God Needs Champions to Erect His Kingdom

Happy True Children’s Day, established 1960! Enjoy the special reading below.

Tomorrow, Saturday, November 2nd is the last day to early vote in Jefferson County, WV.
Vote from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at Charles Washington Hall, across from the Courthouse.

Vote No to More Taxes: X AGAINST THE LEVY

View all West Virginia Candidate Interviews

Historical Children’s Day

Sun Myung Moon
October 28, 1980
New York, NY

Today is the historical Children’s Day. God cannot erect His kingdom alone; He needs a champion, an assistant to act as mediator. You are His children, called to this task. God regards you as the champions whom He has hand-picked to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. What an overwhelming task for Him!

The Unification Church is one family. If the head of a family thinks only about himself, the family becomes unhappy. The success and happiness of a family flow from the head of the family who cares for all the members. My deepest concern and care dwells with each one of you, and you in turn should love and care for each other as brothers and sisters, advancing hand in hand to meet True Parents.

Continue reading “God Needs Champions to Erect His Kingdom”

Historical Children’s Day

Happy 63rd True Children’s Day! See the special reading below.

Join us for the Peaceful Families Peaceful World Workshop, November 25th to November 27th at the Peace Kingdom Center in Harpers Ferry, or online by Zoom.
Save 50% until October 31st.

November 25- Parent and Presenter Training; Abstaining for Success and Happiness
November 26- Exposition of the Divine Principle Study
November 27- Strengthening Families and Communities Forum FREE
Speakers:
Kelly Kohls: National School Boards Leadership Council
Michael Marshall: Editor Emeritus, United Press International
Jamal Johnson
Richard Urban

Historical Children’s Day

October 28th, 1980, New York, New York

Today is the historical Children’s Day. God cannot erect His kingdom alone; He needs a champion, an assistant to act as mediator. You are His children, called to this task. God regards you as the champions whom He has hand-picked to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. What an overwhelming task for Him!

The Unification Church is one family. If the head of a family thinks only about himself, the family becomes unhappy. The success and happiness of a family flow from the head of the family who cares for all the members. My deepest concern and care dwells with each one of you, and you in turn should love and care for each other as brothers and sisters, advancing hand in hand to meet True Parents.

Misunderstanding of Cain and Abel

The Cain-Abel theory in the Unification Church is very strong, but sometimes I worry that it may not be understood correctly. Our tradition is to follow an Abel figure, but have you also given that same kind of fidelity to your brothers and sisters? Leaders sometimes have the mistaken idea that they can exercise sole authority, but I want you to know that Abel is only Abel when he saves Cain; Abel must love and embrace Cain and bring him to the mother. Cain and Abel must unite before any restoration takes place.

Continue reading “Historical Children’s Day”

Love Each Other More than You Love God

Today we continue our celebration of True Children’s Day with this special reading.

Historical Children’s Day

October 28, 1980

Today is the historical Children’s Day. God cannot erect His kingdom alone; He needs a champion, an assistant to act as mediator. You are His children, called to this task. God regards you as the champions whom He has hand-picked to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. What an overwhelming task for Him!

The Unification Church is one family. If the head of a family thinks only about himself, the family becomes unhappy. The success and happiness of a family flow from the head of the family who cares for all the members. My deepest concern and care dwells with each one of you, and you in turn should love and care for each other as brothers and sisters, advancing hand in hand to meet True Parents.

Misunderstanding of Cain and Abel

The Cain-Abel theory in the Unification Church is very strong, but sometimes I worry that it may not be understood correctly. Our tradition is to follow an Abel figure, but have you also given that same kind of fidelity to your brothers and sisters? Leaders sometimes have the mistaken idea that they can exercise sole authority, but I want you to know that Abel is only Abel when he saves Cain; Abel must love and embrace Cain and bring him to the mother. Cain and Abel must unite before any restoration takes place.

