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Hananim, the Korean word for God, contains the elements of hana, which means "one," and nim, which is a title of respect, such as sir. That is the definition of God-He is the One, the Unique, to whom we pay the greatest respect.
Generally speaking New Year's Day is supposed to be a happy, fun-filled holiday; but in the Unification Church, God's Day is a very tough day, filled with difficulties. Everyone of you feels sluggish and tired this morning, don't you? I get sluggish, myself. You received a powerful message early this morning already, beginning at midnight, so do you think you need any more messages today?
Most people celebrate holidays with lots of food, such as cookies and cakes; we celebrate with lots of words-the word of God! Physical food, when you take in more than a normal dosage, will always give you a problem with your stomach, but what about an overdose of the word of God? It certainly doesn't give you stomach trouble!
Consider God's situation. He already knows what Reverend Moon is going to speak about this morning; since He does, will He decide to go off and take a nap instead of attending the speech? Or does He intensely want to be here? Certainly God knows everything I am about to say, so the content of the speech will not be anything new to Him. However, God is very much interested in observing the audience and their reaction to these words. He is thinking, "I know the people in this audience have been having particular problems and discouragement, so I hope this message will renew them and bring them back closer to me."
Therefore, God has an intense interest in you, the listeners, and also God knows precisely where you are spiritually. He has been hoping and thinking, "My son and daughter have not been doing too well; I hope they can become a new man and woman from listening to Reverend Moon this morning." He is watching closely what goes on here, every minute during this sermon. When the sermon covers a certain topic, God knows it is intended for that particular son or daughter. What if, when that topic comes up, God looks at those particular persons and they are dozing? God would certainly feel unhappy and frustrated with you. No matter how benevolent and sympathetic God may be toward you, at that particular moment He would really feel like hitting you on the head to shake you up!
Do you want to be in the position to receive a hit on the head from God on this New Year's morning? God may have a secretary who is recording every aspect of this message in a Heavenly diary. Would you like to be recorded in that diary as, "He was snoring at the particular moment when the message was meant for him."?
When God feels like bringing His fist down on your head at such a moment, how do you think spirit world feels? Your ancestors, especially, have been in spirit world for a long time, waiting for this time; they feel so proud that you, their offspring, are able to be here and listen to this God's Day message. If you fall asleep all of a sudden, your ancestors will try to do anything to wake you up; they will feel like knocking you over! At that particular moment, your great-great-great-grandfather will say to you, "You rascal! You let me down!" He might feel like pulling out your two eyes because you aren't using them properly.
Today is God's Day. Why do we designate it that way? Is it God's birthday, or some day that God did something special? What kind of a day is God's Day? It is a day of joy, that is true; but why should this day be particularly joyful? After all, God can meet with His beloved ones any day and enjoy any day He chooses, not just January 1. Since we don't celebrate God's birthday any particular day, we have this day to dedicate to God.
This is supposed to be a good day for God. Does He want to encounter good or bad people on this day? Are you qualified to call yourself a good person in whom only goodness resides? You say no. God wants to meet an absolutely good person, but you cannot fulfill that standard. Therefore, no matter how much God wants to bless you and celebrate this day with you He actually has no one qualified to receive that blessing.
People all over the world are celebrating this first day of the year, but where are there people who are celebrating it as God's Day? It is only among the members of the Unification Church. Therefore God would want to be with us on this day, since we are the only ones who recognize it as His day. If God is giving His presence to our God's Day celebration, what about spirit world? They too would want to be here.
Do you think that all the U.S. presidents in spirit world would want to go wherever God goes on God's Day? Maybe we would only accept one representative from those presidents, rather than all of them. How would they decide which president would be the one? George Washington is the best-known president of the United States. Could anyone claim himself more qualified than George Washington? There is probably at least one. How about Abraham Lincoln? He might accuse George Washington, saying, "When you were president, you allowed many slaves to be imported here from Africa, but when I came into office, I emancipated all of them. Look at the Unification celebration-all five colors of skin are there together. Therefore, George, I am more qualified than you to attend that God's Day celebration." That is a strong argument, don't you think?
What would George Washington say to such an argument from Abraham Lincoln? Would he dispute it, or would he agree to it? He would probably have to agree to it. If Abraham Lincoln was chosen to attend, where do you think he would sit? Would he try to push Reverend Moon off the stage and claim the central position, since he was the former president of the United States? Suppose a big argument arose between Reverend Moon and Abraham Lincoln over where Abraham should sit. As a spectator, which one would you support?
If Abraham Lincoln were defeated in the argument with Reverend Moon, would he accept it humbly, or would he go out cursing and denying the value of being here? Maybe after the argument, I would give him permission to stay but he would have to sit beside the trash can. Would he then say, "No! I am president of the United States and I won't sit there!" What would you say then? Would you be willing to give Lincoln your better seat, since he was a president, and be willing to take his seat by the trash can? Even if you tried to do that, I would tell you to remain where you are because it is your seat.
