REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
Let Us Not Weaken Our
Determination Toward Heaven
We know that the one victorious day the Father desires has not yet
occurred. We feel so ashamed when we think about how the Father has
been walking a course of bloody conflict, until this hour, to attain
the final victory.
We know that we must arm ourselves with the truth to safeguard the
will of the Father. We know that to unfold the will of goodness the
Father desires, we must offer all that we have and fight on. Please
allow our minds and bodies to be mobilized. Allow the faithful people
dispersed throughout this land and the heavenly soldiers and angels of
Heaven to be mobilized. Father, we earnestly wish that You will allow
the imminent arrival of the day when we can offer glory to the Father.
We know that although our ancestors, in the course of history, greatly
yearned for the time of the Lord and exhausted themselves and suffered
hardships to find this one day, the sorrow of not having realized it yet
has pierced deeply into earth and Heaven because of us. Please allow us
to understand that there is a bloody situation to go through to find the
one day of glory for which the Father hopes. The Father has called upon
us: inadequate, insignificant and incapable people. We offer gratitude
for the grace of the Father. He has allowed us to make the resolution
and determination to offer our minds and bodies to fight for the sake
of the will. Father, please sanctify our minds in this hour and receive
us as the sacrifice. We pray that You will separate us completely from
Satan's conditions of accusation and allow us to become the proud sons
and daughters whom only the Father can claim.
Father, please let us fulfill the utmost loyalty toward the will
that You desire with our minds and bodies. Let us feel new grace in our
hearts in this hour. Please allow us to feel the Father's glorious grace
overflowing in our minds and bodies.
Now I am giving Your words. Please be with me so that the heart of
the speaker and the hearts of the receivers will not be divided. We pray
that You will allow this to be a time when we can connect with the heart
of Heaven.
Please allow us to unveil before You the content of our lives
and all our failures to fulfill the responsibility and to prostrate
ourselves before You. If we recognize that the contradictory knowledge
of contradictory human beings cannot replace the truth of the Father,
then please allow us to bring out everything that we have before the
Father and be immersed in Your love. This is our sincere wish.
Please do not let Satan invade during this hour. Allow it to be a
precious time when we can receive the granted grace. Hoping this from
the depth of our hearts, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
I will speak upon the topic, “Let Us Not Weaken Our Determination
Toward Heaven.”
The Standard of the Value of Determination
There must be those among you, who have made some determination,
who have gathered today. There might even be some people who can step
forward before others and insist, "My determination is correct."
However, you must now think for whom you have made that determination.
In other words, you must reflect upon whether the determination you have
is only for your sake or is for the sake of the people, the world and
God. More than anything, you have to remember that the time is coming
when you must meditate upon whether the determination you have is for
the sake of Heaven.
The determinations that people have today come in all shapes and
forms. The determination that "A" has is different from that of "G,"
and the determination of a man is different from that of a woman.
Moreover, just as one group is different from another group, all groups
have different determinations.
For what purposes are the determinations that each of you have and
assert you are going to fulfill in the end? When you objectively ask
yourself this question, you will admit that you are in a position to
completely give up hope.
When those who are living in the last days, humanity on earth, ask
whether the determination that they have can influence the people, the
world or the many millions of faithful believers in Heaven and even move
God, they will have to confess that it cannot. If God has some desire of
this kind toward us, then we must consider as most important above all
else the question of what we must cherish in our hearts and what hopes
we should hold.
Many people have been asserting a doctrine throughout the course
of history. If the doctrines that they insisted upon cannot influence
our minds today, then their assertions and the doctrines that the
countless saints and sages have promoted in the course of history have
no relationship with us whatsoever.
Why has human history progressed until now? If you know of the
existence of Heaven, then you cannot deny that it has progressed for
the sake of the happiness of humanity, for the sake of establishing
the eternal ideology of humanity. As long as Heaven exists, you will
have to introduce the garden of joy to human beings. You will have to
build the garden of eternal bliss through human beings. If God has been
guiding His providence through the course of history to accomplish this
responsibility, then there is an inseparable relationship between Him
and those of us who are living in the last stage of history. Accordingly,
those who have not secured the standard of moving when Heaven moves and
stopping when Heaven stops will become people who trample upon history
and betray the hope of God.
The Determination of God
The laws of the operation of the universe are designed to follow
the rules of the heavenly principles. If there is some providence in
that operation for the fulfillment of the purpose of the whole, then
God also must work through those laws of operation. Humanity must work
through those laws of operation too. Now we must set ourselves before
these people and think.
