The Position of the First Son Was Taken by Satan

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 2220

We believe in God who wants to realize one world, a world of one purpose. Since God is Jehovah and Lord of all nations, and the center of all centers, when we face Him from afar, we want to be His loyal subjects. We were born for this duty and responsibility. Understand that as we draw near to Him, He becomes our Father to whom we owe the duty of filial piety as His sons and daughters. That is our priority. Only when you have lived like that can you say to God, “If you want to send me to hell, send me there. If you want to send me to Heaven, send me there. Do as you please.” Nobody went to hell after living like that. (154-314, 1964.10.5)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1188

As viewed from God’s original ideal of creation, the eldest son should come from God’s side and, of course, the second son should also come from God’s side. Due to the Fall, the position of the first son was taken by Satan, and the position of the second son went to God. This has to be made right. Thus, when we consider the story of Esau and Jacob in the Bible, Jacob united with his mother and received her help. He gave Esau the pottage of lentils and bread in exchange for the birthright of the first-born son. Until today, we could not understand why Bible history is the way it is. With the appearance of the Unification Church, its meaning was clarified for the first time. (134-304, 1985.8.16)

Suffering

2. The Futility of Human Life

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

People think, “Let us seek our pleasure during this life of less than 100 years. We have only one chance at adolescence. So, let’s eat as we wish, play as we wish, and do as we wish while we are young.” Most people who live on this earth think this way. However, even if they do everything their physical bodies desire, eventually all will come to naught. In a matter of a few years they will be bored with it all. Their life will have been in vain. (41:143, February 14, 1971)
 
Religions have made strenuous efforts to deny life in this world in their quest for the life eternal. They have despised the pleasures of the body for the sake of spiritual bliss. Yet, however hard they may try, people cannot cut themselves off from the reality of this world or annihilate the desire for physical pleasures, which follows them like a shadow and cannot be shaken off. This world and its desires tenaciously grab hold of religious people, driving them into the depths of agony. Such is the contradiction which plagues their devotional lives. Even many enlightened spiritual leaders, still torn by this contradiction, have met a sad end. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Introduction)
 
Suppose a man devotes his life to earning money and becomes a millionaire. It requires strenuous effort; he must labor through his 20s, 30s, 40s and 50s to become a millionaire in his 60s. However, at age 60, the day of his death is not distant. Having worked hard to earn money all his life, the age of retirement draws near. When he looks at all the money he has accumulated, does he feel hope or despair? As he thinks about the past, he might feel a heaviness in his spirit. As he reviews all the efforts he made at earning money, he might feel an emptiness in his heart. When it dawns on him that he lived his whole life for money, wouldn’t he feel extremely miserable?…
    Suppose a man goes to a university and earns a Ph.D. He might think it a great accomplishment. To obtain that degree he studied day and night without eating, playing or taking rest. Maybe he  even becomes a world-famous Nobel laureate. However, if we look closely at his life, we find many miserable things.
    Although he has the knowledge of a Nobel laureate, it is all within a small field of specialization. His research in his field is like digging a small cave in the wide world. Staying within the limits of his specialization, he realizes that compared with the whole world he is extremely small. Even though he boasts that he knows something, it is an extremely small thing.
    Does knowledge give human beings happiness and peace? No. Knowledge is such that we realize that the more we study, the more we do not know.
    Suppose he becomes a famous professor at the university. Every day he holds a chalk and writes on the blackboard. He writes books and takes on various academic responsibilities. Yet while he inhales chalk powder and becomes a leading voice in his field, he has no idea what kind of influence he has in the world. He does not know what will happen to the world in the future. Lacking the mind to comprehend God’s Will, he does not think about what perspective he should take in viewing the world. In fact, he is more ignorant than ordinary ignorant people, because he is so caught up in his own studies.
    Even with all his knowledge, he spends his entire life as a mere bookworm. He lacks the self-confidence to assert his own ideas; mostly he just represents and compares the ideas of others in his field. His life commitment consists of little more. Hence, even if he becomes a famous professor, what is the point? Life is too precious to invest it all for something like that.
    Another man covets power; he dreams of becoming a big shot, like the President of the United States. Yet even if he attains that power, does it last forever? The President of the United States holds power for only four years. Compared with the expanse of history, it is like the blink of an eye. Though he enjoys his power—eating the finest food, drinking the finest wine, dancing—once the power is gone, he is nothing. He no longer matters to anyone. People with ordinary aspirations are better off than he. (98:82-85, April 30, 1978)
 
