4: Prerequisites for the Realization of Peace

Looking at the world situation today, we cannot help feeling disappointment. Although the earnest desire of humanity is freedom, peace and stability, the state of confusion worldwide continues to worsen, and the future of humanity indeed looks grim. In spite of the ceaseless efforts of nations' leaders, the problems of the world are getting more complex and hard to resolve. Democracy, communism, religion and philosophy have all proved themselves to be totally helpless in the face of these world problems. The problem lies in a lack of understanding of God's will. Human history is the history of God's providence, and without understanding that providence we will be unable to deal with the world's problems.

If God is the origin of the universe, a peaceful world cannot be achieved as long as there is sadness in His heart and His cherished wishes remain unfulfilled. This is reasonable. Can children be happy when their parents are in a state of anguish? When a nation's president is troubled, can his people feel at ease? Not normally in a moral society.

Not even great politicians or saints can unite the world or bring peace without an ideology that can solve the problems of young people. This is a headache for both God and mankind.

The world has a huge population. Today's global problems can no longer be thought of as someone else's problems. They are my problems. The democratic world and the communist world are alike in that they both long for a unified world of peace.

At this point in time, we have come to recognize that human beings by themselves cannot realize this unified world of peace. We cannot hope for peace or one unified world in the true sense of the word merely through human power, human wisdom or human culture.

What is the main difficulty in solving worldwide problems? I think the most important challenge is clearly elucidating the fact of God's existence. The day that all humanity recognizes clearly that God exists, they will come to understand the path along which He is leading them. The world will then indeed become the peaceful world of God's ideal.

Who is going to put an end to the fight between good and evil spirits? It is neither God nor Satan. Unless one becomes the hero or heroine of love whom all people of the world can follow, the fight between God and Satan will never end. As long as we remain caught in this struggle, world peace will forever be impossible and the word "ideal" no more than an abstract and sentimental idea.

To save fallen people and return them to their original position is God's intent. Therefore, religion has to be armed with content that puts us in touch with the core of the universe with the concept of this subject partner and object partner. When we examine every religious teaching from that viewpoint, only Christianity has such content. Jesus said that God was his Father and he was His only begotten son. This is an amazing proclamation. He also said that he is the bridegroom, and we are the brides, which is also a surprising announcement. It means that the father and son share this common denominator of love; bridegroom and bride are similarly not two, but one. Peace is present here. Without going through this, there cannot be harmony. Without going through this, there is no way to find a smooth spherical movement in the course of history.

Looking at ourselves today, we can see that our body and mind are neither perfectly at peace nor perfectly united. Paul, the first Christian theologian, recognized the law pertaining to the mind and the law pertaining to the body and, in the struggle between them, that the law of the body always defeated and drove the law of the mind into misery. So, he drew a grievous conclusion, "Oh, wretched man that I am!" Why has the law of the mind failed to govern the law of the body? If God exists, then the mind should control the body.

How are we going to find a way to deal with today's chaotic world and build a world of peace and a self that can exercise independent authority as an ideal self? To find the answer to this question, one must certainly find God. I have searched more than any other person to determine whether or not God exists.

In light of this, I would like to recommend three steps to achieve peace. This proposal is most fundamental in form, so it may appear idealistic. However, just as a building cannot stand without a firm foundation, my suggestion for peace starts from the most fundamental proposition. First, the ultimate world of peace must be achieved through three stages: peace between God and humankind, peace among humankind and peace in the world.

Through my course of serious spiritual discipline, I have come to understand with certainty that God exists. I even reached the stage where I met the living God directly and I have come to realize that one cannot discuss true peace on earth without finding peace with God, who is the origin of the universe. God is the first cause of the universe and the Creator of all creation. He is also our beloved Father. God created all things in order to accomplish His special will, the fulfillment of which lies in becoming the embodiment of love. God is the source of true love, but even the omnipotent God can never feel the joy of love by Himself. God needs an object partner of love and wants to receive spontaneous love back from the object partner. This object partner, God's supreme creation, is none other than humankind. For that reason, there is a purpose for our life. The purpose of life is to mature and realize that relationship of eternal true love with God. This is the fundamental principle by which peace is actualized between God and humankind.

Once such a relationship is established between God and man, people can then realize peace among themselves. What relationship would be prerequisite for peace between human beings? That is also the relationship of love.

World peace is indeed the long-cherished desire of humanity. It can be attained in the same way as peace between individuals.

In numerous ways, people have been constantly seeking peace and happiness but have not obtained satisfactory results. For all the work that has been done worldwide by the League of Nations and the United Nations, which were set up following the first and second world wars respectively, with the idea of preventing future war, world peace has not come.

Neither have the efforts of religious organizations produced a joyful world. Such a world also failed to materialize from the ideals of international Communism and the dreams of Fascism. Not even a high degree of political skill or even a high level of technology has been able to bring peace and happiness to humanity. This is because man's misfortune and pain has not been solved at its root; it results from the fall where human beings disobeyed God.

God has to restore, at any cost, the ideals of true love and peace that He originally envisioned. God's providence of salvation, that is, the providence of restoration, is the providence of restoring man's original state. For this providence, God has established religions and expanded the sphere of goodness.

Human nature has driven us to search for the answer to the question of how to put an end to this misfortune and realize a world of peace and happiness. Isn't this the very road religion has been pursuing? Even so, the ideal world mankind has been hoping for has not come about yet. At the core of religion there is the desire to discover the source of human pain and misfortune. If we are ignorant of the source of our pain, there is no hope of being able to rid ourselves of it. The answer can only come with wisdom gained through revelation from God.