Have you ever reflected upon the purpose of the will of God, who is
working for these people? Have you ever wondered about the determination
of God, who is trying to awaken these people? If you have not, then you
have to understand that you will be in the position of blocking the people
from being guided to the heavenly principles. If there is some cause for
grief in our hearts today, then these people cannot fight on with a united
mind centered on the one ideology to tread the path they must travel. You
must realize that it is the sorrow of God and humanity that the humanity
of the world has not stood united before the heavenly principles.
You must objectively analyze and criticize the position you are in
today. Today Heaven is asking us whether we can confidently step forward
before the people with the prepared foundation of heart to connect with
the heavenly principles. If God has the greatest hope toward human beings,
then what would that be? It is fulfilling His determination to realize
the will of creation on this earth. Before creating all things in heaven
and earth, God made a determination and created all things based upon
that determination. Because that determination has not been actualized in
the world of creation, God has been suffering through a history of sorrow.
Now we who are aware of this fact must find something even if we must
search every corner of this universe. That something is none other than
the determination of God. We must find that determination and materialize
it on His behalf. By doing so, we alleviate God's grief and sadness.
Therefore, we must have the determination and make the assertion that
we will stand in the course of a great revolution centering on this kind
of will. Only then can the sorrow of God be put to rest.
God has been walking the toilsome historical course of letting people
learn about the will of His determination, even as we were ignorant
of it. We must understand that this is the history of the dispensation
until now.
The Savior who represents this determination of God must appear on
the earth. He must confront all the forces of evil and obliterate them.
Unless some representative who can carry out this mission appears on
the earth, the will of God will not be realized. The determination of
God and the standard of human hope must one day become linked.
One person was sent as the one central figure whose purpose was to
accomplish on earth the will that God sought for the people. God had
worked strenuously for 4,000 years. He made that person walk through
the path of conflict in all kinds of difficult environments. That person
is none other than Jesus, whom we believe is the Savior. Jesus came to
restore God's determination of creation that could not be realized due
to the fall of the human ancestors, Adam and Eve. To put it another way,
God sent Jesus to this earth to set up a second Adam figure in this sinful
human world and to reveal His determination before the whole universe.
For this reason Jesus insisted, "God and I are of one body." God and
Jesus are not two, but one. You have to understand that, based on this,
the condition over which God could be glad was set. Jesus had such a
firm determination that he could say, "God is my Father. Even if some
oppose and block this, no one can seize the core of the determination
I have." In other words, he was prepared to offer his life when making
this bold proclamation.
Jesus' purpose in the last 2,000 years has been to reveal the
determination of God to many believers. We who are living on earth today
must understand that God has been toiling without rest for 6,000 long
years to send Jesus.
The Determination of Jesus and
the Role of the Holy Spirit
Now if you have come forward facing Heaven, then God will ask you
whether you have ever felt the sung sang of Jesus, who came forward with
determination on behalf of the will of God, as your own sung sang.
After coming to this earth, Jesus lived through all kinds of
unspeakably difficult ordeals for the thirty years of his life. In the
end, he had to meet the misfortune of walking the way of the cross.
Even then, he cherished, in his heart, the center of his being as
something so rock solid that no one could shatter. By doing so, Jesus
implanted his determination toward Heaven even in our hearts today.
Even if death came upon him, even if the disciples who had followed him
betrayed him, and even if the chosen people and the church betrayed him,
because he knew the nature of the determination that the Father had from
before the creation of the world, Jesus maintained an immutable position.
When this hero of determination came to the earth, what did he come
to establish before human beings? He came to pass down to his beloved
disciples the determination of God before the creation of the world,
which he cherished. However, among the countless people of faith who have
emerged throughout the course of history, how many of them similarly
possessed the determination of God and tried to fulfill the will of
God? When we meditate on this, it is clear that the source of God's grief
is not found among those who do not believe. It lies with the people who
rely on the name of Jesus and claim they believe in him. We must realize
that God is mourning while watching over the people of faith who do not
have an unyielding determination to represent Heaven.
Jesus had to die without completing the will because he could not
find the one object who understood his determination on the earth. Had
there been people in this world who had the determination to represent
Jesus and God, the fire of unification could have been ignited, and
God could have performed His works directly through the heart of that
person. Because there was no one with this kind of determination, the
will of God could not be realized.
As a result, after the resurrection, Jesus still had the responsibility
to raise a hero of determination on the earth, who could act on behalf
of the purpose for which he had come. So he sent one person to whom he
passed down his mission. You must understand, that person is none other
than the Holy Spirit, who appeared before people.
