Today is the 26th of August and the 38th day since Father went to Danbury. Father said that his first forty days in prison are the most important. Thus it is significant that you are having your annual meeting at this time. I think many of you already heard about Father's life in Danbury. Father works in the kitchen eight hours every day, the rest of the time he can use as he wants. An ex-inmate spoke to our brothers and sisters recently, he said that Father spends most of his free time reading or in prayer, usually not sleeping till midnight. Sometimes inmates knock at Father's door and enter, only to find him kneeling in prayer. Before Father went to prison he said he was willing to go anywhere for God's will. He also said that his mission is to unite Christianity and the Unification Church but that he couldn't accomplish this up to now. He also said that if it was necessary for him to go to prison to accomplish this he was happy to go.

From Divine Principle we learn that parents can only be safe when Cain and Abel are united. Each individual has Cain and Abel within themselves. Our original mind is Abel and our body is Cain. If our God centered mind cannot control our physical body it means that Cain and Abel are disunited. Our spirit and our body must be united.

There are also Cain and Abel positions within a family. If the husband is closer to God he is the Abel and the others Cain, they must be united. There are Abel and Cain positions among families as well. True Children's families are in the Abel position to all blessed couples. There are five such families: Ye Jin Nim's, Hyo Jin Nim's, In Jin Nim's, Heung Jin Nim's and Sung Jin Nim's. There are Cain families all over the world: from the 36 couples all the way up to the 6000 couples. Each of these Cain families must unite with the Abel families. We know that there are Cain and Abel churches as well. The Unification Church is in the Abel position because we know God's will and are closer to Him and the Christian churches are in the position of Cain. These two must unite. There are also Cain and Abel nations. We know who they are and that they must unite. And finally there is also a Cain and an Abel world and in order to have eternal peace and fulfill God's will these two worlds must be united.

So you see there are Cain and Abel positions on every level. God longs for unity on all these levels. But as we know none of these Cains and Abels are united. Our Father came in order to bring unity on earth, so he must pay the indemnity for them to unite. This is why Father said that he would be more than happy to go anywhere and pay any price if all the different Cains and Abels could be united through his sacrifice. In his farewell speech he said that all brothers and sisters must repent and bring unity among themselves and others. He also said that God's desire is to liberate hell in the physical and spiritual worlds. As long as there is a hell on earth, the spiritual hell cannot be liberated. When Jesus left this world he visited hell first, because his mission was to liberate hell. He couldn't liberate hell on earth and thus had to make certain conditions by visiting spiritual hell. Danbury isn't just a prison, it represents hell on earth. Father went there to open the gates of hell by bringing the inmates to God and helping them understand Him. He has asked us to unite the outside world. Because we are out in the free world it is our mission to unite it. This is a good chance to unite ourselves, our families and the Abel and Cain families. In addition we must help priests and ministers understand our church and make friends with them so we can unite the Christian churches.

We must understand America's position in God's providence. We all know that God wants a free ideal world on earth. This requires saving the world. But world salvation cannot take place without national salvation and that cannot take place without heavenly families and individuals. But unless we establish God's nation our families won't be safe. Satan works through national sovereignty, so we cannot be happy, free or safe until we establish God's sovereign nation. That's why Father emphasizes the restoration of a nation so much. America is the representative Christian nation on earth. God prepared America to be the foundation of world restoration when the Lord of the Second Advent came. There can be neither free nations nor a free world without America. America is in the archangel position and responsible to defend the free world. This why God gave her such great wealth and strength and why Father left Korea for America in 1971 and has been investing so much in the restoration of America.

We need people for this purpose. Father has always said we need at least 30,000 members in America. This is a small number. Yesterday I made some calculations. There are about 60 million people in Germany. Through Home Church each member takes responsibility for 360 families. So if we calculate 1/360th of the German population how much would that be? 167,000. Actually God doesn't want us to work 24 hours a day without sleeping. He prefers automatic restoration. He wants to bring all mankind back to Him through our exemplary lives, that's His original idea. To do this though, we need a minimum number of people; one out of every 360. Once we reach that point things will happen automatically. This means that once we have 167,000 people in the German Family the restoration of Germany will occur automatically. How many members do we actually have though? Very few. If we need that many here in Germany, then what about America where there are 240 million people? You can see why I said 30,000 is a small number. Father says that's the minimum number necessary for restoration to take place at all. But we don't even have that. This is another reason Father had to go to prison.

