Category: Old Testament

Lay Up for Yourself Treasures in Heaven

WV Elections 2020-Candidate Interviews

10 Things You Can Do to Have a Healthy Marriage
Listed at The Marriage Library http://www.themarriagelibrary.com/

Matthew 15

16 And he said, “Are you also still without understanding? 17 Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth passes into the stomach, and so passes on?18 But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this defiles a man. 19 For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. 20 These are what defile a man; but to eat with unwashed hands does not defile a man.”

Psalm 7

8 Our Lord, judge the nations!
Judge me
    and show that I
    am honest and innocent.
9 You know every heart and mind,
    and you always do right.
Now make violent people stop,
    but protect all of us
    who obey you.

Preparation for Eternity

2. Store Up Treasures in Heaven

Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth,
where moth and rust consume and where
thieves break in and steal, but lay up for your-
selves treasure in heaven, where neither moth
nor rust consumes and where thieves do not
break in and steal. For where your treasure is,
there will your heart be also.
Matthew 6.19-21

Men who have not led a religious life and have
not laid up treasure in their youth perish like old
herons in a lake without fish.
Men who have not lived a religious life and have
not laid up treasure in their youth lie like worn-
out bows, sighing after the past.
Dhammapada 155-56 (Buddhism)

O shrewd businessman, do only profitable
business:
Deal only in that commodity which shall
accompany you after death.
Adi Granth, Sri Raga, M.1, p. 22 (Sikhism)

Beautified for mankind is love of the joys [that
come] from women and offspring, and stored-
up heaps of gold and silver, and horses branded,
and cattle and land. That is comfort of the life
of the world. God! With Him is a more excel-
lent abode. Say, Shall I inform you of something
better than that? For those who keep from evil,
with their Lord are Gardens underneath which
rivers flow, and pure companions, and content-
ment from God.
Qur’an 3.14-15

Relatives and friends and well-wishers rejoice at
the arrival of a man who had been long absent
and has returned home safely from afar.

Likewise, meritorious deeds will receive the
good person upon his arrival in the next world,
as relatives welcome a dear one on his return.
Dhammapada 219-20 (Buddhism)

Leaving the dead body on the ground like a log
of wood or a clod of earth, the relatives depart
with averted faces; but spiritual merit follows
the soul.
Let him therefore always slowly accumulate
spiritual merit, in order that it may be his
companion after death; for without merit as his
companion he will traverse a gloom difficult to
traverse.
That companion speedily conducts the man
who is devoted to duty and effaces his sins
by austerities, to the next world, radiant and
clothed with an ethereal body.
Laws of Manu 4.241-243 (Hinduism)

And [Jesus] told them a parable, saying, “The
land of a rich man brought forth plentifully; and
he thought to himself, ‘What shall I do, for I
have nowhere to store my crops?’ And he said,
‘I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and
build larger ones; and there I will store all my
grain and my goods. And I will say to my soul,
Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many
years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.’ But
God will say to him, ‘Fool! This night your soul
is required of you; and the things you have pre-
pared, whose will they be?’ So is he who lays
up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward
God.”
Luke 12.16-21

I see men of wealth in the world—
acquiring property, from delusion they give not
away;
out of greed a hoard of wealth they make,
and hanker sorely after more sense pleasures…

Heirs carry off his wealth;
but the being goes on according to kamma.
Wealth does not follow him who is dying,
nor child or wife, nor wealth or kingdom.

Long life is not gained by wealth,
nor is old age banished by property.
“For brief is this life,” the wise say,
non-eternal, subject to change.

Rich and poor feel the touch [of death],
fool and wise are touched alike.
But the fool, as though struck down by folly,
prostrate lies,
While the wise, touched by the touch, trembles
not.
Wherefore better than wealth is wisdom
by which one here secures the
Accomplishment.
Majjhima Nikaya 2.72-73 (Buddhism)

Gautama, Be Careful All the While!

John 4

32 But he said to them, “I have food to eat of which you do not know.” 33 So the disciples said to one another, “Has any one brought him food?” 34 Jesus said to them, “My food is to do the will of him who sent me, and to accomplish his work. 35 Do you not say, ‘There are yet four months, then comes the harvest’? I tell you, lift up your eyes, and see how the fields are already white for harvest. 36 He who reaps receives wages, and gathers fruit for eternal life, so that sower and reaper may rejoice together. 37 For here the saying holds true, ‘One sows and another reaps.’ 38 I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor; others have labored, and you have entered into their labor.”

