The Day of the Settlement of the Eight Stages

On this day last year, Father established and celebrated the Eight Step Ceremony in Kodiak, Alaska. The Eight Step Ceremony celebrates the eight steps which were necessary in fulfilling God's dispensational will to establish vertical and horizontal relationships. This was done by separating all the necessary components and people from Satan.

In restoration, there are eight vertical as well as eight horizontal steps. The eight vertical steps go from the servant of servant's position to the servant's position to the adopted son's position and so on, to the son's position and on to the mother's and father's position. On the horizontal level, there are the steps of the individual, the family, the society, the clan, the nation, the world, and heaven. The cosmic heaven would be the completion of the eight steps. Without these eight steps, the restoration would not be fulfilled or completed. It is absolutely necessary to follow these steps in order to fulfill the dispensation. These eight steps are what the whole of history ever since the creation has actually been about.

In restoration, you cannot just restore anything with anything. You have to restore with sons and daughters. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were the son and daughter of God. God must center on sons and daughters in restoration in the same way as it was lost. To gain sons and daughters, of course, first there had to be an adopted son and daughter, but eventually the dispensation had to be done by His true son and daughter. The whole history of God's dispensation of restoration has been centered on restoring a son and a daughter.

The Fall involved the angelic world. The angel played a key role in the Fall. Therefore, in restoration, the angelic world has to take a primary role. So does Eve, and since man failed too, then man must also take a primary role. Therefore, God first established the country of Israel and its people. The Israelites' realm represented the angelic world. After securing this, God went on to the adopted son's position, the stepson's position, and the son's position. First, He had to separate and secure a woman and man, a family.

The Israelites are very significant in that they represented the whole world in the position of being restored. Centering on that, the victorious foundation was extended to the adopted son, the stepson and eventually up to the son's position. The Israelites themselves were in the position of the adopted son and God was eventually leading them to the time of His son's arrival. In other words, it takes a son to inherit all things, including the dispensation of restoration. Stepsons and adopted sons cannot do that. In view of this, the son will absorb and embrace all the other realms, such as the stepson and adopted son. Then the son will gather them together and accomplish the history of the dispensation. That is what the dispensational schedule was. If Jesus could have accomplished this centering on his direct heirdom, his sonship, if he had gathered all the stepsons and adopted sons together and restored all of them from the individual to the world level of restoration, then the purpose of Jesus' coming would have been fulfilled. Then the whole restoration would have been accomplished.

Jesus did not quite get to that, as we know. History knows that. He had to place himself in the position of stepson. He has been performing works from that position, not from his original position. Complete restoration requires both the flesh and the spirit, so only half, the spiritual side of restoration, was possible. Thus, Christianity remained in that limited stepson's position. Nothing can be inherited from the stepson's position. During the Second Coming, history will be carried on centering on the body as well as the spirit. For the first time, we are going into the direct dominion of God. Unity between the spirit and body will only be possible at the time of the Second Advent, when he comes in the flesh. This unity of the flesh and spirit is always necessary.

The Old Testament was the era of the adopted son, whereas Christianity represented the stepson. Centering on the son in the fulfillment of the Testament ages, the Completed Testament Age, these three need to be united as one. As in Adam's family's there were three sons, and in Noah's family three steps, these three eras need to be united centered on True Parents. This is the history Of the Unification Church. Centering on True Parents, the Church has been in the process of uniting these three and working up these steps.

God's original intention was that after World War II, the whole world would come into oneness. From the family to the world level, all would have been accomplished within seven years. True Parents would have emerged and been the center of this work. This was God's original time schedule. Since this work centers on True Parents, unless the True Parents emerge, these works cannot be done. That was not accomplished, so Father established the Unification Church and reindemnified the whole process. The vertically failed dispensation was deployed horizontally starting on the individual level going up to the family, the clan, and so on through the eight steps during these last 40 years. In essence, the whole foundation had been lost to the satanic world. There was no foothold for God. There was no adopted son's realm or foundation. God had built it, but He had to give it up. There was nothing available, nobody helped, everyone opposed it. The whole religious realm opposed God's will. Father single-handedly reindemnified the whole of history. When Father worked on the individual level, everybody opposed that one individual, Reverend Moon. The whole country opposed him. In every arena, including the political and religious arenas, he was opposed. The whole world, in fact, has opposed him. He had to ward that off single-handedly.

