Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman
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Filial Attendance: The Way of Filial Piety of Holy Sons and Daughters of God - Elio Roman |
Adam and Eve fell because they failed to maintain absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God's commandment. Filial sons and daughters of God are those who attend God in accord with the principles of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. These are God's children who establish the oneness of the Parent and child relationship and build the Kingdom of God.
God created with the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. These are absolute values of true love. God went about the process of creation with ultimate sincerity, total dedication, and utmost effort and investment. Human beings must live in accordance with the principles of the absolute values of true love. Hence any true relationship must be founded on the principles of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. By living a true life in accord with the universal laws which establish absolute values, one can attain the joy of life in the Parent and child relationship
God is one. The nature with which God created is the very nature of God. God created with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. Human beings are created in the image of God and to be in His likeness. Human beings have in their image the values of absolute faith absolute love and absolute obedience. Since God is absolute, those values are absolute. Satan implanted into Adam and Eve the nature of his motivation by which he caused them to fall. Adam and Eve acquired that fallen nature, Satan having altered their nature. By acquiring Satan's fallen nature they came to embody Satan, and they became his object partners. However, that fallen nature is not part of God's original image. Fallen nature is relative, provisional, conditional and impermanent. Satanic nature is not absolute and can be removed. God's absolute nature which is man's original nature is absolute, eternal and unchanging and can never be removed.
True Parents have fulfilled and have lived their lives in accordance with the principles of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. In this way they have restored the eight stages and the realm which is completely separated from Satan. They have paved the way for us to live our lives with the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience by which human beings can liberated and released from their satanic nature and from Satan, establish oneness in Parent and child relationship and the heavenly realm.
The satanic world can play no part in the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. When human beings live according to the principles of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience Satan must yield. The bond of the Parent and child relationship is restored and God and His children unite in true love. These are filial sons and daughters of God who live their lives on earth in attendance of God and True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. It is most important that we attend True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. (cf. Chapter 9, Attendance of True Parents)
True Father proclaimed the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience in The First Jardim Declaration on April 3, 1995, in Jardim, Brazil at New Hope Garden.
Adam and Eve did not maintain the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience and fell into a realm which God had not created, a fallen realm controlled by Satan. They separated from God and bonded with Satan. True Parents have restored and fulfilled the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. They have become one with God. They have restored the original realm in which Satan neither participates nor can claim any part. By maintaining the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience to God and True Parents, human beings can inherit that standard separate from Satan, unite in the bond of true love with God, and establish the Parent and child relationship. The transcendent God becomes immanent on earth. The realm of God's all-transcendence, all-immanence, all-omnipotence and all-authority is thus expanded.
The way of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience has been the way through which Jesus and the providential figures enabled God to advance His providence on earth. God's all-transcendence, all-immanence, all-omnipotence and all-authority can thus be enabled on earth and the spiritual world through the practice of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience.
Adam and Eve were to maintain faith in God during their growing period. In the process of reaching maturity they would have become one with God and perfected the Parent and child relationship. They would have embodied the heart of God and would have lived a life of absolute love. During the process of restoration, a time period is necessary, during which restoration and growth occur. It is through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience that the required indemnity is paid and we are restored and inherit the heart of God. One matures and establishes the bond of true love in the Parent and child relationship.
We must not complain. It is extremely important that we do not complain. We can report but not with the heart of complaint. Absolute faith and obedience is not fulfilled and payment of indemnity is hindered if we complain. (cf. Chapter 28, No Complaint) Restoration is a very slow process. It is expedited in extraordinary leaps and bounds by attending True Parents. We must persevere and endure throughout our whole lives. Absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience is the course of our lives.
Just as absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience were necessary for Adam and Eve to maintain toward God during their growing period, absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience toward God and True parents are necessary during the period of restoration and growth. Humankind needs to undergo greater indemnity conditions with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience in order to reverse Adam and Eve's failure. Whenever filial attendance is not practiced, then greater filial piety must be displayed in order to restore it. Maintaining greater conditions of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, during the indemnity time period is the necessary condition towards the restoration of the Parent and child relationship. In the Age of Attendance by attending True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience relatively small indemnity conditions generate incredible amounts of restorational benefit.
Jesus Christ, having been born sinless, was able to reach perfection through his absolute faith, absolute obedience and absolute love of God. In the Bible it is written:
During the days of Jesus' life on earth, he offered up prayers and petitions with loud cries and tears to the one who could save him from death, and he was heard because of his reverent submission. Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him. (Hebrews 5:7-9, NIV)
We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn. In fact, though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you the elementary truths of God's word all over again. You need milk, not solid food! (Hebrews 5:11-12, NIV)
In this time, the Completed Testament Age, we need solid food and no longer milk, the food of infants. Our course now is to become filial sons and daughters of God. The way of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience is solid food. The course that Jesus and True Parents have gone through in order to reach perfection by absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience is the course that we must travel in order to remove our fallen nature, separate from Satan, bond with God, achieve the oneness of God and human beings, reach perfection, attain the realm of liberation and complete freedom, and enable God's all immanence, all omnipotence, and all authority to be realized.
True Parents have fulfilled absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. This makes possible the way for human beings to more easily understand and accomplish the way of absolute faith, love and obedience. Adam and Eve had to establish a relatively small condition, which was to have absolute faith in and absolute obedience to the Word of God. That was to keep the Commandment. Now we must establish with much greater difficulty a condition for indemnification, for the reversal of their failure.
Then what is absolute faith? Absolute faith is not ordinary faith. By keeping absolute faith in God's Word Adam and Eve would have dominated the archangel Lucifer and he would have yielded his unprincipled intentions. Members of the first generation had two conditions of absolute faith, love and obedience. The first was to maintain absolute faith, in keeping the commandment, not to eat of the fruit (sexual purity). Secondly, they needed to maintain absolute faith, love and obedience to their Abel figure in a Cain/Abel relationship.
Second generation blessed children need to keep the first condition, which is absolute faith, love and obedience in maintaining their standard of absolute sexual morality. In order to receive the blessing of holy matrimony they are not required to maintain absolute faith, love and obedience in a Cain and Abel relationship. Original subject and object relationships replace Cain/Able relationship for them in order for them to fulfill the fist blessing and receive the second blessing.
However, both first and second generation members need to maintain absolute faith, love and obedience as they experience the blessing of holy matrimony and attempt to establish an ideal family. First and second generation members need to maintain absolute faith, love and obedience in the developing an ideal relationship between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and grandparents and grandchildren. First, second and subsequent generations of blessed children also need to maintain Cain/Able relationships with True Parents Children, and all members of the Direct lineage of God and True Parents, as they establish the realm of the Royal Family, an ideal nation, world, and cosmos, the Kingdom of God on earth and in Heaven. Absolute faith, love and obedience need to be maintained as we restore our tribe, and lineage in order to enter the realm of liberation and complete freedom, as we establish the oneness of God and human beings across the eight horizontal stages.
The events and circumstances of our lives have a destined purpose, which is our restoration, liberation, complete freedom and perfection of the ideal individual, family, tribe, nation, world, and cosmos, and the Kingdom of God. The trials we encounter in our lives are the trials that God is asking us to undergo. These may often not be to our liking. We are called to make sacrificial offerings to establish our conditions of faith.
We can feel, not theologically but experientially, the process of separating Satan as we maintain our absolute faith in God in order to first establish the Parent and child relationship. If there were no Satan, who is attached to us and hindering our faith, keeping absolute faith would be much easier. We separate from Satan through our absolute faith. We must endure through a time period the suffering, misery, and anguish of the internal experience of separating from Satan, as we maintain absolute faith and begin to re-establish the bonding of the Parent and child relationship.