Until now, we have been ignorant of the original value of humankind. To discover what our original value consists of, ordinary people and scholars have pondered over whether God exists and about the value of human life. This is the realm of religion and philosophy. Unity between men and women does not arise unless they find God, and then the realm of unity, which is the greatest value of humankind. When people establish a realm of unity with God, upon the foundation of unity among people, that will be the settlement of the ideal realm of unity that God desires. In that way, a substantial place of settlement will come into being, both in heaven and on earth. Unless we achieve it, that place of settlement will never come to exist, and peace will never be realized. The place of settlement has not been realized since God is revolving around His desire for eternal peace and human beings are revolving centered on themselves.

Since the beginning of history there has never been an age nor a people that did not yearn for peace. Human history, however, has been constantly tainted by war and the blood of the innocent, the complete opposite of what people desire. Why is this?

Has mankind been living in peace for the past forty-six years, not knowing conflict? No. War has broken out again and again. Beginning with the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Gulf War, as many as sixty some conflicts have occurred.

Why is peace so difficult to achieve? As we found the Federation for World Peace today, we have to first dig into the reason that peace has not been realized. That is because, if not, it is just so obvious that humanity will follow in the same footsteps in the future as well.

Ladies and gentlemen! People have so far shouted for peace, but they haven't understood the meaning of true peace. They haven't had the true philosophy of peace. Therefore, the way to achieve true peace could not emerge.

The reason is simple. People have loved the idea of peace while they were losing God, and they have tried to find peace between themselves while pushing God out of the way. This was their fundamental mistake, and this is the basic reason for failing to achieve true peace.

When an individual is completely united in mind and body, it influences the perfection of all other things. That is why I'm saying that the method of attaining unity within myself and the method of realizing my own peace are important questions.

People who have lived throughout history have thought that peace is the peace of the external world. They thought that a world of peace would come about when nations and the world become peaceful. However, that has not been the case. We have lived without knowing that the most important issue is how to perfect the standard of peace within myself, and have just tried to understand merely what would bring about peace in the external reality. In religion, there is a concept called "the fall." Then, what is the fall all about? That mind and body failed to reach perfection, achieve unity and become a foundation for peace results from the fall. Due to the fall, also, people have come to fight and struggle with each other. If there is a way to deal with this, it would be through the realm of religion that can develop from an individual, to a tribal, national and worldwide foundation representing one world of the spirit. Next, centered on the realm of the physical body, the fall created a history of conflict worldwide among individuals, families, tribes and nations. So, the body, which is external, has been infringing upon the mind, which is internal. Likewise, the political world, which is like the body, has always been striking and making a victim of the foundation of the development of the religious world, which represents the mind. And the fighting is still continuing. The political world has always been infringing upon the religious world. It is the same as the body hitting the mind.

How to make unity here is directly connected to the fundamental problem. In other words, it is ultimately connected to the question of whether God exists and what true love really means. If God exists, He Himself also has to have the standard of absolute peace and His object partner must also, for He is a perfect and absolute God. Namely, God and the realm of the object partner have to have a completely unified standard. Therefore, we can understand the internal nature of this by answering the question whether God really exists and what our relationship with Him should be.

What should the ideology that leads the 21st century be like? It has to be a system of thought that surpasses philosophy, and the system has to be imbued with religious content. The being that we call God is not an ideological being. Thus, the world has to become one in which God can lead our actual lives, and we can live alongside God. At that point, the world would be one that has fulfilled the ideals of religion and philosophy. However, the world is not an ideological concept. It is a place in which we can live together with the absolute origin of peace, with God, whom we can actually feel in our lives. That world is the one that will come about in the 21st century.

The question of the identity of the central being that has pursued happiness is a key one that philosophy is also trying to solve. The question is whether God exists, whether the Absolute Being exists. If there is such an absolute being, it is likely that there would be absolute peace and absolute happiness. We assume that there would be such an absolute, unique and privileged being.

4.2 The central figure and the realization of a world of peace

A God-centered central figure is what matters. The road the central figure is going is not for the sake of an individual. The individual has to go through a family and walk on a road that goes to the world. The world of love and the world of peace can finally come about only when the individual unifies not only the world but also heaven and earth, and the day of victory arrives on which he can be joined to God by eternal love. In other words, no matter how well people may have made a base of unity among themselves, the world cannot be ideal unless God's love is invested in it. The eternal world is formed centering on God's love. The world of peace will also be formed centered on God's love. However, a world of peace and unity cannot come into being centered on a love that first considers the changing interests of human beings.

Also, when a clan settles centering on itself, and stands in a position that only benefits its own members, a unified and peaceful world cannot result. Clans must sacrifice themselves for the sake of the nation. Thus, when this nation emerges later as one unified nation of expanded clans, it will be the center of the world's nations.

From this perspective, national development will not take place unless the tribe that the nation governs sacrifices itself. Therefore, it must sacrifice itself. In this context, although a nation may exist, the world cannot automatically be unified centered on that nation.

That nation must also walk the road of sacrifice and pioneering so as to demonstrate to the world the way to make oneness. So, when the world has a unified environment centered on its nations, the roots of peace will be put down on earth at last. There is no other way. We can draw the conclusion that the road of unity cannot be realized without enormous sacrifice. Peace is achieved only after one perfect central being appears and unifies an individual, family, tribe, nation, country, and world.

A sacrificial offering is not supposed to ask for official recognition even at the moment of death. He should lower his head even after he dies. Since this becomes the origin of peace, others cannot see his identity until after the realm of perfection of the offering appears. We shall have to understand that we Unificationists are going this road solemnly day and night.

