Who Is In the First Resurrection?

Mark 12

36 The Holy Spirit led David to say,

‘The Lord said to my Lord:
    Sit at my right side
until I make your enemies
    into a footstool for you.’

Ezekiel 27

7 I told them to get rid of their disgusting idols and not to sin by worshiping the gods of Egypt. I reminded them that I was the Lord their God, 8 but they still rebelled against me. They refused to listen and kept on worshiping their idols and foreign gods.

Richard: Return to God. Forswear the pursuit of money, power and illicit sex.

Resurrection

2. The Resurrection of the Saints—The First Resurrection

For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the archangel’s call, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first; then we who are alive, who are left, shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so we shall always be with the Lord.
    1 Thessalonians 4.16-17
 
For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive. But each in his own order: Christ the first fruits, then at his coming those who belong to Christ. Then comes the end, when he delivers the kingdom to God the Father after destroying every rule and every authority and every power. For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death.
    1 Corinthians 15.22-26
 
Then I looked, and lo, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with him a hundred and forty-four thousand who had his name and his Father’s name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the sound of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder; the voice I heard was like the sound of harpers playing on their harps, and they sing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the hundred and forty-four thousand who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are chaste; it is these who follow the Lamb wherever he goes; these have been redeemed from mankind as first fruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are spotless…
    Revelation 14.1-5
 
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven, holding in his hand the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain. And he seized the dragon, that ancient serpent, who is the Devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years, and threw him into the pit, and shut it and sealed it over him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till the thousand years were ended. After that he must be loosed for a little while.
    Then I saw thrones, and seated on them were those to whom judgment was committed. Also I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded for their testimony to Jesus and for the word of God, and who had not worshiped the beast or its image and had not received its mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life, and reigned with Christ a thousand years. The rest of the dead did not come to life until the thousand years were ended. This is the first resurrection. Blessed and holy is he who shares in the first resurrection!
    Revelation 20.1-6
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
The “first resurrection” spoken of in the Bible describes the fulfillment of restoration for the first time in providential history. This will be accomplished through Christ at the Second Advent. He will cleanse people of the original sin and restore them to their true, original selves, enabling each to fulfill the purpose of creation. 
    The hope of all Christians is to participate in the first resurrection. But who in fact shall participate? It will be those who are the first to believe in, serve and follow Christ at the Second Advent. They will assist him in fulfilling all the indemnity conditions worldwide and in accomplishing the providence of restoration. In the process, they will be the first to have their original sin removed, become divine spirits, and fulfill the purpose of creation…
    In order for Christ at the Second Advent to complete the providence of restoration, he must find a certain number of people who can restore through indemnity the missions of all the past saints who, despite their best efforts to do God’s Will, fell prey to Satan when they failed in their responsibilities. He must find these people during his lifetime and lay the foundation of victory over Satan’s world. The total number of saints whom Christ at the Second Advent must find to accomplish this task is 144,000. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 2.2.7)
 
    What is the secret that will enable us to chase out Satan from everywhere? It is to live for the sake of others, die for the sake of others, and practice altruistic love. When we do that, Satan will certainly flee, breaking down all the barriers and national borders that he had erected.
    What will happen next? Once Satan is gone, souls who had been headed for hell will be given the opportunity to resurrect and enter heaven. Eternal life will finally become a reality.
    As people who know God and the Kingdom of Heaven, we will call on God, the Source of love, as our Father. We will earnestly desire to practice God’s tradition of living for others, and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years. This is the tradition of eternal life, established in people of the eternal lineage. It is for us to share. (August 18, 2000)
 
 

Those Who Are Willing to Die Shall Live

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1566

These eight months of January through August have all been part of a new era in 1989. It is now the end of August isn’t it? The course of global indemnity has been completed in these eight months. In connection with this we were able to hold many events last year, including the cross-cultural “exchange” Holy Blessing and the declaration of the Foundation Day for the Nation of the Unified World. Thus, all conditions of indemnity were fulfilled. In this way, everything was brought to completion in August. This includes the marine and water related activities. I have accomplished so much up to this point. (193-100, 1989.8.31)The Way in the Completed Testament Age

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1662

The position of a married couple is truly a great one. There, the fulfillment of hope that humankind has yearned for throughout history blossoms in the form of children, siblings and spouses. In this way, just as God began His work of creation with love, the couple that represents Adam and Eve will begin to create on their own through the act of giving birth to their children. They take the position of substantial creators, and in the position of horizontal creators in relation to their children, they bear them. This is the making of the third creators, namely the children.

