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The dividing peak of restoration is analogous to the mountain down which water flows; which side the water flows down will determine which of two totally different worlds it will enter.
Today all men are looking for some hope for the world, which reveals that the world in which we live is not yet the world in which hope has been realized. It is still necessary to eliminate all the negative forces which are blocking the fulfillment of that hope. This principle is true not only in human life but also with God. Saying that God created the world implies that He did more than just start physical life forms; He bequeathed His hope and vision to His creation and started it on a journey to the realization of that hope. Our beginning a certain task signifies the start of a journey toward a goal and purpose, and completing the task necessitates our going over a certain pinnacle.
Many people talk about a goal that they want to accomplish, but they are reluctant to make any diligent effort. In that case their hope will never be realized. Would you want to have a small, medium sized, or an extra large goal? We want big things that transcend nationality, culture, and the color of a man's skin; we are the people who want to reach the highest, most noble goal possible. Did people of the past think differently? What about those of the future? Whether past, present or future, all mankind has been pursuing one great goal.
Why do people want big things? After all, having just enough money to take care of yourself is fine, but having too much money becomes a burden. Presently, you are living simple lives, but if all of sudden you owned enough gold to fill an entire room, it would be only a worry and a burden. You hope for big things, but if all of a sudden those big things were substantiated, what would you do? Could you take care of them adequately? This is a serious consideration.
Many of our Church members dream about having one intimate meeting with me, which is a pleasant thought for you, but it would be an enormous task for me! I would have to continue 24 hours a day with no moment's rest in order to accommodate everybody. It is good to look forward to a wonderful goal, but once that gigantic hope is realized you must know how to take care of it.
Knowing that I could not possibly meet privately with every member of our Church, you actually redirect that particular desire onto the horizontal level in your dealings with others. When you meet with others or with nature, you act and feel as though you were meeting with me, putting yourself in my position to comfort and counsel and give lots of love. Suddenly you will find that not only is your heart filled, but you feel more joy than if you had met privately with me. Such men and women will be greater than those who actually meet me.
Let us expand this theory. You want to meet God, but putting yourself in God's position for a moment, what kind of time would you need to meet with each of four billion people just one time? If they all wanted to see God more than once it would be completely impossible! God could not do it. Have you ever wondered what God's main occupation is in this respect?
When you love someone, do you need to have them nearby all the time or doesn't distance matter? There is a principle in this universe which says that the greater the distance between two lovers, the greater the intensity of their love. Have you ever felt a longing for your loved one? Normally when two lovers are with each other all the time they don't feel an intense yearning for one another, but when they are separated their longing for each other becomes intense. Is this true of the animal world? Do monkeys have high hopes? No, this is the privilege of man alone.
Because we are fully aware of the rest of the world, we want to have a relationship with it instead of being separated. Therefore, man's hope is big enough to embrace the whole world. Is a white person's hope limited to white people, or does it include everyone no matter what color their skin is? Hope proceeds from outer to inner, and your pursuit of a big hope means that it hasn't been realized yet. Historically the hope of oppressed people was realized first, and in the next generation they became the conquerors. Just as your body hunches up when it is cold, people normally gather together very tightly when persecution comes. When they clash with their oppressors which group will break first, the loosely organized group or the solidly united one? The Jewish people have provoked controversy all over the world. Many people say that Jews are especially brilliant, but actually all people are the same; the world's persecution simply spurred the Jews to a greater extent than usual. The significant thing is this: when Jews were a persecuted minority they could not be destroyed or ruined, but when they became respectable and established themselves, they in turn tried to oppress others. This is the most dangerous time for them.
Being oppressed and persecuted is not necessarily a regrettable position to be in. Under those circumstances you can spur yourself on and manifest your brilliant ability. Is the Unification Church in a position to oppress others or to be oppressed? Persecution is coming from all sides, with people around the world united together to undo us. Instead of being defeated by them, we interpret their actions as showing hope that all five races can be united by the Unification Church.
It is a good sign that the Unification Church has become controversial and that people all over the world are trying to persecute us. It will all be over very quickly, but as long as it lasts you will be totally united because of this external pressure and you will form a solid core. You cannot prevent a high-pressure air mass from rushing into a low-pressure area, and once they meet they will create a happy medium. Your hard-core unity creates one which influences the whole area of these extremes and from that moment on motion automatically begins.
When you white people see a black person walking down the street toward you, do you see a black person or a brother? How do you black people feel; are you conscious of color? What is your instant evaluation in that situation? Even God has to see a person's color, but God loves all men equally. The difference between you and God is that after learning the Divine Principle you reason, "Why do I love him even though he is white? Why is he my brother even though he is black?" Once you are convinced in logic, you start to love people of different races. That's not God's way, though. God looks at a person and thinks "He is my creation," and instantly falls in love with him. God's instant reaction is joy at seeing His child, and that is the strongest feeling of all.
America is really a multi-colored country, and sometimes you see two parents who both have blond hair but whose child has black hair. Sometimes I wonder if that is really their child, but if you put yourself in the position of those parents, would you ever think that the child was not yours? The fact that a child is theirs is more important to the parents than anything else. Everything about him is beautiful. Do brothers and sisters automatically ostracize one of their family if his skin or hair is different from theirs? No, before they think of their brother's skin they think that he is their brother. That is the most important thing.
The fact that the number three is mentioned so often in the Bible indicates that it must be significant. When three points are connected, an enormous variety of creations is possible and the infinite mystery of the universe unfolds. When you look at your own face, you see a combination of three points beautifully harmonized; your eyes, for example, have two corners and a center, as well as a top, bottom and middle. In the world of mathematics there is a zero point in the center and positive and negative numbers on either side. No matter which direction you move in, there is always an opposite direction.
The dividing peak is actually triangular in shape, forming three angles and three points. When love unites a man and a woman into one, they move to a neutral position where whether one is a man or woman is disregarded. The eyes function in a similar way. Each eye sees a different image, but the brain focuses these images into one picture. God placed the eyes so that they would focus without forming a double image.
Can you explain why you like to see a person laughing instead of crying? When you are silent or moody your mouth is closed and there is only one line, which doesn't offer variety. When you laugh, however, your mouth is open and forms a circle which contains three major areas. A round shape evokes a good feeling because it can harmonize with anything without too much resistance. On a pool table the round balls can quickly move around and make everyone happy.
In the human body the rounder shapes are more precious. The important elements in our face, for example, are round, and the heart has a round shape as well. A person who is very healthy is not thin but built like a tree trunk, like me. This is important for you women to remember when you are selecting a husband. Don't look at a man from only a front view; look at the side and check whether or not he is thin like a piece of paper.
All creation is essentially round; all the heavenly bodies are round and they move in orbits. It is the basis of creation that the more perfect the circle, the more perfectly something will harmonize with the universe. Laughter rounds out everything in the face. It is not natural to be serious for too long because God created us to laugh and smile.
Do you use just your mouth when you laugh, or does everything get involved, including your limbs? The face of a person who is really laughing without any reservation blooms like a flower. That person has a beautiful mind and cannot be a completely evil person. You can accurately evaluate a person by his smile and his laugh. Some people have very sneaky, uncomfortable smiles; their mouths are trying to laugh but the rest of their faces are stern.
When you really laugh your whole body responds. That is how it is supposed to act, but because there is a lack of harmony between your body and mind the whole body often doesn't listen. An uncomfortable laugh reveals a great deal about a person's mind. If there were many things to smile and laugh about together, it would mean that many happy things were happening. One laugh after another leads to happiness, and that is where art and dancing and music begin. Does anyone dance and sing when a tragedy occurs?
We are integrated with the rest of the universe and we have to move according to universal principles. Everything in the universe has reciprocal relationships and give and take usually results in three lines, both horizontally and vertically. Are your arms both the same or different? If several things are identical then you can stack them one on top of another, but your arms can't be stacked like that. God didn't make them to be identical.
It is natural that your two hands always join in a circle when trying to lift something. Trying to move your hands in a straight line is unnatural because we were not made to move in straight lines. You lift up your legs when you walk in order to cover three points with each step. Your fingers have three joints and there are three major joints in your arms. The eyes, nose and mouth outline three levels on your face. How ugly you would be if you had no nose, leaving you with only two levels on your face!
A person's face reveals much about him. A person whose face dips in at the center will have some suffering during middle age. Why is the egg shape more suitable for the human face, with the wider end on top? Have you ever thought about having your two eyes located down near the chin? The eyes are way up top in order to oversee everything from the highest position. The eyes represent God and the nose represents Adam and Eve, being one organ but having two holes which join together inside. Should Adam and Eve be represent by two separate organs instead?
The mouth is wide horizontally, representing the horizontal or physical world where food comes from. In eating a meal, all three levels of your face work together; the eyes look at the food's beauty, the nose smells its odor and the mouth actually eats it. Why did God give the nose the function of smell? The nose represents man, who conquers or controls the airy environment. The eyes and ears link us to nature and to our surroundings. You not only like to eat Western food, you sometimes like Oriental food, which shows that your mouth links you to the whole horizontal world.
The arms are placed on opposite sides of the body, but the two hands join together to make beautiful harmony. Do you write with your left hand or your right hand? The right hand never accuses the left hand of being idle and useless; instead they meet in the center and work together. A balanced person does not clap his hands to one side because everything should meet in the center and be straight.
