Category: 1 Samuel

The Last Will Be First, and the First Last

1 Samuel 24

12 I’ll let the Lord decide which one of us has done right. I pray that the Lord will punish you for what you’re doing to me, but I won’t do anything to you. 13 An old proverb says, “Only evil people do evil things,” and so I won’t harm you.

Richard: Let God settle battles and grudges. If someone wrongs us, we should forgive and pray that God’s Will be done regarding that person. To be clear, this does not mean that we accept abusive relationships. Rather, this applies to our reaction to them.

Proverbs 28

12 When an honest person wins,
    it’s time to celebrate;
    when crooks are in control,
    it’s best to hide.
13 If you don’t confess your sins,
    you will be a failure.
But God will be merciful
    if you confess your sins
    and give them up.

Reversal and Restoration

Salvation is sometimes pictured as a great reversal. it looks to the day when God will act to turn the existing social and political order upside down, when the wealthy and powerful will no longer tower above the honest and god-fearing. internally, it brings the insight that the way to God is the reverse of the way of the world. an enlightened person recognizes that he should reverse his or her orientation one-hundred-and-eighty degrees. scripture speaks of this inner reversal as dying to self in order to live, seeking darkness in order to find the light, and abasing the self in order to become prominent.
This leads to the concept of salvation as restoration. restoration refers to the undoing of bad habits, modes of thinking, ways of behaving, and social relations that have grown corrupt and deviated from the proper way. it is a return to the origin, aimed at restoring the original way of life according to the true principles and purposes of God. an important expression of this theme of reversion to the origin is the Buddhist doctrine of Dependent origination (Paticcasamuppada), which is not just a law of causality but more properly the insight that all causes leading to downfall must be reversed.
Father Moon discusses this topic at length under the teaching of restoration through indemnity. indemnity, broadly speaking, means to restore mistakes by taking the opposite course. it begins with a reversal of character—from self-centeredness to other-centeredness. it extends to relationships—paying restitution for a crime to making amends for a breach of trust, from the standpoint that it is my responsibility to restore harmony with my brother, even when the original problem was not my fault. it concludes with complete restoration, the reversal of the original sin that happened at the human Fall.


  1. The Great Reversal

The last will be first, and the first last.
    Matthew 20.16

Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
    Matthew 23.12

Him who humbles himself, God exalts; him who exalts himself, God humbles; from him who searches for greatness, greatness flies; him who flies from greatness, greatness searches out: with him who is importunate with circumstances, circumstance is importunate; by him who gives way to circumstance, circumstance stands.
Talmud, Erubin 13b (Judaism)

The way of Heaven,
Is it not like stretching a bow?
What is high up is pressed down,
What is low down is lifted up;
What has surplus is reduced,
What is deficient is supplemented.

The way of Heaven,
It reduces those who have surpluses,
To supplement those who are deficient.
The way of man is just not so:
It reduces those who are deficient,
To offer to those who have surpluses.
Who can offer his surpluses to the world?
Only a person of Tao.
    Tao Te Ching 77 (Taoism)

The bows of the mighty are broken,
but the feeble gird on strength.
Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread,
but those who were hungry have ceased to hunger.
The barren has borne seven,
but she who has many children is forlorn.
The Lord kills and brings to life;
he brings down to Sheol and raises up.
The Lord makes poor and makes rich;
he brings low, he also exalts.
He raises up the poor from the dust;
he lifts the needy from the ash heap,
to make them sit with princes
and inherit a seat of honor.
For the pillars of the earth are the Lord ’s,
and on them he has set the world.
He will guard the feet of his faithful ones;
but the wicked shall be cut off in darkness;
for not by might shall a man prevail.
    1 Samuel 2.4-9

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The path of the providence of salvation is the path of restoration. The path of restoration is the path of recreation…
    When God created the world, He had only one concept—the concept of the zero-point. Hence, we have to return to the zero-point when walking the path of restoration and recreating God’s world. We should return to the state prior to God’s creation; otherwise, nothing is possible. That is why the Bible teaches, “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.” To lose your life means to cut off Satan’s life [by returning to the zero-point]. Otherwise, we have no way to connect with God at the origin. 
 
