Hyung Jin Moon
April 11, 2010
Cheon Buk Gung, Seoul, Korea
Today I want to speak about the Eternal Life.
Before we start the service let's look at some of the World Scriptures.
We look at Christianity, this is 2 Corinthian 5: 10; let's read that together:
'For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ so that each one may receive good and evil according to what he has done in the body'.
Aju.
This is Islam, from the Koran, Sura 27:65; let's read that together:
'No one in heaven or on the earth knows the Unseen save God; and they know not when they will be raised. Does [human] knowledge extend to the Hereafter? No, for they are in doubt concerning it. No, for they cannot see it.'
Aju.
This is Confucianism, from the I Ching, The Book of Changes 54; let's take a look at this together:
'The superior man understands the transitory in the light of the eternity of the end.'
Aju.
True Parents' Words, this is from the Collection of Speeches 140, page 121; let's read together:
'We know thus the existence of the spiritual world. We know that this earthly life is short, while the world after death is eternal. Therefore we live our earthly life as a time to prepare ourselves for the eternal world.
Aju.
Today's Main Scripture will focus on Luke 12. Let's begin with verses 1-3. Let's read them all together:
Meanwhile, when a crowd of many thousands had gathered, so that they were trampling on one another, Jesus began to speak first to his disciples, saying: "Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy. There is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known. What you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in the ear in the inner rooms will be proclaimed from the roofs."
Aju.
Jesus is speaking before probably the biggest crowd during his ministry and he is addressing first his disciples. He addresses them with a warning: 'Be aware of the yeast of the Pharisees.' What he describes is a reference to the hypocrisy of the Pharisees, the desire to be worshipped rather then the true wholehearted worship of God; the desire to be respected, like to be greeted in the marketplace and to be called 'Rabbi' etc., rather then to return all glory and all respect to God.
Jesus speaks about the Day of Judgment, or when we enter the Spirit World, nothing can be hidden and all hypocrisy will be known. Any discrepancy that we make in our normal life, between inner and outer or private and public life will be known in the Spiritual World. The Spirit World is a transparent world, where all our actions, thoughts and words can be seen and cannot be hidden. Even things that we whisper will be proclaimed from the rooftops, like in the verse that we just read together. In other things all beings will know what we have done. The spirits, the ancestors, the saints and sages -- they will all be able to see our deeds, actions and our thoughts. True Father has shown us that Spirit World is a transparent world, where all information about us is completely disclosed.
There is this fascinating debate on the invisible world and also about the beginning of this visible world between Creationism and Evolutionism.
A scholar with the name of Jonathan Wells is one of our brothers who was initially sent to Princeton. He got his PhD from Princeton and a PhD in Biology from the University of California, Berkeley. He is very accomplished and also well known in this debate field. I am not an expert as much as him but there are very interesting things that he points out.
In this whole debate there is a question, of course, that all life has information, there is a genetic code within, etc., the DNA. Science text books all over the world proclaim with a certainty and all middle and high school children learn this; about 16 to 20 billion years ago there was a big bang and then all the matter in the universe condensed into a singularity, a single point and from that point there was this hot mass that expanded and expanded and expanded and expanded so rapidly and then exploded. And that became the ever expanding universe that we see in the modern day with the breakthrough technology.
There are some major problems with this theory. It is in the end a theory and not a proven scientific fact. There is a basic law in physics called the law of conservation of angular momentum. It sounds complex but it is simple. In a frictionless environment, if an object spins and pieces break apart those pieces spin in the same direction as the original spinning object. It is a very simple action.
So what I did with the Korean brothers and sisters [is that] we had a little science class with the water bottle that's always hidden here. If I rotate it clockwise and then threw it, when it left my hand, it can only rotate clockwise. Can you see that? As I rotate it this way and I let it go it can only go clockwise. It cannot rotate in the opposite direction! If I throw it this way it cannot rotate counter clockwise. It is impossible according to the laws of physics.
If all the matter of the universe was condensed into a single dot, smaller then a dot of a period on a page and that dot was the entire matter of the universe and it expanded, expanded, expanded …? And then it exploded. First of all there are major questions; where did the matter first come from or where the energy comes from etc. We won't even get to that. It expanded, expanded, expanded and then exploded. According to this law of angular momentum all the pieces that had exploded must spin in the same direction as the original dot because all the things were in the dot, right?
But then there are major issues with this, when astronomers actually look into space they can tell the revolutions of the planets, they can see which way they revolve. Even if a small galaxy of which there are hundreds of thousands in the known universe in our tiny little Solar System why does Uranus and Venus spin in the opposite directions? Why do six of the 63 moons in our Solar System rotate in the opposite direction? Why does Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune orbit in both directions? It is not possible if everything began from a single point according to the laws of physics. It cannot be possible.
