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And the Lord said to Moses, “Go down, for your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have corrupted themselves. They have turned aside quickly out of the way that I commanded them. They have made for themselves a golden calf and have worshiped it and sacrificed to it and said, ‘These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!’” And the Lord said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.” Exodus 32:7-10
If the Israelites had known that Moses was fasting with a heart of anguish, not for his own sake but for theirs, they would not have made the golden calf and worshipped it to show off their unfaithfulness during the forty-day fasting period of Moses. Moreover, when Moses, who represented the blessing of the people, was being offered to Heaven as a secret sacrifice, if they had sympathized with him, and if, reflecting on his past hardships, they had shed tears with Moses and appealed to Heaven, then they would not have left God. SMM, The Responsibility of Those Who Have Become the Root, July 1, 1956
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Greetings!
I, Richard Panzer, gave the sermon last Sunday at the Newfoundland church, starting with a discussion of the tragedy of Moses' descending from Mt. Sinai with the 2 stone tablets engraved with the 10 commandments only to find the Israelites drinking, partying and cavorting around a golden calf.
True Father spoke insightfully about Moses' situation in a speech he gave in 1956:
If the Israelites had known that Moses was fasting with a heart of anguish, not for his own sake but for theirs, they would not have made the golden calf and worshipped it to show off their unfaithfulness during the forty-day fasting period of Moses. Moreover, when Moses, who represented the blessing of the people, was being offered to Heaven as a secret sacrifice, if they had sympathized with him, and if, reflecting on his past hardships, they had shed tears with Moses and appealed to Heaven, then they would not have left God.
| | They did not know the foundation of the hidden devotion behind the appeal that Moses made while becoming their leader. What is more, although Moses suffered all kinds of hardships from the day he rescued them from Egypt and cared for them, they did not recognize his suffering and ordeals. Consequently, they were divided from Moses in the wilderness, and eventually, they fell in the middle of the wilderness. The history of the Israelites' unfaithfulness toward Moses is being repeated by the believers of the last days today. SMM, The Responsibility of Those Who Have Become the Root, July 1, 1956 | | |
If you think about it, it’s sad that the human race needs the 10 Commandments, which means that our default is to worship a lot of false gods and even do evil things in His name. In many faithful American communities Christianity provided protection against these tendencies, but as our nation drifts away from Biblical values, it increasingly profanes what should be holy. It fails to honor those we are indebted to. Murder. Rape, Incest, Adultery. Theft. Lying and bearing false witness. Coveting what others have. While all of us have to fight our fallen nature, there is also the reality that modern ideologies teach that there is no truth or authority we have to honor and that it’s justifiable to steal, covet, lie, murder, and commit adultery. That is why there is an ideological battle for the minds and souls of the younger generation.
Father went on to discuss the foundation laid by Abraham and Moses for Jesus’ ministry, which existed before Jesus’ death on the cross:
Faithful believers today believe that Jesus bore the cross of his generation, but you should not limit your understanding of Jesus to that. Before Jesus' death on the cross, there was the altar of hardships that Abraham built, and there was Moses' course of ordeals.
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Many pray for their own concerns and salvation, and sometimes that is appropriate, but Father taught us to pray not for our own will, but to relieve the suffering of God.
Those who claim to believe pray, "Please let my will be fulfilled." We should not offer this kind of prayer. Instead, we should pray, "Rather than my own will, please fulfill the will of God." When the will of Heaven is fulfilled, the will that we long for will also be realized. Therefore, we should not pray, "Please let my will be fulfilled." We must pray with the most devout heart, "Father, since You have put me in this position and called upon me, please let Your will be fulfilled through me." SMM, The Responsibility of Those Who Have Become the Root, July 1, 1956
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I then shared Father’s words about America in a speech he gave in 1973:
God's purpose is the salvation of the world and all mankind. Today in America, therefore, you must not think that you have such wealth because you yourselves are great. We must humbly realize that the blessing of God came to America with the purpose of making it possible for God to use this nation as His instrument in saving the world. If America betrays God, where can God go?
If America rejects God, where can God go to fulfill His aim? Do you want to let him try to go to the communist world? To underdeveloped countries? God wants to have America as His base, America as His champion. And America has begun in the sacrificial spirit pursuing God's purpose. America must consummate her history in the same sacrificial spirit for God's purpose. Then America will endure forever! SMM, “God’s Hope for America,” 10/21/73
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Next were two testimonies from Won Pil Kim and Hyun Shil Kang from the wonderful book edited by Jim Stephens, Testimonies for the Apostles of the Second Coming of Christ Rev. Sun Myung Moon, which has also been posted online at https://testimoniesofsecondadvent.org.
There are some hopeful trends happening in the culture and in the scientific world. One is a recent article, "Why You Should Keep an Open Mind on the Divine." by Arthur Brooks in the left-of-center Atlantic magazine. Brooks points out that the entire science of modern physics is built on a belief in things that cannot be seen or measured:
For many decades, particle physicists have studied the building blocks of matter—the atoms that make up molecules; the protons and neutrons inside atoms; the quarks that make up protons and neutrons. Quarks are so small that they cannot be observed at any visual scale; they are understood to be point-like entities that have zero dimensionality. And yet, no physicist believes quarks don’t exist, because the theoretical and indirect empirical evidence that they do is overwhelming.
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In a 2009 survey, the Pew Research Center found that among scientists who belonged to the prestigious American Association for the Advancement of Science, just over half (51 percent) believed in “some form of deity or higher power.”
Defying the general trend that young adults are becoming less religious than their elders, scientists under 35, who have grown up amid the latest breakthroughs, were the most religious in the survey: 66 percent were believers, as opposed to 46 percent of scientists 65 and older. This runs counter to the idea that science denies the existence of a non-material world. It's true that getting some education at college leads many young adults to abandon their faith, but, in contrast, those who further their education in the sciences are more religious! The deeper you go into studying the Creation, the more clear it becomes that it is not random, or accidental!
More evidence of good things are happening in our nation and in the world. There are reports of significant numbers of Gen Z, who have been reported as the most screen-addicted, depressed generation are now going back to church! Of course, the big question in my mind is what kind of Christianity will they get? Will they get fast food version or the real thing?
The sermon concluded with a short video of Donald Trump urging patriots to "NEVER, EVER Give Up!" He saw brilliant people who gave up and others with less ability who persevered and succeeded! Like True Father, we should NEVER, EVER GIVE UP in dong God's will!
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Sincerely,
Richard
Richard A. Panzer, Ph.D., President
World Peace and Unification Sanctuary - USA
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