When your two hands join together they form one central line which starts from between the eyes, and continues down the nose and the center of the mouth. You should be able to walk straight, not slanted to one side. A soccer champion who always kicks the ball with his right leg doesn't walk down the street leaning to his right side; even though one leg is stronger than the other, the left and right work together. With both legs working in harmony there is greater strength than the two working separately.
How does this principle apply to men and women? Which unity is more powerful, unity between two women, or unity between one very masculine man and one feminine woman? Women's basic nature is such that three women will never unite. When three or more women gather together there is always a squabble and the whole village erupts in noise. This is true in the Orient; is it true in America too? Putting together three of the Chinese character which represents a woman creates the character meaning "The worst possible consequences." That is the Chinese philosophy.
A man is needed because women by themselves find it impossible to cooperate. The man should be the subject, standing like a tower in the center. This is the beauty of God's plan in which one is feminine and weak and the other is masculine and strong, but joined together they make an invincible combination. Electricity works on the same principle. Keeping all this in mind, do you think that God would have created the Orient and the Western world to be the same? Naturally they should be different. When the East and West are finally united together the ultimate unity of the universe will be seen.
Love will be the binding force to unite East and West. The binding force of culture or of ecumenism will not hold, but when you bind East and West together with a chain of love, it will not break. Today the trend is for Westerners to be intrigued by the mysterious East, while Easterners are drawn toward the scientific West. America is an entirely foreign world to the Japanese people, but when they come to the West they want to stay. The same thing happens when Westerners marry Orientals; they want to go to the East to live because they find more stimulation there. When cold water hits a hot surface there is a big explosion; in the same way the ideal marriage will be a universal marriage of East and West. I am the flag-bearer in the quest for unity of the East and West with a chain of love.
I could go on like this for hours and hours, but in summary, I have been talking about three points. There is a central boundary line to everything. You must become men and women who can freely travel across the central boundary in each direction, because that action will be more in harmony with the universe and the closest to the Principle of God's creation.
You say that America has a democratic form of government, but some aspects of American life are even more dictatorial and severe than life under communism. I am speaking of segregation, which is not so blatant in communist countries. When discussions about human rights take place in the United Nations, the communist ambassadors point out to the United States ambassador that in spite of the Bill of Rights, certain people, like Reverend Moon, are exceptions to the rule. Why are the American ambassadors embarrassed by such questions? There is definitely a deeply embedded attitude of segregation in America that cannot reconcile the differences between the races.
The American system of taxation illustrates how different chains bind people here than in the communist countries. In the communist countries the state is the landlord and farmers give one third of a crop to the government and keep two thirds to sell. According to the sliding scale of taxation in America, however, well-to-do people may pay as much as 80% or 90% of their incomes to the government. lt is a different kind of chain which controls the individual's life here in America. On the surface people here are free, but actually there is not so much room for maneuver. America's virtue lies in the fact that here the law is supreme, but when this nation faces a large-scale emergency it is totally incapable of dealing with it.
Should the authority of the law be the ultimate point of reference? Or is decency of human life and human rights more important? Democracy is supposed to be the government of the people, for the people, and on the surface American society seems to be open and free, but when you look more deeply you will find that it is very inflexible. The point is that harmony is essential; emphasizing only one element such as human rights or the law is inadequate to guarantee peace and prosperity.
The theory behind the welfare system is very fine, but in practice it has often degraded human life. New York is a victim of its welfare system. Norway and other Scandinavian countries are trying to perfect a social welfare system, or what they call "cradle-to-grave" welfare. That kind of system sounds good but it has killed human creativity and incentive. Why should you work hard to become a Ph. D. if everyone is going to be taken care of by the state anyway?
Young people must be motivated to live purposeful lives instead of spending their time in leisure activity, pursuing carnal desires and pleasure. God created man to live creative, active, full lives, and a welfare system only discourages that. The present system is so well-established and regulated that it is very difficult to bring about changes, but we must introduce God's way of life regardless.
The so-called advanced nations, such as America, Japan and Germany, are all running into stone walls and it's very difficult for them to change. Hope lies instead in the underdeveloped countries where people are willing labor and sweat to advance themselves. If they are motivated by the ideal and purpose of God, they will be much freer to invest themselves in building a God-centered world. I am not saying that the welfare system is wrong or that the American system is wrong. No, the original goal and ideal is right, but it has become distorted and gone to extremes. The original purpose has disappeared, and instead of providing incentives for people to really better themselves, it encourages them to sit at home and wait for their welfare checks.
There must always be give and take. The person who receives a welfare check must think that it was made possible by someone sweating to make those dollars. In appreciation, that person should want to do something productive to reciprocate, returning some benefit to society. That's the only way a welfare system can be workable. One of the reasons New York is virtually bankrupt is that many New Yorkers wait for their money to come to them instead of contributing to the whole.
This attitude is becoming a world trend. Poor people from South America think that in America all you have to do is declare unemployment and sit in an armchair and wait for your check to come. From a heavenly point of view, the welfare system needs to be brought back to the original concept of God and made to encourage human creativity, giving dignity to man. We are certainly a different kind of people because we feel that it is a crime to become a burden to someone.
If I were a billionaire, would you like to sit idle and receive welfare checks from me, or would you want to be creative and make money, knowing I would use it for the purpose of God? The American government is puzzling over the Unification Church because other organizations pay their people to work, but here you work hard to contribute money instead. It is totally opposite the present world trend. The two systems must be harmonized because both are too extreme. We will eventually settle into the happy medium.
How is restoration related to the dividing peak? We call the origin of sin the fall of man. Man originated at a certain point but fell below that level; restoration means that he must return to his original position. Since the fall actually initiated human history, where would you begin the history of restoration? Of course it would start at the extreme opposite of the fallen position, and the extreme end of history is what we call the end of the world. Restoration starts at the end of the world, or the last days, which the Bible says is when the Messiah or Savior will appear and save the world.
What does the Bible mean by the end of the world? At that time everything in the world will end. Whether the ideologies of communism and democracy disappear will not matter because they will not be serving any purpose. The entire national system will be based on the family as the building block of our heavenly society. When the end of the world comes, will the old family system crumble or not?
If we say that the area above this line represents heaven and below the line represents the fallen world, then everything we now have is below the line. All the systems, the organizations and the ways of life man now has all belong to the fallen world, and in one way or another they must end and start anew. God's world should be the extreme opposite of the satanic world and use an entirely different system. Without doubt this present system has to end. This explains why a movement must begin which will lead people to deny the present ways of governing societies as well as man's present habits and attitudes, and make a new, heavenly system instead. That heavenly way is what all men are hoping for. Such a movement will begin at the end of the world and signify the coming of the Lord. It will mark the transformation point from the old world to the new world.
Is the Messiah coming as one individual here on earth, or will he bring his entire government and cabinet with him? He will come as one person, and God will not automatically give him a family, society and nation. Initially he will restore himself into perfection and then he will restore his family, society, nation, world and cosmos.
When the cosmos is restored, the kingdom of hell on earth will disappear. This particular point is the dividing peak of history, the beginning point of a new history which will progress upward all the way into heaven. There is a dividing peak at every level of the dispensation, and in order to continue advancing every person must pass through judgment at each one. The Messiah cannot come and just declare that as of a certain day all America is in heaven. Each person has to grow into it.
This entire sequence will be covered within twenty years, which is the shortened period of the 2,000 years of New Testament restoration. The Messiah could not live for 2,000 years on earth, so restoration must be condensed into his lifetime. Through studying the Divine Principle, you will see that the Messiah's work will be consummated within twenty years and if everything goes well it could even be done in seven years. That is the time period in which the Unification Church has been working, fulfilling those twenty years in three seven-year courses.
What is the Messiah going to do when he comes? He will cross over the hills of perfection on each level of the individual, family, nation and world. Each one forms a mountain, and therefore each one has a dividing peak. At each level there is judgment and as a person continues advancing to the pinnacle of each hill, he creates one straight line. Finally he will reach the ultimate hill of universal perfection. When God looks at the work of His dispensation, He sees that this is the logical way to do it.
Did Adam and Eve need a Messiah before the fall? There was only one man, Adam, and his reaching perfection would have established the perfection of all mankind. Once Adam's family was perfected, the entire human race would automatically reach perfection as it expanded into a tribe, nation and world. Because of the fall of man, however, the whole structure was demolished and everyone must help remake it. In order to repattern the garden of Eden in our day, the central person must be a man because God created Adam first. The person God promised to send in the last days is known as the Messiah, who is coming in the position of Adam in order fulfill Adam's role which was left unperfected in the garden of Eden.
Many thousands of years elapsed as God strove to establish another Adam on earth. God has not changed His idea even one iota; this is why the Messiah will come with an ideology identical to God's original ideal. He must perfect himself and set up his family, which will then expand into a tribe, nation and world. During Adam's time the job was rather simple because Adam and Eve only had to be concerned with themselves. Once they were perfected, everything else would have been perfected. The restoration era is different now because there is already a world of people which needs to be restored, as well as many thousands of years of history.
