Although They Knew God They Did Not Honor Him

Happy New Year!

The Richard Urban Show
#81-Who Will Give the Faithful Report?

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John 18

15 Simon Peter and another disciple followed Jesus. That disciple knew the high priest, and he followed Jesus into the courtyard of the high priest’s house. 16 Peter stayed outside near the gate. But the other disciple came back out and spoke to the girl at the gate. She let Peter go in, 17 but asked him, “Aren’t you one of that man’s followers?”

“No, I am not!” Peter answered.

18 It was cold, and the servants and temple police had made a charcoal fire. They were warming themselves around it, when Peter went over and stood near the fire to warm himself.

Job 7

18 Why do you test us
    from sunrise to sunset?
19 Won’t you look away
just long enough
    for me to swallow?
20 Why do you watch us so closely?
    What’s it to you, if I sin?
Why am I your target
    and such a heavy burden?
21 Why do you refuse to forgive?
Soon you won’t find me,
    because I’ll be dead.

Ignorance and Atheism

Many religions regard ignorance as the cause of evil in human life. being ignorant of God and the purpose of life, people’s values become confused, and consequently they act wrongly. the apostle Paul taught that ignorance of God lay at the root of all forms of license and immorality. in Islam it is called “forgetting God,” causing people to deviate from the path and lose their souls. in Buddhism, this ignorance leads to grasping after self and begets delusion (moha). Many scriptures warn against the illusory goals and vanities that infect worldly life.
In their search for knowledge, people have embraced various philosophies, yet it is clear that none of them have illuminated the truth one hundred percent. oftentimes, valid insights are mixed with false views, leading to confusion and conflict over values, to skepticism and even atheism. this too is the result of humanity’s fundamental ignorance, whose source stems from the human Fall, according to Father Moon. as a prophet of the twentieth century who lived through the struggle with communism, he is particularly concerned about this contemporary form of ignorance.
The concluding passages describe humanity’s spiritual blindness. they describe ignorance as a veil that obscures the faculty of insight. the buddha used metaphors such as moths drawn to perish in a lamp to represent people’s attraction to the illusory vanities of this world. in Hinduism and Jainism, this blindness (avidya) is what binds people to the wheel of birth-and-death (samsara), binding them sense pleasures instead of seeking reality itself. Plato’s famous Myth of the cave speaks to this topic. Father Moon likewise describes a pervasive delusion, born of the human Fall, that leaves human beings blind to spiritual truth and totally unable to know God’s inner heart.

  1. Ignorance of God

Be not like those who forget God, and therefore He made them forget their own souls!
Qur’an 59.19

Although they knew God they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their sense-less minds were darkened. Claiming to be wise, they became fools, and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.
Romans 1.21-25

The fool says in his heart,
“There is no God.”
They are all corrupt, they do abominable deeds,
there is none that does good.
The Lord looks down from heaven
upon the children of men,
to see if there are any that act wisely,
that seek after God.
They have all gone astray,
they are all alike corrupt;
there is none that does good,
no, not one.
Have they no knowledge,
all the evildoers
who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon the Lord ?
Psalm 14.1-4

Whoever wants to do some evil against another does not remember God.
Proverb (African Traditional Religions)

He who does not clearly understand Heaven will not be pure in virtue. He who has not mastered the Way will find himself without any accept-able path of approach. He who does not under-stand the Way is pitiable indeed!
Chuang Tzu 11 (Taoism)

No man lies to his neighbor until he has denied the Root. It happened once that Rabbi Reuben was in Tiberias on the Sabbath, and a philosopher asked him, “Who is the most hateful man in the world?” He replied, “The man who denies his Creator.” “How so?” asked the philosopher. Rabbi Reuben answered, “‘Honor thy father and thy mother, thou shalt not murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor, thou shalt not covet.’ No man denies the derivative [the Ten Commandments] until he has previously denied the Root [God], and no man sins unless he has denied Him who com-manded him not to commit that sin.”
Tosefta Shevuot 3.6 (Judaism)

The demonic do things they should avoid and avoid the things they should do. They have no sense of uprightness, purity, or truth.

