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)
 
 

Jesus Prayed So Sincerely That His Sweat Fell to the Ground Like Drops of Blood

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Luke 22

43 Then an angel from heaven came to help him. 44 Jesus was in great pain and prayed so sincerely that his sweat fell to the ground like drops of blood.[g]

45 Jesus got up from praying and went over to his disciples. They were asleep and worn out from being so sad. 46 He said to them, “Why are you asleep? Wake up and pray that you won’t be tested.”

Obadiah 1

19 The people of Israel
who live in the Southern Desert
    will take the land of Edom.
Those who live in the hills
will capture Philistia,
    Ephraim, and Samaria.
And the tribe of Benjamin
    will conquer Gilead.

Idolatry and Materialism

Literally the worship of images, idolatry in the broader sense means allegiance to false values that substitute for God. in the Qur’an idols are regarded as evil spirits and Satan; those who worship them are therefore enemies to God. the bible views idols as human artifacts, not as representations of deity. hence idol worship is regarded as a form of materialism, and, conversely, any false reliance on human power or wealth is a form of idolatry. a more spiritual conception of idolatry is to identify it with egoism and human craving, since attachment to these false realities separates us from our true nature. the biblical story of the golden calf describes the worship of the idol as accompanied by orgiastic rites. in the twentieth century, the idols of nationalism, racism, and especially materialism have captivated millions, with horrible results. Father Moon explicitly calls materialism modern-day idolatry and regards it as one of Gods’ biggest “headaches.” his passages on this topic are a contemporary counterpoint to the classic texts.

Lo, Abraham said to his father Azar, “Do you take idols for gods? For I see you and your people are in manifest error.”
    Qur’an 6.74

Shun the abomination of idols, and shun the word that is false—being true in faith to Allah, and never assigning partners to Him: if anyone assigns partners to God, he is as if he had fallen from heaven and been snatched up by birds, or the wind had swooped down and thrown him to a distant land.
    Qur’an 22.30-31

Our God is in the heavens;
he does whatever he pleases.
Their idols are silver and gold,
the work of men’s hands.
They have mouths, but do not speak;
eyes, but do not see.
They have ears, but do not hear;
noses, but do not smell.
They have hands, but do not feel;
feet, but do not walk;
and they do not make a sound in their throat.
Those who make them are like them;so are all who trust in them.
    Psalm 115.3-8

For many… live as enemies of the cross of Christ. Their end is destruction, their god is the belly, and they glory in their shame, with minds set on earthly things.
    Philippians 3.18-19

“There shall be in you no strange god and you shall not worship a foreign god” [Psalm 81.10]. What is the “foreign god” within a man’s body? It is the evil impulse.
    Talmud, Shabbat 105b (Judaism)

Have you seen him who makes his desire his god, and God sends him astray purposely, and seals up his hearing and his heart, and sets on his sight a covering? Who, then, will lead him after God [has condemned him]? Will you not then heed?
    Qur’an 45.23

When the people saw that Moses delayed to come down from the mountain, the people gathered themselves together to Aaron, and said to him, “Up, make us gods, who shall go before us; as for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him.” And Aaron said to them, “Take off the rings of gold which are in the ears of your wives, your sons, and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people took off the rings of gold which were in their ears, and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold at their hand, and fashioned it with a graving tool, and made a molten calf; and they said, “These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!” When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it; and Aaron made proclamation and said, “Tomorrow shall be a feast to the lord.” And they rose up early on the morrow, and offered burnt offerings and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play.
    Exodus 32.1-6

God is Searching for the Content of True Parents, True Couple, True Children

Matthew 15

Jesus answered:

Why do you disobey God and follow your own teaching? Didn’t God command you to respect your father and mother? Didn’t he tell you to put to death all who curse their parents? But you let people get by without helping their parents when they should. You let them say that what they have has been offered to God.[b] Is this any way to show respect to your parents? You ignore God’s commands in order to follow your own teaching. And you are nothing but show-offs! Isaiah the prophet was right when he wrote that God had said,

“All of you praise me
    with your words,
but you never really
    think about me.
It is useless for you
    to worship me,
when you teach rules
    made up by humans.”

