May God Protect Us
No matter who you are, you are not born from an act of your own
will. From birth to a certain age you don't realize your purpose of
life or your role in life. It is not until you reach your
adolescence that you begin to consider your purpose in life, think
about what kind of life you are going to lead, and learn about the
nature of human society as a whole. After going through the stage
of adolescence, you enter the prime stage of youth, where your
philosophy of life will become fully developed. However, only in
old age will your view of life become fully ripened, and your
understanding of what life really is become clear.
Any one individual cannot live all alone, centered on himself.
In order for us to live, we need our friends, our family and our
neighbors and society around us. Broadening our scope, we can live
life on the national level, and finally on the world-wide level.
Each man struggles hard to become an important person, and at best
a figure of historical importance. Only a few can attain this high
goal, while most others cannot reach this level. Most people pass
into the spirit world after their physical death without being able
to attain this goal. This is the common way of life for all men,
and the destiny of humanity.
However, we see many different types of people who walk on the
path of life. Some go straight forward, some go sideways, some go
backwards, while some others go in a zigzag line. The record you
make by your life is like lines which are traced behind you. Though
you are still young, when you look back to your past, there must
have been happy days and unhappy days, easy days and difficult
days, meaningful days and days full of regret. From the viewpoint
of your own interest, I'm sure that you have experienced more
unhappy days than happy ones because of the unfavorable environment
which exists in the world today. Very likely you are not in the
position to be proud of yourself even though you may have
confidence in what you do. Nobody can tell what will happen in the
next moment. That has been the nature of our destiny as human
beings.
In other words, you may go to work in the morning with happy
anticipation, but nobody can guarantee your safety throughout the
day. Even though your office may be nearby, you can never be too
confident, because even a short distance from your doorstep you may
have a car accident. Nobody can tell what our destiny holds for us.
You can even meet seemingly agreeable people in seemingly agreeable
places, but the result is not necessarily good - it could even
bring untold misery to you. Passing an examination may be the goal
of people who study hard. But at the very moment that a person
finds he has passed the exam, some tragedy could happen. Nobody can
tell. Suppose there are a man and a woman who dearly love each
other, and they are confident that they are going to live as the
most ideal couple in the whole world. But right at the wedding
ceremony, something unexpected may come about. From this we can
gather that a man can never be too sure of having a bright future.
There are many instances in the wo
But there are not too many things around us that hold such a
promise for goodness. Things are usually the other way around; we
find more tragedy than goodness. Then, is there a place where we
can be relaxed and reassured? No one can be relaxed and reassured
when he is all alone. You need someone who can at least defend and
protect you. Who must that someone be? Your parents may be able to
play this role externally, protecting you to a certain extent. But
they cannot guarantee your life in the face of death. Your teachers
cannot take this responsibility; neither can your friends nor your
nation, with all its power. Suppose the whole world is mobilized to
help you; it cannot take responsibility for your life. Then, who
can take the responsibility? We must find someone who can do that.
Otherwise we are sure to be insecure and unhappy, even though we
want to be happy and at ease.
We want someone to protect us on our way of destiny. Then, what
must that someone be like? This one must transcend history-, that
is, the past, present and the future. He must transcend time and
space. unfortunately, man himself cannot transcend these no matter
how great he is. Therefore, we are badly in need of someone like
that who can take responsibility for our life in faith. If we
cannot find one like that in human society, we would want to create
someone in our imagination and fancy that he would protect us. But
if there really is such an entity, how happy we would be! How eager
we would be to locate him. The more difficult the environment
becomes, the more insecure we become and we ardently set off in
search of him. In this situation, unless you endeavor to confirm
his existence and enter into a good relationship with him, you can
never be assured about your life.
Then, what kind of relationship would you want to have between
God and yourself? There may be teachers who are our seniors and who
can protect us with their position, wealth and knowledge. But it is
more desirable that we have someone who would protect us with the
warmth of love. If we are going to be protected at all, we want to
be protected not just for the time being, but for eternity. Then,
who in the world could do that? Our parents. We need our parents.
Next, we need brothers and sisters, and we also need our spouse,
then our children. With them, we enjoy the blessedness of our life.
But no matter how bright a day may be with other people rejoicing
in the blessedness of our surroundings, if someone we love is on
the verge of death, we cannot enjoy all the rest. However happy we
may otherwise be, if our loved one is in a tragic situation, we,
too, become unhappy.
When we look at things from this viewpoint, we can enjoy utmost
happiness when we are with our loved ones sharing with each other
an ideal love to the utmost degree. We don't know where we are
bound in our life, just walking on the way not knowing our
destination. We are always insecure. Centered on our physical
parents, happiness will be mortal. The same thing is true centered
on our brothers and sisters, and centered on married couples. Love
with these people may change and even become ephemeral. Then we
must look for and find that ideal love which will last for
eternity. There seems to be no such love in the world, but we will
never stop looking for it. We especially look for the one who will
enable the love between parents and children and love between
husband and wife to last for eternity, under his protection. That
someone must be unchangeable, unique and eternal - that is,
God.
Without God as the center point or starting point, we cannot
make all these relationships unchangeable and eternal ones. There
must be a person with a central mission as the agent of God's love,
around whom all these relationships will be restored to their
desired form. He must become the mediator between God and man to
make that relationship a oneness between Father and son. The
relationship must be restored between the parents and the children,
between brothers and sisters, between husband and wife, to the
original form which God intended at the time of creation. We are in
pursuit of this relationship and to fulfill this relationship is
the ultimate destiny of our lives. An ideal relationship of true
love cannot be an ephemeral one, but is unchanging, unique and
eternal.
As I said before, any relationship of love must exist by the
relationship between subject and object -- you cannot enjoy love
all by yourself. That is to say, everyone needs someone to love and
protect him in an ideal environment provided by that person. Then
alone can we be really relaxed in an environment which we trust
will never change. However hard we may try, we will not find that
stability in human society. Everything in human society is
temporary and changeable. We need someone absolute and unchanging.
He must be an omnipotent one. Therefore, throughout history, man
has sought to find God through religious belief. In true religion,
we should be able to restore the true relationship between parents
and children, brother and sister, and husband and wife. With this
knowledge, would you want to reach God through the mediator, the
one who is the perfect object to God, the perfect Subject? Or,
would you want to go straight to God? Which would you prefer? You
are far below the standard at which
In a sense, a religion is the mediator, because every religion
teaches about God. You know that God exists, but in what
relationship to God would you want to put yourself? The
relationship which is primary and also the most desirable one is
the parent-child relationship. So, we want to serve God as our
Parent with Him in the subject position, and with ourselves in the
object position. Sometimes we want to make God our friend;
sometimes we just feel like having Him as our brother. In an
absolute love, He can be just anything to us. In that love, a
father would not complain if his son would rule over him, although
he is still in the position of the father. In the relationship of
such love, a husband would never complain against his being
dominated by his wife and vice versa. Love alone and nothing else
makes it possible. Love is the highest law and the sacred bond
bringing any two or more beings into harmonious oneness. However
high in authority or in knowledge or wealth we may be, we all
become tend
Is there anyone who is not willing to be dominated by that kind
of love? Even God is willing to be dominated by that love, not to
speak of man. Love is great. God is the very core of love, which
makes Him the greatest of all. Love is the power that motivated God
to create man and love alone is what makes God absolute. Centered
on love, even the absolute and supreme Being is willing to be at
the disposal of one who is the incarnation of His love. To such a
man, God is the Father who is willing to become everything else for
him. God is the Parent of all parents to man. He has the absolute
love that surpasses the love of even model parents. With that love
He can embrace all the parents of the world. In fact, God created
man from His parental love. Without that love we die.
God is always ready to give the type of love which is best
suited to and most wanted by the person seeking a relationship with
Him. If we wanted parental love from God, He would be prepared with
it; if we wanted brotherly love or conjugal love, or the love of a
friend from Him, He is ready with these. He is also the symbol and
reality of national love and universal love. In our church, we
allow people to understand and feel God's love in such a dimension.
Isn't it wonderful that the God of love is protecting us in every
possible relationship? We, as the incarnation of His love, can in
turn protect others and even ourselves along the way of fate, with
this power of God's love.
When we pinch ourselves it hurts. But if we are assured manifold
benefits after the pain, will we not gladly endure it? With this
confidence, we can dash forward on any path of misery and hardship.
Everyone is uneasy and insecure on the way of fate, without knowing
what our future has in store for us. If, in this dark situation, we
find a light giving us the full and clear picture of where we are
bound, how are we going to march forward to the goal where the new
world of God-centered love and harmony waits for us? Would we not
abandon our old way of life and join the new one? Because of the
evil entity, Satan, we have to make the way smooth and straight by
repelling the satanic power as we go along and by building the
kingdom of God in our hearts and sharing it with our fellow men.
