Hyung Jin Moon
May 19, 2010
Excerpts
To the 120-day workshop
If we look at Christianity, we think of belief as synonymous with following Jesus. People say they believe in Jesus and that they have become saints like those people depicted in the Bible. But if we look at the Bible, we see that the people are not saints. There were many who believed in Jesus as a special person and those who believed he was a great prophet with certain transcendent powers. There were those whom Jesus healed. They believed and some testified.
What is the difference, though, between those who believed in Jesus and those who were his disciples? There is a big difference between those who merely believe and those who become disciples or saints. In our church, we do not become saints of the Unification Church just by our belief in True Parents. Believing in True Parents is just one aspect of discipleship.
Yet, when we look at the lives of Jesus' disciples, they are people who put their lives on the line to testify to Jesus. This goes far beyond basic belief for a short time. After Jesus' resurrection his disciples went out witnessing. Peter, for example, spent time building the church in Antioch.' Later, the Apostle Paul appeared, and he travelled to many places.
Many of the earliest disciples and apostles did not die naturally of old age. Because they were testifying to Jesus, some were crucified, even upside down. The Apostle Paul was beheaded. There is a difference between saying, "He is my lord" and living the life of a disciple. The role of disciples and apostles is to testify to the Lord, going to the point of giving their lives. They make the sacrifices others cannot make.
If you are involved in church leadership, you are not mere believers. That is not enough. Church leaders must lead a life of discipleship. Now, we must testify to True Parents at the risk of our lives because we believe True Parents are the Lord and because it is through True Parents that we received the amazing blessing of rebirth and eternal life.
In whatever period they lived, disciples have worked to disseminate the Gospel. When they spoke or conveyed the truth, they always spoke in relation to the society of their time. Spreading the Gospel could not be accomplished outside that cultural framework. It was always challenging the society in the background, challenging the prevailing philosophy and thought of the age. Roman and Hellenistic philosophies were highly developed, weren't they? The Gospel had to compete with the existing ideologies. Through this, it brought the light of hope. This is a very important point.
Divine Principle is not just an analysis of the Bible. Divine Principle is the text that gives answers in the context of today's society In particular, the second part was written with society as the backdrop. Communism was a system of thought that challenged democracy. As you know, the second part of Divine Principle discusses whether a third world war might breakout and presents a challenge and a counter-proposal to communist thought. This was very much an issue in society at that time. In the present day, many areas of science and technology have advanced, greatly changing the social environment again. Only when religion challenges the social reality can it develop. The role of disciples and apostles is to challenge the social background they encounter.
We use logic and reason to observe the world, to observe nature. As we go through this process, we can think about whether God exists or not. All disciples -- whether you are Peter, Paul or whoever -- have to challenge these issues. In 1 Peter 3:15, it says, "Always be prepared to make a defense to anyone who calls you to account for the hope that is in you."
You must be prepared to give a proper answer, the Bible says. This is because religion and believers who have both faith and the teachings of the Lord are not just aiming to be popular in society or to receive its approval. Rather, God imparts understanding in order to change society completely....
The social environment is always a factor. When society is at the point where it roust change, society does not want to change. People will say, "We are doing fine! What kind of change do we need God and True Parents' teachings for?"
Opposition will increase. We have to expect this. For this reason, it is not possible to take a middle- of-the-road approach. Such an approach cannot change society. In fact, if we take a neutral approach the reverse happens, in that the surrounding society influences us and we become more distant from our teachings.
For that reason, brothers and sisters, we must be brave. We must be leaders who can go out and fight for True Parents. Those who want to become popular in society, those who don't want to do difficult work, cannot be such leaders. No matter which organization they are in, leaders must always do the difficult work. This is a very important point.
Some who study science say that there is no creator and that humankind is not a special creation; and according to the Theory of Evolution, we are little more than monkeys. We don't know how to respond to these points effectively. With the end of communism, this has become a very important area to engage in. The development of the internet, computers, physics, math and other areas of science has led people to lose faith in God and religion. I have heard, for example, that among university students who believe in God but study science, the great majority lose their belief in God during the first year of their university course. This is a more frightening reality than the expansion of communism. How can we respond to this?
UPF and CARP will no longer go the neutral, middle-of-the- road way. Now we are going to fight. We will challenge society. We will persuade them. We will challenge them. We will fight. We will compete. As we do so, we must go a bit deeper into various issues, such as why it is more reasonable to believe in God; how, if you really understand science, it shows that God exists; how the Theory of Evolution is flawed; why it is meaningless for atheists to talk about a value system, and how there can be a good God even in an evil world.
