The Chosen One

Hyung Jin Moon
October 24, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul, Korea

Main Sermon:

Brothers and sisters, let's move to our core Scriptures (1 Peter 2: 4-5)

"As you come to him, the living Stone -- rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him -- you also like living stones are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Christ."

Aju.

Brothers and sisters, this is the reason why there is a lot of fear in the Christian community when they look at the Unification Church. Because they know that we are people of real faith, and we are people of very strong conviction. We are proud of what we believe and we declare what we believe. And because of that, our brothers and sisters have encountered tremendous persecution, even the violation of the human rights like in Japan, 4,400 members illegally kidnapped, raped, even murdered because of their faith. In a democratic state all this hate crime that has been perpetuated against the Unification Church, has been perpetuated because we are people of faith; because we know our democratic right to believe in our religion and to practice our religion, in the freedom of the religion clause that we enjoy in democratic nations. Because of that conviction, and because of that belief, we have come under that kind of attack.

Remember that, as the Scripture says "As you come to him, the living Stone - rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to Him," we must remember that this is the key. As we return to our faith, as we study the Scriptures, as we start the traditional Bible study again, as we study the Principle again, as we read again what we believe in, we again are affirming what we believe in. We're not hiding what we believe in. We're declaring that True Parents are the Messiah, the Coming Lord, Jesus Christ who has returned, the Son of God. Let's give it up for True Parents, this is what we believe. It is our right to believe it, it is our right to practice our faith, and that's why there is this kind of fear.

This was seen at the Blessing this time, over 14,000 participating worldwide all declaring our faith to the world. In the Blessing this time, we had that public declaration about faith, we declared before the whole world, all the internet broadcast were there. They all know what we believe, but this is the first time we declared it vocally, we declared our faith. Remember, we did many different activities under different names for the last 10 to 15 years, but still people see we are still being criticized for having the desire to witness and to share our faith. So if we're going to do activities and be criticized for witnessing anyway we might as well be honest about it and share our faith. This is why we have to be proud of who we are.

Think about it, brothers and sisters, sharing our faith is the purpose for which we are here, sharing True Parents' mission and that the purpose of Jesus has to be fulfilled through them. This is what it is all about. Remember: "Sharing our faith". It's because somebody shared their faith we have entered into this church, because somebody was bold enough to declare what they believe, what they discovered in the Truth. That is the reason why many of our first generation members have come into the church. This is the same kind of confidence, and the same kind of pride that we need to start exhibiting once again and start believing. This is what society is beginning to see, when we go out and witness, when we go out and do service work on the street. We wear our Unification Church vest, Unification Church hat, and we declare, "We are the Unification Church and we do good works. We're Unification Church, this is what we believe. We're the Unification Church, this is what we declare." We're proud of it because it is our democratic right. This is very important to realize as a community living in a modern world.

They see it in the Chung Bok Gung temple that now is going up. We're returning back to faith, not only to political or social activities, we're going back to our core, our faith, our belief, that gives us the root of our existence. They see in our teaching, in the Divine Principle, that unlike any other tradition, we have a complete overview, an explanation of the movement of the Providential History, all the way from the Creation, in the Biblical text, from the Providences of Noah, Moses, Abraham and Jesus, all the way from the progress of Christianity to the modern world, the parallels of History. There is no other religion that offers this kind of comprehensive view of the Providence that God has been moving with humankind. Let's give it up for the Divine Principle! This is very powerful!

And so, when they see us again regain a sense of confidence and pride in our faith, in what we believe, in what we have to offer, they become nervous. There is power in the Truth. There is power there when we declare what it is that we have discovered, that the Lord has come. The 2000 years of Christianity that has been waiting for the returning Lord; that is the thing that has power.

In the Scriptures, they say they offer sacrifices. Our church is finally doing this once again, offering spiritual sacrifices, offering devotion once again. We're coming back to our faith once again. We're studying the Bible once again. We're studying the Principle once again. We're coming and supporting our community once again. We're becoming responsible members once again, we're witnessing once again, we're doing service work once again, and not only in different groups, we're doing this as one community. They see these things moving together, actualizing the Truth, centered on the living stone, which is the core, which is True Parents. If they see us doing that then they feel there is something happening, they feel the movement of the miracle in motion. This is the thing that has power.

Brothers and sisters, let's move on to the second scripture: (1 Peter 2: 9-10)

"But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy."

This time, when True Parents were returning to the States, at Gimpo airport we met the airport manager and had a wonderful conversation with him. I told him: "Look, we believe very clearly that True Parents are the Messiah. As it says in the Scriptures, 'He will come as a thief in the night'. He will not come in glory and splendor in the clouds; he's going to come very quietly, just like Christ came in a manger. He's going to come quietly unnoticed to the world. The Messiah is coming to challenge us. He's not coming to make us feel good with his good words. He's here to challenge us. As the scriptures say, in Matthew 10:34, 'I do not come to bring peace, I come to bring the sword,' to challenge the people here.

When we see Father, then we see that same challenge. Father doesn’t speak as we might think how a Messiah should speak, for instance like the Dalai Lama or Mother Teresa. He is strong and passionate. He talks about filial relationships, or about husband and wife relationships and all sorts of things that would be quite shocking to some people. But we understand that the Messiah is quite a test to our faith. The chosen one comes to challenge the world, not to just please the world. He comes to move us to a higher level. Is it really that crazy that we believe that True Father is the Messiah? Is it really that crazy that we believe that a Korean person could be the Messiah? Well, if it is crazy then it is AS crazy, not MORE crazy, than the millions of people who believe that Jesus, a Middle Eastern man, was actually the living God who created the universe. Or that an Indian man named Siddhartha would come and overcome life and death by spiritual attainment. Or that an Arab man named Mohammed would receive the word of God and write it down even though he was illiterate. So, if we think that our belief that the Messiah has returned to Korea is crazy, then we also have to believe that all of the billions of believers of other religions around the world are equally crazy. And I don’t think you want to go that far. Let’s give it up to the Unification Church!

You see, we have to remember that the prophets were all misunderstood. Remember when Noah was alive there were people who called him a drunkard. When Abraham was alive people said he had several wives. When Moses was alive they called him a murderer because he killed the Egyptian man when he left Egypt on the Exodus. Jesus was a social rebel. When Pilate asked him: “Are you the King of the Jews?” Jesus answered: “It is as you said”. He was declaring himself to be a King in the face of an emperor, even in the face of the local governor Pilate who was representing that emperor.

So, prophets are always misunderstood. They never act in a way that the whole society would say: “Oh, they are so wonderful. They act so nicely in everything. They are floating around as perfect images of the ideal person and society.” No, prophets have always been the challengers of society and the challengers of faith. And this is what True Father is when we see and understand True Parents in this prophetic light. We see that there is no difference in the treatment toward the True Parents and the followers, the apostles and brothers and sisters all around the world who follow and testify to the Lord.

And so, brothers and sisters, I told the airport manager: “Look, because the Unification Church is here in Korea, every year we send over 120,000 people from around the world to come here to Korea; 120,000 people, every year!” As a person who works at the airport he loved to hear that. He really loved that. And I said, “Look, what other religion here in Korea, from the biggest to the smallest church, can bring over 120,000 members every year to Korea? For instance, can, the Full Gospel Church with over 600,000 registered members do that? There is no religious organization in Korea who can bring this many people to this land. Why? This is because we believe this land to be a Holy Land. We don’t see this land as just one of those nations sitting in the Pacific Rim. We see this land of Korea as a Holy Land.”

So I talked to him just the way Kook Jin Nim always does when he meets high officials. He went recently to the Blue House and had a wonderful lunch with the President’s Assistant. He said, “My Father is the Messiah, Mr. President’s Assistant! (applause). And you should know that we have sent over 120,000 people to Korea every year. And as the Unification Church grows every year, even more people will want to come to Korea, because we see Korea as a very sacred land. That of course does not mean that every person in Korea is perfect. We all know that this is not the case, but we believe that the Korean land is sacred, that it is prepared so that True Parents could come here. And that is the reason why Korea is very special.”

There are many predictions that economists make that Korea will become one of the economic powers because it has certain types of attributes. It has, for instance, a fully operating democratic system unlike Japan, which doesn’t have frequent changes between Republicans and Democratic parties. In East Asia Korea is unique in the sense that it does have a fully operating democratic system as well as having a group of professionals that are now being internationally recognized. Samsung is now dominating the hand phone market in America, etc. There are many people who are predicting that Korea will become a major global leader in about 50 years. And it is true that these kinds of social foundations such as education, etc., will become very important in order for Korea to develop. But without the spirit and understanding of its central role and purpose in the great scheme of the hundreds of countries in the world, without understanding its importance which can only be found in the teachings of the Unification Church -- because we see this land as a Holy Land -- Korea won’t be able to reach the level necessary to truly reap the blessings that God has been waiting to give. Let’s give it up to the Unification Teaching!