Then what is absolute obedience? Lucifer became dissatisfied with his situation. Then he asserted himself in a way contrary to God's Will. In insisting on his way he persuaded and stimulated Eve to lose faith in God's Word. Lucifer's self assertion brought about the fall. Eve, having acquired Lucifer's (now Satan's) motivation, asserted herself against God's Will, and persuaded and stimulated Adam to eat of the fruit.
In the process of the Fall Adam and Eve acquired a self-assertive nature from Satan that was contrary to God's Will. Adam and Eve should have attended God with a heart of love and deference. In this way they would have attended God and developed the heart of the object partner. The heart of the object partner is the heart of attendance. In the place of the heart of attendance an assertive, willful fallen nature grew, which they acquired from Satan's self-assertive nature. For the indemnification of the loss of obedience and the inheritance of a fallen assertive nature, human beings must establish indemnity conditions of absolute obedience, absolute submission and absolute deference. For us, absolute obedience means that we must deny our egoistic and self-assertive nature.
Complete denial of our self-assertiveness, however, cannot be accomplished by our self alone. Thus God, Satan, or someone else must deny us. Often, God allows someone else to deny us. In the process of being denied and accepting the denial we can remove our fallen self assertive nature and separate from Satan. By being totally denied we can experience our separating from our fallen self assertive nature, in reality. Total voluntary submission, and acceptance of God, or someone denying us is, the way of absolute obedience. We will feel how powerful our fallen nature and our union with Satan is as we attempt to separate him and re-establish the Parent and child relationship with God. We can observe internally how difficult the experience of separating from Satan is, as we maintain absolute obedience.
We restore the loss of obedience by being obedient in the many circumstances in life that are not to our liking, some small and some big. In Cain and Abel relationships, by our total obedience to Abel we conditionally restore our hearts of attendance of absolute obedience. As we progress beyond Cain and Abel relationships to subject-object relationships we can more smoothly convey the heart of deference attendance.
Through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God and True Parents and the situations we undergo in our lives, we separate from Satan, become heir to the heart of God and establish the Parent and child relationship. We enter God's realm which Satan cannot enter, and establish God's all immanence, all omnipotence and all authority. The same course of absolute faith and obedience must then be traversed on the levels of the family, tribe, race, nation, world, and cosmos, until Satan is completely removed from the cosmos in which God's original homeland is established. God's all transcendence, all immanence, all omnipotence and all authority is established throughout the cosmos.
Then what is absolute love? Had Adam and Eve maintained absolute faith and absolute obedience to God's commandment they would have fully inherited and embodied the true love of God. They would have entered the realm of liberation and complete freedom. It is difficult to define the joyful, rich, internal cosmic realm of emotion of the love of God. We are meant to live our lives intoxicated in the realm of the God's love.
Human beings inherited from Satan a fallen self-centered love. The very nature of true love is to live for the sake of others. Due to the fall we separated from the love of God and united with a self-centered love. Because we separated from the true love of God we are like fish out of water, writhing in pain, out of our original homeland of love. In order to separate from the fallen realm of selfish egoistic love and from Satan himself, we must go the way of absolute love. Absolute love means the true love of giving, forgiving, and giving again. Absolute love is the giving of true love which breaks the barriers that sin has created in the relationships between mind and body, husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters (siblings), and all relational pairs. The way of absolute love is one of the most difficult, yet the most necessary, aspects of all restorational and religious life.
In physics the realm of absolute zero is recorded at -273.15 degrees Celsius or -459.68 degrees Fahrenheit. It is the realm in which there is no heat present. As an analogy, if heat is hate and resentment in the realm of Satan, then we can transcend that realm with absolute love and enter the realm of God where Satan cannot enter. It requires absolute faith and absolute love as we undergo the condition of indemnity we are experiencing, without complaint. It is not easy to separate from Satan.
Similarly, the realm of absolute love is the realm of heart where there are no negative emotions which can dominate one's behaviors. Absolute love is nothing but only true love. For us, to separate from centering love upon ourselves, and to separate from Satan is the course of absolute love. This means we must forgive again, and again, and again. We must love, give and invest, and forgive and love, give, and invest over and over again. We can experience the pain, betrayal, persecution, and disillusionment over and over again and must forgive and love, and give, and invest over and over again.
We establish indemnity conditions of having loved and forgiven until we embody the absolute love of God. Through the way of absolute love we establish a condition where we can observe internally how difficult the experience of separating Satan is. It is only due to the lack of absolute love that emotional barriers, conflicts and resentments have been erected on the individual, family, tribal, ethnic, cultural, religious, national, and cosmic levels. They are dissolved progressively through absolute love. True Parent have indemnified and restored the eight stages with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and pave the way for us to enter the realm of liberation and complete freedom through practicing absolute faith, love, and obedience.
Adam and Eve did not keep the commandment, and their love became centered on themselves. For restoration through indemnity from self-centered love, the opposite way of life needs to be carried out. We must deny self-centered love. Our love must become other-centered in the midst of being persecuted and rejected. Forgiving and denying ourselves is equivalent to denying our satanic fallen nature which we have inherited, which is the same as denying Satan. When our fallen nature is denied we separate from Satan and enter the realm of the absolute love of God.
In order to restore absolute love we must love our enemy. The reason we cannot fully love our enemy is that our love is relative love and centered on ourselves. For restoration to occur, we must deny negative feelings and love our enemies. Our minds and hearts, due to our fallen nature and our relationship with Satan, are quick to gather thoughts of revenge and resentment. For restoration from relative love and self-centered love we need to deny our negative emotions and corresponding actions. We must turn the other cheek and forgive, and give again.
Enduring persecution and betrayal is another way for the restoration of absolute love and of our fallen desire to have love centered on ourselves. When we are persecuted or betrayed we need to forgive and love, and in this way we love not centered on ourselves. To leave the realm of self-centered love we need to deny our negative emotions and love our enemies and those who persecute us. We must free ourselves from Satan's anchor of sin and fallen nature by denying ourselves and becoming centered on true love by forgiving and loving others despite the hardships they inflict upon us.
If you cannot feel love from your parents, your spouse, your children, your neighbor, your leader, or Abel figure, and your Cain figure, then continue to love them that you may leave the realm of self-centered love and enter the realm of absolute love.
In teaching us the way of the restoration of absolute love Jesus says:
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you." (Luke 6:27-29)
"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you: Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your brothers, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect." (Matthew 5:43-47)
The teachings of Jesus and of True Parents are the most difficult of all religious teachings. Their teachings are centered on the way of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. It is by attending God and True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience that the way of restoration and the way of the perfection of filial sons and daughters of God who live a true life of filial attendance is realized.
As the laws of the universe continue their motion they are pulling us, pushing us, and guiding us towards our perfection, which is our oneness with God. The laws of the universe are creating the necessary indemnity conditions and circumstances in our lives for our restoration and perfection. The way to receive them is the way of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. In the history of mankind there have been certain individuals who have traversed that course successfully and have brought victory.
These are the great religious leaders and the great saints such as True Parents, Jesus, Mohammed, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and others. By maintaining our absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience to those great saints we inherit their victories and our course of indemnity is greatly lessened. Herein is found the tremendous importance and significance of attending True Parents with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. We inherit their victories through the laws of ownership and inheritance. (cf. Chapter 6, Owners of True Love.)
In the beginning, God practiced true love. Before God created human beings, He first established the standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Then He invested Himself 100 percent. These are absolute values of love. Thus, God established the principle that any true relationship must be founded upon these true love's absolute values.
By attaining this unity of mind and body, and establishing the absolute values of true love in relating with your reciprocal partners, you participate in establishing the Peace Kingdom on the levels of the individual, family, nation and world. This is God's most earnest desire. In order to attain this state of perfection, as descendants of the Fall, we must first shed our fallen nature. How can we do this?
