As our True Mother, the mother of peace and the only begotten daughter, wishes to see the reunification of the Korean peninsula, asking the FFWPU Korea to concentrate substantially on this providential will of Heavenly Parent, we bring you a series of True Parents’ words (in 28 parts), especially for those who are seeking internal guidance from True Parents. Reading these words will help us to understand better the worldwide conflicts of today. If you wish to order the book “Way of Unification”, please click here.
Part 28 (Earlier installments are available for reading.)
Chapter 5 – Communism And The Two Wings
Section 5. Explanation Of Materialism (Part 2)
4. The Time Of “No-Ideology”
1) The Current of Thought
When we look back at the history of 2,000 years after Jesus, many Christians have developed various movements to rediscover God. As a result of the movement, the Roman Empire, which had persecuted Christianity extremely, came to authorize Christianity. As established by the Vatican in Rome, Christianity came to conduct the affairs of state centering on the papacy. Through this papacy, Christianity came to provide an important foundation in forming the feudal society. However, in Medieval times, when the papacy was decayed, as a reaction against that, humanism came to emerge. Humanism had a great influence on the medieval feudal society. Because of the influence of humanism, medieval Christians gradually came to grow far away from God. A great number of people gave up their faith and embraced humanism instead. Humanism has developed through the course of history. It passed through the age of enlightenment and finally gave birth to historical materialism.
Historical materialism is based on rationalism and empirical philosophy, which emphasize human reason and experience as the base of philosophy. This materialism is having a great influence on modern society. Especially through the influence of materialism and capitalism, modern society has fallen down in a world where the idea that money is everything is prevalent. Then, who made the medieval feudal society collapse? God collapsed it. God had wanted to develop His Will centering on the Vatican in Rome, but because Christianity decayed under the feudal society, God could not but collapse the medieval feudal society.
God raised up humanism. Humanism came to play a decisive role in destroying the medieval feudal society. That is, since medieval people, who believed in God, betrayed God’s will, God could not help reprimanding Christians by destroying the feudal society through humanism. However, in order not to lose His providential base, God raised up Martin Luther, who was worrying seriously about God’s providence, and had him reform the decayed religion. Likewise, God partly reprimanded the decayed religion, and God raised up a new religion through the Reformation. In other words, while humanism representing the Cain-type developed by destroying the decayed social system, Christianity representing the Abel-type, developed by reforming its own religion and by undergoing various historical courses.
That is, the two thoughts of humanism and Christianity came to develop respectively in a dialectical relationship. Providentially, Christianity formed the realm of the second Israel through various historical courses. Christianity not only passed through the confused situation of the Renaissance but also passed through the current of enlightenment centered on humanistic philosophy. Finally, in this modern society, Christianity is contending with materialism, which was derived from humanism.
Voltaire, Russo, and Montesque had thought that Christianity would collapse. However, even though Christianity was confronted by the currents of enlightenment, pious people from Germany had saved Christianity by raising the pietist movement which emphasizes the internal, mystical experience with God. The pietist movement influenced England, and John Wesley from England revived the pietist movement by raising the Methodist movement. Moreover, Quakers contributed to the development of Christianity by raising the mystic movement to emphasize the internal experience. Likewise, God has worked providentially in the background of the history of Christianity. On the other hand, because of the influence of materialism, modern people not only grew far away from God’s love but also were isolated from their own reason and themselves. They were secularized and came to adore materialism, whose most precious value is material. However, even though mankind is fallen, because humanism ultimately has to return to its original position before the fall, materialism, which prevents mankind from returning to the original position by denying human personality, will by necessity be destroyed.
The Medieval Age centered on God has passed away, the rationalism and empiricism centered on rational philosophy have also passed away, and the materialism based on historical materialism is losing its influential power gradually. In the future, people will not be satisfied with only loving material things, and will not resolve humanity’s fundamental problem even by the teachings of past historical figures. The world of the future will be confronted by a miserable situation which humans cannot manage. Communism cannot be the fundamental solution for the future world.
