Sex Before Marriage Disrupts Growth of Heart, Character

When people view sex as just a physical matter, even between consensual partners who agree to just use each other for sex, the levels of harm are deeper.

Harm means one has done wrong and someone has to be held accountable for his or her actions.

No harm means that if one feels distressed after having an uncommitted sexual relationship, then the problem lies within that person, not in the practice.

Those who feel guilt may be thought of as too sensitive or having an conscience that is overactive or the person has a belief in outdated religious values.

No harm means that social fallout can be blamed on socio-economics and no one has to question their personal conduct.

No harm means that one can believe the falsity of sex without consequences.

Reverend Moon speaks about sexual misconduct affects the individual personal development, future pursuit of loving relationship, and upon the next generation.


Effects on the Individual

The emotional, psychological and spiritual harm that is caused through insecure sexual relationships is felt on a semi-conscious level if at all.  This is eclipsed from the pleasure that arises from sexual relations and the belief that one benefits from such an experience.

Unfortunately, the damage of having sex outside of marriage may only been seen years later.

Child psychologist Thomas Lickona relates the story of one woman psychiatrist describes the aftermath of being sexually promiscuous in her college years.

She says, “That sick, used feeling of having given a precious part of myself . . . to so many and for nothing, still aches. I never imagined I’d pay so dearly and for so long.”

These feelings are common.

The Biblical explanation of the union brought through sex is actually bringing two people into ‘one flesh’, even if that was not the partners’ intentions.

Lickona further states that when two people break this bond and go into other relationships, the personality disintegrates and the person feels deeply-seated frustration and a dissatisfaction.

There are many facets of this disintegration on the psychological and level of moral health among young adolescents.


Effects of non-marital sex on the Individual

1. Spiritual and moral growth stunted
2. Character becomes corrupted
3. Guilt, regret and diminished sense of worth
4. Heartbreak and destructive behavior
5. Spiritual disorientation
6. Degradation of love, life and lineage


1. Stunting of Spiritual and Moral Growth


The most central challenge to becoming mature is learning to be unselfish and live for others.

In adolescence, one needs to learn how to discipline their sexual impulses that are awakened, just as they learn about toilet training.

Learning to be unselfish is obviously the central challenge of growing up.

The reason why a person’s development is impeded when they delve into premature physical involvement is because their egos are boosted just to gratify only their own desire - to take rather than give.

A person learns selfishness instead of nurturing their unselfish love and compounds their self-centeredness. Within marriage, sexual intimacy supports the partners’ mutual love and commitment.

Everyone should reach a certain developmental period and sufficient growth within the heart within the child’s realm and sibling ream, a person is not prepared for the potent power of sex.

As Genesis describes it, his or her ’fruit’ of love is not yet ripe for eating.

It is a challenge for to hold one’s sexual desire for just one person for life, especially for the males.  Sarah Hinckley speaks about how sex ruins this:  “a crucial challenge to the man—an essential test of his masculinity— is lost or failed.”

Sleeping Beauty, and other counterparts in other lands, express the moral reality.

A princess has a spell cast on her through the piercing of her skin and drawing blood.  This represents the onset of puberty.

She falls into a deep sleep and is restrained in the forest.  But she is protected until the bravest and most virtuous gentleman, mature in heart and character, overcomes the obstacles to awaken her with a gentle kiss.  He then introduces her to the world of true love forever.

On the other hand, the tale of Snow White tells of the story when a young girl makes a mistake by eating of a poisoned ‘fruit’.  This symbolizes the virgin who fails the test to save herself for maturity.

Fortunately, a pure-hearted prince frees her from the consequence of her mistake.

The scars from sexual intimacy in uncommitted relationships all too often cause lasting emotional desolation and a sense of irretrievable loss. 

This can jade a young person who may become cynical about life clouded by crushed hopes.

Allan Bloom of the University of Chicago lamented how early sexual experience impoverishes the imagination.

Virginal students are still “fresh and naive, excited by the mysteries to which they have not yet been fully initiated,” while those who “have nothing more to learn about the erotic” are “flat-souled . . . unadorned by imagination and devoid of ideals.”

Moreover, when people are involved in sex within insecure relationships, it drains the individuals, especially the youth.

At the time of adolescence they are starving for attention and energy which is needed for their emotional, moral, creative and intellectual growth.

When people are promiscuous or continue to have sex outside of a committed relationship, there is always anxiety over the possible unwanted physical consequences from the union.



2. Character Corruption

The people of Paradise quickly went from innocence to deceit.  This illustrates how unprincipled sex hinders character growth.

People look to others not as holy spiritual beings, but as bodies which they can use to get their own gratification.  They have to practice cunning techniques to try to get another to have sex.

Most sexual liaisons are not like the romantic notion of two lovers drawn naturally into lovemaking, but are the result of one partner seducing the other.

Lust can come to motivate nearly every word or action in regards to others, as one is constantly grooming friends and acquaintances towards a sexual encounter. 

A study showed that this behavior has become acceptable among singles.

Dating singles regard “lying, cheating and dumping each other” as ordinary behavior outside of committed relationships.

A large number of men revealed that they would even hide a deadly infection like AIDS from would-be lovers in order to receive sex.

Even though these same people would never practice such treachery in their business dealings or tolerate others doing this to them, when it comes to physical love, they debase themselves.

There are countless statesmen, clergy and business executives who have a trusted character and leadership who are loosed from their moral standard by the power of sex.

The cheater may not even notice the profound violation of the partner, any children or relatives and friends.

Even though the lies, and blatant cover-ups, silent deceptions and trust is exploited wreak havoc on the cheater’s conscience may not know the depth of how they are using their lover.