First, we must resemble God. When God created all the creatures in the universe, He practiced absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Didn't He believe and act in accordance with the absolute standard of the principle and according to the order of creation that He had established? He also planted within each of us the absolute standard of love.
In your lives, too, if you adhere to and practice these three major principles of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, your happiness will be guaranteed. Your good ancestors and even the great religious leaders in the heavenly world will assemble to guide your way. See what happens when you practice such an absolute standard of faith, love and obedience for the sake of your parents, your husband or wife, and your brothers and sisters.
Heaven will protect you to the same absolute degree. There will be no room for selfish individualism or the pursuit of unprincipled pleasure. (Public Venue, 2004.10.26-30)
The eighth part of the Family Pledge shows the way for us to live in the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is a path that is possible only through a life of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. At the time of creation, God totally invested Himself with absolute faith and absolute love based on the standard of absolute obedience…We have lost the true love that was to be created from the unity of God and human beings in absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. The first people were meant to become perfect without knowing anything about the Fall. They were to create a realm of unity with God. Yet everything was lost. (Messages of Peace 14 -- 223, 2007.6.13)
When God created Adam and Eve, He invested His entire being, 100 percent. He created them based on the standard of absolute love, absolute faith and absolute obedience. He gave them His lineage as the seed for their love and life. Likewise, from this moment on, God is re-creating you as new people. (Messages of Peace 1 -- 24, 2005.9.12)
How did Adam fall? He fell due to his disbelief. Disbelief was the primary reason. Next, Adam fell because he asserted himself. He put himself, his ego in the center of everything. Adam fell because he took a self-centered position. Next, Adam demanded a realm of self-centered love. These are the three major elements of the Fall: disbelief, self-assertion or self-centeredness, and finally dreams of self-centered love. These are the footholds of Satan. The fallen angels were like this.
In order to restore this through indemnity, you must do the opposite things. That is where the term "absolute faith" came from. Since the first ancestors of humankind fell due to their disbelief, we must overcome this and move up. We must move above the line where our ancestors fell. We must have absolute faith. Absolute faith goes forward until we die, or even beyond death. It wants to go forward even when a person is dying.
You do not understand absolute faith, do you? Where is the limit of absolute faith? If I were to compare it with the living person, it is a person who is willing to go forward even if he is dying. And even when this person dies, he falls not sideways, but straight forward. In this sense, if I deny my faith, I choose the way of death.
Second is self-denial. You must deny yourself 100 percent. It is self-denial. You must deny everything: your eyes wanting to see, your mouth wanting to eat. There was not a single day that I was not hungry until I reached the age of thirty. This was to deny my own self.
Third is absolute love. Absolute love means digesting one's enemy…. Revenge does not mean forgiveness. The enemy should willingly hand over to you his nation, all his rights, and even his right of a first son. You must receive these things from him. (126-46, 1983.4.10)
In His act of Creation, God practiced absolute faith, love and obedience; however, the couple that was to be His object partners failed to achieve that position and consequently fell into hell. Since we are now living at a time when we are restoring globally that which was lost in Adam's family, Unification Church members need to practice absolute faith, love and obedience centering on the victorious True Parents. Since the True Parents inherited God's tradition of absolute faith, love and obedience, you also need to inherit that. Do you understand? God's blessing will be with you! (280-47, 1996.11.3)
We must reach the standard of perfecting our character through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Our body should fully obey the orders of our conscience, which was given to us as our first parent, teacher and owner. (Messages of Peace 14 -- 205, 2007.6.13)
Ladies and gentlemen! Absolute faith, absolute love, absolute obedience! These constitute God's ideal of creation. God began creating all things based on absolute faith. He initiated His Creation for the sake of His object partners of absolute love. Absolute obedience means that there is no awareness of "self." It is a state of absolute zero -- complete nothingness. When God empties Himself and returns to nothingness, a natural and reciprocal circular motion begins. Because you give everything out and have nothing more to give, everything will come back to you. This is the origin of interaction in the universe, and the principle that everything comes back to you after you invest completely.
For this reason, you must not insist on your own way. If you do, you will come to belong to the devil. You must not let Satan use anything that comes through your five physical senses. Make it so that your eyes, nose, mouth, feet and hands are used as if they were God's. And try to live your life based on this standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience! God always has compassion for and assists such people. When you let go of yourself, God can be with you…. The third great subject partner you are to become is a true owner. God created the universe and I s the true owner and lord of all creation. God's creation is the fruit of His complete investment, carried out based on absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. From this example, we can gain the wisdom that enables us to become a true owner. The secret is to invest true love on the basis of that absolute standard. The prerequisite of becoming a true owner is to possess the heart of a true parent. (Messages of Peace 14 -- 220, 2007.6.13)
We no longer need indemnity. Nor do we need salvation. Thus, we should follow the law of heaven and earth centering on the Principle, and teach absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Now the new law is emerging. The constitution is emerging. If we practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience on earth, the eternal Kingdom of Heaven is realized. From the earth, you should naturally be able to see, feel, and know the world of heaven. (293-274, 1998.6.2)
Even if one does not understand the providence of the Old and New Testament ages or the Divine Principle, it is possible to go to heaven if one passes through with absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience centering on God. (272-181, 1995.10.5)
At the time of creation, God stood in the position of having exercised absolute faith, love, and obedience, but because human beings failed to form families that could stand as object partners to Him, they consequently fell into hell. We are now living in the time when everything that was lost in Adam's family can be restored worldwide through absolute faith, love and obedience on the unified foundation of True Parents' realm of victory. Unification Church members must therefore inherit and practice absolute faith, love and obedience centering on the True Parents. True Parents inherited these absolute traditions from God, and so you should inherit these traditions in turn. Do you understand? Then God's blessing will be with you. (CSG -- 1535, 1996.11.3)
We must be very familiar with the human portion of responsibility. The history of salvation is the history of restoration and the history of restoration is the history of re-creation. Re-creation has to be carried out according to the Principle. We must fulfill our portion of responsibility. Fulfilling our portion of responsibility means to have absolute faith and absolute obedience. That is the only way. You should not insist on your own way. Eve fell because she insisted on her own way. I am saying that after you join the church you should not complain. (143-113, 1986.3.16)
Why did Adam fall? It was because of his disbelief. Disbelief was the first cause of the Fall. What was the next cause? He fell because of too much self, assertion. He was a self-centered person. He was centered on himself and he fell.
Next, he required the realm of love to be centered on himself. These were the three elements of the Fall. Disbelief, and what was next? Self-assertion, centering on himself, and expecting the realm of love be centered on himself. These became the stepping stones for Satan. That is how the fallen angel emerged. For restoration through indemnity, we must deny these fallen natures. Then, how can we deny them?
By going the opposite way, it must be completely reversed. Absolute faith! Absolute faith originated from this. We must reverse the effects of our ancestors' fall due to lack of faith, and go upward. We must go upward and over the point where our ancestors fell. We must have absolute faith. What does absolute faith mean? It means that we should continue progressing until we die, while we are dying and even after our death. You don't really know absolute faith, do you? Where is the limit of absolute faith? To compare it with yourself as a living person, it means going forward even though you are dying. I will continue that way even if I am dying.
For restoration through indemnity to occur, you must go the opposite way. And it begins with complete self-denial, not with self-recognition and self-affirmation. Perfect religion comes out of self-denial, denial of the fallen world. That's why you should deny the world, deny the nation, deny the tribe, deny wife and husband, deny man and woman, deny yourself, and deny your body and mind. You have to know denial covers a wide range. You should even deny your own body by centering on your mind. The body is Satan's first dwelling place.
