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Thank you very much from the bottom of my heart for your deep congratulations. I owe you an apology. I myself limited the attendance at this meeting, and many could not come from around the nation and the world. We are in a war centered upon God, and I want to wait and have a great celebration after the victory is won over Satan and atheistic communism. Because we are still in the middle of that war I didn't want to make this a spectacular occasion. I want to thank those people who could not come from this nation and around the world for their love and prayers.
People normally want to be proud if they have something special that others do not have. If a person has only one thing but then acquires another thing, his pride gets bigger, and if he adds one more then he is even more proud. Does the same principle apply to getting older and acquiring more years? People under twenty years old don't care about age and are eager to get older, but when you are advanced in years and know more of life then you know that each year brings you closer to something!
In Oriental philosophy the sixtieth birthday completes one cycle in a person's life, so it has a special meaning. This is the biggest birthday celebration according to Korean custom. When I was a young boy there was always a great celebration for grandfathers, with singing groups and dancers. I enjoyed the performance, but at the same time I pitied the man who was honored by the celebration; he was very old and it wouldn't be long before he finished his life. At that time I felt I would never reach sixty, but that memory seems like just yesterday, and today I am here being congratulated on my sixtieth birthday!
I am also concerned that since I am getting older you Unification Church members won't pay any more attention to me. That's true! I think so. There are many people who see only that I am a very controversial figure, and they are glad to hear I have reached sixty, thinking that it will be only a few more years before I am not around to trouble them any more. There are many people who follow very complex thinking. On the other hand, you people don't care what they think and just give your single-minded devotion to following me. You wonder if there isn't any way I could age in reverse, and next year we could celebrate my 59th birthday.
Let's not worry about what other people think, or even what you think, but about what God thinks. Would God think that I have been on earth for sixty years and have suffered tremendous tribulation, and then want to bring me to spirit world out of compassion for me? Or would He feel that He knows how capable I am so He wants me to stay and clean up the world a little more before He brings me to spirit world? Parental heart is always concerned whether children suffer too much, so maybe in God's heart He wants to have me come to spirit world. Do you think so? But I know that you want me to be with you for a long time to come because if I am around then the hardest battle is fun and victory is sweet. Does that mean you want me to stay and continue to suffer?
Now let's consider how Mother and my children feel. I'm sure the closest members of my family would want me to relax finally and be a little more comfortable and happy in the years to come, and maybe have more time to spend with them. Now God is very confused about what He should do about me!
Do you want to hear what I think? For purely personal reasons I would not want to prolong my life on earth too much longer, simply because I know the spirit world so well. The reality in spirit world is so good that for myself, prolonging life on earth has no special meaning. But I am very aware that we have begun the divine task and it is not yet complete.
The democratic world has no direction and we must guide it. No one knows what will be the end result of the powerful, enormous communist world. But I am sure that no one here on earth knows the heart and will of God better than I do. Sometimes I think I would have been a happier person if I had not known this truth and the will of God so clearly. Furthermore, when we talk about the destiny of the world we are not talking about one hundred or one thousand years in the future, but about today, this year and next year. The world situation is deteriorating so rapidly that sometimes I am very fearful about how we can catch up with the situation.
Then what about us as Unification Church members-where should we be? You are the champions who are fighting every day, and sometimes you get discouraged. I know that if I were not here on earth with you that your fight would be much more difficult. Even though I am an old man, the fact that I am with you is a source of power and inspiration that energizes you and helps you keep going. You need my guidance and direction.
When I was a young man I was pushing you hard and working hard with you, but now that I am an old man and still am pushing you, it might not look too good. Do you mind? But I know it is a necessity. The world needs a push because time is against us. It is quite true that when you get old your health declines and you feel less energy than in your younger years. But at the same time the mission is greater and requires more attention. The situation is imbalance, with the mission getting bigger and yet my age getting heavier.
I have been a front line soldier all this time and I will remain so. Will you be a burden to me and drag me back, or will you push from behind? Do you want to push me by yourself, or bring a nation and your race and mankind to push me? Would you want to mobilize even spirit world? Would they be on my side? Are they pushing me? Who is the head man in spirit world? Would you want spirit world to be pushing on the front line, or would you rather be on the front line and have them push you from behind?
Spirit world is different in one respect. They are not limited by time and space. They can continue 24 hours a day, and that is their advantage over us. Do you think spirit men need time to go to bed? Is that good or not? When you are really involved in some game or activity, you forget about eating or sleeping. If you are intoxicated in your mission to that degree then working 24 hours a day might not be a burden. But how serious and intoxicated are you with your mission? Have you felt that the mission God gave you is so exciting and wonderful that you forget about eating and sleeping?
