World Scripture-2 | Daily Inspiration

Islam Would Emerge as the Opponent of Christianity

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2204

God stands in the position of being the Father who has truly perfected love, and the son fulfills his filial duty based on God’s love and the fundamental love of the universe, thus uniting with the Father. How can God pave the way of filial piety of a higher dimension in front of this love? If this had been done, then the Fall would never have happened for all eternity.
This is the realm of the greatest of all liberation. This realm goes beyond the realm of the Principle. It is the original world of true love. When we think about this, then you must not think it is the end when you realize the ideal of the family, the Kingdom of God on Earth, and the Kingdom of God in Heaven. There are still some traces stained by Satan’s blood in the internal root, which have to be removed.
Tens of millions of years of history have passed, and even if several times, ten times, or even more than a hundred times that time passes, do you think it is possible to forget the world of the Fall? You should ponder the thought that God’s highest hope is to forget all this, to have you and me join together, to have the sons and daughters join together, and become filial sons and daughters who can comfort God who takes the trouble to love us. (300-33, 1999.2.21)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1344

The mistake Cain committed by not being obedient to Abel, which led to their fatal conflict, has not been indemnified by providential figures of the past, and so the process of restoration has been prolonged until now. In order to restore this mistake completely, the foundation of Cain’s obedience to Abel must be indemnified before each ancestral couple. The 72 Couples, therefore, came into existence for this purpose. The number 72 is double the number 36. (22-193, 1969.2.2)

Abraham

3. Abraham, Ishmael and the Roots of Islam

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian maid whose name was Hagar; and Sarai said to Abram, “Behold now, the lord has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my maid; it may be that I shall obtain children by her.” And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai. So, after Abram had dwelt ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram’s wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her maid, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. And Sarai said to Abram, “May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my maid to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the Lord judge between you and me!” But Abram said to Sarai, “Behold, your maid is in your power; do to her as you please.” Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her.
The angel of the lord found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. And he said, “Hagar, maid of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” She said, “I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai.” The angel of the lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her.” The angel of the lord also said to her, “I will so greatly multiply your descendants that they cannot be numbered for multitude.” And the angel of the lord said to her, “Behold, you are with child, and shall bear a son; you shall call his name Ishmael; because the lord has given heed to your affliction.
Genesis 16.1-12

Abraham said, “My Lord! Make safe this territory [of Mecca], and preserve my sons and me from serving idols. My Lord! Truly they have led many of mankind astray. But whoever follows me, he truly is of me. And whoever disobeys me—still, You are Forgiving, Merciful.
Our Lord, I have settled some of my posterity in an uncultivable valley near your Sacred House, Lord, that they may establish proper worship; so incline some hearts of men that they may yearn toward them, and provide them with fruits in order that they may be thankful.”
Qur’an 14.35-37

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

If Abraham had not failed in the symbolic offering, Isaac and his half-brother Ishmael would have stood in the positions of Abel and Cain. They would have been responsible to fulfill the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature that Cain and Abel did not accomplish.13 However, because Abraham failed in the offering, God set up Isaac in the position of Abraham, and Esau and Jacob in the positions originally intended for Ishmael and Isaac. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.2)

Ishmael was the Cain-type offspring of Abraham, born from his concubine Hagar. Abraham’s concubine and Abraham’s wife fought and became enemies. The two women were supposed to be united as one family; then God’s historical burden would have been lighter. Instead they fought, and Sarah expelled Hagar.
This division could have been restored at the time of Jesus, but it was not. As the result of Jesus’ crucifixion, there arose divisions—up and down, right and left, and front and rear—which have persisted through the last 2,000 years. Among nations there would be conflict between the left wing and the right wing, and among religions Islam would emerge as the opponent of Christianity. Islam was victorious in the lands of the Middle East. (215:253, February 20, 1991)

God Sought to Change the Course of Human History

2 Chronicles 20

²⁰Early the next morning, as everyone got ready to leave for the desert near Tekoa, Jehoshaphat stood up and said, “Listen my friends, if we trust the Lord God and believe what these prophets have told us, the Lord will help us, and we will be successful.” ²¹Then he explained his plan and appointed men to march in front of the army and praise the Lord for his holy power by singing:^[e]

“Praise the Lord!
His love never ends.”

²²As soon as they began singing, the Lord confused the enemy camp, ²³so that the Ammonite and Moabite troops attacked and completely destroyed those from Edom. Then they turned against each other and fought until the entire camp was wiped out!

Nahum 1

⁶Who can stand the heat
of his furious anger?
It flashes out like fire
and shatters stones.