Finally, self-deceit must complete the picture in order for the cheater to live with himself.

He will rattle off walls of reasons why he had to partake in such behavior - about how he or she is the victim himself because the other did or did not do this or that.

By trying to hold onto any semblance of integrity, this leads to moral blind spots not just in their love life, but in other areas of their lives.

Tomorrow we will continue the next four effects that having sex before marriage has on a person.  See you then!



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Effects Sex Before Marriage on a Person


This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, "Educating for True Love" written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy on love and marriage.

Most Successful Marriages Center on God

Marriage is a major and indispensable step toward knowing God. 

Marriage is holy because it partakes and mirrors God’s true nature and the creative process.

Marriage is an ordained blessing and an eternal covenant with God.  Therefore, it should be treated as a sacred institution.  Marriage should be undertaken with seriousness, binding vows and promises.

Divorce, infidelity, sex without the commitment of marriage are frowned upon and profanes the sacred grounds of holy marriage.

Marriage propels people into a whole new realm of spiritual/physical being—the spouse’s realm of heart. 

In the realm of heart within marriage, a couple can transcend toward resembling the heart of God and love more than in any other relationship before.

To try to live in the spouse’s realm of heart without God’s blessing and laws is risky and the relationship will be fraught with difficulties.

Such relationships of love without God bring incredible pain upon each other in the relationship.  This is evidenced by the high divorce rate in developed countries.

Marriages do best centered upon God, connected to the very Source of love. 

Without the foundation of God, these relationships erode easily.

God’s love empowers couples with His true love which men and women need to get through all the difficulties of life together.

If women and men do not tap into this Source of love, they come up short to give and forgive, serve and stay steadfast and faithful to one another throughout the years.

Loving as God Loves

Marriage calls a couple to love just as God loves His children and mature the growth of our heart.

Traditional marriage vows echo the unconditional aspirations of marital love:


“To have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.”


A couple who can love the other day in and day out when conditions are good or bad, and in all aspects of the other’s being, this love resembles the unconditional love of God.

Psychologist Lori Gordon describes conjugal love as “to feel that you can trust another person with your whole being, your laughter, your tears, your rage, your joy . . . . Its essence lies in total certainty that your partner is . . . open to you in body, heart and mind—and knowing that you are accepted and loved for what you really are, and knowing that you don’t have to pretend.”

Loving a spouse in good times and bad stretches a person’s character and capacity to love. 

One husband in a long-term marriage puts it:


“You’ve seen each other in every possible light, the very ugliest and worst and the most evil as well as the most divine and compassionate.”
We can say that marriage is a metaphor for God’s relationship to humanity.

Marriage means to “be open to the call of another without qualification.” It calls for love that is ”the steady gaze on another that does not withdraw simply because they fail to please . . . .”

This mimics the heart of God toward saving humankind.

God likens His relations with His people to the marriage of Hosea.

St. Paul said that Christ relates to the church as a husband to his wife.  The history of salvation in Christianity is to be a marriage - the Marriage of the Lamb.

Loving as God loves is crucial in the close quarters of marriage.

Marriage unleashes strong emotional and psychological forces.

Because such high emotions are experienced in marriage, the spouse may seem like one’s worst enemy.

One’s deepest needs may feel left unfulfilled by the very one whom he or she had high hopes.  Therefore, each should forgive one another 70 times 7 and be faithful when it seems impossible to go on.

When a couple going through difficulty can act lovingly when love is nowhere to be found, be kind and merciful to evoke kindness and mercy - all of these traits school a person in the qualities of divine love.

This is an example of how God love us vulnerable, flawed human beings.

God is always seeking to restore us with His love and set our feet on solid ground.  He continues to encourage us forward toward the realization that we have full potential as His children.


True Love Is Built, Not Born

This love is a far cry from the romantic love experienced in the Western world.

Western society sees love as a force that is out of one’s control and outside of oneself.  They see it as a mysterious, grand and is illogical.  It is seen as an overpowering visitation upon two people by forces outside of themselves.


Marriage Encompasses All Family Relationships


Other cultures maintain that love is not born, but built and depends on the sacrifice, commitment and faithfulness of the couple involved.

Marital love, in these views, has a strong moral component.

It is believed that if a husband and wife maintain their moral and religious beliefs that they will naturally grow together in love.

The Jewish and Hindu faiths are strong on this point.

They advocate that love is built in an arranged marriage through the husband and wife’s virtues.

Modern marital therapists such as Stephen Wolin recommend that society take a second look at arranged marriages.  Wolin believes that the process of building love into a marriage is needed in order to improve people’s chances at marital satisfaction.

His research shows that in resilient marriages, a strong spiritual element is always presence in successful marriages.

Sometimes, a couple may play the role of the following to his or her spouse at any given time:

Wife
Mother
Elder Sister
Younger Sister
Daughter
Husband
Father
Elder Brother
Younger Brother
Son


The Bible describes the perfect wife in Proverbs as a woman of virtue.

Such a perfect wife is trustworthy, benevolent, diligent, prudent and charitable.  She will be kind, well spoken and is beloved by both her children and husband.

A husband’s good stature is due to his wife’s good offices.  She becomes the reward and treasure of her man.

It is the fear of the Lord that keeps good marriages intact in fear that they will stray from His paths.

Buddhist scriptures also describe the good wife of virtue as her husbands “mother, a sister, a companion and a servant” (Anguttara Nikayaiv.91)

The Hindu author Ved Mehta points out, it is also the husband’s duty to earn his wife’s respect through his sacrifice and good character.

Virtues of character attract God and His love to a marriage.

“A noble man and woman are necessary for the sake of making a noble couple. We need a noble couple in order to achieve God’s noble love.”

