Exploring the Chambumoron, Lectures and Discussion Part 3 - 30th November 2024

What does it mean to say that True Mother is the only begotten daughter? You can't say she's the only begotten daughter in the way that Christians believe Jesus is the only begotten son. She hasn't existed since before the beginning of the universe; she didn't come down from heaven. She's not the third person of the Trinity; she's not God. She had parents, natural parents, a mum and dad, not like Jesus, who had the Virgin birth. It becomes very awkward when you start saying True Mother is the only begotten daughter, assuming that's in the same way that Christians regard Jesus as the only begotten son. True Mother is the only begotten daughter at the first coming, so the position of the only begotten son and only begotten daughter has been lost due to the fall of Adam and Eve. The question is then, were Adam and Eve the only begotten son and only begotten daughter in the first place? That's not the language of the Hebrew Bible. Adam and Eve were children of God, God's son and God's daughter, but not in the sense of begotten. That's the point.

The reason I use a parent-child or father-son relationship is because it's metaphorical; it's not literal. As it says, 'made in the same substance.' If you're begotten, you have the same flesh and blood as your parents. You have kids, and your kids have the same flesh and blood as you and the same DNA coming from both natural parents. That's what it means to be begotten: the same substance, flesh and blood, same DNA. Adam and Eve were not gods; they were not of the same substance as God. They didn't have God's flesh and blood because God doesn't have flesh and blood. They don't have God's DNA because God doesn't have DNA. God is Spirit, pure Spirit. The relationship we can have with God is a relationship of parent and child. We can experience God's love as a parent, a father and mother for us, and we feel like we're God's sons and daughters, but that's a metaphorical use of the language; it's not literal.

Annie had your hands up. Just to say, I totally agree with you because if you read Genesis, it said that Adam was made from the things of the Earth. Eve was made from one of his ribs. That's metaphorical as well. They were created from the mud and the dust of the Earth. Eve came from Adam's rib; again, that's metaphorical. It's not literal. There are lots of different meanings there. Coming from the rib means they're equal, same level, close to the ribs, close to the heart. The author wrote it like that to try to express metaphorically the kind of relationship between Adam and Eve. She wasn't made from his toe, in which case he'd be over her. She wasn't made from a bit of his skull, in which case it would be an intellectual thing. It was from the rib, so it's on the same level, equal, but also close to the heart. There are lots of meanings that go along with her, and she wasn't created as his helper. Again, that's how it's translated in English. The Hebrew there is something very different; it was more than just a helper doing the dishes. It was more like a saviour.

The stories are different; there are two different stories. God created Adam and Eve in His image and likeness, but then the second story that comes along is God created Adam first. He's looking after the animals and giving them all names because God felt he needed to have a companion. Adam couldn't find anybody he could have that kind of relationship with. The Jewish understanding is that men are like that; it takes them a long time to get to the point where they can have a good relationship with a cat, a dog, or a horse. It's not enough, and it took quite a long time for Adam to realise he needed someone like him that he could share his heart with, talk to, etc. That's why Eve was created later. In a way, she was different from Adam; she's representing or expressing God's femininity, embodying that.

As it says here, God said, 'Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness.' As C.S. Lewis said, you're making an image; it's a painting, it's a statue. It's not begotten; it's made, created. They may rule over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground. God couldn't do any of this because God doesn't have a body, not flesh and blood. You can't go around stroking a cat; you need somebody else to do the weeding in the garden. You can leave your garden and say, 'Well, God can look after my garden,' and it just turns into a wilderness of weeds. You needed someone to do the weeding and look after the environment, look after nature. Anyway, God created mankind in His own image; in the image of God, He created them male and female. Right from page one in the Bible, there is this understanding that God is the harmonised being of masculinity and femininity. The image of God is in human beings, so within God, there's masculinity and femininity, male and female. There's one God, and God is one. There's no conflict between the masculinity and femininity within God. It's not Father God and Mother God; it's just one God, but in which there is masculinity and femininity. That's why God created us in His image and likeness and why the whole natural world is created on that polarity.

Every single entity has Yin and Yang. It says in the Principle that every living creature has DNA. DNA is a double helix; it's paired. Everything has that. Just remember that Adam and Eve were not the begotten children of God and certainly weren't the only begotten son or the only begotten daughter. They could never become the only begotten son or only begotten daughter because they weren't begotten; they were created, they were made. The only begotten son has come, if you buy into that particular kind of theology, which is Christian theology. But the only begotten daughter was not able to come together with him. Heaven sent the only begotten son, Jesus, through the 4,000 years of providence of salvation. Heaven sent Jesus as a second person of the Trinity; he came down from heaven into Earth. That's Christian language. I don't think that's the way it should be. If you look at the life of Jesus and the life of Moses, Muhammad, Confucius, and the Buddha, they are very similar in many different ways. They were not called by God or sent by God, but each of them went through some phenomenal, terrible experience.

