God's Will and the World

January 1, 1973
Tarrytown, New York

s you know, today is the sixth God's Day. Five years have passed since we first set up this historically unprecedented day. It is quite a historical event.

In this world, we have many memorable days, such as our birthdays, the birthdays of our parents, or the national birthday, such as the day of independence. There are many nations and peoples living on this earth; they have ceremonies and festivities celebrating their own national days. If a nation had suffered foreign domination, then the day of independence or the day of liberation would be the happiest of all. Suppose someone here had lost his children but found them today. Wouldn't that make today the happiest day of his life? The second happiest day in our lives must be the day of our blessing or marriage.

But in all of these special occasions, there has never been a God's Day set up. When we look back on human history in light of divine providence, we can see that God's Day can only be established when other days are brought to God's side. We have many important or meaningful days to celebrate in our lives, but never have we set up a day just to celebrate God.

The original God's Day

n the Garden of Eden, if Adam and Eve had grown to perfection without falling, the day they reached their maturity would have been the day of utmost joy for both God and humans. On that happiest day of their lives, God could have blessed them in matrimony. That day would have also been the day when True Parents of all mankind could be installed, signaling the commencement of a beautiful family life. This triumphant family would have represented all the future families of the earth, so that day would have been a day of joy for God and for all the creation including the archangels. This would have truly been God's Day. He could have been proud of His children in this situation, and the whole creation could have accepted or welcomed the men of perfection as their lords. According to the Principle of Creation, this day could have become God's Day, Children's Day and World Day, or the Day of All Things.

But because of the human fall, those days were nullified. According to the Principle, things must be restored in the reverse order in which they were lost. In order to restore God's Day, we first had to restore the day of parents, children and things. In 1960, on the 16th day of April [later shifted to March 1 on the lunar calendar], we set up Parents' Day for the first time. From that point, we began to restore, on a solid foundation, things on the individual level, family level, national level, and worldwide level. Centered on Parents' Day, we could set up Children's Day a short time later.

In human society, there has not been any family who could really be recognized by God. There have been no true parents, no true children, from the standpoint of complete sinlessness. In order for the children of the world to be reborn as brothers and sisters, they must have common parents to give them rebirth. We now have Children's Day; signifying the day we become the true children of our True Parents by being reborn. Then, based on the foundation of Parents' Day and Children's Day, we then could set up the Day of All Things, or World Day.

The establishment of Holy Grounds

n 1965, I made my first world tour, visiting some 40 countries. In these nations, I set up 120 Holy Grounds. Having set up the True Family, with the True Parents and True Children, I linked that family with the whole world by blessing Holy Grounds in so many places. By setting up these three things, I have reached the national level in my mission.

Jesus wanted to set up this kind of condition, centered on the chosen nation of the Israelites. If he had been able to set up the condition on the clan or the tribal level, he could have advanced to the national level. Had he completed all things, Jesus would have been able to set up God's Day in his lifetime. But due to the crucifixion, Jesus left all those things unaccomplished.

So, it has been my mission to set up God's Day, which I did in 1968. But I could do this only after setting up the rest of the days. Now, with these four main holy days set up, God's providence of restoration can move into the mainstream.

Because of the fall, Adam and Eve were unable to set up these days. You know that man fell at the top of the growth stage, before reaching the completion stage. For man to advance from the growth stage to the completion stage, he must have parents who have nothing to do with sin. But due to the fall, the first parents, Adam and Eve, and all subsequent parents fell down to a level far below the growth stage. In order for man to be saved or elevated to the next stage, True Parents must come and give rebirth.

To pass through the final stage of growth, we must go through a seven year course. Each stage of growth has three subunits so there are nine subunits. Perfection comes at the very top of the completion stage, which is number 10. Each stage involves a seven year course, so only after 21 years do we reach the last point. This is why society considers a person mature when he or she reaches the age of 21.

Following the Holy Wedding in 1960, I had to set up many things during the seven years until 1967, when I could commence work on the next level. During those seven years, I was establishing the role of the True Parents. With that qualification, I worked to open the gate, to open the way from the individual level to the family level, and advancing even to the nationwide level and the world.

Second seven year course

hen, the second seven year course began. If it were not for the fall, the first seven year course would have been sufficient, the fall made the second seven year course necessary.