Reverend Sun Myung Moon




Psychological research backs up the view that having virtue or good character is the bedrock of happy marriages.

A marital expert, Judith Wallerstein, agrees about virtue in happy marriages:

“For everyone, happiness in marriage meant feeling respected and cherished . . . Based on integrity. A partner was admired and loved for his or her honesty, compassion, generosity of spirit, decency, loyalty to the family, and fairness . . . . The value these couples place on the partner’s moral qualities . . . helps explain why many divorcing people speak so vehemently of losing respect for their former partners.”


Another highly respected marital theorist and therapist, Blaine Fowers, has said, “As I
have observed many different couples, I have become convinced that strong marriages are built on the virtues or character strengths of the spouses. In other words, the best way to have a good marriage is to be a good person.”

People who have failed in marriage were asked on a relationship website what they would have done to make their marriage better.  People named improved traits of character:

“I would not have been unfaithful,” said one. “I would be more patient, loving and forgiving,” said another. Yet another said,  “I would make more effort to be affectionate, supportive, loving, cheerful, and a better friend.”

Godly persons make good marriages

Ephesians shows that the love in a Christian marriage is described in terms of virtue of character is likened to the love of Christ for the church (5.25)

This love is a giving love, it is sacrificial that resembles the love of Jesus.

Author Michael G. Lawler characterizes Christian marital love: “It is a love that seeks to give way to the other whenever possible.”

Lawler continues to say that in Christian marriages, both are bound as servants to one another just as Christ served the people.

He says, “Marital love exists only inchoately on the wedding day . . . marital love, as mutual giving way, as mutual service, as mutual fidelity . . . is not a given in a Christian marriage but a task to be undertaken.”

Because traditional Christian values leads to successful marriages, theologian Stanley Hauerwas warns that Christians must not yield to the popular cultural non-moralistic notion that emotions and feelings are the measure of a marriage.

“What the church cares about,” he says, is not love per se, but “whether you are a person capable of sustaining the kind of fidelity that makes love, even in marriage, a possibility.”

Hauerwas underlines that the early church did not have an illusion about ‘love’ creating or legitimizing marriages.

They assumed that those entering marriage would develop the character strengths or virtues necessary for a loving marriage through following the traditions of the church faithfully.

Hauerwas notes the ongoing nature of virtue development: “I do not pretend that any of us ever have a character sufficient for marriage when we enter a marriage, but I am contending that at least some beginning has to have been made if we are to have the ability to grow into the kind of person capable of being called to undertake . . . the vocation of marriage.”

Psychologist Erik Erikson agrees with this religious view defining marital intimacy as, “ “the capacity to commit oneself to . . . partnership and to develop the ethical strength to abide by such commitments even though they may call for significant sacrifices and compromises.”

The Mormon faith and the Unificiation Church both recommend members to have a mission service prior to engagement or marriage.

There are three reasons: by serving others, sacrificing selfish means for other’s sakes, giving up entertainment and comforts and dedicate to the commandment to love God

Through this time period, the youth develop such a strong good character or virtues that will stand them in good stead when they embark into marriage which is spiritually demanding.

Theravada Buddhists in Thailand require a six month period of monastic life prior to marriage as well. This time for missions and service helps the young people make a good start at developing good virtues that are necessary to succeed in married life.


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Qualities of True Love in Marriage

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, "Educating for True Love" written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy on love and marriage.

Seven Principles for Loving Relationships Part II

We continue part two of the seven principles for loving relationships:

6. Investing Towards Oneness

In order to realize love, we need to trust in the potential for unity between complementary partners. 

Everything that is complementary to one another first begin as separate beings in the world, but are drawn into oneness.

Despite the complementary nature of men and women, they do not easily get along. Sometimes they can seem like adversaries.

Any group of men or women's conversation at one point turn toward the complaints about the opposite gender.

Men may say that 'women talk too much,' women may say that 'men are so insensitive'. This is the long history of misunderstanding that happens between the sexes. There is also mistrust, abuse, and exploitation.

The ultimate unification of masculine and feminine takes place in marriage and in making a family.

Through a husband and wife embracing one another and through having many experiences with their children throughout the years, a man and woman can come to understand and appreciate the opposite sex.

The husbands and sons represent masculinity in all phases of development as also a man embraces all femininity trough his love for his wife and daughters.

Therefore, married life provides a fascinating, ongoing adventure of bonding of masculinity and femininity.

Through marriage, men and women become better mirrors of the divine.

“In the image of God He created him; male and female he created them,” the Bible reminds us; man and

woman together echoes the Creator’s own “wedded” nature Genesis 1.27.

A Hindu scripture speaks of the original Self or Creator as splitting in two to make man and woman. Thus making each 'like half of a split pea'. Brihadaranyaka Upanishad 1.4.3

A couple that is an example of this is a full mirror of the Godhead.

Reverend Moon shows the married couple as a smallest unit of humanity. This is in the sense of fulfilling the purpose of human creation as God's complete reflection and love partner.

This is why the love between man and woman can be uniquely edifying.

7. Unity Around a Higher Purpose

People who unify based on a higher purpose, this is a basic context for true love. Every being in creation tends toward unity, based upon shared purposes.

Unity is the beginning point of love, the point where love can come to abide . . . . When both come closer and closer they can meet at one point between them. In other words, by both of them denying themselves for a greater purpose, they can unite with each other. That is the standard of true love.

—Sun Myung Moon

American President Richard Nixon spoke about how one extraordinary moment in time united people of all lands when Neil Armstrong, landed successfully on the surface of the moon:

“For one priceless moment, in the whole history of man, all the people on this Earth are truly one. One in their pride in what you have done. One in our prayers that you will return safely to Earth.”

