REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON
SPEAKS ON
Let Us Love Heaven and Become Patriots
Matthew 5:33-48
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 1, 1959
Prayer
Beloved Father! Brief human life, which seeks after You, may appear
to be simple; yet, it is complicated. We must walk this life course.
Father, we sincerely pray that You guide us to become blessed sons and
daughters who can persevere through each day and spend the rest of our
lives in the Father's bosom.
We are not alone in the world in which we live. We know that a myriad
satans surround us. They have been engaged in insidious fights and have
been putting forth conditions of accusations before the Father for 6,000
years. We know that You are keenly aware of this and have been working
laboriously to protect us. Please allow us to realize that the Father's
concern exceeds our concern, and that the Father's labors in fighting
Satan and the victories You have won are much greater than anything we
could accomplish, even if we battled hard for the rest of our lives.
The Father has been deeply involved in the lives of our countless
forefathers and has been working to fulfill the will of restoration.
We know that Your efforts have been the path of the cross, a debt we
can never repay by any means. Please allow us to face You in humility
and repentance, realizing with all our hearts and souls our inadequacy
to return Your grace.
Father, we know that history until now has been a course of raising
unworthy ones to the presence of glory. Please allow us to possess Your
sincere heart and to be single-mindedly devoted to You. Please do not
let our minds and bodies be ours alone. Allow us to possess a sincere
heart which yearns to penetrate deeply into the Father's. Please allow
us to become sacrifices drenched in such a heart. Please relate with us
as Your beloved sons and daughters who can be embraced inside Your bosom,
giving comfort to You and being comforted by You.
We have come here longing for this kind of grace. Please do not
abandon us. Allow us to become those whom the Father can personally call,
"My sons." Father, we sincerely hope that You will relate with us as
sons and daughters with whom You can be and love personally.
Please have compassion on us. We are weak and full of concern about
our responsibility to carry on the fight, even if we become exhausted.
Father, please give us strength. Strengthen our minds with new powers and
abilities so that we can become strong and brave children who will never
surrender to our enemies. Please, beloved Father, allow us to become
sons and daughters who can glorify You by becoming brave soldiers who
can be entrusted with the entire heavenly mission.
Please become the center of our lives. Please let no one among us
stumble over some condition, but let us remain in the Father's possession
only. Please allow us to become Your pride. Father, these are our wishes,
coming from the depths of our hearts.
If the root of sin remains within our hearts, please purify us with
Your powers. Please remove all the qualities You do not desire. Please
let there be a profound change in our hearts which can bring us closer
to resembling Your nature. Father, we pray that, in this hour, works of
re-creation will take place, allowing us to feel the shock of new power
and love in our minds and bodies, removing all evil elements within to
purify us and enable us to be embraced by the Father.
Please guide us to cast away all thoughts and concepts which the
Father does not want. Let this be an hour when every aspect of us begins
as the Father's own, moves as the Father's own, and bears fruit as the
Father's own.
If we do not experience such feelings and impact, then we cannot
take responsibility for everything in the great will of the providence.
Father, please personally come down upon us and allow us the joy and
resurrection of life.
Father, we have the responsibility to awaken this sleeping city. We
have the responsibility to guide this peninsula into the new light.
Please make our fragile hands strong. Though we are inadequate, allow
us to become sons and daughters who can give the final blow to Satan
and manifest the glory of Heaven.
Please let us not give up on all the things we pledged and determined
to accomplish this year. Allow this to act like an explosive we carry in
our hearts and bodies, and thus give life to many. Please allow us to
become the atom bombs of life to restore this dark world to the ground
of the Father's glory. Please allow us to become sons and daughters who
can carry out all our given responsibilities.
Please bless these people and bless humanity. All our wishes belong
to You. Father, please be with us and work through us. Until the day
we can alleviate the bitter grief of restoration, please guide us,
Father. This is our deepest desire.
Please allow us to feel how inadequate are the exertions and efforts
we make each day to go near You. Guide us to pioneer with desperate
hearts. Please let the powers of Your impact and a sincere heart be the
only things that sway our lives.
Please bless Your sons and daughters who are praying to You in
loneliness from every corner of the countryside. Please embrace them
with the same grace. We sincerely wish and pray that You raise them in
glory so that they can proclaim the grace You have given them.
Everywhere obeisance is made today, let the countless heavenly
saints, soldiers and angels escort You and bring You joy. Let only the
Holy Trinity govern this hour. Let Satan not be found anywhere in this
hour. From the depths of our hearts, we pray in the name of the Lord.
Amen.
The topic of the sermon I want to speak upon is "Let Us Love
Heaven and Become Patriots." Let us become those who love Heaven
and the nation.
God Has Guided Human Beings toward Goodness
Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, love their brothers
and sisters, and love this land. They should have loved Heaven, people
and the earth.
