Pyeong Hwa Gyeong
평화경平和經
BOOK 9
The Role of
Nations in Realizing World Peace
1. America in Crisis—Answer to Watergate: Forgive, Love,
Unite 1297
2. God’s Plan
Centered on the United States 1302
3. God’s Hope for America
1311
4. America
and God’s Will 1319
5. The
Foley Square Address 1325
6. Challenges
and Possibilities for World Peace 1328
7. Let Us Become Leading
Figures in the Asia-Pacific Era 1334
8. The Way to World Peace
1341
9. The Role
of Island Nations in the Twenty-first Century
1351
10. The Role of
Peninsular Nations in the Twenty-first Century
1358
11. The Role of
Continental Nations in the Twenty-first Century
1366
12. Let Us Open Wide the Era of
World Peace 1374
13. The Direction for the World and the United Nations 1378
14. Breaking Down Barriers to
Establish World Peace 1387
15. The Path for America and Humanity in the New Millennium 1401
16. The Status
of Korea, Japan and the United States from the Providential Viewpoint 1413
17. Let Us Perfect the Peace
Kingdom through the Peace UN 1423
18. The Path of Humanity and the United States in the Era of the Peace
Kingdom 1436
19. The Mission of Ambassadors for
Peace at the Dawn of the Era after the Coming of Heaven 1449
BOOK
9
The Role of
Nations in Realizing World Peace
1
America
in Crisis—Answer to
Watergate: Forgive, Love, Unite
November 30,
1973
A full-page advertisement published in The New York Times and the
leading newspaper in each state of the United States
Ever since I was sixteen years old, I have constantly encountered the
presence of God. I have been able to share with the world numerous insights He
has shown me.
I came to America upon receiving God’s revelation On January 1, 1972, God spoke to me in my prayers. He told me to go to
America and speak to the American people about hope and unity. In obedience to
God’s call I came and began the Day of Hope tour. In 1972 I took this message
to seven American cities. The current nationwide speaking tour began in New
York’s Carnegie Hall on October 1, 1973, and will go to twenty-one American
cities, declaring a message of hope and unity.
After speaking in New York, I spoke in Baltimore; Philadelphia;
Boston; Washington, DC; New Orleans; Dallas; Tampa and Atlanta. The kind welcome
I received in these great American cities deeply moved me. I am especially
grateful to the mayors and other officials who responded by proclaiming “The
Day of Hope and Unification” in their communities.
My travels in America have shown me a troubled land. The moral and
spiritual decline is tragic and shocking. Many people are no longer proud to be
Americans. The American nation seems mortally wounded in spirit and soul by the
tragedy of Watergate. We are witnessing a crisis unprecedented in American
history. The situation is very serious.
It is more than a political, social and economic crisis. It is a
crisis of the human soul. This is not only the problem of the person in the
White House; it is a crisis for all of us.
On November 10, 1973, I took two weeks out from my tour and
returned to Korea. I used that time for prayer and meditation in a desperate
search for an answer and new hope for America.
Today we hear so much about America’s troubles—what is wrong and who
is to blame, what can be done and what cannot be done. Vicious accusation is
becoming a daily staple in the American diet. Hatred and bitterness are killing
the human soul. Some people cry out, “Impeach the president!”
Opinion is divided, and the people talk on. Should the president remain
in office? Should the president resign or be tried?
America’s crisis is God’s crisis
We were all witnesses to the assassination of America’s president,
John F. Kennedy, in 1963. However today, without many realizing it, America is
in the process of slowly killing her president once again.
A bullet killed Kennedy, and the nation united in a common feeling of
sorrow and repentance.
This time the “bullet” of hatred and accusation is capable of
destroying not only the president, but the nation with him. In a war of hatred,
no one is the winner.
All thoughtful Americans feel grave concern for the future of their
country. Some even believe America has been struck a fatal blow. However, at
this critical moment in American history, it is disappointing and inexplicable
that no one is asking, “What is the Will of God?” If America was conceived as
“One Nation under God,” then the answer must come from Him. Have we stopped
asking?
I bend my head and place my ear to hear the heartbeat of America. But
I detect no one seeking the solution from above. We keep on criticizing, and
the nation sinks; we criticize some more, and the nation falls even further,
deep into greater peril. Now is the time for America to renew the faith
expressed in her motto, “In God We Trust.” This is the
founding spirit that makes America great and unique. God blessed America
because of this spirit. Furthermore, America is fulfilling a vital role in
God’s plan for the modern world. God is depending on America today. Therefore,
the crisis for America is a crisis for God. An answer must come from above,
from God, from the One who has the answer. I prayed to God earnestly, asking
Him to reveal His message.
The answer came. The first word God spoke was, “Forgive.”
America must forgive. Whatever wrongs have been done, whatever
mistakes are being made, America has a noble deed to
perform: America must forgive. The Watergate affair is an error—not only the
error of a few men but the error of humanity, the error of the American people.
The Lord’s Prayer says, “Forgive us our debts as we also have forgiven our
debtors.” (Matt. 6:12) If we want God to forgive us, we have to forgive each
other first.
The Watergate affair is not merely a test of the president. It is a
test of America’s faith, of how this nation will stand before God in the midst
of moral crisis. Can this nation, which was founded two hundred years ago on
the foundation of Christian tradition, uphold that tradition today? Can this
nation prove its generosity and mutual forgiveness? Can it love? This is the
test for the American people. Long ago, the American settlers on the New
England shores made many grave mistakes. But with their trust in God they came
through many crises. They could then lead America to prosperity.
Now is the moment we need forgiveness and love The Bible speaks of the
time the scribes and Pharisees tested Jesus. They brought him a woman to be
stoned. She had been caught in the act of adultery. Mosaic Law demanded
retributive justice. But Jesus’ message was forgiveness. “He stood up and said
to them, ‘Let him who is without sin among you be the
first to throw a stone at her.’ - But when they heard it, they went away, one
by one, beginning with the eldest, and Jesus was left alone with the woman
standing before him. Jesus looked up and said to her, ‘Woman, where are they?
Has no one condemned you?’ She said, ‘No one, Lord.’ And Jesus said, ‘Neither
do I condemn you; go, and do not sin again.’” (John 8:3- 11) No one dared to
cast the first stone!
Who among you will be the one to cast the first stone? This is no time
to cast stones upon your leader. This is no time to cast stones upon one
another.
I prayed specifically for President Richard Nixon. I asked God, “What
shall we do with the person of Richard Nixon?” The answer came again. The
second word God spoke to me was, “Love. It is your duty to love him.” We must
love Richard Nixon. Jesus Christ loved even his enemies. Must you not love your
president?
What do you do when a member of your family is in trouble? Do you
criticize him and tear him apart? Of course not. You
guide him. You comfort him. You love him unconditionally. You belong to the
American family, and Richard Nixon is your brother. Will you not then love your
brother? You must love the president of the United States.
This nation is God’s nation. The office of the president of the United
States is, therefore, sacred. God inspires a man and then confirms him as
president through the will of the people. The man lays his hands on the Word of
God and is sworn in to office. At this time in history God has chosen Richard
Nixon to be president of the United States of America. Therefore, God has the
power and authority to dismiss him. Our duty, and this
alone, is that we deeply seek God’s guidance in this matter and support the
office itself. If God decides to dismiss this choice of His, let us have faith
that He will speak.
I continued in prayer, and the third and last word God spoke to me
was, “Unite.” America must unite.
Let us unite in the spirit of forgiveness. Unite in the spirit of
love. Now is the time for national repentance. Love is the power to unite.
America once knew how to come together to create a powerful nation for goodness
upon the face of the earth. America is a beautiful land to behold, a nation of
all nationalities, all races and all religions united together into one working
whole. The nation’s source of power has been love and faith in God and in one
another.
Crisis in America directly affects the fate of the world
The crisis in America today can be overcome. We must rekindle our
faith in God and reunite ourselves in love. America’s destiny is inseparable
from the destiny of the world. America’s well-being affects the plan of God.
God chose this nation as His champion in His modern-day dispensation. With the
bicentennial celebration only a few years away, God is testing America through
the Watergate problem. America must demonstrate unity in love and forgiveness.
Let us renew our faith in God, for this has been the well- spring of America’s
power. America must live the Will of God. She has no alternative.
Who am I to say this to the American people? I am not even a citizen
of the United States. I am a Korean, a guest.
However, I do this because I love America as much as my own country.
This is a country God loves. And I love God and He is our Father in heaven.
Wherever God my Father dwells, there is my country. Indeed, the
Father’s country is also the son’s. America belongs to those who love it most.
I am as concerned for America’s well-being as for my own. This is the
foundation of my courage to speak out on this issue.
Furthermore, I waited. I waited a long time. I anticipated that an
American spiritual leader or evangelist would rally America around God to rise
above the Watergate affair at this stormy and depressing time.
However, there has been no American spiritual leader speaking out for
unity. I heard no articulate voice in the wilderness crying out to Americans.
By this time, God spoke to me again, “Fear not! Remember Jonah in Nineveh.
Speak out!” So I obeyed.
And this is why I am doing this.
As the founder of the international Unification Church, I have
declared the next forty days, starting on December 1, 1973, as a period of
prayer and fasting by our members throughout the world.
In this we are determined to awaken this nation to its national
emergency. America must unite in her Christian tradition of love and
forgiveness in the face of the grave crisis created by the Watergate affair. We
hereby launch this National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis as a way
to heal and unite this nation.
This is indeed a day of dismay and moral crisis. Yet this is also a
great opportunity for America, an opportunity in which the American people can
demonstrate America’s true greatness in faith and courage. Historically, great
peoples have proved their greatness not during normal situations but in crises.
This is the time the American people must act as a great people who
put their trust in God. Then this day will become a day of new hope and unity.
“In God We
Trust.” In these four words lie America’s key to survival and prosperity.
America must live the Will of God—and God’s command at this crossroads in
American history is, “Forgive, Love and Unite!”
God’s Plan
Centered on
the United States
December 18,
1975
Senate Caucus Room, United States Capitol, Washington, DC, USA
The second invitational lecture for United States senators
and congressmen
Most esteemed Congressman Ichord, members of
Congress, ladies and gentlemen:
First of all, I would like to sincerely thank Mr. Ichord
for his kind words of introduction, and I would also like to express my
gratitude to all of you for coming to attend this meeting despite your busy
schedules.
It is a great honor for me to speak to you today in this beautiful
hall at the United States Capitol. This is the second opportunity I have been
given to speak to the eminent members of the United States Congress. The first
was on October 8, 1974. And today, about fourteen months later, I stand here in
this hall once again.
During the past fourteen months, the media in the United States have
gradually made me a subject of controversy. Various newspapers across the
country have carried feature articles about me, and a few magazines have
written cover stories about me with big cover photos. I think some of those
pictures have made me look more handsome than I really am. I don’t know how to
thank all the media outlets in the United States for making me so famous
without my having paid a penny for the advertising.
The focus of the controversy caused by the American media is that they
believe I am brainwashing the young people of America. So I would like to ask
you wise Americans one thing: are Americans foolish enough to be brainwashed by
Rev. Moon? No, you would answer, of course not. And my answer is the same. I
respect Americans. And I find it hard to understand why the Americans I respect
are criticizing me like this, even to the point of using violence against the
Unification Church.
Nonetheless, I did not come here today to make excuses. I have come to
pass on the words that God has commanded me to convey. The rest will be judged
by history. The tide of my speech today is, “God’s Plan Centered on the United
States.”
God’s providence to restore the world to the ideal
For us to know about God’s plan, we first need to know His Will. God
is an eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute Being. Therefore His Will must also
be eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute. God had a purpose and an ideal
when He created human beings, and if that purpose had been achieved, the world
would have become united through love; it would be a world where all humanity
would live in harmony as brothers and sisters attending God as their Father,
with all humankind as one great family.
In a word, our world would be united, with all people united centered
on the Will of God. It would be a world where each individual’s body and mind
were united, where families were united, where peoples and nations were united,
where East and West were united, and where God and humankind were united. To
put it another way, the world where God’s purpose of creation is completed
would be a world of unity. The task of building this unity remains extremely
difficult, yet it is the most important task we face today.
Today’s reality is far removed from this ideal world, and this tells
us clearly that something is wrong at a fundamental level. What would that be?
Due to the Fall of the human ancestors, Adam and Eve,
the Will of God could not be fulfilled. Accordingly, the mind and body of every
individual is divided, as are family and family, tribe and tribe, nation and
nation, East and West, and God and humankind; we are all living in division and
disharmony.
Human beings who are thus divided are in a disordered state, having
even lost some of their faculties originally intended by God. This being the
case, God’s purpose for the salvation of humanity is to send a doctor who can
examine this dysfunctional humankind and prescribe a course of treatment, thus
curing all people and restoring them to the state of health they enjoyed before
they became sick. Therefore, this providence of salvation can be said to be the
providence of restoration. The person who comes as the doctor is the Messiah.
Then the question is, how does God prepare before sending the Messiah,
and what does the Messiah come to do? We can clearly recognize through history
that God sets up a central religion to achieve His Will, based on which He
establishes a central nation of His chosen people, and then He continues to
carry out His providence to save and restore the entire world through that
central religion and central nation.
That central religion was none other than Judaism, and that central
nation was the chosen nation of Israel. The mission of that religion and that
nation was to receive the Messiah and complete the Will of salvation for the
entire world. It was the mission of that central religion and that central
nation to take the lead in fulfilling God’s Will to save the entire world, even
if it meant having to face difficulties and bear the cross of sacrifice.
Because He had such a clear and well-planned Will for four thousand
years before sending Jesus as the Messiah, God established Judaism and prepared
the people of Israel to receive him. The providence of salvation for humankind,
which is the Will of God and the will of the people, was supposed to have been
completed through the Messiah, Jesus, leading to the creation of a united,
ideal world.
Christianity and America are the central religion and central nation Yet what happened when the Messiah actually came two
thousand years ago? Judaism and the people of Israel, sadly, dreamed that as
the chosen people they would stand in a place of glory, above the Roman Empire
and even the world. God expected that they would think first about their
responsibility, which was to save the entire world, but they thought first of
their own nation and its traditions. From then on, a gap opened between them
and the Messiah and God, who were thinking first about the world and carrying
out the providence.
Jesus, who came as the Messiah under such circumstances, strove to reform Judaism and the people of Israel, in order to empower
their foundation to save the world. Nonetheless, the religious and political
establishments opposed him. They stood on their existing traditions and
eventually sent Jesus to death on the cross. With the Will left unfulfilled,
the chosen people walked a tragic path, and Christianity, centered on Jesus,
lost the foundation of the nation. Christians suffered martyrdom amid
persecution as they began working for the fulfillment of the Will in the Roman
Empire.
What you need to know here is that, when a group of people chosen by
God does not fulfill its mission, God finds and establishes another appropriate
religious group to fulfill the Will of the central nation. Christianity came to
stand in the position of the central religion, working for God’s Will at the
next stage of the providence. It eventually went on to claim sovereignty over
the Roman Empire, which was at that time a global kingdom.
Thus, the religion of Judaism and the nation of Israel lost the
foundation that had taken four thousand years to establish. To atone for this
mistake, Christians had to suffer for four hundred years under persecution in
the Roman Empire.
God had meant for the Roman Empire to unite completely with the
Christian leaders of the time and march forward with
them to save the entire world. If the Christian leadership had understood this
Will clearly and had marched forward, united with the Empire and undaunted by
any sacrificial cross they had to bear, they would have saved the world at that
time. However, the Christian hierarchy that arose eventually forsook the Will
of God and manipulated nations centered on its own power, seeking to make other
nations its subordinates.
Because they walked a path opposite to the Will of God in the Dark
Ages of the medieval period, God departed from the Christian hierarchy. The
prestige of the papacy and the church hierarchy plummeted because of the
institution’s secular behavior. Hence God had no choice but to bring about the
Protestant movement to pave once again the path of world salvation. Henry VIII
of England took advantage of this trend to justify his divorce. He rebelled
against the Catholic Church and moved Parliament to change the country’s laws,
and he succeeded in establishing the Anglican Church. Henry VIII was in a
position to repent on his own, and to lead the church and his nation to a
higher level.
At this time, England had a good opportunity to be recognized as the
leader of Protestantism. God’s Will had left the Roman
Empire and moved to England. As God laid down the foundation for world
salvation there, the small island nation of England expanded its territory.
Within two hundred years it became a great global empire on which the sun never
set, spanning the five oceans and six continents.
God allowed England to enjoy the height of civilization and bestowed
glorious blessings on it, not for England alone but in order to fulfill His
Will of saving the world.
If the Puritans, who had come forth dreaming of an ideal nation to
fulfill the Will of God, had joined forces with the Anglicans, England could
have united under the Will of God with the power to move the world. They would
have formed a global nation, a United Kingdom not just in name but also in
reality.
However, the Church of England was unable to recognize this important
mission and, while enjoying the blessings of God solely for itself, it
persecuted the Puritans rather than catching their vision to bring light to the
world. So finally God’s Will had to move away.
The Puritans, unable to endure the opposition and persecution, left
their churches and their nation behind and set out to escape from the path of
suffering and find the freedom to practice their faith. Their land of Canaan
was the American continent. The people who crossed the Atlantic Ocean at the
risk of their lives, cherishing the Will of God in their hearts, were your
ancestors, the Puritans.
Together with the Puritans, the blessings of Heaven moved to the North
American continent, and thus an international population of Protestants and
other faiths gathered here, united under the Will of God. Eventually they
raised an army to fight against England for independence and for religious
freedom, and won the American Revolution under the divine protection of God. In
this manner, an international and interracial nation was formed centering on
Protestantism. This is the history of the founding of the United States.
Here, the United States became the standard-bearer of world salvation
centered on God’s Will. It came to shoulder the important mission of harmonizing
church and state into one culture. Its mission was to save the entire world by
uniting it with His Will, which is the historical desire of God. The founding
principles of the United States eventually were articulated as “One Nation
under God,” which is not a coincidence, for the country came into existence
under the Will of God.
For this purpose, God brought the six-thousand-year history of His
providence to a victorious stage, and at the same time, after Israel’s mistake,
the United States and Christianity inherited and carried forward the
two-thousand-year Christian providence.
Through its two-hundred-year history, the United States brought an end
to the internal and external mistakes that occurred during the two thousand
years after the time of Jesus. By preparing both a spiritual and material
civilization, it became the nation equipped with the conditions to receive the
Messiah, who comes again to save the world under the Will of God. You need to
know that in this way the United States and Christianity together have become
the global nation in the position of a Second Israel, “with the soul of a
church,” which will complete the Will of God worldwide.
Americans need to awaken to the Will of God
The American people must not think that the blessings of God that have
created the United States of today are only for America. They need to come to
the profound realization that these blessings are for the world. They have to
realize that the United States must not be a nation that exists for its own sake,
but that it exists for all the world’s people.
Americans must not refuse any sacrifices or crosses they are asked to bear for
the salvation of the world.
Since you have learned that Israel, the Roman Empire and England
received the Will of God and did not fulfill their missions, you must make the
United States a nation that can fulfill the Will of God. Because it is a nation
made up of people of all races, the United States is in the most advantageous
position to save the world. Never before in history has there been a nation
where the five races have lived together. If not for the divine protection of
God, it would already have become divided through racial war and eventually
would have perished. Therefore, the fact that it has, on the contrary, been blessed
and continued to thrive can be attributed to the amazing Will of God. The
American people must now awaken and know the meaning of God’s blessings.
Since the United States has reached the height of its spiritual and
material civilization, it can become a nation that can await the returning
Lord, just as the First Israel yearned for the Messiah, as the representative
nation made ready according to God’s Will. Upon receiving the Lord, it can
realize the united world where the ideal of creation is achieved.
It was God who brought about the victories of the First and Second
World Wars, and it was the Will of God that guided the United States to
organize the United Nations. Originally, the UN was to have become the
headquarters where nations of the world, centered on Christianity, could come
together in solidarity. The admission of communist nations to the UN was
absolutely not God’s Will.
The United States did not manage things well after winning the war. It
had the responsibility to protect and supervise both the Allies that won the
Second World War and the nations connected with those Allies. So if the United
States had understood the Will of God, it would have boldly taken over the
Soviet Union, a nation on Satan’s side. It would have brought together the free
nations of the world to join the democratic realm, thus restoring the entire
world centering on God’s Will. That moment in time was a good opportunity for
this to have happened. However, at the time, the United States essentially
handed over the dependent nations in Asia and Eastern Europe to the communist
realm and brought about the partition of Korea and Germany.
The victory of the Second World War was a result of the blessings of
God, who intended to thus expand His territory and expand freedom to the world.
However, in the end, America’s inaction caused the bloody sacrifice of the
youth who gave their lives in the war to have been in vain, bringing benefit to
the communist world, a sworn enemy that denies God. The United States must know
that the sorrows and the complaints of the youths who were sacrificed at that
time have not yet come to an end.
Moreover, the United States retreated from the holy calling to protect
the free world, and this caused the nation of Vietnam, which was under its
protection, to suddenly become an unfortunate sacrifice. As a result, the
trustworthiness of the United States plummeted internationally, and the cries
of resentment continue to rise day by day. The UN has lost its footing and has
now become the unrivaled stage of communist nations, a place where Israel, the
United States and Korea are outmaneuvered and disparaged. That is not all.
Within the United States, alarming problems are growing more and more severe
each day. Those problems include not only the matter of racial discrimination
but also the problems caused by drugs, the corruption of adolescents, the
destruction of the family, and the issue of crime. Every one of these problems
is serious; however, the problem of communism is the most crucial.
The churches, which claim to attend God, need to play a leading role
in solving these problems, but they are losing more and more young people, so
that many churches have begun to look like senior centers. The American people,
having forsaken the Will of God—which would have us work for the family, the
nation and the world, that is, for the sake of the whole—are now living instead
with an extremely egoistic view of life and values. They need to fear the
inescapable judgment of Heaven. At this rate, God will leave America, and then
this country will be bereft of its blessings and will become wretched. I
believe that you must face the fact that this is already starting to happen,
and the country’s leaders, including the members of Congress, more than anyone
else need to be awakened to work yet harder.
Is God in your heart? Is God in your family, in your neighborhood, in
your society and in your nation? And is God in the White House? The most
important question of all is whether God is in the churches. At this point, I
doubt even that.
Since God is the power that brings things together, only when He is
with you can your mind and body become one, and can couples and families become
one. When the people become one, the nation becomes one, East and West become
one, the world becomes one, and heaven and earth become one; then the united
world where God and humankind become one can come about. When such a world is
realized, not even the shadow of communism will remain. When God is with you,
everything can be resolved. But the day you lose God, you lose everything.
Knowing this, you must clearly understand that you need to find God
and all humanity, even if it means having to sacrifice everything and even the
entire United States. The United States has to be awakened, and its citizens
need to come together and once again embrace the goal of unity, centered on
God. A spiritual reform movement must arise, leading the United States toward
the world of the providence at a higher level by uniting Christianity and
bringing together all religions.
The United States needs to lead the world
Look at how things stand now. The Christianity of the present day is
not providing the leadership the world needs. We absolutely need a guiding
philosophy that can provide education on a supranational level, empowering the
minds of people thoroughly and completely. It will take more than today’s
democratic philosophy. A movement needs to arise that can overturn communism
and establish a new social order with love and truth centered on God. To
achieve this end, America’s young people are being brought together in
solidarity in order to awaken the United States. To be equal to this global
task, your country needs to be trained and prepared. No one other than the
Unification Church is doing this.
The Unification Church has the content, teaching and organization to
accomplish this. We are working to reveal God’s Will and teach people about it
logically. We are working to connect the material civilization of the West to
the spiritual civilization of the eastern nations, centered on the United
States, thereby creating a cultural realm connecting the entire world. This
will establish on this planet the ideal world, thus completing the purpose of
creation, which is the Will of God. Korea is the guard post of Asia, the pivotal
point where the Western and Eastern civilizations are connected.
In this regard, you need to understand how important it is for the
United States to protect Korea in accordance with God’s Will. Because the
United States has not realized its crucial historical mission of connecting the
East and the West as it was prepared to do, and is trying to focus only on
itself, God commanded me to come and work in the United States to reawaken this
country to fulfill its mission.
The task that the United States needs to fulfill under God’s Will on earth will enable it to avoid the fate of Israel,
the Roman Empire and England. America needs to return to its founding
principles. She needs to bring the church and the state into full harmony in
accordance with the formula of God’s Will, and become the nation that attends
Him thoroughly and completely. The United States must work together with God to
save the entire world, even at the risk of sacrificing itself, to fulfill its
mission as the standard-bearer that runs at the forefront until the kingdom of
heaven on earth is realized. When it can accomplish this, the United States
will have completed the eternal Will of God and will become an eternally
blessed nation.
I hope that this occasion and this moment in time will serve to lay
down the cornerstone of the united, ideal world that is coming in the future,
that is, the kingdom of heaven on earth. I would like to conclude by praying
that all blessings be with you, your families, your workplaces and your nation.
Thank you.
3
June 1, 1976
Yankee Stadium,
New York, USA
God Bless America Festival to mark the US bicentennial
Distinguished citizens of the United States and honorable delegates of
the world:
I would like to speak to you today on the subject “God’s Hope for
America.” But first of all, I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and
appreciation to all of you for coming today and being part of this record
crowd.
Here in this grand Yankee Stadium we have gathered to celebrate
America’s two-hundredth birthday. Among this year’s many celebrations, our
festival at Yankee Stadium is unique for the following reasons: first, we have
gathered together in the name of God; and second, we are having an international
celebration. Representatives from all over the world are here for this joyous
celebration.
Today we are living in an age when we need to look at every individual
and every nation as vital components of the world. In our world, there are
basically two ways of life. One is the selfish way of life, and the other is
the unselfish way of life, where one thinks beyond oneself and one’s family and
lives for the greater purpose of the nation and the world. Throughout history,
whether in the East or the West, those who played important roles were
public-minded, selfless persons.
The well-being of the family has to come before that of the
individual, the nation needs to come before the family, the world before the
nation, and God before the world. This is the philosophy of the selfless way of
life. The righteous men and women and saints in history were those people who
selflessly sacrificed for God and humankind. Jesus Christ is indeed the supreme
example of such a righteous man.
It is really God, however, who is supremely selfless, supremely
public-minded. When human beings rebelled against Him, God did not take
revenge; He forgave. And God has been working tirelessly to raise sinful people
up out of sin into salvation. To do this, God sent His only Son, Jesus Christ.
Even at the cost of sacrificing His Son, God wanted to save the world. God
erected Israel as the chosen nation. The purpose of the chosen nation is also
to save the world. And God elevated Christianity for the same purpose—to save
the world.
The Bible says in John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he gave
his only Son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal
life.”
Remember, the world is God’s goal. And just as Jesus willingly gave
his life so that the world might live, God wanted all Christians to be willing
to give themselves for the salvation of the world. However, today, Christians
of the world are not even close to realizing this heart of God.
God seeks to build one family of humanity. Therefore, the family,
church and nation that God desires transcend all barriers of race and
nationality. The people who are a unified blending of all colors of skin and
who transcend race and nationality are most beautiful in the sight of God and
most pleasing to Him.
Let us look at America. It is most important that we know whether the
United States of America was conceived by God or not. Ladies and gentlemen, it
is my firm belief that the United States of America was indeed conceived by
God.
There were, however, two kinds of people among your forebears. One
kind came to this land seeking wealth. The other kind came to this land seeking
God and freedom. They dreamed of building a new nation with God at its center.
If the former had become the mainstream of America, there would have been far
greater strife, division and struggle between the different races and national
groups. The United States would have been filled with unrighteousness and
injustice. From the beginning, however, God intervened. Therefore, of all the
immigrants, the righteous people of God were to find their proper place as
leaders in America. All the different races and nationalities of the world
harmonized in this land to create God- centered families, churches and the
nation of America. Your forebears set the beautiful tradition of America.
Look at your own families. Most families have the virtue of a distinct
international character. If your lineage has been in America for some time, it
probably unites many different nationalities. In your bloodstream many kinds of
blood are blended together. Nations that used to be enemies have united in your
blood. When the individual and families that transcend racial and national
barriers gather together to create a church, a society and a nation, that
nation will become God’s ideal nation for all peoples.
There is only one nation like this in all of history—the United States
of America. It is apparent that this unique nation of America is the creation
of God. The people of America have come from every corner of the world. To be
an American does not depend upon what race you are, what belief you have or
what cultural background you are from. It is only in this nation that no matter
where you are from, you can say, “This is my country.” That is America!
America is a microcosm of the world. Transcending nationality and
race, America has created a model for the ideal world. God Himself had
purposely hidden this land of America from the rest of the world until His time
was full, and then upon this land God raised up this model nation. In His
providence, God anointed America with oil; He poured out abundant blessing upon
this land. In a short two hundred years, God raised this nation to be the
mightiest nation on earth.
But blessing always comes with responsibility. If one forsakes the
responsibility, one also forsakes God’s blessing. Inevitably the blessing of
God will leave, and the nation doing this will decline. Is it not true that the
signs of such decline are already apparent in America today? Beloved American
people, the time has come for us to repent. We must fear the wrath of God.
In reality, who are the true Americans? True Americans are those who
have a universal mind. True Americans are those who believe in the one family
of humankind, transcendent of color and nationality as willed by God. True
Americans are those who are proud of international families and churches, and a
nation consisting of all peoples. In the sight of God, there is no black, there
is no white, there is no yellow. We must look at the human race as God sees it.
America must return to the true founding spirit of the nation, to the ideals
that her ancestors sought to establish with sweat and blood. America must
return to Godism, an absolutely God-centered
ideology.
God is the motivation, the cause and the foundation of the
independence of America. America was born through the providence of God. If we
are centered upon God, we will remain united and enjoy prosperity. However, as
soon as we turn away from God, we will be divided.
Ladies and gentlemen, if America wants to keep the blessing of God as
the leading nation of the world, it must form a partnership with God. Do you
have God in your homes? Do you truly have God in your church? Do you have God
in your society and nation? God is the cement. With God, America will stay
together like concrete. But if God leaves, she will be like sand. When the
flood comes, everything will be washed away.
America’s greatness and pride stem from God. With Him, America
deserves the blessing and can remain as the mightiest nation. With God, you can
preserve your dignity and the leadership of the world. If you allow God to
leave America, however, this nation will decline; satanic hands will subjugate
it. When this happens, the future of America will be dismal, tragic. America
will become a living hell.
When God’s blessing is great, and one forsakes God’s Will, God’s
punishment is equally great. In the early 1960s, America seemed to be the hope
of the world, and the symbol of America was New York City. Today, however, the
world has lost faith in America, and New York City has become a jungle of
immorality and depravity. It has been transformed into a city under the attack
of evil. Chicago is no different, nor Los Angeles. Throughout all of America,
Satan is becoming the master. God has been forgotten in this country, and when
forgotten, God can only leave America. Now is the very moment that this is
taking place!
When the unifying force of God leaves America, nothing will be able to
hold America together. The family will break down, churches will divide and
America will become mortally ill because the cells of her body will be
decaying. This will be the perfect opportunity for the evil of communism to
overtake America. This state of emergency is here now. Someone must do
something!
There are critics who say, “Why is Rev. Moon so involved in America’s
bicentennial? It is none of his business.” Ladies and gentlemen, if there is an
illness in your home, do you not need a doctor from outside? If your home
catches fire, do you not need firefighters from outside? God has sent me to
America in the role of a doctor, in the role of a firefighter. That is why I
have come to America. Good medicine may taste bitter, and an operation may
involve some pain, but the treatment must begin at once. Would a patient
complain and push away the doctor’s hand when he touches the infected part?
For the last three years, with my entire heart and soul I have been
teaching American youth the deepest truth of God. They now have a clear concept
of what a God-centered family, church and nation is. They also know the
threatening reality America is facing. Thus, they have become determined
fighters to bring new life and salvation to America before it is too late. They
know the critical state of the nation. They know the grieving heart of God. And
they are absolutely determined to turn the tide back toward God. Their
enthusiasm is beautiful to behold.
Your dedicated sons and daughters are champions of God crusading for
the victory of God’s Will. As God’s front line, they are declaring war against
evil. They are courageously fighting this noble battle. We must overcome evil.
It is our mission to build the kingdom of God here on earth. Therefore, we must
build a model of the kingdom of God right here in America, which God loves and has
prepared the most.
Ladies and gentlemen, remember that these young people are working
tirelessly. Their hearts are filled with tears and sighs, in order to create a
world free of tears and sighs. These young people are struggling, agonizing
over their mission to create a world free of struggle and agony. Our battle is
God’s battle against Satan. For the sake of God, we will never retreat; we will
win, whatever the sacrifice may be.
It is not important whether I am persecuted or not. I am concerned
only about the Will of God and the mission God gave me. I am concerned that
your rejection of me could result in the rejection of God. I am concerned that
without knowing the situation clearly, you may be opposing God’s Will. If what
I am doing is not the Will of God, it will not succeed anyway. If, however,
what I am doing is the Will of God, then no matter how much some people reject
and persecute us and try to block the way, this mission will succeed.
Why has Reverend Moon come to America where he has encountered such
tribulation? Am I pursuing my own honor? Is money my goal, or power? No! Never!
I came to America because this is the country that God, our Heavenly Father,
has chosen. I came to America because I know the heart of God. I know that in
spite of America’s rebellion against Him, God will not
abandon this country. His Will is to make America an example of a godly nation
that the nations of the world can follow. I know God’s Will is to save the
world, and to do that, America must lead the way. This is why I came to
America. With God you can win; with Satan you will fail.
