Perfection of Restoration By Indemnity Through Human Responsibility (Part 1)

There are three concepts contained within the title of this sermon -- man's portion of responsibility, restoration by indemnity, and the time of perfection. Also we can understand the title to mean the time of man's responsibility, the time of restoration by indemnity and the time of perfection.

Some Christians today may be puzzled when they hear about indemnity and think, "Almighty God is a God of a soft heart, a God of love. What do you mean by such a cruel thing as indemnity? God is not cruel." Often people would prefer to think that if they simply continue to believe in Jesus they would be saved. They think they don't have to do anything else.

Let us examine what is meant by "belief in Jesus." To what extent does someone believe in Jesus? Does a person believe in Jesus on the individual level or Jesus within the family or Jesus as he reigns over the society, nation, the universe, or the Jesus who is in God? That makes a lot of difference.

A favorite Bible verse of Christians today is John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life." The most important part of that verse is that God loved the world. However, many Christians put the greatest emphasis upon the second part of the verse. Many people forget the most important thing: that God so loved the world. God did not love the church or the individual so much that He sent His only begotten Son. It was because God loved the world, the universe, so much.

Thus Jesus is the one who was meant to save the world. When we believe in Jesus the world is very much in our minds. God is in Jesus and Jesus is in God.

When you say you believe in Jesus, do you only believe in those things, that make you feel good? Do you reject those things about Jesus, which make you feel painful? We should accept what Jesus taught and do those things which Jesus himself would want us to do. We must not take part in things, which Jesus would not like. What are those things, which Jesus would not like? They are, simply, Satan and sin.

We must separate ourselves from Satan and sin and believe in Jesus from that position, rather than from a position in which sin, Satan and Jesus are all mixed together in our lives. This is why Jesus said, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." For what should we repent? We must repent of the fact that we have been living together with Satan and sin throughout our lives.

Once we have repented and separated ourselves from Satan, Jesus urges us to believe in Heaven and serve Heaven. Jesus wanted to rule over a world from which Satan and sin were eradicated, not a world in which Satan was mixed together with everything and in which people had just a vague belief in Jesus. Jesus' mission was to separate individuals completely from Satan and sin and separate families and countries from Satan and sin. Did Jesus accomplish those things during his lifetime? That is a question to think about.

Even the most faithful believer in Jesus or the most righteous church on earth cannot proclaim proudly that they are absolutely separated from Satan and sin and that they are following Jesus exactly as he would have them do. No one can say they are living in perfect love in an ideal world with no suffering and tears. No church and no Christian could say such a thing.

This means that Satan exists within the churches as everywhere else; also, there is almost as much sin there as in the rest of the world. If this is true and if what church people love and hate is no different from what the rest of the world loves and hates, then there is very little difference between the world and the church. Which would Satan find more pleasure in, the church or the world? Why would he like the sins of the church more than those of society would in general? Satan likes the sins of the church more because then he can protest to God, "Look at those people in the church, they don't love others; they even hate others! They are not faithful, either. This must be my church."

If the churches remain this way, they must perish at the time of the last days, along with the evil, secular world. This is the way of God; He will destroy all evil at the time of the last days. God would even destroy such churches before the rest of society. This is the actual time of the last days.

What really surprised me when I first came to America was the way Americans used the names of Jesus Christ and God as an exclamation -- not to praise them, but to put them in the worst position. I wondered what people meant when they said, "Jesus Christ!" and I realized that they were describing something bad. What led to this kind of custom? What do the best words imaginable have to do with the worst things that can happen to people? Have you sometimes observed that certain Christians may be worse than people of the secular world? Those who claim they believe in God may actually be worse than those who don't they are more egoistic, less loving and giving, etc.

This American nation is founded upon Judeo-Christian principles, yet Americans have become very individualistic. Was Jesus an individualistic person? How did Americans come to be so egoistic and individualistic when Jesus had nothing of an egoistic nature? We can come to the simple conclusion that if people really believed in Jesus they would not have become like that. Instead of believing in Jesus for Jesus' sake and for God's sake, some people believe in him for their own benefit. In other words, they use Jesus and God for their own sake. What do you think about this?