The life of a person of the original creation would be life with a tranquil mind. Yet, we do not find peace in the minds of people today. Moreover, in the minds of humankind who should be living within the eternal ideal centering on liberty, there is no freedom or the ideal about which Heaven can also be happy.

Consequently, all the people spread across the world today hope for the fulfillment of complete freedom, peace and the ideal within a certain time. This is the heart's earnest desire for everybody living on earth. Similarly, the world of perfect freedom, peace and the ideal is the original ideal for which man longs, and no matter what, you must fulfill this centered on your minds and bodies. Furthermore, you must achieve this also in the family centering on your individual self, and you must fulfill this in the society, the nation and the world. Not only that, you must build the one world that can unite heaven and earth and sing the song of peace and freedom, and enjoy the ideal love.

Accordingly, before those that are living in the Last Days is the path upon which we must embark and the pass we must cross. This is the road of sacrifice that can realize the eternal peace, freedom and the ideal.

To cross such a pass, there must appear one center that can bring eternal freedom to the mind, represent the eternal hope of Heaven and substitute for the eternal peace of Heaven. If such a central figure does not appear, eternal peace, freedom and the ideal can never be realized in heaven or on earth.

When we reflect on all of providential history, during the Old Testament Era the hill of the sacrificial offering had to be gone over through the things of creation, and during the New Testament Era the hill of the sacrificial offering had to be gone over through Jesus Christ - in other words, through the Son of God. Nonetheless, in the approaching Completed Testament Era, the hill of the sacrificial offering has to be gone over by using you as the sacrifice, you who can assume the name of bridegroom and bride. Before you cross that pass of sacrifice, the world of true peace, freedom and the ideal cannot be realized on earth.

Only after climbing over the pass of the cross on the world level, can you possess God's love, God's freedom, God's peace and God's ideal. The reason is that if you give God's love, freedom, peace and ideal to someone who has not yet fully made his way over that pass, Satan will accuse him and that love, freedom, peace and ideal will be destroyed. Consequently, God does not grant His love, freedom, peace and ideal to those who could not climb over the pass of sacrifice on the world level.

The more miserable our situation is, and the more strongly we are receive opposition, the closer becomes our relationship with God's incredible heart. If you have never experienced such sorrow, you cannot connect with Heaven's joy. Without going the way of the cross, you will not get to walk along the tranquil avenue of a prince of peace. This way, everything is tied to its opposite.

Jesus said, "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" (Matthew 10:34). It was a surprising proclamation. While the Israelites were viewing the Messiah as the King of Peace and the Savior who would redeem the entire nation from sin, Jesus made such a startling proclamation. It was a great announcement that would influence races, societies, nations, families and individuals.

Therefore, we have to attend God. What is the qualification to attend God? We have to attend God as sons and daughters who represent the church, the nation and the cosmos. Only then is the idea of unity complete. Then, the time of unity will be upon us and, naturally, we will receive a great deal of good fortune. Till such a day is realized, however, our life could be in danger if we make even a little mistake, just as was the case in the Old Testament Era. We must understand that only after we welcome the Day of the Father does peace come to the universe.

Until we prepare a family of happiness and a family of peace that is based on the new world, the road of suffering will continue. We have to fight so as to go over this road of suffering. It is like going through a war. This is the destiny of the Unification Church as well as all individuals.

No matter how many times you might have met me, you cannot pursue happiness by planning a palace of peace on the individual level. Before that, you have to shoulder the familial cross, the tribal cross and the national cross. The Unification Church does not exist solely for the sake of the Republic of Korea.

To realize a world of peace, the world has to become one in which people live with the thought of sacrificing themselves for the sake of others. Otherwise, the world of peace will never come. This is why we sacrifice ourselves for others. What do you sacrifice for? It is to become the owner of love. There is no other way to truly give love in our life without going through sacrifice. Only in sacrifice can we shed tears and blood and give what is precious. Therefore, to share love through sacrifice is the best way. That's why God is restoring history along this road.

According to the thought of restoration, I exist for you and the family, the family exists for the nation, the nation exists for the world and the world exists for God. Then, what would God exist for? One may say that God exists for Himself, but that is not the case. God exists for love. The world of peace is thus realized.

If the central figure called the Messiah has appeared, he will also hope for world peace. The place he has to stand is not the place in which he is pushed away by the environment, but the place where he decisively drives the environment forward. Before securing such a place, there is no way to restore the original unity, which has been longed for historically.

The Lord of the Second Advent must come with a victorious theory that can do more than win over any religious group. He must also come with a political system superior to all other political systems. He must also be equipped with a system of thought that can surpass any other system of thought out there. He must come with something that can be victorious over everything. If not, the world cannot become the world of peace. In that sense, we will be a group of people who are stronger than any other organization, nation or ideology. The great transition period in which this is possible is from 1960 to 1980.

What kind of age has today's world come into? It has entered the most chaotic age. It is the worst hell of hells. It has come to the stage where one cannot even think of things like heaven. However, we have to know that while God hits the satanic world on the one hand, He is surely rearranging this world on the other. Now, when do patriots appear in great number? Patriots appear in an age of confusion, not in an age of peace and renaissance. Right? This means that although things fall apart externally, new things appear internally.

If we are going to realize peace without fighting, then how should we do that in the satanic world? We cannot use the method of, "You do this for me!" There is no way other than by dying and sacrificing ourselves. Even an evil enemy will lower his head and submit if he comes to know that a person died while trying to help him. He might have tried to kill the person, regarding him as his enemy, but in the end the person died to save him. When he comes to realize this, he will visit the person's tomb every year on the anniversary of his death, and ask for forgiveness. Throughout his life, the enemy has to visit the man's grave and pray for him. This is the only way.