God is the ultimate subjective Being, and we as His objects want to
work for His sake and ours, and finally find Him and join Him in
perfect oneness.
If we are confident of God's love, we can overcome any
difficulty, however uneven the road may be. The more difficult the
road is, the stronger our conviction is that this is the short-cut
through which we reach the goal at the earliest possible date.
There we can meet God who is anxiously waiting for us, full of
blessings to give those who dash forward with all their knowledge
and understanding. Once we do this, misery and unhappiness cannot
dominate our lives. Through our everyday experience, we know that
without love we cannot overcome the miseries on our way of
fate.
Let us suppose that a man died through misfortune on the way of
his search for the ultimate subjective Being. However, his death
does not mean the end, but the beginning of his life. Then, in the
spirit world, this man could tell God even that he died in order to
live in the spirit world, to more fully enjoy God's love. We must
be ready to die, but to die with God's love in our hearts. If we
imagine that we are going to die in the bosom of God's love, then
we do not die a miserable death at all. In this case, a man's death
could be of higher value than any other death, because he died with
the best attitude. If your wife died long ago, and after you had
died this kind of invaluable death you joined her in the spirit
world, would she not respect and love you more than she had on
earth? If you died for the sake of someone, and that person later
comes to the spirit world, would he not love and serve you? Their
love in the spirit world must be of higher dimension than their
love on the earth.
In the Bible we read many paradoxical things. Jesus said, "If
you love me, you must deny yourself and bear the cross and follow
me." (Luke 17:33) He also said that, "Those who want to gain their
lives will lose them." These words encourage us to win the love of
highest dimension at the cost of everything else. If you loved me
so much as to die for me, and I met you later in the spirit world,
how happy we would be to see each other! If you truly love someone,
you will always gladly die for him. Even though you might die, it
would not mean the end, but it means new life. By this kind of
sacrificial death, we pass through the toll gate to reach the world
of love, which is eternal and of a higher dimension. Then we are
not afraid of love. Are you willing to die that kind of death? When
we know what is coming after death, we are happy people, even
though we may have to die.
We have all discovered great things. I have gone through untold
difficulties, but I am sure I am the happiest man in the whole
world - am I not? I am a happy man because I know how to overcome
unhappiness with love. I am the type of person who hates to be
sympathized with, but I love to sympathize with others, and I feel
immense happiness in making others happy. When I want to sympathize
with others out of my own accord, can I complain about what I have
to do? In this way, I can enjoy the real taste of love. When I am
sympathized with, I can only taste passive love, which is not what
I want.
Some may think that our faith forces us or drives us on the
painful way. But I hope most of you can overcome the pain by
digesting it with the power of love, because happiness and love are
promised at the end of hardships. As our subject indicates, we want
someone to protect us on the way of fate. That someone must be God.
But even God cannot protect or love us when we don't deserve it -
that is, when we don't set up the condition to receive that love.
God is not in need of money, position or knowledge. What He needs
is love. And we need that love too, because by true love we can
enjoy the privilege of controlling Him. If we can do that, we can
control our own fate, because we can control God who controls our
fate. God would not leave those who truly love Him on the path of
unhappiness and misery. God will help His people to overcome the
miseries caused by Satan.
Those who are ardently in love with God can easily overcome
unhappiness, because the way of unhappiness will lead them to
happiness. When I was in prison in North Korea, I went through
severe torture; the more severe the torture was, the stronger I
would become. Every cell of mine was mobilized to fight against the
pain. I would fancy that with every blow God's blessing would be
multiplied. Because of this, I was not afraid of the torture, and I
could easily endure it. If we have this attitude, we can make the
crooked way straight and the bumpy road smooth. Even though our
path of life may be an uneasy, insecure, ephemeral one, full of
misery which is more than death, we know that through God's love
for us and our love of God, we can go through the path without
difficulty. When we are ready to live and die in the love of God,
we deserve God's protection. This is the way every human being has
to go. May God protect us on our way of destiny.
GOD'S WILL AND CHRISTMAS
December 25, 1976 Manhattan Center Translator -- Bo Hi Pak
Today is Christmas, 1976, and people around the world are
celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ. In the history of the
Unification Church the year of 1976 was a most critical and
extraordinary year and today we have ample reason to be grateful,
especially as we gather together for the first service in this holy
place, our Manhattan Center.
We are not an ordinary group. There are many Christians in the
world but the Unification Church and this particular gathering have
a special meaning and purpose in God's dispensation. It is most
important in celebrating this day of Christmas to know the purpose
of the coming of Jesus Christ 2,000 years ago. Without knowing that
purpose clearly this celebration is meaningless, so this morning I
would like to deliver a message on the topic, "God's Will and
Christmas."
When we ask if God's original intention for this world has been
completely fulfilled, the obvious answer is no. The will of God was
thwarted because of the fall of man. Through history fallen mankind
has been searching for the ultimate fulfillment of the will of God
and the purpose of creation. As this providence has been advancing
on many different levels of the individual, family, society, nation
and world, God's original will or blueprint has never| changed. All
the while that unchanging goal has been there for man to
accomplish, waiting for man to catch up.
God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique; therefore, the
will of God is also eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. God
cannot yield His original standard or give up His principle because
of the failure of men. He cannot compromise or deviate from His
original goal no matter how much sacrifice we men have to pay. He
cannot come down to the level of men; men must go up to the level
of God.
Realization of the ideal hinges upon the perfection of one
man
As soon as the fall of man took place, God's will focused on the
goal of restoration. God Himself is destined to save mankind, to
show people how to get out of the fallen state and into the
original ideal of creation. That is the providence of God's
salvation,
or restoration. Throughout history men have not been in a
position to save themselves; salvation comes instead from a higher
place. This is why a savior must come to save mankind. As yet no
individual has successfully showed God's original ideal of creation
to the world.
Without having individual perfection or salvation there can be
no family salvation, no social, national or world salvation. God
has been thinking about how to establish one central champion who
will give mankind His clear message and show the way to salvation.
In the mind and heart of God that one man is the key because that
one man's victory will bring not only his own individual
perfection, 'out will open the way for family perfection, social,
national and world perfection.
God knows this world is evil, and He cannot abruptly send His
champion without having prepared some foundation. God's first task
is to prepare the foundation on the individual level by working
through central individuals, and then to prepare the family, social
and national levels. This is how God came to prepare the nation of
Israel. The chosen nation of Israel had the mission of receiving
the Messiah and had been expecting his coming for 2,000 years
before Jesus came.
Jesus Christ came for the will of God, to transmit God's will to
the chosen nation of Israel. God was moving in a certain direction
and Jesus Christ was moving parallel to that direction, so
certainly the people of Israel were supposed to move in a way
parallel to Jesus. If all three had been moving parallel in one
direction, God's ultimate will could have been fulfilled in that
nation. God and Jesus were united and all that was needed was to
have the people of Israel unite with Jesus. After man's having
fulfilled on the national level, expansion of that fulfillment to
the worldwide level would have been assured.
As you know from the Principle of Creation, the perfection of
Adam would not only have been the perfection of an individual but
would have brought the perfection of the family. That would have
expanded into the perfection of the clan, society, nation and the
world. Therefore, one man of perfection could have brought world
perfection. Then there would be only one ism necessary for all man
kind-Adamism. Under Adamism the individual would prosper, the
family would prosper, and the society, nation and world would
prosper.
The true forefather of mankind is that individual whose
perfection represents not only his own success, but the perfection
of the family, nation, world and cosmos. Today's world would be
entirely different if that had been accomplished by Adam. We would
not see all the disgusting sights that we witness every day.
Neither would we see the language barriers and the national
barriers separating people. Furthermore, every individual would
understand the perfection of man and would also live in complete
unity between spirit world and this world. Every individual could
clearly map out his own way of life to reach the ultimate Kingdom
of Heaven. The problem today is that man does not possess the
living God and no one has given him true direction. Mankind lives
random, wandering lives. In the original ideal this would never be;
everyone would be guided into perfection in a way perfectly
parallel with the will of God and no one could live outside that
will.
The realization of the Kingdom of God hinges upon the perfection
of one man. That one man will bring the perfection of the Kingdom
of God here on earth, and thereafter will erect the Kingdom of God
in Heaven. The citizens of the Kingdom of God will start their
lives here on earth and after they consummate their lives here will
automatically be elevated into the Kingdom of God in Heaven, where
they will continue as families.
