Category: New Testament

God Does Not Choose Only the Path From the East

Movie Review-Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer – VisionRoot

John 17

6 You have given me some followers from this world, and I have shown them what you are like. They were yours, but you gave them to me, and they have obeyed you. 7 They know that you gave me everything I have. 8 I told my followers what you told me, and they accepted it. They know that I came from you, and they believe that you are the one who sent me. 9 I am praying for them, but not for those who belong to this world.[a] My followers belong to you, and I am praying for them. 10 All that I have is yours, and all that you have is mine, and they will bring glory to me.

Psalm 78

5 God gave his Law
to Jacob’s descendants,
    the people of Israel.
And he told our ancestors
    to teach their children,
6 so that each new generation
would know his Law
    and tell it to the next.
7 Then they would trust God
    and obey his teachings,
    without forgetting anything
    God had done.

One Truth, Many Paths

1. All Religions Worship the Same God and Serve His Great Will

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Although different religions have different names for God and different ways of worshipping Him, the central Being worshipped by each religion is the one and only God. (140:11, February 1, 1986)
 
All people know Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad as the founders of the world’s great religions. We revere them as the guides of humankind. There can be no objection to believing their teachings.
    Why should people follow them? They came to this world as our guides. Each takes responsibility for one religion and guides his people to advance toward the summit. When they reach the summit and find that they are only on a low peak among a great range of mountains, these founders will lead them to another trail, and then another, as they advance upward towards the highest summit.
    God does not choose only the path to the summit from the East. If God did, people from the West who cannot come around to the East would have no path. Therefore, God established religions in every direction—East, West, South and North—and revealed the major routes to reach to the peak from each direction. On the way, they each absorbed numerous peoples, as God furthered their progress towards one unified world. (81:181-82, December 28, 1975)
 
All four great founders of religion were centered on God. They were not their own lords, for above each was God, their Lord. God is above Jesus; likewise God is above Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad. These men knew God; that is why they could become the founders of religion. That is why they taught a common message—that message was one of righteousness, peace and justice. They worked to spread that message and to establish a world of goodness. They all lived many centuries ago, yet their teachings guide people to the present day. (130:146-47, January 8, 1984)
 
There are numerous religions on the earth today. God needed to set up different religions in order to gather the peoples scattered all over the world. Each people has a religion suited to its distinct history, circumstance, cultural background and customs, yet these religions are all headed towards one goal. They are like the streams of a single river. As you go downstream, the number of streams decreases as they merge into larger and larger tributaries, until finally they merge into a single great river. Likewise, all the religions are to unite as they flow towards the place where they can capture God’s love; there they will stay. (23:125, May 18, 1969)
 
Religion provides training as we seek for God’s love and ideal. The world’s religions were given different responsibilities to raise people level by level back to the original state. (87:177, June 2, 1976)
 
The world in which we live is not the world of goodness; it is a fallen world where evil holds sway. Hence, many barriers block our relationship with the God of goodness. To remove these barriers, God needs human beings to play a mediating role. Therefore, throughout history and all over the world, God has been developing movements based on religion to transform this evil world to the world of goodness.
    Among every people of the world, God developed a religion suitable to its unique culture and customs. God expanded the scope of these religions according to their suitability, from local beliefs to worldwide faiths. Today these religious roots have spawned four great civilizations: Christian civilization, Islamic civilization, Indian [Hindu] civilization, and the Far Eastern civilization rooted in Confucianism, Buddhism and Taoism.
    Looking at the world today, what would be God’s wish? His desire is that these four religions not remain separate; He would unite them and present one religion on the world stage. That religion should represent God’s true Will to the world. (113:313, May 10, 1981)
 
There is not a single person whom Thou hast not touched,
or country that Thou hast not guided in hope.
Thou hast been leading all peoples,
transcending national borders,
to the present point on the path to the original world,
Thine eternal ideal. (76:86-87, February 1, 1975)
 
 
 

Set Things Right Between Your Two Brothers

Movie Review-Gosnell: The Trial of America’s Biggest Serial Killer – VisionRoot

John 18

38 “What is truth?” retorted Pilate.

