Category: World Scripture-2

The Providence of Restoration Requires Paying Restitution or Indemnity

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Assuming that only a person who occupies the position representing the highest qualities of filial piety, loyalty, and holiness can attend God, people who attain only some but not all of these characteristics cannot. God desires to see the person who combines all these qualities together: a filial child, a patriot, and a saint of saints, simultaneously.

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In the cases of both Cain and Abel, and Esau and Jacob, the brothers were supposed to exchange positions after their birth. To achieve this, the cooperation between mother and child was always necessary. Eve protected Abel. In the case of Esau and Jacob, Rebecca was on Jacob’s side, and helped him through her acts of deception. Nevertheless, no one knows why God still granted the blessing to them. Jacob was born as a twin and later restored the position of the right of the eldest son. Yet this still didn’t restore the lineage. Then at the time of the birth of Perez and Zerah, when they were about to emerge from Tamar’s womb, they fought each other and switched positions. The second child pushed aside the first child in order to be born first. You should understand the deep significance of these actions that signify moving closer to the lineal standard of the original parents. (120-167, 1982.10.13)

Restitution

Teachings of True Father Sun Myung Moon

It is God’s formula that the providence of restoration requires paying restitution, or indemnity. Indemnity cleanses the past and opens up a new opportunity for development. Why do we need to make restitution? It is necessary to clear up past sins and at the same time to separate from Satan, who accuses people day and night based on past sins.
    This formula applies not only to ourselves as individuals, but also includes the wholes of which we are a part. Each of us is not only an individual living in the present moment but also a descendant who has inherited the fruits of history. Each of us stands before divine Providence not just as an individual but as a representative of the entire world. (99:164-65, September 18, 1978) Continue reading “The Providence of Restoration Requires Paying Restitution or Indemnity”

Repentance Should be Accompanied by Restitution

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If Adam and Eve had been able to fathom God’s inner heart, they could not have possibly fallen. God loved His children as a Parent, but they did not understand the depth of His parental heart. Of course Adam and Eve fell while they were still young, but their young age itself was not the cause of the Fall. Rather, they fell because they were lacking in heart. Had they been able to feel, “He is living for me. He can never, ever be separated from me. He is involved in everything related to me,” they would not have committed the Fall. Ultimately Adam and Eve fell because they could not reach unity in heart with God. This dreadful problem occurred because their desires deviated from God’s desires and the direction of their thinking was different from the direction of God’s thinking. (65-173, 1972.11.19)

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I take complete and eternal responsibility for those who have received the Blessing, even in the spirit world. I will directly guide them and lead them. The Blessing establishes an eternal relationship between the True Parents and those who receive it. (God’s Will – 533)

Restitution

PEACE FLOURISHES WHERE THERE IS JUSTICE. While justice may not appear the same to people on opposing sides of a conflict, steps should be taken to right wrongs, pay back debts, and restore trust when it has been violated. Usually it is not enough to repent for having wronged one’s neighbor; repentance should be accompanied by restitution.

Restitution is most effective when it is given freely by the guilty party to his victims, not exacted from him as the price of defeat. Compare the war reparations that Germany was forced to pay to France and England at the end of World War I by the Treaty of Versailles with the restitution Germany paid after World War II to Jews and other victims of the Nazis. In the former instance where the reparations were forced upon Germany, it created massive German resentment and fueled calls for revenge that led directly to the rise of Hitler. In the second instance where Germany felt sincere repentance for its Nazi crimes, the restitution has served to foster good will between Germany and its former enemies.
Thus it is a principle of peacemaking that we should offer restitution willingly to those we have harmed, accompanied by genuine repentance for the wrongs we committed. There are also the sins we commit without knowing, or debts we inherit from the past, or wrongs for which we are collectively responsible; we can also make restitution for these. Father Moon has developed this concept into a teaching called ‘restoration through indemnity.’ He teaches that ‘indemnity’ is not a fixed amount, like an insurance claim, but rather a matter of giving whatever is required to assuage the other party’s aggrieved heart. It can be small if the other party has a mind to forgive; or it can be great if the relationship has been strained by years of treachery and mistrust.
The phrase, “an eye for and eye and a tooth for a tooth” can be taken in its original biblical meaning as a legal formula for making restitution; and it is so understood in Judaism. People know innately that they should pay back the full amount of their debt. The phrase is often cited wrongly, however, as a justification for revenge. That is a completely different matter. Revenge by the aggrieved party is a kind of rough justice, but it is not conducive to peace. It only furthers the cycle of violence. The scriptures teach that it is better to forgive.