Satan will fight with Cain. They will bite each other to the death. In this world where people try to kill others centered on themselves, Abel will come and try to realize a world of peace and a world of unity. So, the only way to achieve unity without fighting is to sacrifice for and pray for the enemy's blessing. That's why Jesus also prayed for blessing for his enemies. Therefore, Jesus was a person who lived his life as a representative of the world who understood the thought and plan of God and was able to set the heavenly tradition.

The peace and glory of Heaven comes through suffering, as in childbirth. Without going through the pain of childbirth, one cannot receive the glory of Heaven.

God intends to send us one person in the last days since we cannot find the original homeland by ourselves. He is the Messiah. He is the Savior. He is a man who can establish the original homeland as well. He is a man who comes with the entire authority over the original homeland, which has not fallen, after receiving recognition from God. In him, there will be love centered on God, peace which humanity is aspiring to, happiness and freedom. The man who brings all of these is the Lord.

4.3 Jesus Christ and the kingdom of peace

Jesus Christ came as the King of Peace to bring genuine peace. However, he said "Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace, but a sword." Does that not sound contradictory? We have to understand him as having come for the sake of true and eternal peace. It is because a fundamental reform of human life is unavoidable to establish eternal peace. In order to reach this genuine peace, Jesus tried more than anything else to bring about reform in human life. In this sense he said that he came to fight. He wanted to reform the individual, the society, the nation and the world fundamentally. For this reason, he received all forms of opposition while teaching. Many obstacles arise when you try to establish a truly new society. Thus Jesus died upon the cross after experiencing much suffering.

What was Jesus' original mission? It was to unify the world. It was to organize the nation of Israel, conquer the Roman Empire and thus reverse the historical result of the fall. God had promised throughout the long course of history that He would send a Messiah in order to unify this sorrowful world. Then, what is the Will, which He promised? It is to realize the heavenly kingdom of peace on earth. It is to realize the heavenly kingdom of freedom on earth.

That is why I say that Jesus came to earth in order to establish the heavenly kingdom of peace and the heavenly kingdom of freedom. He came to earth as an individual to carry out this mission, but there was no woman who could be his object partner. Therefore, a husband and wife with the task of uniting with each other did not materialize. Since the couple who was to create unity did not exist, there were no children to create unity. Since there were no unified children, a unified tribe, race, nation and world could not appear. Accordingly, the man who came to earth with the purpose of realizing heaven was, to our sorrow, driven away by villains and ended up dying on the cross.

The incorrect thought of the first chosen people led to the historic stage of Christianity, which developed, into the second Israel. From here came the thought, which can form God's family, tribe, race, nation and world. If only these could be in harmony with the Lord, the world would be unified in the twinkling of an eye and the world of peace and the world of love would be built. If not, however, a millennium of misfortune would resume.

Today, Christians believe that Jesus' coming on earth and dying was God's Will. However, the truth is that Jesus did not come to die, but to connect God's love to pitiful humanity and to realize the nation of peace and the unified world of peace.

Jesus came to the earth as the bridegroom to start a new history in which he had to receive a bride, build a family of peace and, centered on that family, realize a tribe of peace, a nation of peace and a world of peace.

The course of Jacob was a model for the course of Moses, the course of Moses was a model for the course of Jesus, and the course of Jesus was the model course for the Lord of the Second Advent to go. If so, who has to follow after the course of the Lord of the Second Advent? It is the very course for you to go. Leading up to the Second Advent of the Lord, Jacob walked an individual course that was a symbolic representation, while Moses walked a national course that was the image, of the worldwide course that Jesus would substantially walk. However, if the Lord of the Second Advent indemnifies substantially, you have to perform the indemnity of image while your descendants will pay it symbolically. This way, the circle is completed. Then, the world will finally be restored to a world of peace. That is how the principle operates.

There can be only one bride in front of Jesus, who is the bridegroom. Jesus is father and his wife is mother. Then, why does God send us Jesus and his wife as father and mother? We were born with the bond of false parents and we have the sorrow of not having had true parents. Accordingly, we have to find true parents at a certain time, receive love from true parents and go to the nation of true parents. Without this, the kingdom of peace cannot come on earth.

Jesus came in order to transform the world into the kingdom of peace centered on the nation of Israel. Even though he might be competent and powerful enough to build the kingdom, he will fail unless he builds a family. The world is an agglomeration of families. Those whose body and mind are fighting cannot build a family. Those who would desert the heavenly road in the face of a crisis of death cannot build a family God wants. The only begotten son whose mind and body are united will make a family by receiving the only begotten daughter. Until he establishes a family, he will lose the world although he may restore it.

Jesus is the King of Peace. Engendering strife is not his mission. Since conflict caused his death, he returns to bring peace, which means that Barabbas also has to make peace. Jesus has to teach people clearly about God by teaching about the spiritual world.

You have to understand that God needs Jesus to have an individual foundation of peace, which connects tribes and families within a nation. You have to understand that to make the Roman Empire and the world into one heavenly world of peace and offer it to God at an ideal place of glory was the Will of Jesus. You must know that being driven to the cross was not the Will of Jesus.

