Category: Eight Great Textbooks

A Third Religious Reformation is Badly Needed

View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: The Emperor Has No Clothes; Stop the Madness and Lock Downs : https://youtu.be/i9HCbM-bwtE.

John 20

20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus’ favorite disciple and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.”

Richard: The early disciples were uncertain after Jesus’ Crucifixion, not sure what was going to happen. We are also in a time of uncertainty now. Yet, as you are reading, Rev. Sun Myung Moon has left a clear path for us to follow.

Ezra 1

5 Many people felt that the Lord God wanted them to help rebuild his temple, and they made plans to go to Jerusalem. Among them were priests, Levites, and leaders of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. 6 The others helped by giving silver articles, gold, personal possessions, cattle, and other valuable gifts, as well as offerings for the temple.

7 King Cyrus gave back the things that Nebuchadnezzar[c] had taken from the Lord’s temple in Jerusalem and had put in the temple of his own gods. 8 Cyrus placed Mithredath, his chief treasurer, in charge of these things. Mithredath counted them and gave a list to Sheshbazzar, the governor of Judah. 9-10 Included among them were: 30 large gold dishes; 1,000 large silver dishes; 29 other dishes;[d] 30 gold bowls; 410 silver bowls; and 1,000 other articles.

Richard: Some people feel that President Trump is in the position of Cyrus (https://youtu.be/XWZ5wnuZthE, start at 13:26) or https://youtu.be/2Z4u2494vHI. He had an unusual win in the 2016 Election, and has managed to anger corrupt politicians on both sides of the aisle. Prayerfully, he will lead us in the right direction during the current crisis. See my video The Emperor Has No Clothes; Stop the Madness and Lock Downs : https://youtu.be/i9HCbM-bwtE.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

3.2 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SEPARATION OF POWERS

The concept of the separation of powers into three branches of government was advocated by Montesquieu (1689-1755), a leading thinker of the Enlightenment. It sought to prevent the concentration of political power in the hands of a single individual or institution, as was the case with political absolutism. The idea was proclaimed in the Declaration of the Rights of Man during the French Revolution. From the beginning, the separation of powers was to be characteristic of the political structure of the ideal society which God has been working to realize. Yet here again, as we observe throughout the course of the providence, Satan was defectively mimicking an aspect of the Principle ahead of its realization by God.

In the human body, the lungs, heart and stomach maintain harmonious interaction in accord with the directions of the brain, transmitted through the spinal cord and the peripheral nervous system. By analogy, the three branches of government in the ideal world—the legislative, judicial and executive branches—will interact in harmonious and principled relationships when they follow God’s guidance as conveyed through Christ and people of God. In the ideal world, because people’s horizontal relationships with each other are rooted in their vertical relationship with God, they will form one integrated and interdependent society in which they share all their joys and sorrows.

3.3 THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

God’s ideal of creation cannot be fulfilled merely by forming a world without sin. God blessed human beings to have dominion over the universe.11 We are to seek for the hidden laws of nature and advance science and technology to create a pleasant living environment. Thus, we can understand that the Industrial Revolution which began in England arose out of God’s providence to restore the living environment to one suitable for the ideal world. In so doing, the Industrial Revolution opened up a vast territory for the propagation of the Gospel. Accordingly, it contributed to both the internal and external aspects of the providence of restoration.

3.4 THE RISE OF THE GREAT POWERS

Science, industrialization created economies characterized by overproduction. The great powers of Europe, which felt an urgent need to pioneer new lands as markets for their products and as sources of raw materials for their factories, grew strong as they competed with each other in the scramble for colonies. Thus, two factors—the two trends in ideology and the course of economic development following the progress of science—caused the later political division of the world into two blocs: the democratic world and the communist world.

3.5 RELIGIOUS REFORMS AND POLITICAL AND INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS SINCE THE RENAISSANCE

The Cain-type movement which began with the revival of Hellenism overthrew the medieval world and gave birth to the humanism of the Renaissance. As this movement developed further, moving in Satan’s direction, it gave birth to the Enlightenment, which may be regarded as the second renaissance in the current of ideology. Enlightenment thought further matured in the satanic direction, giving birth to historical materialism, which is the core of communist ideology. This may be regarded as the third renaissance.