There are also other problems with the big bang theory. In the big bang theory, of course, if not only all matter would be spinning in the same direction it would be evenly distributed across space. But there are major problems with that because if you actually look at space, you see that the universe has clusters, there is universes, galaxies, clusters and planets and then there are huge empty spaces and then another galaxy, planets and moons and huge empty spaces. It is not evenly distributed across the universe.
Sir Fred Hoyle, who is an astronomer, cosmologist and mathematician at Cambridge University, said in Science Digest Magazine on May of 1984, [that] he believes a sickly pall now hangs over the big bang theory. At the end it cannot stand up to the intellectual rigors of critical thinking.
The reality is in evidence. The reality is that no matter how much you divide and reduce any physical quantity in the observable world, in the end the entity or quantity cannot provide the reason for its own existence. It cannot! Even when you look at the most simple cell, not only at the big universe, I am talking about the most simple cell, when you look at the most simple one-cell organism, in order to make that entity move and function, there needs to be a minimum of 397 genes. It did not evolve in a gradual process from one gene to five genes to 20 days. Just to begin it needs 397 genes.
It needs the genes to function with the cell membrane, the mitochondria that feed the membrane, the DNA, which tags the proteins, the glucose cycle, all of these things encompass a cell of any entity and within it there are 397 parts. You cannot get lower then that. We need the minimum of 397 parts. Nobody looks at a computer and says it evolved by accident of somebody dropping a boat or a nut. It did not evolve from the dropping of a boat or nut in an accidental fashion. When you look at a computer you know that there is a program, there is information, a data base and many things are in there, which I am not an expert in. You know that somebody had an intellect and understood that information in that piece, which understood the different parts and components and organized it in a fashion. You understand that there was an intellect that came before the computer and that created it.
When you have soup, like chicken noodle soup, you have the chicken bar, the noodles, the chicken; if you are vegetarian you have the veg. chicken, whatever you got in there, the celery, the carrots. When you look at the soup you don't say that this is a random event of a drop of water, dropping off the rain forest. You look at it and know that a cook, a chef, created it. If it has information in an organized fashion you know that there is an intellect behind it. When you look at the known world, when you look at the actual observable organism, the cell, the simple cell, you see that there is information, tons of information. One DNA strand has thousands and thousands of pages of information. We can quickly deduce that if that was a program, a simple cell that requires so much information, there has to be first an intellect that can understand all those pieces that can piece them together, organize them and create them to be a living entity that we see.
That is why we believe in God; let's give it up for God. In the end science cannot refute the presence of God. It cannot disprove it nor can it disprove the nature of the invisible world. No matter how much we don't want to believe in an invisible world, that does not change the reality of an invisible or spiritual world.
True Father says that in the spiritual world it is like a computer storage program, like information that is stored. When you pass away everyone can see the movie of your life, you can see the movie, what thoughts you had, what actions you did, what words you spoke you can see that person's movie and all the information about him in an instant.
This past week, as I mentioned earlier, we had the Ascension Ceremony [Seunghwa] of Dr. Kim Won Pil, teacher Kim Won Pil. We offered a prayer and the explanation of his life and his accomplishments, etc… At the ceremony there was one very solemn moment where we watched a video that encapsulated his life. The video had still pictures from the early days, the black and white photos of the mud hut that True Father began his ministry in all the way up to the present. He had these panorama pictures and it went through the incredible movements of his life and we saw his life, although in pieces. When I saw this it reminded me, of course this was a funeral, it got me to think about the fact of the Spirit World and where we go after life, after we pass away and die.
Here we saw the video but it made me realize, when we go to the Spirit World it is even more detailed then this. It is like watching not only the panorama pictures; we are watching the whole movie, all the tribulations, the pain and all the different things that happened. Remembering the nature of the Spirit World, it is very interesting, after Father had done this Unification Ascension Festival Remembrance Ceremony, (I don't know if this is the official translation what Father was conducting in the States) and now we are conducting the same Ceremony here in Korea on Tuesday.
It is not just a coincidence but very spiritual, that we had people all throughout the week who were ascending. Almost everyday we had a family of one of the regions here that were ascending all of a sudden, showing us that the Spirit World is very busy, very active.
Let's move on to Luke 12:4-7: Let's read that together:
"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him. Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? Yet not one of them is forgotten by God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Don't be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows."
This is a very famous quote that we hear from Christianity and when we hear this we usually just get the last part. "Don't be afraid; you are worth more then a few sparrows."
