In Heaven and On Earth, I Alone Am the Honored One

1 Peter 1

22 You obeyed the truth,and your souls were made pure. Now you sincerely love each other. But you must keep on loving with all your heart. 23 Do this because God has given you new birth by his message that lives on forever. 24 The Scriptures say,

“Humans wither like grass,
and their glory fades
    like wild flowers.
Grass dries up,
and flowers fall
    to the ground.
25 But what the Lord has said
    will stand forever.”

Our good news to you is what the Lord has said.

Richard: Here we see the importance of our Daily Study of Scripture. And in this age that is the Eight Sacred Textbooks.

Isaiah 39

39 Merodach Baladan, the son of Baladan, was now king of Babylonia. And when he learned that Hezekiah was well, he sent messengers with letters and a gift for him. 2 Hezekiah welcomed the messengers and showed them all the silver, the gold, the spices, and the fine oils that were in his storehouse. He even showed them where he kept his weapons. Nothing in his palace or in his entire kingdom was kept hidden from them.

3 I asked Hezekiah, “Where did these men come from? What did they want?”

“They came all the way from Babylonia,” Hezekiah answered.

4 “What did you show them?” I asked.

Hezekiah answered, “I showed them everything in my kingdom.”

5 Then I told Hezekiah:

I have a message for you from the Lord All-Powerful. 6 One day everything you and your ancestors have stored up will be taken to Babylonia. The Lord has promised that nothing will be left. 7 Some of your own sons will be taken to Babylonia, where they will be disgraced and made to serve in the king’s palace.

8 Hezekiah thought, “At least our nation will be at peace for a while.” So he told me, “The message you brought from the Lord is good.”

Richard: Wow! This is a very interesting passage. The King was very trusting and vain. But perhaps he should have looked at the long term picture and the fact that the Babylonians, even though friendly now, were not centered on God, but on other nefarious or demonic goals. Much of what passes for discurse today comports with a standard that is not centered on God’s Word. See theRheama above.

Commentary from the Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

5. Hear the word of the Lord] Isaiah’s tone is threatening, because he sees in this thing a sin against Jehovah. It was not necessary to specify wherein the offence consisted; king and prophet understood each other perfectly. The reception of an embassy from the sworn enemy of the king of Assyria was in itself an act of rebellion likely to precipitate a conflict which Isaiah strove to avert; and the childish vanity displayed by Hezekiah, his pride in earthly resources, and his readiness to enter into friendly relations with the powers of this world, were tendencies against which Isaiah’s ministry had been a continuous protest. All these tendencies sprang from a single root, the lack of that absolute faith in Jehovah as the all-sufficient guide and protector of the nation which was the fundamental article of Isaiah’s political programme.

https://biblehub.com/commentaries/isaiah/39-5.htm

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Value of Human Life

2. A Human Being Has the Value of the Universe

In heaven and on earth, I alone am the Honored
One.
Ch’ang A-han Ching (Buddhism)

When I look at Thy heavens, the work of Thy
fingers,
the moon and the stars which Thou hast
established;
What is man that Thou art mindful of him,
and the son of man that Thou dost care for
him?
Yet Thou hast made him little less than God,
and dost crown him with glory and honor.
Psalm 8.3-5

Surely We have honored the children of Adam,
and We carry them on land and sea, and We
provide them with good things, and We make
them to excel highly most of those whom We
have created.
Qur’an 17.70

The whole world was created only for the sake
of the righteous man. He weighs as much as the
whole world. The whole world was created only
to be united to him.
Talmud, Shabbat 30b (Judaism)

We prescribed for the Children of Israel that
whoever kills a human being, except to retaliate
for manslaughter or for corruption done in the
land, it shall be as if he had killed all of human-
kind; and whoso saves the life of one, it shall be
as if he had saved the lives of all humankind.
Qur’an 5.32

Only one single man [Adam] was created in
the world, to teach that, if any man has caused
a single soul to perish, Scripture imputes it to
him as though he had caused the whole world to
perish, and if any man saves alive a single soul,
Scripture imputes it to him as though he had
saved the whole world.
Also, man [was created singly] to show the
greatness of the Holy One, Blessed be He, for if
a man strikes many coins from one mold, they
all resemble one another, but the King of Kings,
the Holy One, made each man in the image of
Adam, and yet not one of them resembles his
fellow. Therefore every single person is obligated
to say, “The world was created for my sake.”
Mishnah, Sanhedrin 4.5 (Judaism)

