Tag: rebirth

Rebirth Transforms a Worldly Person Into a Child of God

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

John 20

20 On Sunday morning while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran to Simon Peter and to Jesus’ favorite disciple and said, “They have taken the Lord from the tomb! We don’t know where they have put him.”

Richard: The disciples were struck with uncertainty, as Jesus’ body had apparently disappeared. We, also, are in a time of uncertainty. Yet, we can be sure that God is working. We should strive to understand God’s Word and fulfill our own portion of responsibility.

2 Kings 23

31 Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king of Judah, and he ruled from Jerusalem only three months. His mother Hamutal was the daughter of Jeremiah from Libnah. 32 Jehoahaz disobeyed the Lord, just as some of his ancestors had done.

33 King Neco of Egypt had Jehoahaz arrested and put in prison at Riblah near Hamath. Then he forced the people of Judah to pay him almost four tons of silver and about seventy-five pounds of gold as taxes. 34 Neco appointed Josiah’s son Eliakim king of Judah, and changed his name to Jehoiakim. He took Jehoahaz as a prisoner to Egypt, where he died.

35 Jehoiakim forced the people of Judah to pay higher taxes, so he could give Neco the silver and gold he demanded.

Richard: This sounds similar to our current situation. We have a false President who is closely connected to foreign powers (China) and is doing many damaging things to our nation. On the other hand, it is a time to know, love and serve our neighbors and work locally to build God’s Kingdom, as in many ways we have been far away from God’s ideal. This ministry is known as Home Church.

Rebirth

Jesus said, You must be born anew.” Rebirth in Christ transforms a worldly person into a child of God. He or she now experiences an intimacy with God and has the indwelling spirit of Christ. The reason why people must be born a second time, according to Father Moon, lies in the human Fall. The Fall’s negative effects, experienced in every generation, derives from its corruption of the lineage of the human race at its root. through the fall, Satan was able to usurp God and occupy the position of humanity’s false father. To break the devil’s persistent hold over human life, we must be born again as children of God. For this purpose, God sent the Messiah, a man without sin, representing the Father, and the holy spirit, representing the Mother. Out of their love we can be born anew.
In eastern religions, to enter the path of the spiritual aspirant is often understood as a second, spiritual birth. In Hinduism and Buddhism, people become “twice-born” by receiving religious instruction. their biological parents brought them forth into a world of the senses, but after their second, spiritual, Birth their life is now grounded in the Dharma. Father Moon, however, treats rebirth as a specifically Christian doctrine, one that applies strictly to the work of the Messiah to sever us from the lineage of sin. He would regard the broader concept of spiritual conversion through instruction in religious truth under the concept of resurrection.
Father Moon also speaks of the conditions to be made in order to receive rebirth: repentance and renouncing worldly ways. Thus, he also likens the process of rebirth to engrafting: before attaching the new shoot, first the arborist cuts off the old branches; likewise we must deny ourselves and cut off everything false. then we receive the new shoot containing the life and love of God. If the tree is properly pruned, that new shoot will produce new fruit and propagate God’s lineage. Thus, although rebirth is a gift from above, it requires responsibility and dedication on the part of its recipients.

1. Born Anew as God’s Sons and Daughters

Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.” Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.39 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, ‘You must be born anew.’”
    John 3.1-7

To all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.
    John 1.12-13

He from whom the pupil gathers the knowledge of his religious duties is called the teacher. Him he should never offend. For he causes the pupil to be born a second time by imparting to him sacred learning. The second birth is the best; the father and the mother produce the body only.
    Apastamba Dharma Sutra 1.1 (Hinduism)

Monks, I [Buddha] am a brahmin, one to ask a favor of, ever clean-handed, wearing my last body, incomparable physician and surgeon. You are my own true sons, born of my mouth, born into the doctrine, created in the doctrine, heirs to the doctrine, not carnal heirs.
   Itivuttaka 101 (Buddhism)

A New Life is Born through the Love of Parents

James 1

19 My dear brothers and sisters, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, 20 because human anger does not produce the righteousness that God desires. 21 Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you.