It is very insightful how Jesus started this phrase. Remember this is probably the biggest congregation that he speaks in front of during his three year ministry. The question is, what does this Jesus choose to speak about? Does he choose only to speak about the love of God? Does he only choose to speak about the fact that we are more valuable as sparrows? No, Jesus does not only speak about that. In this section he speaks first of the fact that people who serve the lord will be criticized, will be ostracized, will be misunderstood and cursed at but he says, 'do not fear those kind of people. Do not fear those kinds of attacks that come upon you.' Then he says: 'Fear the one who can cast you into hell.' Right, that's what the quotation says?
Here he is reminding us, we have peer pressure all around us; that we have the pressures of society to conform to the norms, in that case it was the norms of the Pharisees. He is reminding us of the fact, that following the Lord would solicit condemnation. Every single Unificationist who is honest about their faith has encountered this reality. Our brothers and sisters have encountered it with their family, their friends, their co-workers, and bosses. They have been discriminated against. In Japan we have huge human rights violations because we are Unificationists. All around the world we have experienced this. Every Unificationist who has spoken in front of people that they are Unificationists has experienced this.
We have to remember, the persecution that Jesus faced. The disciples constantly faced this in the very popular religion of the Pharisees in the time when Jesus lived. But Jesus reminds the disciples not to fear the men who are doing such things but to fear God. To fear God who has power over our spiritual life. This reference is of course of God's justice. Many people will say, if God is so loving, how can He punish His children? It says in 1 John 4:8 that God is Love, how can God punish us and how can God punish His children.
Like I mentioned last week, this is not understanding theology very well. Because God is love, sin cannot come near Him. Because He is good, evil cannot come near, He is not a part of evil. Because He is faithful, infidelity cannot stand near Him. Because He is truthful, falsehood cannot come near; it cannot be a part of Him. Thus because God is love and He is just, He also does not have part with evil or sin, etc.
What we have to remember in our life of faith is that no matter how great the saint, how great the person that it had succeeded, whenever anybody stands before the presence of a perfect being, perfect God, then we all fall short. We all have sin that we have in front of that tradition, in front of that God. Whatever religious system you will look at, whether it be the Abrahamic Theistic traditions, where you will be judged at the Day of Judgment, where God has the power to send you to heaven or to hell or whether you look at the Reincarnation systems of various Indian Religions or even Buddhism, in the end all sin, wrongful deeds, wrongful thoughts, wrongful actions, must be paid for. There is no free lunch.
For example in Buddhism, there is what is known as a Bhavacakra in Sanskrit. It is the six realms of rebirth that one can be reborn in. One can be reborn as a Deva or a god angelic being, a powerful fighting titan Asura or as a human being. Those are the three fortunate realms. There are the three unfortunate realms, the realms of the animals, the realms of the Preta, which is the hungry ghosts. Those are ghosts that are always hungry, always starving but they can't eat because they have a needle thin throat. Whenever they eat something it burns their throat with scorching pain, etc. The last realm is a Naraka being, which is the realms of the many different types of hell that are present in the Buddhist cosmology.
Many people don't actually understand Reincarnation. One of my professors at Harvard gave a story how somebody called in on a radio show and asked: 'Well, how can everybody be reincarnated as a human being? Then if everybody is reincarnated again as a human being, wouldn't we have a situation, where we could always just continue to search for the greatest enlightenment from the human realm? The host who was explaining the tradition said: 'You don't understand it well. When you understand Buddhism, the chance rebirth in the fortunate realms is zero to none. It is almost impossible to be reborn in the three great, good realms. It is 99.9% likely that you would be reborn in the unfortunate realms, which is as an animal, a Preta ghost or a Naraka being in the various hells that they have.'
In the end whatever religious systems you would look at, you must pay for your sins, evil deeds, actions, speech, wrongful thoughts, etc. Whether in the afterlife or through rebirth, sin must be paid for. There is no free lunch. When you go to college, that's the first principle you learn in economics 101; no free lunch. I was speaking to a reporter of a major news paper here, who was interviewing me and he was asking me: 'What do Unificationists believe when it comes to life after death? You guys believe in the burning lake, the burning hell, where people are cast into fire? I told him: 'No, we don't. We don't believe in the normal Christian belief, in the fires of hell.' I told him, what we believe in, is what we call the spiritual world and the distance, when we are far away from God; that is hell.'
