Perfection of Restoration By Indemnity Through Human Responsibility (Part 2)

This is the clear reason why God allows things to happen the way they do. The first thing we must do is separate ourselves from Satan. Do we do that when our lives are cozy and comfortable? No, the best way to separate ourselves from Satan is when we are enduring tremendous persecution. Once we go beyond that situation of persecution, we are automatically separated from Satan, so that is the best way.

We must understand clearly the time we are living in today. The Unification Church is going through this period of tremendous persecution, all the while doing righteous things and committing no crimes or sin. In this situation, those people who support me and our movement are automatically transferred from the fallen archangel's position into the restored archangel's position, which is an even better position than the unfallen archangel. That is the time period in which we are living today.

The culmination of this was in 1976, the year when worldwide persecution was at its height. Since that time opposition has gradually declined. Before that year the satanic world was closing in on us, but now they are opposing us from a basic position of retreat. Upon this foundation I proclaimed the beginning of a new era on February 23, 1977. The time of worldwide opposition to the Unification Church has passed and persecution will not become any worse. The tide of grace has started to flow in.

In 1980, I inspired the growth of the CARP movement here in America. It was strong in other countries, but that was the first time it was emphasized so strongly in America. It was strengthened for the purpose of annihilating all the communist activity on college campuses.

Remember the reason why these things have been happening -- everything begins from the point of human responsibility. After man's responsibility is accomplished, what happens then? Once an individual successfully fulfills his portion of responsibility, that person enters the realm of the direct dominion of God. That is the principle. What is that direct dominion? Does God maintain that dominion over a person by giving him a lot of money, or what? It is only through love that God gains direct dominion over man. Once that direct dominion is achieved, people can lead the kind of life, for the first time, which God originally intended for them to live. Adam and Eve can then pass that love along on the horizontal realm in God's place, and make the foundation of Heaven on earth in reality. After that, no more indemnity needs to be paid.

In the Garden of Eden there was no crime or sin. Adam and Eve could do nothing really wrong except to violate the commandment God gave them. Once Adam and Eve had come under the direct dominion, that would have meant they had passed through the time of the possibility of the fall. The only thing that would have been left for them to do was to experience love. Nothing else would have been truly significant. Love is the most essential and important element of the world; unless someone had violated that, nothing would have been a sin. Therefore all a person must accomplish is to receive the certificate of God's love. God can make the world a totally peaceful place. Satan will be unable to complain against God at all. When we finally possess God's love, we never want to commit a crime or a sin at all. The reason why people commit crimes and sin is that they want something they don't have. When God's love is with us we are satisfied and have no need for anything more. Do you understand?

We must clearly understand where we can fulfill our portion of responsibility. It is only when we are on the front line. Only through fulfilling one's portion of responsibility can one accomplish restoration by indemnity; and that can be done only on the front line, not in the rear area.

Not only is there the individual level of indemnity, there is also the family level, the clan, society, national, world level, universal, and cosmic levels. Altogether there are eight steps of indemnity. The question is whether you have ever gone through these eight steps of indemnity.

One might ask why this is so incredibly complicated. This is not something I made up; this principle has existed from the very beginning, although it hasn't been so well understood. It existed when Adam and Eve were alive but all they needed to do was simply keep God's commandment and live for 21 years faithful to God. All these conditions would have been automatically fulfilled, with no need to mention them again. Before Satan existed there was no indemnity condition to be met.

Since the fall occurred, however, and since restoration efforts have consistently failed we find that it takes a long and complicated route, step by step, to separate from Satan -- from the individual to the cosmic levels. This law of indemnity and the steps of indemnity are applicable not just to specific individuals or just to Unification Church members but to everyone. Whether someone understands or believes this law or not, he must eventually go through these steps.

This is the reason why we go the path we go, yet people are watching only the external fact that Reverend Moon is pushing the Unification Church members to work hard without a salary. Other people may work only eight hours and receive a high salary, which they are usually not satisfied with. However, if you received a big salary for your work, what would be the result? You would not be fulfilling the indemnity condition or fulfilling your human portion of responsibility. No one can be liberated from Satan's domain without fulfilling man's portion of responsibility.

I have consistently taken the position of not wanting any individual to help me, no family to help me, nor any nation. Since I took that position of absolute independence because that was the way to fulfill my own portion of responsibility, my own physical relatives, my society and nation have come against me. Those in my closest surroundings have opposed me. However, I knew I had to adhere to this course. In order to establish once and for all the perfect, clean and clear indemnity condition, I could not receive any help from others. I never did it in a proud way but I never counted on anybody else's help.