Ladies and gentlemen, during the American Revolution two hundred years
ago, your brave ancestors in the Continental Army fought in the American War of
Independence with faith in God. George Washington knelt at Valley Forge seeking
divine intervention, and he and his army were able to win over the formidable
British army. Only through divine intervention could he win the war and
America’s independence. At that moment, God laid the foundation of land for
America.
Approximately one hundred years later when, contrary to God’s Will,
slavery and segregation were rampant here in America, God raised
up Abraham Lincoln as His champion and brought about the victory of the Civil
War, liberating the slaves and affirming equality for all people. By doing so,
God laid the foundation of people for America, transcending race and
nationality. Yet this was an external test.
Today, a century later, America is undergoing another test. This time
the test is an internal or spiritual one. It is a religious, historical and
ideological test. On the other side of the world, the God-denying ideology of
communism has risen up and is undertaking an all-out offensive against the free
world. Destroying America is the communists’ ultimate goal. They know America
is God’s final bulwark on earth. More than anything else, this is a test of
whether America will stand as God’s nation, or fall.
America cannot win this battle alone. She needs God. In this test you
cannot win without God, who is the foundation of all truth and all goodness. A
confrontation is inevitable between the two worlds—the God-affirming world and
the God-denying world. This is a confrontation of worldviews. Therefore, as a champion
of God, America must win over atheistic communism in the battle of ideas on the
worldwide scale, on the foundation of the unity of races and nationalities. Our
faith in God has to be stronger than communists’ faith in communism. America
must win in the name of God. Then God will be able to establish His foundation,
a new worldview of a higher dimension.
America’s forebears fled from religious persecution in Europe and came
to the New World. In the spirit of building One Nation under God, they established
a new nation here in America, which is now at the threshold of her third
century. Similarly today, people are fleeing from the communist world of
slavery to the free world. Many were persecuted for their religious beliefs and
ideological differences. The time has come to unite them to build a new world
centered upon God. The free world must unite and liberate the enslaved
communist world. This time our task is to build One World under God.
To accomplish this, world Christianity must unite. The church needs to
liberate herself from sectarianism. She has to undergo
drastic reform and achieve ecumenical and interreligious unity. For this we
need a spiritual revolution. We need a new teaching, and this should
incorporate Eastern philosophy, uniting the cultures of the East and the West.
This new teaching will also be capable of unifying all the existing
religions and philosophies of the world. Therefore, it has to come in the form
of a new religious or spiritual movement. The Unification Church movement has
been created by God to fulfill that mission. This spiritual movement must
succeed first here in America in order to spread throughout the world. The new
teaching that the Unification Church brings is Godism,
an absolutely God-centered worldview. It has the power to awaken America, and
it has the power to raise the model of the ideal nation of God upon this land.
With that done, the rest of the world will follow America’s example
and will build the kingdom of God upon their respective lands. Then we shall all
truly become brothers and sisters under one Father, God. This will be a world
of love, a world of happiness. Our planet will be one home, and humankind will
be one family. God’s Will, His long-cherished desire from the beginning of
time, will finally be fulfilled. This will be the eternal, ideal world of God.
Indeed, it will be the kingdom of God on earth. We will build it with our
hands.
This is our supreme mission. It is truly our God-given, sacred
mission. God is crying out to the world, and we are His instruments. The world
must respond to His call. Listen to God’s commandment. Initiate a courageous
march toward the kingdom of God on earth. Whatever the difficulty, let it not
stop us. Our march is God’s, and it will go on to the end.
My beloved citizens of America, today let us pledge to God Almighty
our loyalty and dedication to the fulfillment of this divine mission. Ladies
and gentlemen, in the name of God, let us unite and together build the kingdom
of God on earth!
Let us together offer our collective thanks to God. In the name of the
people of the world, may I congratulate you on the two-hundredth birthday of
the great nation of America. May God bless you, and
may God bless America and her third century.
Thank you very much.
4
September 18,
1976
Washington
Monument on the National Mall, Washington, DC, USA
God Bless America Festival to mark the US bicentennial
Honorable citizens of the United States and world delegates:
I would like to express my heartfelt thanks and appreciation to all of
you for “Meeting us at the Monument.” Tonight we are celebrating America’s
bicentennial in the name of God. For you and me, this is a historic moment.
This evening I would like to speak on the subject, “America and God’s
Will.”
God is eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute. If those are the
qualities of God, His purpose of creation must also be eternal, unchanging and
absolute. In the beginning, God’s ideal was to create one world of unity and
harmony.
Today, however, our world has no unity or harmony. Instead there is
much division, disharmony, confusion and chaos. Individually, our minds are
separated from our bodies, and our families, races, nations and world are torn
apart. This reality is in total contradiction to God’s original intention.
Clearly something is fundamentally wrong.
Religion has an explanation. It says that this worldwide division is
the result of our first ancestors’ rebellion against God, the Fall of Adam and
Eve.
In order to save fallen humanity, God sent the Messiah. His purpose
was to restore people to their original state before the Fall.
Therefore, salvation is the same as restoration.
The human Fall brought about this fallen
world. Disobeying God’s Word, Adam and Eve rebelled against Him. This put them in
the position to be overpowered by Satan’s lies. And so, finally Adam and Eve
united with Satan, receiving Satan’s personality and love instead of God’s
personality and love.
To be restored as an original person, we must reverse the process of
the Fall. This time we must separate ourselves from
Satan, reach out to God whom we have lost, and obey His Word. In this way we
can receive God’s personality and His love.
God is supremely selfless and supremely public-minded. Satan, however,
is absolutely self-centered and only out for himself.
God’s formula to restore us is for us to become God-like. This means
that we must become completely selfless and public-minded. Each of us has to
become a person who is able to sacrifice for the sake of others.
Such a selfless and public-minded person will prosper through becoming
the image of God. The selfish, self-centered person will decline because such
behavior is contrary to God. This is God’s rule.
Central nations were unable to realize God’s Will
Human history has been a history of struggle, a history of war. It has
been almost like a tug-of-war between God and Satan, with humanity as the
prize. Good and evil have been struggling to win people to their respective
sides.
Because human history started with the Fall,
evil got a head start. Therefore, in history the evil side has always taken the
aggressive and offensive position. Good has been passive and defensive. Yet God
is on the side of good. In the end, the good side always wins the victory. The
good side is always the underdog, yet it comes out victorious and expands.
For example, during World War I and World War II, the evil sides
attacked first, yet they were the ones to be defeated. Today, there is much
talk about World War III. This time evil, represented by the communist nations,
is challenging the free world, provoking conflicts and war everywhere. But
again based on God’s formula, the ultimate victory will surely be on the side
of God.
There is another formula in God’s work of restoration. Before God
sends the Messiah to restore people, He always prepares a central religion and
a chosen nation as the foundation to receive the Messiah.
According to this formula, God established Judaism as the first
central religion, and Israel as the first chosen nation. Upon this base, God
sent Jesus Christ as the Messiah. God’s hope was that the chosen nation and
religion would become one with Jesus and establish the kingdom of God on earth
and restore the world to God.
For this purpose, God prepared Judaism and Israel for nearly four
thousand biblical years. If they had recognized Jesus Christ as the Messiah and
worked with him in a spirit of sacrifice, he would not only have been
successful in Israel, but also would have gone on to unite all the Arab nations
and Asia, linking the East and West. By unifying the world under the
sovereignty of God, he would have established the kingdom of God on earth at
that time.
Israel and Judaism, however, did not fulfill their responsibility.
Jesus was not accepted as the Messiah, and finally was crucified on the cross.
Thus, God’s kingdom remained a promise, not a reality. However, Jesus opened
the way to spiritual salvation and started Christianity, which is spiritually
in the position of the Second Israel.
The early Christians witnessed and taught in Rome, only to encounter
terrible persecution. For four hundred years the blood of martyrs was spilled.
Their sacrifice atoned for the loss of four thousand years of God’s preparation
for the Messiah. The Christians finally triumphed in Rome and Christianity
became the state religion. Thus, Rome came to occupy the position of the Second
Israel physically and received the blessing of God.
At that time God expected the papacy and empire to completely unite
and unselfishly build the unified world left unaccomplished at the time of
Jesus. However, the papacy also did not realize the significance of its mission
and often used its power for its own glory. There was abuse and corruption
within the church and it departed from the Will and expectation of God. The
dignity of the papacy fell.
In reaction, a thousand years later, humanism arose, and Protestantism
called for reformation of the Catholic Church. Instead of heeding the call, the
papacy and Catholic princes unleashed persecution against the reformers.
During that period, it was no coincidence that Henry VIII, king of
England, also revolted against Roman Catholicism. He enacted new laws through
Parliament and founded the Church of England. This was actually a golden
opportunity for Great Britain to join the Protestant movement of Europe and
bring about a new hope for the advancement of God’s Will.
At that time, the British Empire began its path to become the greatest
power in the world, inspiring the famous saying, “The sun never sets on the
British Empire.” This extraordinary blessing was not for England but for the
advancement of God’s kingdom. If Britain had understood God’s Will, it would
have supported the Puritans and other reforming movements and tackled the
God-given task of world restoration. Through accomplishing that, Britain could
actually have built a United Kingdom of God, transcending all national
barriers.
However, Britain persecuted the Puritans and was apathetic toward the
reforming spirit. The persecuted people had to look for a land of hope. They
were united by a common destiny. Transcending race and national barriers and
fleeing persecution, they came to the New World, the American continent. Here
they established an independent Protestant nation. This is the providential
background behind the birth of America.
Today, America and Christianity together must take up the sacred task
of world restoration. America must unite the cultures of the West and the East,
as well as the Middle East, and create one great, unified culture, ultimately
fulfilling the mission of establishing the kingdom of God on earth.
America should shoulder its providential responsibility Judaism was
God’s first central religion, and Christianity was the second. The Unification
Church is the third, coming with a new expression of truth that will fulfill
the final chapter of God’s providence. These central religions must unite in
America and reach out to unite the religions of the world.
Judaism, centered on the Old Testament, was the first work of God and
is in an eldest brother’s position. Christianity, centered on the New
Testament, is in the position of the second brother. The Unification Church,
through which God has given a new expression of truth, the Completed Testament,
is in the position of the youngest brother.
These three religions are indeed three brothers in the providence of
God. Then Israel, the United States and Korea, the nations where these three
religions are based, must also be brothers. Because these three nations have a
common destiny representing God’s side, the communist bloc as Satan’s
representative is trying to isolate and destroy them at the United Nations.
Therefore, these three brother nations must join hands in a unified
effort to restore the United Nations to its original purpose and function. They
must contribute internally to the unification of the world’s religions and
externally to the unification of the world itself.
One World under God is the unchanging, eternal and absolute desire of
God. This goal will be realized. Yet, in order to accomplish this goal, the
unity of religions is the foremost task. When all people worship one God as
their Father, accept one Messiah and uphold Godism,
an absolutely God-centered way of life, then the dwelling of God will be with
humanity. It will be only a matter of time to see the kingdom of God here on
earth.
The United States of America, transcending race and nationality, is
already a model of the unified world. The people of the United States must
realize that the abundant blessings God has been pouring upon this land are not
just for America but for all human beings throughout the world. Upon the
foundation of world Christianity, America must exercise its responsibility as a
world leader and the chosen nation of God.
Israel did not meet the expectation of God, nor did Rome, nor did
Great Britain. Now what about America?
To inspire America to avoid the same mistakes, to inspire America to
sacrifice herself for the sake of the world, to inspire America to work toward
One World under God, God summoned me to this country to proclaim God’s new
revelation. And in particular, God called me to lead the young people of
America, the leaders of tomorrow, back to God.
Today, America is plagued with problems: racism, juvenile delinquency
and immorality. Christianity is declining. Communism is rising. The menace of
communism is everywhere. Of all these problems, atheistic communism is the
worst. It is not just America’s problem; it is the problem of religious people
and the problem of God Himself.
Ladies and gentlemen, at this crossroads of human history, we must
listen to the call of God. God prepared America for two hundred years. This is
the time for awakening. America must accept its global responsibility. Armed
with Godism, America has to free the communist world,
and at last build the kingdom of God here on earth. God has chosen America as
the flag bearer. America must rise up today. Tomorrow may be too late.
I not only respect America but I also truly love this nation. I
respect and love the United States as a great nation, as a godly nation and as
the central nation in God’s providence. America is now at the threshold of its
third century. America must not disappoint God. Today let us pledge to God
Almighty
that we shall do His Will. We shall never let Him down. Never!
Today in this holy place, let us together lay the cornerstone of the
kingdom of God on earth. Let us all join together as the coworkers of God. Let
us be the pioneers of His kingdom.
My dear brothers and sisters who long for unity; this is the place of
commitment, the moment of decision. If you are willing to give your sweat, your
blood and your very lives to the call of God, then in this sacred moment before
heaven and earth and before all the people of the world, let us shout it out.
We know we can build the kingdom of God here on earth, in His power and with
our own hands.
May God bless you and your homes, and forevermore may God bless
America.
Thank you very much.
5
October 22, 1981
Foley Square
Plaza, New York, USA
Address outside the US District Court to clergy of diverse faiths and
Unification Church members, following Rev. Moon’s return from
Korea for arraignment under federal charges of tax evasion
My dear friends, I am deeply moved and touched by your support. As
soon as I heard the news in Seoul, Korea, I flew back to New York, halfway
around the world, to face this historic trial. I must tell you that I am
innocent. I have nothing to hide. My life is an open book.
I am not afraid of the trial; on the contrary, I welcome it. I know
that through this judicial process, justice will be done and the truth will
prevail. I shall vindicate not only myself but also the millions of people who
are suffering because of this unfair government persecution.
I have respect for and confidence in the United States judicial
system. I have confidence in the judge and jury who will work on this case. America
is still the best country in the world for justice to be done. I look forward
to encountering my adversaries, my accusers, face to face. My conscience is
clear. God is my vindicator. And if God finds my adversaries to be guilty
instead of me, I will forgive them.
I also have full confidence and respect for the American system of a
free press. I trust that the nation’s fourth estate will convey the unbiased
truth to the world. The American media will not be fooled but will see this
case as baseless.
I have given everything to America
As I have often said, I love America as I love my own country. Many
years ago, on a Korean mountainside I began to beg God to allow this nation to
fulfill her providential destiny. Years ago, when I came to America for the
first time, I stood on the majestic Fifth Avenue in New York City and literally
burst into tears. I reflected on the first weary handful of Pilgrims who stood
on the shore of the Atlantic and dedicated this land to God. I wept when I saw
what had become of their dream. On that very day, I resolved to strive to bring
America back to God. God Almighty is my judge that for ten years I have given
my heart and soul, my blood and sweat, for this great nation.
The Unification Church called upon our people around the world to
contribute millions and millions of dollars to this end. In 1972 we began a
costly evangelical campaign from state to state, culminating in the Washington
Monument Rally of three hundred thousand people on September 18, 1976. In the
case of the Unification Church, America has been a recipient, not a donor. In
spite of severe financial hardships, our worldwide membership persevered to
support that crusade in America. They did so only because they love this
country and view America as a chosen nation with a providential destiny.
Today I stand before you, accused by this nation. I gave my all to
America. I took nothing away from this country. I misused not one penny,
following the tradition of Jesus, who taught the way of first thinking of
others. If that is a crime, I welcome a verdict of guilty. This is the same
burden Jesus Christ had to bear. He loved the people of Israel, he loved the
people of the world, he loved God with all his heart, and for this he was
condemned and nailed to the cross. If loving America and serving people with
all my heart is a crime, then I too will be raised on a cross.
Standing up to injustice and bigotry
I came back to America today not just for my own vindication. I came
back as a representative of all those who have suffered government injustice,
racial prejudice and religious bigotry. These are the real enemies of America.
Today I declare a war against these enemies. I will fight till my last breath
for religious liberty and the rights of minorities and the oppressed. We must
win together, so that our children can live in a land of true freedom and true
equality, what Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. called the Promised Land.
I would not be standing here today if my skin were white and my
religion Presbyterian. I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my
religion is the Unification Church. Religious bigotry and racism are the most
abhorrent things in this beautiful country of America. God is colorblind.
White, black and yellow are beautiful brothers. All religions of the world
today reflect only different faces of the same God, our Father.
Do you know that we, the Unification Church, are the only church in
America that has been forced to pay taxes on church property? We are paying
eight million dollars a year in New York State alone. This unjust burden breaks
our church’s back. On the other hand, other churches pay not a penny. Why are
we singled out? It is simply because our name is the Unification Church and the
founder happens to be Korean.
President Reagan said in a campaign speech, “When the basic rights of
any group are threatened, it is not only one religious group that suffers, it
is the entire nation.”
My dear brothers and my dear friends, today we prepare to meet any
challenge. Let us make this day a day of unity, a day of new commitment. In
this fight we are not alone. God Almighty is with us, and millions and millions
of people around the world are with us. The Unification Church is an oppressed
minority in America, but with God on our side we are a majority. This is a new
day for minorities. We are beginning a new fight. Today I am not sad or unhappy
or even tired. Today I am creating a new minority alliance for civil rights.
Our zeal moves the heart of God. Let my determination and conviction to win this
struggle become a beacon to the whole world. I thank Almighty God that He gave
me the opportunity to fight this great battle and champion this cause.
6
Challenges
and Possibilities for
World Peace
June 1, 1987
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
First Summit Council for World Peace
Honorable chairman, former presidents, former prime ministers, members
of royalty and nobility, distinguished participants, ladies and gentlemen:
It is a great source of inspiration for me to address this gathering
of world leaders joined together in the quest for peace.
It is certainly the case that throughout history, men and women have
longed for peace. They have adopted a variety of strategies in their attempts
to secure it. In some cases, people have tried to achieve peace through conquests.
In others, they have tried to achieve it through surrender.
In this century we have seen two noble efforts made to resolve
international differences without resorting to war: the League of Nations and the
United Nations. In spite of all these efforts, however, humankind has not
achieved peace, and history has continued to be a history of conflict, often
erupting in devastating violence. Why has it been impossible until today to
achieve peace?
The reason is that the internal struggle that goes on within each
individual has not yet been resolved. World conflict is nothing other than the
manifestation of the inner conflict of individuals. Contradictions exist
between human ideals and human practice, and the focal point of these
contradictions is the struggle within each individual between the spirit and
the body. The human spirit aspires to lofty ideals. It is the human spirit that
reaches up to God. The body is the instrument with which we can practice our ideals,
but this requires effort, discipline and self- sacrifice.
We find in human life a tension between the pursuits of the spirit and
those of the body. The spirit seeks within the realm of faith, while the body
seeks within the world of reason.
Because of this, in human history, two parallel currents have
developed. One of these, being more rational and external, has placed emphasis
upon the physical body, on physical satisfaction, physical beauty and natural
science based on empirical evidence. The other major current in human
development, known as the religious tradition, has emphasized values that are
transcendent of the human body: spiritual laws, values and revelations from
God, which cannot be verified by the natural sciences. These currents in human
life are the basis of the two dominant ideologies that are in conflict in our
world today.
The democratic world, or the free world, has developed out of the
religious tradition. The modern concept of democracy is set forth in the words
of the Bible itself: “So God created humankind in his image, in the image of
God he created them; male and female he created them.” (Gen. 1:27) That is, the
democratic world places value upon the individual person because each one is a
child of God. The greatest care must be taken to assure each individual’s
liberty and freedom of choice, for without liberty, a person’s actions have no
value.
Communism, on the other hand, is an outgrowth of the more external and
secular current of human history. Following the Enlightenment and the French
Revolution, Karl Marx advocated the use of violence and social engineering to
establish by force an orderly human society from which belief in God would be
excluded. Marxist social engineering is based on a God-denying view of
humankind. But what has been the result? Although today there are many
individuals who defend this or that insight of Marx, the fact remains that
after seventy years of the attempted practice of Marxism in the Soviet Union
and elsewhere, the result is a tragic social failure. It is estimated that 150
million people have been killed in order to consolidate communist power, and
the world of justice and prosperity which Marx promised is nowhere in sight.
Today these two ideologies and the nations that have adopted them are squared
off in a global confrontation that threatens our world with destruction greater
than we can imagine.
In this context, I would like to sincerely offer three steps as a
solution in the quest for peace. These steps begin at the very foundation; they
are fundamental. They may also appear to be idealistic, but any house standing
on a false foundation cannot be restored unless we go down and rebuild the
foundation.
My peace plan starts from the level of the individual. First we must
find peace with God, then peace with our fellow human beings, then finally we can secure world peace.
I have devoted my entire life to the search for the truth. To find the
truth about the origin of the universe and the existence of God, I have
suffered greatly. Through arduous personal searching, I came to know the very
essence of God. I even experienced many unique encounters with Him. I came to
realize that no one can achieve peace on earth without first making peace with
God.
God, the First Cause of this universe, has created the world in all
its magnificence. At the same time, He is our loving Father. Furthermore, He
has carried out this work of creation in order to fulfill a specific purpose.
That purpose is the fulfillment of love. God is the source of true love, but
even Almighty God cannot enjoy love by Himself. He needs to have an object
partner to whom to give his love and who is capable of returning love to Him.
That object partner would be the pinnacle and culmination of His creation. That
object partner is men and women. Because of this, human life also has a
purpose. The purpose of human life is to reach maturity and live in the
fullness of the relationship of true love with God for all eternity. This is
the foundation for peace with God.
Once we establish peace with God, then we are ready to make peace with
our fellow human beings. What is the fundamental relationship that brings peace
with others? Again, it is the relationship of love.
Judaism, Christianity, Islam and the other great religions of the
world teach that we are one family under God. This means that we are all
brothers and sisters. We must understand that every person is made in the image
of God; therefore, we are all children of God. The best way to honor and
glorify God is by loving His children. This understanding is the foundation
upon which we can establish a relationship of true love with others.
Achieving world peace is our long-cherished human dream. Yet the
fundamentals of how to achieve it are essentially the same as those for
achieving individual peace.
The conflict between the two worlds is real. But it is not simply a
conflict between the free world and the communist world. More fundamentally, it
is the conflict between two opposing value systems. One is God-affirming and
the other is God-denying. The rise of communism is, in a way, a manifestation
of the failure of human beings to live by God’s original moral code. In one
sense communism is an ideology of accusation. It accuses the God-affirming
people of the world of having failed to fulfill their ideals. Because many of
its accusations cannot be denied, communism has power. When the ideals of the
God-affirming world are realized in practice, however, communism can be
overcome. Therefore, the world problem is fundamentally a spiritual problem. The
solution must begin with an affirmation of the reality of God.
What our world needs today to save itself is a spectacular spiritual
awakening. The world must be awakened to the reality of God and rearmed with a
worldview based on God-affirming principles. This worldview is capable of
eliminating the confusion in our value system. Of course, this spiritual
reality will manifest itself in political and economic strength and military
resolve, but the internal dynamic must be the spiritual foundation of faith in
God and true love among human beings.
Based upon such an awakening to higher values, the nature of
relationships between nations must be transformed. Until now, the driving force
behind economic development has often been the desire for profit. In this way,
a great amount of human potential has been unleashed, and remarkable world
development has occurred. The time has come, however, for the developed nations
to move beyond the profit motive. The principle of unselfish love must be
applied on the level of international relationships. The developed nations of
the world need to feel God blessed them for the purpose of helping others. They
must be willing to sacrifice for the developing nations of the world. They must
give of themselves to free other human beings from misery. If the prosperous
nations adopt this attitude, do you think they will be diminished? Do you think
they will experience disastrous decline? Not at all.
The opposite is true. If these nations do not think in loftier terms than the
desire for profit, their prosperity will slip away in spite of their
efforts to retain it.
How can anyone be at peace with him or herself when one’s fellowman is
dying from lack of food, ravaged by disease or victimized by the darkness of
ignorance? United together, the developed nations can launch a tremendous
crusade to overcome the three scourges of humanity: hunger, disease and
ignorance.
Finally, on the basis of unselfish relations among all countries, a
world community of nations under God can be substantially established. Today,
in the latter part of the twentieth century, we cannot help but realize that
our world is shrinking every day. No nation is an island. No one can prosper
without interaction with others. The world is fast becoming one global village.
The survival and prosperity of all are dependent on a spirit of cooperation.
The human race must recognize itself as one family of humanity.
Therefore, a world community of nations must be established to
increase mutual understanding and respect. Cooperatively, we can protect our
environment as we develop it, raise the cultural level of all people and secure
freedom, justice and dignity for everyone. What can be the basis of such
cooperation? The world community of nations must respect a common value system
and certain unchanging and eternal principles that can have their source only
in God.
We have a common dream. It is the long-cherished human dream of an
ideal world. The prophets have called it the kingdom of God on earth. It is a
lofty goal, but it is attainable. It must be, simply because it is the original
ideal of the Creator. This is the meaning of securing world peace.
At this time, when we look at the world, the outlook may appear to be
gloomy. Yet, I do not dwell on that despair. In the Bible, we find the
expression of God’s determination to restore His original ideal in this world:
“I have spoken and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it.”
(Isaiah 46:11) I am a firm believer that the ultimate peace of the world shall
come about.
This Summit Council for World Peace is one of the highest-level forums
ever assembled for the discussion of world peace. I feel that it is inspired by
God. We have embarked together on a sacred and challenging mission for the
peace of the world. What we accomplish will be our legacy to our children and
to all humankind. You have traveled the long distance to Korea, a far corner of
the world, to launch this peace initiative. I have confidence in your
experience and wisdom and the combined expertise of your statesmanship. As we
take up this task, our hope is that the twenty-first century will be a new era
of peace. May God’s glory and blessing be with you as you begin the Summit
Council for World Peace.8
Thank you.
7
Let
Us Become Leading Figures
in the Asia-Pacific Era
October 12, 1989
Shilla Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Announcement of
the Panda Automotive Industrial
City in Huizhou, Guangdong, China
Dear honored guests and dignitaries from around the world:
Please accept my deepest gratitude for coming despite your busy
schedules. Before we start the session about our project to build a large-scale
industrial city in China, I would like to speak to you about my work.
Korea in a period of great transition
As you all know, the Cold War between the United States and the Soviet
Union can no longer continue. Phenomena such as glasnost in the Soviet Union,
the struggle for democracy in China and reforms in Hungary, Poland and other
Eastern European nations constitute a revolution. These events show that the
communist system has reached its limits and that the East-West ideological
confrontation is ending.
The economic unification of Western Europe that will take place in
1992 is a further example of the changes that are necessary. How can Korea deal
with these changes? What direction does it need to take?
Because of its crucial strategic position, Korea has suffered
throughout history as an object of empire building by powerful nations. The
division into North and South has brought Korea to experience the global
ideological confrontation within its own borders. The interests of four major
powers—the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and
China—intersect on the Korean Peninsula. Such relationships and global problems
historically have always directly or indirectly crossed paths on this
peninsula, and so Korea is a microcosm of the world’s problems. Therefore,
there is an inseparable relationship between the solution to the world’s
problems and the solution to Korea’s problems. Still, the current movement
toward openness and harmony in the world does not solve the problems of the
Korean people automatically. I believe that the transformation of the divided
Korea into a unified homeland, once it takes place, will have a direct bearing
on the realization of world peace.
Special devotions for God’s ideal of peace
Dear honored guests, from an early age I was called by Heaven, and in
order to realize God’s Will on earth I offered my life. Knowing well that the
Korean people are central to the providence of God, I interpreted differently
from others the meaning of the sufferings of this people throughout history. I
am certain that transforming a divided Korea into the united homeland directly
relates to the realization of world peace.
With the sun setting on the communist system and ideology, can we say
that the free world is in a position to offer a philosophical alternative? How
will we resolve the contradictions of Western countries that adhere to freedom
and democracy? I have personally experienced the terrible fate of a divided
people through the aftermath of the Korean War. I pledged before Heaven to
devote my life to establish a philosophy that would lay the groundwork for
North-South unification, and I pledged to prepare a worldwide foundation for
it. For forty years I have worked to fulfill these pledges.
Can it be easy for us to mobilize the support of the nations around
the Korean Peninsula—the United States, Japan, the Soviet Union and China— for
reunification on the foundation of a strong philosophy of freedom and
democracy, and thereby achieve peace on the peninsula? Would it not be
fortunate if we could come up with a plan that would help Russia and China
reconsider what has been their one-sided support for North Korea?
This presentation to announce the establishment of Panda Automotive is
not a simple gathering about a company going into China. The project is not
motivated by seeking a profit based upon an investment of capital. For thirty
years I have offered special prayers and devotions (jeongseong),
for the sake of China and the continent of Asia, placing God’s ideal of peace
at the center. The process begins by opening doors through positive
relationships. While helping China modernize through technical assistance, we
have to create good-neighborly relationships.
The International Peace Highway and Korea-Japan Tunnel
In 1981, during the tenth International Conference on the Unity of the
Sciences, I revealed a plan for an international highway. I have made this plan
known to leaders of 120 countries. It includes a tunnel designed to run from
Japan to Korea, and will connect Seoul, Pyongyang and Beijing. Another branch
is to be routed through Moscow and Western Europe, all the way to London.
Another will connect to the Middle East and Africa.
In Japan, fifteen hundred members of the academic and business
communities organized a tunnel research association in 1982. They are
conducting political, economic, technological and geographical research and
have already carried out exploratory excavations. The Chinese government is
showing great interest and is in the planning stage of a one-thousand-
kilometer stretch of highway between Dandong, on its border with North Korea,
and Beijing.
Even in this period, when exchange with China has been very difficult,
the Unification movement has sent numerous people to the People’s Republic to
help with modernization. I established the Yanbian
Scientific Technical College in northeast China, and we are sending it
scientific equipment worth $500,000 every year. I am helping organize the
exchange of visiting professors and also programs for Chinese students to study
abroad.
The International Relief Friendship Foundation, which I founded, is
sponsoring relief projects and sending American coaches to help the development
of Chinese athletes. Also, we are giving Chinese scholars the opportunity to
research Unification Thought, thereby supporting their efforts to address
difficulties using new ideological perspectives.
Dear respected and honored guests! China is intransigent in its
commitment to communism. When the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre happened,
the free world withdrew most of its investment from China. In that situation, I
pushed ahead with plans to develop the Chinese automobile industry, and advised
the person responsible not to waver at all but to push forward even more
actively. On June 27, at the site in Huizhou, Guangdong Province, we had a
major groundbreaking ceremony.
By offering a meaningful benefit to the Chinese leadership, which had
found itself in a difficult position, I established a relationship of heart
that served as a foundation to discuss the bigger issues. This all was to
support the larger objective of cooperation in the Pacific Rim era.
I have long advocated the equal distribution of technology. Technology
is a blessing from God meant to benefit all human beings. It is a great evil
when advanced countries monopolize technological power and thereby put less
developed countries at a disadvantage. It sows seeds
of division and disharmony that undermine world peace. This is the reason I
have, for decades, invested considerable resources toward the accumulation of
technology. It has been to help the world.
For example, I acquired four large German companies that are
unsurpassed globally, and have been developing them. These companies
manufacture machine parts and tools, including those applicable to the
production of automobile assembly lines.
In addition, I am continuing to support a state-of-the art electronics
company in Japan to advance digital communications and creativity. Beyond
Germany and Japan, in other developed countries I am expanding this foundation
of technology for peace. Had I no such background providing such capability, I
would not have been able to work hand in hand with China today.
My investment to build the industrial park for automobiles is more
than a simple business venture. It is to educate the highest level of leaders
in Beijing and to make a strong partnership with them as we enter a Pacific Rim
era in Asia. This is ultimately to have a positive impact upon Kim II Sung in
North Korea.
I have never thought of this project in China as having any purpose
other than our security and saving the nation. In 1976, after a massive
festival in Washington, DC, I proclaimed that I would hold a rally in Moscow.
With world-class scholars, religious figures, journalists and artists, I am now
laying the foundation for this.
The Soviet Union should come forward to persuade Kim II Sung
At my invitation, one of the top editors of the Novosti
News Agency, together with five other leading Soviet journalists, are currently
in Korea to see this country’s development firsthand. To assess the status of
their communist economies, I asked them to go to Japan and pass through China
and North Korea, where they did not want to go. I asked them to do this so they
could provide the North Korean leaders with a fresh impression of South Korea
and, in that way, prevent a miscalculation by the northern regime.
A film production team making a one-hour documentary on Korea
accompanied this group. When they go back to the Soviet Union it will be shown
to the whole nation.
This coming November 26, on my invitation, the chairman of the
National Broadcasting Company of the Soviet Union, the chairman of Novosti News Agency, and four others representing the
Soviet media will visit America. At the beginning of this month, the director
of the world-famous Kirov Ballet visited Seoul and promised to assume
concurrently the directorship of the Universal Ballet Academy, which I founded
in Washington, DC, and to support God’s Will within the Soviet Union.
From October 27 this year, there will be a seminar in Moscow sponsored
jointly by the Russian Orthodox Church and the International Religious
Foundation on church unity. Twenty religious scholars will attend the
conference.
As a centerpiece, we are planning a World Media Association conference
in Moscow in support of reforming and opening the Soviet Union.
Our creation of the Huizhou Industrial City in China at this point in
time will yield benefits far into the future. It is just the first of four
regions to develop general industrial cities in preparation for the Pacific Rim
era. The other three regions are China’s Dalian-Andong
(Dandong) region, the region connecting the Soviet Union’s Khabarovsk and
China’s Harbin region, and the Vladivostok region of the Soviet Union.