Teachings of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon

An individual human being is more precious than the universe. Each person’s value is infinite, because he or she is created as God’s partner of love. (262:145, July 23, 1994)

One human being, although seemingly an insignificant individual, has the potential to represent all of human history and all relationships with the future. Therefore, he or she has cosmic value. (4:268, August 3, 1958)

What value does God bestow on human beings? God created us to be His partners of love. Therefore, human beings are meant to share God’s absolute, unique value. Yet people are ignorant of this amazing truth. These days, what is a human life worth? Yet, God created men and women as His partners of love, with a precious value that cannot be exchanged even for the whole universe! (142:143, March 8, 1986)

Even God cannot have true love, peace and happiness, or attain His ideal, apart from His object partners. What would be the use of peace or happiness to God if He were alone?… Please understand that each of you is indispensable for completing God’s true love, God’s peace, God’s happiness and God’s ideal. We have been unaware of our value. When you experience your precious, awesome and lofty value, which can bring love, peace, happiness and the ideal even to God, you can praise yourself and feel reverence for yourself. (77:314, April 30, 1975)

When you marry, you want your spouse to be better than you. You hope that your sons and daughters will marry spouses who are better than them. Whose trait does this resemble? It is God’s! Heavenly Father wishes for His partners and objects of love to be better than Him. Can we deny this? Human value is supreme. From the viewpoint of love, it can be even greater than God!
For this reason, your mind desires what is highest. This is not inconceivable. All human beings could have attained this value, had there been no fall. Dwelling in that supreme, heavenly state, they were to manage and lead the universe. (211:272, December 30, 1990)

Every human being possesses a unique individuality. No matter how many billions of people are born on the earth, no two will ever have exactly the same personality. Each person is God’s substantial object partner who manifests a distinctive aspect of God’s dual characteristics. Hence, that person is the only one in the entire universe who can stimulate that distinctive aspect of God’s nature to bring Him joy. Every person who has completed the purpose of creation is thus a unique existence in the cosmos. We can thus affirm the Buddha’s saying, “In heaven and on earth, I alone am the honored one.” (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Christology 1)

Above and below, front and rear, and right and left—everyone is related to me. These relationships are not temporary but life-long. They extend from the beginning of human history, and connect me to my posterity thousands of generations into the future. If I were to be broken, my relationship with God would also be broken. My family would be damaged, as would my clan and the whole world. That is why I am a microcosm, representing heaven and earth.
My heart desires to embrace Heaven, and my body to possess the earth. I want to be enraptured by the heart of the Sovereign Lord. I want to be His representative, who cannot be defeated by anyone or anything in heaven and earth. If I deeply analyze myself in the context of these relationships, I can understand that I am the greatest being, with infinite value. (8:10-11, October 25, 1959)

The question, however, is whether we are in a condition to receive the value that God intends to give. If we were beautiful both internally and externally, we would illuminate heaven and earth like a diamond or a brilliant gem. (352:25-26, September 16, 2001)

For What Will It Profit a Man If He Gains the Whole World and Forfeits His Life?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2356

In 1992, we announced the Messiah
and True Parents to the world. Focusing
on America, we announced the True Par-
ents and the Completed Testament Age
starting on May 13, 1993. I have made all
the necessary conditions. As you know,
America represents the entire world. It
is the final settling place in terms of the
Christian cultural sphere. This is the
time of transition into the new age cen-
tering on True Parents. We are enter-
ing the Completed Testament Age. Our
proclamation was the first time in histo-
ry for such an event. How long God must
have been waiting for this time! How
miserable God has been throughout his-
tory! Now the age of hope is approach-
ing. We are entering into the age when
we can proclaim the True Parents. It is
a historical and universal event. Noth-
ing like this has ever happened before in
human history. (248-175, 1993.8.3)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1186