 
 

All Are Good at First, But Few Prove Themselves to be So at the Last

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Luke 23

32 Two criminals were led out to be put to death with Jesus. 33 When the soldiers came to the place called “The Skull,” they nailed Jesus to a cross. They also nailed the two criminals to crosses, one on each side of Jesus.

Richard: Criminals will meet their reckoning.

Matthew 20

3 About nine that morning, the man saw some other people standing in the market with nothing to do. 4 He said he would pay them what was fair, if they would work in his vineyard. 5 So they went.

Richard: We should be busy working in God’s vineyard. This applies to God’s work generally, and specifically to the ministry of Home Church.

Suffering

2. The Futility of Human Life

Vanity of vanities! All is vanity. What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?
    Ecclesiastes 1.2-3
 
Parable of those who reject their Lord: their works are as ashes on which the wind blows furiously on a stormy day. No power have they over aught that they have earned. That is straying far, far from the goal.
    Qur’an 14.18
 
Men think much of their own advancement and of many other worldly things; but there is no improvement in this decaying world, which is as a tempting dish, sweet-coated, yet full of deadly gall within… It is as intangible as a mist; try to lay hold of it, and it proves to be nothing!
    Yoga Vasishtha (Hinduism)
 
Not by a shower of gold coins does contentment arise in sensual pleasures. 
    Dhammapada 186 (Buddhism)
 
Desire never rests by enjoyment of lusts, as fire surely increases the more butter is offered to it.
    Laws of Manu 2.94 (Hinduism)
 
The benighted one is incompetent to assuage sufferings, because he is attached to desires and is lecherous. Oppressed by physical and mental pain, he keeps rotating in a whirlpool of agony. I say so.
    Acarangasutra 2.74 (Jainism)
 
Intoxicated by the wine of illusion, like one intoxicated by wine; rushing about, like one possessed of an evil spirit; bitten by the world, like one bitten by a great serpent; darkened by passion, like the night; illusory, like magic; false, like a dream; pithless, like the inside of a banana-tree; changing its dress in a moment, like an actor; fair in appearance, like a painted wall—thus they call him.
    Maitri Upanishad 4.2 (Hinduism)
 
I the Preacher have been king over Israel in Jerusalem. And I applied my mind to seek and to search out by wisdom all that is done under heaven; it is an unhappy business that God has given to the sons of men to be busy with. I have seen everything that is done under the sun; and behold, all is vanity and a striving after wind.
 
    What is crooked cannot be made straight,
    and what is lacking cannot be numbered.
 
    I said to myself, “I have acquired great wisdom, surpassing all who were over Jerusalem before me; and my mind has had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.” And I applied my mind to know wisdom and to know madness and folly. I perceived that this also is but a striving after wind.
 
    For in much wisdom is much vexation,
    and he who increases knowledge increases sorrow.
 
    I said to myself, “Come now, I will make a test of pleasure; enjoy yourself.”… Whatever my eyes desired I did not keep from them; I kept my heart from no pleasure, for my heart found pleasure in all my toil, and this was my reward for all my toil. Then I considered all that my hands had done and the toil I had spent in doing it, and behold, all was vanity and a striving after wind… 
    So I turned about and gave my heart up to despair over all the toil of my labors under the sun, because sometimes a man who has toiled with wisdom and knowledge and skill must leave all to be enjoyed by a man who did not toil for it. This also is vanity and a great evil. What has a man from all the toil and strain with which he toils beneath the sun? For all his days are full of pain, and his work is a vexation; even in the night his mind does not rest. This also is vanity.
    Ecclesiastes 1.12-2.23
 