True Parents cannot emerge automatically. They need a foundation. That foundation was made throughout history but God had to give it up, standing on nothing. Therefore, Father had to start making his own foundation of the individual, the family, and so on. Standing on that restored foundation, the True Parents could emerge. Within 40 years, Father rebuilt what had taken 4,000 years to achieve. Restoring this, going steadily up the steps -- who could do that, centering on God and Jesus? What could not be fulfilled then is now fulfilled by the Second Advent of the Messiah, with God's help. This was the position of the True Parents, and True Father especially. His course was to regain, to reindemnify the miserable history of failure, the history of rebellion of the last 4,000 years. This one individual, who came at this time as the Second Advent, had to reindemnify all that in his limited lifetime. This was his course.

This is the dispensational point of view of history and the work of the Messiah. What is he here to do? He is here to reindemnify the whole lost foundation of the eight steps horizontally as well as vertically. He had virtually no foundation and had to restore it because without this foundation, the dispensation cannot be fulfilled.

Looking back to 1960, we can see vividly that by winning over most of this and creating all of this foundation, then Father received Mother. By doing so, he went over the threshold, the step where Jesus was stopped, where Jesus had to die and the nation of Israel was lost. But by successfully receiving Mother, it meant that he had gone over Jesus' period of history victoriously in the years since World War II. That was the peak of Satan's opposition to stop Father from going through that course. The persecution by the Korean government not only represented Korea, it represented the whole world, including America's government. All opposed him. Jesus had twelve disciples and all twelve betrayed him. That, too, was Father's position -- he was betrayed on all sides. In fact, Father fought a bloody battle. That was the year of the most fierce, literally life-and-death situation not only of the Unification Church but also of the whole dispensation. Would it be successful, or a failure as in Jesus' time? It was a bloody fight that Father had to go through in that year of 1960 and he went over it successfully. Then in 1974, Father started here in America to expand the work to the whole world.

Father and God had the spiritual foundation, but not the substantial, physical foundation in the world. That, too, had been lost. Father's work was centered on restoring that physical foundation. That was the meaning of Father's work here in America. Father arrived here in 1973 and during 1974, Father propagated the message to the whole of America, with America representing the whole world. Americans gave Father a heartfelt welcome at that time. It was a great chance to connect the Christian foundation and lift it up into the world foundation in substance. That was the time. You must remember, Father also connected the second generation, namely us, to the religion of Christianity. Father made the IOWC spread out to all four comers of this country. By winning that foundation, then going back to Korea and connecting it there, then the Korean government and Korean Christianity could be connected. Then both spirit and flesh could be brought to the level of the worldwide dispensation. The Korean government, the Unification Church and Christianity were in the same relationship as the Roman Empire, the Jewish people and the Jewish religion. By the Unification Church and the Korean government coming into one, Christianity could have been won over.

Right after the foundation was made in America, the IOWC went to Pusan. Starting from Pusan, they went to Taeguk, Taejan, and Seoul in four steps. In Seoul we gathered millions of people in a very big, successful rally. The Korean government supported it and together with the church, they really had Christianity won over. That is the way it needed to be connected. That's the way God worked the dispensation. That was fulfilled. Then on that foundation, Father could start the real worldwide dispensation both in spirit and body. Father's goal was to win the world foundation, just as in Jesus' time he was to win the world through the Roman Empire.

Father was to lead America and American Christianity in the new direction. Danbury was the modern-day crucifixion. From there, the dispensation will go forth to the successful winning of the world. The history of the world is God's vertical history. God and the angelic world have been administering that. Needless to say, if Father as an individual did not understand this very, very clearly then there would have been no hope for the restoration of the world. The whole foundation that God had made would have all gone back to the satanic world and no successful dispensation would ever have been accomplished. From the perspective of the dispensation, if Father had not done this successfully, then the world would have ended up in lewdness, just as human history began with lewdness. The unmistakable result would have been lewdness and the whole world would have been destroyed if Father had not succeeded in restoring all this foundation and had not successfully stopped Satan. Even today, those who join Father can separate from it, but those who continue opposing Father have to go to the abyss of lewdness and in the direction of destruction. Even today we can see that.