Since the satanic side mimics in advance the providence of God, we may expect that God’s providence calls for three stages of revolution to take place in each of the three spheres of religion, politics and economy. In the sphere of religion, the first reformation took place under Martin Luther’s leadership after the first renaissance. A second reformation was launched after the second renaissance by the spiritual movements led by people such as the Wesley brothers, Fox and Swedenborg. From our examination of the progress of history, it is evident that a third reformation will occur following the third renaissance.

In the political sphere, we can surmise that reform also is taking place in three stages. First, medieval feudal society collapsed under the weight of the first renaissance and the first reformation. Next, absolute monarchy was destroyed by the forces unleashed by the second renaissance and the second reformation. Finally, the communist world was formed by the political revolutions brought on by the third renaissance. Through the coming third religious reformation, the democratic world on God’s side will triumph in the ideological war and bring the communist world on Satan’s side to its knees. Then the two worlds will unite into one Kingdom of Heaven on earth under God.

The economic changes which follow the religious and political reforms have been progressing in three industrial revolutions. The first Industrial Revolution originated in England and was based on the steam engine. A century later, the second Industrial Revolution took place in many advanced nations based on electricity and the gasoline engine. The third Industrial Revolution will flower by safely tapping the power of the atom; it will construct a pleasant living environment for the ideal world. In the centuries of preparation prior to the Second Advent of the Messiah, the three stages of revolutions in the three spheres of religion, politics and industry, which followed the three renaissances, have been a necessary course for the construction of the ideal world, as required by the principle of development through three stages.

Richard: Here is what Wikipedia says about the “Fourth Great Awakening”.

The Fourth Great Awakening is a debated concept that has not received the acceptance of the first three. Advocates such as economist Robert Fogel say it happened in the late 1960s and early 1970s.[21] The Jesus Movement is one evidence of this awakening, and it created a shift in church music styles.
Mainline Protestant denominations weakened sharply in both membership and influence while the most conservative religious denominations (such as the Southern Baptists and Missouri Synod Lutherans) grew rapidly in numbers, spread across the United States, had grave internal theological battles and schisms, and became politically powerful.[22]

I would add to the Jesus Movement the Unification Movement founded by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, whose teachings you are reading in this blog. The concept of the second or third Renaissance is not one generally accepted, but I believe it is related to the Great Awakenings. Also, Rev. Moon worked extensively to show the fallacies of godless Communism, and was instrumental in the fall of Communism and the former Soviet Union

View slides 38 to 55 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-5-PrepPeriod-forSecond-Advent_revised-4-28-2014

The Original Nature Not Only Pursues External Values; It Also Seeks Internal Values

View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: The Emperor Has No Clothes; Stop the Madness and Lock Downs : https://youtu.be/i9HCbM-bwtE.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2325

Eve’s fall was due to her failure to
pursue absolute faith and absolute love.
Thus, the principle of restoration through
indemnity dictates single-hearted devo-
tion of one mindset for the sake of God
to restore absolute faith and absolute
love based on conscience. Everything in
the world goes against God, and so we
need to cut ourselves off from and deny
them absolutely. (275-30, 1995.10.30)

Richard: Yes, very true. The failure of Christians to understand this point clearly from the Divine Principle viewpoint is causing the world to suffer, since there is not an effective response to the push for relaxed sexual mores and homosexuality.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1348

After the Blessing of the 124 Couples,
I conducted a special dedication ceremo-
ny. Christ at his Second Advent comes as
the resurrected substantial being with
the mission of establishing the founda-
tions on levels of the individual, family,
tribe, and people – the work of God that
remained incomplete at the time of Jesus.
I carried out this work over the past three
years. This period corresponds to that
of restoring children (vertical period).
During this period, I was called as the
resurrected substantial being in order to
fulfill this mission, just as Jesus intended
to save the followers of Judaism and the
Jewish people. (13-11, 1963.9.12)