How vast is God,
The ruler of men below!
How arrayed in terrors is God,
With many things irregular in his ordinations.
Heaven gave birth to the multitudes of the
people,
But the nature it confers is not to be depended
upon.
All are good at first,
But few prove themselves to be so at the last.
    Book of Songs, Ode 255 (Confucianism)
 
When men get together to pit their strength in games of skill, they start off in a light and friendly mood, but usually end up in a dark and angry one, and if they go on too long they start resorting to various underhanded tricks. When men meet at some ceremony to drink, they start off in an orderly manner, but usually end up in disorder, and if they go on too long they start indulging in various irregular amusements. It is the same with all things. What starts out being sincere usually ends up being deceitful. What was simple in the beginning acquires monstrous proportions in the end.
    Chuang Tzu 4 (Taoism)
 
 
 

Humanity Lost the Original Garden and Fell Into the World of Death

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 487

Many people oppose Rev. Moon, the man who goes to America to educate and train American young people, even staying up all night and sometimes dancing, singing, and having fun with them? I do this in order to expand the realm of support that is connected to me.
Because the expansion of the universal realm of support starts with me, I push forward without fear, even if I am opposed and have to go to prison.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1380

I was planning to have the 30,000 Couples visit the Songdo Beach Resort in North Korea, taking with them tents, each for ten people. It was a time when everything could be out in the open. The North Korean government even said, “We will do whatever you want.” I also notified the present South Korean government of this plan. Who prevented me from carrying it out? It was our government in the South. Still I did not per-ish. The bright morning sun dawns on the path that follows the heavenly way, but once you leave that path, you will be enveloped in total darkness. You will be plunged into complete and eternal dark-ness. (238-266, 1992.11.22)

Suffering

  1. Sorrow is Everywhere

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Humanity lost the original garden and fell into the world of death. There, we struggle against the darkness. We live in the midst of lamentation and hopelessness, entrapped in the power of the enemy. Still, in our conscience, the remnant of the original mind, we long for the original homeland. (6:291, June 14, 1959)
The world we live in is not a joyful world but a miserable world; it is not a world of delight but a world of sorrow; it is not a world where people live with gratitude but a world where people live with grudges. If you cannot overcome this unfortunate world, then you will never find the path to happiness.
    How can you know that you are unhappy? You can understand it through your mind. In your mind, is there a grieving heart that you cannot get rid of? This is proof that Satan is our ancestor. Do you have hatred and resentment toward other people? This is like Satan entangling our minds in steel nets to prevent us from going toward the original Garden of Eden.
    Human beings are living in the world of death where there is no life, the world of despair and pitch darkness. Although human beings should be singing of the preciousness of life and living in harmony with God’s eternal ideal, people today are living in despair. They are cut off from the hope of standing before the ideal of God. (2:246, June 9, 1957)
 
We are surrounded by evil elements. The way to evil does not need to be taught. Everyone can go that way without education, because history started from an evil foundation. Does anyone need to be taught how to be bad? Because humans fell by their own decision, society educates people to act according to their conscience based on the prevailing morality. Even so, how many people are able to live in accordance with that education? Evil things can be done without education; anyone can score 100 points.
    The conscience always tells us to be good people, but have we actually become good? Unable to solve this problem, our life is one of continual lamentation. Today is lamentation, tomorrow is lamentation, and the whole year is lamentation. Youth is lamentation, middle age is lamentation, old age is lamentation, and we die with lamentation. Evil marks our whole life. (36:57, November 15, 1970)
 
Due to the Human Fall, history started from a point of sadness. The saddest thing about the starting point was that we had to leave God. God was to be the source of our happiness and the center of our life, His grace pervading everything. Due to the Fall, however, humankind lost happiness, life and all things. People fell into deep despair, darkness, and unhappiness. Having lost any vision or hope, tears filled their eyes. With those tears came despair, and utter darkness. (52:36, December 12, 1971)
 
 

Man Is Born to Trouble As the Sparks Fly Upward

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2 Corinthians 7

13 And we were greatly encouraged.

Although we were encouraged, we felt even better when we saw how happy Titus was, because you had shown that he had nothing to worry about. 14 We had told him how much we thought of you, and you did not disappoint us. Just as we have always told you the truth, so everything we told him about you has also proved to be true. 15 Titus loves all of you very much, especially when he remembers how you obeyed him and how you trembled with fear when you welcomed him. 16 It makes me really glad to know that I can depend on you.

