279 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
279 lines
14 KiB
Plaintext
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BORN ANEW
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To leave the condition of worldly existence and enter the realm of
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God's grace is often understood as a second, spiritual birth. Jesus said,
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"You must be born anew." The Christian who is born again in Christ
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becomes a child of God, experiences an intimacy with God, and has the
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spirit of Christ dwelling in him. The old self dies away, with its
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worldly desires and false views. To be born again, the Christian must
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undergo the rite of baptism by which he becomes open to receive Christ and
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the Holy Spirit. Among the passages from the Christian scriptures, we
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offer the account of the first Pentecost. The gifts of the Spirit,
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especially the gift of speaking in tongues, are essential signs confirming
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the veracity of a person's rebirth in Pentecostal Christian churches.
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In Hinduism and Buddhism, the twice-born are those who have
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received religious instruction and have realized its truths. Their life
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is now ground- ed in Dharma and they have rejected a life of sense
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gratification. The Hindu's second birth is the student's initiation into
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the mysteries of Vedic knowledge; it must be mediated by an able teacher.
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In Buddhism rebirth means to become a 'son of the Buddha' after education
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and training, through which the old ways of looking at life are replaced
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by the new eyes of the Dharma. Buddha's sons and daughters make vows to
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follow the path that will lead them to eventual Arahantship or Buddhahood.
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Initiations in the primal religions may similarly bring about a new
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birth.1 The mystic transformation of rebirth is integral to salvation as
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offered through several new religions, most notably the Change of Blood
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Lineage in the Unification Church.
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1See Sioux Vision Quest, pp. 847ff.
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Today I indeed know that I am really a son of Buddha, born from the mouth
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of Buddha, evolved from the Law, and have obtained a place in the
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Buddha-law.
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Buddhism. Lotus Sutra 3
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To all who received him [Jesus], who believed in his name, he gave power
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to become children of God; who were born, not of blood nor of the will of
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the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.
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Christianity. Bible, John 1.12-13
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Monks, I am a brahmin, one to ask a favor of, ever clean-handed, wearing
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my last body, incomparable physician and surgeon. You are my own true
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sons, born of my mouth, born into the doctrine, created in the doctrine,
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heirs to the doctrine, not carnal heirs.
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Buddhism. Itivuttaka 101
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Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew,
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he cannot see the kingdom of God." Nicodemus said to him, "How can a man
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be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb
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and be born?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is
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born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That
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which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
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is spirit. Do not marvel that I say to you, 'You must be born anew.'"
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Christianity. Bible, John 3.3-7
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Repentance makes man a new creature; hitherto dead through sin, he is
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fashioned afresh.
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Judaism. Midrash, Psalms 18
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He from whom the pupil gathers the knowledge of his religious duties is
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called the teacher. Him he should never offend. For he causes the pupil
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to be born a second time by imparting to him sacred learning. The second
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birth is the best; the father and the mother produce the body only.
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Hinduism. Apastamba Dharma Sutra 1.1
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Lotus Sutra 3: The Mahayana goal was that each person himself become a
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Buddha. Cf. Parable of the Prodigal Son, Lotus Sutra 4, pp. 510ff. John
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1.12-13: Cf. Book of Mormon, Mosiah 3.19, p. 912. Itivuttaka 101: In
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traditional Hinduism, the term 'twice-born' applied only to those who
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undertook instruction from a brahmin. Sakyamuni Buddha was not a brahmin
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in the conventional meaning; his caste was kshatriya. But as the
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Enlightened One, he declares himself to be a brahmin in the true sense of
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one who has attained Brahman. Thus he is qualified to initiate his
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followers into the Buddha doctrine and give them a second birth. The
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words 'born of my mouth' is an allusion to the Vedic myth of the creation
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of the castes--see Rig Veda 10.90.11-12, p. 275, in which the brahmins
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were born out of the mouth of the Supreme Being. Buddha is abolishing the
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caste system by declaring that all his followers are, as it were,
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brahmins, born out of the mouth of the Buddha by virtue of receiving his
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instruction. Compare Vacana 589, p. 280. John 3.3-7: To be 'born of
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water and the Spirit' refers to baptism with water, through which one
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receives the gift of the Holy Spirit: cf. Acts 2.38, p. 854; Romans
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6.3-11, p. 754.