If we're far away from Him that is hell. Then if we're close to God, if we're close and we can feel His presence and we can be one with Him, then that is heaven. And he asked me, "Well isn't that a little subdued? That's not scary at all!" He said, "That's not scary at all! Don't you need something a little more scary to get people to do some good work in your church?" And I told him, "Look. You have to understand that in the Spirit World, God's love is like the air. That's what True Father said. It's like the air. When we're near God, it's fantastic. It's like climbing a beautiful mountain, seeing the glory of nature, being surrounded by the pine trees, enjoying the refreshing spring breeze, feeling the glory of nature, etc. But the further you go away, the air gets thinner. The love of God becomes thinner as you move away. And, if you're pushed out of the realm of love, then that's almost like you can't breathe."
And I told him, "Imagine for just a couple of minutes, let's say 20 minutes, the world all of a sudden lost all of its air. Within seconds you would have mass havoc and mass hysteria. Within seconds, all the way from New York to New Delhi, St. Petersburg to Beijing, Seoul to Tokyo, etc., every place around the world, people would fall into mass hysteria. And people would very quickly become like animals. They would fight each other and even kill each other to get air for themselves. The world record breath hold is seventeen minutes and four seconds and this feat is accomplished only after substantial training of long breath holding, etc. But imagine, because the average person can hold their breath for only about four minutes. And imagine that if all the air disappeared from the earth, within 20 minutes even the world record holder would be in a coma.
Most of the people would already be in the Spirit World. 20 minutes! And imagine the panic! The state of emergency, the type of dread that would arise, and also, as the world record holder described after fourteen minutes of holding his breath, tremendous pain in his chest! Imagine if that 20 minutes didn't end after 20 minutes. It went on and on and on. Imagine if all the animalistic natures of man, and the cravings of air, and trying to survive, all the fear, the intense, unbearable pain was there, because one was distant from God's realm of love. This distance from God's love is actually quite dreadful; it's not a good place to be. That's why we want to do good things, to have the air." And I explained like this. And he said, "OK, that's a lot better; that's much better. Much better."
So Jesus reminds us of the inevitability of having to pay for wrongful deeds, thoughts, actions, etc. In the Principle as we talked about last week, there are four types of sin: we have original sin, collective, hereditary, and we have individual sin. But at the same time Jesus does remind us that we are more precious than the sparrow, that God does remember us; God does remember us; we are remembered in God's eyes.
One Korean minister asked me the question: "You used to tell us, when you first started you used to encourage us a lot, remind us that we were the children of God, and that we need to know that we are the children of God. But nowadays you are also reminding us of the need to realize that we're imperfect, and that actually we create wrongful deeds and we sin even on a daily basis, and the importance of repentance in that process. Which direction do you want us to focus on?" I said, "Look, I have a sister that had cancer, OK? I have a sister that had cancer. When she went to the hospital she had to do two things: she had to number one, get rid of the cancer. She had to get the treatment, and the chemotherapy and all that painful stuff, and then at the same time she had to not only get rid of the cancer, she had to learn how to become more healthy, live healthier, exercise, eating right, all that kind of stuff. She had to learn the two facets: getting rid of the sick cancer and at the same time learning how to live healthy. She had to learn both those sides.
I did a sermon about a year ago about how positive psychology also has been moving; it has moved from the disease model which diagnosed many neuroses and disease, etc., for 50 years, and now the trend in positive psychology is toward the positive: Finding how people live better, how successful people become successful, etc. But the positive psychology movement does not say, "We don't need the last 50 years, that's useless." No, no, no, they say, "That's very important. We need the last 50 years. But we need a balance now. We need to learn also how to live healthier." That's the same thing. We have to learn how to be healthy. Learn how that we are healthy in God's eyes as the children of God. But at the same time, we cannot delude ourselves into thinking that we are perfect.
I remember one of the great Buddhist teachers, Chogyam Trungpa. He is of the warrior tradition of Tibetan Buddhism, and he explained it as spiritual materialism: how individuals in the modern world will intellectually try to gravitate toward different religions or different thought systems, and try to conveniently shop and pick, so that they can create their own moral system, and he called that spiritual materialism, like you shop for things that you want and try to avoid the inevitability of pain for our wrongful deeds. In other words it is the two wings of the bird. Any bird that has to fly needs those two wings, any faith that is going to fly needs both the inspirational side that we understand the value of being God's children but at the same time continue getting rid of the viruses, etc., the bad habits, all the sins that can come onto us. These two wings are essential.
And Father always reminds us: "You must know the Spirit World," he says. And my minister friend who was asking me this question said to me, "You know, when I heard Father say that, I always ended up thinking about the good Spirit World for some reason, I ended up thinking of the wonderful world that I would go to, and the relatives that would be there, and the good spirits and Heung Jin Nim. But," he said, "I never thought about the other side, actually. Because as a Blessed family I just assumed that I would just automatically go to the good side, good world."