Psalm 14

Richard: No doubt, this is today’s question. With so many lies and obfuscations being promoted, we need to be in touch with our conscience, centered on the Word of God.

Pslam 14

But all of them are corrupt;
    no one does right.

4 Won’t you evil people learn?
    You refuse to pray,
    and you gobble down
    the Lord’s people.
5 But you will be frightened,
    because God is on the side
    of every good person.
6 You may spoil the plans
of the poor,
    but the Lord protects them.

7 I long for someone from Zion
    to come and save Israel!
Our Lord, when you bless
    your people again,
    Jacob’s family will be glad,
    and Israel will celebrate.

The Purpose of Religion

3. Religions Promote Universal Community

There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.
    Galatians 3.28

The believers indeed are brothers; so set things right between your two brothers, and fear God; haply so you will find mercy.
    Qur’an 49.10

Israel’s reconciliation with God can be achieved only when they are all one brotherhood.
    Talmud, Menahot 27a (Judaism)

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
when brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil upon the head,
running down upon the beard,
upon the beard of Aaron,
running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the Lord has commanded the blessing,
life for evermore.
    Psalm 133   

Happy is the unity of the Sangha.
Happy is the discipline of the united ones.
    Dhammapada 194 (Buddhism)

The ultimate purpose of Buddhism, and for that
matter all religions, is to serve and benefit man.
    Tenzin Gyatso, The Fourteenth Dalai Lama (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Throughout history, the basic pillar of every civilization has been the spirit. Religion is that spiritual pillar, enduring from age to age always keeping the spirit as its center. As religion expands its influence, it guides the human conscience, leavens the social environment, and guides humankind towards the world of God’s desire. (9:277, June 12, 1960)
 
God established religion to convey God’s love and truth to humankind and to save humankind. God established various religions, each in its own time and place. For example, He founded Buddhism in India and Confucianism in China approximately 2,400 years ago, and in Judea, He founded Christianity 2,000 years ago.
    It can be said assuredly that the absolute value perspective is established only through religions which revere Ultimate Reality. Conversely, no fundamental solution to today’s confusion is possible through those thoughts and philosophies that are not founded on religion… In history, we have the examples of Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam, each of which, in its own time and place, dispelled anxiety and brought peace to societies in chaos. On the foundation of peace and security, each brought forth a flourishing of culture. (122:300, November 26, 1982)
 
What is the true religion? It is the religion that brings the truth by which all people can enter into a genuine parent-child relationship with God. It unites all humankind in brotherly love. Further, it strives to bring about one human family centered on the love of God. These are the qualities of a true religion. People who are searching for the highest religion, the religion established by God, should seek a religion with these qualities. (91:225, February 20, 1977)
 
In the next world, people are divided by nationality; except religious people, who can dwell together with fellow-believers from every nation. In the religious sphere people believe in one God and long for one world; hence they can live together transcending nationality. (297:271, December 19, 1998)
 
Although their skin colors are different and their living circumstances are different, in relating to Thy Will they are brothers and sisters in a destined relationship of one blood. (10:150, September 25, 1960)
 
The ultimate purpose of all religions is to realize the ideal world of peace, which is God’s desire. Religions should be concerned about the Will of God for the salvation of the world before thinking of the salvation of their own denomination or the salvation of individuals. (135:221, November 16, 1985)
 
 
 

God Created Human Beings to Live Forever

Urban Life Training Newsletter-March 18, 2021

Mark 2

22 No one pours new wine into old wineskins. The wine would swell and burst the old skins.[f] Then the wine would be lost, and the skins would be ruined. New wine must be put into new wineskins.

Psalm 78

56 But the people tested
    God Most High,
    and they refused
    to obey his laws.
57 They were as unfaithful
    as their ancestors,
    and they were as crooked
    as a twisted arrow.
58 God demanded all their love,
    but they made him angry
    by worshiping idols.