“There is no God,” they say, “no truth, no spiritual law, no moral order. The basis of life is sex; what else can it be?” Holding such distorted views, possessing scant discrimination, they become enemies of the world, causing suffering and destruction.

Hypocritical, proud, and arrogant, living in delusion and clinging to deluded ideas, insatiable in their desires, they pursue their unclean ends. Although burdened with fears that end only with death, they still maintain with complete assurance, “Gratification of lust is the highest that life can offer.”

Bound on all sides by scheming and anxiety, driven by anger and greed, they amass by any means they can a hoard of money for the satisfaction of their cravings.

“I got this today,” they say; “tomorrow I shall get that. This wealth is mine, and that will be mine too. I have destroyed my enemies. I shall destroy others too! Am I not like God? I enjoy what I want. I am successful. I am powerful. I am happy. I am rich and well-born. Who is equal to me? I will perform sacrifices and give gifts, and rejoice in my own generosity.”

This is how they go on, deluded by ignorance. Bound by their greed and entangled in a web of delusion, whirled about by a fragmented mind, they fall into a dark hell.
Bhagavad-Gita 16.7-16 (Hinduism)

Only Rev. Moon’s Ideology Is the Hope

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 1924

There are 3 billion people living in Asia. We are now living in the time of the Pacific cultural sphere. Such a time has come. History has passed through a riv-er culture, through the Mediterranean cultural sphere, and has come around to the Atlantic cultural sphere. Now we are entering an age where we can leap into the cultural sphere of outer space, centering on the Pacific cultural sphere. How to continue linking all this together is a question for the world’s political tacticians to explore, but they will not find an answer. I have gathered the prominent politicians of the world to countless international conferences. Their conclusion is that only Rev. Moon’s ideology is the hope for this age – and not America, France, Germany, Britain or even the Soviet Union. (174-48, 1988.2.23)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1265

What do true parents signify? They are the symbol of hope for everyone. They are the absolute symbol of hope for fallen humankind. They are the fruit of past history, the center of this era, and the starting point of the future of hope which connects to the world we live in today. (35-236, 1970.10.19)

Egoism and Pride

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

In your walk of faith, regard arrogance as the enemy, regard stubbornness as the enemy, and regard insisting on your own way as the enemy. (67:139, June 1, 1973)\

Because people are self-centered in their thinking, they speak ill of others. When others have some-thing good, they want to take it from them. Such people are doomed. What about you? Is your mind self-centered or other-centered? No one can solve this problem but you. (36:183, November 29, 1970)

People whose philosophy of life is “me first” are doomed to perish. In pursuing their own desires they harm others and damage their nation—such people will perish. Individuals should not take advantage of their nation; rather, individuals should offer themselves for their nation. That is a duty of citizens.
    People are not meant to live for themselves. Yet today many live only for their own sake. They say, “I live for me.” They are people to be pitied, like orphans who have no parents or siblings. (24:20-21, June 22, 1969)

The first step towards the Fall was the appearance of individualism. It was thinking that nothing in the world matters but me. The next step was to think people have unlimited freedom: “What’s this with God telling us we cannot eat that fruit? Why should there be any rules to restrict us? We can do as we please.” Is it freedom when people do just as they please? It should not be that way. (49:190, October 10, 1971)
 
From the day the first human ancestors fell and received the blood of Satan, people unconsciously became arrogant and have used others to satisfy their needs. They have pursued that direction throughout human history. (46:142, August 13, 1971)
 
What is the Fall? It is to unlawfully take what belongs to someone else. Self-centeredness ruined the world. Knowing this universal principle, human beings should return to the world of oneness, but instead they continue to play the game of pulling the world for themselves. That is evil. (170:174, November 15, 1987)
 
Human beings have inherited Satan’s nature: the inclination to regard everything, even God, from a self-centered viewpoint. (91:242, February 23, 1977)
 
