Authors
1. God, the Creator of all things in the universe, is the True Parent of all humanity. He is not a parent in the parochial sense, existing only for a certain religion or race, or the population of a certain region. You may call Him by any name, be it Jehovah, Allah, or any other.
What is important is that He certainly exists, lives as the True Parent of all people, and sustains the great work of creation. Following the heavenly Principle that He set up at the beginning of time, He governs everything in the universe and has carried out His providence throughout history.
The spirit world exists in actuality
2. Each person has a mind and body, and a spirit self that is more elevated than the mind. God resides in the world in which we live with our physical body and also in the spirit world, where our spirits are destined to go.
We go there as a complete person if we are one with God in true love. Such a perfected person might be a small individual, but he or she would represent all the history and all potential future relationships. So this person can be said to possess infinite value.
3. Once you are aware that you have such universal value, you realize that your original mind should guide your life. This is because your conscience knows and perceives not only every action you have performed but also every thought you have entertained.
Before your teachers, parents, or even God are aware of these things, your conscience knows. Hence, if you were to live in absolute obedience to the commands of your conscience, which is your eternal teacher, you would be guaranteed to have eternal life. Such is the way of God's creation.
4. Looking at the structure of a human being, we can see that God created us with dual characteristics. He created our physical body as a microcosm of the corporeal, tangible world and our spirit body as a microcosm of the incorporeal world.
Accordingly, a human being is intended to live for one hundred years or so in the physical world and, once the physical body ceases functioning, to pass on naturally and automatically into the incorporeal spirit world.
In this way, though the eyes in our physical body cannot perceive the spirit world, life there is the automatic and inevitable extension of life on earth. God created the spirit world as humanity's original, eternal homeland.
5. The spirit world exists in actuality. It is not a world that has been fantasized or imagined into existence. We do not have the right of choice concerning its existence. It is not a world we can go to if we please or refuse to go to if we would rather not.
Just as God is eternal and unchanging, the spirit world He created is also eternal and unchanging. We live in the physical world in our physical body and form all sorts of relationships within this world.
Similarly, in the spirit world, we are destined to continue living in our spirit body, establishing and maintaining relationships with all phenomena of the spirit world.
The relationship between the spirit body and the physical body
6. In the relationship between the spirit and the body of a human being, the spirit is the more important of the two. The physical body lasts for about one hundred years before it ceases to function, but the spirit lasts eternally, transcending time and space. Isn't even a person who does well in the physical world bound to die?
Because this is so, before you pass on to the next world, you should achieve harmony between your physical body and spirit bod, by living your earthly life in such a way that you meet the standards of both the physical and spiritual worlds.
In other words, you have been given the responsibility to perfect your spirit within your physical body because of your finite life in the tangible, physical world. This does not mean that the perfection of your spirit self happens automatically.
Only because of complete unity between your mind and body during your earthly life, by expressing true love through action, can your spirit self fully mature.
7. In order for fruit to ripen and be ready for storage in autumn, it must first pass through a growing process in the spring and summer and be provided with the nutrients supplied by nature and the tender loving care of its owner.
Fruit grown in an orchard by a lazy and ignorant farmer will be afflicted with disease and unprotected from foul weather. Eventually, it will fall from the tree before it is ripe, or become worm-infested. Though it is still fruit, it will be different from other fruit since it will be unfit for sale in a market.
8. Fruit that has matured fully on the tree will automatically go into the owner's storehouse. Similarly, only when the spirit of a person has reached perfection during life in the physical world, which can be likened to the tree, can it automatically enter the kingdom of heaven in the incorporeal spirit world?
In other words, a person will enter the kingdom of God in heaven automatically only when he or she has qualified for and enjoyed the kingdom of heaven on earth by living as a fully mature person in the physical body.
9. During your life on earth, your spirit self records your every action and movement without exception, keeping the law of heaven in mind as a standard.
Accordingly, you will enter the spirit world in the form of your spirit self, which has recorded your life on earth with total accuracy.
Your spirit will show plainly whether you have led a wholesome life ripening in goodness or a wormy, rotten life of sinfulness. What this means is that God will not judge you; you will be your judge.
