Physical Salvation

Physical salvation (Summary)

Mark Bramwell

Physical salvation, Mark Bramwell, FINAL.docx

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The term “physical salvation” encapsulates the entire purpose of the 2nd Coming of the Messiah[1], so unsurprisingly it can be looked at from numerous perspectives. It cannot be understood through one perspective such as “going through a Blessing ceremony.” The Blessing ceremony and whoever is officiating it is the “icing on the cake.” It is a declaration of commitment to God and our marriage partner. It is a marriage ceremony.

[1: “The Messiah is coming for both spiritual and physical salvation. His victory will be a physical one, the establishment of the physical Kingdom of Heaven on earth. For that purpose the third Adam is coming.” (SMM, God’s Day, 1977.1.1)]

The Blessing ceremony merely symbolizes or confirms what the reality of the participant is supposed to be: a commitment to physical salvation. God-centred heart, mindset, lifestyle – commitment to eternal marriage; commitment to universal selfless love 24/7, etc. The body does what the divine conscience (original mind) wants – this is what best describes the core meaning of physical salvation.

The textbook that summarizes universal divine spiritual principles, Exposition of the Divine Principle Christology, last paragraph, explains “physical salvation” thus:

“Christ must return in the flesh and find his Bride. They will form on the earth a perfect trinity with God and become True Parents both spiritually and physically. They will give fallen people rebirth both spiritually and physically, removing their original sin and enabling them to build trinities on earth with God as the center. When fallen people are restored to the point where they can establish true four position foundations centered on God, they will finally be able to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth where God's three great blessings are fulfilled.”

Let us unpack that paragraph.

Step 1: Remove original sin: This stage is a mental attitude/ Faith:

Unity in heart and mind between God – True Parents – I

The Messiah is a person who has become one with God, whose love has a completely selfless quality 24/7, including absolute sexual morality.

When the Messiah takes a wife and she becomes one with him in heart and mind, they become True Parents of humanity, or as mature Adam and Eve without the Fall.

The symbolic ceremony for the removal of original sin is the Holy Wine ceremony. The condition for the one receiving this forgiveness: faith in God and in God’s representatives on Earth, the True Parents. The Holy Wine ceremony is required only by 1st Generation believers.[2]

[2: It is debatable whether the Holy Wine Ceremony is any longer needed at all, since, after the 400 Million Couples Blessing in the early 2000s, the whole world was declared to have come under God’s direct dominion.]

………………………………….

As I wrote in a recent post, it is unclear how God or Sun Myung Moon could forgive the original sin through the holy wine ceremony. I suggested that the original sin is like a primal trauma that could be passed on through the genes. Jim Stephens, in an interesting post about the relationship between mental attitude and healing, believes Father Moon can actually “heal genes” like Jesus could heal diseases, whereas I tend to think that he could remove a spiritual barrier to enable us to deal with that inherited trauma ourselves.

Step 2: Rebirth (after removal of original sin). I become completely one in heart and mind with God and the True Parents who are God-centred, and who live absolutely for the sake of humanity.

This stage is a LIFESTYLE:

“We have come from satanic lineage; therefore, we must kill our old selves in order to be born anew. This is the great revolution of man. When you feel your old self, the archangel still living in your heart, you have to completely empty yourself, lose yourself. This is really the simple, ultimate truth of Christianity. Unification Church is teaching the same truth. He who is willing to lose his life for the sake of the Messiah will find it. Every day our way of life must be a process of losing our lives in order to find them. This is the secret of everything.” (1977.1.1, God’s Day)

Step 3 a: Physical salvation (a). I form a trinity with my spouse centred on our embodiment of the love and truth of God and the True Parents (symbolized by Blessing ceremony).

Step 3 b: Physical salvation (b). I form a Blessed Family, i.e. form a four-position-foundation and have children. The Blessed Family is the basic environment for physical salvation.

Step 3 c: Physical salvation (c). Centred on our embodiment of the love and truth of God and True Parents, I create the wider environment – tribe, community, society, nation, world – for God’s reign on Earth (I help form Cheon Il Guk – one nation of heaven).

Then we have fulfilled the Three Great Blessings.

Note that we are to form our own trinities and four-position-foundations without mediators, directly with God, like the Messiah and True Parents whose love and truth we have inherited and embodied.

Spiritual salvation includes: forgiveness of sin and spiritual rebirth / liberation of the mind, whereas physical salvation also includes: restoration of lineage (ancestors); perfection of marriage; perfection of family relationships; transformation of society into a God-centred society of selfless love.

William believes that spiritual and physical salvation cannot be separated because once you are spiritually saved, you are also physically saved. However, this is not what history shows: Christians are spiritually saved but could not build an ideal world for 2000 years and the Christian faith is in decline where it reached its maturity (in the West).

Physical salvation spreads outward:

individual → family → tribe → people → nation → world → cosmos → God

(Eight Stages of Horizontal Restoration after the Eight Stages of Vertical Restoration: servant of servants → oneness with God). The family is the starting point: “The family is the school of love and the base for world peace.”

Note that all of the above content is well represented in the Blessed Marriage Vows and the Family Pledge. Example:

“Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, through living for the sake of others, to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, by centering on true love.”

