Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 167

Cheon Seong Gyeong Book 6: True Creation
Chapter 3: The Creation's Lament and True Stewardship
Section 3: True Dominion Over Creation, 01-12

Section 3.  True Dominion over the Creation

(1)  God is the owner of the world.  So who should control this earth? Naturally, God, the owner of the world, should rule over it. If not God, then those who represent the owner and receive His love should rule the earth. Since God is the owner of this world, those who follow the way of loyalty to God must rule the world. To sustain humankind forever on earth, we need an ideology that teaches us to accept God as the owner of the world and build a world of greater value, the eternal world. What is that ideology? It is Godism. When we become the sons and daughters who receive God’s love, we can say, "This world is mine.”

All things should be publicly managed

(2)  All things of creation should be governed by public law. Creation is in the domain of public law. People, as well as all things of creation, are in the domain of public law. A nation also exists only within this domain. When people put self-interest before the greater good, the nation cannot endure.

(3)  A public person can manage and rule all things of creation according to the public law that governs the universe. That law is heavenly law. Once you master these heavenly principles, your actions will not be sinful even if you need to be forceful. It is not a sin to take action against evil.  If someone doing evil refuses to listen to your admonition three times, it is not unlawful to use the force necessary to stop him. Therefore, you need to live for the greater purpose, always distinguishing between good and evil.  No one is more fearsome than one who lives for heaven and earth.

(4)  If you ask all things of creation, "Do you want to be governed by public or private law?" they will answer, "We want to be governed by public law." Why is this so? Just as people want to rise to the highest realm of goodness, created things long for this also. Then by whom do the world and all things of creation want to be governed? They want to be ruled by the more public-minded being.

(5)  You must become a person who can manage all things of creation in a public-minded way. When you eat, you need to know the value of the food you are eating. As you eat, you should ask the food, "What kind of person’s mouth do you want to enter? What kind of face should I have for you to become my flesh, my bones, and energy, and what do you want to leave behind for the sake of the world?" Even though when rice is eaten it ends up inside someone's stomach, every grain of rice wants to be eaten by a good person. It wants to be consumed by the more public-minded person.

(6)  That which is public should never be considered lightly. That which is public can even kill someone. Today people are trying to stop air pollution in the cities. This is natural since an unclean environment is harmful. Water should be kept clean, too. Like air and water, all of creation is public. The sun, for example, is the prerequisite for life on earth; its value is infinite. Yet we receive the suns priceless light for free.  Have you ever seen anyone with money in his hand, trying to buy the light of the sun or eat the light of the sun? Have you ever seen anyone pay a single cent to receive the sun's light? If somebody sold the sunlight, would you buy it, yes or no? Water, air, and light—none of these natural things belongs to the individual.

(7)  Your management of the things you have owned so far, your material possessions, is only temporary. You are just the manager. In order to manage things properly, all your things should be dedicated to God by offering them to Him through the True Parents. In other words, only after going through the process of belonging to God and True Parents can everything become truly yours. You should clearly understand this concept. Through historical experience, we may be used to the concept that certain things belong to certain people, but things cannot remain like that. All material things must go through the name of True Parents, and go through God’s name. By going through this process, all material things can be restored for the first time. You are not the real owner of things until they are restored; you are merely the manager of your possessions. Until the time comes when all material things are returned to their true owner, you need to be responsible as a manager. From this point of view, we must distinguish clearly between public and private things.

(8)  We must distinguish between public and private things according to a clear hierarchy. Through the process of establishing a hierarchy of public to private things, we should then clarify the standard of public and private things, and lead our lives based on firm principles. However, in this world, everything is usually upside down. Commonly, private things are treated as valuable while public things are neglected. This is absolutely not acceptable. We must treat public things as precious. If we want to complete the restoration of material things into private possessions, we first need to make them public by changing them into church possessions, then national possessions, and finally, world possessions. In this manner, we should treat public things with greater care. Using this paradigm, people are higher than all created things, while God is higher than people. People often say, "I am first," centering on themselves. However, the restoration of the world is unthinkable centered on the individual. Although people are higher than their possessions, God is higher than people. We must be able to relate with all things of the material world focused on God’s love.

(9)  What you have now is not yours. The house you live in is not yours, the food you eat is not yours, the daily necessities you use are not yours. You should not forget that all of these are public things and have a permanent relationship with the world centered on a public figure, God, our Father, and should be bequeathed generation after generation, eternally. You should think to yourself, "The clothes I am wearing, my lifelong foundation, and even my own body, are not mine."

(10)  Misuse of public things is a sin. Unification Church members must be absolutely clear regarding public things. The Father’s things are holy. If all created things are holy, then your body, which consumes these things, is holy. If all created things have unlimited value, then your body, which lives by consuming those things, has unlimited value. When you recognize your value as a public being, you can create a unified family with great public value. Based on this family we can move on to the tribal level; based on the tribe, we move on to a people; based on a people we can build a nation; and based on that nation, we march toward the world level. Smaller things are absorbed into the bigger field. We should move forward through sacrificing lesser things.

(11)  We should strive day and night to make the Fathers country our country, the Fathers people our people, and the Fathers possessions our own. This means you are meant to act, live, and exist harmonizing two reciprocal bases while experiencing God’s heart. Because this is God’s act of creation, relationship without heart is a sin; being separated from heart is a sin. Whenever we meet our brothers and sisters, we should invite God to be present with us and connect with His heart.  Whenever we deal with material things we must also relate to them with God s heart.

(12)  Are my possessions public or private? This is the problem. All of us must go beyond the concept that things belong to us. This is one of the greatest lessons we must teach humankind from now on. We should reject the concept that things are "mine" and replace it with the realization that things are "public." Nothing in the created world belongs to a certain individual as his own possession. If you boast, "This is my land," you will be ruined because it is public land. You are just the manager. If you care for it as a public manager according to the universal principles of governance, you will be able to manage it forever. Otherwise, you will lose it.