For Moses, it was what went on with the Egyptians and slavery. For Jesus, it was the Roman occupation of Israel and the incredible oppressive Roman occupation, with many Jews getting martyred. For Muhammad, there was a lot of bad stuff going on in Mecca, and that's why he went out into Hira and prayed. Confucius had a very difficult childhood as a single-parent mother, and Buddha grew up in the palace. His dad wouldn't let him go out of the palace because he got some revelation or was told that if his son went outside the palace and saw what life is really like, he wouldn't want to become the king; he would want to become a religious leader. So Buddha went out one day and saw a sick person, never having seen a sick person before. He saw somebody dying, never having seen that before, and there were two other signs he saw. I can't remember what they are now. He saw an elderly person and a monk. The point is he had these encounters with experiences, and lots of people do. That's not unusual, but the point is he thought about it. He wanted to understand why there is suffering, why there is sickness, why there is death, and why there is old age, which he had no awareness of before. He saw the monk and realised there was a way to deal with this reality that he found so troubling. He left the palace, sat under a tree, and became enlightened.

For Muhammad, it was very similar. A lot of everybody else living in Mecca was involved in trade and idol worship, but he couldn't accept that. He went and prayed, and eventually, the angel appeared and gave him a shock of his life, providing him with the Quran over a period of time. Then you have Islam. For Moses, it was what went on there, and God appeared to him in the desert at the burning bush. He didn't want to do what God had asked him to do, but he did it. For Jesus, there was the Japanese occupation, which shouldn't have happened; it's another story. Terrible things were going on, and he also went onto the mountain to pray, to find out why all this suffering was going on, why his people were suffering under this occupation, what they had done wrong, etc. Then he had this encounter with Jesus. Some people, when they go through these kinds of experiences of intense suffering, try to find out why, and then they come into some kind of relationship with God. They have to decide. God asked Moses to do this and that, and he gave all kinds of excuses why he couldn't do it, but eventually, he did. You can read the Bible; Jeremiah is the same sort of thing. With Jesus, he appeared to Father and said, 'Can you do this, this, and this? Complete what I started.' Father said, 'No, thank you; I've probably got other plans in my life.' It's not about being sent by God; it's that everybody can have this kind of experience. Because of the experiences they see in the world, their reality or suffering can be life-changing if they take it seriously.

I was 13 years old in 1970 when I went on a school trip to the Baltics, and we dropped into the Soviet Union. It was the very first tourist trip that Soviets had ever allowed, and they thought, 'Well, these are just a bunch of teenagers; I'm sure we can handle them.' I got off the ship, saw Leningrad, and took a train down to Moscow. Everywhere, there was a sense of oppression, no freedom, soldiers everywhere, goose-stepping policemen everywhere. All the churches were closed, with signs saying 'remont'—they were fixing them. They were just closed. There was an in-tourist guide; you couldn't ask these kinds of questions because they wouldn't give the right answer; they didn't want to get arrested. I went into a couple of shops; there was nothing worth buying; it was awful. Then, as a great honour and privilege, we were taken to Red Square. There, there was a long queue of people queuing up around Red Square to go into a little granite building. They said, 'Because you're tourists, you have a great honour; we can take you to the front of the queue.' So we queued up for five minutes, then went in, and there was complete silence. I saw there was this glass box, and inside this glass box was somebody called Vladimir Lenin. He had been embalmed, and his forehead, of course, was very shiny, as embalmed people are. People were coming in and bowing down, paying so much respect to this body that was in this glass case. I had no idea who he was, and I couldn't understand why these people were doing this, why there was no freedom here, why this and that. That made a huge impact on my life; it changed my whole life. I went home to England, where you could breathe the air of freedom, or you used to be able to, not much anymore. I started looking into what communism was. I had never heard of communism before. I started reading the Daily Telegraph, which my parents got every day, and I thought, 'Oh, okay, that's going on.' Then I came across a book when I was about 14 or 15, trying to understand called 'A Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich,' which was written by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. I still have that book, and I read it. I realised this is going on today; this isn't about what was going on in the Middle Ages; this is the reality today. I thought, 'My goodness.' Then I read a few of his other books, like 'The First Circle,' 'Cancer Ward,' and ended up reading 'The Gulag Archipelago.' I started immersing myself in Russian history and felt that this was what's going on in this part of the world today. I felt I had a moral obligation to go and do something about this. I have a moral obligation as a Christian to do something about what is going on in the Soviet Union. So I studied the Russian language, I studied at university, and eventually, the opportunity came for me to go there. I wrote a series of textbooks for spiritual moral education for people in a post-communist society. For me, that was it. I didn't become the Messiah, but for me, that kind of encounter, which I'm sure everybody else on the ship probably went through the same experience as me, made me think, 'Okay, maybe I should give my life in some way like this.'