Leviticus 25

46 You may bequeath them to your sons after you, to inherit as a possession for ever; you may make slaves of them, but over your brethren the people of Israel you shall not rule, one over another, with harshness.

Preparation for Eternity

Religions do not expound on the reality of a future life merely as a comfort to the bereaved or as an opiate to the oppressed in this life. rather, the fact of a future life enhances the purpose and sharpens the meaning of earthly existence. how a person lives on earth mainly determines his or her ultimate destiny. a wise person lives in this world with an eye toward eternity.
Indeed, it is generally taught that life in this world is the only chance we have to prepare for life in the next world. the link between deed and retribution is not severed by death; rather we reap in the eternal world the fruits of our actions in this life. Just as importantly, a person’s qualities of character survive death: as a person in this life was hard-working or lazy, generous or miserly, courageous or timid, forgiving or begrudging, so will he or she continue to be in the afterlife.
Therefore, the wise person lives with an eye to eternity by following religious precepts, repenting for mis-deeds, and seeking to clear up all accounts before the day of his death. For one who is prepared, death is not to be feared. but for those who are heedless and do not prepare, death comes suddenly, fearfully and leaving them with regret. as Father Moon teaches, souls in the spirit world breathe the air of love; therefore, unless they have cultivated on earth the capacity for love, they will find the spirit world suffocating. hence, the measure of our future happiness in the eternal world is the ability to love that we cultivate during earthly life.

  1. Live this Short Earthly Life in the Light of Eternity

This world is like a vestibule before the World to
Come; prepare yourself in the vestibule that you
may enter the hall.
Mishnah, Avot 4.21 (Judaism)

The Marrying Maiden:
The superior man understands the transitory
In the light of the eternity of the end. 10
I Ching 54 (Confucianism)

Better is one hour of repentance and good
works in this world than all the life in the world
to come, and better is one hour of calmness of
spirit in the world to come than all the life of
this world.
Mishnah, Avot 4.22 (Judaism)

A rare chance, in the long course of time, is
human birth for a living being; hard are the
consequences of actions; Gautama, be careful
all the while!
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.4 (Jainism)

And we see that death comes upon mankind…
nevertheless there was a space granted unto
man in which he might repent; therefore this life
became a probationary state; a time to prepare
to meet God; a time to prepare for that endless
state which has been spoken of by us, which is
after the resurrection of the dead.
Book of Mormon, Alma 12.24 (Latter-day Saints)

If any do wish for the transitory things of life,
We readily grant them such things as We will, to
such persons as We will. But in the end We have
provided hell for them; they will burn therein,
disgraced and rejected. But those who wish for
the things of the hereafter, and strive for them
with all due striving, and have faith—they are
the ones whose striving is acceptable to God.
Qur’an 17.18-19

We are on a market trip to earth:
Whether we fill our baskets or not,
Once the time is up, we go home.
Igbo Song (African Traditional Religions)
As the fallow leaf of the tree falls to the ground,
when its days are gone, even so is the life of men;
Gautama, be careful all the while!

As the dewdrop dangling on the top of a blade
of grass lasts but a short time, even so the life of
men; Gautama, be careful all the while!

A life so fleet, and existence so precarious, wipe
off the sins you ever committed; Gautama, be
careful all the while!
Uttaradhyayana Sutra 10.1-3 (Jainism)

In the evening do not expect [to live till] morn-
ing, and in the morning do not expect evening.
Prepare as long as you are in good health for
sickness, and so long as you are alive for death.
Forty Hadith of an-Nawawi 40 (Islam)

O people! Fear God, and whatever you do, do
it anticipating death. Try to attain everlasting
blessing in return for transitory and perishable
wealth, power and pleasures of this world.

Be prepared for a fast passage because here you
are destined for a short stay. Always be ready for
death, for you are living under its shadow. Be
wise like people who have heard the message of
God and have taken a warning from it.

Beware that this world is not made for you to live
forever, you will have to change it for hereafter.
God, glory be to Him, has not created you
without a purpose and has not left you without
duties, obligations, and responsibilities…

You must remember to gather from this life
such harvest as will be of use and help to you
hereafter.
Nahjul Balagha, Khutba 67 (Shiite Islam)

Man’s Real Nature is Primarily Spiritual Life

Ezekiel 45

15 Finally, they must bring one sheep out of every two hundred from their flocks.

These offerings will be used as grain sacrifices, as well as sacrifices to please me and those to ask my blessing. I, the Lord, will be pleased with these sacrifices and will forgive the sins of my people.