Originally the perfection of Adam and Eve would have guaranteed the perfection of a society, a nation and the world, but they fell before they reached that level and everything else that came after the fall became the fallen world. When the Messiah comes to this earth, he will face an unprincipled world which is totally occupied by the fallen generation, while Adam and Eve had before them a vacant, unoccupied world. Unlike Adam in the garden of Eden, the Messiah comes with the additional mission of embracing the existing world and restoring it into the heavenly world. How difficult that mission must be!
Adam and Eve had an easy job to do, but they fell and brought the entire world down with them. Now the Messiah not only has to fulfill Adam's mission of perfecting himself as well as his family, society, nation and world, but he must restore each fallen man and woman one by one, lifting them up to the original position. To make his job even more difficult, this world is divided up to an incredible degree by differences of language, culture and race. There are many barriers the Messiah has to break through when he comes, but nevertheless it is his job to bring the entire world together.
Now you can understand why the dispensation starts from denial of the existing system of living and of the old loyalties. Each person must first leave the old world and start anew. Unless there is a movement that teaches this, the world has no hope to return to God's ideal. Just blindly denying things is not what is called for; you must know beforehand the precise way to recreate yourself. First you must see a new vision and hope centering on the Messiah. As soon as you unite with him you can become a new creation and give hope to mankind. Then all people will have a goal and can find the courage to deny themselves and unite with him.
Self-denial is necessary to get out of the shackles of the fallen world, but if you are blindly groping then you are like a ship without a captain and you don't know where you are going. In the fallen world you have been buried under your family, your nation and the world, but now you have to cut the shackles away and unite with the coming Messiah.
When you deny yourself, you will find a new family; when you deny your family, you become the member of a new family which has the value of the world because it is equivalent to Adam's family. This is why we have the term "True Parents." They are the center of the new home and by joining with them you will create a new race. You can disregard anything you had in the past because your new value is greatly increased.
Ultimately the new society and new race will expand into a nation and then the world, and from then on the fallen world will be rebuilt according to its original pattern without compromising anything. As the Messiah increases that success step-by-step onto the worldwide scale, he is not only building his own family, clan and race, but also restoring all the world's human beings into his own race.
Everything in the garden of Eden remained as an unfulfilled ideal after the fall, but here in this new world the ideal will become a visible, tangible reality. You are becoming citizens of what country? God's nation and the Kingdom of God. When the Roman governor, Pilate, asked Jesus, "Are you the King of the Jews?" Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world." In our time we will say that we are citizens of God's kingdom on earth.
The Kingdom of God on earth is no longer just a concept, but a kingdom that we can make. Can the Kingdom of God on earth accommodate all the human races on earth? The kingdom, which you joined as a pioneer, embraces all races, all languages and all nations. You can cross all human barriers. Even God has had a hard time breaking through the racial, cultural and nationalistic barriers, but you have already crossed them. God has been struggling for 6,000 years trying to break down the barriers, but have you gone through such a bitter struggle? Some higher ideology has enabled you to cross those barriers.
Put yourself in the position of God, who has been doing His best for many thousands of years to eliminate the barriers, but who now sees the Unification Church members cross the barriers after going to a 7-day workshop. Would God be excited or not? There are no barriers for us; they have been broken down. In the world at large, barriers are only bent through force, and the battered human race can only see a world without any hope. People don't know why families crumble, why society is corrupt or why one nation after another is falling.
The situation is America today is beyond the control of any human government. The extensive moral degradation has spawned trends toward free sex, streaking and drug addiction. Do American young people have any love for their parents or nation? Do they worry about the world of tomorrow?
God is helping us and preparing for the harvest by shaking everything loose in the world of sin. When the new ideology of unselfishness is installed, the evil ways of the old world can easily be pulled aside. No matter how proud Americans may be of their democratic system, the heavenly dispensation will replace democracy. On the worldwide scale the democratic era is over, but the communist era is also over. The communists think they will take over the world, but they will be defeated. America has been preaching democracy to the world as the supreme ideology, but America has found that democracy doesn't always work everywhere. The entire world is answering that democracy is fine for America, but that each country prefers its own system.
Initially the communists talked about world brotherhood, but today they have become nationalistic, fighting with each other over their own national goals. The communists have proven that they do not have a universal ideology and that they cannot embrace the world. Democracy didn't work everywhere and even here in America it is having a hard time. Money talks, and democracy functions according to money and favors. Is that true democracy?
All these things will come to an end. Democracy has always been manipulated largely by selfish interests; white people use democracy only to benefit themselves, while black people have not participated fully and have not been given their share. There has never been a black candidate for the American presidency, and even if a black candidate entered the race, no matter how great he might be, the white majority would think, "We cannot afford to have a black president."
Democracy in the truest sense is not working; communism is only materialistic, emphasizing industry and productivity, as though human beings were machines. Of course, democracy is superior to communism because at least democracy recognizes human rights and dignity, but democracy is not the ultimate ideology. What will that ultimate ideology be? Does having constitutional rights make a person perfectly happy? Suppose everyone all over the world had the human rights that President Carter has been advocating. If a personal tragedy were to strike a person's family then he would be unhappy, regardless of his rights.
Human rights should be based on the fulfillment of love. Love must be fulfilled and then having human rights will bring happiness. If husband and wife are fighting at home over their human rights, would they feel the fulfillment of happiness? Can claiming one's own rights and disregarding the other person's rights bring happiness?
Love is the ultimate ideology. Centering upon love, the privileges and dignities of human rights can be given and the survival of such a democracy can be guaranteed. If individuals are concerned with giving sacrificial love then democracy can prosper, but otherwise it will wither. If communism was based upon a God-centered, unselfish love, then that ideology would be great, but since the basic premise is that God does not exist and that the material world is supreme, that could never happen. Millions can be purged overnight in the communist world, but that could never occur when love is central.
We can safely say that a new ideology centered upon love and advocating the universality of human brotherhood would definitely prosper. Is there anyone who would oppose it? As soon as people see that such a thing is possible they will welcome it as being superior to democracy. Even the communists will welcome it. Imagine God meeting with three VIPs here on earth-President Carter representing democracy, Secretary Brezhnev representing communism, and Reverend Moon representing the absolute universality of humanism based on love. Whom do you think God would pay most attention to? "President Carter, your human rights program is very nice, and Mr. Brezhnev, the communists have taken over two-thirds of the world already. Not bad. But Reverend Moon, you really have something unique there. " We've described this in a very humorous way, but think about it.
I am unique because I endorse lovism, or Godism. I did not blindly reach that conclusion, but found it only after digging down to find the very core of the human fall, and even further, down to God's ideal of creation. I have discovered what God's ideology is, and I am proclaiming that now is the time to restore everything to God. I not only teach that ideology, I am actually living it and millions of young people around the world are responding to it. The entire world is literally shaking. Is there any other person in history who has done that? I can truthfully say that I am the first pioneer out of all humanity to go this way.
I am proclaiming today that the Kingdom of God on earth shall be a way of life, not just a concept or ideology. Many people say that I am really crazy for talking about the Kingdom of God on earth, but I am serious. You recognized my seriousness and you echoed that seriousness in your hearts, packing up everything to come along.
If you really know the Divine Principle then you know your true situation, and when people ask whether you would rather be President of the United States or remain a pitiful Moonie, what would you say? I'm sorry that you have been given so much hardship by people outside our Church. God likes it, however, and God is really smiling to see you.
In Korean language the word "moonie" has two meanings. First of all it describes a cloth with a beautiful pattern, like silk or brocade. Second, it refers to discussing or consulting with one another. Because we are Moonies we are great counselors, and we are making a beautiful spiritual embroidery to give to the world. I think God must have designed that word a long time ago. We discuss the Kingdom of God on earth and the Divine Principle. Just as the moon directly reflects the sun's light, we reflect God's light. God is shining upon the Moonies so that we can shine brightly to the world.
The amazing thing is that whatever we start in Belvedere becomes history, not only registering here in this horizontal world but also in the spirit world. You say amen, and the entire spirit world has already said amen.
Shall I continue speaking? Aren't you hungry? No wonder people are afraid of me; when they come to Belvedere and see you bright young Americans sitting on the floor for so many hours and still smiling, they think that I must have some kind of magic power.
Now that you understand about restoration, is individual perfection your goal even though you may die? Family perfection is the next step and then the perfection of God. We are such important components of God's way of life that without us God cannot be perfected. This is a beautiful ideology. People are flabbergasted and might call us blasphemers for thinking this. How do you perfect God? With love. God cannot have give and take of love by Himself; He needs someone with whom to have give and take of love.
This ideology will pursue perfection based upon love from the individual level to the entire cosmos, including God Himself. If God can be won over and even be perfected by us, there is nothing we could not do. Love is a miraculous thing because it is universal and there is nothing it cannot penetrate. Even a little puppy dog understands your love and wags his tail when you pay attention to him. No language is needed. If you really love nature then everything can understand you.
What is God's hobby? Is it collecting masterpieces of painting and music? God's hobby is love and He is a very romantic person. Because you resemble God, you can be centered upon His love and be His son or daughter. In the beginning of this sermon we talked about hope and happiness, but they cannot exist without love. When you have ample love then you actually have everything else automatically. When you young women anticipate marriage, do you expect love or hope or happiness? If I were to say, "I don't like love," you would know I didn't mean it. Sometimes when you are especially happy your emotion is expressed in tears instead of laughter. When a hungry man is given delicious food, he may eat it too quickly and choke on it in his eagerness. Sometimes love moves you so much that love chokes you up.
