The
Mission of Religion in Achieving God’s Ideal
1
February 3, 1972
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude
that so many of you have gathered here tonight in spite of the inclement
weather. For decades I have thought about meeting with you. Now that I have met
you for the first time this evening, I would first like to thank you all, and
at the same time, I would also like to thank God with all of my heart.
The title of my speech today is, “One God, One World Religion.” I
believe that when the residents of New York hear the term God, they associate
it with the belief that He is dead. However, God does exist, and if we say that
He is dead, we are committing the gravest sin. It could even be that saying God
exists, if in fact He does not, is better than saying that the God who actually
exists is dead.
With regard to the title, “One God, One World Religion,” there would
be no issue to discuss if people did not exist. However, people do exist. We
have people and we have God. Therefore, a religion that works to bring those
people and God together in oneness is necessary.
If God is an Absolute Being and is all alone, we can imagine that the
place where that God exists would not be a happy one. Even thinking of God all
alone, if He were glad and delighted all by Himself, then that would not be
what we call normal. On the other hand, if that God were to look upon
something, regardless of how small, as His object partner and laugh, “Ha-
ha-ha,” and delight in it, that would be normal. No matter how small that thing
is, if God were looking upon it and laughing, and someone came along and said
that this laughing God is senseless, then in fact the person who says that
would actually be the senseless one. So, I first want to impress upon you the
intrinsic value of the object partner. Words such as unhappiness and misery
stem from the lack of an object partner.
Then if God were to like an object partner, what kind of partner do
you think God would like? Would it be something like minerals, which do not
have feelings? It would not be minerals. It would not be plants either. He
would show more interest in animals than in plants. By this line of thought, if
you were to ask what the central entity could be, the one that could attract
His attention the most out of all creation, even a kindergarten student could
point out that it is human beings. Don’t you think so too? Based on this
viewpoint, we cannot deny the fact that human beings constitute the greatest
masterpiece of all created beings. That is why we can reach the conclusion
that, when God seeks after an object partner, He seeks out human beings.
When we think about the destiny of the United States or the destiny of
the world in light of the complicated circumstances of today, the question of
whether we would prefer for God to exist or not is a problem that we have to
consider seriously. It would be favorable if there were an Absolute Being who
could deal with the truth as the truth and evil as evil. Without such a Being,
the future of the world would be uncertain. That is why our hope is that such a
God does exist rather than not. Then the question is whether or not God exists.
We know that this universe exists. This is a fact that everyone
acknowledges. We also know that in order for anything to exist there first must
be energy. At this point, a question arises: what comes first, energy or
existence? Without energy, there cannot be existence. However, energy cannot
emerge without action. In order for energy to come into being, some kind of
action is absolutely necessary.
Moreover, for action to take place, subject and object partners are
absolute prerequisites. This we cannot deny. When the subject partner and
object partner engage in give and receive action, energy is generated for
existence. To put it another way, before there can be energy, there first must
be subject and object partners.
Since the subject and object partners are in different positions, for
them to engage in action, each needs to be in harmony with the substance of the
other. Otherwise, they cannot engage in action. For this reason, in order for
the subject and object partners to interact with each other, there must be a
common base for them to unite for the same purpose. Otherwise, they cannot
engage in action.
When anyone goes out for some reason, no one would do so in order to
suffer a loss. Many people visit Times Square here in New York. Yet, I do not
believe that even one of them would leave their home, thinking, “I am leaving
home to incur a loss of at least a dollar.” When you leave home, you always set
out hoping for something that will benefit you and wish for something that will
add to what you already have.
When you meet your friends, or when you love someone, you never plan
to get together with them in a situation where you would diminish each other
and be worse off than you were before you met. When two people, A and B, come
together, each envisions being better off than they were before they met; and
then action takes place and they unite.
In this regard, we can conclude that there must be a dual purpose.
That is, in addition to their own individual purpose, the subject partner and
object partner desire something that would add to the purpose of the other.
Otherwise they will not unite as one; nor will they engage in action.
For example, in an atom, electrons surround protons. Because these
electrons and protons are also in a place where they can unite their dual
purposes while giving and receiving, they can form an atom. In short, they are
united in their pursuit of dual purposes, the purpose of the electron and the
purpose of the proton.
Looking at the big picture, God too is an existing being. In order for
Him to actually exist, He too needs to engage in a subject and object partner
relationship, based on the dual purpose, and stand in the position of total
union. If He cannot do so, God cannot eternally exist. This ultimately means
that God exists as the One Being in the union of the subject and the object
partners within Himself.
In the Bible, we read in Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in
His image; male and female He created them.” If we were to make an inference
based on this passage, we could conclude that God is the united being of
masculinity and femininity.
Since such a God could not stay all by Himself, He needed an object
partner, and it was inevitable that He create this world. Consequently, He
created a man and a woman. When you consider a human being, you see that person
has a mind and a body. This mind and body give to each other and receive from
each other, and if something goes wrong while they are doing so, we feel pain.
It is because either the mind or the body moves too far to one side or the
other. However, when they are united and thus elevated, we feel joy. If someone
has complete unity between his or her mind and body, he or she would be a
perfected person.
If there were an Absolute Being, what kind of a human being would He
seek? He would seek a man whose mind and body were in complete unity. The same
goes for the woman. If there were a woman whose mind and body are completely
united, God would like to meet that woman, without a doubt. From the viewpoint
based on the dignity of the Absolute Being, He seeks to meet the best man and
the best woman. Heaven needs people who can stand tall, bold and fearless
before Heaven, and we wish to be such people.
When we look at ourselves, it is clear that we are not causal beings.
Human beings are resultant beings. Can you freely determine whether to exist or
not? You cannot. Since you cannot be the cause of your own existence, you
cannot deny that you are in the resultant position. However, when the Cause is
also absolute, even resultant beings can stand in the position of absolute
partner.
God’s existence as seen through the mystery of the human body
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take another moment to talk about whether
God exists or not. When we trace our ancestry, we will eventually reach our
first human ancestors. Those ancestors were born on earth. And let us now
consider whether they knew of the sun before they were born on earth, and
prepared accordingly, or didn’t know about it at all.
When they were born on earth, their eyes would not have known that
there would be a sun. However, even though their eyes were unaware of the sun,
their design is based on the knowledge that there is a sun in the sky and that
they are to see its light. When you describe your eyes, you say that they are
always blinking. This design assumes knowledge of the fact that the moisture in
the eyes evaporates due to the dry heat on earth, and so they need to be
moistened. Moreover, the design of the eyelashes is based on knowledge of the
need to keep the dust away. In this respect, human beings were born based on
knowledge of nature and astronomy.
The eyes already “knew” that people would sweat. Since it would be a
serious problem for foreign matter to enter these precious eyes, the breakwater
of the eyebrows was created. The location of the eyes also shows that they knew
that human beings would walk, standing vertically on two feet, unlike other
animals. Now, look at your ears. They were created based on the knowledge that
they would hear sound waves. Look at your nose. Why is the nose pointing
downward? It is because it would be detrimental if sweat or rainwater entered
the nostrils. Because of this, in addition to the breakwater above the eyes,
the nose was made to point downward. Everything was designed on the basis of
prior knowledge. Could all these things come to be on their own accord?
As you can see, when we study the human body, it is a palace of
mystery. It could not have been made as it is just like that. Based on these
observations, a question arises: Though human beings did not know of such
things when they were born, was there or was there not a Being who knew of
them? We cannot say that we were born as we are just like that. And the Being
who knew of all such things in advance is none other than God Himself.
Granted that God created humankind, let us now look into the matter of
where God placed us, and what relationship God wished to form with us from the
start. If God created human beings, there must be a reason. And if we were
created for this reason, then our purpose would arise from that. The purpose of
created human beings and the purpose of the Creator, God, cannot be two
separate things. There must be a certain common ground. That common ground
would be desired both by God and human beings.
If there were a world-renowned president among the people gathered
here, would there be anyone who would wish to be inferior to that president?
Would you wish to be superior or inferior to that person? You would wish to be
superior. In fact, you would wish to be in the highest position. Human desire
is like that. By the same token, if you knew about a person with the highest
position in the world, you would wish to form a relationship with him or her.
Even if you became close to that person of high position, if there
were a person in an even higher position, then you would wish to become close
to that person as well. Everyone possesses such a heart. No matter how lowly a
person is, he or she has such thoughts. Then, if there is a God, the Absolute
Being who created heaven and earth, would you desire to form a relationship
with Him or would you not? Even if you had taken possession of this God, if you
still had not taken possession of His love, you would not feel at ease. After
you have taken possession of God, only after taking possession of His love will
everything feel right. On the day you have taken possession of His love, all
His possessions become yours. Our conscience drives us toward this goal. We
cannot deny that it is carrying out such work, and this is because we occupy
the position of human beings’ original value, and that compels us to do so.
God is a God of love, and if God desires to love human beings, in what
position would He desire to give His love? And in what position would human
beings desire to receive God’s love? Those positions would be wrapped up in the
relationship between father and child, that is, the position of the father and
the child, and no other. That is why today’s Christianity calls God Heavenly
Father.
If God is the Father and we are His children, our relationship is a
vertical one. On account of our desire as human beings, we can say we wish to
be in the Father’s higher position at least once. So God concerns Himself even
about this point and says that He will permit us to rise to such a level, and
that He will enter our mind, that is, the internal position, and place us in a
position external to Him, so that we become like God’s body. When this comes to
pass, we stand on an equal footing with God.
From the viewpoint of human beings, if our parents are precious to us,
where can we possibly place our one and only Heavenly Father and take care of
Him? We will not wish to have God stay far away from us. In short, we will wish
to have God in a place where God is always with us, where we can meet Him and
rejoice with Him alone. For this reason, we wish for God to be invisible. Our
human desire is to place God in our hearts, where we can know Him personally.
We cannot put God any other place.
This is why God the Creator is saying that He will place human beings,
His creation, in the same position as Himself. God intended to have human
beings receive love in the position of His children and to place us in a
position of equal status with Him.
Since God has the ability to create heaven and earth, He wished for us
also to have this creative ability. After having created and shaped human
beings, God found us to be so charming and lovable that He desired that we also
be able to feel such emotions and to get a taste of such pleasure.
Since God is a Being who exists in the form of a perfected man and
woman, to inherit this creative ability of God, man and woman, who were born as
separate beings, need to become one as a perfected man and woman and have that
one body become His object partner. By becoming His object partner, they can
play the role of creator in His stead.
That is why when a couple become one through conjugal love, they can
substantiate their creative ability and stand in the same position as God by
creating children. To make us realize what a joyful thing it is to give birth
to children, God gave us the heart of love for our children. In this regard,
God has bestowed the very best things upon human beings. God created us so that
we could become one with the eternal love of God in such a manner and live in a
peaceful Eden in happiness and contentment. By so doing, we would live as happy
people who stand in the position of the eternal object partner before the absolute
God, centering on His love, and who could not separate from Him even if we
tried. We need to understand that this was the way we were originally meant to
live.
It is an undeniable fact that the purpose of beings, created by the
absolute God, is one with God’s purpose. However, do you think there is even
one human being on earth who stands in the position of absolute object partner
centered on God’s love? There is not. Even though human beings aim for the same
purpose, because we were all created by the absolute God, when we look at
ourselves we can see that we are standing on another path, a path whose purpose
is diametrically opposed. Some people may consider this to be another
relationship of subject and object partners within human beings, but that is
not the case. If the conscience is an internal plus, selfishness is a different
plus, and these two oppose each other. Such a predicament is the one we human
beings live in on this earth.
Human beings need to understand that we lost the ideal of love, the
principle of absolute value that God endowed us with. We became miserable
beings, living in mourning in a world of the opposing phenomena of good and
evil In other words, we became defective beings. Nevertheless, since the
absolute God inevitably needs to relate to us as His children, He could not
leave us the way we are. Thus, He has been leading the movement to bring us
back to life throughout the course of history. That is, He established a repair
shop. That repair shop is called religion.
There are numerous religions in the world. In accordance with the
standards of the different cultures and national backgrounds, God established
religions to gather all people. Religions have the desire to save the world.
God also desires to save the world. Religions other than those that try to save
the world do not last long.
Ladies and gentlemen, the founders of the world’s religions were not
nationalists; they were globalists, and they were the people who purposed a
global movement centered on Heaven. I know that we currently consider four
people to be the four great saints: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius and
Muhammad. Some people also include Socrates in that list; however Socrates was
a philosopher and not a religious leader. You cannot save lives with knowledge.
Only Heaven can save lives.
That is why the four greatest saints are those who founded the great
global religions. There is not one among them who did not serve Heaven. Ladies
and gentlemen, we must not become people who esteem these saints and yet
disregard Heaven.
The central religion of the world is Christianity
Given that religion is carrying out the mission of a repair shop, so
to speak, if God is an absolute Being, we need to know which of the four great religions
approaches Him most closely.
When you consider Confucianism, it does not teach clearly about God.
All it has taught is that when you do good, Heaven gives you blessings, and
when you do evil, you receive punishment. When you consider Buddhism, while it
recognizes the God of law, it does not know about the personal God. When you
consider Islam, it is carrying forward aspects of the providence of Jesus.
Jesus Christ, however, made substantially different declarations. He
appeared and said, “I am the only begotten Son of God.” In the course of human
history, only one person, Jesus, has ever claimed that he is the only begotten
Son of God. Next, he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” He also
said, “As the Father is in me and I in the Father, so I am in you and you are
in me.” He also went on to say, in effect, “I am the bridegroom,” and that he
will return for his bride. In light of all this, if you ask centering on whom
he tried to achieve all that he said, I would answer that he tried to do so
centering on God.
In other words, the purpose of Christianity is to help us become the
son or daughter of God, to become one body with Him, to become united with Him
as bridegroom and bride, and thus to form one, united family. Before he passed
on, Jesus taught us that our position before God is equal to that of children,
a position bestowed on us as our highest treasure. He taught of the origin of
the family in which we can carry out the great work of creation and feel the
joy that comes from creation, as I mentioned before.
However, even though Jesus was the Son of God and had become one in
body with Him, he could not prepare the position of the bridegroom with a bride
who could become his object partner. If the nation of Israel and Judaism had,
at the time, become one with Jesus and helped him receive his bride, he would
have become the direct object partner of God and built the basis on which he
could be a co-creator with God. Sadly, he passed away before he could achieve
this.
If sons and daughters centered on God had appeared and formed families
at that time, thus giving rise to a new tribe, people, nation and world, this
planet would have become the heavenly kingdom. It would have become the
heavenly kingdom centered on God. Jesus was crucified because the people and
leaders of his nation and religion did not believe in him. If they had believed
in him, he would not have been crucified.
If, at that time, the nation of Israel and Judaism had believed in
Jesus and made a new beginning, attending the bridegroom and bride envisioned
by God, its people would never have been scattered, and tragedies such as the
Holocaust would never have happened. Such things came to pass because the first
person in history who became the object partner of God, totally beloved by Him, was not received on earth. There is no
sin greater than that.
I believe that many followers of Jesus are here today. However, the
Christianity that you now believe in is insufficient. If it continues down its
present road, its followers may well be scattered like the people of Israel
were, two thousand years ago.
Today’s Christians, who are spread out across the world, need to unite
as one centering on God. Since the Lord of the Second Advent comes with Jesus’
mission, if Christians do not prepare the foundation to receive him, they may
be exiled like the people of Israel were. If they do not fulfill this
condition, I foresee that the future of this world will be bleak.
The Lord when he returns will come as the bridegroom and marry his
bride in a wedding ceremony. This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is
mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
Because the first human beings fell, we came to have fallen, false parents.
The good True Parents whom God had envisioned as the original model of His
creation did not emerge. This plan that God had in mind will be realized in the
Last Days. Unless the True Parents emerge and give rebirth to humankind, by
engrafting them to bring them back to God, human beings worldwide cannot be
saved.
The Unification Church emerged to build the
ideal world of love
What is the mission of the coming Lord of the Second Advent? We human
beings lost the True Parents, who were to have attained perfection, without
having fallen, and remained in the position of the parents of goodness. Hence,
the Lord of the Second Advent is the one who comes to achieve this. This will
open the way through which humankind can be fully loved by God again, starting
from the family of the True Parents who can receive love from God.
Which would constitute happiness? For sons and daughters who receive
the love of God on earth and then go to the kingdom of heaven as a family, or
for a family to be divided, with a devout mother going to heaven and the
faithless father going to hell? Today’s Christianity believes the latter.
However, I say that we need to enter the kingdom as a whole, from the parents
to the children. Families need to enter together, tribes need to enter together,
nations need to enter together, and the entire world needs to enter the kingdom
of heaven all together.
When a global family centered on these new Parents appears in the
future, and a new culture and tradition centered on the ideal of love are manifested
on earth, this complicated, sinful world of today will be transformed into the
kingdom of heaven on earth. For this to come about, you must know that there
are clear steps for you to take. Therefore, it is the mission of the
Unification Church to teach you about such things.
Having condensed such a vast amount of material into such a short
presentation, I skipped many parts so I could elaborate more in other places. I
thank you with all my heart for your understanding and close attention.
The New Future of Christianity
March 9, 1974
Hyatt Hotel,
Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Thirty-two-city speaking tour in the United States
Thirty-two-city speaking tour in the United States
Ladies and gentlemen who have gathered here this evening:
I thank you with all my heart. The title of the speech I wish us to consider
together this evening is, “The New Future of Christianity’’ Please allow me to
share with you for a while on this topic. As you may well know, when people
talk about the United States, what often comes to mind is that this greatest
nation in the world is based on Christianity.
What I am going to speak to you about is not something that can be
learned and understood through today’s life of faith or theologies. It deals
with a completely new perspective, and so I believe that you Americans need to
listen to it. This is the reason I am appearing here.
Since the Last Days are almost at hand, it is important that we
clarify crucial facts of history beyond any doubt. Since hearing the command of
God to go to America and speak out to you for three years, from 1972 through
1973 to this year, 1974,1 have stood on podiums in every corner of the United
States. I hope you will understand what is happening here.
I hope and pray that you will realize that you and I are in the position
of brothers and sisters who are living for the sake of God’s Will and working
to fulfill His Will. I hope and pray that, with a tolerant heart, you will not
make a judgment right away if what I say offends the faith you have lived and
believed until now. I pray that you will make a judgment only after you have
searched and investigated extensively through prayer and meditation.
We know that for the past two thousand years and up until this day,
Christian faith has called believers to wait for the Lord. However, now that
the Last Days are almost upon us, the time has come to do more than just
believe in him; we need to make preparations to receive the Lord who comes in
the Last Days. I believe that it is unacceptable for us not to make such
preparations.
Even when we are planning to hold a small event, it is only when we
have drawn up a program and taken steps based on the exact details of that
program that we can bring that event to a satisfactory conclusion. This event
of the coming of the Lord in this day is the greatest event since the onset of
history, the most important in the course of human history, and so we cannot
think that it could be carried out blindly and without preparations. I believe
the time has come for us to know clearly the exact details of what is to come.
If you came here on a train bound for Birmingham, all you had to do
was to ride on that train at your ease. Now that you have arrived, however, you
must understand clearly the new direction and purpose you need to follow. It
makes perfect sense that, within the order of Christianity you have believed in
until now, there must be a certain organization that is making preparations for
the coming of the Lord.
The Lord must come without fail. Then for what purpose does he come?
He comes for the Will of God. Then what is the Will of God? We, the believers
of today, know that God carries out His providence through a Will behind the
providence of salvation. What we also need to realize is that there can be only
one essential Will of God.
This providence of salvation of today is something that was not
necessary in the world of the ideal of creation, the world as originally
planned by God. Because that original Will was not fulfilled due to the Fall of
humankind, the providence of salvation emerged as the process of working to
complete the fulfillment of the Will. We need to clearly know this.
God cannot go against the Will He has set. Since He is the Absolute
Being, only when He has perfected that Will can He stand in a position of
authority and dignity. Because this is the truth, we need to realize that God
cannot become the absolute God unless He perfects fallen humankind by lifting
us to the standard He originally purposed.
Then, if Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, had not fallen, what
kind of a world would have been realized? If they had reached perfection under
the protection of God’s love, He would have called them and conducted their
marriage Blessing ceremony. That was the reason for His creating man and woman.
If this had come to pass, we would not have the fallen ancestors of
humanity on this planet; rather there would be the sinless, perfected and true
ancestors of humanity beloved by God. Adam and Eve would have become the True
Parents. After that, the true bridegroom and bride whom God could truly love
would have been on this earth. Moreover, instead of brothers who are each
other’s enemies, true brothers would have been born on this earth, who could
cooperate completely with the Will of God, who would live in the midst of His
love, and who would belong to Him. This would mean that a family centered on
God would have been formed on the earth, where sinless parents would have given
birth to sinless sons and daughters, who would in turn have formed a sinless
clan, a sinless people, a sinless nation and a sinless world. Thus, the human
beings living on earth would have been under God’s dominion both in name and in
substance, and God would have become the King of this world. Such is the
conclusion we can reach.
If all this had taken place, there would have been no need for a
Savior. Neither religion nor prayer would have become necessary. We did not
know until now that the reason we need a Savior, the reason we need religion, and
the reason we need salvation is a result of the Fall.
Salvation presupposes the Fall having taken place. When one is ill,
one needs a hospital to cure the illness, and when something is broken, one
needs a shop to repair it. What is religion? It is similar to a repair shop or
a hospital. This all refers to salvation. You need salvation because you are
ill. Today’s Christianity has not set the standard based on this principle; it
advocates believing in Jesus unconditionally, without an understanding of the
true meaning of salvation. This will not be enough.
Then let us find out through the Bible what kind of world we are
living in. It is written in John 12:31 that the devil Satan is “the ruler of
this world.” How could that evil Satan, the devil, become the ruler of all
humankind, who are beloved by God? It is because humanity fell. For this
reason, God and Satan are enemies. As a result of the Fall, we came to have
fallen, sinful human ancestors.
A false couple came into existence, and false brothers who killed one
another came into being. That couple gave birth to sinful sons and daughters,
and this sinful family expanded to become a sinful tribe, a sinful people and a
sinful world. Consequently, Satan, the devil, naturally came to stand as the
ruler.
From this evil world, we need to move to a sinless world, and this is
what salvation is. This move refers to salvation, and we need to know that it
is nothing other than restoration. The original Will of God did not include the
process of salvation. Therefore, we need to return to His original Will. The
purpose for the coming of the Messiah is to fulfill God’s Will. What is God’s
Will? It is to save all people in the world from Satan, the devil, and then to
exile Satan from this world.
In the places where you live today there is the devil Satan, who
accuses you when you commit a sin. You need to exile him. Today’s Christianity
does not know what purpose they need to pursue. Saying, “I will be saved and
will go to the kingdom of heaven” refers to a trivial salvation. We did not
know until now that it is the Will of God to save humanity, and that it is also
His Will to eternally exile from the earth the devil, Satan, who ruins and
violates humanity.
If the Messiah, who needs to begin such a world, comes as a lone
individual before Satan, Satan will seize and kill him. That is why the Messiah
was sent to govern the world only after God had laid the foundation of forming
a nation, passing through the restoration stages from the individual to the
family, tribe and people, so that the nation and the people could unite with
the Messiah at his coming.
However, the followers of Judaism did not know that the purpose of
their religion and the reason for them being called as the chosen people was to
make preparations for the Messiah’s coming. This resulted in God’s providence
being extended, but even when the Lord comes again for the world, God’s Will
remains the same. Thus, we need to realize that, when the Last Days come
throughout the world, Christianity will be required to expand the Will and
build a global foothold. This is the mission of Christianity.
The Biblical background of the crucifixion of Jesus
Then the question at hand concerns how the Lord is going to come, and
we need to clearly know the answer. The Bible tells us that, with regard to the
Last Days, neither Jesus himself, that is, the Son of Man, nor the angels, will
know anything. Only the Heavenly Father will know. That is why there are two
ways of answering the question of how he is going to come. One is to find out
by discussing with God, and the other is to find out through our own human
wisdom. By the latter, we can positively deduce the answer by examining the way
the Messiah, the Lord, came and departed in the past. You must know that there
are only these two ways to find the answer.
If I found the answer by discussing with God, going to the spirit
world to receive revelations, would you believe it? If Reverend Moon standing
right here were to speak on that foundation, you would not believe him.
Therefore, I need to present my answer based upon clear evidence. This being
the case, by clearly learning about the Messiah who came before, you can draw
conclusions about the future. This is the normal method by which we draw
conclusions.
The yearning of today’s Christianity for the coming of the Messiah is
exactly the same as the yearning of Judaism two thousand years ago for the
Messiah. In the case of today’s Christianity, it has continued down its path
for two thousand years in its longing for the coming of the Messiah, whereas in
the case of Judaism, Heaven sent many prophets for four thousand years and
sacrificed them to convey God’s promise to send the Messiah. For four thousand
years, God promised them the Messiah, and people believed devoutly for four
thousand years, so that when the Messiah came, they would unite completely as
one and fulfill the Will of God.
God sent Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to that people as promised.
According to His plan, the people were in the position of having the
responsibility to receive him. However, the people who had yearned for the
coming of the Messiah did not receive him. Rather, they watched their leaders
persecute him, seize him and have him killed. Ladies and gentlemen, is this not
confusing?
To give an example to illustrate this, let’s say that when the Lord
returns, today’s Christians who are waiting for him stand by as the highest
leaders of Christianity, such as the pope, cardinals, bishops and pastors,
seize and kill him. What happened back then can be said to be the same. Simply
saying Jesus came to die is insufficient. It is logically wrong. If you came to
die, why would you ask God to forgive those who killed you? There is no reason
for the death of innumerable prophets for four thousand years and the suffering
of the people of Israel if their role were to reject the Messiah.
If the purpose of his coming were rejection, God could have sent him
to a group of uncivilized savages. How easily they would have killed him. How
would you answer that?
This being the case, we need to examine how the chosen people came to
seize and kill the Messiah, in spite of the fact that they had long yearned for
God to send him. I hope you will not find this too serious if you are hearing
such a thing for the first time. We need to find the answer to the question of
why they seized and killed him.
They did so because, first of all, the Old Testament persuaded them to
do so. The Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, corresponds to
the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Malachi 4:5-6 states, “I will send
you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He
will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to
their parents.” We need to know that such a return of Elijah was definitely
prophesied.
Who was the prophet Elijah? He was the man who ascended to heaven in a
chariot of fire nine hundred years before the coming of Jesus. Because God
loved this people and had foretold that He would send Elijah again, the people
knew that Elijah, who had ascended, would come down again, for the Bible
definitely said that he would return. But Elijah himself actually did not come.
Now, the Bible is a book that traces the identity of Israel for four thousand
years. It was the center of Jewish faith and devotion. Could the mere words of
Jesus drive such a people to abandon their Bible?
Ladies and gentlemen, would you yourself do such a thing? It would be
as if you were yearning for the Lord to come down from heaven upon clouds, and
then someone came up to you and said, “I am the Lord.” Could you, a Christian
of today, believe that person?
Let us now find out, from Jesus’ own words, if he had troubles like
this or not. I refer you to the Gospel of Matthew 17:10. The disciples did not
know much about the Bible. So we had people who were relatively ignorant of
scripture believing that Jesus was the Savior and going out to witness, crying
out, “People! The Messiah has come, so believe!” Then the scribes answered,
“Hey! If your teacher is indeed the Messiah, don’t you know that the Book of
Malachi says that God will send Elijah before the coming of the Messiah? So
where is Elijah?” The disciples did not know about this, and the Bible records
that they asked Jesus about it, and his response.
Now, if Elijah had come, it would not have mattered even if Jesus had
been blind, deaf or lame. The problem was that, as far as the scribes were
concerned, Elijah had not come.
So, it is written in the Bible, “And the disciples asked him, ‘Why,
then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘Elijah
is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has
already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they
pleased.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John
the Baptist.”
Was John the Baptist Elijah? If you had been there, would you have
believed Jesus’ words? Elijah had not come from the sky, and here was Jesus,
attaching the name of Elijah to John the Baptist. So the religious authorities
decided that Jesus was attaching the name of Elijah to John the Baptist because
he was a fraud pretending to be the Messiah. Thus Jesus was called a blasphemer
who brought ruin to the Judaism of Israel and the chosen people of Israel,
established by God for four thousand years, and they determined him to be
empowered by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. They concluded that he was
without a doubt the son of Satan, the devil. They would not believe that this
man, who seemed to claim that Elijah had come when he actually had not, was the
Savior.
The religious leaders wrongly interpreted the Old Testament
Throughout the centuries, Judaism and Christianity have been at odds.
At this point, we need to take a moment to figure out what sort of a book the
Bible is. In the work of making a person, family or nation that can fulfill the
Will of God in the fallen world, the people involved are in a position similar
to that of intelligence agents who have been sent into enemy territory. God
would have to instruct them in words that the enemy could not decipher.
The Bible is a record of God’s instructions issued in parables and
symbols. If, for instance, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States
were to send an agent to the Soviet Union, would they send a letter stating
clearly, “Do such and such a thing at this place and time?” No, they would send
the message in code. If God had taught us about the coming of the Lord with
vivid clarity, the fallen world would have easily seized and killed the coming
Lord at the earliest opportunity. We need to know that God needs to create an
environment where the Lord cannot be seized and killed in the Last Days. Therefore, most people would not know the details of his coming,
for God teaches and guides us in code.
We need to realize that for this reason, the people interpreted the
Old Testament wrongly and so ended up killing the Messiah. Just as only one
person, the director of the CIA, has the means to reveal the ClA’s code, only
God and no one else can reveal the code of the Bible.
However, in order to fulfill His Will, God must teach us in advance,
and also teach us again when the time comes. If you were to look up Amos 3:7,
you will read, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing His secret
to His servants the prophets.”
We have to know the fact that the leaders who spoke for the Old Testament
interpreted it wrongly, and thus came to commit the historic sin of seizing and
killing the Messiah. Now, the Jewish believers of the time were relatively
righteous, and the actions of Jesus who claimed that John the Baptist was
Elijah were alarming to them. I’m sure they had many conversations along the
lines of, “The people have seen him perform mighty works and miracles, and also
many new and strange works never before seen, and they could neither deny them
nor approve them. And so let us hold a public discussion, saying, ‘Now then,
since he claims that John the Baptist is Elijah, everything will be resolved if
we decide whether Elijah has come or hasn’t come. So, let us ask John.’”
The question they asked is recorded in the Gospel of John 1:19 and
following. When they asked John the Baptist, “Who are you?” he answered he was
not the Messiah or Elijah or a prophet. Even if he did not confirm that he was
Elijah, at the least John the Baptist could have emphasized that he was a
prophet. However, he answered all the questions in the negative.
Why did he do so? The people of Israel all firmly believed that he was
a prophet, so why did he deny it? It was because the situation had already
become unfavorable to him since Jesus was being cornered by the leaders of the
nation and the religion. Because it was clear that these people were referring
to what Jesus had said, John the Baptist looked upon the actual circumstances
of the matter. The leaders of Israel and the Pharisees were determined to seize
and kill Jesus by consensus, and John knew there was trouble brewing.
Therefore, John the Baptist would not speak on behalf of Heaven from
the position of a human being. Instead, he denied even the fact that he was one
of the prophets. This being the case, do you think that people would give more
credence to the words of Jesus or the words of John the Baptist? To bring it
home to the United States, if a certain young person came forward and said of
Reverend Billy Graham, “Billy Graham is Elijah and I am Jesus,” and Reverend
Graham denied it, would you believe it?
History thus turned a corner, and we cannot deny the fact that, though
God had sent Jesus Christ to the Jewish people, whom He had prepared for four
thousand years, with faith and hope, the people of that time seized him and let
him be killed in their ignorance and disbelief. Let us now find out if this is
true or not through the apostles of the New Testament.
At the time, Paul, before he became an apostle, stood at the forefront
as an instigator of Christian persecution after the execution of Jesus. Paul
was on his way to Damascus to oppress Jesus’ followers, when a holy light
struck him. Thus he came around to God’s side and repented and testified to
Jesus.
Paul knew what had happened to Jesus better than anyone else, and so
he was able to declare boldly in 1 Corinthians 2:8 of the mysteries of God,
“None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would
not have crucified the Lord of glory”
Without even thinking about how appalling it is that the Lord who came
was made to walk the miserable path of the cross, we have believed blindly. In
spite of the fact that Jesus did not have to die, we believed that since he
died on the cross, he must have come for that purpose. How then can we go
before Jesus? Even if we are saved, can we dare meet him?