Are the witnessers and fund raisers really caught up in their missions? Are you knocking on the doors of home church with that passion? If not then you are defeated; you are not confident and sure of yourself. Today is a happy day for me, so you thought I wouldn't scold you, but then all of a sudden-boom! But I want you to become people who are proud in your missions. I am determined to make each of you such a person.
I know that a shortcut to finishing the mission is to be so busy that you don't even worry about eating and sleeping. Then you have so much power and energy that you can go on and on. Will you be upset if I crank you up with a winch when you are tired? Would you be willing to let me use such a machine on you? If so then I thank you very much. Do you promise?
Right now the beautiful ceiling is complaining that I haven't mentioned how lovely it has become for this day. The beautiful ceiling and moldings have the same birthday I do because they are born today and they want some attention from us. I can hear them calling to me. Why don't you say, "Happy Birthday, ceiling"? You know what this ballroom looked like before restoration. It has been completely revolutionized and I designed it. I know you don't realize it but this place is sanctified and consecrated by this day. This is the only place I have designed. It doesn't matter how big or how old this building is; the people of the world in years ahead will come to see it and remember what I did here.
People will come in the future to celebrate this day long after Mother and I are gone, but today you are celebrating with me. Would you like to celebrate in a more exciting way than people who will come here in the future? Look at everything here and appreciate it with your eyes. Open your mouth and your eyes and shout out.
You don't need any more serious talk, do you? You want me to talk even more! You said you want to celebrate my birthday but instead you want me to work some more. How unfair you are! You have seen me and heard me, so that is enough, isn't it? Who will decide, you or me? I don't want to speak. I am getting old!
Do you feel a little relaxed and warm and happy inside? Is there anyone here meeting me for the first time? Seated here in front are the missionaries who are returning now after five years overseas to report to me. Part of this group are native members who are meeting me for the first time. When you see me for the first time you probably think I am an ugly man. New members sometimes think I am a superman who doesn't need to use stairs to go to the second floor, or even use a fork and knife to eat. Also they think I never need to go to the bathroom.
Sometimes people have a mistaken idea about what it means to be holy. It is not necessarily a super thing but a natural thing. A singing bird is a genuine thing, and a blooming flower and growing grass-the creation that God made is always holy. When a person becomes a natural being the way God created him to be, he is holy. Then blinking your eyes and smiling and moving your arms and legs is holy.
I have the same emotions you do. I can feel joy and sorrow and anguish, with the difference that the depth of my feeling is far greater than average. Sometimes people portray me as being cruel because I am iron-willed, but sometimes I am warm-hearted and even fragile because I have both aspects. The significant thing is that I live in rhythm with God and with nature, the way God intended man to be. I could talk in great depth about this area, but I am sure you hear something about this in Divine Principle lectures.
Instead of my selecting a topic for today, I want you to select the topic. I will obey your direction. The topics you mentioned are all there. What is something you don't have? We have some money and we have people, don't we? What don't we have? What doesn't God have? One thing He doesn't have is a nation of His own sovereignty. So what should we do? I would like the topic to be Fatherland or Motherland of God, or Ideal Nation of God.
What citizenship do you have? Many of you are Americans, so for you America is your fatherland What is my fatherland? Of course, it is Korea. Mr. Kuboki's fatherland is Japan. Dennis Orme's fatherland is Great Britain. Paul Werner's fatherland is Germany. I'm sure people sitting here in front will have many different countries as their fatherlands. But what is God's fatherland? It doesn't exist. God hasn't found His nation on earth. All the fatherlands which people claim have no connection with God. All the characteristics of the different nations resulted from division in the world, usually coming out of war and struggle. That's the way new nations are born. There are many boundaries on earth, all of which are stained by the blood of soldiers killed in hostilities.
The highest wall built to prevent invasion is the one you build between you and your neighbor. As technology advances we can travel to the other side of the world in a short time, but because ancient nations didn't have that mobility they struggled with neighboring nations.
The rise and fall of nations in history often occurs through war and struggle. National boundaries have always been stained by the blood of their people. For all the hundreds of nations on earth there have been thousands of struggles throughout history, resulting in many divisions of sovereignty. That happened because of the fall of man and man's separation from God. What do we mean when we say the fall of man? It means that man and God became enemies instead of being one, that there has been struggle instead of harmony and peace between men and God.