If the free world continues going the course they have been going without paying attention to Father, then their only path is destruction. A new form of AIDS will come into being and in the future, some disease even worse than AIDS might come. We must know this very, very clearly. Now the free world has a chance of going back to God. Without Father, neither the free world nor any other world has a chance. Now we know clearly that they have a chance and we must do absolutely everything to make sure that they take advantage of this chance to go back. Even though other people may not know about this, as Unification Church members we have to know it very clearly and surely.

We cannot be restored as individuals without Father, without True Parents. With True Parents, we can be restored both as individuals and families. The family cannot be restored without a father. Therefore, the 21 years of 7-year periods each, consisting of the three stages of formation, growth, and perfection will be deployed on the horizontal level (including the seven stages). This is also connected to the Old Testament Era, the New Testament Era, and the Completed Testament Era, each representing seven years. We have witnessed and gone through twenty-one years to restore the individual and the family. The fact that the family has been created centering on True Parents and centering on the world here in America is really an amazing thing. Now the family that God can legitimately acknowledge can be expanded for the first time in history. It was established here. We now know clearly that without Father reindemnifying all these things which were lost, then the position we are sitting in would not be possible.

All the major personages in dispensational history and all their different roles, the peripheral religions as well as the mainline religions, were completely lost as a legitimate object realm to this one subject to come. In other words, the whole world, including the spirit world, does not have any position in which to stand. Do you understand what that means? We have to realize this and remake this worldwide foundation again.

From the historical perspective of God's restoration, this one individual, Father, is so important. Father knows this more than anybody else. All these eight steps from the servant-of-servant's position onward were destroyed; the whole went into failure. There was no success that we could see, but because of a single person, Father, the whole thing was made good, restored, so that even Satan realizes it. Satan cannot help but come to Father with nothing to say except to just bow down and stand where he's supposed to stand. This is an invincible, unchallengeable position that Father has established. Satan knows what Father has done in the last 40 years. In the last 40 years, Satan has done everything to stop Father. He knows best what he has done, and he also knows what Father and God have done together, starting literally from the servant-of-servant's position and working up to the Mother's and Father's position. Satan knows this better than anybody else.

This is a good opportunity for us to know all eight steps. It's not conceptual at all. It's very real for Father. The whole eight steps are concentrated in Father himself. Those eight steps are Father's life. Then what is the content? What led to the victory? What were the elements that made this victory? Even God was at the servant of all servants' position, but from that position, Father did what God had to do. Mainly, he had to love. He had to love everything and everybody. If someone who is in a position to oppose and revolt is moved by love and instead of siding with Satan, decides to follow God, then Satan has to retreat.

We already know this, but we should emphasize it again. No matter how difficult God's work was, Father's course was such that the one thing Father could not afford to do was to have any concept of an enemy. No matter how badly other people treat Father, Father cannot regard them as an enemy. If an enemy concept remains, the dispensation has to stop. It cannot advance. The road of the dispensation is the road to heaven; that's the whole meaning. There is no other purpose. The dispensation means that we have to return to heaven. We cannot do that with the concept of an enemy.

Here in the Unification Church we see many, many countries of the world represented: Germany, Israel, England, Scandinavia, and so forth. The problem is that they are thinking of themselves too much. They are saying, "We have to be the center, we have to be the center," each and every one of them. The Anglo-Saxons are very proud, the Japanese are very proud, and so on. The Jewish people will never yield in any way.