However, your central figure will not lead you to the Kingdom of Heaven; you must unite among yourselves, centered on him, and then you can enter heaven. If your central figure only wants you to unite around him, rather than with each other, he is a false central figure. On the contrary, even if you don’t get along with your leader on occasion, but still you take care of your brothers and sisters, your leader will look for you, because without you he cannot be successful.

A new declaration

Today I am declaring a new beginning: the leader-centered movement is over and the member-centered movement is going to begin.

Our ultimate goal is Canaan. On the journey towards Canaan, our supreme duty is to follow orders, but once we enter Canaan, we no longer live by commands, but by love. This is that time. We are now arriving, and we must live in a God-like way. During the first 21-year course, we were marching towards Canaan, but in the next 21 years, we shall live by love. After their miraculous escape from Egypt, had the Israelites been concerned about each other instead of complaining about Moses, the older generation would not have been destroyed in the wilderness. During the Exodus, the highest virtue is to follow our leader, but in the promised land we shall live by give and take with our brothers and sisters.

My teaching to you is to love one another as much as you love God and True Parents. Then the dwelling of God will be among you, and Mother and I will accompany you. Because this day marks the beginning of that new era, I called this the historical Children’s Day.

Jesus as an example

Jesus practiced this way of life with his twelve apostles. In his most sacred act, washing the feet of his disciples, he demonstrated that he came not to be served, but to serve. His was the supreme expression of love. Jesus became the central figure linking twelve people. However, even these disciples abandoned him in the end.

In the Sermon on the Mount, you can find a revealing phrase, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God.” The Bible did not say that only those who obey commands will enter heaven, but rather those who make peace. How many people have you made harmony with? To love each other in effect means to love the whole world, because the Unification Church is a small world; what you do here has significance on a worldwide level.

Jesus also said, “Wherever two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of you.” Your prayer is not powerful when you pray singly; only when you pray together. Brothers and sisters must truly unite so they can share life together. I want you to realize how strongly your behavior affects the person next to you; you cannot think of yourselves as isolated individuals. Within our movement, we must feel concern for each other; if someone is hurt or ill, forget your meals and go attend him. Concentrate on caring for your brothers and sisters and creating an atmosphere in which good and healthy relationships can grow.

Love each other as you love God

God is almighty, but even after thousands of years of toil, the world remains sinful. In order to realize His ideal, God has given us the mandate to love our brothers and sisters as much as we love Him. In other words, each of you should be God to your brothers and sisters, treating each other as you would treat God. If you live this tradition, God will embrace you as His true children. Many people have said that they love God, but they abused and even hated their own brothers and sisters. Now God wants us to love each other and together come to Him. Your level of heartistic achievement in the spirit world will be determined by such intensity of love.

My teaching to you is this: love the world as much as you love God and True Parents. God feels greater joy when He sees you loving each other more than you love Him. Don’t shy away from adverse conditions or from smelly or ugly people; they are the ones who need you. Willingly attend to the dirty places and make them fragrant. Don’t run away from problems, but face them and conquer them.

You have come from all different races and nations and ancestries, and I am trying to mold you according to one heavenly standard. As individual truth bodies, you cannot of course be melted down into nothing and rebuilt from scratch! But I hive resolved to help you in the most fundamental spheres: life and true love.

God and Satan are trying to hook you

You think you are independent people, but I see many hooks and wires attached to you. Satan is throwing his hooks at you. Are you slippery, or do you have many nooks and crannies where he can grab you? It is not easy to escape him, since you are more susceptible to the satanic element than to the heavenly element.

Each person is a target in the cosmic competition, for both Satan and God are throwing hooks at you. Depending on the kinds of niches you have, either Satan or God can snag you. In general, your mind is more susceptible to God’s hooks and your body vulnerable to Satan’s hooks. Therefore, you have to smooth over the satanic niches and create niches where God can hook you.

Sometimes I regret having met God. It has been like grabbing a tiger by the tail. Since there is no way I can let go, I just hang onto Him until the end.

