THE CURRENT UC INITIATIVE IN ISRAEL

I am always curious as to what the current "mission" of Unification Church (UC) members is at the time. Hence I recently looked at some UC documents (May 30, 2003) about a trip to Israel to unite the old Israel with Christianity. Interesting. The participants claim that Muslims and Jews and Christians should "follow" Rev and Mrs. Moon. Follow True Parents (TP). But what does this actually mean? What does it mean to "Follow" True Parents? Why would anyone WANT to follow True Parents? How do they intend to get these people to follow Rev. and Mrs. Moon?

And once someone decided to "Follow" TP…what exactly are they supposed to do? How? If these UC members really want others to "follow" them, they need to define what "Follow" actually means. In addition, we need to look at the history of religion to show how and why people generally convert to a new religious idea to see if we can learn anything about this process.

My theory is that we need not seek to convert others. We only need to do our own responsibility. Hence, if there are problems in the world, it is not because other people are not following us or not following Rev. Moon. It is because *we* as UC members are not really following Rev. Moon and hence we are failing our responsibility. The question then is what exactly is our responsibility?

I will speak about Divine Principle from the perspective of a Christian, a believer in the story of Jesus. I know that some of you were never Christian, so it may be hard for you to appreciate the significance of Divine Principle.

To appreciate Divine Principle, I think you need to appreciate Christianity. I was a Christian, so I can tell you about my experience.

The essence of Christianity is this: God created humans. Humans sinned and alienated themselves from God. In so doing, they were alienated from themselves and thus disharmony ruled. God had a son (Jesus), some say figuratively some say literally. In any case, this person was supposedly "one with God", meaning that this person knew the mind of God, had the same power, had the same authority as God.

The story goes that the price of sin is "death", but since that price was too high for any mere human to pay it needed a "God" to pay the debt. Since Jesus was supposedly a divine being, his death on the cross paid the debt of Adam's original sin.

Thus, Christianity is founded on the belief that Jesus' death was the pre- ordained, necessary and unavoidable means for saving the human race from eternal damnation and whosoever believes in Jesus' death, resurrection and authority, would be rescued from eternal annihilation and be taken back to heaven when Jesus arrives on earth for the second time.

This is the story I was taught as a child and believed. The story was artfully reinforced through hymns, liturgy, repetition, etc. The story was never questioned, I wouldn't even know how to question this story. Hence, I simply accepted the story. Besides, this story was accepted by millions of people around the world so all those people couldn't be wrong….could they?

This is where Divine Principle comes in. Divine Principle provided an incredible (as in fantastic and wonderful) explanation for the existence and true purpose of Christianity. Divine Principle's explanation was almost enlightening at first read. If you were not brought up believing in Christianity, you would not really appreciate the cosmic significance of Rev. Moon's new theory. It is from this theory where Rev. Moon gets his authority and vision. It is this theory that provides the basis for Rev. Moon to call Christians and Jews and Muslims to follow him. This theory explains what the other religions cannot. Thus, you need to know about Rev. Moon's theory.

The basis for Rev to call Jews, Christians, and Muslims to "follow" him stems on the assumption that each person in these religions actually believes in their religion. It assumes that these people are consistent and of pure motivation.

That is, if they really believe in Jehovah, Yahweh, and Allah, then they should also believe in Rev. Moon. That is, would not the Jews follow Moses and Elijah if they were to return on earth today? Would not Muslims follow Mohammed if Mohammed were to return to earth? And certainly Christians would (or at least should) follow Jesus if Jesus were to return to earth. Right? Isn't that what these believers are all waiting for? Preparing themselves for?

Thus, we find the essence of the problem of UC members trying to get other religions to follow TP. For one, all of these religious leaders were NEVER met with greetings or success from the populations they ministered and preached to. Moses was reviled and almost betrayed by his own people. He also faced constant challenges to his authority (form his sister, brother and

another rival.). It was not easy acceptance for Moses. Mohammed was never accepted by his own people. In fact, his own people persecuted him and chased him out of town. They even launched a war to destroy him. Jesus was never accepted by his own and was in fact led to his death as a result.