We plan that North Korea will benefit from Sinuiju and the Dalian-Andong region, and that the Vladivostok region will benefit
both the Woongi area of North Korea and the Yanbian area of China.
Through this series of activities and enterprises, Chinese and Soviet
leadership will improve their understanding of our country and naturally
influence North Korea directly and indirectly. By doing this they can realize
the ideal of freedom and democratic unity for which we are hoping.
A leading role in the Asia-Pacific era
Honored guests, in ten years we will enter a new century. We have to
put the twentieth century, marred by division and confrontation, behind us and
enter an era of harmony and understanding in which high morals and values are
respected. The era of Russian and American domination is ending and the age of
Asia is dawning.
The Asia-Pacific era is beginning. As I have suggested, while it is of
utmost importance to create these four industrial regions in preparation for
this era, I am not interested in business or in something that one nation or
one organization can accomplish. This enterprise requires the stimulus of a
world-level foundation together with the unique contributions of multinational
corporations. I repeat my assertion that I am the only person who can bring the
powers of this world into oneness through a religious philosophy that views
world peace as the realization of love.
Even at the sacrifice of blood, sweat and tears, I will push ahead. I
hope that leaders in every field will participate and support this on a
national level. I want to see Korea maintain a leadership position and go
forward in the context of this plan, for it does not subsist on the level of
one group or one religion. It will result in the reunification of North and
South Korea and world peace. Through it I hope that you will help Korea lead
the Pacific Rim era.
Considering the important role of the Korean Peninsula and Asia as a
whole in the establishment of world peace, no world leader can casually ignore
this area anymore. They have to participate in the development of this area.
With a consciousness of history, I have advanced these plans for the Pacific
Rim era.
Through the foundations laid in America, China and Russia, I am
preparing an East Asia summit conference. A summit meeting of these four
nations of the East and West at the Hannam-dong
official residence in Seoul will establish the mood of peace in the world.
Through that foundation and its afterglow, we will see Kim II Sung take steps
on the path toward true peace.
The new era’s guiding philosophy: Godism
Dear honored guests from around the world, humanity faces the task of
resolving philosophical differences. On the basis of restored morality and
international cooperation, we have to realize the ideal of a global family of
love.
A new philosophy to lead the new age has to appear in Asia, which has
spawned, after all, great spiritual cultures of the world throughout its long
history. The teaching called Godism, which I am
advocating and teaching throughout the world, is exactly this new philosophy.
The approaching Asia-Pacific era will be a world in which all people’s
lives are integrated with each other, beyond culture and race. In this world,
heavenly fortune will take us into an era of harmony. We will no longer view
others as enemies, even if only for the sake of sustaining our own existence.
By living based on a proper value system, and having a firm
philosophical foundation with God at the center, the Korean people have to
become the leaders of the new age. We need to move beyond narrow interests and,
with a realistic understanding of international relations, and by showing the
power of a people’s unity, take the leading role in the Asia-Pacific era.
I once again thank the dignitaries from home and abroad who have come
today. I conclude my remarks with my best wishes for God’s blessings upon your
families and everything you do.
Thank you.
8
August 28, 1991
The Little
Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Inauguration of the Federation for World Peace
Respected present and former heads of state, international leaders from
all walks of life, esteemed scholars and leaders of religion:
Today, upon the founding of the Federation for World Peace, I am very
honored and pleased by the presence of such distinguished leaders of the world.
Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for coming and for making this ceremony
most memorable.
From the beginning of human history until the present time there has
never been a period when people did not long for lasting peace, nor has there
ever been a person who did not wish deeply in his heart for true peace during
his lifetime. Yet, contrary to the desires of all people and in spite of our
great achievements, humanity has yet to secure world peace. Quite the contrary
has been the case. At no time has human life been free of war and bloodshed. Why
is this so?
In contemporary history humankind has experienced two world wars. In
1914, with the assassination of an Austrian archduke at Sarajevo in Bosnia, the
First World War was ignited. Eventually this war engulfed the whole of Europe and
beyond. Sixteen nations were involved. In the end at least thirty million men
and women were either dead or wounded. It was Europe’s worst cataclysm.
Hopes for the League of Nations and the UN unfulfilled
The inhumanity and severity of this war caused world leaders to
acutely realize the need to strive for world peace at all costs, to end all
wars. On the wave of this genuine desire for peace and longing for the
improvement of human welfare President Woodrow Wilson of the United States spearheaded the founding of the League of Nations.
Although the League handled over forty political disputes with varying degrees
of success, its inability to resolve major crises between the powers eventually
led to its failure. Sadly, President Wilson could not even bring the United
States to participate in the League, and his noble dream for peace failed. The
world’s ardent desire to put an end to war remained
unfulfilled.
Less than twenty years after the ending of World War 1 humankind faced
another cataclysmic war. At that time, World War II engulfed not only the
Atlantic region but the Pacific region as well. Many more millions of human
beings were the victims of war, suffering injury, displacement and death. Only
after the atomic bomb was used against Japan did this most tragic world war
come to an end. Once more world leaders were alarmed and anguished. They sought
to find a means to prevent the world from again becoming a living hell through
war. The fruit of their efforts was the United Nations, whose charter was
drafted on April 25, 1945, in San Francisco. The history of the United Nations
has thus spanned forty- six years until today.
Yet, has the United Nations been able to alleviate the tragedy of war?
Is humanity living in peace? Unfortunately the answer to these questions is no.
Even after the founding of the United Nations, wars have continued to break
out. There have been more than sixty wars and skirmishes since the end of World
War II, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. The
tragic cycle of human destruction continues as before.
Why is peace so difficult to achieve? Today we are gathered together
for the inauguration of the Federation for World Peace. Before we proceed,
however, bearing in mind the previous record of humankind, we must think deeply
and analyze accurately as to why peace is so difficult to achieve. Without
knowing the causes of war, without a deep analysis of the past, we may very
well repeat past history, and fail to achieve the noble goals and ambitions of
this federation.
Ladies and gentlemen, up until this time people have longed and
anguished for peace without having a true philosophy of peace. Without this
philosophy of peace, there can be no true methodology for achieving peace. Dear
honored guests, the fundamental reason that peace has constantly eluded
humankind is rather simple yet profound. Human beings have lost their
relationship with God. Because of that, they have lost the ability to attain
true peace. Since that time, men and women have repeatedly tried to restore
peace, but have met with failure after failure because they have been trying
without God. This is the fundamental error humankind has been committing. This
is the real reason why we have not yet achieved peace.
God is the source of true love and true peace. Yet in the world, which
God created, the inhabitants are pitted against each other in war and mutual
killing. This is completely paradoxical. God created man and woman in His own
image. Furthermore, God created us as holy temples in which He, God Himself,
wants to dwell.
Suppose each individual were a perfected temple of God and that each
individual were living every minute of every day with the Spirit of God
dwelling within him or herself. In this situation could one person war against
another? In the original world of God’s creation people struggling against each
other would be something like your right hand fighting against your left hand,
or even more, your hand pulling out your own eyes. In other words, in the ideal
world of creation it would be impossible to have war. In this world, people
would be capable only of loving each other and harmonizing together. The only
challenge would be in competing in ways to glorify our Creator better and
further.
In such a world there would be no conflict, no misunderstanding. There
would only be harmony, cooperation and mutual assistance. There would be unity
among people in the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. This would truly be
the world of peace that everyone seeks. This world would reflect the nature of
God, whose primary characteristic is unselfishness— unselfish love and peace.
In religious terms this is called the kingdom of God on earth. The
basis of such a world is the worldview of Godism, or
head-wing thought. If God is almighty, He is certainly capable of realizing a
world of peace and happiness for all humanity. If this type of world could not
be achieved, then we would be forced to conclude that there is no God. This is
the original ideal of true peace envisaged at the creation.
At the dawn of human history, when God began to realize His world,
something tragic happened. Our first human ancestors lost God. God created one
man and one woman to be the beginning point of humankind. In religious terms
they are called Adam and Eve. Tragically, at the outset of human history they
committed sin, and by not allowing God to dwell in them, they were expelled by
God from His kingdom. At that very moment, with their departure from God, man
and woman failed to achieve their potential, and were unable to become temples
of God. At that moment peace was lost. Instead they became the temples of
Satan, whose characteristic is selfishness.
Since this occurred at the very start of human history with the very
first human ancestors, all their descendants up to the present generations have
grappled with the arduous task of finding God. Without the knowledge of God as
our True Father and the understanding that all humans are true brothers and
sisters, people have become each other’s enemies. Originally if you were to
hurt someone else, it would be the same as hurting yourself, since the same God
is dwelling in both. But humankind has become spiritually darkened. Under the
present tragic conditions, when one kills one’s own brother or sister, one
might not even feel any pain.
Furthermore, to make things worse, since people have become the
dwelling place of Satan, each person is aware only of the self and not the
whole. The natural result is the manifestation of selfishness from the level of
the individual to that of the family, society, nation and world. With this
limited outlook, when someone’s own interest or profit is violated, he or she
is ready to fight. War is thus inevitable. This is the real reason for war on
every level.
Then what does God intend to do with this fallen world? God is living
and God is almighty. As I said, God is a God of love. God, our Creator, has a
Will. That Will is to restore this world into the world of true peace. In other
words, He will restore the world of His original nature and ideal by
re-creating the present world. For this reason, there is hope for true peace in
the future. God’s Will is to eradicate selfishness from each individual, then
transform or re-create that person into His own temple, and make all people
holy.
For this reason true peace between nations begins not at the national
level but with the perfection of the individual. Each person, by becoming the
temple of God, is perfected. This is where world peace is germinated. Each one
of you, ladies and gentlemen, is the true beginning point of world peace.
Did you know there has been a constant war going on within each of us
because of the human Fall? It is an inevitable
consequence of the Fall that there is continuous
struggle and conflict going on within ourselves between mind and body, and
between the desire for good and the desire for evil. Originally mind and body
were to be one. The human mind represents God’s mind. The human body is to be a
container to accommodate the mind, or a dwelling place for the mind. Separation
came between these two when the Fall occurred. The Fall resulted in the body coming under the domain of Satan
or selfishness. Thus tragically the human body has become the servant of Satan.
On the other hand, the human conscience is the agent of God in the
individual person. One’s conscience does not exist for the benefit of oneself.
God plants the conscience for the sake of righteousness. Thus, the conscience
always strives toward goodness and unselfishness. Yet the body rebels against
this conscience. The body only seeks after comforts and tends to act selfishly,
going after carnal desires. The conscience in turn is trying to chastise the
body and direct it toward the mind. This is why there is always inevitable
conflict and struggle within oneself.
This is the reason the traditional religions of the world unanimously
teach the principle of chastisement of the body through fasting, prayer and
other disciplines doing things the body does not want to do. Religion is the
training ground where the desire of the body is suppressed, thus bringing the
body to obey the will of the mind. For this reason religion has been the
instrument of God to bring people back into the original ideal.
However, people are not capable of dominating their body without
uniting with God within the self. The only power that enables the mind to have
dominion over the body is that generated by the unity of the mind with God’s
truth and love. Mind is the subject partner and the body is the object partner.
God’s love and truth have the power to bring them together into one harmonious
person. This is what religion defines as a person of perfection, or a holy
person.
Becoming the visible manifestations of God
God-centered men and women in perfection are called men and women of
goodness. These good men and women may receive God’s Blessing of marriage and
be united as husband and wife. This will be the beginning of one ideal family
of humanity on the face of the earth. This model family is what God wanted to
have as a building block of the society, nation and world.
There is an old saying in the East that “once peace is dwelling in the
family, everything goes well.” A happy and harmonious family is a family of
peace and the foundation of the heavenly kingdom. The dynamic of the family is
true love. You must love God first, and then love your husband or wife and your
children with truly pure and sacrificial love. This is the manifestation of
true love. God created love to be the supreme force in the universe. He has
created nothing greater in this universe. True love is supreme. True love, of
course, originates from God.
God has invested everything, every ounce of His energy, for the
creation of all things and humankind. True love is the only thing that when
invested fully, returns fully. When you invest true love, no attrition occurs.
It will multiply and prosper. Investing one hundred percent of true love will
yield or return one hundred twenty percent. One might think that those who
practice true love would become poor and miserable, yet the end result is the
contrary. By practicing true love you will acquire prosperity and eternal life.
Such a family of true love becomes the foundation for creating a
society, nation and world. That society, nation and world shall be true-love
centered, and shall become ideal and peaceful. There you will find harmony
instead of contradiction. You will find understanding instead of
misunderstanding. You will find unity instead of division. You will find
unselfishness instead of selfishness. This is the society, nation and world
where sacrifice and good service become the dominant virtues. The realization
of the ideal of God is the way to achieve the ideal of true peace in the world.
When the Bible says that God sought to create human beings in “His own
image,” this means that the invisible God wanted to manifest Himself into a
visible form. In other words, men and women would have become the
personifications of God. If the first man and woman had realized the ideal of
God, they would have become the first visible form of God and created the first
family of humankind. Then God-centered children and grandchildren would have
formed an ideal society, nation and world. In this case the invisible God would
become the vertical True Parents of humankind centering upon true love, and the
first man and woman, Adam and Eve, would have become the horizontal True
Parents of humankind centering upon that same true love.
Centered upon these True Parents of humankind, all people would have
become one family for eternity. However, the Fall of Adam and Eve meant that
humanity lost True Parents. That day we became orphans. Siblings turned into
enemies. As a result, nations came to develop antagonistic relationships rather
than friendly ones.
In the final fulfillment of human history, therefore, God’s work of
restoration is the restoration of True Parents first, liberating humanity from
its orphan status. Today this is the central dispensational
work of God to bestow True Parents upon humankind, to create the original
family of humanity centering on God and true love.
Revolution from selfishness to unselfishness
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s creation of the Federation for World
Peace must be different from that of the League of Nations and the United
Nations. Most important is that we must found this organization upon the true
ideal and philosophy of lasting peace as well as the ideal of True Parents. In
the final analysis, peace in God and with God is the newest level of awakening.
This is therefore a refreshing new beginning toward the attainment of peace.
The exclusion of God from human efforts for peace is the core reason for their
failure. Therefore we shall make God the center of this movement and the
dynamics of this movement will be true love.
For men and women who are fervently longing for world peace, today’s
gathering is historic. There are many presidents and former presidents here
today, as well as prominent members of the clergy and leaders from every walk
of life. This is truly a rare and extraordinary assembly. Furthermore, there
are leaders from the East bloc and the West bloc. Until recently, those leaders
were mired in the Cold War and locked in a chilling confrontation. In this
auditorium, however, there is no East or West. Everyone is gathered together in
one spirit of cooperation and reconciliation.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall finally came
tumbling down. Ever since that event we have been living in a different world.
The world is moving quickly toward reformation, change, mutual understanding
and friendship. Everyone today feels acutely that the mood of the world is
opening up to the blossoming opportunity of peace.
If you agree that the principles I have expounded are the fundamental
criteria for peace, then true peace is reachable and achievable. The
industrialized North must reach out to help liberate the South from pervasive
impoverishment. The developed nations must reach out with a helping hand toward
the developing countries and the new democracies. Each nation’s attitude must
be changed from a selfish one to an unselfish one. That by itself is a
revolution. Nations can do this when leaders see from the position of parents.
The most unselfish and sacrificial love of all is the love of parents. From
that perspective, one can see that all nations are brother and sister nations.
Then a fresh new vision emerges and new opportunities will open up in front of
us.
It has already been announced that in September North Korea and South
Korea together will join the United Nations. This is another significant
positive development toward the achievement of world peace. Then the number of
member nations of the UN will reach 163 countries. What ought to be the priority
of those 163 countries in the days to come? The time of colonialism is over,
when the powerful nations exploited the weakest ones.
The law of the jungle and Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest”
do not apply in our world. The age of the superpower arms race that drove the
world and humanity into fear and uncertainty has also passed; humanity ought to
be liberated from the devastating threat of nuclear arms. What time is it in
God’s timetable? This is the time that the Holy Scriptures refer to as that of
“beating our swords into plowshares.” (Isaiah 2:4)
This is the time for developing mutual trust based on a high moral
standard. It is a time when all the member nations of the United Nations, with
a relationship of mutual respect and love, must jointly declare one final war
against our common enemies: the scourges of hunger, ignorance, disease and
crime. This is in God’s plan. From this time on, the definition of “my country”
will expand. Although everyone has their home country where their family lives,
in a larger sense the world now becomes “my country,” because it is where God
my Father and my brothers and sisters—all the people of the world—live.
From this point of view, advanced nations ought to seek to share high
technology with the developing nations and new democracies. To do otherwise
would be a crime against humanity. Things that are good and beneficial must be
shared among all nations. When a new discovery is made, it can benefit all
nations. If something is good for humanity and the world, we must share it,
transcendent of national boundaries. For a long time, I have been fighting for
equal access to the use of high technology by all developing nations.
The twenty-first century will be an era of peace
Ladies and gentlemen, your coming to this place is not an accident.
Nothing happens by accident. I feel you are ordained to be here. You are chosen
by God to be champions of peace.
Just nine years remain until we reach the year 2000. We shall
commemorate that year within our lifetime. That year will be history’s new
turning point. A new era is unfolding. With the cooperation of God, man and
woman together, the twenty-first century will be a century of peace. In order
to make that happen we shall work tirelessly together for the next nine years.
If we do, we shall be able to eliminate all obstacles that might hinder the
attainment of peace.
The twenty-first century shall be a righteous century. In the
twenty-first century wealth will not be the dominating factor. Instead the
human spirit and human soul shall be dominant. The twenty-first century shall
be the era of unity between God and humanity. It shall be the era where a new
awakening will come to every person, a realization that one benefits oneself
more when one genuinely lives for the sake of others. In the twenty-first
century selfishness will decline. Life, honor and glory based on unselfishness
shall be triumphant. These are the characteristics of the coming twenty-first
century.
The era for peace is approaching. Even the opportunity for the kingdom
of heaven on earth is closer. The twenty-first century shall be a hopeful and
glorious century. To make this happen, the Federation for World Peace will provide the ideal and philosophy to educate the world’s
population. The federation will assist spiritually, intellectually and
financially in the development of all nations. The federation will set a high
moral standard and take up a dynamic role in building a world of peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are the apostles of peace. A bright new hope
and an exciting new future are awaiting us. Today we need to feel fervently the
desire to fulfill the great mission that is being bestowed upon us.
In order to achieve this sacred duty and the historic responsibility of
building lasting peace, we need to dedicate our lives, our fortunes and our
sacred honor with total commitment. The very first item on our agenda needs to
be to invite God into our individual hearts and into our family, society,
nation and world. When God is with us, who can be against us?
Respected friends, my beloved brothers and sisters, we are called to
this sacred mission, the building of world peace. Our noble march shall begin
today toward that glorious future. Let us build a world of true peace together
with God.
Thank you.
9
The
Role of Island Nations in the
Twenty-first Century
June 16, 1996
Keio Plaza
InterContinental Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Inaugural Convention of the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace
(Given on True Father’s behalf)
Honorable guests from around the world, ladies and gentlemen who are
gathered here to attend this global convention of the Federation of Island
Nations for World Peace:
I am aware of your daily efforts toward the realization of world
peace, for which I am sincerely grateful. I realize that this gathering
presents the opportunity to further mobilize our intellect and deepen our
friendship and understanding so that we can have the coming twenty-first
century as a brilliant era of peace. For me there can be no greater joy than
sharing our responsibility and mission, and making an unwavering determination
among ourselves for the realization of world peace through this convention.
Allow me to begin, first of all, with my explanation of the history and
background with which I have come to propose before you the establishment of an
unfamiliar organization named the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace.
When we look at the stream of development of civilization in human history, the
ancient civilizations, which emerged in river valleys, passed to the
Mediterranean Sea, including Greece, Rome and the Iberian Peninsula. Then
civilization developed through the European continent, including Germany and
France, and bore fruit as a Judeo-Christian culture in the form of the Atlantic
civilization centered on Great Britain, an island nation. Afterward,
civilization passed westward through the American continent, and presently we
have the era of the Pacific Ocean centered on Japan, an island nation. This represents
expansion of the Judeo-Christian civilization into Asia.
When we recognize this kind of movement of civilizations in light of
God’s providence, we can see that the island nation that has been placed in the
center of heavenly fortune today is none other than Japan. At the conclusion of
the twentieth century, Japan has come to stand in the limelight of human
history in God’s providence. Therefore, Japan’s current prosperity cannot be
explained without considering her relationship to the Judeo-Christian
providence of God. If Japan has a role in God’s plan, we need to pay attention
to the providential mission Japan bears, because the purpose of God’s
providence is the realization of world peace. World peace is the very hope for
all humankind.
General characteristics of island nations
There can be no better hope for human society than if the island
nations around the world get together here and commit themselves to a
federation of nations for the creation of world peace. It is with this
expectation and ideals that I established the Federation of Island Nations. I
cannot but hope that world peace will be realized as the island nations all
over the world inherit the heavenly fortune that God gave Japan, and form a
group of nations dedicating their collective will to the pursuit of world
peace.
What are the characteristics of island nations? The earth’s surface
consists of land and ocean. Science today explains that the birth of the first
life form took place in the realm of water, namely the ocean. This tells us
that the ocean plays the role of mother who conceives and nurtures life. In
this way, if the ocean can be regarded as symbolizing femininity, then the land
may be considered as symbolizing masculinity.
Therefore, it can be said that island nations located in the ocean
symbolize woman, and that continental nations and peninsular nations symbolize
man. From a spiritual perspective, one might say that island nations have
certain characteristics of woman, such as objectivity, dependability,
nurturing, endurance and receptivity. On the other hand, continental nations
may be seen as masculine, possessing such attributes as subjectivity,
creativity and physical abundance.
Following this comparison, the role an island nation may be described
as identical to that of women in human society. Women get married and are
traditionally expected to wholeheartedly love and serve their husbands. Women
shine and blossom by means of building dynamic relationships of love with their
spouse and giving birth to children. As mothers, women have the important
responsibility of nourishing children, bringing them up and educating them to
be wholesome and virtuous. We can say that island nations have similar roles to
play.
Looking at the history of God’s providence of restoration, or
salvation, we see the existence of central nations and a central religion that
take responsibility for God’s providence. For example, in the Old Testament
Age, Judaism and the Israelites took responsibility for God’s providence of
salvation. In the New Testament Age, the bearer of the responsibility was
Christianity, centered on Christians in the Western world. The core of
Judeo-Christian teachings, which have been guiding the present civilization, is
as follows: First, there is a God, a Creator. Second, the first human ancestors
fell from grace by committing sin, and the Messiah is needed for the salvation
from sin. Third, the sinful history of humankind will inevitably come to an end
and the kingdom of God on earth will be built. Based on such a view of the
providence of salvation, or restoration, the history of the people in the Old
Testament Age unfolded based on the expectation of the coming of the Savior.
Likewise, in the New Testament Age, the history of the Christians advanced
centered on the hope and faith that the returning Lord would come to liquidate
their sins and build the kingdom of God on earth.
God’s heart and God’s circumstances lie in the background of the
providence of restoration. It follows that in order to fully understand God’s
providence we must have eyes that can penetrate the signs manifested through
the ages.
When World War II came to an end, Christianity worldwide was at an
extremely important point in the history of God’s providence of salvation.
Christian nations such as Great Britain, the United States and France were in
the central positions of the providence at that time. In World Wars I and II,
the three major Christian nations of Great Britain, the United States and
France fought for democracy as the center of the allied nations.
It was God’s desire to see these three major Christian nations join
their forces to practice God’s love in the service of humankind with a
sacrificial and serving spirit to actualize world peace, without lapsing into
nationalistic ideas centered on their countries. The end of World War II in
1945 saw the opportunity of providing lasting peace for humankind through the
establishment of the United Nations. However, the historical reality was not
the realization of world peace but the expansion of communism and the numerous
conflicts that have come with it, as well as the spiritual decline and moral
degradation of Christian nations. Humankind, which has endured the Cold War
between the United States and the former Soviet Union for more than forty
years, is passing through a spiritual wilderness, which continues until the
present.
World peace is rooted in true love
For my part, I have traveled the world to reveal God’s ideals and His
providence in order to actualize the vision of world peace on the basis of
God’s original plan. To this end, I have established many international
organizations, but the path is long and there remains enormous work for all of
us to do. What is the providence of God? It goes without saying that God’s providence
of creation is to realize a peaceful world. In such a world, there are no
divisions or conflicts. It is a world filled with unity, harmony and joy. The
greatest and the quickest means to this end is through
true love. True love is the basis of unity and the origin of joy and happiness.
That is why I would say that the prerequisite of peace is true love.
Then where does God’s true love originate? The settlement place of
true love is the family. If Adam and Eve had perfected themselves and established
an ideal family through their marriage centered on God, true love would have
been initiated there. The family of true love would have become the basis for
true global peace. The reason humankind is still unable to achieve true peace
is because people are ignorant of true love. Why? The answer, as mentioned in
the Bible, is that humankind has separated from God. Since the Fall of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, who
established the first family without God’s blessing, peace has been absent from
this world. Instead, divisions, conflicts and struggles have come to rule this
world. The struggle between mind and body in the individual, the conflicts
between husband and wife at the family level, and the struggles between
societies are accepted as normal. It is my conviction that all human problems
are caused by the fundamental loss of true love. The Fall
of humankind meant the loss of true love. Consequently, Jesus came as the king
of true love in order to restore the love Adam and Eve lost. By the same token,
the Lord of the Second Advent is coming in order to restore true love. That is
the logical conclusion seen from the view of the providence of salvation.
Women’s crucial role in world peace
My life until today and my quest for world peace have been concentrated
on the point of how humankind can restore true love. When we look at the moral
degradation of the world, we can think of how great God’s sorrow must be.
Watching this world decline breaks my heart and brings tears to my eyes. The
harm of immorality and adultery, as in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah, injures
our youth as they tragically fall into the false enticements of so-called
“free” sex. The greatest sorrow of God is to see humankind going down this path
of irresponsible destruction. However, I am happy to announce there is much
hope. This optimism comes from a new and liberated role of women. Women are
actively working around the world to save civilization from destruction. In
particular, Japanese women are playing an important role. They are active in
one hundred sixty nations practicing the spirit of “living for the sake of the
world.” This fills me with great joy. Women can save the world at this time of
crisis. It is time for us to stand up, respect and recognize the power of
women.
Delegates and honorable guests, I would like to state once again my
essential thesis. You represent, for the most part, island and oceanic nations.
Island nations have in common the characteristics of women and mothers.
Therefore, they need to unite their forces and cooperate so that they can
fulfill the mother’s mission in front of humankind. Based on these reasons, I
proposed and founded the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace.
Looking back on human history, women have played a vital role in both
a positive and negative sense. According to the Bible, human history began with
the tragic incident known as the Fall of Adam and Eve. It is a matter of fact
that we must all shoulder the responsibility for this act and resolve this
issue. However, when we look at the passage in the Bible that Eve was the first
to fall and begin the history of sin, we can see that the providence requires
that an age must come in human history in which women will lead the way to
redeem the Fall of Eve. We can see that the ideological trends in the twentieth
century, such as the movement of women seeking true liberation, indicate that
women are standing up for world peace.
The era of women and the era of the island nations
Because I know that such is the providence of God, in April 1992, my
wife and I founded the Women’s Federation for World Peace. This movement of the
Women’s Federation for World Peace will develop into the movement of the Family
Federation for World Peace in the near future, in which all people may
participate. By establishing true love in the family it seeks to construct an
ideal world, the kingdom of heaven on earth. The age of women is the worldwide
trend of the 1990s and into the twenty-first century. We may say that love and
cooperation, and the spirit of resolution and harmony will fulfill a historical
contribution toward world peace.
This worldwide age of women means that the age of island nations will
bear the characteristics of women. In this way, the age of women and the age of
island nations are intimately linked together. The time when women stand up for
world peace is the time when island nations must also stand up for worldwide
cooperation. Now is the opportunity for island and oceanic nations to fulfill
their glorious and historic mission of realizing world peace. Is there a
mission of greater glory than this?
Let us look back on the history of humankind in which women played
central roles. There were courageous women who established testimonies based on
an unbreakable faith in God. Without the perseverance of Abraham’s wife, Sarah,
Isaac’s wife, Rebekah, or Jacob’s wife, Rachel, there
would have been no history of the Israelites. Tamar, relying only on her
absolute faith, risked her life to establish the lineage, recorded in the Old
Testament, from which the Messiah later appeared. Like Tamar, Mary, the mother
of Jesus, also showed her absolute faith before Heaven in order to give birth
to God’s sacred lineage.
The Fall of Eve brought about spiritual death to humankind. Millions
suffered under false love, false life and false lineage. The path that Mary and
Tamar took was to redeem the Fall of Eve in an attempt to bring about true
love, life and lineage. At the tender age of sixteen Joan of
Arc saved her country of France from a defeat that was considered
inevitable. A sixteen-year-old maiden was able to exert the power that saved an
entire nation.
The island nations and world peace
By looking at these few examples, we can see the mark of greatness
throughout history in the dedication of these women of determined faith. When
the Federation of Island Nations ignites and spreads through the virtues of
service and dedication exemplified by these women, the light of hope will burn
brightly before the future of humankind. Island nations must inevitably seek the
continent. This is based on the same principle that a woman seeks a loving
relationship with a man. This might be considered a condition for the survival
of island nations. Thus, the various activities for world peace carried out in
island nations must inevitably produce a good influence on continental
countries. In this way, when the positive effects of the efforts of island
nations for the realization of world peace are spread to the continental realm,
world peace will take a major step closer toward realization. We strongly
desire that the age of the twenty-first century will become a new millennium,
which is the brilliant dawn of the kingdom of heaven on earth long awaited by
humankind.
I am convinced that the Federation of Island Nations will fulfill a
crucial role for peace and harmony alongside associations such as the
Federation for World Peace, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, the
Women’s Federation for World Peace, the Youth Federation for World Peace and
the Student Federation for World Peace. Ultimately, all these organizations
will bear fruit as the Family Federation for World Peace. This is because the
final base for peace is the family and there is no way to establish global
unity other than through rebuilding the family institution.
By thoroughly carrying out the education of youth based on an ideal
that transcends race, nationality and religion, the Family Federation for World
Peace will be able to perfect an ideal family and attain the historic feat of a
one-world family in which people from all corners of the world enjoy true and
lasting peace. Your Federation of Island Nations will inevitably make the
greatest contribution toward the highest objective of the Family Federation for
World Peace.
I would like to conclude my message with gratitude toward everyone for
the fact that the dream of a one-world family based on the true love of God is
approaching realization through the Federation of Island Nations for World
Peace.
May God guide and bless you, your nations and your families.
Thank you very much for your attention.
10
The Role of Peninsular Nations in the
Twenty-first
Century
August 20, 1996
Sheraton Walker
Hill Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Inaugural Assembly of the Federation of Peninsular Nations for World Peace
Respected chairman, distinguished guests from around the world,
representatives of all walks of life in Korea, ladies and gentlemen:
I truly appreciate your hard work for the welfare of humanity and the
realization of a world of peace. I welcome you to my homeland, the land of
Korea. It is my hope that a conference held at this time, with the twenty-first
century just four years away, will provide an environment for profitable discussions
that can give hope for a world of peace. I would like to express my thoughts on
the ultimate ideal of humanity and the realization of world peace.
I grew up on the Korean Peninsula and saw how it suffered in agony as
the major powers of the world waged a war on its soil over ideology and
resources. From a young age, I endeavored to find answers to the fundamental
questions about life and the universe. I came to know the living God by
experiencing Him, and I also learned that this God is the owner of true love
who has continued to be with humanity throughout history. I could not believe
that God had planned and intentionally created the world’s sin, contradiction
and struggle.
I don’t have the time to talk about the experiences of my adolescence.
I will say only that my youth was spent in dedication and struggle to find the
truth. Through my struggles and searching I discovered the Divine Principle,
which is the thought system of the Unification Church. The Divine Principle was
not developed by ordinary means. I found its basis through conversations with
Jesus and the sages in the spirit world, through prayer and, most important, by
communicating deeply with God Himself. It is the fruit of victory reaped after
waging a fierce battle with an obstructionist Satan. By teaching and practicing
this Divine Principle, I am devoting every moment of my life, straining myself
relentlessly, to guide humanity. The Divine Principle is being taught in 184
nations across the world, and it is changing the lives of people by forming
within them life-giving relationships with the living God.
God is a Parent who yearns for love
God created us, so we were born with dreams related to Him and an
eager desire for the ideal world. Even in the most wretched of environments, we
do not abandon the hope that directs us toward the ideal world of peace. When
we talk of the ideal world, the word “ideal” originates from God, the causal Being. God did not create the world for power, glory or
wealth—for which He has absolutely no desire. This is because God, who is
absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, and who is the causal Being of all
things everywhere, already possesses every such thing.
Nonetheless, it is not right to think that God has no desires. Though
He exists as the original Being of true love, in order
for Him to actually experience love, He needs—and therefore urgently desires—an
object partner. This is because love is an experience and a joy that is made
possible only by forming a relationship with an object partner, that is, by
forming a relationship between subject and object partners. No being can feel
love if he or she is isolated and all alone, and God is no exception. His
motive for creation is true love and His object partners are true people. God
created human beings as persons who could give and receive love freely with
Him. In short, human beings were created to become perfect object partners of
God’s love. Human beings are God’s sons and daughters. God the Creator is the
True Parent of humankind.
