Before long, he was holding long meetings. He taught the people from his Bible, always speaking very strongly and with many tears.
Again the meetings were very exciting. The people gave their full attention. They felt they had to get every word down on paper, and they would take notes as fast as they could. They didn't plan to stay late. But when Father spoke, they forgot about time; they forgot about families. Before they knew it, the time had flown by and it was late at night again. The same kind of feelings of electricity came over them, and they just had to jump up and dance around for joy. God's love made them feel so wonderful!
Sometimes, while they prayed, miracles happened. Some who came were quite rich, and the food Father served was simple. But to them, it tasted more delicious. One wealthy man with a stomach problem was cured after eating the food at Father's place, so the word got out that Father had some kind of "miracle food."
Many times, as Father spoke, they learned answers to questions they had been asking for years. Then they would get so inspired and excited they couldn't wait to go out and tell other Christians.
"I'm going to tell my minister about this," they exclaimed. "He'll be so excited to hear it."
But almost always, the ministers of their old churches were not excited at all. The ministers told them, "You're wrong. These answers are not true, and anyone who makes their people dance around in church must be from the devil."
Many of them stopped going to their old churches altogether.
As you can imagine, the ministers became very upset when some of their best members left. So they got together with their own church members and went to argue with Father. They wanted to ask him difficult questions and show the people how wrong he was. But Father answered their questions before they even asked them!
"Mr. Moon must have special powers," they murmured. "He's surely of the devil. We must stop him."
They spread the word around that Mr. Moon was a bad man. They tried to scare the people. Then they even went to the communists and accused Father of being dangerous.
"This man, Sun Myung Moon, is breaking up our churches; he's breaking up homes," they declared. "He will want to break you up, too. He's probably a spy from the south. You must get rid of him." More than 80 ministers wrote letters to the police, accusing Father of all kinds of crimes.
This made the communists very happy, indeed. They had already heard that Father had come back to life and was preaching again. They had started watching him carefully. Their belief was that anyone who believed there is a God is mentally ill. They wanted to just get rid of them all, so they were watching for their chance, some excuse. Now one church was fighting against another! What better way to make the churches weak? So they helped by spreading even more lies about Father.
On February 22, 1948, because of the ministers' complaints, they arrested him and brought him to trial. Father had been teaching in Pyungyang one year and ten months, which is almost two years.
By this time, Father had become well known in Pyungyang, so the courtroom at the trial was packed with people. He was led into the room in handcuffs and with his head shaved. He was accused of taking money from the poor people and using it for himself. He was also accused of telling people lies.
After the trial, the judge pronounced him guilty. Everyone knew it was always best to remain silent. If the judge became angry, he could make the prisoner stay in prison even longer. But Father knew he had been wronged, so he stood up and asked that the charges be dropped, because they were not true. He had not told any lies or deceived the people.
The judge was shocked. The communist leaders who were watching had hoped to show that people who believe in God are weak and scared. Instead, this man showed courage!
Won Pil Kim was in the audience that day. His eyes filled with tears as he saw how brave his beloved Father was. Up to then, he had only seen Father's loving and warm side. In the courtroom, he saw a fearless man.
The charges were not dropped, and Father was sentenced to five years in prison. As Father was led away, he looked back at his disciples and smiled reassuringly, as if to say, "Don't lose heart. I'll be back." With his chained hands raised high in a sign of hope, he was escorted off to prison.
Father's disciples felt totally sad and discouraged at that point. But Father was full of hope that, through his prison term, God could do great things for Korea.