Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I wish to thank you for coming to this invitational address. My subject today is 'True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.'

Today, we are at a crucial crossroads of history. Therefore, if we are to take the road to a bright future, it is essential that we understand God s original purpose for creating humankind.

God s ideal in creating the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, was that they perfect themselves through true love so that they could then create a good family of true love, true life, and true lineage. Such a good family would have been formed on the basis of unified heart and mind among family members in front of God.

In general, all people want their loved ones to be better than themselves. All parents want their sons and daughters, for example, to look better and achieve more than themselves. This tendency comes from God. God wants His children to be better than even Himself.

Similarly, God wants to give limitlessly to His children. God is not content in giving just 100 percent. God's desire is to give a thousand times more than what He has. The nature of God is to give love completely and then forget what He has given. Unlike some who calculate how much they have given and decide that it is enough, for God enough is never enough.

Moreover, God s purpose in creating the world was to have an object of love. His purpose in creating parents and children, husbands and wives, and all things in this world in complementary pairs was to substantiate true love throughout His creation. Likewise, parents are to live for their children, and children for their parents. Husbands are to live for their wives, and wives for their husbands. All beings in creation are to live for and give to others.

If God s ideal of true love had been realized through Adam s family, that family would have become the beginning of the heavenly kingdom. It would have expanded throughout all of history to the clan, to the nation, and thence over all the earth. This would have been the world of true love, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Furthermore, there would have been a parallel expansion of the heavenly kingdom in the spiritual world.

If God s original ideal had been realized, then there would have been no need for a Messiah or for God's providence to save humanity. Adam s family, though it was merely a single family, would have been the center of the clan, of the nation, and of the world. It would have been the blueprint for all families in the future. It would have been the model for the realization of God's ideal world.

Because of the fall of the original human ancestors, God s work of salvation had to begin. Salvation history had to be repeatedly extended through the complicated and suffering courses of the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age, culminating in today s Completed Testament Age. God s ideal of the true family and the heavenly kingdom, which He wanted to realize through Adam s family, was destroyed because Adam and Eve fell away from God.

Due to the Fall, this present world is far from the good world of God s ideal. Today s world is, in fact, a 'false' world, in that it is flooded with self-centered love. This came about because Adam and Eve became false parents based on false and self-centered love with Satan. They multiplied evil rather than goodness, creating a false family and passing on false life and a false lineage to their descendants. Thus, false clans, false nations, and a false world came into being.

Therefore, the key goal in God's dispensation of salvation is that a man and a woman, representing Adam and Eve, should be restored as True Parents centered on God s true love, so that the true family can be formed. From them would eventually flow the true clan, the true nation, and the true world. In other words, the seed from which God s true love, true life, and true lineage can grow must be created.

My dear friends, have you ever wondered how a world filled with such evil and corruption could come from a God of love and goodness?

If you read the Bible carefully, you will see that the fall of man involves the loss of Adam s entire family. First, the position of parents was lost through the fall of Adam and Eve. Second, the position of children was lost as Cain murdered Abel. God's 'blueprint' for an ideal family and world perfection was lost. Therefore, to restore the original family, God works in reverse to reclaim the positions of Cain and Abel, and then the positions of True Mother and True Father. This pattern of reconciliation of Cain and Abel as the foundation for restoring the True Parents has been God s consistent formula throughout the history of restoration.

The separation of fallen mankind into a Cain-Abel division occurs over and over again in Judeo-Christian history. Therefore, God first of all separated fallen mankind into two 'brotherly' sides of Cain, symbolizing Satan, and Abel, symbolizing God, to work out the hatreds resulting from the Fall. God used the method of having Abel be hit first and sacrificed. As a result, Abel could stand on that very foundation to embrace Cain and recover the blessing given to the elder son. For example, the religion that most advances the purpose of salvation always receives Satan s most severe persecution. It walks the path of constant opposition yet continues its sacrificial effort to save the sinful world. Likewise, good people always stand in the position of being struck first and sacrificed.