If we cannot carry out such a cosmic responsibility today, we will not be able to wake up the people and the world that are asleep. Now is the time when the four-dimensional world that transcends time and space is being established. In such a time, you must think seriously about internal heart of Heaven that wishes for a man of character who resembles the Lord of Heaven. Heaven is longing to be able to hear, to see and to speak. If you are like that, then even if you say, "Oh God, please do not come. Please, Jesus, do not come." God and Jesus must follow you. What is more, if such a person is sent to hell, he will transform hell into heaven. Only when many such people emerge will peace come on this earth.

In other words, you must clearly understand that if the true son and daughter of peace, the true son and daughter of love, whom God has expected for six thousand biblical years, emerge on this earth, not only will God be happy but also all things in the universe will share His joy.

Therefore, each of you must hold yourself accountable for the mission Jesus left unfulfilled and become the person who can let Jesus take repose. Not only that, you must subjugate Satan and take him in front of God and say, "Please take, all by Yourself, the eternal glory of victory." Only then will the resentment of God, who has carried on the providence of restoration for six thousand years, be dissolved. Jesus then will find the true bride he has sought. Further, by finding the true wife for whom Jesus Christ has longed, we can build a garden of peace on this earth.

Jesus was sent to set up a door to heaven and make a road through which heaven and all people could be linked. If the nation of Israel had believed in and served him, the way of peace would have been opened. If so, Judaism, established after four thousand years of toil, would have become a wide road through which God could come and go. Also, it would have become a door for all people seeking the heavenly kingdom.

What do we have to find in Jesus' teachings? When we see how Jesus endured the difficulty of the cross, we are amazed. First of all, that he put up with it is surprising. Next, that he was willing to live for the sake of even his enemies is surprising. Love comes automatically in that place and peace also is accomplished in that place all at once. The division between heaven and earth can be resolved right here. The cross became the place in which the division between human beings and God could be closed.

Having come to the earth two thousand years ago, Jesus made a radical declaration. "If any one comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple." (Luke 14:26) He also said, "...and a man's foes will be those of his own household." (Matt. 10:36) He added, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matt. 10:34) Today's religious people do not understand why he made these contradictory statements. We have to know that they are not even seeking to understand.

When we read Jesus' statement, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword," the words seem contradictory. Just like the warning at the time of John the Baptist, Jesus said, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. 4:17) He did not say, "Rejoice, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." Why did he tell the people to repent instead of rejoicing if the kingdom of heaven was at hand? True repentance is not easy. First you have to repent for the historical mistakes made during the dispensation, and then do what was left undone.

Having come to this world, what would Jesus have wanted to set up first? He lived centered on the law of Heaven rather than the external environment of the world. He was always thinking about the ideal environment in which he could attend God forever, when the Kingdom of Heaven reigns on earth, after the fallen world had passed away. It was the law of the royal palace. What do we observe the law with? One has to do so with heart and love. What is the most precious thing we can keep as the fundamental and unchanging factor starting from the family, nation, and world up to the Kingdom of Heaven, and what is at the center of everything that can become the standard of peace, the standard of happiness and the standard of the ideal of human beings? This is a serious question. It is true love.

The man whom Heaven and earth approve, a central personage with universal significance in whom God's love has entered vertically in a straight line, the man who comes with the capacity of a true man of humanity and the true father of origin is the bridegroom which Christianity is talking about. After Adam came into being, God created Eve through Adam, right? Therefore, who has to produce the bride? The Lord has to do that. He has to produce her through his merits and receive her. Accordingly, Jesus had to come on the earth, receive his bride, establish a family, engraft everything to himself, form a people, a nation and a world and thus realize the new Kingdom of Peace.

4.4 Religion and peace

Our conscience knows that human beings have to be one. It knows that human beings have to aspire for peace. It also knows that all people are brothers. The law of conscience knows everything. Today, we have to awaken this conscience and initiate a great revolution. God has been mapping out a plan in order to establish a day of peace in front of a new humanity and has been working hard till now in search of an ideal society, family and individual. Centered on the religion based on conscience, God has intervened to lead the work.

What is religion for? It is to establish such a historic standard. Religion that cannot establish such a historic standard is not necessary. If Almighty God just stands by idly in front of human beings who have fallen into extreme distress, then God would get struck by lightning. Then, what does God have to do? He has to guide these people to the road of peace. Also, there has to be some traces of God's effort to guide human beings to the road of peace in the course of history. If He did not do such work, what kind of a cruel God would He be? However, the record which tells us that He did do such work is the religion.

When we look back on history, we come to find that Confucianism, Buddhism, Christianity and Islam have each cleared away social unrest and confusion in their own era and glorious civilizations in those eras flourished on those foundations of peace and safety. Let's take some examples. The Confucian culture of the Han Dynasty in China was such. The Christian culture in the medieval Europe was such, and the Buddhist culture in the age of King Ashoka [third monarch of the Mauryan dynasty d.238] in ancient India was such. Also, the Islamic Saracen civilization in the Middle East is an outstanding example.

The ultimate purpose of every religion is to realize a happy and ideal world. The purpose of today's politicians gathering, racking their brains, having a conference, discussing, etc. all lies in how to make an ideal world in which everyone can feel happy. In other words, they are searching how to achieve a kingdom of peace so that people of the world can live as brothers. Therefore, any religion which cannot introduce this kind of thinking must pack up and go.

America has to make a strong national solidarity in the name of God. I could not help doing this work in America since I am thinking about such a high-dimensional world of peace centered on the name of God. We see countries declining now even though at one time they were proud of the Christian or Judaic tradition. We have to go on with a high-level worldwide religion that can be united in the name of God.