Abraham

2. Abraham’s Mistake in Offering the Animals

And he said to him, “I am the lord who brought you from Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to possess.” But he said, “O Lord god, how am I to know that I shall possess it?” He said to him, “Bring me a heifer three years old, a she-goat three years old, a ram three years old, a turtledove, and a young pigeon.” And he brought him all these, cut them in two, and laid each half over against the other; but he did not cut the birds in two. And when birds of prey came down upon the carcasses, Abram drove them away. As the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell on Abram; and lo, a dread and great darkness fell upon him. Then the lord said to Abram, “Know of a surety that your descendants will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs, and will be slaves there, and they will be oppressed for four hundred years…”
Genesis 15.7-13

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Abraham offered three sacrifices—two birds, a ram and a she-goat, and a heifer—but he was careless and failed to cut the birds in two. If he had been more serious and mindful that this offering was for the sake of humanity and for the sake of God, not for himself, then he would not have committed that historical blunder. (93:313, June 12, 1977)

Because Abraham did not cut the dove and pigeon in two as he should have, birds of prey came down and defiled the sacrifices. As a result of his mistake, the Israelites were destined to enter Egypt and suffer hardships for four hundred years. Why was it a sin not to cut the birds in half?…
God’s work of salvation aims to restore the sovereignty of goodness by first dividing good from evil and then destroying evil and uplifting the good. This is the reason Adam had to be divided into Cain and Abel before the sacrifice could be made. This is the reason why in Noah’s day, God struck down evil through the flood judgment and winnowed out Noah’s family as the good. God had Abraham cut the sacrifices in two before offering them, with the intention of doing the symbolic work of dividing good from evil, which was left unaccomplished by Adam and Noah… In other words, when Abraham offered the birds without first dividing them, it meant that he offered what had not been wrested from Satan’s possession. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 3.1.2)

God sought to change the course of human history through Abraham, by his condition of making the symbolic offering. Yet because the condition was not made, the course of Abraham’s family had to pass through three stages, from Abraham to Isaac and Jacob, and the turning of history required an arduous process of symbolic, image-like and substantial conditions. (81:96, December 1, 1975)

When God Gives a Command, It is not Something that Is Easy to Believe

Hebrews 13

¹¹After the high priest offers the blood of animals as a sin offering, the bodies of those animals are burned outside the camp. ¹²Jesus himself suffered outside the city gate, so that his blood would make people holy. ¹³That’s why we should go outside the camp to Jesus and share in his disgrace. ¹⁴On this earth we don’t have a city that lasts forever, but we are waiting for such a city.

¹⁵Our sacrifice is to keep offering praise to God in the name of Jesus. ¹⁶But don’t forget to help others and to share your possessions with them. This too is like offering a sacrifice that pleases God.

Jeremiah 50

³⁷Then your chariot horses
and the foreigners in your army
will refuse to go into battle,
and the enemy will carry away
everything you treasure.

Noah

1. Noah and the Flood

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

When God gives a command, it is not something that is easy to believe; rather it is something unbelievable. For example, God ordered Noah to build an ark for 120 years for the preparation for the flood judgment.9 Further, God ordered him to build the ark not by a river but on a mountaintop. Was it easy for Noah to believe this direction? The human ancestors fell due to the faithlessness; therefore, God needed Noah to stand on absolute faith. That is the reason He did not give him a command that was easy to believe. (53:93, February 10, 1972)

What do you think Noah’s family thought of him? Noah built the ark on the top of a mountain. If it had been on flat land it would be one thing, but building a ship on the top of a mountain is not only beyond common sense, it also certainly exceeded the limits of tolerance. In any ordinary sense, Noah was acting like a crazy man. If he wanted to build a ship, he should have built it on a river-bank, but since he built it on a mountain, his action was totally beyond common sense.
When God gave that command, do you think He did it in a joking manner? No. God knew better than anyone that Noah’s course would require lifelong dedication on a path of unbearable suffering. God’s anxiety at giving that command was greater than Noah’s suffering. Nevertheless, God commanded Noah to go the path of suffering for 120 years, hoping thereby to gain a way to resolve His inner situation. How miserable was God’s heart? His misery was indescribable.
At the decisive, tense moment, when whether or not to accept that command hung in the balance, Noah chose to obey God. At that moment, who do you think was happier, God or Noah? Had it gone the other way, God is the one who would have been saddened more than Noah. God’s position is that of a Lord who takes responsibility for joy and sorrow. (48:69, September 5, 1971)