I asked the airport manager to name any religion in Korea that had begun in Korea and that has now become a worldwide movement -- a worldwide religion. There is not one. Only the Unification Church has come out of Korea in the lifetime of its founder and has been able to spread to become a worldwide religion with millions of followers around the world. And this is because we see True Parents' role as essential to the whole historical providence. See brothers and sisters, I told him, now is the time for us as Korean people to really be more proud. He is a Korean individual who works at the airport and I said: “It’s now time for us to be proud, to get rid of our bias. Why can’t we believe that the Messiah comes in the Korean nation? Is it really more crazy than believing in Jesus as a Middle Eastern man? It’s not more crazy. If it is crazy then it is AS crazy. But it is our belief that Korea is the Chosen Land."

And so I explained to him: “Look, when Jesus came he was persecuted, he was misunderstood and he was crucified since society did not believe and accept his mission as the Messiah. Jesus came and challenged them; he even judged the Pharisees and the Jews very strongly. In Matthew he called them a brood of vipers, really challenging and almost cursing them. Jesus really was a very controversial messianic figure. And we have to understand it is just like that with True Father. Also he has been severely misunderstood."

When you hear the criticisms against Unification Church saying that it is heretical, that it brainwashes and all these things, there is really no substance to that claim. It is simply name calling, it is simply a development of a hate language toward our community of faith. And this hate language has developed into the hate crimes against our Unification Movement for example in Japan, where members have been illegally abducted as you all know.

Brothers and sisters, that is the reason why it is important for us to reclaim our faith, to be proud of what we believe and to know that it is our right to believe so. You see, it is our True Parents who have come to fulfill the mission of Jesus. Jesus died and was resurrected to show the power of God’s love as he had explained in John 15:13 that there is no greater love than he who lays down his life for his friends. Just like Jesus, True Parents laid down their lives for their children and the world. Not only once, but twice, thrice… even seven times they have walked the path of death, descending into hell. They did this so that they could free their children, so that they may reach the Promised Land. And this is the type of heart that we believe Jesus was to inherit: the parental heart of God, the parental heart that would seek and willingly die for the children over and over again, so that the children could live a life of glory.

Brothers and sisters, when we understand this point, then we can understand why this kind of hate language is being spoken by the media, why there are movements that are scared about the Unification Church, why they feel they have to be re-educating people and that the Unification Church is being led by false prophets. But we have to understand that as Jesus was considered a false prophet in his days and as Moses was considered a false prophet in his days, that all those prophets were considered false prophets. So, when we understand True Father’s coming in this role, challenging Christianity to come and receive what God has prepared for them, then we can actually see that it is a normal development that people say that this is a false prophet leading this movement.

Brothers and sisters, when we understand that there are these kinds of realities in our midst, we have to recognize the fact that there are really organizations geared toward opposing Unification Church, although I heard they are financially struggling. However, there are those kinds of organizations that are seeking to slander the Unification Church. Therefore we have to be clear about what we believe. That is why it is important for us to declare our faith. That is why it is important for us to stand up for our faith, so that we will be no longer the victims of such hate crimes in this democratic part of the world. Let’s give it up for democracy for it is because of democracy that we have religious freedom!

Now let’s end with our final quote from 2 Corinthians 4:1-6

“Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart… On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly, we commend ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God. For we do not preach ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, and ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake. For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”

Let’s give it up for our True Parents, brothers and sisters!

I want to end with True Father's words before we enter into our final meditation practice. True Father’s Words Vol. 90:

“Because the work of God is realistic and physical, the Messiah’s coming on the clouds does not make sense. Yet interpreting the Bible literally many Christians think “Jesus will descend on the clouds! It will be done by God’s power!” If that were true, if God could use supernatural power to do anything, then why did He need to send Jesus? Why would He call people to faith? In that case God could simply create the Kingdom by Himself, without waiting for human beings to respond in faith… Yet we know that even the omniscient and omnipotent God has been laboring for six thousand years and even longer to advance His providence of salvation without being able to send the Messiah until today… Many Christians think that the Messiah will solve all the world’s problems in an instant. They do not understand that when the Christ returns he will have to plow the ground and sow the seeds again.”

Aju!

Final Meditation:

Let us close our eyes and return back to our resurrected homeland. The land which was once desert is now filled with bubbling springs. The parched, dry, barren and thirsty ground has turned into lush vegetation. Streams overflow and we are walking in a beautiful meadow that has been resurrected. As we walk in this meadow field, we notice to our left a beautiful stream meandering down. We hear the sounds of that stream, the sounds of resurrection, of life and rebirth. As we walk ahead, we notice that with each step we take, beautiful flowers are blooming almost miraculously around our feet.

We also notice that when we look up at the sky, that what was before a fiery red is now a crystal clear blue with beautiful light shining down upon us. As we look ahead we see True Parents in their holy robes waiting for us. Let us go and kneel down before them. True Father with his right hand and True Mother with her left hand, place their holy hands on top of our head, and they anoint us with their blessing as they speak and say, “May you inherit the True Love of God!” As we receive that blessing we feel a wave of energy passing through our body from the top of our head all the way down to our feet. We feel that as it passes through each and every cell of our body that we are being resurrected.

All the dead and sick cells are being brought back to life, healthy and completely nourished. As we realize that our spirit body had elements of shadow in it we can see that it now has become resurrected and is starting to shine with boundless light in all 12 directions. As we breathe in deeply, in our hearts let us say, “I am alive” and as we breathe out, let us say in our hearts, “Thank You!” Second breath, as we breathe in deeply, “My family is alive!” And as we breathe out, “Thank You so much!” As we breathe in the third breath, “My world is alive!” And as we breathe out, “Thank You!” Final inhalation, as we breathe in, “My God, You are alive!” And as we breathe out, “Thank You!” God and True Parents have blessed us with the blessed life. It is a life where we may inherit the True Love of God, where we inherit the truly heroic parental heart and through that can become greater spouses, greater families of man and women, greater people of the community, greater people of the nations, world, cosmos, spiritual world and of God.

Let us join our hands and manifest the Principle of all the universe: Give and Receive Action of all things, Four Position Foundation, coming together. May I inherit the True Love of God. Aju! 

Anti-Unificationist Propaganda Aired by Christian Television Station (CTS) TV Channel - Seoul Korea

Hyung Jin Moon
October 24, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea

Just a couple of weeks ago, the following video was sent by one of our elder members in the Korean congregation. She is one of the original 36 couples, and she told us she saw this incredible broadcast on CTS (Christian Television Station). It's the largest Christian Television Evangelical station in Korea. It has over 10,000 subscribers nationally, and it has an international base of 24 hour broadcasting of Evangelical Christianity. And in there, there was a very interesting and fun piece on the Unification church. Let's take a look at the video:

"Recently the Unification Church invested a large sum of money to purchase the Yongsan Community center. Voices of concern have been raised about the Unification Church's recent steps to secure its domain through real estate purchases. This move by the Unification church to make large capital investments marks an increase in non-religious activities by the church which has led to concern and confusion among the Korean religious community. Large capital investments ranging from real estate, to education, sports, recreation and leisure facilities...diverse products, pharmaceuticals."

Announcer: Today, Korea is becoming the holy homeland of the Unification Church. Let's join Deokwon Kim to take a closer look. Good Afternoon Mr. Kim. Can you start by giving us a brief explanation of what kind of religious teaching the Unification Church follows?

Mr. KIM: "The Unification Church has long been proud of its economic strength. The Church's power can be felt not only in the religious sphere, but also in the financial sector, the cultural sector and the media. The Church has branches in fifteen countries, including the United States, Japan and four million followers around the world.

Announcer: Let's look at each area separately. It seems that the most visible work of the Church is in real estate sector and related fields.

Mr. KIM: The Unification Church is expanding its influence by making sizable investments in land and in real estate all around the country. Let's take a look at the next video clip. The Unification Church recently purchased the Yongsan Community Center in Seoul. The purchase of the property which covers 4,900 square meters is said to have cost 70 million dollars (US). Plans are to develop the property into a shrine to world peace and unification, including worship facilities to accommodate 21,000 followers. The center will be used to offer praise and devotion with a variety of different styles of worship services. With the facilities of the Segye Ilbo located in the same neighborhood, there are concerns that the relocation of the headquarters of the Unification Church to the Yongsan area will give the church too much influence in the area. I remember these people saying a while ago that at some point, the time would come when Christians and the rest of the society will have no choice but to make use of the enterprises that they are operating.

Also, the Unification town that has been built at Chung Pyung is referred to by members of the Church as their original holy ground. The building site is huge, covering 26 million square meters and 320 million dollars have been spent developing it. The site already includes an international training center, a hospital, a middle school, a high school and a seminary as well as a museum and a senior citizen's residential center and other facilities and is being organized and developed as a dedicated Unification Church residential community. In addition, the Church has revealed plans to develop an extensive beach resort area in Yeosu on Korea's south coast. Work has also begun and rental contracts are being accepted for a business center in Yoido that is being constructed on a scale four times that of the 63 Building. We cannot help but be concerned with the Unification church reaching beyond Chung Pyung, Pyungchang and Yeoso, and aggressively expanding their influence all across the country.