What is the ultimate goal religion has to strive toward? There is some reason, of course, in asserting the purpose of an individual's seeking truth. However, it has to go further and involve the whole family. First, religion has to find a family who can liberate humanity, which belongs to the evil sovereignty of sin. It has to find a family which, in the true sense of the word, represents history, represents an era and represents the future. Also, it has to build the foundation for the family and establish the standard of the right path upon which all of humanity can feel joy together. How the system of the family should begin and where it should go has to be decided. So long as things do not go this way, one cannot build a way of peace on earth. We have to know that no matter how well external things might be achieved, they can be ruined in the family.

Today's Christianity has to achieve God's desire and the hope which humanity pursues and thus solve the starting point of peace. So long as God's desire is such, history cannot but develop centered on Christianity.

Unlike other religions, Christianity has walked the road of martyrdom. For what does a martyr die? He does not die centered on himself, but on God's Will. Countless people have shed blood as martyrs for the sake of the one world which human beings and God have been searching for, for the sake of building a foundation upon which God can cast an anchor of peace upon this earth, and for the sake of peace.

Religion hopes for this world, which started from selfish desire, to perish. Religion seeks one unified world of peace, and has been crying for such for thousands of years.

Who has to pull up this root of sin and evil and realize the world of peace and put an end to the evil sovereignty? It is the Christian believers. Then, how should they do that? They can accomplish the work only when they receive the Messiah, after having prepared a road on which they can receive the coming Messiah.

Unless we resolve to be with God even though the democratic world might go to ruin and die, we will make the lord die again even though he does come on earth. The time has come now. The Lord will come and make one free world centered on Christianity, and He will win the Islamic and evil communist world over to his side instead of killing and getting rid of them. The heaven of peace will be built on earth only when the Lord is welcomed through holding a worldwide party of peace. He has to do so when he comes again since he died amidst fighting.

The road of religion is to teach sacrifice. The automatic realm of liberation for a peaceful world occurs here. If you follow the way of history, though, and expand your dominion through power and conquest centering upon yourself, you will perish. That age of history must end. If God exists, the end of that era must come.

If God did not exist, we would have to make something be the standard, as a substitute for our longing and love - something around which mankind could unite. There would be no way to bring unification other than that. From that viewpoint, we would have to create an imaginary god and have him be our subject partner. This is the reality we would have to pursue. Otherwise, we would never find any peace or happiness; we would never find our dreams or the ideal. How great it is that God exists!

No one else thinks the mission of religions is the elimination of Communism and the building of a kingdom of peace on earth. I am working in all areas of human life, including the realms of politics, culture and religion. Our movement has set up businesses. Why do I do such things? It is not only religion that can show the direction for resolving everything. We must be trained for this world.

Most religious people cannot escape from the confines of their denominations, even though everyone on earth seeks for one world of peace. Looking from God's viewpoint, this is a hindrance.

To this day, religions have denied the importance of the family, tribe, nation and world. They have thought only of the spiritual world. On the other hand, while the Unification Church thinks the spiritual world is important, it also says that heaven on earth must be realized. There must be peace on earth.

Had atheism appeared and there had been a religiously based United Nations, that atheism would soon have disappeared. If that had been the reality, we could have gone on to develop the world at a new level of peace centering on the United States. As that was not the reality, Satan could attack through Communism. If we cannot accomplish our responsibility, Satan can always attack us. Under those circumstances, God has no choice but to allow Satan to do whatever he wants.

As the purpose of creation is absolute, the purpose of restoration must absolutely be accomplished. The messianic ideal is not vague and must be realized in our concrete, everyday lives. Thus, the purpose of religion is the realization of God's purpose in our lives. God has been expanding the realm of goodness through religions appropriate to the age, the race and the circumstances of the larger providence of salvation. The sole, awesome purpose of religion is to bring about peace on earth. Religious bodies must be concerned about the salvation of the world, the Will of God, before thinking about salvation for one religious denomination or one individual. This is the time when we must reinvestigate the true Will of God, transcending the boundaries of all religions.

Through long reflection and prayer for the world and mankind, I feel the enthusiastic desire of God and experience miracles of the Holy Spirit. These tell us that the world must be renewed through the global unity of religious leaders, a growing movement of all religions taking the position of a true offering, and a movement of service.

Up till now, I have been restoring this world following the providential directions of God and have made the utmost effort to realize God's ideal on earth. I have mobilized the entire capacity of the Unification Church and supported the purpose of world peace through unity among the faiths. I truly hope that your religions will also actively support this. This does not mean that I will cease my efforts in this area, nor will I hold back the financial resources of the Unification Church. By mobilizing all the spiritual resources and creative abilities of all the faiths, focused in the direction God's desire, we will advance toward the realization of a world of peace.

There are many religions in the world. On the other hand, there are people who neither have a religion nor know much about them. From this point of view, there are two kinds of people - believers and non-believers. And we know that there are various nations that are generally made up of those from the one type or the other. These nations don't live in peace; they are in conflict and have various problems that they must solve. All people on earth are entering the future without knowing exactly what will happen.

I have been asked many times about the reason we were born and the purpose of life. There has always been the problem that we cannot make this world peaceful or ideal through our own effort and research.

Why can't we form a good world? Each person insists on things according to the circumstances they themselves are living under. There are differences between what people from the East and those from the West insist on. We can say the same thing about nations. When we study the history of a nation, we can see that the direction of history changes according to these special interests. The ideal world we wish for must not be changeable and must bring peace to us all. All people must become one in order for this to be a peaceful world.

We do not know precisely about the world in which we live. However, if there is a God, we can imagine that what God wants might be actually the same as what humans essentially want in life. He wants to give us a homeland and create a world of peace. If God exists, He would work to gather in one place those nations that have been divided and in conflict in their history. He would bring this about through religions, so it is inevitable that we need religions.