The reason why Germans and Anglo-Saxons think that way is merely the habit of expansionism of a few centuries ago. They grasped the land and expanded their realm, and after doing that for a few hundred years it became a habit of theirs, that's all. But God cannot allow that in this time. In other words, that has no place in the world of the dispensation. Imagine if heaven took the same position. God knows everything, He knows He is the best, but if He had said, "I am higher than you, so therefore you have to be subjugated by me," then God could never have made progress. As a typical example, look at the "WASPs", the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants. They had a very superior feeling, were very arrogant and tried to attack and destroy everything which opposed them. You see, they have no place to go in history now. Sooner or later they have to plummet.

How arrogantly the white people treated Father when Father came here for the first time in 1973-1974! How uncomprehending they were, how hostile and full of hatred. They thought Father was an enemy but if Father had felt the same toward them, then Father never could have made the foundation he has made. Father went through the whole spectrum of feelings as an adopted son, a stepson, etc., but Father didn't keep any concept of an enemy nor any concept of race. If Father had done that, he could not have progressed on the providential way. Do you understand?

Father even got the same treatment from some American church leaders whom Father had educated. Father wants to save America, but they didn't understand Father's viewpoint. They only understood their own viewpoint. Father's viewpoint is the real Unification way, but at that time many of Father's own leaders were thinking differently, contradicting and going against him: "What are you doing? This is America. You don't understand the cultural background." Even his own followers have opposed him. This is not tolerated elsewhere. In the outside world, if such a thing took place, the opposing person would have been fired. But Father could not have an enemy concept then either. The best policy for Father was to say nothing, but Father always remembers that which was wrong and knows that eventually the reward will return to him for it. Father was the same loving person and never showed or even retained his anger. As time passed, those people became aware that they were very wrong ten or fifteen years ago. There is no way to change that, but they know that this Oriental person is the greatest because he never showed his feelings. If he were like them he would have retaliated, but an Oriental person's personality is so great. This will serve them as an example for the future.

Father knows more than anybody else that you can tolerate those who oppose you from outside, who don't know you, but when the very ones you love comes against you fiercely just like everybody else, it is very difficult to deal with; to try to forget. This is the task now: how can God shake loose of His experience of being opposed? For God to forget this will be a more difficult problem than you realize. Father knows this.

The same way America treated Father, so will America be treated since she never changed and continued on her way. What happens? Now America will go down. At one time, communism was nothing. America was in a far superior position in the dispensation, but even then they would have suffered under what used to be the communistic world, with just incredible suffering in store for them. We see that there are many signs of destruction. In other words, they deserve to perish, but they do not perish. Why not? Because God is withholding it. Why? How? They don't get what they deserve only because of Father. How is it that Father can do it? Because Father is in the position to connect everything to heaven. Without Father, there is no way even the smallest thing can be connected to anything meaningful or good. The parent's heart is this: there are white people and all different people in different positions, but a parent's heart is to treat them equally. How can you discriminate between your sons? Whatever their position, you have to embrace them with the same love. This is the heart of parents; this is the heart of Father.

Our mass ceremonies of marriage stem from this feeling of treating all equally and giving the same blessings to as many as possible centering on God's love. Centering on God's love, they are not servants. God only has the concept of a son. Father gives everyone the son's treatment, whether he is in the servant-of-servants' position or a higher one; whether he has a Ph.D. or is a simple laborer; whether he has a brilliant career or is a very common person. In the sight of God and in the sight of Father, they're all the same sons and daughters. Centering on Father's family, Father has been connecting families, clans, and countries in unity centering on God. He has been embracing them. Father has elevated everything up to the apex of the world.

Centering on Father, now is the time when the world is coming to an end. We may not have thought that way but bringing those young students from the Soviet Union to America and teaching them and sending them back with ties of brotherly relationship will ultimately save America and the free world. By bringing them and educating them we are saving them, of course, but eventually they will play a key role in saving America.

The free world means Christianity. Christianity will be saved and revived. Ultimately the Unification Church and Christianity will become one. This will be the successful end of God's dispensation. It is human instinct to respect something high and lofty and to wish that you were on that level. That is everybody's desire. If you see something deep, you wish you were like that. That's what you are striving for. Even though Christianity does not understand us now, when we develop, they will look at us and at what we think, our concepts and teachings, and how we act and what we create. They will compare it to others and themselves, and say, "Oh, clearly the Unification Church is something better." Then, of course, they will start respecting us and paying attention to us.