Richard: To find the nature of the millennial Kingdom that is here and expanding, we first need to understand God’s purpose of creation described in Genesis 1:28, and much more clearly in the Divine Principle, Principle of Creation.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

THE PERIOD OF RELIGIOUS AND IDEOLOGICAL CONFLICTS (1648-1789)

The period of religious and ideological conflicts refers to the 140 years beginning with the secure establishment of Protestantism at the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648 and ending with the French Revolution in 1789. As modern people continued to pursue the internal and external desires flowing from their original nature, they could not avoid divisions in theology and disputes among philosophies which arose as they exercised freedom of faith and thought.  For this to happen, the two views of life which would later mature into these two worlds had to be developed in this period.

2.1 THE CAIN-TYPE VIEW OF LIFE

 The pursuit of the external aspects of the original nature first aroused a movement to revive the ancient heritage of Hellenism and gave birth to the humanism of the Renaissance. Renaissance humanism opposed medieval culture by elevating the dignity of human beings and the value of the natural world over devotion to God and religious dedication. The medieval mind had prized obedience to God while belittling the natural world and regarding the human body as base and even sinful. The Renaissance established a new perspective on life, one which exalted the value of human beings and nature and sought to understand them through reason and experience, logic and experiment. Spurred by the progress of natural science, this view of life gave rise to two major schools of modern philosophy: rationalism, based on the deductive method and empiricism, based on the inductive method.

The Renaissance launched these two currents of thought, which were rooted in humanism. Instead of facilitating the internal inclination to seek God, it gave birth to a view of life which encouraged people to follow only external pursuits. This blocked their path to God and led them toward Satan’s realm. For this reason, it is called the Cain-type view of life.  In this way, the Cain-type view of life, which budded after the Renaissance and grew through the Enlightenment into atheism and materialism, matured into the godless ideology of Marxism, which became the cornerstone of the communist world of today.

2.2 THE ABEL-TYPE VIEW OF LIFE

The original nature, however, not only pursues external values; it also seeks internal values. As medieval people were prompted by their original nature to pursue internal values, a movement arose to revive Hebraism which bore fruit in the Protestant Reformation. The Reformation spawned philosophies and religious teachings which developed a multi-dimensional view of life seeking to realize the God-given, original nature of human beings. We call this the Abel-type view of life. Even as the Cain-type view of life led away from God and faith, the Abel-type view of life guided modern people to seek God in a deeper and more thoughtful way. The Abel-type view of life was maturing to form the democratic world of today.

THE PERIOD OF MATURATION OF POLITICS, ECONOMY AND IDEOLOGY (1789-1918)

            At the outset of this new period—the period of maturation of politics, economy and ideology—the two views of life matured, taking their separate paths. As they matured, they founded two different forms of society with distinct social structures: a Cain-type society and an Abel-type society. This period lasted from the French Revolution, through the Industrial Revolution, to the end of the First World War.

3.1 DEMOCRACY

3.1.1 CAIN-TYPE DEMOCRACY

Those espousing the Cain-type view of life championed the Enlightenment and gave rise to the French Revolution, thus establishing Cain-type democracy. It completely blocked the inclination of the human spirit to seek for God. As it continued to develop with its sole focus on the external aspects of life, it would later be systematized into Marxism in Germany and Leninism in Russia, eventually forming the communist world.

3.1.2 ABEL-TYPE DEMOCRACY

From their very origins, the democracies which emerged in England and the United States were different from the democracy born out of the French Revolution. The latter was a Cain-type democracy founded by atheists and materialists, who were raised in the Cain-type view of life, as they attempted to dismantle absolutism and feudalism. The English and American democracies, on the other hand, were founded by sincere Christians, the fruits of the Abel-type view of life, and were born out of their victorious fight with absolutism to win religious freedom. Hence, these are Abel-type democracies.

