Words of the Bible

Does the soul really exist?

The question of the soul has been a subject of much discussion and debate among people for a long time. Recently, a renowned British physicist said, "Afterlife is a fairy tale for those afraid of death," and his remarks became the object of controversy. To those who think that death is the end of everything, the soul is nothing but an existence created by the human imagination. Not only atheists but even those who claim to believe in God insist that there is no soul. Just as the Sadducees, a sect of Judaism, denied the existence of the soul 2,000 years ago, so they insist that there is no spiritual world—God only reigns over the visible world. The soul exists…

All You Who Love Jerusalem

As the years pass by one after another in our life of faith, the moment is coming closer when we will change into beautiful angels by the grace of Father and Mother. Now, the people of Zion, who are chosen as children of promise and called by God, should have a correct view of Jerusalem our Mother who takes the lead in the gospel work in this age, and should also realize Her sacrifice hidden behind the scenes. When we do so, we will be able to have the proper mindset and faith as God’s heirs who will inherit salvation. Let’s find out how the last gospel work, which our heavenly Mother is leading, goes on every day, through the…

Scent Contains Memories: The Mystery of Sense of Smell

Sometimes, the wonderful smell of fermented soybean paste stew summons up the memory of my hometown where the sunset glow spread out over the evening sky, and of my mother who used to cook me dinner in the blink of an eye with her coarse hands. Like this, everyone probably has experienced that a piece of memory suddenly came up due to a certain familiar scent. Moreover, the memories are quite detailed and even bring back the emotions contained in them. Smell acts as an intense medium of memory. What secret is hidden in the sense of smell? How we smell A delicious smell that stimulates the tip of the nose makes the mouth water. The reality of various smells…

I often hear people say, “We can be saved as long as we believe in God.” Is that true?

It is definitely true that we can be saved by faith. Jesus said, “According to your faith, will it be done to you.” And Apostle Paul also emphasized the importance of faith by describing it as one of the most important three factors in our Christian life, saying, “The righteous will live by faith”(Mt 9:29; 1 Co 13:13). For in the gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith from first to last, just as it is written: “The righteous will live by faith.”Ro 1:17 Clearly no one is justified before God by the law, because, “The righteous will live by faith.”Gal 3:11 However, the faith mentioned in the Bible is different from the faith…

My Sheep Listen to My Voice

On the Feast of Dedication—a festival of the Jews, Jesus is in the temple area, walking in a colonnade. The Jews gather around him and say, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” “I did tell you, but you do not believe. The miracles I do in my Father’s name speak for me, but you do not believe because you are not my sheep. My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I and the Father are one.” Then the Jews pick up stones to stone him. “I have shown you many great miracles from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?” “We…

Build Up Goodness

“Building others up” means understanding and accepting others with a broad mind like the sea as it is written in the Teachings of Mother. There are many teachings on virtue or goodness in the Bible. It is because goodness is one of the most important virtues that the people, who have been called to display the glory of Heavenly Mother to the whole world, must possess. Since we are the children of Zion, we ought to honor God with all our heart, mind and strength, keeping the laws of God. When doing all these things, we must add goodness or virtue to them. This is what God wants us to do. Following this will of God, let us engrave in…

The Church of God puts great importance on the feasts such as the Sabbath and the Passover, which other churches do not keep. Is there any special reason for that?

It is God who has established the feasts and commanded us to keep them. Among the laws given by God, there is not a single law that has nothing to do with our salvation and has no meaning. The feasts recorded in the Bible are also closely related with our salvation. The reason why God has established the feasts We are all sinners who committed sins in heaven and have been cast down to this earth. No one born on this earth escape the penalty of “death,” which is the result of sin. For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Ro 6:23 In order to save sinners…

The Passover and the Truth of Salvation

Today, the world is suffering from spiritual thirst without hearing the words of God and from rampant disasters (Am 8:11; Jer 44:23). Nevertheless, some people deny God’s word and insist, “The Passover of the new covenant is not the truth of salvation. So we don’t need to celebrate it.” Jesus rebuked the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, who were religious leaders in those days, for their hypocrisy and said that the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven was not given to them. Even now, there are people like them who claim to believe in God but do not understand the will of God correctly. As the Bible says that God’s people are destroyed from lack…

It is known that Christianity believes in only one God. Actually, however, most Christians believe in Jesus and the Holy Spirit as well as the LORD God, Jehovah. Does it mean that God is three distinct Persons?

For the salvation of human beings, God divided 6,000 years into three ages—the age of the Father, the age of the Son, and the age of the Holy Spirit—and He carried out His salvation work with a different name in each age. In the age of the Father, God used the name Jehovah; and in the age of the Son, God came in the name of Jesus. In the age of the Holy Spirit, God is to have another name when He carries out His work of redemption on this earth. Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them…

We Reap What We Sow

In spring, farmers sow in their fields what they want to reap. If it is expected that red pepper farming will earn them lots of income this year, they will plant red pepper seeds; and if it is estimated that the price of garlic will soar, they will plant garlic seeds. So, when the harvest season comes, they will reap red peppers from the field where they planted red pepper seeds and will harvest garlic from the field where they planted garlic seeds It is the same with us who are walking the path of faith, looking forward to the eternal kingdom of heaven. Each and every day, we have to sow the valuable things that we want to reap…

If We Keep the Passover, Can We Be Protected by God?