Imagine, you women here, that you were Noah’s wife. Do you think you would have approved of him? Perhaps not. Every day he must have climbed up and down the mountain to build an ark, claiming that he had received a command from God. Every day his wife must have packed his lunch. Since Noah was too busy building the ark to provide for his family, she must have had to take the burden of providing for the family. In the beginning she might have been able to manage it, but within a few months family squabbles must have begun. Yet this difficult situation had to continue not for just twelve months or twelve years, but for 120 years. When she realized that she had to do it for 120 years, she must have fiercely accused her husband, saying that he had gone insane.
Why couldn’t God instruct Noah to carry out His Will in ordinary circumstances? The reason is this: God cannot dwell together with evil. God’s direction is 180 degrees contrary to the direction of Satan. God abhors evil! If even a few people who are comfortable living in the satanic world have a small amount of faith in Him, God would not be pleased. In God’s sight, the things that are precious to people who compromise with evil would only defile His world.
Even ordinary people have such a feeling. We do not like anything about our enemy; we do not even want to see him. If so, would the absolute God be pleased to receive praise from the evil world? Hence, God worked in a way that made it impossible for the people of the fallen world to have faith in Him. (69:94-95, October 21, 1973)

For one hundred and twenty years, Noah tolerated the faithless people who opposed and ridiculed him. Even when God told him to warn them that the earth was about to be judged, he accomplished his duty to God in faith. Because he was a righteous man, he was deeply concerned and saddened for the corrupt society in which he lived. While most people were living for their personal comfort, Noah alone struggled to uphold the commandment of public righteousness; Noah alone was concerned about the will of God; and Noah alone grieved in circumstances no one would want to endure. (3:169-70, October 25, 1957

He Began to Build the Ark

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2082

Do our political leaders love the nation? Politicians do not care about what is going on in the nation, but just fight to get the presidency. Just let them try and do it! Everything will just fade away eventually, dissolving like bubbles, because they do not have the heart to sincerely live together with the people. If a leader cannot love the people, then he cannot escape the judgment of his people and history. (148-275, 1986.10.11)

Richard: False and fake political leaders will meet their reckoning.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1127

How many times a day do you think about your portion of responsibility? You have to remember this many times: when you eat, when you hold a spoon, when you wash the dishes, while you go to the toilet, while you walk…. Adam and Eve did not think about their portion of responsibility and consequently came to ruin. We must not become people who, like Adam and Eve, cannot fulfill our responsibility and fall. To become someone who can be restored and be victorious we have to respect and consider our portion of responsibility twenty-four hours a day. (124-103, 1983.1.30)

Noah

Noah is the first Biblical father of faith. His remarkable work to build an ark, believing God’s command that a flood was about to destroy humanity, showed faith far beyond the ordinary. Father Moon emphasizes the incredible faith of Noah, which was difficult to comprehend even for his wife and family. Another quality of Noah was his compassion for the people whom he knew to be doomed, enabling him to follow God’s command that he announce to the very people who were mocking and persecuting him that the judgment was imminent and invite them into his boat.
The story of Noah goes far back in the historical record. Diverse versions of the story go back 5,000 years, to ancient Sumer and Babylon. There is reason to believe that the account is based on historical fact, from evidence of a massive flood that wiped out a whole civilization in the region of the black sea some 7,500 years ago.
The biblical story of Noah ends with the sin of his son ham. Father Moon regards this as a serious setback for God’s providence. Always viewing history from a family perspective, he sees ham’s mistake as fracturing the unity of Noah’s family such that it could no longer serve in God’s providence.

1. Noah and the Flood

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the ground, man and beast and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the lord…And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh; for the earth is filled with violence through them; behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.

Genesis 6.5-8, 13-16

My counsel… was inspired in Noah: “None of your people will believe except those who already believe, so grieve not at what they do. Make an ark under Our eyes and by Our inspiration, and speak not to Me on behalf of those who are unjust. Surely they will be drowned.”

And he began to build the ark. And whenever the chiefs of his people passed by him, they laughed at him. He said, “Though you mock us, yet we too mock you even as you mock; and you shall know to whom will come a punishment that will confound, and upon whom will fall a lasting doom.”

At length when Our command came to pass and the oven gushed forth water, We said, “Load in two of every kind in pairs, and your household—but not those against whom the word has already gone forth—and those who believe. Yet but a few were they who believed with him.

He said, “Embark in it, and in the name of God may be its sailing and its anchoring. Surely my Lord is Forgiving, Merciful.”