For example, before the coming of Jesus Christ there was the chosen nation of Israel. Jesus and the chosen nation were supposed to become one. But when the people did not believe in him, he was unable to accomplish his mission during his lifetime, and he could not fulfill the role of the True Parents on earth. To be restored through indemnity, we have had to go through all these things. When the person in the parent's position can accomplish his mission, those in the children's position will be able to accomplish theirs. Parents and children together have to restore the nation and then the whole world.

It is our mission to restore the nation of God's choice, which was lost at the time of Jesus. By setting up these three days — Parents' Day, Children's Day, and World Day — I was then qualified to set up God's Day at the end of the first seven year course.

During the second seven year course, all the children who inherited the foundation laid by True Parents, could begin to accomplish their own mission on the national and worldwide levels. During the second seven year course, we have had to restore a nation to God, so that what was left unaccomplished in Jesus' day, centered on the chosen nation of Israel, could be realized, centered on ourselves.

Originally, God's intention was to send the Messiah on a solid national foundation, so that Jesus could have commenced his mission right there. But Jesus had to begin restoring things beginning on a lower level. Had he stood on the national foundation, with the cooperation of the people of that age, he could have opened the tollgate to the worldwide level then. Jesus, the Messiah, came in the capacity of the True Parents. Originally, True Parents should have come on a solid national foundation of chosen people. Then, without having to make indemnity conditions, he could have made the providence of restoration a success on the worldwide level.

Connecting spiritual and physical levels

esus' crucifixion made it impossible to connect the spiritual level with the physical level. So our aim is to connect all things on the spiritual and the physical levels. Had we truly accomplished our mission on the national level, True Parents could have started their mission spiritually on the worldwide level in the spiritual sense, connecting it later to the physical level, as well.

We start this year at the national level of restoration in a spiritual sense. We are now heading for the worldwide level. The second seven year course should end in 1974. Before that, we have to link the nationwide level of restoration in the spiritual sense. If we could really set up the nationwide level of restoration in the physical sense, the worldwide level would open up at the same time.

It was no accident that Korea recently began some revitalizing reforms through North-South dialogue. If Jesus had been able to work on the national level and connect the Jewish people with that level, that would have given him the foundation to advance to the next level. The Korean people are now standing on the national foundation laid by our True Parents. And if they lift that to the worldwide level, then they can make the mission of Korea as the chosen nation a success in the very near future. When I came here on my fourth world tour, I had already surpassed the level of national mission and am now connecting it to the next level of worldwide mission.

Expanding to the world level

ince the United States is the leading nation of the world, I hoped, during the three years beginning last year, to set up restoration on a worldwide level. Then our movement can grow by leaps and bounds. With the national level already created in Korea, if the members in the United States cooperate with me, and if you all really push forward on your mission, we can attain the restoration of the whole world here. Furthermore, I am going to bring manpower from Europe and the Orient, to concentrate on the work here. After this third seven year course, our ideology should become the leading ideology of the world. When I refer to going from the national to the worldwide level, I mean that I can go as far as what has already been accomplished in Korea. I want you to bear this in mind whenever you try to accomplish your mission.

What you are doing in the United States is not for the United States alone. You are standing on the foundation laid by Korean people, centered on my mission. This means you will be able to accomplish your mission on the worldwide level after inheriting what I accomplished. You are not qualified enough to accomplish your own mission without my help. It is difficult and it may sound impossible, but if you persevere and become one with me, inheriting the foundation I have already laid, it really is possible. The work of restoration through indemnity is something you can do when you are on the axis, and that axis turns around me.

With the True Parents on earth, you must carry out what was left unaccomplished by the spirit men in the vast spirit world, including Jesus. You must realize that you are carrying out their missions, too. You must, in fact, play the role of Jesus, restoring yourself on the individual level and then restoring your family and clan. In that role, you are in the position of Jesus' having accomplished that much in his lifetime on the physical level with his 12 apostles, 70 disciples, and 120 followers. That is why in the Unification church we now have to turn the clan level restoration into national level restoration. In many ways you must be greater than Jesus himself ever was, greater than all the passed-away saints who came and died without completing their missions on both the spiritual and physical levels.