God's work begins here on earth
If there had been no fall the situations here on earth and in
heaven would have been perfectly parallel. On earth there would be
the individual, family, society, nation and world under God and the
same would be seen in the spirit world. One united world would have
occurred. It is God's will to see perfection come first here on
earth; God never intended to have His Kingdom established in spirit
world and then copied here on earth. Christians commonly think that
the heavenly kingdom in spirit world is the perfected kingdom but
that is not true.
Without perfection here on earth no perfection can be obtained
there. There was always a blueprint in the mind of God, the
original plan that always has been and will always remain perfect,
even though the physical realization of these plans has never yet
been seen. Jesus prayed, "Thy will be done here on earth as it is
in heaven." Jesus knew the perfection of God's will in Heaven and
he brought that will to earth, coming to establish perfection here
so that mankind would bring the kingdom into heaven. That was God's
plan.
God has not yet seen the perfection of His original plan here on
earth, however, even after the coming of Jesus Christ. Because of
the crucifixion Jesus could not accomplish the full purpose of his
coming, the perfection of Adam's level. It was not at all God's
original plan to fulfill the ideal by killing the Messiah. If that
was indeed God's method then just sending him to a nation that was
unprepared to understand him would have been sufficient. Sacrifice
is sometimes necessary, but God did not intend the sacrifice of
human life as the key to complete salvation. Because of the
crucifixion Jesus Christ was not allowed to reach the fullest
degree of perfection and no family, social or national perfection
was obtained. Therefore, it is most logical that the Messiah must
come a second time.
What will Jesus do when he comes? Will he come to wipe out the
world? The word "judgment" is frequently misunderstood to mean that
God will wipe out everything in anger. That is not the purpose of
the Messiah's coming a second time. The whole purpose is to fulfill
the mission that was left undone 2,000 years ago, to work for
individual, family, social, national and world perfection. Judgment
is the constructive work of God to see the fulfillment of the
Kingdom of God here on earth.
Because the work of God is realistic and physical, the Messiah's
coming on the clouds in the sky does not make sense. By
interpreting the Bible literally many Christians anticipate Jesus'
appearance in the sky, but that could not be so. People perceive
God as being supernatural, someone who could perform even the
miracle of bringing Jesus on the clouds. Why would Christianity be
necessary in that case? Why would faith be necessary? Why didn't
God use supernatural power to build up the Kingdom of God in the
first place? Why has He had to wait for 6,000 years to accomplish
this?
I want you to know that God's will in sending Jesus Christ 2,000
years ago perfectly parallels the coming of Adam in the garden of
Eden. The Lord of the Second Advent will come for the same purpose.
In other words, God's will, Adam's purpose, Jesus' purpose and the
purpose of the Second Coming are all the same. Truth is unchanging,
being the beginning and the end. The will of God cannot be changed
or tarnished by time but will be the same forever. God has a
formula and when it is fulfilled God will seal it. That particular
formula is still there, unfulfilled; God is waiting for man to
fulfill that pure, unadulterated standard.
God never detours
God has been working tirelessly for 6,000 years to accomplish
one thing: the perfected Adam. God has been working to see that man
as a model for mankind. Out of all the multitudes of men, the world
has still not met that one man who is perfect in the sight of God.
Yet no matter what, God's will is marching on. God promised a
Messiah when Adam failed and if that Messiah cannot fulfill in the
fullest degree then God will send another Messiah. That is the
messianic concept. The Messiah's ideal is perfectly parallel with
the ideal of God and therefore we can say that God and the Messiah
are one.
For God and the Messiah to become one, what must the Messiah do?
To answer that you must know why God created man. Was man created
for himself or for someone else-for woman? If any man thinks he was
born for self-glory, he is absolutely wrong. God created man for
the sake of woman.
What kind of man was Jesus? Was he man or woman or in between?
What is a true man? Is the President of the United States
automatically a true man? The true man is one who perfectly fits
God's framework, meaning that if God is round, that true man is
perfectly round and if God is square, that true man is perfectly
square. From day to night, from eternity to eternity he will not
deviate from that standard.
Once he becomes a true man in the sight of God, will he waver
and change or will he stick to God's one principle goal? Will the
true man say, "Well, I will try this for ten years and if it
doesn't work I will change"? Or will that man not change for ten
years or one hundred years or for eternity? When there is danger to
his life will he exclaim, "I definitely don't want to be in this
situation. I must take cover"? Why not? If he deviates in any way
then he is no longer like God because God never changes.
Paralleling this, will you try first for a year or so and then see
what happens? Would a true member of the Unification Church give up
or change?
I want you to know that God is straightforward. He will not
detour but will go ahead regardless of what happens. When God moves
and there is an enemy roadblock, God knows that His advance will
ultimately smash all opposition. God knows that it is the other
side which will be shattered. Therefore, the true man and the true
member is fearless, having the courage to clash with opposition and
knowing the other side will eventually fall away. He will always
take the adventurous way, not avoiding anything in order to seize
the advantage. You must live that way every day. God is eternal;
therefore, I am an eternal being. God is unique; therefore, I am
unique. God is unchanging; therefore, I will never change. God is
absolute so I am going to be absolute. That is the way you must
think every day.
How do we know Jesus was a true man? He didn't write a big sign
on his forehead or get a Ph.D. He didn't have any extraordinary
size or power. Why do we know him to be a true man? We know Jesus
was a true man because his way of life was parallel with the will
of God and fit perfectly the description of God's way of life. We
know that Jesus Christ was born solely for the will of God, that he
lived solely for the will of God and that he died solely for the
will of God. At the critical moment of Jesus' death on the cross he
died as a Messiah and with the dignity of a Messiah, not as an
ordinary man, a sad man or a man taking cover. He deeply felt,
"Even though the Roman Empire opposes me now, it shall receive my
mercy. Even though the Israelites oppose me, they shall receive my
mercy." Therefore, Jesus had room to forgive them, room to pray for
them and to embrace them.
Jesus could not give up the will of God by resenting their
adamant opposition to his efforts to save them. Jesus certainly
could not abandon his mission at that moment by hating the people.
He was a true man because he perfectly lived the life of God. He
was a walking God. There was no separation between God and Jesus,
and because no one can destroy God no one can destroy Jesus Christ.
The crucifixion was not his destruction; God manifested the power
of resurrection so that the world could see that Jesus was never
destroyed.
What attitude is needed in order to receive the Messiah?
Since the fulfillment of perfection was not obtained in Israel,
God prepared the second Israel as the foundation upon which the
second Messiah could come. That foundation is the work of
Christianity. We must know that Christianity is the second Israel
in the sight of God. The ultimate goal of Christians the world over
is to receive the Messiah. They talk about this, but the most
critical question for them is how they are going to meet the
Messiah. Many Christians think that the Messiah will command
extraordinary miracles to happen which will solve all the world's
problems in one moment, instantly making the world the Kingdom of
God. This is their ambiguous understanding but this could not
possibly be so.
When the Messiah comes the second time he will start from the
very bottom of man's situation and advance step by step to the
height of the Kingdom. He brings the pattern which the rest of the
world should follow and he will not compromise with the world. He
will initiate the final showdown between good and evil. According
to that standard, are modern day Christians ready to be lifted up
to the Kingdom of God in heaven as perfected men and women? Not at
all. They must transform themselves and change to fit into the
pattern that the Messiah will bring; as the second Israel,
Christians are to be the first people to change themselves into
that model.
Even today there are people who think that the fall of man was
in the plan of God. How ridiculous! If God had planned for evil and
sin, He could never be a good God. God never intended the work of
salvation to be needed; He originally intended only the garden of
Eden, with Adam and Eve becoming the embodiment of perfection. A
man of perfection does not require salvation. God would far more
prefer to have man without any need for the dispensation of
salvation.
How well do you know the will of God? Many Christians are
convinced that God's will for them is to seek only their own chunk
of heaven, and they could care less about the fate of the rest of
the world. Meanwhile the nation and the world are crumbling and
instead of feeling responsible, they expect God to handle
everything. That is not true Christianity.
After the fall of man God's efforts focused on the work of
salvation. I want you to know clearly that His target is the world,
not just one man, one race, one people or one nation. God intended
the Messiah to accomplish the fulfillment of perfection, not to
create a multitude of denominations. He still is determined to
achieve that one ultimate goal of perfection and unity between men,
even if this may mean the sacrifice of the churches.
I have seen what the Kingdom of God is like in the spirit world
and ultimately you too will see that God's Kingdom is not organized
in the same divided way that religions are here. Such separation is
truly contrary to the will of God. The conflict and division
between religious people has been carried over into spirit world
and brings grief to God. Yet that has been conventional faith.