This is all very imaginative but I am trying to illustrate for you the reality of spirit world. There are so many people there who want to be here and take any seat, regardless of how miserable, because they want to join in your celebration of God's Day. When God is attending this celebration, all spirit world sends representatives. What kinds of gifts do you think they would bring? Since God's Day is the most important day of the year, wouldn't they bring the most valuable gifts here? It wouldn't be just some average kind of gift, but something wonderful and absolute.
Abraham Lincoln wouldn't come here empty-handed; he would carry a tremendous gift, as a representative of all the other presidents. He would look at you, the citizens of the United States; if he sees you coming in empty-handed, would he be happy? What kind of gift did you bring? Are you bringing a sleepy head that dozes throughout the sermon? Did you bring the gift of fatigue?
Did you at least wear clean underwear today or did you wear your everyday underwear that you just took casually out of the drawer this morning? Or did you begin to prepare that underwear a long time ago, even one year ago? Did you put it out and look at it and plan, "This is the underwear that I will wear on God's Day next time."? Did you pray, sing and do your Pledge in front of that special underwear? Did you put that kind of value into your tee-shirts and underpants for God's Day?
Even now you could begin to prepare your underwear for God's Day in the year 2000; you could pray in front of it and so forth starting now, putting all your heart and soul into it. You could wash it every day from now until the year 2000. Would God say, "You are wasting your money, your time and energy! Go to prison!" When God's Day 2000 finally comes, seventeen years from now, and you have been washing it every day, you may put it on and discover that it is full of holes! When you wear those ragged underclothes, what would God say to you-that you deserve blame or praise?
Why would God say you deserve praise? Does God like that kind of holy underwear? God would want to reward you because of your sincerest heart and prayer which you dedicated to that underwear for that special day.
Suppose Jeung Jin Nim, who is only six months old now, decides to prepare her underwear for that God's Day when she reaches 100 years of age. She would wash it constantly, praying over it and so forth. Don't you think God would determine that He would never allow her to be taken from the earth before that special 100th year comes? Even if Jeung Jin Nim did nothing throughout her entire life except devote herself to that special underwear, what would God think? After washing those underthings for 100 years, they would literally be shredded rags when that special God's Day came, impossible to wear at all. The only way she could take them to the celebration would be to wrap them up in a package and carry them.
Suppose that when she came to that special God's Day celebration, when she was 100 years old, I asked everybody who was wearing specially-washed underwear to stand up. Jeung Jin Nim would feel qualified to stand up, even though she wasn't actually wearing the underwear. Suppose then that I asked everybody to take off their outer clothing and show off their specially-dedicated underwear. Well, Jeung Jin Nim would have to stand there stark naked while everyone else would be covered by their underwear. Would God declare Jeung Jin Nim unworthy of being there then, since she was so terrible to stand there without any clothes on? No, God and everyone else would recognize that she was the one most worthy of being there and attending the celebration.
Then we would have another problem-when everyone sees Jeung Jin Nim receiving all the praise and recognition for standing there naked, they would all want to be naked, too! We would have to clarify the situation and allow only those who washed their underwear for 100 years to do that.
Do you want to start on your 100-year program now for your "underwear religion?" Certainly a person with such a sincere heart would immediately be lifted up into the Kingdom of Heaven when he went to spirit world.
Although this is a funny topic, there is a lot of truth in the idea. Do you think you can have a casual attitude toward God's Day and just attend any celebration you want, at any time? There will come the time when special professors and scholars will wait for ten years in order to be admitted to the God's Day celebration. How can you think you can come here now and doze off? When the representatives of entire nations and heads of state come to hear these words on God's Day, they will be lit up like lanterns of inspiration. They will want to write down every word and put it on videotape to take back to their home country to share with everyone there.
Knowing this precious value of God's Day, anyone who just routinely attends the celebration and dozes lazily will be chastised by spirit world. You will be specially tormented by your own ancestors.
What kind of gift did you bring to this God's Day? Can you offer this day to God? God is not interested in some material gift, but rather the kind of heart and sincerity you can offer Him. With what kind of heart did you prepare yourself for this special day? Compare the kind of heart and soul you would have toward your own marriage day and the kind of heart you have toward God's Day. Which one should be more intense and deep? God's Day should.
Do you attend the God's Day celebration with the desire to receive something, such as the good Korean lunch at the World Mission Center? Do you try to use God's Day as an excuse to escape the forty days fundraising condition? That is certainly not a healthy motivation. Some people might arrange to get together with their spouses by using God's Day as a reason. People with such poor motivation are most likely the ones who are dozing in the sermons because they really have no interest in God's Day itself.