Since the vertical and horizontal
indemnity, the indemnity of the eight
stages was completed, last year, on August
31, 1989, I went to Alaska, the northern-
most place in the western world, and
conducted the “Ceremony of the Settle-
ment of the Eight Stages.” It was con-
ducted at the northernmost place. Then
on September 1, I announced the “ideol-
ogy centered on the Heavenly Father.” It
is the ideology of salvation through love,
which we know as the parent-centered
ideology. This ideology urges us to love
everyone. Satan cannot oppose love. If
Satan does not oppose the Unification
Church on its way, it will spread world-
wide in a flash. (199-157, 1990.2.16)

Richard: This Rheama is special to me and Stacey. August 31, 1989 is the very day that we moved from northeast DC to Capitol Hill. The purpose of our move was so we could do Home Church in the Capitol Hill area.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Value of Human Life

Human beings have priceless value. Although in many fallen societies life is regarded as cheap, and despite the worldly illusion that a person’s value is determined by wealth, status, education or beauty, God endows every person with the absolute value of His love. He created us as His beloved children, infinitely precious—even equal to God. The texts gathered here express this exalted value of a human being.
A single person has the value of the whole world. Unique in all creation, he or she is irreplaceable. Moreover, the love of God, family, nation and all creation embrace each individual. Each individual is needed by all
existence. The death of any individual brings loss to all existence. For this reason, taking life by murder, suicide and abortion has no place in God’s world. Furthermore, since physical life provides the opportunity for growth
(See Chapter 5: Preparation for Eternity), taking a life robs the individual and the universe of a way to attain perfection.
Still, in a world fixated on materialism, few people have realized their exalted potential value, which derives
from the capacity to love God and humanity. Therefore, it is incumbent upon us all to cultivate the true wellsprings of value and become the children of God who are esteemed by the world and God.

  1. More Precious than Gold

For what will it profit a man, if he gains the
whole world and forfeits his life?
Matthew 16.26

Why should I fear in times of trouble,
when the iniquity of my persecutors surrounds
me,
men who trust in their wealth
and boast of the abundance of their riches?
Truly no man can ransom himself,
or give to God the price of his life,
for the ransom of his life is costly,
and can never suffice.
Psalm 49.5-8

“I got me slaves and slave-girls.” For what price,
tell me? What in the world is worth as much
as a human being? What price can you put on
a rational intellect? How many drachmas do
you reckon equals the value of one made in the
likeness of God? How many gold pieces should
you be able to get for selling a being shaped by
God? God said, “Let us make man in our own
image and likeness.” (Gen. 1.26) Since man
is in the likeness of God, and is ruler over the
whole earth, and has been granted this author-
ity over everything from God who is his Buyer,
tell me, who is his seller? To God alone belongs
this power.
Gregory of Nyssa, Homily on Ecclesiastes 4
(Christianity)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

People in this world believe that the good life is to live in comfortable surroundings, wear good clothes, drive a fancy car, and fly to any destination anytime they wish. You should know that their standard of judging what is the good life is a bad habit of worldly people. (131:171, May 1, 1984)

Americans may love material things, but I love people more. The winners are people who love people. Even if you lose all you possess, if you keep your human relations intact, the things will return.
Though we lose money, through people we will be able to obtain money. But if we break our connection to people, we will lose everything. (February 17, 2001)

What is exceedingly valuable in the world? It is not treasure such as gold or silver, nor is it worldly fame or power. The most valuable thing in all heaven and earth is you.
Nevertheless, when people are asked what certification they have that they are valuable, they cannot answer. Still, despite their many deficiencies, people want to put themselves before heaven and earth as the most valuable existence. It is our original human nature to do so.
Maybe you think you are already living for the sake of the nation and the world. However, have
you considered whether other people regard you as a valuable person? If they do not, then you need
to make a new determination and a new beginning. Ask yourself, “What do others see as valuable
about me?”
Can you become a jewel, one of a kind in the universe, a true treasure that God and Jesus would long to possess? The myriads of saints who formerly lived on earth, and all the philosophers
who planted their thought in the world, no matter how important they may have been during their earthly lives, would long for your treasure. All humanity presently living, and even people of the future, would also want it. They would adore its value. Yet who has believed that they could be such
a jewel? (17:13-14, November 6, 1966)

Can We Say “Father, Thy Sorrow is My Sorrow”

John 20

20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus’ favorite disciple and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.”