And it sailed with them amid waves like mountains. And Noah called out to his son, who was standing aloof, “O my son, embark with us, and be not with the disbelievers.” He said, I will betake myself for refuge to a mountain that will save me from the water. Noah said, “This day there is no one safe from God’s command, but he on whom He has mercy. And a wave came between them, so he was among the drowned.

Qur’an 11.36-43

God… did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven other persons, when he brought a flood upon the ungodly.

2 Peter 2.5

Lo! We sent Noah to his people, saying, “Warn your people before there comes to them a painful doom.” He said, “O my people! Verily I am a plain warner to you. Serve God and keep your duty to Him, and obey me, that He may forgive you some of your sins and grant your respite to an appointed term. Surely the term of God, when it comes, cannot be delayed. Did you but know!”

He said, “My Lord! I have called unto my people night and day, but all my calling has added to their repugnance. Whenever I call them that You may pardon them, they thrust their fingers in their ears and cover themselves with their garments and persist, magnifying themselves in pride.”

Qur’an 71.1-7

No One Living on Earth has ever Seen God’s Day.

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1474

God created humankind for the sake of love. Why were human beings created? 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 daughters. They were created as object partners who can receive love directly from Him. Such is the privilege of humankind. (132-245, 1984.6.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1100

No one living on earth until this time has ever seen God’s Day, True Parents’ Day, True Children’s Day, and Day of All True Things. There are 365 days in a year. You should clearly understand that the most important days among all 365 days are those days that I have just mentioned, which have now appeared in providential history. You should know that these days are the king of all days, and if a year like that existed it would be the king of all years. (92-252, 1977.4.18)

Richard: These are four foundational Holy Days of the Unification movement and all mankind, as if Adam and Eve had not fallen.

Founders, Prophets and Saints

3. Keeping the Tradition of the Fathers of Faith

Think not that I have come to abolish the law and the prophets; I have not come to abolish them but to fulfill them. For truly, I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away, not an iota, not a dot, will pass from the law until all is accomplished.
Matthew 5.17-18

I [Krishna] told this eternal secret to Vivasat. Vivasat taught Manu, and Manu taught Ikshvaku. Thus, Arjuna, eminent sages received knowledge of yoga in a continuous tradition. But through time the practice of yoga was lost in the world. The secret of these teachings is profound. I have explained them to you today because you are my friend and devotee.

Bhagavad-Gita 4.1-3 (Hinduism)

Moses received the Torah on Sinai and delivered it to Joshua, and Joshua [delivered it] to the elders, and the elders to the prophets, and the prophets delivered it to the men of the Great Synagogue.

Mishnah, Avot 1.1 (Judaism)

Confucius said, “I have transmitted what was taught to me without making up anything of my own. I have been faithful to and loved the Ancients.”

Analects 7.1 (Confucianism)

Mention Abraham in the Book. He was a truthful prophet when he told his father, “My father, why do you worship something that neither hears nor perceives, and does not benefit you in any way?…

When he moved away from them and what they worshipped instead of God, We bestowed Isaac and Jacob on him. Each We made a prophet. We bestowed some of Our mercy on them and granted them a sublime tongue for telling truth.

Mention Moses in the Book. He was sincere, and was a messenger, a prophet. We called out to him from the right side of the mountain, and brought him close to confide in. We bestowed his brother Aaron on him as a prophet through Our mercy.

Mention Ishmael in the Book. He kept true to the Promise, and was a messenger, a prophet. He used to order his people to pray and pay the welfare tax; he was approved by his Lord.

Mention Idris in the Book. He was a truthful prophet; We raised him to a lofty place.

Those are some of the prophets from Adam’s offspring whom God has favored, and some of those We transported along with Noah, and some of Abraham’s and Ishmael’s offspring, as well as some others We have guided and chosen. Whenever the Mercy-giving’s signs are recited to them, they drop down on their knees and weep!

Qur’an 19.41-58

It was in this way that Emperor Yü, Kings T’ang, Wen, Wu, Ch’eng, and the Duke of Chou achieved eminence: all these six noble men paid attention to propriety, made manifest their justice, and acted in good faith. They exposed their errors, made humaneness their law and prudence their practice, thus showing the people wherein they should constantly abide. If there were any who did not follow these principles, he would lose power and position and be regarded by the multitude as dangerous.

Book of Ritual 7.1.2 (Confucianism)

Of yore I followed countless Buddhas,
And perfectly trod the Ways
Of the profound and mystic Law,
Hard to perceive and perform.
During infinite kotis of kalpas,
Having followed all these Ways,
Attaining fruition on the Wisdom-throne,
I could perfectly understand. 7
Lotus Sutra 2 (Buddhism)