God wished for Adam and Eve to grow up in innocence, centering on true
love, and become true people. He created the world and everything in it as a
beautifully and delicately prepared environment that would be the foothold for
their external, biological growth. In such an environment, human beings would
grow to maturity and flourish physically. However, God had the deepest interest
of all in the internal nature and loving character of human beings. By
experiencing true love, they were to resemble God’s true love and perfect it.
He created the power of love to be the strongest of all internal, non-material
powers. That we experience the power of love within the love of God and
according to the laws of God signifies that we take after God, our Parent.
People can embody the true love of God
For people to become the owners of infinite true love, they need to
cherish their sense of responsibility. Human beings can possess flawless
character, that is, become the perfected beings of love, only when they have
become one with God through true love and come to resemble Him. Herein lies the
reason God’s love is the source of the happiness, life and the ideal of human
beings. Adam and Eve were meant to become a true man and a true woman within
the true love of God, after which they were to become a true couple, by sharing
true love with each other. Then they were to have children and become true
parents.
Human beings learn the true love of God by experience, through stages.
As they go through their lives, people are meant to feel and learn the heart of
children by receiving the love of their parents, to feel and learn the heart of
siblings by exchanging the love of brothers and sisters, to feel and learn the
heart of a couple through the love of husband or wife, and to feel and learn
through experience the heart of parents through raising children. The family is
the dwelling place of these four kinds of heart and love.
Thus, the family is the base for the love, happiness, life and lineage
of human beings. In no place other than the family can human beings learn these
four kinds of love and heart. Love is something that can be felt and learned
only through experience. The perfection of individual human beings, families,
societies, nations and or any other human community is based on the manifestation
of true love within the family.
However, what is the reality of the world? In spite of the development
of technology and practical conveniences, human beings are now facing a serious
crisis leading to the degradation of human nature. Evils such as war, social
conflict, violence, crime and drug abuse are arousing
apprehension everywhere. What is yet more serious is that the sexual morality
of young people is rapidly deteriorating, the divorce rate is dramatically
rising, and family breakdown, leaving all too many fatherless children in its
wake, is destroying human society.
The quest for peace and why it has been fruitless
People have sought peace and happiness in so many ways, yet they have
not achieved satisfying results. After the First and Second World Wars, the
League of Nations and the United Nations were created to prevent the
reappearance of international conflict. Yet the global activities carried out
by these organizations could not bring about a world of peace.
Even the efforts of religious organizations have not realized a world
of happiness. And of course the ideal of international communism and the dream
of fascism have also failed to realize an ideal world. Highly developed
technology and political efforts have failed to bring peace and happiness to
humanity. This is all because humankind’s misery and anguish stemmed from
disobeying God and thus falling away from Him, and this problem has not been
solved at the fundamental level.
By engaging in a premature, selfish sexual relationship, Adam and Eve
deviated from the Principle of God, and they had children before they
themselves had grown up within true love. Adam and Eve distrusted God and
consequently obeyed Satan, thus becoming a false couple, and so human history
began with false parents. This resulted in their descendants living in sin, war
and agony. Such life has nothing to do with God’s ideal of creation. How
sorrowful, therefore, must be the heart of God!
At all costs, God needs to realize the true love and ideal of peace that
He originally planned. His providence of salvation is the providence to achieve
the original state, that is, it is the providence of re-creation. For this, He
established religions and has continually expanded the domain of goodness. The
Messiah sent by God is the one who comes with the full responsibility to
complete this providence of re-creation. Therefore, the Messiah needs to come
as the True Parent and carry out the work of re-creation at the fundamental
level.
Jesus, who came as the Messiah, came with the mission of the True
Parent. He came to give rebirth to humanity on earth through true love, and to
redeem them to be true people and true couples so they could become true
parents. Unfortunately, due to the distrust he faced on earth, he died before
he could fulfill his will, but he promised to come again. His words suggest
that he needs to come once again as the True Parent and completely actualize
God’s ideal of creation.
Though Jesus was born in the land of Judea, he did not exist solely
for Judea. The will of Jesus, who came in the position of the Messiah and the
True Parent, was to realize the ideal of God on earth, which is a world of
peace and true love. At the time, Judea was a province of the Roman Empire.
Therefore, God carried out His providence hoping that, when the will of Jesus
was achieved in Judea, His Will would expand to Rome and be fulfilled across
the world.
The shift of civilization to peninsular nations
We know that peninsular nations, extending into the ocean, have given
rise to important civilizations in history. Many great religious doctrines and
ideologies originated from peninsular nations to guide the world of the human
heart. Greek philosophy began on the Balkan Peninsula. Christian culture
flourished on the Italian Peninsula. Hindu culture and philosophy arose on the
Indian subcontinent, another peninsula. Islamic culture arose on the Arabian
Peninsula. Buddhist culture came to fruition on the Southeast Asian Peninsula.
Furthermore, the art of navigation came from the Iberian Peninsula, Norman
culture from the Scandinavian Peninsula, and there are other examples. As can
be seen, peninsular nations have had great influence in the history of world
culture.
If you study the flow of the development of civilizations, the ancient
continental civilizations that originated in river basins shifted to the
peninsular civilization of places such as Greece, Rome and Iberia. European
peninsular civilization then shifted to an island civilization in England,
which in turn passed to the United States as a continental civilization, and
then moved to Japan in the form of an island civilization. From a providential
viewpoint, this pilgrimage of civilization will now come to fruition in Korea
as a peninsular civilization.
From a different perspective, the ancient civilizations on the shores
of rivers such as the Nile and Tigris shifted to the Mediterranean
civilizations of Greece, Rome and Spain, among others. This then shifted to the
Atlantic civilization extending to England and the United States, and it in
turn will come to fruition as the Pacific civilization connecting the United
States, Japan and Korea. Since the will of the Messiah was to have borne fruit
and become globalized from the Italian Peninsula, it is fitting that a
peninsular nation is again to be the center of the providence of the Second
Coming of Jesus, that is, of the Second Advent of the True Parent, and that it
is Korea.
The planet Earth is made up of lands and oceans. I believe that the
sea plays the role of the mother, including giving birth to the simplest forms
of life. In this way, we can think that the sea symbolizes the feminine in that
it nurtures and embraces, and the land symbolizes the masculine. Similarly, it
can be said that island nations, situated as they are in oceans, represent
woman, and continental nations and peninsular nations adjoined to continents
represent man.
The citizens of peninsular nations have strength and courage arising
from a life of defending themselves against enemies from both land and sea.
Moreover, they are endowed with a progressive spirit of pioneering and
adventuring. They have given rise to resplendent cultures and spread them to
the world. Thus, at this point in time when we are on the verge of a new
millennium, peninsular nations will play an important role in the providence.
The Federation of Peninsular Nations for World Peace is compiling these
nations’ meritorious deeds, contributions to world culture, and similar
experiences to enable them to play a leading role in realizing a world of
peace.
A life of pursuing world peace
Respected leaders, until now I have done more than just teach about
the way humanity can live happily in a world of peace. I have also pioneered
the way, founding multiple organizations for the realization of a world of
peace and nurturing them with unending support while surmounting so many
difficulties. I have inaugurated organizations such as the Federation for World
Peace, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, the Women’s Federation
for World Peace, the Youth Federation for World Peace, the Student Federation
for World Peace, the Professors World Peace Academy and the Federation of
Island Nations for World Peace for this purpose. I am inaugurating the
Federation of Peninsular Nations for World Peace at this time for the same
purpose.
There are many obstacles blocking the realization of humanity’s
happiness and ideal of peace. There are numerous destructive dynamics,
including conflict over political and economic interests. Of these dynamics,
the most fundamental has to do with the human condition itself, namely, the
conflict and contradiction between mind and body. Through the long course of
human history, the conflict between mind and body has never been resolved. The Fall of our first human ancestors brought a result that is
this serious and wretched.
As people with inner conflict and contradiction formed families, could
those families unite completely as one in harmony? Families are shaken and fall
apart when the responsibility to love selflessly is forgotten. Without people
gaining the complete experience of heart based on true love, they cannot
establish the perfect standard of ethics and morality. When families thus break
down, can we expect to see societies of peace, and nations and a world of peace?
From July 30 to August 1 of this year, I hosted the inaugural assembly
of the Family Federation for World Peace at the United States Capitol in
Washington, DC. Representatives of one hundred twenty nations came together
with two former United States presidents, Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, and
former and present heads of state and prime ministers from more than forty
countries. The Family Federation can be called the most important organization
I have inaugurated. It aggregates the work of multiple global organizations,
which are the foundation I have dedicated my entire life to build for the
realization of the peaceful world of true love.
The people of today need to recover their original nature by uniting
mind and body as one in harmony in the true love of God. Through the Pure Love
movement and the True Family Values movement, human beings need to prepare the
ground for eternal happiness. To facilitate this, I have founded this
organization.
From the viewpoint of God’s administration and the trend of history,
all people constitute one great family that needs to live attending God as
their True Parent, transcending nationality and race. All people are a
community sharing a common destiny and can harmonize and cooperate with one
another within the bounds of one global family. We have entered an era wherein
we can no longer think that the difficulties of our neighbors and other nations
have nothing to do with us.
We cannot just sit back and watch as humankind is engulfed and degraded
by war and crime, drugs and violence, environmental pollution and ecosystem
destruction, immorality and AIDS. We need to answer before God and history. We
human beings, who need to harmonize and unite on a grand scale, need to declare
how we can overcome the present reality and usher in the coming millennium with
hope.
Furthermore, we need to consider how we can build a world of peace
wherein we can think beyond the profits that individuals and nations can reap,
and live for the sake of others and trust them. We need to consider how we can
establish a new set of values that can maintain this. Rather than standing on
the glittering pinnacle of science and technology, wearing the glasses of
humanism to filter out our having fallen into a valley of sin, we need to open
the door of our original heart and search for answers with humility. If we
cannot find them on earth, we need to find the solutions through the voice we
hear from Heaven.
It is my hope that the discussions you hold at this time will prove to
be most beneficial and rewarding for realizing the dream of a world of peace.
May the divine protection of God be with you and your families always.
11
The Role of Continental Nations in the
August 30, 1996
Meadowlands Hilton
Hotel, Secaucus, New Jersey, USA
Inaugural Convention of the Federation of
Continental Nations for World Peace
Respected representatives of North America, ladies and gentlemen:
I congratulate you on your labors for the welfare of humankind and the
realization of a peaceful world. I hope that this conference, convened with
less than four years remaining in the twentieth century, can be a fruitful
forum of discussion clarifying and expanding our hope for a peaceful world. I
would like to share with you my thoughts on the realization of world peace and
the ultimate human ideal.
Declaration of the Divine Principle and global mission work
I grew up on the Korean Peninsula, where people suffered greatly as
major powers fought over ideology and resources. In my youth, I sought
desperately to find answers to questions about life and the universe. I came to
know the living God through my experiences with Him, and to know that God is
the Lord of true love who has been present with humankind throughout history. I
could not believe that God would have planned and created a world in which
evil, conflict and war prevail. I do not have time to speak at length about the
experiences of my youth. I will testify simply that those days were filled with
an intense longing for the truth.
I have revealed the teaching of the Holy Spirit Association for the
Unification of World Christianity, a teaching known as the Divine Principle. It
was not easily discovered. Needless to say, I received the essence of the
Principle through deep, fervent and prayerful communion with God, Jesus and
other saints in the spirit world. Its revelation is a victory gained through a
desperate fight with Satan. I am devoting every moment of my life to the
teaching and practice of the Principle. Those whose lives it has touched are
sharing it throughout the world, in 184 countries. The Principle is
transforming people’s lives by bringing them into a new relationship with the
living God.
God’s ideal and human perfection
As human beings created by God, we were born with an innate hope to
attain our dreams and realize an ideal world in relationship with God. Even
under the worst conditions, we never give up our desire for an ideal and
peaceful world. When we say ideal world, we need to know that God is the origin
of the very concept of the ideal.
God did not create the world for the sake of power, glory or wealth.
Being absolute, unchanging and eternal, and being the origin of all existence,
He has no particular need for these things, as He already has them in
abundance.
However, it would not be right to think that God has fulfilled all His
desires. God exists as the embodiment of true love. God needs a partner in
order to experience love, just as we do. Love can be experienced only when
there is a relationship between a subject partner and an object partner. No
being can experience love in isolation, solely by itself.
God created human beings to give and receive love freely in
relationship with Him. We were made to be the true object partner of the love
of God. He created us as His sons and daughters. He is the True Parent of
humankind.
God wanted Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, to mature in purity,
centered on true love. He wanted Adam and Eve to become true people. He created
this beautiful and exquisite natural world as the environment for their
biological growth. Human beings were to grow and develop within this
environment.
God’s central concern, however, is with our internal character. By
experiencing true love, God intended that we would come to reflect His true
love and grow to perfection. God created the power of love to be the strongest
of all forces. Through the experience of such a power of love within the realm
of Heaven’s love and law, people are to increasingly resemble God, their
Parent. To possess unlimited true love, people must first learn to be
responsible. When human beings come into oneness with God through true love,
they resemble Him and become the perfect embodiment of true love, with
wholesome character. Thus we can say that God’s love is the essence of human
happiness, life and ideals.
Adam and Eve were meant to mature in God’s love and become true
individuals, true husband and wife, and, by rearing children, the True Parents.
People experience God’s true love step by step, throughout the stages of life’s
growth. Each individual is meant to come to know the heart of children through
the love of their parents, the heart of a sibling through the love between
brothers and sisters, the heart of husband and wife through the love of a spouse,
and the heart of parents through loving children. The family is the foundation
upon which we establish these four realms of love and heart.
The family is the basis for love, happiness, life and lineage. We
cannot learn and experience these four realms of love anywhere other than in
the family. We know love only through actual experience. The true perfection of
the individual, family, society and environment has its root in the realization
of love within the family.
World peace and the providence of restoration
What is the reality of our world today? Despite advances in technology
and the conveniences of modern life, the world is facing a profound crisis: the
loss of our very humanity. Disorders and affliction of every
kind—violence, crime, drug abuse and war—plague humankind. More
significant, the breakdown of the family, including the rising divorce rate,
the collapse of sexual morality among youth and the problem of unwed mothers,
is destroying the foundation of society.
Even though we have sought peace and happiness in many ways, none of
us can be satisfied with the results we have achieved in our lives. After the
First and Second World Wars, the League of Nations and then the United Nations
were established to prevent further conflict. However, the global work of these
organizations has not brought about a peaceful world. The efforts of religious
groups also have not led to a world of happiness. The proud ideals of communism
and the fascist illusion failed to bring about an ideal world of oneness. Neither
highly advanced technology nor skillful diplomacy deliver
us peace and happiness. This is because the cause of humanity’s unhappiness and
suffering lies in the human Fall and our disobedience
to God. The solution of the problem begins by eliminating this root cause.
Adam and Eve defiled true love during their time of growth. They fell
away from God’s Principle by having sexual relations and creating children
before they reached maturity in true love.
Human history thus began with Adam and Eve’s lack of faith in God,
their loving Parent, and their ultimate submission to Satan. By this action
they became a false husband and false wife, and false parents. Our inheritance
from the original family includes their legacy of corruption, conflict and
suffering. This legacy has nothing to do with God’s ideal of creation. We
cannot imagine how God’s Heart is broken!
God must, at any cost, restore His original ideal of true love and
peace. What we call God’s providence of salvation means His providence of
restoration. For the sake of this restoration, He established religions and
expanded a sphere of goodness.
The Messiah, sent by God, is the person who comes with the overall
responsibility to complete the providence of restoration. The Messiah must come
as the True Parent and must rectify everything, beginning at the very root of
the problem.
Jesus came as the Messiah with the mission of the True Parent. He came
to resurrect human beings on earth. He would thus restore them as true
individuals, so that they might become true husbands and wives who would be
true parents themselves. Unfortunately, because of the lack of faith on earth,
he was unable to accomplish his purpose fully. However, he promised to return.
He must return in order to restore God’s ideal of creation.
The development of civilization from the viewpoint of the Principle
Jesus was born in Israel, but he was not born for the Jewish people
alone. Jesus came in the position of the Messiah and the True Parent. It was
his purpose to realize God’s ideal, that is, a world of true love and peace. At
that time, Israel was under Roman colonial rule. If Jesus could have
accomplished his purpose among the people of Israel, then God’s providence
would have spread his message throughout the world.
In fact, Israel’s location at the crossroads of three continents—Asia,
Africa and Europe—led to the transmission of Jesus’ teachings during the first
centuries of the Christian era. Christianity spread south into Africa, east
into Asia and west into Europe. Christianity attained continental dominion in
Europe, western Asia and the Americas. Through Christianity these vast
continents each accomplished relative unity. These unified continental powers
came to dominate the world in the modern era.
Civilization first emerged on continents, in Egypt, Mesopotamia and
China. The center of western civilization then shifted to peninsular cultures
in Greece, Rome and then Iberia. These peninsular civilizations gave way to an
island civilization in Great Britain. The center of civilization then moved to
the continental civilization of North America, and then across the Pacific to
an island civilization centering in Japan. It is the view of providence that
the development of civilization will bear fruit in a peninsular culture
emerging in Korea.
Peninsular cultures have given rise to important civilizations. Great
religions and philosophies have emerged from peninsular cultures to guide the
human spirit. These include, among others, Greek philosophy that came from the
Balkan Peninsula, Catholic culture that blossomed on the Italian Peninsula,
Hindu philosophy and culture from India, Islamic culture that arose on the
Arabian Peninsula, Buddhist culture that flourished on the peninsulas of
Southeast Asia, the art of navigation of the Iberian Peninsula, and the Nordic
culture on the Scandinavian Peninsula. These peninsular initiatives took root
on continents. Greco-Roman and Iberian culture flourished in Europe and the
Americas, and Islamic culture spread across Africa and Asia.
From another perspective, civilizations that developed along major
rivers such as the Nile, the Yellow, the Tigris and the Euphrates gave way to
Mediterranean civilizations, in Greece, Rome, Spain and North Africa. The
center then moved to the Atlantic civilization of North America, France, Great
Britain and Spain. Civilization will ultimately bear fruit in a Pacific
civilization, linking North America, Japan and Korea.
Major historical religious founders, including Moses, Zoroaster,
Buddha, Lao Tzu, Confucius and Jesus, emerged on continents. God’s Will through
Jesus, which He hoped to establish in Israel on the
continent of Asia, was to reach the western world via the peninsular power of
Rome and to reach Asia via the peninsular power of Greece. Today global power
resides on the continents of North America and Asia. The Will of God for
Christ’s return can be accomplished only when these and all continents invest
themselves completely in service to the world, based upon the place where Jesus
is to return, that is, where the True Parents are to come, in Korea, which is a
peninsular nation.
The surface of the earth is composed of land and ocean. I believe that
the ocean, in which the simplest forms of life were born, has played the role
of a mother. If the ocean symbolizes femininity because it gives life, nurtures
and embraces, then we can say that land symbolizes masculinity. Thus, island
nations surrounded by ocean signify the feminine, and
continental nations, with the peninsular nations extending from them, symbolize
the masculine.
People from peninsular nations in particular have inherited strength
and courage by having to defend against enemies from the surrounding seas and
continents. Under their pioneering, exploring and adventurous spirit, their
brilliant cultures blossomed and expanded. People from continental nations have
rugged endurance. They cultivated difficult natural environments over vast
distances. Living for generations isolated from cosmopolitan cultures,
continental peoples retain the permanent, unchanging values attached to the
land. Through the right relationship of island, peninsular and continental
peoples, world peace will come.
As we greet the new millennium, the continental nations are called to
accomplish a providentially significant mission. They must fulfill a leading
role in realizing a peaceful world by combining their power to serve the world,
together with their common experiences, into the Federation of Continental
Nations for World Peace.
Respected leaders, I have not been satisfied merely to speak about
humankind living happily in a peaceful world. I have been receiving tremendous
spiritual support for actually creating substantial projects and organizations
for this purpose. These projects include the Federation for World Peace, the
Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, the Women’s Federation for World
Peace, the Youth Federation for World Peace, the Student Federation for World
Peace, the Professors World Peace Academy, the
Federation of Island Nations for World Peace and the Federation of Peninsular
Nations for World Peace. The Federation of Continental Nations for World Peace
is dedicated to this same purpose.
The solution is in recovering our original nature
There are many obstacles blocking the way to human happiness and
peace, including political and economic conflicts. Most fundamental, however,
is the conflict between mind and body within the individual. Throughout
history, the conflict between mind and body has never been completely resolved.
This is the serious and miserable result of the human Fall.
Thus, people with inner conflict establish families, which cannot set
up a proper standard of ethics and morality. They cannot experience the world
of heart based on true love. Can such families achieve complete harmony and
unity? Since the family unit has abandoned its responsibility to practice true
love, it is now being shaken and destroyed. In light of the breakdown of the
family, is peace in the society, nation and world a realistic possibility?
I convened the inaugural world convention of the Family Federation for
World Peace in Washington, DC, the United States Capitol, from July 30 to
August 1 of this year. Two former United States presidents, Gerald Ford and
George H.W. Bush, sitting and former heads of state from forty nations, as well
as representatives of 120 nations gathered for that historic international
conference.
The Family Federation for World Peace will be the most treasured
organization, coming as it does on the foundation of the above-mentioned
international organizations that I have already set up in the course of
investing my life for the realization of a world of peace and true love.
Today, each individual must recover his or her true human nature, by
uniting mind and body harmoniously within the realm of God’s true love.
Humankind must prepare a realm of eternal happiness through a movement for
sexual purity and for the realization of true families. The Family Federation
is dedicated to this task.
From the viewpoint of God’s dispensation in the course of human
history, humankind is one great family that is to live in attendance to God as
the True Parent, transcending national boundaries, race and religious
differences. Despite the fact that humankind as a single community is destined
to cooperate as a global family, we live in an age when we feel that we have
nothing to do with the problems of our neighbors and other countries. We
cannot, however, ignore the reality of humanity ravaged by war, crime, drug
abuse, pollution, destruction of ecosystems, corruption
and the scourge of AIDS.
Today, with the eyes of history upon us, we must answer to God. How
can humankind, whose mandate is the realization of complete harmony and unity,
overcome the unfortunate reality and greet the coming millennium with hope? How
can we realize a peaceful world, in which everyone lives for and trusts others
without regard for personal and national interests? What is the new value
system by which we shall attain this ideal?
Rather than riding the chariot of science and technology pulled by the
horses of secular humanism, we must humbly seek the answers within our original
mind. If we cannot find the solution on earth, we must find it through
listening to the voice of Heaven.
I sincerely hope your deliberations at this conference can be fruitful
in realizing the dream of a peaceful world. May God protect you and your
families eternally.
12
Era of World
Peace
February 6, 1999
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Inaugural Assembly of the Interreligious and
International Federation for World Peace
Distinguished leaders from every walk of life:
It gives me great pleasure to host this inaugural assembly of the
Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP).
The purpose of the various ecumenical and interfaith activities and
organizations I have been developing over the past forty years has been the
realization of a world of peace that God and human beings have been longing
for. A vision for peace is the heart of any interfaith activity.
In the twentieth century humankind has suffered two devastating world
wars and experienced confrontation and conflict for seventy years under the
oppression of the atheistic communist ideology and the Cold War era. When that
came to an end, the world drank a toast in celebration of peace, albeit
briefly. All too soon we came to learn that the end of the Cold War era did not
lead automatically to a time of peace. Violent conflicts continue to occur
throughout the world today. Even now, massacres are being perpetrated in
Yugoslavia, the Middle East, Sudan, South Asia and elsewhere. It is common
knowledge that many such disputes have behind them deep-rooted religious
conflict. These are only some examples that awaken us to the importance of
dialogue and cooperation among religious groups.
World peace and the mind-body conflict
Often, in the modern era, religions work toward the realization of
their ideals while keeping a certain distance from the realms of worldly power.
This is generally accepted as the norm. I believe, however, that it is time for
those international organizations that serve the cause of world peace to
reexamine their relationship with the world’s great religious traditions.
Perhaps the United Nations, more than any other international
organization, serves as a good example. Many regard the UN as the
institutionalized organization of the human ideal for world peace, and set
their hopes on it. At the UN, representatives of all nations combine their
efforts to solve the world’s problems and to promote peace and human
prosperity.
However, these efforts by the UN to realize world peace have always
met with serious obstacles. While its accomplishments cannot be denied, one can
observe that the UN could be improved in many ways. The time has come when a
cooperative and mutually supportive relationship among the world’s statesmen
and religious leaders is desperately needed.
Originally, human beings were meant to live with their mind and body
united, responding to the complete, true love of God. Because human beings were
created to be God’s sons and daughters, resembling Him, their mind and body
should not fight. Instead, they should create true unity. God’s mind and body
are not in conflict. Almighty God could never have any conflict within Himself.
The human ideal of unified mind and body is realized when a person fully
possesses the true love of God. The words from the Bible, “Blessed are the
peacemakers, for they will be called children of God,” (Matt. 5:9) are also
based on the premise that the ideal of unity of mind and body is to be attained
on the basis of a relationship with our Heavenly Father. Due to the human Fall people lost the standard of unity and harmony between
their mind and body, and have thus been living in self-contradiction and
conflict. Moreover, the battle of the mind and body within the individual has
expanded to the level of the family, society, nation and world. Cain’s killing
of his younger brother Abel originated from this.
All the conflicts and wars that the world has witnessed since the
beginning of history have been, in essence, the battle between the Cain side,
which is on the side of relative evil, and the Abel side, which is on the side
of relative good. The struggle between the Cain and Abel sides should be
terminated and everything restored to its original state. Likewise, the
confrontation between our mind and body should be brought to an end, and
harmony and unity regained.
We have to apply the principle of individual mind-body unity on the global
level. For this purpose, I established the Inter-Religious Federation for World
Peace, representing the world of the mind, and the Federation for World Peace,
representing the world of the body. Together, they embrace the total concept of
world peace.
Because the problems in human history have not just been political
problems at the root, merely social or political solutions have always been
insufficient. Most societies are governed politically, but on the other hand,
at the official, cultural, and political base, there is religion. In fact, in
most people’s hearts religious loyalty has far more importance than political
loyalty.
The role of religions in leading the world
It is now time for religion to exert genuine leadership in the world.
I believe that religious people should feel responsible for the situation of
humankind, and for resolving the various inequities of this age. Profound
self-reflection is surely a prerequisite to this.
Religious people have failed to set an example in the practice of
love. Now is indeed the time for them to repent for not having exerted
themselves fully for the sake of world salvation. Instead, they have been
absorbed in the pursuit of individual salvation and denominational interests.
Mere belief in love is not enough. It must be accompanied by its practice. God
is calling the leaders of society, but in particular the religious leaders. He
wants us to challenge the injustices and sins of the world and establish true
love in their place. All religious people should become one in heart,
representing and carrying out God’s aspirations for all people.
World peace can be realized through a synergy between the
statesmanship and measures of politicians, who represent the body and the
secular world, and the wisdom and effort of religious leaders, who represent
the mind and the world of the spirit. The time has come for us to seriously
reflect even on such a matter as restructuring the United Nations.
Let us imagine the UN adopting a two-house structure. We can think of
changing the existing United Nations, which consists of national
representatives who speak for their own nation’s interests. Consider
establishing a religious council or UN senate, consisting of distinguished
religious leaders and leaders in fields pertaining more to the heart—for
example, culture and education. As a body representing a global perspective,
this religious council would have to address the interests of all people,
transcendent of regions or nations. Through mutual respect and cooperation,
these two houses of the UN would be able to contribute enormously to the
realization of world peace. The political wisdom of the world’s leaders could
thus be effectively complemented by the wisdom and vision of the world’s most
prominent religious leaders.
I am confident that the moral vision and exemplary lifestyle of
religious leaders can be a lamp for humankind, not only pointing the way to the
world beyond this one, but also teaching the road to genuine happiness and
peace on this earth.
Religious leaders should become ideal leaders who not only inherit and
pass on the precious and holy wisdom of their great traditions, but also lead
lives of unselfish service. Selfishness disqualifies any leader, whether
religious or political.
A fund for world peace
Through the regular holding of conferences to bring religious leaders
together, I have been striving to carry out true love education transcendent of
religious denomination and nationality. Last year, I and other religious
leaders worldwide took the lead in suggesting that all religious people donate
money of an amount based on the number seven, and thus pioneer the creation of
a fund for world peace. Individuals and nations have different economic
circumstances. For some, seven dollars would be a large offering; for others,
seven million dollars would be possible. If all religious people of the world
were united in heart, they would be able to not only raise funds, but also use
the money effectively to promote the ideals of true love and the value of
raising exemplary families.
Respected leaders, we should work together to implement a system
through which the highest expressions of religious wisdom are brought to the
table at which the world’s most serious and urgent problems are being
addressed. Such a system can be achieved by creating a council of religious
leaders within the framework of the United Nations. Today, I would like to ask
you to establish the IIFWP as a first step in realizing this goal. In addition,
it is my sincere hope that you will generously offer your own experience,
wisdom and effort as we work to realize these highest of ideals. Especially, I
ask the world of religion to focus on education of true love.
I am confident that the IIFWP will make a decisive contribution to the
realization of world peace, and I pray that God will bless you, your families
and your work.
Thank you very much.
13
The Direction for the World and
the United Nations
August 18, 2000
United Nations
Headquarters, New York, USA
Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace
Assembly 2000
Distinguished leaders, honored guests, ladies and gentlemen:
Today, in this beautiful and stately building where the United Nations
General Assembly meets, I greet you with deep gratitude for the opportunity to
express my passionate concerns and views about “The Direction for the World and
the United Nations.”
The need to reorganize the UN to realize world peace
The sole purpose of all my undertakings in many areas over the past
forty years has been the realization of a peaceful world that is the desire of
God and humanity. This longing for a peaceful world has also been the core
reason I have dedicated myself to the promotion of interreligious harmony and
cooperation.
In the twentieth century, humanity has experienced many severe conflicts
and unspeakable acts of violence, especially through the horrors of the two
world wars, and through the seventy years of communism and the Cold War. When
the Cold War ended, the world had a brief moment of celebration, as if peace
had arrived.
But then soon humanity realized that the end of the Cold War did not
automatically mean the advent of an age of peace. Even at this moment, fierce
wars and brutal massacres are going on in numerous places around the globe.
Conflicts arise for many reasons. But one of the primary factors contributing
to their emergence is the deep-rooted disharmony that exists among the world’s
religions. Therefore, when we witness the many global tragedies occurring
around us, we should recognize how critically important it is that the
religions come together, dialogue with one another and learn to embrace one
another.
In the modem age, religious ideals have come to hold a place wholly
separate from the centers of secular political power in most nations, and most
people have come to accept this, as the way things ought to be. I believe,
however, that it is time that international organizations whose purpose is to
support the ideal of world peace reconsider their relationship with the great
religious traditions of the world.
On this point, the United Nations, more than any other international
organization, can set a good example and lead the way. The world has great
expectations for the United Nations as an organization embodying humanity’s
aspiration for peace. In the United Nations, the representatives of all nations
work in concert to promote peace and human prosperity.
Of course, the conscientious efforts to establish peace, undertaken by
these national representatives at the United Nations, often meet stubborn
resistance. The accomplishments and achievements attained through the United
Nations have been significant. However, there is much room for improvement. I
believe there is an urgent need today, within the United Nations and through
its many activities, to encourage mutual respect and increased cooperation
between the world’s political and religious leaders.
The original ideal for human beings is that we live with our mind and
body united in resonance with God’s true love. It is because human beings
resemble God as His sons and daughters that the mind and body of each
individual can truly unite without struggling against each other. Within God
there is no disharmony between internal and external characteristics. This is
so because the absolute God has no contradiction or conflict within Himself.
Interreligious and international activities I have carried out
The human ideal to achieve
oneness of mind and body can be realized only when people completely possess
God’s true love. The biblical verse, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they
will be called children of God,” illustrates this point. (Matt. 5:9)
Peacemakers are persons whose mind and body are in unity centering on the true
love of God.
As a result of the Fall, we lost the standard
by which our minds and bodies could be brought into oneness and harmony, and
humanity has lived in internal strife and self-contradiction. The clashes of
the mind and body within the individual have expanded and now manifest
themselves in the family, society, nation and world. For example, this
unresolved struggle between mind and body is what precipitated the elder
brother Cain’s murder of his younger brother Abel.
All the conflicts and wars in history have been essentially battles
between a Cain camp, relatively tending toward evil, and an Abel camp,
relatively tending toward goodness. Humanity must end these struggles between
Cain and Abel camps and restore the original state of harmony and love. To do
this, each of us must end the conflict between our mind and body, and bring
them into harmonious union.
The principle that mind and body must be united should be applied and
practiced not only by individuals, but it should be applied on the worldwide
level. For this purpose, I founded a number of organizations to achieve world
peace. For example, I established a number of interreligious initiatives, such
as the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, to promote cooperation among
religions, which represent the internal world of the mind. Also, to address the
external management of human affairs, representing the body, I have worked to
promote harmony among nations through the activities of the Federation for
World Peace, the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, the Federation
of Peninsula Nations for World Peace and the Federation of Continental Nations
for World Peace. Most recently, signifying the emergence of an era when mind
and body, or religion and rational governance, can work together cooperatively,
I founded the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace.
At their root, human problems are not entirely social or political,
and so social and political approaches will always be of limited effectiveness.
Although secular authorities rule most human societies, religion lies at the
heart of most national and cultural identities. In fact, religious faith and
devotion have far greater importance in most peoples’ hearts than do political
loyalties.