In whom is the determination of God and the determination of Jesus
going to bear fruit? God will again reveal His determination to people
through the Holy Spirit. Humanity does not know that it is the will of
God that this is conveyed by the hero of the will, and that this hero
must convey it to the bride. Using this as the stepping stone, the hero
of the will must come to this earth to convey it to one family, to the
tribe centered on that family, the people centered on the relatives, the
nation centered on the people, and the world centered on the nation. The
people of faith today do not know this fact.
Can you confidently go forth with the assurance that you can believe
in Jesus, you rely on Jesus, and you can go before God? Do you have the
determination to represent the heart of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit
such that you can push away whatever ordeals, sacrifices and temptations
might come your way? If you cannot answer confidently that you have this
kind of heart and determination to represent Jesus, then there is no way
that you can avoid more severe judgment than the Israelites who betrayed
Jesus and sold him.
Because there were people who could not uphold the will of Jesus,
they made the Holy Spirit suffer. The Christians of today, the second
Israelites who could not serve the will of the Holy Spirit, made countless
apostles suffer. They also made many of our ancestors suffer. Because we
have caused suffering, if we cannot possess the heart and determination
that Jesus had, then there is no way that we can restore dignity before
God. We cannot be dignified before Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Not only
that, there is no way that we can stand proudly before the people of
faith who have been building countless altars of sacrifice until now. You
must understand that in the future there will come a time when those
who could not fulfill their responsibility will lament in regret.
The People of Faith Must
Possess the Determination of Heaven
As we approach the last days, God is making demands upon us. Jesus
and the Holy Spirit are also appealing to us. You must feel deep down
in your flesh and bones that God is longing, even in this hour, for us
to become the victorious heroes who can eradicate Satan by becoming the
embodiment of the Father and possessing His determination. By doing so,
you must attain the qualifications to say, "Please allow me to inherit the
determination of Heaven. Please give me the determination of the apostles,
who persevered through the course of a blood-drenched altar." The time
has come when we must have a new realization of how wrong it is for us
to want to go to Heaven without having done this.
The responsibility to awaken Christianity rests with us from now
on. If the determinations of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit manifest
themselves by becoming connected to us, then we will be performing works
that can dominate history.
In the Bible verses I read at the beginning of this sermon, the
aching heart of God, who had to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah,
is expressed. When God was about to cast down judgment upon those cities,
there was Lot, the nephew of His beloved Abraham. God allowed Lot to
escape from the judgment. He did not let Lot escape from the judgment
because of his personal merit. Because God loved Abraham, He allowed
Lot, who did not have any personal merit, to escape the judgment. It
does not mean that the family of Lot understood the heart of God.
Although Lot and his two sons escaped to the place God directed them
to, Lot's wife did not understand the will of God. Because she turned
back with more longing for the house and environment that she used to
live in than she had concern about her determination toward the will
of God or was fearful for Heaven, this became the condition for her to
receive the wrath of God even before Sodom and Gomorrah did.
There is a path which human beings must walk. That is a path in which
we must follow the will of the heavenly principles and be determined
to face any kind of difficulty. This is the fateful path that all
fallen people must walk. Lot's wife died because she did not have the
determination to step forward without regard for all the things that
belonged to her. If she had believed in her husband, who obeyed the
direction of Heaven, as the representative of God and had complied with
his directions, then she would not have died.
In the course of providential history that God led, God raised
someone who could represent His heart so that if the people could not
believe in God, they could at least believe in his words and make a
determination. However, those who cannot even do that will not avoid
the judgment.
When we examine ourselves, we experience suffering because we are
people of the fallen lineage. We feel in the back of our minds the desire
to do our best for the great will of God and to offer our bodes and
minds as the sacrifice, making a new determination and putting it into
action. Yet the reason we cannot actually carry out this determination in
action, though we feel it, is because we are members of the fallen tribe.
Adam and Eve would not have fallen if they had cherished, deep
in their hearts, the words of God given at the time of the creation,
"Do not eat of the fruit." They should have realized that they had the
substantial responsibility to make an unchanging determination based on
the thought that they were in an inseparable union with the words and
to govern all things.
The reason Adam and Eve fell is that Adam and Eve could not become one
and because Adam could not become one with God. As a result, they divided
into many directions. Because they were acting according to their own whim
in the environment of free will and freedom, they destroyed the ideal
garden of the creation. Even in the last days, if one promotes freedom
without first securing determination centered on God, the free world
will also be dismantled. This is the way the principles of the universe
work. If Adam, who should have represented God, had the determination that
no matter who tried to tempt him into violating the will, he would never
violate it; if he had governed Eve and the archangel based upon this,
then he would not have fallen. No matter how much Eve, who had fallen
first, tried to seduce and tempt him, Adam would not have died. If Adam
had not fallen, then Eve could have been easily re-created.