The Jewish people could seize Jesus by virtue of their understanding
of the Old Testament, yet what about John the Baptist? When you read Matthew
11:2 and following, you find the story of how, when John the Baptist was
imprisoned and about to die for having spoken about the love affairs of
Herodias, he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, “Are you the one
who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Did John the Baptist, then,
believe Jesus or not? How could he, with the same mouth that had once declared
at the river Jordan before a large crowd, “He is the Lamb of God who bears the
sins of the world,” ask the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are
we to wait for another?” And by proxy!
Think about how dumbfounded Jesus must have been when he heard these
words, for it was at a time when no one in the world acknowledged him and the
entire nation was opposing him. And here was John the Baptist, whom Jesus had
looked upon as his last ray of hope and only lifeline, asking him at the last
moment, “Are you the Messiah or not?” That was why he pointed out in Matthew
11:6, “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
In the next verse, Matthew 11:7, Jesus criticized what John the
Baptist had said and done when he had witnessed to Jesus in front of a crowd.
That is why Jesus denounced him with the words, “What did you go out into the
wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to
see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in
royal palaces.” And in verse 11 he said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of
women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the
kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” How could he say such contradictory
things about John? The prophets who have passed on into the next world were all
born of women, for they surely were not born from rocks, were they? They were
all born of women and John the Baptist was also born of woman, and so he must
be great even in the next world. Why, then, would he become the least of them?
It is because the prophets who came and passed on into the next world
were sent to earth to testify to the Messiah from a historical distance, yet
John the Baptist was sent as the prophet whose mission was to testify directly
to the Messiah. Since he was the one who was to see the Messiah with his own
eyes and testify to him, his mission was the greatest.
Why then did Jesus say that the least in the kingdom of heaven was
greater than he? Even the least prophet who had gone to the spirit world knew
Jesus Christ was the Messiah and attended him as such. On the other hand, John
the Baptist, who would have become great by testifying to Jesus, was unable to
attend him when he was supposed to attend him, and so he could be only in the
bottommost position. You need to know that this is the content upon which Jesus
based his words.
Let us look up Matthew 11:12 to see if this is in fact true. It says,
“From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has
suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” This refers to the fact
that a struggle could have broken out between Jesus and John the Baptist to
occupy the kingdom of heaven. What this signifies is that John the Baptist did
not devote his energies to fulfilling his mission. We must now find out what
would have happened if he had devoted his energies properly. If he had done so,
John the Baptist would have become Jesus’ first disciple.
If John the Baptist had become the first disciple, wouldn’t his
disciples have joined the twelve disciples, wouldn’t John the Baptist’s
multitude of followers have been included in the ranks of the seventy disciples
and 120 followers, and wouldn’t the ruling class of the entire Jewish nation
have joined the group following Jesus? Was John the Baptist sent to oppose
Jesus? Then let us look into the matter of how great a man John the Baptist
was. Through the words of Jesus and the Bible, let us find out what a special
man he was, sent down with God’s official approval.
In Matthew 11:13, Jesus declared, “For all the prophets and the law
prophesied until John,” signifying that John came as the fruit that culminates
the Old Testament. If John the Baptist had become one with Jesus, the people
who believed in the Old Testament were bound to follow in his footsteps and
become one with Jesus. If such a thing had come to pass, who could have seized
and killed Jesus? The Messiah, the prince of God, came to utilize the
foundation that was laid down. Would he have had to bring together lowly
fishermen, prostitutes and tax collectors and feed them to become their master
and teacher?
Let us once again look clearly into the matter of whether John did
indeed follow Jesus or not. If you read the Gospel of John 3:26 and following,
you will find that the disciples of John the Baptist reported to John about
Jesus, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you
testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John the Baptist
answered, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Christian tradition
interprets this to mean that since John the Baptist was a great prophet he
humbled himself before Jesus in this manner and said that he, John, would decrease.
If one has suffered hardships for three years to receive the Messiah
and then has finally met the Messiah he has been longing to meet and has
testified to him, he needs to be ready to die for the Messiah if the time comes
for that. What this means is that, if John the Baptist had walked the same path
as Jesus by his side, if the Messiah increased he too would increase, and if
the Messiah decreased he too would decrease. Therefore, when he said that they
had to go separate ways, he plainly stated the decisive truth that he would not
follow Jesus.
Based on this, we realize our ignorance until now that the Crucifixion
of Jesus was caused first by the wrong interpretation of the Old Testament, and
second by John the Baptist.
Let us go on to the third cause. At the time, the Jewish people
believed that the Messiah would come on clouds. Why was this the case? In
Daniel 7:13, it is prophesied, “I saw one like a Son of Man coming with the
clouds of heaven.” Therefore you need to understand that those people, who
valued the Old Testament as much as their own life, could not help believing
that he would come on clouds.
The ministers gathered here may say, “Reverend Moon is saying that
because he doesn’t know any better. Those words refer to the Second Advent and
not to the time of Jesus.” But that’s not the case at all! If everything had
happened as Jesus had called for, everything would have been finished at the
time of John the Baptist. All the prophecies and prophets of the Old Testament
would have culminated in John the Baptist.
With the people of Jesus’ day believing that the Messiah was coming on
clouds, do you think that Jesus, who was born as a man and as the son of Mary and
Joseph and who had brothers and sisters, appeared qualified to be the Messiah?
Christians believe that the Lord is coming on the clouds, so would they believe
him if he came as a human being? It is the same today as two thousand years
ago. Let us find out through the Bible if this matter posed a problem at the
time of the apostles.
If you look up 2 John 1:7, you will find these words: “Many deceivers
have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!”
What this means is that some early Christians believed that the Lord
came with only the appearance of flesh. But Christians today may have the same
attitude and will oppose him if he comes as a human being. Then, according to
the apostles’ words, they will be the same as antichrists. There is no way
whatsoever to make excuses. All that I have spoken today is based on the Bibles
words, which you believe in. Because I love the Will of God more than anyone
else, and because I hope for us all to walk the path of His providence rightly,
I have no choice except to speak these words before you.
You may ask, “With what authority is Reverend Moon saying these
things?” Yet I do have the authority to say such things. I met Jesus and John
the Baptist in the spirit world and discussed this with them. From them, I
found out that my understanding is correct. I also studied about these things
in the Bible and discovered them to be true. Since both accounts match, I am
sure that what I am saying is true. Why don’t you bring this to the world, to
see whether what you believe is right or whether what Reverend Moon is saying
is right? If you do not believe it, your sons and daughters will believe it
without a doubt.
In this light, the fact that Jesus died in such a manner, when he did
not come to die, remains as the sorrow of God, the sorrow of humanity, the
sorrow of history and the sorrow of the future. We have not known this. You
need to understand that the Old Testament has prophesied the coming of Jesus,
the Messiah, in two ways. When you look at Isaiah 9, 12 and 60, you see that he
will appear as the Lord of glory, while chapter 53 of the same book prophesies
that he will die a cruel death. We need to find out why it was necessary to
make contradictory or dual prophecies.
We fallen human beings fear God, and we also fear Satan. This is
because at one time we will believe devoutly in God yet then betray him, pair
up with Satan and attack God’s world, and then, after we are paired up with
Satan, we will come back to God and attack Satan’s world. We need to know that
for this reason we fear both God and Satan.
We also need to realize that if the Jewish people had believed Jesus,
he would have become the Lord of glory, yet because they did not believe him,
it came to pass that he had to die on the cross. You need to comprehend the
fact that his coming to bear the cross was a sudden and contingent event. Then
when was it decided that he would die on the cross? Let us find the answer in
the Bible.
Luke 9:30-31 says, “Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah,
talking to Jesus. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure,
which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” To make a long story short, it was
decided at the time of the Transfiguration.
This was because Judaism was opposing Jesus, as was the nation of
Israel, and even John the Baptist had taken an opposing position, and so all
the footholds through which God’s Will could be fulfilled had collapsed. So God
had no choice except to abandon His Will to complete the work of salvation in
both the kingdom of heaven on earth and the kingdom of heaven in heaven,
restoring spirit and flesh in the providence of two dimensions. He had to cut
off the physical world and establish the world of spiritual salvation by having
Jesus walk the path of the cross. If Jesus had not died on the cross, both
sides would have been lost. Therefore, in order to bring at least spiritual
salvation, God had no choice other than to hand over Jesus to be nailed to the
cross. You need to clearly understand this.
Today’s Christians assert that Jesus undoubtedly came to die, based on
words written in the Gospel of Matthew 16:22-23. Those words describe the scene
where, when Jesus spoke of having to go to Jerusalem to die, his first disciple
Peter said, “Lord, this must never happen to you.” Then Jesus turned upon him
and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” Christians think that Jesus said this because
he had come to die and Peter opposed his fulfilling his mission. However, you
need to clearly comprehend that this incident took place after Jesus’ death on
the cross had been decided at the time of the Transfiguration, and so Jesus had
no choice except to give Peter such an answer.
What would have happened had John the Baptist, the Jewish leaders and
the people of Israel believed in Jesus? The people of Israel would have become
one with Jesus. The Arab realm then would have become one with Jesus and
together they would have reached out to Rome. Within forty years, Rome would
have been brought to God’s side. Since Jesus conquered Rome in four hundred
years after his Resurrection, centering on the living Jesus, Christians would
have been able to declare the constitution of the heavenly kingdom within forty
years. Then there would be no Protestantism or Catholicism today; everyone
would be in the position of the people of Israel fulfilling the Will of God.
If all this had come to pass, the people of Israel would not have met
such harsh circumstances in the Middle East and Christians would not have had
to shed blood so tragically. If Christianity had attained the godly foundation
to move the world by bringing together the rulers of the nations, who would
have hunted and killed them?
The world would have become the heavenly kingdom in accordance with
the will of Jesus. The world would have been united and there would be no need
for the Lord to come again. Christians need to realize this. From this
perspective, the place where Jesus died on the cross is the place where God and
Jesus lost everything. The cross was not the victory of God; it was the victory
of Satan, the devil. It was the place where the Son of God had nails driven
into him.
On that cross, God lost the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, the
global historical providence and all the apostles. At the very end, only the
thief who died on Jesus’ right-hand side stood with him. At that place, there
was neither Christianity nor the beginning of Christianity. Everything was
lost. From where did Christianity begin? It began after the Resurrection of
Jesus, forty days later. We did not know until now that ours is not the path of
the cross, it is the path of resurrection. Two thousand years of Christianity
teaches us this fundamental lesson. You cannot deny this when you read the
Bible. When Judas Iscariot came to help seize him, didn’t Jesus call that
moment a time of darkness?
If Jesus had come to die, would he have said, “My Father, if it is possible,
let this cup pass from me; yet not what I will but what You will,” when he
prayed three times at Gethsemane? If he said such a prayer because he was
afraid of dying, it makes him unqualified to be the Messiah. You need to know
this. Why did he say such a prayer? Was it because he was afraid of dying?
Christians say, “Oh, Jesus was also a man in the flesh, and so he must have
done so for fear of the pain of death.” That is not it at all. He did not pray
because he was afraid of death.
He had no choice except to utter such a prayer when he pondered the
fact that, once he died on the cross, all Christians in the world would have to
follow the path of the cross in his footsteps. Due to his having shed his
blood, the condition was set through which Satan would be able to violate the
physical bodies of all Christians in the world, and so many people would be
made to shed blood and make sacrifices. Moreover, he knew that the footholds
prepared for four thousand years, the nation of Israel and Judaism, would be
left with no stone standing upon another. When he thought about the toils of
God in the four thousand years of His providence, he had no choice except to
cry out such a prayer, sweating blood. You need to understand this.
That is why, at the final moment of his passing, Jesus said, “My God,
why have You forsaken me?” What do you think is the meaning of this prayer? We
need to know that the world being engulfed for three hours in darkness when he
died means that the world that could have been realized according to God’s Will
was engulfed in darkness. You have now come to understand that the Messiah did
not have to die in his historical age. He came to fulfill the Will for the
kingdom of heaven on earth in his age. You cannot deny it.
Then let us now ponder the matter of how the returning Lord will come
in the future. There are dual prophecies in the New Testament, just as in the
Old Testament. It means that today’s Christians are in the exact same position
as the Jews at Jesus’ time. The only differences are that the Christian sphere
has been expanded globally, and that Christianity does not have both the flesh
and the spirit, for it only has the spirit. It does not have a nation. In other
words, it does not have a foundation on the national level like the chosen
people of Israel. Why is this so? It is because Jesus died. Therefore, we need
to understand that its position is inferior to that of Judaism at Jesus’ time.
Jesus succeeded in becoming the spiritual king. In other words, in
spite of the fact that the Will of God is to save humanity, to exile Satan, and
to become the King, due to the death of Jesus God was unable to subjugate
Satan’s world on earth completely. Since this Will of establishing a nation
that God can govern, by exiling Satan and making Jesus its king, could not be
fulfilled, and since it is the Messiah who needs to fulfill this Will, he must
come again. Therefore, all Christians in the world need to become one and,
centering on the Coming Lord, they need to make a strong global nation that
goes far beyond the mistakes of the past, in order to establish the kingdom of
heaven on this earth.
In the Book of Revelation 1:7, it is prophesied that the Lord will
come on the clouds. First Thessalonians 5:2, on the other hand, states that he
will come like a thief. How can he come like a thief when he comes on clouds?
Can you decide on your own not to believe in the Lord who comes like a thief
and only believe in the Lord who comes on clouds? If you believe that he comes on
clouds, you are the same as the people of the Old Testament when they believed
in Elijah and the Messiah coming on clouds. If, on the other hand, he comes
like a thief, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, he will come as a human being.
Based on how God has carried out His work in the Old Testament Age, do
you think that Jesus will come on clouds? If you believe that, you will end up
seizing and killing him again. The people who believe in Jesus will seize and
kill the one who comes again.
What I am saying is that it is best to be open to both prophecies, and
affirm that he could come on clouds and he could just as well come as a human
being. Why? Well, if the people who believe that he comes on clouds see that he
has come as a man, they might seize him and kill him. However, if you believe
that the Lord will come as a man, and then he comes on the clouds, you will
undoubtedly welcome him. It is written in Revelation 12:5, “And she gave birth
to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,”
saying, in effect, that a woman will give birth to the Messiah. Until now, the
church had no other way of interpreting this passage other than attaching it to
a coming on the clouds.
However, let me suggest to you that such passages in the Bible will be
falsified if he does indeed come on clouds. Please look up the Gospel of Luke
17:20 and following. “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of
God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things
that can be observed.’” Would you not observe the Lord coining on the clouds?
And Luke 17:22 states, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of
the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it”
How would you not see it if he came on clouds? In Luke 17:25, it is
said, “But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this
generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days
of the Son of Man.” How could a Lord who comes on clouds be made to suffer? How
could things be as wretched as they were at the time of Noah? Such a thing
would happen only if he comes as a man. If he comes as a man, things will turn
out as described without a doubt.
If all the Christians in the world believe that the Lord is to come on
the clouds, and he comes as a man, wouldn’t people with unassailable
foundations of power, such as the pope and the bishops, issue the command to
seize and kill him as a heretic who is destroying Christianity and God’s Will?
Ladies and gentlemen, wouldn’t that be the case? The Bible tells us as much,
and because historical facts lead us to the same conclusion, we can be certain
that God is alive and that His Will works according to a plan and with
authority.
Fortunately for you, this Mr. Moon has appeared here and is teaching
you these things enthusiastically. If there were no one teaching you such
things, you would seize and kill the Messiah again. You would have no option
other than to seize and kill him. The time has come. Can you guarantee that, if
Reverend Moon did not cause you to think twice, you would not do so?
If we go on to read Luke 18:8, we find the question, “When the Son of
Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” These words refer not to those who
believe in him, but to those who will not have faith in him. If he comes on the
clouds for all eyes to see, how could he find people on earth who don’t
believe? You would act in the same way as the religious devotees of Jesus’
time. If everyone believes that he will come on the clouds, and then he comes
as a man, would there be even one person who believes him? Among the disciples
of Jesus, were there scribes and priests? Can you find among them even one
person of conventional faith? Considering all this, the words of the Bible
would be proven false if he comes on clouds.
Christianity has to receive the Lord who
comes as a person
What would God want? Would He want to be the God of a Christian
denomination, or would He wish to be the God of all humanity? His Will is to be
the God of humanity on the world level. The Savior did not come to save only
Christianity. He came to save the world.
The Bible verse that you know so well, John 3:16, states, “For God so
loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him
may not perish but may have eternal life.” It does not say that He loved only a
religious denomination or an individual, does it? It says He loved the world.
Then has the entire world found this God? Has it exiled Satan? Since human
beings were lost on earth, the Messiah must come down to earth to restore all
people.
That is why it says in Matthew 16:19 that when Jesus went to the
spirit world, he gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven and said,
“Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” meaning that the earth
is the central concern. Everything needs to be resolved on earth.
Has a kingship through which God can reign over the entire world of
humanity been established on this earth? Since Satan holds the kingship, if God
were not able to establish His kingship, He would not be able to carry out His
plans and He would be a God of failure. Because of whom? Because of Satan. Then
the conclusion would be that He is inferior to Satan. This is why God said, as
stated in Isaiah 46:11, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have
planned, and I will do it.”
Let us come to a conclusion. We have fallen Adam and Eve, and from
them came evil ancestors, evil husband and wife, and evil siblings. Because we
have not had original, good and true ancestors, husband and wife, and siblings,
we cannot give birth to sinless sons and daughters. We will not be able to do
so unless we see all this realized here on earth. Therefore, if we cannot
restore the True Family centered on God, we cannot recover the nation and the
world either.
That is why Jesus needs to come back to this earth and form a family
beloved by God. In short, he needs to come as the bridegroom and find his
bride, for only then can True Parents come to be, can true husband and wife
come to be, and can true brothers and sisters come to be. Because this was not
conclusively achieved, Jesus prophesied that he would come again to achieve it,
and this is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at which the bridegroom will take a
bride.
Only when there is a True Family can the tribe be restored, can the
people be restored, can the nation be restored and can the world be restored,
and so the family is the problem. You need to understand that the Marriage
Supper of the Lamb is held so the coming bridegroom and bride can set up the
family. You need to know that the bridegroom and the bride must meet. The Will
at the Alpha, which would have been fulfilled by God when there was no Fall,
will be fulfilled at the Omega after going once around in a circle and
eliminating the evil world.
The Fall of the first Adam needed to be restored by the coining Jesus
who is the second Adam. Because he was unable to complete this, it is something
that needs to be completed by his coming and trying again for the third time.
This is grounded in the statement in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Jesus is the
second Adam. You need to know that, since he cannot achieve all this if he
comes on clouds, he needs to come as a human being. Therefore, you need to
realize that it is the mission of Christianity to receive the Coming Lord, to
make a new kingship in the world and establish the heavenly kingdom centering
on the true ancestors of humanity, the true husband and wife, and the new
Christianity.
I hope that, with the realization that such a time is approaching
right before our eyes, you will be able to enter such a place in the midst of
your prayers. I would like to conclude my speech with the request that you will
ponder what I have said to you this evening, that you will not jump to
conclusions, and that you will try to resolve your questions by talking to God
in prayer.
Thank you.
Today’s Intellectuals and Religion
May 16, 1981
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Invitational
seminar for prominent members of society
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen of Korea:
I feel deeply honored that we could convene this meeting of
intellectuals today. We are meeting on the theme, “Today’s Intellectuals and
Religion,” so I would like to present my views on this topic.
All people seek higher values, and I’m sure you are interested in what
the Unification Church teaches in this regard. Every organization has its
affirmations, and every nation has affirmations on which it bases its national
policies. According to its affirmations, an organization’s administration or
institutions move toward its goal. Therefore, the Unification Church also has
its own affirmations.
As everyone knows, human desire is insatiable. Each individual has
desires for him or herself, the family has desires for itself, and the society,
the nation and the world all have their own desires. Seen in this light, it
goes without saying that human beings are searching for something of a higher
dimension or of greater value. In this universe, or when seen from a religious
point of view, if there is a new, previously unseen world, the question is what
place of settlement am I progressing toward. Until the present day, philosophy
and all religions that deal with questions of life have treated this issue as
one of the greatest importance. Where is life headed? Every human being has his
or her own individual desires and values. Those desires aim for the highest
purpose and the greatest value.
In pursuing your professional field, you guide yourself according to
the standard set by the leading scholars in the world in that field. In the
same way, if a great Being who is the subject partner of our goals exists in
the universe, then everything needs to move according to the standard set by
that Being. This is why in the human world, even for those who do not adopt a
religious point of view, questions about saints and God appear. Seen in this
light, we can conclude that the place of settlement of all our human desires is
God.
What does God need?
If you were to find God wouldn’t you want to ask Him what He needs? As
God, what does He desire? If God were to desire something, then from the moment
we discover God, we would be able to help advance only toward what God desires.
What do you think God needs? He does not need the material things or
money that we in the human world pursue today. He does not need knowledge,
which is what you distinguished scholars here today seek. God is omniscient, so
He does not need to acquire knowledge. He does not need more power either. If
God does have a desire, then it is vital that we human beings, who stand in the
mirror-image position to God, entertain the same desire. If we add all these
things together, what conclusion do we reach? The only conclusion we can come
to is that God needs love.
Why would God, an omniscient and omnipotent Being, need love? It is
because love cannot arise of its own accord; it absolutely needs a reciprocal-
partner relationship in order to be realized. Can love come spontaneously from
within itself? No matter how much of an urge to love you have within yourself,
love cannot generate spontaneously from itself. There has to be an object
partner. Love must be fulfilled through an object partner.
What was the purpose of God’s creating? Did He form the world in an
arbitrary fashion? Did He have a one-sided purpose? Simply stated, He created
the world because He wanted to feel joy and take pleasure in His creation. What
would make God feel joy and take pleasure? He didn’t create all things in the
universe to feel joy through money or any of the other things humans crave. He
created the universe in order to feel joy through love. The creation of all
things in the universe is to realize this very purpose.
What is the highest hope of creation? Where is the highest point of
settlement? If we say God created all things to feel joy through love, then the
created world can’t escape from relationships rooted in love. All creation is
involved in relational give-and-receive action as the way to receive God’s
love.
Many scientists in the world today have concluded that the universe
came about through energy. They believe the formation of the universe was based
on the existence of energy. Do you think this is so? Before there is energy
there must be something else. Energy has a prerequisite. A process of action
takes place, which generates energy. Our heart is the driving force of our
energy, and when it stops, so does our life. You probably get around in a car,
so you know that when the engine fails, the power to go forward ceases. So does
energy or action come first? Action is first. Seen in this light, if there is
no action, energy cannot exist.
When we look at the structure of every cell in our body, all
components combine to create the realm of action that maintains the force of
life. I’m saying that no matter how strong certain energy is, it cannot simply
generate itself from within itself. There must be an action before energy can
arise. However, even this action cannot arise by itself. First, in order to establish
the conditions necessary for this action to come about, there absolutely needs
to be a relationship of subject partner and object partner. We need to
understand this point clearly.
So what was the origin of the universe? It did not originate with energy.
First there had to be a subject partner-object partner relationship, then
energy was generated from the interaction of the subject and object partners.
From this point, the direction the energy takes differs. If the action is of a
certain nature, the energy will go in one direction; if it is of a different
nature, it will go in another direction; although if there is a comprehensive
action, the energy will go in a single direction.
The question is, what is the action that can harmonize all these directions?
For example, if our arm is performing one action, our heart is performing
another, and our blood vessels and nervous system are performing others, what
is it that can guide this energy to unite all these actions so they can go in
one direction? All this has been a matter of great interest in recent times,
and it can only be a matter of great concern for intellectuals today.
There must be a great purpose to which the central action connects, and
with which the center is in harmony. There is a central action behind energy
that possesses a nature such that the more you come into contact with it, the
more you rub against it, the more joy you feel. When you ask what this is, the
answer is true love. True love harmonizes all actions. If we say God seeks love
to feel joy, it is because joy stands in the same position as our own primary
desire. Because God created all things to exist for others, all these things
have true love as their subject partner and can only help keep time with the
rhythm of love.
That is why, in a village if there is a healthy family that’s full of
love, then the village dogs will be attracted to that house. They will want to
linger there, and the sparrows will want to come and sit on the fence and tarry
there. The house where the sparrows come and chirp out their song is usually
the home of the central and most generous family in that village. What I’m
saying is that even puppies and tiny insects align themselves with this rhythm
of ideal love. They exist in a give-and-receive action relationship that is
aligned with the direction of the great action of the universe. We human beings
ourselves are like this as well. Then what do we have to do to follow the path
of love? The action of love cannot escape from the realm of subject and object
partners.
When we look at human beings, we can see they are made according to a
dual structure. On the one hand, there is the action of the human mind. Even
though it is invisible, it is undeniable. On the other hand, there is the
action of the human body; everyone knows well about this. Why do we have the
action of the body and the action of the mind? If you see these in terms of
subject partner and object partner, one is like the male form and the other
like the female form. The subject partner, or plus type, is the internal “me”
you cannot see, and the object partner, or minus type, is the external “me” you
can see. How does it come to be like this? The action behind each is different.
All of you, please clasp your hands together. As you can see, you have clasped
your hands together in many different ways. Some of you have clasped your hands
up like this, and some down like this.
Because everything is connected, and moves within a realm of subject
and object partners, there has to be spherical movement. It is because their
action takes place within the realm set by the standard of the two partners.
So, while displaying unique aspects, everything ultimately resembles a sphere.
Let us consider man and woman. While they always stand in relation to
each other, their actions are fundamentally different. As a whole, men are
bigger and women are smaller. Like the action of both hands in a relationship,
they make one. I’m saying that both are in action; from the moment they
collide, a new action of love is brought into existence. It doesn’t work if
each is alone. When there are two together, with a common purpose, the action
of love explodes at the contact point where each individual joins with the
other in harmony.
Then how is it that an explosive action enters through love? Physics
tells us that whenever there is movement, energy is spent. In thermodynamics,
the energy output is always less than the energy input. Considering this
principle, then, a very important question is how action can be perpetuated.
Therefore, when different actions come into contact with each other,
wouldn’t the magnificently scientific God consider how to inject an explosive
action? The action of love is the place of settlement where two can join
together and have a relationship. This is a fascinating topic. When the two
collide, they push and strain against each other through love. They go backward
and forward and all around through love. They push against and bang against
each other through love. I am saying that this is the expansion of continued
action, and the mainstream realm of action continues forever.
That’s why if there is a plus, there is a minus. How do the plus and
minus join together? The joining together is the very action of the plus and
the minus. The minus won’t move if there is a loss for itself. This is because
it seeks a standard that can be of benefit to itself. It joins with a plus,
creating a larger plus. It tries to progress, based on the desire to achieve a
greater purpose, toward the place of settlement of the highest value. So we
conclude it goes toward a higher dimension of love.
The ultimate purpose of all beings is God’s love
Today, the desires of human beings are fragmented. The economist is
interested in the economy, the intellectual craves knowledge, the politician
wants power. The desires of each individual, of families, of clans, all have
their circumstances connected with the past, yet they are pulled around
according to the situation. People are doing things, but everything falls
short. That’s because human desire has a fundamental problem: everyone demands
to be the subject partner. Each person is saying, “I am the subject partner,
and so you have to attach yourself to me.”
What is the malady affecting humankind today? Having no money is not
the malady. Lack of knowledge is not the malady. A particular social group
lacking sovereign power is not the malady. Rather, the malady is trying to draw
everything to oneself. When every individual insists on his or her own opinion,
the basis for the plus-minus ideal is nullified. Human beings have to move
according to the right action. Action has to perfect itself and proceed in a way
that can lead to engagement in another subject partner-object partner
relationship.
If every existence tries to center on itself, it will cease existing.
If it revolves only inside this cramped space, it will cease existing. It
confronts itself. The formation of the great universe becomes impossible. If
God exists, what would God think? He would say in order for each existence to
connect to the universe and continue living, it needs to live for others.
Everything has to go along the path of living for others.
Every existence is designed to live for a greater purpose. The
individual can advance forward by living for the family purpose, the family for
the purpose of the tribe, the tribe for the purpose of the nation, the nation
for the purpose of the world, and, if there is a spirit world, the world for
the purpose of heaven and earth, and heaven and earth for the purpose of God.
If we ask what God’s purpose is, the answer is that God’s purpose is love.
Everything is on the path of love. There is a flow of love, and everything,
beginning from single cells and microorganisms, is like a tributary that flows
to become a great river that’s connected to the ocean. Unless the rule and
content of this flow accord with natural law, it cannot go into the ocean. Because
I realized all this from a young age, I knew we had to have a new revolution.
And this great revolution is taking place now.
A child of filial piety has to walk the path of suffering. When he or
she follows this path, there has to be some stimulating source of power by
which he or she can overcome and digest all the valuable contents of the
ordeals and suffering. The subject partner that can take responsibility for
this is love. Even distinguished scholars cannot deny this.
What is a patriot? A patriot follows the same principle. When it comes
to loving the citizens and the leader of his or her country, a patriot is a
person who can unite the elements of the principle of love of the universe,
embracing the citizens. When he or she embraces the citizens with love, they
are happy even if they are roughed up a bit.
Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of person is a saint? There are many
patriots in each country. There are many great people in each country. So what
is the difference between a saint and a patriot or great person? A saint is
someone who loves all humankind, attending God. When it comes to loving
humankind, a saint takes the position of a standard-bearer. He or she leads
others to the path that is in accord with the great way of the universe. A
saint’s life doesn’t end there. Next, he or she has to become a son or daughter
of Heaven. What is the path of a son or daughter of Heaven? It is the path to
sort out the suffering of God and humankind and achieve the purpose of love.
What, then, is it that the Unification Church asserts? Each of you
must walk the path that follows the way of the original love of the universe
and then pour out all you have for your parents, your children, your tribe,
your nation and the world. You have to develop a higher level of love like
this. And in the end, all that is left is to occupy God’s love.
Seen in this light, it is only through love that unity is possible.
When you go to that place of love, you become one with your object partner of
love. However, when you center such action on your own mind and body, it
usually does not work very well. This is because of the Fall, which put human
beings out of order. Existential philosophy discusses extreme alienation and
anxiety, and the question is how we can overcome that. We have to overcome it
with love.
Our theme today is, “Today’s Intellectuals and Religion.” In your
position, then, what do you need to think about? No matter how great a scholar
you are, no matter what kind of world-level politician or saint you may be, as
a person who needs love, you cannot escape the conclusion that you need a
religion that believes in God. If you don’t need love, it is all right to
ignore the way of religion and the way of seeking for God.
You came here today, and if you consider my words and apply them to
your life, or to ethics and morality in society, or to each of your fields of
work, I believe that a new standard of ideals and happiness will expand to the
Republic of Korea and the world. It is with this in mind that I have briefly
spoken to you today. Thank you very much.
America and Religious Freedom
June
26, 1984
United
States Capitol Building, Washington, DC, USA
Senate Constitutional Subcommittee Hearing on Religious Liberty
Senate Constitutional Subcommittee Hearing on Religious Liberty
Honorable chairman, distinguished members of the Senate, ladies and
gentlemen:
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation to you for inviting
me to speak at this Senate hearing on religious freedom. I want to also express
my sincere gratitude, Mr. Chairman, for your support in favor of my appeal to
the Supreme Court. Your noble deed to uphold the principle of constitutional
rights of individuals will be long admired by millions of Americans.
Since the Supreme Court refused to review my case, there has been a very
strong protest by many members of the religious community. More than a thousand
clergymen, Jewish, Christian and Muslim, have pledged to commit one week of
their lives in prison with me in the name of religious freedom. It moves me
deeply. I salute these champions of religious freedom.
I feel this occasion is historic. I am not just speaking to the United
States Congress. I am speaking to history and before God.
God loves America. America’s greatness does not lie in her vast
resources or in her tremendous prosperity. It lies in the very spirit upon
which this nation was founded. That is the spirit of “one nation, under God,
with liberty and justice for all.” However, God’s Will is not just one nation
under God, it is one world under God. We are all brothers and sisters, one
human family. When we all recognize God as our Father, this ideal can become a
reality.
Without religious freedom, however, God cannot fulfill His ideal. The
nation’s founders understood that if you do not have religious freedom, you have
no freedom at all. They risked their very lives to secure freedom of worship.
Now, that freedom of worship is in danger. A blind spirit of atheism
and religious intolerance is found in America today, and this time there is no
other “New World” to receive us as pilgrims. We have no choice but to restore
America as the land of religious freedom. If we do not, this nation will
perish, and the world will perish.