Looking almost anywhere in our fallen world, it is easy to notice struggles between good and evil, similar to the struggle between Cain and Abel. These struggles start in the conflict between each individual s mind and body. The mind, which represents the Abel side, struggles to overcome the body, which represents the Cain side. The struggle within individuals has expanded to the family, nation, and world. As a result, humankind has always been divided into two opposing camps, one good, or Abel-like, and the other evil, or Cain- like, locked in struggle at every level. It has always been God s intention, however, that both sides be restored, not that one triumph over and destroy the other.

Some examples of this division are: the thief on the right side of Jesus on the cross, representing Abel, and the thief on the left, representing Cain, and South Korea versus North Korea, which represents the last conflict between right wing and left wing on the world level. Moreover, there is the Christian-Muslim conflict in the Middle East. So the key issue in God s work of salvation has always remained how to unify such divided sides, based on His ideal, in order to build a foundation on which to reclaim the True Mother and True Father.

Ladies and gentlemen, if a family is not centered on God s ideal of love, there will be conflict among the members of that family. Without God s love as an absolute center, such a family will ultimately break down. Moreover, a nation of such families will also decline. Because illicit, self-centered love invaded the first family, selfishness and greed have continued to dominate human history from the individual to the family, society, nation, and world. For this reason, God's work of restoration begins at the individual level. Since Satan knows this, he focuses his efforts also on the individual level.

It is not by chance that self-centered individualism has become the dominant way of life in these last days. People feel increasingly alienated from those around them, and bear little sense of responsibility for the well-being of their country, society, or even their own families. Rising divorce statistics indicate that husbands and wives feel little responsibility toward their marriages; parents do not take responsibility for their children; individuals, devoid of any sense of human dignity, fail even to take responsibility for themselves.

America has seen such phenomena at work beginning with the youth movement of the sixties. Idealistic youth rejected the materialism around them in order to seek love and peace, but in the process, they also abandoned morality and responsibility. Unable to attain the true love they sought, many disillusioned young people resorted to suicide, drug abuse, and free sex.

Of all these, what pains God most is free sex. A world of free sex is absolutely contrary to the will of God. Love comes from the stimulation of unblemished emotion, but free sex is totally devoid of purity or true emotion. How many of us have been touched by the cruelty of infidelity and divorce? Where is God in all the one-night stands? What about the nightmares of the children who are sexually abused by a parent? Is free sex worth the price of a broken child? Where there is homosexuality, free sex, drugs, and alcoholism, the world of true love is far away.

In this world, Satan openly tells people, 'Drink! Smoke! Take drugs! Have sex!' Those who do God's Will, on the other hand, live a lifestyle that is 180 degrees different from this. Throughout history, those who chose to walk a spiritual path of self-sacrifice have been bitterly opposed and persecuted by the rest of the world. It is only God's love and blessing which have allowed the Unification Church, despite worldwide opposition, to prosper. The fact that our church has risen from obscurity in war-torn Korea to become a world-level religious movement in only 38 years testifies to God's continued guidance and support.

There are those who continue to oppose the Unification Church, spreading wild rumors or trying to prevent our teachings from being heard. Again, Satan s way is always to attack that which is most precious to God. Yet those who go against the will of God can never prosper. The principle holds true that those on God s side, who can endure unjust persecution, will win the right to take back the blessing. God s strategy is always to be hit first and then take back what is rightfully His.

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible teaches that Eve first disobeyed God and entered into a relationship with Satan. Due to the Fall, not only Eve, but also Adam and their sons Cain and Abel, inherited Satan s lineage, based upon selfishness and false love. As the descendants of the original couple which was compromised by Satan, we have all inherited a satanic lineage. This is why Jesus said in John 8:44, 'You are of your father, the devil.'

The Old Testament described a process of restitution according to the formula 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' In the Divine Principle, we refer to making restitution for a wrong as 'paying indemnity.' To make restitution for her wrong actions, fallen Eve needed to take the entire responsibility upon herself. She should have reversed the actions of the Fall and made spiritual and physical restitution for each step of the Fall.