Because they betrayed Heaven, they became distant from the heavenly
will. Because they did not establish the granted words and will as
the one center of their hearts, Adam, Eve and the archangel divided
and went their own separate ways. We who are their descendants are in
the environment in which we cannot believe tomorrow the things that we
believed today. We cannot believe in the next century the things that
we believe in this era. We cannot believe in the last days the things
that we can believe in the next century.
The Hero of the Determination to Liberate God
What is the concern of God? What is the sorrow of God? We have to
understand that it is God's sorrow that He does not have one person whom
He can trust and to whom He can reveal the depth of His heart. There is
no one to share the things that He could not tell the archangel in the
Garden of Eden. He wants to say, "After My toils through the 6,000-year
course of all kinds of hardships and tribulations, you alone have come
seeking me. Now that I have finally met you, I can rest in peace."
Although we claim that we are seeking the Father and are leading
a life of faith, we do not possess the environment in which God can
rest. For those of us who are in this kind of position, we cannot help
feeling more anxious in our hearts. No matter how much we boast about
ourselves, the closer we get to the last days, the more we cannot get rid
of a sense of restlessness. In this way, we will be put in a difficult
position on the individual level, the societal level, the national level
and the world level.
Where is the person who can push away the fear and anxiety that
plague us in the last days? Where is the master of determination who
can find assurance, not in men but in the heavenly principles, and step
forward? You have to understand that Heaven is looking for this kind
of person.
Because God lost Adam's family, He lost the original family of
the creation who could connect with Adam. At the same time, He lost
the blood relatives who could connect with Adam, the people who could
represent the descendants of Adam, the people who were centered on Adam,
and the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven centered on Adam. However,
God has been recovering all that He lost.
To find all people and the world, God has begun from one individual
and has been trying to raise a family and a society. Using this as the
foundation, God has been guiding the providence to claim back the people,
the nation and even the whole world.
God fought on one side. He has been claiming all this back through
the historical course of sacrifice. God has created the individual form
and has been building the family, the relatives, a people, a nation and
a world that represent Adam on this earth.
Therefore, the fact that Adam's family is lost is not just the
sorrow of Adam alone. In your own living sphere, you must also feel
to the core of your bones the sorrow that has reached every member of
humanity throughout the many generations, through the blood lineage of
Adam. There are those who are longing for comfortable days and want to
enjoy peace and pleasure even in these circumstances, but you have to
understand that there is no way this kind of comfort and pleasurable
lifestyle can be perpetuated. We have to understand that we are in the
position to cross over the gates of fear that lie ahead of us.
You have to understand that to cast away this fear, God has raised
one chosen person. Centered on him, He has raised a people. After that,
to put these people at the forefront of the world, God has been working
in distress even until today.
The people who can build the heavenly nation in the future are not a
large population. They are not the people who are dominating the world
today. God is conducting the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven in
secret, in an unexpected place.
Accordingly, contradictory phenomena are occurring in which those
who are betraying the will of God are living a good life and those who
are serving the will of God are living a poor and starving lifestyle.
Humanity's history of conflict is continuing even today. The reason
is that since human beings have lost their heart toward God, in order
for them to be restored to the position where God can believe in them
again, they must go through this kind of course. If so, then even if the
hardships of the 6,000 years of God's labors were to rush upon you at
once, you must be able to overcome them. Even if you were to lose your
life, you must become the master of determination who never yields and
stand as the person whom Heaven can set forth as the representative.
The Ancestors Who Lived
with Determination Toward Heaven
God sent Jesus as the representative on the world level who could
do all of this. Many of our ancestors walked the path of suffering to
raise this one person. To restore the family Adam lost, God chose the
one person who, in place of Adam, drove away the faithless tribe and
people and made the determination of faith toward Heaven. This person
was none other than Noah.
Noah maintained his unyielding determination even when Heaven dragged
him around for 120 years. This is what made him greater than Adam. We
know that Adam fell when he had not yet reached adulthood. Because Adam
betrayed God, to make it possible for God to believe in us again, we
must exert ourselves more than Adam. Even if we are to suffer through
toils hundreds of times more harsh, we must be able to break through them.
We have to understand that Noah was not affected when his own self,
his family, his relatives, his people and anything in the world put up
opposition. Fixed on his determination, he clung to God and fought on
for the 120 years of his life. This became the condition for him to be
elevated before the humanity of that time, representing God.
The most important thing for Noah, who was inside the realm of the
grace of God and escaped the flood judgment, was that he needed someone
who could inherit his heart, which possessed the heart of God inside
it. However, even Noah himself did not know this.