I was called to come to America and carry out my mission
In 1971 God called me to come to America and lead a movement to revive
the fervor of Christianity and restore the founding spirit of this nation. God
has sent me to America in the role of a doctor and a firefighter. He has sent
me to bring about a dramatic spiritual awakening. The survival of the entire
world depends on America fulfilling its responsibility. America is the last
bastion of freedom. For the last twelve years I have given my heart and soul
and every drop of my sweat and tears for the sake of this nation.
In the process of fulfilling this mission, I have become controversial
and in some quarters unpopular. And I have been persecuted. However, I am by no
means the first religious leader to have experienced persecution.
Many of the major religious figures in the Judeo-Christian tradition
have walked this path of suffering through persecution. Today, I am honored to
follow the same tradition.
I believe that God’s hope is for freedom on the earth, and the
greatest threat to freedom today is totalitarianism, particularly in the form
of communism, which systematically opposes freedom of religion. Communism has
killed more than 150 million people. I myself suffered nearly to the point of
death in a communist prison camp. Communism is the worst inhumanity in the
world today.
Freedom has been retreating for the past decade. In 1975 freedom
retreated from Southeast Asia. Millions of people perished. Nation after nation
in Africa and Latin America has been communized. One-and-a- half billion people
have fallen under communist tyranny so far. Now Central America, in the
neighborhood of the United States, is the front line of the battle. I know that
the enemies of freedom will not stop until they achieve their final goal: the
conquest of this very nation, the United States of America.
Accomplishments during my twelve years in America
I supported Ronald Reagan for president because I hoped he would do
God’s Will to stop the spread of communism and truly bring this nation back to
God and to her founding spirit. It is disappointing that under this man, who
was elected with the tremendous support of the religious community, the state
is encroaching more than ever on the affairs of the church. For the first time,
ministers are being jailed. Truly, religious freedom is being dealt a
devastating blow.
In the last twelve years, I have done everything I could for America.
I have had just one goal in mind: to strengthen the moral fiber of America and
enlarge her capacity to fulfill God’s Will.
Through projects such as the International Religious Foundation, the
New Ecumenical Research Association and the conferences on “God: The
Contemporary Discussion,” I have sought to bring teachers of all faiths
together to better understand God and one another.
I have also worked to bring God’s Will into the academic world. The
International Cultural Foundation sponsors annual conferences on science and
absolute values, and brings scholars together in organizations such as the
Professors World Peace Academy, Paragon House Publishers and the Washington
Institute for Values in Public Policy.
In the area of cultural expression, I have endeavored to reinforce the
theme of reverence toward God. In the movie Inchon, for example, I
have tried to portray the historic importance of General Douglas MacArthur, a great
American devoted to God and humanity. It is vital for American young people to
understand this heroic figure.
Because religious ideals need to be expressed in service to humanity,
I initiated the International Relief Friendship Foundation and Project
Volunteer.
To work toward the liberation of all people from totalitarian
ideologies, I established the International Federation for Victory over
Communism, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, and CAUSA
International.
To set a standard of responsibility in the communications media, we
founded the World Media Association and News World Communications, both of
which publish several newspapers. One of these, The Washington Times, was created to
present an alternative view of the news to the people of the nation’s capital.
This project alone has cost our movement more than $100 million.
These projects have required a vast amount of financial resources, as
well as the hard work and loving sacrifice of committed church members. We have
poured several hundred million dollars into America, because this nation will
decide the destiny of the entire world. These contributions are primarily
coming from overseas. The United States has been a recipient of these funds,
not a source of them. I have acted in the firm belief that if America is lost,
everything is lost. There is no other country God can turn to.
Religious persecution in the courts of America
When you understand the scope of my work, can you really believe I
came to America to defraud the government of $25,000? From the very beginning
this was not a tax case. It has been an invasion by the government into the
internal affairs of religion. They chose the Unification Church because they
thought no one would come to our defense. However, this is where they
miscalculated. The religious community of America knows that unless everyone is
safe, no one is safe, that when one is threatened, all are threatened.
When the government abuses its authority, the consequences are
fearsome. It was the Roman state that crucified Jesus Christ. In this country,
it was the state that burned “witches,” persecuted Roman Catholics, shunned
Jews and prolonged black slavery. It was the state that allowed Joseph Smith,
founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, to be killed by a
mob while he was in prison. It is the state that is coming after me, and in the
process violating the religious freedom of everyone. We must stop this trend
now. If we do not, then who is next?
In the providence of God, the case of Reverend Moon has become a
rallying point for religious freedom in the United States. I stand convicted
for no other reason than my religious beliefs and practices. I am to be
punished for being who I am. This has shocked and awakened the conscience of
America. Many religious leaders and believers of all faiths have stood up in
outrage. They are registering their protests. Most important of all, they are
united. Their unity will ensure the survival of America.
The greatest confrontation in the world today is not the United States
versus the Soviet Union, capitalism versus socialism, or even democracy versus
communism. It is faith in God versus the denial of God.
The communist world, based on atheism, has failed to fulfill the human
dream. The free world, on the other hand, has become materialistic and has
forgotten God, and it is helpless in the face of the grave world crisis. The
world is dark with confusion. A new vision must emerge, a new worldview
centered on God. I am teaching that worldview, which is based on God’s heart of
love. I call it Godism. I proclaim that this ideal will provide a new solution
to the world.
Godism can unite all religious people and all people of conscience.
This worldview will bring unity among enemies and enemy nations. It will bring
true freedom of the human spirit. This ideal will usher in the realization of
the kingdom of God on earth.
This worldview, a system of thought comprehensive and electrifying,
has led many people to a personal experience with God. The effect has been so
dramatic that in some quarters it has been labeled “brainwashing.” This is the
reason I have been misunderstood in some circles of the establishment and the
media. The communists, who regard me as their archenemy, have exploited this
misunderstanding in their attempt to destroy me.
In spite of the difficulties involved, I am honored to dedicate myself
today to the preservation of religious freedom in this country. If I can raise
a beacon warning Americans of the danger that lies ahead, then my sacrifice
will serve a great purpose.
The issue today is the very survival of America and the free world. To
assure this survival, I am willing to suffer any indignity, to go any distance,
to do any labor and to bear any cross. I am even willing to give my life, if
that would ensure that the nation and world would survive and do God’s Will.
Today, I carry no animosity toward anyone. Jesus Christ modeled the
tradition of forgiveness when he prayed on the cross for those who crucified
him. I am upholding that tradition. I long ago forgave my accusers. I feel no
hostility toward the United States government.
Instead I pray for this country. I thank God that He is using me as
His instrument to lead the fight for religious freedom and to ignite the
spiritual awakening of America in this most crucial hour of human history.
Mr. Chairman, once again, I thank you for this opportunity. I would
like to conclude by saying, “God bless America.”
5
Let Us Bring Religious Harmony
for the Sake of World Peace
for the Sake of World Peace
August
14, 1984
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
The
Fourth Conference on “God: The Contemporary Discussion” and
The Third Youth
Seminar on World Religions (Given on Father’s Behalf)
Honorable chairperson, distinguished scholars and clergy, participants
in the Youth Seminar on World Religions, ladies and gentlemen:
Welcome to Korea, the site of the fourth conference on “God: The
Contemporary Discussion” and the third annual Youth Seminar on World Religions.
It is very appropriate for the God conference and the youth seminar to
convene together here in Korea. Korea has historically been a unique meeting
place of the world’s religions. Buddhism and Confucianism are deeply rooted in
Korean society, maintaining harmony with each other in the context of the
native Korean Tan-gun tradition and traditional Korean folk belief. This year,
1984, marks the two-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Catholicism and the
one-hundredth anniversary of the arrival of Protestantism in Korea, which
brought about the flourishing of Korean Christianity.
Within the culturally homogeneous Korean society, tremendous religious
coexistence and cross-fertilization have developed, and the precepts of these
diverse religious traditions are embedded harmoniously in the people and
society of the “hermit kingdom.” From this soil has emerged the Unification
movement, seeking unity within diversity on the worldwide level, striving to
establish a world of love, empathy and harmony based on the religious
affirmation that all people are one family under our common Parent, God.
To create a world that resembles this ideal, we need an overall model
or blueprint. An important Unification concept is that of a mature or perfected
person, whose mind and body are united. The highest ideals and purposes spring
forth from the mental and spiritual life of a person focused on God. The
nervous system transmits the mind’s commands to the cells and relays
information from the physical body back to the mind. When this exchange occurs
smoothly we say that the individual is in harmony. The mental and spiritual
life of humanity can be likened to the mind’s activity, and the economic life
of humanity to the body’s functions. God’s ideals, aspirations and love
manifest socially through religion. Theology, philosophy, art and all culture
revolve around this religious essence; their substantial reality in the life of
all people is their material base. Religious, theological and philosophical
thinkers can be compared to a central nervous system, transmitting,
interpreting and developing impulses from God to the whole body of humanity.
I consider religious leaders and scholars to be of crucial importance
for the betterment of the world and for the creation of a new cultural
revolution. Throughout history, such leaders have always been the vanguard of
culture, in the rise of Christianity and the world of Islam, as well as during
the Renaissance, the Reformation and the Enlightenment.
Today, however, along with unprecedented success in the realms of
science and technology, we have unprecedented problems as well. Religion often
fails to speak to the real problems of the modern world, and those taking the
lead in social change often act under the antireligious banner of communism.
However, communism practices violence as a means for change; it ultimately
denies God, turns against religions, and tries to limit and restrict our
perspective to the material world.
I am aware that many supporters of communism have high ideals and are
working beyond the scope of nationality, race and culture. However, their
energy and idealism must be complemented by thought and action based on God.
Therefore, the world needs religious leaders and scholars to be sacrificial
pioneers. The God conference, the Youth Seminar on World Religions, and all the
activities of the International Religious Foundation provide a forum and a
structure to help fulfill this ideal.
As individuals, please renew your dedication and use your skills to
help the world. As representatives of the world’s religions, please bring your
churches, mosques, synagogues, shrines and temples into a cooperative unity for
the sake of world peace and human freedom, centered on God. Many people
question what religions can do in this secular age. I answer that the world’s
religions need to provide a stable, universal foundation of values upon which
governments can build true peace and harmony. They need to provide a global
ethic that helps humanity fully utilize science and technology for the sake of
happiness, and helps us lift up, purify and share the world’s cultures.
The ideal I am espousing is nothing other than the kingdom of God on
earth. I see it as a realistic goal toward which we can work practically step
by step. Some people have been telling me that I am utopian. I recognize that I
am extremely idealistic, but I have no alternative. God has called me directly,
personally, to take on this task and responsibility.
I have been concentrating not only on teaching people about God’s
ideal; I am also promoting the accomplishment of that ideal on earth. For this
purpose I have dedicated all of my efforts in areas such as missionary work,
education, alternatives to communist ideology, the ecumenical movement and
social services. Among these, I put the greatest emphasis on the ecumenical
movement.
A major problem that humanity faces today is the lack of spiritual
unity, both within Christianity with its various denominations, and among and
within each of the world’s religions. Despite all efforts to the contrary,
divisions and animosities among various religious groups continue. Religious
wars are still waged, as they have been for centuries. In spite of the various
movements toward ecumenism, it remains true that religious arrogance,
intolerance and bigotry are still prevalent among devout believers. Thus,
although most religions have professed the same God and often even the same
views for centuries, followers of those great religious traditions have
continually persecuted and warred with one another.
We must realize that God is beyond denominationalism, doctrinal
exclusivism and factionalism. God’s purpose is, and always has been, to save
the entire world, not merely a particular race, nation or religious group. As
religious people, we cannot help God in the task of salvation when we sustain
fighting and animosity among ourselves. Many religious leaders are aware of
this; for numerous reasons it has been difficult to change that reality.
The essence of my teaching is that interreligious harmony is a
necessary condition for world peace. No single religion has manifested God
completely. Therefore, diversity and differences of religion have been
inevitable. Yet, as many great religious leaders have taught, because we are
all children of the same Heavenly Parent, we are all brothers and sisters of
the same one great family, and interreligious conflict and divisive hatred are
unnecessary.
In my years of spiritual search and struggle, I encountered God many times,
and I also spiritually encountered the founders of all the world's great
religions. I feel God’s continual presence and inspiration every day of my
life. Without God, how would it have been possible for a man born in an
isolated farming village in a small, oppressed and destitute nation to now be
able to sponsor and address this august assembly of the world’s religious
leaders? I testify that the teachings of the Unification movement, its goals
and all its projects are the result of God’s direction to me. They are not my
personal theory and activity, they are God’s.
The International Religious Foundation is planning to sponsor a
Parliament of World Religions in 1993. That Parliament will commemorate the
one-hundredth anniversary of the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions held in
Chicago in conjunction with the first World’s Fair. Prior to the 1993 event,
two preparatory meetings will be convened, one in mid-November 1985 near New
York City, and the other sometime in 1989. Each of these gatherings will bring
together more than seven hundred spiritual teachers, scholars, lay leaders,
artists and young people. It is hoped that the three planned events will lead
to other such programs in the future.
The 1993 Parliament of World Religions and the two preparatory
meetings are designed to provide a new environment for global ecumenical
contacts. The objective is to move toward discovering the universal principles
that underlie all life and to promote the fullest diversity of its possible
expressions. In so doing, the Parliament will seek to advance and develop
international peace and harmony for which the world yearns. Participants will
be offered an opportunity to share their perspectives on our present spiritual
condition and on the challenges of our present age.
The purpose of the Parliament will not be to legislate, either
politically or doctrinally; it will be to promote mutual respect among the
world’s religions and to foster interreligious cooperation on projects initiated
by them. The overall theme will be the renewal of spirituality and the
establishment of world peace under God.
I thank you for your participation. I hope this conference will be
centered not on human thinking about God but on God’s original ideal. I truly
believe that your studies and discussions will bring about tremendous progress
in realizing God’s ideal on this earth.
Thank you.
In the Hope that You Will Participate
in the Unification Movement
in the Unification Movement
February 28, 1985
Federal Correctional Institution
Danbury, Connecticut, USA
Letter from Prison to the American Clergy
Federal Correctional Institution
Danbury, Connecticut, USA
Letter from Prison to the American Clergy
Dear Pastors,
I send my sincere greetings to you and your congregations from
Danbury. I am Rev. Sun Myung Moon. You may be surprised to receive this letter,
which I am sending you from here in prison.
Revelation from Jesus on Easter morning at age sixteen
I believe you may have heard about the religious movement I founded
almost thirty years ago in Korea. What you have heard or read about it is, in
all likelihood, a distortion of the truth, tinged with ill feelings. This
misunderstanding breaks my heart terribly, and I very much want to resolve it.
But more important than that, and setting aside the opinions you may or may not
have about me and the Unification Church, I earnestly wish to discuss with you
my heartfelt views with regard to this United States, which is a global nation
and at the same time a Christian nation. I do not expect you to agree with
everything I tell you; all I hope is that you will carefully consider and
deliberate on what I have to say.
I was born into a devout Confucian family in a village in what is now
North Korea. When I was about ten years old, my entire family converted to
Christianity. My conversion changed me profoundly. I became attached to this
new faith and loved Jesus more than anyone I had ever loved before.
At the age of sixteen, I went through a singular experience. On Easter
morning, I had been praying tearfully for a long time when Jesus Christ
appeared before me and gave me revelations and teachings. He spoke a long time
about profound and amazing things. He said that God is sad because of humanity
suffering in anguish, and he asked me to play a special role in God’s work on
earth.
Many things have taken place in the forty-nine years since then. As I
continued my study of the Bible, Jesus imparted profound words that he wants
all people to hear and understand. As a result of teaching those words to
others, I was arrested several times, imprisoned, and even tortured severely.
For three years I was in a North Korean death camp. Most of this prison’s
inmates did not last a few months before they left as corpses, yet the Lord
protected me for three years, allowing me to survive extreme suffering. After
my escape, I again had the chance to propagate the Word to many others for a
number of years, and the Unification Church has come to have roughly three
million followers in more than 120 nations.
Today, God has three major headaches. The first is atheistic
totalitarianism, especially the expansion of communism. Communism is a false
religion, an institutionalized ideology that opposes traditional religions and
works to eradicate belief in God. During the past sixty years, it has taken the
lives of a staggering 150 million people. As I mentioned, I personally endured
torture and hard labor almost to the point of death in a communist prison.
Communism is spreading worldwide and is threatening to obliterate religion and
those who believe in God.
The second headache for God is moral decline, in particular the degenerate
state of young people across the entire world. The downfall of the traditional
family and the influence of a corrupted mass media lead young people to abandon
any sense of duty. Millions of American youth are losing faith in God, respect
for values, and even self-respect. Drug abuse and sexual immorality are
rampant. Young people represent the future of this world. If they are
corrupted, who in the next generation will believe in religion and serve God?
Last, what makes God most sad is the rancor and disunity within the Christian faith. There is only one God and there is only one Jesus
Christ. However, this day and age is inundated with hundreds, even thousands,
of competing Christian denominations. In some parts of the world, people who
claim to be Christians are killing one another in the name of God. In some
cases, churches live together in peace, but the power of Christian faith is
diluted and its impact on the world deteriorates as the days go by. The
Christian faith languishes and is unable to meet the challenges and address the
problems of this present world.
In the universal fight between the forces that are good, merciful and
just, and the forces of evil, God has bestowed special blessings on this
nation, the United States. He established the United States as the place where
Christianity is to recapture true faith and form families of the kingdom of
heaven centered on God’s love. He loves the United States exceedingly. The
greatness of the United States lies neither in its vast natural resources nor
in its remarkable prosperity. It lies in the very founding principles of this
nation. Brave men and women came to this United States to found “one nation,
under God, with liberty and justice for all.” The United States is the only
nation in the world where people from various ethnicities and backgrounds have
come together to form a harmonious whole. All people, be they white, red,
black, brown or yellow, are brothers and sisters in the one family of
humankind. We can realize this ideal when we recognize God as our Father.
The reason God called me to the United States
To resolve these headaches, in 1971 God called me to come to the
United States and guide a movement to revive the vision of Christianity. Following
Him, I spread the Word of God and stirred the American people in order to unite
Christianity, restore morality and destroy atheistic communism.
The United States is truly a nation chosen by Heaven, a nation chosen
as an example of Christian love and unity as well as a nation chosen to
sacrifice for and serve others in a world immersed in anguish. However, today’s
United States is at a perilous crossroads. On the one hand, there is the voice
of God, calling for the revival of Christianity, the restoration of
God-centered family values and morality, and resistance against atheistic
communism. On the other hand, a malicious intolerance of religion is also
rooted here. Throughout this great United States, people of faith are
continuously persecuted, fined, arrested, imprisoned and judged guilty.
Paradoxically, this great society is reviving the ideals of religion while at
the same time succumbing to the forces of evil and rushing toward atheism,
immorality and corruption.
You may be surprised to hear this, but I am grateful to God even
though I am in prison today. I am absolutely sincere in saying this. It is
because, through this difficult course of imprisonment, I have been given a
chance to say these words to you, to warn you about the crisis you are facing,
and to share with you the blessed opportunity that has been given us at this
historic moment.
I would like to explain to you very briefly how I came to be in this
prison. I don’t care about my own happiness and comfort, and if my imprisonment
can in any way help the Will of God, I could ask for nothing more. However,
what is clear is that the American government persecuted me and discriminated
against me. What we have is the American government showing alarming signs of
increased animosity toward the religious impulse.
The IRS indictment is an abuse of power
I will share something about my historic trial. When Unification
Church missionaries began to arrive in this nation, they set up a bank account
to receive donations from their countries. Following a time-honored American
tradition, the members asked me to manage this fund on behalf of the church. I
handled it transparently and did not in any way try to hide it. In fact we
deposited the money in a major bank in New York. No evidence suggests that the
account was anything other than a church fund used for church purposes.
Despite this, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) began to make
strenuous efforts to indict me. Caving to pressure from the public and even
from Congress, it launched a large-scale investigation. In the end, after
spending millions of dollars in taxpayers’ money, the IRS indicted me for not
paying taxes on the interest that the account earned. In fact, I did pay
personal income tax on the portion of the account that I withdrew for my family
expenses, but the American government ignored this. According to the
government, the total amount of tax I failed to pay was between seven thousand
and fourteen thousand dollars. Now, as I said, the custom of a religious leader
trusted to handle church funds personally is an old and honored one. Many
churches, from Catholic to independent storefront churches, follow this custom.
What happened here was that the government indicted a religious leader whom it
decided was unpopular.
If I were to expose all the abuses of governmental power employed to
persecute me, there would be no end to it. The people on the side of goodness
and justice are aware of this abuse of power and, despite the fact that the
Unification Church is controversial, they mounted an unprecedented protest
against my indictment and the guilty verdict. More than forty organizations
supported the petition I submitted to the Supreme Court as “Friends of the
Court.” Eminent organizations and individuals submitted sixteen briefs
expressing serious concerns about the government’s abuse of power to attack
religion.
The Friends of the Court that supported my petition include the
National Council of Churches, the Catholic League for Religious and Civil
Rights, the Presbyterian Churches of the USA, the American Baptist Church, the
National Evangelical Association, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference,
the American Association of Christian Schools, the African Methodist Episcopal
Church, the Christian Legal Society, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints and the American Civil Liberties Union, among others. These diverse and
eminent organizations spoke with one voice that if the IRS is allowed to
prosecute a minority church today, the freedom of all religions will be
threatened tomorrow. I am praying hard that the IRS’s abuse of power against me
and my chinch will gain the attention of the American people, who love justice
and freedom. And I request you to be a part of this holy endeavor to revive
this great nation and return it to its Christian founding principles.
We fully realize the importance of the United States and the urgency
of renewing Christianity and traditional values, and the Unification Church
movement is contributing toward this goal. Through projects such as the International
Religious Foundation, the New Ecumenical Research Association and conferences
on “God: The Contemporary Discussion,” we are bringing together theologians and
clergy from all religions in order to promote and further a shared
understanding of God and each other.
In addition, we are also bringing God’s voice into the academic world.
The International Cultural Foundation supports annual meetings on the unity of
the sciences and absolute values. We involve scholars in organizations such as
the Professors World Peace Academy, Paragon House Publishers and the Washington
Institute for Values in Public Policy in Washington, DC. The religious ideal is
manifested best in serving those in need, and we have begun enterprises such as
the International Relief Friendship Foundation and Project Volunteer. For the
work of saving all people from the ideology of totalitarianism, we have founded
organizations such as the International Federation for Victory over Communism,
the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, and CAUSA
(Confederation of Associations for the Unity of the Societies of the Americas).
In order to establish a standard of responsibility for the mass media, we have
founded the World Media Association and News World Communications. The latter
publishes several newspapers. Among them, we established The Washington
Times to present alternative proposals with respect to
national policies. This enterprise alone cost more than $100 million.
Innumerable projects to benefit the United States
These projects require hard work and sacrifice given through the love
of my church members, including the offering of financial resources. We have
invested billions of dollars in the United States. We did so because this
nation is going to determine the fate of the world. In terms of my movement,
the United States is a recipient, not a provider of funding. We are working
with the conviction that if the United States is lost, the world is lost. God
can depend on this nation and no other. Understanding the scope of my work, can
you possibly believe that I came to the United States to defraud the government
of a few thousand dollars in taxes?
I hope you and your congregations will henceforth participate in the
Unification movement. It is a joint effort to achieve the Will of God on earth.
I too am aware that the faith and practice of the Unification Church have led
to misunderstandings and misconceptions. I earnestly hope that the upstanding
people of the United States will hold constructive conversations with us in this
Unification movement. Surely we all desire understanding and cooperation. I
cannot explain everything about the faith of the Unification movement in this
letter, so I have asked the church leaders to send you videotapes and printed
material detailing our beliefs and practices. If you have not received this
gift yet, you will in the near future.
I hope you will take the time to evaluate this gift and to deliberate
on my words. Our fundamental mission is to bring the entire world to love and
unite in Christ, to restore the family, and to overcome atheism with a
viewpoint centered on God. If you are serious about these ideals, I believe you
will benefit from what we are sending you.
Thank you so much for reading this letter and for considering my words
attentively. Regardless of whether you agree or disagree with what I have said,
I pray with all my heart that we will love and respect one another and join
hands to serve the Lord. May the blessings of God be forever with you.
Sincerely,
Rev. Sun Myung Moon
February 1985
The Will of God
August
20, 1985
Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington, DC, USA
God and Freedom Banquet on the
day of True Father’s release from prison in Danbury
God and Freedom Banquet on the
day of True Father’s release from prison in Danbury
Honorable chairman, members of the God and Freedom Committee, distinguished
clergy from all parts of the country, ladies and gentlemen: I am truly grateful
for and humbled by the profound way in which you, representing all areas of the
United States and so many denominations, are welcoming me back from prison. I
would like to extend my sincere appreciation also to those of you who have
supported me during my court battles, in the filing of amicus briefs to the
Supreme Court, in the meetings and rallies for religious freedom, in prayer
meetings, in the Common Suffering Fellowship and in the CAUSA Ministerial
Alliance. Also, I thank you for your prayers and for the many letters you sent
me while I was in Danbury, which I will never forget.
God’s Will and the perfection of human
beings
I have suffered imprisonment six times in my life. As in the past, I
had moving experiences with God during this time in prison. I was not there
because of my personal actions or mistakes, yet I did not brood with resentment
or hatred for those who persecuted me, nor did I spend my time in prison
pleading my innocence. Rather, I dedicated my time in prison to prayer and
meditation to understand what America needs to do to fulfill God’s Will for the
world.
My entire life and ministry have been motivated by my determination to
relieve the great and long suffering of God. Since the world is ignorant of
God’s heart of suffering, my work and the work of the Unification movement have
long been misunderstood and we have been persecuted. However, I understand the
urgency of my mission before God and, despite the lack of understanding on the
part of my family, not to mention the general public, Christian churches,
nations, or even the whole world, this persecution has not really mattered very
much to me. Throughout my life, I have communicated deeply with God, and
through numerous spiritual experiences I have come to know His heart and His
love. I have always testified to this. To me, God is not a vague concept
residing in the realm of imagination. God is alive, and I relate to Him
directly in my heart. I experience Him in every cell of my body.
I know that I am addressing clergy who also have been participants in
the fulfillment of God’s Will. Your welcoming me here today, as you and I know,
is not a personal welcome for the individual, Reverend Moon; it is a testament
to that Will of God for which I have lived my life. Our common and utmost
concern is to do the Will of God. Therefore, I would like to share with you
some of my insights about God’s Will.
Our living, personal God is eternal, absolute and unchanging.
Therefore, His Will is also eternal, absolute and unchanging. When God created
human beings, He must have had a purpose and an ideal. God’s purpose and ideal
are to establish a world united through true love, with God as the Parent of
all people. Under the true love of God, all people would be brothers and
sisters living in one harmonious, worldwide family. God’s ideal, then, is the
creation of one world under God.
God, who is the essence of love, fashioned all of creation for the
purpose of love. An isolated individual cannot express love; it takes both a
subject partner and an object partner to express love. Therefore, God
absolutely needs an object partner whom He can love. God created the universe
motivated by love. Especially human beings, who are created in His own image,
as we read in Genesis 1:27, are the visible and substantial object partners of
God’s love.
God is the eternal, invisible and internal Parent and ancestor of all
humankind. Once Adam and Eve had perfected their character, they were to be the
eternal, visible and external parents and ancestors of all humankind.
The greatest, holiest love takes place when subject and object
partners unite through giving and receiving love, maintaining God at their
center eternally. In this realm of true love, perfect unity comes about
naturally, all life interconnects, and God’s ideal is realized. God’s original
Will was that His beloved children, Adam and Eve, would become the living,
visible reflections of their invisible Creator, and thus would share eternal
love, consummating the ideal of love and life.
It is commonly thought that the Creator and the created being can
never be equal. If that were the case, then God would never be able to fulfill
the ideal of love. God’s ideal of love was for His children, Adam and Eve, to
become His visible, substantial object partners who would become one with Him.
Indeed, as is stated in 1 Corinthians 3:16, God desires to dwell in us.
The ideal of love of the invisible God is realized when the essential
natures of men and women become perfected. When a person places God in the
central position and achieves complete unity between mind and body, then he or
she attains maturity of character and becomes a true object partner of God.
This means that he or she becomes an eternal object partner of God’s love, life
and ideal.
If Adam and Eve had attained this ideal as God’s true, substantial
children, they would have naturally created an ideal family, and from that
family an ideal society, nation and world would have eventually developed. As a
result of humankind’s complete response to God’s absolute love, everyone would
have attained the highest joy in life, the ideal of happiness, and eventually
the kingdom of heaven.
God created Adam and Eve on earth so that the kingdom of heaven would
be realized first on earth. After living on earth, the spirits of those who led
ideal lives in this world would go to the kingdom of heaven in the spirit
world, where they would live eternally.
All things are created in pairs and exist for the sake of
relationships with human beings. This enables all things to dwell in harmony
under the principle of love. With God’s love flowing through human beings, all
of creation participates in fulfilling God’s life and ideal.
When Adam and Eve were growing up, all things of creation essentially
formed a textbook of love for them, displaying an endless variety of
manifestations of love. Adam and Eve, representing God’s masculinity and
femininity, were to gradually awaken to love through their life within God’s
textbook of love, which is nature. They were to become perfectly mature and
realize the ideal of marriage.
That was God’s ultimate purpose of creation. God directed His love
toward the vertical relationship between Himself and human beings and, after
the perfection of vertical love, also toward the horizontal relationship
between Adam and Eve. God, who has
existed as the invisible subject partner ever since the beginning, was yearning
for someone who would respond to His love. He was waiting to meet His perfected
visible object partners, man and woman. How stimulating and fulfilling that
love would have been!
That moment was the very moment when God, the internal Parent, was to
have resided within Adam and Eve, the external parents, to be completely one
with them. In that moment, the ideal of love would have been accomplished. The
invisible Parent, God, would have resided in the visible parents, Adam and Eve,
and would have become the eternal Parent in the visible world. In this manner,
Adam and Eve were to have become the True Parents, the true original ancestors
of all humankind.
So precious was this true love that to violate such love was the
ultimate crime, a crime of universal magnitude. Immorality, juvenile
delinquency, the breakup of families, incest, homosexuality, and crimes
inexpressible in words, are the world’s reality today. God agonizes over this.
The ideal of creation is to achieve a perfect family, founded on noble and
eternal love, so how did today’s tragic reality come about? As the Last Days
draw near, the crime of the Fall is manifested clearly in society. We are
reaping what was sown.
I do not have time to discuss the details of the Fall, but I will say
that I struggled for years to discover the truth of the Fall, and I testify
that its cause was immoral relationships involving the first human family and
an archangel.
In the Unification Principle, Satan is not a conceptual being or
hypothetical entity. He is a real being, the very villain who destroyed the
ideal of love and shifted the human lineage from God’s dominion to his own
dominion. Jesus himself said very clearly, as recorded in the eighth chapter of
the Gospel of John, that the devil is the ancestor of humankind. The devil,
Satan, is the very adulterer who ravaged the ideal of love that God intended to
realize through Adam and Eve, the love that would have raised Adam and Eve to
the position of God’s own external self.
This understanding may be new to many of you, yet it is the truth. I
discovered it by enduring through hard-fought struggles in the spirit world, as
I sought for answers to the fundamental problems of life. If you pray seriously
and deeply, you will receive confirmation of the truth of these answers.
Then why has it taken so long for God to punish Satan for his crime?
Satan stole the ideal of love from God and controls humankind as a false parent
through false love, usurping God’s position. Therefore, God had to begin by
reclaiming human beings from Satan’s dominion by changing their lineage.
Because of the Fall, the relationship between God and us was severed.
Consequently, the righteous relationships between people, through give- and-receive
interactions centered on true love, was also lost. Harmonious unity among
people, based on true love, and the joy of life were destroyed, and people
became enemies of one another. The world became hell, filled with mistrust.
In the process of creation, God’s plan was to create men and women as
true olive trees and make the earth a garden of plenty. Instead, the Fall
allowed Satan to have dominion over the human ancestral lineage, creating a
wilderness of wild olive trees. God wants to cut the wild olive trees and
engraft them into the true olive tree, which is Christ. However, God cannot cut
and engraft those wild olive trees, which Satan possesses, without some
foundation being made. The very reason God established religion was to create
His own garden in which He could cut the wild olive trees and engraft them into
the true olive tree. On the foundation of religion, God would send the Messiah
and engraft humankind into His lineage through the Messiah, the true olive
tree. This is the essence of the messianic ideal.
From this viewpoint alone can we correctly understand the biblical
doctrine of rebirth. God pulls people away from the false dominion of Satan,
giving them rebirth through a love that is much stronger than Satan’s love.