We must celebrate God's Day with a solid content. We must come to the realization that we set aside January 1st. as God's Day not because of money or power, nor for the sake of the Unification Church or even the True Parents. We do it solely for the love of God. God has never before had the chance to fully manifest His love throughout history; but because of God's Day, God now has the opportunity and reason to show His love to His children. Therefore, the celebration of God's love is the meaning of this day.
God has been suffering for so long, waiting for this opportunity. Today is the time of fulfillment of God's love. Love, which was supposed to be God's property but which was stained and given away to Satan, has been misused and perverted by Satan for his own purposes. God has been desperately seeking the day when that love would be purified and returned to Him. Finally that moment of restoration has come in which God has gained the opportunity to purify love.
In the Unification Church, we have four major yearly celebrations. Beginning forty days before each celebration, you should set aside certain conditions to which you devote your heart and, soul for the sake of that celebration. That is the only way you can truly come here with a valuable gift to offer.
We have Parents' Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things, and God's Day. No matter how honorable or good some people may be who are dwelling in spirit world today, none of them could escape the lineage of Satan. They had absolutely no way to be born from true parents, in the lineage of God and had to be born with the stained blood inherited from Satan. Therefore, the entire spirit world has been waiting for the appearance of the True Parents' Day, since they never had the privilege of being born into True Parents lineage.
The people here on earth are in the Abel position to those in spirit world; therefore, you should feel more privileged than they to be participating in these holidays. You should be making deeper heart and soul conditions than anyone in spirit world. All of humanity has been agonizing, waiting to become true sons and daughters of God. Religious people have paid incredible indemnity, such as martyrdom and terrible earthly suffering. All of that was to fulfill the day when they could become the true children of God, under the lineage of True Parents.
All men and women will be competing with each other to become the most pious children of God because True Parents have appeared for the first time. This is the one time they can set the record; anybody who really knows the meaning of this day will dedicate themselves totally to becoming children of filial piety.
In order to bring the truest heart and soul condition in preparation for these holidays, you need a mate who will be your partner in helping you to accomplish those conditions. Men and women come together as a pair of subject and object to accomplish this.
In order to make an offering, you need an altar. Once an offering is placed upon the altar, it stays there permanently. However, people fluctuate frequently in spirit-sometimes high, sometimes low. Therefore, you must have some offering in order to be really acceptable to God. It will have value according to the depth of heart and soul you put into it; through that alone can God acknowledge your sincerity and integrity and accept your offering.
In the Old Testament era, all the things of creation were offered on the altar to God. In the era of the New Testament, the Son of God was offered. In the Completed Testament era, the Parents are the ones who are the offering.
In the Old Testament, lambs, doves, and so on were cut in half and the person making the offering bowed before it. At the time of the New Testament, Satan crucified Jesus on the cross, which became the sacred altar for all of mankind, before which everyone bows down. At the time of the Completed Testament, the True Parent must be the living sacrifice, bearing one cross after another in everyday life.
In order for you to prepare properly for God's Day, you must begin in advance; you must plan what to offer out of the depth of your heart. You must bring your spiritual children as an offering. At this time of the Completed Testament, you are combining the offerings of the past and are offering everything at the same time. Your gift is offered as the fulfillment of the Old Testament era; your spiritual children consummate the New Testament era. When you offer yourself in the parental position, your offering becomes total.
For that reason-sanctifying and consecration of this kind of offering-God's Day has been set aside. We did not come here today just for festivities and having a great time; that is not the spirit at all. After today, God's Day will be over, but that particular offering you made will continue every day and will grow in value. When we continue to accumulate such grateful offerings of heart, with each day added on for hundreds and thousands of years, we will be sanctifying this earth and we shall make the Kingdom of Heaven finally. That is the way the transformation comes.
The order of celebrations, therefore, occurs like this: first Parents' Day, because without true parents no new life can come, nothing can happen. Then the parents give life to true children, so Children's Day comes next. By restoring the true children we can restore the things of creation, so we celebrate All Things Day. After that, finally we can celebrate God's Day.
The time will come eventually when, once all these things have been consummated, I will be able to offer all these things to God in their original positions. God will then be in the position to accept them and claim them as His own. The priest of the Unification Church is in the position of receiving all the gifts coming from the world, as the representative of God. My position is that of chief priest.
Eventually the different parts of the world will prepare special gifts with great heart and soul and offer them for these four great celebrations of God. When a gift is being transported by airplane, for example from Brazil to Korea, all the people on the land in Brazil should bow down when they see that airplane passing overhead. All the Brazilian radios and televisions should report exactly where that plane is along its path; when it starts flying over Japan, the people there would respect that particular plane, too, because it is carrying a gift to God.