There was no son who could sympathize with the heart of Noah, who
was deeply concerned with the heavenly principles, even while suffering
through the 120 years of heartbreaking and distressful toils. No one
could say to Noah, "Father, please give me any kind of order."
If the eight members of Noah's family had understood Noah's
determination to give all of his heart for God, then they should have
stood in the position in which they could absolutely obey Noah, whether
they lived or died. They should have obeyed to the extent that they would
be willing to die if their father were to die. They should have liked
things that their father liked. If they had done that, even if another
insignificant bad condition was set, if they could have solidified their
hearts centered on God, then they would not have had any problem. Ham
should have listened to the words of his father, Noah. No matter what
his brothers told him, if they were not in accord with the will of his
father, he should not have listened to them. Because he did not listen
to the words that he should have listened to and instead listened to words
that he should have ignored, Noah's 120 years of exertion were undermined.
It was the same for Abraham. It was not easy for Abraham to abandon
his homeland and all of his belongings to embark upon the road toward the
vast wilderness of Ur of the Chaldeans. After understanding the will of
God, Abraham had to abandon all of his homeland's mountains and rivers,
as well as his relatives, because of a determination others did not know
about. He had to embark upon the search for the land of Canaan.
If Abraham had maintained the same heart he had when he abandoned
his homeland and had worried about the will of God, if he had kept to
the altar with all his heart and energy, then he could not have made a
mistake. While making the offerings, he should have understood that he was
in an extraordinary position. By pouring out all of his faith and energy,
he should have come forward with the determination to become one with God.
Abraham, who failed at making the sacrifice, needed the sacrifice of
Isaac as a substitute for the offering in order to inherit the will of
God again. In other words, he needed his son to unite with him and with
Noah. This is the reason he searched for the place where his heart and
his son's heart could bear fruit in oneness.
The Value of the Determination Which Is Unchanging,
Even in the Face of Betrayal
Abraham won the recognition of Heaven at the very moment he placed
Isaac on the altar on the mountain of Moriah and was about to strike him
with a knife. Isaac submitted before his father. Abraham also submitted
before the Father, so they could head in the direction of the heavenly
principles. After that, through Isaac and arriving at the time of Jacob,
God was finally able to establish the standard that could substitute for
Adam's family and Noah's family. Having done so, the seventy people,
who were in the form of three generations of relatives, left the land
of Canaan and entered Egypt.
On the foundation of achieving the shape of relatives in three forms
on this earth through sons and grandsons, they could be sent into the
satanic world and could enter Egypt. However, even after having created
the environment from the individual level to the levels of family and
relatives, they did not travel a smooth path. Those who represented the
seventy followers again carried on the fight on the level of a people
and stood on the stage of tribulation to form one people centered on
God. You probably know that this is the 400-year period of ordeals in
the palace of the Pharaoh.
The Israelites, who were chosen during this period of trials, should
have felt remorse that their ancestors had held grudges against God and
betrayed God's will in the past. They should have returned to the heart
of yearning for God again. The stronger this heart, the easier the way
would have been for the Israelites to overcome the severe hardships in
Egypt and unite to guide the 600,000 to the blessed land of Canaan.
Therefore, Moses, who was to guide the Israelite people suffering
in Egypt, felt a deep concern that no one understood for forty years
inside the palace of the Pharaoh. He was burning with the spirit of
the people whom he loved. However, striking the Egyptian became the
cause of his living a miserable life as a shepherd in the wilderness.
Moses abandoned all the magnificent glory of the Egyptian palace. He
had the determination that if he were to be confronted with a life of
hardship in the land of Midian, he would maintain an unchanging heart
and worry for the will of God, rather than love himself.
Moses was unshakably determined to break through the torment
of suffering all kinds of ordeals and to cling to God, even if he
were chased out by the people. Therefore, when the people experienced
difficult situations and Moses entered that environment of affliction,
the people could become united. God could work through Moses.
It is the method of God's dispensation to raise a certain people as a
chosen nation by driving people into tribulation on the world level and
carrying on offensive tactics. Therefore, the Messiah, who is coming to
construct the one nation centered on God, will face opposition before
the chosen Israelites. This is the process of restoration.
In Adam's family, Eve should have followed Adam, yet she struck Adam.
Noah's son, who should have followed Noah, struck Noah. Although the
600,000 Israelites should have followed Moses, they chased Moses out to
the Midian wilderness. Because of this kind of historical experience,
when Jesus came as the master, the chosen people rebelled against him,
though they were in the position of a bride to him.
