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| Lecture 19 : [Christology] Fallen Human and Jesus, Rebirth and (the Holy) Trinity | |
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| Date created : 2015-01-07/ Views : 1001 | |
Christology
Chapter 19 Fallen Human and Jesus, Rebirth and (the Holy) Trinity
Welcome back to the Path to Happiness. I’m your host, Dr. Tyler Hendricks.
In our last session, we learned that we can have the divine value if we connect to Jesus, who came as the new Adam to give rebirth to humankind. As we become aware of our original value, and by following Jesus’ way of faith, we can fulfill the purpose of creation. But, how does this happen? Christians have been baptized and taken communion for 2,000 years, but still we are waiting for something more, called the Second Coming. Jesus shed his blood for me, but I still have sin. Who’s going to figure that out? This is what Rev. Moon teaches, and we’re going to get into that now.
The word ‘messiah’ in Hebrew was a verb meaning ’to anoint with oil’. It evolved into ‘the one who was anointed with oil’. One Jewish tradition was a ritual of pouring oil to signify blessedness, or God’s choosing the person for a special mission. In the later days, in addition to the king, they also anointed high priests (Col 9:26), and heads of clan (1 Chronicles 16:22; Psalm105:15) to be the messiah. So the messiah was a great priest, ruler or king.
Centuries later, “the one who was anointed the oil (messiah)” transformed into a savior who would overcome satan and judge the living and the dead. How did this happen?
The Babylonian empire destroyed the Temple in Jerusalem, and exiled the Jews to Babylon. Two hundred years later, the Persian King Cyrus destroyed the Babylonian empire and allowed Jews freedom of worship, and the expectation of the messiah grew. At this time, influenced by the Persian religion, Zoroastrianism, the meaning of the word messiah evolved from ruler into judge, and the meaning of the mission transformed into that of a son of God and personal savior, the Christ.
In this context we will discuss the mission of Jesus and our relationship to him.
First of all, from the point of view of our relationship with God as fallen people, we lost the rights and benefits of God’s children due to the fall and were downgraded to being orphans. We want to become complete partners to God and receive God’s love, but our parents failed. Satan infected their love and we were born from that false love. Adam and Eve built a relationship with satan, so we are plagued with selfish desires and, in Jesus’ words, are children of Lucifer, an angel. Angels are servants, so we are servants of servants. We therefore are in a midway position between God and satan, a position where we worship both God and satan—we have true love and false love within us. That’s the contradiction, the struggle, that is endless.
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That leads to the second point: instead of mind and body being harmonious, the two struggle and conflict. Our conscience is in conflict with our instinctive, physical mind. We became divided between good and evil. The spirit should rule the physical, but it came under the control of the physical. At the same time, the harmonious reciprocity between man and woman was destroyed. The struggle within each person cripples our ability to love as husband and wife, and the conflict between man and woman, our inability to relate centered on God, has terrible social repercussions.
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Third, from the standpoint of the principled growing period, Adam and Eve fell at age 16, the top of the growth stage toward maturity. They left the realm of principle and became primitive cave dwellers suffering in a savage state of existence, a world ruled by tooth and claw, where the creation itself was chained in suffering.
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Fourth, spirituality and physicality, we fell into the world of total ignorance. We lost our awareness of God’s existence, much less God’s heart and plan. We were dominated by the evil spirit world and were completely ignorant about the universe and the creation around us.
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Fifth, we became stained with original sin and guilt. We adopted a selfish and vicious character, trying to dominate each other out of fear and lust. As generations passed, we inherited the results of our parents’ and grandparents’ sin, as well as the collective sin of our tribe or kingdom.
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Sixth, the fall created a set of illicit relationships—the four position foundation centered on satan, so it went beyond the personal fall to the fall of the family, tribe, and larger collectives. This made it possible for satan to gain ownership of the world and dominate hell on earth as if it is the natural way things are. This is why Jesus identified satan as the ruler of the world.
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We need to transform ourselves from satan’s children to God’s children. We need to rid ourselves of sin and wash away the guilt of sin. We need to be awakened and find wisdom that will move us from ignorance to knowledge. We need to practice and follow the principle of restoration, to restore ourselves to the point that we reached before the Fall, and then accomplish the three great blessings, create heaven on earth, and live eternally in heaven in the spirit world.