When God created humans, His goal was for them to love in such a way.
Yet all who are living on the earth today have lost the ability to love
Heaven, their brothers and sisters, and the earth, because they are
fallen descendants. This is the grief caused by the fall.
Therefore, to bring fallen people back to their original state,
God sorrowfully has faced every kind of battle without hesitation and
has repeatedly sacrificed Himself for 6,000 years. In other words, we
know that God has been seeking us with the responsibility to restore
the lost people.
Although we are ignorant of the will of God's providence of
restoration, our minds are subconsciously following the heavenly
relationship, which has had a dominant influence in our lives. We often
experience this in our daily lives.
How do your minds ceaselessly, yet subconsciously, move in pursuit
of goodness and the world of greater ideology? Why is your mind not
moving in the direction you desire? This is because there is God, who
is leading you in a direction of which you are not consciously aware.
He is working through a relationship which surpasses your imagination.
This is how our minds are being led by the ideology of goodness.
Heaven is the highest good and the loftiest of all ideals. Heaven is
the pinnacle of human life and the center of hope. It has been active in
the past and present, and will be active in the future. Hence, we must
understand that our minds are being guided in the direction of goodness,
which Heaven is pursuing.
Even if your heart is drawn toward goodness and you possess a good
nature, you should not assert that this is your doing. Moreover, just
because your body has been fashioned in the way of goodness based on
the heavenly nature, you should not boast that it is your own.
Even if you possess something that is praiseworthy, good and
illustrious, you should not consider it to be yours alone and manifest
it as such. If you forget that Heaven has created such in you and are
proud of yourself, you will be committing a crime against Heaven. We
often witness people committing these kinds of sins all around us.
Today, we all desire goodness and righteousness. Even our minds,
which pursue goodness and righteousness, do not belong to us. You have
to understand this. If you look at the history of good minds, you will
discover the 6,000 years of human history, God's work of creation, and
finally God's original nature. You must act on behalf of historical and
future relationships and possess the original goodness which operates
through this center. If someone tries to block your way as you are trying
to possess this goodness and sets up an opposing condition, how can you
be sure that this violates heavenly law?
People today should pursue this good mind. Furthermore, after they
come to possess this good mind, they should not live for themselves but
for the greatest center of goodness. Nevertheless, we know there are
not many people who understand this.
The Realization of Goodness and the Function of the
Conscience
Goodness is never realized by one's self. It is realized when one
transcends one's self, one's environment, nation and world and connects
with the highest goodness of the Creator. Goodness is possible only
through a course of accomplishment.
We must understand that we should find the direction of goodness,
understand its destination, and move in that direction. At the same time,
we must become goodness itself and leave behind the accomplishments
of a good life. It is not an overstatement to say that no one in
history has ever understood this truth and led his life responsibly and
confidently. God has worked laboriously with human beings. For 6,000
years God has been guiding human beings, who do not know how to repay
His work and who are not grateful for His having saved their lives.
If this course of historical sorrow does not end in your generation,
it will continue with your descendants. If you cannot feel that this
sorrowful course is active in your life, flowing within the life you
breathe, there is no way you can truly say that you love your nation
and Heaven.
We must live each day based on goodness, with one heart. A good heart
must govern our daily lives. While we are working to reach the goal
of our lives, we must make accomplishments of which we can be proud,
within the ideal of goodness. Those who cannot achieve this certainly
have not made any contribution to history or the course of restoration,
which seeks Heaven's goodness. They have not brought any results.
How did the human fall come about? Human beings fell because they
thought their lives belonged solely to them. Adam and Eve, the first
ancestors of humankind, thought that every affair was fulfilled through
them, everything began based on them, and every goal was to be reached
through them. This is why they fell. We should understand this.
Accordingly, we must expose the sins of our ancestors and abandon
the mentality that we should do everything based on ourselves. We must
cultivate a true heart which seeks to bring solutions based on the people,
the world, heaven and earth. We must pursue a good world. If there are
such people, God will call upon them. God works to accomplish the goal
which the conscience seeks and is looking for this kind of people. We
must keep this in mind.
The connection of love can be forged only when one clearly understands
this truth. One must then have a fresh realization about oneself,
possess one's value system and perspectives on daily life, human life,
history and the universe, and say, "I love Heaven." You can say that
you truly love your nation only when you love it from this perspective.
We must understand that this is a path which both historical figures
and the great people of our age must walk. We must analyze ourselves anew.
Although we feel that our conscience is at work, due to the human
fall, we do not understand the destination toward which goodness is
striving. Although we are under the influence of our conscience, we have
been unable to lead the type of life in which we do not feel any pangs
of conscience.
Now you must expose such contradictions within yourselves. You must
reflect and measure yourselves against the new goal and new ideology.
In doing so, you must abandon all concepts, assertions and thoughts and
march toward a new goal of goodness. We must understand that humanity
living in the last days faces a crisis which compels them to walk toward
the goal of goodness.