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In the eighth year after conception, one should perfom the initiation
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(upanayana) of a brahmin, in the eleventh year after conception of a
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kshatriya, and in the twelfth that of a vaishya.
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Thus has been described the rule for the initiation of the twice-born,
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which indicates a new birth, and sanctified.
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Of him who gives natural birth and him who gives the knowledge of the
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Veda, the giver of the Veda is the more venerable father; for the birth
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for the sake of the Veda ensures eternal rewards both in this life and
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after death.
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Hinduism. Laws of Manu 2.36, 68, 146
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But you are not in the flesh, you are in the Spirit, if in fact the
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Spirit of God dwells in you. Any one who does not have the Spirit of
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Christ does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, although your
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bodies are dead because of sin, your spirits are alive because of
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righteousness. If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells
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in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will give life to your
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mortal bodies also through his Spirit which dwells in you.
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So then, brethren, we are debtors, not to the flesh, to live
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according to the flesh--for if you live according to the flesh you will
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die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body you will
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live. For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. For you
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did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have
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received the spirit of son- ship. When we cry, "Abba! Father!" it is the
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Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of
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God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and fellow heirs with
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Christ, provided we suffer with him in order that we may also be glorified
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with him.
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Christianity. Bible, Romans 8.9-17
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These same people, though wrapt in all these veils of limitation,
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and despite the restraint of such observances, as soon as they drank the
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immortal draught of faith, from the cup of certitude, at the hand of the
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Manifestation of the All-glorious, were so transformed that they would
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renounce for his sake their kindred, their substance, their lives, their
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beliefs, yea, all else save God! So overpowering was their yearning for
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God, so uplifting their transports of ecstatic delight, that the world and
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all that is therein faded before their eyes into nothingness. Have not
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this people exemplified the mysteries of "rebirth"... ?
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... Nothing short of this mystic transformation could cause such
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spirit and behavior, so utterly unlike their previous habits and manners,
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to be manifest in the world of being. For their agitation was turned into
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peace, their doubt into certitude, their timidity into courage. Such is
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the potency of the Divine Elixir, which, swift as the twinkling of an eye,
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transmutes the souls of men!
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Baha'i Faith. Book of Certitude, 155, 157
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Apastamba Dharma Sutra 1.1: Cf. Atharva Veda 6.121.4, p. 531. Romans
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8.9-17: Cf. Mark 8.34-36, p. 897; Galatians 2.20, p. 898.
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Do you have true love? True Parents have absolute and eternal love.
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But we inherited the wrong root of love through the fall. Here in the
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Western world, many deny that the fall occurred: "Who has fallen? What
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has anyone in my lineage done wrong?" But love, in the beginning of
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mankind, started in the wrong direction. Without recognizing this, then
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salvation and a religious life become meaningless. What is the final
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purpose of salvation? Mankind, represented by a tree, has multiplied
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fallen nature throughout the world. Restoration of love, life, and blood
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lineage must occur.... For the original "me" to emerge, I must originate
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in God's love, God's life, and God's lineage. It did not happen [at the
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time of Adam and Eve], therefore we are still trying to connect to these
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three things....
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In restoring all of these three elements it is necessary to have the
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parent/child relationship. Fallen man exists only as a shell. Inside he
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is nothing; it's just like a scarecrow with a form but nothing else. He
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must receive love and become one with the parents. Before finding new
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life, there has to be love. In our case, we have life, but since there
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was no true love, our originating point was not God....