Announcer: As you can see from this scene, the Unification Church has tremendous financial resources. Therefore, whether we know it or not, their influence probably touches our lives in a number of ways.

Mr. KIM: That's right. The Unification Church is particularly focused on the financial and political sectors. The Tongil group has 15 affiliated companies, and is ranked 70th among the nation's businesses with annual sales of $830 million dollars. In addition, with the media and advertising impact of Segye Ilbo, Chungshim International Academy middle and high school and the Sun Hwa Arts middle and high schools, and Kyungbok elementary school in the educational sector, and the Peace Cup International soccer tournament in the sports and leisure sector, the Church is spreading its influence in many diverse areas. Let's discuss this further as we watch this next video segment.

Some believe that the Unification Church will hold the largest stake in the 2012 Expo in Yeosu. One reason is that the Unification Church's Ilsung construction is working on a large scale development in Yeosu covering about 10 million square meters with an estimated construction cost of 1.2 billion dollars. Land prices in the area have already skyrocketed to twice what they were. Experts in the area estimate that by the time of the expo, the income from this investment will reach several billion dollars. It is said that the Unification Church plans are to invest this income in the political sector. In the last general elections, candidates entered the race for national Assembly seats in 240 districts under the Peace Unification Family party. They are able to work in all areas, including political campaigns and they have made large scale preparations to do so.

Announcer: As you can see in the video, the Unification Church is involved in a whole range of areas, including politics, economics, the media, cultural and sports. There must be some reason that the Unification Church is working in all of these diverse areas.

Mr. KIM: As a religion, the Unification Church has a clear reason for this kind of work. The Church can expand its missionary activities by accumulating financial resources. The Unification Church uses the income from its businesses and land investments to support its work to spread the Church's ideology. They can be seen as stepping stones to help the church's leader Sun Myung Moon complete his mission as the Lord of the Second Advent. In particular, this most recent real estate investment by Unification Church represents an extension on the Church's holy ground. Let's hear a few words from the administrative director of the Korean Christian Exchange Federation, who escaped after 31 years of working as a Unification Church minister. The Unification Church teaches that Jesus was unable to complete his mission because he didn't have a country that believed in him. Because of this the Unification Church is buying a lot of land to create God's nation. They are working to develop land into a holy nation.

Announcer: In that case, it sounds like another effort to gain converts.

Mr. KIM: Yes, one method is by offering free travel opportunities. For example, tour groups are formed, who then visit Japan, the United States, China and other places with the Church covering the costs of the airfare and lodging the participants at a minimal cost. Following the trip, participants are sent promotional materials inviting them to participate in Church activities. Also, the Church offers to help find marriage partners for men searching for wives recommending that they join one of the Church's mass weddings. They also operate video centers where they invite people to come and hear good messages without revealing that they are from the Unification Church. They also sponsor a lot of events like golf tournaments, fishing tournaments or marathons. Christians should not participate.

Announcer: The Unification Church seems to have a very diverse range of activities. In addition to Unification Church activities here in South Korea, aren't they also involved in business ventures with the North?

Mr. KIM: Yes, in May 1987, the Unification Church organized a group called the Citizens Federation for North-South Unification. In January 1991, church's leader Sun Myung Moon met North Korea's President, the late Kim Il Sung, and signed an agreement to work toward North-South exchange, which led to the start of the church joint business ventures with the North. The Unification Church's joint ventures with the North were revealed to be flourishing in a later period, following the financial assistance offered to the North by Korean society in the 1990's. The Unification Church's ventures in the North have been assessed as being more financially successful and on a larger scale than those of other South Korean organizations.

Announcer: If that is the case, we should take a look at what kind of ventures the Unification Church is conducting in North Korea. Let's take a look at the video.

Mr. KIM: The center of the Unification Church's North Korea ventures is the Pyunghwa Motor Company which produces eight models of automobiles which are being sold in the North. There is also the Botong River Hotel and the World Peace Center in Pyongyang, the one million square meter Peace Park and Family Church are also among the enterprises that the Unification Church is currently operating in North Korea.

Announcer: But I have heard that church leader Sun Myung Moon is getting to a very advanced age, and after the helicopter accident last year, I have also heard that he is passing on responsibility for the church to his successors.

Mr. KIM: Yes, I heard that recently there was a 90th birthday banquet for Rev. Moon. There is speculation about what direction the church, including Sun Myung Moon's successors, would take if anything would happen to him. Recently, we have seen some of Sun Myung Moon's children taking over in leadership positions. The responsibility for the religious and financial workings of the church has been handed over to Rev. Moon's children. In particular, it is clear that Sun Myung Moon's seventh son, Hyung Jin Moon is taking responsibility for the religious activity of the church. And other preparations, doctrinal and substantial, are being made to support this transition. Recently, Sun Myung Moon's successor participated at his 90th birthday celebration and support staff needs are being assessed to strengthen his ongoing leadership abilities.

Announcer: So work is being done to move the task of succession along, and the Unification Church continues to expand. It seems like urgent measures are needed to block its expansion. Is there any action that can be seen in the religious community?

Mr. KIM: Yes, in 2003, the Korean Christians formed the Korean Federation to Oppose the Unification Church which is working to expose the evils and abuse in the Unification Church. This Unification Opposition Federation was founded by Jun Cheol Park, who escaped from the Unification Church in 2001. Currently, his wife, YeongSeon Lee, serves as the Federation's administrative director, and is leading activities aimed at blocking the Unification Church's efforts to expand. The Unification Opposition Federation provides churches throughout the country with information about the Unification Church's heretical teachings. Activities have been organized to urge the discontinuance of the Peace Cup Soccer Tournament and to boycott the sales of Tongil group products. In addition, most recently the Unification Church's plans in relation to the 2012 Yeosu Expo have been exposed. Another key focus of the group is the support, protection and re-education of those who have escaped from the Unification Church

Announcer: It sounds like the Unification Opposition Federation is doing some very important work. It seems like a good time to take a close look at the Unification Church which is moving forward through massive financial investment and at the massive scale of its operation.

Mr. KIM: One of the most disappointing things I discovered while researching for this story is that while the influence of the Unification Church continues to expand, the Unification Opposition Federation has been working under very poor conditions while tackling this large problem. One secretary and the Administrative Director, who is a working mother, are working in a space of barely 10 square meters. The Unification Opposition Federation has been working for five years now, facing severe financial difficulties and fierce resistance from the Unification Church in the form of lawsuits and legal maneuvers, making it difficult for the Federation to make progress in their work.

Announcer: They are doing such an important work, it's a shame they are having such difficulties. Finally, what steps must our churches and followers take in order to reduce the risk of damage at the hands of the Unification Church?

Mr. KIM: The Unification Church is shrewdly imitating the Christians churches, following the pattern of a traditional Christian church. This means that the most important thing is to know about the Unification Church. In addition to education and media, religion and business, in our society at large there are more than 500 Unification Church products that can be found in our daily lives, including beverages and pharmaceuticals. Unfortunately, I cannot list of them for you. I urge you to get assistance from the Korean Federation to Oppose the Unification Church which we mentioned earlier, you can get much more detailed information about the Unification Church. Also, they present lectures in churches about the Unification Church so that members of our congregations can gain a better understanding of the Unification Church's heretical teachings and infiltration tactics.

Announcer: The Bible warns that false prophets will arise in the last days, and among the many heretical religions, the Unification Church with its strong financial influence has deeply infiltrated our daily lives. We must approach this mission with faith and wisdom. Thank you to Deokwon Kim for today's report.

Let's give it up for the CTS and the incredible advertising they did for the Unification Church. 

Announcement of Personnel Change: UPF International President

Hyung Jin Moon
October 21, 2009

Ref. No. FFWPUI 2009-48

To: Regional presidents, National messiahs, National leaders
From: FFWPU International Headquarters
Date: October 21, 2009
Re.: Announcement of personnel change

May God and True Parents’ blessings and love be with brothers and sisters in all regions, mission nations and providential organizations.

This is to announce a change in the international president of the Universal Peace Federation according to True Parents’ instructions.

1) Retired

Kwak Chung-hwan Retired from position of international president October 20, 2009

Hwang Sun-jo Appointed to position of international president October 20, 2009

I would like to express appreciation to the outgoing president for his hard work and sacrifice over the years.

Hyung Jin Moon
International President 

The Test of Faith

Hyung Jin Moon
October 17, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea

Opening Prayer:

Good afternoon, our most beloved Heavenly Father and True Parents! Thank You for everything. Especially for the amazing grace that we received by participating in True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony last Wednesday.

Thank you very very much True Parents for your hard work and great foundation. We pray that we may become according to Your wish. We pray that You may forgive us our weaknesses. We are very sorry for the pain in the past. Help us to stand strong in our determination so that we can fulfill our responsibilities.