59 So God became furious
    and completely rejected
    the people of Israel.
60 Then he deserted his home
at Shiloh,
    where he lived
    here on earth.
61 He let enemies capture
the sacred chest[f]
    and let them dishonor him.

62 God took out his anger
    on his chosen ones
    and let them be killed
    by enemy swords.
63 Fire destroyed the young men,
    and the young women were left
    with no one to marry.
64 Priests died violent deaths,
    but their widows
    were not allowed to mourn.

65 Finally the Lord woke up,
    and he shouted
    like a drunken soldier.
66 God scattered his enemies
    and made them ashamed
    forever.

67 Then the Lord decided
    not to make his home
    with Joseph’s descendants
    in Ephraim.[g]
68 Instead he chose the tribe
    of Judah,
    and he chose Mount Zion,
    the place he loves.
69 There he built his temple
    as lofty as the mountains
and as solid as the earth
    that he had made
    to last forever.

70 The Lord God chose David
to be his servant
and took him
    from tending sheep
71     and from caring for lambs.
Then God made him the leader
    of Israel, his own nation.
72 David treated the people fairly
    and guided them with wisdom.

Eternal Life

1. Eternal Life in God

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

    When a follower asked Jesus if he could go home to bury his deceased father, Jesus said, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead.” (Luke 9.60) From these words of Jesus, it is clear that the Bible contains two different concepts of life and death. The first concept of life and death concerns physical life. Here, “death” means the end of physical life, as was the case of the disciple’s deceased father who was to be buried. “Life” in that sense means the state in which the physical self maintains its physiological functions.
    The second concept of life and death concerns those living people who had gathered to bury the deceased man, those whom Jesus called “the dead.” Why did Jesus refer to people whose bodies were alive and active as the dead? He meant that since they had not accepted Jesus, they were far removed from the love of God and were dwelling in the realm of Satan’s dominion. This second concept of death does not refer to the expiration of physical life. It means leaving the bosom of God’s love and falling under the dominion of Satan. The corresponding concept of life refers to the state of living in accordance with God’s Will, within the dominion of God’s infinite love. Therefore, even if a person’s physical self is alive, if he dwells apart from God’s dominion and is in servitude to Satan, he is dead as judged by the original standard of value. A similar conclusion can be drawn from the Lord’s words of judgment upon the faithless people of the church in Sardis: “You have the name of being alive, and you are dead.” (Rev. 3.1)
    On the other hand, even though a person’s physical life may have expired, he remains alive in the true sense if his spirit abides in the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven, a realm in the spirit world where God governs through love. When Jesus said, “He who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11.25), he meant that those who believe in him and live within the realm of God’s dominion have life. Even after their physical bodies have returned to the soil, their spirits enjoy life in God’s dominion. Jesus also said, “Whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.” (John 11.26) In saying that believers will never die, he meant that those who believe in Jesus during their earthly life will obtain eternal life not in this world, but in spirit, within the bosom of God’s love. They will be alive, both in this life and the next. Jesus’ words assure us that death, in the sense of the end of physical life, has no effect on our eternal life. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.1)
 
    Eternal life does not mean that we merely exist forever in the spirit world. It means we eternally “live.” How do we cultivate such a life?
    As human beings, each of us was created to be an object of God’s love—God’s beloved partner. God cherishes true love more than Himself. Hence, although God is the center of absolute and eternal life, His ideal of true love is even more absolute and eternal. It is the very core of God. We are the object partners of that true love.
    How do we come to be in such a precious, eternal position? Love is the attribute that brings subject and object into oneness. Love unites a family. It unites the nation. In the unity of love, we can participate in anything our beloved does, follow him wherever he goes, and inherit everything he or she possesses. In the same way, we can inherit God’s eternal life. We can inherit God’s heart—his heart of love by which He longs to dwell within each of us and also in the creation. How precious it is to find such great value within ourselves!…
    What joy! What amazing grace! What an unparalleled blessing! Now we can dwell in the same position as God. Now we can participate in God’s eternal love. (216:115, March 9, 1991)
 
