God has toiled assiduously until now to create a providential culture or epochal period in Korea. As that moment has arrived, we need to be people who are as faithful as cows. There were three sacrifices on Abraham’s altar: the pigeons, the sheep, and the heifer. Today is now symbolically the age of the heifer. God likes cows. The age of the heifer! Do we like cows because we can butcher and eat them? That is not the case. Farmers do not like cows because they can slaughter them for food either. They put cows to all kinds of work, and then perhaps eat them later. That is how it is. Then, what do you need to become in order to be God’s sons and daughters? Do you need to become a pig? Of course we are talking about things figuratively. Because God is like the greatest king of cows who offers loyalty and devotion for the sake of humanity, who are His children, thus we of today, as His children, have to become like calves before Him. Of course, I am not saying that you should literally become a calf. It is a figurative expression. (156-17, 1965.11.2)
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1012
In this age of the Last Days, the Unification Church has to teach the answers to the following questions: What is God’s desire? What is humankind’s desire? What is God’s love? What is humankind’s situation? What is God’s heart? What is humankind’s heart? The Unification Church has appeared to do that. It must teach about that kind of world. If it can teach that, and it teaches one thousand people, ten thousand people, all the people, then, even if the world did not want to unite, it could not help but unite. (151-209, 1962.12.15)
Richard: To learn about this God-centered viewpoint or ideology, join us for Dividing Line; Ending Sexual Abuse on November 27th, 2021 in Harpers Ferry, WV.
Richteousness
2. A Righteous Person Leads a Public Life and Identifies His Welfare with the Public Good
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
Do you want to be blessed? Do you want to live eternally? Then, you should become a public person. (31:168, May 24, 1970)
When you make it your business to serve others and to touch others’ hearts, you are going beyond the life of a private individual. (241:118, December 20, 1992)
A human being is not meant to live for his or her individual self. Yet, these days many worldly people say, “I work for myself.” In other words, they live for the sake of themselves. How pitiful are these people? They are like orphans without parents or siblings. You should be able to say, “I live for the sake of all the people of the world.” (24:21, June 22, 1969)
You should be able to declare, “I have tackled the most difficult problem in the nation.” It is not enough to deal with problems within the church. Furthermore, you should be able to declare, “I have tackled the most difficult problem in the world.” Unless you do it willingly, you will remain on a servant level and cannot reach the level of an adopted son.12 You have to be willing to digest all the difficulties in the world—all the things that servants can do—with joy. (113:111, May 1, 1981)
There is no need to worry whether something will be done or not. The question is whether you did it or not. (308:209, January 5, 1999)
The public-minded person speaks from public-mindedness; he sees, hears, feels, thinks, eats and sleeps and does everything from the public-minded standpoint. When you look at the world with a public-minded eye, you come to love everything. (111:244, February 22, 1981)
Whether your work is small or big, regardless of the task, you should not relate to it personally. In other words, your mind should be intense. Your state of mind should be like a ball that is completely round after the air has been pumped in, with pressure. Your mind should keep that pressure like a completely round ball, and never go flat. If instead your mind is uneasy or self-centered, dominated by personal greed, it is like a sharp edge forming in that round, ball-like mind. (40:278-89, February 7, 1971)
The homeland we need to reclaim on earth is not an existing nation with a certain history and traditions. It is completely different in essence from those other nations. In order for us to be able to inherit such a nation that stands on a completely different level from others, we need to become citizens with a subject nature rooted in ideology. That subject ideology should be in accord with the ideology of the absolute Creator. The Absolute Being desires the creation of His own nation. Then centering on that nation’s sovereignty, the citizens should be united into oneness. Therefore, the nation should take shape based on such citizenship. (49-93, 1971.10.9)
Cheong Seong Gyeong 1239
The Blessing Ceremony of the Unification Church is not simply a wedding through which a man and a woman come together and form a family. Until now, all weddings were solely for the sake of the people getting married. But our wedding ceremony is significant and necessary to set a condition to indemnify the past and return joy to God. Therefore, we conduct our ceremonies in a sacred and splendid manner. Divine Principle clearly explains to us that our wedding ceremony alleviates God’s bitter grief that was caused by the Fall of Adam and Eve. It goes beyond the standard of husband and wife, which Jesus was unable to attain. (22-212, 1969.2.4)
Richard: These two reading emphasize that we need Rev. Moon’s teaching of Godism and the Blessing to establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Righteousness
2. A Righteous Person Leads a Public Life and Identifies His Welfare with the Public Good
Do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For the Gentiles seek all these things; and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things shall be yours as well.