Job 5

26 You will live a long life,
and your body will be strong
    until the day you die.

The Immortal Soul

2. Death: Transition to a New Life

The hour of departure has arrived, and we go
our ways—I to die, and you to live. Which is
better God only knows.
It is We who give life, and make to die, and to
Us is the homecoming.
Qur’an 50.43

Socrates, in Plato, Apology 42 (Hellenism)
The dust returns to the earth as it was, and the
spirit returns to God who gave it.
Ecclesiastes 12.7

Now my breath and spirit goes to the Immortal,
and this body ends in ashes;
OM. O Mind! Remember. Remember the
deeds.
Remember the actions.
Isha Upanishad 17 (Hinduism)

Man’s real nature is primarily spiritual life,
which weaves its threads of mind to build a
cocoon of flesh,
encloses its own soul in the cocoon,
and, for the first time, the spirit becomes flesh.
Understand this clearly: The cocoon is not the
silkworm;
in the same way, the physical body is not man
but merely man’s cocoon.
Just as the silkworm will break out of its cocoon
and fly free,
so, too, will man break out of his body-cocoon
and ascend to the spirit world when his time
is come.
Never think that the death of the physical
body is the death of man.
Since man is life, he will never know death.
Nectarean Shower of Holy Doctrines (Seicho-no-Ie)

One man believes he is the slayer, another
believes he is the slain. Both are ignorant; there
is neither slayer nor slain. You were never born;
you will never die. You have never changed; you
can never change. Unborn, eternal, immutable,
immemorial, you do not die when the body dies.
Realizing that which is indestructible, eternal,
unborn, and unchanging, how can you slay or
cause another to be slain?

As a man abandons his worn-out clothes and
acquires new ones, so when the body is worn
out a new one is acquired by the Self, who lives
within.
The Self cannot be pierced with weapons or
burned with fire; water cannot wet it, nor can
the wind dry it. The Self cannot be pierced or
burned, made wet or dry. It is everlasting and
infinite, standing on the motionless foundation
of eternity. The Self is unmanifest, beyond all
thought, beyond all change. Knowing this, you
should not grieve. 7
Bhagavad-Gita 2.19-25 (Hinduism)

You prefer this life, although the life to come
is better and more enduring. All this is written
in earlier scriptures; the scriptures of Abraham
and Moses.
Qur’an 87.16-19

I inquired of Africanus whether he himself, my
father Paulus, and others whom we look upon as
dead, were really living. “Yes, truly,” replied he,
“they all enjoy life who have escaped from the
chains of the body as from a prison. But as to
what you call life on earth, that is no more than
a form of death. But see, here comes your father
Paulus towards you!”
Cicero, On the Republic 6.14 (Hellenism)

Onyame does not die; I will therefore not die.
Akan Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

Meet the Fathers, meet Yama, and meet with
the
fulfillment of wishes in the highest heaven;
casting off imperfections, find anew thy
dwelling,
and be united with a lustrous body.
Rig Veda 10.14.8 (Hinduism)

Though our outer nature is wasting away, our
inner nature is being renewed every day. For this
slight momentary affliction is preparing us for an
eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison,
because we look not to the things that are seen
but to the things that are unseen; for the things
that are seen are transient, but the things that
are unseen are eternal.
For we know that if the earthly tent we live
in is destroyed, we have a building from God,
a house not made with hands, eternal in the
heavens. Here indeed we groan, and long to put
on our heavenly dwelling, so that by putting it
on we may not be found naked. For while we are
still in this tent, we sigh with anxiety; not that
we would be unclothed, but that we would be
further clothed, so that what is mortal may be
swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us
for this very thing is God, who has given us the
Spirit as a guarantee.
So we are always of good courage; we know
that while we are at home in the body we are
away from the Lord, for we walk by faith, not
by sight. We are of good courage, and we would
rather be away from the body and at home with
the Lord. For we must all appear before the
judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may
receive good or evil, according to what he has
done in the body.
2 Corinthians 4.16-5.10

Spirit or Soul is the Immortal Human Essense

The Richard Urban Show #53
Interview with John King-Independent Candidate for Sheriff-Jefferson County WV

The Richard Urban Show #52
Why Abstinence Matters – Interview with Kuku Miriam Afanga

Ezekiel 6

6 The Lord God said:

2 Ezekiel, son of man, face the hills of Israel and tell them:

3 Listen, you mountains and hills, and every valley and gorge! I, the Lord, am about to turn against you and crush all the places where foreign gods are worshiped. 4 Every altar will be smashed, and in front of the idols I will put to death the people who worship them. 5 Dead bodies and bones will be lying around the idols and the altars. 6 Every town in Israel will be destroyed to make sure that each shrine, idol, and altar is smashed—everything the Israelites made will be a pile of ruins.