    [Originally,] human beings are born from true love, grow in true love, live in true love and die in true love. We are not meant to just disappear into a void. Since God, the Subject of all created beings, is eternal, unchanging and unique, we who are His partners of love should live eternally. This is the starting-point of the logic of eternal life. Life does not begin from life. Life originates from true love, not the other way around.
    If God creates something He regards as most precious, would He discard it ten years or one hundred years later, or would He want to keep it for eternity? Obviously, He would create it to last forever. Thus it is with human beings. Would God create human beings to be born and die, and their death is the end? No, He created human beings to live forever. Why? They are the object partners of the absolute God, with whom He can share joy in absolute true love…
    Suppose you were fleeing to a refugee camp; if you had a precious possession, would you take it with you or leave it behind? You would want to take it with you. Once in the camp, you would treasure it. You would not enjoy it for a few days and then throw it away. You would keep it until you die, and then bequeath it to your descendants for eternity. That is human desire.
 
    It is the same with God, the Absolute Being. God is eternal, and He desires that His object partners, whom He loves, should live eternally. That is why human beings want to live forever. For this reason also, the absolute God never ceases to seek for His children. Each human being has the value of eternity. (290:143-44, February 18, 1998)
 
    If God only liked humans for one or two days, or even for one hundred years, and then discarded them, it would not be true love. The more you love, the more you want to be with your beloved one. For this reason you sometimes find a man whose wife died young who never remarries, preferring to live alone until his death while treasuring some article of his wife’s clothing…
    That is why God created human beings, His precious children, to live forever. However, for love to last forever, people should stand on the foundation of actions that can generate greater output force. In other words, as time goes by love’s power gets stronger, generating more give and take action instead of consuming energy. Hence, the lovers’ joy never ends, but only grows and develops more and more, to infinity. Such is the ideal world, the Kingdom of Heaven in which God dwells. (39:42)
 
 

Who Is In the First Resurrection?

Mark 12

36 The Holy Spirit led David to say,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    Sit at my right side
until I make your enemies
    into a footstool for you.’

Ezekiel 27

7 I told them to get rid of their disgusting idols and not to sin by worshiping the gods of Egypt. I reminded them that I was the Lord their God, 8 but they still rebelled against me. They refused to listen and kept on worshiping their idols and foreign gods.

Richard: Return to God. Forswear the pursuit of money, power and illicit sex.

Resurrection

2. The Resurrection of the Saints—The First Resurrection

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.
    1 Thessalonians 4.16-17
 
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
    1 Corinthians 15.22-26
 
Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless…
    Revelation 14.1-5
 
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.
    Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection!
    Revelation 20.1-6
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
The “first resurrection” spoken of in the Bible describes the fulfillment of restoration for the first time in providential history. This will be accomplished through Christ at the Second Advent. He will cleanse people of the original sin and restore them to their true, original selves, enabling each to fulfill the purpose of creation. 
    The hope of all Christians is to participate in the first resurrection. But who in fact shall participate? It will be those who are the first to believe in, serve and follow Christ at the Second Advent. They will assist him in fulfilling all the indemnity conditions worldwide and in accomplishing the providence of restoration. In the process, they will be the first to have their original sin removed, become divine spirits, and fulfill the purpose of creation…
    In order for Christ at the Second Advent to complete the providence of restoration, he must find a certain number of people who can restore through indemnity the missions of all the past saints who, despite their best efforts to do God’s Will, fell prey to Satan when they failed in their responsibilities. He must find these people during his lifetime and lay the foundation of victory over Satan’s world. The total number of saints whom Christ at the Second Advent must find to accomplish this task is 144,000. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.2.7)
 