We pray that You are always ahead in everything that You do in order to speed up Your will in participating in this long chain of works in the providence. Heavenly Father, speak to us today as we listen to today’s words through our pastor. May our speaker be filled with enough wisdom and strength and may we embrace the message with all our heart. Together with our brothers and sisters we will be united in supporting this providence. This is our prayer in the name of all our blessed brothers and sisters around the world. Aju!

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim:

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Welcome to the headquarters of our Unification Church. Today, like on True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Day, we have beautiful sunshine upon us. We sincerely hope and pray that your day and your week will be filled with true love and cosmic blessing. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim:

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! Let us manifest the Principle together: Give and Receive Action, Four Position Foundation, may I inherit the true love of God! Aju!

Today we are going to start with Cheon Seong Gyung page 765. Father says:

“There is no easy way to prepare. Let us think about our life as a whole. I know very well that life is like a training course, a period of preparation in which to attain a great and universal character.”

Aju!

Brothers and sisters, it is so important that we understand and remember - when we are worshipping here together, when we are gathering here to profess our faith -- who we are, that we again remember that our lives have meaning, purpose and value and that we are here on this incredible path to attain that great and universal character, the great and parental heart of God, the divine essence, the true love of God.

Brothers and sisters, we want to welcome you to service. We pray that this service will be such that we are truly able to return glory and joy to True Parents and to God and that our community can become strengthened and find new hope in this new age. Let’s give it up for Unification Church and True Parents!

Give it up for God and True Parents, everybody. Give it up for the Two-Rivers-Choir. We have overcome. Oh God, thank you so much! Please be seated. We had this “10.14 Cosmic Blessing Ceremony” and I want to bring your attention especially to the Two-Rivers-Choir. They sang such a beautiful song in front of the 20,000 newly-wed couples and to 40,000 couples across the world. Thank you so much!

Interesting Story:

Dear brothers and sisters! We will start with something interesting that I want to share in place of my usual interesting story. We had a lot of incredible spiritual happenings. The Holy Spirit was there at the Blessing. You could really feel it so powerfully at this time. It was there. And everybody was there in faith and in attendance to True Parents, really incredible! I am very happy to announce to you, that my dear nephew Shin Myung was blessed at this time. I know he is watching us. So let us give it up for the blessed couple Shin Myung and his beautiful wife Christa.

Here is something more incredible, which went all over the world. The international media outlets covered the event of the “10.14 Cosmic Blessing Ceremony” -- the Washington Times, the Associated Press, CNN, Reuters and many others -- so that news of the blessing spread everywhere. In Korea we had coverage from MBC, SBS and AP, which spread the articles all over the world. Also some of the countryside newspapers as well as some of the major Korean newspapers held the story as well. The Associated Press released some wonderful articles about the Unification Church, so positive. BBC just recently did an article on us and also included us in their Radio Show. They were very positive and I am also very grateful to our friends over there. Then also the International Herald Tribune, which is owned by the New York Times and therefore is their global paper, had us on their front page. The blessing was on their front page! Brothers and sisters! Let us give it up for the Unification Church!

I think this song had meaning when we were singing “We have overcome” at this time. We have seen a huge new flood of miracles, i.e. of positive articles in the last two years of the Church development here in Korea. And now this is leaking over into the international scene. Now we saw that it was carried by ABC News, Independent, USA Today, MSN and others yesterday. Every big major media outlet covered this event, and they gave us an incredible covering, not this kind of derogatory, insulting sort of dehumanizing portrayal of True Parents or brothers and sisters. It was such a huge turn-around. I want to show you a wonderful video AP did on the blessing.

Video is being shown (www.youtube.com/watch?v=y-oxJ35RrcU)

Let us give it up for the Unification Church. Oh, my God! We have not seen coverage like that in decades. Very nice! Did you notice how they did not dehumanize us or insult us calling us Moonies and this kind of very depreciatory kind of terminology? They even presented the very personal side of us, that we are as well human beings; and that there are brothers and sisters out there, young couples! “They seem very happy and pleased.” I love that. Our blessed families seem to be happy and pleased. This wonderful brother gave this interview, so wonderful and bright. Let’s give it up once more for the new age.

Dear brothers and sisters, first of all I’d like to say thanks for all the incredible media coverage that we have had here in Korea and also now internationally. We are getting requests from all over the international media scene to have interviews. I’d like to give a little bit of credit to our PR Director whom Kook Jin Nim found and who is now working here so incredibly hard with all these media outlets. He really invests himself to change all the misunderstandings so that people are able to really understand the Unification Church. Is Ahn Shik Chang Nim here today? No? OK, anyway let’s give it up one time for Mr. Ahn for doing such an excellent job!

Main Sermon by Hyung Jin Nim:

So, brothers and sisters, I’d like to talk to you about the test of faith today. Let’s look into our World Scriptures.

Let’s start with Buddhism, Dhammapada 320:

“As the elephant in the battlefield withstands the arrows shot from a bow, even so will I endure abuse; verily most people are lacking in virtue.”

Those people who walked the path of a saint are being misunderstood, are being marked. So we see this even in Buddhism.

Let us now take a look at Islam. In the Qur’an 3:186 it says:

“Assuredly you will be tried in your property and your persons, and you will hear much wrong from those who were given the Scripture before you and from the idolaters. But if you persevere…then that is the steadfast heart of things.”

We see this also in the Qur’anic verses as well. Amen, Aju!

Let us look at Christianity, John 15:18:

“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

That is what Jesus speaks.

Let us take a look at what True Parents are saying in the Collection of speeches 189:

“Persecution is God’s strategic expedient to recover the ownership of the satanic world. If you understand this principle, it becomes self-evident why true religions prosper under persecution. The founders of the major religions of the world -- Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Mohammed -- all were persecuted. Yet because of this principle, these persecuted people became saints.”

Aju!

So let us look at some core scriptures today, Matthew 10:34-36:

“Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I did not come to bring peace but a sword. For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law -- a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household."

Jesus says this in Matthew. And this is the declaration of the Messiah.

See, what we have to understand about the Messiah is that the Messiah has not come to necessarily inspire faith or to encourage us. The Messiah comes to TEST our faith. He tests what kind of belief we have. We know it is very hard to follow the Messiah at times. All the Apostles who followed Jesus knew it as well. It was so difficult to follow Jesus and there were only 12 of them while Jesus was alive. Jesus said that he is not here to bring peace -- that is not the mission of the Messiah -- but to bring the sword. What does a sword do? It cuts, it separates and it even can slay; but it also can protect.

In order to understand this we have first to understand what the concept of the Messiah was at the time of Jesus. There was a Jewish eschatology, an idea of what the Messiah was going to be. This traditional view of the Messiah at Jesus’ time was that the Messiah was to be the future king of Israel. He was to be the future king from the divine line. He was also to rule and protect the united 12 tribes of Israel and to herald and bring the messianic age of global peace. That was what the Israelites were waiting for.

Jesus came and preached the exact opposite of that; exactly the opposite of what they expected. They thought the Messiah would come and bring peace. But he said that he brings the sword and judgment. They thought the Messiah would usher in a new age of global peace. But Jesus came to test the faith and to test the believer.

For 2,000 years Christians have also awaited the return of Christ. They have awaited him and in the Nicene Creed, that all Christians until this day in one form or another profess, it says: “And He will come again with glory, to judge the living and the dead, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”

You see, they have awaited one who returns in glory, in splendor; even some have awaited him on top of the clouds descending from Heaven. During the banquet the day after the 10.14. Blessing we had a banquet in the Cheon Jeon Gung Palace. About 600 VIPs from all over the world had gathered there and I had the honor of doing the welcoming remarks for this event. Oh my, God I was wearing a suit! (laughter) A very rare occasion. Mother had begged me to wear one on that day. Back to the welcoming remarks: I told the VIPs that the Unification Church members are people of great conviction, of great faith and of great belief. We do not only attend True Parents as patriots of Korea, as great educators, or as great peace activists but we do attend True Parents as the Messiah, as the Returning Lord, as the Returning Christ. We attend him as the Son of God. Let’s give it up for True Parents!

And I told them that in 1 Thessalonians 5:2 it says that the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night. It will not come with bangles and bugles or banquets and bouquets. But the day will come very silently like him who was born in the manger, or like him who was born in the cold mountains of North Korea. It will come very silently like a thief in the night, totally unaware by people.

I declared True Parents as the Messiah on that day. I said straight forward that this is our faith, that this is what Unificationists believe and this is what we profess. Then I was talking and I was about to explain more when all of a sudden Father who was sitting right next to me said: “Speak in Korean”, and I was like “eh, eh, eh?” (laughter) and then Father started to speak about Korea, that it is the Fatherland and that in spirit world we have to learn Korean.

Father started to speak about different other things as well. He started saying that even if you look at your hand you can see the Universal Principle, in your fingers and arms as well as in the number of limbs and joints that we have. He started speaking like this, and he was speaking in English! Father went on to speak for six hours that day to all the VIPs -- six hours!