With these thoughts in mind, you must try to become one with me. Then together we can advance to the next level of worldwide development. So far, in the Christian world, the saints have paid the price of martyrdom and untold misery and hardships whenever they tried to carry out their missions, because Jesus left all those things unaccomplished on the physical level. Our mission is to restore all those things spiritually and physically; so, even though we may be faced with untold difficulties and misery along the way, we must persevere and be able to carry out all those missions in our lifetime. After setting conditions on the spiritual level, we are sure to win the things on the physical level. So with this as the formula, we are sure to carry out our missions. But unless we are willing to sacrifice ourselves for the great cause, we cannot easily accomplish our missions.

After the third seven year course, by the year 1981, we should find channels opening freely to all directions. We will have accomplished the mission left uncompleted by Jesus and by the saints from his time until now. Is this clear to you? Unless you really know all these facts, you can never know where you are situated in the providence of God and how much I have gained. Without your realizing it, I am fulfilling the Principle formula.

But you must know that Parents' Day, Children's Day, World Day and God's Day are days celebrated only within the scope of our Unification Church; the outside world does not recognize them. True Parents gave themselves for the whole of mankind. A day is not special, in the real sense, unless it is recognized by all the people of the world. Are these days recognized by the people of the world? No. So, we must understand how remorseful and agonized God's heart is that only a handful of people are celebrating these days.

Heaven is the place we enter after having celebrated God's Day, Parents' Day, World Day, and Children's Day on the worldwide level. Only after having lived that kind of life on earth can we really enter heaven. But are we in that position? You said no. That means if anyone of you here should die today, you would go to Paradise or a lower realm, but not into the real heaven. That is the view of Principle. So we are anxious to go beyond the level of the nation to the level of worldwide providence. Unless we can do that, the world will remain as it is.

In the Unification Church, we have blessed families. If I cannot fulfill the unification ideal on the worldwide level, with the cooperation of those blessed families, it will be more difficult to take you with me when you don't cooperate. I will have to drag you. But it makes things harder if I have to drag with me all the people in the Unification Church. Originally, the Principle did not use the term second coming on the family level. With all this in mind, I am seriously thinking about how to take you beyond the level of the nation, to the worldwide level of providence. I have, in fact, opened up the channel to the next level of worldwide providence. In doing this, the wise will try to return one nation to God, fulfilling everyone's hope.

Whether nations in the communist world and democratic world rise or fall is nothing in God's sight. If there is a nation of God's choice with one person as the nucleus, there is hope for mankind, even if both camps, democratic and communist, are destroyed. If I succeed in my mission, restoring my family and the nation of God's choice, then the whole world will be restored. But God is ready to sacrifice even my family in order to save the whole world.

When you focus on all these things, you must be able to join together in great harmony, having a new unified goal in God's providence of restoration. If you are disunited, like the disciples of Jesus, then you cannot expect anything to remain out of what you did. In the Unification Church we must become harmonized into perfect unity. We must never criticize each other. Never protest that you are not ready to go; if you do, you can never expect to reach any place. This is one great law. We are going along a one way road and we can never turn back.

We are now facing a grave situation, but we are filled with great hope as we head for this one goal. By the year 1981, at the end of the third seven year course, you must be able to become really united with the True Parents. Whatever difficulties we may have to go through, we must be resolved to attain our goal.

An unprecedented task

ou are doing things which no other people and no other nation have ever dreamed of. If you are not really serious and dedicated to accomplishing the task, you are going to make God's cause a failure. But we can never fail because God is working with us and we have the Principle, which will push us on. How honestly you are attached to the True Parents, how fervently you pray for the success of our great cause, and how strenuously you labor for the cause — all this will matter. And if you are resolved to do that, you will really make everything a success.

On your way, you might fall back and take a rest, but I can never do that. In Jesus' days, if the people of Judaism and the chosen nation of Israel had become one with him, he would not have gone the miserable way of the cross. We must be able to put ourselves in the position of the Jewish people and the nation of Israel and make our mission a success. Imagine yourself as the high priest of that time. Place yourself even in the position of the king at that time in order to accomplish the mission assigned to you. If you don't understand what I am saying now in the truest sense, how can you really actualize all those things? What is meant by the Bible verse, "Whosoever would save his life will lose it, and whosoever loses his life for my sake will find it"? If you really understand that passage, you will realize that you can do anything for the cause, even at the cost of your life.