How can you become true sons and daughters of Christ?
We believe in Jesus Christ as the savior and Messiah simply
because we want to become the son or daughter who can fulfill the
will of God. Jesus died for the sake of his mission, not just to
acquire his own chunk of heaven. Don't ever worry about your own
heaven, but worry about bringing down the Kingdom of God to your
society and to this world. If you are like that, when you say to
God, "I don't want to go to the Kingdom of God," God will chase
after you and personally install you in the highest position in His
Kingdom.
Jesus never complained to God about the rebelliousness of the
very people he had been sent to save and never ceased caring about
them. That was not Jesus' heart. Jesus knew clearly that his
mission was not just the salvation of Israel but of the world. God
would be most pleased to hear Jesus pray, "God, Your goal is world
salvation. Please use me and Your chosen nation as Your sacrifice
to fulfill Your work." Jesus became a son of God simply because he
was perfectly united with God in will and in heart. Because of that
oneness Jesus Christ could willingly die for the rest of the
world.
How can you become the true sons and daughters of Christ? By
becoming perfectly one with Christ, one with his spirit and one
with his heart. If you are perfectly united with Jesus Christ you
can be a willing sacrifice for-the salvation of the rest of the
world. The true Christians are those who are willing to sacrifice
themselves, their own church and their denomination for the
fulfillment of the will of God for world salvation.
A true Christian could not pray for God's help and blessing for
only his family. After knowing the truth of God's situation we can
only pray, "God, I am ready to be Your sacrifice. Use me as Your
instrument; fulfill Your will for world salvation through me. If
necessary please sacrifice my family, church and nation." Such
people will create the Kingdom of God.
Those who pray only for their own chunk of God's blessing will
end up in hell. If you search closely you will discover that this
is true. If God's sole concern is world salvation, do you think He
would support the person who was interested only in himself, his
family and his church, or would He side with the people who were
most involved in world salvation?
Put yourself in God's position for a moment and look at the
American churches. Not only are there a great many churches, but
they are pursuing very different purposes and goals. White people
organize together, black people organize their churches and yellow
people organize their churches. Do you think this is a very
beautiful thing for God to behold?
Absolutely not! If any Christian leader would call for his
people to unite with other races then he could be considered a true
Christian leader among his people.
Since we know the overall will of God, we can understand the
world which can meet that standard. Could a perfected man be
influenced by Satan? Even if Satan is standing right next to that
man he is completely powerless to influence him. Satan could
sneakily flip him over in his sleep, but upon awakening that man
would realize what had happened and just flip back to his right
position. It is a waste of Satan's energy to meddle with a
perfected man.
Can Satan test God? God never told Satan that he could not try
to test God, but Satan is not that dumb. He knows very well that no
matter how much effort he makes, testing God is a waste of his time
and energy. A man of perfection is just like God and Satan knows
that testing him is a waste of time. When you become a man of
perfection, Satan is powerless to influence you. You stand aloof of
Satan's temptations.
Are you Unification Church members such men and women? How can
you become that kind of person? The solution is simple: don't worry
about yourself but think 100% of God. Decide that you will be as
unchanging as God and cultivate that quality. Then you will
graduate from temptation and Satan will have to testify that you
have graduated out his sphere of influence. Satan will grudgingly
acknowledge you.
Satan even tried to tempt Jesus Christ. After offering three
temptations to Jesus, Satan came to the conclusion that he had no
power over him. If even a little bit of selfishness, a little bit
of ego, remained in Jesus' heart, Satan could have hooked it and
pulled Jesus down to his dungeon.
Satan cannot grab any nation or person who serves the world
Which is the majority in the Unification Church, those who have
graduated from the temptation of Satan, or those who are still
susceptible? That is the key question of our Church. There are many
ways for you to be tempted, but you must remember that while I
certainly push you and send you out, I am having you do it not for
me or for yourself, but for the sake of God, humanity and the
world. I have never asked you to earn money for me. Wait and see
who will be the winner in the sight of God, the Unification Church
or our opposition.
I know very well that there are terrorist groups who think that
by eliminating me they can destroy the Unification Church. How
wrong and ridiculous their thinking is! If I were killed, God would
raise up millions more like me to continue in His work. How are you
members different from conventional Christians? Why are you here?
You are handpicked by God and you joined this church to give
yourself for the sake of God and humanity. The Unification Church
sign at the door is insignificant and unnecessary. The significant
thing is our purpose for being here. If there were no church at all
under the sun but every person was eager to live for God and
humanity then the Kingdom of Heaven would quickly come. No churches
would be needed. That is the kind of world God wanted to build in
the beginning. Adam failed so the coming of the Messiah became
necessary. Jesus was not given a chance to succeed so the Second
Coming became necessary. No one else in the world accepted the job
so God raised the Unification Church to take up the task.
If you find something good, don't put it in your own pocket but
think of God and humanity. Go to school to become champions for God
and humanity. Go out and even fight for that purpose; that is the
fight of righteousness. You do not have to know all 66 books of the
Bible to know that God wanted to erect such a world and that you
are chosen to help do that. If you give yourself for the sake of
God and humanity then you already know the Bible to the fullest
extent. You know more of God than anybody else.
If you become that kind of person you have already transcended
the Old and New Testaments and Satan will not find any handle to
grab you. There is only one way Satan could hook you; he must say,
"1 love God more than you do. I love humanity more than you do and
you must follow me." If that were the case then Satan would no
longer be Satan but would already be working for God. When you
worry about a thousand things before you concentrate on
God, Satan has many hooks to manipulate you with on every level.
How foolish to expose yourself in such a way to Satan's
manipulation!
The nation will also be tested. For example, at one time America
was trying to serve the world, but America has again become
isolationist, giving its own domestic interests priority. Can Satan
hook this nation or not? If America's 220 million people were
united together to give themselves for the sake of the world, how
great America would be. God has poured down the power and material
blessing America needs to do just that. All this country lacks is
the determination to do the job. America is in a position to lead,
like a locomotive pulling a train, but if the locomotive is damaged
then all the cars behind will be helpless. If one passenger
foresees the danger to the locomotive, should he pull the emergency
brake, even over the protests of other passengers? As long as the
others do not know about the problem they will oppose and persecute
him.
That is the job I have been doing in America. I know that danger
is coming to America and that this locomotive should be kept intact
at any cost. Even if there are repercussions locally from stopping
the train so abruptly, such as disruption or fire, the greater
tragedy still has to be averted. We are the champions to apply the
brakes to stop the train and prevent the tragedy. If someone on the
train pulled out a pistol and shot you, would you still pursue that
mission or would you give up? If you were literally dying, what
would your last words be? Would you just feel miserable, or would
you shout, "Brother, sister, take my mission and go on"?
By inheriting the heart of Jesus you can do anything
In this world there are so many churches which are celebrating
the birth of Christ right at this moment. They are having services
and celebrations, and we are the only group representing the true
heart of Jesus which was filled with grief. This is the only group
dedicating itself to go on with the mission of Jesus until it is
fulfilled. I want you to know that under God's grace Christianity
has been prospering for 2,000 years, but in less than two decades
world Christianity has declined. Do you know why? Because of you;
because of the Unification Church.
God is now raising this group up as His new champion, and in
order to minimize opposition God is withdrawing His spiritual power
from other groups. No matter how glorious the external church
building is, with stained glass windows, plush carpets and a
beautiful organ, the very important spiritual element is missing.
No matter how great a theologian or evangelist emerges to
revitalize the spirit of Christianity, it is not there because God
has already shifted to another dispensation, centering on a new
ideology and revelation. Any movement or church or individual who
opposes this ideology will decline.
Before arriving at this particular level of achievement I had to
go through certain courses to indemnify history. I am certainly an
individual with my own will and naturally have the human desire to
take care of myself. By understanding that kind of human tendency I
evaluated all the many kinds of human desires and interests
surrounding me. Then when I must make a decision about how to do
the will of God, there is no kind of situation which I am
unfamiliar with. I have evaluated every possible situation.
With all that experience I came to one ultimate truth; the more
you seek after your own benefit, the more your future will be
blocked and will finally crumble. No matter how difficult it seems,
when you are absolutely centered upon God and humanity nothing can
block you. Any opponent will be shattered in any confrontation. I
know this through my own experience.
Some people think, "Oh, Reverend Moon is a successful man; he
has lots of money and lots of young people follow him. He receives
tremendous respect so he must be very happy." Whoever says that
truly does not know me at all. Every day I receive reports from all
over the world. Do you think most of the reports are happy reports
of success or are most of them heartbreaking? Every day I hear
about someone who was arrested or who was tortured by communists,
or about some extraordinary persecution, some church which has
fallen apart or some nation or some missionary who is in trouble.
