Jesus said, “You must be born anew.” Rebirth in Christ transforms a worldly person into a child of God. He or she now experiences an intimacy with God and has the indwelling spirit of Christ.
The reason why people must be born a second time, according to Father Moon, lies in the Human Fall. The Fall’s negative effects, experienced in every generation, derive from its corruption of the lineage of the human race at its root.
Through the fall, Satan was able to usurp God and occupy the position of humanity’s false father. To break the devil’s persistent hold over human life, we must be born again as children of God.
For this purpose, God sent the Messiah, a man without sin, representing the Father, and the Holy Spirit, representing the Mother. Out of their love, we can be born anew. In eastern religions, to enter the path of the spiritual aspirant is often understood as a second, spiritual birth.
In Hinduism and Buddhism, people become “twice-born” by receiving religious instruction. Their biological parents brought them forth into a world of the senses, but after their second, spiritual, birth, their life is now grounded in the Dharma.
Father Moon, however, treats rebirth as a specifically Christian doctrine, one that applies strictly to the work of the Messiah to sever us from the lineage of sin. He would regard the broader concept of spiritual conversion through instruction in religious truth under the concept of resurrection.
Father Moon also speaks of the conditions to be made to receive rebirth: repentance and renouncing worldly ways. Thus, he also likens the process of rebirth to engrafting: Before attaching the new shoot, first the arborist cuts off the old branches; likewise, we must deny ourselves and cut off everything false. Then we receive the new shoot containing the life and love of God.
If the tree is properly pruned, that new shoot will produce new fruit and propagate God’s lineage. Thus, although rebirth is a gift from above, it requires responsibility and dedication on the part of its recipients.
Sun Myung Moon
Born Anew as God’s Sons and Daughters
Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.”
Jesus answered him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus said to him, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?”
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.39 That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, ‘You must be born anew.’” John 3.1-7
To all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. John 1.12-13 He from whom the pupil gathers the knowledge of his religious duties is called the teacher. He should never offend. For he causes the pupil to be born a second time by imparting to him sacred learning. The second birth is the best; the father and the mother produce the body only. Apastamba Dharma Sutra 1.1 (Hinduism)
Monks, I [Buddha] am a brahmin, one to ask a favor of, ever clean-handed, wearing my last body, incomparable physician and surgeon. You are my own true sons, born of my mouth, born into the doctrine, created in the doctrine, heirs to the doctrine, not carnal heirs.40 Itivuttaka 101 (Buddhism)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Why do we need to be born anew? It is because of the Human Fall. What is the Fall? The Fall means that every human being is born in a fallen state, the offspring of fallen parents. You must clearly understand that you were born in fallen love from fallen parents. (95:82, November 11, 1977)
Here in the Western world, many deny that the Human Fall has anything to do with them. Yet because of the Fall, our lineage began wrongly, and our love began wrongly. Without recognizing this, we cannot comprehend salvation and the purpose of the religious life. (193:54, August 20, 1989)
Before the Fall, Adam and Eve could relate to God freely and directly, but after the Fall, this was no longer possible. Also, due to the Fall, Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, could not inherit God’s lineage. They inherited Satan’s lineage instead.
Therefore, all people should understand that they have a false life flowing through their lineage, which began as the result of false love. This is why Jesus said in John 3:3, “Unless one is born anew, he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” (313:220, February 10, 2000) Jesus told Nicodemus, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” (John 3.3)
Rebirth means to be born a second time. Why must fallen people be born anew? Had Adam and Eve realized the ideal of creation and become the True Parents of humanity, they would have borne good children without original sin and formed the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
However, Adam and Eve fell and became evil parents, multiplying evil children who created this hell on earth. Hence, as Jesus told Nicodemus, fallen people cannot see the Kingdom of God unless they are first born anew, as children without original sin. We cannot be born without parents.
Who, then, are the good parents through whom we can be born again, cleansed of original sin and able to enter the Kingdom of God?
Parents who have original sin cannot give birth to good children who do not have original sin. Certainly, it is impossible to find sinless parents among fallen humankind.
These parents must descend from Heaven. Jesus was the Parent who came from Heaven. He came as the True Father to give rebirth to fallen people, transforming them into good children, thoroughly cleansed of original sin and fit to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth… For this reason, the Bible speaks of him as “the last Adam” (1 Cor. 15.45) and the “Everlasting Father” (Isa. .9.6)
However, a father alone cannot give birth to children. There must be a True Mother, as well as a True Father, for fallen children to be reborn as good children. The Holy Spirit came as the True Mother. This is why Jesus told Nicodemus that no one can enter the Kingdom of God unless one is born anew through the Holy Spirit. (John 3.5)
There are many who have received the revelation that the Holy Spirit is feminine. This is because the Holy Spirit comes as the True Mother or second Eve.
Since the Holy Spirit is the feminine aspect of divinity, without first receiving him, we cannot go before Jesus as his brides. Being feminine, the Holy Spirit consoles and moves the hearts of people. (Rom. 5.5, John 14.26-27; Acts 9.31)
She cleanses people’s sins, thereby atoning for the sin which Eve committed. Jesus, the masculine Lord, works in heaven (yang), while the Holy Spirit, his feminine counterpart, works on the earth (yin). (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Christology 4.1.1)
Sun Myung Moon
Rebirth Requires Cutting Off the Old Self
All who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the spirit of sonship.