Each person you meet is a gateway to God

You have to overcome divisions and become glued together with the love of God. There are four directions and four seasons of three months each. Spring, summer, autumn and winter gyrate in one grand circle; when you complete one dispensational circuit, you may start over and go in the opposite direction.

When you arrive at heaven in spirit world, you will see twelve gates of pearl. Would you want to be eligible to enter only one of heaven’s gates, or all twelve? If you can enter all twelve gates, then you can have total freedom of movement. To receive your pass to all twelve gates, you must serve 36 people; then you can enter both heaven and hell.

So look at each person as one portal of heaven, one gateway to God, and resolve to melt his or her heart and win him or her. There are twelve styles of personality. A soft person is the spring gate, for instance, and a tough person is a winter gate. Think of yourself as a parent, and each day select a different person to love and care for until you encompass all twelve types. Love all varieties of people — black and white, young and old. etc. The cardinal rule is to forget yourself.

Those who can harmonize with others will rise higher and higher and ultimately become great leaders. If a blessed couple, for instance, thinks only about their own family, they are in the wrong; they should worry about others before being preoccupied about themselves. The blessed couples who first devote themselves to the brothers and sisters shall be admitted to heaven. The 36 couples are the elders of our church, and this rule applies to them as well. Unless they love the True Children and the members more than their own families, they are the enemies of our movement.

Significance of the 36 couples

There is another important way of categorizing people: those who are married, those who are engaged or are living together without formal ceremony, and those who are virgin. The married people represent Adam’s family, in which the husband and wife joined out of their own will. The engaged people represent Jesus, who came to look for his own bride, but was not able to achieve his goal. The third group represent the second advent, people who can be matched by heaven.

Twelve of each of these three categories were chosen as ancestors of mankind; they are the 36 blessed couples. Their mandate is to unite all 36 types of people, harmonizing the twelve different personalities and the three types of relationships. I have been serving those 36 couples, those tough individuals — matching them, providing them with homes, sending them on trips, etc. When they come to America, Mother and I shop for them, buying them clothes and furniture.

On observing this, some people may think that the 36 couples are the masters of the Unification Church, but that is wrong. Through them, I have been setting an example of service for you. If I were to ask them, they would immediately go to the jungles of Africa. After you serve twelve types of people and 36 couples, serving one God and one set of True Parents is an easy task!

The heavenly dispensation is like a relay game, with each person carrying the baton in his turn, passing it back and forth, down through the 36 couples. Some of you don’t want to look at these 36 couples, who are all Korean, but I am telling you that you need them. Without them there is no foundation or backbone for the Unification Church. The backbone carries the central nervous system, linking it with every tissue in the body. The 36 couples perform that role in the Unification Church.

What matters is not whom Mother or I love the most, but who will be the king or queen of loving brothers and sisters. You can even hold a love competition. Whether I am present or not should not matter, for you already know the secret of going to heaven — loving each other.

From today on, our membership around the world shall perfect this heavenly way of life. 

All Conflicts and Wars are Battles Between the Cain Side and the Abel Side

March for Trump: December 12th, 2020-Washington DC

The Richard Urban Show:
#75-Biden Supports Voter Suppression and Fraud

Cheon Seong Gyeong 323

The taste of love is similar to that of the schizandra berry. The schizandra berry has a sour and bitter taste, but is really a blend of five tastes. I do not know much else about the schizandra berry, but I know its unique taste. It tastes strange at first, but after you swallow it you want to eat more. (173-87, 1988.2.7

Cheon Seong Gyeong

The perfection of self involves perfecting the absolute true love, absolute true life, absolute true lineage, and absolute true conscience. After achieving this, one can then go on to restore the family lost through the Fall and settle down. Since True Parents have settled down, you also need to follow in their footsteps by becoming tribal messiahs, connecting together 160 couples, and taking possession of 160 nations. By doing so, you will be able to travel freely to and fro between the Kingdom of God in heaven and on earth. This is something you need to inherit at any cost, and so it is unavoidable. Only by accomplishing this task can you be registered, and only after being registered can you possess the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in spirit world. Only after being registered can you claim it to be your nation and your kingdom. (268-88, 1995.3.5)