Since all people are born from parents and ancestors of false love into a
lineage of false love, all people have to be born a second time, this time from
Parents and Ancestors of true love into a lineage of true love, becoming true
children and people of God. The blood of Jesus and the Holy Communion both
relate to the process of the change of human beings from Satan’s lineage to
God’s lineage.
All people have to be born again. This is the destiny of all fallen
people. No matter how difficult it may be, all of us have to tread this path.
Salvation cannot be obtained except through rebirth, being taken out of Satan’s
lineage and grafted into God’s lineage. Since we are born into Satan’s lineage,
the process of rebirth requires total self-denial, including willingness to deny
our possessions, our own tradition or culture, and even our concepts about the
world. God cannot recognize our possessions in Satan’s realm. We have to
renounce them to be born again. To engraft ourselves to the true tree, we need
to sever ourselves from everything else.
Jesus, who came as the true olive tree, is himself the True Parent.
Since he came as the True Parent to give us rebirth, he told us to sever all
our old relationships and attachments before coming to God. In Matthew 10:36-37
Jesus warned that a person’s enemies will be members of his or her own family,
and that a person needs to love him more than loving his or her own parents and
family. We can understand this in light of the fact that the family represents
the false lineage.
Christians are privileged to live and die for God and the Messiah
My dear clergy, our task is to learn about God’s Will and to carry it
out. We have to become men and women who are living in God’s hands. We need to
become those who are willing to respond to God’s call. We must never ask God
only for our individual salvation or personal heaven. As true Christians, is it
not our privilege to respond to the Messiah’s call and to live and die for him
and his cause?
Our religion and our denominations have to exist for the Will of the
almighty God, not just for the propagation of narrow views. God cannot reside
within narrow views. God is nonsectarian and looks far beyond
denominationalism. He is not confined within exclusivist dogmas. He is, rather,
a Parent of us all, and His boundless love makes no distinctions between races
or colors of skin. He does not recognize the walls of nationalism or cultural
exclusivism. He is trying His very hardest today to embrace all of humanity.
My dear clergy, do you think it is mere coincidence that in America,
the haven of religious freedom, a nationwide movement for religious freedom
flared up as a result of Reverend Moon’s imprisonment? Truly, this is not an
accident. This is God’s dispensation working behind the scenes. And would you
consider it a coincidence that America, as a nation that carries the banner for
the free world, and which has come to scoff at the real threat of communism, is
now becoming aware of the seriousness of the present danger through the CAUSA
Ministerial Alliance? CMA is a truly interdenominational movement, without
walls, which has spread like wildfire across this nation. Can we call it a mere
accident?
America is a nation founded on the spirit and love of God. Especially
after World War II, God raised up America as a leader of nations for the
salvation and unity of the world, based on the love of freedom. Internally, He
was preparing this nation for the Second Coming of the Messiah, and to be the
country that cares for the world.
Unfortunately, this country continues to ignore the monumental Will of
God. America is withdrawing more and more from its global responsibilities,
preferring to enjoy false comforts as if this nation were a world unto itself.
This attitude, of course, merely multiplies America’s problems, both inside and
outside its borders. Serious racial problems; deterioration of social, ethical
and moral values; decline of religious life and Christian faith; and the rise
of materialism and communism will not disappear just by ignoring them.
God called me to come to America because of these problems.
Christianity needs to repent with great anguish and unite. We clergy have to
reexamine ourselves and repent as well. We are recapitulating the time when
Jesus came to earth and called the world to repentance. That call is being
repeated now. We have to fulfill the worldwide mission that God has bestowed
upon us. Without question, America has to change. A new religious reformation
has to take place. Christianity needs to transcend denominationalism and ascend
to a higher dimension. We need to realize and consider seriously the mission of
Christianity to lead a supra-denominational cultural revolution on a worldwide
scale.
To commemorate this reunion tonight, we need to make the determination
to pursue the original path of Christianity. We have to march forward on that
path, that we might receive our coming Messiah and help fulfill the Will of
God.
May God's abundant blessing be with you, with your families and with
all the churches of America.
Dialogue and Alliance
November 16, 1985
Americana
Great Gorge Resort, McAfee, New Jersey, USA
Assembly of the World’s Religions
Assembly of the World’s Religions
Honorable chairman, scholars and leaders from religions around the
world, ladies and gentlemen:
I welcome you from the bottom of my heart to the Assembly of the
World’s Religions. Our gathering here is not an ordinary event. It is itself a
great accomplishment that we, from eighty-five countries and with such a
diversity of religions, cultures, traditions and nationalities, can come
together to open our minds, to harmonize with each other, and to share our
concerns about the future of humankind. I am sure that God also is delighted
with this historic event.
Humankind has yearned
for eternal true love, happiness and peace
We come from different religious backgrounds. Our answers to the
fundamental problems of human existence are not identical. Our understandings
of the causes of human suffering do not have the same frame of reference. Our
ways of seeking world peace are diverse. Yet we still have common ground. All
of us try to solve problems in the context of our relations with the Ultimate.
Throughout East and West, North and South, people living in the
situation of sin, disbelief and confusion have yearned for love, happiness and
peace that are true and eternal. They have been making every effort to overcome
the temptations that entice their evil desires and, by following their good
desires, to find the happiness with which their original mind will rejoice.
Although human experience throughout history cautions us that pursuit of such
ideals is rarely successful, people’s original minds are not likely to give up.
All humankind, irrespective of its diversity of nationalities and traditions,
pursues this ultimate goal.
If we human beings are not able to fulfill such a purpose by our own
effort, then we can depend only on the eternal, true, Absolute Being beyond
ourselves. We know that we are finite beings. Since we cannot determine our own
destinies, we are bound to depend on the Absolute to whom we ascribe supreme
power. We believe that since there is an Absolute Being who wills true love,
peace and happiness, all these things can surely be realized only with Him. We
need to know more about this Absolute, the source of the ideals that humanity
is seeking.
I have become familiar with the content of the spirit world through my
own spiritual experiences and through deep communication with the Absolute. I
have learned about God’s Will, love and heart. Religion is not merely truth or
ethical teaching; it is rooted in people’s original impulse to find that which
they can absolutely depend upon and relate with.
True religious intuition meets the Absolute and the Infinite. Through
this intuition, we can hear God’s call to each of us. Such a state of original
communion with the Absolute transcends any particular religious system or form.
Only in this state do humans reach perfection and happiness. This God-human
relationship is one and universal. Because the transcendental power is one, and
humanity’s capacity to enter into the relationship that it offers is universal,
the ultimate goal of human beings cannot be more than one. The goal of an
individual is one. The goal of a family consisting of such ideal individuals is
one. The goal of the ideal nation and world is one. All ways run toward God’s
ideal world of love, happiness and peace. The ideal of love, happiness and
peace is not possible for an individual in isolation. It can be found only in
relationship with another. Even the Absolute Being cannot fulfill the ideal
without relationship.
The ultimate goal of religion is to construct the ideal world of peace
If God is alone, who is there for God to love? In what is God to find
His ideal? In this light, we can understand God’s motive for creation. God
created humanity in order that He might realize His ideal and fulfill His love.
Only in human life in the world can God realize ideals such as love, happiness
and peace.
In this sense, how precious is the original human being! Human beings
are not on the same level as God. However, God and human beings are supposed to
be in a relationship and ultimately are to become one. In other words, God and
human beings are in a parent-child relationship. Just as God is eternal and
absolute, human beings also become beings of absolute and eternal value as the
children of God.
Furthermore, human beings are object partners for the realization of
God’s ideal. God’s eternal and absolute Will is consummated where He becomes
completely one with humanity. Thus, the purpose of human life is also absolute
and eternal.
God is eternal, unchanging and absolute. God’s purpose of creation was
also eternal, unchanging and absolute, and was to found one ideal world, united
through one purpose. Today’s world of sin, conflict and disbelief came into
being because humanity fell from the original way. God has worked through the
world’s religions to restore fallen humanity to its original state. The
salvation of fallen humanity will be completed by God’s providence through the
Messiah.
As God’s purpose of creation is absolute, the purpose of God’s
restoration providence absolutely must also be fulfilled. We cannot leave the
messianic hope of an ideal world only as a vague dream. We need to make it a
substantial reality in our lives. Likewise, the purpose of all religions is to
realize God’s Will in our daily life on earth. For the purpose of the whole
providence, God has been broadening the foundation of goodness through many
religions, each appropriate for its own age, people and environment. However,
the ultimate purpose of all these religions is only to realize God’s Will, that
is, the ideal world of peace and happiness. Religions need to be concerned with
God’s Will for world salvation more than with the salvation of the individual
or the welfare of their own denomination. I think that now is the time for all
religious bodies together to search again for the true Will of God.
As far as I know, God is not sectarian. He is not obsessed with minor
details of doctrine. We have to liberate ourselves quickly from the theological
conflict that results from blind attachment to doctrines and rituals, and
instead focus on living communication with God. I think we urgently need to
purify the religious atmosphere into one in which believers can have living
faith and every soul can communicate with God. In God’s parental heart and His
great love, there is no discrimination based on color or nationality. There are
no barriers between countries or cultural traditions, between East and West, North
and South. Today God is trying to embrace the whole of humankind as His
children. Through interreligious dialogue and harmony, we need to realize one
ideal world of peace, which is God’s purpose of creation and the common ideal
of humankind.
An interreligious movement and practical service
Respected representatives of the world’s religions, when we take an
honest look at reality today, we come to see that it is time not only for
belief but for action as well. Why do we find such serious problems prevailing
in our societies, problems including confusion in value systems, moral
corruption, drug addiction, terrorism, racial discrimination, genocide, war,
unjust distribution of wealth, disregard for human rights, and totalitarian
communism? These vices are the natural outcome of hedonism, atheistic
materialism and secular humanism that deny the relevance of God. All these are
the effects of the declining faith and the spiritual exhaustion of this
generation.
Who can take responsibility for today’s world? Can the military or the
politicians? Can businessmen or people with new technologies? Never. God is
asking religious leaders, today’s prophets and priests, to solve these
problems.
All religious people must feel responsible for the shaky spiritual
foundation of this generation and repent. Throughout the long history of
religion, we have not been a convincing witness for our living God. We have not
been sincere in the practice of love. Our past hypocrisy has allowed atheism to
prevail. We ought to feel deeply responsible for this.
Today God is calling us. All religious people, standing on the
internal foundation of deep self-reflection, must challenge the prevalence of
all evils and work creatively in order to realize God’s Will on earth. The
living God does not want to relate with us merely in the context of scriptures
and rituals. Instead, God hopes to dwell in the hearts of people who keep God’s
Will in their minds and live it in everyday life.
After long prayers and reflections on the future of the world and
humankind, I have begun to feel that God’s enthusiastic hope and the Holy
Spirit’s strong power are sweeping through the whole world. Today the world has
to be renewed. Religious leaders all throughout the world must join together
and encourage a movement of purification in every religion.
There needs to be repentance and the renewal of true commitment. The
world must change! There needs to be a new Reformation! The banners of “living
faith” and “practical faith” ought to be waving everywhere around the world.
Every religion must work beyond consideration of its own benefit to liberate
the world from poverty and disease. By the practice of love and the burning
conviction of faith, our witness will convince even atheists of the truth of
the living God. Only through a religious and spiritual revolution bringing
great harmony, love and compassion will we finally realize the ideal world of
peace.
The value of harmony between religious denominations
Respected representatives! In response to God’s sublime call, the
world’s religious bodies have to emerge from the quagmire of hostility,
misunderstanding and ignorance. With mutual respect and friendship they need to
build a large, cooperative community of religions. Then together, we will be
able to show our religious will in action and practice everywhere on this
planet.
Religion is not merely oriented to the world beyond. The earth is
God’s creation, and it is on this earth that God’s Will is to be realized. If
the kingdom of heaven, or as Buddhists say, Sukhavati, is God’s ideal
place, we cannot go there merely by hoping. Rather we ought to live for, love
and care for our brothers and sisters and the things of creation. It is through
relationships with others that we can realize the ideal.
Even though religion transcends ordinary social ethics and social
policy, we cannot ignore its function in society. Religious people ought to be
concerned with actual problems and apply God’s Will to their practical
solution. Moreover, religions need to stimulate spiritual renewal and give an
elevated value perspective to those in charge of politics, the economy, social
programs and education. People can solve the problems in their fields only when
the Holy Spirit enlightens their minds. God is calling for religious people
with living spirituality to uphold the truth of religion and to relate it to
the situations in their societies. People who are grounded in truth and in
living communication with God are bound to influence others and bring about a
revival of spirituality everywhere. True religions do not follow the trends of
the secular world. Emphasizing God’s Will, they enlighten the world and lead
the people, even in the face of opposition and persecution.
The movement for interreligious harmony and unity, and for living
faith, may go through a lonely path for some time, but it will soon receive
tremendous support from many fresh-minded people who see things from a
historical and global perspective.
I have been putting all my energy into reforming the world and
realizing God’s ideal on earth in accordance with the direction of God’s
providence. I have been mobilizing the total energy of the Unification Church
to work first of all for world peace through interreligious harmony. I sincerely
hope your religions also actively cooperate and join in this path, not because
I want to reduce my effort or spare the financial resources of the Unification
Church, but because I hope to see as early as possible a total mobilization of
spiritual resources and creativity from all religious traditions in the
direction of God’s providence. This path will lead to the realization of the
world of peace.
As you may know, the Assembly of the World’s Religions is a project
with historic significance. While even the secular world is seeking harmony
through the United Nations and similar organizations, how can religious bodies
fight each other? I have long been expecting certain leaders of the elder
religions to initiate an assembly of the world’s religions. After a long period
of waiting, I have initiated this project because I believe it must be done at
all costs. While this first event itself is a meaningful accomplishment, the
Assembly will, I hope, become increasingly significant with each successive
meeting.
I have three hopes for this Assembly. First, world religious
traditions must respect each other and at least work to keep in check any
interreligious conflicts and wars. Second, the Assembly will hopefully serve
the world by becoming a cooperative community of religions. It will hopefully
agree upon and make resolutions calling religious people to practical action,
encouraging all people to live by God-centered values, and fostering the
development of the human mind and spirit. Third, the Assembly needs, I believe,
to develop into an organization in which the major leadership of all religions
participate. The Assembly needs to lift up the highest values and purposes of life
and offer them to all religious people, all groups and all nations. Only in
communion with the Absolute and with love for one another can individuals,
groups and nations prepare for and become a part of the kingdom of God on
earth.
I hope all of you, as representatives of your religions, find
spiritual unity that can be the foundation for a bright future and for a new
religious reformation that can lead the world. Through presentations and
discussions, during plenary sessions or in committee meetings, in artistic
performance, meditation and prayer, please respect each other’s faiths and
contribute as much as possible to the harmony of the whole. Let us all march
forward to fulfill the world-historical mission of religions: the realization
of God’s Will on earth.
I thank all members of the Planning Committee for their efforts in
planning and preparation and all the staff serving the Assembly’s practical
needs for their hard work.
May God bless this historic conference and each of you
representatives.
The Fundamental Truth
January
12, 1990
Janggyo-dong
Hall of Religion, Seoul, Korea
Invitational lecture at the Association of Religions in Korea
Invitational lecture at the Association of Religions in Korea
I am grateful for this opportunity to meet all of you prominent figures
of every religious denomination. I believe that when religious leaders serve
their denomination, and when each denomination fulfills its mission, there is
hope for the future of the Republic of Korea. Nonetheless, there is no
religious denomination that can fulfill this hope on its own. The issue lies in
having religions come together in harmony. This is not just a religious
problem; it is a political and ideological one as well. In any event, humanity
is bound to head toward one destination in the end.
Problems encountered in life and the teachings of the saints
When we consider the external world, we see there are many powerful
groups that have been shaping the history of politics, economy, culture and
society. When we consider the internal world, there are the various religious
denominations. The leaders of these faiths are also all different, yet they
have the same responsibility to lead the world and guide the flow of history.
If you were to compare all this to a human being, religion is like the mind and
society in general is like the body.
Now, when we consider ourselves as human beings, a question arises:
when will our body and mind unite? We know only too well that there is not one
saint who has been able to confidently declare, “I have united my body and mind
as one through my doctrine. I have brought peace; I have ended this war between
my mind and body.”
We can see that the external and internal worlds are in conflict. This
clash is also apparent on the global level, where to this day the rulers of
nations in the secular world have all too often oppressed the religious realm.
The religious realm has suffered a great deal. In particular, religions in
their formative stages have been on the receiving end of the blows, though they
have not attacked the secular world. Religions grew as they received such
blows.
This conflict of internal and external is the fundamental problem;
hence the title of today’s address: “The Fundamental Truth.”
Born of the white-clad people of Korea, I am a person who has thought
and agonized more than anyone about the question of religion. Furthermore, I
have thought deeply about the problems of life and the human condition. Who can
solve the problems of humankind? People cannot do so by themselves. Then how
can they be solved? They can be solved through the teachings of the saints.
By the saints, I am referring to the leaders of the four great
religions. What did these founders center their lives upon? It was the question
of absolute values, which in turn was rooted in questions concerning the
existence and nature of God.
The difference between religion and philosophy is that religion begins
together with God. This is not the case with philosophy. Religion has a backdrop
of mystery and defines its purpose within an unfolding providence of God, the
Subject Being who moves history from behind the scenes. This means that the
founders of religions lived their lives together with God.
What kind of life is one that has begun together with God? Is it a
private life, a life centering on the family? Or is it a religious life lived
together with God and centered on the tribe? If it were the latter, would it
center only on the white-clad people of Korea? Is it a life centered only on
the nation? We can take this question to the level of the physical world and
spirit world, and heaven and earth.
Has there ever been a religion that advocated the notion of saving the
family? Has there ever been a religion that promoted the salvation of the
society, the salvation of the people and the salvation of the nation? Most
religions advocate individual deliverance. They say the individual needs to be
saved. They were begun centering on the individual. For this reason, the higher
the level of a religion, the more its doctrine separates believers from the
material world. It requires the believer to renounce the world. This is true
for Buddhism, and for Christianity as well.
What does it mean to renounce the world? When you are born a Korean, you
are born into a tribe with a certain surname. You are completely enveloped by
that tribe’s traditional and historical culture. To renounce the world means to
renounce your family, which is at the center of that culture. To leave your
home and renounce the world entails renouncing your nation, renouncing your
society, renouncing your family and even renouncing the parent-child
relationship within your family. This is a problem.
It is a problem because, while each of us can try to pioneer the path
of our destiny, we cannot alter that portion of our path that God has ordained.
Then the question is, what can possibly sever the God-ordained relationship
between parents and children? To attempt to change that fact creates a problem.
Even if a dictator were to try to educate parents and children for thousands of
years, saying, “You have no father! You have no son!” he could not alter that
relationship.
Where, then, lies the reason to renounce the world, leave your home
and renounce even the relationship between parents and child? Does the act of
renouncing the world suggest you just leave home, and still cling to your
relationship with your mother and father? Or do you renounce that relationship
and leave behind everything ego-centered, so you can achieve your own
principles based on a standard of individual perfection? It focuses solely on
the standard of self-perfection.
The origin of religion and our relationship with God
All religions are based on the standard of self-perfection. This is
why all advanced religions celebrate the solitary life. They urge you to
renounce your blood ties to your parents, and then they urge you to renounce
even your own descendants. This is true for Catholicism and Buddhism. One has
to renounce the world, one has to renounce the nation, one has to renounce
one’s family, one has to renounce one’s parents, men have to renounce women,
and women have to renounce men.
The question is how a religious denomination can find and establish
the doctrine, the logic, that explains why such ties need to be renounced.
Christianity is vague on this point, as are Buddhism and Confucianism. It is
said, “The four seasons representing the circle of life are unchanging heavenly
laws, and this is also the nature of human beings, who pursue love, righteousness,
courteousness and knowledge to follow such heavenly laws.” What a wonderful
saying this is! The Chinese character cheon in this saying
means Heaven. Even if there is a Heaven, if that Heaven is not one with which I
can form an eternal connection from the very beginning, I cannot serve it as
the ideal Heaven. From the beginning, through the middle stage and up to the
end, every part of that connection to Heaven must be eternal. Together with
that Heaven, I must be happy. It will not do for me to be unhappy. When you are
one with that Heaven, all existing beings will envy you, and everything will
uphold and follow you. You will not be limited by the particular circumstances
into which you were born, such as being a part of the Korean people. You will move
forward transcending race and philosophy.
In this regard, the founder of each religion initiated his ministry
when he began living together with God. When we consider the relationship
between the founder of a religion and God, the question is whether people ought
to follow God or the religions founder. In the relationship between the
religious leader and God, the founder needs to follow God. If that God is an
absolute God, then the religious leader ought to follow Him absolutely. We need
to know about the relationship between ourselves and this God whom we have to
follow absolutely, as well as the relationship between God and the religious
leader. The matter of how we can connect the relationship between God and the
religious leader and the relationship between the religious leader and
ourselves is not a simple one.
While pondering questions about the spirit world and the religious
realm, I came to realize that there is a mysterious world. If you ask whether
there is a God or not, the answer is, there definitely is a God.
Nowadays the world of relationships is a problem.
A household is composed of the relationship between parents and
children, the relationship between husband and wife and the relationships
between siblings. Beyond that, there is also the relationship between one
family and another. No matter how great a person is, he or she is at a
disadvantage if family relationships have been severed. What is the center in
the relationships between the individual and family, between family and family,
and between tribe and tribe? The fact is, human beings cannot leave the world
of relationships.
There is a saying to the effect, “When one’s home is harmonious, all
goes well.” For one’s home to be harmonious and for everything to go well, the
relationship between the grandfather and the grandmother needs to be ideal. The
relationship between husband and wife and the relationships between siblings
need to be ideal. It will not work if the grandfather and grandmother are happy
only by themselves, or if the husband and wife or the siblings are happy only
among themselves. Only when the grandfather, the grandmother, the parents and
the sons and daughters are all in harmony vertically and horizontally, from
front to back, and from left to right, can the home be harmonious.
It is difficult for the home to be harmonious. Why is this so? It is
because the body and mind are fighting each other within our individual self.
The thirty-eighth parallel is not the problem and the wars of the world are not
the problem. After all, what is the cause of war? The origin of war is found
within the self.
Religion requires a lifestyle of denying the desires of the body and
following the dictates of the mind
Humankind consists of men and women. And each of them has two sides,
mind and body. In believing in a religion, do you believe in it with your mind
and body or with only your mind? It would be ideal for you to believe in it
with your mind and body united. When they are not united, God centers first on
the mind, which is the subject partner, in order to bring them into oneness.
When the mind is said to be upright, it means it is vertical. You must
become completely one with God centering on the mind and then unite the body as
one with the mind. This is the task today’s religious believers need to fulfill
in the course of their lives. You need to live together with God and stand in a
position where you know the Will of God. In other words, you need to live
centering on the Will of God. However, the body does not follow willingly. Since
the mind is in the plus position, how nice it would be if the body would just
take the minus position. The body, however, tries to take the plus position.
Because both are in the plus position, they can only repel each other.
Then how can they be brought into unity? There are two ways of doing
so. First, find the fundamental truth, achieve an attitude of absoluteness with
a strong faith and an unchanging mind, and thus weaken the body. In short,
practice asceticism.
Is there anyone who likes to practice asceticism? Is there anyone in
this world who enjoys carrying out ascetic practices? Out of the thousands and
tens of thousands of practitioners, not one of them enjoys it. If there are
millions of Buddhists, would there be even one among them who enjoys practicing
asceticism? The answer is no.
This being the case, can the ideal possibly be realized by forcing
people to perform an ascetic practice? This would be self-defeating. Since it
is impossible to achieve the ideal by practicing asceticism even by force, the
notion that you can reach perfection when being forced into it is absurd. At
the same time, the life of religion is one of denying the body.
The second way is to center on the mind in the plus position. This
places the body in the minus position, and once the body is in the minus
position, there is no need to say they are to unite as one. When the body is
returned to the minus position, the body and the mind can be brought into
oneness.
There are some people who deny God. But what they are really doing is
complaining that God failed to create human beings in such a way that we would
not have to deny our body. Although we do not know the reason why, it is true
that human beings are disordered. There are Buddhist monks who, no matter how
much they cultivate their mind and recite Buddhist canons, cannot rid
themselves of their lust for meat. That desire is alive in them. You have no
idea how strong it is. No matter how much devotion they offer and how much they
train their mind, it does not work out well. The path they tread, and their
process of advancing toward that world, is set like a formula.
Then why do you need to make your body suffer through following a
religion? It is to weaken it so it can be made to follow the conscience. You
need to weaken your body and drag it around for about three years, until it
becomes used to such treatment. This is for the purpose of emphasizing faith
absolutely. You absolutely can’t think about anything else. Leaving behind your
mother and father, siblings, the person you love and the miscellaneous things
of the nation and the world, you have to try to train your body to be
absolutely submissive before the standard of morality and thus find the point
at which the mind and body can unite. All religions must teach this. Otherwise
development cannot take place in the religious world, and a revolution of
character cannot come about.
This is why you need to abstain from eating, practice other forms of
asceticism, and go out into the society to be persecuted and receive opposition.
In order to achieve the purpose of morality, no matter how much your
body clamors, complaining that it is on the verge of death, you must ignore it.
The life of religion is a life of self-denial through which you make your body
obedient before your mind and thus find your true self. Those religious people
who have not achieved this are frauds. Based on this universally valid
viewpoint, a person who says he or she will train his or her body to reach a
level that is higher than what is taught by the scriptures, in order to bring
his or her conscience and body into accord, is a true practitioner of that
person’s religion.
I am sorry to say this, but if Buddhist monks were to marry and have
sons and daughters, how difficult it would be for them to achieve a state of
unity in the world of the mind while caring for their family! How difficult it
would be for them to carry out all their family responsibilities! Don’t they
renounce the world and leave their homes in order to reduce such problems?
What is to be done after one has renounced the world? After a man and
a woman have fulfilled their goal and completely achieved the standard of
morality, they can become one. This is why in the Last Days the era of the
power achieved through asceticism will come to an end, and a time will come
when all those who have achieved the moral standard will marry as a matter of
course.
In the secular world, many problems arise because people marry in the
wrong fashion. That world has become a nest of demons, a nest of devils, a nest
of Satan. God will say to these people, “You accursed, you are following a path
that goes against morality, centering on earth-bound ethics, and so you will
come to ruin. In order to set you right, you need to have an example. Buddhist
priests ought to marry, and priests and nuns ought to marry, to set an example
for you.” Can such a thing be found in the scriptures? It is not in the
scriptures.
The four great saints are all leaders of morality. They are the
founders of religions. Centering on the founders of religions throughout the
course of thousands of years of history, humanity has become gradually
enlightened. Heaven, or God, is the Absolute God at the center of history and
propels heavenly fortune. Since the intentions of the moral leaders were good,
God established them and used them as models for the rest of us. Therefore, you
cannot say, “Our moral leader is God!” It is a serious problem when you say
your moral leader is the Absolute God.
A showdown with God to discover fundamental truth
Human beings began from a first cause. What is the first cause? The
name of that first cause does not matter. He is the one with the ideal that we
human beings yearn for. He is not a being who comes and goes and thinks just
any thoughts. Since He is the Absolute Being, the ideal He is thinking of is
also absolute.
No religious founder can be above Him. No matter how eminent a
religious founder or religious leader, or how great the power of a religious
believer to overturn the world, he or she needs to center on God. The person
will be in serious trouble if the focus is on the self. This is because human
beings are, after all, only resultant beings and not the Causal Being.
How did human beings, who are the second beings, come to be born? For
us, the first being is our mother and father. And our mother and father’s first
being is our grandfather and grandmother. This is the way it traces back and
upward. Ultimately, the grandfather and grandmother’s first being is the first
ancestor. And though we human beings may not know it, if there is a God, He
would be the one to whom we can trace our first cause all the way back,
centering on our first ancestor.
What is the Will of this God? Is it to establish religions and save individuals
and families, or is it to save the nation, the world and heaven and earth? At
present, there is hell on earth, and Heaven is in great anguish over the state
of the cosmos. Thus, the salvation God intends has to mean to do away with the
suffering of heaven and hell on earth and to build the kingdom of heaven. A
being who intends such salvation is a being of absolute goodness.
I have thought long and hard about such questions. I prayed deeply and
confronted the entire spirit world in pursuit of the fundamental truth of the
universe. And thus I found God. Then I challenged God in a showdown, saying, “I
have discovered You, and I am ready to die in pursuit of the truth. Please
teach me the fundamental secrets of the universe.” Going through terrible struggles,
I discovered the fundamental truth by asking God, “What kind of being are You?”
Today the question of whether there is a God or not is a global one.
From that question arose the materialistic interpretation of history, the
idealistic interpretation of history and the theory of duality. The question
can be reduced to: Which is dominant, the mind or the body? It has been
revealed that neither the mind nor the body is dominant, and that such a
dualistic conflict exists because the body and the mind are not united. The
democratic world is in a sense an extension of the mind, while the communist
world is in the same way an extension of the body. And they are fighting each
other. How can this struggle between the two be stopped? Unity between the democratic
world and the communist world begins from the mind and body unity within you.
While pondering such questions, I set as my motto, “Before you desire
to have dominion over the universe, you must first have dominion over yourself’
This was my first motto. Consider that even though every person and every
religious denomination desires to rule the world and heaven and earth, they are
unable to control themselves. Engaged in this struggle, I wandered and searched
for ten years. And I shed many tears.
You are taught that the duty of a filial child is to become absolutely
one with the parents. You are taught about the way of the patriot centering on
the nation. Filial piety connects to patriotism, and if you broaden it, it
becomes the way of the saint Are the religious founders you believe in saints
or sages? Jesus, Confucius and Buddha are all saints.
A true disciple is one who can receive love from a religious leader
From among each of the four great religions, which one can set the
standard of morality? There cannot be two highest peaks. Though you may climb
peaks in all the four different directions, east, west, north and south, there
is only one highest peak.
What are the traits of a true believer? There are many Buddhist monks
present here, as well as the high priest. How wonderful would it be if the
Buddha told you, “Your high priest is number one!” What would Buddha really
wish for? When you go to the spirit world, you do not need money. Nor do you
need knowledge. I have been there, and that is what I saw. You do not need
power. God can create money. He can even make a diamond as big as a star. He is
the Absolute Being, and the Great King of knowledge and power. He can transcend
the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, and exercise His power freely
and eternally. What then would He need?
Buddhist believers are those who have earned the trust of Buddha. Is
having his trust the best thing there is? It isn’t. In the end, where you need
to go is to the internal relationship from the external relationship. You need
to become the person who receives the love of Buddha more than anyone else.
After all, would you rather be a person who is trusted or a person who is
loved? A mother absolutely trusts her child. However, it will not do if she
only trusts in her son and does nothing else. She will be happy only if she
holds him in her embrace and breastfeeds him and loves him. It is her original
nature to do so.
That is why, as I have said before, there is a relationship between
the moral leader and the believer. It is a relationship based on the saying,
“When one’s home is harmonious, all goes well.” What is this relationship like?
A relationship centered on a doctrine is excellent. Yet the doctrine only
teaches you the path to follow. It teaches you what is morally right and wrong.
The Chinese character for morality do (道)
signifies the path you walk. It teaches you what direction to follow. What will
you do once you have arrived? What will you do when you meet Buddha and Jesus?
Everyone wishes to meet all the religious leaders. What will you do when you
meet them? Would it be nice if what belongs to Jesus also became yours, and
what belongs to you also became his? When all is said and done, it is about embracing
the faith. In other words, it is the wish of believers to be on an equal
footing with their leaders.
What will you need to do to be on an equal footing with them?
Centering on Buddha, would it be nice to have a relationship of niece or nephew
with him as your uncle, either on your father’s side or on your mother’s side?
Or would it be nicer to be in a master-servant relationship with him? If you
were to ask believers, “What kind of a relationship would you like to have with
him?” they will answer, “We wish to be Buddha’s sons and daughters.” That is
the ultimate conclusion.
The sons and daughters are the heirs. And they can live together with
him and go with him wherever he goes. They can participate in whatever he does.
In the parent-child relationship, when you are centered on love you are
entitled to the inheritance. One of the attributes of love is the right of
inheritance.
When a man and a woman are in love with each other, to whom will the
husband’s possessions belong? They will belong to the wife. Similarly, the
wife’s possessions will belong to the husband. For that reason, a married
couple with separate bank accounts can be said to be false. It is as if they
are prepared to pack up and leave at any time. Such behavior needs to be set
right, and set right at the root.