Therefore, the first thing UC members should realize is that no religious leader was ever respected and accepted in their own time by their own people.

Thus, why should we expect current religious adherents to do anything different? If history is any guide, we should expect these religious adherents to reject Rev. Moon. So why should Rev. Moon be any different?

Likewise, another assumption is that these religious adherents actually follow their respective religions for altruistic reasons and for the reasons why these religions were originally established. This too may be an error. Many people join religions for personal reasons such as economic benefits, feelings of power, status, etc. Likewise, other people are in religions because their parents were in a religion. An inherited faith of sorts. Some were even converted to religions out of fear and force. Thus with all these suspect motivations, is it any wonder that these people would not follow a new religious leader? These people do not even really follow their own faiths! This is because the motivation for belonging to a particular group may have nothing to do with the true purpose of that religion.

Hence, before we can expect people to follow a new religious leader, these people need to really follow their own faith. They need to understand their own faith much better. Thus instead of trying to shove Unificationism down the throats of Christians, Jews and Muslims. Perhaps we should be teaching these faiths about their OWN religion, which many of them may not even know the true and complete story of their own faiths and the purpose of their faiths.

Even more, these faiths are all fractionalized! Islam is divided between Shiite, Sunni, Khawarij, Mu'tazilah, Sufi, Druze, Armadiyah, Bahai and The Nation of Islam (Black Muslims). Judaism is divided between Hassidic, Orthodox, Reform, Conservative, and Secular Jews. Don't even mention Christianity! Christianity is factionalized between Catholic, Protestant, Greek Orthodox and Russian Orthodox. Furthermore Protestantism is factionalized between, Anglican, Lutheran, Episcopalian, Methodists, Baptist, Pentecostal, Adventist, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses, Church of Christ, and a host of other self- created Christian identities and tele-evangelists.

Thus, which Christianity are we appealing to? Which Islam? Which Judaism? We (UCers) don't even seem to be following our own religion so why do we expect other people to follow us? There is much more to following Rev. Moon than simply claiming membership status and doing all the little conditions that Rev. Moon sets out. If we were to really realize we would discover that these little conditions are the bare minimum actions and are actually the result of us NOT following Rev. Moon. The reason why Rev. Moon gives out all these special conditions is because we have NOT been fulfilling our responsibility and thus he now needs to tell us what to do. I few were doing our responsibility all along, Rev. Moon would not need to give out these directions. Even Rev. Moon has said:

Members have mistook these conditions for really following Rev. Moon, but in fact doing such conditions are a result of our failure to follow Rev. Moon. Hence, why should we expect other people to follow Rev. Moon when we ourselves have not been doing so? Thus, we should discuss what it means to follow Rev. Moon and what exactly our responsibility is.

So what does it mean to follow Rev. Moon? Does it simply mean to hang around waiting for specific instructions from Rev. Moon? If so, what are we going to do when Rev. Moon dies? Try to channel his spirit for guidance like the oracle at Delphi?

Following Rev. Moon means to follow Rev. Moon's pattern. What is Rev. Moon's pattern? It is the same pattern followed by Jacob, Moses and Jesus. In short, it is the path of Abel, but more correctly it is the path of Jacob which is actually the original responsibility of Adam.

What then was Adam's responsibility? According to Divine Principle, Adam was simply supposed to resemble God. He would accomplish this goal by fulfilling the three blessings (self-perfection, harmony of family and realm of occupational dominion). That was the path of Adam and this is the path that we ourselves must follow.

To follow Rev. Moon simply means to fulfill the original three blessings. Hence, how was Adam to accomplish this?

The failure to accomplish the three blessings starts with Adam's failure to fulfill the first blessing of self-perfection. A perfect person has the "mind of God". That is, the physical mind and physical desires are dominated, guided and controlled by the spirit mind and spirit desires. This person can love as God loves because this person can view the world with the same perspective as God. In essence, this person shares the same viewpoint or paradigm of God. He or she has God's mind and character.