That is the true meaning of a celebration; we are going to set that kind of tradition. In the Old Testament era, the people worshipped in temples; each temple contained a tabernacle in which there was the holy place and the most holy place. Only the chief priest was qualified to enter that most holy place; the regular priests were not even able to do that. There was a certain sacred, procedure in which the offering could be made to God. Any offering had to be made with the proper procedure and could only I be touched by the appropriate religious leaders.
I An offering is not limited to the one time in which it is I made. It becomes the gift of all things of creation, the gift of the children, the gift of oneself-everything becomes a part of it. Not only all things, but also your children are a better offering; yourself is the very best offering. Together you represent all the fallen generations and when you are coming back to God through the high priest you ask him to receive you as a pure offering.
All things represent the Old Testament offering; the children represent the New Testament era; True Parents become the Completed Testament era offering. These three offerings come together on God's Day; we ask God to accept them all at once as our total gift.
Unification members should not be indebted to others, even in a material way. We should always be moving forward dynamically; we should not be a burden to anybody. The material world has been sanctified through the Unification Church, so Satan cannot claim those things which we own because we have always offered them to God. Always in the past Satan has been able to invade the material possessions of people; but here in the Unification Church, material has gained sacredness. We never consider any material thing as "my own;" we recognize it as God's property and because of His love, we are allowed to have stewardship of certain things.
While you are here on the earth, you must attend the True Parents in your daily lives. If you fail to do that while they are on the earth, when you enter into spirit world you will be accused by everyone there. The life we lead here on the earth is for the purpose of creating a truly proper offering to God. Any offering which cannot communicate with the love of God will be rejected by Him.
Once all things are offered to God, He will give stewardship of certain things to you. When you receive it as a gift from God, you can use it for the sake of your own children, for example. This is because your ultimate offering will be your children and in order to create the Heavenly four-position foundation, you are using certain material things for fulfilling your total offering to God. That is the only way we can justify the use of God's materials.
Any offering must be connected with the love of God; even material things have that connection. Certainly children have that connection and you yourself have to be connected with God's love. Only when all those positions are offered to God can God accept your gift.
You must see everything, at all times, as connected with the love of God. All the material things you use must be seen as having that connection; your children are connected and you, too, are connected. That is the way you must look at them, every minute of the day.
You must look at every day as the preparation to welcome the parents into your home. You must prepare your things, your house, your furniture and together with your children, you should be ready to welcome the parents. When True Parents come to visit you, they will feel completely at home and completely united with you.
When the grandfather prepares to meet his death, he is in the position of the chief priest of his family. He will gather together all the younger generations-his eldest son, grandchildren, etc. He will tell them, "I upheld the principles and the love of God. You must continue to do so; I am now giving you that right to carry on." The one who inherits that position becomes the master of the house. That is the kind of home tradition which must be created.
Many Americans say, "The things Reverend Moon and the Unification Church are teaching are only the Korean and Oriental way," but that is not the case. We are teaching God's way. When you come to enter the holy or the most holy place, you must be harmonized among husband and wife and children. Men and women who are dedicating their entire lives for the sake of making a proper offering to God-all things, their children, themselves- will still feel humbled and not enough; they will always want to bring a greater offering. When such people die, they go straight into the highest possible Heaven.
Just as God created all things, He has given stewardship to His children; therefore, you have the right to take care of those things, with the heart of appreciation to the Creator. A person who has lived such a public life may be elevated into spirit world without having been able to receive his proper reward from God. Once he is there, God can reward that person with everything he desires.
We have only one way directly to God-through the way of true love. Once you truly fulfill the position of restored Adam and Eve, you will take all the things of creation under your care and connect them to the love of God. Then there will be no more boundary between God and you. The very reason I am teaching this principle today is that I have the obligation to nurture you and make each of you a Heavenly person while you are here on the earth; this is your only opportunity. Once you pass away, you have no more chance. This is the very time to become a Heavenly person.
The clothes you are wearing are not yours; your own physical body is not even yours. Your husband or wife is not yours. There is only one way these things can become yours-by connecting them and yourself with the love of God. When you are totally a part of the love of God and can relate the love of your husband and children with that vertical love, everything will become yours.
The Principle of Creation tells very clearly that God created men and all things because of His love. Therefore your right to ownership can be determined by your connection with that true love of God. The Unification Church is a very privileged church with a special honor because we have a way in which we can legitimately claim others and all things. You are in the position to return to God.
Unless you fulfill this process while you are living here on earth, there will be no bridge between you, the physical world and the spirit world. Everything in the Unification Church is done in the name of God. Even our marriages are done in the name of God; they are not for our own sake, but for God's sake. I want you to understand clearly that you claim all things in order to come closer to God; you want to have something to offer to God. You want to get the marriage blessing because you can possess more of the love of God in that way. You want to have children so that you can consummate the love of God. Everything is connected with the love of God.