The primary question facing mankind is that of peace. But in light of the background of history, can we really attain lasting peace? When the cause is wrong' the result is always wrong. The result cannot be changed without changing the cause. Human history so far has been sown in blood and war, so we can only reap such a result. Therefore, to obtain a new result in history we have to begin with a new cause, with a fertile land to receive the seeds of peace.
Today the world is filled with more hatred than love between neighbors. There is division between individuals, between tribes and nations. Unless we can start with a new beginning, a new world cannot come about. Human history started from lies, so we have to restart human history from truth. Unless a new movement develops which can sow true peace, there will be no lasting peace.
If there is an Almighty God, would He be content to put up with today's reality, or would He do something to change the world back into its original shape? If there is someone here on earth commissioned by God to take over His mission and cause, what would that man or group claim? He would proclaim that the world's present course is in error, insisting that mankind must turn around. He must tell mankind that their direction must be entirely changed.
What would be the slogan of that man? If you are clever you should be able to figure it out. If the world began in hatred and lies, then a course which is 180 degrees different would be one of absolute love, love so great that you love even your own enemy. To me that is a powerful slogan which can change the course of history. Can you find anything more powerful than this? Some might think that it is an easy answer; once you know then it seems to be an easy answer, but when you don't know what it is it seems very difficult to find. All the saints of history have searched for this answer and never found it.
If you have such great love that you can love even your enemy, that power will melt everything. God needs a movement that can melt the wrong world down and change it into the right one. The entire world of religion is pursuing this one slogan, though in varying degrees. Which of all the saints do you think God would love the most? The answer is simple because there is someone who proclaimed this slogan. Jesus Christ stands like a giant because this is what he said.
When Jesus was on earth there was a great wall of hatred between the great Roman Empire and the little nation of Israel because one was conqueror and the other the conquered. Jesus knew that the only way to conquer Rome was through love. Rome conquered Israel with military power, but Israel could conquer Rome through love. Even though Jesus was crucified, he could still pray for God to forgive the very people who killed him. No power could be any greater. Love can overcome any walls, no matter how high and thick. Jesus knew that individuals have enemies, families have enemies, and tribes and nations have enemies. Hatred and animosity always cause killing on each level, and only one strategy can break down this wall-love your enemy.
The fallen world always responds to animosity by seeking revenge. If God and Jesus had used the method of revenge to build the Kingdom of Heaven, however, then there would not be one human being left here on earth because God would have extinguished them all in retribution. A great movement of restoration only comes from this ideology of love. Only the power of love could begin the new history and new age. When a person has the power to love even his enemies, he is truly a giant and there is nothing he cannot deal with or embrace. Ultimately that person shall conquer the world in God's way. Christianity has always possessed that ideology, and God sees that as long as Christians pursue that doctrine then they shall conquer.
When you plant bean seeds, beans will grow. When you plant carnations, carnations will grow. No one can deny this principle. If you sow hatred, hatred will result. When you sow love, then the fruit of love will indeed come. The important thing is the size of that love. There is small love, and there is giant, universal love. Christianity has been failing to live up to this principle and failing to love its enemies. This has been its major difficulty.
Christians preach about loving one's enemies but Jesus also said to love your neighbor. Who is a Christian's neighbor? Certainly it is another Christian. But are they doing it? Do Catholics love Mormons? Do Jehovah's Witnesses love Methodists? It doesn't matter who calls us heretics; whoever practices this principle of loving one's enemy is closer to God and is the orthodox Christian. That is my belief. Love can unite. If Christians practice love then we can unite with Christians and then Christians can unite all the religions of the world. But until we achieve this goal we cannot go on to the next.
Aren't we heretics? Why not? How do you know? If you tell the Christians of the world what Unification Church is about, they will say you are a heretic. The important thing is to inherit the true tradition and spirit of Christianity, however, and as long as we inherit the doctrine and practice it, we are the most orthodox.
Does America have enemies? Who are they? Isn't the worst enemy Reverend Moon? Many Americans say so. From your parents' point of view their enemy is Reverend Moon. The media, business world and religious world all think I am their enemy. They say I steal the children of American citizens.
If this nation had no foundation of law, I'm sure this nation would have done away with me already. Who is Reverend Moon for you? It is a very serious matter. The people who know me say they cannot change their religion, no matter what their parents, or the government or the media say. Even if those people are kicked out by the American Government they would want to continue being Moonies. This is why people say you are crazy! People have no logical explanation for your attitude, so they found a word just for you-they say you are brainwashed.