Charities and many people do all sorts of good things in this world. They have that kind of experience, and it's life-changing. They feel this moral obligation to do something, but at the same time, there are other people who just can't be bothered. They might think, 'That's what's going on, but I don't want to do that with my life.' That's the difference. I would say that with Jesus, there were other people at the time who could have reacted. Everybody had to respond to the Roman occupation in some way. Some were priests in the temple who didn't like what was going on because they had to cooperate with the Roman authorities. The high priests were appointed by the Romans to represent them and to be the mediators, and if they refused, they were fired. Some priests who didn't like that corruption went off into the Dead Sea to join the Essenes; that was their response. Others, like the Pharisees, spent most of their time going to the synagogue and discussing the Torah, trying not to get involved in politics. Then there were the Zealots, who thought the Roman occupation was wrong and formed what we would now call Freedom Fighters, going around killing Romans from time to time. But everybody had to respond to the situation, and Jesus responded in a way that these other groups weren't trying to do. I'm not going to go into the life and teachings of Jesus now, but that's how he responded. That's why he developed this profoundly deep relationship with God, felt God's love, and reacted in that way. Not everybody does that.

The Father did that; he was sent by Heaven. When I joined the church, there was a general understanding from the early disciples of the Father that many people had been approached by Jesus, who tried to recruit them, you might say, or get them to inherit his position. The Father was the only one willing to do that, even though he refused three times before eventually saying, 'Yes, okay, I'll do it.' That's not what we teach in our church anymore, but that's how it was understood within our early church community. The disciples understood it that way, but now there is a different way of understanding these things. Being sent from Heaven is a very Christian way of understanding that this particular person has been sent. There were many people who could have been called, and many were called, but very few actually responded, as it says in predestination: 'Many are called, but few are chosen.' Some people are called but say no, and that's how it works. If you go through those steps and say no the first time around, you go to the next level. That's what predestination is; it's not inevitable that this person should become this, but whether they respond in that kind of way.

Now, it's 2,000 years later since Jesus. Historically, there are many other times when that sort of thing could have happened if history had turned out differently, but it didn't. Even though there were people who could have become the Messiah in the fifth century or the ninth century, no such person emerged. They might have been called, but they might have ended up getting burnt at the stake; who knows? That was the reality of the environment at that time. I think there were lots of people throughout the last 2,000 years who could have been the Messiah if things had turned out differently. They might have had good lineage and good character, like saints within the Catholic Church, but they could never have actually done what the Father did because it was impossible to do that sort of thing at that particular time. Those conditions weren't met, and it's remarkable that they were met when they were met. Look at the world we're living in today. Is there any other period in the whole of human history where the Father could have travelled to almost every country in the world and spoken? No, the reality was that there was no other moment in the 20th century he could have done that, not until after the collapse of Communism. Could he do it today? No, he couldn't go to Russia, China, or many countries today to do what he did when he did it. Certainly not in my lifetime.

There were other people that Jesus approached who could have responded, but at the same time, there are lots of different new religious movements around the world today. There are people who have had some kind of spiritual experience, whether it's with Buddha or others. You see these new religious movements all over the place, doing what they're doing in their particular realm. I think the Father is the only one who thought about it on a cosmic level. He was thinking and acting on a level that lots of other people were not. There are many others doing incredibly good things on different levels, but I think the Father got to that relationship with God because he asked those kinds of questions. He wanted to understand why things are the way they are. He was the only one who really uncovered the Fall of Man and all that stuff; nobody else had uncovered that before. Jesus probably understood all these things, but I'm sure he did. It's just the way it's turned out. All I can say is that I believe the Father is the Messiah without a shadow of a doubt, and at a far different level to everybody else. I just wish he had received a better education and hadn't had such a difficult educational experience, which he writes about in his book. He talks about the terrible schools he went to and how he argued with the teachers because they weren't giving him the kind of education he needed to do the job he wanted to do. I always felt sorry that he couldn't learn English to speak it fluently. Unfortunately, he didn't have the opportunity to learn many things which he could have and should have learned, in my opinion, because circumstances were not as good as they could have been for various reasons, which I'm not going to go into today.