Matthew 6.31-33
It is not righteousness that you turn your faces [in prayer] to the East and to the West. Righteousness is this:
to believe in God, and the Last Day, the angels, the Book, and the Prophets, to give of one’s substance, however cherished, to kinsmen, and orphans, the needy, the traveler, beggars, and to free the slave, to perform the prayer and to pay the alms. And they who fulfill their covenant, when they have engaged in a covenant, and endure with fortitude misfortune, hardship, and peril, these are they who are true in their faith, these are the truly God-fearing. Qur’an 2.177
I delivered the poor who cried, and the fatherless who had none to help him.
The blessing of him who was about to perish came upon me, and I caused the widow’s heart to sing for joy. I put on righteousness, and it clothed me; my justice was like a robe and a turban. I was eyes to the blind, and feet to the lame. I was a father to the poor, and I searched out the cause of him whom I did not know. I broke the fangs of the unrighteous, and made him drop his prey from his teeth. Job 29.12-17
He will not cry or lift up his voice, or make it heard in the street; a bruised reed he will not break, and a dimly burning wick he will not quench; he will faithfully bring forth justice. He will not fail or be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth; and the coastlands wait for his law. Isaiah 42.2-4
Kung-sun Ch’ou asked Mencius, “May I ask what your strong points are?” “I have an insight into words. I am good at cultivating my ‘flood-like ch’i.’” “May I ask what this ‘flood-like ch’i’ is?” “It is difficult to explain. This is a ch’i(breath) which is, in the highest degree, vast and unyielding. Nourish it with integrity and place no obstacle in its path and it will fill the space between heaven and earth. It is a ch’i which unites righteousness and the Way. Deprive it of these and it will collapse. It is born of accumulated rightness and cannot be appropriated by anyone through a sporadic show of rightness. Whenever one acts in a way that falls below the standard set in one’s heart, it will collapse… You must work at it and never let it out of your mind. At the same time, while you must never let it out of your mind, you must not forcibly help it grow either.”
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What is Satan’s ultimate target behind the history of struggle between good and evil ever since this conflict was brought into being as a result of the Fall of the ancestors of humankind? Satan has his sights set precisely on God Himself. God is eternal, unchanging, absolute, and unique, and the standard of the ideal that He held at the beginning of creation must also have these qualities. Satan seeks to destroy God’s absolute will. If you were to ask God directly, He would confirm what I am saying. How would God reply if Satan asked Him, “God, when You created me as an archangel in the beginning, was it out of love that was ephemeral or eternal?” God would reply that He did so out of a love that was eternal. If He were to say that His love was ephemeral, He would make Himself an ephemeral god. Unless He maintains a standard of loving Satan eternally, there will eventually come a time when He would no longer be able to exercise His authority as God with respect to Satan. Thus, however much Satan may oppose Him, God has no choice other than to establish the basis of loving him. Thus, God is a proponent of the philosophy of non-resistance toward evil. Why is that? It is because, until the world of the heavenly ideal is manifested on earth, God must love the archangel who has become Satan, regardless of the circumstances. However much trouble Satan may cause, God cannot punish him or cut him off. He must establish the basis of having loved Satan whatever his situation. God can have complete victory only when Satan confesses to Him, saying, “Oh, God really is God. I surrender to You.” This is the issue. Since the principled path of the providence of restoration is for God to bring about Satan’s surrender by loving him, we who are to become His children must walk this same path. Whether we are persecuted around the world and considered a worldwide enemy, we must establish the basis of having loved those who oppose us. In this regard, God’s Word, “Love your enemies,” is His strategy to subjugate evil naturally. These words are simple, but no one realized that they have marked the boundary between victory and defeat between God and Satan. If God were to harbor the thought of treating Satan as His enemy and seeking revenge against him, then He would never be able to stand on the pinnacle of victory. On the contrary, He implemented a strategy of love, declaring, “Love your enemy.”