    Historically, evil people have lived better than good people. Originally, good people should prosper while evil people should decline. These positions should be switched. The zero-point is the time of transition when good people go up while evil people decline. Now is the time when this transition is taking place. (218:187-88, July 28, 1991)
 
In America, quite a few people live perverted lives. Grandfathers have sex with their granddaughters and fathers with their daughters—even while they live with their wives. This is the fruit of Satan, who in the beginning reversed the direction of human life 180 degrees from the plan of God. In a world that abides by Heaven’s principles, could homosexuality exist? Lesbianism, alcoholism, drug addiction and such came to exist because human beings suffer from emotional misalignment. They suffer in this world, which is hell on earth. We, on the other hand, are living 180 degrees different from them, as we strive to live in God’s Kingdom. (243:192, January 10, 1993
 
 

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


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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)
 
 

God Does Not Decide Whether a Person’s Spirit Enters Heaven or Hell

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1 Samuel 25

24 Then she said:

Sir, please let me explain! 25 Don’t pay any attention to that good-for-nothing Nabal. His name means “fool,” and it really fits him!

I didn’t see the men you sent, 26-27 but please take this gift of food that I’ve brought and share it with your followers. The Lord has kept you from taking revenge and from killing innocent people. But I hope your enemies and anyone else who wants to harm you will end up like Nabal. I swear this by the living Lord and by your life.

28 Please forgive me if I say a little more. The Lord will always protect you and your family, because you fight for him. I pray that you won’t ever do anything evil as long as you live. 29 The Lord your God will keep you safe when your enemies try to kill you. But he will snatch away their lives quicker than you can throw a rock from a sling.

Ecclesiastes 8

16 Day and night I went without sleep, trying to understand what goes on in this world. 17 I saw everything God does, and I realized that no one can really understand what happens. We may be very wise, but no matter how much we try or how much we claim to know, we cannot understand it all.

Richard: Amen to that! Sometimes we cannot understand exactly how God is working, although we try our best.

Judgement

4. You Are Your Own Judge

The self is the maker and non-maker, and itself
makes happiness and misery, is its own friend
and its own foe, decides its own condition good
or evil, and is its own river Veyarana [the river
in which hell-beings are tormented].
     Madaghishloka (Jainism)

The sacrificers and the sorcerer princes
Have subdued mankind to the yoke of their
     dominion,
To destroy existence through evil deeds:
They shall be tortured by their own soul and
    their own conscience,
When they come to the Bridge of the
    Separator,
Forever to be inmates of the House of Evil.
     Avesta, Yasna 46.11 (Zoroastrianism)

The Good Spirit, who was born simultaneously
with you, will come now and count out your
good deeds with white pebbles, and the Evil
Spirit, who was born simultaneously with you,
will come and count out your evil deeds with
black pebbles. Thereupon you will be greatly
frightened, awed, and terrified, and will tremble;
and you will attempt to tell lies, saying, “I have
not committed any evil deed.”
     Then the Lord of Death will say, “I will
consult the Mirror of karma.” He will look in
the Mirror, wherein every good and evil act is
vividly reflected. Lying will be of no avail.
     Then one of the executive furies of the Lord
of Death will place a rope around your neck and
drag you along; he will cut off your head, extract
your heart, pull out your intestines, lick up your
brain, drink your blood, eat your flesh, and gnaw
your bones; but you will be incapable of dying.
Although your body be hacked to pieces, it will
revive again. The repeated hacking [symbolizing
the pangs of the deceased’s conscience] will
cause intense pain and torture.
     Even at the time that the pebbles are being
counted out, be not frightened; tell no lies; and
fear not the Lord of Death.
     Your body being a mental body is incapable
of dying even though beheaded and quartered.
In reality, your body is of the nature of voidness;
you need not be afraid. The Lords of Death
are your own hallucinations. Your desire-body
is a body of propensities, and void. Voidness
cannot injure voidness; the qualityless cannot
injure the qualityless. Apart from one’s own
hallucinations, in reality there are no such
things existing outside oneself as Lord of Death,
or god, or demon. Act so as to recognize this.
     Tibetan Book of the Dead (Buddhism)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God does not decide whether a person’s spirit enters heaven or hell upon his death; the spirit himself decides it. Humans are created so that once they reach perfection they will fully breathe the love of God. Those who committed sinful deeds while on earth become crippled spirits who are incapable of fully breathing in the love of God. They find it agonizing to stand before God, the center of true love. Of their own will, they choose to dwell in hell, far removed from the love of God. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Creation 6.3.2)
 