When children run home with dirty hands and faces from playing outside, would their loving parents push them away and say, "Go wash yourself first from playing outside, then I will hug you"? No, a loving heart doesn't see things like stains and dirt. With love alone can we transform the kingdom of hell into heaven.
You Westerners have lovely blue eyes; why did you come to see brown-eyed Reverend Moon? Forget you are here with me in this room and put yourselves back ten years before you knew anything about me. You have blue eyes, brown hair and lovely white skin, but the man you would follow one day has brown eyes, yellow skin and black hair. Before you knew me or my ideology, wouldn't you have felt that the idea of being my disciple was strange and exotic? Without knowing the Divine Principle, if someone said to you that in ten years you would be following an Oriental man who would put you to work from morning to night, you would have felt that it would never happen.
Today it has become a reality. You are here smiling at an Oriental man whom you call Father, not even friend. That point really disturbs many parents outside. Nevertheless, this man who caused you to be here does not force you to stay either by keeping you in chains or buying you out with money. You have absolute freedom both today and tomorrow, but your own aspirations and hope and desire make you stay, and more than that, you have an iron will to go on. Heavenly love is the only force that could do that.
Sometimes I am away on trips and on Sunday you know that I won't be speaking at Belvedere, that maybe Bo Hi Pak will speak. You may want to sleep on that day because without me you feel a certain emptiness. That's our way of life. It is clumsier when I am here because I need an interpreter and you have to sit for three hours instead of only one and a half hours. The pragmatic American mind would think of things like this, but in our Unification Church
it is different. Your energy is not ignited when you know that I am not here. When you hear me speak, some power ignites you and you feel good just looking at me.
Several days ago two eminent scholars from Korea were here visiting me. They came to East Garden and we had a nice conversation and fellowship, and then one of the professors said, "Reverend Moon, I normally don't stay too long at one place when I go to visit because I am not interested in listening to someone else. I am the one who usually does the talking and so I just extend a few courtesies and then leave. But you have just held me captivated and I don't want to go! What power do you have?"
This man is a very strong Christian and he recalled what happened at the Transfiguration, when Peter, James and John saw Jesus in a dazzling white garment talking with Moses and Elijah. The three disciples were so uplifted that they didn't want to leave. This professor said that was exactly how he felt when he came to East Garden.
What was the basic element that this professor was so moved by? Love. Who am I then? My occupation is that of a communicator or disseminator of love, not carnal, worldly love, but permanent, sacred love that will remain for eternity. That love can even make God a prisoner. That's why you are here and no chains are needed. There are truly mysterious things happening in the Unification Church! If I were not a God-centered man but an evil man like a communist boss, then with this kind of power I could do all kinds of evil around the world.
One of our members who is now working behind the Iron Curtain wrote me one final letter before he left on his mission and said, "Father, now I want to turn my life into yours. I am going to a communist country and I want to cash my life in for victory. I may not be able to write any more letters to you and you may not see me until we all gather in the spirit world, but I will go to these people and give my entire life in taking care of them and being concerned for them." I never ordered him to go; this man volunteered on his own.
Even though the communists talk about heaven, they actually govern by force. Mao said that power comes from the barrel of a gun. Chains and guns enforce communist regimes, but in the Unification Church people know what needs to be done and I get letters from people like this one brother. After the communists are restored and the glory of God is celebrated, this kind of person shall be given heavenly decoration and reward.
I feel that you are even greater than 1; 1 often think, "Go my son, and God will be with you." We are united in that love of God which no one can sever. Even though your own parents may kidnap you and try to deprogram you, it will not work. I never admonished you to come back at any cost from your deprogrammers. Amazingly enough, many people who have been kidnapped and escaped to come back have never even seen me, only my picture.
Do you feel that the entire world moves when you move with this God-centered ideology? Your every step represents the world, and everything you accomplish on behalf of the world places it even more securely upon your shoulders. Do you physically feel that every step and every move you make is for the sake of God and the world? I am going toward world perfection, even the perfection of God. Without me God cannot be perfected and so I cannot fail. God says that without me this world cannot survive. Why then can't you feel that without you God cannot be perfected? You are indispensable to God, and if you feel that way then you are always one with me and can communicate perfectly with me.
Most people look at me as one small man who came to America from Korea, but this is not what I thought. When I moved from Korea to the United States I brought the universal mission with me. I feel the movement of the universe, and if I push I feel that the nation has been pushed. Unless you have a motivation of that magnitude, you can't expect any great result. When you have great conviction and internal unity in that spirit, a great result will come.
What is the timetable God is unfolding at this particular time in human history? Why is the Unification Church here, even in the face of persecution? We are going over each hill, one after the other, ultimately moving forward to the pinnacle. When the entire world comes against you and you have won over its persecution, then you have gone over the , hill of your individual victory. You are in only one small segment of our movement, maybe at Belvedere or the World Mission Center, and you may wonder how you could have perfection on the worldwide level.
You could say that you are resisting worldwide persecution. The important thing is that we become worldwide champions. The world championship fight might be held in Madison Square Garden, but that does not mean that Madison Square Garden is the limit. The world championship fight is being fought whether you are at Belvedere, World Mission Center or another country. You are engaged in the universal championship, and you can win on both the worldwide and universal levels.
Who is the worldwide champion then? God is the spiritual champion on the side of good and Satan is the champion on the evil side, but God cannot come down and box with a physical Satan. Someone has to evaluate which side wins and also regulate the game. In order to win a definite victory here on earth, God must have His physical champion. A champion comes from every land to fight the battle physically on every level, from the individual to the family, tribe, society, nation and world.
There are physical satans confronting me here on earth. When I wrestled with Satan, I won and then restored individual perfection. Anyone who participates in that fight can celebrate the same victory and reap the same result. Upon that foundation you will engage in another battle, the family-level confrontation with Satan. All those who participate in that battle will win the same victory, and then upon that victorious foundation they will build another level and progress upward again to the national level, worldwide level and universal level.
Actually one champion is laying the foundation and making a path. The entire world is not being demolished at once; instead one person is laying one highway from the individual level all the way to the cosmic level, and anyone who can be benefitted by that highway and move up to the cosmic level will not be taken away be Satan. He has no power over any one who is running on that highway. The highest peak was finally reached in the year 1976, with the victory of the Washington Monument Rally.
The key year was 1960, in which the victory over the family level of perfection was won. In 1960 many people received revelations that a New Age had begun. The level of individual perfection was being won in the years 1953- 1960, when not even one ally could be found in the entire Republic of Korea; the government, churches and society were all trying to crush me and the victory of 1960 came amidst such persecution. In that incredible atmosphere I won the victory over the family level, and from that year on the blessings began. People were brought from the south, north, east and west of Korea and later the world, all being joined into one harmonious family.
Korea has five provinces and many smaller local areas. The local feeling is very strong and often people from one province despise those from another, but I mixed them all up in the blessed marriages. Initially they didn't want to see each other, even when they were matched. Even though they were husband and wife they were reluctant to unite. The parents were incredibly difficult at this time, complaining bitterly about having their child marry someone from another province. "We are a noble and aristocratic family and they are low-class. How could my child marry such a person?" Nevertheless, I purposely matched these various extremes together.
After the marriage, if the husband's hometown was way up north then I sent him on a mission in his wife's area way down south, and gave his wife a different mission up north. Out of incredible disharmony I organized a heavenly tribe in the blessing of 36 families, then 72 couples, then 120 couples and then 430 couples. Up to that point everything helped to lay the foundation for Korea. In order to install the universal foundation after that, I gathered together another 43 couples from other nations to be the leaders of world and they were blessed in marriage.
History has never known the meaning of such mass weddings on a mammoth scale and all of Korea was turned upside down. Japan was even more upset, however. "Who is going to take my child away from Japan?! Who is going to marry him without his parents' consent?" Well, you know who did it. In the 1800 couples blessing, white, black and yellow all came together in one blessing. Here in America parents heard all sorts of shocking news. Some parents thought that because they had been supportive of their children as members that Reverend Moon would be good to them by giving their sons beautiful white brides, but when I put some of them together with little Japanese girls instead, some parents were outraged.
Those parents who once were very negative about their son marrying an Oriental girl now say that they are absolutely amazed at how I could find such a beautiful daughter-in-law for them. Now they write, "Reverend Moon, I hope you understand me. I was upset only because I was worried about what kind of grandchildren I was going to have."
Upon the foundation of these victorious conditions, I initiated the Washington Monument Rally as a showdown with the world and won the final victory. Was America visibly shaken by Reverend Moon or not? Ever since the Washington Monument Rally the entire United States has felt allergic to me. On April 3, 1973, I was given the status of permanent resident in America, and then I won this cosmic victory on September 18, 1976, after only 3½ years. If I had not been given the legal right to stay here permanently then I could not have fulfilled all these dispensations.