O dweller in the body, make reparation for whatever you have done!
    Garuda Purana 2.35 (Hinduism) Continue reading “Repentance Should be Accompanied by Restitution”

Who Are the True Parents?

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Those parents are the True Parents. Who are the True Parents? That is the question. As our Principle teaches, the ones called True Parents are the parents who have realized the ideal of oneness centering on God’s love. They have fulfilled their responsibility after passing through the realm of dominion based on accomplishments through the Principle, that is, the realm of indirect dominion, and into the realm of direct dominion. They are the parents who for the first time in history established the ideal of oneness based on the love between God and man. God’s ideal of love has finally begun to settle on earth through the family of the True Parents.

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What are absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience? These are all terms concerned with the genitals. The Fall refers to the failure of God and human genitals to become one. They failed to attain oneness. You must believe this absolutely. They are the pillars of the history of our family, clan, and lineage. (304-164, 1999.10.10)

Peace

Reconciliation and Peacemaking

3. Jesus’ Sacrificial Love as a Model for Peacemaking

And when they came to the place which is called The Skull [Calvary], there they crucified him, and the criminals, one on the right and one on the left. And Jesus said, “Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do.”
    Luke 23.33-34

But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near in the blood of Christ. For he is our peace, who has made us both one, and has broken down the dividing wall of hostility…that he might reconcile us both to God in one body through the cross, thereby bringing the hostility to an end.
    Ephesians 2.13-16 1084

From now on, therefore, we regard no one from a human point of view; even though we once regarded Christ from a human point of view, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation.
    2 Corinthians 5.16-19

Teachings of True Father Sun Myung Moon 

Jesus presented a new direction for this conflict-ridden world. Oppressor nations and oppressed nations, such as Rome and Israel, viewed each other as enemies, thus creating high walls between them. Jesus’ philosophy was that these walls needed to be demolished. He thought, “You Romans want to conquer me by force, but I will conquer you in the opposite way—with love.” That is why he even sought blessings for his enemies as he was hanging on the cross.
    His plea for the Roman soldiers, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” expressed this amazing philosophy. By making this plea, Jesus became the model and the archetype for all nations of the world to overcome the conventional way of seeing each other as enemies. He became the example of someone who has no regard for national borders. (March 9, 2000)

Jesus’ saying, “Love your enemies” is God’s strategy to make evil surrender voluntarily. This is an amazing truth, full of grace. These simple-sounding words mark the boundary between victory and defeat in the battle between God and Satan. (316:81, February 10, 2000)

Jesus taught, “Love your enemy,” but we are extending it even to loving enemy nations. After loving our personal enemies, we should leap over national boundaries to love and even save nations that attacked our nation in the past. This is the ideology of the Messiah. (93:160, May 22, 1977)

The Bible says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, they shall be called sons of God.” Because I knew God’s Will to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, I work to reconcile humankind. If either side throws a spear, I should be the first one to be hit. In order to bring reconciliation and save the two that are fighting, you shouldn’t mind if you get bloodied first. (211:13, December 30, 1990)