People united in celebration of what he had done and all were passengers in a spaceship alone in black, cold space. This moment was profoundly moving and gratifying where all inhabitants of the earth united in oneness.

Unity, the sense of belonging to something greater than ourselves, is something we deeply desire.

To bring unity, it also helps to keep problems that are small and tensions in perspective.

“I wanted as little to do with my supervisor as possible,” recallsa medical technician. “But when I saw how hard she worked to throw a Christmas party for the kids in the critical care ward, I just had to give up my grudge and help her.”

When we give ourselves to the greater good, it feeds us self-respect. This supports our ability to love and invest further in the relationship.

Therefore, when people unify centered upon a greater purpose, this is the best context for lasting love

We will discuss more on this principle in the next post..

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Centering on Higher Purpose for Unity

This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, Educating for True Love, written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

Seven Principles for Loving Relationships Part I

 

We speak upon having mind and body unity often. Once one is able to center their fallen body upon their godly mind, this principle fosters and furthers the flow of true love.

This is one of the following seven principles.

Why does religion emphasize principles or rules?

Because principles underpin both the natural and human worlds.

A Confucian philosopher, Chu his writes, “There is not a single thing that lacks an inherent principle.”

This is the same observation behind the idea of natural law, that there are invariable principles that govern the nature of everything in existence.

Even though we were endowed with free will and we can choose to live in accordance with these laws or not, the principles of the natural world and human world have many parallels to one another. This is because they both have the same origin, God.

We can also see that these principles reveal much about the Creator to us as well.

Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made

Romans 1.19-20

Reverend Sun Myung Moon gives us insight that the principles or laws for true love not only have counterparts in the created world, but they also tell us much about God.

The following is a summary of all of the principles. They are first briefly defined and then described within the larger universe.

Principles for True Love

1. Maturing Through Responsibility

We each grow to our fullness when we fulfill the responsibility to give out true love. 

Everything in creation automatically reaches maturity without effort except for humans. Our mind reaches its potential only through our exercise of our responsibilities.

God dwells where there is unity of mind and body. 

Due to the Fall, maturity does not maintain or come easily to us. We are disunited between our godly mind and our sinful, flesh or body. Humans do many things that they know they should not do and immediately regret them.

Saint Paul wrote about this state of disunity. He said that there was a war between his 'members' or body and his mind. Those who sought to have unity with their mind, they often had to walk a difficult path of self-denial and sacrifice in order to restore the natural relationship between their mind and body centered on God.

If we observe those who have good moral stature, these are people that the world deems as extraordinary

people who are pure-hearted, passionate for truth and righteousness, and morally advanced.

Such people have overcome selfish desires and attachment to worldly concerns such as lusts, obtaining possessions, influence, or even status in society.

Instead, they follow the dictates of what is good and true and beautiful even at the great sacrifices of themselves and their comfort. Jesus said they have 'overcome the world,” but they have overcome the influences of the world within themselves that are far from God in order to follow Him and the imperatives of true love.

Such people are called saints, sages and the enlightened ones.

We can say they are the incarnations of God's ideal.

When a person does attain unity between their mind and body, there is an affinity with the divine where He influences the person directly and bestows His extraordinary love and power to him or her.

When a person achieves this unity with God, he or she is able to manifest the divine nature out into the world and serve as a clear messenger or reflection of God.

Jesus boldly declared to the people, “Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father.” John 14.9

2. Mind and Body Unity

Mind and body unity allows us to give true love. This is where the mind leads the fallen body of the flesh. Everything is composed of external and internal dimensions where the external follow the internal. 

Our body, which leads humanity in the wrong direction, must obey the mind, but when humanity ignored God's will, the sinful body ended up dominating the godly mind.

All animals have natural harmony between their mental and physical aspects. Their inner instinctive impulses direct their body's behavior toward a purposeful action. This is how we come to admire the dignified beauty and elegant efficacy of even the simple house cat. Every single movement embodies grace. Nothing it does betrays its essential God-given feline nature.

Isn't every inch of an oak tree's trunk, branches, roots, leaves, acorn or bark true to its own nature?

We rely on the absolute integrity of the created world as part of our basic security.

The absolute integrity within the creation is a reflection of its Creator.

St. Paul write of God's “eternal power and divine nature” which is expressed and seen through the crated world. Romans 1. 20

The 'divine nature' represents His character while His 'power' represents His manifestation throughout the world. In other words, the divine Word and His deeds are one.

God is the ultimate example of harmony of word and deed, character and expression; the equivalent of mind and body unity. Because God has such a character and we as humans are created in His image, we also can manifest this kind of integrity. When we a person does, we see a authentic human and likeness of divinity.

Such individuals as a government official who speaks out against a tyrant even though he may be killed or persecuted, or the Oxford graduate who sets up his medical practice in a slum are people acting in a way that is true to their deepest heart and conscience.

These are examples of unity of mind and body in service to love.

For Reverend Moon, this mind and body unity is a prerequisite to altruistic loving. Thus it comprises a principle of true love.

3 Giving and Receiving

Through giving and taking, True Love is generated and sustained. When one initiates and invests love continually, then receives well

True love gives completely. It is total giving, to the degree that we ultimately reach a point where there is nothing left to give. After we reach that ‘zero point,’ we will have the capacity to receive much more than we gave. This process of giving and receiving will achieve a balance that continues forever. Relationships of giving and receiving will produce a world where people live for the sake of others centering on true love.

—Sun Myung Moon

Youngsters love to play catch with their fathers, teenagers enjoy talking to each other and young lovers delight in dancing together.

The commonality between all these activities: basic give and take between people. These small gifts comprise our lives.