    What is the secret that will enable us to chase out Satan from everywhere? It is to live for the sake of others, die for the sake of others, and practice altruistic love. When we do that, Satan will certainly flee, breaking down all the barriers and national borders that he had erected.
    What will happen next? Once Satan is gone, souls who had been headed for hell will be given the opportunity to resurrect and enter heaven. Eternal life will finally become a reality.
    As people who know God and the Kingdom of Heaven, we will call on God, the Source of love, as our Father. We will earnestly desire to practice God’s tradition of living for others, and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years. This is the tradition of eternal life, established in people of the eternal lineage. It is for us to share. (August 18, 2000)
 
 

I Will Place You In Your Own Land

John 6

52 They started arguing with each other and asked, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?”

Richard: People of faith often argue with each other and cause divisions. Rather, we should focus on the core content of what God is asking us, as believers, to do. That involves loving God and loving your neighbor, and following God’s commandments regarding sexual purity before and within Blessed marriage.

Amos 7

7 The Lord God showed me that he is going to send locusts to attack your crops. It will happen after the king has already been given his share of the grain and before the rest of the grain has been harvested. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every crop in the land, and I said to the Lord, “Forgive me for asking, but how can the nation survive? It’s so weak.”

3 Then the Lord felt sorry and answered, “I won’t let it be destroyed.”

Resurrection

The resurrection of the dead prophesied in the Bible and the Qur’an holds out the promise of a blessed future life with God. Resurrection is not simply a matter of the soul’s natural transition at death from this world into the afterlife. It is God’s saving act to raise the soul from the realm of death to life eternal. In resurrection, we gain not simply a new opportunity to live; we gain a new quality of life. Father Moon teaches that we are raised spiritually from a hellish existence within the realm of death to a blessed existence in the bosom of God. Resurrection requires some condition on our part to claim the new life that God offers: dying to self, confirmed faith, even martyrdom. This is the “death” to self that severs our ties with Satan, in order that we may more completely relate with God. Just as Jesus died on the cross as a precondition to his resurrection, so we too may face a trial. Jesus’ triumph over seeming defeat at the hands of the romans demonstrates that God can turn defeat and even death into victory and life. scripture speaks of a Day of resurrection in the end times, when all the souls of the righteous will be raised up to heaven. The bible speaks of the 144,000 saints of the “first resurrection.” this means that even in the afterlife, spirits are languishing in darkness, oppressed by evil conditions until the future day of their liberation. When the Messiah comes and defeats and binds Satan in prison, on that day all souls in heaven and earth will taste the freedom of resurrection and new life. But as Father Moon makes clear, the purpose of the first Resurrection is not to reward certain believers with eternal glory at everyone else’s expense. rather, the saints at the first resurrection will join in the struggle to defeat all the powers of evil, until, in the words of Paul, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death,” that is, until not one soul remains in the realm of death.

1. The Dead Return to Life

And listen on the day when the crier cries from a near place, the day when they will hear the Cry in truth. That is the Day of the Coming Forth (from the graves). Verily We give life and give death, and to Us is the journeying. On the day when the earth splits asunder from them, and hastening forth they come. That is a gathering easy for Us.
    Qur’an 50.41-44

The hand of the lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones… and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord god, thou knowest.”
    Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the lord. Thus says the Lord god to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
   So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh came upon them, and skin covered them… and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.
    Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord god, Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you home into the land of Israel… And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the lord, have spoken, and I have done it, says the lord.”
    Ezekiel 37.1-14

“I will place you in your own land. Then you shall
know that I, the Lord , have spoken, and I have
done it, says the Lord .” 
    Ezekiel 37.1-14

“Shall we really be restored to our first state
even after we are crumbled bones?
That would be a vain proceeding,” they say.
Surely it will need but one shout,
and lo! they will be awakened.
    Qur’an 79.10-14

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
    1 Corinthians 15.22

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
    John 11.25

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then from my flesh I shall see God.
    Job 9.25-26

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
    John 12.24-25

And among His signs is this: you see the earth barren and desolate, but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He who gives life to the dead earth can surely give life to men who are dead. For He has power over all things.
    Qur’an 41.39

So it is with the resurrection from the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in a physical body, it is raised in a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
    1 Corinthians 15.42-45