Fallen People’s Spiritual Sensibility Is Extremely Dull

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Had Adam and Eve matured and married, they would have been unified within God’s realm of direct love. Who is the center here? It is God. When that happens, human beings become the bodies of God, who takes on a substantial form. Had Adam and Eve been thus unified, they would have become God’s bodies, the parents of humankind, and the center for God. If God – however omniscient and omnipotent – were to start experiencing joy without a partner, we would call Him crazy.
    We human beings are relational beings before the absolute God. We must become as one body through absolute love. If God, Adam, and Eve had become as one body, the children born through Adam and Eve would have been theirs and God’s simultaneously. If that had happened, then, as God’s offspring, they would have established on earth a family, tribe, people, nation and world. As there would be no one to sever their relationship based on God’s eternal love, their nation in itself would have become the kingdom on earth founded on His love. (54-64, 1972.3.11)

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    What do we mean when we say something is true? Is it round, angular, or flat and wide? How can we define it? What is the basis for a definition of the word? This is the question. We say “true person” but what kind of person is a true person? A true person also has eyes, a nose, a mouth and a body.
    Then, is trueness limited to some location or does it transcend location? It transcends. Why does it have to go over such limits? What does this mean? We can know that this must be something that can represent and measure everything.

 

Scripture and Interpretation

3. Do Not Get Caught up in the Letter of the Scriptures; the Letter Is but a Gateway to the Spirit

The written code kills, but the Spirit gives life.
    2 Corinthians 3.6

Lord Mahavira said to Gautama, “When Dharma is not seen by the seer directly it is seen through the wire mesh of words. Conjecture is the wire mesh that covers that window. Multiple sects and systems result from such an indirect observation. The path suggested to you, Gautama, is the direct path of the seer. Be vigilant and a seer of Dharma.”
    Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.31 (Jainism)

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It Does Not Matter How Well You Know Theology

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When I tell you to go find your hometown, it means planting a new seed. Since you have become the seed of Adam and Eve, I am trying to put down a new root by planting new seeds through you. So when planting new seeds, you will need buckets of fertilizer. So you should go and receive insults. You should receive curses for the cause of goodness and endure much suffering. Try it for about three years. You won’t need three years; I see it being done in six months. When you were first sent out for witnessing, I sent you out to find 120 households and to build churches in towns other than your hometowns, right? And you haven’t been able to do it, have you? Then, I gave the direction to start Home Church, but you couldn’t fulfill that either, could you? This is it. (219-158, 1991.8.29

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As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first- born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

Scripture and Interpretation

2. Scripture Teaches in Parables

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God reveals well in advance all the essential matters of His Will in parables and symbols, in order that people living in any age can understand the demands of the providence for their time and for the future according to the level of their intellect and spirituality. The fact that God used parables and symbols in the Bible has inevitably resulted in many divergent interpretations. This is a major reason why the churches have become divided. In interpreting the Bible, therefore, the most important matter is to find the right perspective. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Second Advent 2.1)

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To You Has Been Given the Secret of the Kingdom of God

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No matter how long you have been in the Unification Church, you should not leave your sins buried as they are. They need to be cleansed. You need to start afresh with a clean slate, be resurrected anew, and become men and women who can live in the Garden of Eden without sinning. You need the awareness of God’s intention for the complete unity in love of your mind and body, as created by Him. Do you understand? Otherwise, you cannot return to the homeland.

You need to find the way back to your house in the homeland, where our original house is located, and where God, our original Parent, dwells. That is where the descendants of the nation who have the birthright of the firstborn should live and reign over all other nations based on the life of the imperial family. That place is your new home. How shall you go about finding your way back, not to your birthplace but your new homeland, the original home? First, you need to acquire the qualification to enter that homeland. In order to do so, you must achieve a realm of oneness through total mind-body unity. (233-168, 1992.8.1)

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2.2. The core of providential rebirth
2.2.1. True meaning of rebirth

When I speak of rebirth, I do not mean that you must be reborn through the bodies of parents who are the descendants of fallen Adam and Eve, but through those who are not in any way connected to the Fall. Unless you are reborn through such parents, you cannot return to God. The root of sin began from Adam and Eve. Unless you step over this and are reborn in a position not related to the original sin, you can never ever return to the presence of God. (22-269, 1969.5.4)

Scripture and Interpretation

2. Scripture Teaches in Parables

We have put forth for men in this Qur’an every kind of parable, in order that they may receive admonition.
    Qur’an 39.27

Knowing that all the living have many and various desires deep-rooted in their minds, I have, according to their capacity, expounded the various laws by which these [desires] could be overcome with various reasonings, parabolic expressions, and expedients.
    Lotus Sutra 2 (Buddhism)

And when Jesus was alone, those who were about him with the Twelve asked concerning the parables. And he said to them, “To you has been given the secret of the kingdom of God, but for those outside everything is in parables; so they may indeed see but not perceive, and may indeed hear but not understand; lest they should turn again, and be forgiven.”
    Mark 4.10-12

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You Should Gather and Study the Message God Revealed to Us

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The era of the right of ownership is coming, where objects can belong to her only after they have been determined as belonging to Adam, restored to God and acknowledged as His, and then returned to Adam to be finally handed back to her as her permanent possession.