Although there were external causes of these English revolutions, such as the citizens’ desire for political freedom from the ruling class including the nobility and the Anglican priesthood, the more internal cause was the drive to gain religious freedom.

Many Puritans and dissenting Christians who had been persecuted in England emigrated to the American continent to obtain religious freedom. They founded an independent nation in 1776 and established American democracy. Born out of the Abel-type view of life, Abel-type democracy has developed from these beginnings into the democratic world of today.

View slides 20 to 37 below for an illustrated presentation of the above contents:

2007p2-CHAPT-5-PrepPeriod-forSecond-Advent_revised-4-28-2014

They Called for the Revival of the Spirit of Early Christianity


View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: Can You Trust the CDC and the World Health Organization on Covid-19? Evidence from the DTP Vaccine and H1N1 “pandemic” : https://youtu.be/1np0IMw97fk.

2 Samuel 22

37 You clear the way for me,
    and now I won’t stumble.

Isaiah 36

36 Hezekiah had been king of Judah for fourteen years when King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded the country and captured every walled city 2 except Jerusalem. The Assyrian king ordered his army commander to leave the city of Lachish and to take a large army to Jerusalem.

The commander went there and stood on the road near the cloth makers’ shops along the canal from the upper pool. 3 Three of the king’s highest officials came out of Jerusalem to meet him. One of them was Hilkiah’s son Eliakim, who was the prime minister. The other two were Shebna, assistant to the prime minister, and Joah son of Asaph, keeper of the government records.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

Chapter 5

The Period of Preparation for the Second Advent of the Messiah

The period of preparation for the Second Advent of the Messiah was the four-hundred-year period from the Protestant Reformation in 1517 to the end of World War I in 1918. With respect to the providence of restoration, this period is divided into three periods: the period of the Reformation, the period of religious and ideological conflicts, and the period of the maturation of politics, economy and ideology.

THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION (1517-1648)

The 130-year period of the Reformation began in 1517, when Martin Luther raised the banner of the Protestant Reformation in Germany, and lasted until the wars of religion were settled by the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.  When the purpose of God’s providence through medieval society was not fulfilled, the direction of providential history shifted and God worked to establish anew the foundation for the Second Advent of the Messiah through the Renaissance and the Reformation. 

In the late Middle Ages, man’s original mind was repressed, its free development blocked by the social environment of feudalism and the secularization and corruption of the Roman church.  The social environment of the late Middle Ages blocked the path through which the original nature of the people could be restored. Fettered by such circumstances, medieval Europeans were prompted by the impulses of their innermost hearts to break down their social environment to open the way for the restoration of their original nature.

Medieval Europeans were to restore their original God-given nature by first severing their ties to Satan, who had defiled the society when the papacy failed its internal responsibility to restore the foundation of faith and sank into immorality. As people pursued the recovery of the internal and external aspects of their original nature, the thought of the age branched out into two movements to recover the heritage of the past, which we distinguish in relative terms as Abel-type and Cain-type. The Cain-type movement began as a revival of Hellenism, the culture and philosophy of ancient Greece and Rome. It gave rise to the Renaissance,7 whose core value was humanism. The Abel-type movement began as a revival of the Hebraic heritage of Israel and the early Christian Church. It gave rise to the Protestant Reformation, whose core value was faith in God.

1.1 THE RENAISSANCE

 It was explained above that the Renaissance grew out of the external pursuits of the original nature. The movement to revive the ancient heritage of Hellenism caught fire. Renaissance humanism thus rose to prominence. The Renaissance came to life in fourteenth-century Italy, which was the center of the study of the classical Hellenic heritage. Though it began as a movement imitating the thought and life of ancient Greece and Rome, it soon developed into a wider movement which transformed the medieval way of life. It expanded beyond the sphere of culture to encompass every aspect of society, including politics, economic life and religion. In fact, it became the external driving force for the construction of the modern world.

1.2 THE REFORMATION

As medieval Europeans sought to realize the external aspirations of their original nature, they also began to pursue its repressed internal aspirations. They called for the revival of the spirit of early Christianity, when believers zealously lived for the Will of God, guided by the words of Jesus and the apostles.