We must destroy Satan's nets of the realm of the Fall. We must deny the whole world. Not by conciliation, but through breaking or reversing the old ways. They should be broken off. Cut the rope and even the anchor, and destroy them. Due to the ancestors' deed, religion cannot emerge with a positive concept. The first requirement is absolute faith to deny our ancestors' disbelief. Absolute faith. Is that clear? Well, do you have absolute faith? For this reason, we must investigate why the ascetic way is needed…
Then, in order to restore this through indemnity, in order to negate it, what must be done? The opposite must be carried out. Absolute faith. This is why absolute faith came into the scene…
What is the second? It is denial of oneself. You must deny this eye one hundred percent. It is the denial of the self. My eyes that want to see, my mouth that wants to eat! Until thirty years of age, I never had even one day that I was not feeling hungry. Even though I am aware of it, I have chosen the path of death.
What is the third? Absolute love. This is the absolute love. Only after digesting the enemy . . . Taking revenge is not forgiving. The enemy himself must voluntarily hand over his nation, all of his authority, and the birthright as the eldest son. You must receive them from him. (126-35)
The Blessing signifies inheriting the foundation of a connection with the lineage of God's true life. Since there are people in both the spiritual and physical worlds who have inherited His lineage through the Blessing, He is able to have full dominion over them. With full authority He is freely pressing ahead with re-creation and the providence of restoration even now without having to set up indemnity conditions. Hence, the question at hand is whether you can stand with conviction in the position of His object partner. Once you have resolved to unite with the standard of absolute faith, love and obedience, everything can rapidly be put in place in the world of equality. (300-303, 1999.4.11)
To be completely reborn, we should practice absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience centering on God. I have personally practiced this throughout my life.
You should consider that the path of God's liberation and completion is the path of restoration which the True Parents have established. Just as the True Parents walked the path of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience before God, you must also walk the same path of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience before the True Parents. Only then shall I, Rev. Moon, follow you around, being on the same level with you. (280-33, 1996.10.13)
How rugged the road of restoration is! I, Rev. Moon, should not violate the efforts made by others who have come this far. If I did, I would not be qualified to be the True Parent, I would not be qualified to be the bridegroom, I would not be qualified to be the elder brother, and I would not be qualified to be the sibling. Because of such a heart, I uphold absolute faith. I should practice absolute faith. It is absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. That is why I invest and forget, and pull you forward whenever I have time, and raise people up with my philosophy of love, and then give them to you to love more than anyone else. (290-321, 1998.3.4)
It is our destined and inevitable task to create a relationship of unity between father and child, but what should that unity be based on? From the bone marrow and the seed, it should be centered upon true love. Only when a baby is born in such a way can it come to mature enough in heart and body to embrace the whole world and to unite with its father and mother. Children should follow their parents with absolute faith, love and obedience, just as the son and father should follow the grandfather with absolute faith, love and obedience. These qualities will be handed down as an eternal tradition. (295-167, 1998.8.28)
God created based on absolute faith and with the heart of absolute love and absolute obedience. For this reason, the Unification Church stands in the position of practicing absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience at the place where we attend the heavenly parent and the earthly parents with the title of the True Parents. Therefore, centering on the family of love which is based on the ideal of creation, all could be united and establish the victorious hegemony, upon which foundation the sovereign nation of love could begin. We are now living in such an age. (303-155, 1999.8.17)
I ask you to believe that everything around you will work toward perfection if you have absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience.
When God created, He maintained absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Since we have come back to the original state of creation on the foundation of all-transcendence, omnipresence, full authority and omnipotence we should also have a heart of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. With that heart, we should invest and forget, in the same way that God has done for us. We should be absolutely faithful, absolutely loving and absolutely obedient when it comes to giving to this world on behalf of God. We should give as if we are giving away treasures from a store. Since everything will be one, the world will be unified and find eternal peace.
At the time of creation, God created us with a heart of absolute love and absolute obedience. On such a foundation, the Unification Church has served the heavenly parents and earthly parents, in the name of parents, with a heart of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience.
Through a determination of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience the perfection of the ideal of creation of God, who holds dominion, can be realized.
There must be no ego. When God created, He had no conception of His own ego, of Himself. He wanted to be the Master of love. Our families should become representative families that are able to live for the world and heaven and earth. People who do not lead such life cannot become sons and daughters of God. Such people cannot become God's family. (303-155, 1999.8.17)
The spirit world and physical world will be merged with God as their center under the unifying banner of the True Parents. As God created for the sake of others with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, we should stand on such a foundation of God's all-immanence, all-transcendence, supreme authority and omnipotence. In order to return to the original state of creation and to find the partner of love there, we should invest and forget what we gave with absolute faith and a heart of absolute love and absolute obedience. We should regain everything God made and we ourselves should also practice absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience toward this world on behalf of Him. (303-153, 1999.8.17)
The Blessing means inheriting the foundation that connects God's lineage of true life. The people who have inherited God's lineage through the Blessing exist both in the spirit world and the physical world. Consequently, God can freely govern them. That is why God can freely push forward with the works of re-creation and restoration with His full authority without any indemnity conditions. Therefore, the issue is whether you have the conviction to maintain your position in relationship to this. When you resolutely unite with the standard of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience, a straight path can be quickly opened that equalizes everything in the world. (300-303, 1999.4.11)
The attitude of the life of a truly religious person is one in which he is completely absorbed; It is perfect obedience; therefore he cannot assert his will or his opinion above God's. He must follow God's will absolutely. It is the sphere of perfect self denial, but also he must be completely absorbed by God. If man claims his subjectivity he takes a plus position before God, which repels God. This leaves a person within the sphere of the subject which is opposed to God, who is Satan. That means he becomes Satan's possession. Accordingly, he can never reach the ideal sphere of God.
At this point in the religious world, absolute obedience is necessary. European members must understand this point clearly. Why is obedience needed? To follow your own thinking leads you to stand in the position of having a second subject. The second subject is Satan, so you become Satan's object. If you insist on your own thinking as your foundation, it sets the condition for Satan to dominate you. God and Satan are in opposing camps, struggling for dominion over the fallen human world. The original purpose of human existence as well as the original purpose of the archangel is for the sake of the perfection of the ideal. Satan knows this as well
God originally created us with the ideal of perfection as His goal. Satan knows this and he does not deny it. To establish the complete condition that will enable us to reach the ideal of perfection is not easy. It requires the state of absolute self denial. We cannot do this if we insist on our own viewpoint.
Looking at the world, where can we find an attitude of self denial? It is difficult to find it in the Western mentality, which is characterized by the love of freedom. The ultimate result of such freedom is that only the self remains. Husbands and wives live together, but both claim their own ways. In that case, there are two claims for freedom. If there are four people together, they have four individual demands. If there are 10 people, there are the claims of 10 people for their freedom. In the end, they go their own way and become isolated and scattered. There can be no unity within families, or nations. Although a person strives to enjoy his original nature through freedom, in reality he loses everything and falls to the depths of despair. Finding that he cannot satisfy his individual desires and ideals, he gives up on himself. This is the reality for many in the free world today, particularly in America. But despair is not a part of God's will. In such a world, there is no standard of perfection which God desires.
For this reason, Oriental thinking, rather than Western, holds a possibility for God. Within Oriental thinking, there is the principle of absolute attendance to the parents, and at the same time the idea of following one's elder brothers and sisters. When this idea of attendance is expanded, it can reach to the clan leader, the society leader, or the representative of the nation. Thus we can gain the foundation based on the perfect system of attendance. Otherwise, we can never have a family, clan, society, nation, or world that God desires. You must understand this clearly.
