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

The Richard Urban Show:
#82-Mike Pence Is Judas Iscariot

Cheon Seong Gyeong 163

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

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1352

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

Idolatry and Materialism

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

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

Jesus Prayed So Sincerely That His Sweat Fell to the Ground Like Drops of Blood

The Richard Urban Show
#81-Who Will Give the Faithful Report?

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

Luke 22

43 Then an angel from heaven came to help him. 44 Jesus was in great pain and prayed so sincerely that his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood.[g]

45 Jesus got up from praying and went over to his disciples. They were asleep and worn out from being so sad. 46 He said to them, “Why are you asleep? Wake up and pray that you won’t be tested.”

Obadiah 1

19 The people of Israel
who live in the Southern Desert
    will take the land of Edom.
Those who live in the hills
will capture Philistia,
    Ephraim, and Samaria.
And the tribe of Benjamin
    will conquer Gilead.

Idolatry and Materialism

Literally the worship of images, idolatry in the broader sense means allegiance to false values that substitute for God. in the Qur’an idols are regarded as evil spirits and Satan; those who worship them are therefore enemies to God. the bible views idols as human artifacts, not as representations of deity. hence idol worship is regarded as a form of materialism, and, conversely, any false reliance on human power or wealth is a form of idolatry. a more spiritual conception of idolatry is to identify it with egoism and human craving, since attachment to these false realities separates us from our true nature. the biblical story of the golden calf describes the worship of the idol as accompanied by orgiastic rites. in the twentieth century, the idols of nationalism, racism, and especially materialism have captivated millions, with horrible results. Father Moon explicitly calls materialism modern-day idolatry and regards it as one of Gods’ biggest “headaches.” his passages on this topic are a contemporary counterpoint to the classic texts.

Lo, Abraham said to his father Azar, “Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people are in manifest error.”
    Qur’an 6.74

Shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false—being true in faith to Allah, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to God, he is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had swooped down and thrown him to a distant land.
    Qur’an 22.30-31

Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them are like them;so are all who trust in them.
    Psalm 115.3-8

For many… live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
    Philippians 3.18-19

“There shall be in you no strange god and you shall not worship a foreign god” [Psalm 81.10]. What is the “foreign god” within a man’s body? It is the evil impulse.
    Talmud, Shabbat 105b (Judaism)

Have you seen him who makes his desire his god, and God sends him astray purposely, and seals up his hearing and his heart, and sets on his sight a covering? Who, then, will lead him after God [has condemned him]? Will you not then heed?
    Qur’an 45.23

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the lord.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
    Exodus 32.1-6

The god of this World Has Blinded the Minds of the Unbelievers


The Richard Urban Show

#81-Who Will Give the Faithful Report?

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

1 Samuel 2

30 I am the Lord, the God of Israel. I promised to always let your family serve me as priests, but now I tell you that I cannot do this any longer! I honor anyone who honors me, but I put a curse on anyone who hates me. 31 The time will come when I will kill you and everyone else in your family. Not one of you will live to an old age.

Matthew 3

13 Jesus left Galilee and went to the Jordan River to be baptized by John. 14 But John kept objecting and said, “I ought to be baptized by you. Why have you come to me?”

15 Jesus answered, “For now this is how it should be, because we must do all that God wants us to do.” Then John agreed.

Ignorance and Atheism

3. Spiritual Blindness and Delusion

The unbelievers… are like the depths of
darkness
In a vast deep ocean,
Overwhelmed with billow,
Topped by billow,
Topped by dark clouds:
Depths of darkness,
One above another:
If a man stretches out his hand, he can hardly
see it!
For any to whom God gives not light,
There is no light!
    Qur’an 24.40

Blind is this world. Few are those who clearly see.
As birds escape from a net, few go to a blissful state.
    Dhammapada 174 (Buddhism)

This vast universe is a wheel, the wheel of Brahman. Upon it are all creatures that are subject to birth, death, and rebirth. Round and round it turns, and never stops. As long as the individual self thinks it is separate from the Lord, it revolves upon the wheel in bondage to the laws of birth, death, and rebirth…
    The Lord supports this universe, which is made up of the perishable and the imperishable, the manifest and the unmanifest. The individual soul, forgetful of the Lord, attaches itself to pleasure and thus is bound.
    Svetasvatara Upanishad 1.6-8 (Hinduism)

On a certain occasion the Exalted One was seated in the open air, on a night of inky darkness, and oil lamps were burning. Swarms of winged insects kept falling into these oil lamps and thereby met their end, came to destruction and utter ruin. Seeing this, the Exalted One saw the meaning in it and uttered this verse of uplift,
    They hasten up and past, but miss the real;
    a bondage ever new they cause to grow.
    Just as the flutterers fall into the lamp,
    so some are bent on what they see and hear.
        Udana 72 (Buddhism)