1 Kings 10

King Hiram’s ships brought gold, juniper wood, and jewels from the country of Ophir. Solomon used the wood to make steps[b] for the temple and palace, and harps and other stringed instruments for the musicians. It was the best juniper wood anyone in Israel had ever seen.

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

REBIRTH AND TRINITY

 The doctrine of the Trinity has remained one of the most mysterious topics in Christian theology. Moreover, the related doctrine of rebirth, though seemingly evident to all, also needs deeper elucidation. We will examine these doctrines in this section.

4.1 REBIRTH

4.1.1 JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THEIR MISSION TO GIVE REBIRTH

 Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”31 Rebirth means to be born a second time. Why must fallen people be born anew?

 Had Adam and Eve realized the ideal of creation and become the True Parents of humanity, they would have borne good children without original sin and formed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. However, Adam and Eve fell and became evil parents, multiplying evil children who created this hell on earth. Hence, as Jesus told Nicodemus, fallen people cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are first born anew—as children without original sin. Parents who have original sin cannot give birth to good children who do not have original sin. Certainly, it is impossible to find sinless parents among fallen humankind. These parents must descend from Heaven. Jesus was the Parent who came from Heaven. He came as the True Father in order to give rebirth to fallen people, transforming them into good children, thoroughly cleansed of original sin and fit to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

 However, a father alone cannot give birth to children. There must be a True Mother, as well as a True Father, for fallen children to be reborn as good children. The Holy Spirit came as the True Mother.

4.1.2 JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE DUAL CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LOGOS

 Logos is Greek for “rational principle” or “the Word.” Adam and Eve, the embodied object partners of God in image, were created separately out of the dual characteristics of the Logos. Because they fell, this world became an earthly hell. Therefore, to give rebirth to fallen people, Jesus came as the second Adam, the True Father of humankind, with the mission symbolized by the tree of life. This being the case, should not there also have come the True Mother of humankind, the second Eve with the mission symbolized by the tree of the knowledge of good and evil? The one who has come as the True Mother to give rebirth to fallen people is the Holy Spirit.

4.1.3 SPIRITUAL REBIRTH THROUGH JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT

 A new life is born through the love of parents. When we believe in Jesus as the Savior through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, we receive the love of the spiritual True Parents, which is generated through the give and take between Jesus, the spiritual True Father, and the Holy Spirit, the spiritual True Mother. Through this love, new life is infused into us, and our spirits are reborn as new selves. This is spiritual rebirth.

4.2 THE TRINITY

 God’s purpose of creation is completed based upon the four position foundation, which is established by fulfilling the three object purpose through origin-divisionunion action. To fulfill the purpose of creation, Jesus and the Holy Spirit stand before God as object partners who separately manifest the dual characteristics of God. They unite through give and take with each other with God as the center and form the four position foundation. God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit thus become one, and this oneness constitutes the Trinity. If Adam and Eve had not fallen, but had formed this trinity with God and become the True Parents who could multiply good children, their descendants would have also become good husbands and wives with God as the center of their lives. Each couple would thus have formed a trinity with God.

 Instead, when Adam and Eve fell, they formed a four position foundation with Satan as their center; in other words, they formed a fallen trinity with Satan. The resurrected Jesus and the Holy Spirit in oneness with God could form only a spiritual trinity. They could fulfill only the mission of spiritual True Parents.

 Christ must return in the flesh and find his Bride. They will form on the earth a perfect trinity with God and become True Parents both spiritually and physically. They will give fallen people rebirth both spiritually and physically, removing their original sin and enabling them to build trinities on earth with God as the center.