Returning to our original point. God sent Jesus to mankind because He loved this world so much. Did mankind believe in Jesus the way God wanted them to, or did people generally believe according to their own discretion and desire? This is the most important determining factor of a person's belief.

The greatest error occurs when people think that they can "just believe" in God and Jesus and they will receive more and more blessings from God. Such people feel they can have everything they want, without doing anything in return. That is similar to the attitude of a thief, who just takes things without working.

Did Jesus believe in God in that way? Did he think that because God sent him as His only begotten son it meant he had all power? Did he feel that all he had to do was to keep on believing and claiming his faith in God, and then he could subjugate all the Roman Empire automatically? If Jesus couldn't do that, what is the justification for thinking that other people can do that? In other words, many people say that Jesus couldn't just believe in God and do nothing, but that we can. Jesus believed in God and we believe in Jesus. Jesus didn't just say, "God, I believe in You so You must bring all the people and all the Roman Empire under my domain." It is clear that such a thing would not work for Jesus. To claim that people who do nothing but simply "believe" in Jesus can enjoy the millennium and live in the ideal world with every blessing is truly out of the question.

If everything could have come to Jesus automatically, why did Jesus witness? Why did Jesus gather and train the 12 apostles, the 70 disciples, and the 120 elders? Why did he have to do all that and endure so much persecution along the way? Jesus did what he had to do according to God's dispensation; he had no other way to go. We can clearly see that Jesus had to go the way of persecution and bloodshed. Jesus knew the suffering that lay ahead of him, but he also knew he had to go that way in order to accomplish God's will.

Do you think I am placing unnecessary stress on this or do you understand that this point is the most crucial one of belief? Jesus had to go the way he did because he knew what God wanted him to do, namely to save the world and all mankind by loving them. Therefore, it stands to reason that everyone else who loves Jesus must also do God's will to love the people of the world and save them.

Because God loved the world so much, He sent His only begotten son, so Jesus had the obligation, the mission, to make the world one, which could receive the love of God. Jesus looked around and saw that the world was not lovable. At this time, there are many different churches with great power and influence in the world. They embrace this world in their own ways. However, can they or the world they embrace be considered as truly worthy of God? Can God look at them and be really happy and full of satisfied love for them? Anyone can clearly see that when God looks at the churches and the world, He will not be completely pleased with them. On the other hand, Satan will love those churches and the people in them. Communists have even infiltrated the churches and developed theologies to suit their own purposes, such as liberation theology. How can God love such churches?

Why did I bring up this topic at the beginning of today's sermon? Looking at reality most Unification Church members were traditional Christians at one time or another before coming here. They find the Unification Church so different and so much more difficult and demanding than those Christian denominations, they sometimes get the feeling that the way they used to believe might suit them better. They could sleep and eat all they wanted, and so forth.

We can understand that the true, correct faith is not the way many Christians have been going, but rather it is the way Jesus tried to establish in his time to gather the people, teach the people, and establish the kind of world which God could freely love. Jesus had to love the world in order to accomplish his mission. This was the work of God and also the work of Jesus, it was the purpose for which God sent Jesus. Jesus had to bring the world to God for God to accomplish His purpose of sending Jesus to the world.

Then what would have happened? When all people became worthy of receiving the love of God freely, everything would have been accomplished. God loved the world, so He sent Jesus; when Jesus had made the world capable of receiving the love of God directly, he would have completely accomplished his mission. When the people of the world are able to freely receive the love of Jesus and God, they will be satisfied. These things have to be accomplished; it is very clear.

God will allow man to be punished through Satan, namely through the spread of communism. This is like a healthy body being invaded by germs, all the cells go on alert, and the white blood cells have to eat up the germs soon enough or else the person will not survive. In this huge, once healthy country, the germs of Satan and communism are coming in fast. Unless the churches in America come up with the means to eliminate these germs as fast as they spread, the country will not survive.