What Kind of Person Truly Loves Heaven?
How low did people fall? They fell to the position completely opposite
to God's ideal of creation. Originally, human beings should have been
able to consider this world their own. All of humanity should have lived
as one tribe. They should have attended the Creator God as their God.
Have the people who live on earth today formed their own world? They
have not. Is there someone or some nation who considers all humanity their
clan? There is not. Moreover, is there a group of people who attend God
as their God? There is not.
Therefore, we must first establish the standard of goodness and make
our best efforts to seek our world, our clan and our God. We have to
understand that this is the historical mission that fallen people must
accomplish.
Our God has disappeared into nowhere; our human clan has scattered
in all directions. The land we should govern has been divided into
many pieces.
If there is a Creator, then what is His ideal? It is to make this
land our land, to make humanity into one clan or members of one family,
and attain unity and harmony with us. We must realize that the Creator
wants to emerge as the God of humanity and of this world.
If there is someone who says, "I love Heaven," what kind of person
should he be? He should make great effort to search for our world, to make
all of humanity brothers, to make the Creator the God of humanity, and
to attend God in his life. This kind of person can be said to love Heaven.
Since people have lost this standard, even though they feel the
workings of their good minds, their lives cannot bear good fruits. We
know this all too well.
The work of goodness is taking place ceaselessly in our minds, based
on the heavenly and worldwide ideals which human beings are destined to
fulfill. Yet we have completely ignored this, severed ourselves from it,
and have lived lives of violation. We should feel this deeply, to the
core of our flesh and bones during this hour. Unless we can do this,
there is no way we can love God, as fallen people.
What then must we do with all our effort? What must we do at the cost
of all kinds of sacrifices? We must build the world for which God wishes,
the world for which humanity longs. God is looking for one clan that stems
from one parent. In other words, He is looking for the one clan rooted
in God. We must understand this and lead our lives according to this
standard. Otherwise, even if the ideal world, ideal humanity, and ideal
Kingdom of Heaven are built, they will not have any connection with us.
God created human beings and blessed them to have dominion over all
things. He also said, "Multiply and fill the earth." God intended to
directly govern the people who have fulfilled these words and attained
perfection. This was the standard of creation. Yet human beings have
failed to fulfill this standard. Therefore, we have failed to rule the
earth, multiply the world of true love, or receive God's true love.
This is the source of our sorrow. Because we live in such a realm,
we have become sacrifices in Satan's tests.
God has to raise up humanity again and have them rule the earth. He
has to make good accomplishments to bring resolution to every aspect
of fallen human life, which has been thrown into confusion and evil.
He has to bring people together in harmony and create a heavenly clan.
After all this is done, God plans to govern them. This is the goal for
which God is working. This is the historical goal which human beings are
pursuing. It is the standard of hope which the heart of humanity reveres.
We should have lived in such a world. Therefore, we must learn to be
deeply grateful that every element in us is headed toward that place of
our hope.
Human Beings Should Build a World of Love under
God
Originally, human beings were to love Heaven, yet they fell to the
lowest possible place, they have been working to recover it all in the
opposite way. Originally, they should have received God's love and formed
love relationships with siblings, spouses and parents, but they became
fallen people instead. Therefore, even if one proudly insists that he
is a true parent, a true spouse and a true brother, no one has forged
a true relationship with God.
Because this is the nature of the clan to which we belong, we do not
have any basis to claim that anything we govern belongs to God. This
world, which was created to be God's world, does not even belong to
human beings. It has become Satan's. How pitiful! People must emerge
who experience the sorrow Heaven feels as He beholds this situation.
There must emerge those who experience the sorrow of humanity. Otherwise,
there is no way to undertake a movement to liberate this world from
Satan's bondage.
To conduct such a movement, God has worked to strengthen the influence
of the conscience in people. Because human beings, whom God should
have governed, were lost, He sent central figures in each age. Taking
responsibility for all human problems, God sent the central figures who
revealed the mission of humanity in the time they lived. These were the
prophets and sages of history.
Due to the fall, we human beings totally lost the six days of
God's creation. We can worship God only on the Sabbath. Consequently,
having lost human beings, with whom He wanted to relate frequently,
God has searched hard for an opportunity to make it possible. He has
been seeking human beings with no concern for the infinite efforts He
has to make in the process. Yet human beings do not know of the many
toils God has undergone.
The prophets and sages who came in their assigned times, the heavenly
people who came with a mission for their time, what did they present
to the earth? They insisted that the people should not value anything
of the earth, but should believe in God. They insisted that the land
in which the people lived was not the eternal land, that the lives they
were leading were not eternal lives, and that the joy they felt on earth
had no connection with eternal joy.