Father has asked us to fulfill this minimum condition during his stay in Danbury. He said if we can make friends with 30,000 Christian ministers that will do, they needn't become full time members. His indemnity course in prison is the condition for us to make friends with Christian ministers and introduce them to our church. Father himself is the sacrifice to accomplish this. If we make friends with 30,000 ministers, with their help we can expand the number to 300,000 and accomplish something for God. God prepared Christianity for His providence. When Christians know the will of God they will work for Him. Once they become our friends, we can unite based on a common goal; God's goal. We don't want to make them members, but to work with us to realize God's will.

1988 is the most crucial year for America and the Free World. America will hold elections this November. Of course there is some danger, but America will probably reelect Reagan. No one can predict what will happen in 1988 though, because the circumstances will have changed by then. If Americans aren't careful they may elect people who don't understand Communism. Twelve nations were lost to Communism during Carter's administration. If someone similar is elected, America and the Free World will be completely destroyed by the Communists. 1988 is not only critical for America, but for Korea as well. Korea will also hold elections in 1988 and there may be some political change in Japan in 1988 as well. So the Adam, Eve and archangel nations may all experience dramatic change.

1988 is also important because it is the end of Father's 40-year course. We know that Father's course actually started in Hungnam. Father wanted to start his mission in South Korea in 1945, but the Christian ministers rejected him and he had to go to the North. He couldn't establish a foundation in the South, so God sent him to the North. He worked with spiritual groups there, but when they couldn't fulfill their missions, Father had to go to prison. Judaism rejected Jesus and even his twelve disciples rejected him. As a result he had to go to the cross. Father was in the same position. Christianity rejected him and he didn't have twelve disciples, so he had to go to prison. Jesus left this life on the cross after losing twelve disciples. For Father to live and continue his mission he had to find twelve disciples on the cross, in prison. So Father's course actually started in Hungnam in 1948.

Father is already preparing for 1988. That's why he asked us to work together with the churches. If America falls into Satan's hands there will be no chance for God's providence anymore. To prevent this we need the help of America's Christians. Once they understand God's will and the urgency of the time, they will stand on God's side and use their votes to elect the right person. This is why we are contacting priests and ministers in America now. Father didn't say anything about Europe. But because he is doing this in America we want to do it here as well. Europe is connected to America and can influence America. Europe's destiny depends upon America's, if America falls Europe falls. So at a recent national leaders meeting we set a goal to make friends with 6000 ministers in Europe by the end of the year. Germany's part in this goal is to bring 800 ministers to understand that the Unification Church is working to accomplish God's will. Once they understand this, they can become our friends. They oppose us because they believe we aren't a church, they think we take advantage of young people and use them for an evil purpose. Once they understand us though, they will become our friends.

I'd like to speak about salvation. We want to be saved. To do this we must make certain conditions. Because our parents were fallen we couldn't receive true life. True Parents come with new life, new love and new truth, we can receive all of this from them. If we had been born of true parents we wouldn't have to go through a difficult course but could be saved automatically. How can we move from the position of fallen children to that of true children? These two positions are completely different so we need a bridge to connect them. True Children are this bridge. If we unite with them as one body, we can be connected to True Parents. When True Parents' first baby was born we had a special ceremony. We ate the same food as Mother. We also drank milk because a baby receives milk. Father also said that we had to love the baby even while it was in Mother's womb, feeling we were in Mother's womb being born with the baby. We made such conditions.

We must love the True Children and be one with them. This is the condition to become true children and unite with True Parents. If True Parents had no children there could be no restoration. Through this fact we can understand the importance of True Children. They are the bridge to lead all fallen children to the position of original children. Whenever Heung Jin Nim comes he says that our members should know the names of the True Children. He says it in a diplomatic way: "To become members of True Family you should know the names of your brothers and sisters." We want to become members of Father's family, brothers and sisters of the True Children. So he asks "How can you be members of True Family if you don't know your brothers' and sisters' names?" He actually wants to say more, but because he is True Parents' son he cannot. He would like to say we should become one with True Children by loving them.