Running through each of you is the boundary line dividing heaven and hell. One step to the right and you go to heaven, one step to the left is hell. Heaven is not so far away, and neither is hell. You are the deciding factor.
     In spirit world there is no policeman directing traffic. We each find our own place. Since you go there of your own free will, you cannot complain. In hell, you cannot protest, “God, why did you send me here?” because you decided your own dwelling place. Even at this moment, each of you knows whether you should go to heaven or hell. (201:225-26, April 22, 1990)
 
How is it decided whether my journey will end at heaven or hell? I decide it. If I feel guilt-stricken in my conscience for having lived only to enjoy the pleasures of the senses, I will be in hell. However, if I lived according to my conscience, preferring a life of integrity of heart, I will dwell in the heavenly spheres. For this reason, people should abandon the aspiration for material things and deny their evil desires. The correct way is to live by one’s conscience and strive to uphold the ethics of heaven. (7:238, September 20, 1959)
 
People bound for heaven do not need to be taught the way. Having lived according to their con-science, they will arrive there automatically. When the sun rises, don’t all the buds of the trees turn to face the sun? Even plants know instinctively what direction to take. Then, as the lord of all cre-ation, how could you not know where to go? You will experience this after you enter the spirit world. (75:42, January 1, 1975) 
 
 
 

For I Am God, and There Is No Other

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1 Samuel 14

27 Jonathan did not know about Saul’s warning to the soldiers. So he dipped the end of his walking stick in the honey and ate some with his fingers. He felt stronger and more alert. 28 Then a soldier told him, “Your father swore that anyone who ate food today would be put under a curse, and we agreed not to eat. That’s why we’re so weak.”

29 Jonathan said, “My father has caused you a lot of trouble. Look at me! I had only a little of this honey, but already I feel strong and alert. 30 I wish you had eaten some of the food the Philistines left behind. We would have been able to kill a lot more of them.”

Proverbs 5

The Lord sees everything,
    and he watches us closely.
22 Sinners are trapped and caught
    by their own evil deeds.
23 They get lost and die
because of their foolishness
    and lack of self-control.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Part 1
God and Creation

Chapter 1
God
The Original Cause

2. The Cause behind History

For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning and from ancient times things not yet done, saying, “My counsel shall stand, and I will accomplish all my purpose,” calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it. Isaiah 46.9-11

On the day when We shall roll up heaven as a scroll is rolled for the writings; as We originated the first creation, so We shall bring it back again—a promise binding on Us; so We shall do. For We have written in the Psalms, after the Remembrance, “The earth shall be the inheritance of My righteous servants.” Qur’an 21.104

I testify that Thou art the Lord of all creation, and the Educator of all beings, visible and invisible. I bear witness that Thy power hath encompassed the entire universe, and that the hosts of the earth can never dismay Thee, nor can the dominion of all peoples and nations deter Thee from executing Thy purpose. I confess that Thou hast no desire except the regeneration of the whole world, and the establishment of the unity of its peoples, and the salvation of all they that dwell therein. Gleanings from the Writings of Bahá’u’lláh 115 (Baha’i Faith)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

God is the First Cause and Creator of the universe—this is the starting-point of religion. Moreover, God is good, and He is eternal and unchanging, unique and absolute. As such a God created this world, He must have first formed a purpose for the creation. This purpose of creation would also have to be eternal, unchanging, unique, and absolute. (100:241, October 19, 1978)

A human being manifests the result. No one insists that human beings are the First Cause. Even if we do not know our cause, we know that we are the result of some existence, because we were born. In order to know what a human being is, we should know the Being who made human beings as resultant beings. Therefore, we should have a clear answer to the question of God, the First Cause. Only by knowing God, the Causal Being, is it possible to set our direction in life. Only with God can we find the teaching for how we should live, how our family should live, how society, the nation and the world should function. It concerns not only my individual direction, but also the way the world is going in these Last Days. (100:234, February 26, 1986)

Of everything that happens in the flow of history, nothing occurs without a relationship to Thy providence. (140:62, February 1, 1986)

Although the direction of history appears to be heading toward evil, that is not true. History progresses as human beings, through the operation of the mind, restrain their bodies and determine with resolve the direction they will go. Thus does God work in the background to govern and direct history’s development over certain times and periods. (4:191, April 20, 1958)

In the past, the present and the future, the eternal God directs His providence. Therefore, the sagas recorded in God’s heart pattern the history of every age, and the sagas that shaped those ages foreshadow the future. (16:253, June 19, 1966)

To Remove the Fallen Nature, We Must Reverse the Course of the Fall

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1 Samuel 2

22 Eli was now very old, and he heard what his sons were doing to the people of Israel.[f] 23-24 “Why are you doing these awful things?” he asked them. “I’ve been hearing nothing but complaints about you from all of the Lord’s people. 25 If you harm another person, God can help make things right between the two of you. But if you commit a crime against the Lord, no one can help you!”