Then how can God create this kind of environment? He cannot do it by saying, "You religious people must achieve self denial all by yourselves!" No, we can't do it that way The standard of self denial must be created within reciprocal relationships. If you are pushed into the position of being denied by somebody else, it is the same as self denial. Since we cannot create the sphere of denial by ourselves, God Himself creates it. Therefore, a religious person will be opposed by everybody. This is the deeper meaning of persecution. When one believes in God and in religion, often those who are closest to him, such as his parents or loved ones, will oppose him. In such a case, Satan, as the second subject, is attacking the first subject God. When someone strikes a righteous person unjustly, it sets a condition that must be repaid. Because of this repayment, the development of religion is secured. Do you understand why persecution occurs?
Within the sphere of religion, God must enlarge the practice of self denial from the individual level to the family, clan, society, nation, and world. People cannot do this by themselves. In restoration through indemnity, a person tends to think that the standard of individual self denial is enough, but that is not true. The standard of individual indemnity must be directed to the indemnity on the world level; that foundation of self denial must be created. Man himself has not realized this, but God and Satan know it.
People do not know the full standard of denial; therefore, Satan, who does understand it, attacks man to prevent any denial of the individual that is directed to the world level. Religions developed in the course of history until now precisely because they practiced self denial and received persecution. This was so, although nobody knew the reason why. Now I am telling you the reason. Since one cannot practice self denial alone, God allows Satan himself to deny man instead. And if man gains victory in the realm of denial, then he can claim victory over Satan. He can belong to the true subject, namely God. As the result of persecution, or absolute self denial in front of God, man can enter the sphere of reciprocal relationship with God. Thus God can intervene for him. This is why religion has developed the most through persecution.
For this reason, a person cannot find religious perfection by leaving this world and going up into the mountains to meditate. One can achieve perfection only by standing in the midst of the world and taking on all the persecution from Satan. But in order to achieve oneness with God, a person must overcome Satan's attacks. He cannot be crushed in the persecution.
Accordingly, God has tried to work through many people throughout history yet had to give them up in the end. God may have used some people in His dispensation for decades or even centuries. Yet in the end, they had to stand in the sphere of persecution. If someone gains individual victory over persecution, the individual victory can remain. Yet if he cannot go over the sphere of family persecution, he will be crushed. In that case, God must find another with whom to proceed in His dispensation. If someone is crushed, there is nothing God can do for him. God is forced to find someone else; this was the miserable course of the history of religion until now.
By understanding these general things, you can also understand how to proceed with restoration through indemnity. You cannot deny yourself all alone. Accordingly, you must endure the condition of denial through persecution. Therefore, persecution is absolutely necessary in God's religious dispensation and there is no way to go back to God without passing through that course of persecution. There is no exception to this rule. The world religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, and Confucianism have all passed through this kind of course. That is why they are standing on the level of world development. The religions themselves have not understood this reason until now. They could not explain why religious people had to go through suffering or persecution, but now you have understood this point.
It is the logical conclusion that the total perfection of which I am speaking is not achieved without total indemnity. To guide everything into the perfection realm, we must go through the process of total indemnity. This is absolutely necessary in the history of religion. Therefore, it is wrong to think that one will have an easy life by following religion. (God's Will -- 594-596, 1983.4.3)
The absence of absolute faith brought about the fallen world. To restore order in that fallen world, we need to have absolute faith in the standards of God and True Parents, and that will enable us to eradicate all vestiges of the fallen world...
Individual, familial, tribal, racial and national faith are all part of absolute faith. Likewise, individual, familial, tribal love and so on are all part of absolute love. The same applies to obedience. … Thus, you must have absolute faith in what I have established in Jardim. Centered upon whom? Have absolute faith centered upon God. Adam didn't do it; Satan didn't do it either. Jesus had absolute faith. Thence arises the logic of Adam having to obey and love Jesus…
It is hard to believe me. It is hard to believe God, but when you have absolute faith, love and obedience, you will realize that was the path of Jesus and the absolute faith, love and obedience that Jesus had. I inherited the path of absolute faith that God and Jesus walked…
Its way of indemnity has been resolved by the love of True Parents and God. How do you unite with that love? Not by playing around and having fun. It's through absolute faith. Until now Satan and Adam and Eve did not have absolute faith in Father. The same applies to our children. We must have absolute faith in our parents…
What is the first Jardim Declaration? It is absolute faith, absolute love and Absolute Obedience. These are proclaimed for the reasons given above. Therefore I cannot forget about this place day and night. When we pray with such faith and lead activities with such content, Satan must always yield.
In having absolute faith, a father and a son unite in true love and bond together. God is the subject of the supremacy of victory, and True Parents are the main object of the supremacy of victory. Thus, when the standard is created based on such a standard of faith, the satanic world cannot be part of this standard however big it may be or however much historical chaos or indemnity it causes. It cannot interfere with this standard…
You must realize that I established the theory of absolute faith, love and obedience according to such standards. When you have such faith, Satan will perish forever. Evil spirits and everything that has been opposing or persecuting and making us go through indemnity and the history that people put a nail in God's heart will disappear all at once…
You must know that uniting with such a principle is the final point of our mission, so we came to Jardim and made such a proclamation. Neither Satan nor anybody else can be part of this…
The goal of absolute faith is reaching absolute love. You should absolutely believe in absolute love. Adam and Eve did not have absolute faith in God so they could not have absolute love. Thus, we should recover and perfect all such lost things and then completely convert all the imperfect things that live in the imperfect environment where Satan lives to absolute faith and love. Then, everything will be cleansed. (The Core of Absolute Faith, Absolute Love and Absolute Obedience, 1999.10.8, Unofficial)
Finally, absolute love will remain when absolute faith and absolute Obedience are gone. Belief, love and hope, there are always these three. Then what's the first? [Love.] After belief and hope have gone, in the end love will be left. Likewise, absolute faith will be gone. What is absolute faith? If you follow a certain religious leader, even though there may be a long time, perhaps thousands of years, between his time and yours, on the basis of your heart of faith you can be horizontally in the same age as him.
For that reason, you must believe absolutely! When you believe absolutely, you'll see that he is with you, and lives with you. It is the faith that reminds you of such a fact and encourages you. All of you should have absolute faith. (46-99)
You must understand that God's mission of restoration has been to recover the absolute faith, love and obedience lost in the Garden of Eden by completely denying the satanic world. Through circumcision in the Old Testament Age, and baptism by water in the New Testament Age, everything defiled through disbelief was cleansed.
What is the Completed Testament? It represents the age of true love. It means giving of yourselves through self-sacrifice and then forgetting what you gave. You need to redeem the fallen world by giving yourself completely in the same way God does. To become God's children, you need to invest yourselves in this world and be resurrected quickly. Thus, you need to receive the Blessing of the change of the lineage. Once you have received the Blessing, you need to restore your nation as quickly as possible, even if it means sacrificing your family. Since you need to practice absolute faith, heart and obedience, this course of action must also be absolute.
If you have become people who can practice absolute faith, love and obedience, you would not need to know about the Divine Principle of the Unification Church. When you have achieved that foundation in the physical world, then through the absolute restoration of lineage, rights of ownership and heart, and going beyond these stages even, you will automatically become citizens of God's kingdom.
Now the time has come in which I, holding the victorious authority acquired by taking charge in the free democratic sphere and the communist sphere based on the world's 160 nations, can come to the southern hemisphere and establish the world with the ideal sovereignty, God's kingdom on earth. (268-292, 1995.4.3)
If you are to inherit the realm of the victory of the True Parents, you should live in absolute obedience, absolute compliance, and absolute faith. (266-288, 1995.1.1)
Therefore, blessed couples should become 'plus' couples who take the initiative in serving the world. To be completely reborn, we should practice absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience centering on God. I have personally practiced this throughout my life.