If I were an ordinary man I just couldn't take the
burden. I would have run away a long time ago.
Even America is not friendly. The press scrutinizes me with a
biased outlook and parents are suspicious. We are in a fish bowl
with everyone staring. If I were an ordinary man who had my
temper-and I am a man of temper, no question about it-I would have
lashed out at them long ago, or else shriveled into nothing. But
that is not the kind of person I am.
You seem to be doing a most difficult job, going out fund
raising and witnessing, but at least you have no overwhelming
responsibility there. If other people respond then you have
achieved something for God. If they don't respond, however, it's
still all right and you can go on to another person. But I cannot
take that position.
Ten years ago I was known as being penniless and today I am
called a millionaire. But honestly speaking, I personally have no
more money than I had ten years ago. Ten years ago the scope of the
movement was smaller than today and so the scale of concern and
worry was smaller. Today I can't put off critical work for lack of
money because our movement has come to the stage where unless we
take emergency measures a whole nation might crumble or Asia might
disintegrate. I can't avoid tackling problems just because I don't
think I have the physical, mental or financial capability.
Regardless of what my capability is, once the problem comes I will
never avoid it. I will grab it and solve it! That's why God needs
me and that's why the world and America need me.
My secret comfort
I always have one secret comfort in any adverse and difficult
position. I always remember that my Father in heaven has felt much
greater suffering than I do and His is a much greater burden than
mine. He has been weeping as he has faced a thousand times more
emergencies than I have had. He is my Father and I must be like my
Father. That is my secret and comfort.
God has come to me many times, saying, "You are my son. I thank
you." God's comfort is sweet and nothing in this world can deter
the power that comes from such comfort. Since I am being comforted
by Heavenly Father I can go on. Anyone among you who can follow
this way with 100% public-minded dedication shall also be comforted
and I shall always stand side by side with you in spirit.
Since I cannot know everyone's situation I am praying to God,
"Heavenly Father, please listen to them and help them. You must
comfort them as much as you have comforted me. Father, you must do
this for me!" This is why many extraordinary spiritual situations
develop in the Unification Church. I am sure that in prayer many of
you see visions and hear voices and receive special inspiration in
your hearts. That is because God is directly reaching you as He
reaches me.
The nation of America was created primarily by the Protestant
movement. We're closely watching the direction in which America is
moving. I will give you this prophecy about the Papacy and the
gigantic nation of America: As long as they are parallel with God's
will they will prosper, but as soon as they separate themselves
from the will of God they will be shattered. If they don't
understand the will of God but oppose it out of ignorance then a
great tragedy will come to this country and all the Christian
communities of the world.
God is a living God and His goal is world salvation. Certainly
God must be doing something to gather a group of people whose
hearts can be ignited, who can become God's new champions and
undertake the mission to save the world.
God's three headaches
The evil power of communism is creeping into the churches. The
communists' most vicious tactic is to infiltrate in the disguise of
priests, pastors and ministers. The propaganda of the communist
ideology is being spoken in many churches today. These priests are
proclaiming that Jesus Christ was the first communist because he
blessed the poor and chastised the rich. The communists are wolves
in sheep's clothing. If this is the world of reality then God needs
you and the movement of the Unification Church in order to liberate
all the churches of America and to eventually liberate the
communists themselves. The living God and the living Jesus want to
see this.
Many Roman Catholics misunderstand me so much that they want to
destroy me and many church leaders have called me a heretic. But at
the same time I desire to reach out and embrace them, not only to
liberate them but to give salvation to all. God's greatest headache
today is communism and God is looking for the people who will be
responsible for defeating communism. Who is going to rebuild the
Christian churches? After all, God has chosen them to be the
foundation, the champions of the Kingdom. Who is going to re-ignite
them?
A third headache of God is the moral degradation of the youth of
the world, particularly the youth of America. Many of them are
dependent on drugs and have become morally degraded by their
practice of free sex. Who is going to rededicate these young people
to the righteous cause? Do you think the Carter administration can
be responsible for God's three headaches? No! The present
government may very well be deceived by the communists and
certainly they have no determination to stop communism. The
American government cannot elevate American Christianity to
heightened prosperity. The entire free world, the Papacy and all
the churches together cannot unite to bring the necessary spiritual
prosperity. Unless some champion can solve the three headaches of
God, this world is facing doomsday.
You and I are here to tackle the three major headaches of God.
The will of God is the liberation of the world. Our God-given
solution to these problems has been working, and all we have to do
is reach the rest of the world. The communist elements are focusing
their attack on me and church-goers who want to enjoy the
prosperity and luxury of their churches don't like me either. Those
who want to see the young people corrupted also don't like me.
No matter how strong our opposition may be, God's determination
is stronger. As long as that is true you have nothing to worry
abut. We members of the Unification Church solemnly declare that we
will tackle this mission of being champions of God. We are joining
in the spiritual revolution and will heal the corrupted youth; we
will bring the solutions to the Christian community. We certainly
have the answer to communism. We join together for the liberation
of the world and the liberation of mankind, but that's not all. We
are gathered together to liberate the heart of Jesus and of God
Himself. No Christian churches today are proclaiming this goal.
Nobody outside our church is teaching this purpose. As long as we
continue on our march, we are the only hope of the world, the hope
of Jesus and the hope of God, and no one can destroy this movement.
We can only win and prosper in due course.
We are gathered together to participate in the historic mission
in which Jesus and God will take delight. That is truly the spirit
of Christmas and we are celebrating in that spirit. We are not in
darkness. We know the truth and we have already begun the march
toward the goal. The only remaining question is how far you can
march. Can you march from the east coast of the United States to
the west coast toward Asia, the Middle East, Europe, across the
Atlantic Ocean and back to the United States? Can you march around
the world? As members of the Unification Church, you must pray,
"Heavenly Father, give me longer arms so I can embrace the world,
so I can lift up the world to Your throne. I know that Your goal is
world salvation and my arms are reaching out to the world, but they
are not long enough, Father. Please lengthen my arms and strengthen
my feet so I can lift up the world. I am taking Your
responsibility." Anyone who tells God, "You know that I have given
myself; I cannot reserve anything. Everything is for You. Please
accept it and do Your will" knows that God's eyes will fill with
tears and that God will come down and embrace such a person.
I am trying to live up to that every day. I know the embrace of
God, but how much will I feel closer to Him when I've completed my
mission! How much delight God will take after the world is His
again. This is my goal and direction and you are here to join me in
that pursuit. If you die in such a struggle then your death is
never in vain because you are not living for your own sake.
As long as the Unification Church has that goal we will never be
destroyed. Rest assured, no power can destroy you. If you are
always busy with your mission then God is always behind you,
pushing like a tailwind. Don't turn around to face God because He
will not want to see your face until the final victory. This is the
true Christmas.
In the name of God and in the name of Jesus Christ we are
celebrating the true Christmas. The year of 1976 is over and our
determination is that the true spirit of Christmas will go on
through the third century of America, from 1977 to the ultimate
fulfillment of the glory of God. Let us join together on this
Christmas day to pledge ourselves to God by raising both hands.
Thank you. Let us pray.
In One Battle We Want to Liquidate the Failures of the Past
Sun Myung MoonJanuary 12, 1976ExcerptsThe Total Accomplishment
of the Providence of GodBelvedere
As you know, today is the first Sunday of 1976. The total
accomplishment of the work of God in the providential history has
to he done in a certain time, and this morning I intend to speak on
this particular subject because I feel that this is the time. As we
know through the Divine Principle, because of the Fall of man the
original ideal of the providence of God has not been the reality.
All things are divided. Actually heaven and earth were supposed to
become one. This oneness has been broken and heaven and earth
separated. Man apposed to be the center of heaven and earth and
this universe; however, man is also divided between mind and
body.
At the same time, our mind was supposed to be high, noble and
sacred. Even without any particular education and indoctrination,
our mind was supposed to know the clear direction to go; between
mind and body there is supposed to be oneness, just like heaven and
earth should be in oneness. However, as heaven and earth separated
because of the fall of man, the mind and body also are separated.
God always dwells in unity. There1fore in the divided world since
the fall of man, God cannot find His place to dwell and to be in
peace. Then how can we make this unity become reality?
For unity, there should be one controlled direction so that
everyone joins together for that one direction. Man has been the
key element to bring the divisiveness in this universe; therefore
we have to find a key to return to man.
What is peace? Peace means the unity between subject and object.