With respect to the relationship between Buddha and his disciples, or
if you were to ask Jesus, “What do you desire of believers?” they wouldn’t say,
“I wish them to work as my servants for generations to come,” would they? Christian
ministers in prayer say that they are servants of God. Why do they offer such
prayers? Are they satisfied only to be servants of God? Above the servant are
the adopted son, the stepson and the son of direct lineage. Since you recognize
three stages through which to climb from being a servant to being His son or
daughter, all other things being equal, wouldn’t you just want to establish
yourself as His son or daughter? Why would you opt for being His servant?
Reverend Moon is the philosopher of true love
If there are believers in Jesus among you, would you wish to stand in
a position quite close to him, like that of his sons and daughters, or would
you wish to stand in the position of a next-door neighbor? If you were to ask
this question of Jesus, he would answer, “What are you asking? Of course you
should wish to be in the closest vertical relationship, which is the
parent-child relationship,” not in a horizontal relationship. Why would you
want it to be the parent-child relationship? This is because it is a vertical
relationship. The husband-wife relationship is a horizontal relationship. Then
what comes first, the vertical or the horizontal? If the vertical comes first,
why is this so?
When all things in the world were created, the Creator created them
vertical while looking at the horizontal. That is why all good things have a
perpendicular orientation. Stalks grow perpendicularly. The heads cause them to
curve, while the stalks grow erect. Stalks include roots and bud stalks. They
are all perpendicular.
If the ancestors of humankind are the second cause, then the First
Cause, God, is in the higher position and human beings are in the lower
position. Under the circumstances, if you were to talk about the love between
God and human beings, such love is only vertical.
At this point, we can formulate a concept. What is it that can create
complete perpendicularity between vertical and horizontal? Knowledge is not
enough. You cannot go in a straight line with that alone; it makes you go in
circles. And money is not something that comes vertically down from heaven, but
rather cycles around on the earth. Not even power can be perpendicular. True
love, however, passes through the shortest route, which is perpendicular.
You have no idea how delighted I was after I discovered this simple
truth. You cannot explain the universe without this principle. What is true
love? It is a force that passes through the shortest and most direct route.
This is why if there is a true love that comes down from above, it can only be perpendicular.
If it were to swerve even a little, however, it would not be perpendicular.
Then it would not be following the shortest and most direct route. What could
possibly achieve the perpendicular, which involves the shortest route in the
universe? It is only true love.
Nowadays, I have become famous worldwide by talking about true love. I
have come to be known as the philosopher of true love. When their beloved child
is in danger, would the parents try to save the child by going in circles? They
would travel by the shortest route to save the child’s life, even at the risk
of their own lives. This is in itself a truly great gospel. What is the center
of the universe? What is that which can travel the shortest and most direct
line to create perpendicularity? Whatever that is, the world needs to place it
as the central value and determine locations in relationship to that point.
Centering on that perpendicular line, one would determine whether one is to the
east, west, south or north.
Perpendicularity has no meaning in and of itself. It is a term that
can only be used on the premise of the horizontal. The word “above” is not
centered on itself; it first takes below into account. The word “right”
implicitly acknowledges the fact that there is a “left.” Similarly, you cannot
use the term “woman” if only women exist. The use of these terms without their
counterparts would be confusing. The term “man” is the primary, decisive factor
that clarifies the use of the word “woman.” These words are used on the basis of
their relationship.
The example of the child in danger shows us that if you have to find
the most direct, perpendicular line in the universe, you cannot do so with
knowledge alone. You cannot find it with power alone. And wealth will not lead
you to it. With love, however, it is possible. Since God is the Absolute Being
and His love is also absolute, that love is absolute truth and that love
creates the shortest route. This is the fundamental truth.
The origin of the universe is love, life and lineage
A person who studies philosophy reads books and ponders the question,
“Why was I born?” Women may think to themselves, “I am vexed and mortified from
being ill-treated by men. I wish I could have been born as a man so I could
take revenge on them. I wish to transmigrate and be reborn to do so.” However,
they should not think like that.
Who is the cause for women and men, human beings in general, to be
born? Children are born because of their parents. Why do parents exist? They
exist because of their children. The term “parents” presupposes the existence
of children. Similarly, the word “children” is premised on the word “parents”
as a prior condition. Relationships are formed based on such prior conditions.
No relationship is formed centering on one’s own self. Men were born because of
women. To become a true man, one has to first become a true son. To become a
true son, one has to become a filial son. Next, one has to meet a true woman
and they have to become a true husband and wife. In a true couple, the wife
represents women and the husband represents men. They are the representatives
of all men and women in the world. The animal kingdom has males and females,
and the world of atoms is made up of positive and negative particles. Everything
in the universe exists in pairs. And all males and females multiply and live
centered on love.
Buddhist priests may say, “This is a serious problem, since I am not
even thinking about forming a relationship with a woman.” When they go to the
heavenly world they will see the repercussions. If you were born as a man, why
were you created in such a way? Was the convex created for the sake of the
convex? That fundamental question arises in the context of my logic. The convex
came to be because of the concave. In the same way, was the concave created
because of the concave? It came to be because of the convex. This is the
principle of heaven and earth. Oriental philosophy talks about all things
existing as positive and negative, and that positive and negative need to come
together or else they remain incomplete. Then through what can positive and
negative be brought together? It is through love. This being the case, what is
the reason for which a man was born for a woman? It is for love. The love of a
man does not lie with another man but lies with a woman. And the love of a
woman lies with a man. One does not possess love by oneself.
The basis of the universe is love, life and lineage. Without them,
human beings cannot feel love. God is the Subject Being of love, the Subject
Being of life and the Subject Being of lineage. We also have these three, yet
we cannot realize them of our own accord. Once our object partner appears
before us, however, we feel the resonance of love. Our life writhes within us.
Our blood is stirred. Whom do we take after when this happens? It cannot happen
without an origin.
In light of this, God is the same. God also has love, life and
lineage. What does it mean to become mature? One meaning is to yearn for love
from the opposite sex. When this is consummated, the entire world is
encompassed in it. Anyone who experiences love for the first time becomes like
a poet filled with inspiration and intoxicated by that love. During
adolescence, there is not one person who does not become lyrical from love.
If you are a man, you would think, “I represent the male sex,”
wouldn’t you? How can you do so? Can you do so by studying, piling up money or
amassing power? That will never happen. However, if you, among all men in the
world, can stand as a representative who is second to none when it comes to
love, all men will shout, “Hooray!” for you. If you have become the
representative of love, everyone will cheer for you, regardless of whether they
are good people or bad. The same is true for women.
Human beings desire to stand at the very top. What is this desire
based on? It is not money. It is love. Men were born for women, and women were
born for men. That is why God has exchanged the ownership of their most
precious parts. If the man is the master of the woman’s love organ, then who
would be the master of the man’s love organ? The woman would be the master. And
if she is the master, by what right can she claim it? She claims it by the
right of queenship. She does not do so as the wife of a man who lives in a
shabby cottage. She claims it as the master who represents the queenship of
love.
Only when you get married with such thoughts in your mind can the
earth tremble with drums beating with joy as the wedding ceremony is held.
Otherwise, you do not know the world, and then what will become of you when the
dark night comes? These words have never been said in history, and Reverend
Moon is the one saying them. Have you ever heard such words? You cannot find
them in the Buddhist scriptures.
Why do men and women marry? It is because of love, and this love is
absolute and true. The parent-child relationship cannot be severed or altered
by anyone. It is absolute, and the love that flows in it is absolute. If that
relationship is absolute, are the mother and the father themselves also
absolute, or are they relative? They need to be absolute. Since the
relationship between the mother and father and the sons and daughters is
absolute, even if the mother and father were to leave the family, the sons and
daughters could not leave. Nowadays, however, there are families where the
mother and father leave, abandoning their children.
For a husband and wife to live together, there needs to be absolute
love. Nowadays, however, there are couples who get a divorce before a week of
marriage has passed. Are such couples true or false? They are false couples.
You feel good when you are told you were born because of love. Buddhist priests
have become highly virtuous in the Buddhist realm of Korea through their life
of devotion, yet don’t even they miss the embrace of their mothers and fathers?
They never forget it. This is something that cannot be altered. A part of their
heart wishes to find their way back to their parents. Why is this so? It is
because love is the root. Since love was the motive that gave them birth, the
process that unfolds cannot be completed unless it passes again through the
relationship of love.
Then who is God really? He is our Father. In Buddhism, we do not find
a personal God. How could we possibly discover a personal God if we only debate
the unitary method of all phenomena in the universe? How could we possibly find
this God who can also feel the emotions connected with affection, knowledge and
righteousness, both internally and externally? What would the parents of a
loving, devoted son do if their son returned to them? Thinking nothing of
whether their son is a highly virtuous priest or a moral leader, they will
exclaim, “Oh, my son!” and their faces would glow in delight.
Let us return to the root. We will be in serious trouble if we love
only for ourselves. The universe does not welcome that. If we love only for our
own sake, it is a complete disaster.
God, the basis of the universe, is the Absolute Being. If you were to
penetrate to the purpose of God’s creation, you would come to realize that the
God you believe in is a greater being than you ever imagined. What is that
indisputable thing that the Absolute Being can believe? God also needs absolute
peace and absolute happiness.
Then what can bring about such absolute peace and happiness? Is it
money? He can create as much money as He likes. Is it knowledge? The omniscient
God is the great King of knowledge. Is it power? God is omnipotent. Then what
would it be? It is only love. It is true love that even the Absolute God
cherishes without question.
No matter how much power God has, when He meets His sons and daughters
of true love, He says, “I will give you everything I own.” A true husband says
to his wife, “I will give you all I have.” It is not true love if you say,
“What is mine is mine.” You need to completely turn around in order to give as
well as receive. This is what caused God to create heaven and earth in the
first place.
Christian ministers say, “The Creator is holy and the creation is
lowly” They say this only because they don’t know any better. Such words result
in denying that God is a God of love. Be it the love of God or the love of
Jesus, the word “love” cannot be meaningful without a relationship. Who is God’s
object partner? It is said, “Of all the creation, humankind is the most
precious.” This is only too true.
Why did God create heaven and earth? It was because of love. The way
for God Himself to establish that ideal love was by investing Himself thoroughly
in humankind and creation. God needed to invest Himself completely. God had to
invest more than 100 percent, even 120 percent, of Himself.
Therefore, people who live with true love cannot be dominated, no
matter how much they are persecuted, because they are connected to the source
of the original nature that can invest 120 percent, and even as much as several
hundred percent, of themselves.
Even if a dictator devastates an era, the world revives again. This is
akin to the feat that, no matter how old your mother and father are, they
always rekindle their love for you. Regardless of how much the dictator
oppresses, the world revives, transcending history, and moral authority is
reestablished with dignity. Similarly, the world may persecute moral leaders in
their time. Subsequent history reveals their greatness, once an environment
develops in which what they have invested can be reclaimed. And so society
often honors them after their time.
God is a personal God, so if you were to ask whether God has a body
and a mind, the answer would be yes. If you were to ask if God has love, the
answer would be yes. And if you were to ask if God has life and if God has
lineage, the answer to both would be yes. And yet, all these things cannot come
to be by themselves. They need an object partner. Since God is vertical, He
tries to make a connection centering on the vertical standard. We grow up in
the position of the children, which is also a vertical orientation, and become
husband and wife. And then we come to learn everything about the world. Thus,
we come together as one. Where do we go to unite as one? We go to the vertical
orientation. That is the position where the sons and daughters are, and also
where God has entered and will remain.
It is the chord in a circle. Becoming the reduced versions of the
first quarter and the last quarter of the circle, Adam and Eve come together in
a united form. In other words, they become like the bones and the flesh. This
is why the title “Heavenly Father” cannot be established if there isn’t a
relationship of lineage. If you ask who God is, the answer is that He is our
Father. He is our vertical Father centered on true love.
If Adam and Eve had not fallen and instead reached perfection, God
would have dwelled with them at that very place of true love. If Adam and Eve
had married and become one horizontally as husband and wife, the vertical God
would have come down to them. He would have carried out a powerful motion by
pushing His way down. Everything is created in such a way to exist by engaging
in spherical action. Therefore, if you were to wonder who your body and mind
resemble, you would get the answer that they resemble God.
Then would the mind and body of God fight like those of fallen humankind?
They would not. Then why do human beings fight? It is because they are broken.
They have a terrible flaw. This is what Christianity calls the Fall. What kind
of a flaw is it? You can live if one of your arms has been cut off. You can,
yet you can’t truly live if the order of love is destroyed. This is what God
hates most.
After they fell, Adam and Eve covered their lower parts. This is the
problem. God is our vertical Father of true love, the Creator, and if human
beings had not fallen, their vertically directed love would have been at right
angles to the horizontal. For men as well as for women, the path that leads to
true love is the shortest and most direct route. The true love path, which runs
through heaven and earth, is the shortest route and so it is perpendicular and
at right angles to the horizontal. And in terms of a sphere, if you ask where
the prime position is, the answer is that it is at the very center.
You desire to become the central figure of all creation. Why is this
so? It is because it is only when you are at that center that you can come in
touch with God’s love. What happens when you come in touch with God’s love? God
becomes yours, and everything that belongs to Him belongs to you.
Why do men and women marry? It is because of love. What are they
trying to do by loving one another? Ultimately, they are trying to go to the
center and form a relationship of love with God, thus making Him theirs and His
love theirs and His possessions theirs. Therefore, the right of inheritance is
connected centering on love. Next comes the right of cohabitation, by which
they can live together for all eternity.
Accordingly, you can reason that there is eternal life where true love
moves. Where is eternal life? The eternal life of true love is in that world
where you breathe the air of love. The being “I” is the one who has inherited
love through parents of love. That is why there is not a man or a woman who
does not possess love. Whether you are a man or a woman, you have inherited the
flesh and blood and the life of your parents, so all of you have love, life and
lineage.
What is the mind? It is the internal “I” that has been inherited
through the love and lineage of the vertical God. The internal “I” is the
vertical “I.”
Then what is the body? If “I” had not fallen, the “I” who would have
inherited the fundamental, originally created ideal would have stood at right
angles to the love of God. If I am born inheriting the love, life and lineage
of the unfallen True Parents, I would become a person of both the body and the
mind. The one would have been the character centered on the internal God of the
mind, and the other would have been the character centered on the external
parents of the body. At that place, the two would have formed a compound,
united realm of a man and a woman centered on love, life and lineage. Since in
this way the mind resembles God, the mind is said to be the internal “I.”
When I desperately prayed to ask what the secret of the universe is,
the answer that came was simple. It is the parent-child relationship. If that
parent-child relationship is literally the relationship between parents and
their child, it can also be found in the fallen world, a world where parents
sometimes sell their children and children kill their parents. Then what kind
of a thing would be this parent-child relationship that is the secret of the
universe? In terms of the sanctity of love, it would be the same as the ideal
relationship between husband and wife.
What is the Human Fall? It was the stealing of that which is most
precious to God. This act was committed by the devil. He stole and defiled
God’s precious love, life and lineage. This is why, throughout the historical
eras, what God hated most was the lustful act of the Fall. Why did Rome come to
ruin? It was not destroyed by outside forces invading. It was because of the
promiscuous culture within. The devil sowed evil through lust. If populations
across the world sail by the winds of obscenity, the iron rod will strike them.
When a religious denomination falls into such a state, it falters and
decays, and when a nation falls into such a state, it also falters and decays.
And when history thus goes wrong, its direction becomes perilous. Who brings
this about? It is actually not people who make this happen. Nor is it the
nation. Such a thing comes about because God dislikes sexual promiscuity.
That is why I am saying we need to find a true religion. What all
religions are trying to find is the true God. The God who has carried out
salvation until now is not the ideal God. He is not the God who can educate and
guide moral leaders.
If you were to ask God what He would like to live with, He would say
He wishes to live centered on love. What love would this be? It would be the
love that is completely one, with mind and body at a perfect right angle. What
would be the focus of God’s mind? It is true love. Then what is true love? It
is the love that sacrifices completely and that invests 100 percent and then
forgets having done so. Otherwise, do you think God could have observed the
wrongdoings of humanity throughout the historical ages until now and endured
that? If He had been like the people in the world, He would justifiably have
killed us all.
Only one aspect of true love remains in the fallen world. The only
vertical standard left is parents loving their children in place of God. This
is why the providence of salvation is possible.
Where is happiness? It is in your mind. Then, what would God Himself
desire to live for? He desires to live for true love. He desires to live
together with men and women of true love. Parents desire to embrace all their
children in their bosom. Similarly, God desires to live on this earth, holding
on to His sons and daughters of true love.
The purpose of God’s salvation of humankind
Buddhist priests have raised a clamor, saying Rev. Moon claims he is
higher than Buddha, Jesus, Confucius or anyone else for that matter. However,
has there ever been anyone among the religious founders who has worked as much
as I have in a lifetime? Despite opposition, I laid foundations in dozens, even
hundreds, of nations. If you think about this one lifetime of mine, you will see
there is no one who has worked as much as I have.
If I had done so with human energy alone, I would have been long dead
by now. That would have happened if I had worked at all to satisfy my own
greed. The course of the Unification Church, which is a path of goodness, is
one that is centered on the ideal through love. It is not love merely on the
individual or family level. The Unification Church’s view of love is
“perpendicular.” This perpendicular view of love changes the philosophical
view. It is a horizontal love that has a perpendicular perspective. Because I
know about this, I can transcend peoples and races.
The members of the Unification Church, regardless of their nationality
or race, are happy when I advise them to marry someone of another race or
nation. Why is this so? It is because they understand that doing this is an act
of reclaiming the brothers and sisters they lost thousands of years ago. The
members come to realize that other members are their own brothers and sisters.
And so the members sympathize with each other, asking how much they have
suffered because of the color of their skin, and cling to each other and weep.
Their meeting starts out with such weeping, and they cannot forget this
experience. What would make them act like this? It is true love. This is what
the Unification Church is like. I am an intelligent person. I have met and held
discussions with the most prominent people in the world and won them over. This
is why religious leaders of the world respect me.
An illogical doctrine is useless in the twenty-first century. In other
words, a religion contrary to logic and not beneficial in real life is useless.
The members of the Unification Church may seem naive, but in reality they do
not take things at face value; they look deeper. They have serious discussions
about God and also God’s heart.
Since God’s goal is the salvation of the world, God endeavors to find
His people even if it means sacrificing the family. God tries to save the world
even at the risk of sacrificing the nation. God tries to liberate all spirits
of all generations who have gone to the spirit world, even at the risk of
sacrificing this earthly world. And after that, God Himself needs to be
liberated.
I have willingly shouldered the cross because I know this to be true.
This man standing before you has undergone myriads of hardships for forty
years, saying to himself, “In the religious world, the person who knows this
truth will bear the cross.” When you see my passion and vigor, you will see
that they are more than enough to stop all heaven and earth. From the moment I
learned about the Will of God, I have continually advocated that we need to
save the world, even if it means having to sacrifice the Unification Church and
all religions. This is why I have invested huge sums of money, which amount to
hundreds of times more than the budget of the Unification Church, to carry out
the interdenominational movement. Thus on the world stage, I have made a
religious foundation and have been investing vast amounts of resources in it
The Unification Church members support and carry out this work by following my
model of carrying the cross.
I invest for the world. This is because I know that if I invest in the
same way God does, the spring days of revival will come and the ideal world as
originally intended by God will dawn. Such a world is a place where we can
dance with joy centering on the jubilant ideal of love. To carry out this work,
someone has to bear the cross for humanity, be it in the east, in the west, at
home or anywhere else. Otherwise, we cannot purify the filthy water in the
drainage ditch. The members of the Unification Church are people who live with
faith in this truth.
I set before you the paths to prosperity or destruction; where you go
is determined by whether you live for the sake of others or not. When you
consider input and output of energy in the realm of natural science, you see
that input is always greater than output. However, in the world of true love
output is always greater than input. Because of love, you can rescue a world
that is in decline. Only when you inherit the tradition of true love, which is
based on living and sacrificing for the sake of others and on a heart of
unconditional love and service, can this world’s decline be brought under control.
This is the rule of Heaven.
The path of living for the sake of others as well as the path of love
of the dutiful child is the path of the love of the patriot and the path of the
love of the saint. The love of the saint is love for humanity. Saints know how
to love heaven and earth and how to uphold the laws of the heavenly palace.
They are able to serve God with all their heart. This is the vertical position
you must hold on to.
Without learning about the way of the saint and the way of God’s love,
we cannot find the standard of peace for all religions. Isn’t this the goal of
the Association of Religions in Korea?
With these words, I would like to conclude my address. Thank you.
Bequeathing the Tradition of True Love
August 16, 1990
Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport, Burlingame, USA
Second Assembly of the World’s Religions
Second Assembly of the World’s Religions
I would like to extend a heartfelt welcome to all of you at this
Second Assembly of the World’s Religions, where we will discuss the
transmission of our religious heritage to our youth and society.
In this time of grave significance, a time of transition in human
history, I am convinced that all of us, as religious leaders, feel the
dispensational call of duty, and as I stand here I am brimming over with
recollections and expectations. As we are only too aware, the founders of all
the great religions suffered due to lack of understanding by the people of the
world. They endured extreme persecution. In pioneering the way of truth, they
had to overcome physical and spiritual opposition, and even encounter death.
Yet, despite their great accomplishments, the paths actually taken by
religions constantly diverged from what the founders originally intended.
Religions have often fallen prey to divisions, contradictions and disharmony
within themselves, and have even fought one another. In today’s world, wrongful
religious zeal and narrow-mindedness continue to induce antagonism and hatred.
Furthermore, faith often has been espoused as a formality yet disregarded in
practice. This has given rise to social problems. These are clearly not the
true objectives of religion, and we must not bequeath such a mistaken tradition
to our descendants.
Then what is the true purpose of religion? What is the correct
tradition to bequeath?
In order to understand the purpose of religion, we first need to
understand God’s ideal for the creation. For God, who is absolute and eternal,
why was creation necessary? What was it that God needed absolutely? Did He need
material goods, knowledge or power? Those have been available to God at all
times, and He can regulate them as He wants. By contrast, true love can be
expressed only with a reciprocating partner. Without a counterpart, even God
cannot express love. God created the world to realize His ideal of true love.
As we observe the mineral, plant and animal kingdoms, we see that they
are created with relationships between pairs of subject and object partners
that can respond to each other in harmony, based on love. Such relationships
are found on each level of the creation. Human beings are at the center of the
creation and were created to be at the highest level, the closest to God. Human
beings are the partners of God’s love. Thus, we are the object partners of
God’s true love, and without us God’s goal of true love cannot be accomplished.
God established His true love as the highest and absolute value, and that love
is His ideal for the creation. Even the absolute God Himself likes to
absolutely surrender to true love. From this perspective, we can readily see
how high is the value of each person, as God’s own object partner of true love.
God originated His ideal of creation with love for the sake of others.
He gives and gives, without even remembering that He gave. Through this
process, He actualizes true love. God began His creation by investing without
limit.
All people are created so that they can live in harmony eternally
through God’s principle of investing for the sake of others. Man came into
being for the sake of woman, and woman for the sake of man. Based on God’s
ideal for the creation, which is the giving of true love, both man and woman
are born to give love and become husband and wife. By doing so, they become the
object partners of God’s vertical love. This is the very purpose of their existence.
Men and women who are about to be married would like their spouses to
be better than themselves. Parents, too, want their children to be better and
greater. These attributes come directly from God. These desires are based on true
love. It is the same with God. He, too, wants His object partners of love to be
better. Therefore, He invests Himself 100 percent over and over again so that
He can create better object partners, and He continues to manifest true love in
this manner.
God, the origin of true love, has been longing to bequeath from the
Father’s position this absolute and unchanging true love for humanity to
inherit. Perfect harmony and unity are realized through true love. Therefore,
God can perfectly bequeath His true love to human beings, who are His object
partners. Not only that, because of the attributes of true love, God can bestow
upon us the right to live together with Him and the right to share absolute
value with Him. From this perspective, we can live with God as His children and
have the same value as God Himself. Furthermore, based on true love, we can
share the inheritance with each other, living together and becoming equal.
Thus, in the ideal world, all individuals, having God’s true love at their
center, will possess true ideals and happiness and will transmit them to their
spouse and offspring. This would be the world of God’s original ideal.
Today’s world, however, is far from the world God intended. Contrary
to the original world, it has degraded itself to become a world of hell, full
of sin, struggle and pain. In the world of nature and the spirit world, the
original order of God’s creation still exists. However, the human world on
earth became ill, and this inflicted damage on the natural world and the spirit
world.
In religious terms, this sick, broken human world is called the fallen
world. To bring this fallen world back to its original condition and order, God
carries out a dispensation for salvation. Thus, as I have been teaching, God’s
work of salvation is the work of restoration, or synonymously, the work of
re-creation.
According to Heaven’s Will, religion has played the main role in the
dispensation for restoration. The purpose of religion is to restore this world,
first forming the original ideal family, and then establishing the ideal world
based on God’s true love and the thought of True Parents. The mission of the
Messiah is the mission of True Parents, to realize God’s love in this world,
and we are all called by God to pursue and accomplish this mission. The mission
of the Messiah is thus the cosmic mission that all religions are now
undertaking; namely, to expel Satan, who has been rebelling against God, and
end Satan’s culture, and to transform Satan’s lineage to God’s lineage, to
bring about the God-centered, ideal world.
As described in the Bible, Adam and Eve, the first son and daughter of
God, were to grow in God’s true love, receive the blessing of marriage and give
birth to sinless children. Thus they, in the image and likeness of God, would
have become True Parents and would have entered heaven. In this way, the world
was to have become the kingdom of heaven on earth, where we would inherit God’s
true love, true life and true lineage. God’s ideal family was to expand to
realize a world where God alone would reign.
Adam and Eve, however, engaged in illicit love before reaching
maturity. As a result, the archangel became Satan, Adam and Eve became evil
ancestors, and the world of death began. The world has become one in which
people have Satan’s lineage.
Satan became a god of lewdness, and God hates lewdness the most.
Because of lewdness, America and Europe today face the fate that befell Sodom,
Gomorrah and Rome. What Adam and Eve sowed in their youth, the world is now
harvesting. This situation provides unmistakable evidence that we are living in
the Last Days. The world needs to find the person who can liberate it from
Satan’s love, life and lineage. This person is the Messiah.
By the failure of Adam and Eve to fulfill their responsibility, God
lost His true children, and all people were left without True Parents. The
results have been tragic. As a result of the Fall, the true human beings who
could fulfill the true love of God and the ideal of True
Parents were lost. In order to rectify the tragic failures of the Fall and
restore people to the original condition, God established religions. Thus, the
Messiah comes with the awesome task to stand as the True Parent, to uproot the
false root planted by the human ancestors who became false parents, and to
realize the ideal world of creation.
God’s original ideal did not include establishing a religion or
sending a Messiah. God’s unchanging purpose has been to realize families,
nations and a world of true love. The value of a religion is determined by how
much it contributes toward this purpose. From this perspective, religions that
are fulfilling their purpose are realizing true love and true families.
Conversely, religions that do not contribute toward this end and exist just for
their own sake, although claiming to do things in God’s name, are failing their
true mission.
In a family, the relationships between brothers and sisters exist only
on the foundation of having common parents. Thus, before this world can enter
the realm of true love and true family, we have to establish the position of
True Parents first. I have been called upon by God to help fulfill this very
purpose. I have dedicated everything to meet this objective. The Unification
movement I have been deploying worldwide, the ecumenical movement, and all
other projects I have been sponsoring, covering all fields—academic,
educational, media, technical, business, financial and so on—all of these were
envisioned with this one purpose. I have suffered persecution and confronted
death with only one purpose in mind, namely, that I can live with the heart of
True Parents to love people of all races and colors in the world more than
loving my own parents who gave birth to me, or my own brothers and sisters.
True love travels along a direct route. It requires no preconditions
and nothing can block it. This is the straight path on which we travel
correctly only through self-sacrifice. The life of True Parents and the ideal
of world peace are directly connected to this path, which all humankind needs
to follow. All countries, races, cultures and religions ought to give more than
100 percent for the sake of one another, engaging in generous and harmonious
relationships, and in so doing achieve world peace.
Today, I am proposing the inauguration of the Interreligious
Federation for World Peace. In the current world situation, we are observing
the end of the Cold War and hear of peacemaking between East and West.
Overcoming confrontations and divisions, we are heading toward an age of
harmonious unity as one world family of brothers and sisters. The last decade
before the year 2000 is a precious period when God has allowed us to return to
the original world. It is a precious opportunity.
I have already proposed the establishment of an external foundation,
namely, the International Federation for World Peace. Thousands of leaders in
the United States, Russia and other countries of the world are responding to it
enthusiastically. To truly achieve this goal, we also need an internal
foundation, and that will be the Interreligious Federation for World Peace.
Many have devoted themselves to seeking true unity and establishing
one world. However, true world peace still evades us. Everyone wants peace.
First we have to know what is necessary to bring it about. The key lies not in
one’s spouse, sons and daughters, neighbors, nation or world. It lies right in
oneself. It depends on whether one can become a harmonious being, with mind and
body in harmony and unity and one’s original mind at the center. When a person
comes to have the heart of God and True Parents, he or she can begin to live
fully for the sake of others and consistently lead a life where true love is at
the center, a life in which the person can achieve true peace.
These are the concerns of religion. The role of religions in realizing
ultimate world peace is therefore indispensable. Accordingly, all men and women
of religion now have to tear down the walls of sectarianism to make themselves
available to act with unified religious power, in accordance with God’s desires
for the greater goal of world peace. Now is the time to reflect on the fact
that religious people have not contributed enough to attain world peace. Now is
the time for each religion to develop true love, the origin and basic element
of world peace, and to practice it faithfully in an all-encompassing movement,
the Interreligious Federation for World Peace.
God requires men and women of religion to engage in good practices and
set a good example. God does not exist for the sake of religion. Religion was
established to achieve the Will of God to restore the world back to its
original condition, where people invest again and again for the sake of the
world. Any religion with which God wants to work in this world now has to be a
religion of true parents. Only a religion with a parental heart, one that
practices true love, can accomplish God’s Will in this hopelessly complex world
situation.
Thus far in history, there have been many religions. Religions have
assumed the position of adopted son, stepson, son and so forth. The religions
in these positions need to transcend the limited view that their own religion
is the best, that only through their religion can world peace be accomplished.
Rather, let us eventually unite the teachings of religions in all positions
into a religion in the position of true parents. If we do so, the decline that
religions are experiencing will end. All religions that exist absolutely for
the sake of others, with true love at their center, will unite and march
forward to achieve world peace and the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Knowing this, we can proceed to solve the world’s urgent problems by
the proper practice of religion. We are now faced with the tasks of changing
ritualistic faith into living faith, reestablishing a true value perspective
out of the many confused value perspectives, restoring the original human
nature from deviated and desolate human nature, elevating the moral standard
and resurrecting the decadent culture. All these tasks are to be accomplished
by men and women of religion joined together in a movement allied with the
eternal God, practicing the true love of True Parentism.
The youth of today’s world are intuitively recognizing this great
opportunity that lies before us. As true religious leaders, we have to act in
the capacity of true teachers of these youth. Beginning with true love, which
is the standard of eternal, unchanging and absolute value, we have to achieve
unity of mind and body. We also have to connect and harmonize the two worlds
that are represented by spiritual and materialistic ideologies. That will
create the foundation for world peace. On this foundation, we need to unite the
inner world of religions, then unite the political world of nations, and
eventually achieve eternal world peace. In realizing this goal, all men and
women of religion have to play a responsible role.
Many young people hunger for true love, which is manifested by living
for the sake of others. We religious leaders must exemplify God’s true love and
the absolute value of the way of true parents. We have to make certain that
religious traditions travel on the path of true love. By doing so, God and
humankind united together will march forward to a new world of hope and achieve
God’s ideal of creation. Therefore, let us clearly show the world and our youth
that a new age of peace, true family and true humankind has begun.
In conclusion, it is my wish that your discussions during this
conference will help in the realization of the true purpose of religion and the
discovery of true love, and will become an invaluable contribution to the
world. May God's blessings be with you always.
Islam and the Establishment of World Peace
October 21, 1990
Cairo, Egypt
Cairo, Egypt
Address at a meeting of Islamic leaders at the
Council for the World’s Religions (Given on Father’s Behalf)
Council for the World’s Religions (Given on Father’s Behalf)
Honorable religious leaders, esteemed scholars and beloved guests:
Thank you for your participation in this most urgent summit. By
responding at such short notice to this call for peace, your presence here
surely brings great joy to God.