These days, a lot of news about disasters is on TV. Probably because of that, I am often reminded of the Passover that enables us to escape disasters. The more frequently we hear the news of disasters, the more precious the message of salvation sounds. The Passover is, as the name explains itself, a feast that makes disasters pass over us. Were there actual cases where people were protected from disasters by keeping the Passover? Of course! About 3,500 years ago, such a case happened when the Passover was kept for the first time. “The animals you choose must be year-old males without defect, and you may take them from the sheep or the goats. Take care of them until…

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There are so many Christian denominations, and we often hear people insist that the denomination they belong to is authentic. What exactly is heresy?

From a religious point of view, “heresy” is an idea or doctrine that goes against the true faith. Discerning heresy is very important for our salvation. Even though we have believed in God fervently for a long time, if we belong to a heretical denomination, we cannot be saved. Then, which denomination is a heretic? Standard of heresy People have a tendency to think that the church which has a long history and many followers is authentic and that the church which has not is heretical. However, the length of a church history or the number of followers cannot be a standard for distinguishing the true Church from false churches. If these kinds of standards were right, it would mean…

The Seed of God

The Bible tells us that God regards the people, who are to be saved in the last days, as His seed, and that He will see His seed by giving Himself as a guilt offering. Among God’s creatures in nature, a seed has special characteristics. When the seed sprouts to life, it resembles the maternal form exactly. A seed also has the characteristic of bearing fruit. Every kind of seed bears much fruit as it sprouts and possesses its own distinct form and shape. The Bible says that God regards us as His seed. This implies that if we are born again in the truth and grow in faith, we must resemble God and bear fruit. Unless we learn God’s…

Searching for Eternal, Unchanging Standards

One Sunday afternoon, Mrs. Kim went grocery shopping with her family. As the temperature was below 2℃, they brought winter jackets with them and got inside the car. The GPS indicated that it would take about 20 minutes to drive to the supermarket that was about 5 km [3.1 mi] away. First of all, she went to buy shoes for her husband. He tried on shoes (275 ㎜ and 280 ㎜) and chose ones in the larger size. In the grocery store, they bought beef (600 g) for dinner, and two bottles of milk (1 L) on discount, and a box of apples (5 ㎏) as well. Temperature, distance, weight, and all different sizes … We are surrounded by countless…

“I Have Already Come!”

Starting from the beginning of the new year after the 94th anniversary of the birth of Christ Ahnsahnghong, the shouting of the people of Zion proclaiming the voice of Christ—“I have already come!”—is being heard all over the world. As the good news of Christ’s coming has been reported through mass media such as newspapers, many people are showing much interest, wondering who on earth has come and where He has come from. We have to tell people that God, whom the world is waiting for, has already come. As those who have received God earlier, it is our duty to let them know when God came, where He came from, and why He came, so that they can receive…

Though They Try to Hide the Truth with a Lie

Two women went to the tomb of Jesus, where they met an angel. The angel told them that Jesus had risen, and they were filled with great joy and ran to tell this good news to Jesus’ disciples. Some of the guards also went into the city and reported to the chief priests everything that had happened. The chief priests met with the elders and devised a plan. Then they gave the solders a large sum of money, telling them, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came during the night and stole him away while we were asleep.’ If this report gets to the governor, we will satisfy him and keep you out of trouble.” As instructed by the chief…

The Wicked Cannot Inherit the Kingdom of Heaven

As the gospel of the new covenant spreads to the whole world, the spiritual blind open their eyes, the spiritual deaf hear, and the souls in the shade of death revive. How amazing and marvelous is the power of the new covenant which has been established through the blood of God’s sacrifice! God has promised that He will surely give the forgiveness of sins and eternal life to those who believe in the new covenant and keep it, and He has become our God and made us His people through the new covenant (see Jer 31:31-34). We have been cast down to this earth and waiting for the sentence of death since we committed sin against God in heaven. So,…

Yearning and Waiting for Heaven, Our Dear Home

It seems like yesterday that we started 2011, but it has already come to an end and now another new year has begun. Day after day, year after year, our yearning for the kingdom of heaven and for our Heavenly Father grows bigger and bigger. I think it is around this time every year that the members of Zion feel a mixture of emotions in their hearts all at once, yearning for the eternal kingdom of heaven which they lost and waiting eagerly for Heavenly Father to come to this earth. I hope that all of you will live a worthwhile and valuable life every day, patiently waiting for our hopes to be fulfilled and eagerly looking forward to the…

“I” Who Belong to God and “I” Who Belong to Myself

On our journey of faith towards the everlasting kingdom of heaven, what kind of person am I—“I who belong to God” or “I who belong to myself”? As we reflect upon ourselves, we come to realize that we have often belonged to “myself” rather than “God.” Of course, we used to think to ourselves that we should become “I who belong to God.” However, there were many times when we didn’t have our life completely belonging to God. Now, let’s take some time to examine ourselves if we live as “I who belong to God” or as “I who belong to myself,” through the words of God. Stubbornness and arrogance of “I who belong to myself” The Bible teaches that…

Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven Is Near

“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is near.” This is what Jesus fi rst said when He began to preach the gospel after being bap-tized at the age of 30 about 2,000 years ago (Mt 4:17). By saying those words, Jesus expressed His desire for human beings to prepare for the kingdom of heaven by repenting from their hearts. Jesus wanted everyone to enter the kingdom of heaven by living a life of righteousness with a repentant heart as the kingdom of God was drawing near, and that was why He opened the door to preach the gospel by saying, “Repent!” Now we are almost at the end of 2011. The eternal kingdom of God is much closer this year…