Peace can he found when there is effort to make one, effort to make
a reconciliation. Before we even dream of the unity of the
universe, or between heaven and earth, we must initiate a movement
of unity between mind and body. Therefore we have to originate the
movement of unity from man. Today we talk about world peace and
world unity, fur this is a big world. Where can this world peace
and world unity be started? From one man.
Then where can we find such a man of perfection or man who has
the key? The very thing that Jesus Christ testified that he will
come back for a return second time, shows there is more guidance
needed in the world. Otherwise he would not make such a statement.
This world still needs a savior, which shows that our fundamental
question has not been solved. Who is he? That man has the inherent
key of the problem of the individual, family, tribe, nation, world
and cosmos. The savior is a basic scale or the measurement by which
this world can be measured or straightened up. That one central
point serves as a common center a for all levels: universal,
national, tribe, and family. The Messiah is coming as savior to
this world to present the pattern or the model so that it can
become a show case, so that every way of life in this world can be
measured by such pattern and model.
So when you find the Messiah, you become completely one with
him, imitating his model. Then whatever he is, you are. If he is
individually perfect, you are in the position to be also as perfect
as he is. The Messiah is coming to bring everybody to the position
where he does not need the Messiah.
What is the definition of value? Value must be eternal as well a
unchanging. Gold has unchanging quality. Gold never rusts. No
matter how roughly you treat gold, it still shines out in the same
quality.
What kind of man must we become to be valuable? We must become a
man with eternal quality. The conflict and confrontation within you
cannot make you eternal; you must have harmony within you. Are you
that type of man?
Then why do we need the Messiah? So that we also can become like
the Messiah. When you meet the Messiah you will be like the
Messiah, so you will be perfected on the individual level. Then
what about the family level? The Messiah is the center of the
family. Jesus in order to show the pattern of the family, what
should he have done? He should have organized his own family first.
Why wouldn't God want more children of His own, His grandchildren,
and great grandchildren? Put yourself in God's position: He wants
Jesus to have direct descendants, like the sand in the ocean and
the stars in the sky. Let's say Jesus not only got married but had
his own descendants. Then all Christianity would have a central
point to rally around. God certainly ted that.
This is the time for harvest. All of the leaves will fall so
that we can see clearly the branches and trunk. The winter of human
history has arrived. That winter will wipe our all the lies.
All will fall like leaves. There is a branch remaining in
wintertime. That branch will bear the fruit. In that fruit there is
hidden inside a seed. The seed is the possessor of life. The seed
contains the strength and energy of new life. Therefore even though
winter comes, this particular seed will not be affected the leaves
and branches and roots and the trunk exist condensed within the one
seed.
The seed is the beginning point of everything, so therefore the
fruit bears seed. The seed will be like the one God has started in
the very beginning.
God has been like a father, He is farming in order to harvest
that one truthful seed on the last day. The man who is coming as
the seed of the universe is the Messiah. Within that one seed there
is the potential perfection of all levels. So in the last days that
seed is corresponding to the first seed God sowed in the beginning
of history. The Messiah is coming as a perfected Adam. So when the
Messiah comes, he will present himself in the True Parent's
position. He is going to give rebirth to the old fallen generation,
so that they tie themselves into the direct lineage of God.
Where is the central point going to be? There should be two
central things. One is the central religion, and then a central
nation. What is the central religion of the modem day dispensation?
Should we evaluate the same way God evaluates? What is the
characteristic of God? Power? Money? Sovereignty? God is love. So
then which religion is centered on the love of God? That religion
has to be in the central role.
Two principal things make Christianity unique and central: one,
Jesus as the son of God. Second, the theory of bride and bridegroom
and also of world brotherhood. We are all brothers and sisters.
Jesus did not preach white is superior to black. He pronounced the
equality of man. So Christianity has all the components to build
God's ideal reality here on earth.
What is the power that brings America into unity? The origin of
America is the Christian faith. Persecuted Protestants in Europe
founded a land of freedom of religious worship and they came to
this new world because God was more valuable to them than anything
else. It is truly a miracle that during the Revolution, George
Washington's army, feeble, untrained, well out surpassed won the
war. This was impossible without the help of God. If we remove
Christianity from America, nothing remains behind to hold this
nation together. Without God, this whole continent of America would
have been divided into many different nations like Europe, and the
200 year history we are celebrating would have been nothing but a
continuation of struggle and strife.
America is in the position of the spiritual second Israel. Now
which should have central role, the nation or religion? Religion.
Religion is equivalent to the mind, and the nation is equivalent to
the body. Therefore, religion, which is in a real place to serve
this world, should he in a position to lead.
So when the central religion is united with the central nation
to create a foundation, then you will know God's day of fulfillment
of providential history is near. And that is America. A new
spiritual movement is inevitable. In that new spiritual movement
the Unification Church was born for the goal of world unification
of the cosmos, heaven and earth, men and women and mind and body.
That goal must be more valuable than our own lives, than this
nation, than the world and all the existing Christianity. So we
have to transcend all things, united together upon this one goal
unification.
We are longing for what God is longing for, and we have the
God-designed family. We have God-designed religion, and we are
preparing the God-designed national background. Now we are
preparing to have the God-designed world foundation. That is our
project in 1976.
1976 is America's bicentennial year. When you celebrate the
210th American birthday, the world showdown will be over. America
must he awakened by that time. If after 210 years of America's
birthday, America is still going a route of apathy and complacency,
then the Communist era will come. 2,000 years of Christian history
are indemnified by 200 years of American history. That 2,000 years
and 200 years of American history and Christian history indemnified
by the Unification Church in 20 years. So therefore the 20-year
dispensation -- the most critical period is divided into three
seven-year courses. We are in the third seven-year course, and the
first three years are the most critical. It is not by accident that
the bicentennial celebration of America is where we can make a
visible, dramatic showdown. The showdown is coming at Yankee
Stadium. At Yankee Stadium we are going to indemnify and restore
the failure of Cain, the failure of Abraham, the failure of Jacob,
the failure of Moses, and the failure of Jesus.
This is a victory on a worldwide level which will absorb all
other elements. When we bring this spectacular and triumphant
victory at Yankee Stadium, it will become a phenomenon of the
world, not just of the United States.
The failure of the central figures in the past: Noah, Moses,
Abraham, and Jacob and Isaac, was because they did nor have a
serious attitude in meeting every instance: cutting a dove for
example, and striking the rock. Because they did not think they
were the central figures of dispensation, that awareness was
lacking. Are you serious enough to think that Yankee Stadium is the
cross-junction of human history?
God knows the seriousness of this battle of Yankee Stadium, and
I know the seriousness. Now you must respond to the seriousness in
the same strength.
We are the resurrected body of Moses, the resurrected body of
Noah, the resurrected body of all those saints in the past, the
resurrected body of Jesus Christ. For the sake of all the
dispensational history we must bring this great victory
together.
So in one battle we want to liquidate all the failures of the
past so that we can bring only victory. This is a very critical
moment of human history. Like Noah after the flood judgment. Like
when Abraham took his son to the Mount of Moriah to offer his son
as a hurried offering. This is the time Moses is leading the troops
to the Sinai desert. And Jesus Christ at the Mount of Gethsemane
praying so desperately for his destiny. We are at the same moment
of human history.
So in the first week of 1976, I am giving this particular
message. I want you to take it seriously. You must become men of
conviction. You must possess the conviction that when you strike
the earth, it will split. When you push, the mountains wall go
away. You are like canes of Moses. You are like Isaac in
relationship to Abraham.
We must be more serious than the saints and prophets in history.
We should become more serious than Noah, Abraham, Moses, John the
Baptist, more serious than Jesus Christ praying at the Mount of
Gethsemane. Because this is the final battle, the cosmic battle.
This battle will decide the entire destiny. No one in the past has
borne such a burden in one event. God's wishes, then your blessing
in the future. We must he serious just like Jesus Christ bearing
his own cross to the Mount of Calvary to be nailed down. We must be
serious like that.
Victory Or Defeat
Sun Myung MoonMarch 31, 1973First 100-Day Training SessionMaster
SpeaksTranslated by Mrs. Won Pok Choi
Good evening! We just had a telephone call from Korea; that is
why we were delayed. Welcome home to Belvedere. I thank God that
you are safely back. I can imagine that you have such long stories
to tell each other, to tell me; I will be hearing from the State
Representatives, Itinerary Workers and Mobile Team Commanders. But
in case I don't have enough time for all of you, you must excuse
me. I want you to feel my heart, and feel that my heart is
reflected on your mirror; and God's concern for you, love for you,
will be felt on this occasion, and I hope you will be able to go
back refreshed, strengthened and revitalized. Some may have
thought, "What a man! Master is stirring up the whole thing, and I
cannot go on like this." In that case, excuse me. This is the last
day of March, spring is here, and I hope the spring is everywhere,
in every part of the earth.