I proclaimed to God, "I am doing this out of my own desire, not because you demanded it of me. I am doing this because I want to do it so that I can be liberated by accomplishing my own responsibility." I told God and myself those things. If there had been True Parents or someone guiding me and pushing me to do it whether I liked it or not, it might have been helpful. However, I didn't have any True Parents so I had to do it on my own.

What was my goal? It was that one day after the successful completion of my mission, I would see millions of people calling themselves true children and looking up to me as True Parent and receiving instant benefit, without having to do much themselves. The complicated process of restoring man's portion of responsibility only came about when Adam and Eve fell; the responsibility only applies to the position of Adam and Eve. Now that True Parents have been established, they can take care of the children and Satan cannot say anything against those children within the True Parents' family.

In the beginning man's responsibility only applied to Adam and Eve. Do you understand? That means that until Adam and Eve fulfill man's portion of responsibility, all people everywhere are hooked or held back by the law of man's responsibility.

Christianity has been waiting for someone to come to earth to fulfill this human part of responsibility -- the Second Advent of the messiah -- to deliver all followers back to the realm of God and His love. This is what all mankind has been waiting for until now.

Now True Parents are established in the Unification Church; the church members are under the realm of grace but the name of True Parents has not yet been brought to the nation or the world levels. Still we have to go over the nation, the world, and ultimately Satan. Even though they are straggling and disorganized, satanic powers are still coming against us. The Unification Church is not confining the True Parents within the framework of the church, but is expanding it to the nation and beyond. That is why we have been doing witnessing, fundraising and so forth. Those who help us in our fundraising automatically receive God's grace and blessing, as we know.

Now the dawn is approaching. True Parenthood has already started to be accepted on the national level. It is starting from the most miserable countries, torn apart between two powers, such as the Latin American countries.

Intelligent Americans today can find no solid direction to follow no clear road to take. Then they find the Unification Church. Think of a fishing line, with America pulling on one end and the Unification Church on the other. Who will reel in whom? Will America reel in the Moonies or the Moonies reel in America? Then you had better have a strong reel or it will strain and the line will snap! Is your reel and line strong enough? You say yes, but when I look at you I don't feel so comfortable; your line needs a little maintenance. You need some help -- there is a chemical, which you can spray on your reel and your line becomes very strong. My words are like that chemical; they work a miracle within you and you can become stronger and powerful.

I am in the same position as you are, only at a higher level. I really don't care what kind of wind blows against me for I know that one day the wind will stop. Even if the wind blows you off the ground, you shouldn't care.

Do you need restoration by indemnity or not? If you need it, what about Jesus -- did he need restoration by indemnity also? What about Reverend Moon? Yes, no matter what, there is no way I can avoid that. No matter how almighty God is, there is no way even He can avoid that. We must march on continually for the indemnity course. There can be no excuse. So do you understand this point clearly? But when I say, "Go that way," it is something else! Will you welcome my direction or not? It is no secret that this is an archangel country, and the archangel country must fulfill indemnity well.

Now you have learned something new. Tracing back to the original fall, the portion of human responsibility was only to have applied to Adam and Eve, no one else. We must throw Satan out because he has no legitimate place anymore. From now on your thinking can be very simple. You don't have to wonder, but you can ask your Parents, "Father, should I do this or that?" and you can receive direct guidance. It's very convenient!

Most American youth today don't want to listen to their parents. However this is not an altogether bad phenomenon because they are guided by the spirit to know that their parents are not able to give them the kind of spiritual nourishment they really need. The True Parents are coming to them -- children need True Parents. Also young people are rebelling against Satan's world; they feel they would rather do anything than live in this terrible world the way it is.

At this time young Americans are saying, "I am not interested in just the nation. I want to live on the world level and associate with something, which is brand new and fresh, not just the old worn-out ways. I want to associate with all kinds of people of the world, not just the people I am familiar with. I hate what the established people do; whatever they discourage, I want to do." That is a prevalent attitude among many young people. They are very bored and they have tried many things. They don't want to follow what their parents, teachers and government tells them to do.

Then they see the Moonies and everybody is saying, "Stay away from them! Don't even talk to them." They respond with, "I will check them out!" Young people always want to go beyond the borderlines of existing society and once they get out beyond the borderlines, they find the Moonies. Once they meet the Moonies they find something brand new and very promising. They become very happy people.

Many young people today have already had so many experiences they feel they are already old and mature. But things are so different within the Unification Church society. Young men have been accustomed to trying to date attractive young women, but that is not the custom in the Unification Church. In the secular world, if a boy gazes at a girl for more than 10 minutes he naturally reaches out to kiss her, but here we are together for hours, days, even years and we never kiss!