Richard: The basic means of establishing the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, also known as Cheon Il Guk, is Home Church, a providential ministry set up by True Father Moon in the late 1970’s. Each person (Tribal Messiah), which is a couple Blessed in marriage by Rev. and Mrs. Moon, is responsible for an area of at least 360 contiguous homes. That area becomes their Kingdom of Heaven, where they are to serve the families and people there, working toward fulfilling God’s ideal of creation and HIs Will.

Cain and Abel

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

The biblical account of Cain and Abel reveals the beginnings of human conflict right in Adam’s family. It provides the archetype for humankind’s unending history of struggle, war and conflict. We are conflicted on many levels, beginning with the war between the body and mind within each individual and extending to wars between nations and even to the global conflict between materialism and theism. (September 12, 2005)
 
Originally, God alone was to govern human beings. God was to be our only Lord. Nevertheless, Satan became our lord through his immoral relationship with the first ancestors.
    The Principle teaches that love carries governing, sovereign power. That is why Satan has a right to claim ownership over human beings even though his love is immoral. However, God is the original owner through the Principle of Creation. Thus, God and Satan could both claim ownership over human beings. Yet it is physically impossible to divide Adam into two—one piece for God and the other for Satan. Therefore, God had to set up a certain rule to divide a human being. God set up the rule for separation in terms of the polarities of internal and external and subject and object, with God in the position of the internal being and the creation the external being.
    By this principle, God divided fallen Adam and Eve into two through their two children. Cain represented Satan, and Abel represented sinless Adam. Hence God placed Abel, the second son, in the internal position. Abel represented the second love between Adam and Eve, which contained fewer evil elements, while Cain was the fruit of the first love. God took Abel because Adam and Eve’s relationship was more principled than the first relationship between Eve and the archangel.
    The original order of love was to flow from God to Adam and then to the archangel. Hence the positions in restoration must also be ordered: first God, then Abel and last Cain. By restoring these positions, relationships, to the original order, God intends to restore the lost principle…
    God led the providence to restore the birthright of the elder son through these two brothers. Cain must go down to Abel’s position, and Abel must go up to Cain’s position—the first son’s position.
    However, Cain killed Abel. His action was a repetition of Adam and Eve’s fall. It repeated the condition by which Satan came to control Adam. It was the opposite of restoration. (55:109-10, April 1, 1972)
 
The Bible attests to the discrimination between first- and second-born sons. For example… it is written that God loved the second son Jacob and hated the first son Esau even while they were still inside their mother’s womb. (Rom. 9.11-13) They were placed in the positions of Cain or Abel based solely upon the distinction of who was to be the firstborn son. When Jacob was blessing his two grandchildren, Ephraim and Manasseh, he crossed his hands and laid his right hand on the head of Ephraim, the second son in the position of Abel, to give him the first and greater blessing. (Gen. 48.14) According to this principle, God placed Cain and Abel in a position where each could deal with only one master, and had them offer sacrifices.
    When Cain and Abel offered their sacrifices, “The Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard.” (Gen. 4.4) Why did God accept Abel’s offering but reject Cain’s? God received Abel’s sacrifice because he stood in a proper relationship with God. Also, he made the offering in an acceptable manner—through faith (Heb. 11.4) and in line with God’s Will. In this way, Abel successfully laid the foundation of faith in Adam’s family. He serves as an example that any fallen person can make an offering acceptable to God provided he satisfies the necessary conditions.
    God did not reject Cain’s sacrifice because He hated him. Rather, because Cain stood in a position to relate with Satan, which gave Satan rights over the sacrifice, God could not accept Cain’s sacrifice unless he first made some condition justifying its acceptance.
    (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Foundation 1)
 