We are walking the original path for man; even your marriage is a part of that path. For the Unification Church marriage is essential. The husband and wife love relationship must be one which is saintly and sacred. When a woman is embarrassed, she often covers her mouth which is a most holy place and which she wants to protect. How do men and women begin to express their love for each other? Naturally, you come together in a kiss; thus your mouth is a most holy place.
Women have three levels of holy places through which they express their love. One is the mouth, which is the formation stage; the next is the bosom, which is the growth stage; and finally the sexual organs, which are the perfection stage. All these three are truly holy places. Therefore, nobody can touch them without having the special key, special permission. That key is held in the hands of the husband. No one else has the particular key to fit the particular holy places of that woman. Anybody who gives out more than one key is giving out a key to Satan; perhaps Satan will have two or three keys. That absolutely degrades the person.
The only way a woman or man can open up their most holy places is by going to their husband or wife. When the priest, which is your spouse, comes to you and prepares to enter your holy places, you naturally welcome him or her and just open up freely. Many people consider sexual activities to be dirty or ugly, but actually they are the most holy activities. It is Satan who made them dirty.
Because those places are so holy, the holiest of products will come out of their use in love - your children They are the most supremely holy things you can create and they are the result of your love. When your children come, you see them as the flesh of your flesh; you want to give everything to them. The child does all kinds of dirty, smelly things, like messing up his diapers, but it doesn't make any difference to the parents. They welcome it. When your own son or daughter dirties their diapers, it smells like perfume to you, but perhaps as soon as your husband uses the bathroom it is a very offensive smell; it certainly isn't perfume to you. That is because your husband is still someone other than yourself - a foreigner - although you can join together in love. However, the child is the bone of your bone, the flesh of your flesh.
When you go to the toilet, do you suffer incredible torture from the smell? Of course not, because it is part of your own bodily functions and you love yourself. Therefore you are not offended by your own smells. Husband and wife should feel the same toward each other. When a couple gets up in the morning and the husband goes to the bathroom first, suppose the wife comes in and cries, "What are you doing! You are polluting the entire house! Open the window, I can't stand it!" Such a wife would be a very poor one. When there is true love between husband and wife, you will open the door where your spouse is using the toilet and you will feel you are smelling a perfume.
Love has the power to transform bad things into good-bad smells into good smells, bad tastes into good tastes. Love can sweeten and sanctify everything. An example was Jesus' love. Even though Judas showed such ugliness toward him and betrayed Jesus for money, Jesus never hated him at all. Jesus' love had the power to digest that ugliness in Judas and turn it around into something sweet.
Love is a miracle. When a person falls into the kind of love which is wrongly directed, it will shatter that person into pieces. However, when your love is redirected in the proper way, you can jump right into the bosom of God. Love is miraculously powerful.
God had virtually no limits on Adam and Eve; He gave them total freedom, except for the commandment not to eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. "The day that you eat of it, you shall die," was God's warning. Such was the power of love and the danger of the misuse of it. When you make only one misstep regarding love, you will be brought right down to the bottom of hell; but with the right steps, you can jump directly into the bosom of God. That is the power of love.
You cannot exercise love by yourself; you must have a partner and you must have parents, children, brothers and sisters. That is the only way for love to manifest truly. The "free love" system is truly a satanic strategy to bring people down into hell. Therefore there are millions of broken families in which the wife or husband or both have been immoral. The mission of the Unification Church is to bring about a revolution in love; we must restore the proper direction to love.
Why does God let us suffer so much, if He loves us so much? It is because God wants us to find the deepest, sweetest, most perfect love. By going through such ordeals as fundraising, witnessing and so forth, you will be able to experience that kind of truest love. Our fundraisers go out and face opposition from every direction; your parents and family give you a hard time. When you return to your centers, you bring your offering to the altar of God and you cry out to Him, "God, you are a suffering God and I want to make this offering. You have been waiting for an offering of true love, but no one else has been able to give such an offering."
You can say to Him, "Heavenly Father, I will go out for the toughest mission-MFT or anything-and I will go as a representative of all of mankind; I want to bring some comfort to You as a gift of love. I will not fail in this gift of love." That is the way in which you bring all things to the love of God.
Then you go out to the world and you tell God, "Heavenly Father, you have been looking for your true children; without them, your heart has been broken. I will go out now to represent your love and bring as many spiritual children as possible to become your sons and daughters. I want to do your will and I will not hesitate to take on any hardships to accomplish it."
It is truly the champions of God, wonderful men and women, who can say to God, "I brought you the offering of my fundraising; I gained spiritual children for you. Now is the time in which I want to consummate my heavenly four-position foundation, so I need to get married. I want to bring true children into the world, free of sin, for you."