We know that love is subject over life, thus the power of love should be stronger than the desire for life. Only such love can be called true love. If our love is weaker than our desire for life, it cannot be true love. Parents are willing to die to save their children. True love between husband and wife is the same. If you can sacrifice your life for your husband or wife then we can say you truly love him/her. True love always goes beyond the desire for life. Our love for True Children should also be like this. This is why Heung Jin Nim always asks us, "Do you love True Parents more than your life? Do you love True Children more than your life? Do you love your brothers and sisters more than your life?" He asks such questions in order to find out whether our love is true and to establish the condition that Satan cannot invade. Satan cannot invade us when we possess true love, because he could never sacrifice himself for others. Thus when we love True Parents with a true sacrificial love we are safe from Satan's attack. God wants to protect us by uniting us in true love with True Parents, whom Satan cannot invade.

When we enter the spirit world an angel comes and asks us questions. Everyone is asked the same question: "Are you qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven? On what condition and with what authority do you claim the right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven?" So you have to be able to tell the angel why you are qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. But you cannot lie in the spirit world.

Conversation takes place non-verbally, from heart to heart. What you really feel is expressed. What you really think and believe is your answer. This means that if you aren't confident, you can't answer correctly. We cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven without defeating Satan. The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling of those who have overcome Satan. Father defeated Satan through his 40-year course so he can proudly proclaim, "I have defeated Satan, so I can go to the Kingdom of Heaven" and no one can dispute it. If you have defeated Satan as Father did, you can say, "I have defeated Satan and am qualified to enter the Kingdom of Heaven." But have we defeated Satan? No. Then what can we say?

There are two ways to enter Heaven. One is to defeat Satan ourselves. The other is to become a child of True Parents thereby inheriting their authority. If True Parents, who have defeated Satan, become my parents I can claim the right to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, because I can inherit their victory over Satan. The problem then is whether we can honestly claim to be True Parents' sons and daughters. As I said before, our answer must come from our heart spontaneously, not after long reflection. This conviction must be planted so deeply within our being that it is expressed subconsciously. Everyone must have this conviction before leaving this life.

Many of us have already received the Blessing from True Parents. What is the Blessing? It is the means of inheriting Father's victorious foundation. Father fought Satan for 40 years, from 1920 to 1960, before defeating him. He passes his victorious 40-year foundation on to us through the Blessing. The Blessing is so important. Without receiving the Blessing we cannot become one with the True Children or say we are children of True Parents. There have been many religious leaders in the past but none of them could bless couples as our Father does. The Blessing is the most important element in God's providence. There are other important things, but they pale in comparison to the Blessing. The Blessing has foremost importance because without it there can be no heaven on earth. Heaven is the world of God's love and God's love can only be realized through heavenly families, which in turn can only be realized through the Blessing. Thus we can see that only through the Blessing can we establish a world of God's love, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Husband and wife must become one in God's love. If couples don't unite in God's love they have no connection to the Blessing. We know it's not easy to become one in God's love. Very few couples are united in God's love. The Blessing is new and Satan is constantly trying to destroy it. If we succeed in establishing heavenly families he will have to retreat. He doesn't want to retreat, so he tries to destroy God's family. This is why problems always arise in blessed couples' lives. It's very difficult to control. You don't want problems, but you can't help it. They come anyway because men and women became enemies through the fall. Adam and Eve were supposed to become a true couple in the Garden of Eden, instead they became enemies. And because their parents were enemies Cain and Abel became enemies as well. We must restore this and move from being enemies to original husbands and wives. Satan will investigate to find out if we are truly man and wife or still enemies. If we defeat Satan, we become a heavenly couple. If we are defeated by him, we become a satanic couple. So you can see why so many problems come to blessed couples.

When a man and a woman come together, their ancestors, who may have been enemies in the past, come together as well. Japan and Korea were enemies in the past, so Japanese and Koreans may not like it when their descendants come together. "Why did my son marry the enemy's daughter? I don't like this!" Many problems emerge as a result of such ancestral resentments. If the couple cannot overcome them, they cannot unite. I've seen many blessed couples who had extreme difficulties in the beginning. Father knew they would. I was often beside Father as he matched couples. Sometimes even I could see that a certain couple would probably have difficulties. Father matched them anyway because he knew they had to go through this; if they didn't, the barriers couldn't be broken down. Sometimes Father matched older brothers who weren't such strong members to Japanese sisters because he knew what they would face. Once many couples had overcome such difficulties, however, those matched later had fewer problems. The earlier couples paid much indemnity and those who came later didn't have to pay as much.

It's difficult to know what position we are in as a couple. Sometimes we bear the responsibility of solving two or three nations' resentment. Ancestral resentment must be solved by their descendants, they can be liberated when their descendants overcome. Anyway we have to pay the price to liberate the spirit world. Unless we liberate our ancestors we cannot truly liberate ourselves. We must realize that the Blessing isn't just for our sake, but the spirit world as well.

