Category: Old Testament

The Cross Was Absolutely Unnecessary


Acts 3

14 You rejected Jesus, who was holy and good. You asked for a murderer to be set free, 15 and you killed the one who leads people to life. But God raised him from death, and all of us can tell you what he has done. 16 You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching.

Daniel 9

A foreign ruler and his army will sweep down like a mighty flood, leaving both the city and the temple in ruins, and war and destruction will continue until the end, just as God has decided. 27 For one week[n]this foreigner[o] will make a firm agreement with many people, and halfway through this week,[p] he will end all sacrifices and offerings. Then the “Horrible Thing” that causes destruction will be put there. And it will stay there until the time God has decided to destroy this one who destroys.

My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can Dwell

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

What should I, as an individual, do in these last days? To solve this problem, we have to hold onto the Messiah who came for all people. Humanity has progressed until today through numerous historical relationships. God’s dispensational history was brought about through the chosen people God so lovingly chose. This history was for the purpose of embracing His loving sons and daughters.

Therefore, we have to conform with the heavenly content that moved the six thousand years of history to possess the power of life that can push the whole of it away. Jesus drove away the four thousand years of history when he came two thousand years ago by being connected to the historical heart of God. After clarifying everything in the four-thousand-year history, Jesus wanted to build a new garden upon that foundation. Therefore, holding onto that heart of Jesus, we should clarify history and think of the future. We have to think of how much Jesus longed for the emergence of his new ideology at that time.

Jesus told Nicodemus that unless he was reborn, he could not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, I must deny the life I have lived until today. No matter how much I think I have accomplished, I must deny my individual self. Because I am a fallen person, I cannot escape from that realm. My life and my lifestyle should be denied.

What we think of as normal is not indeed normal. We live an abnormal life; we have an abnormal lifestyle, and we die abnormally. The natural place for us to enter would be hell. What is heaven? It is the place where the person goes who lives a normal life, has abnormal lifestyle, and dies normally.

If Jesus came to distinguish between hell and heaven, to close the door to hell and open the door to heaven, to build heaven, then he certainly did not come with an ideology, a life, and a love that can be denied. You should understand this.

Who did Jesus come in search of when he came to this earth? Jesus came searching for the Israelites, whom God has established as the chosen people after indescribable hardships. Jesus was absolutely necessary for Judaism, the religion of the chosen. That absolutely necessary one was hung on the cross and departed. You should realize that Jesus was absolutely necessary for the Israelites and Judaism. The cross was absolutely unnecessary. It should not have been.

Their Ideologies Are in a State of Utter Ruin

1 Chronicles 6

1 After King David had the sacred chest moved to Jerusalem, he appointed musicians from the Levi tribe to be in charge of the music at the place of worship. 32 These musicians served at the sacred tent and later at the Lord’s temple that King Solomon built.

Isaiah 5

My friend dug the ground,
removed the stones,
    and planted the best vines.
He built a watchtower
and dug a pit in rocky ground
    for pressing the grapes.
He hoped they would be sweet,
but bitter grapes
    were all it produced.

3 Listen, people of Jerusalem
    and of Judah!
You be the judge of me
    and my vineyard.
4 What more could I have done
    for my vineyard?
I hoped for sweet grapes,
but bitter grapes
    were all that grew.

Richard:  We have to be careful in our faith.  We are to follow God centered upon our conscience, guided by God’s Word:  http://visionroot.org/resources/the-eight-books-of-holy-scripture/.  Anything else will result in judgement, as we deviatge away from God.

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

We lost everything due to the fall. I lost the central figure who is the subject of life; I lost the central figure of ideology; I lost the central figure of love. Our mind, therefore, yearns for the life which can taste true joy. Our mind longs for a better cosmic ideology. Our heart demands a higher love.

The life, the ideology humankind sought, and the love which was entangled in fallen people’s emotions started from fallen history, not from the garden where God’s ideal is fulfilled. Therefore, now is the time when a life force that can drive away all the things resulting from the six thousand years of history is needed. We need the life force that can represent history and drive away all the things which boasted the power and value of life during the six thousand years.

What is the six-thousand-year history? It is the history of the restoration of humankind, which possesses life force. Therefore, we should have the great power of life which can drive away everything that moved within the realm of Satan’s protection and rule for the six thousand years. We should realize that only then can we be reborn as our new selves.

To present ourselves as new selves, we should have the ideology which can drive away any thought or ideology formed through the six-thousand-year history. If we cannot, then we cannot come forward as the vanguard of the new age. I cannot be reborn as my new self. Without possessing the great power of life which can deny the six-thousand-year history, without having a new ideology that can drive away any other kind of thought or ideology, I cannot become a new self.