When Cain found out that God accepted only Abel’s offering, he struck and killed Abel out of hatred. You have to understand, however, that already while they were preparing their offerings, Cain nursed feelings of resentment against Abel. Cain did not strike Abel in a sudden flash of anger over God accepting only Abel’s offering. Rather, even before that incident, Cain hated Abel and wanted to kill him. (3:205, November 1, 1957)
 
It seems that God was discriminating between Cain and Abel, but that was not the case. If Cain had even the slightest desire to go through Abel, who represented Heaven’s position, then God would have accepted Cain’s offering. Although his acceptance would have come later, God desired to relate to them in fairness.
    You must not repeat the mistake of Abel, who prolonged the providence of God by not being able to cope with the mission Heaven gave to him. (3:205, November 1, 1957)
 
 
Cain should have appealed to Abel, asking him to show him the way to approach God that his offering might also be accepted. He should have kept a mind of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God; then he would have totally united with his brother. Only then could he have entered the realm of God. (378:206-07, May 12, 2002)
 
God placed Abel in the position to save Cain. God expected that Abel would love Cain, and share with him all the love that he received from God, as well as his own love. (18:277, June 12, 1967)
 
When God accepted only Abel’s offering, Abel became arrogant. Through that condition, Satan could make accusation against him. Satan influenced Cain to lose his temper and his reason, driving him to kill his own brother. (374:12-13, April 4, 2002)
 
All the conflicts and wars that the world has witnessed since the beginning of history have been, in essence, battles between the Cain side, which is relatively evil, and the Abel side, which is more on the side of goodness. (299:105, February 6, 1999)
 
Yet Cain and Abel must never be divided. They are like the right hand and the left hand. Everyone should live with the attitude, “My God is also your God”; “The God who loves me also loves you.” (3:207, November 1, 1957)
 
Think about the moment when Cain killed Abel. The pain of it seared God’s heart, and His tears continue to this day. God intended that the elder son love his younger brother, but instead he murdered him. That one murder broke God’s heart. Yet look at the world today: every day tens of thousands of people are being killed or dying of starvation. Do you think God’s heart is at peace? (March 2, 2003)
 
 

Cain Was Angry Because His Offering Was Not Accepted

Join the decentralized social network where you are in control. VisionRoot now hosts its own Friendica node as a Facebook alternative. Join now!

March for Trump: December 12th, 2020-Washington DC

The Richard Urban Show:
#74 The Family Rooted in Absolute Sexual Ethics Part 9-with Yun-A Johnson
#73 State Legislators, Do Your Job!

Leviticus 6

14 When someone offers a sacrifice to give thanks to me, the priests from Aaron’s family must bring it to the front of the bronze altar, 15 where one of them will scoop up a handful of the flour and oil, together with all the incense on it. Then, to show that the whole offering belongs to me, he will lay all of this on the altar and send it up in smoke with a smell that pleases me. 16-17 The rest of it is to be baked without yeast and eaten by the priests in the sacred courtyard of the sacred tent. This bread is very holy, just like the sacrifices for sin or for making things right, and I have given this part to the priests from what is offered to me on the altar.

18 Only the men in Aaron’s family are allowed to eat this bread, and they must go through a ceremony to be made holy before touching it. This law will never change.

1 Kings 4

29 Solomon was brilliant. God had blessed him with insight and understanding. 30-31 He was wiser than anyone else in the world, including the wisest people of the east and of Egypt. He was even wiser than Ethan the Ezrahite, and Mahol’s three sons, Heman, Calcol, and Darda. Solomon became famous in every country around Judah and Israel. 32 Solomon wrote three thousand wise sayings and composed more than one thousand songs. 33 He could talk about all kinds of plants, from large trees to small bushes, and he taught about animals, birds, reptiles, and fish. 34 Kings all over the world heard about Solomon’s wisdom and sent people to listen to him teach.