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2126
Jesus could not establish an ideal world through his family and kin. Therefore, he has to come again and fulfill this ideal, otherwise he cannot enter heaven. Where can you find the right prerequisites and circumstances to open the gates of heaven? They are on the earth. Therefore, Jesus left the keys to heaven on earth. Since he and his twelve disciples could not create families, the Unification Church today must establish 70 and then 120 disciples with Blessed Families. If that is accomplished, heaven will be opened. (160-89, 1968.8.11)
1. A Righteous Person Stands against Evil at the Cost to Himself
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
The Chinese character for “righteousness,” 義(eui) is a combination of two characters: 羊(yang) “sheep” and 我(ah) “self.”11 In other words, when you put yourself in the position of a sacrificial lamb, you will create the condition for righteousness. (92:309, April 24, 1977)
Go and do something adventurous for the sake of the nation and God’s righteousness. God will encourage you, “Go ahead and do it.” Then you will meet with abuse. There will be a confrontation, but if you subjugate the evil on your own, then God will be pleased. It is the outcome God hopes for. Will God help you if you cower in fear, too afraid even to fight? Therefore, raise well-intentioned problems. (104:107, April 15, 1979)
You must be able to distinguish between good and evil, but how do you distinguish them? In the world good and evil are intermingled; however, the point where good and evil becomes distinguished is in yourself.
The world is evil; therefore, if you live without colliding with the world, you are an evil person. You live in a fallen realm; therefore, if you are living your life like a fish caught in a net, you are an evil person. If you just continue with your life instead of confronting the world’s evils, you are an evil person. Since you know that the present-day world is an evil world, you must fight against it.
Why? It is because humans fell. Having fallen from our original position, you must climb back up, and in order to climb back up, you must struggle through it. It will not do to stay still. Otherwise, you will never be able to greet the new world that humankind desires. You will not leave a mark of goodness in history, and history will not be able to progress. That is why, as people who would advance the cause of goodness, you must fight. (33:42, August 1, 1970)
It is a principle that the side of justice grows stronger with persecution and difficulty. Therefore, when we are hit we will develop even more. (93:134, May 21, 1977)
When good people pursue a certain goal, they are often uncertain about their objective, and on the path they find little support to stimulate and strengthen their aspiration for goodness. On the other hand, evil people find help every step of the way and relationships to encourage them from the beginning to the end. Therefore, a person who is seeking truth inevitably finds him or herself in situations of loneliness and sorrow.
The path of the person who upholds goodness will not be a smooth one. Not many people welcome an individual who strives to cultivate a character of exceptional goodness, especially as he tries to assemble an environment that meets his standard. There will be opposition when that person tries to build a family of goodness, and even stronger evil forces will surround and oppose any attempt to build a tribe of goodness. (36:52, November 15, 1970)
Father! I am going forward as a strong man, bold and magnanimous; I will not be put to shame. Please, watch over me on my path; I will make Thee proud of me. (134:142-43, February 25, 1985)
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Whether it is in the Citizens Federation, the VOC organization or in the Unification Church, the place where all of you must work is not in the offices. Go do the tong ban breakthrough activities first and fight if you have to. You should compete to see who will go into their neighborhood and influence it the most, who will go into their community and get the most people to become activists to liberate North Korea, and who will inspire the most families to follow the direction of their regional leaders under the authority of the committee chairmen. If I had not told you this publicly, then everything would have fallen apart. You professors did not even think of this. Do you know how much I have thought about these things? So my conclusion is that all the professors here should become the leaders of tongand ban (local communities and home neighborhoods), regardless of whether they are located in provinces or counties or towns. I mean that all professors should pack their bags and go to their families.