If Adam was our “false parent,” Jesus was sent to be the “True Parent” to give rebirth to fallen human beings. Jesus came as a savior, to rescue human beings. Jesus came as the teacher, to awaken us, who are lost in the darkness of spiritual and physical ignorance, by his words, and teach us God’s heart and purpose. He came as the true owner and king to restore this world of hell into the original world of creation. This is who Jesus is.
When we consider Jesus the True Parent, it means he is the father who came to give us rebirth. If Adam and Eve had fulfilled the purpose of creation and become the True Parents of humankind, their children would be physically and spiritually one with God, and their descendant would be born physically and spiritually true. But they fell spiritually and physically, and their children inherited this separation from God, both spiritual and physical.
Now, Jesus said to Nicodemus that if we are not born a second time, we will not be able to able to set foot in God’s kingdom (John 3:3-5). So we need a new birth. But parents with original sin cannot give birth to sinless children. So we need sinless parents who directly descended from heaven. Jesus is such a father. He was one with God physically and spiritually.
Hence, Jesus is the one who came to give us rebirth, spiritually and physically, as a True Father. But there’s something missing from that picture. We all know that a father alone cannot give birth. A True Mother is also needed. Jesus was supposed to find the one who came to be the True Mother, marry her with God’s full and complete Blessing, unite as one flesh spiritually and physically, and together with her become True Parents. But Jesus went to the cross with no bride. He resurrected and stayed with the disciples for forty days, ascended to the Father, and THEN the bride appeared from God. Who was that bride? The Holy Spirit. And who are their children? The reborn believers.
The True Father is Jesus and the True Mother’s position is fulfilled by the Holy Spirit who gives new life to the children, the holy mother church. The church is “the Jerusalem above, our mother,” according to Paul in Galatians. And in Revelation, the new Jerusalem comes down from heaven as what? As a Bride. Christians are reborn when they come to Jesus through the Holy Spirit.
In the realm of the Fall, our value is, as my father put it, that of an ant. But God can change that. We can be reborn through Jesus who is the True Parent, True Teacher, True King. We will become a child of goodness free from original sin. Then we will develop our spirit, and be restored to the status of Jesus after having fulfilled the purpose of creation. As Paul said, “we know we will be like him.”
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The mission of Jesus and Holy Spirit, as explained above, is to restore us. The teaching called the Trinity, which explains the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, has confused and divided Christians for thousands of years. But when we know the Principle, it is easy to understand. In order to fulfill the purpose of creation, Adam and Eve have to be interdependent partners in reciprocal relationship to God. They need to have a reciprocal give and receive relationship with each other and be an integrated body in the four-position foundation centered on God. Adam and Eve become one, centered on God. This is the Trinity—God, God’s Son and God’s daughter, equal expressions of God’s logos—one love in three persons, three persons one in love.
Originally God’s purpose in creating Adam and Eve was to establish them as True Parents of humankind in the four-position foundation centered on God. Thus, God’s purpose of creation started by building the Trinity.
But since they fell, Adam and Eve built a Trinity and four-position foundation centered on satan. Then, providence led to a spiritual Trinity of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who forgive and restore us as our spiritual True Parents.
It makes sense that Jesus will come again to form a substantial, physical Trinity centered on God, and become a True Parent both in spirit and flesh, to restore us both spiritually and physically.
That means we need to recognize the returning Jesus—and his bride—and receive rebirth from them. Rev. Moon explains the biblical teaching about engrafting the branch of the messiah into us, not as individuals, but as couples in the Blessing of marriage. The Fall took place as a couple, spiritually and physically, and it is restored as a couple, spiritually and physically. Bestowing this holy marriage Blessing is the mission of Rev. and Mrs. Moon, created by God, called by Jesus, led by the Holy Spirit, and taught by the Bible.
Now, how do we prepare for this? Can I just sign up? Actually, there are simple principled steps we can take. Where do we learn them? God began His work to bring this about a long time ago, right in Adam’s family, and they are explained throughout the Bible. So our next session will introduce the principles of restoration, the principles of preparation to receive the True Parents and, ultimately, the holy marriage blessing, which is the path to happiness.
Thank you so much for listening, and see you next time.