Give and take is the substance of all relationships.

Conversation is basically just an exchange of words, and marriage is an exchange of concern and support. Through that exchange, the heart is transmitted back and forth.

Giving and receiving is a second universal principle which comprises and sustains true love.

Just like everything else, love depends on give and take, communication, support, working and playing together. The genesis of love depends on it.

Interaction inspires affection.

A patron who exchanges a few words with a bus driver everyday can create such a bond that the commuter misses her when she changes routes. A daughter-in-law can feel surprised at how she misses the cantankerous, complaining mother-in-law she cared for until her death.

We develop a bond when we are given enough dealings with just about anything or anyone. Reverend Moon observed this give and receiving action as a principle of true love.



Return for Tomorrow's Post: Seven Principles for Loving Relationships Part II


This post was rewritten and derived from the religious textbook, Educating for True Love, written by a team of writers to explain Reverend Sun Myung Moon's philosophy.

Jesus Forgave Without Shedding His Blood

We hear often about the blood Christ without truly understanding the significance.  On day of Communion, many people of faith take in the drink of wine and bread as Jesus did with his disciples at the final supper to indicate the drinking of his blood and bread.  How much of a controversy this would have caused to many believers then.

What is the importance of Jesus' blood and why is it so misunderstood by many?

Many Christians place salvation exclusively from the blood of Jesus. This is a mistake in the sight of God.

Even before Jesus shed his blood, he already forgave others for their sins and transgressions.

Therefore, it was not necessary for Jesus to die shedding his blood to bring about salvation - it was an alternative route from God's original plan.

The Bible records the account of the prostitute who was about to be stoned.  Jesus told anyone who felt they were without sin to throw the stone at her.  In everyone's hearts, they knew they could not condemn her and they drifted away in shame.  Then Jesus spoke to the woman who was accused and told her that no one condemned her and he would not condemn her either and not to sin no more.

What does this mean scripture truly mean? By his own words Jesus offered forgiveness.

Therefore, to bring about salvation to the earth, it was not necessary for Jesus to die before completing his mission.  Jesus didn't give anyone a raincheck to come back for his forgiveness after his death.

 

 

Jesus could open the way to salvation to everyone by the Word of God.

 

God's plan of salvation does not require bloodshed by necessity.

Q. What does salvation mean?

Salvation means that living men, women and families on earth will enjoy the garden of Eden as God had intended from the beginning.

We need to realize the love that Jesus brought to this earth - not the alienation, bloodshed and his death.  His love and forgiveness should be told more often than his end.

Death came when human beings departed from God when they misused the love of God.

After the first parents fell away from God, human physical bodies remained alive.  Resurrection means to accept the word of God and to become the possessor of God's love.

What if Jesus was to appear on earth for the first time right now or on television?

Would you like to have spiritual salvation only through him being murdered and shedding his blood or would you want to have Jesus bringing about salvation with his should and body raising an exemplary Godly family to which to follow?

 

You have to reach the point where you are one with Jesus in flesh and blood.

That's why he set up the condition of the sacrament: Christians must feel they are actually eating Jesus' flesh and blood.

They should actually feel Jesus' life and love more than just eating a piece of bread.  Then they should also feel they are drinking his blood.

Salvation will not come about until that moment. 

This was Jesus' method to bring humankind out of Satan's world into God's uniting the believer through this real sense experience.

This means that Satan is cut off and humanity is engrafted to Jesus and we can feel this oneness.

There is a further vision for Christianity: people go through total salvation on the spiritual AND physical level.  What does this mean?  Jesus' body was attacked and lost by Satan, but he must return again to bring about salvation of our physical body leaving it un-attacked by Satan.  In other words, Satan attacks our body through diseases, mental illnesses and accidents. 

This is the prophecy which will be fulfilled at the time of the Lord of the Second Advent.

If this is hard to grasp, please ask seriously in your prayers guidance on these matters. Ask either Jesus Christ or God himself.

If Jesus had lived and fulfilled his primary mission of bringing the Kingdom of God on earth, Christianity would never have been what it is today.

The purpose of Jesus' coming was for the salvation of the world. The chosen people were to be God's instruments. However, salvation was not intended only for God's chosen people.

For every soul upon the face of the earth, Jesus is the savior.

He is the savior of all humankind.

Should the Messiah come to the Christian world alone, or to the whole world? What God, together with the Christians, must do is cover the whole world both on the spiritual and physical levels.



Return for Tomorrow's Post:


This post was rewritten and derived from the text, Jesus and the Second Coming God's Warning to the World -message from prison

Human Being's Awesome Value

There are many songs dedicated to the term, 'the good ol' days'.  Even theme songs to popular shows begin about how the milk man and innocent television show are long gone.

 

We currently live in a world where people feel it is more tragic to drop a popular phone than to care for the life of a fellow human being.  This is the tragedy of the current human condition.

How great is the true value of humans?

We are the only beings that God longs for over tens of thousands of years. 



According to my observations, this fact happens to be the basis for the creation of the universe.


God and human beings relate to one another on the internal, external, vertical(spiritual) and horizontal (physical) perspectives about the world of love can be established.

God binds these at the deepest core of the heart and comes to reside in the center of them all.

Without uniting into one, the standard of vertical and horizontal cannot develop into the ideal form of love.

 

 

 

A vertical (spiritual) form alone does not guarantee the existence of he horizontal (physical) form.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Therefore, it is necessary that you get an understanding that God had no other choice but to create human beings in this form.

God is an absolute being with an pure ideal for His creation which was corrupted.

He pursues beings who can relate to Him with absolute value.

This value is not exchanged for anything else in that exists in all of creation.  Could the love of your life be replaced by another?