Proposal for a bicameral UN assembly
The time has come for religion to renew itself and manifest true
leadership in the world. People of faith should feel responsibility for the
plight, suffering and injustices experienced by the world’s peoples. Religious
people have not been good examples in the practice of love and living for the
sake of others, and for this reason should engage in deep self-reflection. It
is time for religious people to repent for their preoccupation with individual
salvation and narrow denominational interests. Such focuses have prevented
religious bodies from giving their utmost to the cause of world salvation.
Our age more than any other demands that we go
beyond our faiths, and the interests of particular religions, and put our love
and ideals into practice for the sake of the world. In particular,
God calls upon us leaders, especially religious leaders, in hope that we will
stand against the injustices and evils of the world, and bestow His true love
upon the world. Hence, all people of faith must become one in heart in order to
give full expression, both in words and actions, to God’s passionate desire for
humanity’s restoration and peace.
World peace can be fully accomplished only when the wisdom and efforts
of the world’s religious leaders, who represent the internal concerns of the
mind and conscience, work cooperatively and respectfully with national leaders,
who have much practical wisdom and worldly experience about the external
reality that houses the physical body. In this light, it is time for us to give
serious consideration even to the prospect of restructuring the United Nations.
For example, perhaps it is possible to envision the United Nations as a
bicameral institution.
The existing United Nations structure, composed of national
representatives, may be regarded as a congress where the interests of each member
nation are represented. However, I submit that serious consideration should be
given to forming a religious assembly, or council of religious representatives
within the structure of the United Nations. This assembly or council would
consist of respected spiritual leaders in fields such as religion, culture and
education. Of course, the members of this interreligious assembly will need to
have demonstrated an ability to transcend the limited interests of individual
nations and to speak for the concerns of the entire world and humanity at
large.
The two chambers, working together in mutual respect and cooperation,
will be able to make great advances in ushering in a world of peace. The wisdom
and vision of great religious leaders will substantially supplement the
political insight, experience and skill of the world’s political leaders.
Construction of peace zones in all border areas
Even at this moment, more and more conflicts are breaking out across
the world over disputed borders. As a result, the world is sustaining
substantial loss of human life. In addition, the money poured into war-making
and peacekeeping runs into the billions of dollars. So many resources and
efforts are being wasted. Yet comprehensive solutions have not been fully
achieved with respect to any given conflict.
To solve this problem, I would like to make some proposals for your
consideration: I propose today that the United Nations and religious leaders
join their hearts and work to create peace zones in areas of conflict. Whether
the disputed borders pass through rivers, mountains, fields, or the sea, we can
create buffer zones or peace zones along these borders.
These zones would be governed directly by the United Nations. People
from around the world dedicated to the establishment of peace would be allowed
to settle in these zones. The United Nations would be responsible to provide
guidance to those living in these areas so that they come to embody the
founding ideals of the United Nations and comply with its declarations for peace.
These peace zones would be havens that exist for the sake of peace,
prosperity and reconciliation. They would be free of racial and sexual
discrimination, human rights violations and war. These areas would also be
ecological and environmental havens for the entire natural world.
To create such zones of peace, freedom and ecological harmony, the
concerned nations would have to be willing to provide the necessary land. This
is not a simple matter, for there will be resistance to the surrender of land,
even for a peace zone. I have dedicated much effort toward finding solutions to
this problem, particularly as it applies to my native land, Korea.
I have taught that there is a providential significance to Korea,
having been a paramount victim of the Cold War. As you know, both the division
of Korea and the war that followed were outgrowths of the Cold War. The Korean
War, in which the youth of sixteen countries shed their blood under the United
Nations flag to protect freedom, was a righteous war unprecedented in history.
I remain ever grateful to the United Nations and those sixteen nations. Yet the
peaceful unification of Korea remains to be accomplished. For this reason I
have continually pondered about the United Nations’ solemn mission for building
a world of peace and how this relates to God’s providence.
I sincerely hope that the current mood of reconciliation and
cooperation between South and North Korea, which began last June, will
continue. I hope the entire demilitarized zone along the 155-mile military
demarcation line that crosses the Korean Peninsula can be turned into a peace
zone under UN jurisdiction. I believe the United Nations will take the lead in
this effort and build exhibition halls, museums, educational sites and peace
parks in this zone in order to teach visitors important lessons regarding
peace.
I am purchasing almost 1.2 million hectares of fertile land in South
America’s MERCOSUR countries to help compensate countries for any land they may
lose as a result of the establishment of UN peace zones. I have already
notified leaders of North and South Korea that I am prepared to turn over to
them portions of that land in South America for their use.
As I make this proposal public, it is my fervent hope that world
leaders of goodwill can understand this purpose and join with me. In
particular, I hope that they will join me in willingly donating their land and
money for use in creating UN-supervised peace zones. These zones, under UN
leadership, will give rise to ideal moral societies where nature and people
live in harmony.
Preparing a fund to build a world peace zone
In December 1998, I proposed the founding of an international peace
fund in an address I gave to religious leaders gathered for an international
conference that had as its theme, “Realizing the Interfaith Ideal: Beyond
Dialogue into Practice.” All the leaders who participated in that conference
resolved to initiate a movement in which the world’s religious people would
lead the way in making donations for world peace. We proposed that donations be
given in amounts related to the number seven.
Because various individuals and countries face differing economic
realities, one person might find it difficult to give even seven dollars,
whereas someone else might be able to give as much as seven million dollars.
I believe that if all religious people on earth become one in heart,
they will actively participate in this fundraising effort. The fund thus
created would be used to establish peace zones and to teach the ideals of peace
and the methods to achieve it.
In addition to religious people, the United Nations too could
encourage all nations and their peoples to make annual contributions to this
fund.
These funds might be donated under the name of the “white cross fund.”
Wealthy philanthropists, business leaders and industrialists, leaders in other
fields, along with individuals and organizations, would be encouraged to
actively participate in the construction of UN peace zones. In this way, they
could lead the way in raising the necessary funds and creating an atmosphere of
peace.
Furthermore, one of the reasons I founded the Interreligious and
International Federation for World Peace was to help create an interreligious
assembly to serve as a senate or council within the United Nations. To
implement this plan, I propose that each nation, in addition to its current
ambassador, send a religious ambassador to the United Nations to serve as a
member of the religious assembly, or UN senate.
The mission statement of the representatives to this UN senate would
require that they have a genuinely ecumenical or interreligious consciousness
and that they have the training and ability to teach a universal, transnational
ideal of peace. The nature of their purpose and mission would prohibit their
promoting the narrow interests of a particular country. Rather, they would
carry out their duties for the ideal of peace in the world and for the sake of
all humanity in accordance with God’s Will.
The interreligious ambassador appointed as a member of the United
Nations senate or council should have a global consciousness and take
responsibility to represent the United Nations’ global vision and agenda. In
this sense, these persons could be thought of as global ambassadors from the
United Nations.
Wherever they go in the world, these ambassadors would promote
movements dedicated to the realization of peace and social welfare. Moreover,
in all nations, they would serve as conscientious guardians of lofty ideals
such as justice, security and peace.
This will provide hope to the citizens of the world, and especially
the youth. People will then have the opportunity to see with their own eyes the
emergence of young people around the world seeking true love and lasting peace.
Those selected as ecumenical and transnational ambassadors will also be able to
help guide and supervise various UN-sponsored projects in health, education,
welfare and other fields.
I have worked with many groups and organizations to educate people
around the world about the meaning and value of true love and true families,
transcending religious denominations and nationalities. My continuous
investment in this area and ongoing efforts for dialogue and reconciliation
over the last decades have demonstrated beyond any doubt that the strongest
foundation for the unity of humanity is the universal and essential love
generated through the ideal of the true family.
Establishment of an official United Nations commemorative day
Based on these considerations, I urge all the organizations connected
to the United Nations to uphold and promote the ideals of true love and true
families. For this reason, I would like to make another proposal that the
senior decision-makers at the United Nations proclaim, in accordance with
existing procedures and regulations, a special day to be commemorated
worldwide.
I understand that the United Nations has made proclamations such as
the International Year of the Family, and that it has declared various ten-year
objectives such as the Decade to End Poverty. Along these lines, I propose that
the United Nations establish an official commemorative day to uphold the ideal
of the family, so that the world can remember and celebrate this day every
year.
Specifically, I propose that True Parents’ Day be established as a day
of global celebration. At the same time, I propose that True Family Day be
established as a second day of global celebration. By celebrating such a day
each year, transcending the barriers between races, religions and cultures, and
loving and cherishing one another, we will be able to fully experience our true
and common human roots and understand the preciousness of true families.
Additionally, we should establish a UN Forces Day so that the sacred mission of
the United Nations’ righteousness and its peacekeeping forces can be honored.
Respected world leaders, let us join our hands and hearts to improve
our institutions and organizations so that the precious wisdom of religion,
along with that of scholars, diplomats and people of insight and knowledge, can
be mobilized to solve the serious and urgent crises of the world.
I believe solutions to world problems can come about if we establish
the proposed council composed of religious leaders, in cooperation with the
political leaders and diplomats of the current United Nations. The
Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace will promote this
ideal, for religion can offer great service in providing guidance in matters
concerning the Absolute Being, the world of transcendence, our eternal life and
the spirit world. For this purpose, the IIFWP will make devoted and sacrificial
efforts to attain the goal of world peace. It will strive to establish the
kingdom of heaven of eternal love and harmony, and the homeland of God, where
the United Nations’ efforts for peace are honored and where all humanity forms
one universal family as brothers and sisters under God, our Parent.
I believe that the world leaders and officers of the United Nations,
who possess knowledge, experience and wisdom, can offer many recommendations
for implementing the proposals I’ve presented to you today.
If the United Nations, with its origins as a government organization,
cannot fulfill these, then they should be fulfilled through non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) or other private organizations. If we work together and
make continuous effort, peace and happiness will surely be realized on earth.
I pray that God’s blessing be with your families and your endeavors.
Thank you.
14
Breaking Down Barriers to
Establish World Peace
August 18, 2000
United Nations
Headquarters, New York, USA
Universal Peace Award Congratulatory Banquet
Honorable and distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen:
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for the Universal
Peace Award I have received here at the United Nations, the historic landmark
of world peace. Let me use this opportunity to speak briefly on the theme,
“Breaking Down Barriers to Establish World Peace.”
The devil lurks in national borders
Ladies and gentlemen, if we could break down all the barriers in this
world, world peace would come. However, we have to remember that God is not the
owner of barriers. Satan, the devil, was the first to make them.
You have to know that Satan and his followers dwell wherever there are
barriers. Satan and the dynamics of Satan lurk around barriers. Satan sits on
the barrier between eastern and western civilizations, for example.
God did not create the barriers that mark the antagonism between various
cultures, traditions and races. God desires one united world, a world without
barriers. God does not even have the concept of barriers. He does not tell us
to take revenge on our enemies; if He did, it would imply that He had such a
concept.
By loving our enemies and bringing oneness among us, barriers will
naturally come down. Thus, God’s strategy and tactic is to have us love our
enemies. That is a great strategy. It is unfortunate that throughout history to
the present, human beings have not understood the value of the words, “Love
your enemies.”
Unification Church members, as representatives of human history, have
come to understand this strategy and put it into practice. By exemplifying
these words, they have become leading lights that can
bring peace to the world.
Reason for carrying out a movement to end barriers What
do you think? When our hearts are not happy, when our bodies are not
comfortable, when we are dissatisfied with our actions, when we speak angry words,
don’t we create barriers? Therefore, unless we unite our mind and body and
express that unity through our five senses, we will throw up barriers of many
kinds. For this reason, we need to reflect upon how many barriers we are living
with in our daily lives. When we say, “Go beyond
having enemies. Stop building barriers,” some might think of what Jesus said,
that if your eye offends you, pluck it out.
Actually, there are two kinds of eyes. If our eyes do not
differentiate evil from goodness, and welcome anything we see simply as good,
then enormous barriers will be built. The same is the case with our ears. If we
rejoice when hearing the words of goodness or truth, and at the same time
listen to the evil words of this world and support them, then our ears will
build barriers.
Some Christian denominations have rules against singing popular
secular songs, but members of the Unification Church are not prohibited from
doing so. The question is not whether the songs we sing are popular or classical, it’s how we digest the lyrics of those songs.
Does singing the song create a barrier, or does it break down a barrier? If by
singing a certain song or by speaking rough language a person breaks down a
barrier and thereby creates a wider and less constricted world, certainly that
will please God.
In sum, wherever we maintain barriers, whether through our senses or
in our environment, we belong to Satan’s side. On the other hand, if we say,
“There are no barriers anywhere!” we can stand on God’s side. If Satan is the
champion at building barriers, God is the master of breaking them down. God,
the King of kings, does not like barriers at all. He hates barriers the most.
Ladies and gentlemen, look at the Korean Peninsula. Do you think God
appreciates a Korean who says that the demilitarized zone (DMZ) at the
thirty-eighth parallel that divides the peninsula is a good thing? Of course
not! Hence, if someone works hard to remove it, that person will become God’s
favorite. If all the seventy million Koreans determine to live for the cause of
removing the DMZ at the Thirty-eighth Parallel, the reunification of North and
South Korea will arrive without doubt.
That task, however, will not be easy. We must understand that those
who want the DMZ at the Thirty-eighth Parallel to continue on the Korean
Peninsula are on the side of Satan, the devil. Satan is the master of keeping
it, and God is the master of the efforts to remove it. That is why Unification
Church members have been leading a reform that will render the DMZ unnecessary.
Ladies and gentlemen, when the day comes that people everywhere want
their children to marry their enemies, desiring to have sons- and daughters-
in-law from among their enemies, the entire world will be automatically united.
This is the gift that I would like to offer to you tonight. Where barriers
exist, certainly Satan and his followers reside. God and His people, born of
His lineage, dwell where love and harmony abound, without barriers.
Today, Unification Church members are very interested in developing
the leisure industry, which encourages people to travel around the world and
live anywhere they desire. This is to envision a future international
federation based on the United Nations, established someday in whatever location
and by whatever name. When it is established, we would all come together under
the banner of this international federation. For this purpose, Rev. Moon
suggested to Unification Church members that they generate a special fund,
called the Total Living Offering. In the future, we will use this fund to
facilitate the development of this international federation of the United
Nations.
In the Old Testament, animals representing the creation were
sacrificed on behalf of human beings. They were divided into two, which
represented two parties struggling against each other, the right side in the
position of God and the left side in the position of Satan. Then, as a result
of the mistakes of some of the central figures in the Old Testament Age, God
and Satan came to struggle over Jesus who, as the Son of God, had a value far
above that of the creation. As a result, when Jesus, the Son of God, came to
earth, he shed his blood. His spirit belonged to God but Satan killed his
physical body.
Because Jesus wanted to recover his physical body, he proclaimed that
he would return.
Jesus, the Son of God, was divided between the two realms, and
problems have continued to plague the spirit world and the physical world.
Further, men and women were divided, and the mind and the body were divided.
Continual conflict and struggle have persisted. Therefore, Jesus, who went to
the spirit world to restore God’s dominion over that world, has to return to
earth in order to restore Gods ownership of the physical world and bring oneness
between the two worlds. What then would he do upon returning to earth? He would
marry and establish his family.
Satan took Jesus’ body and the physical world with it, while God was
able to claim Jesus’ spirit and the spirit world as His. In the spirit world,
Jesus has been toiling for two thousand years to lead God’s dispensation
centered on Christianity, to guide the hearts of people on earth to move in one
direction. However, Christianity also was divided into two: East and West, and
then Catholic and Protestant. Christians became enemies to each other and
fought each other just as Cain, the elder son, fought his younger brother Abel.
This struggle between brothers has become a fight between Satan’s side
and God’s side. The eldest son stood on Satan’s side and the younger son stood
on God’s side. Thus human history has developed, constantly creating more
barriers, multiplying conflict. We, therefore, have to liberate ourselves from
this tradition of engaging in struggle and building barriers.
When the Lord returns, he will unite the heavenly world. Then, to
bring oneness between heaven and earth, he will conduct marriage ceremonies,
bringing together men and women from tribes and nations that have been divided
for thousands of years. He will conduct this providence centered on the realm
of Christian unity. This is the vision of the marriage of the Lamb prophesied
in the Bible.
Christianity is in the same position as the chosen people of Israel in
Jesus’ day. There was a wonderful opportunity immediately after World War II,
when heaven and earth could have been united centered on Christianity. At that
time, the Christian cultural sphere was united and leading the world. With
Jesus playing the leading role in the spirit world, a united Christian cultural
sphere prevailed throughout the earth. This was a perfect time for Jesus to
return in substance to the earth and marry his bride, the substantial Holy
Spirit, and for them to live as true husband and wife. They could have laid the
foundation to resolve the world’s problems resulting from the division between
mind and body and between man and woman, and could have built the veritable
kingdom of peace on earth. I am not talking about something vague and unclear.
The way to break down barriers between nations Who
would have been married first from the perspective of God’s ideal of creation?
It was supposed to have been Adam and Eve. However, due to their Fall, they created the first human barrier, which was the
source of all subsequent barriers. Now, in order to break down those barriers,
all men and women have to be restored to the state prior to the Fall and then marry. Then our ancestors and God also will
rejoice with dancing. When such a world arrives, it will be the kingdom of
heaven on earth.
It goes without saying that such a day has never existed in human
history. Instead, human beings have been grieving and struggling in pain,
blocked by countless barriers. Accordingly, the starting point of peace in the
world requires that human beings find the way to break down that primary
barrier. Because the people of the world have not understood this, Rev. Moon
has come to this world in the position of the True Parent, giving God’s
Blessing to the men and women of the world and showing the world, for the first
time in human history, the way to resolve the most fundamental human problems.
Even if there are a million barriers, I am certain I can break them down. How
can I do it? True love is what makes it possible. To get rid of these barriers,
we have to know true love as God knows true love, otherwise we cannot do it.
This means that we have to know God one hundred percent.
Ladies and gentlemen, the spirit world includes heaven and hell. If
heaven is likened to a world of daylight, then hell can be likened to darkness.
If someone is unable to tell the difference between day and night, how can he
or she possibly deal with the barrier between the realms of heaven and hell? It
is impossible. Only a person who knows the real difference can have dominion
over the two worlds. The person who clearly knows the substance of hell can
eliminate the darkness. God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, can eliminate
the darkness. Someone who knows what God knows can also eliminate the darkness.
However, can you say that you know God? How well do you know Him? Is it your
understanding that God is pleased with wealth, power or knowledge? Such a God
can never bring liberation to human beings.
You must know God fully in order to expel Satan completely and resolve
the fundamental problems of this world. Moreover, even if you know God
completely, do you also know what it is about God that can bring down all the
barriers erected over thousands of years? This is the important thing. God is
the master of the universe. Then is there an environment where God can dwell, a
neighborhood and a nation where God can dwell? In order for us to know God, we
have to restore His nation, a realm that is receptive to His governance.
Still, the earthly environment is strewn with numerous barriers. If
those barriers were removed, a world with which God would be happy would
result. Wouldn’t all creation like to be governed by God? Indeed, all creation
is anxious to be liberated from its groaning, from the pain and exploitation
caused by Satan’s control, and from the many barriers that divide it.
The traditions and ideology of the heavenly kingdom
Ladies and gentlemen, most important of all, we need to understand God
clearly, and we need to understand the way to build the kingdom of God. Then
wherever we go and whatever situation we are in, we will receive answers about
how to deal with difficulties among the world’s diverse cultures and
traditions.
Surely, God exists in heaven. However, countless barriers block
today’s world. How did this happen? It happened because few people know God,
His kingdom and the tradition in His kingdom. Once all people clearly know
these things, liberation will take place in both the spirit world and physical
world. We will even be able to call out, “Depart, Satan!” and he will obey.
Then we will come to know the ways through which we can live in unity with
God’s heart and with His kingdom, in a culture with heavenly traditions and
values. We will be the ones who live with true love for the sake of others.
Therefore, instead of seeking love for our own sake, we need to love
others for their sake, making them masters of love and letting them dance with
love. Thus, we can become God’s heirs, people who know God and beautify and
protect His kingdom. Satan will have no way to interfere with the heirs of God.
If you love your enemies, transcending your anger and hatred even in
situations where they killed the ones you love, you will gain dominion over the
world of enemies, and Satan will retreat. Eventually, the world of your enemies
will respect you. If you live for the sake of others to the extent that you
love your neighbors more than your own parents, then Satan will disappear.
Whatever you have given, you will receive it back a thousand times over as a
reward from God.
Again, what is the secret of knowing God, His kingdom and His thought
that will enable us to remove Satan from everywhere? It is to live for the sake
of others, die for the sake of others and practice love for the sake of others.
When we do that, Satan will certainly flee. And he will not just flee without
doing anything. Before he leaves, he will break down all the barriers that he
had erected around us. What will happen next? Once Satan is gone, the people
who had been headed for hell will be able to rise up and enter heaven by
practicing these principles of eternal life. Eternal life will finally become a
reality.
People who call on God, the source of love, as their Father will
earnestly desire to practice God’s tradition of living for others and will continue
to do so for tens of thousands of years. This is how individuals can become the
people of eternal life, practicing the tradition of eternal life, endowed with
God’s eternal lineage.
The attributes of eternal life and love
Eternal life is essentially an attribute of love. Even God, when He
created the universe, adhered to the standards of absolute faith, absolute love
and absolute obedience. God lives this way, always desiring to invest greater
love for the world, even though everything in the world is transient. For this
reason, there is no being that cannot help but attend Him as the absolute,
unique, unchanging and eternal Lord.
We, who are created as God’s children, likewise need to be able to
completely invest our own love absolutely and eternally. If we do so, then the
kingdom of God will become our kingdom, and God will belong to us. In short,
our lifestyle will be the same as that of God, the master of the heavenly
tradition. Then we shall surely become God’s sons and daughters, and eternal
life and immortality consequently will be ours. That is why the Bible verse,
“For whoever wants to find his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life
for my sake will find it,” (Matt. 16:25) is so true, although it may sound
paradoxical.
Ladies and gentlemen, even though God is an omnipotent Being, has He
ever been made the owner of love? True love is not something you can have by
yourself. What it implies is that you cannot receive love when you are alone.
For love, man absolutely requires woman. This is because it is only through the
existence of woman that, by earning woman’s love, man can have the right to be
the owner of love. These are amazing words.
If a man is without a woman, he cannot avoid living as a bachelor, no
matter how great he is. What does the word bachelor mean? It means a man living
alone. That is why he is pitiable. No matter how remarkable he is in other
respects, a man living alone cannot achieve true love.
God has true love, true life, true lineage and true conscience. The
conscience He has is not roughhewn; instead, it is level and smooth. Yes, He
has all these things, but what is the one thing through which the value of
having them is realized? That value can never be
realized when one is isolated and alone.
Why is this so? Even if a man is so remarkable that he is made a prime
minister or a president, and he talks grandly, when all is said and done, he is
only half a human being when by himself. This is the case for both men and
women. Without a doubt, a man is only a half of the whole. Why is a man only
half? A man only has the convex and not the concave. In order to attain
complete love, you need both the concave and the convex. In order for a man to
make up for the concave that he is missing, he needs his other half, which is
the woman. Together with the woman, he can finally complete true love.
Yet, when we look into the Fall of our first
human ancestors, we see that they were unable to unite their body and mind as
one with the lineage of God. Instead, they became connected to the bloodline of
Satan. They could have formed three generations, bringing forth the
grandchildren of God, but such grandchildren did not come to be.
Descendants of God are multiplied after restoring the three
generations through the providence of salvation. They are connected to the
lineage of God and are, without a doubt, the seeds of the sons and daughters
desired by God and by Adam. Once they are planted, regardless of where it may
be, they can feed on the milk of their parents as original sons and daughters,
grow up, and live in the kingdom of heaven automatically. Instead, due to the Fall, the lineage of Satan came to writhe in our bodies.
That is why we need to do something that will sever our bloodline and drain
that blood from our bodies ten times, twelve times. We need to die and come
back to life.
Nonetheless, it is difficult to change a polluted bloodline. This is a
big problem. Have you ever thought about the state your body is in? It is
horrifying to face the fact that that we are wretched people, with the blood of
our enemy for countless of generations enveloping our bones and our flesh and
writhing within us, and that our bodies have conquered our minds and are
ravaging them.
What would have been a north-south connection became an east-west
connection, and this was the Fall. Then the question
is, how can this ill-begotten east-west connection be
righted to become a north-south connection? The treatment to sever the wrong
connection and make the right connection is the Blessing of the Unification
Church. The marriage Blessing ceremony connects people to the original lineage.
The meaning of the Blessing in the Unification Church Originally, if
Adam and Eve had not fallen, they would have become the external parents
connected by lineage centering on the true love of God. They would have become
one with the internal Father, God, and become the spiritual and physical human
ancestors living in the absolute true love of God. The point in time when Adam
and Eve were to stand at the central focal point was the moment when they were
to make love for the first time on the night of their wedding, and thus become
one in body in love centering on God. However, through the Fall of Adam and
Eve, that was lost. God had planned to plant conjugal love in human beings, yet
He was not able to secure a place to plant it. And so He became miserable.
Can God experience love by Himself? Even if a woman is wonderful and
beautiful, she still needs someone in the form of a man, even a man of minimal
ability and shabby appearance. A woman may have love, life, lineage and
conscience in her heart, but they will not be stirred up until a man appears.
Until then, love will not be activated and, centering on love, life will not be
activated, the lineage will not be set aflame, and the conscience will not
stand as the object partner. Similarly, through the appearance of the object
partner, that is, through the appearance of a woman, the love, life and
bloodline of a man will finally be set aflame.
If Adam and Eve had waited until the age of eighteen, they would have
received the Blessing of God and become husband and wife in the proper way.
They would have become the true ancestors of humanity. However, they fell
because they thoughtlessly played with fire at the age of sixteen.
Ladies and gentlemen, do you know why God is a pitiable Being? Though
He is the great King of true love, He lost the place where He had desired to
become one body with the human ancestors and engage in true love. No matter how
much He adored the true love within Him, this love within Him became nothing
but the love of a widower or widow. In other words, He became a God with the
heart of true love who lost His object partner, and so He is a sad God.
Adam and Eve had the responsibility to become the ideal object partner
in the family of God. They were, in effect, to acquire the position of the
owners of true love and liberate it. Nonetheless, they were not able to fulfill
their responsibility. Their lifelong hope was in God occupying the position of
the owner of true love, but they failed.
In the Blessing of the Unification Church, the first condition is for
the blessed couple to engage in true love in the position of the bridegroom and
the bride of God, and inherit that lost tradition. As long as we do not deny
the true love that engages God for tens of thousands of years and forevermore,
we will without a doubt be His sons and daughters and His blood relations.
Who makes the position of the owner of true love?
Who can make the place where God can truly love a man and woman? Who
can form the position of the owner of true love, wherein He can form the
relationship of lineage? The answer is that only His sons and daughters can
establish true love and lineage, and no one else.
The place where sons and daughters are born is the place where the
dual characteristics of God are divided. You need to know that sons and
daughters have equal value. God cannot love the baby in the womb, except
through your couple. He can love them from the position of the owner of the son
and the owner of the daughter. You can restore this through the baby born in
your family.
In this way, God can become the owner of the time of infancy, then the
owner of the time of childhood, the owner of the time of brothers and sisters,
the owner of the time of husband and wife, and the owner of the time of
parents. God’s final ownership is through the birth of grandchildren. God is
the first generation and Adam and Eve were the second generation, but their
children, who were to have been the third generation, were snatched away by the
devil. Now, through His sons and daughters in place of Adam and Eve, God can
restore through indemnity the position of the owner of true love.
When this comes to pass, God will recognize His sons and daughters as second
parents. He will have the position of Parent, the same position as that from
which He truly loved Adam and Eve. Only by setting up three generations in this
manner can the grandfather and the father truly love the grandchild of God as
the perfected seed for generations to come. Thus, the grandchild can receive
true love from the two generations. The grandparent is the representative of
the spirit world, and Adam, the second generation, represents of the kingship
of the physical world.
The grandchildren are born with the inheritance of the lineage of true
love representing those two kingdoms. Therefore, they are the fruit; they
represent the future kingship of the earth and the heavenly spirit world. This
is how the kingdom of heaven on earth will be governed in the age of the sons
and daughters. From the third generation to all generations, descendants will
multiply as the fruit. Consequently, religion will be unnecessary, for everyone
will be destined to go to the kingdom of heaven as long as they listen to the
words of their parents and become one in the practice of true love. This is the
original creation, the ideal form of the eight stages of true love.
When that is restored, we can transcend the twelve pearly gates of the
heavenly kingdom and the barriers of the earthly world and become members of a
united clan. We can open the gates of the liberated world on earth and the
liberated world in heaven, that is, the kingdom of heaven on earth and in
heaven, which are the palaces of unity. The eight stages are the age in the
womb, the age of infancy and childhood, the age of adolescence, the age of
marrying, the age of bearing children, the age of parenting, the age of grandparenting and the age of kingship. Sorrow is deeply
embedded in God’s heart because we did not establish the tradition based on
this unchanging model of the eight stages of love on earth.
How can we console the One who holds in His heart this deep sorrow
over the failure to realize this eight-stage love? In this world, the eight
stages are riddled with holes. Since True Parents have learned these secrets of
Satan’s crimes and of the heavenly world and are teaching them to others,
providing what has been missing, they can perfect the eight stages.
You can go to the kingdom of heaven by passing through the gate of
lineage. Let’s say you are the object partner of the true love of God during
your time in the womb, infancy and childhood. You then become the object
partner of God at the time of betrothal, and you complete yourself with true authority
as the object partner of God’s true love at the stage of husband and wife,
parents, grandparents and king. Then your family, part of which is in the
visible substantial realm and part of which is in the invisible substantial
realm of God, will be one. You will inherit the lineage of the tradition of
true love, where the body and mind are united as one. Thus, you will
automatically belong to the united realm in heaven and on earth. You will be
the citizens and families of the kingdom of heaven. In short, you will be the
liberated sons and daughters and the liberated owners of the kingdom of heaven.
Let us become the owners of the eight stages of true love Therefore,
men and women need to live with pride as the substantial external form of God.
They need to know the importance of lineage, for it connects the way of husband
and wife and the way of children to the tradition of ownership, and that
tradition is what connects the clan, the nation and the cosmos. This comes
through marriage, which is how a man, who is half, meets a woman, who is the
other half, and becomes with her a couple that can practice complete true love.
God cannot accept something that is only half of what it is designed to
be. Only when a man and a woman come together and become completely one can God
establish the tradition of vertical true love. He does so by coming into them
in a relationship of true love.
Therefore, you need to respect your ancestors and love your fellow
citizens. A king and queen need to be one with their subjects centering on
kingship. A king or queen who forgets his or her subjects is a fraud. He or she
is an heir of the devil. Such a ruler creates barriers.
Now humanity needs to carry out another revolution. We need to receive
the fortune of true love from Heaven, implant it in our families and establish
God as the absolute owner of that true love.
In all respects, we are resultant beings, and so we need to carry out
the great revolution of attending and following God, the causal Being, with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute
obedience. Only in this way can we achieve perfection.
If two subject beings come into existence, they will start promoting
self-centered opinions. This leads inevitably to barriers that block true love.
We need to realize this.
Therefore, from now on do not do anything that
creates barriers in the path of love. Those who say, “My husband must love only me and
not our children; my sons and daughters must love only me and not their
father,” will die unhappy. A woman needs to embrace her sons and daughters and
receive the love of the original Father.
Raise your sons and daughters as the true love fruit of the sperm,
which is the seed of life from your husband, and return them to God. Then you
can belong to God. The gates of God’s eight stages of love were destroyed
because of the woman, and so women have to do their utmost to re-create their
husbands and their sons and daughters. By doing so in blessed
families, the ownership of God’s eight stages of love can be perfected in the
presence of God.
As we do this, we need to prepare the kingship of true love and its
throne. It has to be something of which our family can more than boast, no
matter where we may go. We can go to the twelve pearly gates of the kingdom of
heaven in this world or the next and boast of it. We can visit anyone, from
individuals to families, tribes, peoples, nations, the world and cosmos, in the
kingdom of heaven on earth or in heaven, and boast of it. You need to clearly
understand that, by gaining the right to do so as the sons and daughters who
have perfected the lineage of God, you become the citizens of the heavenly
world and the kingdom of heaven.
I want to emphasize this to you again: what we have to bear in mind is
breaking down barriers. The task includes the dismantling of national barriers
through the work of the United Nations, getting rid of religious barriers,
tearing down ethnic and racial barriers, and ultimately destroying the barriers
in spirit world by ending hell. Since all these barriers stem from Adam and
Eve, the false parents, no one other than True Parents can break them down. God
alone cannot do it, and certainly Satan will not do it—he is the one who has
been creating them. Who can stop Satan’s conflict with God? Only True Parents
can resolve that war, since the false parents allowed it to take root.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you will leave this place this evening
with a determination to go out and break down barriers. Bring this message of
liberation through true love to all human beings, and you will become the
owners of God’s kingdom.
Thank you very much.
15
The Path for America and Humanity
in the New Millennium
February 25,
2001
Garden of Prayer
Cathedral, New York, USA
“We Will Stand!” fifty-state speaking tour in the United States
Respected and distinguished guests from home and abroad:
I would like to express my gratitude to you, the members of the clergy
and leaders from all walks of life, who, despite your busy schedules, have
convened here today to hear my message. I would like to first return all glory
and thanks to God for His constant presence and protection.