After about 30 minutes I very graciously bowed and left the stage. Father had the stage and he spoke for six hours, to share his love and to pour out his heart. He was absolutely incredible. On the other side it was incredibly difficult physically for all those VIPs to be there for six hours. We could hear the VIPs in the back after about two or three hours into it, saying, “How can he speak for so long. He should come to a finish; we want to eat.” Then, after about five, six hours, I heard the very same people saying, “Must be tiring talking for so long. Rev. Moon must be really incredible! He is 90 years old!” (laughter) Let’s give it to God and True Parents!

Whenever I see Father speak like that, I realize that he is not from this kingdom. He is really not from this world but from the other world; he is really a man of God. After the event we were so exhausted physically. I was totally burned out. I had the air conditioner beating on me for six hours. I got a cold that day. Also Kook Jin Nim and Sun Jin Nim were totally exhausted after the event. We started reflecting on what the Messiah is. The Messiah does not just come to inspire us, to encourage us saying, “Oh, you are doing a great job.” No, the Messiah tests us, he gives us hardships and tribulations; he tests our faith and brings us to a new level of perseverance in our own spiritual life.

Well, anybody who has sat through six, ten hours of Father’s speeches, you know what I am talking about. You absolutely know what I am talking about! It is amazing when we hear Father speaking for six hours or 12 hours. But for those there, especially the VIPs -- those attending first time -- this is one of the most challenging tests of faith they ever received in their lives. In the Washington event Father called Neil Bush, son of former President George Bush senior and brother of former President George Bush junior, up to the stage and gave him what I call love-smacks. Father was smacking him on the head and pulling his chin and cheek like a grandfather. (laughter)

You know, Father knows no barrier, there is no barrier to this man. As you are aware, Neil Bush is the son of the former President of the United States. No man in the free world, I think, has ever done this. True Father completely transcends all those boundaries and gave him, what I call, a holy anointing on that day. I told Mr. Neil Bush later: “You got anointed that day; you got baptized!” He answered: “Did you guys get baptized too?” “Yes, we did,” I told him. “We certainly got baptized as well”.

Brothers and sisters, many may think it is really crazy that so many people follow such a man. He is so eccentric. He is totally not what we expect. We expect the Messiah to be like Mother Theresa or like the Dalai Lama, so gentle and floating on clouds doing miracles. You know this beautiful image of Christ, just floating to the sanctuary and up to the stage.

But then we see that Father is so different. I love the way my sister puts it. She says he is like the Yoda Master. You remember, Yoda comes up walking with his cane, “Yes, hallo, how are you doing?”

(Hyung Jin Nim imitates his voice and shuffles around -- laughter)

And all of a sudden when he gets up on the stage he suddenly takes out his sword and makes “ssssssss -- shshshshsh.

(Hyung Jin Nim circles an imaginary sword around -- more laughter)

Father is just amazingly powerful and brings out all his spiritual power. See, the Messiah does not come necessarily to encourage us and to build up our faith. The Messiah comes to test us. This is very important for us to understand because we are the community that serves the Messiah. That is a very important point.

Let us take a look at Luke 9: 23-25:

“If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very soul?”

You see, following and serving the Messiah even at the time of the Apostles required a great cost, even for Matthew the tax collector. In Matthew chapter nine when Jesus demanded, “Get up and follow me, leave everything behind, just follow me,” Matthew got up, followed and threw everything away. There is a great cost in following the Messiah.

Because of it our early members who joined our movement, all brothers and sisters in the first generation who found the Lord and found the truth, who decided to follow the path of serving the Messiah, they all experienced some kind of persecution. They experienced this incredible sacrifice in serving but at the same time experienced also the persecution that comes with serving. They experienced the family that persecuted them.

There are brothers and sisters where their parents would hire people to deprogram them, out of love of course. Those parents were of course also exploited. In Japan Christian pastors and communist lawyers created a legal kidnapping-for-profit organization exploiting Unificationists' parents. They continue their kidnapping of Unificationists until this day. There have been over 4,400 confirmed cases during the last 43 years! That is an incredible holocaust against the freedom of religion. Those organizations make anywhere from 10,000 to 30,000 dollars per Unificationist they deprogram. And now we found out you can make up to $100,000 for a person to be deprogrammed!

These are hate crimes. Hate crimes procreated against people and their true conviction, against people and their real faith and belief. These hate crimes have been created in an environment which has tolerated the slandering of the Unification Movement. They called us Moonies. It is the same as calling somebody from African or Afro-American descent with the “N-word.” It is a very derogatory word. It degrades and dehumanizes us as people, as people of faith. And since that kind of culture developed through slander and name-calling of the Unification Church, these kinds of hate crimes developed.

At the same time, these hate crimes not only happened in Japan. They also happened in America and in Australia, but because of their constitution and because of legal issues we won, they had to stop that. But in Japan this has become an outrageous holocaust against the freedom of religion!

You see, when the apostles believed and followed Christ not only would they have to give up everything. They would also come up at odds against anybody who would then persecute them. New Christians, who have come to understand that True Parents are the Messiah and the returning Lord, should not only look at True Parents with their physical eyes. It is just like the time when Jesus came. Everybody should have looked at him and accepted him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords. They should have accepted Jesus as the Messiah. If they just looked at him with their physical eyes they would have seen only a Middle Eastern man who called himself the Son of God. If any person did that even in this modern day, he would be persecuted. That is why True Father came under persecution and why the Unification Church came under persecution.

You see, people who are beginning to understand do not see True Parents only through their physical eyes. They are looking at True Parents with their spiritual eyes and therefore they are seeing what True Parents have done. They are seeing that True Parents have inherited the mission of Christ, they are seeing that True Parents have inherited the great love and essence of God and that they have been victorious. When they hear the Principle and hear what the truth of the biblical scripture is and what the truth of Jesus’ mission was, when they see what kind of sin it was to crucify Christ, their spirits and hearts are moved and they want to become members. They want to follow the Messiah. They want to take up the cross and follow him. But then they are tested. They hear the Principle, they may even see Father, but then they are expecting the Messiah to be like Mother Theresa or the Dalai Lama, peacefully floating around.

But Father is so strong, he is so powerful, he will sit you down for five hours, even 10 hours, and speak to you. He will speak to you about the universe, he will speak to you about True Parents and True Children, he will speak to you about True Families, he will speak about siblings, husbands and wives and about all kinds of interesting matters. He will do all these things, things you do not imagine a Messiah would do. So you are tested in your faith, you are tested and challenged in your faith to see through the preconception and to see through your spiritual eyes.

Many newcomers to the faith who are converting to Unificationism find that they have to make a huge commitment in the sense that their families and friends and their network look at them in a strange light. “You are now in the Unification Church, what is wrong with you? Are you not happy with your faith or are you not happy with your life? Why are you joining that religion? Is this not a cult? Is it not all kinds of things that we have heard of?” Many times that is the cost of following the Lord. Every single one of the Apostles who followed Jesus also had to endure name-calling and slander, even murder. You see, even the follower Saint Stephen was stoned to death. He was murdered because of his faith in Christ.

But finally, finally people of high standing and of courageous disposition are stepping forth: people like Pak Geun Ryeong, the second daughter of the former President of Korea. She joined the Holy Wine Ceremony at our Headquarters and attended the Blessing. She listened to the Principle already six times and is witnessing to people to also listen to the Divine Principle lectures. Also people like Kim Tae Hee, who is the Audrey Hepburn of Korea, a famous movie actress who comes to church regularly now and who has donated to the building of the World Temple. Now people of courage, who even know there will be a cost to their public life for professing their faith, for having conviction, for having belief and for being courageous, are stepping forward. Let’s give it up for those courageous new brothers and sisters who are returning and serving the Lord. Now is the time where people are opening their spiritual eyes.

Let’s take a look at 1. Thessalonians 2:4:

“We speak as men approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel. We are not trying to please men but God, who tests our hearts.”

See, we as Unificationists know of the truth. We know that True Parents are the Returning Lord, that they are here to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ, that they have completely inherited the true love and essence of God, that they have died for us seven times and that they have been resurrected from the grave seven times for all the sins and indemnity that had to be paid on the individual, family, tribal, national, world and cosmic level. And because of this incredible grace and victory they have also liberated the heart of Jesus. They have liberated the heart of God, which was in pain because his son was killed. They have been able to bring us under the direct dominion of God, to the eighth level of the eight stages of perfection. Please understand, this is what our faith is. We are the chosen ones, as the scripture says, “entrusted with the Gospel.” We are not trying to please men, but, as the scripture says, " to please God.”

On the banquet the following day of the “10.14 Blessing” we declared True Parents not as patriots, not as great educators or peace activists as we have gotten into the habit of describing them in our movement, no, we declared them as the Messiah! That is what we really believe: they are the Returning Lord, as they really fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ, as the Returning Christ. And if people think we are or I am crazy because we are finally declaring what we actually believe -- maybe, but really, who cares? We are not here to please men but we are here to please God. This is what we believe and this is our community of faith. It is this faith and conviction that has moved, changed and transformed hundreds of millions of people around the world, that has allowed them to reassert the Messiah. And it is this conviction -- because of this real faith and real truth -- why we have been persecuted, why we have been the victims of hate crimes, illegal kidnappings, abductions, rape and even murder.