It is an amazing thing. Father has done everything which is necessary for the sake of America. Father has done everything in such a way that now the Unification Church has gone over any condition for persecution or martyrdom or continued hardship. These things don't have to be. Certainly we won't have to be persecuted generation after generation because Father has already done such a work that the people have no condition to do that to us. It's a very amazing thing. Father has done all this in the vertical eight steps and horizontally as well.

Having completed all that needed to be done before God, Father proclaimed this successful result to the entire world last year on this day. It's really an amazing, mind-boggling thing in history. Imagine: when Gorbachev, Deng, and Kim Il Sung recognize Father and serve him as a father from the son's position -- when these three remote sons get together and submit to and love Father as much as he loves them, then the whole world will be liberated that very instant. Satan will just not exist. He will exist but not in the same way.

If this is reasonable, what do you think? If Father gives up America and works for the sake of the Soviet Union, China, and North Korea, do you think that it can actually be better for America than if Father just stayed here and worked for the sake of America? Do you agree with that? Beyond the Soviet Union, there is China; beyond China, there is Korea. In that order, not backwards. Why? Let's face it. If Father doesn't do it, who will? Eventually, we have to do it, America has to do that. How can we digest the communist world? How can we digest Gorbachev and Deng and Kim Il Sung? It is now common understanding that only Reverend Moon can do this kind of world level work. It is no secret. Americans say, "Yes, only Reverend Moon can do that." Europeans say the same thing. But Americans like Bush and the CIA and even all the average Americans fear that since they have persecuted Reverend Moon so much, now Reverend Moon is trying to retaliate. That psychology is very much there. They say, "If Reverend Moon now shifts his attention to the Soviet Union or China then they will certainly do something against America." But we know clearly how it is. Father is doing it only for the sake of America. Until now, the American people and government have gone against Reverend Moon but Father has no enemies.

Some of the American members might think, "When are the Korean leaders going to go back to their country? We don't need them. They only make our work more difficult. When will the Japanese leaders go back to Japan? America can do without them." This is what a lot of American members might be feeling now.

For those who can turn their thinking and follow Father, there is a way of getting away from the path of destruction and turning to the heavenly way. This is where the True Parents come in. What he is explaining to us, Father proclaims to the whole world: the fact of True Parents, and that by becoming one with the True Parents, there is a way for everyone to go in the right direction and be saved.

When the wall of communism crumbled down, Father immediately ordered all the European churches to send members to the countries that used to be behind the Iron Curtain to witness. It was a marching order. The marching order to America will be, "Now go to Russia; go to China; go to North Korea and witness to them." This is comparable to what Father did in Europe.

Can we say, "Oh, Father, you may say that, but I would rather stay here in America?" No, we cannot. Even today, if Father says, "Drop everything and go to Russia," are we ready to go? [Yes.] How about you? Look at it this way. Just as Father was persecuted in this foreign land for many years, by the same token we must go to other countries, even North Korea, and you will have the same feelings Father had in this country. With what you know, with your personality and solid attributes, you can overcome and the Koreans will be moved and respect you. When they respect you, that means they begin to respect the Unification Church. Have you ever thought like that?

Then you can say, "Oh, Father, now I have found a way of indemnifying what America has done to you, how they have wronged you. Because of me, please forgive America. You have an altar now set up in me." Do you think God will be very happy or will He punish you for that? God will be very happy.

There is the parable of the prodigal son who later came back to the parents and the parents treated him so well that his brother protested -- do you remember that? That story is very real. Do you say, "As long as it is white people, that is okay, but I do not like Asians, I do not like blacks?" That kind of concept has no place in God.

Now do we know clearly what positions these eight steps have in the dispensational meaning and how Father did it and how important it is? If we know that, now we have to come to the conclusion, "It is Father who matters. It is Father's family that matters. Only through them can we gain salvation individually, only through them can we introduce salvation to other families. Only through them can we have hope to be saved on the national level and go on to save the communist nations." Do we know that clearly? That is the main point.