After you are consummated as husband and wife, you can walk the road of restoration of all things, children, and parents. Your home becomes the place for your "love workshop," in which you experience all the different levels of love-parental, conjugal, and children's. By doing so, your accomplishments will never diminish, even when you are elevated into spirit world. What a wonderful and dramatic life we are living!
You are becoming the kings and queens of God's Kingdom; you are like the royal family of God. By fulfilling all these conditions, we can enter into the royal inner circle. What kinds of kings and queens are you? You are true love kings and queens. Adam and Eve were supposed to be the first king and queen of true love. We shall recreate that same kingship of true love here on earth and will be elevated directly into the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven.
The Unification Church is uniquely privileged to celebrate these holidays. Each of them is incredibly important-Day of All Things, Children's Day, Parent's Day, and then all together we consummate them on God's Day. Each year we return to celebrate God's Day. You come back one year with your husband or wife; the next year you come with your children; finally you come with all the things of creation. You come together and you are given the passport to the royal palace of God.
God's Day is the ultimate celebration of the year. Before you come to God's Day, all your ungodliness must be repented for and swept away. You must repent if you have quarrels among your family and you must cleanse these things and create harmony before you attend the celebration. The Bible teaches that before a person makes an offering to God, he must first go and settle his differences with his brethren; otherwise, he is not worthy to make that offering. This is exactly what I am telling you. You should be able to offer your children; if they are not worthy, they cannot come, either, to celebrate God's Day.
Do you think the teachings of Reverend Moon this morning are just my own, or are they principles straight from the Heart of God? They are pure, genuine principles. When you receive these principles, do you accept them with a totally obedient heart? There is no room for exceptions. It is nature's law that when you are hungry, you need food; when you are sleepy, you need sleep. By the same token, when you are spiritually imperfect, you need the right principles to live by; it is by principle that your spiritual hunger can be satisfied and you can be made whole.
We are speaking of the most supremely important principles of all. If you were to become very, very hungry and you just grabbed some food and totally forgot about God for the moment, you would have to lay down your fork and repent, "God, I forgot about you; I loved this food momentarily more than you. I'm sorry." Since 1978, the rules of the Unification Church have been somewhat loosened; I couldn't feel confidence in even the leaders. I have been observing what the Unification members are doing; from 1983 on we are going to tighten up. There will be no more halfway-type living in the Unification Church. Shall we do this?
We shall pledge to God that we will be worthy of attending this God's Day celebration without any shame or pain in our consciences. That is the way we want to prepare ourselves, isn't that right? Before bedtime tonight, you must make a covenant between God and you. Tell Him, "God, I pledge to You that I will fulfill my promises. Please help me to accomplish these things." Once you have made a covenant with God, nothing must stop you. Even your husband or wife should not stop you; your own children, or even the entire world must not stop you. No matter what, you should fulfill that covenant.
When you move straightforwardly toward your goal, you will give great delight to God; but if you take a zigzagged way, God will not be with you. Think about yourself and repent: you always remember your own birthday, or your spouse's and children's but how much did you do for God's Day? What have you done to remember God? For so many years, I celebrated my own birthday by fasting. I wanted to give all honor to God. The person who fails to properly celebrate any of the major holidays has no right to celebrate his own or anybody else's birthday.
Everybody in the church always wants to make a big celebration when my birthday comes, but I always tell them not to. I don't even want to dress up nicely; I would rather dress like a laborer and spend the entire day fasting. This is because I know precisely the providence of restoration and what it requires. Unless you hit the bottom, you have no right to climb up to the pinnacle of the mountain. If you really want to taste the love of God, don't try to go up; instead, dig down to the bottom of life. That is where the deepest love of God can be found, not in the highest place of beauty and honor. That is why I always push you men and women down into the lowest situations of difficulty.
Throughout history, this principle has persisted; in order to reach the highest point, you have to go down to the very bottom first. Are you prepared to do that? Usually everybody just wants to take the easiest way to the top looking for loopholes. In that way, they are already caught by Satan's hooks.
The road of persecution is the real bottom line and that is why I have gone this way. Actually I never wished to become a famous man, but God pushed me into that position. This is because God knew that Reverend Moon was the only champion here on earth for the honor of God. In order to make His influence wider, God has pushed me out into this position. I never wished to have a lot of money or wealth, but God has blessed me with tremendous resources. Why is that? Because God knew very well that I would direct the spending of that money for His purposes. All things of creation have been waiting in agony for the appearance of their true master who could exercise proper dominion over them. Therefore, God has blessed me with many things.