Cain and Abel

The first murder in human history followed close on the heels of the human fall; indeed, the tension between the brothers can be attributed to the situation they inherited from their parents. the story of Cain and able raises the inescapable human problem of inequality. it asks: how should people cope with differences in wealth, talent, love, fortune, and in this case, blessing.

    The bible regards Abel as one of the righteous; the Qur’an portrays him as a man of peace who refuses to take up a weapon to fight his brother Cain. hence comes the tradition that there are two kinds of people: Abel-type people are good and faithful, while Cain-type people are evil, atheistic and violent. in Father Moon’s teaching, however, Cain and Abel are most essentially brothers. Moreover, both had flaws: Abel’s arrogance over being the favored one contributed to Cain’s hatred, and Cain’s hatred had a history, too.
    Father Moon teaches that God’s purpose in accepting only Abel’s offering was not to express his disdain for Cain, but rather to promote a process of restoration: by Cain yielding to Abel, Cain and Abel were to reverse the mistake of their parents when Adam was wrongly dominated by the archangel. had this restoration been successful, there would have been no murder; instead even Cain’s offering would have been accepted by God.
    Inequality is inevitable; how we deal with it is where choice comes into play. Cain had a choice: to react with violence or to humbly seek his brother’s help. Abel also had a choice: to glory in his favored status or to have compassion on his less favored brother, comfort him and raise him up. the choices we make in these Cain-Abel situations can make the difference between peace and war.
Readings

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel brought of the firstlings of the flock and of their fat portions. And the lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering He had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell. The lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.
    ”Cain said to Abel his brother, “Let us go out into the field.” And when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel, and killed him. Then the lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He replied, “I do not know; am I my brother’s keeper?” And the lordsaid, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood is crying to me from the ground. And now you are cursed from the ground, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield to you its strength; you shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth.” Cain said to the lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear. Behold, you have driven me this day away from the ground; and from your face I shall be hidden; and I shall be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will slay me.” Then the lord said to him, “Not so! If any one slays Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the lord put a mark on Cain, lest any who came upon him should kill him. Then Cain went away from the presence of the lord, and dwelt in the land of Nod, east of Eden.
    Genesis 4.3-16

And recite for them the story of the two sons of Adam truthfully, when they offered a sacrifice, and it was accepted of one of them, and not accepted of the other. “I will surely slay you,” said one. “God accepts only of the god-fearing,” said the other.
    “Yet if you stretch out your hand against me, to slay me, I will not stretch out my hand against you, to slay you; I fear God, the Lord of all Beings. I desire that you should be laden with my sin and your sin, and so become an inhabitant of the Fire; that is the recompense of the evildoers.”
    Then his soul prompted him to slay his brother, and he slew him, and became one of the losers.
    Then God sent forth a raven, scratching into the earth, to show him how he might conceal the vile body of his brother. He said, “Woe is me! Am I unable to be as this raven, and so conceal my brother’s vile body?” And he became one of the remorseful.
    Qur’an 5.27-31

By faith Abel offered to God a more acceptable sacrifice than Cain, through which he received approval as righteous, God bearing witness by accepting his gifts; he died, but through his faith he is still speaking.
    Hebrews 11.4

When Adam and Eve begot children, the first-born was the son of the serpent’s slime. For two beings had intercourse with Eve, and she conceived from both and bore two children. Each followed one of the male parents, and their spirits parted, one to this side and one to the other, and similarly their characters. On the side of Cain are all the haunts of the evil species, from which come evil spirits and demons and necromancers. From the side of Abel come a more merciful class, yet not wholly beneficial—good wine mixed with bad. The right kind was not produced until Seth came, who is the first ancestor of all the generations of the righteous…
    Cain rose up against Abel and killed him because he inherited his nature from the side of Samael, who brought death into the world. He was jealous of Abel on account of his female, as indicated by the words, “and it came to pass when they were in the field (Gen. 4.8),” the word “field” signifying woman. According to the text, Cain was angry because his offering was not accepted, but this is a further reason.
    5Zohar 1.36b (Judaism)