cross | Daily Inspiration

Jesus Could Have Been the Lord of Glory

Just Posted: The Richard Urban Show
#131-Make Love, Not War; Rev. Moon’s Solution to the War in Ukraine

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2261

How should a wife relate to her husband? She should hold his hand and say, “I now know that you and I are twin brother and sister born together, so we can never be separated.” When Adam and Eve were chased out of the Garden of Eden, they were separated from God, shedding tears of sorrow, but now in the age of restoration, we must shed tears of the opposite kind. Through the process of our lives, we must indemnify the fact of our not having been sons and daughters of God’s Kingdom. (238- 254, 1992.11.22)

Cheon Seong Gyeong 943

You should realize that I, who discovered the world of God’s heart, am not a fraud. All the things you hear from me cannot be found any place in this world. My teachings cannot be found in any library book either here on earth or in the spirit world. It is the first time, the very first occasion that these truths have been known! These are the new words of truth. They cannot be found anywhere else on earth or in the spirit world. They were locked away in the treasure storehouse and could not be taken out before, by God or any person in the spirit world or on earth. (303-59, 1999.7.4)

Original Substance of the Divine Principle

The Advent of the Messiah and the Purpose of His Second Coming

The Bible contains prophecies that predict both the Lord of suffering (Is 53) and the Lord of glory (Is 9,11,60) This is because the human portion of responsibility is always involved in any providential outcome. Jesus did not come in order to die on the cross. Rather, his death on the cross was a result of the unbelief of the Jewish people and the faithlessness of his disciples.
See slides 8 to 11 below:

Take Down Your Crosses, and Perishing Christianity Will Revive

Cheon Seong Gyeong 270

This right of kingship would not initially have been a right of kingship for the whole world but one starting in a single family. From the family, it would have advanced beyond being a family kingship, to have become a tribal, a national, a worldwide and a cosmic kingship. Then there would be no need for any Christian denominations or ministers. The Vatican would not be needed. Democracy would not be needed. Democracy is an ideology based only on brotherhood. This is why people are fighting. Brothers are fighting among themselves. Hence, the ideology upholding brotherhood should return to a parent-centered ideology and from there to the God-centered ideology of Godism.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 963

If your grandparents, mother and father, couple, and children, become one based on true love, and inherit God’s true love that lives for others, then even God would be absolutely obedient to that. In the world that strives to live for others – a world that moves according to the love that submits to the tradition of living for others – the basis for peace would surely emerge even if it resisted being formed. (210-354, 1990.12.27)

Eschatology and Messianic Hope

The Messiah

5. The Messiah Establishes Peace in the Middle East for Jews, Christians and Muslims

Behold, the days are coming, says the lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous Branch,20 and he shall reign as king and deal wisely, and shall execute justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely… People shall no longer say, “As the lord lives who brought up the people of Israel out of the land of Egypt,” but “As the lord lives who brought up and led the descendants of the house of Israel out of the north country and out of all the countries where he had driven them.” Then they shall dwell in their own land.

Jeremiah 23.5-8

This world differs from the days of the Messiah only in respect of servitude to foreign powers.

Talmud, Sanhedrin 99a (Judaism)

I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name. They shall forget their shame, and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid, when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands… into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more; and I will not hide my face any more from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord god.

Ezekiel 39.25-29

Allah’s Apostle said, “The Hour will not be established until the son of Mary [Jesus] descends amongst you as a just ruler, he will break the cross, kill the pigs, and abolish the jizya tax.22Money will be in abundance so that nobody will accept it (as charitable gifts).”

Hadith of Bukhari 3.656 (Islam)

Teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

Had Jesus completed the providence of restoration through indemnity, then married and formed a family, he could have established at once a foundation of marriage Blessings that would have brought the people of Israel into Heaven’s realm. Had he been able to go on to give the Blessing in Rome, he could have established the Kingdom of God on earth when he was in his forties.

Instead, Jesus was murdered. As a consequence, today the Israelis and Palestinians are fighting, although they are brothers. Originally, the world was supposed to have just one religion, one culture, one nation, and one realm of heart. Jesus came to make it so, but when he could not, then Islam came into being, Judaism came into being, and Christianity came into being. You need to know that these developments caused God much sorrow…

We have arrived at a time when Judaism, Islam, and Christianity should overcome their historical divisions and unite as one based on the Unification Principles. (August 15, 2003)

Jesus asks me, “Please, True Parents, save the people of Israel.” That is why I am telling you Christian leaders to take down the cross. Take down your crosses, and perishing Christianity will revive. The cross was the rack of punishment and death. It has no place in the religion of the resurrection. Ask Jesus what he thinks about it. (January 1, 2003)