Youth have so much to do with spring, and I am very regretful
that you cannot enjoy the spring of your age; but in another sense,
I can imagine that you are enjoying spring in the ultimate sense. I
have to use my interpreter, and I am apt to look this way -- but
don't you misunderstand, I keep sending my mind to that side.
This evening my subject is "Victory or Defeat in Accordance with
the Time Element." Now is the time when we must conclude whether it
will be victory or defeat, on the individual level, on the group
level (like ours), on the national level and on the worldwide
level. The situation in the whole world is like this. More so with
the providence of God -- but in the outside world, also, the time
has come for a final decision on serious matters. We who claim to
be sons and daughters of God are grieved over the fact that our
first human ancestors fell to darkness. We must solve this problem
because we are God-loving people. A defeat or fall can come about
when we are vague in our sense of purpose, in our sense of the
direction or goal.
If our first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, had known the
purpose of God's creating them and what their goal was, and if they
had had the sense of responsibility to carry out their mission
according to that, they could not have fallen. We are the
descendants of fallen ancestors, and we have the hope of restoring
ourselves to the original position. But to do that, we must be
enlightened by an understanding of what God's purpose was in
creating man, and what our part or mission is in realizing that, or
making it an actuality. We are here for the restoration of that
which, in the beginning, our first human ancestors failed to carry
out and our forefathers, including all the saints and prophets,
left unaccomplished; it is for us to accomplish those things. We
have to make right what was turned upside down; return those things
turned upside down to their original position like this. But we
feel this is no easy job at all. Unless we excel Adam and Eve in
carrying out our responsibility and attaining the goal -- carrying
out or realizing the purpose of God's creating man -- we cannot
accomplish our mission.
In the providential history of mankind, Adam fell on the
individual level; Noah fell on the family level; Abraham on the
tribal level (clan level); Moses, on the national level; and Jesus,
both on the national and worldwide levels. All those things are not
a history of victory at all. But when we think of centering on the
man Noah -- he kept his faith, trying to carry out his mission for
120 long years -- but we have to excel his faith. Abraham was the
father of faith, Moses was a man of faith, Jesus was the son of
man, trying to carry out his mission at the cost of his life. But
they are, in a way, failures. So, in order for us to accomplish our
mission, our whole-sided mission, we must excel them in many ways.
It makes it difficult for us to carry out our mission; but when we
pour out our whole energy, our whole being, into this providence
project, we can get the cooperation of the spirit world, making it
possible. We must turn all things upside down like this, making it
a reality, and making it a success. Jesus had a strong sense of
purpose in his mission, but ours must be even stronger than
that.
When you closely examine what you are and what you are doing,
are you on that standard, and do you have a stronger will power to
carry out your mission, with the strongest sense of purpose and
responsibility? We must be able to elevate the standard of our
mission, of what we have carried on, ever higher and higher. Some
of you are State Representatives, some are Mobile Unit Commanders,
and others are I.W.'s. You are not doing things on the individual
level, you are representing so many people under you.
God is here, watching your work, and He expects something great
out of you. But His heart is agonized to see the possibility that
you might fail your mission. In watching over what you are doing,
He always compares you with Adam, with Noah, with Abraham, with
Moses, with Jesus and He is anxious to have you carry out your
mission in a greater way than they did. If He finds you unqualified
for that, He will be agonized to see you, grieved, sad. First of
all, we must have a clear, strong sense of the purpose stronger
than Abraham had; stronger than Moses, Noah or Adam had. Ours must
be greater and stronger and clearer than theirs. What can make it
greater? We can say that our faith determines it; but faith can
fade away along the course. God cannot trust you unless you have
gone through those things for several years, until you have gone
through your mission for several years at least. He wants you, as
the leaders of groups, to be able to animate the power in the
people under you. He wants you to be really dynamic, to arouse
people's attention, to emit the light of love and life, and Heaven
wants to be stimulated by you. Sometimes He feels: "I must wait and
see if they can carry out their missions," and He is more or less
disappointed.
In the olden days, as in the time of Moses, God could actually
work a miracle in leading the people under Moses -- but why is it
not so with us? Unless God can find one stronger or more dedicated
than Moses, God cannot do that. This being the close of the age,
the Latter Days, God is anxious to help us more than ever; so, if
He finds you greater than Jesus, greater than Moses, greater than
all those passed away saints, He will surely be working with you.
Thus, Satan, who caused Adam to fall, is still here and would
accuse you, saying to God, "Well, let me see how faithful, how
dedicated your children are. They are here, claiming that they are
going to restore the whole world back to Your bosom. How strong are
they? ... I will wait and see." And, every minute, he is ready to
accuse you. In that case, would God be confident enough to let him
accuse with all his might, with all his colleagues mobilized,
accuse you of anything with your having no condition for which to
be accused? Is God confident about you? Are any of you here
confident enough to make God strong before Satan able to say that?
If there is anyone here who can readily say, "I am such a person,"
raise up your hands.
I could assign you to do something of one third the importance
of what Noah, Moses or Abraham went through and you would shrink
back and feel so burdened, and feel that it is almost impossible,
and that you want to escape. How can God trust you in that case? As
time goes by, up to the present moment, God wanted to trust Noah;
He wanted to trust Abraham more than He did Noah; to trust Jesus
more than He did Abraham; and He would like to trust us more than
He did all of those people. Yes ... trust us. We must be so
trustworthy to Him; and can we keep asking God, "'Give us strength,
give us faith"? Can we ask that? We are the fruit of all those
people, so we must excel them in many ways, as I said. Then, in
what sense are we greater than they are? We can be different from
them and greater than they are, when we pray to console God's heart
-- instead of praying for help like those passed-away saints
did.
In praying to God, we want to console Him, we want to even
encourage Him from our part, we want to stimulate Him and make Him
happy. I want to ask you if you have been doing that. If you have
been in despair, shrinking back to a confined place in your heart,
grumbling and complaining, you are a failure there; instead of
doing that, you must be able to encourage God, console God's heart,
stimulate Him. You must be able to do that. You must be confident
enough to be able to carry out your mission without God's help. You
must have a clear sense of purpose and strong sense of
responsibility to be able to carry out your mission in place of the
passed away saints who failed to do so. In taking the
responsibility, don't try to leave your responsibility on someone
else's shoulders; try to win it out, try to carry out your own
mission, and day and night be thinking of that. Every minute, you
must be able to try hard to carry out your own mission without
leaving it to someone else.
We can safely conclude that if you are like that, God is ready
to help you any moment -- even if you don't want His help. So God
is on your side, working more than ever with you. If you have that
strength, that faith, that dedication -- then without your asking,
God will be there to work with you, to work through you, and you
will have the strength and confidence that you can make your
mission a success. Each State Representative here, population wise,
represents some four million people. With that in mind, have you
felt a deep sense of responsibility from them? Have you ever felt
that you are responsible for those people and that your every
action, every thought, every word will determine whether or not
they will be saved? That is the great problem/question. If, with
that attitude, you have been struggling hard, day and night, waking
or sleeping for this mission, the whole spirit world cannot but be
mobilized in your aid. What makes it that way? In that case, you
are in the position of Adam or Eve before the fall. You are in
accordance with God's will; so those who are in the position of the
Archangel must help you and minister to you. In other words, you
are in the position of Adam and Eve, sons and daughters of God,
having nothing to do with sin, conforming entirely with God's
will.
Then, since those passed away people on the spirit side are in
the position of the Archangel, they are compelled to minister to
you and help you -- or else they are not carrying out their mission
and will be punished. Among the vast numbers of spirit-men, those
who are on the side of good are compelled to help our movement; and
they are, even in the spirit world, fighting against the Satanic
power. So they will be helping us and our group cannot but have
success and victory.
So, whenever you feel that you have not quite ... that you have
failed in bringing in people, don't blame God, don't blame the
nature of the people, don't blame the nature of the city blame
yourself. In that case, have you ever repented and bowed down
before God, begging His forgiveness, begging like a sinner before
Him -- have you ever felt that way? In that case, you must be
ashamed to even look at the nature around you, to see the people
around you. You must be ashamed of yourself, ashamed of your being
able to eat, ashamed of your being able to wash your face. Every
minute of your life, you must be feeling that. If you focus your
attention on one point, and if you pour out your whole being into
your nation, you can even sense what is to come and in what way you
can approach people and witness to them, how you can convince and
persuade people. You must re-examine yourself, analyze yourself,
criticize yourself and recruit yourself re-educate yourself.