I mentioned earlier that couples must be united in God's love, true love. Once you possess true love there is no problem you cannot overcome. We must pass through hell in order to establish a family of true love. Only in this way can we reach the Kingdom of Heaven. The period of hell may be long or short depending on the couple, but we must pass through it. When we overcome we gain victory. To overcome we must understand Divine Principle. Don't just consider your spouse as one person, but as your spouse plus God and True Parents. That is your spouse's value. If you don't understand that though and consider your spouse alone he/she might not seem so valuable. If you can discover God and True Parents in your spouse their value becomes truly great.

God is truly smart not to allow divorce. You cannot cultivate your character if divorce is allowed. Man always chooses the easier of two choices. If divorce was permitted, you wouldn't want to try to overcome marital problems, but would choose the easier path of divorce instead. God knows this so he barred the easy course, cutting off the possibility of divorce. Man must tackle his problems and overcome them because he has no other choice. You must overcome your arrogant heart and personal feelings and remove your fallen nature. In this way you can improve yourself. The more fallen nature you have the more difficult the fight and the longer it takes.

We teach that the Blessing takes place at the growth stage and that we pass through the perfection stage together with our spouse. You must become one with your spouse during this course, meanwhile removing your fallen nature. If you hold on to it, you can't be one with your spouse. So actually the Blessing helps you reach perfection. I've often watched members being matched. Sometimes they come to the matching feeling: "I can accept anyone but him or her." Father always matches them with that person. Subconsciously they already know which is the right person for them and they want to escape. You must overcome and in that way reach perfection. All problems can be solved, you can become one. Then you can proudly say, "I overcame everything! " Satan cannot accuse you anymore.

The theme of this meeting is repentance, unity and determination. Recently I presented thirteen guidelines for repentance. Then I met a brother who told me, "If you say that, we will feel so heavy we won't be able to work, we will lose all our power." I know that in the past leaders used to control members in this way. Members know they need to repent, but due to such bad experiences, it's difficult for them to accept this. You should understand, however, that repentance cleanses your past. You need to repent in order to liberate yourself from such things. Repentance isn't the cause of depression, it is the cure. When you understand and repent, the pressure will be resolved and you will be free.

The purpose of repentance is not to weigh you down, but to lighten your burden, to liberate you. Catholics confess, telling their priest everything. Why do they do that? To be liberated. It's the same thing for us, even though we don't do it in front of a priest, but directly to God. Or sometimes we say to our True Parents, "I have such and such a problem." Then Father says, "It's okay, don't worry about it." Then you are free. But Father can't meet everyone, so we must do this in our prayer. Sometimes you can repent to brothers and sisters, saying "I did this in the past and I want to repent." That is one solution. But there is one thing that cannot be forgiven through repentance alone. You all know what that is, the act of falling. To resolve that you must fulfill certain indemnity conditions. Other things can be forgiven through repentance though. We want to liberate ourselves from our past mistakes and start anew, so we repent. How can we run if we are carrying a heavy burden? We must lighten our load first. Likewise to make a new start we need to repent in order to lighten our load. This is why we repent.

I listed those thirteen points in order to clarify things. We often hear that we need to repent. But we often don't know what to repent for. I'll list the thirteen points again then, so we will know. Did we really become one with God and True Parents? Did we really try to become one with them? Of course it's difficult, but we must at least try. Our goal is to become one with God, if we don't try we will never reach it. The question is whether we tried to become one with God and True Parents. If we didn't, we must start trying. Until we unite with God we cannot become His sons and daughters. We must make more effort to unite with God and True Parents.

Did we do things for ourselves or for God, our center and the public purpose? We must always check ourselves: "Was my motivation self- centered or public-centered, God-centered?" Everyone has habits. If my habits are self-centered, I must change them. Sometimes we do self- centered things without even realizing it. In that case we can't correct or change them. So we need to examine ourselves, "Did I really do this for others, or what?" If I said something, did I say it for myself or for everyone? We must reflect in this way and if we were selfishly motivated, we must repent and correct ourselves. If we constantly do self-centered things we cannot harmonize with others. If our heart is self-centered when we advise others, they will never accept our advice. But if we say something for someone's benefit, really thinking of him or her, they will appreciate it. There are major and minor things, but it is often the minor points where we are most apt to have a self-centered motivation. If we change the minor points, the major ones can change as well. Of course this is difficult, if everyone was selflessly working for the whole-purpose, the Kingdom of Heaven would already be here. Anyway we have to try. If we don't we can never reach our goal. So whenever we do something we should check whether we are doing it for ourselves or for God, the church and our brothers and sisters. We should always check our motivation.

