3) Figures representing Christianity
1. Apostle Paul (d. c. A.D. 65, "Apostle of the Gentiles")
I recognize the importance of human responsibility
The Apostle Paul is the most blessed one. It’s because Paul met Jesus and received his love, fur-thermore received the direction and mission from the Messiah, and finally listened to the new truth under the devoted love of God.
Before seeing Jesus on the road to Damascus, the Apostle Paul kept firm faith in the traditional view of God. In fact, if I hadn’t had the experience of seeing the resurrected Jesus, that way of my thinking would not have changed in the least.
Faith is truly a mysterious and inexplicable thing. Just after seeing and experiencing the resurrected Jesus on my own, I finally could discard everything that I had theretofore believed. I gave up everything and I wrapped myself in the resurrected Jesus.
Now after learning the Principle, I became even more confident that the Apostle Paul’s traditional view of God was very mistaken. We necessarily should have attended God, the resurrected Jesus and the Messiah. Whenever people frustrated God’s Will, they prolonged the history of the Dis-pensation for Restoration, requiring a new central figure.
The Apostle Paul’s ideas were very limited. Paul didn’t realize the fact that while God’s will is unchanging and eternal, if a central figure in the providence failed to fulfill his responsibility, then God’s providence would be prolonged and another new central figure would be needed in order to fulfill that mission. In other words, I became well aware of the importance of human responsibility.
I had just relied upon the omnipotence of God, not taking into consideration human respon-sibility. Small though the responsibility of each individual may seem in comparison to God’s great will of predestination, that responsibility is of 100% significance to the individual. Therefore, that individual responsibility of 100% significance is of tremendous importance for God’s providence, even though compared to God’s will, each individual’s responsibility is extremely small. Paul didn’t even think of this fact.
The strict doctrine of predestination in modern Christianity is nothing other than a big mistake that stemmed from Paul’s wrong ideas. Paul feels extremely sorry about this to True Parents, who clarified the Principle.
Another part of the Principle that so much impressed Paul was the theory of Give and Take Ac-tion. In fact, it is a too obvious truth that religious believers should love one another.
Then, why couldn’t we realize this simple truth, and chose instead to fill this world with struggle, strife, envy, and jealousy? Paul didn’t know that the theory of Give and Take Action is an actual presence in the world. Paul knows that no normal person could possibly discover this theory.
Then, how can Paul pay restitution for his mistaken ideas that influenced the whole field of Christianity? Can Paul redeem his mistakes if he continues to make effort and contributions to Christianity until the end?
True Parents! The partial ideas Paul planted into Christianity have acted as obstacles to the providence of the Messiah, haven’t they? Now in spirit world I will never repeat my mistakes. I promise to study the Principle and lead Christian believers here in the right direction. I have been making thorough preparation for accomplishing my assigned mission.
Paul (9. 11. 2001) |