Now is the time to complete Heaven’s providence
During the course of my life, I have totally committed myself to the
salvation of humankind centered on God’s Will. As a result, I came to realize
that God is not sitting on a throne of glory and honor but is a God of agony,
grief and lamentation, endeavoring to save His children, who are suffering in
hell as a result of the human Fall. Ever since I
understood the Will of God and His heart, I have lived my life with
single-minded devotion to accomplish His Will, paying no heed to time or space
and forgetting everything else.
When I reflect upon the eighty years of my life filled with
misunderstanding and persecution, it is just amazing that I can be with you
today. I believe it is entirely thanks to God. On this day of such great
significance, in order to understand human history and the world from the
perspective of God’s providence, I would like to speak on the topic, “The Path
for America and Humanity in the New Millennium.”
When viewing human history as God’s providence of salvation, the Last
Days is a turning point when the evil history of Satan concludes and God’s good
sovereignty begins. Accordingly, the Last Days is the time when everything is
brought to fulfillment. Thus, in the Last Days individual perfection is to be
realized, family perfection is to be realized, and the perfection of a people,
of a nation, of the world and finally the complete perfection of the cosmos are
to be realized.
In past ages, whenever the time of the Last Days was heralded in God’s
providence, God led humanity to a God-centered ideology. However, we failed to
fulfill our responsibility to stand in the position of goodness and eradicate
evil history. Nevertheless, God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique,
and God’s Will is also eternal, unchanging and absolute. Therefore, through the
true individual, true family, true society, true nation, true world and true
sovereignty, God will surely build the world in which He can live, freely
traveling and acting both in heaven and on earth.
Then what is the original world for which God is seeking? It is a
world that is centered on the True Parents. However, from the very beginning,
due to the Fall of humankind, we lost the True Parents
of humanity and the true world. Therefore, nothing in the world, not the land
where we are living, human ideology or anything else,
can connect us directly to the True Parents.
Who will take responsibility for this world?
We ourselves must first be restored to trueness. By so doing, when
true parents, true husband and wife, true children, true people, the true
creation, the true sovereignty and the true cosmos are born and can communicate
with God in heart, the evil world will eventually come to an end. The Last Days
are the time when this ideal will be realized. It is the time when the Second
Advent will occur. Accordingly, in the Last Days there will be no catastrophic
physical phenomena such as a judgment by fire, the destruction of the earth or
people levitating into the air. Instead, it is a time when the history of evil
that has been entangled with countless tragedies will be untangled.
Thus, it is the time when all these levels that have lost their
vertical connection with God will be restored. We have been longing for such a
day, and that is the final destination at which we all must arrive.
However, the individual, the family and the nation are estranged.
Moreover, all kinds of problems such as air pollution, food shortage, religious
struggles and racial conflicts are constantly arising throughout the world,
causing disputes and even wars. Who then is going to take responsibility for
this world? This is a serious question. Communist countries in the past could
not transcend nationalism. Nor can today’s superpower nation, America,
transcend the idea of Americanizing the world. When a nation places its
self-interest first, it will not be able to lead the world. Therefore, we need
a people or a nation willing to sacrifice for a higher purpose and to strive to
build or become an ideal nation that embraces the entire world.
With this in mind, I came to this country, the United States of
America, in response to the call of God. I have been investing my utmost effort
to revive America, by educating the youth of a country faced with a moral
crisis and declining Christianity.
The core teachings of True Parents
You might be curious about what I am teaching young people. It is
actually simple. First, it is to live for the sake of others. More
specifically, my teaching is that the individual is to live for the family, the
family for the society, the society for a people, a people for a nation, a
nation for the world and the world for God. If we do this, God will be with us.
In the family, parents need to live for their children, children for
their parents, the husband for his wife and the wife for her husband. Anyone
who lives for others more than for his or her own self will become a central
person on the side of goodness.
Second, I am teaching people to “love your enemy.” God Himself
sacrificed Jesus, His only begotten Son, for our salvation. Since God did this
in order to save the children of His enemy Satan, the devil had no power to
exercise any authority before God. Even Satan has no choice but to surrender
voluntarily before the God who loves Satan’s children more than His own.
Satan’s pattern has always been to strike first, only to lose in the end, and
God’s strategy has been to win in the end by taking the first blow and initial
loss. Living with faith in such a heavenly law is the very secret explaining
how I could lay my foundation, dispatching missionaries to 185 nations
throughout the world despite fierce persecution and misunderstanding.
Even when studying the history of Christian missionary activities, we
discover that theirs was a path of persecution and martyrdom, beset by enemies.
On such a way, during the course of a two-thousand-year history, this trail of
blood became the fertilizer of the soil in which a powerful democracy could
develop. Today, however, Christianity, which once was the source of power and
strength for democracy, is facing a crisis. Christian nations have lost the
right direction; they deny God, Jesus and God’s providence. Now we even hear
voices asserting, “God is dead” or “God does not exist.” Hearing them, how do
you think God feels? His heart has been searching for His children, sacrificing
everything He has, with hope that He could see a great day, and hoping it would
be today.
God’s providence of salvation and Messianism
Ladies and gentlemen, for whom has God been sacrificing Himself? It is not for America, nor is it for Christianity.
It is for each of us—in other words, for you and me as individuals. Likewise,
the reason Jesus was crucified was not to save the Messiah, himself; it was to
save each one of us, you and me. Since the Fall began
on the individual level, salvation must also begin on the individual level.
Accordingly, a representative of all human beings has to come and
proclaim, “I will take full responsibility as a representative of all people. I
will pay off the debt that humanity has incurred during the entire course of
history and I will even become a person to whom God feels indebted.” Without
such a determination, restoration is impossible. Our approach to salvation
cannot be conceptual or theoretical. Unless we are willing to experience
miseries on behalf of God more than anyone who is undergoing suffering in the
world, we cannot reach God’s heart.
Have you ever prayed in desperation for the six billion people of the
world, with a feeling that your own children are dying? How much of your heart
have you invested to save a family, a tribe, a people, a nation and the world,
with a willingness to sacrifice yourself for them? Few people are confident to
say they’ve prayed and invested like this. However, the Lord of the Second
Advent comes to the world to live according to this absolute standard of
investment as the representative of all humanity.
God, who has been leading the providence of salvation, found Abraham
two thousand years after the Fall of the first human
ancestors. God anointed his descendants as the chosen people, Israel, and
multiplied them on every level, as a new family, a new tribe and a new people.
Based on Abraham’s victorious foundation, the Israelites were called as the
chosen people to receive the Messiah. They became the central
people to receive the substantial Messiah who was to come in the future.
If you examine the core of God’s providence of salvation, you can
understand that the standard and ideology that the first human ancestors Adam
and Eve were to have reached and fulfilled needs to be restored. From this
comes the philosophy of the Messiah. In it, the believers stand in the position
of the bride.
Therefore, the ultimate purpose of Christianity is not to build the
kingdom of Christianity or the world of Christianity. Its most important
mission is to prepare to become a bride qualified to receive the bridegroom.
The people of Israel, because of Jesus’ Crucifixion, could not carry out and
pass on this tradition. Although called by God as the First Israel, they fled
their responsibility. Christianity, called as the Second Israel, arose to carry
out the mission instead. God has led the six-thousand-year providence centered
on this one purpose, so Christianity became the bride prepared to receive the
bridegroom. We are now in the final stage of the providence.
Messianism is the restoration of True Parents for world
salvation Then what is the core of the messianic
teaching? It is a teaching to save the world; it is a teaching that can unify
the world and build ideal families, and its main purpose is to restore the
position of the True Parents that was lost by the Fall
of the first human ancestors.
By examining the teaching of the Old and New Testaments, one can
understand that the Messiah comes with the authority of the Father, meets a
substantial bride who represents the power of the Holy Spirit, and then
restores the position of the True Parents. The appearance of the bride and
bridegroom at the marriage supper of the Lamb prophesied in the Book of
Revelation refers to the process of becoming the True Parents by first becoming
a true husband and wife.
Due to the false parents who were influenced by Satan, God lost the
ideal family of Adam. God wanted a true family, a true tribe and a true nation,
but all these were lost. This is why today He has again sent the Messiah to the
earth in order to regain what had been lost. This is God’s providence.
Jesus came with this same mission. However, when he lost his people
and nation due to their faithlessness, he offered his life for the sake of the
world and the kingdom God wished to build. The path of Jesus suffering on the
cross was the same path of tribulation that God Himself walked. In such a
situation of trial and tribulation, Jesus desperately prayed, “Father, forgive
them for they do not know what they are doing.” Even at the threshold of death,
he forgave Rome and the group of people who opposed him, waiting for victory in
the future. Therefore, the life of Jesus did not end at the age of
thirty-three. With God’s help, Christianity inherited his spirit and became one
of the four great worldwide religions in human history.
The development of human civilization and where it bears fruit
Ladies and gentlemen, although America is recognized as the sole world
superpower, if it does not stand straight on the providential line of God, it
will not continue to prosper. Let us look at the history of civilization.
Ancient civilizations were born mainly in the tropics and subtropics.
Examples include the civilizations of the Mayas, Incas, Egypt, Mesopotamia,
India and China. Had we not fallen, civilization would have begun in the warm
zone, corresponding to spring, and then moved to the cool zone, corresponding
to autumn. The cool-zone civilization is centered today on the free world and
Western civilization. In general, the developed countries of the West, nations
such as the United States, England, Germany and others, are above the
twenty-third parallel north.
With the end of the cool-zone civilization corresponding to autumn,
the cold-zone civilization analogous to winter comes for a short time. This is
the appearance of communism. Many intellectuals may think that the Cold War
system disappeared after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, but materialism
and atheism still prevail throughout the world. They manifest in two major
ideologies, democracy and communism, both of which are gradually losing power.
God’s ideal of creation was to have begun in the warm zone akin to
spring, but due to the Fall of the original human
ancestors, human civilization started in the tropical zone. Now, however, the
civilization of the true spring that we have been seeking from time immemorial
will appear, overcoming the crisis of tropical-zone civilization and the
threats of cold-zone civilization.
Who will be able to melt the block of ice frozen in the heart of God?
And how will it be melted? It will not be by power, money, science or
knowledge. As we can see from the movement of civilizations to different parts
of the globe, centering on rivers and coastlines, the center of civilization is
not fixed. Human civilization began to develop around the Tigris, Euphrates and
Nile Rivers. The center of human civilization then shifted to the
Mediterranean, especially focusing upon Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal. Then
it moved to the Atlantic sphere, focusing upon Britain and the United States.
Ultimately it has borne fruit in the Pacific civilization of the United States,
Japan and Korea.
Thus, viewed from the perspective of the history of cultures, the
Korean Peninsula occupies a most important position. To the north of Korea lie
points that link it with the cold-region civilization of Russia and China. To
the south and east lie points that link Korea with the cool-region civilization
of the United States and Japan.
Thus, it is consistent with the providential viewpoint that Korea
would give rise to a warm-region civilization representing the spring season of
world history and having the capability to encompass the cold- and cool-region
civilizations. From this perspective, solving the North-South problem and the
East-West problem can only be described as the culmination of God’s providence.
Rev. Moon has come from Korea to dedicate his life to this purpose. In fact,
throughout my life I have transcended race, ideology and national boundaries to
pursue a movement for one world under God. It is because of God’s providence
that I have traveled this path. This is the principle of providential history,
not a theory that I artificially devised.
The mission and responsibility of religious leaders
I was enlightened regarding the Will of Heaven, and rather than
letting this remain only in my heart, I have worked to bring God’s vision to
reality. There is nowhere in the world I have not been active. I have inspired
evangelical and oceanic enterprises in Alaska, the countries of the former
Soviet Union, the thirty-three countries of Latin America, and throughout Asia
and Africa. We are making preparations to solve problems that humanity will
face in the coming millennium, especially in the areas of environmental
pollution, hunger and disease. In recent years, I have worked in the Pantanal and Amazon regions of Brazil to lay a substantive
foundation to protect the environment.
Addressing internal problems, I have worked through the international
holy Blessing and the Pure Love movement. Some 430 million couples around the
world have participated in these, adding further impetus to the building of the
kingdom of God on earth that God has longed for ages to see.
Ladies and gentlemen, up to now countries possessing superior power politically,
militarily and economically have controlled the world. However, no country can
exist eternally unless it is in line with God’s providence. The fall of the
once-glorious Greek and Roman civilizations are good examples of this.
The United States, which today stands tall as a superpower, is in the
same position as Rome in the past. The fall of Rome came more from internal
moral corruption than from any external pressures. Its moral corruption cut
Rome off from heavenly fortune.
In recent history, political forces favoring dialectical materialism
and the materialistic view of history went so far as to take control of
one-third of the world’s population and two-thirds of its land area, including
the former Soviet Union and China. That hegemony, however, could not long
remain.
The time will soon come when religious leaders who speak for the Will
of God will rise to prominence. Religious leaders are prophets. They are called
to stand in the place God wills, declare His Will, and point the way that humanity
needs to go. Tragically, the splintering of denominations and the struggles
among religious groups that we see today serve no purpose other than to hinder
God’s providence.
True Parents embody humanity’s hopes and history's victories This is
why I have for years devoted 90 percent of our church’s budget to activities
that reach out to other denominations and religions for the sake of resolving
interreligious conflicts. I founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World
Peace for three purposes: to facilitate harmony and unity within and between
religions, to resolve regional conflicts in many areas, and to help bring about
world peace. Most recently, I founded the Interreligious and International
Federation for World Peace, which has held seven international hoondokhae conferences.
All people need to go beyond racial and religious differences,
understand God’s providence to bring His ideal world of creation into reality,
and ultimately unite with His heart. In the end, heart is what will realize the
faith, hope and love we have been pursuing. We must recover the relationship of
heart with God that we lost as a result of the Fall,
and we have to recover the positions of
parent and child as God originally envisioned them to be.
Thus, the Last Days that God has promised us is the time when True
Parents come. In other words, it is the time when the multitudes of people in
the world, who lost their Parent as a result of the Fall,
will again meet their original Parent. Thus, the True Parents are the final
fruit of the desires and hopes of all humanity. They are the final fruit of the
victories wrought throughout human history.
The Unification Church has disseminated this tradition throughout the
world through the international holy Blessing ceremony. The fact that black,
white and yellow people are able to come together as brothers and sisters—
beyond their differences of ethnicity, race or nationality—and form loving
married couples is among the most significant steps in accomplishing God’s
Will. Today, through realizing the blessed family tradition, humanity is
beginning to recover the relationships of brother and sister, husband and wife,
and parent and child as originally envisioned by God. Ultimately, we need to go
even so far as to liberate God, who has been in the depths of sorrow ever since
He lost His children. It is only then that the path to true happiness will be
opened.
Until now, democracy has called for human freedom and human
liberation. But we must also call for God’s freedom and God’s liberation. When
we succeed in relieving God’s sorrow, human liberation and the recovery of
human freedom will follow naturally. Each of us has to realize that we were
born to liberate God and the world.
The United States was built upon the strict Puritan faith
Ladies and gentlemen, there is profound significance to my discussing
God’s providence across the United States. In many ways, the United States is a
country prepared with God’s blessing. The forebears who built this nation were
the Pilgrim fathers and mothers, who risked their
lives to practice their religion and who came to America seeking freedom.
For the sake of their search for true religious freedom, these people
left behind their parents, brothers and sisters, and homeland. They
relinquished their ties to their home country as they crossed the Atlantic
Ocean at the risk of life and limb.
When the Mayflower arrived in New England in 1620, it was late autumn.
That winter, more than half of the 102 Pilgrims died of cold and hunger.
What was particularly remarkable was that they died refusing to eat
the precious seeds reserved for planting the next spring.
The Puritans strongly believed in serving the Will of God in every
aspect of life. After taking in their first harvest, they offered thanks to
God. They first built a fort housing the church and school, and it was only
afterward that they set about to build houses for themselves.
In their pioneering course, the Pilgrims began every activity with
prayer. This was true whether it was plowing a field or governing the
community. When George Washington was at Valley Forge during the War of
Independence, he prayed with great desperation. In that battle fought for the
sake of God-given rights, God sided with America. In England, the king and his
government were fighting the war, but in America it was fought by God and His
sons and daughters. Isn’t this how the United States came into existence as a
country advocating freedom of faith?
Even now, the United States Congress opens with prayer. The president,
when being sworn into office, places his or her hand on the Bible, takes the
oath of office, and receives the blessing of a pastor. America even prints the
words “In God We Trust” on its currency. The level of importance the United
States attaches to God is unique in the world. This is how the United States,
as a Protestant country, came to occupy its position of worldwide influence.
But what about America today? Prayer in
public schools is officially banned. Teachers teach the theory of evolution and
ignore other viewpoints. The divorce rate of around 50 percent is badly
undermining the integrity of the family.
In 1971, I left my family and homeland to come to America, because I
heard the voice of God sharing His concern about the current state of affairs
here. Upon arriving here, I cried out that I had come as a firefighter to a
burning house and as a physician to a sick person. I discovered that God was
leaving America even then. It ought to have been possible to find God
everywhere in America, yet God was departing from the hearts of the people,
from the families and from the schools. It seems like only yesterday that I
stood on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and wept openly as I held on to God to keep
Him from leaving America. Unfortunately, America has persisted in going the way
of moral deterioration, despite my warnings.
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you this: Why do you suppose I continue to cry out to Americans in the face of all the opposition
and suffering I endure? It is because I know better than anyone the blood,
sweat and tears that God shed in the course of establishing this country.
During the past thirty years in America, I have not spent so much as a single
day in comfort.
America should fulfill its responsibility to build God’s kingdom
Who is the master of America? It is neither white Americans nor black
Americans. The true master of America is the person who loves America as God
does.
I continue to plead with Americans because God has chosen this country
as the first son, the nation representing the eldest-son realm in building the
kingdom of God on earth. Even now, Jesus is spiritually present mainly in
America and is offering earnest prayers that his purpose will be accomplished
in this country.
In 1982, in accordance with the Will of God, I founded The Washington
Times in Washington, DC Since then, this newspaper has
led American public opinion as a conservative news outlet, showing the path
that America must follow. Also, I have made strong efforts for national and
world salvation through the True Family Values movement and the Pure Love
movement for young people. I have invested in America with the expectation that
it would stand upright before God’s providence.
When I visited America in 1965, 1 consecrated an area near the White
House as a holy ground, and even today many people gather there and pray for
America through the night. I hope each of you will open your heart and that you
will be able to hear the earnest voices of the Pilgrim fathers
and the many patriots who shaped America’s history.
Ladies and gentlemen, the new millennium that has just begun is the
time period in which God’s six-thousand-year salvation providence is to be
brought to an end and in which God’s ideal of creation is to be realized
throughout the cosmos. This is also the time when the lamentation of creation,
which lost its true masters as a result of the Fall,
will finally end. This is the time when the long-separated Parent and children
will meet again. God, together with us, will establish the new heaven and new
earth, where there are no tears. It is an age when there will be free
communication between the spirit world and the physical world, and when God’s
kingdom will be established in heaven and on earth.
The transition to a new millennium marks the completion of the New
Testament Age, the point at which the promises of the Old Testament and New
Testament are fulfilled. The future will be a time when God’s realm of direct
dominion, including His omnipresence and omnipotence, will become apparent.
Centering on the Parents of Heaven and Earth, it is an age when the East and
West will come together as “one cosmos under God” so that a great family of
humankind is formed on earth. This is the fulfillment of promises of the Old
Testament and New Testament and the perfection of the Completed Testament Age.
The Completed Testament Age will fulfill the promises of the Old and
New Testaments The time has come. The time has come
when America must awaken again. It is time for the country as a whole to create
a new movement to establish true parents, true families, a true country and a
true world centered on God. In this way, America has to keep God from leaving.
You have to again be a society that attends Him. God worked a thousand years to
establish America. If He leaves America, where can He go?
If America attends God properly, all America’s problems—the family
problems, moral problems, youth problems and racial problems—will be solved
naturally. When America becomes a place where people of all races can live
together in harmony, it will be a model for the kingdom of heaven on earth.
It is time for us to unite together and open the path for all human
beings to travel. It is time for America, as the eldest-son nation, to take the
lead in attending God and to complete its mission as the helmsman that can
bring the nations of the world to God. I ask you to stand with me in
accomplishing this historic task.
Again, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you
distinguished guests for your presence here. I would like to conclude by
expressing my hope for the beginning of a new millennial kingdom overflowing
with peace, freedom and justice in heaven and on earth.
16
The Status of Korea, Japan and
the United States from the
Providential Viewpoint
May 21, 2002
Sheraton
National Hotel, Arlington, Virginia, USA Three Nations Conference for leaders
of Korea, Japan and the
United States
Distinguished leaders of Korea, Japan and the United States, ladies
and gentlemen:
I wholeheartedly welcome you to Washington, DC, the capital of the
United States. Korea, Japan and the United States are nations of the Pacific
Rim. Korea and Japan are each other’s neighbors, and both are allies of the
United States. These three nations are linked both internally and externally
and share a common goal.
The twenty-first century is the Pacific Rim era
We are now entering the twenty-first century, which can be called the
Pacific Rim era. Needless to say, these three nations—Korea, Japan and the
United States—will lead the Pacific Rim era. Looking beyond the Pacific region,
the world as a whole is going to try to follow your example. Nonetheless, this
leadership position is not something you can achieve automatically. You can
achieve it only on the basis of strong relations between your nations. In
particular, it absolutely requires reciprocal relationships between the leaders
of these nations.
Therefore, I hope that at this Three Nations Conference you will be
able to discuss the urgent problems you are facing and, at the same time,
strengthen ties of friendship with one another, to prepare the foundation to
pioneer the twenty-first century that is dawning.
Leaders of the three nations, I am not standing on this podium because
I wish to deliver a greeting as a courtesy to the conference participants,
including representatives who have come from as far away as six thousand miles.
Based on my personal, real-life experience as a man who has lived his
life in oneness of heart, oneness of body and oneness of thought with God, I
can say that God is a Being who lives and works through a providence in history
and in reality. Therefore, it is very important to understand the status of
Korea, Japan and the United States from His providential viewpoint.
God’s ideal of creation was for Adam and Eve to attain complete
maturity as His true son and daughter, become True Parents, and form a true
family, all guided by His true love. Then human beings, with those True Parents
and true family as their origin, were to expand and form true societies, true
nations, a true world and heaven and earth, and thus build the kingdom of
heaven on earth and in heaven.
Tragically, Adam and Eve fell while in a stage of immaturity, due to
the false love of the archangel. In the first family, formed by Adam and Eve
who had become false parents instead of True Parents, the fruit of sin was
manifested in the form of the elder brother, Cain, murdering his younger
brother, Abel.
Jesus’ death and the returning Lord, the third
Adam
The Savior, the second Adam who was sent to this world, carried out
the providence of God to restore the original purpose of creation. The foothold
for this providence was the religion of Judaism and the nation of Israel. On
that foundation, Jesus came as the Savior.
From this perspective, Jesus came to accomplish the ideal of True
Parents and to create a true family in the nation of the chosen people of
Israel. From there he was to propagate it to the world. However, the religion
and nation did not believe him. They did not recognize that he was the Messiah.
In the end, their disbelief went to such an extreme that Jesus had no choice
but to walk the path of the cross, leaving behind his promise to come again.
The resurrected Jesus established the foundation for Christianity, the
Second Israel, which became a spiritual kingdom that spread worldwide. World
Christianity carried out the Will of God in preparing to receive the Lord of
the Second Advent, who comes as the third Adam.
The United States is the nation that represents the entire fruit of
Christianity—that is to say, it is the eldest son nation of the Second Israel.
The faith of the founding fathers of the United States and its founding
principles were derived from Christianity. The United States was able to grow
into a strong nation in the land prepared by God. You have come to lead the
world after a short, historic course, thanks to the providence of God. The
purpose of this providence is so that you will prepare for the third Adam, who
comes as the Lord of the Second Advent.
A critical event occurred at the time of World War II, when the
Allies, centered on the United States, Britain and France, were able to defeat
the Axis powers, centered on Japan, Germany and Italy. Thereby the foundation
of Christianity reached its peak globally. Equally critical was the fact that
the United States served as the principal nation to propagate Christianity on
the Korean Peninsula, where the Korean people zealously brought it to fruition.
It is not happenstance that sixteen nations dispatched troops under the banner
of the United Nations to defend Korea, the Third Israel. They supported Korea
at their own sacrifice. Those nations still maintain a special relationship.
All this took place in accordance with the providence of God.
If Christianity thus prepared had received God’s teachings through me
immediately upon the end of World War II, the world could have fulfilled God’s
Will within seven years. Korea, the Adam nation, would have remained united as
one, and the worldwide expansion of the communist realm would have stopped
there. Unfortunately, Christians aggressively opposed and persecuted me. By
going against the central figure of the providence, they turned Christianity
toward the path of decline. Compared to the period right after World War II,
today’s churches have lost almost everything. They lack the life force wrought
by faith, passion and purity.
Britain was to have become the Eve or mother nation, but due to the
inability of world Christianity to fulfill its responsibility, Japan was chosen
instead. The truth is, Japan was quite distant from the central providence of
God in the realm of Christianity, and it has continued to worship the sun
goddess. It was never in a position to have been chosen. To have been chosen
means that it has reaped a windfall. Having said that, I
appeal to Japan to fulfill its new responsibility completely.
Then why is the Savior, who is the center of the providence and sent
by God, continually the object of disbelief? Since this is a world blinded by
the evil sovereignty erected through the human Fall,
it does not welcome the substantial being of goodness. God, of course, worries
about this. This is why He established the chosen people of Israel with the
religion of Judaism to receive Jesus, and He paved a global Christian
foundation to receive the Lord of the Second Advent. Nonetheless, the Savior’s
path has been one of suffering, as a result of the chosen people’s ignorance of
the providence and self-centered thinking in both the First Israel and Second Israel.
The faithful believed that the Messiah would come on the clouds, but
he appeared before them as a man. Therefore, they did not believe him. If you
look up 2 John 1:7, you will see that it points out that even after the
resurrection, some people denied that Jesus Christ came in the flesh, and such
people are called the antichrist. The Old Testament prepared the people to
receive a human Messiah. Those who sent Jesus to the cross, and those who later
denied his physical appearance, interpreted the scriptures wrongly.
If we examine the Bible, we can understand that it contains dual
prophecies. It does so because fallen human beings are fickle. Sometimes, a
person who was following God will perform an about-face, pair up with Satan and
oppose God. Then again, a person who had paired up with Satan will come back to
God and oppose Satan. So prophets present visions of both outcomes, because
both are possible.
One reason for the lack of faith in Jesus in his time
When you look at chapters 9, 11, and 60 in the book of Isaiah, you
find testimony that the Savior will appear majestically as the Lord of glory.
Yet chapter 53 of the same book prophesies that the Messiah will suffer. You
need to know that the type of prophecy that would be fulfilled depended on the
people. Because the people did not believe in Jesus and receive him, the
prophecy in chapter 53 of Isaiah was realized. That which would have come to
pass if the people had believed in him was left unfulfilled. That providence
was prolonged to conclude at the Second Advent.
Based on the principle of restoration through indemnity, the New
Testament also gives dual prophecies with regard to the coming of the Messiah,
in exactly the same manner as the Old Testament. In Revelation 1:7, it is prophesied
that the Lord of the Second Advent will certainly come on the clouds. First
Thessalonians 5:2, on the other hand, says that the Messiah will come like a
thief in the night. How can he come like a thief and at the same time come on
the clouds of heaven? Some Christians today believe that he will come on the
clouds; they ignore the prophecy that he will come like a thief in the night.
Therefore, we have to be wise and learn from the actual circumstances
of the Old Testament Age. Although it may be possible for the Messiah to come
on the clouds, he could just as well come as an average-looking human being.
Now we need to learn the reason the religious and political leaders
killed the Messiah when he came, despite the fact that they were the heirs of a
tradition that had long awaited and expected God to send them the Messiah.
The Book of Malachi in the Old Testament corresponds to the Book of
Revelation in the New Testament. Malachi 4:5-6 states, “I will send you the
prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will
turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to
their parents....” We need to take seriously this definitive prophecy, which
appears at the very end of the Old Testament.
Elijah was the prophet who ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire
nine hundred years before the coming of Jesus. People believed that Elijah, who
had ascended in this way, would return in the same way to announce the Messiah.
What could they do when Jesus proclaimed himself to be the Messiah, even though
there was no sighting of Elijah coming from the sky?
The people naturally asked the disciples of Jesus that if their
teacher was indeed the Messiah, where was Elijah? The disciples went to Jesus
for the answer, and the scene of their asking him is the gist of Matthew
17:10-13.
It is recorded, “And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the
scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ He replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming
and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and
they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased.’... Then
the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.”
When they heard this answer, the people of Israel reacted with even
greater disbelief. They reproached Jesus, accusing him of attaching the name of
Elijah to John the Baptist simply to justify his false claim to be the Messiah.
Furthermore, they called Jesus a blasphemer who was going to ruin Judaism and
the nation of Israel. John 10:20 testifies that many said he was possessed by a
demon.
As can be seen, the standpoint of the people of Israel opposed God’s
Will and His providence in sending Jesus. God sent the Messiah for the sake of
all people, to fulfill His Will on earth. Because Jesus’ religious community
did not support him, he died with such a tangled matter in his heart. Our
ignorance of this is tragic—we need to be aware of this wretched history.
Jesus appeared based on the faith of generations of Jewish people who
were waiting for the Savior. However, and in fact, the accomplishment of God’s
Will through Jesus was to extend beyond their religion and nation to save the
entire world. The hopes of the chosen people on earth went in one direction,
and the Will of Heaven went in another.
The same situation occurred when the Lord returned. The foundation
prepared for the Lord of the Second Advent turned into nothing more than the
Christian foundation of faith, that is, their hope for their salvation alone.
However, the Lord of the Second Advent comes to achieve the world desired by
God, the salvation of all people—nothing less than the ideal world as
originally created.
This world is not just a religious realm where you can attain
salvation by believing in your religious tradition. The Messiah comes to
realize the world of true love through the True Parents, a world that has
nothing to do with the Fall. This will be a world
where religion is unnecessary, a world that will have graduated from the school
of religion.
The essence of the Creator God is true love. True love is the
altruistic love of giving and giving again and not remembering it. I have lived
my whole life investing and giving myself for the Will of God to establish the
kingdom of heaven through this true love.
The three nations at the center of the providence—Korea, Japan and the
United States—are in the position to set an example by being models of the
ideal world of peace. Only when they live for the sake of the world and the
whole, giving magnanimously to others in accordance with the heavenly way, will
they attain great prosperity and the infinite blessings of God. If they pursue
only their own national profit, they will not be able to maintain their status
as the center of the providence, and they will even come to lose what they
have.
Life lived by investing for the greater good
I hope you will accept the words I am speaking from my deepest heart,
citing lessons from the history of Judaism and Christianity. I know very well
that the leaders from Japan in particular may have difficulty understanding me,
for they do not have much of a Christian foundation. However, I hope you will
realize that today’s Japan is also at the center of the providence. You are
quite close to God, even though He has carried out His historical providence
through the Christian realm until now.
I have lived my whole life by investing myself for the greater good in
order to fulfill God’s ideal of creation on earth and in heaven. From the
providential viewpoint I have outlined, I would like to tell you about some of
the things on which I have focused my efforts until now.
First, the celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the founding of
The Washington Times will be held this evening. I want to tell you why I
founded The Washington Times and invested an enormous amount of funds in it for
the past twenty years. I have not the remotest concern about gaining political
influence. I founded it based on my desire to make the United States, a central
nation in God’s providence, stand upright and fulfill its global responsibility
through the principle that will save the world and save the nation.
The blessings the United States is enjoying as a superpower in terms
of political influence, economic development and global military presence are
not for the United States alone. If the motto at the founding of the United
States was the ideal of one nation under God, from now on it must go further
and aim for one ideal heaven and earth under God.
Second, dialogue and harmony among religions are decisive conditions
for realizing a world of peace. Though their religious rituals and doctrines
may differ, the fundamental teachings of the world’s religions aspire toward
goodness and in this they are one and the same. Furthermore, religions were
begun within God’s providence to eradicate spiritual ignorance, in forms
befitting particular cultural backgrounds. Henceforth, they need to come
together under the banner of world peace through ideal families.
I have founded numerous organizations, including the Interreligious and
International Federation for World Peace; the World Association of Non-
Governmental Organizations, a movement networking United Nations
non-governmental organizations; and the American Clergy Leadership Conference,
leading the True Family Values movement in the United States. Each is
contributing to the same global vision. To bring about dialogue and harmony
among different religions during the past forty years, I have invested more
than ten times the budget of my own Unification Church. I support this
interdenominational and interreligious movement because I know it is the Will
of God.
Third, I have striven to help the world become a global village living
as one great family, where the conflicts between races are resolved and we can
live as brothers and sisters under the one God. The races are all children of
God standing on an equal footing. Neither skin color nor historical background
indicates superiority or inferiority in any way. Realizing the ideal of true
families transcending race through the marriage Blessing centered on God is the
shortcut to establishing one peaceful world.
Having understood this, I have officiated at international and
intercultural marriage Blessing ceremonies transcending race, nationality and
culture since the 1960s. In particular, the number of people across the world
desiring to wed citizens of your three nations—Korea, Japan and the United
States—is increasing. As the world grows closer and closer, the precious value
of the international Blessing will shine all the more brightly.