 

 A being that can relate to God has a value that is greater than that of God Himself.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Is this statement true or is it blasphemy?

How can we say a being is more important than the Creator Himself? 

The form in existence that has this absolute value before God is none other than humankind.  God created us as beings of value with this idea.









God created humankind for the sake of love.

Human beings were created because of love.

We are different from any other being in creation because we were created as God's sons and daughters.

As humans, God created us as His object partners  This means that through relating with us, He receives love.  This does not mean we were created to serve or worship God.

We were created to receive love directly from Him.

This is a privilege only given to humankind.  Therefore, because we are in the position to receive God's love, we resemble God.  God, then, desires love just as you and I do.  

In God's ideal of creation, humans were to embody God as his image and the rest of creation was to embody God in symbols.  This is based on Love.

When God rejoices, people will automatically rejoice, then when they rejoice, the creation will automatically rejoice as well. This was the original way of the world.

How could this be possible?

This could only come about through true love...nothing else could achieve such a link to God and the creation.

Some may say that is placing humans on the same level as God.

You must think deeply about this fact.  If God was to create an object that would reflect His love and internal being, whom would God make it resemble?

Wouldn't He rather have it resemble Him than anything else in creation?

Then, if God creates an object that resembles Himself, then that object would have all of His characteristics, both male and female characteristics that are within God.

We resemble God;He made us in His image.  We are the substantial, physical manifestations of His internal nature and His invisible form and His invisible mind.

Whose eyes do our eyes resemble? God's.




 

God's invisible being is symbolically reflected in all parts of our body.  

Have you ever thought about that?

The Bible even states that we are made in the 'image' of God. Then wouldn't this mean that He would create our bodies to resemble Him as well as His heavenly charcter.

When you closely observe the human anatomy you will see that the facial features, the eyes are set deeper than other features.

Our deep-set eyes can thus observe everything.

Then the nose symbolizes Adam and Eve.  Next, the mouth symbolizes all the things of creation.  It is horizontal and encloses thirty-two teeth or four times eight based on all the things of creation in the world and the number.

Who knew that God had placed all of these hidden symbols within our body?  Next the ears symbolize all directions.  The features that are found above the neck symbolize heaven.

In other words, the features above the neck is the information center of heaven.

Did you know that the Lord of Creation placed every part of His internal form in the face of human beings?

Hence, God's characteristics can be found there.  The eyes symbolize God, therefore, the eyes are the first features to develop.

Since God is the center of the universe, the eyes symbolize Him.  Just as the old saying goes, 'the eyes are the window to the soul', you can tell just by looking into someone's eyes whether they are conscientious person or not.

What would be the core of truth?

The center would not be knowledge, money or power.  

The core of truth would be love.  Love's essence is vertical (spirit) and truth that embodies love is horizontal.

Because we are created in his image, you would know Him by looking at creation.  Adam and Eve are the object partners of vertical love while standing as subject partners to the creation.

If the love between a man and woman can be made to be together with the axis of the world through east, west north and south, then God the spirit world and the entire physical world would be connected.

You need to attain oneness with your spouse. 

When a subject and object partner attain unity, reproduction takes place.

This can only happen through the action of give and take.  This place is truly one of joy.  Therefore, only when man and woman unite, can the subject of the couple be established.

When they are united, the man is automatically the subject even if he does not want to be.

 

We need to voluntarily be part of activities that demonstrate God's original love.  

Human beings need to love God and come closer to Him.

The first commandment Jesus gave was to love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul and with all of your mind.  To love God comes first.  You need to love God with all your body and soul.  You need to go to the very end, and not go halfway in loving God.

In such a manner, you need to attain the state in which your heart reflects God's image, with an original nature that is absolutely aligned to become one with Him. Through this, you will attain the beginning and the end of everything. The first commandment dictates this as the way to love God. 

The rhythm of the expression of joy can bring God, human beings and everything in its presence which can dance in tune with this rhythm either symbolically or substantially.  

When this happens, the day that all of creation can feel this liberation is when it will be able to exclaim, "Yes, my existence in this world is worthwhile!"

Wouldn't it be even the smallest creature in the world's wish to be a part of the grand feast that celebrates the love of God and humankind coming together?

What a day that will be.  This is the day in which God has longed for since the beginning of creation before His ideal was destroyed.

The creation is the foundation on which God's sons and daughters can be created. 

This is how we are connected together in a relationship based on this foundation.

This is true of animals, minerals, and plants.  Stamen and pistils that are found in the plant world are similar to the male and female that are found in the animal kingdom.

The greatest masterpiece of creation is the internal nature and external form of human beings.

We are the combination of all forms of creation brought and bound together.

 

Return for Tomorrow's Post: Love Comes From One's Partner
 

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook, Cheon Seong Gyeong, Book

God's Rules for Successful Relationships

When we look at love relationships today, on the whole, there seems to be a lot of confusion, a lot of advice and nonsense that just further the confusion when it comes to the love of a man and a woman.

Wouldn't God make a certain standard for relationships?

Most certainly, God has an absolute standard and order, and model of love He has in mind.

It depends on whether the love a man and a woman share is in accord with God's will that determines success or destruction.

That is a relief to know that God has already placed within the creation a set standard for how a man and a woman should love one another.

Once these certain standards are set in place, not only do they receive God's protection in their love, but they are guaranteed a successful and loving relationship full of happiness.

Many relationship gurus fight amongst themselves over who has the better solution to acquire love and how to keep it, but the highest best advice comes from the master of love Himself, God.

Let's go back to the beginning of the very first love relationship, Adam and Eve.

We by now know the story that if they had become one in love that was based on the love of God, then this world would have turned out completely opposite from what we witness now.