View slides 23 to 51 below for an illustrated presentation of the above content:

2007p1-CHAPT-7-Christology_revised-4-28-2014

Words are not as Important as the Embodiment Itself

Cheon Seong Gyeong 195

Through individuals and families,
God prepared a realm into which a peo-
ple who could advance with the Messi-
ah when he came to earth. This was the
people of Israel who lived with the con-
cept of being the chosen people.
However, the people of Israel have not
yet arrived in that realm. It was as if they
were held back behind a line. The hope
of the chosen people was to go over this
line. If they failed to cross over, it would
be a great disaster. They had to cross this
line and yet, as hard as they tried, it was
impossible to cross over on their own.
That is why God promised the people of
Israel that He would send them the Mes-
siah, the Savior. This was the Messiah for
whom God had prepared for thousands
of years in order to transcend this line
on the national level. He promised to
send the Messiah.
The people of Israel should have
become completely one with the Messi-
ah when he came to them. They should
have been willing to die for him. If
they had, Satan could never have sep-
arated them in any way. The Messiah
could have engrafted them to him on
the individual, family, tribal, people
and national levels and brought them
into this realm all at once. This is why
the world needs the idea of the chosen
people. With that people chosen by God,
the Messiah should build God’s chosen
nation. The existence of a chosen peo-
ple proves God’s existence. And judging
from that basis, the prophecy about the
coming of the Messiah further proves
His existence.

Cheong Seong Gyeong 1272

God wants everyone reborn. From
His position, He is trying to bring all
of humanity, which is still in the realm
of Satan’s false love, to His side through
His greater love. Since all humankind
was born through the parents, ances-
tors and lineage of false love, they need
to be reborn through the parents, ances-
tors and lineage of true love. In this way,
they can become the children of God
and the people of God’s Kingdom. The
precious blood of Jesus and the ritual of
the Last Supper all symbolize the provi-
dence of becoming the children of God
through the conversion of the lineage.

Members Who Will Live In God’s Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 27, 1959

Matthew 12: 46-50

Jesus left his last words as Heaven’s son. He told his disciples that although there were many things he wanted to share, he was to die before he could finish all that he wanted to say. He said, “You do not believe me when I speak about the matters of this earth, so how would you believe me if I spoke to you about the matters of Heaven?” (John 3:12) He added, “Although there are many things that I want to tell you, you are not prepared to receive them now.” (John 16:12) Had Jesus’ beloved disciples been the true sons and daughters of Jesus, why would he not have been able to speak? Even when he was dying, Jesus could not reveal the secrets deep in his heart. He was our father. How can there be a greater violation of filial piety?

We have to repent to cleanse ourselves of all historical sins. Because all people share the sin of having killed the parent, we have to repent. What does it mean to repent? It is to regret the sin of having killed the father and understanding it. No matter how unemotional a son may be, if he realizes that he has killed a good father, wouldn’t he repent in tears? That is how it is. Regardless of what the world may think about it, the God and Jesus I know are like that.

Who would ever understand the situation of Heaven, who worked ceaselessly for six thousand years without feeling any fatigue because He yearned so intensely for the original family, original children, siblings and members? No matter what tribulations Jesus encountered during the thirty years of his life, even when he was praying through the night on the lonely grounds of Gethsemane, he thought about the original children. Thinking about the original children, Jesus prayed even as he was dying on the cross. He prayed, “Father, please forgive them of their sins.” (Luke 23:34) Jesus was thinking, “Since we are in the position of parents searching for the lost children, we should certainly walk this path.” From this we can discern Jesus’ heart.

Christians of the world today know that Jesus is great and honor him as God’s son. However, in reality he was truly miserable. He was condemned as a traitor, a rebel and a heretic. Although the Jesus known in history is great, in reality he was truly miserable. Do you know that? We should not seek the great name of the Jesus we find in history. We should go find the Jesus who appeared in substance. This is the responsibility of the believers of the Last Days. With the burning heart of a parent, Jesus overcame all these situations and struggled to find sons and daughters. The day that Jesus, who labored with the heart of a parent, and sons and daughters who are struggling to find him, meet together is the day God can come and give His blessing.