Our ancestors fought to kill the prophets whom God sent, representing
their particular moment or age in the 6,000-year course of the
providence. Our ancestors betrayed the heavenly will. They not only
betrayed the people God sent, they also betrayed God Himself. We must
consider this background and reflect upon what kind of position we are
in today.
God raised these people and made endless efforts to build a
relationship with fallen people. Even though these efforts have piled up
and become the grief of Heaven, the grief of the land, and the grief of
all people, no one mourns over the affairs of heaven and earth. Countless
are ignorant of this grief and mourn only over their individual affairs.
Many people testify that the last days are nearing. At this crucial
time, have you ever felt the heart of Heaven? God realizes that there
is no one who grieves over His sorrow. Although God has been regretting
and lamenting for 6,000 years as He clung to humanity and carried on the
fight, human beings still possess conditions for lamentation. Have you
opened the doors to your hearts today and fathomed the sorrowful heart of
Heaven found deep in heaven, earth and all things? Have you ever fathomed
the sorrow of Heaven, piled higher than the highest mountain? This sorrow
is deeper than any person's or any nation's sorrow. We must understand
that no sorrow ever experienced by a human being can ever compare with
God's sorrow.
Abandon a Self-Centered Mentality
If we are to be part of the people who sincerely love Heaven, as
descendants of fallen people who must follow this destiny, our minds
that seek goodness must explode within us so that we can feel the sorrow
of Heaven which lies deep inside everything. We must become people who
complete the responsibility to alleviate this sorrow. Unless such a
group of people emerges, there is no way that the great will of the
providence can be accomplished.
Yet human beings have been battling until now, based only upon
themselves. They have been fighting, centering on their families, nations,
lands and peoples. Yet this is not Heaven. God has been toiling to
become our God, for the sake of our world and humanity. On the contrary,
humanity on the earth has been searching for their own self-centered
families, their own self-centered nations, and land they can rule based
upon themselves. This has been the course of history until now.
Due to the fall, human beings have lost the heavenly heart,
conscience, body and all things. Still, they are not aware of this
incredible truth. Instead, they have been pursuing material things,
their bodies, their minds, and their love, all centered on themselves.
If there had been no work done by God to grab these people and drag them
through the way in which they can transcend themselves, humanity surely
would have perished. They would have been destroyed.
We must be eternally grateful toward Heaven, who has been directing us
in our daily lives, through our minds, to awaken us. Fallen people, living
selfishly until today, have fallen to the lowest possible state. However,
fallen people face the destiny of restoration, by which they must return
to their original state.
Your body is to fulfill cosmic value. Everything you possess is a
sacrifice which can connect with the cosmos. Yet human beings have been
ignorant of this truth. The heart of love you possess can connect with
the heavenly heart. You have to understand that God has been laboring
until now to build a relationship with ignorant people who stand opposed
to Heaven.
All things which commonly took place in the course of history until now
were battles fought for the individual's sake. The battles were fought
for their people and their territory. People have not gone any farther
than to fight for the sake of their territory, their people, and their
sovereignty. All the battles have been fought based on selfishness. Yet
if we do not go beyond such battles, humanity will inevitably be doomed.
Countless peoples and nations have declined. Many people have
demonstrated love and loyalty to their nation or people, their territory
and the sovereignty of their era. Where did all these patriots go? All the
patriots whose names are recorded in history have disappeared. Although
there were many patriots in sovereign nations throughout history, their
heart of integrity has disappeared.
When we examine history, we find that many people have fought to
seize land and remove borders. What we must realize is that the original,
ideal world ultimately cannot be built by these means.
After the passage of the imperialist age when land is seized and
expanded, what must we seek? After the age of imperialism, we must seek
people. Such a time will come. Ideology and beliefs are necessary to find
people. However, if we try to take land based on ideology and beliefs,
the ideology will not live. You cannot deny the historical trend which
sought a new ideology after the great crisis of the First World War. After
the age when battles are fought over the land, there will come an age
when battles are fought over people. It is the time when battles will
be fought with ideologies.
A New Religion Must Appear Which
Overcomes Nationalism and Loves Heaven
What kind of age will come after that? An age will come when people
make efforts to recover what the original people lost. Because we have
the responsibility to rule all things, our original mind is at work
to make the world our own. If we have the power to influence a certain
sovereignty, it is human nature to want to elevate that sovereignty to the
worldwide standard. This desire of the original mind directs us toward
a certain place and governs our minds. Since the world is to be filled
with God's sons and daughters, each nation must overcome nationalism
based on ideology and thought. Nationalism and national concepts must
be finished. This is the kind of fight Heaven has been carrying on even
while human beings were unaware.
After governing the earth and recovering brothers and sisters, what
must be done? We must love Heaven. Since this is the unavoidable destiny
for people, when a new religion emerges, it must love Heaven and surpass
the religions of this age.
