Judeo-Christian foundation for the rights of citizens

Without a transcendent Creator, we are simply intelligent animals, the result of random mutations and "survival of the fittest." As modern society has abandoned its Biblical foundation it is increasingly beholden to nihilism or to utopian ideologies that have led to the loss of freedom and deaths of millions.

Since we bear the image of our Creator, each of us has a conscience that leads us to discern between good and evil, and to the realization that human life is inherently valuable and worth defending. We experience salvation from our sin or egotistic state when we resemble God, who does not steal, lie or murder.

Jesus taught humility and forgiveness, but not pacifism. How do we reconcile Biblical prophecies about Christ's return, which speak of His ruling with great wrath, judgment and power with the free will given to the first human ancestors?

Just as God has faith that the human race, through uniting with His son at the Second Advent, can be victorious by exercising free will responsibly, we too must embody the same faith that "I" can use such power in a responsible way. God's love is not a feminized kind of love, but rather the kind of love that is willing to risk one's life to save others. This is the basis for True Father's teaching about the Peace Police Peace Militia.

In this context, it is worth noting that governments have often been the largest violators of human rights, with an estimated body count of 260 million killed by their own governments in the last century alone. If necessary, citizens must be able to stand up to the power of government or other threats to their lives, families and communities.

In the Kingdom of God, the power over life and death formerly held by an elite class must be now be held by self-restrained, but empowered citizens living according to the tenets of Christ. When freedoms of speech, of religion, of due process are violated, citizens must have the will and the ability to put chains on the institutions created to be their servants, not their masters.

This is the key reason why totalitarian governments always confiscate firearms from their citizens and why in the United States and in the nation of Cheon Il Guk the inalienable rights to "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness" is backed up by "the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, (which) shall not be infringed."

For Christians used to an airbrushed Jesus, this might be an unfamiliar perspective, but as expressed by True Father, "You should not have some naive concept of Christian love; that does not apply in a confrontation with Satan's forces, which are determined to destroy God's world and God's people. If God has no power to defeat a satanic attack then He is no longer God. As God's force, we shall be able to defend ourselves and to defend the godly world."