We must be proud of our faith. We must understand what our faith is. That it is, remember, our democratic right to have and profess our faith. You see, True Parents as the Messiah do not just encourage us and give us positive phrases so that we can be inspired. No, they come to test our faith. Every time True Father has us sit down and speaks for ten hours, all of you have experienced that we are tested. We are tested not to see True Parents with our physical eyes but with our spiritual eyes, and we are tested to see Jesus not with our physical eyes but with our spiritual eyes, just like the Apostles. So this is what is so critical for us as a community of faith to understand as it is written in Matthew 5: 11-12: “Blessed are you when men revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” Listen to that: falsely, falsely, on my account. “Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so men persecuted the prophets who were before you. Aju!”

Homeland Meditation Practice:

Let us bow our heads, close our eyes and return to our Homeland Meditation Practice:

Let us visualize not this sanctuary but let us now visualize a beautiful meadow that we are walking upon, a meadow of lush green grass. And as we look we can notice that this meadow used to be a desert. This meadow used to be parched dry land, but now it has been nourished with new life. It has been resurrected and now fresh water gushes forth from the earth and streams now flow freely. And as we walk on this holy land let us feel the power of that resurrection. As we hear the song of the seven deaths and resurrections let us remember that incredible love that has brought us here.

Looking to our left we will notice a beautiful stream that is meandering down. We also recognize on that transparent water the beautiful sparkles that dance on the glowing waters while we hear the sound of this wonderful stream, which reminds us of the power of the seven resurrections that is now in our life. As we look at our feet while walking we notice with each single step that around our feet beautiful flowers are being resurrected from the earth. They are blooming around our feet. You will notice a miraculous world at our feet. As we look up into the heavens we will notice the beautiful sun shining upon us healing our wounds. We feel a beautiful breeze.

As we look ahead of us we see the True Parents in their Holy Robes waiting for us. Let’s go and kneel down before them. True Father places his right hand and True Mother her left hand on top of our heads and they give us their blessing and anointing. They say: “May you inherit the true love of God.” Let’s feel the power of that blessing move through our entire body like a wave of energy that is passing through every cell and every part of our body. We can feel our physical body being revived, cells are being generated and resurrected and we can feel that any stress or tangles in our mind are being untied or unknotted. We can feel our spirits being revived and we can see our spirit body illuminating in all 12 directions.

As we breathe in let us say in our hearts, “I am alive” and as we breathe out let us say in our hearts, “Thank you.” Let’s do it one more time. As we breathe in, “I am alive” and as we breathe out let us say in our hearts, “Thank you.” And one more time: as we inhale let us feel completely resurrected in our heart and say, “I am alive,” and as we exhale let us say, ”Thank you.” We are inheriting the True Love of God. Let us declare this in our hearts and let us gather our hands together and manifest the Principle: Give and Receive Action, Four Position Foundation, lift it up and all coming together -- may I inherit the True Love of God. Aju. Thank you very much brothers and sisters.

Altar Call Prayer:
Hyung Jin Nim

Heavenly Father, thank You for this day! Heavenly Father, True Parents we thank you so much. For us you have sacrificed your body and your soul, you have descended into hell for us so that we may find eternal life. You did that not just once, but with the parental heart that will die and die and die again for their children, so that their children may have eternal life and may have the presence in your direct dominion. Father, we want to recall and remember that incredible true love that True Parents have been victorious in.

Father, we thank You so much that You have united us with that victory of true love. When is it in the world that the people of the world will come together in a Blessing Ceremony so that they may offer their life, their family and their spouse to You? People from different countries who never met each other come together because of Your victory of true love, a true love that transcends all nations, boundaries and the world, a true love that is the parental heart of God, of You.

We thank You so much that You are allowing us to inherit that and we thank You so much that True Parents whom You have sent as the Messiah of this world, that they are standing in the frontline, that they are continuing to test us and to give us strength, build our endurance, so that we can have greater faith and become greater in Your will.

We pray that we may build up in our faith, that we may understand our True Parents and that when we are tempted to want to see them with our physical eyes that we may see who they really are with our spiritual eyes.

We pray that we, just like the early Apostles of Jesus, may see the returning Christ with our spiritual eyes. Open them for us, Father. We pray that You may be with all of the Unificationist families around this world.

We thank You so much for anointing us with Your Cosmic Blessing this past Wednesday. We pray that this new era, where we can declare our faith with pride, where we no longer hide our faith and we can be proud of who we are, where we can come out of the closet and lead the heavenly way, that we can really declare what we actually believe and stand before the world as proud Unificationists.

We want to pray for all those brothers and sisters in Japan who have been victims of hate crimes for the last 43 years. We pray that there may be justice, that the whole world may come to realize this incredible human rights violation and understand that the Unification Church has lived up to its teaching to pray and love our enemies.

We thank You so much and please bless this community today. Protect our brothers and sisters this day and give us new faith and new life. In True Parents’ name we pray and in our own names. Aju! 

Father Sets the Pace

Hyung Jin Moon
October 14, 2009

This blessing was a huge victory. It's all faith-based in the sense that we are here to celebrate True Parents, receive the blessing and give gratitude to True Parents. That can only happen in a community of faith.

Everyone paid the registration fee. Everyone became an owner -- I did it myself, I paid everything. Kook-jin hyung did as well. So we were real owners when we went in. And because of that, we were ready to receive True Parents.

We are standing up for our faith. When I gave the welcoming address, I made it clear that Father is the Messiah. We are declaring that now. We are declaring what we believe in, in that atmosphere of faith.... Father was so happy; he was on fire.

This was a great victory and success; it was as if Father were dancing up the stairs afterward. We were so grateful. It was just such an electric, faith-filled event. It was so different, like going to a revival. We purposefully put our faith at the center of everything. Our action plan is: "We are proud of what we believe, and this what we believe. And you should believe it too!" [Hyung-jin nim laughs]

We are being honest about what we believe. They all know we declare Father is the Messiah. But at our events we would beat around the bush. Yet when we just declare it, people just say "Yes, that's what they believe." And for us to stand up and say, "This is what we believe, and it's our right to believe it" is an important change in our mentality as a culture, as a movement. Because we are a spiritual movement, we have to declare our faith. We are not here to promote a peace activist or an educator. We are here to promote the Messiah, the returning Christ. All Christians and all the world must understand Father's messianic role. It's a return to faith.

I was so happy because the Two Rivers Choir was up there, young blessed kids. And I have seen them grow in their own faith, just being in the Two Rivers Choir and being at church. When they saw True Parents, I saw some of them were crying. They were bowing to True Parents; they really had a reverence that they hadn't had before, and which I love. I love seeing that development of faith in them.

Mother was also delighted. She kept praising Kook-jin hyung. "Well done!" she said, "Very well done!" He had reported to True Parents that the organizers had asked for a certain budget to hold the event, but that he had sent them away, saying, "No! Take this out of my office. Return it to me in realistic terms." He did that a couple of times, and then that whole event was done for a 20 percent of the original amount requested. We are not going to use more money than we need. This is money representing the faith of members.

All the musicians and singers were members. This is the culture we wanted to bring. If you felt the electricity of faith there, it was more wonderful than previous events. We also received international media coverage the likes of which we have never seen in the movement. May we ask about your personal experience of the Blessing Ceremony and rededication of your marriage?

We loved that. We weren't actually standing next to our spouses because the True Children were seated right at the front to support True Parents. I don't know if you could see us? We were shouting, "Abonim!" "Omonim!" All the VIPs were looking at us, wondering, What are they doing? They're like kids!

And I thought, "We are kids! We're their children! Who cares if we are the international president and the foundation chairman! We're their children first and we're proud of our parents." So we were up there hollering at them, "Yeah! Abonim, Omonim, you look so handsome!"

I think that culture of playfulness with True Parents that the True Children maintain is based on our relationship of love.

We can say, "Abba, you look beautiful!" -- these kinds of things. We're not trying to stand in our positions.... I think that rubs off on the community, and rubs off on the atmosphere of the event.

So we were up there and Shin Myung was getting blessed, and we were shouting at him, "Hey Shin Myung, you look good!" and so on. It was great!

Can you give us all a little background information on Shin Myung nim's engagement?

It was wonderful because this time Father said he absolutely had to bless three generations. One of the purposes was for the three great kingships to be blessed in front of True Parents, in one event. Even in the True Family, Father wanted three generations. He asked other True Children to receive the blessing but I think for some of them it wasn't yet the right time. But Shin Myung was courageous. He stepped forward. And he said, Grandfather, if you want me to go I'll go. If Omma is happy about it, I'll go. And he stepped up and he was the representative for our third generation at this event.

Krista is a wonderful sister. Her dad is Finnish and her morn is Japanese. So we have the first Japanese-Caucasian member of the True Family. It's great! We're excited about it. They look beautiful.