Richard:  Taking care of your parents is very important.

Amos 5

Now you will have to carry
    the two idols you made—
Sakkuth, the one you call king,
and Kaiwan,
the one you built
    in the shape of a star.[h]
27 I will force you to march
    as captives beyond Damascus.
I, the Lord God All-Powerful,
    have spoken![i]

Richard:  Don’t worship idols like money, power and knowledge that is not God-centered.

Man Is an Explorer in Search of Truth

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
July 19, 1959

John 10: 1-18

Although there are many adventurers who seek to explore the famous unknown spots, anyone can do that. But what is the highest standard that Jesus set as the mark of adventure? It is the problem of the heart.

What allows modern Christianity to contribute to the movements of the world? It is the historic background of martyrdom, which transcended death. There are people who are willing to seek truth with a desperate heart, even putting their lives at stake. God wants to take those people to establish the world of the purpose of the heart. Because of this, He sent Jesus. Yet when Jesus was dying pitifully on the mountain of Calvary, did people anticipate that someday he would be leading the world? Not even in their dreams.

We are people who have to seek. We have before us the path that we must take today and tomorrow, with all our lives and even our bodies at stake, in spite of any difficulty or danger.

Through the Principle, you know that the battles waged between God and Satan are propelling history. Where is the original son who can call on God after winning these battles? Mankind has not yet seen or found the world in which Heavenly Father responds when the son calls on Him as Father with a desperate heart.

Jesus came to this world and said that he was the only begotten son of God. The Bible records Jesus’ presence as the glory of the begotten son. Jesus called God “Father.” He said to attend him like the bridegroom, that the people were his bride and his brethren. This is something to be grateful for.

There is a God who guides the providence for mankind in this world from up in Heaven. God leads the history of goodness. Then what is His purpose? It is not the Bible. At the end, when the providence of restoration is completed, the Bible will disappear along with the fallen world.

Believing in the Bible is not the question here. What is more precious is a son who can go beyond just believing, one who knows the Father who has striven for six thousand years, who strives now, and who will strive in the future. With a burning heart toward Heavenly Father, he can call on Him. Such a daughter is this precious. Heavenly Father cannot be joyous in looking at humanity. The only one He feels joyous over is Jesus. Isn’t that so?

We are searching for truth. The individual, the family, the society, the world is searching for truth. Then who is the ultimate owner of the truth the universe is searching for? It is God.

What is the content of the truth God wants to establish? What He is searching for is the content of true parents, true couples, true children, true Heaven and earth, and the true cosmos that mankind has yet to possess. Isn’t that so?

Beware of Idols

Exodus 32

19 As Moses got closer to the camp, he saw the idol, and he also saw the people dancing around. This made him so angry that he threw down the stones and broke them to pieces at the foot of the mountain. 20 He melted the idol the people had made, and he ground it into powder. He scattered it in their water and made them drink it. 21 Moses asked Aaron, “What did these people do to harm you? Why did you make them sin in this terrible way?”

Richard:  Beware of the idols of money, power and social acceptance.

Cheon Seong Gyeong 834

If you watch TV for a month, you
come to know everything about how
people live in this world. Everything
becomes very predictable and you
become tired of it. This is why you have
to understand the spirit world. You must
know the spirit world.
When you offer your prayer with
sincerity, the image of the spirit world
will unfold. How wonderful that will be!
Angels will come down and dance. Even
those famous people from hundreds of
years ago will gather to dance. How
wonderful! These are not fanciful ideas.
(203-57, 1990.6.14)

Cheon Seong Gyeong  1442-1443

The perfection of self involves per-
fecting the absolute true love, absolute
true life, absolute true lineage, and abso-
lute 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 reg-
istered, 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) Continue reading “Beware of Idols”