Chapter 1 - The Meaning Of Religion And Its Mission

What in the world is religion? What religion does is work to make the world of God's Will. That's the main point. If we express the main point, that's the title. The World of the Will. (86-28)

Religion is a training center for finding the world of love, of God and of the ideal. The world religions have divided between them the mission of raising people level by level back to the original position. If the human ancestors had not fallen and had become one with God's love, this would have been the eternal starting point of happiness. But because this was lost, it must be found again and people must match themselves to it. The central being who comes as the representative of the human ancestors in order to put back together that which was lost is the messiah. Being equal to that task is the mission of the messiah who comes. (87-177)

The mission of religion is to prepare for the true son who is coming the family he needs, to prepare the tribe, the people, the nation, and the world which he needs. It is to subjugate the entire nation of Satan and prepare it all to be ready to be taken. This is the mission of religion. Does the Messiah need to take only this world? Does he need to take this entire fallen world? Does he need to take the whole world or just part of it? Which is it? He must take all of it. From here we can know what the meaning of the providence of salvation is and the meaning of religion. The meaning of the providence of salvation is to save the entire world. We need to know that since God created mankind as his beloved sons, God cannot just beat and kill them nor just send them to hell. Therefore the providence of salvation is to not leave a single person in the world of Satan and to banish Satan... Only Satan shall be left in Satan's world. All those called people shall be taken back by God. (80-283)

Then what is desired by good or by religion? What do they want to do? What do religions do and what does good want to do? What does good want us to have, and what does a true religion want us to have? We should know that system distinguishes the great goodnesses and small goodnesses by whether they are centered on the condition of helping to bring about the world of oneness.

Does goodness stress individualism? When we say a person is a good person, do we say it about someone who always does everything for himself? In the realm of conditions of living for the whole, the limit of what one may possess and have is determined, and there is a great and wide difference. The higher the personality, the more valuable is the being . Isn't that true? Why is that? One communicates with God, is together with God and seeks to become one with God. We should know that. All ideologies which advocate goodness belong to ideologies for the whole. They are among the ideologies for the whole which are centered on God. We are able to find this kind of concept here.

So great religions are worldwide. They go beyond one people. That religion does not belong to any nation. It is such that it is beyond the interference of any nation. Then what does God want to do through religion? Through religion God's purpose cannot help but be to gather the world under his dominion and to gather it under his sovereignty. What is that asking us to do? It is placing the world under God and at the same time under man. God wants to have dominion over the world through man. (93-77)

Because the world of our original home town is the original world where God lives, where the lord of heaven and earth lives, what is the place for training one to live according to the laws of the original home town? We should know that it is religion. It is not God's will to live for one's own denomination like the ecclesiastical authorities of today. The denominations should go beyond their own denomination and live for God and for mankind. One should not fight for one's church nor live for one's church; one should fight against Satan and be a denomination which works for humankind. You should known this.

Therefore the religions of today are training people to be in line with the laws which will allow them to return to the world of the original hometown. So in the future history the many religions which have been following God's will shall deny themselves. "Sacrifice and serve others!" Until now we have not known why that was. We didn't know why we had to sacrifice and serve. It is because this is the original home, town which is for the original world.

In order to go to that world we must have the preparation and training to get there. Accordingly, through the fact that the higher a religion is the more it emphasizes sacrifice and service, we can recognize the historical fact that God carried out his Providence through a historical course in historical periods. Through this we can recognize that God exists. (77-270)

Then that heaven where God lives, that spirit world where God lives, what kind of system does it have? That system's order is very simple. The people who can go to heaven, who can go to paradise, are not people who have lived for themselves. That kind of people cannot go there. Heaven is the place that people who were born for the whole and who live for the whole go. I don't know whether you have never experiences the spiritual world, but by the grace of heaven I experienced the rich spiritual world.

If you go into that world, there is not a single person who lives for himself. Those who lived for God and those who lived for humankind, they all have gone to that world. Because God established this kind of ideal beginning, this kind of ideal principle, it is for sure that the land of the original hometown which is the origin is the world realized by these laws. Therefore, those laws of the original hometown must be taught to the multitudes of mankind who hope to find and go to that world. Here on earth, where is the stage for training in and teaching about these laws? It is religion. Religion is what trains our personalities to adjust to the laws of the original hometown here on earth while we are still alive so that when we go there we know the laws.

We should know that this is the duty of today's religious life. The higher the religion, the less one stresses oneself. The higher the religion, the more it stresses meekness and humility. And furthermore, it stresses sacrifice and service. Why must it do that? Because those are the laws of the original hometown. At any rate humankind is like a wanderer searching for the land of its original hometown. Since religion must train people in the laws which will allow them to live there, the higher the religion, the more it has taught people to sacrifice. When we see that the religions of history have had this mission over and over again, we cannot deny that God has worked his providence through religions in the course of history. (77-189)