You must be more than a poet in communicating with the things of
nature. When you visit a place of scenic beauty, you can talk to
them, saying, "I am sorry you are still in travail, waiting for the
perfected sons and daughters of God to have dominion over you. I am
going to do that for you. I am going to be a real son, to be able
to soothe you and love you and know your value. Well, I am
spiritually low now, ragged like this; but when I come to see you
the second time, I will be elevated like this, and you will rejoice
to see me, and I will communicate with you from the highest level."
You must be able to talk back and forth with nature. Sometimes,
when you see the sunrise, the glory of the sunrise, you can cry out
to the sun, saying, "I will make you glorious, because I am the son
of God! And once I carry out my mission I will be able to really
appreciate you and make you really glorious, to shine over all
human beings, like I do, in the spiritual sense. I will make you
glorious because of me." Could you say that to the sun, to
nature?
During the night, in deep nocturnal meditation, did you ever try
to resolve, to be determined in your mind, to succeed in carrying
out your mission and accomplishing what was left unaccomplished by
the passed-away saints and becoming the dominator of light,
eliminating or erasing the darkness? Well, were you confident
enough to claim that, and cry it out to the darkness? When you look
at the chains of mountains, can you cry out, "I am the son of man;
I am the first one to be able to really appreciate you. You are
there always meditating over things of beauty, but I am here to
create beauty and to restore all human beings with beauty, love and
everything." When you hear the chirping birds, when you see the
reflecting ribbons of river, have you been able to face God, have
you been able to sing the glory of God, saying, "This is my garden,
from my Father, who created it for me; and I will beautify this
place and I will beautify myself. And by perfecting myself, I will
glorify God and bring all the children of God back to His bosom."
Have you ever felt that? If you don't have that kind of experience,
you are not qualified to be State Representatives, or I.W.'s, or
Commanders on the mobile teams. If you have been grumbling, saying,
"'Well, I am forced to do this, I want to escape from this. I am
reluctant to do this," and you can barely drag yourself on then you
are already a failure.
Once you are assigned this great mission, why don't you be
qualified for your mission? ... and after carrying out your mission
and glorifying your ancestors, glorifying the passed-away saints
and glorifying God, seek another place where you can help out
people with other missions? If you are like this, would God not
love you and look for you, to console your heart? In that case, God
would confide His heart to you and everything of value, which has
been stored away, will be taken out by God and given to you. Unless
you are a person God needs, you prayers will not be answered. Those
who really feel that they are needed by God, will you hold up your
hands? Is it true -- are you really so? Are you imagining it, or
are you really so? Is God really in need, is our Master absolutely
in need of you? Are you the people needed by the Unification
Church, are you the people needed by the people of this
world?...does the state need you? [YES!] I can see that you are not
too confident, because your "'yes" is not strong enough. You must
reawaken yourself to the fact, and you must recruit your
strength.
You must be confident enough to feel that you can crush the
people with both hands like this, and you can be responsible for
those four million people under you, in your state. You must feel
that, once you kick at them, they will be crushed under your foot;
kick at the mountain, and the mountain will be crushed into pieces.
You must be able to say, "Once everybody, anybody, appears before
me, you cannot leave me without being defeated or being absorbed by
me."
I said that my subject was going to be "Victory or Defeat." Then
who will be the victors, and who will be the defeated? Who are
going to be the victors? [WE ARE!] And who is going to be the
defeated? [SATAN!] Yes, Satan. And the whole population of each
state represents the Satan's side. Isn't that true? [YES!] Well,
your answer, as I see, is in the affirmative but after one year
work in some of the states, there is only a handful of people, and
in some places, I find that only the State Representative remains.
You have taken three meals a day, for one year -- that is 1,080
meals you have taken -- but some of you have done practically
nothing. What can I say to you? The very food can accuse you. So,
this must be a grave question. You must be more serious than God;
you must be more anxious to carry out your mission than God is to
have you do it. You must hate yourself for that more than God
would. Have you gone through that feeling? You take things for
granted and no change can come about ' and no difference is there
from yesterday, today and the days to come. If you have not been
able to bring in members, you must at least be able to leave
something that no one else could do. If you are a failure in that
state, when we next send someone as State Representative to the
people there, they will be scornful of the newcomer, the new State
Representative, and say, "I am afraid he is going to be a
duplication of his predecessor." Well, before leaving your post,
you must be able to at least leave something that could never be
done by other people. You can do that at ,least. If you fail to
move the hearts of the people, try to move the rocks, move nature,
praying the whole night on a mountainside, talking with God.
Always, the question comes to your own self: you must have a strong
sense of being a warrior and soldier, fighting for the sake of the
state for which you are responsible. Then, after the battle, after
each war, you must be able to cry out, "My battle today was a
victory!" While the people of the state are in utter darkness, in
despair, in the dungeon of hell -- you must be able to let the
people think there is light, and once the light shines out it will
be warmed up, and they will be animated. Have you left that kind of
thing to the state? Yes or no!
You must be able to find yourself always improving, better every
day, every moment. And you must have been changed a lot for the
better. Are you like that? Do you have that ambition? In my prayer,
I can sense that for the first few weeks the mobile team members
were so anxious and even fearful before God as to whether or not
they would be able to carry out their missions and they were so
anxious to carry out what was assigned to them -- but after a few
weeks they have become somehow settled, not in the good sense, but
in such a way that they have become lax and do things in a habitual
way. That is not the way you should be. That being the battlefield,
every moment is so precious, so important and you must be well
armed, first of all, with a sense of responsibility. Every minute,
a new sense, a stronger sense of responsibility. You must be
stronger in your ambition, sense of responsibility and sense of
purpose, because there is Satan -- who can come and attack you at
any moment. Anything alive has to grow; cessation is the eve of
retreat. You must go on, advance forward -- you must be able to
find yourself ever increasing, ever progressing. You must be able
to say to yourself, "I was a failure last year, but it was not in
vain -- it taught me a lesson, and this year I must plan to do this
and that." And after this year, if you find it is still a failure,
you have learned another lesson from this, and you can grow in that
way, and you can finally make your mission or project a success.
You have learned the principle that where there is a perfect
subject there is sure to appear a perfect object. If you are really
aggressive and ambitious in carrying out your purpose -- which is
God's then the ground for you to work on will be provided. And it's
natural for the object to come about for you as the subject. And,
since you are a better self than what you were yesterday, then you
are entitled to more things. Since you have improved, and you are
better than what you were last month, you can hope for something
greater. Then, have you been lending attentive ears, attentive
eyes, looking for something greater, some greater project for which
you can be responsible? You must be so attentive and so anxious to
carry out your mission that when you see, for instance, a yellow
car coming from a distance, you will imagine, "There must be
someone whom I can witness to, and bring into the movement. God
must be sending at least one in that car; will it be a woman, will
it be a man, will it be a girl or a boy?" In anxiety, you are
waiting for someone to come -- and a miracle will happen, and the
car will happen to stop before you, and a prepared person will come
out and you can speak to him. And he is the very person for our
movement. Have you ever done that? Suppose, on the contrary, the
car passes by, and your heart is saddened; and without your being
conscious of it, tears run down your cheeks, and in deep prayer you
console God's heart and say, "Oh, Father, I know that You have gone
through when You have failed to restore Your children," and to that
prayer God will surely respond or answer. You would say, "Oh,
Father, I feel so discouraged, I feel so dark, so low -- but have
You not gone through all these things all throughout human history,
for 6,000 years? Well, I can recruit my strength." And before the
table, eating your supper, you can be in utter devotedness; and you
can eat your supper, and God will be with you, strengthening you,
and you will feel God's love there.
If you are intoxicated in doing things, if you are almost crazy
over the joy of bringing in members, the spirit world will work for
you, people will see visions, will see you in their dreams and wait
for you to come. If you have the attitude that you are waiting for
a lost child to come back to you, and you set out in search of lost
children, and you set aside a portion of your candy or any delicate
edibles -- with a waiting heart you set something like that aside
for your spiritual children to come and relish -- if you are in
such a mood, with such an attitude, with a parent's heart, waiting
for lost children to come back to you, God will be with you and you
will be able to find at least one. From my experience, I can
readily tell you that if you are in that mood, you cannot fail to
find your children, spiritual ones. All through the night you would
stay up the whole night in meditation before God and the tick-tock
of the clock would have a strange influence on your ears. You can
fancy or imagine that every second there are new lives coming into
the world. You can say that at every second there are so many
people dying away, and you can cry out to the clock, "Don't