It does not end there. History has developed in the direction where human emotions of love are intertwined within our family. God has demanded this. However, since the family did not become the perfect foundation upon which the ideology can be practiced, it will all be broken apart in the last days.

Continue reading “Their Ideologies Are in a State of Utter Ruin”

God Looks at This World with Judgment

John 4

3 Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. 4 This time he had to go through Samaria, 5 and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. 6-8 The well that Jacob had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it because he was tired from traveling. It was noon, and after Jesus’ disciples had gone into town to buy some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.

Jesus asked her, “Would you please give me a drink of water?”

9 “You are a Jew,” she replied, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won’t have anything to do with each other?”a]

10 Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God wants to give you, and you don’t know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life.”

Richard:  Here Jesus approaches the Samaritan women.  He offers the woman living water.  It is interesting that many Samaritans accepted and believed in Jesus, even though they are not considered true Jews by many Jewish people.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans)

2 Kings 6

24 Some time later, King Benhadad of Syriae] called his entire army together, then they marched to Samaria and attacked. 25 They kept up the attack until there was nothing to eat in the city. In fact, a donkey’s head cost about two pounds of silver, and a small bowl of pigeon droppingsf] cost about two ounces of silver.

26 One day as the king of Israelg] was walking along the top of the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Please, Your Majesty, help me!”

27 “Let the Lord help you!” the king said. “Do you think I have grain or wine to give you?” 28 Then he asked, “What’s the matter anyway?”

The woman answered, “Another woman and I were so hungry that we agreed to eat our sons. She said if we ate my son one day, we could eat hers the next day. 29 So yesterday we cooked my son and ate him. But today when I went to her house to eat her son, she had hidden him.”

30 The king tore off his clothes in sorrow, and since he was on top of the city wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth underneath. 31 He said, “I pray that God will punish me terribly, if Elisha’s head is still on his shoulders by this time tomorrow.” 32 Then he sent a messenger to Elisha.

Elisha was home at the time, and the important leaders of Israel were meeting with him. Even before the king’s messenger arrived, Elisha told the leaders, “That murdererh] is sending someone to cut off my head. When you see him coming, shut the door and don’t let him in. I’m sure the king himself will be right behind him.”

33 Before Elisha finished talking, the messengeri] came up and said, “The Lord has made all these terrible things happen to us. Why should I think he will help us now?”

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

Who was Jesus? During the four thousand years of the historical dispensation, no one was qualified to introduce the happiness of God. By the coming of Jesus, however, God’s happiness was to be introduced at last and the garden of happiness which God permitted was to be built. We should understand that Jesus was such a new being in history. The Israelites at that time should have known that Jesus represented the sole substantiation of the hope of their ancestors, the substantiation of the happiness their ancestors had fought to attain. He was the hope for the restoration of Israel’s national sovereignty and the establishment of the heavenly foundation.

Jesus resurrected the hope of the ancestors and of the earth, which was buried deeply in the heart of God. Moreover, he was the representative of God, the one whom God had sent to bring about the world where the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven could be fulfilled. Jesus was our representative, the representative of humankind who would build the garden of happiness. The Israelites should have known this; however, they did not realize this. Therefore, even though Jesus came to this earth, he had to go without becoming the central person of the new world. He had to go without possessing the people of the new world and without building the society and nation of the new world.

The world we live in today is fallen. Because nothing in this fallen world became the reality God hoped to fulfill, God can rejoice in nothing. God looks at this world with judgment, therefore, our lifestyle, environment and nation cannot communicate purely with His heart.

What does God long for now? He is longing for something new. When Jesus appeared before Judaism and the Pharisees who bragged of being the chosen, he said, “The things you assert and have pride in are not enough.” We should know that Jesus’ three-year public life course was the record of the battle he fought to declare and proclaim that everyone had to go through him, that he was the cosmic new being who brought a new ideology and world view. Jesus hoped that his disciples and the numerous people who followed him would become new people. Nevertheless, among those who met Jesus at that time, only a few believed and understood that Jesus came to introduce and build a new heart, a new ideology, a new life, and new happiness. Therefore, when Jesus came, he could not speak fully about these things and the blueprint for the new world before he departed.

Nicodemus appeared before this agonized Jesus. He was a government officer of Judea, a person in the position of a teacher and leader of the chosen people. Jesus emphasized to him the necessity of being reborn. We are destined to be reborn today, just as Jesus said.

If there is a last days in the six thousand years of history, then God expects to resolve everything at that time. God knows that He should judge and resolve this sinful world at a certain time. Therefore, we are walking our course of faith today fearing the last days. What kind of time is the last days? It is time to liquidate the old and assert the new.