What remains now? Words are not as important as the embodiment itself. Words are the letters the bridegroom has sent to the bride. When the embodiment, the source of the words, appears, should they focus their discussion on the letters? Now is the time that we must complete our actions based on the words. It is the time when we have to conquer Satan and return the world to God’s bosom. Only then will the embodiment appear.

Our families and relatives block our path to go before Jesus. To sever oneself from all these obstacles, a person must be able to feel the pain of the cross. When Jesus cut off from his own family members, he shed tears and prayed for blessing. Likewise, we human beings have to suffer the pain of the cross to sever our familial relationships on the earth. We have to endure the agony of the cross. Those who dislike that will not meet Jesus. They will never meet him.

God Looks at This World with Judgment

John 4

3 Jesus left Judea and started for Galilee again. 4 This time he had to go through Samaria, 5 and on his way he came to the town of Sychar. It was near the field that Jacob had long ago given to his son Joseph. 6-8 The well that Jacob had dug was still there, and Jesus sat down beside it because he was tired from traveling. It was noon, and after Jesus’ disciples had gone into town to buy some food, a Samaritan woman came to draw water from the well.

Jesus asked her, “Would you please give me a drink of water?”

9 “You are a Jew,” she replied, “and I am a Samaritan woman. How can you ask me for a drink of water when Jews and Samaritans won’t have anything to do with each other?”a]

10 Jesus answered, “You don’t know what God wants to give you, and you don’t know who is asking you for a drink. If you did, you would ask me for the water that gives life.”

Richard:  Here Jesus approaches the Samaritan women.  He offers the woman living water.  It is interesting that many Samaritans accepted and believed in Jesus, even though they are not considered true Jews by many Jewish people.  (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samaritans)

2 Kings 6

24 Some time later, King Benhadad of Syriae] called his entire army together, then they marched to Samaria and attacked. 25 They kept up the attack until there was nothing to eat in the city. In fact, a donkey’s head cost about two pounds of silver, and a small bowl of pigeon droppingsf] cost about two ounces of silver.

26 One day as the king of Israelg] was walking along the top of the city wall, a woman shouted to him, “Please, Your Majesty, help me!”

27 “Let the Lord help you!” the king said. “Do you think I have grain or wine to give you?” 28 Then he asked, “What’s the matter anyway?”

The woman answered, “Another woman and I were so hungry that we agreed to eat our sons. She said if we ate my son one day, we could eat hers the next day. 29 So yesterday we cooked my son and ate him. But today when I went to her house to eat her son, she had hidden him.”

30 The king tore off his clothes in sorrow, and since he was on top of the city wall, the people saw that he was wearing sackcloth underneath. 31 He said, “I pray that God will punish me terribly, if Elisha’s head is still on his shoulders by this time tomorrow.” 32 Then he sent a messenger to Elisha.

Elisha was home at the time, and the important leaders of Israel were meeting with him. Even before the king’s messenger arrived, Elisha told the leaders, “That murdererh] is sending someone to cut off my head. When you see him coming, shut the door and don’t let him in. I’m sure the king himself will be right behind him.”

33 Before Elisha finished talking, the messengeri] came up and said, “The Lord has made all these terrible things happen to us. Why should I think he will help us now?”

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

Who was Jesus? During the four thousand years of the historical dispensation, no one was qualified to introduce the happiness of God. By the coming of Jesus, however, God’s happiness was to be introduced at last and the garden of happiness which God permitted was to be built. We should understand that Jesus was such a new being in history. The Israelites at that time should have known that Jesus represented the sole substantiation of the hope of their ancestors, the substantiation of the happiness their ancestors had fought to attain. He was the hope for the restoration of Israel’s national sovereignty and the establishment of the heavenly foundation.

Jesus resurrected the hope of the ancestors and of the earth, which was buried deeply in the heart of God. Moreover, he was the representative of God, the one whom God had sent to bring about the world where the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven could be fulfilled. Jesus was our representative, the representative of humankind who would build the garden of happiness. The Israelites should have known this; however, they did not realize this. Therefore, even though Jesus came to this earth, he had to go without becoming the central person of the new world. He had to go without possessing the people of the new world and without building the society and nation of the new world.