Ezekiel 21

18 The Lord said:

19 Ezekiel, son of man, mark two roads for the king of Babylonia to follow when he comes with his sword. The roads will begin at the same place, but be sure to put up a signpost where the two roads separate and go in different directions. 20 Clearly mark where the two roads lead. One goes to Rabbah, the capital of Ammon, and the other goes to Jerusalem, the fortified capital of Judah. 21 When the Babylonian king stands at that signpost, he will decide which way to go by shaking his arrows, by asking his idols, and by carefully looking at the liver of a sacrificed animal.22 His right hand will pull out the arrow marked “Jerusalem.” Then he will immediately give the signal to shout the battle cry, to build dirt ramps to the top of the city walls, to break down its walls and gates with large wooden poles, and to kill the people. 23 Everyone in Jerusalem had promised to be loyal to Babylonia, and so none of them will believe that this could happen to them. But Babylonia’s king will remind them of their sinful ways and warn them of their coming captivity.

Richard: When Israel did not honor God, and the people sold out to the Babylonian ruler and thought they were safe, they were judged anyway.

Suffering

The first of the Buddha’s four noble truths is that human existence is suffering (pali dukkha). suffering is the pervasive human condition, a sort of illness generated by the self through its false attachments. Buddhist texts—echoed in other scriptures—describe it by the metaphor of a universal fire engulfing the world. in Hinduism, the human lot is to go through an endless cycle of death and rebirth, conditioned by the results of past actions. Ecclesiastes is in many ways the most Buddhist of books in the bible in its theme of the vanity of human works. Few are those who ever fulfill all their desires, yet even those who do are not satisfied, ever wanting more. akin to this is the observation in Chinese texts that even when people begin with the best of intentions, their behavior usually degenerates and ends in acrimony, betrayal, or violence.in Christianity, the doctrine of original sin conveys a similar idea: by their fallen condition people are unable to fulfill their life’s purpose. Father Moon often laments about the interminable misery of the human condition and explains how the human Fall brought this about.

  1. Sorrow Is Everywhere

The Noble Truth of Suffering (Dukkha) is this: Birth is suffering; aging is suffering; sick-ness is suffering; death is suffering; sorrow and lamentation, pain, grief, and despair are suffering; association with the unpleasant is suffering; dissociation from the pleasant is suffer-ing; not to get what one wants is suffering—in brief, the five aggregates of attachment are suffering.
    Samyutta Nikaya 56.11 (Buddhism)

Affliction does not come from the dust,
nor does trouble sprout from the ground;
but man is born to trouble
as the sparks fly upward.
    Job 5.6-7

This world, become ablaze, by touch of sense afflicted,
utters its own lament. Whatever conceit one has,
therein is instability. Becoming other,
bound to becoming, yet in becoming it rejoices.
Delight therein is fear, and what it fears is Ill.
    Udana 32 (Buddhism)

Brothers, all is burning. And what is the all that is burning? Brothers, the eye is burning, visible forms are burning, visual consciousness is burning, visual impression is burning, also whatever sensation, pleasant or painful or neither-painful-nor-pleasant, arises on account of the visual impression, that too is burning. Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
    The ear is burning, sounds are burning, auditory consciousness is burning… Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with
griefs, with despairs.
The nose is burning, odors are burning…
The tongue is burning, flavors are burning…
The body is burning, tangible things are burning, tactile consciousness is burning…
The mind is burning, thoughts are burning…
Burning with what? Burning with the fire of lust, with the fire of hate, with the fire of delusion; I say it is burning with birth, aging, and death, with sorrows, with lamentations, with pains, with griefs, with despairs.
    Samyutta Nikaya 35.28: The Fire Sermon (Buddhism)