Resurrection

1. The Dead Return to Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Many have hitherto believed that the death caused by the Fall was physical death. Consequently, they have interpreted the biblical concept of resurrection as revival from physical death, and believed that resurrection of the dead involves the biological regeneration of their decomposed bodies. However, the Fall of the first human ancestors did not cause this kind of death. According to the Principle of Creation, the human body was created to return to dust after it grows old. A decomposed body cannot be restored to its original state. Furthermore, it is not necessary for a spirit to take on another physical body when he is meant to enjoy eternal life in the vast spirit world.
    Resurrection may be defined as the process of being restored from the death caused by the Fall to life, from the realm of Satan’s dominion to the realm of God’s direct dominion, through the providence of restoration. Accordingly, whenever we repent of our sins and rise to a higher state of goodness, we are resurrected to that degree.
    The Bible illustrates the process of resurrection: “He who hears my word and believes him who sent me, has eternal life; he does not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life.” (John 5.24) Based on this verse, we can affirm that resurrection means to leave the bosom of Satan and return to the bosom of God. It is also written, “For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.” (1 Cor. 15.22) This verse means that because we inherited Satan’s lineage as a result of Adam’s fall, we are dead; when we return to the lineage of God through Christ, we shall be resurrected to life…
    The changes a person experiences when he is resurrected and enters the governance of God take place in his heart and spirit. These internal changes also purify his body, transforming it from a haunt of Satan into a temple of God. In this sense, we may say that our physical body is also resurrected. We may compare it to a building that was previously used for evil purposes and is now used as a place of worship. Although there may be no change in its outward appearance, it is now sanctified as a sacred building. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.3-4)
 
What happens to us after we die? Up to the moment we die, we belong to ourselves. But after we die, we belong to God. Because we were born of a fallen lineage, until death we cannot sever our ties with Satan. After death, however, we can establish ties with God. Therefore, unless we die we cannot be resurrected…
    Therefore, when the Bible teaches, “Those who are willing to die shall live, while those who want to live shall die,” it means by death not the end of our God-given eternal life, but rather the end of our fallen life into which we were born from a fallen lineage in a fallen world. (December 19, 1998)
 
The Bible teaches that those who are willing to die shall live, and those who want to live shall die. This means that in order to escape from the fallen realm we must be willing to give up our lives. There is no true life in the fallen realm. Hence, when we deny this fallen life, we can be resurrected. Jesus was resurrected because he denied his own life. Jesus could not resurrect himself; it was God who raised him. (307:167, November 8, 1998)
 
 
 

I Will Place You In Your Own Land

John 6

52 They started arguing with each other and asked, “How can he give us his flesh to eat?”

Richard: People of faith often argue with each other and cause divisions. Rather, we should focus on the core content of what God is asking us, as believers, to do. That involves loving God and loving your neighbor, and following God’s commandments regarding sexual purity before and within Blessed marriage.

Amos 7

7 The Lord God showed me that he is going to send locusts to attack your crops. It will happen after the king has already been given his share of the grain and before the rest of the grain has been harvested. 2 In my vision the locusts ate every crop in the land, and I said to the Lord, “Forgive me for asking, but how can the nation survive? It’s so weak.”

3 Then the Lord felt sorry and answered, “I won’t let it be destroyed.”

Resurrection

The resurrection of the dead prophesied in the Bible and the Qur’an holds out the promise of a blessed future life with God. Resurrection is not simply a matter of the soul’s natural transition at death from this world into the afterlife. It is God’s saving act to raise the soul from the realm of death to life eternal. In resurrection, we gain not simply a new opportunity to live; we gain a new quality of life. Father Moon teaches that we are raised spiritually from a hellish existence within the realm of death to a blessed existence in the bosom of God. Resurrection requires some condition on our part to claim the new life that God offers: dying to self, confirmed faith, even martyrdom. This is the “death” to self that severs our ties with Satan, in order that we may more completely relate with God. Just as Jesus died on the cross as a precondition to his resurrection, so we too may face a trial. Jesus’ triumph over seeming defeat at the hands of the romans demonstrates that God can turn defeat and even death into victory and life. scripture speaks of a Day of resurrection in the end times, when all the souls of the righteous will be raised up to heaven. The bible speaks of the 144,000 saints of the “first resurrection.” this means that even in the afterlife, spirits are languishing in darkness, oppressed by evil conditions until the future day of their liberation. When the Messiah comes and defeats and binds Satan in prison, on that day all souls in heaven and earth will taste the freedom of resurrection and new life. But as Father Moon makes clear, the purpose of the first Resurrection is not to reward certain believers with eternal glory at everyone else’s expense. rather, the saints at the first resurrection will join in the struggle to defeat all the powers of evil, until, in the words of Paul, “the last enemy to be destroyed is death,” that is, until not one soul remains in the realm of death.