For the people who are searching for their land, Heaven has mobilized
their people in an effort to help them find it and has worked to break
down barriers and expand territories. For humanity living in the age
of the heavenly dispensation, Heaven has established an ideology and
philosophy that can dismantle the walls between peoples. What should
emerge next? The ideology and philosophy that teaches people to love
Heaven must emerge, the ideology which can dismantle the walls between
religions and denominations. This is the only way the history of
restoration can be concluded.
Therefore, those sovereignties which desire only territory and
which love only their people as they plan to invade other nations will
perish. On the contrary, if a nation invades other nations with the new
ideology and the guiding philosophy of the new age, it will maintain its
power and influence as long as the philosophy is still in effect. This
has been the flow of history.
In this way, countless tribes have merged. Which nation possesses
the most heavenly ideology? When a nation's ideology is close to the
heavenly ideology, it can command sovereignty. Otherwise, it will lose
its sovereignty to a third party. The actual situation of the progress of
history has been that sovereignty is always seized by the ones who have
an ideology with the greatest potential to approach the heavenly ideals.
As you all know, today is the celebration of the Sam-Il Jel. Our people
suffered the worst hardships for 36 years under the Japanese empire. The
hope we cherished was that Japan would perish. Our people endured, hoping
that such a day would come. The more the external situation developed,
the stronger our internal determination became. It finally exploded on
this day, March 1. You know well that right after the First World War,
President Woodrow Wilson's advocacy for the independence of nations
spurred the March 1 uprising.
America is the leading nation in the democratic world and has the
power to influence it. It will remain in power only as long as the
direction it takes is in line with Heaven's providence of restoration.
If there is a deviation, America will decline.
In the 36 years of colonialization under Japan, we saw many patriots.
Many patriots shed their blood on this land. Even as they shed their
blood, they fought on with the hope that, although our people were under
oppression at the moment, they would not be defeated but would certainly
become independent. For this reason, the Republic of Korea was able to
reinstate its sovereignty.
The Reason Jesus Could Become the Messiah
The patriots fought against all conditions of oppression because they
loved their nation and land. They had hope for the one victorious day
and had an unshakable belief that such a day would surely come. This is
how they were able to not submit to the oppression, and carry on their
struggle. We should understand this.
These principles hold true in winning a nation. To establish a heavenly
ideology, we must have a stronger sense of unchanging camaraderie. Hoping
for the holy land, we must act on behalf of Heaven. Although there have
been many religious people who upheld God's providence in step with the
flow of history, among them all, Christians were offered as miserable
sacrifices in fierce battles with Satan. We should understand this.
Even when we look at the 4,000 years of Old Testament history and
the 2,000 years of Christian history since Jesus, we find that numerous
people have followed the teachings of Heaven, while other people have
not even dreamed of such an ideology. As they pursued Heaven's ideals,
many people were sacrificed.
In history, many people were sacrificed to establish Heaven's
ideology. Where will these two groups of people come together, those
who have been sacrificed for the sake of God's will and those who have
been sacrificing themselves in the fight for their nations? This is the
very question of this age which raises our curiosity. People say that
a world government will emerge in the future. History is flowing toward
one government and the world of one ideology. These two are approaching
each other today. What must we do when these two do not seem to be coming
together in a harmonious way?
We must never forget those who fell due to brutal bloodshed for the
sake of Heaven and who clung to Heaven's ideals and battled on. God has
been guiding them toward the one opportune time. Hence, the time when
people seize land and use ideology to win people over will pass behind us.
Religions have already secured their basic form and are moving toward
the direction Heaven pursues, but human desires fail to go that far and
stop in the middle. Therefore, although there have been many patriots in
history, what can they be proud of in the age when history is glorified
and the world is actively moving? What can our famous national patriots
be proud of on the world level? They can only be proud of themselves on
the national level.
If we compare ourselves with Jesus, who came 2,000 years ago, what kind
of person was he? Jesus had the ideology and qualification to govern a
nation, the world and humanity. He served God as the Father and insisted
that he was the only begotten son of God. Is there anything more to be
done besides this? He was indeed qualified to be the Messiah.
Today, we wish at most to become the son or daughter of an emperor
or the child of a master of this world. Yet Jesus asserted that he
was the only son of the Creator Himself. Truly, he was qualified to be
the Messiah.
Jesus, who came with such a mind-set, did not lament, no matter what
kind of difficulty he confronted. This was the greatest contribution he
made to humanity. Because Jesus had this firm resolution and preserved
his devotion and integrity, despite the storm of countless tribulation,
he can be praised as the Messiah of all people today.
Jesus had this moral standard and offered his life to accomplish
the one ideal. When they blocked his path, Jesus said to his parents,
"Go your way." He said the same to his people, tribe and religion. He
abandoned everything and only held onto the world and humanity. He died
clinging to the world and humanity. Even if his parents, family, religion
and people were to go their separate ways, he believed that the world and
humanity could not part from him. This was the essence of Jesus' thought.