Of course you know that we are surrounded by tensions of frightening
proportions. Political and economic rivalries and historical resentments have
flourished so abundantly that even those who see only with earthly eyes
recognize that our very survival is threatened. In the face of annihilation,
human beings, like all created species, respond with emergency measures. This
is why we now see such frantic activity in all spheres of human enterprise. In
the effort to prevent unspeakable tragedy, leaders desperately propose
solutions according to their particular orientation. Some seek military
solutions, others political or economic. While such actions may somehow
contribute to the establishment of peace, they can never generate the primary
insights and analysis upon which lasting peace can be founded.
Only truly religious and spiritual people understand the nature and
origin of conflict. And only those who know the actual origins of disorder can
bring about a solution. This is why, in this time of great emergency, I have
requested your presence and participation. Of course, peace on earth will
ultimately require insights from all spheres of human enterprise—politics,
media and so on. However, the root of peace is in God, and it can only come to
this world through those who conform their lives to His perfect Will.
Realizing that world peace ultimately depends on the human response to
the divine Will, I founded the International Religious Foundation. From the
earliest days of the Unification movement I always devoted the greatest portion
of our resources to serving other religions. In the 1950s many Unificationist
families did not have enough to eat, and members complained to me about the
funds I devoted to the cause of interreligious harmony. I suffered to see their
hardships and begged for their patience because I knew Satan would ultimately
resort to racial and religious war in his effort to destroy humankind’s future.
For forty years I poured everything into this effort, always insisting upon
true love, harmony and cooperation among all religious believers. Now these
great saints and peacemakers in the International Religious Foundation, from every
major religion, have the divine mission to thwart Satan’s plan and pioneer a
future of lasting peace.
As you know, Satan always seeks to bring the greatest destruction and
darkness upon the human race. Throughout this century his plan was perpetuated
through the God-denying totalitarianism of communism. Through state oppression
and torture, entire generations were forbidden to hear the truth of God’s Word.
Countless millions were slaughtered in the name of building a society without
God. This treacherous, Satanic instrument flourished for seventy years, coming
to occupy two-thirds of the world. Political analysts have yet to explain how
this empire collapsed overnight. The spiritually astute, however, know with
assurance that it was God’s power and the power of living in perfect accordance
with divine law that caused Satan to surrender and give up his evil reign of
terror.
Now Satan has launched another offensive for the destruction of the human
race. His strategy employs two destructive forces even more fundamental and
threatening than communism. This is through religious war and racial war.
Anyone can see we are standing on the threshold of conflicts of such
devastating proportions that they would cast our human race, if it survives at
all, into the deepest darkness, barely able to maintain life on a devastated
and ravaged planet. If races, religions and nations limit their thinking to
self-benefit, the only one who will gain is Satan, the enemy of God and of the
human race.
For this reason, the unending concern of God’s heart is related to
these two issues. Why did God reveal Himself to the prophets and create the
great religions of the world? Of course it was to enable the human race to return
to Him, and then, in perfect oneness with His blessed Will, establish a
peaceful world. Humankind must know God’s original vision for the world and
know the reason God revealed himself to the prophets. Surely no one expressed
this original ideal of God more deeply than the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), both
in word and in deed. God who has infinite compassion would not like to see even
the littlest one perish. What would we be then if we tolerated or even
perpetuated interreligious strife knowing that this is the exact opposite of
God’s desire? We can never lend our hand so willingly to Satan’s plan to
destroy innocent children and cast humankind into unspeakable darkness.
The same is true of racial war. We are one family descended from
common parents. God intended all races to live in harmony as brothers and
sisters. Again the blessed Prophet knew this and history clearly records that
he exemplified this understanding through the substantial deeds of his life. It
is our unavoidable mission now to reveal God’s whole plan for peace and harmony
and cooperation between races and religions. Anyone who isolates only disparate
portions of God’s revealed truth and preaches against others goes against God.
We cannot depend on the masses or even political, economic and military leaders
to understand the revealed Will of God as fully as we who have devoted
ourselves to religious and spiritual leadership. Let us educate humankind about
Gods original, broad vision for peace and brotherhood. At this time in human
history nothing could be more painful and offensive to God than religious and
racial war.
The Middle East is the battleground between God and Satan
Why are the greatest tensions on the planet centered on the Middle
East? Is it because a single military aggressor happens to come from a Middle
Eastern nation, or because the area is rich in oil? No! Anyone offering
analysis strictly at that level, no matter how much of a genius or how profound
their historical and political knowledge, lacks the necessary starting point to
explain the deeper reality. The reason is that this is the arena of activity
for God and Satan. All the prophets of the three great covenants received their
revelations in this region. Is this because God’s message was destined only for
the people of the Middle East? Of course not! God’s Word is destined to be the
guiding force for all human life everywhere on this planet. Similarly, the
present tensions and conflicts here are not a matter of concern for people only
from this region. The fate of the whole world depends on developments in the
Middle East. Just as the great prophets had to fight the forces of darkness to
make the vision of God available for the whole world, your peacemaking mission
is to deny the forces of evil that delight in racial and religious war, and
reveal the divine Will for peace to the whole world.
I know that human history has been marked by the constant struggle
between good and evil. This is natural in the process of restoring human life
and society to oneness with God’s love and heart. If we study this process
closely, we can see the principle by which the great saints and prophets
conquered the forces of evil. Satan always establishes his evil regime first,
ahead of God. Then with this mighty power, Satan attacks God’s side attempting
to destroy the tender shoot of God’s Word and crush the lives of His gentle
champions. Satan is always first. He is first to establish power, and first to
attack. In fact, aggression is the trademark of Satan. Being attacked first is
the trademark of God’s side. Yet God’s side prospers according to this
principle. By being attacked first, God’s side builds up great wealth through
suffering and sacrifice. Through paying this price and bearing injustice, God’s
side ultimately gains the victory. Perhaps you are most familiar with the
mighty yet corrupt powers that ruled out of Mecca during the life of the
blessed Prophet. When Muhammad brought his sweeping message of peace and
brotherhood among all tribes and peoples, these mighty governments of evil power
mobilized themselves to take the life of God’s Messenger and his followers. The
followers of Islam endured this aggression and injustice and thus, by
conforming to God’s principle of indemnity, Muhammad and his followers were
able to bring even these mighty powers into complete surrender. In the end
Muhammad walked unimpeded as the glorious victor to the Kaaba, dedicating it to
the one true God.
Yet his is not the only story that reveals this principle of God. The
same is true for Jesus, the family of Abraham, and others. In fact, if you look
at any mighty religion on the earth today, you will see clearly that it
prospered by means of living out this very principle of indemnity and
self-sacrifice. How foolish we would be if we dared to think that the perfect
and true God changes His ways as we do. These truths never change: one,
aggression belongs to Satan; and two, God’s side achieves victory by being
attacked, enduring, paying indemnity and sacrificing. These are true and
lasting principles—principles that mock the size of armies, the wisdom of
political science, the geology and economics of oil, and so on. Only one truth
prevails and that is the truth of God and His laws of restoration.
Besides the principle of restoration and victory through indemnity,
the second unchanging historical principle is that God always supports those
serving the larger purpose. For example, if one person lived only for a
self-purpose and a second lived for the family, God would support the second
one, the one who lived for the benefit of the family. The former actually
sacrifices others for personal benefit. The latter sacrifices the self for
others.
On the other hand, between one who lived for the family and one who
sacrificed the beloved family for the benefit of the community, God would
support the one living for the community. This too is an unchanging principle
of God. Once again, we can use the Prophet as a supreme example of knowing and
living according to this divine principle. Did the Prophet live only for his
own clan or tribe or even only for the Arab people? No, he always lived for the
higher purpose, not limiting his message for only one group or race. The
message of the Prophet was for every precious one into whom God breathes His
spirit.
Thus, the greatest among us is the one who ultimately lives for a
purpose even higher than the world. The highest purpose is to live for God. The
way to check one’s closeness to God is to see if one’s message and life are
devoted to the greatest purpose. All action must be for the greatest good of
all humankind, never for the sake of only one group, nation, religion or race.
The one who is closest to God is the one who lives for the sake of the whole.
Therefore, even though the contemporary situation in the Middle East is
complex, we must resist the temptation to rely on all sorts of analyses and
sophisticated interpretations. Our primary responsibility is never to forget
God’s unchanging, revealed principles: Aggression is of Satan, and blessedness
is to sacrifice the individual purpose for the sake of the greater purpose.
The way to resolve conflicts between religions
Only religious leaders know these truths and these ways of peace. So
we have no other choice than to be the bold pioneers revealing God’s Will and
God’s principles. Peace depends on us.
As we deal with the present situation, and speak to our followers,
including the political and military leaders who depend on our wisdom, do not
think about which nation might benefit most; instead, think about what is best
for the whole world. We must be the untiring voice calling for the true base for living for the sake of others.
The greatest imaginable tragedy would be for war to erupt between Christians
and Muslims in the Middle East. The whole world—the United States, European
nations, Middle East nations and so on—needs to realize this. That is why I am
sending this message to leaders of all nations. Everyone must live for one
goal: to protect and safeguard this situation against the possibility of a religious
war. As religious leaders, ours is the greatest responsibility. We must do
everything in our power to guide all players into a peaceful solution for this
Middle East situation.
With my deepest heart, I pray day and night for the peace I have just
described. All religious leaders must do the same.
Once again, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for your holy and
noble love of God and God’s peace. May God bless you and your families, and
bring lasting peace to our world, our home.
Religion’s Mission
for World Peace
August 27, 1991
Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Inaugural Assembly of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace
Inaugural Assembly of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace
Respected and eminent religious leaders from countries around the world,
distinguished representatives of worldwide religious organizations, scholars of
religion, and all participants who are present here:
From the bottom of my heart, I welcome you to this historic inaugural
assembly of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace.
In the Founder’s Address at the first Assembly of the World’s
Religions, which was held in New Jersey in 1985, I identified three essential
tasks for religious people. First, all religious traditions must respect each
other and, at the very least, work to prevent conflict or war between
religions. Second, all of us, as cooperating religious communities, need to
serve the world. And third, in order to fulfill the mission of religion, we
have to contribute to the development of world peace by means of an
organization in which all religious leaders would participate.
At the second Assembly of the World’s Religions, which was held in San
Francisco one year ago, I called for the creation of the Interreligious
Federation for World Peace. Today, with the cooperation of religious leaders
such as you, and in the presence of representatives of religions from around
the world, the Interreligious Federation for World Peace is announcing its
historic birth.
Now is the time when all the world’s religions ought to feel keenly a
central responsibility for the realization of world peace and take action for
this purpose. The future happiness of humankind cannot be achieved through the
pursuit of economic prosperity alone, but by overcoming conflicts between ideologies,
between cultures and between races through interreligious understanding and
spiritual harmony. Therefore, the main theme of my message at this inaugural
assembly of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace is the mission of
religion in the establishment of world peace.
God’s ideal of creation centers on true love and calls each of us to
exist for the sake of others. The purpose of human existence is to realize an
ideal family, society, nation and world through individuals whose mind and body
are harmoniously united into one in the embodiment of this ideal. However,
because of Satan’s false love and self-centeredness, each human being has
disharmony between mind and body. The family, society, nation and world,
consisting of human beings characterized by such a contradiction, have troubles
and dissensions that are the multidimensional amplification of this disunity
and struggle that exists within the individual.
The democratic world has become increasingly individualistic and self-
centered. This is what Satan wants, and thus Satan is leading most of humankind
toward damnation. In order to stop this decline, we cannot rely on left-wing or
right-wing ideas alone. We need head-wing thought centered on true love, which
transcends ideologies on both the left and the right. We need Godism, the
teaching about the ultimate reality that human life is to be lived centered on
true love.
Disunity in our society and world originated with Satan’s false love
creating discord between mind and body within individuals. Therefore, true
peace begins with harmonious unity within individual human beings. This unity
can result only from the experience of true love. The base for realizing the
peaceful world is not to be discovered merely by seeking global solutions, but
through individuals and families. Individuals whose mind and body are
harmoniously united by God’s true love and who go beyond Satan’s dominion, and
families formed by such men and women, become the delivery room for world
peace.
The Human Fall, which came about through false love, created discord
between mind and body. As a result, we experience disunity and struggle in our
vertical relationships with God, our parents, our children, our students and so
on, and in our horizontal relationships with our spouse, our siblings, our
friends, our coworkers and so forth. Instead of being characterized by love,
these relationships are distorted due to the confusion between the mind’s
desire to serve others and the body’s desire to gratify the self. This discord
can be seen in the value systems and worldviews that guide individual and
social life. The confusion between mind and body extends to the confusion
between religion and science, between idealism and materialism, and between the
pursuit of facts and the pursuit of values.
According to the ideal of creation, mind and body unite within an
ideal individual in response to God’s true love. The world of the mind and the
world of the body, which are extensions of the individual’s mind and body, need
to also come into a harmonious relationship. Religion and philosophy represent
the world of the mind, and politics and economics represent the world of the
body. Just as mind is in the subject-partner and leading position, and the body
is in the object-partner position to harmonize with the mind, religion and
politics ought to achieve harmony and unity in a subject-object partnership.
Otherwise, the ideal society cannot be created.
What has been God’s purpose in sending saints and prophets? God’s
desire is to educate all people about the Will of true love, by showing models
of personality and lifestyle. In particular, God’s Will is for the worlds of
the mind and the body to unite in magnificent harmony centered on God’s Will of
true love. This requires educating rulers and leaders about the heavenly way
and supporting them as they put it into practice.
However, as the body often does not follow what the conscience
requires, many rulers have not recognized holy persons and saints, have not
received their teaching, and have ignored their warnings. Who can take
responsibility to solve the misery and evils in contemporary society: the
confusion in values, moral corruption, drug addiction, terrorism, racial
discrimination and other problems? Can politicians, using political power,
completely solve such problems? There is a great responsibility and burden that
accompanies the decisions and choices made by politicians. This is true
especially in this age, when societies are more pluralistic than ever and are
so internationally interdependent. When making an important decision, a ruler
needs to humbly listen to the voice coming from Heaven and look for solutions
through following the heavenly way.
We must repent that religions themselves, representing the world of
the mind, have not fulfilled their responsibility for bringing about a peaceful
world. Religions in their current state struggle to find the life force
necessary for leading and purifying the world, and in fact are going against
their original mission. Each religion needs to revitalize its internal purity
and life force through God’s true love, reform itself in a determined way, and
develop harmonious relationships with other religions according to God’s Will
of true love.
Devotion to God and God’s great Will of true love is the mission of
each religion. As such, the prosperity of each religious organization alone
cannot be the purpose of religion. God demands that we come to know His Will
for saving the world and that we practice it in our lives. This is more
important than studying scriptures or observing religious ceremonies.
Religions, for too long, have failed to relate to the living God and to bear
witness clearly. The God that I know has no attachment to the content of
doctrines that are put together according to human logic. Since God is the
origin and Parent of us all, God does not discriminate between races or between
religions.
Therefore, religious believers need to completely follow God’s Will of
true love to realize the ideal world of peace and the salvation of all people.
Given the contemporary reality, religious people should not lead comfortable
lives. Instead they are supposed to go the way of a living faith, centered on
true love and true-life energy, in conversation with the living God. This
cannot be achieved in the prevailing atmosphere of religion today.
Unprecedented change on a global level is needed, through the inspiring power
of all religions joined together in a movement of a new dimension.
The hypocrisy of those religious people who were not sincere in their
practice of God’s true love has led to the proliferation of atheism. This world
must be changed. Each religion has to make efforts to purify itself and to
become the leading actor in a new movement of reform. All religions need to
leave behind the pursuit of their own benefit and take up the cause of world
salvation that God hopes for. They must stand on the front line in the effort
to eliminate poverty, disease and crime in the world, becoming a bright light
in this dark world of the Last Days, and therefore teach and guide leaders in
every field, such as politics, economics and social work.
Respected religious leaders, following the direction of God’s
providence, I have been devoting all my energy to the work of reforming the
world and restoring God’s ideal of true love. Through the activities of the
International Religious Foundation, the Assembly of the World’s Religions, the
New Ecumenical Research Association, the Council for the World’s Religions, the
Religious Youth Service, the Interdenominational Conferences for Clergy and the
Youth Seminar on World Religions, I have tried to provide a model of
interreligious understanding and harmony and a model of the practice of God’s
true love that religious people need to embody. I am doing my best for the sake
of the ideal of world peace.
Today I announce the publication of World Scripture, completed after
five years of cooperative effort among scholars of religion and after review
and endorsement by leaders of the world’s religions. World Scripture will become a
shining light, a volume of holy scripture that puts together the universally
valuable contents of the world’s religions. In particular, it will become a
precious textbook for educating the younger generation, who are to live
together as one global family. It will teach them to be able to overcome
barriers between religions, between races and between cultures. Through this
text, all people will free themselves from religious ignorance and self-
righteousness, and realize the fact that religions have shared values that
serve as a universal common base, and that what they share is of greater
significance than the differences that have historically divided them. I thank
those scholars and editorial board members from each religion who worked for
the publication of World Scripture.
Following this inaugural assembly of the Interreligious Federation for
World Peace, which represents the world of the mind and stands in the
subject-partner position for world peace, the International Federation for
World Peace, which represents the world of the body and stands in the
object-partner position, will be inaugurated. Leaders from every corner of the
world are arriving for this event. If these two organizations, harmoniously
cooperating internally and externally, practice unity through true love in
accordance with Heaven’s Will, then the peaceful world will be realized. When
the unity of religion and politics, representing the unity of mind and body,
comes about through God’s true love, the world of peace will soon follow.
When we sincerely reflect on this age, we come to know that now is an
urgent time that demands not only faith but also practice and action. The
world’s problems, including such miserable struggles as racial wars and
religious wars, which have come about through the spread of atheism, hedonism,
secular humanism and the distortion of true religiosity, are extremely serious.
In Western societies there is a tendency to take life easy, especially
now that communist atheism has lost ground. This tendency, however, comes from
a superficial assessment of the situation, founded on ignorance about the
essence of the problems that we face. If a new awakening movement of true love
centered on God does not occur throughout society, the fall of contemporary
civilization, whose center has been Western society, is coming, and that
outcome will bring more misery than we can imagine.
The world as it is now cannot be left to its own devices. There is no
time. Who can take responsibility for this generation? Military leaders?
Politicians? New social engineers? We, representing the religions, must take
that responsibility. I ask for your active cooperation. When, through the
movement of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, historical religious
traditions harmoniously advance in practice toward world peace, they will lay
the firm spiritual foundation for guiding the world, and help complete the
ideal of peace centered on God’s true love. When all religions of the world
move in one direction, the peace of a united world will come.
I pray that God will protect the future of the Interreligious
Federation for World Peace and all of you representing the world’s religious
traditions. May God bless each of you and your families. May you become the
people of true love who can bring peace to the world.
Religion and the
Creation of World Peace
August 26, 1992
InterContinental Hotel, Seoul, Korea.
The Third Assembly of the World’s Religions
Respected major leaders of the different religious traditions, leaders
in faith and scholars of religion:
It is an honor to welcome you to the third Assembly of the World’s
Religions, and to express my happiness in meeting all of you in Seoul, Korea,
which is my homeland and that of my wife, Hak Ja Han. I hope you will have a
rewarding and fruitful time during your stay.
This is the third conference of the Assembly of the World’s Religions.
At the first conference, convened in 1985, I founded the Religious Youth
Service and announced my plans for the first conference of the Council of the
World’s Religions. These projects, which I support every year, together with
the World Scripture that was published last year, have become the front line of the
campaign for worldwide interreligious harmony. In particular, youth leaders of
various religious bodies have united in dedicated service activities, providing
a stepping-stone for harmony and understanding between religions. In doing
this, they have set up a valuable tradition for the future of humanity.
The second Assembly was convened in San Francisco in 1990. There, I
announced the founding of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace
(IRFWP). In August 1991, the historic founding conference of the IRFWP took
place in Seoul. This year the IRFWP and the International Religious Foundation
are jointly convening this conference.
As you know, this conference has been organized as part of the first
World Culture and Sports Festival. Four years ago, when the Seoul Olympics took
place, I formally announced my plan for the World Culture and Sports Festival,
which will open a new page of harmony, exchange and cooperation among the
peoples of this world village. Although the Olympics play an extremely
important role, they lack the vertical values and spiritual dimension that are
bestowed by God.
Because religion lies at the heart of culture, the Assembly of the
World’s Religions and IRFWP stand at the heart of the World Culture and Sports
Festival. Religious ideals, together with the wisdom and values that accompany
them, must permeate the education, scholarship, art, physical education, media,
politics and economics of the world, and serve as their standard. The World
Culture and Sports Festival seeks to guide the spiritual culture of humankind
and pursue genuine values for human happiness. It will also be a historic event
that points toward a peaceful, new world culture where God, people and all
things merge together.
We all are aware of the fact that our world is immersed in deep
suffering. Although the Cold War may have come to an end, conflicts are still
occurring in all comers of the world, and evil, hatred and injustice continue
to afflict humanity. There are many people suffering in despair and spiritual
poverty, even in materially abundant, advanced nations. Although many people
are seeking solace through drugs and indiscriminate sex, they are running
headlong down the road to spiritual and physical ruin. Obviously, no one
desires a world of such evil, conflict and despair.
I came seeking to open the way for the original nature of humanity to
clear away this unhappiness, and to build a world overflowing with peace and
joy. This is the very path that religions have sought to tread. Nonetheless,
the ideal world for which humanity has been yearning has not yet been realized.
At the core of religion lies the desire to reveal the source of the unhappiness
and suffering of humanity. If we are ignorant of the source of suffering, we
cannot even hope to get rid of it. The solution to this is possible only
through knowledge derived from divine revelation.
Today I intend to clarify the root cause of this problem, and to
indicate its solution. God created the ancestors of humankind, Adam and Eve,
and bestowed upon them the three great blessings: to be fruitful, to multiply
and fill the earth, and to have dominion over all things. The meaning of the
first blessing, to be fruitful, is that all individuals have to grow and become
people of perfected character focusing on God’s love. The second blessing
signifies that a perfected man and woman have to become a true couple, give
birth to children and, through treading the path of true parenthood, create an
ideal family. The third blessing is to become inheritors of a heavenly
environment on earth, free of want and distress, in the environment that God
has provided.
God, the embodiment of true love, hoped that all people, who are the
object partners of His love and whom He created as His sons and daughters,
would become perfected incarnations of true love. He hoped that they would then
establish a heavenly environment after achieving the conjugal ideal based on
true love. Tragically, Adam and Eve deviated through unprincipled love in a
stage of immaturity, before they had perfected the true love that God had
blessed them with. They were driven out of paradise. Consequently the ancestors
of humankind, who had lost true love, which is the source of life and their
original divine nature, ignored God’s blessing and started family life
centering on the selfish love originating with Satan. Thus, they handed down
the love, life and bloodline of Satan to their descendants.
God, determined to restore His ideal of creation that was not
accomplished due to the Fall and committed to save humankind from unhappiness,
has established religions to guide humanity. Accordingly, since Adam and Eve
had become false parents, God needed to send the Messiah, that is, True
Parents, to give rebirth to all humanity. God’s ultimate and unchanging dispensational
purpose is to find and establish True Parents. True Parents come as the
personification of love and the seed of true life. A true family originates
with the True Parents, and this family becomes the model for all families in
their path of restoration.
God’s true love is the love that He invests again and again, then
forgetting how much He has invested. When God created His object partner of
love, He Himself, who exists for the sake of others, invested 100 percent of
His being and still desired to invest another 100 percent and even 1,000
percent more. God wants to invest Himself still more because He wants His
loving child, who is His object partner of love, to be better than Himself.
Thus, the path of true love is the path of giving and giving yet
again. Likewise, the path of True Parents, who are the embodiment of true love,
is not one that seeks recognition but is the way of sacrificing for the sake of
others. God established religions for His providence of salvation. The path
they must exemplify is one of principle. Because human life is conceived as
rooted in the ideal of love, the essence of human life is love. A being that is
born on the basis of love needs to live for others in the same way God does.
This is the principle of Heaven. Consequently, one can say that we are beings
who have come into existence for the purpose of true love.
True love starts from the point of living for others. Human beings, as
they were originally created, contained God’s true love in their mind and body and
responded to it naturally. In other words, the mind centering on true love
responds to God, and the body automatically acts in unison with the mind. The
true, united desire of mind and body, when there is no conflict between them,
is to inherit God’s true love completely and to respond to it substantially.
The ideal of a human being, which is the unity of mind and body, is achieved
when he or she possesses God’s true love in totality.
The ideal of genuine freedom, peace and happiness is attainable only when
the mind and body become one focusing on true love. Furthermore, we can achieve
a free and peaceful family, nation and world only on the foundation of the
unity of mind and body. The cardinal point of peace ought to be found not at
the global or national level but in the relationship between mind and body
within the individual.
Yesterday, thirty thousand couples from all corners of the world
received the holy marriage Blessing and secured the establishment of a new
family tradition grounded in God’s love. The ceremony you attended was not
simply an important wedding ceremony convened by one religious order.
Society today is being shaken to its foundations by the collapse of
sexual morality, the deviant behavior of young people, and the breakdown of
families. How can we tackle this situation? The seeds of moral corruption sown
by Satan and the ancestors of humankind have borne their historical fruit. The
phenomena of the Last Days of hell on earth, where the way of Heaven and human
morality have been ravaged and where men and women have become like animals,
are quite evident. This tragedy has been further exacerbated by a tendency to
extreme egocentrism and a proliferation of free sex, which seems to imbue
immorality with a rosy hue. Spiritually and morally, our world is facing a
profound crisis. Not only are orderly families disintegrating but the minds and
bodies of youth, who represent the next generation, are being damaged as well.
The family is the basic unit of the ideal of creation
This crisis facing humanity can be solved only through the Messiah,
True Parents. They are the owners of God’s true love and true life. Contrary to
popular trends, God’s ideal of marriage places emphasis on the eternal
relationship between one man and one woman before God, the sanctity of love and
sex, God’s Blessing, and the purpose of marriage being for one’s descendants.
This movement, which aims to realize an eternal ideal of couples and families
centered on God’s love in 160 nations, regardless of race and nationality,
represents the bright future and hope of humanity.
The family is the basic unit of God’s ideal of creation. The family is
the basis for the establishment of the society and nation. God’s ideal of a
one- world family, transcending race and based on true love, is directly
connected to the realization of a peaceful world. The people of the world can
have children of goodness and practice correct ethics when they build blessed
families under God’s ideal of true love and become exemplary husbands and
wives. Then ideal families that are the fruit of true love can be established,
and ideal societies, ideal nations and the ideal world will come into being.
The international wedding ceremony is providing a fundamental solution to the
chronic ailments of modern society by restoring the original ideal for the
family.
Now the time has come for religions to take leadership in the world.
Leadership cannot emerge from blind faith or an arrogant and self-righteous
attitude stemming from narrow-mindedness. True leadership arises when one
subordinates oneself to the Will of Heaven and acts altruistically. It is time
for religious people to step up and face their responsibility toward the
conditions of this age and its unprincipled facets, and to examine themselves
deeply. Religious people need to repent for their failure to exemplify the
practice of love and, because they were engrossed in their personal salvation
or the interests of their own religious denominations, for their failure to
invest entirely for the salvation of humankind. This age requires the practice
of love, not only faith.
God is calling us. He passionately desires to challenge injustice and
evil in the world and express His true love. All religions need to be of one
mind in making known and actualizing God’s fervent hope for humanity. God
transcends all rituals and doctrines, which have led to dispute between
believers. He desires that we raise our spirit through profound spiritual
dialogue and exchange with Him. Religions need to establish the spiritual order
with which human beings, who have a spiritual nature, can align themselves
closely. They have to systematize this spiritual order and create a lifestyle
that expresses it rationally. Religious leaders of all creeds need to take the
lead in self-discipline and, with mutual respect for each other, build
influential interreligious organizations.
Realization of world peace through harmony among religions
Until I founded the Interreligious Federation for World Peace last
year, I endured enormous difficulties. For forty years, I trod the path of
sacrifice, living for the sake of others, while envisioning the hitherto
unrealized ideal of interreligious harmony and the accomplishment of world
peace in the fulfillment of God’s Will. Despite the persecution of a number of
intolerant religious groups in various countries, and a lack of understanding
shown by successive generations of political regimes, and at the cost of many
personal sacrifices, I determinedly worked to establish an ecumenical movement,
an ecumenical theological seminary, the New Ecumenical Research Association and
the publication of World Scripture. I have also continually supported the Council for the World’s
Religions and the Assembly of the World’s Religions for the promotion of
interreligious harmony.
One may ask why I have initiated all these projects. All I desire when
I involve myself in these activities, including the convening of the Assembly
of the World’s Religions and the activities of the Interreligious Federation
for World Peace, is to fulfill the Will of God, the Parent of humankind. My
only aspiration, together with all of you enlightened religious leaders and
religious scholars, is to realize the hope of God and all people on earth.
Rather than satisfying ourselves with interreligious harmony, the next
step from here is to involve ourselves more positively in social activities, by
creating a broad-based, united organization aimed at world peace, in
cooperation with opinion makers in the academic, political and media spheres.
In cultivating and guiding this organization to fulfill God’s Will on earth,
religions need to exemplify the spirit of living for others.
Let us all open our spiritual ears once again and, inclining them
toward Heaven, follow God’s advice with a humble heart. We need to be aware of
the mission that God has bequeathed to the religious leaders of this age and,
by correctly guiding the human spirit, secure the spiritual and mental order of
the new world culture.
I hope that this conference will provide a forum for discussion based
on God’s wisdom, transcending the dimension of human insight. I want to express
my appreciation for the dedication of His Grace Dr. Gregorios, who has provided
a model of organization and management as chairman of the conference. I would
also like to thank all the committee chairmen and representatives for their
hard work.
14
Religion and the Ideal World
August 21, 1995
Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Third
International Congress of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace
Respected heads of different religious denominations from around the
world, distinguished guests from home and abroad, and religious scholars and
leaders:
My wife Hak Ja Han and I welcome you all with a warm heart, and we
hope that your stay here in Seoul will be worthwhile.
The central theme of all religions is the ideal world
This third International Congress of the Interreligious Federation for
World Peace (IRFWP) addresses the responsibility of the world’s religions in
realizing the ideal. This topic, the ideal world, is at the very heart of each
of the world’s religious traditions. Although each religion recognizes the
reality of evil, all religions teach of an alternative to the world of evil and
ignorance. This alternative world is the ideal world.
The pursuit of the ideal is not unique to religion, for all people,
religious or not, aspire to the ideal. However, determined efforts and good
intentions that are out of step with Heaven’s way will bear no fruit and will
cause more harm than good. Therefore, to achieve the ideal we need to clearly
understand about God, and we have to know about God’s ideal of creation and
God’s Will.
During this century, due to the disaster spawned by atheistic
communism, we have clearly observed the tragic results of the pursuit of false
ideals. Communism is a failed social movement that denies God and tries to
create an ideal human society without God. Democratic society is better than
communism, although it will also continue to degenerate and ultimately destroy
itself if it ignores the providence of God. The way of goodness and the way of
God are one. Human goodness and ideals can neither be achieved nor sustained
without a direct connection to the divine reality. For this reason, we can say
that anyone who seeks the ideal must understand God’s Will and the importance
of religion.
Since my childhood I have tried desperately to discover answers to the
fundamental questions of life and the universe. I was certain that God would
never create a world in which the ideal could not be realized, and where evil,
suffering and disharmony would always prevail. I could not understand why the
world I experienced was so full of evil. I do not have time to speak in detail
about the experiences of my youth.
It suffices it to say that my youth was filled with a longing for the
truth. It was not easy for me to acquire the teaching known as the Principle,
which I have revealed. The essence of the Principle was received through deep,
fervent and prayerful communion with God and the saints in the spirit world. It
is a victory that was gained through a desperate fight with Satan. I devote
every moment of my life to the teaching and practice of this Principle. The
Principle is being disseminated throughout the world and is transforming
people’s lives by bringing them into a new relationship with the living God.
As human beings created by God, we were born with the hope of
attaining the ideal world. When we say “ideal world,” we need to know that the
concept of the ideal originates from God. God did not create the world for the
sake of power, glory or wealth. God has no desire for these. However, it would
be wrong to say that God has no desires at all. God exists as the embodiment of
true love.