After the 1976 victory, Americans really woke up and thought they had to do something about Reverend Moon. All kinds of government harassment began after that particular victory, but the government is finding me too big to bite. The three most history-making years began with the 1976 victory. 1978 is the year of action, victory and assault.
This year there will be no more harassment in the form of investigations by government agencies like the IRS, Congress and Justice Department. They have been giving us the hardest possible time but now we are going over. These periods are actually necessary because Satan must be given a full chance to strike God's side; he must not be deprived of the opportunity. A highway has been laid from the heavenly world to the bottom of hell, and the momentum of transformation is gathering. Portions of the hellish world are crumbling away piece by piece, and we will take those pieces and create the heavenly world. Construction is going on now.
From this time on it will be expanded to cover the entire world. We will make it a totally free world in which people can travel as far as they want in any direction. If we had not had the Washington Monument Rally then no matter what else we did well, the spiritual barrier would still be unbroken and no one could penetrate it. If it were still there and then I died for some reason, it would have meant that my mission was left undone. Then, just like Christianity endured much martyrdom when Jesus left the earth, the Unification Church would have passed through the same course of suffering. If the Washington Monument victory had not been won, there would have been no way for the spirit world to come down permanently and help this fallen world; it could have only come down sporadically. But everything was all done and no barriers are left. I fulfilled the mission, period. Therefore, on the True Parents' birthday in 1977 I declared a new calendar and a new history.
This highway is laid all the way from heaven to the dungeons of hell and the entire spirit world can come down all the way to the bottom of this world. Those in spirit world have been given total freedom to go anywhere they want in the fallen world. A new maneuver has begun because spiritually Satan has to confront these good spirits on earth. Spirit world has to be cleansed, and in order to do that they have to harvest goodness. The final separation of good and evil has begun, which is why everything here on earth is being polarized. Schisms are automatically seen wherever our movement is active, as Cain and Abel divide in the churches, academic world, everywhere.
When we confronted the satanic power before 1976, the Cain side always prevailed because of overpowering satanic strength, and because of the spiritual barrier there was no way good could prevail. Since the victory of 1976. however, this barrier has been removed and spirit world can freely come down. The good side is inevitably going to win and increase and not take any more beatings. This is why I told you that this is a year to be bold and strong, a year of marching and leaping forward. Don't be a coward.
I may be small in stature, but when I take off all of New York will shake. Each of you can wage a war in goodness. You may be a tiny girl who is humbly dressed, but you can be a giant from now on. Let's go to the world and be troublemakers for goodness.
People are pursuing all kinds of degraded life styles. You can really confront them and demand, "What are you doing with your life?" You know God's timetable, and after 1978 is over your opportunity will be limited. Our publicity crusade team went to Albany, New York and had huge impact on the state government. They protested to the government officials about the delay in accrediting our seminary, even after it met all their criteria, and bluntly told them, "If you continue treating people in this prejudiced manner, you will be criticized by the world."
Theologians at Harvard Divinity School are studying Divine Principle more than you are, and soon they will come forward and say that it is the most refreshing, logical and revolutionary theology they have ever seen. All this potential is there, all the dynamite, and all you have to do is ignite it. If I were to die now, I would not be a failure or leave my mission behind undone. I have consummated it.
Even now the communist media criticizes me harshly because they recognize my power. Their scheme is to set the United States government against me and then reap the benefit, but it will not work. Because communist youth hear about me through adverse publicity, they are inspired and think, "He must really be somebody if even the communist government cannot stand him and they fire their biggest ammunition at him." The youth are very interested. Because of all the media and government harassment in America, American youth are also intrigued. Students have many hobbies and many non-members are collecting my pictures! They have even written to me, "Can I have your autographed picture for my collection?"
American youth have lots of curiosity and want to do new things, but even after they tried being hippies, tried streaking, drugs and sex, they are still not satisfied. There is one more thing to try out-the Unification Church. The time has come that no matter what I say people will accept it. Even if the Divine Principle were conjured up by man it would still work but because it is a God-given revelation, how much more will it work? The time to set the heavenly tradition is here. We are going in a completely opposite direction from the rest of the world, heading for the challenge of a tough life while they are trying to get an even easier life with a four-day work week and higher salary. If their world is crumbling, then indeed our world is going to prosper.
Once I spoke 14½ hours in one day in America, but since I used an interpreter it was actually only seven hours of speaking. In Korea, however, I once spoke for twelve hours without an interpreter. Whoever talks in this fashion has to be crazy, but then so are his listeners! If you invite people to Belvedere but tell them that I will speak four hours, they will decline your invitation. In four hours you can fly to the west coast on a 747.
Spirit world is coming down so much that this year you will see extraordinary phenomena. I divided the Performing Arts groups and sent three teams to different cities, telling them to set a special prayer condition. Once the members met George Washington in their prayer, and he told them, "Every moment of the day I am working with you." John Kennedy came to ask them to holy salt his grave and Abraham Lincoln and Theodore Roosevelt also appeared. Our members went to different historic locations for special prayer and each time they saw a vision of one famous person.
So far the activity of spirit world has been channeled through Judaism and Christianity on earth, but we are different, being assisted not only by central religions like Judaism and Christianity, but by all of your ancestors. They are also Adam's children, and when Adam is restored they can be a part of it. You here on earth are subject over all of those spirit men; we are the Abel group, and by accepting their assistance we are liberating the Cain spirit world. Then they in turn can make themselves into Abel. This year the New York Times printed the opinion that a new religious movement or upsurge is coming shortly. This doesn't indicate the coming of a new movement, but the blossoming of something which is already here. Because they never saw it before it appears new to them, but spirit world is not inspiring any type of crusade like Billy Graham's; they are witnessing to Reverend Moon.
You are responsible to talk to people so that they can know the truth about me, and the best way to inspire them is to give your own testimony. "My parents are like this, and I tried different things. Initially I was self-centered and only worried about myself, but now I am hopeful and I am here to give my life to God. Now I want to be purely unselfish and love humanity and save this country. The thing that changed my life is the revelation which Reverend Moon brought." This is a most beautiful way of moving people. Something moved you to be here and now you can tell your own story. In front of your parents, brothers and sister, classmates and the world, you must be proud of yourselves now and of what you are becoming.
Your opportunity to bear such dramatic witness will disappear in a few years. Like a swallow gathering insects, you must catch your opportunity up in the air. In a few years your efforts will not be appreciated because all the witnessing will be done through the media. Another thing you must realize is that restoration is firmly anchored here on earth and nothing will shake it now. The third seven-year course will end in 1980, and after September, 1979 the hardest battle will be over and the harvest will start.
Which side of the dividing peak are you standing on? You must go over the hill and be on the other side of the peak. The entire world will soon be flooding in our door and unless you really anchor yourself here you will be washed away. You must record your name in the spirit world's book of life and then no one can push you away. My mission is completed and now you have your opportunity. The entire spirit world is telling me to take a vacation and enjoy nature because my mission is over. They promise me they will take care of everything now.
This is the three-year period in which you will establish your own qualifications and you should not lag behind spirit world. Is only your mind affected by spirit world? No, your physical body must also be moving together with spirit world. Spirit world will help push you over the hill, meaning that this time will be governed by the spirit world and physical world together.
At this time there is not much space to stand at the pinnacle, but you can make it accessible to all mankind, including spirit world. The spirit world and the physical world will be parallel in the future and then it will be utterly impossible to doubt the living reality of God. The time will come when saying that there is no God will be similar to creating a low pressure area; automatically it will be filled by the high pressure of God's presence. You won't even have to preach about God because everyone will already believe.
There are many possessed people in America today. Spiritually low people in particular will be affected by low spirits very quickly, but when you are spiritually high you will attract higher-level assistance. Even though their intentions are good, the lower-level spirits usually cause only possession; they come to help people but they influence them in the wrong direction. Because spirit world is so active at this time, mental illness seems to be increasing in America. When more good spirits come down later and the overall spiritual atmosphere is elevated, the spiritually affected people will get well.
Anyone who accepts what I say and wants to live it every day will have a clear mind and sense of direction and he will be given much greater spiritual assistance. Such a person will be benefited by following the spiritual guidance he receives. Right now your spiritual antenna is pointed toward the ground; you have to push it upward instead. If you are always looking down then you can't see any hope and vision and you think, "What do I gain by doing this? Where is my food; where is my money?" That is earthly thinking. But when you look up and your spiritual antenna is raised, an entirely different message is received.
Our ideology is the highest and noblest and even God looks up to it. It is so noble that it can reach up to the throne of God and way inside His heart. That is why you can pray like this: "Heavenly Father, I heard Father speak today and I have a clear vision in my heart. I am ready to obey You completely and want You to give me direction. I want to make one more request, Heavenly Father. Don't let my relatives in spirit world remain idle. Send them down to assist me, but please tell them when they come that I am the boss. They are not in charge."
Because the course of restoration proceeds opposite the direction of the fallen world, you who are on earth are in the higher position. Adam is actually the first ancestor of mankind, but since the world is fallen and going opposite the heavenly direction, Adam is way down on the bottom in the last position. Your ancestors will be happy to listen to you, their descendants. If your great-great-great grandfather comes down, he will not expect you to bow down to him because spirit world knows the rules of restoration. He will say instead, "My champion, here I am at your service. What should I do?" He will cordially greet you and wait for your instructions.