Physical salvation might only be fully attained within a sovereign, autonomous nation. If all the environment around you is living as at “high noon where no shadows are cast” (Peace Messages), and fully immersed in God’s love, where would there be any temptations to make you fall?

Currently, we must be in the world, but not of it. We must bring it under God’s dominion through selfless love and truth-telling.

Sadly, our own Unification community is far from this state.

Relevant quotes of True Father

“Since Jesus could not take the position of True Parents, he could not accomplish the change of blood lineage centering upon new love…. True Parents must become one with the love of God, establish a good reciprocal standard with God and love the world as if it is theirs.” (Change of Blood Lineage in God’s Will and the World)

Physical salvation requires a “change of blood lineage” which means a change of heart, a change in the quality of love we practice.

Absolute love for God and people is a requirement for change of blood lineage and physical salvation:

“God has been prevented from entering the inner mind of people directly to recover the necessary central point, so he has had to adopt an indirect method to penetrate their conscience. In history, therefore, God sent prophets, saints and sages, hoping that through them fallen man would receive his love and truth… God’s providence has centred on the recovery of love. Its goal is to restore people whose conscience is indwelt by God. It aims at unity through God’s love.” (Change of Blood Lineage in God’s Will and the World)

“You must be willing to face death itself. By establishing that absolute standard for the sake of God and the future dignity of man, your evil blood lineage can be cleansed. That becomes the standard of faith. In order to have the blood lineage cleansed, we must work and take action, not just talk about it or have feelings about it.” (Change of Blood Lineage in God’s Will and the World)

Because families have horizontal relations, restoring them means salvation extends beyond the spirit into everyday life, which embraces the physical.

“Through the education provided by the actual practice of true love, I have fulfilled all the conditions necessary for recovering and establishing the parent-child relationship between God and humankind. I have opened the way for human beings, who became the children of the adulterer, Satan, the enemy of love, and who have lived as slaves to false love, false life and false lineage, to be reborn and resurrected into the true lineage of God, the source of true love. In other words, I have opened wide the path for people to reach full spiritual maturity as individuals and to establish true families, true clans, true peoples, true nations and a true world, by leading lives of true love.” (2011.4.24, Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of True Parents)

The various organizations for science, media, hobby industry, etc. are all part of the foundation and culture for physical salvation.

“Throughout our lives we have established many international organizations and institutions to promote world peace. We have invested unreservedly in many fields including inter-religious cooperation, humanitarian projects to benefit society, intercultural activities, sports, education and the media. We founded all these initiatives with the aim of promoting peace and bringing salvation to humanity.” (2011.4.24, Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of True Parents)

There will be a perfected system of governance in the age of the “One Nation of Heaven”. The Completed Testament Age is the Age of Salvation through Love. The Age after the Coming of Heaven is the age when the spiritual and earthly worlds become one.

“Once the actual era of Cheon Il Guk begins, the Union of the Spiritual and Physical World’s Association will be established as the central axis on earth, and all things will be able to be governed for the first time. The spiritual world and physical world will be connected and perfect a substantial union. Moreover, the providence will be carried out according to heavenly law and the heavenly way. Elections conducted in a purely secular fashion will disappear from the face of the earth.” (2011.4.24, Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of True Parents)

On the theme of “heavenly elections”:

“The principle of interdependence is an ideal that pursues the politics of conjoint participation based on God’s true love to realize the ideals of freedom, equality and happiness. Participating in communal politics serves the purpose of electing representatives… Their candidacy would be rooted in a calling to serve and they would be nominated by their constituents…” (Cheon Seong Gyeong, 2477)

“True love, the love that is God’s essence, is heaven’s only governing power. Accordingly, God also exists for true love.” (Peace Messages)

“If only the entire world were filled with such true families! It would be an orderly world where people governed themselves by the heavenly way and heavenly laws, with no need for lawyers, prosecutors, or even judges.” (Peace Messages)

The most important teachings of Jesus tend to be the most neglected because they are the most challenging: “Love God with all your heart, mind and strength and love your neighbour as yourself”. The basic teachings of Sun Myung Moon also tend to be the most neglected. Example:

Significance of true love resulting in equality, inheritance, and participation.

Because there is true love between us and God and us and the Messiah, we are able to have equality with God and True Parents as trees from a seed (CSG, 2419-21), participate with them (authority to be messiahs), and inherit from them (potential to perfect ourselves and authority to bestow the Blessing (CSG, 2333).

Our task is to be world and society-oriented:

“Those who receive the light will be indebted to the light. I pray that in order to repay that debt, you will all wipe away the tears of the people in misery and poverty, and lead an illuminated life of eternal true love that dissipates all darkness.” (2011.4.24, Cosmic Assembly for the Settlement of True Parents)

Conscience/divine mind as the ultimate authority

“Your conscience knows and remembers not only every action you have performed, but also every thought you have entertained. Your conscience is aware of these things before your own teachers, parents or even God are. Hence, if you were to live in obedience to the commands of your conscience, which is your teacher for eternity, you would be absolutely guaranteed to have eternal life. Such is the way of God’s creation.” (Peace Messages)