This is so because Communism regards humanity as the outcome of material and tries to have human society prosper by the productive capacity of material without regard to God. Thus, communists will never have dominion over the world as they wish. In the 21st century, with the onset of the atomic age, as the influential power of material civilization decreases, the communists’ dream of having dominion over the world will be frustrated. Then, after Communism, what period will come? The age of love will come. People will find joy in the world of love, and share joy by living for the sake of one another. Therefore, we should be wise persons who can fit the coming age of love. In order to do so, we should be able to analyze all trends of thought and synthesize them. In fulfilling such a mission, we can be proud people in the age of love and before the universe.
Because you must go through the course of the fallen Adam and Eve, each individual has to inherit the historical mission of the second Adam. However, you have to know that you do not qualify yourselves to fulfill such a mission. Moreover, you have to know that today’s history was formed by the process of finding God, true humans, and true all things, which had been lost due to the fall. (4-17)
2) Humanism and Godism
A. Humanism Cannot Be the Ideal
If God likes religion, Satan dislikes it. They are opposite each other. It must be true. Don’t you think so? [Yes!] In the last days, God’s side and Satan’s side will be divided. Therefore, the world will be divided into two groups: the one which opposes religion and the other which supports religion. This is a natural conclusion. In that situation, what kind of problem will be raised? The problem of truth and falsehood will be raised. That is, which is right, humanism or Godism? From this viewpoint, humanism does not lead people to God’s side, but it leads to Satan’s side. God’s side is the world of goodness. So, this world is necessarily divided into the two worlds of good and evil. Such phenomena are certainly manifested in today’s world. What period are we in now? We are facing the time when we should attack the whole world that is dominated by humanism. Can this world have a hope for the future? Material civilization cannot but be frustrated and will fall into desperation. In the Oriental concept, desperation means that there is no hope for the future.
Why is the history of humanity confronted by desperation? It is because humans denied God and received humanism. It is because material civilization centered on humanism is dominating this world. Mankind descended from fallen ancestors. By adoring such fallen humanism, this world cannot have hope. Then, what should we do in this fallen world? As fallen descendants, we have to adore what is not fallen. How can one adore what is not fallen? One has to return to God through religion. Therefore, the nation which adores God, the thought which adores Heaven, and the world which adores God can never perish. That must be so. It is because Satan’s world and God’s world are completely opposite. If one follows Satan, one must fail. On the other hand, if one follows God, one must get success. In these days, everything related to God and religion is denied because of humanism, and religious foundations are collapsing. If mankind lives centered on humanism, mankind cannot have hope for the future. Today’s phenomena reveal such a negative conclusion. Accordingly, we have to analyze the traditional concept of God and the past religions, and then we have to establish a new concept of God and a new view of religion centered on God. By doing so, we have to overcome humanism. Otherwise, mankind cannot have hope. This is a final conclusion. Do you understand? [Yes]
If such a movement is not expanded rapidly to the whole of the world, there is no way to save mankind which lies in desperation. (83-128)
Humanism cannot be the ideal thought of mankind. Humanism centered on fallen humans is not an ideal thought. Humanism tries to absorb everything centering on humans. However, when we look at the human himself carefully, everybody is selfish and self-centered. (64-322)
B. The Historical Development Of Humanism
In the 12th and 13th Centuries, humanism centered on human experience began to develop. At the end of the 16th Century, humanism arrived at the extreme stage, which denies the existence of God. (42-313)
Humanism has developed from the Renaissance up to the present, and through that process, human history has fallen down. It is the history expelling God. (30-301)
The Vatican, threatened people with its authority in the name of God. In the name of God, they said, “If you do not do this, you will go to Hell.” This is a kind of threat. However, when rational people think of this teaching rationally, they come to recognize that it must be wrong. From this point, people come to a point of disbelief, asking, “Is religion necessary for humans?” Because of such blind teaching of religion, humanism came to emerge and the history of materialism was expanded to all over the world. Moreover, the atheistic insistence that God does not exist became widespread. (165-64)
Owing to the appearance of humanism, theistic thought was damaged. However, because humanism does not fit the universal law, the destruction of humanism will necessarily come. ( 93-83)