Psalm 68

28 Our God, show your strength!
    Show us once again.
29 Then kings will bring gifts
    to your temple
    in Jerusalem.[e]

30 Punish that animal
    that lives in the swamp!
Punish that nation
    whose leaders and people
    are like wild bulls.
Make them come crawling
    with gifts of silver.
    Scatter those nations
    that enjoy making war.
31 Force the Egyptians to bring
    gifts of bronze;
    make the Ethiopians hurry
    to offer presents.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

Sons and Daughters of God

2. Recovering the Dignity of Sons and Daughters of God

Sons have I reared and brought up,
but they have rebelled against me.
Isaiah 1.2

The Rock, his work is perfect;
for all his ways are justice.
A God of faithfulness and without iniquity,
just and right is he.
They have dealt corruptly with him,
they are no longer his children because of their
blemish;
they are a perverse and crooked generation.
Do you thus requite the l ord ,
you foolish and senseless people?
Is not he your Father, who created you,
who made you and established you?
Deuteronomy 32.4-6

We are all as the Buddha’s sons. The Buddha
has always declared that we are his sons. But
because of the three sufferings, in the midst
of births-and-deaths we have borne all kinds
of torments, being deluded and ignorant and
enjoying our attachment to trifles. Today the
World-honored One has caused us to ponder
over and remove the dirt of all diverting discus-
sions of inferior things. In these we have hith-
erto been diligent to make progress and have
got, as it were, a day’s pay for our effort to reach
Nirvana. Obtaining this, we greatly rejoiced and
were contented… but still we did not perceive
that we are really Buddha’s sons.
Lotus Sutra 4 (Buddhism)

For since in prayer we call God our Father, it is
our duty always to deport and demean ourselves
as godly children, that He may not receive
shame, but honor and praise from us.
Martin Luther, The Large Catechism (Christianity)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The original relationship between God and human beings is that of eternal Parent and child. Restoration, therefore, means recovering that relationship. (316:236, February 13, 2000)

Since God is the King of faith, He seeks a prince of faith, and since He is the King of love, He looks for a prince of love. (Way of God’s Will 2.2)

In relating to God, we should follow the way of children of filial piety. God is serious about the world situation. Is there someone who, with even greater seriousness, is desperate to experience God’s heart, and who forgets himself and spends sleepless nights in the struggle to become God’s child? This is what the question comes down to. (62:35, September 10, 1972)

God is your Father and you are your Father’s daughters. How much God has longed to embrace His daughters in His bosom? For that reason, you should become God’s filial daughters… If each of you becomes a filial daughter, all your family members will follow suit. By the same token, the entire nation, world and cosmos will unite with you. You will become God’s number one victorious daughter, a saint to the world, a holy daughter to the cosmos. That is how you become a mistress in the realm of the royal family. (293:208, May 26, 1998)

Mayest we become Thy simple and pure children who can penetrate to Thy heart of longing and love which desires to embrace us… Father! Although we called Thee “Father,” our voice did not flow out of a sincere mind and heart springing forth from our flesh and bones. There was never a time when we could rush to Thee and cling to Thee out of such an emotion. (20:199, June 9, 1968)

Only after climbing over hills of sorrow,
hills of suffering and hills of resentment…
can we hold on to Thy heart and say:
“Father, Thy sorrow is my sorrow,
thy suffering is my suffering, and Thy troubles are my troubles.
Please entrust all Thy suffering to me,
while Thou dost dwell in joy.” (4:294, September 14, 1958)

The Relationship Between God the Father and Child Is the Basis of the Universe

Cheon Seong Gyeong 291

You don’t know how rigid religious
dogmatists can be. Syria belongs to the
Islamic cultural sphere. I brought an elite
group of leaders from Syria to East Gar-
den and we shared the Divine Principle
with them. Our Unification Church is
not a branch of Christianity but its main
trunk. Because Jesus brought salvation
by being sacrificed in the role of the son,
Jesus himself must have parents, and
because Jesus did not have a son of his
own, his authority as a parent must be
restored. For this reason the term “True
Parents” is so wonderful.
Established Christian churches are
making a big fuss because I said that
Jesus is my disciple, but they will see
everything when they go to the spirit
world. Why do I say such things, when I
know clearly that doing so will cause me
to be inundated with curses?
How about the established Christian
churches? Through Unification Church
members, I will clean up anything that
is unclean in their back rooms and
hold worship services transcending all
denominations. After this, I will go to
the spirit world. I will go there after com-
pleting that trans-denominational wor-
ship. You may not know this, but there
are already a large number of ministers
using our Principle. Some of them read
the Divine Principle on a blanket and
when a deacon or elder comes in, they
quickly hide it underneath the blanket,
and then take it out again when they
leave, and read it all night. They memo-
rize it and diligently use it.
Autumn leaves do not fall all at once.
Do they fall all at once? They do not.
They fall one by one, rather than as a
whole bunch. Although they fall one by
one, before long the tree, once clothed
with green, is left with no leaves. Wheth-
er they know it or not, I am dealing with
things in that way. (213-34, 1991.1.13)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1186

