Restoration From the Origin and Rebirth (Part 1)

This is the first in a series of excerpts from the speech given at Belvedere on September 20, 1992. The translator was Sang Kil Han.

There is only one origin. There cannot be two origins. So since we came from one origin, we must also go back to that same origin in order to be born again. We all know why it is necessary to be restored: It is because of the fall of mankind. Then what was the fall, what is the fall? What was that fall which brought to mankind such an incredible amount of suffering, such indescribable misery. What could have brought all the catastrophes to mankind? No one could have known the consequences of the rather simple act of the fall, but those consequences to human history were staggering. Now we all know that all the sadness and misery were the consequence.

Then one could have imagined that at some time the results of the act of the fall would be realized for everyone to see those results. Now is the time. We can see the consequences of the fall. Then what is that manifestation today? What kind of country is it? That country in which all the typical manifestations of the fall are very obvious is the United States of America. Americans do not know; the world does not know but America is the example. They see, but they do not understand. It is coming down, plummeting downward to degradation.

This morning, if all the American people here were seated together and I asked you, "Are you happy? Are you secure?" I wonder what would be your answer. Are you answering firmly "yes" or is that a firm "no"? When the answer is no, we yet may not know how much more miserable it will continue to be.

Maybe you Americans think, "Well, we have the magnificent Empire State Building, we have the White House, we have the most sophisticated weaponry and jet planes. What do we have to worry about? We will be all right." Yet, deep inside there is no one, including the President of the United States, can deny that there is something very wrong with this country. They feel that the country is sick and is getting worse, not better.

We might ask this question to the President: "Do you see a clear future of yourself, or do you have the viewpoint of the world?" The answer would have to be, "I do not know what tomorrow will be." Suppose we asked, "Do you possess the value which represents the entire country, in other words is your value equal to that of all individual Americans? Are you confident that you are one citizen of this country who can lead the nations and people of the world and inherit that tradition and continue to foster that tradition?" Then he would have to admit, "No, wherever Americans go in the world today, they are not seen that way. Americans are always told to go back home, that American has nothing to offer them."

The formidable illness of AIDS started in this country and has since spread all over the world. People do not welcome that. What about free sex? What kind of idea is that? Is free sex something which God would welcome and say, "Oh, yes, do more of that." Would a man of character, as opposed to a decadent man, value free sex? (No.) Is it the human wish to see a baby born to a woman who doesn't even know who the father is? This happens to many children. This doesn't happen very often even in the animal world. We can go on and on citing examples of the things which are greatly wrong with this society. Therefore, we say that such an America should perish. Can anyone who seriously looks at the moral degradation in this country disagree with that conclusion?

This country used to be great, but now it has no concept of the world. The people should have much awareness of the world, but now they are not even thinking about the country. They have been reduced to mere individualism. The ultimate future of extreme individualism is for a person to try to kill himself. Suicide. Choosing to die. Why do you think Reverend Moon has to come to such an America? What am I trying to do here? Why do you suppose I don't just get out of here, like so many others have done? As you know, Reverend Moon came here to protect Christianity from falling into the decadence which is all around. To revive Christianity. Unless we revive Christianity, there is no way for America to get back on the track.

When we speak of Christianity, people have a different idea about it. But we are speaking of Christianity which is concerned with reform, Christianity which is more alive, Christianity closer to the true spirit of Christ himself, the Christianity that is rational. A religion of people who have firm beliefs, who can spell out clearly what they believe in, very consistently. All these qualities are needed in Christianity today; in short, a new breed of Christianity. Also this world needs Christians who have knowledge, Christians who have reason and spirit adequate enough to lead the world, even to save the world. That kind of Christianity. All of these qualities which Reverend Moon has enumerated are qualities which Reverend Moon possesses.

What is the value of Reverend Moon? From God's perspective, Reverend Moon is so valuable that He would not trade him for even 240 million Americans. Not even for the 5 billion people of the world.

I know these things; I have a clear understanding of my own value. Since Reverend Moon came here to America, how much persecution has come from America and the rest of the free world? This country has truly put itself in the position of enemy country to me. America has done such disservice to the world and mankind, as well, because it has led Christianity into degradation and decline. If Christianity was washed down the drain, where would God be? God would lose His foundation.

Knowing this, Reverend Moon came here and received tremendous persecution. But he has loved Christianity because God loves Christianity. Ironically, it is traditional Christians who have most strongly opposed Reverend Moon. Still, as Christianity has tried to support itself and it looks all around to where the social power might be, they see no one except Reverend Moon for their hope, even though they don't like it. You know about the activities of the USA project, United to Serve America, don't you? Through that activity, traditional Christians as well as the rest of the people of America are coming to realize, "Oh, this is the true spirit of Christianity. This is the true nature of Christ's teaching."

Since the Moonies are representing the teachings of Reverend Moon, other people are watching them and trying to assess, judge them. They want to know what we are all about and they are watching carefully. They conclude, "They are a different breed. They are not like us. They are better." We may not realize this, for whatever reasons. Maybe we are too humble, or too indifferent or don't care to think we are better than other people, but other people look at us and say that we are different, that we are better.

This is a country which truly has no attraction for Reverend Moon, since whenever I go through the Immigration Offices at the airport, the officials look at me with squinted eyes and say, "Oh, so you are Reverend Moon." That kind of unpleasant treatment by officials toward the person who is bringing new life to this country. Those men belittle me. According to the traditions of this world, anyone who is belittled like that would turn and land a big punch on them. They look at Reverend Moon as the worst person who exists on earth. You must understand how the world is treating Reverend Moon.