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Most Christianity emphasizes Jesus' blood. Why is the blood so
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meaningful? Jesus' blood means the parents' blood before the fall: true
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blood.
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Can [True] Father alone, by himself, bequeath these three things?
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Not without [True] Mother! That is why the goal in the Old Testament was
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to have the Marriage of the Lamb.
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Where do fallen people belong? They are born and become mature
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physically, but in essence they have not been truly born. It is written
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in the Bible, "Unless you are born again, you cannot be saved," which
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means exactly that. They have to go back into the mother's womb and even
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before that--back into the father's bone marrow. That means his blood
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lineage is mine, his love is mine, his life is my life.... Basically all
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that we have to know is that True Parents embody the new love, life, and
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blood lineage. Unless you connect with all three, you cannot connect with
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God.
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Unification Church. Sun Myung Moon, 8-20-89
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When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one
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place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty
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wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there
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appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one
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of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak
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in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
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Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men from every
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nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and
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they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in his own
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language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these
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who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his
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own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of
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Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia and Pamphylia,
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Egypt and the parts of Lybia belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome,
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both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in
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our own tongues the mighty works of God." But others mocking said, "They
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are filled with new wine."
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But Peter, standing with the eleven, lifted up his voice and
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addressed them, "Men of Judea and all who dwell in Jerusalem, let this be
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known to you, and give ear to my words. For these men are not drunk, as
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you suppose, since it is only the third hour of the day; but this is what
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was spoken by the prophet Joel,
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And in the last days it shall be, God declares,
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that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
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and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
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and your young men shall see visions,
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and your old men shall dream dreams;
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yea, and on my menservants and my maidservants in those days
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I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.
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Christianity. Bible, Acts 2.1-18
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Sun Myung Moon, 8-20-89: Rebirth means to leave the lineage of Adam and
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Eve--fallen humanity stained by the original sin (cf. Divine Principle
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I.2.2.2, p. 429)--and be engrafted onto the lineage of the True Parents,
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who embody God's true love--as God purposed for Adam and Eve had they not
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fallen (cf. Divine Principle I.1.2.3.4, p. 253). This Change of Blood
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Lineage occurs spiritually at the holy wedding; it is substantiated
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through a God-centered way of life which embodies the True Parents'
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standard of godly love. Book of Certitude, 155, 157: See Hidden Words of
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Baha'u'llah, Arabic 7, p. 897. Acts 2.1-18: This is the Bible's account
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of the first Christian Pentecost. In Judaism, the Pentecost is the day
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commemorating the giving of the Law to Moses on Mount Sinai. The gift of
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tongues to the disciples, on the very day commemorating the giving of the
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Law ages before, marks the beginning of a new dispensation of God's grace,
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a 'dispensation of the Spirit'--see 2 Corinthians 3.7-16, p. 634. By
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quoting the prophet Joel, Peter declared that these phenomena of tongues
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and prophesy are signs of the Last Days and testimony to the Messiahship
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of Jesus Christ, who had been crucified. Jews and Christians alike, who
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even today look to a future new age, often describe it as an age of the
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Spirit, when the Spirit of God will become manifest in the hearts of all
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people; see Jeremiah 31.31-34, p. 1115 and Tanhuma, p. 1115. Note also
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that testimony to the Lord in every tongue is a characteristic of the Last
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Days according to the Jewish prayer Alenu, p. 1112, and in the Jesus'
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Great Commission to preach the gospel to all nations--see Matthew
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28.18-20, p. 1027. Hence the Christian Pentecost is regarded both as the
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beginning of a new dispensation of the spirit and as the momentary sign of
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an even greater outpouring of the Spirit which is yet to come. The gift
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of tongues is a living reality for Pentecostal Christians, manifesting the
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power of the Spirit to transform their lives and make them new creatures
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in Christ. Cf. John 3.8, p. 531; Ephesians 5.18, p. 498.
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