When creating the universe, God did so with absolute faith. He went on to create us to be the absolute partners of His love. Absolute obedience means investing ourselves completely to the extent of total self-denial. Furthermore, we forget about the investment we made and reinvest; such a process continues until reaching the zero point without any concept of self. If our love were rejected, we would continue to love even more; even if we have already invested, we should continue to invest everything that we have, until we can make our enemy surrender voluntarily. God walked such a path, and the Parents of heaven and earth have also walked such a path. The person who invests love continuously without expecting a direct return becomes a central being, the one who inherits everything, and the child of greatest piety. In a family with ten members including the grandparents, the one most exemplifying altruism will be its center. The same principle applies with respect to patriots in the nation. The more we invest without expecting a direct return, the higher we can rise as loyal citizens, saints, and God's holy sons and daughters. (CSG -- 2138)
Abraham's faith was absolute. In obedience to God's command, he was about to kill Isaac, his only son, intending to offer him as a burnt offering. God intervened at that moment and told Abraham not to kill the boy.
Abraham's zeal to do God's Will and his resolute actions, carried out with absolute faith, obedience and loyalty, lifted him up to the position of already having killed Isaac. Therefore, he completely separated Satan from Isaac. God commanded Abraham not to kill Isaac because Isaac, now severed of all ties to Satan, stood on God's side. We must also understand that when God said, "now I know . . ." He revealed both His reproach to Abraham for his earlier failure in the symbolic offering and His joy over the successful offering of Isaac. Because Abraham succeeded in his offering of Isaac, the providence of restoration in Abraham's family could be carried on by Isaac. (Exposition -- 215)
You should deny yourself. Throw away all thoughts centering on yourself. Absolute what? Faith. And next? Absolute denial, self-denial. How should you deny yourself? Can you do it easily? Lower your head. Bow your head.
And why must you deny yourself? The enemy! You should digest the enemy, love the enemy. That's not easy. You must not only deny yourself ten times, a hundred times, but also confront the situation in which you must love the enemy. Otherwise, you can't be on God's side forever. You are on Satan's side, right? if so, we'll always be dragged toward Satan. That's the border line. Absolute denial: what's next?... absolute love. That means digesting the enemy. Revenge isn't forgiveness. After digesting the enemy, that enemy must willingly give us his nation, all his authority, and the rights of the elder son. And we must receive them. (126-41)
You have to have absolute faith, absolute obedience, and absolute love. These are the three conditions. Absolute what? Absolute faith, absolute obedience, and absolute love. The word "absolute" includes one faith, one obedience and one love. (Students -153)
God created based on absolute faith and with the heart of absolute love and absolute obedience. For this reason, the Unification Church stands in the position of practicing absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience at the place where we attend the heavenly parent and the earthly parents with the title of the True Parents. (303-155, 1999.8.17)
Your families represent history and heaven and earth. By becoming absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal families, in attendance to God with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, when your families turn into eternal tribes, eternal peoples, and thus create the eternal Kingdom of Heaven, the age of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth is directly connected to the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven, and one unified world is created. (295-255, 1998.9.8)
What do you have to do to be a child of filial piety? You must always align yourself with the direction of your parents' heart. The one who walks the path of filial piety does not do things separately from his parents. When his parents go east, he should also go east, and when they go west, he should also go west. There should be no question about it. Even if you are told to go a certain way and then to turn back ten times, you should again turn back and follow your parents. (62-32, 1972.9.10)
When you look at most people today, they go about their life's daily routine -- waking up in the morning and eating meals -- and still say, "I am fine in God's eyes." There are many people who believe this. However, such people cannot be owners of heaven. They are not fine in front of God. Without the factor that enables you to be acknowledged as a partner to God, you cannot have an absolute standard of faith. Since the Kingdom of Heaven can come only after the standard of absolute faith is established, when you do not have it, it will not be established. It will never happen. Why is this so? It is because Satan remains in that place. (46-79, 1971.7.25)
Have absolute faith in God! If you have absolute faith in God -- even when you cannot find faith on the left side or right side, on the north, south, east or west, on the front or back, on the left or right -- you will find yourself on the center line. With absolute faith, you will find one position. You will find the absolute position, the place where God resides. From there everything will start to be resolved. In the way of faith, many things are ordained. There is no discussion. Because your life of faith deviates, its angle must be adjusted, even by force. In light of this, how great is God's pain and the pain of humankind! (188-225, 1989.2.26)
When offering devotion, you must enter a position of absolute faith. You should enter the position where you have absolute faith in God and His will. God cooperates with you only when you are in such a position.
When you pray, you should not foolishly doubt whether your prayer will be answered or not. You should be able to pray, saying: "Father! I am the only one who remains. Without me, this nation and world will disappear. Oh Father! I alone remain in this state of commitment for the foundation, for which You have toiled for six thousand years. Am I not the only one who is close to Your will that will surely be fulfilled by You? Although my position is important as such, I have not prepared myself yet. Still, you have given me the order. Thus, I will prepare myself with the conditions and foundations enabling me to follow that order, and I will represent this entire people. Isn't this Your providence for restoration?" Prayer is needed even for fulfilling goals. (31-290, 1970.6.4)
Absolute faith can alter destiny. (The Way -- 307)
Religion is that which brings God and humankind into relationship. How is that relationship forged? Through love. Under what conditions would those ties of love come into being? Not through master and servant relations, and not even through the relationships of a nation with its people. Then, through what relationship? Through the relationship of parents and children who can say God is my Father. A noble life of faith is one in which we can say, "God is my Father. God cannot but love me even if He dies!" It is a life of faith that can say, "I will love even if my head is cut off." (32-249)
What is the purpose of faith? It is not to be devoted for the sake of the world, but rather to possess the part left unfulfilled by Adam and Eve before the Fall and to set a standard of having fulfilled it. What do we have to do in order to restore past mistakes? We have to reverse those mistakes. From where must we start that restoration? First is the word, second is character and third is heart. (24-104)
There must appear believers whose faith will remain unaffected even if Satan, who caused Adam and Eve to fall, opposes you, and Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God claim not to know you. This is the last remaining mission. Yet the 2.4 billion people of humanity and the Christians who believe in Jesus do not clearly understand this. Moreover, even if you become this kind of faithful believer, that is not the end. You have to form a family, a society, a nation and a world that all have this same kind of faith. If you do not cultivate this kind of faith, then you will have no vertical relationship with the will of God. (Sermons Vol. 1-188, 1956.11.25)
Even if you receive sorrowful things, in front of the True Parents you must not change, but maintain the belief to be filial, pious and loyal followers. Do you understand? That is really important. If you have not had faith like that yet, you should repent with no reservations. If you come here with the feeling of shame, you need the prayer of heaven's sympathy and pity. (Ideal Family Pt.1 -- 287)
The human body inherited Satan's lineage. Your conscience must attain the standard of God's conscience, developing to the top of the growth stage reached by Adam and Eve. That requires having faith. Our first ancestors were deceived by Satan, and strayed in the opposite direction due to a force stronger than their conscience, that is, the power of love. At that moment, the conscience had no choice but to follow where the body led it. It must become stronger. (222-333, 1991.11.7)
You must practice absolute faith. You should walk the path of faith with absolute trust in the True Parents. (46-99, 1971.7.25)
A religion cannot start from a concept of affirmation, because our ancestors fell. The first condition necessary in order to deny that is absolute faith. Do you understand? So, do you have absolute faith? That is why we must discover the reason why people are going the way of asceticism. Do you not wish that this Mr. Moon would come today and reveal the entire secret world of religion? Why do we have to go the way of asceticism? Why do we have to sacrifice? Why believe absolutely? If we call pastors and ask them these three questions, they will not be able to answer. They will just say "Well, through faith we gain salvation." Don't be tricked by Satan's deceptive smoke-screen tactics. (126-36, 1983.4.10)
You must assimilate your enemy. You must love your enemy. That path is not easy. Not only must you deny yourself hundreds of times, but you must move up to a position where you are able to love your enemy. Unless you do that, you cannot stand on God's side. (126-44, 1983.4.10)
You speak about it often, but what is individual perfection? It is to establish the absolute vertical parent and child relationship through faith. You as a child will also come to love God in the same way as God loves you. God and child are inseparable since love is established in such a reciprocal relationship. (God's Will -- 231, 1974.5.10)
To establish a true standard of value for the common benefit and welfare of all mankind we cannot but set up as the standard some universal and absolute element that can apply at any time and any place. The establishment of this absolute standard signifies the establishment of a new view of moral value. The essence of this absolute standard should be the love which makes the basis of the ethics of the family system. This is because the true love in the ethical relationship of the family is an absolute love-agape love-which emits heartwarming joy to all mankind just as the sun emits its light to all creation. And this love alone has never changed through history whether in the East or West. At this point we can think of the one absolute being who is the only subject of this absolute love. I believe it is most desirable for this absolute being to become the ultimate standard of the new view of value. (18-21,1973.11)
If Adam and Eve had completely united with God, their love would have been absolute love. Since their children would have been born in the realm of absolute love and grown up receiving absolute love, they would have naturally lived in the reciprocal realm of absolute love. In such an environment, parents and children can be united, and people can praise God's love, and the four-position foundation can be formed. (51-168, 1971.11.21)
Both relative love and absolute love exist. Relative love changes according to the given time and place, but absolute love is unchanging and eternal. Because the former is self-centered, it changes according to present interests. On the other hand, because the latter always exists for the benefit of others and serves the whole, it is unchanging.