Reverend Moon never really wanted to have to deal with all different kinds of people, but God knew that I would be able to harmonize all people into the one race of God. Therefore, God is pushing everybody toward me, and I am relating with people of all races and cultures. These kinds of things are not the personal wishes of Reverend Moon, but my concern is for one thing: how can I connect the true love of God to all things and all people.
I feel so much anguish and wrath when I observe the way in which some leaders have actually chased the pure lambs of our membership away. Many members become lost because of the poor demonstration of the leaders of the Unification Church, who are so far away from True Parents' spirit. For that reason, I am very angry with them. However, the principled conclusion is this: the more they become familiar with Reverend Moon, all things shall be directed more and more toward me; all people shall inevitably come to love Reverend Moon.
Everybody wants to go through Reverend Moon's "gate;" they want to touch him. That is the way all of you are thinking, so eventually all mankind will be thinking that way, too. Also all the things of creation will want to be touched by Reverend Moon. Why is that? Because Reverend Moon is representing the true love of God. God wants to touch him, as well. God is thinking in the same fashion.
Therefore, the members of the Unification Church who are led by Reverend Moon shall never diminish or decline; they shall go forward to that ultimate goal of God's desire. Think of it: even under incredible persecution, we have continued our progress and development up to now. Once society changes and begins to welcome Reverend Moon, what will happen? There will be such a rapid multiplying effect. The time will come when everything and everybody will welcome Reverend Moon.
Under the utmost opposition and persecution, Reverend Moon still made 45 degrees worth of progress upward. Therefore, when there is no more obstruction and people start to welcome Reverend Moon, what will I be able to do? That time, however, will be too late for you to meet with me. Once I am moving totally vertically, it will be too late for you. The sovereignties of many countries, such as in Central and South America, are already wanting to meet with me and have invited me to visit them. They want to give me honors and permanent citizenship. Meanwhile, North America wants to kick me out.
Whatever direction Reverend Moon takes becomes the destiny of a certain country. If I turn away from some place, it will decline; if I turn towards a certain place, it will prosper. That is what is happening already, with North America declining and South America moving forward.
Abraham received his mandate from God: leave your hometown at once. He obeyed without hesitation. God might give that same mandate again to Reverend Moon: take off, and take off with the Moonies. What would you do? Would you immediately obey God? When God sent the Israelites out of Egypt under Moses' leadership, He gave them a precise timetable of three days. But those who failed to comply would become the victims of Egypt. That is the teaching of history.
Have you ever thought that this 1983 God's Day celebration might be the last one with Reverend Moon here in America? That is a possibility which no one can deny. God could give me the mandate and I would be gone to the place where God sent me. That is what I am prepared to do. If I take off to another place, you will have to gain my permission in order to go with me. Even to participate in any of those future celebrations you will have to have my permission. Once I leave here, it won't be easy for you to see me. You want to be invited, don't you? You shall have the invitation-if you are qualified.
Whenever a new class in school begins, everyone in the class starts at the same time, including the teachers and the students. But within the span of one year, some students succeed and some students flunk out. Teachers are bound by the rules; even if the teacher loves a particular student, if he doesn't make the grade, the teacher cannot pass him on to the next higher class. It doesn't matter how much the teacher loves the student; he must go through the test and pass on his own. Can the student who fails claim, "My father is a very well known politician and he gave a big contribution to this university."? Such an effort would not help the student. Nor will it help to say, "My mother is a very beautiful woman and my father is very handsome."
You American citizens might try to make a similar claim such as, "I am a citizen of America, so I am a first-class citizen." It makes no difference; you still must pass the course. You must realize that freedom and equality come under a new definition in the land of God. If you try to continue only by your own definition, it will never work.
I have always spoken of both the horizontal and vertical disciplines. Equality does not apply to the vertical discipline, but only the horizontal. History always recognizes the vertical chain of command rather than the horizontal. The Western civilization, particularly the American, is a horizontal civilization. If it remains based only upon the horizontal discipline, it will decline; there is no other way for it to go. The vertical must come first; it sets the tradition and discipline. Then the horizontal prosperity can come.
Let's say you have a horizontal pole; it must have a center in order to turn in a harmonized circle. Without that, it would turn wildly and without order. Suppose you just wanted to claim your own center at any particular place. No matter what, there is only one true center.
The custom here in America has produced children who say, "So what about my parents? I am completely equal to them and I am equal to everybody else as well." However, according to the vertical chain of command, father and son cannot be "equal"; there is no such relationship between them. The center is absolute; it harmonizes everything in a balanced way. All distances are the same from the center to the perimeter. The center of the circle cannot position itself somewhere in the corner of the circle; and there is only one center, not two or three.
I want you to understand that what you have here in America and the Western world is a horizontal culture. This cannot continue to prosper without meeting with the vertical discipline and principle. That is what Reverend Moon's teaching is all about. In the American culture, the love between men and women is all-important, but there is little recognition of the love of parents, grandparents and elders. Such a culture will decline, without question.