For this reason, the world needs Jesus. Humanity needs Jesus. Before
he passed away, Jesus clung to Heaven and lived his life for Heaven's
sake. Hence, God also needs Jesus. Since he is needed in Heaven and earth,
Jesus is certainly the Messiah. We should understand this.
What Are We Going to Throw Away and
What Are We Going to Take with Us?
If history were to end, to what are we going to connect on a worldwide
level after that? This is the crucial question which young men and women
full of hope, ideals and courage must resolve. What we should hold onto
and what we should throw away is an issue upon which humanity, awaiting
the judgment of the last days, must decide.
Judging from the situation of that time, Jesus was seen as a
traitor to the people. He was seen as a traitor to his church, tribe
and tradition. Yet, in truth, he was not a destroyer but a builder;
he was not a traitor, but a patriot. He truly loved Heaven. People have
come to understand this truth only recently.
When we think of a true patriot, we probably have some idea of what
kind of person he is. If someone is a true patriot or a true democrat,
he should see the entire world as one people, as Jesus did.
We must reflect again that Jesus, whom we should worship, courageously
walked the path of Golgotha, the path of the cross. Even though he walked
such a torturous path, where will Jesus find those who understand his
bitter course? The last days of history, which can resolve this grief,
will one day come, as long as the fruits of Jesus' martyrdom remain on
the earth and his sorrows are found in the deepest parts of Heaven. Such
a time will come, as long as God's will remains unfinished. We call this
time: the day of judgment, the last days, the end of time.
In this time, when we deeply feel the reality of the last days,
where should we go and what should we attain? You must ask yourself
for an answer to this. Where among this nation and this world can we
find people who can follow in the footsteps of Jesus' boldness? We must
cultivate the wisdom with which to shift our gaze and look for these
people with a different perspective.
Ladies and gentlemen, how is Jesus' day different from our own? There
is no difference. We who live in an identical time must contemplate
whether we can attend Jesus, who was ostracized in his time.
At this time, when we are pursuing the world, we may ask what is
the nature of communism, which claims to advocate equality. Communism
advocates, "Let us save the workers and farmers; let us live and prosper."
Let us examine the flow of history again. What kind of people can
influence the world in the future? What kind of ideology can impact upon
the world? What kind of religion can sway the world? As I have explained
earlier, it is democratic religion which is in tune with the ideology
of goodness.
This means that goodness is not self-centered. Is there a family
that lived only for its sake and did not perish? Is there a nation
which attempted to pursue the world for its sake and still lived? One
might think that an individual or nation can dominate the world, based
on some seemingly eternal and unchanging ideology, but wait and see. If
you leave Heaven out, everything will be doomed.
Originally, people were meant to live centered on the heavenly
principles. The standard of the conscience found within is what serves
as the substitute for the heavenly principles in human life. There is an
ideology confronting this standard of conscience, and there is heavenly
love confronting this standard of ideology. Restoration is the process
by which one seeks the heavenly principles amid this internal environment.
All People Are God's Sons and Daughters
The time when we find our own world, our own people, our own tribe
and our own nation and serve our Lord are the last days for which Heaven
is hoping. This is the last days determined by Jesus, when he came to
the earth for the sake of God's will, the day of hope we should seek.
It is the day for which Heaven, Jesus and all of us are hoping.
Everything will be resolved on that day.
It is the Principle that the Lord of the Second Advent will return
in the same way he left. When you lose something, you must look for
it where you lost it. If something is broken, you must fix it in the
pattern opposite to the way it was broken. Because this is an iron-
clad rule which is bound by the principles governing human affairs, the
Lord of the Second Advent will return in the same way he left. You have
to understand that things are recovered in the same way they were lost.
Today is the time when all that was granted to Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden will be recovered. All the people who live in this land
today are descendants of fallen Adam and Eve. You are the descendants of
fallen parents. You are not descendants of True Parents. Hence, you must
become the descendants of True Parents again. What I mean is that you
must receive the blessing of True Parents inside the realm of God's love,
where you can relate with God and True Parents directly. You must then
form a couple and enter the lineage of the True Parents. Yet, until
today, humanity has never properly governed the earth as children of
the True Parents. They could not become the sons and daughters of the
True Parents. Isn't this true?
Heaven labored for 4,000 years to establish a doctrine in sight of
humankind and raise their Lord. God raised Jesus, who cried out, "This
world belongs to me. All people are my kinsmen, and God is my Father."
This is how God has come to be connected to human beings. Yet, since
Jesus could not realize this will on the earth and died on the cross,
Christ must return. This has elevated the last days as the day of judgment
on the national level to that of the world level.
When Jesus returns to this world in the same manner he left it,
he must accomplish the purpose left unfulfilled when he had to abandon
everything and die on the cross. There must arise a movement of tribes
around Jesus in the garden where the world-level ideology is established.