All People Are Within the Fallen Realm

Deuteronomy 14

24 But suppose you can’t carry that ten percent of your harvest to the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. If you live too far away, or if the Lord gives you a big harvest, 25 then sell this part and take the money there instead. 26 When you and your family arrive, spend the money on food for a big celebration. Buy cattle, sheep, goats, wine, beer, and if there are any other kinds of food that you want, buy those too. 27 And since people of the Levi tribe won’t own any land for growing crops, remember to ask the Levites to celebrate with you.

Matthew 1

1 Jesus Christ came from the family of King David and also from the family of Abraham. And this is a list of his ancestors. 2-6a  From Abraham to King David, his ancestors were:

Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Judah and his brothers (Judah’s sons were Perez and Zerah, and their mother was Tamar), Hezron;

Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon, Salmon, Boaz (his mother was Rahab), Obed (his mother was Ruth), Jesse, and King David.

6b-11  From David to the time of the exile in Babylonia, the ancestors of Jesus were:

David, Solomon (his mother had been Uriah’s wife), Rehoboam, Abijah, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram;

Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Josiah, and Jehoiachin and his brothers.

12-16 From the exile to the birth of Jesus, his ancestors were:

Jehoiachin, Shealtiel, Zerubbabel, Abiud, Eliakim, Azor, Zadok, Achim;

Eliud, Eleazar, Matthan, Jacob, and Joseph, the husband of Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is called the Messiah.

17 There were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. There were also fourteen from David to the exile in Babylonia and fourteen more to the birth of the Messiah.

My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can Dwell

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

We were born on this earth. However, we did not contemplate whether being born on this earth into our life was a good or a bad thing. There are many people who do not even think about whether this reality is true or not. After being born and living our lives, we are bound to die, leaving our bodies behind. We know well that each of us must go over the valley of death.

The issue of whether we die a truth death is related to us and to our lives. We should not forget that as we began, so must we end.

There may be many who are proud of the fact that they were born on this earth of their parents’ lineage. However, a person with a true parental heart should grieve over the child she has borne. Even if a baby is lying in the cradle of happiness at birth, no one can be certain whether that child’s whole life will be happy. The parent herself should experience a heart of sadness before a heart of happiness.

If we acknowledge that the child is not born in the garden of happiness, then the life he will lead after birth will be the same; the valley of death he will cross after his life will be the same. We must not forget that we are living in this kind of realm. Let us ask ourselves, “Have I yearned for the true life? Have I lived a true life? Do I have the confidence to victoriously face death as I sing of the preciousness of true life?” Everyone would have to say, “No.”

Continue reading “All People Are Within the Fallen Realm”

If We Have a Lonely Heart, We Should Confess and Transform It Into Your Heart

Isaiah 40

40 Our God has said:

“Encourage my people!
Give them comfort.
2 Speak kindly to Jerusalem
and announce:
Your slavery is past;
your punishment is over.
I, the Lord, made you pay
double for your sins.”

Habbukuk 1

I am sending the Babylonians.
They are fierce and cruel—
marching across the land,
conquering cities and towns.

7 How fearsome and frightening.
Their only laws and rules
are the ones they make up.
8 Their cavalry troops are faster
than leopards,
more ferocious than wolves
hunting at sunset,
and swifter than hungry eagles
suddenly swooping down.

9 They are eager to destroy,[b]
and they gather captives
like handfuls of sand.
10 They make fun of rulers
and laugh at fortresses,
while building dirt mounds
so they can capture cities.[c]
11 Then suddenly they disappear

My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can Dwell

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

Prayer

Please allow us to check where our minds dwell. We know that our minds are moving around in all directions, although our bodies are gathered in one place. Just as Adam was shaped by the lump of soil moving according to Your hands, we know that our minds also should be moved according to Your desire.

Our sacred Father, please allow us to long for You at this time with a concerned mind that checks whether the original form and essence of our minds have become the holy of holies. Let us check if our minds can connect to Your heart, even as our bodies settle into one altar now.

We feel that we should not be without the sensitivity of mind by which an earnest heart toward Your gentle and holy presence can fill us, even without our being conscious of it. You wished to reveal our mission by discussing from the hidden depths and showing Your presence in the distant quietness. We cannot help hoping for such intervention on Your part.

When we did not attend You in the midst of Your distant quietness, when we were not able to connect with Your hidden situation, You were sorrowful, lonely and miserable. Knowing that You face such a situation, we should feel in our hearts the necessity of attending You as our real Father; we should feel the necessity of forming one, united, inseparable relationship centering on eternal life and eternal love. If such a heart does not emerge from within us, how can we call ourselves Your sons and daughters? How can we say that we have an inseparable relationship with You? If we are so, please allow us to know that we have nothing to do with the ideal of heaven You wish to grant us, we have nothing to do with the foundation for Your comfort for which You have toiled throughout history. Continue reading “If We Have a Lonely Heart, We Should Confess and Transform It Into Your Heart”