Father recently held a religious conference in which all the religions of the world were represented, including those who are not very religious and are just on the periphery, in the adopted son's position. Christianity is in the stepson's position. From the religious perspective at this time, the outside world is like the adopted son's position. The outside world represents the Old Testament era. The religious and Christian worlds represent the New Testament era and the stepson's position. Our Unification Church members represent the Completed Testament age, but they must all engraft onto the center and the others must engraft onto us as a core. Then they become the Father's sons. The Father's age is the age of unification.

The unification and restoration of all levels of existence is now becoming possible, centering on the Unification Church, whose center is, of course, Father. We are all proud of our own family traditions and the traditions of our race and country and whatever we belong to. However, now we see what Father has achieved here historically, all the eight steps. That tradition outshines all of our traditions by far. So, actually, we have no real reason to be proud. We can forget about our traditions and adopt and graft into Father's tradition. That becomes our own individual and family tradition.

This means revolutionizing our thinking. It is Father's wish and desire that we all understand this and take it as the greatest gift. Father is giving this to us so that we have the means of accomplishing the goal. We must be clearly aware of that and adopt that tradition. This is why Father is giving us this detailed explanation of the meaning of the eight step ceremony. Knowing this, we must then decide to make a new determination to conform perfectly to this tradition. Now we have this clear goal in front of us.

What if Father relieved everyone sitting here of their responsibilities and replaced them with ones who have just newly joined, who have better attitudes about the ultimate goal of God and less self-centered attitudes? If Father did that, how would we feel about it? Within the Unification Church, we have an Old Testament and New Testament and Completed Testament time zone. How can we truly welcome the age of unification? That is the problem.

We know that when a new member joins, we have to love them more than we have loved anyone else. Unless we do that, then the new shoot from the new branches will not appear. If we center on ourselves and refuse to love others and do wrong and adhere to a wrong tradition, then this is really putting a lot of stains on the important works which Father has done. Without making drastic changes, how can you make everything orderly and good? We have to remember that.

We have been going through the Blessing. Only our church recognizes the value and position of the Blessing, but as the dispensation goes on, our Blessings should be recognized by outside religions and also by non-religious people. Our church should attain the national base and foundation. After that, we must attain the world foundation. After that, we can attain the spirit world. We cannot say, "I am already Blessed; that's it; that's all I have to do," and look after our own comfort. We must know that there is still work ahead of us, work which will preserve the family we have been Blessed with. The family is not an end in itself.

"Oh, I must take care of my family; I must improve my own standard of living..." This is not the righteous direction. That is actually fearful, because it drags us to a position of following the evil world. It does not help us to get ahead. Realistically, Father so far has been giving support to the various projects he has initiated, but ultimately that is something we should take responsibility for. We should have started like that from the very beginning. Now we have the Blessing only in the first stage, so to speak. Our Blessing has taken place on the church level. This needs to be recognized by other religions and eventually the whole world. In order to do that, we must adhere closely to Father's tradition.

It is not an automatic thing. If we cannot bring our own children into heaven, then a whole new task awaits us, which Father does not want to see. Those families who made a serious mistake need to be replaced by someone more pure and someone who adheres more closely to the standard. The actual registration of our Blessed couple takes place when we go beyond the recognition of the world. We have not yet achieved that.

Father is sharing this talk with us so that we can really determine ourselves seriously to make sure that our family and our individual selves will be liberated and extend this realm of liberation further and further. The judgment may be that we cannot go along with everything Father has said. Maybe we are incapable of doing that, but the fact that Father spoke remains and it will serve as the permanent standard. Whether we go along with that standard or not, that standard will remain, issued in Father's words today. We have to take that very seriously. Father really prays that none of us will be left out and be a straggler, but that everyone will be really serious and stay with the standard which Father gave through his words this morning.

The ownership of our own country and our own family -- we have to stand in that position. Otherwise, we cannot get into heaven. This is the viewpoint of the Principle. We must clearly understand this fact.

Those who resolve, "Father, I will adhere to the standard you have given this morning," raise your hands. Happy anniversary of the Ceremony of the Eight Steps.