1. The Dead Return to Life

And listen on the day when the crier cries from a near place, the day when they will hear the Cry in truth. That is the Day of the Coming Forth (from the graves). Verily We give life and give death, and to Us is the journeying. On the day when the earth splits asunder from them, and hastening forth they come. That is a gathering easy for Us.
    Qur’an 50.41-44

The hand of the lord was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the lord, and set me down in the midst of the valley; it was full of bones… and lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, “Son of man, can these bones live?” And I answered, “O Lord god, thou knowest.”
    Again he said to me, “Prophesy to these bones, and say to them, O dry bones, hear the word of the lord. Thus says the Lord god to these bones, Behold, I will cause breath to enter you, and you shall live. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to come upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live. And you shall know that I am the Lord.”
   So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone. And as I looked, there were sinews on them, and flesh came upon them, and skin covered them… and breath came into them, and they lived, and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great host.
    Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, ‘Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost; we are clean cut off.’ Therefore prophesy, and say to them, Thus says the Lord god, Behold, I will open your graves, and raise you from your graves, O my people, and I will bring you home into the land of Israel… And I will put my Spirit within you, and you shall live, and I will place you in your own land. Then you shall know that I, the lord, have spoken, and I have done it, says the lord.”
    Ezekiel 37.1-14

“I will place you in your own land. Then you shall
know that I, the Lord , have spoken, and I have
done it, says the Lord .” 
    Ezekiel 37.1-14

“Shall we really be restored to our first state
even after we are crumbled bones?
That would be a vain proceeding,” they say.
Surely it will need but one shout,
and lo! they will be awakened.
    Qur’an 79.10-14

For as in Adam all die, so also in Christ shall all be made alive.
    1 Corinthians 15.22

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live, and whoever lives and believes in me shall never die.”
    John 11.25

I know that my Redeemer lives,
and at last he will stand upon the earth;
and after my skin has been thus destroyed,
then from my flesh I shall see God.
    Job 9.25-26

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.
    John 12.24-25

And among His signs is this: you see the earth barren and desolate, but when We send down rain to it, it is stirred to life and yields increase. Truly, He who gives life to the dead earth can surely give life to men who are dead. For He has power over all things.
    Qur’an 41.39

So it is with the resurrection from the dead. What is sown is perishable, what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness, it is raised in power. It is sown in a physical body, it is raised in a spiritual body. If there is a physical body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
    1 Corinthians 15.42-45

We Are Reborn Through the Path of Love

The Richard Urban Show
#91-Seth Rich Murder and Cover-Up-New Evidence

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2166

So if you, in the position of a special emissary, send a request that you urgently need such and such, don’t you think He would brave troubles and difficulties from every sector to send it to you? In the same way, if you have that conviction and recognize that you are sons and daughters of God’s special glory and ask, saying, “This is what I need, Father; please make it possible,” then it will come into being. In this way, you can discover God as He lives and see God working.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1648

What are the fundamentals of the universe? Since all creation originated from love, then, in order to find and fulfill love, there must be male and female. In the case of animals, it would be male and female; so what would it be in the case of plants? It would be pistil and stamen. In the case of the mineral kingdom, the male and female would be the positive and negative ions in a molecule. Everything exists as male and female. (273-91, 1995.10.22)

Rebirth

3. Rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit

When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance…

And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.”
    Acts 2.1-4, 38-39

We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life.
    Titus 3.3-7

The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price.
    Revelation 22.17

Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day. For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever.
    John 6.53-58

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

We are reborn through the path of love. It begins when we yearn for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Bride, and the resurrected Jesus is the Bridegroom. They are our spiritual parents, and their love is the basis of our rebirth. As conception and birth originate in the love between a woman and a man, we are reborn through the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they become one.
    Once we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, we naturally feel great affection and yearning for Jesus. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, moving our hearts to welcome Jesus the Bridegroom. When we are spiritually united with them, rejoicing in that state of oneness, we can regain the lost standard of original love. That is the experience of rebirth in Christianity. According to the Principle, in that moment we are resurrected to new life. (October 13, 1970)