This "germ" is proclaiming that the society belongs to the working class, the laborers. Satan is claiming this, but God is saying that the world belongs to the God centered people, not simply the "laborers." Since Satan has his own movement, which is proclaiming an ideology, there should be a movement on God's side, which is claiming with an even stronger voice, "No, you are wrong! The world belongs to God-centered, religious people, no matter what economic class they belong to!"

The people of the world will be hearing two different voices shouting at the top of their lungs; they will have to make a choice. Which side will have the greater chance of being followed, those who are advocating a false doctrine, or those who are stating a righteous fact? Will the multitudes follow those who say, "You must love me," or those who say, "I am not asking you to love me, but to let me love you; let me be of service to you"?

If a group of people emerges from this hopeless world who are loving others, thinking more of serving than being served and doing mainly what Jesus did, then God will be able to fulfill the promise He made when He sent His only begotten son. In other words, a religious group must emerge which is different from what has existed in the past; it must do what Jesus himself did. Jesus sacrificed himself and gave up his own life; he remained completely faithful to his mission of making the world lovable by God, making the people worthy of receiving God's love. If some new religion emerges in this time, following the path, which Jesus trod, then religion and the world will have hope for the first time in a long time. God will then have a foundation to accomplish the same purpose, which He tried to accomplish through Jesus. Do you understand?

Look around and see which denomination would fit these specifications. What about you members of the Unification Church? Why don't we do the same things that other churches do and believe exactly the same way that they do? Why do we fight against communism? We do this because it is the germ, which will destroy all religion, if it prevails. Our movement is trampling down on Satan and sin and especially communism, destroying these germs, and on the other hand we are sacrificing ourselves as Jesus did and bearing our own cross so that God can give His love to the world.

Our method of working is very different from other religious groups. Would God say He likes Unification Church members? Would God be ashamed that we work harder than other Christians do? No, God would say, "How proud I am of the Moonies!" Are you sure He would say that? How about Jesus? When he looks at the Unification movement, would he say, "Oh, you should be ashamed of yourselves; my other followers don't work like you do. You embarrass me?" No, instead Jesus would say, "You are my hope, my pride."

If God loves us and Jesus loves us, what about the people of the world? They might be saying, "We hate those Moonies," but as they say such things, they are watching us and gradually they are discovering that there is nothing wrong with us. They are gradually coming to like us and they will come to see hope in us. When the people of the world have a real chance to see us and live with us, will they continue to hate us or will they love us?

When you see me, do you think, "Father, what other burden are you going to give us? You are not even American; you are Oriental. You have come out of nowhere and are giving us all this trouble!" Are you clear about the Unification Church; are we doing the right things or the wrong things?

We should not try to compare our lifestyle with that of the existing Christian churches, the two were never supposed to be the same. If other churches are joyfully celebrating Christmas, our church should be working hard at Christmas. You may ask yourself, "Am I doing the wrong thing, working so hard for the sake of God and His purposes instead of taking it easy and celebrating Jesus' birth?"

Even if God says you are wrong to work hard like that, we can protest strongly to Him. If He tries to tell us we shouldn't protest, we could become even stronger. Ultimately, He will relent and will tell us we are doing the right thing. Will God say, "That person is disrespectful," or will He be pleased with you? He will be pleased with you.

We are in a wonderful position compared with other Christians. Jesus wasn't able to bring the entire world to God, but we will be able to do that. Jesus was supposed to confront the Roman Empire, which was only a part of the entire world. I have been confronting the government of the U.S. and I have been proclaiming a war against the powers of Moscow, as well. The most powerful effort of America to stop me was to try to put me into jail for one and a half years. Do you think such a thing would stop our movement? Perhaps you Unification Church members never clearly understood the value of what you were doing until now.

Since God loves the world so much and since I love you so much, I continue to push you out in order to make this a lovable world. Is that OK? When we undertake something worthwhile, it is important to have a logical understanding of why we must do it first. It gives us the support we need to carry it out. It is because of man's responsibility that we must do the things we do.

Does God really love me or not? When you look at how hard I have worked and how I have pushed myself, don't you think God might have done something more on my behalf? You say that God really loves me, but I might argue with you and say, "If God loves me, what has He ever done for me?" At no time in my entire career have I ever had a peaceful moment. Wherever I went, I was not readily welcomed at first; it was only after I had given a lot and taught many things. I have had to fight continuously to gain ground for God-inch by inch.