This world is doing such bad things -- free sex, with no thoughts of chastity. People from that background are joining the Unification Church. We talk here about love in a different sense. We say we must love the world, love the cosmos, and it is a new concept to young people. A young person might ask himself, "When does my own love come to me?" However he knows that it will come so he doesn't have to worry. Is this something good or something bad?

A young man may touch a woman here, not like a spouse but as a sister. What do you feel toward your own sister? A normal person certainly doesn't look at his sister like a spouse. When the blessing time comes, a brother looks at a person he always thought of as his sister. Suddenly God is telling them, "Although you have been brother and sister, like Adam and Eve, now it is time for you to get married." You might say, "Well, I will think about it." That is a normal and wonderful way of thinking.

When a couple have lived as brother and sister and then get married like Adam and Eve and have children, how can they ever divorce? Can you divorce your own sister? Even though you may divorce, you are still living in the same "house" in God's eyes. This is a small world, where would you go if you divorced? There would be no place for you to go. Therefore, you have to go back to each other and make up eventually.

Satan is always doing something, isn't he? However, he is actually helping God's work generally. The communists are also helping God's work. If something as bad as communism were not on the earth, what chance would the Unification Church have of promoting the truth of God? Communists work very hard because of what they believe, even though their belief is wrong. They have worked hard for 60 years to get to where they are now. From now on the Unification Church can accomplish more in 6 years than what the communists have done in 60 years.

The only person who has to successfully carry out all the eight steps of indemnity for the first and last time in history is Reverend Moon. You might say, "I don't know if that is true or not. I have no way to prove it. Father, when did you receive that much persecution, even on the worldwide level?" Go to the library and read about history. In the history of religions, has anybody ever gone through such persecution? In that sense, do I belong in the Guinness Book of Records? Even an ordinary person in a very few hours could find that nobody has been more persecuted on a worldwide level than Reverend Moon.

Unheard of events are happening now. Parents are kidnapping their own children -- grown up children 30 years and older, college graduates, and so forth. When those children are kidnapped, do they tell their parents, "Oh, I have been waiting for you to come and rescue me. The church wouldn't let go of me"? Or do they look desperately for a chance to escape from the kidnappers and come right back to the church?

Since you joined this church I have always taught you to love your parents; I have never taught you to look at them as "false parents" or to denounce them in any way. However, many parents have kidnapped their children and have said many bad things against me. When that happens the children are moved to say, "On what grounds can you say such things? Have you investigated those charges on your own?" However, all their negativity is usually based upon the words of other people -- "They said . . ." is the only foundation for their negativity. Satan always makes up stories and can inspire people to say anything to suit their own purposes. According to that criterion, who is standing on the heavenly side?

For whom have I gone through these things? As we said in the beginning, "For God so loved the world . . ." and because God loves the world so much, I have done what I have done. God so loved the world that He gave them His only begotten son -- He loves the world, but He cannot give His pure love to the world directly. Therefore, He had to send His son to prepare the world. What kind of love are we talking about, then? God loves the world like a father loves his son; no closer love exists than that between father and son. We are doing exactly this: we are making this a world, which can be lovable to God. We are taking the children to the parents and eventually to God.

Jesus completely occupied the love of God but he did not want to stop there. He knew why God sent him to the world, so he did everything possible to pass along God's love to other people. Jesus received the purest love from God and he wanted to spread out that love to the whole world. He wanted to make all mankind into God's sons and daughters.

Jesus wanted all the people of the world to be loved by God, just as he was. Jesus was the one who was first loved by God; all mankind was supposed to be those who were second-loved by God. Therefore, the relationship between Jesus and all mankind is like brothers. How close you can feel to Jesus when you realize that he is your elder brother!

Many Christians have believed that Jesus or God is the subject of religion and we are their objects and we can never get close to each other. They are so high and omnipotent that we can't even think about being on the same level of relationship with them; if we do, that is blasphemy. But we can see that Jesus is not the distant subject of religious belief. He is a part of your daily life, just as brothers and sisters in a family, not like the teacher of a religion relating to his followers. Maybe the first step of relationship had to be distant like that, but eventually Jesus wanted everybody to be a part of the same family.

Jesus had to approve of something before God could approve of it. When Jesus was able to approve of the situation on the earth, God could automatically approve of it. When Jesus could love the people, so could God. All he would have to say would be, "Father, they are ready to receive Your love, so please love them." Thus, the meaning of John 3:16 would be accomplished, "God so loved the world . . ."