To inherit such character takes time and takes specific guidance or instructions. It also takes a certain amount of practice because this process to self-perfection is not automatic.

So why did Adam fail in this primary responsibility?

Adam failed because he did not take responsibility to find the "word", practice the word and love the Archangel. Instead, Adam followed the Angels' word, practiced the Angel's word and thus came to resemble the Angel.

Thus the first step to regaining the first blessing is to remove the Angel's word (i.e. remove Original Sin from our spirit minds) and then practice God's word.

But what exactly is God's word?

Some members think that God's word was simply not to engage in sexual intercourse before self-perfection. However, this is incorrect for the following reasons. First, self-perfection is not automatic. You don't perfect yourself by not doing something. For example, you don't learn to play the piano simply by not playing a trumpet. You lean by doing something, actively practicing something. Thus, the word of God must be some active principle rather than a negative one.

In fact, the word of God or the "Commandment" was really the three blessings themselves!

God commanded Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply and take dominion over the earth. These are the original commandments.

Adam failed to do this by following the instructions of a different "god"….Lucifer.

But why did Lucifer seek dominion over Adam and Eve in the first place? Some members think that Lucifer was motivated by sexual lust. But this too seems inaccurate. It is more probable that Lucifer was motivated by his desire to regain God's love. As the story goes, Lucifer was receiving the most of God's love before Adam and Eve were created. However when Adam and Eve appeared, Lucifer noticed that they had greater abilities than Lucifer and in a sense were actually higher beings than Lucifer. For one, Adam and Eve could interact with the physical world directly but Lucifer could not. At least that is how the story goes. Thus, Lucifer felt jealous of Adam and Eve and also wanted to control the physical world. To do that, Lucifer needed Adam and Eve to submit to him and in so doing, Lucifer would control the physical world through Adam and Eve and would once again gain the attention he craved by having Adam and Eve resemble him.

However, had Adam embodied God's love and Loved the Arch angel, Lucifer would not have these feelings of jealousy and thus would not have needed to dominate Adam and Eve to solve his lack of love feeling. Thus, the ultimate responsibility for the Fall lay in Adam's failure to love the angel. Even the Divine Principle says:

Thus the responsibility for the Fall lay with Adam.

Some may question how Adam could love the Angel when it is thought that the Angel was supposed to teach Adam and Eve. This too is inaccurate. This is because the Angel could not teach Adam what the Angel did not know himself. In fact, Rev. Moon has said:

Adam was supposed to teach himself. In fact, Divine Principle confirms this by stating:

Thus, according to the Principle, Adam was fully capable of perfecting himself without the assistance of God or the angels.

Thus, the first step to fulfilling the original responsibility was for Adam to perfect himself. After that, he should have established a family. After that he should have found a specific area of dominion (i.e. got a job) and through such occupation, love the earth, all things and the angels.

Thus as UC members, our only responsibility is to fulfill the original commandment, the Three Blessings.

Where are you on this course? Have you accomplished self-perfection? Do you even have a clear idea of what perfection is? Have you taken responsibility to find out? What about your family life? Have you harmonized it? Do you know how to do so? What about dominion? Have you gotten a job? Have you chosen your specific field of expertise whether it be business, sales, science, politics, philosophy? If not, you are failing in your responsibility.

How can you expect others to follow you, if you are not fulfilling your responsibility?

Thus the world will follow us, when we follow our responsibility. Jacob was able to subjugate Esau and get Esau to submit to him because Jacob knew how to love his brother. Jacob did not teach Divine Principle to Esau. He did not demand that Esau follow him. IN fact, Esau wanted to kill Jacob. Through Jacob's insight he knew how to love his brother. Thus our task as UC members is to understand and practice Jacob's course. When we do that, we will have no need to witness because our life will already be a living witness.

Thus the current initiative in Israel is not bad, in fact, it is very good! We should support their efforts and pray for their success! However, let us not lose sight of our more fundamental responsibility.

Bob

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