I Have the Mission to Prevent Racial Conflict and Make Peace between the Races

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Why did the Second World War have to occur? It was to recover Jesus’ lost body on the worldwide level. The unified realm was lost because the returning Lord was driven away. That is why America now comes again through the Pacific civilization, seeking the Asian region that had lost Jesus’ body, as well as the unified world. The time is drawing near when America comes seeking Asia from the opposite direction. You should know that that is why the era of the Pacific civilization is coming. This is in accord with the fact that the world must be unified, centering on the ideal of the returning Lord, by recovering, in Asia, Jesus’ body that was lost in Asia. By going through this process, the era of the Pacific civilization is bound to come. It is to recover the body and make it whole. The Lord at his Second Advent already has the basis for receiving this, centering on the spirit and the flesh. That is why the cultural sphere can be connected internally and externally, based on a criterion of unity, where the object partner stands before the subject partner. Through this process, a unified world can be created, centering on the True Parents. (267-176, 1995.1.5)

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Unification Church members are not without value. We are not a simple group that believes we can go to heaven just by going to a Sunday service with the Bible under our arm or by giving a few pennies in donations. That is for simple folk. That is not for people as intense as us. Once we believe in something, we do it till the end. Placing our life on the line, even if our spouse grabs us to prevent us from following, we are so intense. We follow the path of faith, even if there at the risk of it leading to divorce. (121-70, 1982.10.24)

Peace

Reconciliation and Peacemaking

2. Peacemaking

Teachings of True Father Sun Myung Moon

Antagonism has no place in God’s love, only unity and harmony. In light of this, you can understand what the Bible means in saying that peacemakers will be called sons of God. (Way of God’s Will 3.2)

How patient is God, who has been enduring for millions of years? We, too, need to possess His patience. I’m not saying we that should never fight. But there is a right time to fight: when we can fight for the benefit of both sides. We should not fight those who oppose us seeking their destruction. We should fight to educate both sides and bring them together in harmony. We should educate each side to no longer regard the other as the enemy. (104:33, March 25, 1979) Continue reading “I Have the Mission to Prevent Racial Conflict and Make Peace between the Races”

Blessed are the Peacemakers, for They Shall Be Called the Sons of God

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    God’s original intent for creation was to live with humanity centering on one purpose in harmony with one love, to have all of heaven and earth enjoy His love and to have everything live as one with His love established as the actual center of life. Yet due to the Fall of Adam and Eve, God’s love remained His. He was to establish it in His relationship with humankind. Yet He was unable to do so and it departed from them and from the entire world of creation.
    Consequently, God has spent the last six thousand years hoping for the day when, centering on the love He wanted to establish, He could bring together all the things of creation and live in joy with them. However, they have still not been united through His love, and accordingly His ideal and the love of His hope which should have been established remain unfulfilled. Thus, God has been guiding the providence to this day in order to accomplish His will at all costs. Ever since the Fall, He has been doing so for a long time until now, regardless of the ages, in order to fulfill His hope and recover His trust and love towards humanity; yet even now He has been unable to do either. (1-88, 1956.6.6)

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Why are tribal messiahs necessary? If there are no tribal messiahs, then all the families cannot be connected between themselves. Without this, you cannot have your hometown. I have my own hometown but you do not have one. After restoring all the families, there will come the age of registration in the future. Once the age of registration comes, tribal formation will take place. The order in which you register will determine your position. Those who register first will be the elders and a new system will be developed so that they can be attended in the same manner as you attend your ancestors. Only when the whole world is transformed accordingly, will the heavenly kingdom on earth be realized. (210-273, 1990.12.25)

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Unification Church members are not without value. We are not a simple group that believes we can go to heaven just by going to a Sunday service with the Bible under our arm or by giving a few pennies in donations. That is for simple folk. That is not for people as intense as us. Once we believe in something, we do it till the end. Placing our life on the line, even if our spouse grabs us to prevent us from following, we are so intense. We follow the path of faith, even if there at the risk of it leading to divorce. (121-70, 1982.10.24)

Peace

Reconciliation and Peacemaking

2. Peacemaking

Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.
    Matthew 5.9

If two parties of believers fall to fighting, then make peace between them. And if one party of them does wrong to the other, fight that wrong-doer until it returns to the ordinance of God; then, if it returns, make peace between them justly, and act equitably. Lo! God loves the equitable. Continue reading “Blessed are the Peacemakers, for They Shall Be Called the Sons of God”