Are Americans proud of their money? Do not be proud of it before God. God can create money as much as He wants. Nor should Americans be proud of their power and military might: God is all-powerful. God is all-knowing: who can challenge Him with knowledge? It doesn’t matter that you earned a Ph.D. from Harvard; you are all the same when you stand naked before Him. Your knowl-edge will not gain you admission into the Kingdom of Heaven. All who are proud of these things will fall into hell. (358:162, October 14, 2001)
 
I know that American culture upholds individualism. However, there must not be individualism that disregards the relationship between God, the Subject, and human beings, His objects. Selfish individualism is destructive, and its prevalence is driving America into a corner.
    Now America should recover the essence of Christianity by seeking for God’s original way of life: The individual lives for the sake of the family; families contribute to the community; communities give their strength to the nation; nations exist to benefit the world; and the world exists for the sake of God. These are God’s heavenly ethics. If we practice it, then what is God’s is also mine, and whatever I do for God also benefits me. Living for the sake of God is ultimately living for my own benefit. (69:88-89, October 20, 1973)
Selfish individualism is Satan’s creation, a result of the Fall. As Satan centers on himself, he divides people by having them center on themselves. Thus one [an individual] becomes two [mind and body in conflict.] Two [a couple] become four [the man’s mind, the man’s body, the woman’s mind and the woman’s body.]
    Why did America become such an individualistic nation? It is because Satan is exerting his dominion there. The so-called right of privacy is at the heart of American individualism. Yet this individualism is causing the family to break down, the society to break down, and the nation to weaken. Individualism is a most fearful thing; it leads people to hell. (361:234, November 25, 2001) 
 
What is the origin of the dirt that has stained human history? It begins from ourselves. Dirt did not just fall on our first ancestors; they made themselves dirty. How did they become dirty? They thought of themselves as being the center of everything; egoism and selfishness are what stained them.
    If our ancestors had lived in service to what is more precious than themselves, then they would not have taken the path to defilement. What is more precious than oneself? We are resultant beings; therefore, we should live for the Causal Being. God is that most precious existence, and we should live for Him. Had people truly lived for God and thought of God before thinking of themselves, we could never have become evil. (92:58-59, March 13, 1977)
 
Many of you soon become arrogant and think, “I am a member of the Unification Church. I have worked for the church for three years, so it’s about time that Reverend Moon gives me the Blessing. Then he should recognize me, and so should the church.” What a pity if you think that way! In our church there are two ways of life: arrogance and humility. The way of arrogance leads to hell, while the way of humility leads to heaven. What about you: do you belong to heaven or to hell? (92:71, March 13, 1977)
 
 

The Fool Who Thinks He Is Wise Is Called a Fool Indeed

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

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Luke 24

44 Jesus said to them, “While I was still with you, I told you that everything written about me in the Law of Moses, the Books of the Prophets, and in the Psalms[d] had to happen.”

Proverbs 30

30 These are the sayings
    and the message
    of Agur son of Jakeh.
Someone cries out to God,
    “I am completely worn out!
    How can I last?[a]
2 I am far too stupid
    to be considered human.
3 I never was wise,
    and I don’t understand
    what God is like.”

4 Has anyone gone up to heaven
    and come back down?
    Has anyone grabbed hold
    of the wind?
Has anyone wrapped up the sea
    or marked out boundaries
    for the earth?
If you know of any
    who have done such things,
    then tell me their names
    and their children’s names.

5 Everything God says is true—
    and it’s a shield for all
    who come to him for safety.
6 Don’t change what God has said!
    He will correct you and show
    that you are a liar.

Egoism and Pride

Egoism, the inordinate preoccupation with one’s own self, makes people blind to the reality of God. the problem is compounded by pride—pride in oneself, pride in one’s wealth, knowledge or power. ego-ism and pride close us off from God. thinking ourselves to be independent, we cannot recognize that our very existence is dependent upon ultimate reality. pride makes us blind to the needs of others and too stubborn to accept help from others. pride makes us unable even to take an accurate measure of ourselves.  
   