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.

The Immortal Soul

Spirit or soul is the immortal human essence. Originating in the eternal God, it returns to God in the end. The body, on the other hand, is made from clay and is but a vestment that clothes the spirit. This is a rather universal conception, widespread in all religions although they differ on the details. The soul may ascend to heaven, descend into hell, merge with the Godhead, sleep until the general resurrection, or transmigrate into
another earthly body: regardless, survival of the spirit is a common thread in all faiths.
These texts include descriptions of a “spiritual body” that clothes the soul in the next life. Others conceive of the spirit as having its own form and structure. Coterminous with the flesh during life, it then separates and ascends to the spirit world after death. Father Moon offers additional insight into how people on earth already live in both worlds, by virtue of the resonance between their spirit and flesh. This speaks to how people with spiritual gifts can perceive the spirit world during earthly life.
The spirit truly finds its wings after death, when it is no longer tied down to the body and can travel freely
at will. Nevertheless, earthly life is important as the training-ground where the qualities of spirit needed for fulfillment in heaven are developed; that is the subject of the next section.

  1. Soul and Body

The body is the sheath of the soul.
Talmud, Sanhedrin 108a (Judaism)

Then the Lord God formed man out of the dust
of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life; and man became a living being.
Genesis 2.7

And He originated the creation of man out of
clay,
then He fashioned his progeny of an extraction
of mean water,
then He shaped him, and breathed His spirit in
him.
Qur’an 32.8-9

The soul is characterized by knowledge and
vision, is formless, an agent, has the same extent
as its own body, is the enjoyer of the fruits of kar-
mas, and exists in samsara. It is also enlightened
and has a characteristic upward motion.
Nemichandra, Dravyasangraha 2 (Jainism)

Ts’ai-wu said, “I have heard the names kuei and
shen, but I do not know what they mean.” The
Master said, “The [intelligent] spirit is of the shen
nature, and shows that in fullest measure; the
animal soul is of the kuei nature, and shows that
in fullest measure. It is the union of kuei and shen
that forms the highest exhibition of doctrine.
“All the living must die, and dying, return
to the ground; this is what is called kuei. The
bones and flesh molder below, and, hidden
away, become the earth of the fields. But the
spirit issues forth, and is displayed on high in
a condition of glorious brightness. The vapors
and odors which produce a feeling of sadness,
and arise from the decay of their substance,
are the subtle essences of all things, and also a
manifestation of the shen nature.”
Book of Ritual 21.2.1 (Confucianism)

Someone will ask, “How are the dead raised?
With what kind of body do they come?” You
foolish man! What you sow does not come to
life unless it dies. And what you sow is not the
body which is to be, but a bare kernel, perhaps
of wheat or some other grain. But God gives it
a body as He has chosen, and to each kind of
seed its own body. For not all flesh is alike, but
there is one kind for men, another for animals,
another for birds, and another for fish. There
are celestial bodies and there are terrestrial bod-
ies; but the glory of the celestial is one, and the
glory of the terrestrial is another.
1 Corinthians 15.35-40

In My Father’s House There Are Many Rooms


The Richard Urban Show #53
Interview with John King-Independent Candidate for Sheriff-Jefferson County WV

The Richard Urban Show #52
Why Abstinence Matters – Interview with Kuku Miriam Afanga

Leviticus 23

23 And the Lord said to Moses, 24 “Say to the people of Israel, In the seventh month, on the first day of the month, you shall observe a day of solemn rest, a memorial proclaimed with blast of trumpets, a holy convocation. 25 You shall do no laborious work; and you shall present an offering by fire to the Lord.”

2 Kings 3

21 When all the Moabites heard that the kings had come up to fight against them, all who were able to put on armor, from the youngest to the oldest, were called out, and were drawn up at the frontier. 22 And when they rose early in the morning, and the sun shone upon the water, the Moabites saw the water opposite them as red as blood. 23 And they said, “This is blood; the kings have surely fought together, and slain one another. Now then, Moab, to the spoil!” 24 But when they came to the camp of Israel, the Israelites rose and attacked the Moabites, till they fled before them; and they went forward, slaughtering the Moabites as they went.[b]25 And they overthrew the cities, and on every good piece of land every man threw a stone, until it was covered; they stopped every spring of water, and felled all the good trees; till only its stones were left in Kir-har′eseth, and the slingers surrounded and conquered it. 