If God were to give me the power to work miracles and somehow retaliate against those who persecute us unrighteously and show them dramatically how wrong they are, they would not continue to mistreat us. Why does God allow these unrighteous things to continue?

When Jesus was crucified, God was certainly watching the scene. Did God not have the power to stop the Roman soldiers and rescue Jesus from the cross? Jesus was God's own son. What kind of a father could bear to see his own son's blood being shed in such an unrighteous way and not do something? Can we call such a God a God of love and justice? Where was God's justice then? When my court case was over and the judge pronounced my sentence, why didn't God do something? Was it because God did not have the power to do anything? Why did God seem to pretend not to know about it? That is a riddle. In this common yet very important issue comes the understanding of the human portion of responsibility.

The discovery of man's portion of responsibility is a cosmic discovery. Great discoveries have been made in science, such as the atomic bomb or Einstein's theory of relativity; however, the discovery of the law of human responsibility is the greatest of all. Without understanding this principle, no major point in mankind's history can be understood. Without this, all the most fundamental issues in life remain as a puzzle.

There have been universal questions, which can finally be answered, such as, "Why do righteous people always have to suffer? Why is a great man's name only resurrected after his death?" These questions have never before been answered clearly. You must realize that this knowledge is not something superficial; it is truly the greatest discovery of history.

The Moonies are the ones who are supposed to appreciate this fact of man's responsibility the most, but ironically you hate it as much as everybody else does. Do you truly appreciate it or do you hate it? Have you accomplished your portion of responsibility or not?

Another principle inevitably follows upon the underlying fact of human responsibility and that is restoration by indemnity. The duration of the human indemnity period is not known by anyone -- not God, not spirit world, not me, not anyone. We may keep asking why the misery in life must go on, but that is the fact of the principle. If anybody, including God, takes away some of the indemnity from another person, he can no longer fulfill the principle. This is why God did not intervene when Adam and Eve committed the fall. God couldn't intervene because He would not violate man's portion of responsibility.

When I was going through my period of worst indemnity, God could not help me. Instead, He said, "You are about to inherit all that was given to Adam. In order to receive it, you must go through this course by yourself and win the victory by yourself." The same is true for everyone else. I was suffering from cold weather but I discarded my coat. Satan himself couldn't stand to see me suffering that way, so he inspired someone to come and offer me a coat. God would never take away a coat, which had been received in such a way. Not only that, but also no other satanic power can come along and take away such a coat. When God allows you to suffer and the satanic realm tries to help you, nothing worse can ever come against you. You have conquered the worst possible suffering.

I have been persecuted for ten years in this country, yet I have not done anything evil or wrong. Many people are watching what has been happening to me and are curious about the source of the persecution. Many well educated scientists can see that even though the majority of the world is accusing Reverend Moon, I have been doing things that are worthy of praise and even assistance.

Once we win that kind of approval, the greatest power of Satan can no longer prevail against us. After Satan has opposed someone so much then God can freely love that person and Satan will have no chance to accuse him any more. Thus a way is being created by which God can more speedily love all those who have been unworthy of His love. Quickly the conditions are made for God to embrace them.

Why can't Satan do anything more? There was no opposition to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden at first. They were not under the pressure of an evil world, yet they betrayed God. At this time, during the time of restoration by indemnity, Satan is putting tremendous pressure on people, trying to prevent them from doing the right thing and following the Divine Principle and returning to God. However when people overcome the pressure from Satan and join the Unification Church and work hard, like Jesus himself, Satan certainly has no power against that.

There is no more efficient way for people to go from the extreme of being unworthy of God's love to being worthy except by going through persecution. When you achieve the goal in the face of tremendous persecution, God can bring you from the extremely bad position to the extremely good position.

At the time of Adam, the archangel betrayed God and seduced Eve. Unlike that archangel, the archangel who helps people to believe in God at this time is instantly restored to a better position than even those archangels who never fell. Satan can do nothing about it.