For this reason, a movement must unfold which promotes unification.
This does not just apply to the unification of Christianity. All religions
must work toward forming one body. Christians say, "You believe in
Confucianism and Buddhism, so you will go to hell." Yet, that is not
how it is. Go and see; you will find that is not true. If that is
how it really is, then I will go to the next world and protest. That
is absolutely not true. People are trying to pull Jesus over to their
side. Since it is difficult to pull him horizontally, each claims that
they are the best and drive him upward. All humanity dwells inside the
realm of God's will.
Jesus abandoned, all at once, the people and his lineage which God
had worked 4,000 years to establish. He gave up Judaism and the chosen
people, for whom God had toiled for 4,000 years. This does not mean that
the chosen people have lost all connection to God. They had absolute bonds
with God. They could claim, "God is our God," under any circumstance. When
Jesus gave up these people, heaven, earth and humanity also gave them
up. Consequently, the Jewish people became the most pitiful people of
the earth. They had to wander aimlessly throughout the world and be
persecuted by other people.
We who hold our hope in Heaven have also lived miserable lives.
Although people have been ignorant of this, when the day comes, we will
rise to the position where we will be respected, based on the movement
of world history.
The chosen people, who could have possessed the glorious worldwide
ideology had they been faithful to Jesus, have suffered all ordeals
and have been seeking. Hence, the people who were blessed by God are no
longer any different from those who were not blessed.
Jesus forsook the people whom God had raised to claim the world. Jesus
was not attached to a narrow mentality, promoting only the good of his
own religious tradition. He moved forward with a new ideology and a
firm determination that if the Jewish people were to disbelieve him,
then he would march forward without them. When we reflect on Jesus'
attitude, we learn that Christians today must repent.
Let Us Become the Heavenly People Who
Unite the World Based on the Heart
When we summarize these things, we can understand that it is required
by the Principle that, after democracy has settled and new doctrines
have arisen, religions must be united. What must we do to remain on the
side of democracy?
To remain in the free world, Jesus must be with us. If a nation lives
for the entire world and all humanity together with Jesus, abandoning
everything for the sake of Heaven, then it will remain intact. Jesus
called out to God even at the moment everything he had was taken away
from him. Jesus was intoxicated in the love of Heaven, to which he clung,
and he offered all that he had. If we follow this Jesus, we will remain
alive. When a people possesses this ideology, all other people will be
defeated at their hands.
What determination should we, the pitiful people of the Korean
Peninsula, make? Upon what should we reflect? We must pray with burning
zeal, "We who live in this divided nation have given up all that we
possess. Without any hesitation, we have left behind our parents, brothers
and sisters, families, tribes and all our material things. Heaven, we
wish that You allow the place on which we stand to become Gethsemane,
where Jesus cried out. We wish this land to be the garden of Gethsemane
on the world level. We hope that it can become Golgotha on the world
level." If many young men and women are found in this nation who offer
this kind of prayer, this nation will never perish.
Those who pray, "Even if history, this age, our ideology, and our
tribes are to be abandoned, we will not forsake that which Heaven loves,"
will come to dominate the world. These are the true people of Heaven.
It has been said that Jesus will return in the same way he left, yet
where can we find his footsteps? Where can we find the sorrowful heart
he felt in the garden of Gethsemane? Where can we find the sorrowful
heart Jesus felt when he was carrying the cross to Golgotha, shedding
tears, sweat and blood? Jesus is not the problem; we must find the heart
of Jesus.
Those who forgive through the heart, unite through the heart, harmonize
through the heart, and live in the genuine love of humanity will live
inside the garden of hope. Only when people become the masters who can
look at the world through their hearts will all things of this universe
find peace. Only then can we call God "our Father" and hold onto Him,
overcoming any number of hills of grief built up throughout the 6,000
years. These are the actual fruits of Jesus, who cried out in the garden
of Gethsemane, who was crucified on the hill of Golgotha.
Only when such people emerge can all of humanity serve God and unite
with each other in harmony in the garden of goodness as members of the
same family. That is not the world of those who want to receive. It is
a place where those who want to give reside. Satan is the one who has
fought hard to seize and receive throughout the course of history. The
Kingdom of Heaven on earth, which we pursue, is the world of those who
promote goodness and unity not for their own sake, but for other people.
God infused the concept of the chosen people into the Israelites,
yet the true chosen people are those who can practice the concept of the
chosen people in their lives. Therefore, the person whom God has been
seeking is one who understands God's sorrow over having lost the chosen
people. He is one who fully manifests the idea of the chosen people,
whose purpose is to build the Kingdom of Heaven. The place of unity of
all people is the place where the ideal of the chosen people is fully
manifested in harmony. Therefore, those who live inside this realm will
never perish. What is more, when we base our actions on this ideal,
everything we do will work out smoothly. The world of those who live
with such a heart to live for others and give to others is the world
of God's will. It is the world where God's will is fulfilled. It is the
garden of hope for which God suffered all tribulations and hardships.