If you are aware of this astonishing rule of Heaven, will you spend your life on earth in selfishness and immorality, succumbing to the temptations of Satan in pursuit of nothing but pleasure?
You will not; rather, you will abstain from injuring and scarring your spirit body, even risking your earthly life. Please bear this truth in mind: your thoughts, words, and deeds in each moment determine whether you are bound for heaven or hell.
10. The spirit does not lead a separate life or express true love through actions of its own. Your spirit self can grow, mature, and be finally perfected only within your physical body, through an earthly lifetime of true love that brings your mind and body into a smooth relationship.
Nonetheless, it is undeniable that your outer self and inner self are in a relationship of constant conflict and struggle. How much longer will you allow this fighting to continue? Ten years? One hundred years?
In contrast to this, it is also undeniable that all other forms of existence in the universe function in a proper order. This indicates that God did not create human beings in this state of antagonistic disorder.
You need to know that as a human being, you have the duty and responsibility to dispel all temptations directed at your outer self, your physical bod,y and achieve victory in life by following the way of your inner se,lf your conscience essentially to perfect your life according to the standard of absolute sex.
Heavenly fortune will be with those who lead their life in such a way. They will attain the perfection of their spirit self.
What is the nature of heaven?
11. Ladies and gentlemen, what is the nature of heaven and hell? Who can enter heaven? If it exists, where is it? Would it be outside the galaxy, on the other side of the universe? Or is it but a product of our imagination? At one time or another, everyone ponders this question.
12. What do you think is the nature of heaven? Heaven is a world overflowing with God's true love, with true love as its axis. It is a world where true love is the external form as well as the internal content of the entire environment.
It is a world where true love is present from the beginning to the end of our lives. Furthermore, it is a world filled with people who were born through true love, who lived in the embrace of true love, and who, following the track of true love, finally passed on into that next world, the spirit world.
Consequently, antagonism and envy are not to be found in that world, for it is a natural world where each person lives for the sake of others. It is not a world governed by money, honor, or power.
It is a world wherein the success of each person represents the success of the whole, the desire of each person represents the desire of the whole, and the joy of each person represents the joy of the whole.
13. Heaven is a world filled with the air of true love, where all breathe true love. It is a world where life pulsates with love everywhere, all the time. It is a world where everyone is connected to the true God through blood ties.
Furthermore, it is a place where the entire world and all people are linked together in an inseparable relationship, like the cells in your body. It is a world that is governed only by true love, the love that is God's essence. God exists for true love.
The results of the Fall
14. Look at the world in which we are currently living. The people of the world are caught in the trap of extreme selfishness, clamoring for material gain. They have lost all sense of value, and the desire for self-gratification drags them into the depths of degradation.
The world is filled with alcoholics. As if drug addiction and free sex were not enough, there are even those who commit incest, an act not even seen in the animal world, and still strut around with their heads held high.
This world has become one wherein beasts with human faces roam freely, even after violating women – grandmothers, mothers, wives, and daughters. The swapping of spouses among couples is rampant.
Such circumstances undoubtedly represent the pinnacle of the destruction of morality and the last of fallen acts. This world has become hell on earth, in which we cannot even dream of the perfected world embodying the ideal that God envisioned at the creation.
15. We have come to know that humanity's problems are rooted in the Fall of Adam and Eve, our ancestors. Adam and Eve, who were at the perfection stage of the growth period, had a sexual relationship before their rightful time, due to Satan's temptation.
The Fall was an illicit sexual union of a man and woman. This is why, for thousands of years, people continue to commit these indecent acts, perfidious acts that drive a sharp spike into the heart of God. They have been unable to escape from the realm of the fallen lineage.
16. A man or woman alone can only be one half of the whole. That is how God created us. For that reason, He has interchanged the ownership of the reproductive organs, the love organs. The owner of the wife's reproductive organ is the husband, and the owner of the husband's is the wife.