As he asked me this question, he said he also posited this question and he found himself asking this question to himself: "If I die now, where would I go? Where would I go? I had not really taken a look at myself, really taken a look at how much things that maybe I have done, or thought, or said, to my family or to my wife or to my brothers or sisters in the church that could have hurt them. And I haven't repented about those things. So if I were to go now to the Spirit World then, in reflection, in thinking about it, I see that now I have to think of the other side." And this is what Father means when he says we must know the Spirit World, reminding us constantly that the Spirit World is present in our lives.
Let's take a look at Luke 12:8-10, let's read that together, final verse, let's read it together:
"I tell you, whoever acknowledged me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God. But he who disowns me before men will be disowned before the angels of God. And everyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but anyone who blasphemes before the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven."
Here in this phrase Jesus really offers us one of the keys to the life of faith. Notice what he says: he says, "I tell you, whoever acknowledged me before men, the Son of Man will also acknowledge him before the angels of God." He is reminding us that the faith life is not an interior life, where we just simply accept him on our internal world. The faith life is composed of acknowledging him before men. Before the crowds, even though facing the fact that we may be persecuted or chastised, being brave in our faith, confidant in our faith, acknowledging what we have received in our faith; the faith life is not an interior motion, it's not only an interior acceptance of Christ, it is also an outwardly testifying of Christ, this is one of the keys to faith. To going out; and to helping of saving other people's souls, helping them, leading them to the path. And when we do that, when we go before True Parents, who fulfilled the mission of Jesus, and we go with a sincere heart, not a heart of boastfulness, but a sincere heart, because no one is perfect, and we ask for repentance, we can also receive forgiveness; when we receive forgiveness we receive the freedom: freedom from sin; freedom and the power over sin, so that through Christ and through the power of true love we can overcome things and obstacles that meet us in our path of life.
See, it is a well-known saying that it is through Christ that we find truth; but what kind of truth did we find? We find the truth that we are not perfect before a perfect God. We found the truth that, despite that imperfection, despite that, out of the great love of 'he who has been sent', the first time in Jesus and afterwards in returning as True Parents, they come to bring us towards the perfection of God. They have died for us, gone through the seven deaths and resurrections, so that we could step up; they took the price of the sin so that we could go up and be forgiven, start clean; start fresh.
But many people do not understand the notion of freedom. Implicitly we may understand it, we may intuitively understand it, but many people articulate it in a way that is not understanding the responsibilities of freedom. Because when we have freedom, when we have freedom from sin, when we have freedom in a general sense even in a democratic nation, we have responsibility. Freedom entails responsibility. Many people think freedom is doing what you want, when you want: "I want to do it when I want, I can do whatever I want, and I can do it any way I want." That is called anarchy; that is not freedom.
Any modern democratic society, look at it: any freedom, every nation in this world, no matter how angry you are at somebody and no matter how much you want to kill that person, if you do that, you have to pay the price; you must go to jail. Or in some societies you will do social service; or in some societies you will have capital punishment or other reparations that you will have to do, you will have to pay back to society. In every free society in the planet there is a moral code. One cannot escape the moral code. Freedom entails responsibility and this is what we discovered.
You see, when we have our sickness, when my sister had sickness then she had to offer herself -- she had to really trust in the doctor who was doing surgery and the chemotherapy etc.; she had to trust in the doctor, and it's the same thing: when we have this spiritual sickness, when we have things that have weighed us down and have trapped us down from really breaking through to our greatest potential which God wants us to be at, then what we are doing is we're trusting our entire eternal life into the hands of the doctor, the Lord. When we do that we receive the separation; the separation from that type of sin, in her case it was cancer, right? In the physical sense. But metaphorically speaking, from the spiritual sense, we receive freedom from that illness, and now we're free, we're healthy once again.
Once again that comes with the responsibility; now we have to live even more healthy -- we have to get on the bike and exercise and train, etc., etc. That's not only in the physical, that's also in the spiritual. When we understand that, that freedom comes with responsibility, and from that responsibility comes compassion -- compassion when we look at other people in the world who are also plagued by that unforgiveness in their heart, knowing that in the end when they lay on their deathbed the uncertainty that they face; when we see those people, we develop compassion and we develop the compassionate mind, the true love mind, inheriting the true love that wants to save them: the love of the seven deaths and resurrections. You see, no matter how much the modern world with technology or science tries to deny the presence of God or an invisible world, it simply can't because it's looking at natural phenomena only. Remember in the Spirit World, that the Spirit World is comprised of God's love, which is like the air; and our distance from that love determines the place that we are at, whether we are in hell or we are in heaven. So to speak.