God’s motivation for creation is true love, and God desires a true
person as His object partner. Even God has to have a relationship in order to
experience love. True love can be experienced only through a relationship
between a subject partner and an object partner. No isolated being can
experience love. Only beings capable of freely giving and receiving are able to
engage in loving relationships. God created human beings to become the perfect
object partners of love, beings who would freely give and receive love in
relationship with God.
Human beings are God’s sons and daughters, created with a natural
inclination toward true love. God is the True Parent of humankind. God created
us as beings that could participate in and inherit true love. In addition, God
created the natural world as a protective environment for humankind. Through
the relationship of true love, both God and human beings can experience the
highest form of joy.
God wanted Adam and Eve to grow in purity centered on true love and
become true people. God carefully provided the environment for their biological
development and their nourishment. God’s central concern, however, was with
their internal character. Human beings realize the ideal by coming to reflect
God’s true love. God created the power of love to be the most powerful of all
internal forces. When on the heavenly path human beings experience the power of
God’s love, they come to resemble God, becoming one with God and perfecting
themselves. For this reason, we may say God’s love is the essence of human
happiness, life and ideals.
Adam and Eve were supposed to grow in God’s love to become true human
beings, then true husband and wife, and true parents. Men and women become true
parents when they become beings of perfected character, inheriting God’s
unselfish, unconditional parental love.
People experience God’s true love in stages through life’s periods of
growth. Through their life course, each individual is meant to come to know the
love of children, the love of brothers and sisters, the love of husband and
wife, and the love of parents. The foundation upon which these four realms of
love and heart can stand is the family. The family is the basis for human love,
happiness, life and lineage. Thus, the family of true love is the hope of
humankind and the essence of God’s purpose of creation. The true completion of
the individual, family, society or environment has its root in the realization
of true love within a family. People who have become the embodiment of God’s true
love cannot disobey God’s Will, violate other people, or abuse the creation.
What is the reality of our world today? Disorder and sickness of every
kind, including war, violence and drug abuse, have infected humankind. More important,
the rapid collapse of sexual morality among the young, the increasing divorce
rate, the problem of young unmarried mothers and the breakdown of the family
are all destroying the foundation of human society. All these things originate
from the Fall. This is because Adam and Eve defiled the ideal of true love
during their growing period. Eve’s eating of the fruit offered by Satan
symbolized Eve’s engaging in love outside the Principle.
Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God, their loving Parent, and their
ultimate submission to Satan, whereby they became a false couple and false
parents, was the beginning of human history. Humankind’s inheritance from
Adam’s family includes criminality, lying, illicit love and violence. During
this time of the Last Days, we can see that the fruit of the seed planted by
Adam and Eve has filled the world. How sad God’s heart must be!
God’s providence of salvation is the providence of restoration. For
the sake of the providence of restoration, God established religions and expanded
the sphere of goodness. The Messiah sent by God is the person who comes with
the overall responsibility to complete the providence of restoration.
Accordingly, the Messiah will come as the True Parents. The mission of the True
Parents is to restore true human beings through true love, and to raise them up
as true husbands and wives and true parents.
Who is able to solve the problems of the world that contradict the
Will of God? Religious leaders must assume the responsibility to change the
reality of wrongdoing, sin and suffering. Since the day I received my mission
from God, I have devoted myself to this responsibility. While absolutely
keeping to the path of the Principle and the providence, I have fought against
the evil that, transcendent of time and space, has penetrated deeply into the
very lives of human beings. With all my heart and utilizing all my foundation,
I have always done my best to seek the cooperation of the world’s religions and
religious leaders. In going this way, I have never deserted the responsibility
that I vowed to accomplish before God.
At the Assembly of the World’s Religions in San Francisco in 1990,
when I announced the establishment of the Interreligious Federation for World
Peace, I explained God’s purpose of creation, the essence of true love, and the
role of True Parents. I strongly exhorted the participants to work to establish
an ethical human society, to eradicate decadent culture, and to practice true
love and the philosophy of “True Parentism.” The work to regain ideal families
through true love and to establish an ethical human society is a precious
responsibility given to the religious leaders of this era.
Moreover, religious leaders must take the lead in ending the world’s
corruption and wrongdoing. As long as religions remain indifferent to
widespread lawlessness, inequality and injustice, they will neither find their
way out of the swamp of the present reality nor move the world toward the
ideal. It is clear that religious practices that have turned into mere
formalities need to give way to a living faith. Religious leaders must set an
example that leads others out of spiritual desolation to regain their original
nature of goodness.
Religious leaders have the responsibility to lead unconditional and
sacrificial lives for the sake of others, and to teach this way of life to
everyone. Still today, there is a great deal of poverty and widespread
starvation. Inequality has deeply pervaded this world. The culpability of
religious leaders for these problems is very great.
During the past twenty years, I have made a considerable investment in
marine ventures, staying at the forefront of the developments by going out to
sea myself. I am channeling my determination to rid the world of the misery of
starvation into these plans. I think that through the development of
agriculture and ocean-related enterprises, religious organizations can use all
their resources and work together to produce food and support developing
nations.
If it were not for the investment of God’s true love, the universe
would never have been born. According to the laws of the existence of the
universe, the subject partner takes care of its object partner as parents care
for their children, or as teachers for their students. However, instead of
subject partners taking care of their object partners, people in the fallen
world try to use others in self-centered ways. That is why they perish. I
believe that religion has to educate others in the heavenly principle of
seeking the happiness of others before our own happiness.
Respected religious leaders, I believe that IRFWP must work
constructively for the sake of interreligious harmony and world peace. IRFWP
must function as the conscience of the world. It needs to advise and guide leaders
at every level in the world, including those in politics, economics and
education. It also needs to be an example. Since the great religions were
nurtured in the soil of persecution and martyrdom, and stand on the foundation
of each founder’s great tradition, none of us may avoid sacrifice. We must
reestablish the original integrity of religion,
Understanding Life and Death
December 19, 1998
The Washington Times building, Washington, DC, USA
Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace 1998 Assembly
Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace 1998 Assembly
Honorable chairman, global religious leaders and respected guests:
I sincerely thank you for your attending this occasion in spite of
your respective religious observances and important schedules during the
Christmas season. I shall take this time to express my views on life and death,
an issue that each religion has gone through great pains to resolve.
We live in the physical world, yet we know that this is not the only
world that exists. Another world, the spirit world, also exists. The spirit
world is a definite reality. We also know that these two worlds, the physical
world and spirit world, are not meant to be disconnected from each other. They
are linked together as one single world. We human beings were born from the
spirit world and eventually return to that world.
In Korea, we commonly use an interesting idiom in reference to death.
When someone dies, we say the individual “has returned.” Where does that person
return to? It is not to a cemetery. We mean that we return to the point of
life’s origin.
We return across the vast expanses of history. In the process, we shed
our nationality. We return to the world that brought forth the human ancestors.
If a Creator exists, then we are returning to the world of the Creator. That is
where we originated, so that is where we finally return.
The universe is engaged in cyclical motion everywhere. For example,
when snow falls on a mountain and then melts, it forms a small stream. As the
water flows downward, its volume increases until it becomes a river. Eventually
it reaches the ocean. Some of the water in the ocean evaporates, returning to
the atmosphere to complete the cycle.
All beings desire to reach higher ground, or a better place, through
cyclical motion. Where then is the better place we go to in order to live
eternally? While in the physical world, we live in our physical body. Our mind,
though, is headed toward the eternal world. We are born into this world. We
pass through our teenage years, twenties, thirties and middle age, and
eventually we reach old age. Ultimately, we come to the end of our life, like
the sun when it sets on the horizon. Those who know that the spirit world
exists, however, know very well that the time spent in our physical body is relatively
short, and that the world we encounter after we die is eternal. They know that
our life on earth is a period of preparation for the eternal world.
We are like students who have to earn credits in all our classes so
that we can fulfill our school’s requirements for graduation. The school
determines the extent to which its students meet its standard, and decides
whether it can recognize them. The farther short of the standard a student’s
grades fall, the more distant that student is from the school’s standard of
value.
Likewise, the value of all beings is measured against a standard. Our
life in the physical world is a period of preparation comparable to the time a
student spends trying to earn good grades at school. In other words, we spend
our entire life on earth preparing and striving to achieve “good grades.” Each
day of our life is measured against a particular standard. We are accountable
to that standard for our entire life on earth. Most people in society do not
know with certainty about the original world to which we go after life in this
world. They do not know whether there is life after death or even whether God
exists.
Eventually, everyone goes to the spirit world. It turns out that the
spirit world is a single realm. It is not divided into many countries, as is
the physical world. Then, what is the relationship between the spirit world and
the physical world?
We can compare it with water that serves as the environment for fish.
The presence of water is an absolute condition for fish to live. That does not
mean, however, that there is only one kind of water. Some species of fish that
live in fresh water cannot spawn if they remain in a river. They have to leave
the fresh water and migrate to salt water in order to lay their eggs. They thus
connect two worlds. In the same way, our mind, which is part of the spirit
world, and our body, which is part of the physical world, need to connect.
At the beginning of human history, a unified global realm would have
been formed to honor Adam and Eve’s birthdays, the anniversary of their holy
wedding and the anniversary of their deaths. By sharing in the commemoration of
those days, all people could have united. Instead of being divided, humanity could
have lived in a single realm. If this had happened, Adam and Eve’s way of life
would have been passed down through human history. The culture formed would
have endured as long as people continued to exist.
Each of us goes through life ignorant of when we will die. We do not
know if, for example, we will die in a traffic accident. I think some people
will die saying, “Oh, Reverend Moon was right!” expressing regret only at that
moment. We need to know that we are traveling on a very serious path in life.
We need to use every second of our life preparing ourselves for the eternal
world. We need to be aware how momentous is the path we are walking.
When people go to the spirit world, they can be divided generally into
two types. The first consists of those who lived out a natural life span in
this world, and the second consists of those who experienced an untimely death.
Among the latter, some died as a result of punishment, and others died in order
to pay indemnity for the nation or the world.
Suppose God established one person in a central position representing
a thousand people. What if God made that person go the way of death in place of
those thousand people? In such an instance, the grace and virtue of the one who
died in their place would move the hearts of the thousand people. They would
determine to live in the name of that person and model their lives after that
person, living as he or she lived. Having done so, the thousand people would
enter the same realm of grace as the one who died for them. The reason we try
to follow the philosophy of wise individuals and model our lives after patriots
is that we desire to enter the same realm of grace as these people.
Some people live with hope, while others live without hope. We can
divide people’s hopes and aspirations into two general types: those that place
human beings in the central position, and those that place Heaven in the
central position. A newborn infant thinks that its mother’s bosom is the most
wonderful place in the world. At a certain point in its development, however,
the child leaves its mother’s bosom. As the child grows, he or she forms
friendships, feeling happiest when with friends. Eventually, though, the young
person will leave his or her friends behind. During our life course, we come to
discover that neither loving parents, nor a loving spouse, nor even loving
children can completely satisfy our hopes.
People have many kinds of hopes. Eventually, all these hopes pass
away. We have hopes for our family, for our country and for the world. However,
the reality is that as we grow older, our hopes grow weaker. Some people boast
that their hope represents the hope of all humankind, yet they lack the
conviction to pursue it at the cost of their life. People fervently entertain
many hopes during the course of their life, but when they face death, they
abandon all their hopes. They desire to stay alive one more day. Day after day
they wander in search of something new in which to place their hope. When they
finally face death, though, all their hopes fade away and they fall into
despair as they set out on their final path. We know all too well that this is
true.
It may appear that a person, when viewed as an individual, possesses
worthwhile aspirations. Yet no individual’s hopes continue beyond death. In my
view, it is important for all people on earth today to give serious
consideration to one question: How can we find hope that will not crumble in
the face of death but will transcend it?
All things of this world will pass away. Our families, nations and
even the world itself will pass away. Ideologies and philosophies will pass
away. What will remain? Whatever remains, that is the hope that can defeat
death. We might consider that a person who does not possess such a hope or
aspiration has been defeated by life.
There are people who, from the time they are born, reject all the
hopes and aspirations presented by the secular world. These people embrace
aspirations not of the human world but those that are eternal and of Heaven.
Heaven helps these people. A life of faith does not embrace aspirations that
are rooted in the secular world. Instead, it embraces hopes that surpass even
the gates of death. It dreams of the world of eternal hope.
Someday I too will die. When we are young, we don’t think much about
death. Yet we become increasingly serious about death as we grow older. This is
because death is a gate through which we are inevitably destined to pass.
However, what happens to us after we die? Do you know why I am speaking about
death? I am speaking about death in order to teach the meaning of life. Who
really knows the value of life? It is not the person who goes all out to
preserve his or her life. The only one who really knows the value of life is
the one who goes into the valley of death. As he or she desperately cries out
to Heaven at the crossroads of life and death, that person confirms the value
of life.
Why do people fear death? It is because they do not know the purpose
for which we are born. Those who do not know why we are born do not know why we
die. Therefore, among the first questions philosophers ask are, “What is life?
Why are we born?” If we think about it, we realize that when we die we are
reborn into the midst of God’s love. Although in our world people often cry
out, “Oh no, I’m going to die! What am I to do?” They make a big fuss. Do you
think God cries out, “Oh no!” and is overwhelmed with grief when we die? Or do
you think that God laughs, “Ho, ho, ho!”? The truth is, He is happy. That is
because the moment of the physical body’s death is the moment we experience the
joy of leaving the finite realm of love to enter the infinite realm of love. It
is the moment of our second birth.
Then is God happier on the day we are born into the physical world or
at the moment we leave our physical body behind? At the moment of physical
death, we are born a second time into an infinitely expanded realm of love. We
then become His newborn children. Of course God is happier at the second birth.
I am telling you this because you need to know that unless you are released
from the fear of death, you cannot have a relationship with God.
God feels happy to watch and directly participate in our life.
Consider how a baby is born and wets its diapers as it begins the process of
growth. God is happy because, as the child grows, the pulse of love within
God’s heart also grows. When God makes a face, the baby imitates Him and makes
the same face. When God smiles, the baby smiles as well, and when He is sad,
the baby too is sad. This is how babies gradually grow to resemble God. As
babies grow, they also begin to resemble their parents. From their parents,
they learn language and the rules for daily life. Of course, all these things
have their origin in God.
So, after God has lived with us on earth, what if one day He sails
over to the other side? What are we supposed to do? If we say, “Wait, God, I
want to go with You,” will He reply, “Who are you? Do I know you?” Is He likely
to leave us behind? Or will He want to take us with Him? Of course, He will
want to take us with Him. Nonetheless, God will say, “I can’t take you with me
now. I’ll take you with me after you have grown a little more. I want you to
work a bit more on your perfection.” We can then reply, “Well, we can’t go now,
yet we are certain that the time will come when we are able to go.” Then we can
look forward to that day. When we have a physical body, we are unable to follow
God wherever He goes.
You need to be willing to die for the person
you love
It is only natural that we would aspire to resemble God. On His part,
God also would want His sons and daughters to resemble Him. We have to conclude
then that God designed us to be born again into a body that enables us to
resemble Him.
God and human beings long for that eternal day when we can soar
through the heavens together. The day we are born as beings who can take wing
with God, the day we are born into that body, is the day of our physical death.
On that day we cast off our physical body like an old coat. Then, would we
welcome death or fear death? The answer, of course, is that we would welcome
death.
For what purpose then would we die? We would die for the sake of God’s
true love. That is the love whereby we seek to sacrifice ourselves for the
benefit of others. We can conclude that the reason we cast off our physical
bodies is so that we can participate in the realm of God’s work of love. We die
for the sake of the world of God’s love. Wouldn’t you like to be born as God’s
true sons and daughters who can receive and practice true love?
If we could measure God’s wealth, how rich do you think He would be?
Have you ever thought about that? With all those heavenly bodies in the
universe, isn’t it likely that one would be made of solid diamond? How about
one made of fine gold? God is truly omniscient and omnipotent. Wouldn’t He want
His children to have everything? What do you think? God can go from one end of
the vast universe to the other in an instant. Is this something you would be
interested in doing? To gain that ability, what do we need to do? We have to
obey the laws that God has established for us. Only by doing so can we be with
Him. It is impossible to be with Him if we behave in a disordered way.
We need to pass through the three ages of water, earth and heaven
Are you confident that you can refrain from doing what God tells you
not to do? We have a dual structure. Our mind is the subject partner and our
body is the object partner. The two need to unite, with the body subordinating
itself to the mind.
In our life, we go through three realms, corresponding to the stages
of formation, growth and completion. We go through the realm of water in our
mother’s womb, then the realm of planet Earth, and finally we can fly in the
heavenly realm, which corresponds to floating in the air. Once we have gone
through the period in the womb, we are born into the physical world. We live in
our physical body in this world for about a hundred years, and then we enter the
spirit world through which we can fly. We pass through these three realms.
When a fetus is in the womb, it resists leaving the womb for the
outside world. It fights as hard as it can to stay there. The reason is that
when the fetus leaves the womb, its home is destroyed. All its nourishment and
everything else it had in the womb breaks apart and flows away. Also, its head
and body swell in size during the birthing process. Who would want to go
through something like that? Every fetus cries, “No!” right up to its moment of
birth. Eventually, the water breaks and the infant emerges into the world.
As you watch a woman giving birth to a child, you really have to
empathize with her. Women who have given birth know what I am talking about.
When the mother is pushing, the extent of her beauty does not make a
difference. She contorts her face into all sorts of grotesque expressions. She
makes such painful faces that even her husband can’t stand to watch and might
leave the room. She makes just about every possible face. Thus both the mother
and the baby go through tremendous pain up to the last moment for the baby to
be born.
After birth, is it necessary to keep the umbilical cord attached to
the baby’s navel? Or does someone cut off the umbilical cord without a second
thought? Perhaps someone may object, saying, “That cord is someone’s lifeline.
How can you cut a lifeline that connects one person to another?” The newborn
infant cries at the top of its lungs because it thinks it is about to die. As
God looks on, though, He can’t help breaking into a happy smile. From the
viewpoint of the new life that has just been born, one world has just
disappeared completely. Now the child has to breathe the air of its new world.
The fetus grows in a watery environment. The period in the womb is a
period of existence in water. As long as the fetus is in its mother’s womb, it
is floating in water. At first, you might think that the fetus may have
difficulty during its time in the womb because it cannot breathe. You may also
think that it would need a process of ingesting nutrients and expelling waste
products. These functions are fulfilled by the umbilical cord, which is like a
hose attached to the baby’s belly. How does a fetus in the womb receive
nourishment? It receives nourishment through the umbilical cord attached to its
navel.
For the child in the womb, the navel functions as a mouth. So do not
be disdainful of your belly button. Rub your belly button a little and say,
“Hey, belly button! Thanks for working so hard back then!” If you pat your
belly button often, it is good for your health. Seriously, it’s a good way to
exercise. It’s good for your health to exercise your navel. For example, a
person sleeping in a cold room can avoid coming down with diarrhea by keeping
the navel well covered.
We may refer to our navel as our former mouth. Someone might say, “How
foolish! Whoever heard of a former mouth?” There’s no denying the feat, though,
that your navel once functioned as your mouth. It also acted as a breathing
apparatus. Outside the womb, your present mouth fulfills the function of
receiving nutrients. The function has moved up on your body.
Like the fetus in the womb and the physical body outside the womb, a
person’s spirit self also needs to receive nutrients in order to grow. The
spirit self is attached to the physical body that breathes air to stay alive on
earth. It lives off the physical body until the body grows old. Then the spirit
self kicks the body away and tries to separate. If at that moment, the body
cries out, “No, I don’t want to die, I won’t die!” how will God react? Will He
feel sorry for the physical body because of the pain it is enduring? Or will He
quietly smile?
The infant who experiences pain when emerging from its mother’s womb
grows as the object partner of its parents’ love. In the same way, our spirit
self has to leave behind our crying physical body to be born anew as the
eternal object partner of God, a spiritual being. We can draw this conclusion
based on the Principle. On earth, too, the baby can become a friend of its
father and mother after it is born. This is because it is born into the
physical world where it can share love with its father and mother. In the same
way that the fetus swims in its mother’s womb, a person in the physical world breathes
and lives in the swaddling clothes of air. When the baby shares love with its
parents while breathing air, we say that it is alive. Likewise, we can share
love with God our Parent, who exists as an eternal spiritual being, after we
are born again into the spirit world.
What kind of place is the spirit world? When we enter the spirit
world, we begin to breathe through a hole on the top of our head and through
our cells. The “air” in the spirit world is not the air we have on earth.
Instead, it is love. When a spirit person breathes, he or she inhales and
exhales the nourishing elements of love. On earth, eating and drinking alone
are not sufficient to sustain our life. When we eat and drink, we are merely filling
our physical body with food and water. Eventually, our physical body will die.
The form we take during life on earth is our second existence. While on earth,
we need to develop our character of love. Therefore on earth, the thing we need
most is love.
What is an orphan? Why do we call a child who cannot receive love from
a father or mother an orphan? It is because that child lacks the love by which
he or she can connect eternally with the spirit world. In the absence of love,
we feel lonely. That is why we feel sorry for a person who lives without a
spouse.
The death of our physical body destroys our ability to breathe in the
second stage, yet it connects our spirit self with the nourishment of love. We
eventually have no choice except to leave the physical body behind. We cannot
see love, yet our internal structure develops based on experiencing the love of
parents, the love between husband and wife, and the love of children. Just as
there is a normal course of development for a child in its mother’s womb, there
is a normal course of development of the spirit self on earth. We follow this
course by living in accord with the laws of God. We cannot do it by living in
any other way.
If we examine the world of nature, we see that many
insignificant-looking insects, seeds of plants and even small birds can fly.
Does it make sense that human beings, the greatest of all created beings,
cannot fly? Observe the dandelion. It is made such that its seeds fly away when
the wind blows. Birds fly, insects fly and the seeds of plants fly. Surely,
human beings also must have been created with a means to fly. Someone might be
tempted to complain, “God, why did you create us without the ability to fly
when many other things in creation can fly?” God would probably reply, “Wait a
few decades until you become fully mature and then I will let you fly”
So what will we be doing until then? We need to train ourselves to be
able to adapt to the spirit world. We need to train ourselves by loving our
parents, our spouse and our children. Then, when the time comes, we will enter
the eternal world and live in attendance to God. For that to take place, we
have to discard this physical body and die.
Consider the life cycle of a cicada. Before a cicada can fly, it goes
through a nymph stage. What would happen if the nymph of a cicada said, “I want
to go on living as a nymph; I don’t want to shed my skin; I don’t care about
land and air?” Even if it tried to resist its metamorphosis, once it sheds its
skin it will fly away.
A similar process occurs in the case of a dragonfly. The female lays
its eggs in or near water. When the eggs hatch, the nymphs swim in the water.
When the nymphs are fully grown, they crawl out of the water. They shed their
skin to become an adult dragonfly that flies away. It begins to eat insects
that it would have never thought of eating while living underwater. In like
manner, many insects pass through different stages and develop wings.
Human beings are the highest forms of creation, yet do we have wings?
Does living only on land satisfy us? We have wings, but they are wings of a
higher order. You may say you don’t want to cast aside your physical body and
die. However, once we die and leave our physical body behind, our spirit self
passes through the blessed gates of our second birth and whoosh, we fly away.
As I have already said, we cannot avoid the death of our physical
body. We have to be prepared to endure suffering in the physical world in order
to express our good nature and develop our spirit self that will live in the
eternal spirit world. A fetus in its mother’s womb has to receive proper
prenatal care if it is to be born healthy and strong. Similarly, we need to
prepare ourselves appropriately while on earth. We need to develop our
character by modeling ourselves in the image of God, expressing the heart of
God and the divinity of God.
Once we have reached maturity, we need to invest our lives to cross
over the line between life and death. We have to cross over successfully even
if we have to brave the fiercest storm. It is not enough to do well most of the
way and then fall just short of the finish line. What will we do when we find
ourselves approaching life’s finish line? Even if we run with our mind focused
totally on the goal, we can’t be confident we will make it all the way through
with success. If we wander aimlessly at the end, we will be ruined. We can win
victory only as we dash across the finish line.
Every person will find it worthwhile to make this effort. No matter
how much opposition you may encounter from behind, or how much persecution is
leveled at you from the sides, you just have to push forward, one step after
another. There is no time to get entangled with the opposition. You have to
keep going as quickly as you can, even one step at a time, in order to traverse
your destined path to its end and finally cross the finish line. All of us have
to go this way.
We often describe a person’s heart as “upright.” What does that mean?
When a heart is firmly vertical, we say it is upright. If a tree is lying on
the ground, we don’t say it is upright. The same is true when we refer to a
heart as upright. This expression means that the person’s heart has a vertical
orientation. That is why we are in an upright position when walking. An object
needs to be vertical to be described as upright.
We have to set our heart in a completely vertical orientation. Then
our body will be horizontal, relative to that. When the vertical and horizontal
dimensions are set within us, the pulling power of the vertical and the pushing
power of the horizontal will be mutually balanced. Centripetal and centrifugal
forces will arise, balancing each other. Therefore, we need to find our true
nature. When we maintain ourselves in this manner, we will be able to say that
God and True Parents are similar in nature. On this foundation, we can expand
our sphere of life through our relatives, clan and nation.
Doctors quarantine patients who have dangerous communicable diseases.
For the same reason, it would be ideal for people who know the Will of God and
continue to sin despite this knowledge to be isolated so they can have time for
self-reflection and to consider their value to others as they face themselves.
Even Jesus and the saints went this way. Through suffering in a wilderness
environment, where there might not be a place to sleep or food to eat, we can
genuinely repent.
There is one thing that makes me sad. God gave me the responsibility
to accomplish His Will, so during my lifetime I need to accomplish His Will to
a level He finds acceptable. Until I have done that, I cannot die. For that
reason, when I am in the valley of the shadow of death, God leads me out of
danger. Whether I am eating or fasting, whether I am asleep or awake, I am
always praying for the world and humankind. My suffering is not for the sake of
a particular country or people. My objective is the salvation of the world. I
have worked to this day and I am ready to die if necessary. I have been
sacrificing my life to achieve this objective. You too need to live and die for
the sake of the world. If it is for the sake of world salvation, you have to be
prepared to die with your wife, your family, your clan and even your entire
people.
Some day in the future, you will die. When standing face to face with
death, you will look back upon your life. Think about the final words you will
leave behind at that moment. On the path of death, your friends will not be
with you. Your loving parents will not be there, nor will your loving brothers
and sisters. Your spouse and children whom you love so much will not be with
you. It is a path you will take alone.
No one can go down that path twice. Once you have gone, there is no
coming back. Once you take that path, you cannot take it again in all eternity.
The heart you have as you walk that path is important. At the moment you are
face to face with death, if you do not possess the hope that can transcend
death, it will spell your defeat.
In history many people have upheld God’s Will and worked to fulfill
it. They did not retreat when faced with death. Instead, they laughed in the
face of death and valiantly transcended death. We know well that these people
paved our way to the kingdom of heaven.
You cannot be resurrected without dying
first
What kind of person is joyful even when passing over the hill of
death, the moment that drives most of us to experience heartfelt sorrow? This
is the kind of person who has heartfelt hope and aspirations to reach the
kingdom of heaven. For this reason, we cannot reproach the world and lament
when facing death. Instead, we ought to feel joy as we stand before the spirit
world, with pride in the value of our death.
What happens to us when we die? Up to the moment we die, we belong to
ourselves. As soon as we die, however, we belong to God. This is because we are
born of a fallen lineage. Until our death, we lack the ability to cut our ties
with Satan. After death, though, we establish ties with God. There is no
resurrection without death. It is impossible to enter the next period without
first passing through the preceding one.
What kind of death is the Bible referring to when it indicates that
those who seek to die will live and those who seek to live will die? (Luke
17:33, John 12:25) Seeking to die does not mean that we seek to lose the
eternal life that Heaven has given us. It means that we want to lose the life
that is connected to Satan’s world, inherited through the fallen lineage. That
is why those who seek to die for the sake of God will live. It seems
paradoxical; from the perspective of the Human Fall, it is the only way
restoration can take place. This is the standard for discussing the possibility
of restoration.
Success or failure in life is not determined over a period of decades.
Rather, it is determined in an instant. If you consider the entire course of a
person’s life, it does not take very long for a baby to be born. Of course,
there is a period leading up to the birth, when the fetus is in the womb. Those
months in the womb are a time of preparation. The birth happens in an instant.
The preparation may go well for the entire pregnancy period, but if something
goes wrong at the decisive moment of birth, the infant could meet with a tragic
end.
After living out our life on earth, we come face to face with the
moment of death. We will see our entire life flash before our eyes. If the
person facing death can say, “There was truth in my life,” or, “I am leaving
behind something more valuable than my life,” that person has spent his or her
life in a worthy manner. On the other hand, in the case of people who recall
their past and shake their heads over things they would rather not remember,
they are in a tragic situation.
For some people, the more they remember at the moment of death, the
greater the expression of joy on their face. If all their problems could be
forgotten in light of the ideals they have lived, death would actually be a
comfort. The moment of recalling the past would not be filled with fear. If
they are leaving something worthwhile behind, then that past record will not
die and its reality will not die. Instead, those things will become more
evident. The people whose past allows them to feel this way are without a doubt
people whom the nation can follow. They are the ones whom the people of the
world can follow.
We need to consider whether we can stand alone before God. Truth and
goodness begin in a particular individual; they do not end in that individual.
Once truth and goodness have begun in a particular person, they have to bear
fruit in another person. Alternatively, they can begin in another person and
bear fruit in me.
If people spend their life by giving of themselves to others, they
will have no fear on the path of death. They have given everything and
sacrificed themselves for others. They have led a life that is close to the
truth, shedding tears for others and investing their life for others. If a
person’s aspirations are for others, all of the life force pulsating in that
person is focused and invested for the sake of others. Then that person’s past
is one of glory.
A world where intuitive sense becomes reality
The wise take one path, the foolish take another. A wise person tries
to live in partnership with history, in partnership with the present world and
in partnership with the future. A foolish person lives for the self and tries
to make the world exist for his or her own sake. A global environment
characterizes the spirit world, and it includes nations, clans, families and
individuals. An individual cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without a
self-motivated character that makes that person absolutely indispensable to
others. The family or clan cannot enter the kingdom of heaven unless they can
say that they possess a self-motivated character that makes them indispensable
on the family or clan level.
Compared with the spirit world, our planet Earth is a speck of dust.
The spirit world is an eternal world, transcending time and space. If a spirit
person commands, “The person who lived in such-and-such age with such- and-such
a heart, please come forward,” then that person will appear in an instant. It
is a world in which feelings and intuition turn into reality. There are no
factories there to process food. There are no automobile plants. There is
nothing like that.
To register yourself in the spirit world, you need a certificate based
on your life on earth. How are you going to obtain it? I’m talking about a
certificate of life that will let you say, “This is what I became; this is what
I did.” You cannot just create your own certificate. First, Satan has to write
one for you. After you receive that certificate, you have to receive one from
Jesus. Finally, you have to receive a certificate from God. You will need these
three certificates.
When you go to the spirit world, you will find that it is made up of
several very large realms. Those who lived for the sake of others will go to
the highest level. Those who lived for themselves, however, will find
themselves in the lowest level. They will find that everyone opposes them. On
the other hand, everyone will welcome those who lived for others.
Once you are in the spirit world, your parents and spouse cannot help
you. The people in the highest levels are those who lived for the sake of
others. The uppermost tiers are inhabited by those who traveled throughout the
world living for others, with a heart that went beyond their love for their
mother and family. With a saintly heart, they were always looking for ways to
save the people of the world from evil.
The one who lived for him or herself alone goes to hell, and the one
who lived for others goes to the heavenly kingdom. People separate into these
two worlds at the time of death. So we need to live for the sake of the whole,
for the sake of the greater good. Live for the sake of the world, for the sake
of God, and for the sake of human liberation. Someday people will participate
in competitions to see who can live for the sake of others to a greater degree.
In the spirit world, the person who has lived for the sake of others will go to
the higher position. So you can leap to a higher position by living for the
person who is higher than you are. Living for that person is the same act as
God bringing forth His own object partner through His creative act. Thus, that
person comes to stand as your object partner of love.
In the spirit world we live for others, based on true love. If you
encounter a person who has dedicated 100 percent of his or her life for the
sake of others, then you have to say to that person, “Please move in front of
me, go ahead.” It doesn’t matter how great the United States seems. A person
who dedicates his or her life for the people of America to a greater extent
than your president can move past the president and be welcomed.