Seen in context of the history of the trend of thought, theistic thought turned over its influential power to materialism, and humanism turned over its influential power to materialism, the thought which makes the world destroyed. [Laughing.] Dancing disco was derived from that thought, which destroys the world. Likewise, human thought has changed throughout human history. (May 1, 1980)
Mankind came to depart from God and took a long journey of thought. Mankind went through materialism based on atheism, and went through secular Humanism based on the thought of anti-God philosophers, and eventually fell into Hedonism. Accordingly, mankind arrived at the final point of hope like the end of human history. Those thoughts came to be the fundamental cause of the drain of spirituality of today’s generation and the decline of faith. That history is giving a great stimulation to religious people. (Nov. 12, 1985)
Seen in the development of the history of mankind, vague theological thought influenced the world for a while. When that declined, humanism emerged. Although today’s world is still under the influence of humanism, humanism cannot be the thought which would bring a hope to mankind. Today, communism, which betrayed humanism, has emerged and has influence all over the world. These phenomena are showing the gloomy prospects for human’s future. (77-282)
This world where we are living is the confused world. Throughout history, human society has passed through the vague theistic thought and various thoughts, and now we are standing in uncertain time of humanism. Moreover, today’s society is under the influence of materialism. In such an uncertain historical situation, because humanism and materialism do not present certain contents in the process of history, today mankind is confronted by the time of no-ideology. Mankind comes to think that the current thought can no longer manage this world. Therefore, what becomes a problem to us is neither human nor material. The problem is that a certain view of God does not emerge. If a certain view of God is established at this present time, through the new view of God, a new outlook on life and new view of history can be established again. Without doing so, mankind cannot have hope for the future. If we know God certainly, every problem such as the vague view of God in the Medieval Age, humanism, and materialism, will be solved. (77-257)
C. The Origin of Humanity Must Be Understood
How do we describe this world? Existentially, humans are still struggling between mind and body. So, the world can be said to be the place where 3.6 billion people are struggling between mind and body. Because of this, there is always conflicts and fighting in this world. Isn’t that right? In other words, the form and results of this world were made by the struggle between mind and body. This struggle between mind and body made mankind pay a great price of sacrifice throughout history. Such history of struggle is the very history of the world and the reality of this world. The worldwide struggle cannot be solved only by a sovereign nation. What should be done to solve that problem! First of all, the unity between mind and body has to be accomplished, and on the worldwide level, the world representing mind has to get a victory against the world representing body. In order to do so, true motivation and true result have be raised. If such contents are presented, because people can be united centering on that motivation and result, all problems of the world will be resolved. Then, who can make the worldwide fighting stop? That fighting cannot be stopped today by any thought or theory. It cannot be stopped by humanism centered on humans. Why is that so? Did the human mind begin from itself? If one’s mind is derived from oneself with having self-motivation, fighting between mind and body can be stopped, so that the world would be unified into one centering on humanism.
At the beginning of this world, were human’s progenitors born centering on self-motivation and self-will? Human beings are a relative existence. No matter how much one strongly insists that the human is subjective, the human is an absolutely relative existence. However, since humanism insists on human subjectivity, humanism cannot but generate negative results. Therefore, you have to deny what you like. You have to deny totally what the advanced countries are advocating. Such a negative stand against humanism has to occur. As an example of the negative phenomena caused by humanism, hippies are now causing social problems in America. That is the historical gift. That is a punishment for the evil that violates moral laws. In these days, with the negative results of humanism manifesting themselves, what shall we do? Humanism cannot manage negative results of history of the world. Materialism also cannot do that. The human mind cannot be a fundamental motive of human existence. Material also cannot be a motive of human existence. Therefore, the origin of mankind must be correctly identified. However, the thought in the Renaissance of the 13th century had a great influence on the current of thought of that time, and brought about the result to deprive humanity of God’s name in human history. In the end, the thought of Renaissance arrived at the conclusion that God is dead. Then, are human beings alive?