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The time is coming when widows or widowers who have received the Single Blessing on earth can be blessed with their spouses in the spirit world. In the era after the Blessing has transcended the national and global levels, people on earth can be blessed with their spouses in the spirit world for the first time. Until now such things had been impossible. When you received the Single Blessing, weren’t you blessed separately? From now on, you can receive the Blessing together like everybody else. Since such a privilege has been granted on earth, when such a couple is blessed, the spouse on earth and the spouse in the spirit world are blessed together, and so they can stand united in an equal position. This is how a person on earth can be blessed with his or her spouse in the spirit world. (284-167, 1997.4.16)

Scripture and Interpretation

  1. Take Instruction from Regular Study of Scripture

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The ultimate purpose of religion can be attained only when one first believes it in one’s heart and then puts it into practice. However, without first understanding, beliefs do not take hold. It is in order to understand the truth and thereby solidify our beliefs that we study the Holy Scriptures. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

It is God’s responsibility to give us His Word and guidance, and it is our responsibility to believe and practice it in order to fulfill the providence. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.1)

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These Words Shall Be Upon Your Heart

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Section 2. The Family is the Textbook of Love through Which We Can Connect with Universal Love

What is the universe? Everything in the created world is designed as a sort of training aid to help God’s beloved sons and daughters find the ideal of love. This is why everything exists in reciprocal relationships. Minerals are based on the reciprocal relationship of subject and object partners and so are atoms. Protons and electrons also exist based on the reciprocal relationship of subject and object partners. Without reciprocation they cannot continue to exist. Without give and take action they cannot exist eternally. Therefore, the universe is a world created in such a way that its center can only be reached through human beings. (137-59, 1985.12.18)

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The perfection of the Four Great Realms of Heart is realized when the object partner manifests, centering on God, the past, the present and the future, bearing the fruit of love. This state is achieved when husband and wife, once they are married, become one through love. That is why we are not able to reach the state of oneness by ourselves. We should center ourselves on God. Only when God enters and becomes part of the equation can the position of a king emerge through the couple. Without the unity achieved through love, the kingship is not created. The kingship here refers to a king and a queen, but only with the intervention and involvement of the vertical God does the kingship emerge.

Richard: Wow! What a beautiful statement of the meaning of godly, Blessed marriage.

Scripture and Interpretation

SCRIPTURE IS THE BEDROCK OF RELIGIOUS KNOWLEDGE. All the higher religions are founded on inspired teachings or divine truths revealed by their founders and codified as scripture. Thus, scripture is the basis upon which believers lead their lives. It is also the enduring standard for evaluating new ideas and theological innovation. Regular study of scripture is recommended for gaining wisdom and finding guidance for daily life.
Nevertheless, the proper interpretation of scripture is not simple. The many disagreements of the meaning of scripture have created lasting disputes and fractures in communities of faith. One reason for this confusion is that the scriptures were written using parables and veiled language. Understanding the meaning of these symbols and parables requires spiritual discernment, even the assistance of the Holy Spirit.
Another issue is the problem of the letter and the spirit. Religious traditions always have to balance fidelity to the letter of a text with openness to new spiritual insights. Where scripture is meant to be a “raft,” in Buddha’s terms, which takes us across the sea of troubles that we might walk free on that blessed other shore, fixation on the words of scripture can be a burden to further spiritual advancement. Old interpretations need to give way to new ones or the scripture itself can become an impediment—a situation that occurred in Jesus’ day.
The section closes with passages on the limitations of scripture as finite expressions of God’s infinite truth. Jesus, Buddha and other Founders lived in circumstances where they could only teach a part of what they knew of God’s truth, according to the level that their disciples could receive it. Father Moon affirms the value of all scriptures as expressions of the truth of God, given at various times and places to elevate humanity for the fulfillment of God’s purpose. Nevertheless, since there is still much of God’s Word yet to be revealed, the world is due for a new expression of truth fit for this scientific age.

1. Take Instruction from Regular Study of Scripture

O how I love thy law! It is my meditation all the day.
    Psalm 119.97

But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it and how from childhood you have been acquainted with the sacred writings which are able to instruct you for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.
    All scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.
    2 Timothy 3.14-17

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