The heavenly side is really serious and God is really longing to make His providence a success this time. And why is it so? We realize that God's will is working behind human history. People are not aware that what they are doing now will destroy themselves, their family, their nation, and the whole world. And if they realize that God is guiding them under His will, they will be able to join hands with Him. If the people of the world continue living without realizing God's will, they will be shattered. We are playing the central role, and with all this knowledge we must be serious in carrying out our missions.

If you people in the Principle long for what you used to have, looking back and missing what belonged to your past, you are going to be a failure in God's sight. You have five spiritual senses. I know you have a resounding inner voice telling you that you must go on, transcend the limits of the New York family, and the American family. You are destined to go through untold difficulties to accomplish what Jesus did not accomplish on the physical level. You have to do greater things than Jesus did because you are physically alive in this world.

You need True Parents

n my talks about the Blessing, I told you to go through three years of public life and to bring in three or more spiritual children in order to be blessed. But that is only superficial. Three years of public life really means a dedicated, sacrificial life. To bring spiritual children involves raising them up to be blessed in holy matrimony, too. But even if you attain that much, you cannot go to heaven all by yourselves. Without True Parents, you are not qualified to go to Heaven. What you are able to do is at best only five percent of the total. With the 95 percent accomplished by God and our True Parents, you can enjoy the full 100 percent level. Without what True Parents have done, you are not qualified to enjoy that position.

What do you know about the Principle in the real sense? You are given the qualification to be their children, so if you cling to them and become one with them in utter attendance the way will be open to reach your goal. You were taught that you have the True Parents, but you don't really understand what it means. What you feel toward the True Parents must be something more than what you feel toward your own physical parents. You should think of the central family more than your own physical family. You must have a nation of God's choice, and you must long for that nation and the people of that nation all the time, more than you do your own nation If you lack that feeling, you will be always wavering, vacillating between two goals. If someone told you that your physical parents were not yours, how would you feel? Could anything make you deny your parents? Even if you are threatened with hanging, still you would recognize your parents. If this is true for our physical parents, how much more should it be for the True Parents? That is what the Principle teaches us.

Are you one with me on the individual level? Are you one with me on the family level? Are you one with me on the clan level? On the national and the worldwide level? Could anyone or anything ever separate you from me? Even if you are beaten or threatened with death, if you remain obedient and devoted, then you are sure to go the heavenly course. That's one of the strongest teachings of the Unification Church.

The most dreadful words and the most wonderful words are True Parents. Even God is in awe of this term, and Satan also. It is difficult for the fallen men to really understand what it means and to dedicate themselves to become the true children of the True Parents, but they are liable to judgment if they go in the wrong way. So the term True Parents is the thing to be dreaded. For Satan, this term is also fearful because when people are attached to the True Parents they are separated from him. God on one side is calling to us to attend our True Parents, while Satan is anxious to have us stray from them. In between, we are struggling to belong to God's side. You must really understand that you are placed on the brink of life or death; one step to the left or the right determines whether you are heading for death or to life. It is very serious.

Know where you are

ou must know where you are, where God is, and where I am in the providence of restoration. At the commencement of the new year, we must truly realize where we are situated. Our position requires us to carry out our mission of restoring the world back to God. It is the one great cause, even for God. And even if we are unable to carry out our mission in our lifetime, we must come back through returning resurrection and, by helping the people on the earthly plane, become elevated from one level to the next until we reach perfection.

So we must be serious about carrying out the mission while on earth, in order one day to meet God in His bosom, free from sin and Satan's interference. Unless we can do that, there is no God's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day, or World Day in the real sense. We must set up those days in the truest sense, so that we can praise God, glorify God, and really enjoy those days without reservation. Finally, not only the Unification Church but also the whole population of the world will celebrate God's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day, and World Day. Unless they do, we cannot really enjoy those days. We must have iron determination to persevere until we can celebrate those days with the whole population of the world, without hindrance by any individual, even Satan. We must march on, march on until we win the day on which we can enjoy all those things.

I must remind you again that if you pass away to the next world without having accomplished this much, you must come back and redo it.

