Great Construction

The Age of the World and New Religions

     Society calls a religion that has recently been formed “new,” and this is so natural it hardly deserves mention. What does deserve attention, however, are the contents of that “new” religion. Even if the form is new, as long as the contents are not new as well, in the proper sense of the phrase it should not be called a new religion. The general public does not take note of this issue, so I would like to examine the actual situation by looking at the facts.
     To begin with, when the term “new religion” is applied these days, in most cases it refers to a religion that is based on tenets and doctrines hundreds and thousands of years old to which has been new added some measure of human wisdom, so in all fairness it is not a new religion. Furthermore, if we were to categorize the new religions in Japan nowadays, they belong to either the Shinto tradition or to the Buddhist tradition, but apart from World Messianity, there are hardly any that do not lean in either tradition.
     As my followers are well aware, World Messianity includes the teachings of Shinto, Confucianism, and Buddhism but the elements from these beliefs go only so far, and World Messianity’s basic position is original, as well as universal, deep, and flexible. There probably has never been a religion like World Messianity. The essence of World Messianity surpasses the levels of all religions, philosophies, and sciences. At the risk of appearing to blow my own trumpet, World Messianity is like Mount Fuji standing out amongst a range of tall mountains. Hence, to grasp World Messianity within the concepts of our existing civilization is very difficult if not impossible. Another way of putting it is to say that World Messianity is a field of learning that unequivocally surpasses those of the twentieth century. World Messianity is the latest, most progressive stage of learning of the future. For that reason, no name aptly describes the activity, so it has provisionally been named World Messianity.
     A survey of religions in general today shows they all started with a founder, and continued with successors, who underwent varieties of hardships and sufferings, doing their best, overcoming every danger to save all beings from suffering. The efforts have achieved beneficial results to a certain extent but they have not gone above a certain level, and society still continues to experience the hellish conditions that we see in the world today. Not much consideration is needed to see why this is so. Religions to date did not have enough power to effect salvation and it was not the proper time for that power to be manifest. Until now, the Creator accelerated the growth of material civilization and left development of spiritual civilization for later, because fundamentally, the age of the world is still young. In these days of the later half of the twentieth century, the world has become in human terms, a twenty-year-old youth, an adult. It is at this point, with the manifestation of God’s true power, that a civilized world equipped with both spiritual and material aspects, will be constructed. Deceit will turn to truth, evil to justice, the unreal to the real, strife to peace, and ugliness to beauty. This change will be a reformation and synthesis of all. I have been chosen as the leader of this change, and I act as God’s deputy. One of the tasks I perform as God’s deputy is the manifestation of superhuman power, and one example of that power is that after only a three-day course of study, I bestow upon pupils power to perform the kinds of miracles that Christ performed. These followers already number in the scores of thousands, and the growth is evident for all to see.
     The arrow has already left the Creator’s bowstring, and we are now on the verge of the opening curtain for the drama of world renewal. A thrilling, astounding scene is about to open, and humanity will be enveloped in a whirlpool of terror and fright, emotion and curiosity, and the disorderly dance of human beings mingled with feelings of joy and sorrow is about to begin. All the elements of this drama are developing in accord with the theme set by the Creator at the beginning of the world. The vastness of scale and multi-facetedness of imagination will overwhelm. The director of this production is me, so in innumerable ways I will flexibly manifest power and demonstrate great miracles. One of these miracles is that by wearing around their necks a bag in which has been placed a folded piece of paper on which I have written in only a matter of seven seconds the Chinese ideogram for “light,” the wearer, my follower, can activate miracles as Christ did and can save from disease thousands and millions of people. The spiritual light I wield can reach in an instant locations thousands of miles away in the United States and in Europe. It is impossible to measure this light or its speed with the instruments of material science today. Our present civilization will change the direction of development by one hundred and eighty degrees and in this change the foundation for paradise on earth will be established.
     Having read this, however, it is still too early to rejoice. Humanity still has to pass through the great period of tribulation that Christ called the last judgment. To lessen as much as possible the number of victims during these difficult times, the God of great love has sent me to provide salvation. 

Eikô, Issue 244, January 20, 1954
translated by cynndd