You are in the position of champion who has won the greatest victory and all the thousands of your relatives in spirit world are directly connected to you. When you go to spirit world, they will give you a hero's welcome. When you are defeated, your ancestors will not give you a hero's welcome but will ask why you gave up when you could have won if you had only taken a few more steps. They will say, "We're ashamed of having you as our descendant."
The age has come when being inactive doesn't accomplish anything, when nothing but fear will come to you if you are inactive. You just cannot be idle. It is much better spiritually for you to go out and be hit as a target of Satan, and even take being treated scornfully or physically struck. You must work harder than the angelic world and let them help by pushing from behind instead of pulling you along. The correct order is for you to stand in front and let the angelic world push you from behind. Then Satan cannot hurt you. This is why I ordered a special forty-day condition starting January 10, to start you on an all-out offensive physically and spiritually. This is a period of assault. I have explained everything to you, and what you do about it is up to you but I want you to know that you must be on the correct side of the dividing peak.
You must set a brand new record which no one from the past can match, so that no one in history can come forward and say that they have done a little bit more than you have. No one in history should be able to defeat you. Because this is the third Sunday in the month of January, I picked this particular topic, "The Dividing Peak of Restoration. " No matter what work you do, unless you have a clear understanding and a clear goal your efforts will be worthless.
Is there nighttime in the spirit world? Does God rest? Does Satan stop working? How much rest do you take at night? For seven years I slept only two hours a night, because unless I did that I could not have overcome the incredible spiritual assault in those days. Even when my eyes were open wide I could feel and see the black pressure and power pressing on me; I could almost touch it physically. That is how much evil, negative power surrounded me. But I never gave up. I endured it all the way and finally broke through and pushed it aside. I was always sweating from the spiritual and physical effort it took; even in winter my clothes were always wet with sweat. You will never know how much I sweated and how many tears I shed.
Now I have fulfilled the whole mission and wherever I go I have heaven. Nothing bothers me. Even if I go to bed without praying, heaven is still with me. There is no trace of the satanic power to oppress me now. Unless you do your utmost to fulfill your duty while you are here on earth, don't ever think you will be dwelling in the same heaven with me.
Unification Church members are the toughest, most impossible breed. There is no way to conquer them, but still they are good people. Parents are often frustrated at how stubbornly their children cling to this Church, but even though they say negative shines with their mouths, their hearts are saying, "What a wonderful child I have." In their hearts they actually want you to continue. There are many parents who won't soon change on the surface, but inside their feelings are changing.
They will feel drawn to you somehow and want to follow you to see what you are doing. Soon they will openly take delight and joy in your actions, and when they scold your younger brothers and sisters they will say, "I wish you could at least be a Moonie like your elder brother. At least he has the guts to follow some vision for his life. I don't know what he is following, but at least I can admire his conviction. I wish you could have that kind of conviction."
When their deaths are nearing your parents will say, "My son, I admire your conviction and your service to God and humanity. Your goal is just marvelous and 1 want the rest of my children to be like you." Every parent wants his children to have conviction and goodness in their hearts and to follow a goal that is greater than themselves. When you do some noble deed, they will repent inside. If parents pray even a simple prayer of repentance for opposing your efforts to follow God, then their destiny in the spirit world will be completely changed.
It is your responsibility to influence your parents like this. After all, it is you who impress your parents. If you stick to your guns and follow without any wavering, you will impress your parents so much that they can pray in repentance later. It is my responsibility to make you that kind of person. The responsibility ultimately comes back to me, and for this reason I will push you out strongly without any reservation.
Go beyond the dividing peak. Whatever you have done in the past, I forgive you. Don't bear a grudge in your heart or take offense and have a sinful attitude. Get rid of such feelings because I am forgiving you. If in this forty-day condition you set a new record, then all your past errors can be forgiven. Shout out on the street until your voice is hoarse and until your eyes automatically close at night with weariness. It is cold outside, but even let your face become frozen. When you are cold and shivering, pray for the people who died in the cold even without food, saying, "I'm taking this suffering in the cold and paying indemnity for those who died under these circumstances."
This year we are organizing a publicity offensive to let people know who we really are. The media has given the public a false impression of us, but we have nothing to fear and nothing to be ashamed about. Because we are Moonies we are connected to God and the True Parents. Because we are Moonies we are heading toward the perfection of every level, even pushing toward the ultimate perfection of God. Let it be known to the world and proclaim yourself as a Unification Church member wherever you go.
From this year on there will be no forgiveness for those who hesitate to say that they are members of the Unification Church. God and the entire spirit world will punish you so you must have heavenly dignity. Some people may have a very scornful attitude, but just confront them and demand, "I'm a Moonie; so what? What's wrong with me? What are you doing for God and the world?" Don't hesitate even for one moment. The most important question you can ask someone who is saying unkind things about me is, "Have you ever seen him? How could you say such a thing without meeting this person even once? I have listened to his message and I'm proud of the tears and sweat he shed to make me a righteous man in the sight of God. You are absolutely mistaken if you think he is a brainwasher or a front for the KCIA. It is a terrible crime to hurt someone's honor without even knowing the truth."
So far we have tolerated being beaten and criticized and persecuted, but the time has come to counterattack and educate people. We have to show them right and wrong, good and bad. What's wrong with fund raising? You are clearly not doing it to buy your own meals. You are doing it for the work of God. If you are a college graduate, show them your diploma. If you have a good family history, show the people that you are not just an outcast of society. You are decent, righteous, goal-oriented young men and women.
You are in the habit of eating three meals everyday, but have you ever thought much about how this nation is declining or about the destiny of America? You must determine to fight it out with the people who make the world miserable and show them what is right and wrong. You must be bold and strong. People may think that we are the crooks, but what happened to all the people who criticized me in the past? One by one they have been taken away to spirit world while I remain and our Church flourishes. If God is truly the world's judge then why did He keep me strong physically and spiritually?
The other day a fund raising member came to my car and asked for a donation. He had a big ID card on his coat that said "Unification Church" and I liked that very much. You have guts when you wear your ID. Open up and show what you are. God has written our ID cards, and if you are trying to hide anything, it actually means that you are trying to hide from God and the spirit world. That is impossible! From whom are you going to hide then? Nobody.
Go out and say, "I'm from the Unification Church, a follower of the Reverend Moon. " If you cannot say that with conviction then you are no good to God or me, no matter how many Ph.D.'s you have. There are already many Ph.D.'s who want to help. No one can compete with what I have done for the world and you can be proud of that.
All you beautiful American girls have been cleaned up since coming to the Unification Church. I get a headache when I am around women wearing lots of perfume, but you women wear heavenly perfume, the smell of sweat. When you fund raise, are you earning money for your own marriage? How do you know your money will go to God? How do you know that I am not going to spend that money for all kinds of foolish things? People say you are brainwashed because of your faith in me!
The most clear-cut answer to your questions about me comes when you really pray, and the answer comes through direct intuition or spiritual communication. That is more than an explanation. The amazing thing is that when you pray and ask for the answer, I appear to answer you. There has never been such a thing before in history as a living person appearing in your prayers to give you guidance and answers.
If your faith is as strong as my faith then I can teach you any secrets. Without your faith and sincere desire, however, you would be real swindlers if you received heavenly truth. I cannot teach you cheaply, because if you receive truth but cannot accommodate it then I am responsible to God. If you are very sensitive and simply look at me and my attitude toward you, then you can analyze everything about me and about yourself.
No matter what, I have already become the central figure in your heart. Who did that? Did I put a computer program in your heart? No, God did it. Many of the missionaries to 120 countries are suffering and some of them are in jail, but I gave them instructions that no one should return before the three years are up. There is some mysterious power working which enables them to endure even jail during those three years.
Our organization is not a paper organization; it is the first such spiritual organization in history. Such an organization has only existed in the spirit world until now, and that is why I can boldly proclaim that the Kingdom of God here on earth is possible. That is our asset, without which we cannot win even one battle. The asset you are going to accumulate before you go to the spirit world is your relationship to me, and its value will derive from how close and alive it is.
I tell you to do things that look impossible, but take my instructions at face value and plunge into the task. When I say that you should do something, it means that I am already promising you support. If you really commit yourself, then my support is automatically with you. Heavenly responsibility is 95% of the task, and your responsibility is only 5%. That applies to everything. From a business point of view this is a most profitable enterprise!
Even though you may have come to the end of your rope physically, you will not say it is because I pushed you down into this misery. None of you will feel that you want to get revenge and kill me. Even the ax-members who are speaking against us are saying good things about me. They will say that they just couldn't stand the leaders of the Unification Church or their previous central figures, but they still respect me.
Even the members who marry after they leave cannot forget the Unification Church or forget me. I am teaching the heavenly way of life and assisting you in your work, and even though some people think they can't stay in the Church and then leave, they try to live for one, two, or three years outside but their agony is very great. They can't forget me. In some cases they get a divorce and come back to the center, repenting for what they did. It is most tragic, and when they return tears run down their faces if they even just glance at me.