To raise funds to build St. Peter’s Basilica, Pope Leo X began selling indulgences, which Catholic doctrine affirmed would remit the penalty for sin due in the next life. When this indulgence was proclaimed in Germany in 1517, a movement to protest this abuse ignited a fuse which exploded in the Protestant Reformation under the leadership of Martin Luther (1483-1546), a professor of biblical theology at the University of Wittenberg. The flames of the Reformation grew strong and soon spread to Switzerland under the leadership of Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531), to France as led by John Calvin (1509- 1564), and into such nations as England and the Netherlands. The wars of religion which swirled around the Protestant movements continued for more than one hundred years until 1648, when the Treaty of Westphalia ended the Thirty Years’ War.

View slides 1 to 19 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-5-PrepPeriod-forSecond-Advent_revised-4-28-2014

Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity and Universally Shared Values Will be Realized in the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth

View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: Can You Trust the CDC and the World Health Organization on Covid-19? Evidence from the DTP Vaccine and H1N1 “pandemic” : https://youtu.be/1np0IMw97fk.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1511

God is the vertical parent who has
true love for humankind. There is only
one such vertical and perpendicular
relationship. It is absolute. There cannot
be two such relationships. If the verti-
cal Parent were left standing alone, He
would collapse. Therefore, the horizon-
tal parents need to be found and con-
nected to the vertical Parent. To go into
more detail, the Creator is the verti-
cal Parent of true love, and the created
Adam and Eve are in the position of His
children, as well as the horizontal par-
ents. Adam and Eve are His substantial
embodiments. When they are giving
and receiving at the place where they
resonate together in union, a central
point comes into existence and the cen-
ter of that couple’s realm of resonance is
established. This is the origin of life from
which you were born. (183-40, 1988.10.29)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1474

God created humankind for the sake
of love. Why were human beings creat-
ed? They were created because of love.
The reason human beings are different
from other forms of creation is that they
were created as God’s sons and daugh-
ters. They were created as object part-
ners who can receive love directly from
Him. Such is the privilege of human-
kind. (132-245, 1984.6.20)

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

7.2.5 MONARCHIC SOCIETY AND IMPERIALISM

With the progress of history, feudalistic society developed into monarchic society.  In the sphere of religion, monarchic Christianity, which followed feudalistic Christianity, was a spiritual kingdom which transcended national borders.  Absolute monarchies flourished until the French Revolution in 1789.  In the progress of economic history, feudalism was followed by capitalism, which was accompanied by the age of colonial expansion.

7.2.6 DEMOCRACY AND SOCIALISM

The age of monarchy gave way to the age of democracy. We recall that the purpose of monarchic society was to construct a kingdom which could support the Messiah and his reign. When this dispensation was not accomplished during the Christian empire, however, God began a process that would eventually tear down monarchic societies and raise up democracies in their place in order to commence a new providence for rebuilding a sovereign nation fit to receive the Messiah.

The democratic movements which rose against the absolute monarchies of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries gave rise to revolutions in England, America and France. These revolutions destroyed monarchic societies and gave birth to today’s democratic societies.

The progress of history in the religious sphere moved to the stage of democratic Christianity after monarchic Christianity was shattered by the Protestant Reformation of 1517.

The progress of history in the religious sphere moved to the stage of democratic Christianity after monarchic Christianity was shattered by the Protestant Reformation of 1517. Similarly, with the progress of economic history, socialist ideals arose which undermined imperialism and fostered a democratic form of economy.

7.2.7 THE IDEALS OF INTERDEPENDENCE, MUTUAL PROSPERITY AND UNIVERSALLY SHARED VALUES VERSUS COMMUNISM

In seeking for a socialistic society on Heaven’s side, their original mind has drawn them to the ideals of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. The world in which these ideals will finally be realized is none other than the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, under the leadership of the returning Christ. Since Satan mimics God’s providence in advance, the satanic side has advocated “scientific socialism” based on the theories of dialectical and historical materialism and has built the communist world

For the paths of religion, politics and economy to converge and realize God’s ideal, a new expression of truth must emerge which can completely integrate religion and science. The religion founded upon this truth will lead all of humanity to become one with God in heart. Such people will build an economy in accordance with the divine ideal. These will be the foundations for a new political order which can realize the ideal of creation. This will be the messianic kingdom built on the principles of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values.