Providential status of the three nations
At this time, I would like to look into the fundamental relationship
between your three nations from the providential perspective. Human history is
the history of God’s providence of salvation, and the providence of salvation
is the providence of restoration, as it is a project to recover what was lost.
Therefore, the relationship between Korea, Japan, the United States
and the world of today can be seen as the global expansion of the Fall. The Fall involved Adam, Eve
and the archangel in the Garden of Eden, and Cain and Abel, whose relationship
was the first fruit of the fallen family. We have to interpret the
international relations unfolding in the Last Days, when the history covering
six thousand biblical years is being indemnified, from this providential
perspective.
Japan is a nation that by tradition worships a goddess—the sun
goddess. That is why male leaders from Japan are representing the feminine, Eve
nation at this conference, whereas mostly women leaders are attending from
Korea and the United States. Korea is the Adam nation, the father nation in the
providence, and so the Korean women leaders need to stand as the fathers
younger sisters and make dedicated efforts together with him for God’s Will.
Originally, Christianity stood in the position of the bride before the
coming Lord. Accordingly, the women of the United States, which is the
representative nation of Christianity, need to fulfill the missions of the
daughter, the sister and the bride in the providence of the Second Advent.
Japan needs to fulfill the mission of the mature mother nation to indemnify the
position of the fallen Eve on the world level. Toward this end, Japan needs to
walk the providential path of sacrifice and love for the world in the position
of daughter, wife, mother and queen.
Furthermore, for the three nations of Korea, Japan and the United
States to be in the central position in achieving the world of peace, they need
to constitute one ideal family of love. The way for you to wash away your past
enmities and unite is for the young people of Korea and Japan, and of Japan and
the United States, to intermarry. The model for achieving a world of peace,
based on the teaching of true love, will be created when they become blood
relatives by marriage and thus form familial relationships.
Knowing this multidimensional Will of God, I have from early on
officiated at international and intercultural marriage Blessing ceremonies that
brought together husbands and wives from enemy nations, such as Korea and
Japan, and Japan and the United States. As I have said earlier, the mission of
the United States is that of the Second Israel and the eldest son nation. It is
to stand at the forefront in attending our Heavenly Parent and helping and
guiding its brother and sister nations of the world. Hence I say to you that
the mission of American women is of great significance.
Anticipating the birth of a new community of three nations Through this conference, I hope you will engage in profound
and serious discussions on far-reaching issues influencing the future of
humanity, and that you will find common ground. At the same time, I also hope
that spending three days together here in Washington will provide you with the
opportunity to develop friendships deep within your hearts.
This meeting is an opportunity for the leaders of the three nations to
play a central role in laying a new foundation to usher in the twenty-first
century. I anticipate the birth of a new community of the three nations,
through which your nations can continue to discuss and cooperate with one
another in various fields and strengthen your solidarity.
Ladies and gentlemen, these new activities for the solidarity of the
three nations of Korea, Japan and the United States will continue with the
serious goal of establishing a culture of peace and service on the global
level. If we work together, we will absolutely accomplish this. I hope that
this conference, begun together with you, will grow to become a meeting that
can lead Asia and the world.
May God’s divine protection be with you.
17
Let Us Perfect the Peace Kingdom
through the Peace UN
October 15, 2003
Little Angels
Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Inaugural Assembly of the Korean Headquarters of the
Interreligious and International Peace Council
Respected and distinguished guests:
Wherever we look today, ahead or behind, left or right, to the east or
west, south or north, we see hopelessness coming from war and disease, racial
conflict, religious struggle and immorality and corruption. The more than two
hundred countries, large and small, scattered throughout five oceans and six
continents are struggling against each other. Which among them can possibly
solve the problems humanity faces today? What has become of the United Nations,
which set out some fifty years ago to be a model for peaceful world governance?
It has become a den of selfishness enslaved in political power relationships
and the frantic pursuit of self-interest. It has become so crippled that it can
no longer take even one step forward. It can bring about neither world peace
nor solutions nor hope in response to the totally unpredictable situations
confronting the world today.
Ladies and gentlemen, as I stand here today, my heart is filled with
excitement and inspiration. Let us all first give thanks to God. A new day of
hope is dawning for humanity. The dawning of God’s kingdom of Cheon Il Guk, through which His
grace and love will shine on the entire world, is being announced with a great
shout that is shaking the earth to its core. Today, I would like to convey to
you God’s Word for all people living in this age. The title is, “Let Us Perfect
the Peace Kingdom through the Peace UN.”
Humanity at the crossroads of good and evil
More than six billion people are living in the world today, yet no one
has clear knowledge about humanity’s origin. To this day, the process by which
our history had proceeded is unclear. Whether it was good or bad, we do not
know. Because the origin and process are unclear, the future is unclear as
well. This is a reason we see continuous disorder and confusion in the world
today. If human beings had found the correct path in the beginning, we would
have traveled on a direct path to the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven
without any confusion or disorder. After losing sight of this path as a result
of the Fall, our fate has been one of drifting down
the river of history. At times we have been good, and at other times evil. At
times we have risen, and at other times we have declined.
Why would people who had been following the way of goodness suddenly
turn onto a downward path? We did not want to go downward, but we went down
nonetheless. This is the problem. We wanted to continue on the path of
goodness, yet we left that path. Why did we decline? The answer is simple. When
our lives violate the absolute, fundamental principles of goodness, we will
deteriorate.
What does this mean? It indicates that there is an intersection of
good and evil. All kings and presidents in this world live without any
awareness of when the fortune of their sovereignty will rise or fall. They want
things to be good forever, but any sovereignty that is not in harmony with or
aligned with the standard of true goodness will certainly be defeated or
perish.
Who, then, is in charge of good and evil? We know that even the most
powerful royal dynasty cannot control the influence of good and evil by its own
authority. No sovereign, on his or her own, can dictate the practice of good or
evil according to his or her wishes. We cannot deny that good and evil are
determined by an unseen power somewhere in the background.
Each nation has its laws. Laws exist to establish a standard of
goodness, and nations establish a constitution for the purpose of safeguarding
goodness. They do not establish laws for the purpose of destroying goodness.
That is why people who break laws are sent to prison. The problem, though, is
that in any given country the temperament of the sovereign can lead to an
incorrect application of the standard of goodness. This is the reason humanity
to this day continues to languish at the crossroads of two paths, with one path
leading to prosperity and the other to ruin.
The universe protects united subject and object partners
People were created with a dual structure. The mind is created to be a
plus or subject partner, and the body a minus or
object partner. Mind and body were originally intended to form a unified being,
but because of the Fall of our first ancestors, this
did not happen. Instead, the body attempted to take the position of another
plus, and this brought each person into a state of internal contradiction, with
the mind standing on the side of Heaven and the body standing on the side of
Satan. In effect, Satan conquered the human body. Through the Fall, Satan took over the bond of love and connected
humanity to his lineage as people multiplied themselves. This is the problem.
This struggle between mind and body has become a chronic ailment more terrible
than cancer or AIDS. That is why we must, no matter what the cost, push the
body back into the obedient, object-partner position. By the law of the
universe, poles with like charges repel each other. But when a subject partner
and object partner harmonize as a pair and form complete oneness, they receive
heavenly fortune and the universe automatically protects them.
An absolute subject partner gives rise to an absolute object partner
Where there is
an absolute subject partner, an absolute object partner will come into being.
This can be seen in the course of my life. America and the entire world opposed
me, but since I received Heaven’s command I have lived my life as the absolute
subject partner. The side that struck me, the absolute plus, became a minus and
was absorbed. This is because the universe protects anyone who receives
opposition while on the side of goodness. It is because I knew this principle
with certainty that I was able to fight and win in struggles involving
individuals, nations and the world.
We see in history that God always proceeded in the direction
consistent with fundamental principles, that is, toward the purpose of true
love, and that the devil has used force to oppose this. Thus he established
himself as an unprincipled enemy force. Satan struck the first blow by causing
our original ancestors to fall, and with this as his starting point he came to
control families, tribes, nations and the world. Prevented from entering the
kingdom of heaven, Adam and Eve, humanity’s first ancestors, became the first
people to enter hell. Please understand that after the Fall,
the created world immediately was occupied as Satan’s realm.
What, then, is the devil? He is a being who takes God’s people, makes
them his own and controls them. He is a shameless criminal who kidnapped a
child, convinced the child that he was its father, and then claimed to have
legitimate ownership of the child. Today he is worried that his sins will be
exposed and that he will lose everything, so he is blocking the way that God,
the original Creator, has to go, blocking the liberation of God and humanity.
He has occupied the body of each of us, and has completely spoiled love, which
is of central importance to God as His primary ideal. The free sex that you see
in the world today evidences the problem: the devil first creates confusion on
the path of love and then tempts people to act against their conscience. These
are two of Satan’s tactics.
Ladies and gentlemen, free sex is Satan’s trap. People in the world work
to gain wealth and then those very riches lead them to fall into the trap Satan
dug for them. They briefly enjoy sensual pleasures as they are dying. To
establish his line of defense, Satan gives material blessings to evil people so
that they can never escape from the quagmire of moral decadence. You need to
understand that alcohol, tobacco, drugs and free sex are Satan’s four main
weapons. Satan uses these to put people into a stupor of carnal satisfaction,
and then he has them board the train to hell. I teach people how to leave this
tragic parade toward hell, become true people who are not accused by their own
conscience, and return to a life of true love. I teach the only way they can
bring their mind and body together and board the train for heaven.
Despite indescribable opposition and persecution, I have lived my life
of more than eighty years to realize peace through the recovery of true love. I
have walked the path of sacrifice, at times at the risk of death. I have never
faltered, not even for a moment. Even when Satan threatened to kill me, I
maintained an absolute plus position and overcame everything. This allowed the
absolute minus to come into orbit naturally. Simply put, it has been a life of
following the original and fundamental principles of creation.
The absolute necessity of True Parents
I have lived according to the fundamental laws of the universe. I am a
single-minded man who has walked Heaven’s path, absolutely refusing to
compromise even in the midst of the worst hardship and adversity. I could do
this because I knew with certainty from the outset that if I followed this path
to the victorious position, God and all creation would greet me with joyful
cheers.
Satan has always mocked Heaven and me, and boasted of his domain of
power, saying, “My weapons will never fail. Even God,
the omniscient and omnipotent Creator, cannot defeat me. See how the side that
is focused on the body completely tramples the conscience. Love has been
degraded completely, just as I planned. Has this not become a world of frolic,
where grandfathers pair with granddaughters and sons with mothers? How can a
world of such evil ever be reestablished as God’s ideal world? Who can
accomplish such a task?” This is how Satan mocks and boasts.
God has shouted back in this way: “Just a moment, Satan! Isn’t it true
that through the active work of Rev. Moon, the True Parent, true love’s realm
of influence in the earthly world is increasing? The True Parents are the
owners of true love. They are the king and queen of true love. Satan, is it not
true that you are helpless in the presence of true love?”
Ladies and gentlemen, how are we to restore true love? This is the
responsibility of the True Parents. The True Parents must establish the
original world where the conscience is always victorious, that is, the world of
absolute goodness that all people will treasure. The secret for accomplishing
this is simple. When face to face with the True Parents, and when confronted
with true love, true life and true lineage, the false parent, Satan, is
completely helpless, no matter how much he may kick and struggle. To align
ourselves completely with God’s Will, God and we must form an eternal
relationship of subject and object partners, based on true love. Satan has no
way to wedge himself into this eternal relationship. When you begin to live by
altruistic, true love, you can receive the holy marriage Blessing and be
connected to the true lineage. Then your eternal life will be assured. True
love, true life and true lineage will expand eternally through your
descendants. True Parents are absolutely necessary in this process.
All people without exception descended from the Fall.
As a result, we have become people who seem to see but are actually blind. Can
the blind lead the blind? Someone sent directly by God must come. This person
must be in a position unrelated to the Fall. He has to
closely examine the world and gain the ability to save humanity from the path
of death. I have come in that precise position. God sent me with His seal as the
Savior of humanity, the Messiah, the returning Lord and the True Parent.
Humanity needs to restore the absolute realm of the conscience by following the
teachings of the True Parent only. Then absolute ownership will also be
recovered. The realms of absolute love, absolute life and absolute lineage will
also be recovered.
You have to first find the path leading to oneness with God. How is
this possible? Where does the foundation of love for the sake of others
originate? It originates with your love organ. Your reproductive organ is your
palace of love, palace of life and palace of lineage. Until now, people have
lived without owning the truth that it is through the reproductive organ that
bonds of life are created, love is realized, and the connection of lineage is
established. Now we see that no truth is more precious than this. Satan has
controlled humanity for tens of thousands of years by means of the reproductive
organ. Through it he brought about the Fall, which
reversed things 180 degrees.
Inherit the True Parents’ realm of victory and become tribal messiahs
If the Fall had not occurred, there would be
no words such as Savior, Messiah and Lord of the Second Advent. Because the
True Parents of humankind have come to this earth, we can now be liberated from
Satan’s yoke. It is now possible to recover all that was lost through the Fall. Through our original mind we can recover our original
value and accomplish a worldwide realm of absolute goodness that will never
incline toward Satan.
What does the True Parents’ realm of victory mean? It means that
complete victory at the levels of the individual and the family has been
achieved in the fight against Satan. Also, there has been complete victory at
the levels of tribe, people, nation and the world. It was a steep path that was
never easy. However, I succeeded in overcoming every difficulty, and on January
13, 2001, I dedicated to Heaven “The Enthronement Ceremony for the Kingship of
God,” which accomplished the miracle of liberating even God. On the world level,
I am also the one who is rooting out communism and pouring life into
Christianity in America. This is a part of the True Parents’ responsibility.
The True Parents forgive with true love and embrace even the collapsed
communist countries. I am liberating and pouring life into the communist realm.
Ladies and gentlemen, beginning some ten years ago, I have been
guiding all blessed families to become tribal messiahs. This means they have to
become the new ancestors of their tribes. All your ancestors throughout history
have nurtured the hope and earnest desire to see such families.
The True Parents, who have won all the victories as the Messiah of all
humankind, bequeath to you their foundation, and on this foundation you need to
become messiahs on the tribal level. Families that have received the holy
marriage Blessing from us and have joined the ranks of blessed families now
need to become leaders who guide the world and saviors who save humanity as
tribal messiahs. You need to become devoted children and patriots who erase
God’s grief. God has been waiting for this time for tens of thousands of years.
You will work in all countries of the world as the vanguard. You will expand
the realm of victory gained by True Parents, who have been victorious over Satan’s
vicious opposition and persecution. The True Parents have now bequeathed
everything to you. You will liberate the world and establish it anew before
Heaven. In relation to the Messiah of all humanity, a tribal messiah is like a
branch growing from the main trunk. After leaves sprout and blossoms come out,
fruit will ripen on these branch messiahs. That fruit will possess one hundred
percent of the value of the original Messiah. You will advance into the realm
of protection, where good spirits can guard you.
Refugees who lost their homeland
Ladies and gentlemen, humanity is in the position to recover its
homeland. Those who take a short trip can return to their homeland, but those
who have lost their homeland cannot return so easily. At the moment history began,
we lost our homeland. We were expelled and have lived as nomads. We have not
been in a position to return, and we have not even known the way back. We have
lived as wanderers without a homeland, roaming aimlessly for thousands of
years. Those who come alone from North Korea as refugees and now live as
displaced people understand this mortifying and weary life. All your friends,
siblings, and even your parents are taken from you. You know your homeland
exists, yet it is not a homeland that you can go to anytime you choose. You
have lost the way there. You live in extraordinary circumstances of profound
sadness, from which you have to start from nothing and build a new life for
yourself from scratch. But even if you have the good fortune to become rich and
socially prominent during your refugee life, nothing can take away the sad
longing, deep in your heart, to return to your homeland.
In the same way, all people became lonely orphans as a result of the Fall committed by the first ancestors. We live in the
pitiful position of people who have lost their homeland. God, the owner of our
homeland, solemnly waits for our return, even though until now we have lived
without even the desire to return. We have become such a shameful sight that we
dare not even lift our heads before heaven or earth. During the course of the
world’s population rising to more than six billion, people have experienced so
much misery in life that they are unable to discern night from day. When God
sees the distress of His children, His heart must be in so much pain that He
can barely speak. When a child meets with tragedy, no one feels more sorrow and
pain than its parents. God created us as His children.
What, then, is God’s heartfelt desire? It is to liberate His children
by any means possible, so that we can find our way back to our homeland.
Religion is God’s strategy to open this way. Through religious movements, He
laid a foundation for people to get together and return to the homeland, to the
place where we transcend our environments, languages, cultures, ethnic
backgrounds, ideologies, systems and philosophies. He always sees the
situations in which each of you lives. He waits anxiously for the day you can
return to your homeland.
You must understand that God is the vertical True Parent who has
conducted His providence in ways that accommodated the culture of each
historical period. He never did this because He preferred any particular
religious body or country. It was a manifestation of God’s true love for the
sake of your liberation. Building a bridge that would allow you to return to
your homeland in freedom has taken effort. So please remember that you each
represent your family and also your country and all of humanity. You also
represent all your ancestors in the spirit world and all the descendants who
will be born in the future. We have to achieve this precious, liberated state
and fulfill our responsibilities before Heaven and our human family.
We have deep longing for our homeland because that is the place where
love is shared with others. The love of our mother and father, of our older
brother and sister and our younger siblings, the love of our wife and children
and of our relatives can be found in every corner of our homeland. Here, all
these relationships and bonds are connected in altruistic love; we want to
embrace them all at once. The traveler who yearns for his homeland longs to
return home as a proud, liberated person, so that he can embrace the mountains,
rivers, grass and trees, give love to his family and relatives, and sing joyous
songs. Since being vanquished and expelled from our homeland, and having lost
the connection of heart rooted there, we have been unable to return and have
instead been doomed to wander a lonely path through eternity until finally arriving
in hell. Now, however, we can be liberated. The path to the homeland, situated
deep within our memory and appearing in our dreams, has been cleared. This is
surely the day of greatest blessing for humanity. You are going to recover the
homeland lost by Adam and Eve.
Families of four generations living in harmony
When you go to your homeland, you do so in the position of the
perfected Adam, the perfected Jesus, and the representative of the returning
Lord. God will reside in your family. The four generations of grandparents,
parents, children and their children will live together in harmony. The
grandparents must be attended as the ancestral root. They are the living root
of history and the root of the heavenly kingdom that extends into the family.
This is a family where the kingdom of God on earth has taken root.
The root of the kingship that will continue forever also will be
firmly established in such a family. The grandparents, parents and children
represent the roots of the past, present and future, respectively. The root of
the past represents the spirit world. The root of the present is a palace
representing the present world, and the root of the future is the children
living as princes and princesses in a palace of peace representing the two
worlds, the spirit world and physical world.
The mission of the tribal messiah is to establish the families of Cheon Il Guk,
where four generations—grandparents, parents, children and the children’s
children—live as one family attending the eternal God. This is also God’s
heartfelt desire. The mission is to establish families that God, were He to go
to another land, would long to return to. It is to
raise families that God can feel comfortable visiting anytime, just as a parent
would visit the home of a child. That is a life of service to God. In such a
family, God becomes, vertically, the subject partner of the conscience. Your
own mind will follow this vertical subject partner and bring your body to
unite, as you yourself become a vertical subject partner. In this situation,
parental love, conjugal love, children’s love and sibling love, that is, the
four great realms of love, or four great realms of heart, will be completed.
This is how a family must be in order to exist eternally through continuous
spherical movement that connects up and down, front and back, and left and
right as one.
Ladies and gentlemen, why is it necessary to marry? We marry to attain
the position of an owner. A man or woman alone is only half a person. That is
how it works in God’s creation. That is why God divided the ownership and
placement of the reproductive organs, which are the love organs. The husband is
the owner of the wife’s reproductive organ, and the wife is the owner of the
husband’s reproductive organ. If they are to take the position of their
partner’s owner, they have to practice love that is for the sake of their
partner. It is to obtain this position of ownership that people marry.
For what purpose, then, do we want to obtain the position of owner? It
is because from that position we can occupy God. God is our subject in three
great partnerships. As the owner of the cosmos, He is the true love Teacher,
true love Owner and true love Parent. These are the three great subject-object
partnerships. All these teachings and truths will be realized in the life of
true families. When these are expanded, societies, nations and even the world
and cosmos can change into the peace kingdom.
The tribal messiah who returns to his or her homeland must have a
determined and unwavering demeanor. There can be no complaining. It is our
destiny to go this way, even if it brings us to weep bitterly. Those who
understand the circumstances of the Heavenly Father, who has waited for His
lost children throughout the millennia with a grief-filled heart, cannot travel
this path without shedding tears. Fill your steps with hope, as you go out to
plant the seeds of love. Once these seeds of true love are planted, no one will
be able to steal them. They are the seeds of the heart of true love. The
families and countries where these seeds sprout will remain forever in God’s
possession. Those families will become distinguished families of Heaven
producing God’s representatives, generation after generation. Those countries
will become great nations under Heaven.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have come to a time of great urgency in God’s
providence, when we must bring His work for human salvation to a successful
conclusion. God’s heart and love for humanity has been the parents’ heart of
love for their child. Unable to bear the immorality and wickedness of this
world, He finally sent me to correct these things once and for all and to tear
down the barriers that have led to war and conflict. In so doing, He gave me
the qualification as Savior, Messiah, returning Lord and True Parent who
appears in the world as the substantial body of God Himself. Recently, God sent
me a message in which He comforted me on my difficult life and offered me
encouragement. In addition, many people in the spirit world, including five
great saints—Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Jesus and Muhammad—many prophets and
kings who appeared in the course of history, and even notorious murderers such
as Hitler and reprehensible communists such as Lenin and Stalin, have received
my teachings, repented and sent me messages expressing gratitude.
Looking back on my life, I can say that people
who could have attended and served the True Parent, Rev. Moon, properly with
absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, instead put him through a
wilderness course of persecution and suffering lasting some eighty years. I am
not the type of person, however, who lets such things discourage me or make me
give up. If I were, God would never have sent me to earth as His
representative. As I hewed my path through indescribable suffering and
adversity, I never once reproached God or turned away from my mission. I always
worked to fulfill God’s Will. You who do not know Heaven’s providence have
possibly lived only for the purpose of fulfilling your own desires. By
contrast, I have lived my life in accordance with Heaven’s Will and as a public
person before heaven and earth. Without the slightest deviation I have lived by
practicing the true love of a True Parent so as to gain victory in the course
of indemnity necessary to save humanity.
Respected and distinguished guests, we have now entered the historic
realm in which we need only focus on the future, marching forward resolutely
with hearts filled with hope and desire. We have seen the birth of the Abel-type
United Nations that will resolve the confusion and helplessness of the existing
UN and provide fundamental solutions to the various problems facing humanity
today. On October 3 of this year, more than one thousand five hundred leaders
from around the world who follow my vision gathered in New York City and
founded this historic and providential Abel UN.
Thirty-eight years have already passed since I met former United
States President Dwight D. Eisenhower and explained to him the necessity for an
Abel UN. Because of the ignorance of those in charge, who could not understand
the significance of that hour, the fulfillment of that aspect of God’s
providence was delayed until today. Now, Heaven can wait no longer. This year,
by the demands of the providence, many righteous people who follow me took a
stand and rid themselves of their mutual enmity. Religious leaders who had
previously refused even to sit down together—Jewish clergy representing the
First Israel, Muslim clergy representing Islam and American clergy representing
Christianity—gathered in Jerusalem. These traditional enemies joined hands and
announced the Jerusalem Declaration.
Next, a large number of religious leaders from all traditions gathered
in Washington, DC, the capital of the United States, which represents
Christianity, the realm of the Second Israel. These religious leaders in the
earthly world proclaimed a resolution that reflects the resolution adopted by
leaders in the spirit world, including the five great saints. On the basis of
these declarations in Jerusalem and Washington, a third declaration, the Seoul
Peace Declaration, was adopted in Seoul, Korea on August 15 of this year. Its
Jewish, Muslim and Christian clergy signatories announced it to the world.
Please bear in mind that these steps were providential preparations for the
founding of the Abel UN.
Abel UN means Peace UN. The existing United Nations is a Cain-type UN,
a United Nations of strife. In contrast, the Abel UN will be a structure that
guarantees world peace. This is nothing less than the most revolutionary and
wondrous event to happen since God created humankind. Now the world will begin
to change rapidly. More than 120 billion blessed couples on the side of
goodness in the spirit world have mobilized. On earth, tens of thousands of
ambassadors for peace and millions of other leaders around the world are
carrying the torch of the Peace UN.
Humanity now has the responsibility to work through the Peace UN to
build, on the earth, the peace kingdom for which God and all people have
longed. Attending God as our King and aligning internally with Cheon II Guk and externally with
the nation of the Fourth Israel, it is our responsibility to build a world of
peace that represents both the spiritual and earthly realms and that transcends
religions and nations.
Realizing world peace through the Peace UN
I want to make it clear to the entire world that I will gladly
transfer the entire foundation that I have built with blood, sweat and tears
for more than eighty years to the control of the Peace UN. To begin with, the
Family Federation, which now has missions in 191 countries, and dozens of other
groups and organizations I have founded, will directly serve the Peace UN. All
media organizations—including The Washington Times and United Press
International (UPI) in the United States, The Middle East Times in the Middle
East, Tiempos del Mundo in
Central and South America, The Segye Times in Korea
and Sekai Nippo in
Japan—share the commitments of the Peace UN. Moreover, the missions of Sun Moon
University in Korea, the University of Bridgeport in the United States, Sunhwa Middle and High School (The Little Angels School), Sunjung Girls Middle and High School and other educational
institutions will reflect the purpose of educating leaders capable of carrying
out the noble work of the Peace UN. In the area of sports as well, the Ilhwa Cheonma Soccer Team, a
premier team in the Republic of Korea, and Sorocaba and CENE, which are
prominent professional football teams in Brazil, will dedicate their energies
for world peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, I have no lingering attachments to this world. I
received Heaven’s command as a young man of fifteen, and I have pursued this
throughout my life to this day, when I am more than eighty years old. I will
spare no effort in dedicating the remaining years of my life to God and to
fulfilling the heavenly mandate. Working through the Peace UN, I will without
fail resolve God’s anguish and build God’s kingdom of freedom, peace, unity and
happiness based on true love, on earth and in heaven.
Distinguished guests, please, even now, open the gates to your hearts
and accept your call from Heaven with undivided devotion of your heart, body
and mindset. Follow the tradition of the True Parents in practicing the life of
a true teacher, true owner and true parent. This path will lead you to
represent and be heirs to Heaven and True Parents. The path and mission of true
love leads to the building of the peace kingdom.
Distinguished guests, I pray that Heaven’s great blessings will be
upon your journey as you place deep within your heart the precious bond created
today by our sharing these wonderful words from Heaven. I pray that from this
time forward you will pioneer a life that is on a new and higher level. With
this thought, I will now have my representative read a special prayer and offer
this gathering to Heaven.
Thank you very much.
18
The Path of Humanity and the United States in the Era of the Peace
Kingdom
April 19, 2004
New Yorker Hotel,
New York, USA
Forty-fourth anniversary of True Parents’ Day
Most respected guests from home and abroad:
First of all, I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you
for coming. You are leaders from every field and sphere of life and from all
parts of the world, attending today’s celebration and offering your
congratulations on this forty-fourth anniversary of True Parents’ Day. In
particular, at this time I would like to return all glory to God, who has
always been with me and has protected me to this day, and I thank Him from the
bottom of my heart.
Now is the age of liberation and freedom
Throughout my life, I have made strenuous efforts to resolve the
world’s difficult problems, while maintaining single-minded devotion to
realizing God’s ideal of creation. I came to learn that God is not a Being
sitting on a throne of glory and honor. Rather, He is a God of sadness,
lamentation and anguish, endeavoring to save His children who fell and plunged
into hell.
After I came to know about this heart and Will of God, my life has
been, in a nutshell, a devotion of all my energies solely to fulfill the Will
of God, transcending night, day, season and environment. Now the providence has
progressed to the fourth year since the declaration of Cheon
II Guk. In accordance with the providence, on May 4
of last year, I made the declaration of the Day of the Great Transition to the
Realm of Dominion under the Ideal of Creation. Then on July 13 of the same
year, I ended the providence of restoration through indemnity. These activities
have lit the beacons of the revolution of indemnity, the revolution of
conscience and the revolution of heart.
The efforts to substantiate the nation of the Fourth Israel,
proclaimed on August 20, 2003, took shape in the devoted efforts made for peace
in the Middle East, which is the realm of the First Israel. They culminated
with the Coronation Ceremony of the Kingship of Jesus, which took place in
Jerusalem on December 22, 2003. On this victorious foundation, we held the
Coronation Ceremony of the Kingship of Peace on March 23, 2004, at the Capitol
of the United States, which is the Second Israel. Through this ceremony, the
age of true liberation and freedom drew closer to humanity, and we began to
actualize the proclamation of God’s Fatherland and the Era of the Peace
Kingdom, made at the beginning of this year.
I came to the United States in 1971, in accordance with the command of
Heaven. Although I have been subjected to persecution and oppression for more
than thirty years, I believe that God has been with me, and that is the reason
I can be here with you today.
On this meaningful day, I would like to share with you a speech
entitled, “The Path of Humanity and the United States in the Era of the Peace
Kingdom,” so that you can understand history and today’s world from God’s
providential viewpoint.
From the historical standpoint of God’s providence of salvation, the
end of history is actually the end of evil history, the history of Satan’s
dominion. At the same time, it is the starting point of good history, the
history of God’s dominion. Therefore, the end of the world is the time when we
need to complete the entire providence of God. In other words, the end of the
world is the Last Days, when we need to complete our individual perfection, as
well as the perfection of families, peoples, nations, the world and the cosmos.
The need for an interracial and interreligious teaching
Whenever God ushered in the end times in the course of His providence,
He led humanity through His ideological realms. However, people never
completely fulfilled their portion of responsibility. Thus, they could not
stand in the position of goodness and repair evil history.
Nonetheless, God is an absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal Being and
the plan based on His Will is also absolute. Therefore, God will find and
establish the world that He can govern both in heaven and on earth, through the
restoration of true individuals, families, societies, nations, the world and
the true sovereignty, all of which we lost through the Fall. What is this
original world for which God is searching? That world is a true world, with the
True Parents in the central position.
However, through the Fall, we lost the True
Parents of humankind and the true world. The loss was not during the course of
human history but at the beginning of human history. As a result, not a single
thing can connect us in a direct relationship with the True Parents, be it the
lands we live in or the teachings we possess. Therefore, we first need to find
out what is true.
On the day we can do so—thus making it possible for true parents, true
husbands and wives, true children, true citizens, true things, a true
sovereignty and a true universe to communicate with the heart of the true God and
be moved by Him and surrender to Him—that day will become the Last Day of the
evil world. The moment this ideal is realized corresponds to the Last Days,
that is, the time of the Second Advent.
That being the case, at the time of the Second Advent, extraordinary
phenomena—such as judgment by fire, the destruction of the earth by fire, or
believers rising into the air—will not take place. Rather, it will be a time
when we will indemnify the sorrowful history of tangled circumstances and,
starting with the individual and going through the family, society, nation and
finally the world, everything will be righted, restored and settled.
In other words, it is a time when the individual, family, society, peoples,
nations and world, which were lost vertically, are restored and connected
horizontally. This takes place by means of substantial, historic individuals,
families, societies, peoples, nations and the world. Humanity has lived in hope
for this day’s arrival, for it is the final destination that human history
needs to reach. However, individuals, families and nations have all lost the
way they were meant to go.
Rev. Moon’s life course to save a world in crisis
Global environmental pollution problems, food shortages, conflicts
between religions and troubles between races are breaking out everywhere. They
turn into major issues that multiply and enlarge all sorts of disputes. Who
will take responsibility for this world? It is a serious problem.
The communist nations of the past could not overcome their
nationalism. Even the United States, which is a powerful nation today, has been
unable to go beyond the concept of Pan-Americanism. When you prioritize the
interests of your own nation, you cannot lead the world. This is a time when we
need a certain religion or group of people that is united based on the thought
of embracing the world and advancing a higher ideal for nations, even at the
cost of sacrificing their own interests.
In this respect, after I came to the United States upon receiving
God’s command, I have devoted all my efforts to educating its young people. I
have been issuing strong warnings that the United States has a moral crisis and
is on the way to its downfall, and I have been attempting to revive a
Christianity that has hit rock bottom. You may wonder what the essence of Rev.
Moon’s teachings is. The answer is simple.
First, it is to live a life of sacrifice for the greater good. The
individual lives for the family, the family for the tribe, the tribe for the
people, the people for the nation, the nation for the world, and the world for
God.
It is in this way that God will eventually come to the individual.
Even in the family, the parents must live for the children’s sake, the children
need to live for the parents, the husband needs to live for his wife, and the
wife needs to live for her husband. The person who lives most for the sake of
others becomes the central figure of goodness.
Second, you must love your enemies. To save human beings, who had
become children of Satan, the devil, through the Fall,
God sent His only-begotten Son, Jesus, and made him walk the path of sacrifice.
When people love their enemy more than their own children, Satan submits
voluntarily. Satan’s strategy always involves striking first, but he loses in
the end. Heaven’s strategy is the opposite: to be struck first and then to take
back what was lost. The reason I have been able to establish a foundation of
mission work in 185 nations, despite the fact that I have been subjected to
constant persecution and suffering, is that I have
lived in accordance with this heavenly way.
Distinguished guests, for whom has God invested and sacrificed all
that He has? It was not for the United States, nor for Christianity itself. You
need to know that, in the long run, it was to save each person who was lost
through the Fall.