Jesus, who understood the laws of the heavenly principles, was hounded
out by the Israelites and Judaism. Not only was he driven away by his
own relatives, he was also driven away by John the Baptist's group and
the apostles who were following him. He was chased away by the three
disciples who could not be traded, even for Heaven and earth. Who
understood the situation of Jesus, who had to cling to them and guide
them to Heaven? As Adam should have overcome any kind of wicked scheme
and temptation of Eve from the same position as Jesus, Jesus was also
in a position to win back the people. You should understand that in the
same way that Moses led a sad life in the wilderness after being chased
away by the people, Jesus would even be chased away by the world.
Jesus thought, "Even if the people and the religion betray me,
no one will take away my undying devotion toward the Father. With the
determination I have made, the betrayal of John the Baptist, the one
chosen by Heaven, poses no problem. The betrayal of the disciples who
are following me also poses no problem." Furthermore, because he even had
the determination that his body posed no problem, Jesus could not mourn
even when his heart was broken. He could not express sorrow even when
he felt sad. We have to understand that he had this fate of restoration.
Jesus had one determination toward God and asserted himself as an
offering before the universe. He had the type of determination that
could not be taken away, even if many millions of people of faith in
the spirit world and Satan, who rules over the air today, were to be
totally mobilized. This was the historical transition point.
Inheriting the Determination
The foundation of substantial victory must be acquired on the world
level in this way. You have to understand that Heaven established the
ideology of the restoration of the spiritual Canaan by passing down a
second determination to the disciples, centering on the resurrected Jesus.
Jesus came to this earth for the sake of humanity. The people of the
world are in the position of the son. In other words, they are in the
reciprocal position before Jesus. Eve violated Adam. The Israelites drove
out Moses. The burnt offering accused Abraham, and the son of Noah drove
out Noah. In the same way, world Christianity cannot avert the miserable
course of being driven out from every corner of the world.
The blessing of the second Israelites who are dispersed throughout
the world today has not been fulfilled centering on Israel. Therefore,
God has been trying to raise the Christians, whom He chose as the
second Israelites, to fulfill His heart's desire and to restore Heaven
and earth. You have to understand that to accomplish the will of the
restoration of the cosmos, God has been searching for one central figure,
one central people and one central nation.
Although God has been working hard for the will for 6,000 years,
because of the deaths of Jesus, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Moses, all
took on the form of failure. The providence of restoration could not
be completed because of the death of Jesus. Therefore, the spirits who
are in Paradise today have laid the foundation for the will of Jesus,
who tried to restore the first Israel. Furthermore, they are the spirits
who have set the condition of having spiritually accomplished the will of
restoration. The chosen Israelites should have become the first Israel,
but because the first Israel was dismantled, the second Israel was put
on the course of spiritual restoration.
The grief of God when Jesus was lost is dissipated through the spirits
in the spirit world who belong to the second Israel today. The will
of God, who chose the first Israel, must be fulfilled by Jesus. This
is the only way that the bitter and unfulfilled heart of God will be
soothed. Therefore, now you have to understand that the time of the
movement to restore the second Israel by mobilizing the second Israelites
and the spirits of the spirit world is the last days.
What kind of time are Christians living in? They are in the period that
corresponds to the forty-year wilderness course of Moses. The 2,000-year
course of history after the ascension of Jesus corresponds to the forty
days of fasting and the forty-year wilderness period of Moses. Moreover,
it corresponds to the time when the Israelites were anxious because
Moses had disappeared.
What must this Christianity do when it greets the Moses who is to
appear again? The Israelites in the wilderness should have upheld the
words of the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments of Moses, but they failed
to do so. Therefore, they could not become a people of joy. Although the
people became traitors to Moses, we must seek the path Heaven wants. On
that foundation we must seek the position of the third Israel. By winning
the victory, we must achieve the ideology of the restoration of the
world Canaan. To do that, we must be determined to receive the new words.
The determination of Moses should have become the determination of
the multitude of 600,000. Since this people, who should have inherited
the blessing of the second Israel, dispersed throughout the world, and
the Christians have not inherited the determination of Jesus, Satan
will play the same tricks that he played on the multitude of 600,000
Israelites in the wilderness during the time of Moses. We have arrived
at the same kind of period today.
If blood is pounding in your body and if you feel something in your
heart today, then you must exert your utmost. You must keep in mind
that until the Israelites met Moses, they should have forgotten all
about eating, clothing and sleeping. Because they could not do that,
Israel lost Moses and the will was shattered.
In the same way, the 2,000 years after Jesus is the period of the
wilderness. Christians must neglect eating and clothing and persevere
through injustice and distress. Until we meet Jesus, we must restore
through indemnity, in the opposite manner, the failure to desperately
defend the footsteps of Moses. We must become the Israel who defends
the footsteps of Jesus to the last. However, Christians today do not
know that they are shouldering this mission.