Before God can be dead, humanity would die first. However, people, like groups of corpses, are making a disturbance that God is dead. Such a society cannot have hope for the future. Humanism, materialism, and communism cannot make a foundation for human happiness. No matter how the human reached his ideal and fulfilled his responsibility in his social life, those things would by necessity pass away. Your achievement in this fallen world has to be denied totally. Why is that so? Because the body has to be always denied before the mind, all works which are achieved centered on one’s body, have to be denied. Today’s communist countries are denying God and human consciousness as well as human personality. Communism tries to push people into its logical realm, which is centered on materialism. However, originally humanism as a subject was created to manage the logic or the theory, but was not created to be bound by a logic or a theory. Theory cannot dominate the world of love. What is the love of a father? What is the love of the mother? Can those questions be explained by theory? If the ideal love can be absorbed into theory, such love is not needed by humans. Actually, such a theory cannot be made. (22-224)
D. Every Thought Centered On God
Why do problems such as no-ideology and the destruction of the view of value occur? It is because those problems occur in trying to manage every problem centering on humans. Therefore, in pursuing the new world of future, there may be a method which can manage such problems. The method would be able to explain clearly if God is there or not, and if absolute God exists or not. In other words, if some thought and theory, which are explained from God’s viewpoint, not from the human viewpoint, are not found, the world we desire can never come in the future.
From the certain view of God, the problem of life and material has to be solved. Those problems would not be solved separately, but from a synthetic viewpoint. The problem of materialism and humanism has to be solved in God’s nation with God as the absolute center. Otherwise, that cannot be resolved absolutely. That is a natural conclusion. (78-99)
Today, both left wing and right wing were established centered on human will. “If I only can live a happy life, everything will be fine.” This selfish thinking was also established centered on humanism. Such thinking is false humanism. Do you think that the appearance of humanism is not the result of the human fall? Although humanism centered on God can be permitted, the humanism which denies God, is apparently the fruit of the fall. Therefore, in order to overcome such false humanism, first of all, the present humanism has to be denied totally, and then Godism has to be established anew. Based on that Godism, humanism has to be pursued again. In this sense, the starting point of thought and life has to be God. If a human does not live a life centering on God, there would be no way for that human to return to God. (59-89)
Communism cannot explain resultant things or causal things. Democracy also cannot exactly explain about cause and effect. Then, who can explain that? What should emerge here is a religion. Some religion must emerge, and teach with certainty, “You were begun from this motive and are going forward in that resultant world.” Moreover, that teaching has to be established as the standard which most people can accept. That standard must be centered on God, not humanism. (10-159)
Now, we have arrived at the stage that we would consider the world which has synthesized all thoughts and theories. That is, if there is a certain and true God, there will be Godism which goes beyond every ideology and thought, and there will be humanism which true God can authorize, and there will be materialism which true God can admit, and there will be the unified one world in which all those cannot be separated absolutely and can be authorized by God. (77-282)
God’s purpose of creation is to establish a humanism based on God. If humanity goes towards God, democracy, which was created in the process to go to God, also can be regarded as the process of establishing Godism. (10-118)
Advanced nations, which developed the world culture of the 20th Century, are saying proudly that they do not need to receive another philosophy or thought any more. Accordingly, they cannot have the opportunity to be revolutionized by God’s truth. Communism is also not such a thought about which God can feel joy. (20-107)
Materialism must fail. On the contrary, does democracy have a historical and victorious condition? It does not. Without some victorious condition, there cannot be a victory in the future. Then, what would religion, which does not have such a victorious condition, have to do? Every Christian in the world has to be united into one. Now what goes forward into the future of hope has to emerge. Although some religions insist on going back to the past, today’s situation is not the same as the situation of the past. Could today’s problem be managed by the contents of the past? We should not go back to the past. Only when we achieve historical and actual results, can we establish a foundation for the future. Therefore, the thought, which can synthesize the past, present, and future, has to emerge. (11-253)
Communism is the thought centered on the human and material. However, humanity will be changed and material also will be changed. Communism was made centering on changeable human and material. Human opinion is changeable. Don’t you think so? However, what God insists on will never be changed. Then, what is the goodness and righteousness on which God insists? It is to live for the sake of heaven and earth. This has never changed. (87-261)
We created the CAUSA movement to resolve the problem created by secular humanism. (May 6, 1986)
E. The Inadequacy of Medieval Thought
The reason why materialism cannot manage the human problem is that it excluded God and the value of humans. Materialism denies the value of the human. Therefore, materialists massacre people mercilessly. That is the very problem.
