All this mumbo jumbo of the world ending is true. The end equals a slow death of the prosperous life of evil. After the coming of Heaven on Earth, those who prosper, are those who abide by the heavenly law. Thus God will regain dominion over His earth as He planned before the Fall of Adam and Eve begins.
"God already has dominion!" You say? How is it that a perfect God can regulate directly an imperfect world that refuses to obey His laws? We are all born into sin which was from us obeying another law, not God. God governs the world indirectly and has used saints, religion through godly laws to bring about His Ideal World which He wanted from the beginning.
Unfortunately, Christian doctrine concedes that this will happen automatically when the Messiah returns.
Is it possible for humans to achieve a level of God-like perfection?
Absolutely ... in fact God bet on it with Adam and Eve and even though He lost everything when the first couple chose to follow satan's words, He has been working for this ideal ever since.
Unfortunately, we have inherited the belief that perfection will happen automatically when the Messiah returns to only take up a few chosen and not on earth but in heaven. But Heaven on Earth has always been God's ideal of creation.
If we continue to believe good cannot become the standard, what is the reason for religion, for God's existence, or for Him bringing Jesus and the returned Messiah? Just for temporary success so we can return to our wicked ways or be overcome by evil?
"Heaven on Earth happens when we actively pursue it through our dedication for God and love for His children and even our enemy."
"We acknowledge that everybody cherishes more the person who loves him spiritually, whose love stems from the deeper sphere of his mind. When two people love you at the same time, you will almost always choose the one whose love stems from the mind, rather than the flesh."
"We can achieve perfection once our spiritual self centered on God guides our evil body toward God's will." Simple to say, hard to do. Ideal men and women are possible.
So to make it short, the ideal can never be achieved by one person. There must be a perfect object, upon which we can work and be reworked, then the ideal exist. There is no ideal with only one man, but only when a reciprocal relationship is established, it is there the ideal begins to exist.
We are all individually different. God endowed some people with special outward strengths and others with inner abilities. Some people are weak or strong and some are noble while others are in a lower position. The ideal or perfected person will be someone who can embrace both ends and stand at the center.
An ideal young person is not concerned only about himself but his whole village, family, or country. Also, the present is not his only interest, but the past, future and the whole world. When a person tries to achieve a relationship with God, then he becomes an ideal youth.
If God exists, what would God be like?
You may have already had in your image that God is someone who is the center of the whole. Then, in God we can represent the present, past, and future. And also, from no matter what direction -- East, West, South, and North -- we have to center around God. Then God must be an entity who is the center of the whole universe.
Then what kind of a relationship should exist between God and mankind?
Man by nature takes after God. In other words, man likes to become God, or God-like. But if he becomes an entity of God, then he no longer has the subject-object relationship. To be ideal, we must have the horizontal relationship as well as the vertical relationship.
So we have both characters within ourselves, to have a complete, perfect relationship outwardly and also inwardly. There are some persons who would like to live centered around their body, giving into any pleasure for which the body yearns, whereas some people would like to live centered around their mind and spirit.
By experience we all know when we centralize our being on outer things these objects will essentially pass away. Then we become easily invaded when we focus solely on inner things and become vulnerable, yet it is imperative that man have internal strength.
We achieve this balance once we find some identity and harmony between spirit and body, then we start to see things as ideal. This is the very point when we see God. Centered around God, we with our conscience and our body in a harmonious relationship. When an individual is in perfect harmony they would like to achieve harmony with God. This is every man's desire.
As you already know, when you have a strong conscience, you become a strong man. So when we become completely harmonious within ourselves, when our spirit dominates and our flesh is subjugated in a reciprocal position, then we are likely to become as strong as God Himself. We can safely conclude, in an oversimplified manner, that man can only become ideal, when his mind and his body can achieve perfect harmony.
You cannot realize goodness without a reciprocal relationship. Goodness is something you like. Its Chinese character is simply man and woman, that's all.
When subject and object become completely one, such as when man and woman become completely one, then that's good. This is not only an ideal in the Eastern culture, but is also held in the Western world. The Bible says that God created man, and it wasn't good enough, so He made woman.
It takes a reciprocal position to become ideal or good. Give and take between Subject and Object. The ideal comes only when true man and true woman unite. That's the ideal. And it is also logical reasoning to say that before goodness comes, an individual must have complete harmony between his mind and conscience. When they really become one, that will be the element of future happiness.
What Is Heaven Like?
Heaven is nothing but two separate entities achieving unity. That's heaven. We can never deny, beyond any cultural sphere, that it takes two to achieve the ideal. Then what is the ideal of youth, the ambition of youth? The ambition of each youth is to be a perfect person. After he has achieved his own perfection, then the ideal follows when he or she meets a spouse.
By nature, humans think of themselves as precious. Why? We feel this because we have a built in mechanism for the ideal. The objective is to achieve unity between our mind/conscience and our body. A person whose conscience goes in one way and body goes in another direction, is not the definition of an ideal person. The one whom the mind and body head into one direction portrays the image of the ideal.
Our body, for example, always thinks centered around itself. It concentrates on fulfilling its need of food and relaxation, while the conscience always thinks in terms of the whole. And when these become one, then such a perfect person will embrace both sides.
Since mankind has not yet become like that, even though such a God exists, some people say that He does not. But if God exists, and if He is that way, then our mind and body must function in harmony like God's.
Mankind must remember that the separation between God's perfection and human beings fallen state had a beginning point. So God must be right, and we must be wrong. In history, someone has to appear to prove this and put it into practice and actually become the example and embodiment of the spiritual God on the physical plane. Otherwise, God will never exist. To repair human history and make it perfect is the task of religion.