    In Christianity, pride is regarded as the first step to the fall and rebellion against God. in Buddhism, grasping after the self and the sense of ego is the chief of all cravings and the deepest root of ignorance. in the Indic religions egoism is a fetter that binds people to the wheel of rebirth.
    Father Moon reiterates these universal teachings, but with particular emphasis on the social manifestations of pride and egoism among the affluent people of today’s wealthy and powerful nations. he warns America in particular that it had better repent for its arrogance, which is seeping into every cranny of the social fabric, or inevitably it will decline. he also links egoism and pride to the human Fall, which implanted that wicked propensity deep in the human mind. 
 
Verily man is rebellious
For he thinks himself independent.
Lo! unto thy Lord is the return.
    Qur’an 96.6-8
 
Pride goes before destruction,
and a haughty spirit before a fall.
    Proverbs 16.18

Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes,
and shrewd in their own sight!
    Isaiah 5.21
 
 
Selfishness may be sweet for oneself, but no har-mony of the whole can come from it.
    Osashizu (Tenrikyo)
 
We maintain that all pain and suffering are results of want of Harmony, and that the one terrible and only cause of the disturbance of Harmony is selfishness in some form or another.
    Helena Blavatsky, The Key to Theosophy
 
In thinking, “This is I” and “That is mine,” he binds himself with his self, as does a bird with a snare.
    Maitri Upanishad 3.2 (Hinduism)
 
“Sons have I; wealth have I”: Thus is the fool worried. Verily, he himself is not his own. Whence sons? Whence wealth?
    Dhammapada 62 (Buddhism)
 
Where egoism exists, Thou are not experienced,Where Thou art, is not egoism.
    Adi Granth, Maru-ki-Var, M.1, p. 1092 (Sikhism)

But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked;
you waxed fat, you grew thick, you became sleek;
then he forsook God who made him,
and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
     Deuteronomy 32.15

Nzame [God] is on high, man is on the earth.
Yeye O, Yalele, God is God, man is man.
Everyone in his house, everyone for himself. 
    Fang Tradition (African Traditional Religions)

For the Lord of hosts has a day
against all that is proud and lofty,
against all that is lifted up and high;
against all the cedars of Lebanon
lofty and lifted up;
and against all the oaks of Bashan;
against all the high mountains
and against all the lofty hills;
against every high tower,
and against every fortified wall;
against all the ships of Tarshish,
and against all the beautiful craft.
And the haughtiness of man shall be humbled,
and the pride of men shall be brought low;
and the l ord alone will be exalted in that day.
    Isaiah 2.12-17

The fool who thinks he is wise is called a fool indeed.
    Dhammapada 63 (Buddhism)
 
Whoever proclaims himself good,
know, goodness approaches him not.
    Adi Granth, Gauri Sukhmani 12, M.5, p. 278 (Sikhism)
 
Confucius said, A faultless man I cannot hope ever to meet; the most I can hope for is to meet a man of fixed principles. Yet where all around I see Nothing pretending to be Something, Emptiness pretending to be Fullness, Penury pretending to be Affluence, even a man of fixed principles will be none too easy to find.
    Analects 7.25 (Confucianism)
 
He who tiptoes cannot stand;
He who strides cannot walk.
He who shows himself is not conspicuous;
He who considers himself right is not illustrious;
He who brags will have no merit;
He who boasts will not endure.
From the point of view of the Way, these are like “excessive food and useless excrescences” which all creatures detest.
He who has the Way does not abide in them.
    Tao Te Ching 24 (Taoism)

Pride has seven forms:
Boasting that one is lower than the lowly,
Or equal with the equal, or greater than
Or equal to the lowly
Is called the pride of selfhood.
Boasting that one is equal to those
Who by some quality are better than oneself
Is the pride of being superior. Thinking
That one is higher than the extremely high,
Who fancy themselves to be superior,
Is pride greater than pride;
Like an abscess in a tumor
It is very vicious.
Conceiving an “I” through ignorance
In the five empty [aggregates]
Which are called the appropriation
Is said to be the pride of thinking “I.”
Thinking one has won fruits not yet
Attained is pride of conceit.
Praising oneself for faulty deeds
Is known by the wise as wrongful pride.
Deriding oneself, thinking
“I am senseless,” is called
The pride of lowliness.
Such briefly are the seven prides.
    Nagarjuna, Precious Garland 406-12 (Buddhism)
 