I don't think Jesus was sent. Heaven has been working the Providence to send the only begotten daughter along with the only begotten son. This is based on the failure of the Israelites to fulfil their responsibility. The only begotten son, Jesus, could not be sent together with the only begotten daughter. This assumes that Heaven sends the only begotten son, Jesus, who Christians believe is the second person of the Trinity and has always existed. If you go along with the only begotten son theology, it assumes that the only begotten daughter is a third person of the Trinity who has always existed and is waiting to be sent. Some people don't know; that's how the logic goes. Whether one believes it or not, it's something one has to wrestle with. These are things that everybody has to think through. I think about these things and come to my own conclusions, and I just want everybody to think about these sorts of things and come to their own conclusions. It also assumes that the people of Israel rejected Jesus. I'm not going to talk about the life and teachings of Jesus, but that's not correct. Jesus wasn't rejected by the Jewish people; the problem was entirely because of the Roman occupation. It also assumes there were no women alive who Jesus could have married who could have become the True Mother. In our community, there's this idea that John the Baptist had a sister, assuming he had one. I don't know; maybe he did. He could have married and had a family. The Da Vinci Code explores this whole thing based on lots of historical records written within the early church and different Christian groups that continued through Europe. I personally think that Jesus Christ had another option from John the Baptist's sister. There were many women around, and it's quite possible he could have married and had a family, but for various historical reasons, nothing came from that.

Heaven prepared the Korean people to send the only begotten daughter in case she could not be born in Israel. I think there were potential people who were born there. It's quite possible the Messiah, second time around, could have been a Jew, but in order for that to happen, there would have to be a national foundation. Until 1948, there was no Jewish nation, so it was impossible from a practical point of view for Jesus to be born a Jew. If he had been born a Jew, he probably would have ended up in a gas chamber somewhere. There was no national foundation to receive the Messiah by the Jewish people in the 20th century, unfortunately. There were national foundations in a few other countries, such as Britain, for example, where there has been religious freedom since the 17th century. People might ask why the Messiah wasn't born in Britain, as Britain made the national foundation to receive the Messiah. The British people suffered much over the last 300 or 400 years. The Norman Conquest was horrendous; the Normans tried to exterminate the Anglo-Saxons and took all their property. It was awful, especially in the north, which never recovered until this day. In the 19th and 20th centuries, there weren't many people going through that kind of experience who would have thought, 'I'm going to go and stand on a hill somewhere in Snowdonia and pray to God to find out why we are going through so much intense suffering.' It was just a relatively comfortable life in England at that time. Korea, on the other hand, certainly experienced huge suffering. If you want to find out about Korea, the best thing to watch is a Netflix film called 'Under the Queen's Umbrella.' I got addicted to it a few months ago; it's a wonderful film about the depth and the extraordinary aspects of Korean culture, both the good things and the corruption, politics, and feudalism. It's basically a slave society where people's value depended on their position in society. There's no such thing as individual value, but it's fascinating. I really recommend you watch it if you want to understand Korea and our movement. I've never been particularly interested in Korea myself because I'm English, but it was fascinating.

What decides when and where the Messiah is born? The Foundation, as you know, is standard teaching. The principle foundation to receive the Messiah on the national level requires a foundation of faith on an individual level. The foundation of faith goes up to the national level as well. The foundation of faith on the national level has to be established.

A spiritual community is formed by people who study scripture, worship God, and love each other. If we look at Jewish people 2,000 years ago, they were indeed a very spiritual community, incredibly religious, engaging in sacrifices and attending the temple and synagogue. These places were essential for learning how to read the Hebrew Bible. Historically, Jewish men have been required to learn to read, as it is necessary for them to be treated as adults. This is why they have the Bar Mitzvah ceremony, where they must stand in the synagogue and read from the Torah. This emphasis on education has made Jewish people some of the most educated in the world, as understanding the law is crucial for being held responsible for it.

When a Jewish boy turns 13, he becomes responsible for observing the law, as he must be able to read it. Ignorance is not an excuse; one must read and understand the commandments to be accountable. Women, who often show a greater interest in reading, also participate in this tradition through the Bat Mitzvah, which occurs a year earlier than the boys' ceremony. Two thousand years ago, there were places where people studied the Torah, worshipped God, and formed friendships, even amidst their arguments. The saying goes, 'Two Jews, three opinions,' reflecting their passion for discussion and debate. They engage in arguments not to create division but to deepen their understanding of the scriptures.