And many people have mentioned this before; many people: "I'm a Blessed Family so I'm going to the closest presence of God; I'm a second gen, I'm a third gen, I'm a True Child, I'm going to the presence of God." No, that's not the case. I can be the most holy true child, it doesn't matter. No matter how much forgiveness I receive, if I continue to accumulate sin and do wrong actions and deeds and thoughts, those will accumulate. I will have to again come in with repentance and to be freed from that again. So in the end the Spirit World teaches us that there is a moral law in the universe. We're actually going to talk about this next week, the philosophical dimension; we'll go into some of the philosophy that tackles some of these questions.
Jesus said to his disciples on John 8:31, he said "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." When we understand the truth, the truth that, in the end, we are imperfect, we don't deserve to be near God, but that out of His mercy, out of His love, God, whose son and daughter He sent to represent Him, will sacrifice their love so that they could bring us to that point; bring us to that point of freedom from the past, freedom from the mistakes, freedom from the things that have been holding us and chaining us down and that we can be able to be free from that sin.
When we are able to be free from that sin we can then move towards learning the compassionate heart, having the responsibility like the parent that wants to be responsible to love the children that are falling away. In that respect then, we get to truly inherit the love of God and we get to understand the nature of the Spirit World and truly begin to live our faith in the freedom of Christ, in the freedom of the love that we have received. It is always such a tremendous joy to be able to speak about such things, because as we said, none of us stand perfect in front of the perfection of God; everybody, as my psychologist professor at Harvard told me, everyone has neurosis; everyone has the problems that rack them, and getting rid of them, getting free from them, is one of the most important things.
Let's now look at the final words, True Father's words; this is from the 56th page of the Spirit World and Earthly World Book volume, let's read this together:
"The most important thing is eternal life. However, many people don't know if there is a Spirit World or not. If you knew clearly that there is a Spirit World, you could not commit a crime, even if others told you to do so. You couldn't live for yourself, even if others told you to do so. When you deal with the matter of eternal life, you can overcome all circumstances. Therefore religion is so great; if you believe that your physical life is preparation for life in the eternal world, you can naturally lead a religious life."
Aju.
Let's now close our eyes and offer our final prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank you so much for this day that you have offered to us, that you have given to us, you blessed us with, and, Father, we want to give thanks to all the people, Father, especially this past week, our wonderful teacher and early apostle Kim Won Pil Son-Saeng Nim, who went and ascended to the Spirit World, and we want to pray for all those wonderful brothers and sisters this week that ascended to the Spirit World; Father, it gives us a time to reflect that our earthly life, although it seems so rich and bright, although so full of color, is very short in the span of eternity; and, Father, it gives us time to think of our eternal life: where we will go and how we are preparing in our natural life at this time; Father, we want to know that, Father, you love us as your children; we want to always remember that you value us more than all the sparrows in the world, as Jesus spoke.
But, Father, at the same time we want to take the responsibility because we have been given the freedom -- the freedom from our past, the freedom from our mistakes, the freedom from the different types of sins that we have committed over our life; that you give us a fresh start, you allow us to come into health to be free from the cancer, so to speak, the sickness, and to move into health. Oh, Father, we pray that we can be responsible with that health; there is the great saying that nothing will destroy freedom more quickly than the abuse of that freedom. And, Father, we pray that we will not abuse that freedom; that we will be responsible; that we will live a new life that is Christ-like, that is inheriting the true love of God, that inherits the love of the seven deaths and resurrections, the love of the Savior that seeks to save the children who are falling away in distance from God. Father, we know you want to bring all those children back, and, Father, we pray that each and every one of us, you may use us to do such a task.
We thank you so much and, Father, we not only make an internal declaration to you and profess our faith; we want to make an external declaration! We want to profess our faith! We want to be proud of who we are! We don't want anybody to take away our freedoms, Father, which has been happening in Japan, we pray for those brothers and sisters, we pray for them and we want all the brothers and sisters around the world, we pray that we can all find freedom for our brothers and sisters in Japan. Father, thank you so much for all that you have done; thank you for allowing us to reflect on the eternal life, on the presence of the eternal world and your great love for us. We want to come near to you, we want to enter into your realm of love, we want to lead the new life, the life that we never thought possible. We thank you so much. We pray all these things in our own names and in the name of True Parents. Aju
Notes:
Luke, chapter 12
1: In the meantime, when so many thousands of the multitude had gathered together that they trod upon one another, he began to say to his disciples first, "Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees, which is hypocrisy.