Absolute love is none other than the love of the absolute being. Therefore that love must be God's love. Through relative love, unity can never be achieved; it is only through absolute love that unity becomes possible. The mind and body of an individual can come into unity only by absolute love. Then such emotions as calmness, joy satisfaction, and a sense of worth can be experienced. Only from such an individual can a standard for peace be drawn.
When the parents and children, husband and wife, and brothers and sisters of a family all practice absolute love from their own positions, the unity of that family will be achieved. That family will be full of happiness and harmony, and above all, peace…Love, absolute truth, absolute goodness, and absolute beauty can not be realized without knowledge of absolute love -God's love-since the spiritual values of truth; goodness and beauty are formed on the basis of love. And where these absolute values are not realized, there can not be true peace.
Thus, for the true peace of mankind, absolute love must be practiced. But before it can be practiced, absolute love must first be understood. I have already stated that absolute love is love which acts for the benefit of others, which serves others, and which is unchanging and eternal. (Science: Ten -- 90, 1980.11.27-30)
If Adam and Eve had completely united centering on God, they would have united from a relative position into an absolute position; therefore, their love would also have become absolute love. The children born from the realm of this absolute love would have received absolute love and also would have dwelt inside this realm of absolute love.
In the realm of absolute love, there is no contradiction or opposition. When we stand in a position in harmony with this realm, absolute love dwells in us and dominates us.
In this ideal, the children grow up within a peaceful dwelling place of love. When they grow up like this, the entire surrounding atmosphere is harmonized, and parents and children stand in the position of praising God. This is what we call the base of the Four Position Foundation.
When this Four Position Foundation is realized, i.e., when father, mother, and sons and daughters come together, there is realized an absolute realm of love. Heaven is the realm in which this absolute value of love expands to all dimensions. (Blessing Pt.1– 6)
If humankind was created by the Absolute Being in such a way as to practice the love of the Absolute Being, it is clear that there was motivation and purpose behind our creation. To reveal that motivation and purpose, a correct view of God, explaining who the Absolute Being is, should first be developed. Establishing the correct understanding of God will reveal His purpose and motivation for the creation, and thereby clarify the reason we must practice absolute love for the sake of peace. (110-253, 1980.11.27)
There are many types of love in the satanic world but absolute love means love without shadows. In all different circumstances, you must have absolute obedience. Only absolute faith, love and obedience can settle and rule in the position connected to God, Jesus and True Parents. Nothing else can do that.
Individual, familial, tribal, racial and national faith are all part of absolute faith. Likewise, individual, familial, tribal love and so on are all part of absolute love …
In such absolute love, an absolute husband should obey his absolute wife; an absolute wife should absolutely obey her absolute husband. Such couple should have absolute faith in God and Father's original love. All these are done based on love. On the final day, there will be no Satan…God created all things with the principle of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Even God obeys absolutely in front of love. (1999.10.8 Unofficial)
At the time of the creation, all things belonged to Adam. However, after the fall, Adam lost his ownership. . . What is fortunate is that there is a way of indemnity (to restore that ownership). However, for indemnification, Adam needs to make indemnity conditions. That is why in the Unification Church, we are doing everything possible.
Even if you are persecuted, sworn at, beaten, nose-bled, have broken bones, or even if killed, you should still offer all of your hearts and minds to make indemnity conditions, shedding bloody tears.
Tithing? What is it? You should offer 100% plus the price for your blood. You should invest all of the essence of your love from your heart and body. By so doing, you should inherit ownership, only then can you return to a higher place where (Adam and Eve) were loved prior to the fall, before they belonged to Satan. If heart and mind are not invested, God and angels cannot cooperate with you. Thus they cannot lay a foundation for the recreation of humans after the fall. That is why the Unification Church members are asked to clean all of it. (13-40)
The way of affirmation represents the Fall. Since the Fall occurred in this manner, you have to restore it by going the opposite way. (259-223, 1994.4.10)
Members of the Unification Church must go the reverse route in order to accomplish restoration through indemnity. Therefore, their path does not begin from self-recognition and self-affirmation. It starts from complete denial. A perfect religion begins with self-denial, with the complete denial of the fallen world. That is why you must deny the world, deny your nation, tribe, family, wife or husband, deny even being a man and a woman, and deny your own mind and body. You must understand how huge the scope of this denial is. Following your mind, you must even deny your own body. (126-34, 1983.4.10)
What should be our motivation: God's will or ours? Our self should not become the motivation. Yet in many cases, people today often derive their motivation from the self rather than God's will. Whereas God's will calls us to go the way of suffering, the self seeks to run counter to it. These are conflicting positions. When God's will tells us to go right, the self wants to go left. You try to justify yourselves by saying, "I had a harder time than anyone else since joining the Unification Church."
Those who try to make excuses for themselves cannot enter heaven. The position of absolute faith is not a place where you can make excuses. There is not a word of excuse you can offer, but other people will come to you with their excuses. Even though you have done well, you cannot be proud of your achievements. What we can recognize as a hundred percent might be just one percent from God's viewpoint. What we recognize as a hundred may be just one to Him. Thus, self-centered people cannot go to heaven.
From where does heaven begin? Heaven begins from the point of having absolute faith. This means not being able to assert oneself. It is the place of absolute self-denial, without which absolute faith cannot emerge. In connection with life's fundamental problems, most people today go about their daily routine. They wake up in the morning, go through life eating and say, "I am okay with God." Many people believe that, but such people cannot own heaven. They cannot be okay with God. Without a relationship that can be officially recognized, you cannot even have an absolute standard of faith. Without having obtained this prerequisite standard, which must be surpassed in order to realize the Kingdom of Heaven, how can that Kingdom be achieved? There is not a chance. Why not? It is because Satan remains in that place. (46-79, 1971.7.25)
What are the contents of pledge number eight? "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, having entered the Completed Testament Age, to achieve the ideal of God and human beings united in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and to perfect the realm of liberation and complete freedom in the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, by centering on true love." This pledge depicts the time of creation when God made the Garden of Eden.
