuity, by establishing fish farms, the desert will become a place of marshes and trees. I am not just thinking small-scale; I envision transforming a huge desert into fish farms that will produce an infinite supply of food. (324:114-15, June 17, 2000)

Solutions to the world’s environmental problems cannot be arrived at through the efforts of scien-tists alone, or by the efforts of any one individual, organization, or nation… They call for sacrifice and cooperation among all peoples of the world, transcending the interests of any one community or nation. Such a spirit of cooperation will be attained only when all people view themselves as mem-bers of the same human family. This revolutionary change in human consciousness has long been needed, and is vital to humanity’s survival today. (74:108-09, November 21, 1974)