When a person cares only about his or her own interests, that
individual becomes everyone’s enemy. The same principle operates in the spirit
world. When a person says he or she will live for something greater, then that
person will naturally move ahead of others. One who lives for the sake of the
world need not worry about living for America, because America is included in
the world. All countries are included in the world. We can conclude that the
only type of relationship everyone will welcome is one of true love, in which a
person lives for the sake of others.
When you die, you have to take three accomplishments with you: one,
that you loved God; two, that you loved yourself and worked hard to manifest
your essential self; and three, that you worked hard to expand the love you
shared with your spouse and family to the entire world. This love for God and humanity
will remain forever. It will define your right to ownership in the next world.
When you enter the spirit world, the number of people you evangelized will
determine your right of ownership.
In the spirit world, pride wells up over the extent to which you
longed for people with your life. You do not need anything else in the next
world. The only thing you need is the record that you loved God more than the
world, more than your country, more than your spouse and more than your
children. If a wife wants her husband to love her with godly love of a higher
order, she has to say to him, “Please love God more than you love me, and only
then love me.”
I often preach about the realm of the heart. The foundation for the
realm of the heart is the love of true parents, the love of true brothers and
sisters, and the love of true children. The world of the heart is one in which
we practice these types of love on a universal scale. In this original world, a
person can live by the standard of love between husband and wife, although that
love has to give primacy to heaven and earth and to the cosmos.
So where do we establish a foundation to qualify for that world? We
have to lay this foundation in the physical world. We are not to spend our time
on earth for the sake of all the things valued by this world. We are here to
qualify ourselves for the next world.
That is the basis for the principle that we live as families in the
spirit world. Why do we need to have children? The vertical love of God and the
horizontal love of parents combine to bring descendants into this world. It
involves a vertical and horizontal mixing of the blood of God and the parents.
Thus, people who were unable to have descendants on earth will not be able to
harmonize heaven and earth in the spirit world. They will be unable to connect
with the rhythm of north, south, east and west. A person who has no descendants
will have no place to rest or play in the next world.
In the spirit world, there is not only no need for denominations,
there is no need for religion at all. There is no need for entities such as the
Presbyterian Church or the Catholic Church. People there are in the realm of
life together with God. People who loved the world inhabit that realm, and this
includes patriots and loyal subjects, women of virtue and saints. As far as I
am aware, however, there is as yet no one who lived his or her life in the
original love of God, focusing on the tradition of the realms of the heart.
Whenever you begin a task, begin by placing God at the center. Whether
you go to hell, the middle spirit world, paradise or the kingdom of heaven is
determined by the extent to which you harmonize with this principle. The most
precious path on earth is that on which a person endures the greatest amount of
suffering and sheds the most tears for the sake of Heaven. Those who take that
path will receive true freedom upon entering the next world.
In the next world, people who cling to their nationality cannot live
together with people of other nations. However, true followers of all religions
are able to live together. The religious sphere is one of longing for one world
and believing in one God. So people of true piety will be together. The uniqueness
of people of faith is in their living their entire life based on the standard
of the spirit world. Religion teaches us how to relate with each other focusing
on the eternal world, the transcendent world, the dwelling place of the Divine
Being, whether we call Him God or by another name.
There is a reason for my speaking to the participants in this
gathering about the value of life in relation to issues of life and death. You
represent religions that are actively practiced throughout the world. I want to
stress that it is the responsibility of religious leaders to teach about life
and death accurately.
Today, the world’s political leaders are seeking to realize peace and
prosperity through the United Nations. In my judgment, however, the path to
world peace will be ineffective if we build it merely on the political,
economic and military functions of the United Nations. Political, economic and
military power can deal with only external, physical and material things. We
can reach the internal, spiritual aspects of life only through religious
teachings and through the unity and unified efforts of the world’s religions.
I would like to take this opportunity today to propose that we
supplement the existing United Nations with a structure in which the United
Nations and leaders of the major world religions can work together. I hope that
the participants here today, and leaders of all the nations of the world, will
seriously consider this proposal to establish a structure encompassing the
world’s religions and the United Nations.
Thank you very much.
The Path of Life for All Humankind
January
17, 1999
Olympic
Weightlifting Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Global Expansion of True Families
speaking tour
Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
I am deeply grateful that you have taken the time from your busy
schedules to help me make today’s gathering such a success. Our theme for today
is, “The Path of Life for All Humankind.”
Today the world is lost in great confusion, and cries out in agony. We
face endless conflict as individuals, in our families, in our nations and in
the world. As individuals, we are confronted with inner turmoil between our
mind and body. Families are affected by the moral decadence of young people and
the breakdown of family-centered traditions. Historical rivalries lead to
distrust and even war among our nations, fanning the embers of uncertainty and
hopelessness in the world. The solution to all these problems lies in developing
an ideal love relationship with God.
God’s purpose for creating humankind
Throughout history, humankind has sought to answer the basic question:
Why are we born? Some have concluded that they were born for the sake of their
country. Others have decided that they were born for the sake of their parents.
Still others believe they were born for their own sake. People of faith believe
they are born for the sake of God.
Yet it is not enough to say that God created the universe for the sole
benefit of human beings or even for God’s own benefit. The creation of
humankind involved the cooperation of many beings and elements. Although each
had its own inherent purpose, they worked together to initiate the creative
process. God’s purpose in creating, the angels' purpose in assisting, nature’s
purpose in providing the materials, and even the human purpose for being
created are all consistent. There is some common purpose that is pleasing to
God, to the angels, to the rest of creation and to human beings themselves.
This shared purpose is something that, the longer it is possessed the
greater the happiness and joy it provides. It is something that, once we
possess it, we would never let it go. It cannot be external in nature. It is
something internal and invisible. Things like knowledge, money and power are
merely collateral conditions that are needed in people’s lives. We are not born
into the world for the purpose of possessing them. Such external things may
exist in a reciprocal relationship with humankind only temporarily, not
eternally.
God has no need for money. If Almighty God ever needed money, He could
create as much as He desired. Also, we know that God is the root of all
knowledge, since He created the universe through certain principles and laws.
Furthermore, the Creator is the origin of power, so God has no need to seek
power.
What then is this common content or purpose? It is something we cannot
arrive at through human effort alone. This is because human effort cannot
control the fundamental origin of life. This content is something that directs
the motivation, course and even final destination of each person’s life.
From this perspective, this common content can only be true love.
Human beings are born in love and are destined to go the path of love. People
even die for love. This shows that love is more valuable than life itself.
Moreover, we see that love precedes life. That is why people willingly offer
even their lives for the sake of love.
Love is eternal. If we look at novels, poems and other works of literature,
we see how authors set unchanging and eternal love as the ideal. Clearly, human
beings are not satisfied with momentary or finite love. Our desire is for love
that is eternal.
Love has the power to disarm God completely. Even God is vulnerable to
love. Almighty God cannot resist breaking into a big smile when smelling the
fragrance of love from human beings. God enjoys love stories, too. Yet how much
more pleasing it is when love is actually practiced!
Each organ in our body was created for the sake of love. For example,
the eyes were obviously created for the purpose of sight. To see what? The eyes
were created specifically to look for love, which is the common theme among all
beings. The nose was made to smell, specifically to smell the fragrance of
love. Similarly, our ears were created to hear the sounds of love. Among all
the sounds we hear, the one sound that we never get tired of hearing is the
sound of someone saying, “I love you.” This is as true for senior citizens as
it is for young people.
Love is the only power that can bring all beings into a state of
mutual attraction. Here, love refers to true love, which every being in the
entire universe welcomes. True love is the type of love that is publicly
endorsed by God, the angelic world, things of creation and all people. If we
were to cover the entire universe with a blanket of love, no being would want
to crawl out from under that blanket. From this perspective, it is clear that
the creation of the universe and life itself originated from true love.
True love is the origin of the creation of the universe
When human beings reach the state of consciousness in which they are
able to love the universe, all the doors of the universe open to them. For example,
I am just a tiny being occupying this space right here. However, centered on
love, I can have a reciprocal relationship with a being of any size or
magnitude. Let us say that God is an extremely large being. Then by the power
of love, I can rise to a position reciprocal to that of the Absolute God. This
is possible because love is an attribute of God.
Thus, a person who recognizes and keeps God’s covenant of love can
enjoy freedom anywhere in the universe. A person who is intoxicated with God’s
love can examine a single grain of sand for a thousand years without ever being
bored. Such a person will see light radiating from his or her own hand. When
lying alone at night, a person feels as if he or she is lying on a golden bed
and radiating golden light. This may sound unbelievable, yet it is true. If you
reach this state, you can stand on a hilltop and feel that all creation is
cheering to welcome you. Have you ever experienced this? The thought that we
are born into a universe of love not only gives us a feeling of infinite
happiness, it also makes us want to proclaim to the world, “Hey, look at me!”
God was working in the laboratory, and made the most ideal, most sensational
discovery: that discovery is each one of us.
We are created in a position reciprocal to God’s love. Therefore, any
act of self-destruction is the greatest of sins. Conversely, loving and
protecting oneself are acts of great goodness. That is why suicide, the act of
self-destruction, is such a momentous violation of heart. Suicide contributes
to breakdown of the universe.
A person might be imprisoned and tortured to the point of vomiting
blood. In that moment, if he or she feels God’s love, that suffering becomes a
key that opens the door to God’s embrace with a love that penetrates to the
marrow of his or her bones. A person who perceives his or her suffering in such
a way is even able to face death with happiness.
By this example, we see that anyone who lives within the power of true
love is a person of great strength. Even if someone were to offer this person a
country or the world, he or she would not be swayed. Even Satan would be forced
to surrender before such a person. Such an individual, called by God to
represent all humankind centering on this cosmic love, would be the Messiah.
Jesus is that representative. We can never find this cosmic love without going
through the Messiah. It is reasonable to say that all people on earth will have
to follow the Messiah. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life;
no one comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) The meaning of this would
be clearer if the word “love” were added: “I am the way, and the truth, and the
life, and the love; no one comes to the Father, but by me.”
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that energy is
produced when a subject partner and object partner become one. In a family,
parents hold the position of the subject partner and children hold the position
of object partner. Once they have a reciprocal relationship of love they become
one entity, a true family. This entity then becomes a new object partner that
can unite with a larger subject partner. With God as the subject partner, the
parent-child union becomes one with God. We can also say that when a perfect
subject-object partnership is formed with God, centering on the ideal of love,
God and humankind can exist in total oneness. When the realm of love between
God and humanity becomes a reality, the light of love will shine throughout the
universe as bright and constant as the sun.
In this way, each of us is a person in whom the lives of both parents
are brought together as one, and is also a partner in our parents’ love. We are
one with their love and one with their ideals, including happiness and peace.
For a parent, the joy of worldly success is nothing compared to the joy of
reuniting with a lost child. This shows that the child embodies the highest
ideals of the parents.
Each of us is connected to our parents’ life, love and ideals, and no
one can sever these connections. Even God cannot sever them, nor can the
universe. In fact, all the forces of the universe work together to safeguard
these connections. This is because the parents are the cause and the children
are the result. The parents and children are one, centering on love. Cause and
effect become one and form the substantial realm of love. This is a principle
of the universe.
For this reason, wherever the child goes the mother and father will
follow. Even in the spirit world, your parents will always want to be with you.
In the original ideal, therefore, it is unnatural for a person to dislike being
accompanied by his or her parents. Such behavior tears the universe apart. When
a person doesn’t like to go with his or her parents, it means that he or she is
already moving away from the Principle and toward the Fall
Thus, acts of filial piety, such as loving and caring for our parents
as we would ourselves, are the most precious things. That is why there is a
saying, “Good fortune comes to a harmonious family” On the other hand, divorce
cuts through family harmony like a knife. The law of the universe does not
allow such an act. Parents who disobey this law find themselves longing for the
good fortune of having a harmonious family.
Each person comes into the world through three sets of parents. The
first parent is the material world. Elements from the world of matter combine
to form each person as the center of the material world and as a complex material
being. Thus, it can be said that these physical elements themselves are the
ancestors who gave us birth. At the same time, the material world is an
extension of us. The universe is created so that matter can settle only in the
ideal of love. It is only in the ideal of love that all cells can live in
tranquility. However, this is ruined whenever a person becomes angry.
Our second set of parents is our natural parents. By giving birth to
us, our parents gave us a particular form, and to this extent they are the
masters of our lives. However, no matter how hard they may try, our parents
cannot be the masters of our love. The master of love is God. In this context,
God exists so that love can expand into the entire universe and be made
eternal.
Because God is the subject partner of love, God becomes the Parent
centering on love. God is our third Parent, so we have three sets of parents.
Human life can be divided into three periods: life in the womb of
about ten months, a physical life of about a hundred years, and life in the
spirit world that lasts tens of thousands of years into eternity. If we look at
our own face, we also see three stages: the mouth, the nose and the eyes. These
reflect the three periods of our lives. The mouth symbolizes the period in the womb,
which is a world of material. The nose symbolizes the period on earth, which is
the world of humanity. The eyes symbolize the period in heaven, which is the
spirit world.
To the fetus, the aquatic world of its mother’s womb is a world of
total freedom. Interestingly, although it is constrained within the confines of
the womb, the fetus feels completely free. In the womb, it can’t stretch its
legs, and it relies on an umbilical cord to breathe and receive nutrients for
survival. Its nose and mouth are both useless in that world. Nevertheless, to
the fetus, the world in the womb is one of complete freedom.
At the time of birth, do you think the fetus would say, “I am going
into the world to eat delicious rice, sweet honey and lots of cake with this
mouth?” No. The opposite is the case. It would say, “Oh no! I don’t want to
leave!” However, even if the fetus doesn’t want to leave its mother’s womb,
when the time comes it has no choice. As the amniotic fluid flows out, the
fetus follows soon thereafter. This is what happens in a normal birth. As soon
as the baby is born, it begins to cry. At the same time, it starts to breathe
through its nose and becomes linked to the second world, the world of air.
As the baby leaves the womb to enter the world of air, the umbilical
cord is discarded along with the amniotic sac and everything it needed in the
world of the womb. With the destruction of these things, the baby is born into
the bosom of its new mother, the planet Earth. Once born, the baby begins to
eat with its mouth and breathe through its nose. The food we eat on earth
nourishes our physical body, but it does not contain the essential element of
life. This life element is nothing other than love. Thus, while we are in this
world, we also need to breathe the air of love. We need to inhale this air of
love from our mother and father.
A newborn baby automatically searches for its mother’s breast,
following the vibrations of her love. Whether she is beautiful or ugly does not
matter to the baby. The only thing that matters is that she is its mother. It
is a sacred scene manifested in limitless variety. We are born in love and we
grow by receiving love. Each of us is the substantial fruit of our parents’
love. The nature of our parents’ love is made visible in us. Parents love their
children because their children are the fruit of their love. Boundless love can
multiply from this fruit. In this way, we are linked to the love of the
individual, family, tribe, nation, world, universe, and ultimately to the
essential love of God.
Once we are born, our parents take responsibility to see that we
become good human beings during our life on earth. Our parents act on behalf of
the world, the nation and the family to teach and provide for us. We receive
material things and education from our parents so that we may become complete
as individuals. Based on this, we then become linked to a horizontal foundation
of love, which is marriage.
Parents take responsibility for us until we marry. After marriage, we
inherit the love shared by our mother and father. When we marry and start
rearing our own children, we begin to understand how much our parents loved us,
and thus come to inherit parental love. In this way, the individual becomes
capable of receiving and giving love completely. This is how each of us matures
as a complete man or woman.
We are born and mature in the vertical love of our parents, and later
we engage in horizontal love. This is the only way we can find the integrated
realm of love. Heaven and earth together form a spherical world, covering all
the dimensions of top and bottom, left and right, and front and back. When the
vertical and horizontal love relationships are linked, they interact, revolve,
integrate and finally emerge as a single center of harmony. Once the vertical
love of heaven and earth is firmly established as the axis internally and
externally, the need for horizontal love arises. This takes place during
adolescence.
During adolescence, even the sight of an autumn leaf blowing along the
ground can seem inspiring. Girls who used to be so reserved when they were
younger suddenly start doing things to their hair, putting on makeup and trying
on all sorts of clothes and accessories. Their interests expand as well. These
are horizontal phenomena of love.
So we are travelers on the path of life. The most important thing on
this path is to experience and embody vertical and horizontal love. We need to build
a family centering on the love of true parents, true husbands and wives, true
brothers and sisters, and true sons and daughters. Next, we need to expand
ourselves horizontally, multiplying into families in all directions. When these
families, linking the horizontal and vertical, manifest themselves as true
families connected to the levels of tribe, society, nation and world, then this
world, interlinked by true love, will be the kingdom of heaven.
When a husband and wife love each other, their relationship symbolizes
the planting of God. Parents represent God’s original position and husband and
wife each embodies different aspects of God. Also, each child is like a small
God. Since God is the original entity of true love, when the various members of
the family link themselves to true love, they become one body with God. Parents
are the living embodiment of God and the children represent God as well. Thus,
three generations stand in the position of God, centering on true love.
This is why all members of the family—parents, husbands and wives, and
children—need true love. A family formed on true love in this way is the
foundation for the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven will be established
when we create the foundation of true love. This is the formula. The family is
the center of the entire physical universe. People today do not realize that
their family represents their country, world and universe. They do not know
that their family is the center. Breaking apart a family is an act of
aggression against the country, world and universe. Because a perfect family is
the foundation for a perfect universe, a person who loves the universe as he or
she loves the family can travel freely everywhere. God, as the Parent of the
entire universe, is in the central position of love.
When a man and woman become one centering on true love, they form an
ideal couple and build an ideal family. By doing so, they stand in a position
representing God and thus are connected to everything in the universe. When
this happens all of God’s possessions become theirs. Think how wonderful that
would be! This is the reason we naturally desire to have dominion over all
creation.
Men and women come together as pairs to build families, societies,
nations and the world. The family centering on one man and one woman is the
model for the tribe, and the tribe is the model for the nation. Families strive
to achieve the ideal family, tribe and nation. Ideal nations will emerge based
on families that establish such a foundation.
Respected guests! The greatness of true love is that it enables us to
become God’s object partners and also enables God to become ours. The Bible
speaks of God being in us, and Jesus being in us. This is similar to the idea
that the parent is in the child, the grandchild is in the grandparent, and the
grandparent is in the grandchild.
A grandmother and grandfather bind their hearts together centering on
their grandchildren. This is necessary so that the vertical line of love can
have a beginning. Then, grandchildren become one with their
grandparents. Grandparents are in the same position as God, so we need to
attend them as we would attend God. Grandchildren will not be able to find the
vertical axis of love without doing this.
After the formation of the vertical axis, horizontal expansion can
develop. The horizontal can be connected to all directions, although the
vertical has only one direction. The horizontal can turn north, south, east or
west; it has a range of 360 degrees. The vertical can move centering on only
one axis and cannot be split.
Our first task is to create mind and body unity, centering on love. We
need to know how to love the spirit world, which is the vertical world centered
on God. Furthermore, if in the future a central country emerges, we will have
to love humanity centering on that country. When we love the spirit world and
the whole of humankind by means of sacrifice, service and dedication, we can
automatically become the central figures who can have dominion of love over the
two worlds and make them into one. Then God will surely dwell there.
The entire spirit world and physical universe together are called the
cosmos. The spirit world and the universe yearn for the unity of the cosmos
centering on true love. True love can unite the cosmos. True love can transform
all families into completed families and make them one. Thus, we can conclude
that true love is the only thing that humanity needs absolutely, whether we are
alive on earth or are in the spirit world.
All beings are attracted to true love. Animals and plants are
attracted to the one who possesses true love. They want such a person to be
their master. Every being is trying to become one with the person who has true
love. The desire of all things is to be closer, to dwell together with, and to
be under the dominion of a person who possesses true love. We can conclude,
therefore, that nothing in this world is more precious than a true person who
possesses true love.
Human beings have no wings. If we want to fly farther than any insect
or bird, or circle the planet faster than an airplane, we cannot be confined to
our substantial physical body. Even the strongest runner cannot run for very
long. As the highest being in creation, human beings are in a reciprocal
position equal to God’s. So human beings need to be able to act even more
quickly than light, which travels at about three hundred thousand kilometers
per second. It is our spiritual selves that make such a thing possible. I can
be in Seoul, and my spirit self can travel to New York and be back in an
instant, faster than a bolt of lightning. The spirit self is capable of acting
at the speed of thought.
The fastest action in the world is not the transmission of
electromagnetic waves. It is love. Love travels faster and flies higher than
anything in the world. When two people at opposite ends of the Earth love each
other, they pull toward each other from across the globe. That is the power of
love. In the world of God’s original ideal, a person who has experienced true
love has the ability and authority to possess instantly anything God wants.
People need to experience such a state while on earth. One can rise to
this position only if the physical and spirit selves become one while
establishing a love relationship with God, centered on a true family. We can
feel God’s love by loving our countrymen, the people of the world, and
creation. Each of us, regardless of nationality, has to develop the heart to
love people of all races. We need to love not just people; we need to love even
the smallest microorganism. This love has to spring naturally from within. When
a flower blooms, its beauty and fragrance come naturally. The blossom of love
has to bloom in the same way. The fragrance of love would fill the air
naturally.
To do this, we need to receive the nutrients that make it possible for
the blossom of love to bloom. In the same way that plants receive nutrients
from the soil and air, we receive nutrients from our physical body and spirit
self. We receive vitality elements from our physical body, and we receive
living spirit elements from our spirit self.
This is how we become beings who are totally equipped to love and how
we develop the ability to fly anywhere. When this happens, the solar system and
the entire universe become the stage of our activity.
When human beings finish their physical life, they go through a second
birth. This is called death. The place into which we are born this second time
is the spirit world. We go into the spirit world and, on behalf of the entire
universe, receive love from God, our third Parent. That is to say, we receive
ideal love. So in the spirit world, unity is inevitable.
At the moment of our death, we leave the second world, the world of
air, and fully connect to the third world, the world of love. We leave behind
the love of our natural parents and siblings and enter the spirit world. There
we eventually enter the sphere of love in which we merge with the original body
of God. The seed comes from the original body, so it has to bear fruit and
return to the original body.
In the spirit world, people breathe and live centered on love. A
person who is unable to develop a complete character of love will be limited in
his or her movements. This person will not be able to move freely. If there are
several gates, for example, he or she may be allowed to enter through one gate
only. If a person wants to be able to fit in with any season, any place or any
time, he or she needs to develop a character of perfect love. This is why human
beings were created to live through three stages.
The dragonfly lives first as a nymph, swimming around in water. Then
it climbs out of the water and molts. Finally, it starts to fly and begins
catching and eating bugs that it would never have imagined eating while
underwater. It flies around with the world as its stage. There are many insects
that have wings and develop through different stages. Human beings, who are the
highest form of creation, have wings of a higher dimension.
We are born in love, live in love and, as God’s representatives, give
birth to sons and daughters through love. Eventually, we reach the resting
place of love and return home so that we may live eternally in God’s presence.
In other words, our lives begin in love, ripen in love and are finally
harvested as the fruit of love. When a person dies, he or she harvests the
fruit of love.
During our life, we receive the love of our parents, share love with
our husband or wife, and give love to our children, bringing to fruition all
the seeds of God’s love sown in the internal world of love. Eventually, we
harvest this fruit and go into the next world. When we become completely one in
love, we come to resemble God. If a husband and wife work together to complete
the three stages of love and then go to the spirit world, they will exist as
creators in a reciprocal relationship with God, who is the eternal subject
partner. That is what happens when a husband and wife die centering on love. We
begin and end in God.
The reason people have to die is that our love is limited as long as
we are in our physical body. The physical body is inadequate for developing
fully as an object partner to God’s unlimited love. This is why we are
transformed into a spirit, which is invisible. We die so that we can become one
with the ideal of love, together with all of heaven and earth. Death is not a
path to suffering. It is a time when the gate of happiness is thrown open,
enabling us to possess cosmic love. To die means to move from a world of land,
where we crawl and walk, to a world where we fly freely. We pass through death
in order to become qualified travelers who, with love, can enjoy the entire
universe. That is why death is, in reality, a new birth.
We started out in our mother’s womb. The womb was the first world in
which we were nurtured. When we were born, we separated from that world and
entered a new world. Likewise, in death the spirit self cuts off and flies away
from the physical body, which is like its womb. Human beings pass through a
world of water and a world of land and air, until they come to live in the
eternal world of love.
In the spirit world, love is the life element. As long as your command
is given through love, anything you say will be accomplished immediately, and
nothing will be impossible. Even if a billion people say they want to have
dinner, the appropriate meal can be prepared and the feast can be ready in an
instant. If all the guests say they want to become princes and princesses, then
everyone will indeed be turned into princes and princesses. This will actually
be possible.
So now that you know these things, would you like to live here on
earth or go to the next world? When we are in the womb, we think the womb is
the best place to be. We just spend our time kicking. If someone were to try
pulling us out midway through, we wouldn’t like it at all. When it is finally
time to come out of the womb, it is like dying and then being resurrected. In
the same way, after physical death we are resurrected to a new form of life.
Therefore, death is actually a second birth.
God and humankind are in a parent-child relationship
Ladies and gentlemen, because human beings fell, our life course is
not a smooth path. The Fall of the first human ancestors led to misery for
human beings. God also suffered misery. For this reason, we do not dedicate our
lives only to the accomplishment of the ideal world. An even more important
goal for our life is to clear away the sorrow and agony in the heart of God,
who is the origin of all life. Thus, when human beings finally attain
happiness, then God too will be happy.
God and humankind have gone through the course of history in the same
situation, pursuing the same goal. As a result of losing Adam and Eve, God has
walked the most difficult path, a path that no one would choose to walk. Human
beings too have walked this inevitable path of destiny brought about by the
Fall, always hoping for the coming day of salvation.
Humankind’s most fervent hope is to become sons and daughters of God.
This is because no relationship is more intimate than that of parent and child.
We were born when the love and life of our parents converged, and thus we
represent their ideals. However, words like love and ideals do not make sense
in reference to just one person. Life comes from a love relationship between a
husband and wife; it cannot be created by one person alone. When God created
human beings, He created us to be the object partners of His own love, life and
ideals. This is amazing and incredible.
If I did not exist, my parents’ love would not have become visible.
The love, life and ideals of my parents exist in relation to me. I am the fruit
of my parents' love, life and ideals. That is why the child’s position is the
most precious of all.
It is remarkable that we started from a point where our parents’ love
was our love, our parents’ life was our life, and our parents’ ideals were our
ideals. That is why parents look at their children and say, “These are the sons
and daughters we love.” Parents sense, realize and know that their children are
the substantiation of their love, their lives and their hopes.
A single day cannot pass without parents missing their beloved
children. Even if it has been only a few minutes since they last saw them, they
want to see them again. If someone were to try to sever this relationship, they
would find it impossible to break, for children are the bone of their parents’
bones and the flesh of their flesh. If their children disappear, parents feel
as if they want to die. Their ideals are fulfilled when their children succeed.
Even parents born into this world deprived of true love, true life and
true ideals due to the Fall know what it is like to love their children like
this. How much more, then, would this be true for God, who is the subject
partner of all parents!
Had Adam and Eve not fallen, they would have been the children and
royal descendants of God’s direct lineage. Adam and Eve were in the position of
prince and princess who stood to inherit the kingdom of heaven in the spirit
world and on earth. At the same time, because they were created as the object
partners of the invisible God, who is the subject partner, Adam and Eve were
substantial beings who could receive God’s love. They were substantial
manifestations of the invisible God.
It is the special privilege of a child of God to say, “God is mine. All
that is Gods is also mine. Even God’s love, life and ideals are mine.” It is up
to human beings to recover this amazing and incredible value that was
originally ours.
If God is the subject partner of love who exists eternally, then the
reciprocal partners of God’s love also exist eternally. When I become one with
God’s love, God becomes me. Had Adam and Eve not fallen, their bodies would
have been the homes where God could dwell. They would have placed God at the
center of their hearts and become entities of love, life and lineage who would
be united eternally through true love. If they had done this, our mind and body
would not be in conflict today.
The Fall means that we inherited the life and lineage of evil,
centering on evil love. We were born from false parents, false olive trees. We
must therefore rebuild the lineage by changing that false olive tree into a
true olive tree. We have to be engrafted onto the true olive tree, go through
at least three generations, and produce fruit that itself becomes true olive
trees representing the original standard. Then the providence of salvation will
be completed, and fallen people will be restored to their original state.
In this way, God is trying to make us into children of the Parents of
goodness, based on loving oneness with God. This is why God sends the Messiah
to earth as the True Parents. The Messiah is the one who comes to restore the
lineage of all of humankind to God and establish the original ideal of
creation.
All people desire to be the best. We want to be God’s sons and
daughters, God’s princes and princesses, heirs to God’s kingship. Everyone has
this original desire, yet we have inherited a different lineage. We say that
life is an ocean of suffering as we lament at our birth, lament over our lives
and lament even as we die.
Thus, it is important to know how to end the struggle between our mind
and body and unite them as one. A person who cannot unite his or her own mind
and body will not be able to play a role in uniting the nation, the world or the
spirit world.
Once a subject partner and object partner form a reciprocal
relationship, they need to become one with a greater entity. Once a man and
woman become one as reciprocal partners, that couple has to become an object
partner to a greater subject partner, serving their nation as patriots.
Likewise, a patriot who enters into an even greater partnership with the world
will be engrafted onto the way of saints. A saint becomes part of a greater
partnership with the cosmos and is engrafted onto the way of divine sons and
daughters. Only after we have achieved the way of divine sons and daughters can
we be engrafted onto God.
Before seeking to excel on the world stage, humans first have to excel
as the original family of Adam and Eve. Had Adam and Eve taken their places as
the lineal prince and princess before God, they would have been the most
exalted among all men and women. However, they fell and lost their rightful
positions of the elder son and daughter, the crown prince and princess. This
tragedy has remained throughout human history. That is why humankind has
traveled a path of life in search of the positions of first son and first
daughter so that we might recover God’s true love.
If we are to receive God’s true love, we cannot live selfishly,
centering on our own interests. Instead, we need to live for the sake of God
and humankind as our brothers and sisters. The more a person sheds blood and
tears for his or her brothers and sisters in place of their parents, the
deeper, wider and higher will be the love he or she receives. This is the son
and daughter we have to become if we are to inherit everything from our
parents. Every man and woman will walk this path. Even if we have to face death
ten times or a hundred times, we have to continue our search for God’s true
love. This is the supreme path of life.
The Divine Principle of the Unification Church teaches that the Fall
occurred when human beings left the realm of God’s true love. Restoration means
to return to that realm. When a person enters the realm of such love, that
person can merely look at his or her body and praise it tens of thousands of
times. In that world, you know that your own body is what receives God’s true
love. Words cannot express such joy. This wonderful world is called the kingdom
of heaven.
On the day that the hearts of men and women can take hold of God’s
true love, we will be inspired to sing and dance for tens of thousands of
years. The state of intoxication with God’s true love is so wonderful; alcohol
or drugs pale to nothingness in comparison. A person can call on any being
under heaven and it will respond. Just the sight of water flowing in a river
will inspire us to sing for a thousand years. In heaven, even a simple whisper
will convey unfathomable tenderness. Everything will have been accomplished, so
there will be no need for treasures of gold or anything like that. From this
perspective, the value of human beings is that we are in the position of owners
who can commune with the universe through true love and feel the sensations of
love. Fulfilling this is the path of life that humanity travels.
Until now, people have known relatively little about the spirit world.
It is a world where people are recognized depending on how closely they
followed God’s principle of existence—the principle of living for the sake of
others. A world built on this content is the ideal kingdom of heaven. This is
the original homeland for which all humankind searches. Today, we live as
fallen people who have been expelled from our homeland, so it is our destiny to
return there. However, we cannot do this on our own.
God has worked through history to resolve this problem by establishing
numerous religions in accordance with the different cultural backgrounds,
respecting the customs and traditions of various nations. God has done this so
that human beings would have a path to find their way back. Religion is the
training ground where we can cultivate the qualifications that enable us to
return to our homeland. In accordance with the cultural background of each
region, God is guiding us toward one united world religion that can advance us
to higher ground.
Since religion is supposed to lead us to this homeland, it has to
teach us to live for others. The more advanced a religion is, the more it
emphasizes the principle of living for others, with humility and modesty.
Religion teaches us to exalt all people and to live for others in service and
sacrifice.
Let us make the new millennium an age of true peace and true ideals,
in which people will practice the way of true love. I hope we will recover the
value of true original human beings, establish true families, and live for
others eternally, centering on God and the True Parents. May your families and
country be filled with an ever-increasing abundance of God’s love and
blessings.
Thank you very much.
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