How about humanism representing the democratic world? Humanists not only exclude God, but also take serious the view of materialism. That is a pernicious evil. In this sense, they have nothing to do with God. They are rather close to communists. Then, between the materialist and humanist, who is stronger? Materialists can be stronger than humanists. That is why humanists are likely to be subjugated by materialists. Materialists not only deny human personality, but also forget God. In the world of materialism, there cannot be an ideal.
Accordingly, True Father advocates Godism. Godism can fundamentally include humanism and materialism. Why? It is because God values human personality as the object of love. Moreover, because God created humans as the subject of the symbolic world centered on material, God sees human value even in the world related to material. Thus, Godism itself has a foundation to contain humanism and materialism. Godism is very inclusive and contains various meanings.
Thus, Godism or Unificationism seems to be very good. On the other hand, even though there was thought centered on God in the Medieval Age, the thought could not establish the unified ideal world centering on God, humanity, and material, because it was a vague and imperfect thought. In order to enter the Kingdom Of Heaven, one has to certainly know a God of personality, and has to know the value of objective humanity before God, and certainly has to know the value of material which is an object of humanity. God, man, and material have to be combined by subjective content. \What is the subjective content? That is love. God, man, and all things are combined through love. That united world is the very ideal world.
However, in the Medieval age, such unified world could not be established by Medieval thought centered on God. God, who was supposed to practice love, could not be found. Although people had thought of God and talked about God, nobody practiced God’s will. Because that thought was abstract and uncertain, it came to be changed to some autocratic thought. Since that thought could not give certain answers to people at that time, it came to ask blind faith.
Accordingly, Medieval Christian thought came to be far from the essence of God, and finally fell down to the secular thought centered on God. That thought came to deny human personality, and became exclusive. So, while the thought regarded its own standard as absolute, it denied relative value of others. Accordingly, the thought centered on God could not but be destroyed by another thought. Even though the Medieval thought was centered on God, it did not know with certainty about the God of personality. That had such a deficiency. (167-66)
F. The Necessity of Rediscovering God
What is Communism? It is based on materialism as well as atheism. Then, what kind of thought does Christianity and Western society have? They have theism and idealism. Which will get a victory between materialism and idealism, and between atheism and theism? What is the problem here? The way which Christianity can revive again is through the rediscovery of God. Because communism denies God, if the existence of God is proved with certainty, communism cannot but collapse.
From the beginning of human history, God started with humans, and has been working with humans throughout history, and is still working with humans at this present time. However, the most important thing is knowing how to rediscover God who is in the process of history and in the midst of human life. To rediscover God is the very key in establishing the ideal world. First of all, people have to know clearly what kind of transient period they are living in now. When people come to know clearly about the coming age, communism would also be able to receive God. Because the coming age will be the world of love as the certain view of God is established. Then, do you think God is with American Christians? If God is with them, that God would be the one who is working not for the salvation of individual level, but for the salvation of worldwide level. In other words, the new view of God would be the God who is working for the sake of salvation on the worldwide level.
Why have Christianity and other religions separated from one another? It is because Christianity and other religions do not have the goal of going forward. On the other hand, communism has a clear goal which is the destruction of capitalism. If God is working through Christianity providentially, Christianity would have the providential goal. That goal should be much better than one of the Communists. Because Christianity has no clear goal, Christians do not go in a certain direction, and lie in the uncertain and vague situation for the future. When Christians were confronted by strong persecution or difficulties, their direction has been changed easily. Then, what kind of faith do Christians have? They believe that at the time of the Lord of the Second Advent, the world will be destroyed. This is a big and horrible cancer of Christianity.