Jesus Humbled Himself and Became Obedient unto Death

Cheon Seong Gyeong 2280

Then who is Christ at the Second Advent? As the True Father and True Mother were lost in Eden, he is the one to come upon the earth as the True Father. He will become as one with God in heart, lineage and flesh, establish the position of True Mother, and form a family centered on this oneness. The Messiah’s family will be the first to live with and serve God. The Messiah solidifies the position of the perfected Adam. The Kingdom of Heaven will be established only after the perfected Adam and Eve marry, live on earth serving God, have sons and daughters centered upon Him, bring forth His clan and live on earth together with them, and then, finally, move on into the heavenly world together with God. (282-51, 1997.3.10)

Richard: This is a good summary of the Role of Rev. Sun Myung Moon and of Mrs. Moon.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1059

Sunday is the day to offer to the other members what you have planned and saved during the week that can bring them joy. On Sundays, you can share some specially prepared food and everyone should praise their spouses. (21-88, 1968.11.3)

Jesus

13. Jesus Bore Our Sins on the Cross

He was despised and rejected by men;
a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief;
and as one from whom men hide their faces
he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our
sorrows;
yet we esteemed him stricken,
smitten by God, and afflicted.
But he was wounded for our transgressions,
he was bruised for our iniquities;
upon him was the chastisement that made us
whole,
and with his stripes we are healed.
All we like sheep have gone astray;
we have turned every one to his own way;
and the l ord has laid on him the iniquity of
us all.
Isaiah 53.3-6

Under the law almost everything is purified with blood, and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sins. Thus it was necessary for the copies of the heavenly things to be purified with these rites, but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these. For Christ has entered, not into a sanctuary made with hands, a copy of the true one, but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God on our behalf. Nor was it to offer himself repeatedly, as the high priest enters the Holy Place yearly with blood not his own; for then he would have had to suffer repeatedly since the foundation of the world. But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself.
Hebrews 9.22-26

Christ Jesus, who,
though he was in the form of God,
did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
but emptied himself,
taking the form of a servant,
being born in the likeness of men.
And being found in human form he humbled himself
and became obedient unto death,
even death on a cross.

Therefore God has highly exalted him
and bestowed on him the name which is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. 44
Philippians 2.6-11

What Would Have Happened if Jesus Had Not Been Crucified?

Cheon Seong Gyeong 311

A life lived for love is a productive
and fruitful one, and a life lived with-
out knowing love leads to exhaustion
and destruction. God, humankind, and
even the universe desire to live for the
sake of love. This is the original way of
life. (Blessed Family – 1062)

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1165

In the first chapter of the Gospel of
Matthew, four great women who had
illicit relationships: Tamar, Bathsheba,
Rahab and Ruth, are listed in the gene-
alogy of Jesus. This gospel is the equiva-
lent of Genesis, but the question is, why
do the first pages of the New Testament
focus on these women, who are stained
and impure? Without understanding
the Principle view of the Fall, there is no
way to understand this. It has remained
a mystery. By searching throughout my
life, however, I have been able to answer
these questions for the first time. (211-137,
1990.12.30)

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

1.4 THE LIMIT OF SALVATION THROUGH REDEMPTION BY THE CROSS AND THE PURPOSE OF JESUS’ SECOND ADVENT

What would have happened if Jesus had not been crucified? Jesus would have accomplished both the spiritual and physical aspects of salvation. He surely would have established the everlasting and indestructible Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Yet the people did not believe in Jesus; instead they led him to the cross. Jesus’ body was exposed to Satan’s assault, and he was killed. Therefore, even when faithful Christians are united with Jesus, their bodies remain exposed to Satan’s attack, just as was Jesus’ body. Consequently, no matter how devout a believer may be, he cannot attain physical salvation through redemption by the cross of Jesus.

However, Jesus laid the basis for spiritual salvation by securing the victorious foundation for his resurrection through the redemption by his blood on the cross. As a result, all believers since his resurrection have received the benefit of spiritual salvation, but not physical salvation. Therefore, to uproot the original sin, which he could not remove through the crucifixion, and to complete the work of physical salvation, Christ must come again on earth. Only then will the purpose of God’s work of salvation be fulfilled both spiritually and physically.

1.5 TWO KINDS OF PROPHECIES CONCERNING THE CROSS

If Jesus’ death on the cross were not predestined as necessary for the complete accomplishment of his purpose as the Messiah, why was it prophesied in Isaiah that he would suffer the ordeal of the cross? As Isaiah prophesied24 and as the angel announced to Mary, it was foretold that Jesus would become the king of the Jews in his lifetime and establish an everlasting kingdom on the earth. Let us investigate why God gave two contrasting kinds of prophecies concerning Jesus.

Human beings have their own portion of responsibility. The nature of the fruits they bear depends upon whether or not they fulfill their portion of responsibility. For this reason, God gave two kinds of prophecies concerning the accomplishment of His Will.