 

We Find a Great Contradiction in Every Person

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 377

God exists in front of human beings for their sake. This is why we want to follow God forever. If you want to main-tain your own position of existence within natural law and in front of the universe’s realm of existence, you must exist for the sake of others as does the universe. In serving others, you connect to the East and West and to the past and the present. Because God has the same love in the past and at present, and in the East and in the West, He can overcome the East and the West and overcome the past, present, and even the future. God can overcome the past, present, and future, and can, therefore, always make progress. He can overcome the East and the West, and therefore unify them. This is possible only in love. (187-89, 1989.1.6)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1242

The Blessing is the most precious thing in heaven and earth. It is also the most fearful. If a blessed member is attracted to others besides his or her spouse, it is an emotional violation of the spouse. Good ancestors, the territory and the nation stem from you, the Blessed Families. That is why blessed members should think about the universe during every waking moment. You have received the Blessing so that you can share blessings with others. (13-67, 1963.10.17)

The War Within

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Human beings inherently tend to avoid evil and seek goodness. Our minds are ever eager to establish a world of goodness and eradicate the world of evil. On the other hand, we also experience an evil mind within us, which struggles powerfully against our good mind. To the degree that we hold fast to our good mind, our evil mind opposes with proportionate strength. (36:51, November 15, 1970)

Since the beginning of time, not even one person has abided strictly by his original mind. As St. Paul noted, “None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands, no one seeks for God.” (Rom. 3.10-11) Confronted with the human condition, he lamented, “For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am!” (Rom. 7.22-24)

We find a great contradiction in every person. Within the self-same individual are two opposing inclinations: the original mind that desires goodness and the evil mind that desires wickedness. They are engaged in a fierce battle, striving to accomplish two conflicting purposes. Any being possessing such a contradiction within itself is doomed to perish. Human beings, having acquired this contradiction, live on the brink of destruction.         
    Can it be that human life originated with such a contradiction? How could beings with a self-contradictory nature come into existence? If burdened by such a contradiction from its inception, human life would not have been able to arise. The contradiction, therefore, must have developed after the birth of the human race. Christianity sees this state of destruction as the result of the Human Fall. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)

The conscience is that faculty of the mind that presents God’s thought. It does not exist for you, but for the righteousness of Heaven. Your conscience always pursues goodness. The body rebels against the conscience. Your body is self-centered; it seeks its own comfort; it follows instinctive desires. Your conscience strives to have your body obey the mind and reproaches it when it does not. From this point, conflicts and struggles arise within the self. (219:118, August 28, 1991)

Our body has become the stage of Satan’s activities. It has become Satan’s dance hall. Had there not been the Human Fall, our mind and body would be one. They would become one automatically centering on God’s love, life and lineage. (235:203, September 20, 1992)

Why do human beings need religion? We need religion to conquer our body. Otherwise, due to the body, human history would be doomed; due to the body, society would be doomed; and due to the body, humankind would be doomed. Accordingly, you should deeply realize that your body is the womb of the enemy and the seedbed of sins and evils. (18:322, August 13, 1967)

Regard yourself as the problem. You can be your own worst enemy. If you cannot unite your mind and body, you become your own enemy. (128:108, June 5, 1983)

Even though [at the Fall] we received Satan’s evil seed, each person, deep in his original mind, covets God’s original, ideal seed of life. This is the basis of our internal struggles. Within each individual, two opposing elements are struggling: the original mind on God’s side, and the body on Satan’s side. For this reason, as long as we do not bring oneness in our mind and body, we cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. (235:203, September 20, 1992)

 

I Do No Understand My Own Actions

The Richard Urban Show
#80-Peace on Earth to Everyone Who Pleases God

Petition Congress Rally-January 6th, 2021, Washington DC

Sample letters to Congressman about opposing election fraud on January 6th, 2021.