Many prayers have reached my ears, prayers by Christians who want God to take me away to spirit world because they cannot stand me. God is listening to what the Moonies are praying and what I am praying. We are asking God to forgive America and awaken this nation and let us bear the cross as a sacrifice. God is looking at these two groups-the group which wants me taken away, which is rich and powerful, and the other group, which is humbly dressed and eats only two meals a day. Moonies look like miserable people. Do you think God will decide He wants to be on the winning side and put the Moonies away? You say no only because you are Moonies, don't you?
I have had the opportunity to peek into the Book of Life in God's mansion in spirit world. I saw that the people who were oppressed and persecuted and martyred all have their names in that Book. They looked like they were defeated in their life on earth, but the millionaires and famous preachers and politicians aren't there. Sometimes people say, "Reverend Moon, you are a millionaire. Why don't you give all your money to the poor?" Of course, I am willing to give money to the poor, even the last cent I have, and then I am entitled to receive money because I practice the principle of loving my enemy. I have been giving out not only money, but my blood and sweat and heart as well. Such people are entitled to receive money because they use it in the right way.
Sometimes I ask God for money, telling Him I need resources to do His work. There are billions of dollars in the world, so I tell God that He knows how I will use it. God blesses us many, many times, yet I am still penniless. Anyone who can love their enemy- whether individual, race or nation-will inherit from God any resources he needs. That is the kind of nation God has been waiting for. Once that nation appears on earth, it will become the center of God's dispensation and through it He will fulfill all the promises of the Scriptures.
I know that with the power of God nothing is impossible. Therefore, immediately after the Washington Monument Rally in 1976 I declared that the next rally would be in Moscow. Moscow is a very prophetic name. In English it sounds like "must go," so Moscow means "must go." Some nation and some people must go to Moscow. Do you want to go?
The true dispensation cannot appear on earth unless an individual, family, tribe and nation can practice the principle of loving their enemy. Until such a nation appears, you cannot talk about the Kingdom of God on earth.
I do not regret that the State Department, Congress and entire American Government have been very hostile to me. Because of that I have much more to show God as my achievement once it is all over. If everything had been rosy and peaceful then I would not have had an opportunity to prove who I am through dramatic achievement. I have never once spoken against or cursed anyone who opposed me, because when a great enemy attacks me God will send a great friend. When more people came against me in the Government, more people stood up to protect me. God is fair.
Wherever there is a high pressure area in the atmosphere, a low pressure area is created. When a great negative force appears in America, some positive force appears around me. I have learned that persecution can be very sweet if you persevere with the right frame of mind. That way I can win more friends and comrades in arms without fighting.
In home church work you go voluntarily to serve the people, but when you arrive and they find out you are a Moonie, they push you away from their door, and even beat you up. I know this is your story. When you are treated that way, some of the neighbors will support that hostile person because they don't like Moonies either; but then others will be outraged and ask how these people could treat any human being that way. When you show up again the next day and the hostile people confront you, the other neighbors will come out to defend you. When you keep coming back with a peaceful face, these neighbors will say that you seem even better than Jesus because the Bible records that Jesus got mad on occasion, while you never get angry.
The people who see you are mistreated will be anxious to know something about you. First they may think you are dumb and foolish, but they will see that though you are not elegant you are clean-cut and neatly dressed and you talk intelligently. When they learn that you have a college degree they will be astonished and want to know why you are doing this, and then you can tell them that it is because we believe in an ideology of loving people, that we have a dream to build God's fatherland in this nation. If they ask why God needs a fatherland when He is already omnipotent, you can invite them to hear a lecture. Can you teach Divine Principle? I am telling you that absolute rejection will bring absolute friends.
The more dramatic the persecution you receive in your home church area, the better it is. If you are kicked and knocked unconscious, people may think you are dead and the headlines will proclaim that the Moonie was kicked to death. Then when you revive later the headlines will announce that you resurrected! If this happens two or three times then you will easily restore the whole area in the meantime.
On the outside I seem to be mean and ugly instead of handsome and nice, right? The entire world may say I am mean and ugly, but God will be the one person who will definitely veto that statement. Because the power of God is absolute, there is nothing to fear even when the American Government comes against us. I speak out strongly and without fear when the President does something wrong. God is stronger than any President. I don't care what the people say; I only care what God says. As long as God thinks I am His champion then I don't care what the world says.