To the pure all things are pure, but to the corrupt and unbelieving nothing is pure; their very minds and consciences are corrupted.
    Titus 1.15
 
The god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the likeness of God.
    2 Corinthians 4.4 
 
Fools dwelling in darkness, but thinking them-selves wise and erudite, go round and round, by various tortuous paths, like the blind led by the blind.
    Katha Upanishad 1.2.5 (Hinduism)
 
The soul is only able to view existence through the bars of a prison, and not in her own nature; she is wallowing in the mire of all ignorance. Philosophy sees the terrible nature of her confinement, and that the captive through desire is led to conspire in her own captivity.
    Plato, Phaedo (Hellenism)
 
 

Woe to Those Who Call Evil Good and Good Evil

The Richard Urban Show
#81-Who Will Give the Faithful Report?

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2233

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

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1121

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

Ignorance and Atheism

2. False Views

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

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

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

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

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

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

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

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

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

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

Although They Knew God They Did Not Honor Him

Happy New Year!

The Richard Urban Show
#81-Who Will Give the Faithful Report?

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

John 18

15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That disciple knew the high priest, and he followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest’s house. 16 Peter stayed outside near the gate. But the other disciple came back out and spoke to the girl at the gate. She let Peter go in, 17 but asked him, “Aren’t you one of that man’s followers?”

“No, I am not!” Peter answered.

18 It was cold, and the servants and temple police had made a charcoal fire. They were warming themselves around it, when Peter went over and stood near the fire to warm himself.

Job 7

18 Why do you test us
    from sunrise to sunset?
19 Won’t you look away
just long enough
    for me to swallow?
20 Why do you watch us so closely?
    What’s it to you, if I sin?
Why am I your target
    and such a heavy burden?
21 Why do you refuse to forgive?
Soon you won’t find me,
    because I’ll be dead.

Ignorance and Atheism

Many religions regard ignorance as the cause of evil in human life. being ignorant of God and the purpose of life, people’s values become confused, and consequently they act wrongly. the apostle Paul taught that ignorance of God lay at the root of all forms of license and immorality. in Islam it is called “forgetting God,” causing people to deviate from the path and lose their souls. in Buddhism, this ignorance leads to grasping after self and begets delusion (moha). Many scriptures warn against the illusory goals and vanities that infect worldly life.
In their search for knowledge, people have embraced various philosophies, yet it is clear that none of them have illuminated the truth one hundred percent. oftentimes, valid insights are mixed with false views, leading to confusion and conflict over values, to skepticism and even atheism. this too is the result of humanity’s fundamental ignorance, whose source stems from the human Fall, according to Father Moon. as a prophet of the twentieth century who lived through the struggle with communism, he is particularly concerned about this contemporary form of ignorance.
The concluding passages describe humanity’s spiritual blindness. they describe ignorance as a veil that obscures the faculty of insight. the buddha used metaphors such as moths drawn to perish in a lamp to represent people’s attraction to the illusory vanities of this world. in Hinduism and Jainism, this blindness (avidya) is what binds people to the wheel of birth-and-death (samsara), binding them sense pleasures instead of seeking reality itself. Plato’s famous Myth of the cave speaks to this topic. Father Moon likewise describes a pervasive delusion, born of the human Fall, that leaves human beings blind to spiritual truth and totally unable to know God’s inner heart.

  1. Ignorance of God

Be not like those who forget God, and therefore He made them forget their own souls!
Qur’an 59.19

Although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their sense-less minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1.21-25

The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are all corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none that does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven
upon the children of men,
to see if there are any that act wisely,
that seek after God.
They have all gone astray,
they are all alike corrupt;
there is none that does good,
no, not one.
Have they no knowledge,
all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon the Lord ?
Psalm 14.1-4

Whoever wants to do some evil against another does not remember God.
Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

He who does not clearly understand Heaven will not be pure in virtue. He who has not mastered the Way will find himself without any accept-able path of approach. He who does not under-stand the Way is pitiable indeed!
Chuang Tzu 11 (Taoism)

No man lies to his neighbor until he has denied the Root. It happened once that Rabbi Reuben was in Tiberias on the Sabbath, and a philosopher asked him, “Who is the most hateful man in the world?” He replied, “The man who denies his Creator.” “How so?” asked the philosopher. Rabbi Reuben answered, “‘Honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet.’ No man denies the derivative [the Ten Commandments] until he has previously denied the Root [God], and no man sins unless he has denied Him who com-manded him not to commit that sin.”
Tosefta Shevuot 3.6 (Judaism)

The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.

“There is no God,” they say, “no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?” Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.

Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, “Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer.”

Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.

“I got this today,” they say; “tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity.”

This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.
Bhagavad-Gita 16.7-16 (Hinduism)