But the Lord had already decided to kill them. So he kept them from listening to their father.

Job 21

14 Those who are evil say
    to God All-Powerful,
“Leave us alone! Don’t bother us
    with your teachings.
15 What do we gain from praying
    and worshiping you?
16 We succeeded all on our own.”
And so, I keep away from them
    and their evil schemes.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

Part 2 Chapter 1

The Providence to Lay the Foundation for Restoration

THE PROVIDENCE OF RESTORATION IN ADAM’S FAMILY

 For the providence of restoration to be accomplished in Adam’s family, the members of his family had to make certain conditions of indemnity to restore the foundation of faith and the foundation of substance. On these two foundations, the foundation for the Messiah was to have been established, and the Messiah could have come to Adam’s family.

1.1 THE FOUNDATION OF FAITH

 To restore through indemnity the foundation of faith, fallen people must set up an object for the condition. For Adam’s family, this object was a sacrificial offering. To restore the foundation of faith, there must also be a central figure. Yet nowhere in the biblical record do we find Adam offering a sacrifice. Instead, his sons Cain and Abel offered them. What was the reason for this? In line with the Principle God gave Adam two sons, representing good and evil, and set them in positions where each dealt with only one master, God or Satan. After setting up this arrangement, God had the two sons offer sacrifices separately.

 Since Cain was the first fruit of Eve’s love, signifying Eve’s first fallen act of love with the Archangel, he was chosen to represent evil. Therefore, he was in a position to relate with Satan. Since Abel was the second fruit of Eve’s love, signifying Eve’s second fallen act of love with Adam, he was chosen to represent goodness. Therefore, he was in a position to relate with God. God received Abel’s sacrifice because he stood in a proper relationship with God. Also, he made the offering in an acceptable manner—through faith and in line with God’s will. In this way, Abel successfully laid the foundation of faith in Adam’s family.

1.2 THE FOUNDATION OF SUBSTANCE

 Had Cain fulfilled the indemnity condition to remove the fallen nature, God would have gladly accepted his sacrifice. The foundation of substance would then have been laid in Adam’s family. To remove the fallen nature, a person must make an indemnity condition in accordance with the Principle of Restoration through Indemnity, by taking a course which reverses the process through which human beings initially acquired the fallen nature. The Archangel fell because he did not love Adam; rather, he envied Adam, who was receiving more love from God than he. This was the cause of the first primary characteristic of the fallen nature: failing to take God’s standpoint. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have taken God’s standpoint by loving Abel, who stood in Adam’s position.

 The Archangel fell because he did not respect Adam as God’s mediator and did not receive God’s love through him; rather, he attempted to seize Adam’s position. This was the cause of the second primary characteristic of the fallen nature: leaving one’s proper position. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have received God’s love through Abel, who stood in Adam’s position, respecting him as God’s mediator. In this way, Cain should have maintained his proper position.

 The Archangel fell when he claimed dominion over Eve and Adam, who were his rightful lords. This was the cause of the third primary characteristic of the fallen nature: reversing dominion. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have obediently submitted to Abel, who stood in Adam’s position. By accepting Abel’s dominion, Cain should have rectified the order of dominion. The Archangel conveyed to Eve his evil will that it was permissible to eat of the fruit. Eve in turn conveyed this evil will to Adam and led him to fall. This was the cause of the fourth primary characteristic of the fallen nature: multiplying evil. To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel’s position, should have been receptive to the intentions of Abel, who stood closer to God, and learned God’s Will from him. Thus, Cain should have made a foundation to multiply goodness. Instead, Cain killed Abel. In murdering Abel, Cain repeated the sin of the Archangel. That is, he re-enacted the very process which had given rise to the primary characteristics of the fallen nature. Adam’s family thus failed to lay the foundation of substance. Consequently, God’s providence of restoration through Adam’s family could not be fulfilled.

View slides 1 to 26 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p2-CHAPT-1-Adams-Family_revised-4-28-2014