2: Nothing is covered up that will not be revealed, or hidden that will not be known.
3: Therefore whatever you have said in the dark shall be heard in the light, and what you have whispered in private rooms shall be proclaimed upon the housetops.
4: "I tell you, my friends, do not fear those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
5: But I will warn you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear him!
6: Are not five sparrows sold for two pennies? And not one of them is forgotten before God.
7: Why, even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not; you are of more value than many sparrows.
8: "And I tell you, every one who acknowledges me before men, the Son of man also will acknowledge before the angels of God;
9: but he who denies me before men will be denied before the angels of God.
10: And every one who speaks a word against the Son of man will be forgiven; but he who blasphemes against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven.
11: And when they bring you before the synagogues and the rulers and the authorities, do not be anxious how or what you are to answer or what you are to say;
12: for the Holy Spirit will teach you in that very hour what you ought to say."
13: One of the multitude said to him, "Teacher, bid my brother divide the inheritance with me."
14: But he said to him, "Man, who made me a judge or divider over you?"
15: And he said to them, "Take heed, and beware of all covetousness; for a man's life does not consist in the abundance of his possessions."
16: And he told them a parable, saying, "The land of a rich man brought forth plentifully;
17: and he thought to himself, `What shall I do, for I have nowhere to store my crops?'
18: And he said, `I will do this: I will pull down my barns, and build larger ones; and there I will store all my grain and my goods.
19: And I will say to my soul, Soul, you have ample goods laid up for many years; take your ease, eat, drink, be merry.'
20: But God said to him, `Fool! This night your soul is required of you; and the things you have prepared, whose will they be?'
21: So is he who lays up treasure for himself, and is not rich toward God."
22: And he said to his disciples, "Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you shall eat, nor about your body, what you shall put on.
23: For life is more than food, and the body more than clothing.
24: Consider the ravens: they neither sow nor reap, they have neither storehouse nor barn, and yet God feeds them. Of how much more value are you than the birds!
25: And which of you by being anxious can add a cubit to his span of life?
26: If then you are not able to do as small a thing as that, why are you anxious about the rest?
27: Consider the lilies, how they grow; they neither toil nor spin; yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.
28: But if God so clothes the grass which is alive in the field today and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, how much more will he clothe you, O men of little faith!
29: And do not seek what you are to eat and what you are to drink, nor be of anxious mind.
30: For all the nations of the world seek these things; and your Father knows that you need them.
31: Instead, seek his kingdom, and these things shall be yours as well.
32: "Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.
33: Sell your possessions, and give alms; provide yourselves with purses that do not grow old, with a treasure in the heavens that does not fail, where no thief approaches and no moth destroys.
34: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.
35: "Let your loins be girded and your lamps burning,
36: and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the marriage feast, so that they may open to him at once when he comes and knocks.
37: Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes; truly, I say to you, he will gird himself and have them sit at table, and he will come and serve them.
38: If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those servants!
39: But know this, that if the householder had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into.
40: You also must be ready; for the Son of man is coming at an unexpected hour."
41: Peter said, "Lord, are you telling this parable for us or for all?"
42: And the Lord said, "Who then is the faithful and wise steward, whom his master will set over his household, to give them their portion of food at the proper time?
43: Blessed is that servant whom his master when he comes will find so doing.
44: Truly, I say to you, he will set him over all his possessions.
45: But if that servant says to himself, `My master is delayed in coming,' and begins to beat the menservants and the maidservants, and to eat and drink and get drunk,
46: the master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not know, and will punish him, and put him with the unfaithful.
47: And that servant who knew his master's will, but did not make ready or act according to his will, shall receive a severe beating.
48: But he who did not know, and did what deserved a beating, shall receive a light beating. Every one to whom much is given, of him will much be required; and of him to whom men commit much they will demand the more.
49: "I came to cast fire upon the earth; and would that it were already kindled!
50: I have a baptism to be baptized with; and how I am constrained until it is accomplished!
51: Do you think that I have come to give peace on earth? No, I tell you, but rather division;
52: for henceforth in one house there will be five divided, three against two and two against three;
53: they will be divided, father against son and son against father, mother against daughter and daughter against her mother, mother-in-law against her daughter-in-law and daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."
54: He also said to the multitudes, "When you see a cloud rising in the west, you say at once, `A shower is coming'; and so it happens.
55: And when you see the south wind blowing, you say, `There will be scorching heat'; and it happens.