The world we live in today is fallen. Because nothing in this fallen world became the reality God hoped to fulfill, God can rejoice in nothing. God looks at this world with judgment, therefore, our lifestyle, environment and nation cannot communicate purely with His heart.

What does God long for now? He is longing for something new. When Jesus appeared before Judaism and the Pharisees who bragged of being the chosen, he said, “The things you assert and have pride in are not enough.” We should know that Jesus’ three-year public life course was the record of the battle he fought to declare and proclaim that everyone had to go through him, that he was the cosmic new being who brought a new ideology and world view. Jesus hoped that his disciples and the numerous people who followed him would become new people. Nevertheless, among those who met Jesus at that time, only a few believed and understood that Jesus came to introduce and build a new heart, a new ideology, a new life, and new happiness. Therefore, when Jesus came, he could not speak fully about these things and the blueprint for the new world before he departed.

Nicodemus appeared before this agonized Jesus. He was a government officer of Judea, a person in the position of a teacher and leader of the chosen people. Jesus emphasized to him the necessity of being reborn. We are destined to be reborn today, just as Jesus said.

If there is a last days in the six thousand years of history, then God expects to resolve everything at that time. God knows that He should judge and resolve this sinful world at a certain time. Therefore, we are walking our course of faith today fearing the last days. What kind of time is the last days? It is time to liquidate the old and assert the new.

If We Have a Lonely Heart, We Should Confess and Transform It Into Your Heart

Isaiah 40

40 Our God has said:

“Encourage my people!
Give them comfort.
2 Speak kindly to Jerusalem
and announce:
Your slavery is past;
your punishment is over.
I, the Lord, made you pay
double for your sins.”

Habbukuk 1

I am sending the Babylonians.
They are fierce and cruel—
marching across the land,
conquering cities and towns.

7 How fearsome and frightening.
Their only laws and rules
are the ones they make up.
8 Their cavalry troops are faster
than leopards,
more ferocious than wolves
hunting at sunset,
and swifter than hungry eagles
suddenly swooping down.

9 They are eager to destroy,[b]
and they gather captives
like handfuls of sand.
10 They make fun of rulers
and laugh at fortresses,
while building dirt mounds
so they can capture cities.[c]
11 Then suddenly they disappear

My New Self and the Heaven Where My New Self Can Dwell

Sun Myung Moon
June 14, 1959

John 3: 1-15

Prayer

Please allow us to check where our minds dwell. We know that our minds are moving around in all directions, although our bodies are gathered in one place. Just as Adam was shaped by the lump of soil moving according to Your hands, we know that our minds also should be moved according to Your desire.

Our sacred Father, please allow us to long for You at this time with a concerned mind that checks whether the original form and essence of our minds have become the holy of holies. Let us check if our minds can connect to Your heart, even as our bodies settle into one altar now.

We feel that we should not be without the sensitivity of mind by which an earnest heart toward Your gentle and holy presence can fill us, even without our being conscious of it. You wished to reveal our mission by discussing from the hidden depths and showing Your presence in the distant quietness. We cannot help hoping for such intervention on Your part.

When we did not attend You in the midst of Your distant quietness, when we were not able to connect with Your hidden situation, You were sorrowful, lonely and miserable. Knowing that You face such a situation, we should feel in our hearts the necessity of attending You as our real Father; we should feel the necessity of forming one, united, inseparable relationship centering on eternal life and eternal love. If such a heart does not emerge from within us, how can we call ourselves Your sons and daughters? How can we say that we have an inseparable relationship with You? If we are so, please allow us to know that we have nothing to do with the ideal of heaven You wish to grant us, we have nothing to do with the foundation for Your comfort for which You have toiled throughout history. Continue reading “If We Have a Lonely Heart, We Should Confess and Transform It Into Your Heart”