When we cry, “Abba! Father!” it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified with him. Romans 8.14-17
For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam, and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and puts off the natural man and becomes a saint through the atonement of Christ the Lord, and becomes as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord sees fit to inflict upon him, even as a child submits to his father. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3.19 (Latter-day Saints)
These same people, though wrapped in all these veils of limitation, and despite the restraint of such observances, as soon as they drank the immortal draught of faith, from the cup of certitude, at the hand of the Manifestation of the All-glorious, were so transformed that they would renounce for his sake their kindred, their substance, their lives, their beliefs, yea, all else save God!
So overpowering was their yearning for God, so uplifting their transports of ecstatic delight, that the world and all that is therein faded before their eyes into nothingness. Haven't these people exemplified the mysteries of rebirth? Book of Certitude 155 (Baha’i Faith)
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
We cannot be born again unless we deny our fallen selves. (244:100, January 31, 1993) Christianity teaches that we cannot be saved unless we receive the Holy Spirit.
We come before God when the Holy Spirit visits us and connects us with the Savior. The Holy Spirit comes to bring us to Heaven, to the God of goodness. But before we can receive it, first we must repent. (99:75, September 1, 1978)
Resurrection may be defined as the process of being restored from the death caused by the Fall to life, from the realm of Satan’s dominion to the realm of God’s direct dominion, through the providence of restoration. Accordingly, whenever we repent of our sins and rise to a higher state of goodness, we are resurrected to that degree. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Resurrection 1.3)
Father! Because we were born from evil, we must be born again to goodness. The destiny of having to be born twice is a very miserable one. Isn’t living as a stepchild very regrettable even in the world? Yet we are not even at the level of stepchildren; having been born as children of the enemy, we must find our Original Parents, but the path is never a smooth one.
Therefore, we receive countless attacks from Satan’s spears, swords, and arrows. We must cut the ties that bind our bodies and go forth. We must confront the people who bind us and cut their ties, whether with our teeth or with our strength. (27:161, December 7, 1969)
Rebirth through Jesus and the Holy Spirit
When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them.
And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance… And Peter said to them, “Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is to you and to your children and to all that are far off, every one whom the Lord our God calls to him.” Acts 2.1-4, 38-39
We ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by men and hating one another; but when the goodness and loving kindness of God our Savior appeared, he saved us, not because of deeds done by us in righteousness, but in virtue of his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal in the Holy Spirit, which he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that we might be justified by his grace and become heirs in hope of eternal life. Titus 3.3-7
The Spirit and the Bride say, “Come.” And let him who hears say, “Come.” And let him who is thirsty come, let him who desires take the water of life without price. Revelation 22.17
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you; he who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.
For my flesh is food indeed, and my blood is drink indeed. He who eats my flesh and drinks my blood abides in me, and I in him. As the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so he who eats me will live because of me. This is the bread which came down from heaven, not such as the fathers ate and died; he who eats this bread will live for ever. John 6.53-58
Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
We are reborn through the path of love. It begins when we yearn for Jesus and the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is the Bride, and the resurrected Jesus is the Bridegroom.
They are our spiritual parents, and their love is the basis of our rebirth. As conception and birth originate in the love between a woman and a man, we are reborn through the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit as they become one.
Once we receive the grace of the Holy Spirit, we naturally feel great affection and yearning for Jesus. This is the work of the Holy Spirit, moving our hearts to welcome Jesus the Bridegroom.
When we are spiritually united with them, rejoicing in that state of oneness, we can regain the lost standard of original love. That is the experience of rebirth in Christianity. According to the Principle, in that moment we are resurrected to new life. (October 13, 1970)
Jesus gives the bridegroom’s love, and the Holy Spirit gives the bride’s love: that love must become my bone and flesh. That is, as Jesus said, “I am in you and you are in me.”
Unless this foundation of heartfelt love is established, there is no rebirth. People easily say, “You must be born again,” but to be reborn, you need to love Jesus more than anyone else.
Satan’s dominion over humankind is based on his false love, so unless your love is centered on God and surpasses any human love in the fallen world, there is no way for you to connect to God. (114:28, May 14, 1981)
Christianity began with Jesus’ blood on the cross. Why is Jesus’ blood so meaningful? Jesus came as the True Father. Jesus’ blood signifies the blood of the perfected father, with no trace of the Fall.
However, can a father alone bequeath a lineage? Not without a mother! That is why the goal of the Old Testament was to have the Marriage of the Lamb. (193:57, August 20, 1989)
In Christianity, the Holy Spirit has taken the role of mother. We are born again on the spiritual level through the mother, the Holy Spirit, and the Father’s spirit, Jesus’ spirit.
Of course, we were born from our mother’s womb. However, even beyond the womb, our life originated from our father’s seed. Hence, while going back to the mother’s womb exchanges the false lineage for the true lineage, it does not yet give us the father’s seed.
Therefore, Christians have been longing for the True Father, who appears as the Second Coming of the Lord. He is the origin of new life. As Adam before the Fall already held in his body the seed of his children, the True Father holds within His body the seed that will bear fruit as the sons and daughters of God.
(55:117-18, April 1, 1972)
Sun Myung Moon