Jesus gives the bridegroom’s love and the Holy Spirit gives the bride’s love: that love must become my bone and flesh. That is, as Jesus said, “I am in you and you are in me.” Unless this foundation of heart-felt love is established, there is no rebirth. People easily say, “You must be born again,” but in fact, to be reborn you need to love Jesus more than anyone else. Satan’s dominion over humankind is based on his false love, so unless your love centered on God surpasses any human love in the fallen world, there is no way for you to connect to God. (114:28, May 14, 1981)

Christianity began from Jesus’ blood on the cross. Why is Jesus’ blood so meaningful? Jesus came as the True Father. Jesus’ blood signifies the blood of the perfected father, with no trace of the Fall. However, can a father alone bequeath a lineage? Not without a mother! That is why the goal of the Old Testament was to have the Marriage of the Lamb. (193:57, August 20, 1989)

In Christianity, the Holy Spirit has been taking the role of mother. We are born again on the spiritual level through the mother, the Holy Spirit, and the father’s spirit, Jesus’ spirit.
    Of course, we were born from our mother’s womb. However, even beyond the womb, our life originated from our father’s seed. Hence, while going back to the mother’s womb exchanges the false lineage for the true lineage, it does not yet give us the father’s seed.
    Therefore, Christians have been longing for the True Father, who appears as the Second Coming of the Lord. He is the origin of new life. As Adam before the Fall already held in his body the seed of his children, the True Father holds within His body the seed that will bear fruit as the sons and daughters of God. (55:117-18, April 1, 1972)

 
 
 

Resurrection Is the Process of Being Restored


The Richard Urban Show
#91-Seth Rich Murder and Cover-Up-New Evidence

Luke 3

7 Crowds of people came out to be baptized, but John said to them, “You bunch of snakes! Who warned you to run from the coming judgment? 8 Do something to show that you really have given up your sins. Don’t start saying that you belong to Abraham’s family. God can turn these stones into children for Abraham.9 An ax is ready to cut the trees down at their roots. Any tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into a fire.”

Isaiah 47

47 City of Babylon,
You are delicate
    and untouched,
    but that will change.
Surrender your royal power
    and sit in the dirt.
2 Start grinding grain!
    Take off your veil.
Strip off your fancy clothes
    and cross over rivers.
3 You will suffer the shame
    of going naked,
because I will take revenge,
    and no one can escape.
4 I am the Lord All-Powerful,
the holy God of Israel.
    I am their Savior.

Rebirth

2. Rebirth Requires Cutting Off the Old Self

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 with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him.
    Romans 8.14-17
 
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and puts off the natural man and becomes a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becomes as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord sees fit to inflict upon him, even as a child submits to his father.
    Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3.19 (Latter-day Saints)
 
These same people, though wrapped in all these veils of limitation, and despite the restraint of such observances, as soon as they drank the immortal draught of faith, from the cup of certitude, at the hand of the Manifestation of the All-glorious, were so transformed that they would renounce for his sake their kindred, their substance, their lives, their beliefs, yea, all else save God! So over-powering was their yearning for God, so uplifting their transports of ecstatic delight, that the world and all that is therein faded before their eyes into nothingness. Have not this people exemplified the mysteries of rebirth?
    Book of Certitude 155 (Baha’i Faith)
 
Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon
 
 
We cannot be born again unless we deny our fallen selves. (244:100, January 31, 1993)
 
Christianity teaches that we cannot be saved unless we receive the Holy Spirit. We come before God when the Holy Spirit visits us and connects us with the Savior. The Holy Spirit comes to bring us to Heaven, to the God of goodness. But before we can receive it, first we must repent. (99:75, September 1, 1978)
 
Resurrection may be defined as the process of being restored from the death caused by the Fall to life, from the realm of Satan’s dominion to the realm of God’s direct dominion, through the providence of restoration. Accordingly, whenever we repent of our sins and rise to a higher state of goodness, we are resurrected to that degree.   (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.3)
 
Father! Because we were born from evil,
we must be born again to goodness.
The destiny of having to be born twice is a very miserable one.
Isn’t living as a stepchild very regrettable even in the world?
Yet we are not even at the level of stepchildren;
having been born as children of the enemy we must find our Original Parents,
but the path is never a smooth one.
Therefore, we receive countless attacks from Satan’s spears, swords and arrows.
We must cut the ties that bind our bodies and go forth.
We must confront the people that bind us and cut their ties,
whether with our teeth or with our strength. (27:161, December 7, 1969)