Weekend Workshop

I went to the workshop the following weekend and heard the entire series of lectures known as the "Divine Principle" (DP), which are the teachings of Reverend Sun Myung Moon of Korea. There were about 6 lectures total over the weekend, with discussions after each lecture and breaks for meals, free time and entertainment.

The lectures consisted of talks about the ideal world we were meant to live in (and what we all long for in our deepest hearts - a world filled with love and peace), the separation from the ideal, and God's work throughout history to return the world back to the ideal. There were also some talks on other topics such as Predestination and Resurrection. The one on Predestination basically said that the only thing predestined for sure is God's ideal, loving world. Everything else, such as Christians being predestined for heaven and everyone else for hell is just a bunch of hogwash! The one on Resurrection said that resurrection is not literal, such as Christians being resurrected right through the roof of their churches (Ouch! That sure would hurt when they hit their heads!) What resurrection really means is the resurrection of our spirits and our hearts - in other words, our spiritual growth. So there is a lot of stuff in the Bible that is not meant to be taken literally.

All of the lectures were based on the Bible, so most of it went right over my head. But the first lecture made a lot of sense to me. It said that the original ancestors of humanity were meant to grow to perfection before having a family. Perfection is defined as complete unity with God. Therefore, a perfect person is someone who can love all mankind as much as God does and has a parental heart towards all people. (I had a taste of this parental love during my drug experience.) Only on this basis are people then qualified to start a family and parent their own children.

They said that Jesus was the only perfect person who ever lived on earth. He completely embodied the love of God through his incredible love for people, to the point of even being willing to die for his enemies. Amazing! They said that the first ancestors were meant to grow to become like him, essentially becoming a Jesus-like man and a Jesus-like woman. Then when they got married, nothing could ever separate them because their love would be rock-solidly based on God's love (not just on romance, attraction or other things that wear off eventually.) Therefore, no divorce or breakdown of families would be possible. Also, as love-filled people, they would exemplify this love to their children as well as teach them the highest standard of love. Their children would then learn to love each other and the natural world around them (instead of abusing it). This would be an ideal family. Then, when this family multiplied and spread it would expand to an ideal tribe, nation and world. This would be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, or God's ideal. Upon death, people would then enter the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world.

Next time I'll briefly explain what went wrong in the beginning according to DP. I'll also explain how the first and second talk made sense to me based on my own experience of growing up in a dysfunctional home.