Since the vertical and horizontal
indemnity, the indemnity of the eight
stages was completed, last year, on August
31, 1989, I went to Alaska, the northern-
most place in the western world, and
conducted the “Ceremony of the Settle-
ment of the Eight Stages.” It was con-
ducted at the northernmost place. Then
on September 1, I announced the “ideol-
ogy centered on the Heavenly Father.” It
is the ideology of salvation through love,
which we know as the parent-centered
ideology. This ideology urges us to love
everyone. Satan cannot oppose love. If
Satan does not oppose the Unification
Church on its way, it will spread world-
wide in a flash. (199-157, 1990.2.16)

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

Sons and Daughters of God

  1. Our Birthright as God’s Sons and Daughters

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

We are told that God is the God of love. We humans seek the supreme position where the God of love can truly love us. When we can occupy that position, God, from His position, cannot but love us. It is the place where the human heart and the divine Heart are united as one. It can only be attained when we are relating with God in a parent-child relationship.
I am not referring to the relationship we have with our own father and mother who gave us birth and raised us. I am speaking about the original relationship, between the absolute God who created the cosmos and human beings had they not fallen. It is the ultimate relationship human beings can have with God: God is our Father and we are truly His sons and daughters. God intends that we attain this incredible position. (53:286, March 4, 1972)

Once I entered a mystic state and asked God in prayer, “What is the basis of the universe?” God answered, “It is the relationship between father and child.” This does not mean our relationship with the parents who gave us birth, but to the relationship between God and human beings.
What is the exact content of this relationship? There is nothing closer, nothing deeper, than when the Father and His child are one: one in love, one in life, and one in ideals. In that unity, God’s love is my love, God’s life is my life, and God’s ideal is my ideal. This is the first and original fatherchild relationship, where unification occurs. (69:78, October 20, 1973)

After creating Adam and Eve, God showered true love upon them. Who initiated true love? It was not Adam and Eve. It was God, loving them as His children. It is like a newborn baby who dwells in the warmth of its parents’ love; however, it is ignorant of love and thinks that its parents exist for it alone. It knows nothing of its parents’ other concerns. God’s parental love encompasses everything, yet we first come into an awareness of God’s love just as babies come into an awareness of their parents’ love. They smile to see their parents and are grateful for their protection. This is how the love of the Parent and His children grows. (149:312, December 21, 1986)

God created human beings out of His absolute love, to be His partners in love. This relationship forms an axis of love, linking God the Father with human beings as His sons and daughters.
Is there anything higher or more precious than to be a son or daughter of God? If anything were higher, then surely human desire would aspire to attain it. But there is nothing higher. Do you think that when the omniscient and omnipotent God created Adam and Eve, He secretly reserved the highest position for Himself and made Adam and Eve to be only second best? We cannot imagine that God would do that to His children, to His partners who share absolute love with Him. As our eternal True Parent, God invested Himself one hundred percent into the creation of human beings and endowed us with the right to have equal status with Him, to participate in His work as equals, to live with Him, and to inherit from Him. God bestowed upon human beings all of His attributes. (September 12, 2005)

God is the Father of human beings, and we are His children. Then suppose someone said to God, “Your child is more handsome than you.” Would God be happy to hear that remark, or would it make Him feel bad? If He were to feel bad, then God would be beneath the level of humans. Of course, He would be happy. That is the logic of love. (40:343, February 11, 1971)

The horizontal love between a husband and a wife blossoms with God’s ideal love, and the fragrance of their love oscillates throughout the universe even as God’s love is added on to their love: This is the truth of the relationship of the Father with His children at its perfection. (101:34-35, October 28, 1978)

May Some Holy Aspiration Enter Our Hearts

Luke 4

31 Jesus went to the town of Capernaum in Galilee and taught the people on the Sabbath. 32 His teaching amazed them because he spoke with power. 33 There in the Jewish meeting place was a man with an evil spirit. He yelled out, 34 “Hey, Jesus of Nazareth, what do you want with us? Are you here to get rid of us? I know who you are! You are God’s Holy One.”