Only when each is rooted in true love for the sake of the other do they merit the position of the owner of their spouse. In other words, irrespective of who they are, human beings can only become complete individuals, rather than one half, when they have exchanged the positions of ownership through marriage.
17. The human reproductive organ is sacred. It is the palace of life where the seed of life is sown, the palace of love where the flower of love blooms, and the palace of lineage where the lineage bears fruit.
The reproductive organ is absolute. Through it, absolute lineage, absolute love, and absolute life are brought forth, along with absolute harmony, unity, liberation, and tranquility.
18. Why are we trying to restore the ownership of the reproductive organ? It is to possess God's love. He is the subject of three great loves. As the Owner of the universe, He is the true Teacher, true Owner, and true loving Parent.
These form the basis for the three great subject partners principle. All these teachings and truths are realized through the life of a true, model, ideal family.
Then, through its expansion, the society, nation, world, and even the universe are transformed into the peaceful kingdom of the model, ideal family.
19. Because of the Fall, the first Adam lost the original true lineage, and consequently failed to create the original couple and the original family. Adam, who should have become the true teacher, true parent, and true king, inherited the lineage of Satan. He degraded himself to the position of a false teacher, false parent, and false king.
20. The purpose for Jesus' coming to earth was simply and only to reverse the effects of the Fall. If Jesus, who came as the second Adam, had not lost his life on the cross, he would have restored the original unfallen lineage of God.
As the Savior of humankind, he would have made up for the failure of the first Adam, established the true family, and founded the original homeland for all people on earth. This would have been the kingdom embodying the ideal of peace, the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Tragically, the disciples, the religious leaders, and the leaders of the nation of Israel failed to recognize Christ. Their disbelief led Jesus to a wretched and tragic end on the cross. Has anyone known the grieving heart of Jesus, whose passing from the earth was so untimely, and who left no descendants?
Though two thousand years of Christian history have passed, has any Christian understood the reality of Jesus' sorrowful circumstances? Jesus departed this world suddenly, leaving little apart from a promise to return.
His physical body has long been buried and turned to dust, but the Will that God worked to fulfill through him continues. It is finally in the process of completion at this time, after history, through the True Parents, who have received the seal of Heaven and appeared on earth.
Heaven begins with the family
21. The sinful era of restoration through indemnity, the Era before the Coming of Heaven, has passed. The era of heavenly law is upon us, the Era after the Coming of Heaven.
You are now living in an era of grace in which, after receiving the marriage Blessing from True Parents, completing the conversion of lineage, and leading a life that is vertically aligned with Heaven, such that no shadow is cast, you can enter the kingdom of heaven automatically.
That is to say, if you establish a true family on earth and lead a heavenly life, your life will be connected to the kingdom of God in heaven when you die, and you will enjoy eternal life.
Therefore, within the framework of the family, you should serve God as your Father, revering Him in the highest position. Every one of you should become God's child, perfecting the parent-child relationship and sharing your life with Him, connected by blood. In short, you should form a partnership of true love with God and live together with Him.
22. Who would be the greatest grandfather of the universe? The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, called God “Father.” Should their children call Him Grandfather? No, they, too, should call Him Father. Why is this so?
From the viewpoint of God, the vertical center, all object partners of love are equal. His object partners, who are produced through the horizontal expansion and multiplication of His love, assume equal value regardless of who they are, transcending time and space. Simply put, in perfected love, everyone's value is equal.
23. The kingdom of heaven has to be achieved on earth first. What this means is that the kingdom of heaven in the corporeal world comes before its establishment in the incorporeal world.
Therefore, heaven is not a world found in outer space on the other side of the galaxy, nor is it the product of imagination existing only in the human brain. It refers to a substantial kingdom, heaven on earth, which can be created only when you lead a life of true love.
When you leave the physical world on that foundation, you automatically enter the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world. This means that only when you have led a heavenly life on earth can you lead such a life in heaven.
24. Only the fruit that has ripened fully on the tree is classified as produce of the best quality. You should not be like a worm-infested fruit on a tree, and therefore bound for hell. You should not forget for a moment that, through your life on earth, you determine whether you go to heaven or hell.
Sun Myung Moon