I have never betrayed anyone or cursed anyone who left the Unification Church. Instead I go after them spiritually to help guide them and comfort them. That's why they can't lift up their faces when they come back. If you want to try this, go ahead and get married. What kind of life can you lead? It would be impossible to have peace of mind. Perhaps some of our beautiful sisters think that the Unification Church is not the place for them to be fully appreciated and that they could do much better elsewhere. In the Church they can't be sure what kind of husbands they will have and they finally decide to leave. If anyone thinks she can do better on her own, then go ahead and do it. Find the most handsome man in the world and get married and try to forget your life here. Do you think you can do it? The situation is serious.
The Japanese were enemies of Korea for 36 years when they occupied the entire nation, and at that time the imperialistic Japanese forced me into jail. The Japanese here today are the descendants of those people who caused my suffering, but I suspect that if I asked if they could die for Japan, they would refuse. But if I asked, "Can you die for me?" they would all answer, " Yes, Father." I had an awful time with some of the Japanese here in America when I had to send them back to Japan. They all cried and petitioned me to let them stay in America because I am here. But if I went back to Korea, then all the Japanese would ask to go back to Japan.
Can a person be paid to act like that? Only God can make a person feel like that. I have a special covenant with God, and because I did a special service to God which no one else in history could do, God gave me a special power. I have an intimate relationship with God. Do you know what the spirit world is all about through logic and theory? How much does President Carter know about human history? He is having difficulty because he only tries to deal with problems one by one instead of seeing the overall picture from God's point of view.
What I am doing on the worldwide level in the face of opposition is far more difficult than the problems President Carter and his administration are trying to solve in governing this country. I will never seek to have an audience with the President of the United States, but in the future many Presidents will want to come and meet me after they leave office. The person they will want to see is the man you meet here every Sunday morning. When I enter the spirit world my dignity there will be overwhelming to see. Do you think I am worth living for?
As a human, I am a very dramatic person. No opponent could stand if I really pushed him. If I had not chosen to be a religious leader then l would have been a crime buster. I could break up any fight and demolish both of the fighters, and I would not be the one to apologize; they would apologize to me for causing any trouble.
I was a wrestling champion when I was in high school and no one could beat me because I was like a rock. There is no sport I cannot do. I can do exercises on the bar very well and I can box. I don't do that any more though, since I am almost sixty. I have a special exercise for my health, and when I have a bad cold or if I am getting the flu, I can get rid of it without taking any medicine. When my nose is stuffed up I don't need any kind of spray like so many people use. Instead I developed a special kind of massage which opens up the nasal passages. I slept less than three hours last night, but that's the way I always live.
I want you to be the kind of men and women who do things that are impossible for others. Do all of you women want to become captains of our fishing boats? No matter what, you are still women and your voices don't sound like captains' voices! Life on a boat is not easy; fishermen usually have beards and look very rugged, and it would not be easy to get those men to listen to you. Your voices don't boom like a captain's, but I accept your determination. If you want to become a captain but somehow you can't do it, then at least you can be the wife of a captain.
Yesterday I went to Norfolk and took care of many months' worth of problems in one day. I have to visit another place today, but already it is after 11 a.m. The only reason I am spending so much time here this morning is that it is slippery and snowy out and I can't travel too well today.
Would you like to hear one nice story? The most intriguing and interesting story under the sun is the story about the blessing, right? Do you just want to receive the blessing after making the smallest possible condition, or do you want to make the strongest possible foundation ahead of time? That means you might wait ten years for the blessing.
So far I have borne the sole responsibility, lessening the burden of all the people of the world by bearing their burden upon my own shoulders. In order to receive the blessing each person needed to have three spiritual children, but from this point on you need twelve, and later on 72 and then 120. Twelve is the formation stage, 72 the growth stage and 120 the perfection stage. Why has the rule changed in one years' time? The reason is that 1976 was the ultimate turning point of heavenly history, the year in which the highway was laid from the bottom of hell all the way up to heaven. Bringing 12, 72, or 120 spiritual children now is much easier than bringing three people in the past.
Your witnessing so far has not been concentrated on your own family because God's principle is always to sacrifice His own son to save others. In following that principle we have reached out to others before witnessing to our own families, which is like witnessing to Jesus and God; they are the last priority.
Jesus had to go out to save his country and continue on to win the entire world represented by Rome at that time, winning a certain condition of victory before coming back to settle in his original home. By doing so, the entire territory would have been totally restored.
The 20th century dispensation is developing in Korea as it did in Israel of 2,000 years ago, and in the United States as it did in the Roman Empire of 2,000 years ago. Judaism came to oppose Jesus and today Christianity takes that position in coming to oppose the Unification Church. Judaism and Christianity together are trying to cooperate with the United States government to somehow crush the Unification Church, but they are not succeeding.
Imagine Jesus going to Rome and proclaiming a Day of Hope rally at the Roman Coliseum. Suppose Jesus had said that the Romans must change themselves and follow God's principle instead of the ugly gods they worshipped. That did not happen 2,000 years ago, but that parallels what I did here in America. Jesus was meant to leave his homeland, or nation, for the sake of the world because the greater Cain should be given first priority in restoration.
Opposition in the Western world represents a wider level of opposition than in Japan or Korea. If the United States opposes me, that means the entire world is coming against me together with America. There is still an enormous amount of work to be done in Korea, and the only reason for me to come to America would be as part of God's strategy or overall plan. Abel goes out to restore the greater enemy and give the blessing to the greater Cain first. Then automatically all lesser degrees will be covered. When you examine God's history in the Bible, you can see that God always uses the ones closest to Him as a sacrifice to save the greater Cain.
That's why Jesus had to give up his home. When his own mother and family scorned him he reached out to the world, and after finishing that mission could have come back to the original starting point, his own home. God has not finished that providence yet. For the first time in history, God's representative has taken the providence of God upon his shoulders and has come out of his homeland to consummate the worldwide level of victory. Now he is ready to go back to his beginning point.
Do you know why your parents oppose your being here? Through their negativity God is assisting you to automatically obey God's law, which is to give up your own clan first and go out for the sake of the world, returning later to your home. First you must love the world more than your own parents. Your parents' opposition automatically sets that condition. I'm sure many of you have experienced how totally unlike their former behavior their unreasoning opposition is.
That is not the end of it, however. Once you love the world first and God can claim you as His son, you will then participate in the universal dispensation. Afterward God will let you go back to your own family and restore them. I came to the world and established myself individually, then my own family, tribe and national and worldwide foundations. In doing this I gave up everything I conceivably could and gave it all to the American providence. I love the American providence to a foolish degree, without any reservations.
That providence was finished victoriously in 1976 and now the time has come that I can leave America at any time and go back to my homeland. I would not go back to Korea with a complaining heart, however. I would glorify God, and I can leave this country without regret because I have done my job. When Jesus left this world he said, "I will return," but when I leave this country, my final words will not be "I must return"; I will say, "I have done my mission. lt is now yours to take over."
The physical environment in Korea is hell compared to America, but your heaven is half occupied by Satan. If I had been defeated in this country then everything would have been taken over by satanic power, but by my proclaiming this victory, the physical heaven will be returned to God's side. Because I finished my job here in America in 3½ years, I can leave freely without any regrets and I will leave the mission to you.
There is no physical danger for you now, but throughout my entire life I have been in danger. The Yankee Stadium rally was a most critical campaign and I knew there would be danger, but God sent a storm that day. It seemed like a tragedy, but it was not; it was a blessing. By sending that storm, God prevented the worst kind of tragedy. The evil people who plotted certain things felt the meeting had been called off and they didn't come. Many people with guns came to Yankee Stadium and several were apprehended. No matter how difficult it may be for you, no one will kill you for being Moonies. Since Cain slew Abel in the garden of Eden, the Cain side on the worldwide level is trying to repeat that. Threats follow me wherever I go, but that particular providence will be indemnified by my winning over the negative plots.
I have many brothers and sisters but I never spoke about the Divine Principle with anyone in my family, even though I had the opportunity. I knew that in God's principle I had to reach out to the world first, to the people on Satan's side. I am giving you this historical background because you are connected to my own destiny, and the universal dispensation has come to the point of returning home. Soon you can do the same.
You have been away from your homes because you went out to love the world. Now the time has come for you to teach your own clan the Divine Principle and restore them. When you go home, you should be welcomed because by now your family should recognize your true value and true future. We should create the kind of atmosphere for them to understand and respect you. From 1980 on, I will send you to be ambassadors of God and the True Parents in your own homes and bring your families into the movement.
After you have lived an official, public life for more than seven years, I will send you back for a home ministry. Giving your testimony and witnessing to your own clan is ten times easier than dealing with strangers. They would not kill you because they are your brothers and sisters. It takes incredible energy to win one spiritual child outside your family, but one-fifth of that energy would be enough to win your own family. Your parents will remark at how you have changed and how your ideas make sense.
I Then your parents will have a family banquet and gather all your relatives and tell them to listen to you. Teach them with dignity the power of the Divine Principle, and al] of them will be turned around in less than seven hours.
Until now, having three spiritual children was condition enough for you to receive the blessing because so far we have been going only in one direction, pioneering the first highway up to heaven. Once you emerge from this hellish area up on top, however, you are free to deal with all four directions. You need only one door to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, but after you get in you must deal with four directions and with all kinds of people. That is the meaning of the twelve pearl gates; each gate represents a certain human character.
