Posted by:
anybody
(
)
Date: July 13, 2018 08:23AM
Cult, cult, cult...
https://www.rodofironministries.org/articles/the-crown-and-the-rod-of-ironWith my wife, I attended the Cosmic Level Blessing at Sanctuary Church in Pennsylvania on 28th February, where crowns were worn and rifles were held. This ceremony has caught the attention of the world.
For those who despise or disregard the works of God through Hyung Jin Nim and Sanctuary, the wearing of crowns and the holding of rifles will have seemed to be a theatre farce marked with criminal intentions. We should bear in mind that Jesus, condemned to death, was mocked by Roman soldiers who placed a crown of thorns on his head, and scourged him as a criminal. They placed the sign “King of the Jews” over his head as he hung on the cross. Who mocks the crown? Sanctuary, or the critics? Who scourges the Christ? Those who uphold the crown, or the critics who see Christ as a criminal?
Hyung Jin Nim is not the Messiah. True Father is. However, Hyung Jin Nim is the heir nominated by True Father. Hyung Jin Nim is the Second King, following on his father, the First King. Who considers True Father to be a criminal? It is the atheistic and secular world.
When Jesus died, he said of those who crucified him, “They know not what they do.” They did not understand. But we must understand.
Wearing the crown is the symbol of kingship and signifies the sovereignty of true families. Each father of a family under God is king, each mother is queen. Sons and daughters are princes and princesses, until they in their turn become kings and queens. God, represented by Christ, is the king of kings. In part three of the Family Pledge, we promise “to perfect the four great realms of heart, the three great kingships and the realm of the royal family.” True Father’s explanation of part 3 of the Pledge can be found in the original (True Father’s) Cheon Seong Gyeong, pages 2439 to 2473. We must know God’s heart as grandparents, parents and children. God’s tradition is passed through the lineage. All of us can belong to the royal family. The “three great kingships” can also be interpreted as the “three-generation kingship,” depending on whether the word dae stands for the Chinese character for “great,” or for the Chinese character for “generation.” Both Chinese characters have the same pronunciation in Korean.
True Father made frequent allusions to God’s kingdom. Jesus preached that the kingdom of God was at hand. Where Christ is, there is God’s kingdom. Jesus said that his kingdom was not “of this world.” Jesus meant that this world is the fallen world, the world of sin. Obviously he could not be part of it. However, he did not mean that his world was to be in the clouds.
Jesus prayed to God, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” Christians have prayed this way for two thousand years. Earthly kingdoms have failed, and democratic republics have been made, but still we look for God’s kingdom, not just in spirit world after death, but on Earth. This is a kingdom where all citizens are entitled to sovereignty, not to serfdom. The political commonwealth can be organized horizontally, with universal suffrage, regularly held parliaments, and presidents or prime-ministers who serve their prescribed terms. Continuity of the kingdom, however, belongs to families and their lineage, a vertical concept connecting us more closely to God on high.
We are not to be categorised as unisex Marxian workers in a slave state. Nor are we simply Christian brothers and sisters in a horizontal political democracy. Our destiny is to be kings and queens in God’s eternal kingdom, and our lineage is to last for thousands, and tens of thousands, of years. For this, our True Father shed blood, sweat and tears, so that we could inherit God’s kingdom on earth, as well as in heaven. St Paul said that we should be “heirs of God and fellow heirs of Christ” (Romans 8:17). We have often sung the verse of the Negro spiritual, “I’ve got a crown, you’ve got a crown, all of God’s children got a crown.” Now we can make the words real, with their deep and wonderful significance.
The rod of iron signifies the authority with which we protect the sovereignty of the heavenly kingdom. Reference to the rod of iron, shebet or shevet in Hebrew, occurs in the Psalms of David: “You shall break them with a rod of iron, and dash them in pieces like a potter’s vessel” (Ps 2:9). This is repeated in Revelations, which are words of Jesus, sitting at God’s right hand, given to his favourite disciple, John, as he speaks of the coming time: “He shall rule them with a rod of iron, as when earthen pots are broken in pieces” (Rev 2:27).
The word “rule” in this context is in fact a translation from the original word poimanei in New Testament Greek, a verb meaning “to shepherd”, from poimen, a shepherd. The shepherd of ancient Israel carried a staff of wood, with which to guide or direct his sheep. He also carried a shorter and stronger rod, in order to protect his flock from thieves and predators. Young David stunned Goliath with a stone from his sling. He also claimed to King Saul that he had killed lions and bears beforehand, as a shepherd. The shebet, or rod, would have been his weapon. As a shepherd, he would not have used the rod on his own sheep, but to protect them from violent attacks. A Christian ruler or king is sometimes depicted as a shepherd. In the Western Isles of Scotland, the Lord of the Isles was known in Gaelic as Buachaille nan Eilean, “Shepherd of the Isles.” Jesus, above all, is the Good Shepherd.
Christian people often compare Jesus with the sacrificial lamb that is led to the slaughter. We are told to “turn the other cheek” to those that persecute us. However, we know from Divine Principle that Jesus was not meant, in God’s original providence, to die on the cross. If he was bound by soldiers and tormented, and without defence, what could he do? He was prophesied to be the king of kings, to whom all the kings of the earth would come and foregather in Jerusalem, and pay their respects (Isaiah 60). He was a man of flesh and blood who could be infuriated by the corruption and impertinence of sinners. We all know how Jesus overturned the tables of the money-changers, and drove them out of the Temple. It is not so well known that, even at the Last Supper, before going out to the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus said to his disciples, “Let him who has no sword sell his man...zzzzzzzzzzz