The Phenomena of the Last Days and
the Determination Which Believers
Must Have in Their Hearts
Now that the time is nearing, in the course of making preparations
for this time, the chosen people are to be handed over to a foreign
nation. As you have learned, to usher in the preparation period for the
coming of the Messiah, the Israelites went through the period of the
Babylonian captivity six centuries before Jesus.
As early as six centuries before the second coming of Jesus,
centering on the Renaissance, the worldwide offensive position to destroy
Christianity unfolded. How must the Christians of the world today face
this course of conflict? To thwart this, we must first make the right
determination.
The reason the Renaissance appeared, between the fourteenth and
sixteenth centuries, is because people tried to research the ancient
Greek civilization and form a new ideology of restoration. In the same
way that this revolutionary side of culture arose, the Christians who
live in the last days today must reflect back on history and be able to
experience the heart of Jesus 2,000 years ago. They must revolutionize
their hearts by experiencing the heart of God toward Adam before the fall.
Just as there was an attack of the archangel upon Adam and Eve before
they began to live for the will, a similar attack surfaced before Noah,
Moses and Jesus, and will appear before the people of faith in the last
days. This is the attack of Satan. First there will be the material
attack, then there will be the emotional attack. This kind of era is
unfolding before us today. When Christian history is propelled forward
through a nation or people, this course will become the formal basic
principles.
The era has turned out to be one in which worldwide Christianity is
experiencing rebellion. In this period there will appear an Egyptian-
type people like those who opposed the Israelites of the past. When
there emerges a Moses-like person before the second Israelites, they
will join to drive him out.
What must the people of faith in the last days do? In our surroundings,
events similar to those in the land of Egypt will take place. The reality
that we are living in today bears a close resemblance to the period
of the Egyptian captivity. Not only that, in the sphere of thought,
in substantial reality, in regard to faith and in all aspects, we are
moving toward the situation where we will surely be invaded.
In the same way the Israelites clung to each other with the dignity of
the chosen people and carried on the unification effort to push back the
sorrows coming from outside, Christians today must carry on this kind of
effort. Those who rely on their denomination or boast about their own
church's long history will become the Judas-type people. There were
ten people who opposed Joshua and Caleb among the representatives of
the twelve tribes who spied on Canaan under the direction of Moses. Who
can guarantee that the same thing will not take place today? You must
understand that this kind of era has come to our doorstep.
We must now forget all about ourselves. Moreover, to prevent a judgment
similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, you must take the footsteps
of the family of Lot and use them as your mirror. When Jacob returned
from the land of Haran to the land of Canaan, he left everything behind
him. Our footsteps must resemble those of Jacob. Moreover, in the way
that the Israelites shook off all lingering attachments when they were
leaving Egypt, we must do the same. In the same way that Jesus abandoned
everything and walked the path of the cross by himself, we must also
have the determination to walk that kind of path.
Are there those who have the qualifications to show this kind
of determination and resolve to all things of creation? You have
to understand that Heaven is looking for people with these kinds of
qualifications. The process by which Protestantism, dispersed throughout
the world today, is being driven away by Catholicism, is the phenomena
which repeats the miserable course of Moses.
The Mission of Christians
Now there must appear a new person with a sense of mission who
can pioneer this world, which is like a wilderness. One must not draw
satisfaction just from being Christians today. The Israelites could
not protect Moses during his life in the wilderness. The same thing was
true at the time Protestantism emerged. That Protestantism could not win
recognition during its wilderness life when it first emerged was similar
to the situation of Moses. You have to understand that the will of God
will unfold in this fashion.
Moses and Jesus were pitiful people from a humanistic point of view.
When you think about Moses and Jesus, do you feel as if your flesh and
blood are connected to them? If you have never thought in your heart
about Moses and Jesus, who were struggling in their path as they could
not even find a place to rest, then you have to understand that this
is like being a traitor to the heavenly principles, a person who has
sold the sorrowful tears that Moses shed when he was doing his forty-
day fasting prayer on Mount Sinai. You will become like the Israelites
who fell down in the wilderness.
We must experience the distressed heart of Jesus and accomplish what
the first Israel and the second Israel did not accomplish. Do you know
the sorrowful heart and footsteps of Jesus who came to fulfill these
things? After raising us up, what does God want to achieve through us?
To realize the will of the universal ideology, you must possess the
determination to say, "Spirits of the spirit world! I will fulfill all
your wishes. People on the earth! I will become your sacrifice. Satans,
who have taken control of the air! I will seize you as hostages and
drag you up to the judgment stand of Heaven and press charges against
you." You must inherit the loyalty and fidelity of Jesus, who decided
that he would not change regardless of whether the era changed or
the world changed, and who was impervious to the assertions of human
beings. If you have not laid the foundation of determination in your
heart by transcending the concept of time and the ideology of life to
connect with the ideology of the heavenly principles, then you have to
unconditionally obey God. Otherwise, you cannot escape the judgment.