Jacob had twelve sons and Israel had twelve tribes, and now each of you is forming a new tribe, a new Israel, and you are in the center. Each one of your twelve spiritual children represents one tribe of Israel. From this time on, it is not Reverend Moon who is on the front line, but you; you are Reverend Moon. You are going to create your own heaven.
My work thus far has been to set the condition for the entire world, but it has been like sprinkling seeds all over the world. I have been the sower thus far, and now you must sow. You are going to create your own visible, tangible kingdom surrounding you. If you go back as Jacob or as Reverend Moon in your own home, then you will be surrounded by twelve disciples or spiritual children and in time that will expand to 72 and then 120. That will be your kingdom eventually. In this way you should be better than Jesus.
Was Jesus able to unite his twelve disciples in harmony? Can you unite your twelve spiritual children into oneness? In my own lifetime I am bringing 120 nations into one family. That is really a universal age. If I had not gone to all those countries, or had not sent my representatives to those countries, then all the people there would come to me in spirit world and demand, "Why did you ignore my country? We wanted to participate in the spiritual New Age, but you didn't even send a representative to us." I prevented their complaint by setting the necessary condition. We even have members behind the Iron Curtain. There are many people who are risking their lives daily in order to spread the message of God, but since you have far better conditions here in New York, shouldn't you be more productive than they are? This is a new age and a different time. In 1978 we are really swinging into a new era on the foundation of the 1976 victory and the 1977 preparation. You can reach out to your own parents and really cry out your love for them because you need them to be restored into heaven. They will listen to you.
Fallen Adam and Eve could not restore themselves, but should have been assisted by their children. Children must come back and help their parents to be restored. The important thing before you go back to your own parents, however, is that first you set the condition for Cain and Abel to become one. Then together they can go back to the parents and help them to be restored. This providence means that the elder brother must take the position of younger brother, and the younger brother become the elder.
Originally the elder son was to be the master of the house, but because of the fall of man Satan claimed the first born to be on his side, with the second born on the side of God. In restoration the birthright should be restored to God's side through the younger son. Right now America is in Cain's position, really opposing me, but the positions will be reversed soon.
By setting the universal condition, I can restore and resurrect my entire ancestral line at one stroke. The son can save the parents and then the parents can save their own parents, and so forth, right back to the beginning. Then the entire spirit world has a right to descend to earth where true parenthood has been established and can be restored at once. For those in spirit world this is a revolutionary event. The necessary conditions for restoration have been made spiritually and reach to the highest heaven, and anything of a lesser degree is automatically included. Furthermore, under this condition Unification Church members can easily restore their parents. The children here have made possible the restoration of their spiritual forefathers, and now as physical sons and daughters you can restore your physical parents.
As the children and parents become united into one, the rest of the world will automatically be restored. We can command Satan. Once the world and the spirit world are on our side, Satan will have no right to move anywhere. There will not even be room for Satan to stand and he will have to leave the world entirely alone. This is perfectly logical. The condition of indemnity is being set step-by-step, yet in the end it will accomplish a formidable thing.
Now God can see children physically restoring their own parents, and rejoicing together over the one true parenthood. This will literally be the Kingdom of God here on earth. Certainly God will take delight in looking down and seeing all this. A brand new family system will be established and the registration of heavenly citizens will begin.
Spiritually speaking a formidable condition has been fulfilled and an astonishing revolution is developing, but you don't happen to see it yet. Most of these things are happening spiritually and are invisible to human eyes, but you will see it all in the spirit world.
At one time we departed in sorrow, but the time of joyful reunion is at hand. When you meet God and meet the spirit world, you will be entitled to return to your families and restore them. After 1980 all the missionaries will be withdrawn from their countries, and they will go home to build their own kingdom with their own clans. Until 1980, however, we have a formidable mission to be finished-we have to take care of communism.
In the next three years we are going to lay a solid foundation to really tackle and digest the communist power, and as we do so internal squabbles and difficulties will be weakening them. All sorts of tragedies will hit the communist world, like a great famine in China and another in Russia. Already there has been a great earthquake in China.
The second generation in Abel's position is on my side, which is why mostly young people have come to the Unification Church in America. Our history is equivalent to the forty years of wandering in the wilderness during the Exodus. During that time the first generation passed away without seeing the promised land; this is what is happening on the worldwide scale as well. Because you now have hope and have found the heavenly solution, any parents who have a child in the Unification Church will not perish. They will be deeply grateful to you. You can finish the worldwide dispensation and then go back to your home in time to restore your family.
You are going to lay that foundation here in America and in the next three years you must show America and the world how you can love God and humanity. You are actually like hippies, but on the Abel side. The Cain-type hippies are morally degraded and corrupted by free sex and drugs. They are spiritual anarchists, but the Abel-type hippies are moral and God-centered, trying to bring back a family tradition and to live unselfishly. You are the ones who will take care of communism. There are similarities in the life styles of Cain and Abel hippies -you both live communally, for instance, but here we have a strict moral discipline. Instead of living for personal happiness, you get up in the morning and are busy all day. You are creating an environment for your blessing by restoring the society, nation and world.
Let's fulfill the Cain and Abel dispensation in these three years, uniting Cain and Abel hippies together, cleaning them up and bringing them back to the heavenly restoration. After that you will go back to your own families and take care of them. The Divine Principle is not just a theory, but a timetable through which you can know precisely where you are standing.
I have already laid the cornerstone. The people who think they don't have to do anything except hang around are thieves and robbers. They are trying to steal everything I have accumulated, and inherit it for free. If you really want to inherit my blessing then you must inherit my responsibility as well. I am willing to give you the most difficult responsibility.
Can you take care of it? You can't take a little bit of each for the time being and come back for more later. I will only give you the total package, once and for all. The forty-day condition which began on January 10 is one condition you can set to deserve that gift. My condition of indemnity is already paid.
So far I have provided all the resources for the sake of America, but the time has come for you as mature children to say, "Father, you sit back. We want to bring everything you need for the rest of the world." You are going out to be front-line soldiers just like I have been doing all this time. The time has come for a change of command.
Since I have paid all the indemnity of the past, whenever you engage in battle and gain your result, it shall remain as your credit and your accomplishment. I really want to ruthlessly push you down to the scene of the battle so that by being strong and bold you will be entitled to the blessing. Remember that the accomplishments you must have now can be obtained much more easily than in the past.
You fund raisers have to write letters to the people you meet, and in that way you can win spiritual children. It won't take three years to bring twelve people because now the spiritual atmosphere is right. You are creating your own heaven and to do that you have to cover four directions, bringing spiritual children of twelve different characters. That is the foundation of your own tribe, your own heaven.
When you bring those twelve people from among your own clan there won't be a Judas Iscariot to sell you out. In that respect you can be better than Jesus. You don't have to pay all the necessary indemnity because I have already paid most of it for you. Now anything you build will remain to your credit, and with much less effort you can do these infinitely more than Jesus.
Bringing twelve spiritual children will complete the formation stage, 72 the growth stage, and 120 the perfection stage. This is exactly what I did. The first blessing of 36 couples became my own tribe, with twelve couples each representing the formation, growth, and perfection levels, as well as the Old Testament, New Testament, and Completed Testament eras and Adam's family, Noah's family and Jacob's family. On that foundation I blessed 72. 120, 430, 777 and 1800 couples.
Whether you receive the blessing or not is really secondary. Don't you want to have your spiritual children here and in spirit world? You have an advantage over me in that I did all this through strangers, but you can do it through your own family because the dispensational time is right. I envy you in that respect. I was not able to teach my own family and restore them first, as I already explained. There was always danger around when I had to deal with strangers, and many people tried to kill me. It is different in your case because you can return to your families, which provides a far better atmosphere for you to work.
Do you understand the time in which we are living? Even if I were now taken away you could go on because you now have the guidelines, direction and power to do it. Your 3½ years from this time on is your golden opportunity. These principles will be followed by the entire Unification Church membership around the world, and if your responsibility is fulfilled then I can have total freedom.
I want to buy a walking stick and go around the world to visit one blessed couple after another. All kinds of invitations will come for me to visit everyone, and I want to distribute the plane tickets, money and invitations one-by-one so that you can come together with me. There are so many houses to visit that it would be physically impossible to go everywhere, so I will pick out several homes where there is an international marriage and go there. The international couples will have the privilege of receiving me in their home, because that is where the greatest revolution of love is being undertaken. Do I hear any protests?
Once you go over the dividing peak you are free to come and go anytime. January 15 is a special day, and that is why I have kept you here so long this morning. Go out and be proud to be Moonies. You are the princes and princesses of the New Age. The time will come for you to shout out to the entire world that you are Moonies, and people will respond with love and admiration. We'll make the time come. I want you to go into the year 1978 with no regrets, and this is why I set up the forty-day condition. I actually did everything in forty years, but I want you to do it in forty days. You cannot beat this kind of discount. The forty-day condition will end on February 23, which is the anniversary of the True Parents' birthday last year, the day I declared the Year One of the Kingdom of God on earth. In the future all heaven and earth shall use this calendar. This forty-day condition is linked to that anniversary. Shall we do it? Let us pray.