It was God's Will that Eve assist her younger son, Abel, to unite with the Will of God. We know from Genesis that Abel's offering was accepted by God. However, this was not all that was expected of Abel. Through Abel s love, Cain was supposed to recognize Abel as God's chosen person and unite with him.

If Cain and Abel had united, the second of the two problems of the Fall could have been solved. God would then have addressed the problem of Adam and Eve. Eve was meant to stand as the first mother of humanity. She should have united Cain and Abel, and worked to establish a foundation for True Parents. Eve, however, did not fulfill this mission in her lifetime, and history had to wait for another woman who would pay fallen Eve's restitution.

In the Bible, one of God s great heroines is Rebekah, the spouse of Isaac. As the mother of Jacob and Esau, Rebekah held the same position in Isaac s family that Eve held in Adam s family. Unlike Eve, however, Rebekah understood God s providence and helped her second son, Jacob, representing Abel s position, to gain the blessing destined for the first son, Esau.

Just as Cain killed Abel, Esau wanted to kill Jacob when the blessing went to his younger brother. But with Rebekah's help, these brothers eventually reconciled in a warm embrace, rather than resorting to violence. This reconciliation was a major victory for God. This victory, nevertheless, was not complete, since the reconciliation represented only a symbolic purification of blood lineage. The substantial purification of blood lineage had to be accomplished in the womb. This is the reason for the paradoxical story of Tamar.

By understanding that Tamar, like Rebekah, was in the position of fallen Eve, it becomes possible to understand why Jesus was born of her lineage, the tribe of Judah.

I am sure that many of you have read the story about the birth of her twins. She conceived with Judah, her father-in-law, the twins Perez and Zerah. The Bible tells us that the two sons struggled even in the womb for the position of first-born. During Tamar s labor, Zerah's hand emerged and the midwife tied a red string around his wrist. Then, Zerah's hand disappeared back into the womb and Perez, the younger, was born as the elder! Thus, the positions of Cain and Abel were restored even before birth took place. It was from this point that the Israelite people became the nation chosen to receive the Messiah.

In terms of conventional morality, the stories of Rebekah and Tamar would be questionable at best. Why God blessed them was a theological mystery until today. As we now see, God needed to reclaim His lineage from Satan so that Jesus could be born. Purified, true-love blood lineage was the point from which the Israelite nation started expanding. The word Israel also means victory. Their victory was the purification of blood lineage.

The lineage of Judah developed for generations, expanding to the levels of tribe, society, and nation. From this same lineage, Mary was born in Israel 2,000 years later.

Mary had the responsibility to unite Cain and Abel figures on the family, clan, and national levels through paying appropriate indemnity and restoring elder sonship. Mary responded to God's call and conceived Jesus even though, in the eyes of others, she had betrayed her parents and Joseph, to whom she was engaged. At that time, it was customary to stone to death any woman who became pregnant out of wedlock. However, Joseph, standing in the position of Adam, courageously protected his fiancee and resisted abandoning her.

Because of Mary s faith, and the work of Rebekah and Tamar, Satan could not claim sovereignty over Jesus in Mary's womb. Jesus was born in the position of a true son under God's complete, direct lineage. He is the first true son of God after the purification of the fallen blood lineage. That is why Jesus is the saint of all saints and the ancestor of the true blood lineage. His birth represented the conclusion of the Old Testament Age at the national level and the dawn of the New Testament Age at the worldwide level.

Mary, in the position to restore fallen Eve, had to build a unity between Jesus, who was in the position of Abel, and his elder cousin, John the Baptist, who was in the position of Cain. This unity was essential for the people of Israel to identify Jesus as the Messiah.

John was the elder. He had a great following and was widely respected. As Jesus explained to his disciples, the ministry of John was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that Elijah the prophet would return to 'make straight the way of the Lord.'

But did John fulfill his role in God's providence? The Gospel of Luke tells us that John came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah.' John, however, denied that he was Elijah, and doubted the Messiahship of Jesus even after he had received a clear revelation at the Jordan River at the time of Jesus baptism. John was a well-respected religious figure, while Jesus was seen as only the illegitimate son of a poor carpenter. Without the support of John, it was impossible for the Jewish people to believe in and follow Jesus. Alone, Jesus undertook the difficult path of proclaiming himself.