If I were a solitary individual then it wouldn't matter how much I was intoxicated by this doctrine. But the problem the world faces is that there are more and more Reverend Moons coming forward every day, hundreds, then thousands and millions more. Heavenly families, heavenly tribes and heavenly nations are being formed. That is the world's problem. In the Unification Church incredibly dramatic things can happen, with one extreme uniting with another extreme to create beautiful families. The couples I create will march forward as flagbearers who can love their enemies. Together they will become princes and princesses of God. This is the exciting life we live.
No trivial barriers such as race or culture and language matter to us. We transcend them all with the love of God. A great blessing took place in 1978 in Great Britain, and in most cases the couples came from countries that historically had been enemies. In some cases they couldn't even talk each other's language, so they created their own eye and sign language. It is dramatic to touch your fiancé's hands when you can't say anything. Then a kiss is really sweet.
There is no barrier we cannot overcome with the power of love. Some people might say they like everything about the Unification Church except MFT duty. Today you have the solution-if fund raising is your worst enemy, then do it and love it. Can you do it? Some people might think Unification Church life is exciting except for witnessing and meeting people 24 hours a day. Now today you have the answer: if witnessing is your enemy then love doing it.
The New York members might have felt that Bo Hi Pak was their enemy when he pushed them every week to do home church. Now they say, "But now a new man has come, Reverend Won Pil Kim; he looks mean and he is old and needs eyeglasses to read with, and he is even worse than the previous one. I can't stand these Koreans. They smell like kimchi all the time. They are my enemies." Today you have the answer-if they are your enemies, then love them all and the Kingdom of Heaven shall come from that love. From the moment you can love your enemy, the Kingdom of Heaven shall come.
My philosophy is very simple. If you have the attitude to love your enemy then you can overcome any situation and there is no obstacle that can block you. In my lifetime of sixty years I have experienced everything. There were many things I didn't want to tackle, but I did it because I loved my enemy. I did the worst things there were to do-I was a beggar, a laborer, a farmer, dockworker, a miner. I became a fisherman and even the tough professional fishermen gave up trying to beat my record.
Every day I am living this principle, and when I look I see that there are many people of all colors following behind me. If I push them away and tell them to leave then they go, but then they come in the back door again. The Unification Church principle is rather simple and we live it. Other people trying to find our secret under a microscope won't find it there, but we live it and are serious about it. Shall I continue? You cold-blooded Moonies, you hate me! You make me work so hard on my birthday!
My topic today is the Fatherland of God. God needs a nation here on earth. We Moonies don't have our nation. God wants a nation that will practice this principle of loving one's enemies.
Today we are celebrating my 60th birthday. These sixty years have been years of paying incredible indemnity. From this day on the years of my sixties are beginning, initiating the years of completion and the decade of fulfillment and perfection.
We are multicolored here; this auditorium is a miniature of the heavenly kingdom, with five colors of skin from 127 countries. All we have to do is practice this principle. We are not going to destroy our enemies but will liberate them. We find love by loving them. You will practice this in your home church providence. That is the base of the Kingdom of Heaven. That is where you can learn to bear the burden and taste God's tears and broken heart.
You have your own territory, and as we get bigger we can cover all of New York, then America, the entire world, and the entire spirit world. Finally we will cover God with home church. Home church people will tell God to stay in heaven while they do the work, but He will protest that He wants to be with them. God will shout out, "This is my home. This is my tribe and nation. The fulfillment is complete. Let us dance and sing together."
The day of victory is coming when God will see His people and nation here on earth. Then He will declare His heavenly constitution. Will it be inferior to a democratic constitution? Truly there shall be a real democracy for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness under God. There will be a right to life. Life is sacred and has the right to exist-that is the basic human right.
We are engaged in the work of liberating people in every field and arena of life. Therefore, we engage in every walk of life-business, education, the arts. We will liberate people with the true heart of God.
Eventually I want to see a world without any national boundaries. I am in a position to hate Americans because they have done so much against me, but I do not hate them at all. I have confidence that with our ideology we can break down all the barriers there are. We can do it simply through the restoration of a fatherland for God.
Where is your enemy? We have no enemies because we return debts of harm with love. We repay with love any damage and persecution that come to us. Your real enemy is anything that your physical body likes. That is the one enemy you must watch out for. Don't worry about other people and what the papers say. Our real enemy is not communism, but the internal enemies of drug use and tree sex and immorality, plus the infiltration of evil ideologies such as homosexuality.
Today we are talking about the restoration of God's fatherland. Let us pledge ourselves to march forward for this fatherland here on earth. Those who pledge to God and True Parents that they will give themselves for the restoration of the heavenly kingdom and fatherland of God here on earth, raise your hands. Amen!