Having entered the Completed Testament Age, through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute what? -- obedience. You need to achieve the ideal oneness of God and humankind in love, and unity between God's Kingdom on earth and in heaven. Then you are able to be freely active in all corners of the world, with the rights of God's children. (301-85, 1999.4.16)
Why does God require us to have obedience? It is not for the sake of God's joy but for the sake of man's joy. God puts man in the position of His ideal object and gives him the responsibility of completing the purpose of recreation. Thus, man must push away and overcome the factors of the fall. Because the fall originated from disobedience, God must order us to have absolute obedience as a necessary condition to restore this. Therefore in our religious way of life we cannot complain. We have no excuse; we must have absolute obedience.
Absolute obedience is a hardship, but the purpose of hardship is to set conditions to allow us to stand in the perfected position, and achieve God's original goal of creation. Therefore, if we undergo hardships and sacrifice, we can come to stand in the perfection sphere. We must go this way because there is no other way, and religion cannot but emphasize the necessity of the way of hardships.
In order to overcome the way of the fall, there is no way other than the way of absolute obedience. God has no choice but to require this of us. In the way of restoration, complaint is never permissible. To follow in the path of absolute faith and obedience, we must go hopefully and joyfully. This is the way of recreation, and therefore it is the way of hope. We cannot go this way crying and weeping with despair. Sacrifice and hardships are the instruments by which we give everything and gain everything. (God's Will -- 119, 1972.9.11)
Do you know why the words "absolute obedience centered on God" came to exist? Fallen mankind finds these words distasteful, but to God they are very pleasant. You must know this.
So religions tell you to determine your mind, and centered on that determination, to go straight. In order to go straight to the goal you must obey absolutely. No obedience means no success. Obedience will bring success. That's the way it is. (Students -- 153)
Confucius therefore said, "One obedient to Heaven will prosper, but its betrayer will perish." This word was centering on Heaven. Man has always to relate himself to Heaven. The origin of rising and falling is not in a human being himself, but in Heaven. Accordingly, one cannot establish trueness unless it originates from motivation centered on God. The question then arises whether or not there is any "True" person on this earth. (24-317)
A parent who has an unfilial child is restrained because of that child. In order to liberate that parent, the child has to be more filial than the degree of his disobedience. Moreover, he has to be recognized by the masses. In that way he can cleanse his past sins. That is the heavenly law. By the same token, saying, "For Father only ... " is unnecessary. Do things for your neighbor and this nation. The people of this nation are miserable. For five thousand years they had been singing. (The Liberation Of Heaven And Earth, 1976. 3.3, Unofficial)
We must perfect our families, our tribes, our nations, the world, heaven, and earth and ultimately liberate God! We must bring salvation to God. In order to ease the hurt in the parents' heart caused by unfilial children, we must be the best filial children. (283-215, 1997.4.12)
Never complain. Indemnity is fulfilled only through obedience (The Way -- 150)
An offering symbolizes obedience and surrender. Therefore, it is selfless, does not have the consciousness of possession, and does not resist even on the verge of death. (The Way of -- 154)
The duty of children of filial piety is absolute obedience to their parents. The duty of loyal subjects is absolute obedience to their monarch. All these are part of the Will of Heaven…Have absolute faith centered upon God. Adam didn't do it; Satan didn't do it either. Jesus had absolute faith…As long as we follow the path of love and obedience, Satan can never take the position of our shadow. Let's think about the meaning that Satan cannot take the position of our shadow. Of the twenty-four hours, it is noon when the overhead sun does not cast shadows. Shadows appear in the evening and morning but disappear at noon. Satan cannot take the position of noon.
Absolute faith is like the shadowless state at noon. There are many types of love in the satanic world but absolute love means love without shadows. In all different circumstances, you must have absolute obedience. Only absolute faith, love and obedience can settle and rule in the position connected to God, Jesus and True Parents. Nothing else can do that. (The Core of Absolute Faith, Absolute Love and Absolute Obedience, 1999.10.8, Unofficial)
Women should go the way of woman in response to the heavenly law. You should be able to die if your husband asks you to die together with him. You will live together in the spirit world even though you die here. There will be a way for liberation as long as you are absolutely obedient to your husband's order. Within the fallen world, the way of liberation will always remain for those who observe the law of absolute obedience to the principled morality. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 193)
With this kind of desperation, Tamar was willing to face even death in order to fulfill God's will and resolve His resentment. Tamar's filial piety and obedience to God's will was truly amazing. God had to work His providential history through this kind of complicated situation. So God blessed Tamar, and Judah's family lineage could be resumed. (Unification Pt.1 -- 26)
To remove this characteristic of the fallen nature, Cain, who stood in the Archangel's position, should have obediently submitted to Abel, who stood in Adam's position. By accepting Abel's dominion, Cain should have rectified the order of dominion…
There are many instances in human life which correspond to the situation of Cain and Abel. When we look within ourselves, we find that our innermost mind delights in the law of God.14 (Rom. 7:22) It is in the position of Abel, while our body, which serves the law of sin, 15(Rom. 7:25) is in the position of Cain. We can become good only if our body obediently follows our mind, which directs us toward goodness. All too often, however, our body rebels against the mind's directions, repeating by analogy Cain's murder of Abel. This is how evil grows within us. For this reason, the religious way of life requires that we make our body submit to the commands of our higher mind, just as Cain should have submitted to Abel and followed him…
Noah was called when "the earth was filled with violence."25(Gen. 6:11) Enduring all kinds of derision and mockery, he worked for 120 years on a mountain to build the ark in absolute obedience to God's instructions. (Exposition -- 193,199)
Esau needed to love Jacob, respect him as his mediator to God, obediently submit to Jacob's directions, and finally, multiply goodness by inheriting goodness from the bearer of God's blessing. (Exposition -- 219)
Christians made a spiritual foundation of victory on the individual, family, tribal, national and world levels, but physically they couldn't make any foundation. Therefore, they need to be completely obedient to the Lord of the Second Coming, in order to establish the physical foundation. In order to do that, they have to mobilize centering upon the heavenly tribe. (Blessing Pt. 2 -- 83)
Everyone needs and loves parents. Everyone wants to see and be with them. But why? For what reason? There is the age difference. Rules of order require superiority and subordination. There is courtesy, and sometimes very elaborate courtesy where children bow to their parents. We must remember the very principle of superiority-subordination in social life and in human ethics. We must want to meet our parents through our unquestioned obedience and subordination. This is the rule of father and son bloodlines. (112-251)
It is the way of the filial son to obey and sacrifice for those parents. This is the general rule. (Blessing Pt. 1 -- 348)
Be beaten obediently, be trampled upon obediently and be pierced obediently. Yet don't die, but survive. (The Way -- 139)
Be obedient to commands. Although a command may not be just, be obedient to it. By following the command, you will be able to take over the authority of the commander... If you do not carry out Heaven's command on the individual level, how can God give you blessing on the family level...The loyal subject and the treacherous subject originally belong to the same class of people. But the former is obedient to his king's will, while the latter is self-centered. The loyal subject walks the straight path, and his beginning and end are always the same…God is looking for a historically obedient person.
Be a person who is obedient to commands and who awaits even bigger commands… It is natural to be obedient to a superior, but you must be able to obey and feel ashamed… To be obedient means to become one with the subject and take part in his glory…Until now God advised but did not command. The time has come when He commands, but the number of those who receive His command will be extremely limited…What is not true can never remain in history. Give truthfully. The Israelites should have obeyed Moses absolutely until the destruction of the seven Canaanite tribes. Until the Lord establishes God's sovereignty in one nation and restores other nations through it in the Last Days, you must obey him absolutely. (The Way -- 159-162)
Even God is absolutely obedient in the face of love. You may question the truth of this statement. Being the subject partner of absolute love, He is absolutely obedient in the face of love. (193-153, 1989.10.03)