John the Baptist should have helped Jesus reach the religious leadership of Israel. If John had fulfilled his role, then Judaism, in the position of Abel, and the nation of Israel, in the position of Cain, could have united centered on Jesus.

This would have laid the foundation for the Marriage of the Lamb. Jesus would have stood as the True Father of humanity, and his bride would have stood as the True Mother of humanity.

In less than seven years, his teaching would have expanded rapidly to the worldwide level, winning Asia and Rome to his side before he was 40. Eventually, Jesus and his bride would have achieved the individual heavenly kingdom, family heavenly kingdom, clan heavenly kingdom, and national heavenly kingdom.

However, this glorious destiny could not be realized. It was the religious people themselves who rejected Jesus words and called for his crucifixion.

Confronted by the faithlessness in Israel, Jesus determined to give his life to achieve spiritual salvation for humankind. However, he would have to come again in order to bring physical or earthly salvation in addition to spiritual salvation.

This is why the mind can draw close to God through Jesus, but the body continues to be tempted by evil. Even Saint Paul anguished over the contradiction of the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit. Many great Christian evangelists have also suffered because of this contradiction. At the dawn of the Completed Testament Age, the crucial challenge is to accomplish both physical salvation and spiritual salvation.

Because of Jesus death on the cross, the conflict between left wing and right wing appeared. This is like the separation into Cain and Abel necessitated by Adam s fall. Likewise, Islam and Christianity appeared and began struggling. Because such separation was caused by the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ will work for unity at the time of the Second Coming.

God's preparation for the Second Advent required a world-level foundation of successful Cain-Abel reconciliation. This dispensation was carried out through the events surrounding World War II. The Allied countries of Britain, America, and France represented Christianity and were in the position of Abel. The Axis countries of Germany, Japan, and Italy were under the influence of nationalistic militarism and stood in the position of Cain. This war represented the expansion of the conflict between Cain and Abel to the world level.

Immediately after the Allied victory, great strides were made toward creating a world of peace centered upon Christianity. With Britain in the world-level position of Eve, and America and France representing Abel and Cain, respectively, these Allied nations stood ready to receive the Lord of the Second Advent.

Despite all of this preparation, God's dispensation was not fulfilled at that time. God's representative came to bring His word and was met with tremendous persecution and almost universal misunderstanding. This paralleled Jesus' situation 2,000 years ago. Just as the Israelites of Jesus' time awaited the Second Coming of Elijah on a chariot descending from heaven, Christians awaited the Second Coming by expecting Jesus himself to descend on a cloud from the sky.

In Revelation, Jesus reveals to the Apostle John that he will come with a new name. This foreshadowed that Jesus would come again through another man, just as Elijah had done.

At this crucial time after World War II, then, God instructed me to bring a new message of truth to Christians in Korea. Korean Christian leaders, however, rejected the possibility that I, a humble young man, had been chosen to bring this new message. Because the New Testament Age is an extension of the Old Testament Age, they could not believe that the Second Coming would be born as a man on earth any more than the Jewish people could believe it at the time of Jesus.

If I and the Christian churches had become one, the heavenly kingdom would already have been established on earth as well as in heaven. During the seven-year period from 1945 to 1952, when the New Testament Age ended, the entire world could have united in accordance with the providence of God.

Instead of uniting with me, however, these religious leaders became jealous of the growing number of my followers. They blindly opposed me without hearing me out. They even spread lies about me. Rumors of sexual misconduct and greed, the very antithesis of my teachings, were used to assassinate my character.

God had expanded Christianity and had raised up a mighty Christian nation like America for the purpose of preparing the way for the Second Coming. Whether they realized it or not, those ministers in Korea represented all of Christianity. Because America and worldwide Christianity failed to unite with me after World War II, they began to decline in their power and moral authority.

After World War II, the United States and Christianity stood on a victorious foundation of Cain-Abel unity. The time was ripe to receive the Second Coming. However, this opportunity failed to materialize and the whole world opposed my work. Therefore, I was expelled into the wilderness. I was forced to the bottom and have been climbing back up ever since.