While communists try to dominate the world, because of their beliefs, Christians try to escape from the world and argue that their own denomination is the best. The goals of their denominations are vague. If we describe the situation of Christianity, it is like fingers that do not move together, but move separately and individually. In the last days, if God does not judge the world as Christians expect, what will happen? How would God manage the difficult situation which will be raised, when the world is not judged by fire but remains as it is? Therefore, the age of Christian culture, which does not fit God’s providence, cannot but pass away. In this sense, we have to prepare how to manage the phenomena, which will be raised by the Christian view of the end of the world. (June 1, 1983)
G. Neither Democracy nor Communism
Because today’s humans do not know God and the relationship between God and man, they do not love. However, once they come to know the relationship and make a bond with Him, they cannot help loving God. Accordingly, in order to make a bond with humanity and reveal Himself, God has been working in this world throughout history. First of all, in order to find the starting point of the ideal, in which the world can be unified into one, God has desperately fought centering on thought and ideals throughout history. Today, God’s desperate fight is developed through the confrontation between democracy and communism. However, the problem is that the phenomena of today’s world cannot be fundamentally resolved by those two thoughts. (11-58)
It is apparent that democracy and communism did not provide the method which can remove social evil. Although democracy and communism were fundamentally developed from the desire to resolve the common problem of mankind, democracy not only did not fulfill that task, but also did not overcome the destructive activity of communism. On the other hand, communism also could not resolve social problems completely, and rather ironically, brought about only a bigger problem.
Accordingly, the world came to fall into difficulty, and democracy and communism are facing a dead end where there is neither a victor nor a loser. That is our present actual situation, and the future of mankind seems to be unpredictable and gloomy. Why can’t democracy and communism be the solution for removing social problems? According to close analysis, the two thoughts do not have the core of ultimate truth. Even though democracy, on the positive side, contributed to the development of the political system, democracy has no clear and inclusive view of the world. On the other hand, communism has an inclusive and systematic view of the world, but it is based on false assumptions and distorted facts. (Nov. 15, 1983)
We are in the last days. Both democracy and communism are also in the last days. Therefore, in this end time, communism is struggling at the crossroads of life and death, and democracy is wandering at the crossroads of rising and falling. (Oct. 9, 1978)
Where does mankind have to go? Where is the ideal world which mankind has been looking for? Mankind gave up its hope for the future. However, the ideal world, which the democratic world is pursuing, has no subjectivity and objectivity to be able to transcend today’s present situation. On the other hand, communism has a dream to have dominion over the whole world. But now, we can see those communist countries are pitted against one another. They cannot be unified into one. Their division is increasing and will result in the level of individual communism. (59-82)
The time for the democratic world is finished. The same for communism. Don’t you think so? Although America was saying, “Oh, my fellow democratic countries, let’s unite into one,” were they unified into one? Rather, the democratic countries are almost dead. Do people of the world welcome America? [No!] They are saying that they will kick out America. Don’t they say so? Communism also fell down from the international level to the national level. At this national level, no matter how communists may try, they cannot establish worldwide communism. (90-303)
Truly, will democracy or communism be able to unify this world? They do not have the inner power to able to absorb the world. If a thought tries to unify this world, the thought has to have an inner condition to be able to digest this world. (15-51)
Was there such a thought that teaches clearly the problem of cause and effect? Communism? Even though materialism has its own logic of cause and effect, it cannot be the fundamental and ultimate theory. On the other hand, the center of thought which consists of democracy is Christianity, but Christianity does not do it. (67-217)
Democracy centered on Christianity did not establish a welfare society of well-being. Communism also did not do that. Accordingly, the society that mankind is looking for cannot be established by the present democratic culture or communistic culture. (16-165)
To Be Continued …