Krista is eighteen, Shin Myung is twenty-three. She's in college. She was actually working at Lovin' Life Ministries as a volunteer. They are not a wealthy family, but they are real people of faith. That's the most important thing. For people who come into our family, the most important thing is their faith. Not what their political area is in the church. It is best when they come from families of faith. They just love True Parents. That's the key. Krista came from that kind of family. They never thought in their wildest dreams that she would be blessed to a True Family member [Hyung-jin nim laughs joyfully]. But that's God's blessing and grace.

So In-jin nuna had worked with Krista; she is a wonderful blessed child. She is a good example. She has an excellent standard, she shows integrity in her work. She's punctual, she always gets things done on time, she has enthusiasm for the church. And so In-jin nim said, "Hey, this girl is wonderful." Shin Myung, I think, had already met her. While he was helping support the ministry there, they met. And so In-jin Nuna could feel they have a good connection.

Mother first met Krista when Krista came to True Parents Hoon Dok Hae at East Garden. Krista was asked to come upstairs s to meet True Parents. Mother asked her, "Will you go to the blessing this time?" And I loved Krista's response: she said "If it is God's will, I will go." What a beautiful attitude of faith.

And Father came up and saw her, and this time Father also greeted her parents. It was really wonderful.... Her father is blessed with a Japanese missionary. One of their other daughters was here today at the service. They are such a nice family, and they look very good and happy together. As the AP news video said, "happy and pleased with each other"!

Note: Father spoke at a congratulatory banquet on the day following the Blessing Ceremony to an audience that included ILC participants and Won-gu Peace Cup winners. Hyung-jin nim was introducing Father when suddenly Father interrupted him, instructing him to speak in Korean. We asked Hyung-jin nim about this event too:

It was funny how Father told me to speak in Korean when I was introducing him, and then started speaking in English himself! [Hyung-jin nim laughs] Father started speaking in English and then he changed to Korean. It's a delight to be with Father. I was not embarrassed at all. I might have thought, "Come on Father, what are you doing? I'm trying to introduce you as the Messiah!" Kook-jin hyung and Sun-jin nuna said that Father started speaking before I had finished because he got excited by what I was saying.

The point is that we have to understand the role of the Messiah. That's what I am trying to make clear to our community of faith. The role of the Messiah is not to be an encourager, not to be an inspirer of faith, so to speak. He is not someone who is just encouraging us be positive. This is not his role.

He comes to bring the sword, judgment. Jesus came and judged the false interpretation of the laws. He came to bring the Gospel. Father as well. He comes to test faith, to test who has real faith.

It is so hard to serve the Messiah day to day. If Father speaks six or ten hours at an event, it's physically draining for him. We only experience it once every couple of months. But every day, it requires superhuman stamina. Father has superhuman stamina. Kook-jin hyung and I were talking about this. Father is superman... It's incredible.

Most people would worry about someone Father's age.

I have done a lot of exercise in my life. I've trained myself. I cannot keep up with Father. It's incredible.... I have a hard time speaking for thirty minutes. My sermons are relatively short, right? Father can speak for hours. Before the Washington event, he spoke for twelve hours and thirty minutes at Hoon Dok Hae. Then, he came and did a five-hour event. That's when he was pulling people up to the podium and smacking their cheeks! When we see this from any normal person's perspective, it looks crazy. What is this person doing? They don't understand what the Messiah comes to do. He doesn't come to be just like Mother Theresa, to be that holy person that inspires everybody. He comes to test. He comes as himself, a living test of faith.

Does he test people so he can find those with faith?

To find those who can become one with him. Look at the prophets of the Bible: Noah got drunk; Abraham was a polytheist; Moses murdered a man; Jacob was a criminal; Joseph was imprisoned. Look at Jesus. He was a social rebel. When you look at the people whom God uses, when we look at the Bible, the people that God chooses to work through, we can really understand Father. This is real! Father is not here to please the public. He isn't living in order to please men. He is here with a mission. He is the living test of faith, so that we can all have greater faith in God, and in the one whom he has sent.

Father spoke for six hours. Wasn't he exhausted?

He wasn't exhausted at all! We were saying "Father, please go and lie down." And Father says, "I'm fine, I'm sitting down." Then he sits down and has a little lunch. Then he says okay, is there some football on TV? It's as if it has been a normal day.

Mentally it's stressful. Father puts you through an incredible spiritual battle. When you see it through the eyes of faith, though, when you see it with your spiritual eyes, you see his passion for God. You see his incredible energy for God. You see God working in him; you can't deny it. Ninety years old. I don't know another ninety-year-old man who can do that. Everybody is floored when they hear that he is doing this at ninety.

Two or three hours into the banquet, we heard people behind us saying, "Oh my goodness, what is this? He is speaking for so long!" At four or five hours, we heard the same people saying, "Come to think of it, it is kind of hard for someone to speak that long. And he is ninety!" They had a change of heart.

The Messiah comes to totally challenge you. When we can understand this as a community of faith, we can see Father with spiritual eyes. Then it's a joy to be there. Of course, when you're in it, it's taxing. But when you think about it, reflect on it and pray about it, it's so inspiring.

The next day, when we had morning service here at the church, everybody was crying. When we reflected on it, and prayed about it in the morning, I was crying; everyone was crying. It was so moving because we could see that, even at this stage, True Parents are still dying for us, going on the path of the seven deaths. They're still going on the path of death for their children. When you understand that and you see it, you realize, my goodness, that parental heart is what is going to change the world. 

Significance of the "10.14 True Parents Cosmic Blessing Ceremony"

Hyung Jin Moon
October 10, 2009
Headquarters Church, Seoul Korea

Opening Prayer by Eufemia Restor:

Dearest Heavenly Father and True Parents! We would like to thank You so much for this wonderful day. First and foremost, we would like to pray for the long life and good health of our beloved True Parents wherever they are now; for the health and long life of True Children, who are truly working so hard on the frontline, helping our beloved True Parents. We pray for the True Grandchildren as well, that they have long life and good health.

Heavenly Father, today is October 10th. That’s four days before our True Parents are going to give us the great and special blessing. We do pray that each one of us will truly be able to receive this blessing. We are living in this time and age wherein, as a miracle in our lives, we attend True Parents and True Children. We do pray that we, as blessed couples, will be able to accept the responsibility, even though our responsibility is just small. But we pray that we can do it heartistically and with love and joy.

The blessing that we receive should not be kept for ourselves, it should be shared with the people around us; with our neighbors, our brothers and sisters, and with all people because our True Parents aren’t just True Parents for all Unificationists, but they are the True Parents of all humankind.

Heavenly Father, despite our busy schedules, we pray that we can truly find ways and means, and be able to understand the value and context of the blessing.

As True Father says, we only live once, but once is truly enough when we live it right.

Thank You so much, Heavenly Father, for the grace that we can participate in the building of heaven here on earth. Thank You once again, and this we pray in our names as members of central blessed families. Aju!

Welcoming Remarks:
Yeon Ah Nim

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! It is great to see you all today. Today we have a beautiful blue sky and a cool breeze. We sincerely hope and pray that your day and your family and your week will be blessed in Heavenly Father’s and True Parents’ name. Aju!

Hyung Jin Nim

Good afternoon, brothers and sisters! We are going to start with Cheon Seong Gyeong 2108. Father says,

“This is why love is great. The power of love bridges the distances between upper and lower or high and low. Love transcends space and time, allowing us to participate in the realm where we can immediately share joint ownership. This is an amazing fact.”

Brothers and sisters, you know when we participate this weekend it is really important. Thousands of brothers and sisters are being re-blessed and many blessed for the first time. In preparation for that, we have a very special service today which will be based on that and particularly on the Holy Wine Ceremony which we are going to have a little later.

This Holy Wine Ceremony is based on the victory of true love, the love that will die and die for the sake of the children, so that the children can be free to have eternal life, can be reborn into the kingdom of God. This is the type of heart from which True Parents have lived. That’s the heart with which they have passed through the seven deaths and resurrections. This is the parental heart, the heart where this Holy Wine is coming from. It comes from this heartistic realm, from a victorious inheritance.

So, on this day, let’s all meditate on that and let’s reflect on that, because Father says,

“This is the reason why love is great, because it can bridge the highs and lows, transcend space and time."

And that is exactly the great power and the great love that True Parents have inherited from our Heavenly God. Let’s give it up for our True Parents! (Applause)

Introduction of Guest Speaker Dr. Joon Ho Seuk by Rev. Hyung Jin Nim:

Today I would like to welcome Dr. Seuk to the podium. He is going to explain a little more in depth about the significance of the ceremony that will be occurring on the 14th. Dr. Seuk, as you know, has been an incredible leader within our church. For the last 36 years he has worked overseas in the United States, in Russia, in China -- he is a pioneer, he is one of the warriors, one of the Samurais, of the older generation.

Not only is he a warrior in that he goes out and pioneers, he is actually a real warrior -- he is a ninth degree black belt in Judo. Very few of them are alive! He is also the founder of Tongil Mudo, as you all know. So, he is quite an amazing fellow to work with.