We must go a little deeper into what we believe and why we believe what we believe. When we receive a challenge, such as, "How can you believe in God in a world like this? I don't believe in God, and you are a fool for doing so," we must know how to respond.
Our first-generation members have fought a great deal, haven't you? When you first joined the church, you battled against communists. Isn't that so? At university you argued with the communist students over why Marxism and communist ideology were wrong, didn't you? [Yes!]
Now our young people will inherit that tradition from our first generation. We will inherit that tradition, and we will go to the universities and fight it out. CARP students will now learn the Theory of Evolution. At the same time, they will learn the Principle of Creation....
Atheism creates a problem. The first reason is that atheism cannot establish objective moral values.... If God did not establish laws pertaining to goodness and evil, and therefore no objective standard of morality exists, there will be no objective moral obligations either.
If that were the case, sexual abuse of another person (for example) would not be "bad," objectively speaking. Of course, as people discuss and find some common ground they might conclude that such behavior is not good for society. But what if someone doesn't share that opinion? Then you have a problem. Sexual abuse is clearly evil.
If a male shark forcefully mates with a female shark, that is not sexual abuse because they are animals, not ethical beings. On the other hand, suppose a man forces a woman to have a sexual relationship. If we are not beings of morality but merely animals, objectively speaking, we can't say such an action is evil. If looking objectively such an action is not evil, objectively speaking we also have no such moral restraints or duties.
We may say that one day the universe is going to contract and all living things will die, so why do I need to act according to a moral standard? We may say, there is no eternal life and the universe is going to disappear anyway, so we can do as we please. With that mind-set, the motivation to live morally disappears. Frankly, many such problems arise from atheistic philosophy. So our understanding of God and True Parents gives us confidence and hope.
Witnessing is the factor that can certainly revive our church. We had not witnessed so much in Korea recently. We held many events. We would invite people to be ambassadors for peace, but that was mostly not witnessing as such. Witnessing is when people accept True Parents as the Lord and as the Messiah.
What is the reason we witness? The fundamental reason is love. That fundamental love is parental love, the heart of a parent that saves a lost child. No matter how difficult it may be for parents, they will save their children at all costs. Imagine that your child has been kidnapped. You want to find your child. You have to save him and bring him home. Even though going out each day to find that child is difficult, you maintain hope. When you find him and bring him home, how grateful you are to God!
When you witness you must witness with such a heart. Looking at people with such spiritual eyes, you work to save their lives. How did God and True Parents witness to us? They did it through love and with the heart of parents. We have the motto, "Let's inherit the true love of God". The essence of God is His parental heart, the heart to regain and bring home the children who have been taken away.
When we look at the people of the world as victims of kid- napping, we feel differently about them, right? The abductor is holding them in confinement. We must witness with a parent's heart. If we want to practice greater love in our church, if we wish to more fully reflect God's parental heart, the primary activity would be witnessing to find our lost children. We must inherit that fundamental heart of a parent.
Notes:
1 Peter, chapter 3
1: Likewise you wives, be submissive to your husbands, so that some, though they do not obey the word, may be won without a word by the behavior of their wives,
2: when they see your reverent and chaste behavior.
3: Let not yours be the outward adorning with braiding of hair, decoration of gold, and wearing of fine clothing,
4: but let it be the hidden person of the heart with the imperishable jewel of a gentle and quiet spirit, which in God's sight is very precious.
5: So once the holy women who hoped in God used to adorn themselves and were submissive to their husbands,
6: as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord. And you are now her children if you do right and let nothing terrify you.
7: Likewise you husbands, live considerately with your wives, bestowing honor on the woman as the weaker sex, since you are joint heirs of the grace of life, in order that your prayers may not be hindered.
8: Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind.
9: Do not return evil for evil or reviling for reviling; but on the contrary bless, for to this you have been called, that you may obtain a blessing.
10: For "He that would love life
and see good days,
let him keep his tongue from evil
and his lips from speaking guile;11: let him turn away from evil and do right;
let him seek peace and pursue it.12: For the eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous,
and his ears are open to their prayer.
But the face of the Lord is against those that do evil."13: Now who is there to harm you if you are zealous for what is right?
14: But even if you do suffer for righteousness' sake, you will be blessed. Have no fear of them, nor be troubled,
15: but in your hearts reverence Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to make a defense to any one who calls you to account for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and reverence;
16: and keep your conscience clear, so that, when you are abused, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame.
17: For it is better to suffer for doing right, if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong.
18: For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit;
19: in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison,
20: who formerly did not obey, when God's patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.
21: Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
22: who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, with angels, authorities, and powers subject to him.