Then, which religion does the world long for? It longs for the one that can actualize peace. It is not possible to become such a religion just through being concerned with the individual, with possessions or personal desires. A religion like that is no different from those religions whose central focus is only their native land and their own race and who are dominated by a subjective view of their nation's history. To be different from those nations and religions, I'm saying, "Sacrifice yourself!"

From this viewpoint, it is impossible to find a unified homeland in a world that is based on nations built by people through a history of conflict. However, on a much higher level of the religious world it may be possible to bring about one world, and to form one homeland for all people. This is the way for any religion that emphasizes individual sacrifice and seeks the true way through self-denial. In religious life, people do not just live their lives centering on their own ideas about things. To walk the religious path, people should work to realize peace for eternity. The higher the level of a religion is, the clearer the teaching on that point.

There is chaos in the dimension of thought. Despite the chaos in this world, the time has come for us to seek one world of peace. The four great religions have established the four great religious paths, but they cannot lead us beyond this world of chaos. Religions are currently unable to stand in the position of leading nations and guiding national ideologies. Thus, great chaos has arisen and a great reformation must occur.

In the quest for a peaceful world, the traditional religions might become obstacles. We cannot find one clear way with these religions. So, we are looking at chaos. Intelligent young people cannot help but abandon their life of faith. Such people think that it is quicker to solve the problem by bringing unity within society, nations and the world, rather than to solve it through religion. Religion has retreated and great chaos has arisen.

All people throughout history have longed for peace and the ideal, but who can open the door of peace and to the ideal and liberate us? This will not happen through money, knowledge or power. The only thing that can transcend the realm of religion and families is true love.

A religion must be able to teach how to create a good family. It must be able to explain how to make a peaceful family. Looking at all the religions, we cannot find a religion that has fulfilled such a mission. All the religions, such as Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam and so on, are standing in the same position.

The history of religion is based on philanthropy. From the point of view that they are on God's side, we can call religions the mainstream. That is why they should teach love, mercy and virtue.

So, religions should not try to expand their denominational influences; but they should invest themselves for the evil world, for the sake of the public interest and, eventually, they should change the evil world to be godly and bring it to God's side. The world should not be an evil place where people fight each other, but should be a place where people create harmony and peace - where there is a harmonious atmosphere.

As you know, in the Sermon on the Mount Jesus says, "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God." (Matt. 5:9) If a husband and wife who have been fighting reconcile, it means they have expanded the heavenly side in their family. What does this mean? To confront this world of vice, religions must invest everything, wherever their influence is needed. Investing everything can bring harmony, unity and peace to the family. This is the main teaching of virtuous religions.

Isn't it true that where man's desires end, God's Will begins? Then, is there any religion or other group that can inherit God's Will? Do the great religions, which have transcended national borders, have the capacity to inherit the Will of God? If there is such a religion, we have hope; but if not, it is the end of the religious world. In line with this way of thinking, the age is approaching when all religions must learn the way to realize an ideal, unified world of peace.

Christianity has come over the hill of death and developed throughout its history. It began on the hill of death. This new religion developed from the most miserable position - death through the shedding of blood. Christianity had to walk such a miserable path to implant the right foundation for its purpose, because the ideal of Christianity is a peaceful and united world. Sacrifices were therefore necessary. Christianity has risen from a situation of bloodshed, and wherever Christians went, they have had to start from the lowest position. They were persecuted. They have battled on for two thousand years and established a worldwide foundation.

The United States is an independent, Christian nation. Triumphing over the objections of various countries and centering on Abel in the battle between Cain and Abel, more than a hundred people crossed the Atlantic on a ship, the Mayflower, seeking religious liberty and peace. The history of the Puritans is miserable.

Since teaching the attendance of parents centering on God and meeting spring again (restoring the garden of Eden) is the way of religion, the fact that a religion has a long history doesn't mean it is the most valuable. You must know that there is a religion representative of a servant, that is a representative of an adopted child, that is a representative of a child through a concubine and that is a representative of children of the direct lineage. From that foundation, the religion of parents must come and lead humanity to the peaceful Kingdom of Heaven in the 21st century. It should teach the right way for people in the servant's position to be good servants. The same goes for people in the children's position. It should teach them how to make their parents happy, and how to create families of eternal peace and prosperity. The core of the religions is the same; however, they are not all the same.

4.5 Peace within the individual, family, society, nation, world and cosmos

There is but one key to opening the cosmos of peace. That key is neither the world nor a nation. It is one individual. One individual representing the world, a nation, a race, a tribe, a family and him or herself, is always the key.

There must be no disturbance when one ascends through the levels of the individual, family, tribe, race and nation to that of the world. A family must inherit the victory of the individual, the tribe that of the family, the race that of the tribe, the nation that of the race and the world that of the nation.

Without such a consistent, unchanging formula appearing on earth, we cannot achieve the final point of providential victory that God wants. Without this, there is no hope of peace coming to the earth. You must know this.

This world is big. But a seed sown by someone bears fruit in the world. There cannot be peace when the internal and external aspects of a person are in conflict. This is not what God wants.

God, who has carried out the providence in history on behalf of human beings, must be able to show us a new type of plan to create unification. A movement like that must arise on earth. If it does not happen that way, there should at least be an ideal foundation of hope in the course of history. That is religious culture in history.

The world today longs for peace. All people dream of a unified ideal world. Such a world must begin with us as individuals. We must establish a firm ideal foundation as individuals and expand that until we reach the world level.