Those Who Truly Love Heaven Are Those
Who Sacrifice All They Have and
Live for the Sake of God's Will
If we can find an ideal nation on the earth, which nation would that
be? We will call that nation "the Kingdom of Heaven on earth." Only when
that nation is realized can we realize the will of God's blessing to Adam
and Eve, "Govern all things when you have grown to perfection." Only
then can human beings emerge as the true masters of this earth. Only
then can humanity become true brothers and sisters to each other and
the true sons and daughters of God. Before God, we must become true sons
and daughters of filial piety and loyal subjects. We must stand before
the world as the true masters. When we accomplish this, God will pass
to us all our rightful powers, not just external powers, but also the
internal center of the heart. We will become sons and daughters in whom
God can entrust everything and be at peace.
Such sons and daughters are greater than any patriot, woman of
chastity, or son or daughter of filial piety. The day must come when we
can be proud of these people before the world.
Although communists today have created models of ethics and heroism
based on their own ideology, this is not what democracy has done. We
must surpass them and honor those heroes who have made contributions for
the fulfillment of God's ideals and respect their characters. We must
follow in their footsteps and possess their ideals to become people who
can march toward the world of God's ideals.
Dwelling inside this realm, we must march forward to the day when we
can unite this world and humanity as one and attend the Lord of our hope,
the day when we can become one with the creation on behalf of heaven and
earth. God seeks those who truly love Heaven and their nation, those
who long for that one day as they offer all they have and continue to
battle with the determination to sacrifice everything.
Prayer
Father, when we reflect back on history, we find that humanity has
walked the course of Golgotha. The mountains and streams at which we are
looking are full of skulls; the city in which we live is a city of skulls;
the land in which we live is barren. We who stand here were abandoned
by other people. Father, what is the one thing we can possess? Jesus
said that when someone strikes our right cheek, we should let them also
strike our left cheek. When someone asks us for our coats, we should also
give the clothes we wear beneath it. When and where will these words be
realized? They will be realized through a people who assert a certain
ideology and through a religious group.
Father, this nation never knew how to speak in its own defense, even
when it was suffering through its 4,000-year history. Even when it was
suffering through many despairing events, it endured with patience for
the one day of hope.
However, this people does not realize that it has been placed on the
hill of Golgotha in the last days due to a hidden heavenly connection.
Father! Father, please let every part of this peninsula be filled with
voices like the cries of Jesus in the garden of Gethsemane. Allow us
to look for the true people who long for Jesus, he who begged You to
forgive his enemies on the hill of Calgary.
The chosen people of Israel did not even recognize Jesus of the
garden of Gethsemane. No one understood the sorrowful heart of Jesus,
who wept over the heart of God, the heart of humanity, and to alleviate
the grief of the land. He cried out, "Let the earth explode, let the
heavens explode, let this body be torn apart."
Jesus must have been overwhelmed by the sorrows which had broken
his heart, yet his three disciples were completely ignorant and fell
asleep. Please let us keep in mind how we have been living only for our
own sake.
Father, You have gathered us. We are pitiful. We have come thus far
because You allowed us. You allowed us to stay here and have guided
us. Please let many sons and daughters gather who will give up all they
have and come forward with Jesus' determination, crying loudly that they
cannot abandon You and the world in the garden of Gethsemane, that they
cannot forsake humanity or the Father. Father, this is our sincere wish.
When we reflect on this day, we feel infinite sorrow. We know that
this day is a bitter and sorrowful day for these people. Let this be
the day when we can be shaken up by a new eternal ideology and possess
a heart yearning for God's will.
I have given them words of truth. Please help them become those
who love Heaven and love the original heavenly nation which will be
established. Father, we pray for this from the depths of our hearts.
We know countless people have been seeking this path, even as they were
dying and offering their lives. We have come to sense the direction in
which the Father has pointed us. Please allow us to preserve the heavenly
relationship by offering our minds and bodies, and loving Heaven and the
nation. Please do not let us trample upon the tradition which has been
established through the 6,000-year history. Please let us not become
traitors. This is our sincere prayer.
Have these people learned something through the words I have given
them? If they have, let them understand that they are words which reveal
the profound truth; they must revive their hearts in this, the end of
history, cross over the hill of Calgary and be resurrected.
Please allow us to abandon all we possess as Jesus abandoned all
that he had for the sake of the ideal of the new world and the new
ideology. Please allow us to comfort Your grieving heart and endure in
the last days. Please do not let us be defeated by the persecution we
will suffer in the last days. Father, we hope for these things from
the bottoms of our hearts. Please let all things be fulfilled as You
desire. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
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