LIFE AFTER DEATH AND THE SPIRIT WORLD

The Spirit World

2. The Many Levels and Realms in the Spirit World

In my Father’s house are many rooms.
John 14.2

Of the nether worlds and heavens has He
created millions;
Men exhaust themselves trying to explore
them.
Adi Granth, Japuji 22, M.1, p. 5 (Sikhism)

There are celestial bodies and there are terres-
trial bodies; but the glory of the celestial is one,
and the glory of the terrestrial is another. There
is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the
moon, and another glory of the stars; for star dif-
fers from star in glory. 2
1 Corinthians 15.40-41

The church of the Firstborn… are they into
whose hands the Father has given all things—
they are they who are priests and kings, who
have received of His fullness, and of His glory;
and are priests of the Most High, after the order
of Melchizedek, which was after the order of the
Only Begotten Son. Wherefore, as it is written,
they are gods, even the sons of God… These are
they whose bodies are celestial, whose glory is
that of the sun, even the glory of God, the high-
est of all, whose glory the sun of the firmament
is written of as being typical.
And again, we saw the terrestrial world,
and behold and lo, these are they who are of
the terrestrial, whose glory differs from that of
the church of the Firstborn who have received
the fullness of the Father, even as that of the
moon differs from the sun in the firmament.
Behold, these are they who died without law…
who received not the testimony of Jesus in the
flesh, but afterwards received it. These are they
who are honorable men of the earth, who were
blinded by the craftiness of men.
These are they who receive of His glory, but
not of His fullness. These are they who receive of
the presence of the Son, but not of the fullness of
the Father. Wherefore, they are bodies terrestrial,
and not bodies celestial, and differ in glory as the
moon differs from the sun…
And again, we saw the glory of the telestial,
which glory is that of the lesser, even as the
glory of the stars differs from that of the glory
of the moon in the firmament. These are they
who received not the gospel of Christ, neither
the testimony of Jesus. These are they who deny
not the Holy Spirit. These are they who are
thrust down to hell. These are they who shall
not be redeemed from the devil until the last
resurrection, until the Lord, even Christ the
Lamb, shall have finished his work.
These are they who receive not of His
fullness in the eternal world, but of the Holy Spirit
through the ministration of the terrestrial; and the
terrestrial through the ministration of the celestial.
And also the telestial receive it of the administering
of angels who are appointed to minister for them,
or who are appointed to be ministering spirits for
them; for they shall be heirs of salvation. 3
Doctrine and Covenants 76.54-88 (Latter-day Saints)

When King Solomon “penetrated into the
depths of the nut garden” (Song of Solomon
6.11), he took up a nut shell and studying it, he
saw an analogy in its layers with the spirits that
motivate the sensual desires of humans…
God saw that it was necessary to put into
the world so as to make sure of permanence all
things having, so to speak, a brain surrounded by
numerous membranes. The whole world, upper
and lower, is organized on this principle, from
the primary mystic center to the very outermost
of all the layers. All are coverings, the one to the
other, brain within brain, spirit inside of spirit,
shell within shell.
The primal center is the innermost light,
of a translucence, subtlety, and purity beyond
comprehension. That inner point extends to
become a “palace” which acts as an enclosure for
the center, and is also of a radiance translucent
beyond the power to know it. The “palace”
vestment for the incognizable inner point, while it
is an unknowable radiance in itself, is nevertheless
of a lesser subtility and translucency than the
primal point. The palace extends into a vestment
for itself, the primal light. From then outward, there
is extension upon extension, each constituting a
vesture to the one before, as a membrane to the
brain. Though membrane first, each extension
becomes brain to the next extension.
Likewise does the process go on below; and
after this design, man in the world combines
brain and membrane, spirit and body, all to the
more perfect ordering of the world.
Zohar (Judaism)

All kingdoms have a law given;
And there are many kingdoms; for there
is no space in which there is no kingdom; and
there is no kingdom in which there is no space,
either a greater or a lesser kingdom.
And unto every kingdom is given a law; and
unto every law there are certain bounds also and
conditions.
All beings who abide not in those conditions
are not justified.
For intelligence cleaves unto intelligence;
wisdom receives wisdom; truth embraces truth;
virtue loves virtue; light cleaves unto light;
mercy has compassion on mercy and claims her
own; justice continues its course and claims its
own; judgment goes before the face of Him who
sits upon the throne and governs and executes
all things. 4
Doctrine and Covenants 88.36-40 (Latter-day Saints)