So let us be resolved to make it a success in our lifetime and, if possible, shorten the time during which we have to work. Let us be resolved. Let us be determined to dedicate our whole lives for that great cause, to win that goal. Remember that we are working hard to connect those days to the people of the world, so they can enjoy them as well. Don't let a minute pass without thinking of that. I want you to really devote yourselves to the great cause. If you are resolved to do that and you really want to make the pledge before God to do that in your lifetime, will you please raise your hands?

Now, if you have any questions, you can ask them. If you don't ask questions, does that mean you understand everything I said? Have you thought about it? The things I have said cannot be found in the Principle book. In the Principle book, you read about the providence up until Jesus' days. What you read in the Principle book pertains to the past. In Jesus' days, people had to believe his words, but now you must understand what he says and carry them.

There are many complicated situations in the world around us, but anything and everything can be solved in light of the Principle. Not the Principle as in the book, but that which I am going to reveal. I can reveal a certain amount now because I have already made it a reality. But other things are still in reserve. The True Parents, free from sin and the fall, can know and reveal the secret of heaven, but nobody else is entitled to do that. So in the course of restoration, there is no one in the whole world who can really understand what our True Parents have to do. Famous scholars and famous scientists are not entitled to it. Jesus, in the position of the True Parents, did not accomplish everything, so those who are in the position of True Parents must start their mission by restoring those things.

You are waiting to be born

ou say you are ready to cooperate with me, but however hard you may try, in certain things you cannot help. Those who have not yet been restored are in the position of not having been born. In such a position, how could you understand what your Parents have to say? You cannot really say that you can obey me or cooperate with me, because you are in the position of not having been born. You say you are working for the True Parents, but in fact you are not. You are working to lay the foundation to receive rebirth. You are still in the mother's womb, developing, being given nourishment. So in the real sense, you cannot say that your are working for the Unification Church, either. In a real sense, you can say that only when you are given rebirth. Then you can say that you are cooperating with the True Parents and working for the Unification Church, and all the rest. In the mother's womb, whatever nourishment you get is yours. You can claim nothing more.

Without being instructed by the True Parents, you cannot really tread the way to heaven. In light of the Principle, can there be any other way? If you really long for the Heavenly Kingdom, if you want to inhabit that world, to enjoy and possess the Kingdom of God, then you must feel attached to our True Parents and long for them. Then you will redirect your thinking and actions.

In the way of the Principle, there is only God, not Satan. But in other paths, Satan appears. So if you find Satan around you, you are not quite going the way of the Principle. Are you sure you are walking the way of the Principle? If you are really going that way, you must be connected with the True Father or be a part of me. Even though you may be in a way connected to me, your physical family and the outside world will drag you back. So you must be free from the worldly bondage. In a way, you are, since you are opposed by your parents, by your brothers and sisters, and by your worldly friends. If you want to go this way, you must cling to me. If one part of you holds on to me, Satan may grab the other end.

Day and night, asleep or awake, you must be thinking of the Principle, how to carry out your mission; never even dream of your worldly things. And sometimes you become lax and yearn for the things that belong to the world, saying, "If I were in the world, I could have gained that position, gained that thing, etc." When you pass away to the spirit world, it will be too late. There you will realize the truth of what I said to you. If you really understand that while on the earth, you are a fortunate person. "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." The earth plane is the critical arena.

Reenacting the past

he 21 year course represents the 2,000 year course of the Jewish people scattered all over the world, after they lost their nation. Jewish people don't realize that. Whatever is lost on the vertical level must be restored on the horizontal level.

In our life span, vertical conditions are being reenacted on the horizontal level. That is why in the communist countries, religious people are still going through martyrdom. How many people do you think Chairman Mao of Red China has killed? Some 50 million people. That is equal to the whole population of Korea. How many did Stalin kill? Perhaps fewer. Some 30 million people were killed in Stalin's battle front.

The 6,000 years of human history should now be restored through indemnity on the horizontal level, during the 60 years from the time of the birth of a communist nation. That makes the years 1977 and 1978 most critical. If we carry out our mission by that time, the communist world is destined to decline. No historians have ever been able to point out that fact. We alone know this fact.

