Magyar Egyház, 1974 (53. évfolyam, 1-12. szám)
1974-01-01 / 1. szám
MAGYAR EGYHÁZ ( MAGYAR CHURCH Cíjríát, tfje Corner intone Reverend Toyohiko Kagawa, D.D. Text: He that loveth not knoweth not God. I John 4:8 It is not always easy to go among the people who have never known God and teach them the truth that God exists and to explain to them what God expects of us, His children. Even in Christian societies many people today question the existence of God. They become very skeptical because they cannot see God. We are like a baby in the abdomen of its mother. As long as the baby exists inside the abdomen and cannot see its mother’s face, it might exclaim: “I have never seen my mother’s face, so I think mother does not exist.” Or when the baby opens its eyes and sees its mother in the wall of the abdomen, it might decide: “Mother is the wall only.” Today we live, move, and have our being in the abdomen of God. We live and move and have our being in God even though we cannot see the face of God. Now the baby, having made these observations, may think, “Oh, I am indeed a great philosopher.” But we know that baby is very presumptuous. So with us. As long as we remain materialistically minded, we are like that baby—very presumptuous. This universe looks like a material world; hut truly speaking this universe is a world of God. We are but finite realities in the bosom of God. Man has a consciousness, but our consciousness is only a part of the greater, all-inclusive consciousness of God. We may content ourselves with being mere agnostic, self-centered men, or we may seek to achieve a higher consciousness that will make us greater than men, that will let us behold more than the eyes of man—so close to the earth—can see. Religion is nothing more than our awakening into this higher consciousness of God. The highest aspiration of our religious awakening is to reach God’s level of cosmic consciousness. Then we can know God and know the Will of God. Then we can understand that God is all of life, that God is power, and that God is Love. All of the studies that man pursues—science, economics, politics—are a part of this cosmic consciousness. Religion never contradicts science. Science is simply another window for consciousness. To me the theory of evolution never was contradictory to the idea of creation. The scientist may study the phenomena of life, but he cannot create or alter the laws and conditions governing this phenomena. God provided the laws and conditions. The scientist can only invent and create new phenomena by following the laws God originated. To know God is to love God, and to love God we must love everything that is a part of the consciousness of God. Nothing would be created by God except out of goodness and love. Therefore, to share God’s consciousness, we must share His love; we must be conscious about what God is conscious of and we must understand the agony of God when human beings fail. This is why it is written that “he that loveth not knoweth not God.” Unless we are able to love others, we cannot really know and love God. Some people have said to me, “But, Mr. Kagawa, it is very difficult to love other people so much. We are instinctively inclined to selfishness and egotism. Our instincts have a limit.” So I say to them, please understand this: the aborigines of the Solomon Islands do not eat human flesh from instinct. Instinctively, we do not like to eat human flesh at all. But these cannibals had the superstition that by doing so they would become stronger, and after a while, because they all ate human flesh, they thought it was natural and an instinct to do so. As long as we think our superstitions and selfish ambitions are instinct, it is very difficult for us to find God. We must raise ourselves above the levels of such false “instincts.” They are but the excuse for self-indulgence and self-interest. We must lift ourselves to God’s level of consciousness and love. Then we can know God and can see through the eyes of God and let God move in our bodies. God has provided the most wonderful laws of love. First, there is instinctive or physical love: the love of a mother for her children and of a man for