Richard: Rev. Moon explains being active in serving and caring for 360 homes in your community as a leader of your community. Listen to a Home Church study with Rev. Moon:
Cheon Seong Gyeong 2442
The position of husband and wife is where God and his children meet in unity, where brothers become united in God’s family, where the couple becomes one, and where the parents become one. Centering on the Four Great Realms of Heart, my spouse is thus my absolute counterpart and object, through whom I can perfect myself. Accordingly, a husband is the one through whom his wife can meet God’s ideal son, an elder brother who represents heaven, a husband who represents Heaven and a father who represents Heaven. A wife also stands in the same position in relation to her husband. Such a couple will feel joy by substantially experiencing, through their own children, everything they have invested in those children since birth, just as God has experienced raising the parents themselves. (259-45, 1994.3.27
Righteousness
Righteousness means a life upholding high principles and dedicated to public service. Righteous people are the spiritual and moral pillars of a society, bestowing its vision and setting its values. By their courage, moral rectitude, and devotion to public service they demonstrate the exemplary qualities of a good citizen. Righteousness is often demonstrated by concern for the greater good: for the community, the nation, even for the world. Father Moon calls this being a public person, living a public life. he teaches that we should strictly live with a mind to serve the greater good and never fall back into acting with selfish, greedy motives. It is not easy to be a righteous person. Righteous people invariably place public duties ahead of personal gain. They are serious about the propriety of every action they take. When society is corrupt and decadent, such righteousness is not always welcomed, and righteous people face persecution. Yet the value of righteousness is so great that in the Old Testament story of Sodom and Gomorrah, God was willing to spare those sinful cities for the sake of 10 righteous men. Every community needs such people.
The Master said, “A gentleman in his dealings with the world has neither enmities nor affections; but wherever he sees Right he ranges himself behind it. Analects 4.10 (Confucianism)
And if God had not repelled some men by others, the earth would have been corrupted. Qur’an 2.251
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5.10
Jesus went up to Jerusalem. In the temple he found those who were selling oxen and sheep and pigeons, and the moneychangers at their business. And making a whip of cords, he drove them all, with the sheep and oxen, out of the temple; and he poured out the coins of the moneychangers and overturned their tables. And he told those who sold the pigeons, “Take these things away; you shall not make my Father’s house a house of trade.” John 2.13-16
They that are desirous of victory do not conquer by might and energy so much as by truth, compassion, righteousness, and spiritual discipline. Discriminating then between righteousness and unrighteousness, and understanding what is meant by covetousness, when there is recourse to exertion fight without arrogance, for victory is there where righteousness is. Under these conditions know, O king, that to us victory is certain in this battle. Indeed, where Krishna is, there is victory. Mahabharata, Bhishma Parva 21 (Hinduism)
Neither let us be slandered from our duty by false accusations against us, nor frightened from it by menaces of destruction to the Government nor of dungeons to ourselves. Let us have faith that right makes might; and in that faith let us, to the end, dare to do our duty as we understand it. Abraham Lincoln
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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1969
The archangelic cultural sphere originated from the Nile River civilization established in Egypt. It then shifted to the Greek civilization, a peninsular civilization based around the Mediterranean Sea, and culminated in the Roman civilization. Why did the development of civilization have to gravitate toward the western spheres? It was inevitable due to the Fall.
Cheon Seong Gyeong 1051
When dealing with people, you must not do it unsatisfactorily. The work of resurrection does not occur in a course that is mandatory. It has to be exciting. You must stay up at night without even realizing it is night. You discover the value of heaven only when you get to the point at which you can say, “The place where I am now is heaven.” Isn’t that right? Even with trees, unless they are completely bonded, they don’t engraft. (75-177, 1975.1.2
Integrity
3. People of Integrity Do Not Change according to the Circumstances