In Jewish culture, the most valued relationship is one where individuals can study the Bible together and engage in passionate discussions. This pursuit of truth leads to various interpretations of scripture, as each verse can hold different meanings at different times in a person's life. Unlike the Christian approach, which often demands conformity to a single interpretation, Jewish tradition embraces diverse understandings. This intellectual freedom has contributed to the remarkable achievements of Jewish individuals, who make up a small percentage of the world's population yet have won a significant number of Nobel Prizes. Their ability to think freely and creatively, without fear of persecution, has fostered a culture of education and innovation.

The foundation of faith 2,000 years ago was crucial for the arrival of the Messiah. When Jesus began to speak about God, he was addressing a community that already understood the Hebrew Bible. If he had been born in a place without such a spiritual foundation, he would have had to start from scratch. The people he spoke to were familiar with the scriptures, allowing for meaningful conversations and debates. Jesus would have been just one Rabbi among many, engaging in discussions rather than facing hostility. However, the political landscape changed with the Roman occupation, complicating the foundation of faith.

Judaism emphasises the rule of law, which prevents individuals from harming others simply because of disagreements. This legal framework promotes freedom of speech and religion, which are essential for a healthy community. Human beings must create these foundations; they are not imposed by God. Two thousand years ago, these principles were present, but throughout much of European history, they were often absent. The acceptance of Christianity as the state religion marked a turning point, as it led to conformity and the suppression of dissenting beliefs. This shift ultimately stifled the possibility of receiving the Messiah in Europe, as the church became intertwined with state power, enforcing ideological conformity.

Jews, Christians, and Muslims all anticipate the arrival of the Messiah, but their understandings differ. Christians expect the Messiah to return, while Muslims believe that both Jews and Christians have failed in this regard. The persecution of those who hold different beliefs creates an environment where the Messiah cannot be received. Historically, in Catholic countries, there were significant persecutions, such as the massacre of Huguenots in France, which decimated their population. The end of the Second World War and the collapse of Communism opened opportunities for religious expression in Eastern Europe, allowing for the teaching and preaching of various beliefs.

The transition of Christianity into a state religion fundamentally altered its nature. Once it became the official religion, the state enforced conformity, punishing those who deviated from the established doctrine. This led to the suppression of philosophical thought that did not align with Christian teachings, resulting in the closure of academies and the destruction of non-Christian literature. The lack of freedom of speech and religion created an environment where the Messiah could not be received. In contrast, the Unification Church teaches a different perspective, focusing on spiritual development rather than conformity. Understanding these historical mistakes is crucial to avoid repeating them in our own communities. We must learn from the past and strive to create an environment that fosters growth and understanding, rather than one that demands conformity.

The fallen lineage of Satan is a concept that the father taught, indicating that he was born perfect. However, there is another question regarding the mother's life course, which is one of overcoming fallen nature and striving for perfection, as is the case for all fallen people. Everyone faces challenges; that's a universal truth. Everyone is born with various challenges to overcome while growing up. Have you ever encountered a baby that wasn't selfish? No. Do you think the father was selfish as a baby, crying for food and wanting attention? That's simply life, and everyone is born with that nature and must learn to grow and mature. I believe the father had to navigate these challenges just like anyone else.

The notion of being born perfect is incorrect. Instead, one is born without original sin—pure and innocent but immature. To claim that someone was born perfect is misleading. This applies to Jesus as well, and to any child born on the planet. Are there perfect one-year-olds, two-year-olds, or three-year-olds? As long as they are not engaging in harmful behaviour, they are simply immature. Traditional Christian teaching holds that Adam and Eve were born immature, a view supported by Irenaeus in the Eastern Orthodox Church, though not by the Western Catholic Church.

It's all about blood lineage, isn't it? The problem lies in the fact that we come from a specific blood lineage, and we must be turned around. If the lineages have been prepared by God incrementally, it is the person at the end of that lineage who is the restored individual. God facilitates that restoration. All of us are born from a blessing we received, and our children are born from that same blessing, which has transformed the blood lineage. This process is gradual, step by step, and the Bible illustrates this journey.

The narrative of the Bible reflects this progression. We see the disaster of Cain and Abel, followed by a marginal improvement with Noah, and then a significant leap with Abraham. Abraham is arguably the most significant figure in human history. Following him, we have Isaac and Ishmael, and then Jacob and Esau, which show further improvement. The story of Joseph and his brothers also illustrates this gradual betterment. Over time, people became less inclined to commit the acts that Cain did to Abel or what Joseph's brothers did to him. They developed a better spirit and community, where arguments did not lead to violence.

This gradual purification of lineage is evident throughout the Mosaic Law and the teachings of the prophets. It is a complex process, far more intricate than the actions of Judah and Tamar. Ultimately, this journey leads to Jesus, who was not alone in his time; there were many other extraordinary individuals in Israel during that period.