1.6 GOSPEL PASSAGES IN WHICH JESUS SPOKE OF HIS CRUCIFIXION AS IF IT WERE NECESSARY

There are several passages in the Gospels in which Jesus spoke of his suffering on the cross as if it were necessary for salvation. For example, when Peter heard Jesus’ prediction of his imminent crucifixion and tried to dissuade him, Jesus rebuked him, saying, “Get behind me, Satan! You are a hindrance to me.” Peter’s dissuasion could have hindered Jesus from paving the way for spiritual salvation through the cross. For this reason, Jesus rebuked him.

A second example is Jesus’ last words on the cross, “It is finished.”33 Jesus did not utter these words to mean that through the crucifixion he had completely accomplished the providence of salvation. Hence, by the words, “It is finished,” Jesus meant that he had finished laying the foundation for spiritual salvation. By this time, it had become the alternative goal of the providence.

View slides 18 to 32 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p1-CHAPT-4-The-Messiah-_revised-4-28-2014

You Rejected Jesus, Who Was Holy and Good

Acts 3

¹⁴You rejected Jesus, who was holy and good. You asked for a murderer to be set free, ¹⁵and you killed the one who leads people to life. But God raised him from death, and all of us can tell you what he has done. ¹⁶You see this man, and you know him. He put his faith in the name of Jesus and was made strong. Faith in Jesus made this man completely well while everyone was watching.

Richard: Jesus did not come to die. God prepared the chosen people of Israel to receive Him. See the Divine Principle Study below.

Isaiah 60

I will bring bronze and iron
    in place of wood and stone;
in place of bronze and iron,
    I will bring gold and silver.
I will appoint peace and justice
    as your rulers and leaders.
¹⁸Violence, destruction, and ruin
will never again
be heard of
    within your borders.
“Victory” will be the name
    you give to your walls;
“Praise” will be the name
    you give to your gates.

Richard: This is a prophecy that should have been fulfilled at the time of Jesus coming, if the chosen people of Israel had received Him.

Exposition of the Divine Principle
3 Color Edition-The Red part

The Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming

The word “Messiah” in Hebrew means the “anointed one,” signifying a king. The chosen people of Israel believed in the Word of God as revealed through the prophets, which promised that God would send them a king and savior. Such was their messianic expectation. God sent this Messiah in the person of Jesus Christ. “Christ” is the Greek word for Messiah. The Messiah comes to fulfill the purpose of God’s work of salvation.

SALVATION THROUGH THE CROSS

1.1 THE PURPOSE OF JESUS’ COMING AS THE MESSIAH

Jesus came as the Messiah for nothing less than the complete salvation of humanity; he was to fulfill the goal of the providence of restoration. Jesus was supposed to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, first on the earth.

1.2 WAS SALVATION COMPLETED THROUGH THE CROSS?

Did Jesus’ crucifixion, which brought us redemption from our sins, fulfill the purpose of the providence of restoration? If so, we would expect that faithful believers in Jesus would have restored their original nature and built the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Yet in the entire history of Christianity, there has been no one, no matter how devout, who lived his life in inseparable oneness with God. Not one person has ever experienced God’s Heart in its full intensity or possessed a divine nature. There has never been a believer who had no need of redemption or a life of ardent prayer and devotion. Christian parents continue to transmit the original sin to their children. The grace of redemption by the cross has neither fully uprooted our original sin nor perfectly restored our original nature.

1.3 JESUS’ DEATH ON THE CROSS

Was Jesus’ death on the cross the most desired Will of God? Let us first examine the words and deeds of the disciples as recorded in the Bible. Next, let us examine from the viewpoint of God’s providence whether the crucifixion of Jesus was inevitable as the predestined Will of God. Next, let us examine the words and deeds of Jesus himself to ascertain whether his crucifixion was in fact the way to completely accomplish his mission as the Messiah.

God’s clear intention for the chosen people of Israel, whom He had led through all manner of difficulty from the time of Abraham, was to send them a Messiah and build an eternal Kingdom on earth. Nevertheless, when the Jewish leadership persecuted Jesus and led him to the cross, Israel lost its qualification to be the founding nation of God’s Kingdom. Within a few generations, the people of Israel would be scattered over the face of the earth. They have suffered oppression and persecution ever since. This can be viewed as the tragic consequence of the mistake their ancestors committed when they condemned to death the Messiah, whom they should have honored, thereby preventing the completion of the providence of restoration. Moreover, not only the Jews, but also many faithful Christians have shouldered the cross as their portion for the collective sin of having killed Jesus.

View slides 1 to 16 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content. For more detail, view the entire text: https://tparents.org/Library/Unification/Books/DP06/DP06-14.pdf .

2007p1-CHAPT-4-The-Messiah-_revised-4-28-2014