56: You hypocrites! You know how to interpret the appearance of earth and sky; but why do you not know how to interpret the present time?
57: "And why do you not judge for yourselves what is right?
58: As you go with your accuser before the magistrate, make an effort to settle with him on the way, lest he drag you to the judge, and the judge hand you over to the officer, and the officer put you in prison.
59: I tell you, you will never get out till you have paid the very last copper."
John, chapter 8
1: but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.
2: Early in the morning he came again to the temple; all the people came to him, and he sat down and taught them.
3: The scribes and the Pharisees brought a woman who had been caught in adultery, and placing her in the midst
4: they said to him, "Teacher, this woman has been caught in the act of adultery.
5: Now in the law Moses commanded us to stone such. What do you say about her?"
6: This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
7: And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her."
8: And once more he bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground.
9: But when they heard it, they went away, one by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman standing before him.
10: Jesus looked up and said to her, "Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?"
11: She said, "No one, Lord." And Jesus said, "Neither do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again."
12: Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
13: The Pharisees then said to him, "You are bearing witness to yourself; your testimony is not true."
14: Jesus answered, "Even if I do bear witness to myself, my testimony is true, for I know whence I have come and whither I am going, but you do not know whence I come or whither I am going.
15: You judge according to the flesh, I judge no one.
16: Yet even if I do judge, my judgment is true, for it is not I alone that judge, but I and he who sent me.
17: In your law it is written that the testimony of two men is true;
18: I bear witness to myself, and the Father who sent me bears witness to me."
19: They said to him therefore, "Where is your Father?" Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father; if you knew me, you would know my Father also."
20: These words he spoke in the treasury, as he taught in the temple; but no one arrested him, because his hour had not yet come.
21: Again he said to them, "I go away, and you will seek me and die in your sin; where I am going, you cannot come."
22: Then said the Jews, "Will he kill himself, since he says, `Where I am going, you cannot come'?"
23: He said to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world.
24: I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he."
25: They said to him, "Who are you?" Jesus said to them, "Even what I have told you from the beginning.
26: I have much to say about you and much to judge; but he who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him."
27: They did not understand that he spoke to them of the Father.
28: So Jesus said, "When you have lifted up the Son of man, then you will know that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own authority but speak thus as the Father taught me.
29: And he who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him."
30: As he spoke thus, many believed in him.
31: Jesus then said to the Jews who had believed in him, "If you continue in my word, you are truly my disciples,
32: and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free."
33: They answered him, "We are descendants of Abraham, and have never been in bondage to any one. How is it that you say, `You will be made free'?"
34: Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, every one who commits sin is a slave to sin.
35: The slave does not continue in the house for ever; the son continues for ever.
36: So if the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed.
37: I know that you are descendants of Abraham; yet you seek to kill me, because my word finds no place in you.
38: I speak of what I have seen with my Father, and you do what you have heard from your father."
39: They answered him, "Abraham is our father." Jesus said to them, "If you were Abraham's children, you would do what Abraham did,
40: but now you seek to kill me, a man who has told you the truth which I heard from God; this is not what Abraham did.
41: You do what your father did." They said to him, "We were not born of fornication; we have one Father, even God."
42: Jesus said to them, "If God were your Father, you would love me, for I proceeded and came forth from God; I came not of my own accord, but he sent me.
43: Why do you not understand what I say? It is because you cannot bear to hear my word.
44: You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
45: But, because I tell the truth, you do not believe me.
46: Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me?
47: He who is of God hears the words of God; the reason why you do not hear them is that you are not of God."
48: The Jews answered him, "Are we not right in saying that you are a Samaritan and have a demon?"
49: Jesus answered, "I have not a demon; but I honor my Father, and you dishonor me.
50: Yet I do not seek my own glory; there is One who seeks it and he will be the judge.
51: Truly, truly, I say to you, if any one keeps my word, he will never see death."
52: The Jews said to him, "Now we know that you have a demon. Abraham died, as did the prophets; and you say, `If any one keeps my word, he will never taste death.'
53: Are you greater than our father Abraham, who died? And the prophets died! Who do you claim to be?"
54: Jesus answered, "If I glorify myself, my glory is nothing; it is my Father who glorifies me, of whom you say that he is your God.
55: But you have not known him; I know him. If I said, I do not know him, I should be a liar like you; but I do know him and I keep his word.
56: Your father Abraham rejoiced that he was to see my day; he saw it and was glad."
57: The Jews then said to him, "You are not yet fifty years old, and have you seen Abraham?"
58: Jesus said to them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was, I am."
59: So they took up stones to throw at him; but Jesus hid himself, and went out of the temple.