Numbers 10

On the twentieth day of the second month[a] of that same year, the cloud over the sacred tent moved on. 12 So the Israelites broke camp and left the Sinai Desert. And some time later, the cloud stopped in the Paran Desert.[b]13 This was the first time the Lord had told Moses to command the people of Israel to move on.

Psalm 80

17 But help the one who sits
    at your right side,
    the one you raised
    to be your own.
18 Then we will never turn away.
    Put new life into us,
    and we will worship you.

19 Lord God All-Powerful,
make us strong again!
    Smile on us and save us.

The War Within

The human condition is beset by inner conflict between two opposing inclinations, one good and the other evil. as long as people are plagued by this inner contradiction, they can neither realize their divine self nor achieve a state of wholeness. paradoxically, people immersed in worldly life may not always recognize the war within themselves—except in the glimmerings of a guilty conscience. on the other hand, those who strive to lead a conscientious or religious life are directly confronted by this problem. 
    Father Moon teaches that this inner contradiction is a direct result of the human Fall. it cannot be that God created human beings with such a contradiction, he maintains, or God would not be a God of goodness and humans would have no hope to reach perfection. no, this inner contradiction is evidence of a distortion in human nature, caused by the human Fall. the war between mind and body will never end until the problem of the Fall is solved.

I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree that the law is good. So then it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells within me, that is, in my flesh. I can will what is right, but I cannot do it. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I do. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I that do it, but sin which dwells within me.
    So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inmost self, but I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin which dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?
    Romans 7.15-24
 
I know what is good
but I am not inclined to do it;
I know also what is bad,
but I do not refrain from doing it;
I just do as I am prompted to do
by some divine spirit
standing in my heart. 21
    Mahabharata (Hinduism)
 
Rabbi Isaac said, “Man’s evil inclination renews itself daily against him, as it is said, imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil every day.’ [Genesis 6.5].” And Rabbi Simeon ben Levi said, “Man’s evil inclination gathers strength against him daily and seeks to slay him… and were not the Holy One, blessed be He, to help him, he could not prevail against it.”
    Talmud, Kiddushin 30b (Judaism)
 
By the fetters of envy and selfishness are all bound—gods, men, demons… so that although they wish, “Would that we might live in friendship, without hatred, injury, enmity or malignity,” they still live in enmity, hating, injur-ing, hostile, malign.
    Digha Nikaya 2.276 (Buddhism)
 
All vices are like chains thrown around the neck.
    Adi Granth, Sorath, M.1 p. 595 (Sikhism)
 
Whatever harm a foe may do to a foe, or a hater to a hater, an ill-directed mind can do one far greater harm.
    Dhammapada 42 (Buddhism)
 
Surely God wrongs not men anything, but men wrong themselves.
    Qur’an 10.44
 
The spirit is indeed willing, but the flesh is weak.
    Matthew 26.41
 
Man should discover his own reality
and not thwart himself.
For he has the self as his only friend,
or as his only enemy.
A person has the self as a friend
when he has conquered himself,
But if he rejects his own reality,
the self will war against him.
    Bhagavad-Gita 6.5-6 (Hinduism)
 
The Prophet declared, “We have returned from the lesser holy war (al jihad al-asghar) to the greater holy war (al jihad al-akbar).” They asked, “O Prophet of God, which is the greater war?” He replied, “Struggle against the lower self.”
    Hadith (Islam)
 
What is the life of virtue save one unending war with evil inclinations, and not with solicitations of other people alone, but with evil inclinations that arise within ourselves and are our very own… And when we seek final rest in the supreme good, what do we seek save an end to this conflict between flesh and spirit, freedom from this propensity to evil against which the spirit is at war? Yet, will as we may, such liberty cannot be had in mortal life.
    Saint Augustine, City of God 19.4 (Christianity)