Thus, the Cold War began. The world separated again into two worldwide spheres of Cain and Abel, just as it had during World War II. Denying God, just as the thief on the left denied Jesus, communism represented the Cain- type world. Christian democracies, which affirmed the existence of God, represented the thief on the right, and the Abel-type world.

It was God s Will that the Messiah of the Second Coming should unite the two hostile blocs. That is why I mobilized my church to help settle conflicts between the right wing, represented by the free world, and the left wing, represented by communism. We have also worked on behalf of Christianity and Judaism as a peacemaker with our Islamic brothers and sisters.

During the Cold War period, I fought to break down barriers on the individual, family, clan, national, worldwide, and cosmic levels in order to rebuild the lost foundation to receive the Messiah. This required a minimum indemnity period of 40 years. Since I cannot live for 4,000 years or for 400 years, I knew that I would have to indemnify all of history in just 40 years. During this period of four decades, I restored the 4,000-year history before Jesus, and the 6,000-year biblical history since the Creation. After this indemnity was paid, the Cold War ended through the unity of Cain and Abel countries. This was consummated by the Unification Church at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where 160 nations of the world came to Korea.

For decades, I have been completely misunderstood. For three years, I was imprisoned in a North Korean communist concentration camp. Altogether, I have been wrongly imprisoned six times for doing God s work. Moreover, the media have mocked me as a monster who brainwashes the young for self-benefit. Can anyone disagree when I say that Reverend Moon is the most persecuted religious leader in the world? My heart is broken when I think of how God has suffered to see His messengers rejected time and time again. My only desire has been to comfort His heart, yet I find that it is God who always comforts me.

I have walked a path of indemnity, or restitution, in order to restore the failures of the past, including those of the Old and New Testament eras. Korea can be compared to the Old Testament Age, while America, a mostly Christian civilization, can be compared to the New Testament Age. For the first 20 years, I walked the road of indemnity of the Old Testament Age, centering on the Korean nation and the Unification Church, representing the positions of the Israelite nation and Judaism, respectively. On the foundation of this work, I established in 1960 the Holy Wedding of True Parents on the national level. Then, in 1971, my wife and I came to America. Over the next 20 years in the U.S., I walked the path of indemnity to fulfill the New Testament Age and to begin the Completed Testament Age. Thus, I established the True Parents family, the origin of true love, true life, and true blood lineage, based on God.

The reason why America is essential in the providential dispensation is because of her close ties with the Christian churches, Judaism, and Israel.

Even though America has dismissed and opposed my work, my wife and I continue to pray for America to realize her providential responsibility. It is our sincere desire that America avoid repeating her failure. A failure to unite with God s Will would create the need for further indemnity and would deprive America of the blessing that God wishes to bestow upon this great nation. America, in fact, would have waned long ago without the help of the Unification movement.

Rome thought that the world existed only for the sake of Rome. She did not realize that God had raised her up for the purpose of uniting with the Messiah and serving the world.

America faces a similar situation today. People must realize that God blessed America not for herself but for the sake of the world. America s Pilgrim Fathers did not come here for wealth. They came here to attend God. If America fails to remember the purpose for which she is blessed, then her blessing will cease and she will perish. I desperately want to prevent this. I must save America.

For 21 years I have struggled in this country, trying to bring God s message to the American people. American leaders, prominent Christians, and other leading figures of the world have only a faint idea of the forces that shape the future. Therefore, they can offer little insight, hope, or guidance to their people. In these chaotic times, humankind is longing for a true direction and purpose, yet America and the churches have no confident answer. God has granted me an understanding of the forces involved in His providential history. Thus, I know the direction that humankind must go, and I, with the help of God, will lead the world there.