People do not know what will happen in the future. Any individual who really knows what lies ahead can be happy; any family, any nation, which really knows what is ahead is very fortunate. We are in that position. We must be grateful for that. Do you really feel happy? We can confidently cry out to the world, "What I have is right. Follow me. I will lead you to the goal God has set before us." Such confidence makes us happy. Isn't that true? Do you want me to continue with more serious talk?

One thing you must know, that I am a serious person, thinking about all these matters. Sometimes, I don't look so serious or I say things casually or jokingly. But my heart is always agonized and serious. God also is full of agony and so sorrowful, grieving over what mankind has to go through. But He masks those emotions. If God projected all His agony to you, you would be dismayed, wouldn't you?

God is trying hard to have you overcome the obstacles in the easiest possible way, but to cross any boundary to the next level always requires payment of indemnity. I am always agonized, with a lot of burdens always weighing me down, but outwardly I can't look pressured. But in prayer, I am really serious, talking with God who knows my heart.

Although you are Japanese, you are no longer children of Japanese ancestors, but God's children in a new blood lineage. The Unification Church has made this possible. We stand in a different place. This is the victorious realm that takes away Satan's accusation.

In what position are you standing? Unless you have reached the perfection level of the growth stage you are not qualified to become blessed. At the fall, one man and one woman were driven out of the Garden of Eden. Therefore, in the course of restoration, one man and one woman have to overcome a hostile environment. This the meaning of the Blessing.

My own God's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day, and Day of All Things have been declared on the worldwide level and on the cosmic level.

You can be blessed and can participate in that kind of realm, but you have not gone through the same path as I did. Actually, as true ancestors of a new lineage, you have to establish your own Parents' Day. Also, you should establish your own Children's Day, Day of All Things, and God's Day. All of those things the members of the Unification Church should do. This is the reason why we started the second seven year course.

Although you are the descendants of the fall, you should surpass the standard of Adam and Eve, marching forward boldly by subjugating Satan's accusation. This is what is meant by total advancement.

Not only ourselves, but the entire world should be doing that. Both men and women and old and young should do that. The second seven year course is the period of total advancement.

I sacrificed my relatives

uring my 21 year course, I only regret that I have not yet been able to convey the truth and witness to my relatives. Such was also Jesus' regret. I could not speak about my own mission to my relatives. Of course, my parents and brothers and sisters were able to feel that I was some kind of a great man, doing something great. But I have never been able to speak about the precious meaning of the Principle to them. This has been my agony. I could not give love to my parents or my own brothers and sisters, even though they were physically very close to me. Instead, I had to love the people on the side of Cain more than my own relatives. Because of this, however, the Unification Church has been able to advance.

Unless you love that way, you cannot win the heart of your Cain. Without Cain, Abel cannot stand. Unless you raise people who have much more filial piety toward you than your own physical children, you cannot do the work of restoration through indemnity. But to do so means great suffering. Unless you love people without eating and sleeping, you will not be able to dominate them with love.

I have been in those circumstances and have been attempting to create the victorious foundation that way.

You are different from me, however. In the second seven year course, you can give your precious things directly to your own relatives, parents, and brothers, so that you can become the Messiahs to your own relatives.

During the second seven year course you should be the Messiah of your tribe, and you should accomplish with your relatives what Jesus and I could not do. And by achieving victory in your own tribe, centering upon your parents and your brothers and sisters, you can complete everything. You can do that on the individual level, family level, tribal level, national level. And you can open the way to the entire world that way.

The starting point and mission of the second seven year course is to do what Jesus wanted to do 2,000 years ago, to reveal God's will to Mary and Joseph, and let them participate fully in his dispensation. I was in a position to do that, but if I had loved my own relatives first, then God's providence of restoration would not have advanced.

Always, a beloved people have to be sacrificed and are asked to shoulder the cross. God's providential course has shown us that we must sacrifice our own beloved children, family, and tribe, and love Satan's families, Satan's tribes first.

God loves and blesses his enemies. When Jesus was crucified, he prayed to God, "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." Jesus could say that because he knew God's heart.

The course of restoration cannot be achieved by the power of the fists, but by the power of heart. The completion of the indemnity must be done that way. We must know that. We must attain the Blessing, which Jesus did not attain. That way perfect restoration and blessing can be attained.