Since the Fall began with an individual,
salvation must also begin with an individual. Therefore, there is no way to
carry out restoration unless a representative person comes forward with the
realization, “I will fulfill the responsibility of this age; I will become a
person who can settle all the debts that humankind owes God and confidently
return what is good to Him.”
Restoration through indemnity can never be carried out in an ambiguous
manner. It is not conceptual. One cannot reach the heart of God unless one has
a heart that goes beyond the wretchedness of one’s circumstances, no matter how
painful, and endure it on behalf of God.
Have you ever prayed for all the people of the world, with such a
serious heart that it was almost as if your own children were dying? How much
have you sacrificed yourself to save your family, and how much have you devoted
yourself to save the tribe, people, nation and world? No one can answer these
questions easily and confidently. The person who comes as the representative of
such an absolute standard is the Lord of the Second Advent.
God has carried out the providence of salvation ever since the Fall of the first human ancestors. It took two thousand
biblical years from the time of Adam for God to be able to find and establish
Abraham and select the chosen people from among his descendants, organizing a
new family, tribe and people. They were the chosen people of Israel. Because
the Jewish people were called based on that victorious foundation to receive
the Messiah, they became the mainstream people meant to receive the Messiah in
his substantial form. They were supposed to have fulfilled the responsibility
of the mainstream people.
If you dig into the core of that mainstream, you will find that we
need a standard and a philosophy by which to fulfill the original mission that
the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, did not fulfill. This is nothing other
than the philosophy we may call Messianism. From the
Christian standpoint, it includes the thought of being the bride of the
Messiah. The most important mission of Christianity is to be the bride that can
receive the Lord as the bridegroom.
Despite having such an important mission, the very people who were
expecting the Messiah sent Jesus to the cross. Thus, the Jewish people, who
were called to be the First Israel, drifted away, and Christianity, called to
be the Second Israel, inherited the mission. Focusing on the one unchanging
purpose, God continued to carry out His providence for more than six thousand
years, and the present age marks the end of that providence.
Then what would be the essence of Messianism?
It is the philosophy to save the world and unite it. It is the teaching by
which to restore the position of True Parents and build the original, ideal
family, which were lost by the Fall of the first human
ancestors.
The teachings of the Old and New Testaments also tell us that the
Messiah comes with the authority of the Father to meet the person in the
position of God the Mother, who is the substantial form of the Holy Spirit, and
restore the position of the True Parents. After the marriage supper of the Lamb
prophesied in the Book of Revelation, the bride and bridegroom will pass
through the stage of true husband and wife and become True Parents.
Jesus was the one who came with such a mission. Although he lost the
people and the nation of Israel due to their disbelief, he dedicated his life
for the world and the kingdom of heaven desired by God. The course of suffering
Jesus followed as he was nailed to the cross was a path of anguish he walked
together with God.
Even when he was suffering on the cross, Jesus beseeched God to
forgive the sin of the people. Even when he was dying, he blessed Rome and
those who opposed him, and promised his victory in the future.
Therefore, Jesus’ life did not end at age thirty-three. It continued
through history with the help of God. Christianity inherited his spirit and
became a global religion.
Distinguished guests, the United States is said to be the most
powerful nation in the world. However, if it does not stand correctly in the
course of the providence, its strength and prosperity will not last. When we
study the history of human culture, we find that ancient civilizations
originated mainly in tropical regions. Ancient civilizations—such as the
civilizations of the Maya, Incas, Egyptians, Indians and Chinese—were situated
in subtropical and tropical regions.
As a matter of fact, if human beings had not fallen, civilization
would have emerged from the temperate zone, corresponding to the spring season.
Instead, it emerged from the tropics, corresponding to the summer season, and
then passed through the temperate zone, or the autumn season. The latter,
temperate-zone civilization consisted mainly of the free world, with Western
civilization at its center. On the whole, the advanced nations of the West,
such as the United States, Britain and Germany, which lie roughly between
thirty and sixty degrees north of the equator, make up this civilization.
At the close of the temperate-zone civilization of the autumn season,
the frigid-zone civilization of the winter season descended upon the world for
a period. This was the emergence of communism. Although many intellectuals
believe that, after the dissolution of the former Soviet Union, the Cold War
struggle of the postwar period came to an end, materialism and atheism still
prevail in various sectors of the world, presenting themselves as alternatives
to the incapacitated ideologies of democracy and communism.
At this time, breaking through the crises of the earlier
temperate-zone civilization and the threat of the frigid-zone civilization, we
need a new temperate-zone civilization, the true spring civilization that
humanity has sought since ancient times. Who can thaw the winter season of the
frigid- zone civilization? It is impossible to do so through politics, economic
development or advances in technology and knowledge.
When we study the cycle of civilizations that started near rivers and
oceans, we see that civilizations are always moving. The civilizations that
developed near the Nile River and the Tigris-Euphrates river system moved and formed
the Mediterranean civilization centered on Greece, Rome, Spain and Portugal.
Then this Mediterranean civilization led to the Atlantic civilization, with
Britain and the United States in the central role. Eventually, it will bear
global fruit as the Pacific Rim civilization realm that connects the United
States, Japan and Korea.
From this viewpoint, based on the history of civilizations, the
location of the Korean Peninsula is significant. At its northern border, Korea
is at the edge of the frigid-zone civilization connecting Russia and China. At
its southern-most end, it is at the tip of the temperate-zone civilization that
connects the United States and Japan. Therefore, from the providential
viewpoint, the historic temperate-zone civilization of the global spring
season, which can absorb both civilizations, will be born at this very place.
In this light, consider the fact that Rev. Moon has appeared in Korea.
He has dedicated his life to solve the world’s North-South and East-West
problems, which remain as unresolved issues. Moreover, he has appeared at the
place where the two types of civilizations have met and borne fruit. We can
attribute this only to the outcome of God’s providence.
The “One World under God” movement carried out by True Parents
In fact, I would like to tell you that I have been carrying out the
“One World under God” movement, transcending race, belief and nationality, all
my life. I have been following this path because it is based on the providence
of God. It is grounded in principles that undergird providential history and is
not just a convenient theory that I made up.
The Will of Heaven is not just a theory, and there is not a single
place in all the oceans and continents untouched by the activities I have
carried out to realize God’s plans. Through the foundations laid by my
multidimensional mission work, we are carrying out enterprises from Alaska to
Antarctica, in the thirty-three nations of South America, the nations of the
former Soviet Union and the nations of Asia and Africa. I have made
preparations to resolve the pollution and food-supply problems that humanity
will face in the new millennium. Recently, I established a substantial
foundation for the environmental health of this planet centering on the Pantanal region and Brazil’s Amazon River.
At the same time, on the internal level, I have been leading the True
Family Values ministry and have continued to perform international mass wedding
ceremonies, in which about 430 million couples recently participated. Thus I
have accelerated the construction of the kingdom of heaven on earth based on
the ideal family, which God has long awaited.
Respected guests from home and abroad, until now,
the world has been ruled by those nations that had superior political, economic and
military power. However, a nation that does not stand directly aligned with
God’s providence cannot last forever. The downfall of the resplendent
civilizations of Greece and Rome are good examples. The position of the United
States, which is soaring high as today’s greatest and strongest power, is the
same as that of Rome two thousand years ago. Please remember that the decline
and fall of the Roman Empire was not the result of external invasions, but was
in fact due to the loss of Heaven’s fortune. It was a consequence of its
immoral culture, which led to a collapse from within.
Until recently, political regimes based on materialism and the
materialistic interpretation of history, which exalted factory laborers and
farmers, controlled one-third of the world’s population and two-thirds of the
earth’s land area, centering on the former Soviet Union and China. Of course,
they did not last forever, and I tell you that a time will come when religious
believers who speak for the Will of God will gain influence.
Religious leaders are prophets who ought to proclaim God’s Will on
earth and guide humanity in the direction it needs to follow. However, the
conflicts and infighting that continue among religious denominations discredit
them completely. These conflicts are major obstacles blocking the providence of
God. *
That is why for decades I have invested more than half of the budget
of the Unification Church into interdenominational and interreligious efforts
to resolve conflicts between religions. Furthermore, I founded the Inter-Religious
Federation for World Peace to bring about peace for humanity through
reconciliation and unity among religions. All humanity, transcending race and
religious denomination, needs to understand God’s providence for the
realization of the world of the ideal of creation. We ultimately need to be in
accord with God’s heart.
God’s liberation will open the path of authentic human liberation We need to recover the original positions of parents and
children by restoring our relationship of heart with God, which was lost
through the Fall. Hence, the Last Days promised by God are the time when True
Parents are manifested. In other words, they are the time of hope when human
beings, who lost their True Parents through the Fall,
can once again receive their original Parents.
Therefore, the True Parents are the fruit of the hopes, desires and
victories of human history. The Unification Church has continued to globalize
this tradition through the international mass wedding ceremonies. The coming
together of black, white and yellow as brothers and sisters to be joined as
husbands and wives, transcending nationality, race and culture, is one of the
most important works in achieving God’s Will to unite the global population as
one family.
As can be seen, the path to true happiness can be opened only when
today’s people ultimately liberate God, who lost His children and has continued
in lamentation over our plight. We can do so by restoring the lost original
ties between brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and parents and
children. Until now, democracy has asserted political liberation and human
rights. By contrast, we must henceforth assert God’s liberation and God’s
dominion. Once this problem has been taken care of, political liberation and
the recovery of human rights will take place automatically.
In various respects, the United States is a nation that has been
prepared through the blessings of God. Among the ancestors who founded the
United States were the Pilgrims. These people risked their lives to find their
way to a land where they could have freedom of faith.
In search of true freedom of faith, they bid farewell to their beloved
parents, brothers and sisters and hometowns, and crossed the Atlantic at the
risk of their lives. They resolved to forsake even their own country.
The Mayflower arrived at the shores of New England in November 1620.
As they endured their first winter, more than half of the 102 Pilgrims who had
arrived there died from the extreme cold weather and starvation. What was incredible
about them was that they starved to death rather than consume the seeds to be
planted in the coming spring.
Saving the United States, which has lost its
founding spirit
No matter what happened to them, the Pilgrims stayed true to their
faith in living for the Will of God. They thanked God for the harvest of the
first year and built their homes only after they had first built a church and
school. In their pioneering course, whether they were about to start farming or
defend their homes, the first thing they did was to pray.
At the time of the American Revolutionary War, as General George
Washington was in dire straits at the now-famous Valley Forge, he offered a
prayer staking his life for his country. He dedicated the coming battles for
the Will of God, who stood on the side of the United States and brought it
victory.
Great Britain, which was then the mightiest power in the world, stood
with the combined forces of the king and his people, while the United States
stood with God and His beloved sons and daughters. That was how the United
States, the nation upholding freedom of faith, came to be established. Even
now, the United States Congress opens its sessions with a prayer. It is a
nation where the president takes the oath of office by placing his or her hand
on the Bible and pledging before God, and then a minister offers a prayer.
What is more, it is the only nation that has the words “In God We
Trust” printed on its currency. In this way, the United States became the one
nation on earth that, basing itself on the Protestant faith, assumed global
stature.
However, what is the United States like today? The courts have banned
prayer in public schools. School boards force teachers to explain the theory of
evolution and leave out the hand of a Creator. Moreover, the divorce rate
topping 50 percent is mercilessly destroying the integrity of the family.
Upon hearing the voice of God, who feared for this very reality, I
came to the United States in 1971, leaving behind my homeland and my family. I
spoke throughout this nation several times, shouting out, “I came as a
firefighter to a burning house, and as a doctor who has come to heal the ailing
United States.”
At that time, I discovered that God had all but left the United
States. Even though He needed to be everywhere in the United States, He had in
fact begun to leave the nation. He was leaving the hearts of individuals,
families and teachers. When I look back, it seems like only yesterday that I
walked along Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue and held on to God, begging Him with
endless tears not to leave the United States. Unfortunately, as I foretold, the
United States is sliding down the path of moral decline.
The person who loves the United States is its true owner
Ladies and gentlemen, why is Rev. Moon shouting out like this in the
United States, while being subjected to opposition and enduring suffering? It
is because I know better than anyone the hard work carried out by God with
blood, sweat and tears to find His way to the United States today. During the
thirty-four years that I have been in the United States, there has not been one
day when my heart has felt at ease.
Who is the owner of the United States? It has nothing to do with race.
The person who loves the United States as much as God does is its true owner.
The United States represents the eldest son position on the world level, the
position chosen to establish God’s kingdom on earth. Therefore, Jesus is
dwelling spiritually mainly in this land. He earnestly hopes that this nation
will fulfill his will.
Meanwhile, in accordance with the Will of God, I founded in 1982. This newspaper which has led public sentiment as a conservative
political voice that proposes the true direction for the United States.
Also, through the True Family Values movement and the Pure Love movement for
teens and young adults, I have continued to support strong movements to save
the nation and the world. I have made these investments with a heart hoping for
the United States to stand truly in line with the providence of God.
When I visited Washington, DC, in 1965, I dedicated a holy ground near
the White House. Even now there are many people who stay up nights and pray
there for this nation of the United States. You need to open the doors of your
heart, so that you can hear the earnest desires, shouts and hopes of patriots
dating back to the Pilgrims.
It is time to restore true parents, families, nations and the world Most honored guests, the fourth year of Cheon
II Guk is when the history of God’s providence of
salvation, which He has pursued for six thousand years, draws to a close and
the ideal of creation, lost in Eden, is realized in heaven and on earth. It is
the time when liberation will end the lamentations of all created things, which
lost their owner through the Fall, the moment when the
long-estranged parents and children meet again. The new heaven and earth, where
there will be no more tears, are being realized. The new age, wherein the
spirit world and the physical world are united as one and God’s kingdom is
established on earth and in heaven, is finally upon us.
This is the age in which the direct dominion of the living God is
manifested through His overall, complete, absolute and omnipotent authority. It
is the time when the world based on the understanding of humankind as one great
family is realized. East and West will become “One Universe under One God,”
centering on the Parents of Heaven and Earth. This signifies perfection of the
Completed Testament Age, when the biblical promises of the Old Testament and
the New Testament are fulfilled. Now that moment has come. The time has come
for the United States to wake up once again.
The time has come to carry out a movement for the second founding of the
nation, dedicated to restoring the true parents, true family, true nation and
true world, with God in the central position. By so doing, you need to bring
back God, who is leaving. If God, who found His way here after six thousand
years of preparation, were to leave the United States, where would He go?
If you attend God correctly, the problems of the family, the problems
of morality, the problems of young people, and the problems of racism will
automatically be resolved. The United States, which is a melting pot of five
races living side by side, could become a model of the kingdom of heaven on
earth. From now on, we need to unite and harmonize in order to open the path
for humanity to follow. This is the time when the United States, which is the
eldest son nation, needs to take the lead in attending the Heavenly Parents. It
must fulfill the mission of the leader who can guide other nations of the world
to the presence of God. I ask you to participate together to carry out this
historic task successfully.
The advent of the era of God’s direct dominion The enthronement of the
Peace King as the Cosmic Parent, the Parents of Heaven and Earth, and the
Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind was held on March 23 of this year at the
United States Capitol building in Washington, DC It was a major declaration
that substantially secured God’s kingship on earth. Furthermore, the
declaration of the ideal Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity, made at the Capitol
on the same day, is the historic opening of the age of the federation of
Blessed families of the member states of the United Nations.
It is now the fourth year of Cheon II Guk, in which the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven
can be established in reality, based on ideal families that are centered on the
Cosmic Parent, the Parents of Heaven and Earth, and the Parents of Heaven,
Earth and Humankind. Thus, during this period in April, declared on this day,
the forty-fourth anniversary of True Parents’ Day, we have ushered in the day
of the liberation and complete freedom of the angelic world, the complete
freedom of Cain and Abel and, furthermore, the complete freedom of the Parents.
Going a step further, we are approaching the date May 1, which marks
the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Holy Spirit Association for the
Unification of World Christianity. On that day, we will usher in the day of
national liberation. Now that the age of liberation and complete freedom has
arrived, henceforth everything will be entrusted to the overall, complete,
absolute and omnipotent authority of God, and the era of His direct dominion
will arrive, when He can guide us personally.
Once again, I express my deepest gratitude to you for gracing us with
your presence. I would like to close by expressing my hope that a new millennial
kingdom overflowing with peace, freedom and justice will begin, both on earth
and in heaven.
May the blessings of God be with your families and your nations.
19
The Mission of Ambassadors for
Peace at the Dawn of the Era after
the Coming of Heaven
December 8, 2006
Korea
International Exhibition Center, Goyang, Korea
Ambassadors for Peace Nationwide Rallies for Unity and Peace
Respected ambassadors for peace, ladies and gentlemen:
All of you took a historic step by gathering here today. Since the
tumultuous outcry at the arrival of the new millennium, I still hear everyone’s
jubilation ringing loudly in my ears. Yet, two years have already gone by since
I proclaimed the realm of the Day of the Victory of the Number Ten Combining
Two Halves (Ssang Hap Ship Seung
II) for the dawning Era after the Coming of Heaven with a new hope for the
future. This declaration has given a promise of new hope for a bright future in
the hearts of the 6.5 billion people around the world. Indeed, ever since, I am
keeping myself busy building Cheon II Guk, spending each day like one thousand years, and one
thousand years like one day.
God is calling upon you, as representative leaders of the ambassadors
for peace of this nation. You are proud descendants of a long line of Korean
people, who were born with the spirit to promote the welfare of humankind. In
light of this, as we usher in this precious and significant time in God’s
providence, I would like to take this opportunity to convey to you a special
message from Heaven regarding the direction and mission humanity must undertake
from this time forward. The topic of my speech today is, “The Mission of
Ambassadors for Peace at the Dawn of the Era after the Coming of Heaven.”
Human beings are made to live in peace
Ladies and gentlemen, is there a dream common to all people regardless
of
gender, age, time or place? Throughout the ages, people everywhere have yearned
and hoped for the realization of the ideal of world peace. However, never in
history has the everlasting peace been achieved that would bring joy to Heaven.
This fact remains the basis of our historical sorrow and anguish.
What went wrong? What brought humankind to descend into ignorance of
the ideal that God cherishes for His creation? Perfection cannot be found in
ignorance, even if one waits for ten thousand years.
Ladies and gentlemen, God’s creation is indeed profound. Everything He
created was to prepare an environment for the perfection and happiness of human
beings, whom He created as His children and partners in love.
Consider a flower; it is one of the masterpieces of God’s creation.
Hidden within a flower, even in a nameless wildflower blooming in a field, we
can easily discover the Creator’s Will and purpose. To see a flower alive and
growing to perfection is truly to witness a miracle.
Flowers display beautiful colors and the harmony of yin and yang. Even
human beings, the lords of creation, cannot fully replicate their beauty.
Flowers continuously give off fragrances that captivate the hearts of the bees
and butterflies attracted to their dazzling colors. Flowers can absorb the
powerful, brilliant rays of the sun that humans cannot bear to look at. They
diffuse their light into natural rays of harmony and peace and utilize them to
create and preserve life. Flowers also do not neglect their duty to provide
nectar to the bees and butterflies that busily fly to and fro helping them
reproduce.
Ladies and gentlemen, the miracle of God’s creation is infinite,
transcending and defying any human description. Even a picture drawn by the
greatest artist in the world cannot compare to a cluster of living wildflowers.
Even in creating a single insignificant flower, God the Creator opens the way
for it to realize harmony in itself and contribute to the interdependence and mutual
prosperity of the whole of creation. Given that this is so, how much greater is
the stature of human beings, whom God created as His children, His eternal
partners of love and His heirs?
Each and every one of the millions of different kinds of flowers in
full bloom maintains its dignity as an individual embodiment of truth under the
majestic Principle of Creation. They create harmony in Mother Nature and abide
by the laws of interdependence and mutual prosperity. Likewise, each and every
human being has Heaven’s blessing and grace to seek harmony, peace, freedom and
happiness, and to find eternal life. Heaven has bestowed on each person the
life and characteristics of an individual being.
That is to say, every human being is born with the rights and privileges
of an individual embodiment of truth. This means that every person, regardless
of age, sex, rank or status, is destined to follow a course of life that is
uniquely his or her own and that reflects his or her individual nature.
People were made for true love
Ladies and gentlemen, can you find another person who resembles you
one hundred percent? Think about it. Is there anyone else who possesses the
same individual qualities as you? Would the lives of identical twins who were
born on the same day and time and who may even die at the same time be the
same? No person can take another person’s individuality, even if he or she is
the world’s most blessed and the other person is the world’s most miserable,
because that miserable person is a unique embodiment of truth.
God, the king of wisdom, continually creates eternal, individual
embodiments of truth through the process of origin-division-union action, in
accordance with God’s Principle of Creation. In this we can discover the
standard of absolute value that makes a human being human. As with the
interdependent and harmonious relationship between flowers and butterflies,
human beings were created to live for one another and share true love. This
means that the human standard of absolute value is established only within a
life of true love, when the relationship between subject and object partners
blooms in harmony.
Ladies and gentlemen, flowers and butterflies form relationships as
subject and object partners. They depend on one another and prosper through
their give-and-receive action. In the same way, the Principle of Creation
defines and predicts the course of relationships between humankind and nature,
between people, and between God and human beings.
Thus, Mother Nature is the combined body of all the individual
embodiments of truth in creation, harmoniously bound together. Mother Nature
stands as an absolute object partner before human beings, her subject partners.
Her ordained role is to enable human beings to realize their absolute value.
In the same way, people establish families of three generations and
live within that basic framework. There they learn and familiarize themselves
with the vertical and horizontal relationships of above and below, left and
right, and front and back. This means that each individual seeks a life of
harmony and love through give-and-receive action within the relationships of
subject and object partners. These relationships enable each family member to
attain his or her absolute value as an individual embodiment of truth.
What about the relationship between God and human beings? As the
Creator, God’s nature is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. On a closer
look, we find that God stands in the subject-partner position as He engages in
reciprocal relationships with His creation within the sphere of the Principle
of Creation that He established. That is because, although we think of God as
the Absolute Being, He cannot feel joy outside of the give- and-receive relationships
with His object partners.
Had Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, not fallen, and instead
perfected themselves according to the Principle of Creation as individual
embodiments of truth, people today would be manifesting their absolute value.
We would serve God above as our Lord with absolute obedience, and we would
relate with the creation, the natural world, as our object partners, rejoicing
in God’s eternal kingdom of peace. We would live as the citizens of the eternal
kingdom of heaven on earth and also in the spirit world.
Humanity’s deviation from God’s peace ideal
Then how did human beings, created as the children of the all-knowing
and almighty God, come to fall into such a state of ignorance? The first
ancestors, Adam and Eve, followed the false parent, Satan, along the path of
the Fall. Indeed, this is the first tragedy and the
most dreadful and sorrowful shame in human history.
God cannot forsake humankind. Within His grand ideal of creation,
human beings were created to be His children and absolute counterparts in true
love. Therefore, God has endured the long years of history with a heart full of
bitter pain, grief and anguish. God is the eternal True Parent of humanity, yet
He has had to persevere through virtual imprisonment in the shadows of history.
No one has known this reality.
Still, throughout history, people have applied their paltry human
efforts in pursuit of peace. Consider the confrontation between democracy and
communism. Each side strove to achieve peace on its terms, yet they were unable
to resolve the core differences between them over questions of human rights,
freedom and equality. Yet from the viewpoint of God’s providence, communism and
democracy are like children who lost their parents.
The two divided into the positions of Cain and Abel respectively and
became entrapped in the chains of fraternal conflict.
Human beings without exception are the children of Satan. Every person
is born inheriting Satan’s lineage. Please reflect on your own experience for a
moment. In every moment and every aspect of your daily life, are not good and
evil at war within you, each trying to gain the upper hand? Since we are
imperfect human beings, the peace movements we have carried out throughout
history have always encountered limitations and met with failure. This is the
why the United Nations, launched with the splendid dream of realizing world
peace, today has to confront its inherent limitations and confess that it can
no longer give hope to humanity. Simply put, the UN was launched during the era
prior to the time in which Heaven could be directly involved with the unfolding
of God’s providence in history.
Ladies and gentlemen, by virtue of Rev. Moon’s devotion to the path of
Heaven throughout the more than eighty years of his life, a new world is
emerging. On this victorious foundation, the revolutionary Era after the Coming
of Heaven has been proclaimed. We are now living in the age of heavenly
fortune, an age in which all people can be liberated and delivered from the
quagmire of sin. It is the era in which the world of freedom and happiness, the
ideal world as originally envisioned at the time of the Creation, can be
established.
The reasons God chose Rev. Moon
There are several clear reasons why Heaven designated the person
standing before you, Rev. Moon, as the True Parent of humankind, and thereby
opened up a new era.
First, I have succeeded in practicing the way of living for the sake
of others. That is, throughout my life I have practiced the values of true
love, emerged triumphant, and offered that triumph to humanity. All people are
born to live for the sake of others. However, because of ignorance resulting
from the Fall, people practice the complete opposite,
selfish individualism. I revealed this secret of Heaven, and this knowledge has
been imparted to humankind for the first time in history. God is fully aware of
the path my life has taken through thick and thin.
Second, I have dedicated my life to overcoming all obstacles and
laying a victorious foundation. Through the education provided by the actual
practice of true love, I have fulfilled all the necessary
conditions for recovering and establishing the parent-child relationship
between God and humankind. I have opened the way for human beings, who had
become the children of the adulterer Satan, the enemy of love, and who have
lived as slaves to false love, false life and false lineage, to be reborn and
resurrected into the true lineage of God, the source of true love. In other
words, I have opened wide the path for people to reach full spiritual maturity
as individuals and to establish true families, true clans, true peoples, true
nations and a true world through leading lives of true love.
Ladies and gentlemen, as we make our way in the world, we find that, inevitably,
many connections and relationships influence our lives. Most of these
connections come about as a result of the choices we make and the circumstances
in which we find ourselves. We make relationships that can be changed or erased
through our own effort whenever we like.
On the other hand, heavenly relationships, which God bequeaths to us
from the moment of our birth, lie outside the realm of choice. These
fundamental and inescapable relationships are based on connections of blood.
Even though you may dislike your parents or siblings, for example, you cannot
change them by choice or vote them out of office. This is because they are
connected to you through ties of blood. Once you are born into the family with
the surname Kim, you have to live forever as part of the lineage of the Kim
family.
What is the reason humankind has yet to escape from the snare of sin?
It is because people are born with the false lineage of Satan. Yet that
inheritance is not an innate blood connection that Heaven bestows in accordance
with the providential Will and purpose. It is not based upon the Principle.
Rather, it is a connection that came about in violation of the Principle. It
was brought about by human error.
Restoration through the cross-cultural marriage Blessing
Although human beings have been reduced to the position of orphans who
have lost their parents through the Fall, the
fundamental relationship endowed by Heaven remains intact: God is our Parent
and we are His children. As a result of the Fall,
human beings became ignorant beings, as if living in a vegetative state, unable
to recognize their own Parent even though He is right there within them and
beside them.
Therefore, all people, regardless of who they may be, belong to the
fallen lineage. All people without exception must be born again through
changing their lineage. This is the only way we can be restored into the
originally intended blood relationship that God has bequeathed to us.
Furthermore, the best way to restore people to the position of
children of God through changing their lineage is through the cross-cultural
marriage Blessing. This is a revolutionary happening, creating the heavenly
lineage on a whole new level transcending the walls of race, culture,
nationality and religion. It is an act that severs all links of enmity. It is
the sacred rite of the change of lineage through which all can be re-created
through the True Parents. They are the King and Queen of Peace, the
manifestations of God in substance, who enable Him to exercise His providence
in the present world.
Beloved ambassadors for peace, place your
hand to your chest and ponder this question quietly in your heart: Is there any
other way to deliver this world from the wars and antagonism we see around us?
Is there a way more certain to create one global family, where there is no
hatred between family members, than through cross-cultural marriages between
enemy clans or, going one step further, between enemy nations?
Ladies and gentlemen, you each stand in the position of leaders representing
the 1.2 million ambassadors for peace around the world who are spearheading the
revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven. You are Heaven’s emissaries who
must fulfill the dual missions of the “peace kingdom police force” and “peace
kingdom corps,” which are responsible for ensuring the peace and happiness of
humankind in the future. Therefore, Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Muhammad, as
well as hundreds of generations of your ancestors, have mobilized to watch your
every move. Your mission is now as plain as can be. First and foremost, you
need to declare to every member of your clan and to all your acquaintances that
the world has now entered the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven, the
era for the establishment of God’s kingdom, which I call Cheon
II Guk. You are responsible to educate them about the
providence God is carrying out on the global level in this era, centering on
the True Parents.
Furthermore, you must teach them without fail that the cross-cultural
marriage Blessing is the ultimate means to establish the peaceful, ideal world
here on earth and guide the people of your families and clans, and the Korean
people, to join the holy ranks of those who receive the cross-cultural marriage
Blessing.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is truly regrettable that you cannot sense
with your own eyes this precious revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven.
It has never been seen before and will never again be repeated. The reason for
this is that you are relying only on your five physical senses. I hope that you
will open your five spiritual senses as quickly as possible so that you may
clearly perceive how the providence of Heaven is unfolding in this era. You
live in the era of heavenly fortune, which you have received without giving
anything on your part. Yet please bear in mind that the providential timetable,
which proceeds according to an absolute standard, will not wait for you
indefinitely.
Now the time has come for you to unite into one as the representatives
of the ambassadors for peace who have preserved the spirit of the Korean people
and the pride of the “white-clad race.” There is no time to waste. What does it
matter whether your name is Kim or Pak? Is there any reason for Gyeongsang Province and Jeolla Province
not to harmoniously unite? The pro-Seoul Korean Residents’ Union in Japan (Mindan) and the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean
Residents in Japan (Chochongryon) each have their
roots in the same Korean Peninsula. What of South and North Korea? Aren’t we
all brothers and sisters, sharing a common lineage? At this time, we have to
bear in mind that we are descendants of the “white-clad race” and of Heaven. We
have been raised to establish the lofty ideal of advancing the welfare of
humankind, and we are the kinsfolk of a people called, selected and anointed by
God to stand at the forefront of building the peace kingdom in this, the
revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven.
We need to seek out and establish “God’s kingdom and His righteousness,”
for it is everyone’s ultimate destination to live in a nation that serves and
attends God as its center. What is meant by “God’s kingdom”? It signifies the
kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. It is a nation that resembles the form of
a model true family with three generations living together in harmony,
trusting, respecting and supporting one another and becoming one in love. In
short, it is the nation that humanity has longed for throughout the ages, the
utopia where God is sovereign.
Then what is meant by “His righteousness”? It signifies the heavenly
way and heavenly rule. Each of us on earth has been commanded to pass judgment,
with the heavenly authority of true love, upon this evil world that suffers
under scheming, treacherous regimes. It is our duty to establish the ideal,
peaceful world of true love, a liberated, free world based on justice and
truth.
The role of ambassadors for peace in building the ideal world After
all, humanity is meant to become one family. The remarkable advances of modern
science are contributing greatly to making this world one global village. The
time has come to establish the beautiful kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world,
where whites and blacks, and Orientals and Westerners, live together in harmony
as one great family.
During this time of transition, the Universal Peace Federation and the
Mongolian Peoples’ Federation for World Peace that I have founded will play
important roles. The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) will now stand in the
Abel position to the existing United Nations. It will not be an arena of
competition such as that which exists between the member nations and
departments of the UN. Instead, it will carry out a historic revolution for the
peace and welfare of humanity on a global and universal level. Unlike the UN,
which focuses on slogans and outward appearances, UPF will work on a more
fundamental and substantial level to fulfill a messianic mission that is
genuinely beneficial to humankind.
Peace-loving ambassadors for peace, the Mongolian
race, making up 74 percent of the world’s population, is the largest
racial group in the world. We have to inspire all five billion of them and
generate a climate of true love on this planet.
You and I were born on the Korean Peninsula; we share the same
cultural background. You are the peace ambassadors and special envoys of Heaven
who are conveying my teachings and educating others to establish exemplary
families through true love, true life and true lineage. You, who have become
ambassadors for peace, must now go forward with the conviction and dignity of a
prophet who comes with Heaven’s truth, having no fear of the path of death. Go
out as Heaven’s special envoys, and God will certainly grant you eternal life.
The Mongolian birthmark, which we all have in common, is not merely a
physical mark of the Mongolian race. It is the mark given long ago by Heaven to
the ancestors of Korea, the Dong Yi tribes, to function as the sign by which
the True Parents would inspire and unite all humanity with the arrival of the revolutionary
Era after the Coming of Heaven. Furthermore, the Korean race, standing at the
center of the Mongolian peoples, are the chosen
people who stand at the forefront of the 6.5 billion people of the world and
who must fulfill their mission to pass on True Parents’ tradition on their
behalf.
Please do not forget that the peaceful, ideal world, which God
envisioned at the time of creation, and which He desired when He created
humankind, is now being built right before your eyes. If this is not a miracle,
then what is? All around the world, the couples that were joined in
cross-cultural marriage Blessings are putting down the roots of God’s true
love. The new heavenly lineage is bearing fruit. The day draws near when this
beautiful earth will become the original garden of
Eden, where we will enjoy everlasting peace and happiness. Surely innumerable
generations of our descendants will shout, “Hallelujah for God’s kingdom of Cheon II Guk!”
May the great blessings and the grace of God be with you, your families
and the Korean people.
Thank you.
Thank you very much.
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