The truth which God has revealed to me is contained in the Divine Principle. Looking at the history of humankind and the stories of the Bible from the providential viewpoint, the Divine Principle unlocks the answers to questions unsolved for thousands of years. Those who have sincerely studied its contents have found it to be a true gift from God, providing the only solutions to the problems facing our society today. Even in the formerly communist C.I.S., Soviet leaders and thousands of young people have found their lives renewed through their studies of my teachings. Finally free from the oppression of communist ideology, they are hungry for the spiritual truth to guide their nations. Russian classrooms where our members are teaching 'Godism,' or 'Head-wing Ideology,' are overflowing.

There are countless other testimonies to the power of the Divine Principle to give hope and new life to young people. Last year, in Korea, we held a wedding celebration for 30,000 couples, all dedicating their lives to one another, to God, and to the world. In most families today, parents cannot effectively guide their children, especially on such intimate matters as love and marriage. Yet, my wife and I brought together young people from 131 different nations and realized their most cherished dreams of love in a historic way. This was indeed a great miracle of the modern world. In the future, as people come to understand the value and quality of these precious families, millions will seek such marriages. Through them, God can restore the family that Satan has destroyed. Such restored, God-centered families are the very building blocks of an ideal nation and world.

My dear friends, when Jesus taught the coming of the Messiah, he told the parable of the virgins who were awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. According to the book of Revelation, Christianity is portrayed as a bride. America, representing Christianity, can also be seen as a bride nation.

Therefore, America must take the responsibility of creating a foundation for worldwide unity upon which the bridegroom can finally be received. This signifies the restoration of the original positions of man and woman, restored Adam and Eve, to the realm of true equality. At this turning point in the history of restoration, a woman in the position of True Mother must prepare the world to receive the True Father.

When Christianity failed to meet her bridegroom the first time, God s dispensation had to be delayed 40 years until 1992. During this time, I have worked and prayed to bring about the unity of Korea, Britain, America, France, Japan, Germany, and Italy.

That is why, in April 1992, my wife and I founded the Women s Federation for World Peace. Last year my wife, as True Mother, visited these seven countries, as well as Russia and Oceania. She gathered together the women of these countries to form chapters of the Women s Federation for World Peace. With these events, the nations that had been the worldwide Cain and Abel countries since World War II united together to receive the True Mother and prepare again the foundation for meeting the True Father.

Based upon this foundation, my wife and I can now stand on a worldwide foundation as the first True Parents. As the world enters the Completed Testament Age, we will live with God again.

At this historical turning point, we have to practice on the worldwide level the principle that an individual's mind and body must be united centered on God. To facilitate this, we have founded two organizations working for world peace. The Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace represents the world mind, and carries out the internal mission of uniting all the world s religions on the basis of God s love. The Federation for World Peace, on the other hand, represents the world body, and pursues the external mission of building up ideal societies with leaders in the fields of politics, economics, media, academia, and science.

During the last 40 years, I broke down all of Satan s obstructions, traveled into various parts of not only the physical but also the spiritual world, crossed over many world and national barriers, and have now reached the present family stage.

Through the law of indemnity, all the problems of the world will be solved by establishing the family ideal centered on God s true love.

Looking at the vertical perspective of love, Adam and Eve should have related directly with God by developing in themselves the four types of love: children's love, brother-sister love, conjugal love, and parental love.

Therefore, Adam and Eve should originally have gone through the four spheres of the heart, centering on God's true love, as completed children, completed brother and sister, loving couple, and perfected parents. In this way, they would have achieved the completed family.

Adam and Eve should have become the role models for all in their family. Their children would have looked to their parents as ideal role models. They would have become brothers and sisters who loved each other as their parents loved them. Then they would have become married couples resembling the husband-wife relationship of their parents. Finally, with the birth of children, they would have established their own completed families, identical to that of their parents.

By setting up ideal, unbreakable families that fulfill the vertical and horizontal unity between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and husband and wife, we can finally build the eternal basis for God s kingdom on earth as well as in heaven. Thus, all the families in the world originating from the same God-centered ancestors, Adam and Eve, would have equal, divine value.

Ladies and gentlemen, at the dawn of the Completed Testament Age, the time has come for each family to take up the messianic mission of completing the work of salvation all over the world. After restoring your family, the next step is to restore your community, tribe, and nation. We call this process 'tribal messiahship.'