35 Jesus ordered the evil spirit to be quiet and come out. The demon threw the man to the ground in front of everyone and left without harming him.

36 They all were amazed and kept saying to each other, “What kind of teaching is this? He has power to order evil spirits out of people!” 37 News about Jesus spread all over that part of the country.

1 Chronicles 25

4 Heman had fourteen sons: Bukkiah, Mattaniah, Uzziel, Shebuel, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Hanani, Eliathah, Giddalti, Romamtiezer, Joshbekashah, Mallothi, Hothir, Mahazioth. 5 Heman was one of the king’s prophets, and God honored Heman by giving him fourteen sons and three daughters. 6 His sons were under his direction and played cymbals, harps, and other stringed instruments during times of worship at the temple.

Asaph, Jeduthun, and Heman took their orders directly from the king.

7 There were two hundred eighty-eight of these men, and all of them were skilled musicians. 8 David assigned them their duties by asking the Lord what he wanted.[b] Everyone was responsible for something, whether young or old, teacher or student.

9-31 The musicians were divided into twenty-four groups of twelve, and each group went by the name of their family leader. They were assigned their duties in the following order: Joseph, Gedaliah, Zaccur, Zeri, Nethaniah, Bukkiah, Asarelah, Jeshaiah, Mattaniah, Shimei, Uzziel, Hashabiah, Shebuel, Mattithiah, Jerimoth, Hananiah, Joshbekashah, Hanani, Mallothi, Eliathah, Hothir, Giddalti, Mahazioth, and Romamtiezer.

World Scripture and the Teachings of
Sun Myung Moon

Chapter 3

The Purpose of Human Life

Sons and Daughters of God

Jewish and Christian scriptures call God our “heavenly Father”; this insight can be found in most of the world’s faiths. Therefore, human beings are supposed to be God’s sons and daughters. How genuine that Parent-child relationship can be is the subject of the passages in this section. Father Moon teaches that the depth and emotive power of our relationship with God should be even greater than the filial affection and obligation we feel toward our physical parents who gave us birth. The notion that a human being can and should share God’s heart, God’s situation, and God’s sense of responsibility for the world in the same way that a filial son carries burdens for his aging father—what profound implications this can have for our life with God!

1. Our Birthright as God’s Sons and Daughters

You are the children of the Lord your God.
Deuteronomy 14.1

For all who are led by the spirit of God are sons of
God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery
to fall back into fear, but you have received the
spirit of sonship. When we cry, “Abba! Father!”
it is the Spirit himself bearing witness that we
are the children of God, and if children, then
heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ,
provided that we suffer with him in order that
we may also be glorified with him.
Romans 8.14-17

Anas and ‘Abdullah reported God’s Messenger
as saying, “All [human] creatures are God’s chil-
dren, and those dearest to God are those who
treat His children kindly.”
Hadith of Baihaqi (Islam)

We are the children of our Maker
And do not fear that He will kill us.
We are the children of God
And do not fear that He will kill.
Dinka Prayer (African Traditional Religions)

See what love the Father has given us, that we
should be called children of God; and so we
are.
1 John 3.1

Let the children come to me, and do not hinder
them, for to such belongs the kingdom of God.
Truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the
kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it.
Luke 18.16-17

I say, “You are gods,
sons of the Most High, all of you.
Psalm 82.6

May the words of the prophet Asaph apply—
“Ye are gods, and all of you are children of the
most High,”—lest we, abusing the Father’s most
indulgent generosity, render that unfettered
choice which He gave us harmful rather than
beneficial. May some holy aspiration enter our
hearts, so that we are not content with middling
things, but pant for the highest and strain to
achieve them, since we can if we will.
Pico della Mirandola, On the Dignity of Man
(Christianity)