Moreover, as we see that mind and body are in conflict in people, we must find a way of creating peace and unity within them. Unification has no starting point if a person cannot become a unified being fully representing heaven, earth, a nation, a race, a family and all humanity. Having understood this process of history, we know that one individual holds the key to everything.

A person like this is the central personage representing heaven, earth, history, humankind and the whole and has the character of being a unified person. No matter how hard we long for unification, the ideal, a peaceful world, without such a person, that world cannot be realized.

We cannot have one unified direction or path when our hearts are full of self-centered desires. Without finding one system of thought that is connected to the philosophy of absolute value that can guide you to recreate your lives by uniting your consciences and bodies, you will never be able to create the one unified world, the world of peace.

Everyone is longing for happiness, liberty, peace, love and the ideal. No one is longing for changeable ideals, but change often occurs in the world and we are living through a changeable history. Everyone is tired of seeking for the ideal, for love, liberty and virtue and has come up against a wall. If there is a true master of liberty, peace, happiness, virtue, love and the ideal, that master must be greater than we are. And he must be the absolute central existence who is unchanging.

God must be the great king of liberty, peace, love, happiness and the ideal. Then if we ask God, "Where would You put the standard of liberty, love and the ideal if we become the masters of those?" what would He say? Even though God exists, He cannot feel happiness, freedom, peace, love or His ideal by Himself. The conclusion is that every being needs another with whom to develop a relationship of mutual interaction.

Thus, God is the subject partner and man is the object partner. Is the true standard of love set by someone living for himself, or for someone else? That is the point where we discern true love. Because God is the king of wisdom, He cannot make a rule that people must live for their own sakes in order to create a peaceful and happy world. If He were to make such a rule, the world would not be one of peace and joy. God cannot help giving away His true virtue, ideal, love, happiness and liberty according to the principle that we should live for the sake of others.

The world we are living in does not really matter; it is too far away. The nation does not really matter, either, nor does the society, family, husband or wife. The crucial issue is what kind of foundation for unity we should make. From this viewpoint, if you want to have a peaceful, unified world, you must first unify yourself. It does not make sense to have a relationship with a unified world without first unifying yourself.

The Second World War is not the problem. Russia and the United States are not the problem. The problem is how to bring an end to the restless conflict within ourselves and build peace. You must know this is of the greatest importance. If you cannot achieve this, then even if the world became peaceful, it would turn into hell. My first motto upon starting on this path was "Control myself before seeking to control the universe." If you cannot control yourself, then you cannot control the world either.

There is no way for you, the descendants of fallen ancestors to create a good family without individual level sacrifices. If you don't sacrifice yourself entirely, you cannot make your family the foundation for peace. If there is no spiritual foundation of your willingly sacrificing yourself for the family, your family cannot be the base that can go to the national or world level. It cannot be the foundation for God's ideal. So, the family must be the foundation for God's providence to develop towards the national level. You must go through your tribe to reach the national-level development.

Where is the palace of peace? When Jesus was asked where heaven was, he answered that "the kingdom of God is in the midst of you." (Luke 17: 21) Heaven is in your mind, but if the center of your focus is only your mind, you cannot reach the Kingdom of Heaven. What we have insisted is necessary is the unification in one individual and then, the unification of a family, a tribe, and a nation. Only on those bases will the unification of the world be possible. This is our teaching. It says that the most fundamental point to starting the Kingdom of Heaven is achieving unity within an individual. This has to be the standard.

Then, has there been a family that has satisfied the condition to be the family of unity on earth at any point in history? How could it have come and disappeared? The situation in which we live is full of conflicts. When couples meet, they sometimes fight each other. When small groups meet, they often cannot unite. In fact, the entire population of the world can be said to be fighting one other. How could you dream of the realization of peace in this kind of situation?

As God has knowledge and is aware of all circumstances, where does He place the starting point of peace? Through religion, He established a movement for restoration centering on the individual. Seeing this, we can know He is very great. He didn't make the world, nation or tribe the starting point of peace, but the individual.

If there were a family on earth created by a man, a complete plus, and a woman, a complete minus who had both reached the mind and body unity necessary to be the origin of peace, and were completely united centering on God's love, who could ever break that family apart? There has never been a family on earth that has completely centered on God's love, which is the origin of power to sustain the family.

You should unify your mind and body centering on your mind. Your family should unify centering on an individual that has reached complete unity between mind and body. A tribe should be unified centering on a united family. A nation should be unified centering on a united tribe. The world must be unified centering on a united nation. Do people in the world live in peace and unity? The answer is simply "no." Why? Because of the fall, everything turned out badly.

So we must throw all this away someday and get rid of it. We must unite our minds and bodies as individuals. Those whose minds and bodies are united must create families of unity, then a nation and the whole world. Only then, can we have a world where everybody sings a song of happiness, peace and liberty.

God cannot stand seeing people in such pain. He has sought out individuals who can sing a song of peace and happiness by unifying their mind and body through the providence of salvation. He cannot but carry out the providence of restoration for this world so that the cosmos can become the original world of His desire. This is realized through organizing a family centering on the individual, a tribe centering on the family, a race centering on the tribe, a nation centering on the race, and then progressing to the cosmos.

The course of unification is very simple. It occurs when we unify our minds and bodies. When an individual with a unified mind and body creates a family, the family can be the family of peace. And when that family becomes one with their society, the family can be a source of true happiness in that society. When the unified society becomes united within a nation, those individuals who made it possible will be respected throughout that nation. They would be the center of the unified realm. Moreover, if those people of unifying power are united with all of humanity, the Kingdom of Heaven can be realized thanks to them.