Therefore Reverend Moon came to rescue America by bringing the vertical discipline to this civilization. You may not want to hear this, but you have to hear it. When you are a patient in the hospital, you don't want to hear your diagnosis if it is bad. You never want to hear the doctor tell you, "You have cancer." You only want to hear, "No more problems." Even though cancer may be consuming your body, you only want to hear that you are fine. Reverend Moon has given you the correct diagnosis because that is the only true way to bring some hope to you. Only in that way can the disease be treated.
At Yankee Stadium, I proclaimed to the American people that this country is like a sick patient in need of a doctor. Always your doctor will come from somewhere outside of your own home. Also I said that America is like a home on fire; you need a firefighter to come from outside, not inside, to put out the fire. This disturbed people deeply; they didn't want to hear it. People say to me, "Reverend Moon, you have no right to call yourself a physician or a firefighter. You are a blasphemer to say such things to this healthy country!" In the arrogant minds of some people, they are thinking, "You are just a Korean, Reverend Moon, from that underdeveloped country. How could you say such things to this cultured country?"
Many white people in this country have been selfish and taken advantage of all the colored people. Reverend Moon has committed no sins against America, yet the white people are trying to destroy him. Even though I have established a worldwide movement, still they seek to destroy me. What about those underprivileged Africans, South Americans and Middle Eastern people who come to this country? They have no power or influence and they are not well-treated by white people; in fact, they are discriminated against. When God looks down at this, He cannot tolerate it.
Therefore the white culture needs to repent with tears for their selfishness. If they do not have that repentance, wait and see what destiny will befall them. This means Reverend Moon will not fall under that same destiny and be destroyed; when Reverend Moon leaves this country, even more decline will be seen. When the day comes for Reverend Moon to depart, it will be a dark day for America. But you must commit yourselves, saying, "Father, I will not let you down. I will fulfill your role here in America to instruct the people and carry out your tradition."
I want you to understand that Reverend Moon did not come to America because East Garden Estate is very beautiful, or because of some comfortable Cadillac, or for the sake of delicious American food. All these things hold no attraction for me whatsoever. I came here to do my mission, period, until the last minute possible. If I cannot find fifty honorable people throughout America, I will still seek to find even five honorable people through whom I can save America.
The time has come, however, when there is some hope. Americans are no longer blindly accusing Reverend Moon, as they were in the past. They are beginning to recognize something of value. Even the media is beginning to change. Exactly one year ago today, January 1, 1982, I spoke to 200 men and women out of this congregation and asked them to go to Washington and create the newspaper Washington Times by March 1. Everybody was incredulous, including Bo Hi Pak. He told me, "This is impossible!" I told him, "You are of little faith! Just do it," and he obeyed totally. What has happened?
Of course, I knew it would be impossible to do everything in Washington within two months, so I instructed Bo Hi Pak to create the paper in New York and fly down the negatives to Washington every night. 240 million Americans had been completely unworried about the liberal media such as Washington Post and the New York Times; but as soon as Reverend Moon, Bo Hi Pak and the Moonies come on the scene, they got worried.
You know we didn't have enough money for this project, but we gave our blood and sweat to make it happen. Today is our first year anniversary. Looking back, do you think it was the right or the wrong thing to do?
This is the way the life of Reverend Moon has gone, day after day, moment after moment. Always I am thinking of only one thing-the salvation of America, the salvation of mankind. Therefore, I declared an emergency. I live day by day in the context of emergency. How about you? You always complain and try to find excuses for yourselves. God does not want that. This is serious. Do you think the same way as I do?
When I look at everything from this emergency point of view, how unworthy you are to deserve my attention! This is 1983. At this time, we will decide the destiny of our movement, this nation and the free world. Either we will go down or we will go up. It is up to you to decide that destiny.
In a powerhouse, all the lines of electricity are connected to the generator; the important thing is that someone must flip the switch and turn on the energy. Who will do that job? Electricity cannot be turned on halfway.
This God's Day we have come here for a celebration, but really we have come for an awakening, a new determination and commitment. That is the true meaning of God's Day. In that respect we are celebrating the most important celebration. That is the only way we can make this day worthwhile to celebrate. I am saying all these things today and some people might think I am being very severe. Why am I doing it? I am saying these things because I love you; I do not want you to decline but to become qualified and glorious in the sight of God.
In 1985, the forty years of Unification wilderness period will be over. But we have to shift into high gear starting today; next year will be too late. This year is the determining year. Those of you who say, "We will not let you down. We will do it!" raise your hands. Let us all say, "Amen! "
Once again, let me see your raised hands. Thank you.