View slides 104 to 117 below for an illustrated presentation of the above contents:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014

Religion and Economy are Integrated with our Life in Society through Politics

View my latest video at the VisionRoot channel: Can You Trust the CDC and the World Health Organization on Covid-19? Evidence from the DTP Vaccine and H1N1 “pandemic” : https://youtu.be/1np0IMw97fk.

Genesis 45

12 All of you, including my brother Benjamin, can tell by what I have said that I really am Joseph. 13 Tell my father about my great power here in Egypt and about everything you have seen. Hurry and bring him here.

Psalm 78

God made a path in the sea
    and piled up the water
    as he led them across.
14 He guided them during the day
    with a cloud,
    and each night he led them
    with a flaming fire.
15 God made water flow
from rocks
he split open
    in the desert,
    and his people drank freely,
    as though from a lake.
16 He made streams gush out
    like rivers from rocks.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

7.2 THE PROGRESS OF HISTORY IN THE AGE OF THE PROLONGATION OF THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION

7.2.1 THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION AND THE HISTORY OF THE WEST

The original providential role of the Roman Empire, which had unified the ancient world around the Mediterranean Sea, was to lay the foundation for Christ’s kingdom on earth. Had the Jewish people believed in Jesus as the Messiah and united with him, the Roman Empire would have been won over by Jesus during his lifetime. Jesus would have been honored throughout the empire as the King of Kings. He would have established a worldwide dominion with Jerusalem as its capital. However, because the Jewish people disbelieved, Judea was destroyed and the Roman Empire was fated to decline. After a century of barbarian invasions, the Western Roman Empire came to an end in 476 A.D. In this manner, the center of God’s providence of restoration shifted from Judea, the land of God’s bitter grief, to Western Europe, formerly the territory of the Western Roman Empire now occupied by the Germanic tribes. Accordingly, the spiritual providence of restoration based on Christianity has been conducted primarily in Western Europe. Only in Western Europe has the history of this era progressed strictly according to the pattern set by the providence of restoration.

7.2.2 THE MUTUAL RELATIONS BETWEEN RELIGIOUS HISTORY, ECONOMIC HISTORY AND POLITICAL HISTORY

Although religion and economy, like religion and science, seem to develop at variance with each other, they are related in the life of society. Thus, there has been some mutual influence between the history of Christianity and economic history. Religion and economy are integrated with our life in society through politics.

7.2.3 CLAN SOCIETY

With the crucifixion of Jesus, the Jewish nation had fallen to Satan’s side and God could not continue with His providence of restoration in that society under such circumstances. Consequently, God broke up that society, calling devout believers out of it to establish a Christian clan society.

Despite severe persecution, Christian clan society gradually prospered in the Roman Empire around the Mediterranean Sea and developed into a Christian tribal society. Battered by the mass migrations of peoples which began in the latter half of the fourth century, the Western Roman Empire fell by 476 A.D. Christian society expanded greatly as Christianity was brought to the Germanic peoples who migrated into this territory.

7.2.4 FEUDALISTIC SOCIETY

 With the progress of history, clan society developed into feudalistic society. A feudalistic society was born in Europe when, around the fall of the Roman Empire, imperial authority waned and the empire sank into chaos.

Out of the ashes of the Western Roman Empire, God raised a feudalistic society among the newly-Christianized Germanic peoples whom He had chosen to lead the providence. By strengthening small units under godly sovereignty in the spheres of religious, political and economic life, God laid the groundwork to establish a godly kingdom.

View slides 92 to 103 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-4-Parallels-betw-the-Two-Ages_revised-4-28-2014