Farid, I thought I alone had sorrow;
Sorrow is spread all over the whole world.
From my roof-top I saw
Every home engulfed in sorrow’s flames.
    Adi Granth, Shalok, Farid, p. 1382 (Sikhism)

What is Idolatry? It Is to Abandon God and Worship Something Else

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Cheon Seong Gyeong 163

In the past, I saw right through those people who came to the Unification Church with the motivation to use it for their own purposes; those people did all sorts of things. I knew who they were, yet I let them deceive me. Why did I do so? It is because God has been doing so to this day. When people betrayed me and turned their backs, I could have exploded in indignation and resentment saying, “Those reprobates should be struck by lightning.” Yet when I thought about the heart of God who longs for their return, I could not do that. Each time I grasped that suffering heart of God, and had the heart to forgive, a new segment, like that of a bamboo shoot, was created. Do you understand? A segment of the Unification Church was made. That is how we are making family segments, tribal segments and national segments. (197-312, 1990.1.20)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 1352

Do you know how important the 430 Couples are? Originally, their Blessing should have taken place last year in 1967. Instead, it was held this year on February 22, which was the twentieth anniversary of my entry into Heungnam prison. Accordingly, there is great significance in completing twenty years of my course of restoration both spiritually and physically; you therefore stand in such a significant position in commemorating that important day with me. You should realize what an honor it is to have such a right of participation. That day is not a sad one. It is also George Washington’s birthday. Knowing this, all of you should work hard to form wonderful families of your own. (159-43, 1968.3.1)

Idolatry and Materialism

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

What is idolatry? It is to abandon God and worship something else, to revere it more than God. Today numerous people are worshipping the idol called “civilization” without being aware of it… They take as their idols material things; they become slaves of civilization. Hence, they do not know where to find the center of their life. Without seeking Heaven they make frantic efforts, yet they do not know what direction to go or what goal to aim for. They are no different than the benighted Israelites in the days of Ahab and Jezebel. (6:31, March 15, 1959)
 
The world should center on the mind, but instead it is devoted to matter… Look at the reality of education, focused as it is on the needs and values of material civilization. The precious and invisible mind is being neglected for the sake of money that is visible to the eyes. (19:287, March 10, 1968)
 
First theism appeared; it emerged as a spin-off of history. Next, humanism emerged as a spin-off of history, and then materialism. They each appeared as separate and incompatible ways of thinking. Thus separated, each in turn perished.
    Human beings consist of body, mind and spirit. Our body consists of matter, our mind consists of character, and with our spirit we are to unite with God. When we try to become one with God without considering the material world and human beings we do not succeed, because that way does not fit our nature. We need God, but we also need human beings and the material world. For this reason, theism, humanism and materialism should not be separate. We need them all. Therefore, religion in the future should be equipped in all three areas, guiding us to fulfill the whole of human life in all its aspects.
    Human beings, having a complex culture, are higher than matter. God is higher than human beings. Therefore, God should govern human beings and all things; that is in keeping with the Principle.
    In earlier times, when people placed religion at the center of their life, they tended to deny the value of human beings. As a result, humanism emerged, putting human beings at the center and denying the importance of God. More recently, humanism has declined as people value material above all else. For materialists, money is everything. Nothing is as valuable as money, not even human beings. They see everything in terms of money.
    Yet after living materialistic lives, people find that material things are not everything. They begin to reexamine the human being to discover their original nature. They are faced with the limitations of materialism and realize that they need to recover human beings… They begin asking questions,  “What is a human being? Is there something about human beings that needs to be restored? Do we need to once again consider the question of God?” We are living in a transitional period when these trends are evident. American young people, hippies and yippies, do all sorts of things, and many are in search of religion. (103:226, March 1, 1979)