Then what is the more valuable thing?
The more precious and valuable thing is something that existed before "I" or "this" began to exist. Looking at any aspect of the world, man is not the first cause. Man was born by some cause. Which is first. Cause or effect?
The cause is first. The only avenue for man to communicate with the cause is through the conscience, and only the conscience. The conscience is cherished more than the flesh because it existed earlier. God is the earliest being that existed in the world. He is of absolute value.
We can recognize the importance of a person created by God, but only in a secondary place. He can never be in the first place, because the first place is already occupied by God. Then how can the cause (God) and the effect (man) be connected?
We connect to God first through the conscience, which is of the utmost eternity, and represent the whole. Therefore the man that is guided by conscience is always cherished as more valuable than the man of flesh, because the conscience existed before the body.
People have been separated into these two different positions and religion has tried to bring them together. So the first proclamation of all major religions is to become one with God, centered around conscience.
And the second command of all religions is, once you become one with God, centered around your conscience, then subjugate your body. "Do as your mind wills; don't do as your flesh wills". And that is the oversimplified content of all religion combined.
Then why should we do that? Because our body always tries to go where the conscience is going.
Satan would like to do his evil deed through the use of our bodies. Our body does not think about others; it thinks about its own protection. There is no ideal in this way of life. This kind of man works against the ideal, destroying the ideal. So we find the perfect religion in the perfect denial of the body. Therefore, God always commanded mankind, "Sacrifice your body".
God has been teaching everything in the reverse way; for example, "Whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:12)
Only after we understand this can we understand the passage in the Bible: "Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it." (Luke 17:33) Then the development of religion can be expected.
Only when there is a perfect denial of our body. Any religious sect which centers around itself and tries to interpret and develop its own way, will never become the center of the religions of the world, simply because self-centeredness goes against the will and very nature of God. But any religion, no matter how small, that denies itself and wills what God wills, must inevitably flourish with God.
Most people don't even know whether or not God exists, much less what the source of their conscience is. When you find out there is such a thing as conscience, and that it is valuable and godly, then you will feel value in your life itself. When you find out that you have elevated yourself to God's level of conscience, then what keen happiness you will feel!
Imagine that there is some realm of happiness which you can only imagine and hope to get near. If God exists, there must be some level where God and man can feel happiness and exhilaration together. If man once finds out such a thing exists, then he will sacrifice everything for that purpose. Don't you want that? Once you experience that, you will never exchange it for anything in the world.
Then you will find God not as something external to you, but one who has always been with you; you have only magnified Him to His greatness. So in that position, God's everything will become your everything. And also God's life will be your life. And the almighty power of God will naturally become our almighty power. This is the position where we can really feel the entire love of God.
If in that position we could feel completely the love of God, how happy we would be!
If it hadn't been for the fall, our flesh would have been in the reciprocal position to Him automatically. Happiness, if it was once achieved as it was intended to be, would have been eternal and lasting throughout eternity. Man should have been in such a position that when God is happy, man would feel God's joy. In such a reciprocal position to Him, with man God can feel that happiness through man.
If a man can experience one such day of happiness, and become completely one with God, he will never trade this one day of life for a thousand years of life centered around the flesh. Don't you think so?
Throughout history, God has been looking for this perfect, ultimate ideal. We must learn that although God has longed for this for many, many thousands of years up until now, He has never found such a level of perfection within us.
We should have been completely one, a harmonious one, in the very beginning. We didn't make that, so we have been separate, struggling, suffering, and tortured. This is the history of mankind. Can anyone deny that we are not in that position now Once each person finds out that this is the true meaning, then no one will say, "I won't go." Everybody will go forward. A person will then only worry about how he can get there.
How do we go forward? By using our own brain power, mind and ability?
I think has used philosophy and strategy enough to try to solve humanity's problems. There is no way except to train ourselves to become closer and closer to God's way of acting and God's way of thinking.
We cannot obtain this without going through the path that religion teaches. A way for the mind to subjugate the body. Humanity can conclude, whether or not they believe God exist or not, that religion is important for obtaining perfection. Even if we can sacrifice thousands and tens of thousands of physical beings, we still have to succeed in this one spiritual course.
He must overcome, even if his entire family or entire country goes against him. Everything he cherishes as being most valuable, he has to deny it and go beyond it.
God has been doing this all throughout history. God can do that only because of His love. God is trying to give you something which is beyond all of these; regardless of all the sacrifices you make. With all the sacrifices that you make, God is trying to give you something greater than that. Therefore, He asks this of you.
When we find God's ideal, His endless giving to us, and His concern, then this shall be the starting point of our ideal. We can receive God's life, God's love, and God's ideal. This is the hope of youth.
So the ideal must be high, so high that it will go through heaven. It must be the ideal that can liberate everything. It must be able to liberate not only mankind, but also God. Even the Heavenly Father needs liberation.
If that is the ideal, isn't that high enough? If God cannot achieve this, if He does not see this achieved within mankind, He Himself cannot be liberated. This is why God is fettered now.
It is man's highest ideal. He is supposed to have that. He would like to experience everything in their life through the ideal, and through love. This is what we are trying to achieve. If such an ideal exists, everybody will head for it. Then does that way actually exist or not? It does. Once we become true men, all that becomes possible.
Return for Tomorrow's Post: Seeking the True Way of Life
This text has been taken from the speech: The Hope of the Youth, based on the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.
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