They would have matured and become perfect individually and then they would have become the universal model of love.  This is what God desired from human beings.

Likewise, man and woman must also have wanted to have united based on this true love of God, wouldn't they?

The true love of that couple would be the core of the universe.  That love would have become the standard of measurement for the rest of humanity and for eternity.  God's love and human love is the same in essence.

Love causes oneness. 

Why does a man and a woman long for each other?

They feel such a natural desire because it is the only way man can possess God is through a woman and a woman can possess God only through a man.

In other words, they have a longing for one another because God comes and dwells where a man and a woman have become one in love.

God is the source of man and woman.

Therefore, we should sing praises for the noble value of God and the dignity and value of men and women.  When God's beloved woman lives in a man's heart and God's beloved man lives in a woman's heart as well, these two will become object partners to God.

When they love each other, God will be delighted to see such love and all things will rejoice.

Heaven and earth will rejoice to see such a man and a woman embrace who have such values.  When man and woman embrace each other in mutual fondness, that fondness becomes the point where the universe unifies.

This was how God's original ideal for the world of peace was to unfold.  Originally, a man should meet a woman where he can rejoice, and a woman should meet a man with whom she can rejoice.

More than this, their encounter should be a place where both God and all things in creation can rejoice.

Then, all of creation will be mobilized for this couple.  They want to be ruled by them.  Birds will sing and butterflies will flutter and dance joy at this sight.  God will rejoice, people will rejoice, everything will rejoice.

This would have been the original scene if the first ancestors started history based on such a position. The world would have had a different origin and it would have been centered on God.

The Reason Men and Women Are Born

What is the original purpose of man to be born on earth?  It is undeniable that man was born for the sake of a woman.

Of course many Westerners would shake their head at such a notion, but this fact is undeniable.

Likewise, woman was not born for her own sake.  Even her breasts and sexual organs are not for her, but her children and husband.  We should know that problems arise if a woman fails to understand her own purpose for being born for the sake of man.

Since the 70s of modern feminism and equal rights, women have fallen far away from the traditional view of marriage and life.

No matter how much it is fought, God ultimately established the world based on these principles.

Therefore, we cannot enter the world of goodness, truth, happiness and peace or the world of love and the ideal unless we follow this principle.

A woman is born to meet a man, and a man is born to meet a woman.  Isn't this so?  This is the highest truth whether it is recognized or not.

When we deviate from this highest truth, that constitutes the highest evil.

God created men and women physically opposite and complementary to one another.

Women are one-directional, men are three or four-directional.  Women are more likely to enjoy staying at home while men are more likely to enjoy traveling the world.

There are many books, movies and discussions over the differences between men and women and that it is almost impossible to come together in unity.

How is it possible for men and women to become one?  Surely, a perfect God would not create such beings that would not be able to unite.

Men and women unite through love.  Love has the ability to unite human beings and God.

Man was not born for the sake for academic accomplishments, money or political power.  He is born for the sake of a woman.

Man was born with a larger physique, not so that he can live only for himself, but so he can earn a living for their children and wives.

No one can argue the fact that men and women's sexual organs are different from one another.

Of course these organs do not exist for their own sake.  Man's sexual organ came into existence for the woman, likewise, woman's sexual organ is for the sake of man.

Have you ever stopped to think about this?  This is not a funny matter.

Where is the final destination of love?

Since the coming together of the male and female sexual organ makes them one, this is the final destination.

That which man has is not his, and that which woman has is not hers.  In other words, man has what belongs to woman, and woman has what belongs to man.  The sexual organ becomes a channel through which the mind and body come merged through love.

We should clearly know that we are each born for the sake of our one partner.

This is important, because if we know our final destination, there is no confusion and we know clearly the path we should take in life.

So, why are men and women born on earth?

Men and women are born to love each other.  Since God is the great king of wisdom, He switched ownership of their love organs.

A man is not the owner of his sexual organ.  The same is true for women.

Those who behaved carelessly in regard to the ownership of their love organs will be ultimately judged.

If men were to suffer punishment under the most harshest and fearful of laws, would they even think of other women instead of their wives.  Conversely, can wives think of other men instead of their own husbands?

Men and Women Absolutely Need Each Other

How much do men and women need each other?

Just think, no matter how much men boasts about their accomplishments, it does not matter because it would all disappear in 100 years if there were no women.

Therefore women are absolutely necessary.

When we look at a single man, we think he needs to be with a woman and when we look at a woman, she has to be with a man.

Man can not be born based on his own desire, nor woman be born through her own desire.  Both need each other.

The reason one is born a woman is that there is a man who needs her. Likewise, the reason I am born as a man like this is that there is a woman who needs me.  Isn't that right?  We are all born in this way, with God's knowledge.

Man absolutely needs God, but before this, he needs a partner called woman.

This is where human history has failed miserably.  Men have failed to correctly understand the absolute need for women.  Also, women have not understood they absolutely need for men.

A true man and a true woman who pursue true love are joined through their efforts of becoming one in heart.

When such a man and woman are joined as one, God comes and dwells with them.

God does not like to see a couple that is joined by true love to separate.  Therefore the love of an absolute man and woman is eternal.

God is omnipotent and omniscient, but even God's existence will have no meaning if He is alone.

On the same token, no matter how handsome or fit a man may be, these things have no meaning if he is without a woman.

Men who are in love with their own existence and good looks lead such an ugly existence.

He has no value before God. This is the problem that many men in the world have fallen into such narcissism. This is the reason why history has moved toward tragedy.

God's providence works to change and improve this world that has been immersed in such self-centeredness.


Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net


Return for Tomorrow's Post: Become Part of God's Direct Lineage

This post was rewritten and derived from the textbook, Cheong Seong Gyeong Book Four - True Family, Chapter Five Section 1 - 3

God is the Closest Person to You

What is the highest embodiment of truth?

Parents, husband and wife, and children; there is nothing higher.

What then is at the center of that truth?  Love.

What is the center of the highest truth based on the principle?  We say that God is the ultimate source of truth, goodness, love and life.

They all go to the same point.  The establishment of truth requires love and life.

For this reason, God is the ultimate source of life, love and truth and He is the deepest core.

What kind of being is God?

He is both Father and Mother with dual characteristics.  The core is the parents.  When we view God from this point of view, God becomes a person.

Since God is all-powerful and all-knowing, His face will look rough when He appears to men.  

When God appears to Adam, God's face will look masculine; to women like Eve, God will have an appearance of a women can like.

If God existed before the creation of heaven and earth, how old do you think He is?

If a person can only count up to 70, then God will be 70.  When a kid can only count up to five asks God how old He is, He will say that He is five years old because they do not know anything above that.

No matter how many numbers there are, God cannot be calculated in terms of numbers. 

God is beyond numbers.  That is how our God is.

God also has a grand sense of humor.  He likes jokes very much.  Who do you think would be the greatest king of humor?  It is God.

He has a good sense of humor because He knows every aspect of existence and is all-powerful.

 Who is the great king that can get an audience to burst over in laughter?  It is God.
I am saying that this great king is God. 

Externally, God resembles men and internally He resembles women.  God is all-knowing and omnipotent, but He is also merciful with a heart that can embroider flowers on Buddha's smile.

God should also have a heart like that of the most feminine woman.  Only then can these two side have life.

God is the great Master of the universe.  He is a being that is not lacking in anything.  He has powers and is all-knowing about everything in existence.

Nevertheless, if a loving son pushed His way to God's bosom, would God ask Him How well His son knows Him?

Even if God tried to stop Him, the son would keep pressing forward to snuggle up to his own father's chest telling him that He wanted to touch His chest because he used to touch his own father's chest for so long.

Would God feel offended?  No.  Any father would be very happy.

When children reach physical maturity, they leave their parents' laps, house and leave for another area.   

When the children finally come home and put on old clothes and try to snuggle to their father's chest, would the father protest this?  Even a grandfather on his deathbed would be happy and tell his grandchild to snuggle and touch his chest.

God is the Creator. 

What more could be added to God?

If something is to grow bigger, it has to pull in and absorb something, or somebody has to add something to it.

How can God grow bigger if there is nothing added to Him and there is nothing for Him to pull in?  

This is an important question. I have not discussed it because if I did, you would talk about it carelessly and cause problems. So please research this. I am giving you this as homework. Do some research; write a paper and I will grade it. 

Have you ever thought where God originally began?

Was He born all of a sudden?  People of faith may say that it is blasphemy to speak about the holy Creator.  Haven't you ever been curious as to whether God came into being or He always existed?

How do you think the absolute God originally began? Do you think He was born all of a sudden, coming out quickly? 

We need to have a logical basis to go on.

Dr. Yoon! How did God come into being? Shouldn't someone with a doctorate in physics know this? Isn't it a shame if the holder of a doctoral degree covers his face like that? Church members can only say, "God naturally exists," but this is not the case.

God Himself also had to develop. This is the correct answer. 

What is it that has the power of the matchless beauty of creation? 

Even though God is all-knowing and all-powerful, God is a personal God.  He is a person when He relates to love.  He will want to sleep there in peaceful rest.  God would not tell you do not rest or demand that you work on restoration of the world through indemnity day and night.

This is God's Principle.  It is just like breathing.   When you exhale, you have to inhale.

God also has to rest after work because He wishes to feel the joy of rest.

Everything is connected to God through a give and take relationship.  If God exists, what kind of being is He?

He is all-knowing, all-powerful and His presence is pervading. He is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent.  He can do anything.  What if God was to one day tell everyone to serve Him alone?

What if God told all of the spirit world that they must serve Him absolutely because of He is absolute, all-knowing and almighty?

What if everything was ordered to serve only God?

What would take place?  

Because of the essence of our conscience, we would not be able to embrace that in the long term.  This would inevitably cause conflict.  Your hearts would eventually conflict with that kind of law in the future.

The only partner that God can love is human beings.

Why can't God create another God among His creatures?

You may think that God could just create another God just like Himself.  What would happen as a result?  The other God would eat with God, follow Him, they would work together, and stand together.

When God sat down, then the other God would sit down together with Him.

How would life be if they acted exactly the same for hundreds of millions of years?  How stifled would they feel?

Their eyes would turn inside out in a day.  How many days do you think you could talk to each other.  They would say that everything is the same and would complain.

What is at the center of religion?  It is God.

Of course, each religion has a different name for God, but the name does not matter.

God is one.  God is not two.  When people talk about God, they use different names to refer to Him because each nation has a different nation, but the Original Being is one.

Heaven and earth did not just come into being by itself because it wanted to.  Surely, some origin and some motivation based on some source of power initiated this creation.

When we look at this from a higher level, there has to be a basic agent of power who, as a central subject partner moves heaven and earth or creates things.  This being is called God.

No matter which name He is given, the universe needs to have a center.

Although existing beings act and move around, the central being does not move around with them in their world.

Therefore, there has to be a central original being who remains forever fixed at the center of the world of relationships, which are in motion.

Photos courtesy of freedigitalphotos.net


Return for Tomorrow's Post: We are the Fruit of God's Love


This post was rewritten and derived from "True Parents and Us" Chapter One, Cheon Seong Gyeong section 4