The Necessary Upgrade

I found out, just a few days ago, that this website has an upload limit. Due to all those mp3s 'text to voice' the upload limit became exceeded and some new content that I uploaded caused the demise of earlier content.

I had been tidying up the 'Resources page' as the icons appeared to be different sizes and, so, didn't look neat on a laptop but looked fine on a phone. I deleted the content and then rebuilt it from scratch. On testing the links after doing that I could find that some mp3 linked content had disappeared. I am going to be working on that, but, in the meantime, the Resources page now looks tidy.

The picture, at the start of this blog, is a new one for the Home page under the grouping of 'basic points'. There should be some common understanding of basic points such as: The signs of the Last Days - are they literal, or figurative? The story of, 'The Fall of Man' needs some explanation, as the current ones either say it was an actual fruit, or that it was a test of obedience . . . Either of those would get parents locked up if they did that to their children or those under their guardianship. God is not a psychopath, right? In what manner Christ will return - again to do with the 'clouds' being taken literally, or symbolically. And, finally: The 2nd Coming of Elijah and John the Baptist. In each case I removed my earlier essays and replaced these topics with the appropriate content from the Exposition of the Divine Principle.

The case for each point is made logically and rationally. If you disagree then you can see the line of reasoning, the arguments made, and can systematically refute them. We should be able to reason together, right? We are rational beings, made in the image of God.

It is only by reasoning together that we can arrive at the right answers. When I first joined the Unification Church (which has now outgrown its use) and heard these explanations I was concerned that I wouldn't be able to answer to criticisms. But now my feeling is that if my understanding is wrong then it does need to be corrected. If something is actually not fit for purpose then, when you need it the most, it is going to fail you. So, my point is that it's better to make the time to discuss these things while we're here, on planet Earth, and not to wait until we're in another realm entirely, where it may not be so easy to make necessary changes. 

I took away the title, 'The Failure of John the Baptist' replacing it with the more neutral, 'The 2nd Coming of Elijah and John the Baptist'. Some people would be turned off by the provocative title, and that would be a shame.

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The second coming of Elijah was a big deal 2,000 years ago. The then chosen people didn't know when the Messiah would come, but they knew that Elijah would come first from this prophecy in Malachi 4:5 - the last verse of the "Old Testament". That the second coming of Elijah wasn't a reversal of how he ascended to heaven (some 900 years before the coming of Jesus) may not be such a surprise. But, consider this, The second coming of Elijah was fulfilled by a different person, and with a different name; according to the testimony of Jesus to his disciples - in Matthew 17:10-13.

Similarly Christians of today are looking to the sky for the second coming of the Messiah. Why shouldn't the second coming of the Messiah be as equally surprising as the second coming of Elijah was to the chosen people 2,000 years ago.

Some other ideas concerning the nature of God are accepted by some people that I know. They take the All-Knowing God to the ultimate limit. We still have free-will (according to their reasoning) BUT God knows what has, is, and will happen in its entirety from the beginning of time. This understanding sidesteps Bible verses such as, Genesis 6:6 where it says that God was sorry that He made mankind; 1 Samuel 15:11 where He says that He regretted making Saul king. There is an even more significant one when God asked Abraham to sacrifice his son and, when Abraham demonstrated that he was totally committed to carrying that out that Abraham's hand was stayed and God said, "Now I know, that you fear God . . ." (Gen. 22:12)

My purpose in making this website was to put the pdf versions of the teaching ensuring that they match with the actual printed versions. Sooner or later serious Christians will engage with these teachings as they start to discover that this teaching is not only logical but makes complete sense of the Bible such that it becomes clear when the Bible is speaking literally, and when it is speaking figuratively.

Now that I have no upload limit I'm going to be putting the 7 volumes of sermons into cyberspace that can be read for you. These sermons contain clues to the attitude that we need to have toward God, which is a different matter to the fundamental truth of what actually happened.

Hoping that you'll make the time to check this out. Looking forward to hearing your observations and comments.

Andrew Derricutt