If the Israelites had unconditionally obeyed Moses, who had climbed up
Mount Sinai, they could have entered the land of Canaan, where honey and
milk were abundant. Moreover, it would have been like that at the time
of Jesus and in the last days today. In the path that lies before you,
the time is coming when you must determine to the extent of the whole
value of life. You have to feel deep down to your bone marrow that the
Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and our ancestors hope that we will go
forward for Heaven with the mind-set to take responsibility for the will
of God, even when we face death.
If we reflect upon ourselves with these facts, then we can see that our
self-centered bodies and our self-centered families are the enemies. For
Noah, his family was the enemy. For Jacob, his tribe was the enemy. On the
national level, the world was the enemy. God traveled through this kind
of historical course. Even now, as He experiences many tribulations, He
has to repeat the process by raising other people if some central figures
fall. You have to learn to add this to the prestige and dignity of God.
The will of God cannot be fulfilled solely with the power of the
individual. God has been using the tactics of encirclement, in which
He spreads Himself all over the world and develops the form of one
people. Therefore, the time has come when He must raise individuals,
families, tribes and peoples and attain the shape of a nation centered
on God.
Therefore, today the time is coming when the Christianity of the whole
world must form the twelve tribes again. In the same manner that the
Israelites, who were dispersed throughout the wilderness, formed ranks,
Christians today must also form ranks to carry on offensive tactics
against Satan. Such a time is coming. You have to understand that the
Christians who are ignorant of this will fall into the same position as
those Israelites who were not aware of the direction in which Moses was
leading them.
The Time When We Must Unite and
March Forward with Force and Courage
Now we face the common fate that requires us to go forward holding each
other's hands. We are in the position where we might fall under the same
destiny as the twelve disciples. Because of the one person, Judas Iscariot
who sold Jesus, they were torn apart and Jesus was killed. Accordingly,
the members of our church must take on the shape of ranks in which
they can come for the sake of the will. We should say that another's
determination is my own and another's heart is my own heart. We must
understand that ahead of us there still lies our battleground where,
crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River, we must vanquish the seven
tribes of Canaan.
Therefore, now we must shoulder the historical mission and restore
this through indemnity. Although God has told us to make offerings on
the altar up to now, from now on we must become the offering who can
instead tell God, "Please receive us."
The determination of the heavenly principles must manifest itself as
the embodiment of the internal and external determination. Centering on
this determination, we must confront our family to restore it, awaken
the church, nation and people and restore them. That the family, society,
nation, church and the world which we behold with hope, all consider us
enemies is inevitable.
Today you are receiving persecution in the family and society.
However, please do not rejoice just because you have overcome this
persecution. When you are shaken by various difficulties in the period of
the wilderness and the offensive is taking place, you must not fall down
on that battleground. The fate of the heavenly principles is such that
we must be hit once before we can overcome. In the course of restoration
on the world level, Christianity will be hit. The time will come when
it is hit internally and externally. Because the time is coming when the
second Israel is mobilized, the spirit world is being mobilized now. The
spirit world is mobilized to unfold the second Israel on the world level
and to build the third Israelite people.
In the same way that the Israelites were struggling in the wilderness
eating the food of life that no one else in other nations knew about
or could even imagine, you must learn to eat the food, manna and quail,
which Heaven is sending down today in this period. In the near future,
the time of thirst will come. You will have to search for manna and quail.
Now the time has come for the construction of the garden of
restoration. Even if our bodies are torn apart and our bones are ground to
powder, we must be able say for the sake of the one will of the heavenly
principles, "Father! The many millions of faithful people in the spirit
world! Please work your miracles!" Although the Israelites could not
mobilize the spirit world, the time has come when we must mobilize the
spirit world. Help from the spiritual world will be with you. If our
members call the spirits of the spirit world, they will come. Therefore,
many spiritual phenomena are taking place today.
We must understand that we have the mission to raise ourselves
and mobilize our families, our people and the world. We have the last
mission to bring Satan to submission before the Father. However, the
question is, When we will overcome the trial on the individual level,
on the family level, on the church level, and on the societal level?
Only when we have the determination in our hearts to overcome these
trials can we complete the heavenly mission.
Just as God told Joshua and Caleb to be strong and courageous, now
the time has come when we must also become strong and courageous. You
must keep in mind that the time will come when you must hold hands and
unite hearts to seize the victory in the fight against Satan.
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