Claim. The opportunity to establish filial piety toward God exists only in this earthly lifetime; it cannot be made up after death in the spirit world.
Elaboration. SMM is categorical: “The time for us to become God’s filial children will not always be there. It will not exist in the spirit world after our death. In our earthly lifetime – which, when viewed against the backdrop of eternity, is as brief as the tick of a clock – we must establish the condition of having loved God and of having fulfilled our filial duty to Him” (CSG 14.4 §1, 26-114, 1969.10.19). The implication runs through Unification eschatology: the spirit-world preserves the condition you set on earth but does not allow new conditions to be set. Filial piety has the same time-bounded character as the parent-attendance window in chapter 2: “Now is the time”, not “later”. The brevity of the human lifetime is recast as urgency, not as triviality.
See also. csg-filial-piety-attends-parents-while-they-are-alive