Cheon Seong Gyeong: Episode 222

Chapter 1: What Is a Life of Faith
Section 2: The Purpose and Goal of a Life of Faith, 12-22

(12)  Imagine the glory of God's creations, which He made with His own hands and which were substantiated by His Word. Yet, today, heaven and earth do not reflect God's glory. This is woeful and infuriating; it does not reflect God's motivation and purpose for creating. His creation was defiled and God's intention and purpose of creation were violated due to something unexpected—the Fall of the first human beings. The Fall became the source of suffering, grief, and misfortune. It is the source of everything human beings detest. An adversary wielding a knife is not our true enemy. The Fall is the real enemy of humankind, the enemy of all things, and the enemy of the Creator. What is the origin of this enemy? It originated millennia ago with the first human ancestors. Therefore, if we are to dig out the root of evil and sin, we must desperately battle this enemy, and eradicate the origin of the Fall by blasting it out of existence. Only then will the enemy be unable to relate with human beings on earth. As long as he remains, evil will still be rampant in the world. Believers ought not to battle over the results of the Fall; rather their first priority ought to be finding the Fall's originator. We need to identify the enemy's den and how he caused the Fall. The problem of the Fall needs to be resolved fundamentally between the three parties: God, human beings, and Satan. Unless this is done, we will remain at a loss over how to resolve human suffering.

(13)  Human beings should be able to call God "my Father" from the position of His true sons and daughters. This is the hope of humankind, the hope of all creation, and the hope of God. Therefore, we are destined to work for the restoration of this relationship, so we may live on earth as true sons and daughters of God. As of now, our only wish is to build our relationship with God as our parent, based on true love.

(14)  Amid the joys and sorrows that represent heaven and hell, I took my first steps to question and search for the origin of the universe. I discovered that its core is the parent-child relationship. Therefore, the foundation of restoration is the parent-child relationship. This relationship must be completely restored. Accordingly, the history of God's providence is of the restoration of the original relationship between the Father and His sons and daughters.

(15)  In order to stand before our absolute Father as His true sons and daughters, we need to overcome the world of doubt, the world of death, the world of sin, and the world of fear. Once we understand what the essence of the life of faith that Heaven expects of us is all about, we can do no less than reach that standard and, having reached it, stand before Heaven. Unless we do so, we cannot become our Father's true sons and daughters. When you are armed with such a faith, you will be able to establish an eternal bond with God, enjoy eternal goodness and eternal life, and be eternally freed from pain. And you will be able to live eternally within the heavenly realm. This is something to remember.

(16)  People separated from their parents or from their husband or wife feel sorrow.  They are also unhappy if they don't have a nation that can protect them and their families. These situations draw people together in close relationships. People sometimes feel sadness even in their ordinary relationships. If they are unable to create bonds based on an eternal worldview, wouldn't they also feel empty? Even if people acquire everything they need and want in their life on earth, they are still bound to seek an eternal relationship with Heaven.

(17)  We who follow the path of faith should aim for that which is unchanging. We must restore relationships that are unchanging. We need to realize that such bonds are made not separately from our daily lives but from within the sphere of our lives, with everything connected in oneness. We need to know this and live our lives while actively relating with God. Only through relating with God in our lives can we reclaim our true value and allow God to dwell in our heart, attaining oneness with Him. In other words, when you experience God's substantial presence, which allows you to live in such a way, you will realize that this has unlimited value. When you create the environment in which universal values can be actualized, the value of both individuals and the whole will start to grow centering on you.

(18)  Unificationists' view of faith differs from that of any other religion. Up to this point, Christians have had a vague faith based on the Savior Jesus and the Bible.  However, our life of faith is based on the word "Parent," meaning God, and is focused on cultivating the parent-child relationship with God. Parents and children have an inseparable relationship. That is true from the moment we are born and throughout our life until we die. Therefore, we cannot live or engage in any activity apart from our parents. This is especially so for the Parents who are the center of the history of the universe. They are not just ordinary parents who come to earth for their own family members; they come having achieved the absolute bond with God. This is why, unless you are connected to God and True Parents and unite fully with them, you cannot accomplish your responsibility or fulfill your purpose. The most important thing is that the three—God, True Parents, and you—must always be in total oneness.

(19)  What do all people and all things of creation lament over? It is that we cannot participate as members of the heavenly family. This is the lament of the cosmos. The purpose of our life of faith is nothing less than to find God and call Him Father.  God has carried out the providence of restoration for six thousand years in order to welcome the day when all people will rejoice as brothers and sisters and recognize Him as their Father.

Spiritual maturity

(20)  Why did Jesus claim to be the begotten Son of God? The reason he made a statement that was so hard for the people of his day to believe was because he wanted to give them the benefits of instantly making a leap forward in faith through having believed in him. If the people had boundless faith in Jesus, their cries would have reached Heaven and their faith would have grown with great strides. The higher the level of your faith in the center of the heavenly kingdom, the greater the works the spirit world can do through you. If you possess boundless faith, then according to the quality of your character, you will be able to immediately feel the realities of the world beyond your physical senses and beyond the physical universe to a degree you cannot imagine. Unfortunately, human beings lost this amazing ability. If a believer has the ambition to ceaselessly advance toward the infinite world, he or she will have to face a cosmic battle. He or she will have to vanquish the forces that insist that human beings remain within a hemmed-in realm of faith.

(21)  Human beings were originally meant to reach perfection in both spirit and flesh. As long as Jesus remains only in the position of our spiritual parent, he can give us only spiritual salvation, which is one half of salvation. Accordingly, there is a need for the returning Lord to come to earth to give us physical salvation, in the flesh. Then the returning Lord is to unite the spirits of all who believed in Jesus together with Christians on earth and offer them all before God to inaugurate the Third Israel. Just as baptism enabled believers to become citizens of the Second Israel, believers need to go through the gate of the Blessing to become citizens of the Third Israel.

(22)  Wrongful love led Adam and Eve to the Fall. In order to reverse this through indemnity, human beings need to go through the gate of the Blessing and be joined as brides and grooms in God’s love. Otherwise, they cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. The responsibility to establish the Blessing was something that not even Jesus was able to fulfill. It is, therefore, the responsibility of the returning Lord, the Savior, to complete this task. Unless the Lord returns and takes up this task, and unless he controls the root of everything on earth, there is no way that he will be able to straighten out the entanglements on earth. The entire responsibility for giving the Blessing is his to fulfill.