How would you feel if they picked you out of the line at the Immigration Gate, allowed one hundred people to go through first, and finally, you were the last guy allowed through? That is how they treat Reverend Moon. How miserably this country is treating me. You have to understand. The average person would simply refuse to have anything to do with this country.

What can Reverend Moon do about such situations? I can only persevere, pretending I don't notice, just trying to forget and do more. I feel that I have more to do in this country, more to give, more foundation to make, so day by day, I go on without thinking about those kinds of things.

What would that mean? Don't you see that when Reverend Moon one way or another leaves this country, all God's dispensation and blessing around the dispensation will follow and go with me? It will not remain in this country, although American people don't realize that. They don't understand the way God's blessing works. If Reverend Moon leaves this country, the consequences would be unthinkable. All the blessings will flow away, like the tide ebbing. It is the responsibility of the Unificationists to hold Reverend Moon here, in spite of all the injustices done to him. You say, "Father, we know America is doing terrible things to you, but please do not leave this country."

The festival last month in Korea was more than just a Blessing. It also included the Summit meeting, the Junior Olympics, a total of eight major events. Top level leaders from the political world, economic world, scientific world, media, academics. They all gathered for that Festival. There were more than 12,000 people in the gathering when Reverend Moon proclaimed Messiahship, telling them they must follow the True Parents. I told them, "Different religions such as Confucianism, Islam, or Christianity have different leaders and therefore different messiahs but there is only one, absolutely one set of True Parents in the world." For some, my statements were truly shocking. They felt they were hit in the head and had a concussion, they were so flabbergasted. It took some people 24 hours to recompose themselves.

The following day the Blessing of more than 30,000 couples took place. They saw it. How is it possible that Reverend Moon could match so many people, and by photograph moreover? And not one couple opposed his decision. Observers wondered, "What kind of man is Reverend Moon?" Such a thing is unheard of. In fact, Reverend Moon is the first and only person to do such a thing on the face of the earth. Then all the visitors saw the event and heard me saying, "Next time, we will bless more than 300,000."

How many of those 300,000 couples will come from America? If we drew America as one individual, he would have a very large head with big bulging eyes, because that is the way individualism looks. Calculating people always look at things from that perspective. They would come to the conclusion, "Oh, I can never do that." But they cannot dismiss the words they heard in Korea: Savior, Messiah, and True Parents. The two most awesome words for even the most individualistic American people are: True Parents.

What is it to be restored by origin? What is the restoration by origin, by root? Because of the fall, we are in a different place from where we are supposed to be, from where we originally were. To do that, that means to be born again. In other words, if you change the expression, because we were born of fallen parents, to be born again or to be restored by origin means we be born again from the parents who have not fallen. Is that absolutely necessary or just sort of necessary? (Absolutely.)

Then how can you believe, how can you prove that mankind has fallen. Many people do not believe that mankind has fallen. They say, "This is the way mankind has always been. This is the way God meant the world and man to be." Really only the Christians have the strong notion that mankind has fallen. Other religions are not so keen about that. In Christianity the fall is primary. To other religions, it is a secondary consideration. They don't care. But care or not care, this is a serious matter of importance. How do you believe? You have to believe because you have no idea. You have to begin to believe. Why are they fallen, what is the cause of the fall? The Bible teaches that it was the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Bible is absolutely necessary and Bible we have to abide by, really, but more importantly, what does Bible say? That's the main thing. If we misunderstand the Bible, then the Bible itself becomes unusable. So what did the Bible mean by eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil?

That means mankind contracted illness, whatever that is, fall, illness. But that origin of the illness, the cause of illness, is eating of fruit of knowledge of good and evil. To cure that, we have to have an antidote. Now, do Christians know what "fruit of the knowledge of good and evil" mean? Does any Christian know that means? Ask any Ph.D. or double Ph.D. Or hundred times Ph.D. You ask that question. What is that fruit? What serious wrong did they do which made God, such a loving Parent, chase that son and daughter away from His own home? What is it? The magnitude of that means it must have been a very, very valuable fruit? More than apple, more than orange? We see, according to Bible, they ate with their hands. So the hand and mouth in that story were the only parts of the body which were used in that crime. Or sin. Then what did they cover after they ate? They covered up the lower parts of their bodies. We can see today in children. Whenever a child does something wrong, they express it, they show it. They are naturally honest. So if their mother says, "Don't eat that," and the child eats it anyway and then the mother comes and confronts the child. What does the child do automatically? He hides his hands, doesn't he? He doesn't hide his lower parts or other parts. Have you ever seen a child by reflex hide his lower parts when he has eaten something he shouldn't? They don't do that. That is simple enough and easy to understand.

Again, another proof. It must have been the lineage which was involved, so God panted, puffed and suffered for thousands of years to correct that. If it was merely the eating of a certain substance, then God could have found a remedy for that easily. It would not have taken so long. So no matter how much you try to correct yourself, no matter how hard to work to correct this and that weakness and stop doing certain sins, and let's assume you could work hard enough to correct flaws in your character, you could never change your blood lineage. You cannot do anything about the blood that flows inside you. It just cannot be denied. You could cut off your arm, but so long as that bad blood is flowing in your body, another part of you will commit sin. Another bad thing will be done by your body. By the same token, you have to go where the origin of that growing evil, evil after evil. We have to know where the origin comes from.

Now we know so we can come quickly to the conclusion that it was bad lineage, wrong blood lineage. So the blood flowing in all mankind, all individuals is bad blood. We cannot say it is perfect God's blood. It is Satan's blood, in other words. We inherited Satan's blood. That means your body is Satan's.