Do I really love God and True Parents? We say that we do, but do we really? We should consider this. We also say that we should unite with our brothers and sisters. Did we really do this? In order to unite with them we have to love them. So we must ask ourselves, "Did I love my brothers and sisters as God would like?" At the same time we must ask, "Did I live so that others could love me? Did I lead the kind of life brothers and sisters can respect?" If we are always doing nasty things, we cannot expect brothers and sisters to love us. We must lead a good life in order to receive our brothers and sisters' love. We shouldn't just expect it, but must check to see if we are doing the proper thing to receive their love.

We also have to check whether we were lazy or did the best we could? We are told to give God's words to others. "Did I witness to others? Did I study God's words sufficiently? Do I know God's truth?" If we don't know something, we must study. Without knowing God's words we cannot pass them on to others. This is for our own good as well as others'.

Did we use time well? We only have 24 hours a day, not 25. So we must use time properly. We also don't have much money, so we must use it well in order not to waste it. Also when we do things we have to do them in the right way. If we do things falsely then no matter how much energy or time we invest, we won't gain good results. We have a tendency to think, "Doing my best is enough." But that's not true, our effort is meaningless if we invest it in the wrong direction. So we should study the options and then invest our energy. When we are in a hurry we often take the wrong direction. So we should find the best way and then go. Sometimes we just charge forward and later discover our direction was wrong. As a result we have to change course again and again, thereby losing time, energy and money. We must invest our resources wisely.

We also need a proper prayer life. This is very important. Investing lots of time in prayer isn't enough, we must pray for the right things. If we pray for something unreasonable, then no matter how politely or how often we ask, God won't be able to accept our request. Praying to God is the same as speaking with someone. When you ask someone for something he cannot give you, then no matter how you beg or plead he still cannot give it to you. If you ask for something reasonable, he cannot help but fulfill your request. Likewise when we pray to God we must be reasonable, "For such and such reason I need your help." If you just ramble from one thought to another, without even knowing what you are talking about, how can God help you? God is a living God, He is a living being. We must always remember this. God is a living God and hears what we say, He also has heart. We must move God's heart through our prayer. These are the thirteen points.

Our church is called the Unification Church for a reason. Our members know well the importance of unity. There can be no success without it, especially in the work of God. When we are disunited Satan invades and destroys everything, so it is essential that we unite. The first requirement for unity is that we have faith in God and True Parents. This is our foundation. If God and True Parents didn't exist, there would be no reason for us to be together. We came to our church because of God and True Parents so being here is meaningless without faith in them. Faith in God and True Parents is the first condition necessary for unity.

The next requirement is that we follow God and True Parents' direction. What can we accomplish if we go an opposite direction? We must get rid of our fallen nature. We cannot unite if we are arrogant. Eliminating our fallen nature is difficult, but we must do it. We must pray about this when we pray. God created man with His original nature. But now fallen nature has occupied our mind and body. We must remove our fallen nature and strengthen the divine nature within us. When we pray we should ask God that our original nature can control our mind and body. We want to fill our mind and body with God's nature. We should pray in this way. We need a pure mind and an innocent heart in our relationships with brothers and sisters. Children make friends easily because they possess these qualities. A pure and innocent heart can bring people together quickly. Also we need mutual respect and trust if we are to work together well. It's difficult to work together if we cannot trust our colleagues. We should be able to respect and trust one another. We must live and work together for the same purpose, the same goal: cooperate. If we do all this we can achieve true unity.

So in conclusion we need repentance and unity in our prayer life and our practical life. We must fulfill our goals of witnessing, meeting Christian ministers and building a financial foundation. All members must work together for this purpose; a few members isn't enough. Even when everyone is mobilized, it's still not enough. As I said earlier, we need 167,000 people in Germany in order for automatic restoration to take place. How many do we have though? Nowhere near enough. So everyone must work hard. I don't mean you have to leave your homes, but wherever you are you should do your best. As I said yesterday four things are necessary: witnessing, financial contributions, prayer life and attending and participating in services and other activities. After this meeting we should unite and bring good results to our Heavenly Father and True Parents. Thank you.

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