That is the kind of church we are working in and that is goal we are working toward. We must understand that clearly. The democratic world may decline one day; the communist world will certainly be eliminated and leave no trace behind. However, the teaching of the Unification Church will remain for eternity. We will begin to see the era of completion. Everything will be completed and we will have nothing more to do except enjoy the world.

I have been doing the necessary indemnity conditions single-handedly. Why is True Parenthood necessary? Why must True Parents do these conditions? The first thing people need is love. Why do you need love? You need love because you are a representative of God. This is the cosmic principle -- before someone can be a representative of someone else he must first be able to love him. You only want someone you love to represent you. It is also a cosmic law that any child who loves his parents the most and has a lovable personality will someday inherit the most of the parents possessions, even though there may be ten other brothers.

Therefore, we need love more than anything else, more than clothing, food, sleep, or even a big nugget of gold. A man alone can never inherit the love or possessions of God; neither can a woman alone. Men and women must be married in love, resembling the love of God and coming under the dominion of the love of God and then they will eventually inherit God's possessions.

Is the source or the beginning of love within men and women or does it start from God? How about marriage? Should men and women get together on their own and agree to start their marriage? Or would it be a little better to get together and promise each other to marry but to go to their parents and ask for their permission? Or before they promise marriage to each other should they go to their parents first and ask for their blessing and if they approve, then they will marry. If they do not approve, they will not. Which is the best way? Certainly it is the third way. God is the subject of love, so love originates from Him. No matter how brilliant and strong a man may be, he is always an object to God; he can never be the same as God.

This is one rigid area in the Unification Church. No matter who they are, when two people decide all on their own to get married and they come to me and ask for my blessing, I never do it. I cannot bless such a union which did not start first from God but from within the two people. The first condition they must set is to separate from each other and then let God take over. What if someone takes the extreme position and tells his parents, "if you do not approve of our marriage, we will kill ourselves!"? Still the parents cannot yield to such a threat; that is unlawful. You cannot give inheritance unlawfully. Why do we maintain this law so rigidly? It is so that we can have the right to inherit all possessions from God.

If the world were to call me True Parent, would you like it? Do you think I want to have that much worry? If I have blessed 10,000 couples, do I have 10,000 worries or 10,000 happiness? Happiness and worry cannot coexist, so which is it? It is worry in the beginning, but if you do well it becomes happiness. If you do not do well, it certainly cannot bring happiness to me. Whenever a couple has a problem they want to come to me; they don't resolve it between themselves. The husband may come to me and tell me all the bad things about his wife. That is not necessarily bad because I am the parent. In Korea we have a saying, "I am a sinner for being a parent." God, too, has been in that position until today. He has never been able to receive joy and happiness.

As loving as I am, I could say, "Let's forget about the world and just enjoy each other as Unification Church members. Let's enjoy life and forget about everybody else." Shall we do that, or shouldn't I continue to drive you out into the cold weather to work and make the world a lovable place?

I may have moments of enjoyment or good sleep for a few hours or a good meal, but then I immediately feel uncomfortable. I think, "I should have devoted this time for the sake of the world. I wish I had." That is how I feel. If you rest and have an easy time in your position, that prolongs the Parents' pain so much more because the objective is to bring the whole world back to God. That objective is delayed if you just take it easy.

The glory must be returned to God, but God cannot initiate this. This restoration must be accomplished among people who are in the archangelic position, especially in this country, which represents all the archangelic countries of the world. You must plan, "This is the situation, so we must take this action in America for the sake of God." God always sacrifices the smaller portion for the larger one; this is God's justice. We must learn God's way of thinking.

What is the goal of restoration through indemnity? If we suffer and sacrifice, we do that to find something greater. It is never to find something smaller that we sacrifice ourselves. If someone claims that the bigger purpose should be sacrificed for the sake of the smaller one, we know that is not right. Who is the biggest one in the universe? God is. Therefore, every level of sacrifice should contribute to God's purpose and give Him support from all directions. The center of the universe, God, should not be shifted under any circumstance.

So, mankind must do all indemnity, not God. This is a basic principle of development and existence. The smaller purpose must be sacrificed for the sake of the larger one. One man must sacrifice for the sake of a hundred men. Is it a sin for a man to cut down a living plant and eat it? When you cut a vegetable it contains liquid, equivalent to the blood of an animal. We must eat every day; otherwise we could not survive. Do the vegetables have the right to accuse you of being a murderer since you are killing them? No, they don't because smaller existences in the universe must serve the larger. That is the law of existence.

Individuals within a country should offer themselves for the sake of their country, not the other way around. That is principle. For the sake of the world, a country should be willing to offer itself. For the sake of God, the world itself should be offered. Those who go against this principle will eventually perish; they cannot truly prosper.