Dr. Seuk came to be with us here in Korea at Father’s direction, and since he has come, we have truly had the privilege to work with such an individual. He is so loyal. Even myself, I really loved the martial arts and things like that, but it really came to life when I came to work with Dr. Seuk. His loyalty, his honor and how he always holds himself with dignity, but yet he is humble. He has integrity and he serves True Parents without question! He has no personal ambition but really seeks to serve the community. This I really admire about Dr. Seuk.

For myself and Kook Jin Hyung, Sun Jin -- while she is here -- it is truly a pleasure to be able to work with Dr. Seuk. It really is a refreshing pleasure and a real honor to be able to work with such a person, who has dedicated his entire life to the service of God and True Parents.

Brothers and sisters, when I welcome him up on stage I want you all to really welcome him as a veteran, as a 36 year veteran and wonderful pioneer of our True Parents. Let’s offer him a great round of applause when he comes up. (Applause)

Main Sermon by Dr. Seuk:
Significance of the October 14th True Parents Cosmic Blessing Ceremony

(He greets the audience in Korean first, then in English.)

Good Afternoon. Should I speak in English or Korean? I spent 36 years in foreign countries, 18 years in America and 18 years in Russia and China. I tried to learn English, Russian, and Chinese. Now I am trying to learn Korean. If I speak in Korean now, you may not understand at all my Korean-English.

Although President Moon gave me too much praise, I am not worthy. I am not worthy of standing on this podium where True Parents and Hyung Jin Nim invested so much heart and prayer. I feel very honored and privileged that I can have this opportunity to speak in front of you. Thank you to Sun Jin Nim, Yeon Ah Nim and In Sup Nim for coming. Let’s give a big hand of applause for all True Family.

We are really living in an incredible miraculous era: working, breathing the same air and living together with True Parents. Furthermore, we already received Blessing from True Parents -- many of you, right? Not everybody yet. Truly this is an amazing era, where we are living and working together with True Parents in this particular time, the first year of the perfection stage toward Cheon Il Guk, January 13, 2013. Do you feel that?

In this particular year, True Parents held the coronation ceremony. Now True Parents became King of Kings, right? Also, this year, True Parents had their Golden 50th Wedding Anniversary. It was a very special year. This year Father gave us his life autobiography, and it was the 55th anniversary of the founding of our church in 1954. It was an important year, in which we received great blessings and grace from Father.

First, Father opened the door where Cain and Abel on the individual, family, tribe, national, universal and cosmic level unite together. Secondly, Father gave us blessing and grace even though we still have remnants and traces of the fall. We all have fallen thinking, habits and behavior, which we must remove completely and become the person and family of original state. Such an era of grace Father is giving to us. Thirdly, Father said a new era of grace has come where good sovereignty overcomes evil sovereignty. “O” symbolizes good sovereignty and “X” symbolizes evil sovereignty. O embraces and digests X; X cannot embrace O. Such a time of great blessing and grace Father gave us this year.

Furthermore, one more great blessing still is waiting for us, and that is October 14th great Blessing. The title of the coming Blessing will be “10.14. TRUE PARENTS COSMIC BLESSING”. In order to accomplish that great grace Blessing, Father gave us guidelines, the way to achieve it, and also a special gift to us. First of all, Father gave us the Wongu Peace Cup Cain-Abel Cosmic Unity Game. Even Father himself developed and founded Hwahap-Tongil, harmony and unity game, and performed a ceremony on April 19th. During a period of 13 days we held these games. There was a Peace Cup tournament in June, in Spain, Andalusia together with a Cain-Abel cosmic unity festival.

On October 12th and 13th, we will also have a Wongu Peace Cup Cain-Abel cosmic unity event. Through that, we can have unity between Cain and Abel and show such kind of determination and new start when we settle the culture of unity. The time has come for all our members to completely unite together and with the True Family. When we unite together with True Mother and eventually True Father, then all our Unification family will become totally one in heart. Furthermore, we will extend our family into the world and we will become one world family.

Secondly, Father gave us his own autobiography, which is a great gift, to achieve such goals. The essence of Father’s life story is true love, the practice of true love. Father’s autobiography is a great tool, a heavenly weapon for witnessing, to save the people. Our witnessing is not just proselytizing people, but we are saving people’s eternal life, connecting them to God’s blood lineage, life and love so they can become a true family, centered upon True Parents. Many spiritual phenomena and miracles are happening now while we are witnessing through the distribution of this autobiography.

From what I understand, the greatest gift is Seven Deaths and Resurrections. This great awakening we can receive through our World President Hyung Jin Nim. Father told us what true love is: it means that we give and give and then we forget what we have given and we still give. Father as a parent couldn’t really say it that much, “I went to death place for you, seven different times, to save you.” Father has been waiting for the day when one of Father’s children would find True Parents’ true love. I feel that Hyung Jin Nim received this new awakening and new revelation not casually, not abruptly, but rather based upon ten years’ efforts of jeong seong condition.

After his elder brother Young Jin Nim ascended into heaven, he started jeong seong condition from early morning 2 am until 3 am, 120 bow condition, prayer condition, jeong seong condition, true love condition. Not just one or a few months or a few years but for ten years, regardless of snow, rain, cold and wet or heat -- that did not disturb him at all. Upon such a jeong seong condition, True Parents gave him spiritual awakening. Father went to the death place not only one or two, but seven different times and resurrected to save the fallen children from hell. Not only his body, but also his spirit went into hell, beaten and tortured by Satan, shedding blood and tears. This great awakening we can all receive by receiving True Parents’ true love, we can resemble True Parents and we can inherit True Parents’ true love, and then we can become one with True Parents’ heart.

In a few days, all of us will receive the Blessing. What is the meaning of this Blessing? Today is Saturday and there is a Saturday service, so I should start reading Fathers’ Hoon Dok material. From tomorrow, at the official Sunday Service, I will read Fathers’ words, but today I will omit reading Fathers’ speech to save time, so please understand this point. What is that special meaning? As you know Father became the King of Kings this year, and as King of Kings he is giving the Blessing to all the people, including all the Blessed Families. For the first time in history, there is a Blessing given by the King of Kings. Let’s give a big applause to show our deep gratitude and appreciation for True Parents.

True Parents were installed in 1960 and they had to overcome all kinds of difficulties, hardships, and had to pay so much indemnity. They got victory in 2001 when the coronation ceremony was offered to God, and Father opened a new era, the era after opening of heaven. In 2006, Father became King of Peace at the entrance and coronation ceremony. This year, in 2009, Father became the King of Kings and as a King of Kings, Father is giving the Blessing to everybody.

What a great Blessing we will receive this year in a few days on October 14th! It will be a Blessing on the cosmic level; before, when we received the Blessing, it was on the church level, and another Blessing on the worldwide level. This is the third level, cosmic level Blessing. All Blessed Couples should go through this cosmic level Blessing. All members and blessed families have fallen mind, fallen habits and fallen thinking, fallen behavior and fallen actions, and all our blood lineage has been stained, corrupted and dirty, so we should purify our blood lineage completely. Our connection to True Parents’ life and love became weakened, so we should strengthen this love connection and life connection. Father said this new Blessing is a Blessing without a trace of the fall, such a great Blessing of forgiveness, based upon your condition. It is not just automatic; it depends on how much you repent, on how much new determination you have and on your new heart, on how much you set a condition of indemnity. Based upon that, Father will give great forgiveness, and grace will come. This Blessing will remove the trace of fall completely.

The coming Blessing will create great harmony through unity between Cain and Abel, from the individual, family, tribal, national, world, to the cosmic level. This will be the first time that newly Blessed couples and already established Blessed couples will receive Blessing together, the first time in God’s providence. What a great Blessing is coming! This Blessing is a condition for the entire clan to receive the Blessing by going through the Divine Principle workshop. I understand that everybody went through a Divine Principle workshop, reviving our spirit. By doing so, we set the condition for the entire clan to receive the Blessing together with us. Also this is a condition for the nation, world and the spirit world to receive the Blessing. Father said 80 million Korean people, together with 6.5 billion population worldwide will receive the Blessing conditionally.

Today we will be conducting the Holy Wine Ceremony officiated by World President Rev. Moon and Rev. Lee. This Holy Wine Ceremony is a great ceremony. Because of the fall, mankind received fallen satanic lineage, love and life. We must be engrafted into True Parents. We all became like a wild olive tree. True Parents are the true olive tree. In order for the wild olive tree to become the true olive tree, it must be engrafted into the true olive tree. Through the Holy Wine Ceremony we receive God’s heavenly lineage, God’s life and love. Furthermore, this Holy Wine Ceremony for already Blessed Couples will remove all traces of fallen actions, habits and remnants completely. It will purify our lineage completely -- such a special meaning.

What should be our mindset to receive this Holy Wine and the upcoming Blessing on October 14th? Father emphasizes absolute sex, right? Do you remember what the motto is for this year? (He recites the motto in Korean). Father and Mother, absolute sex, pure heart, sexual purity, fidelity between husband and wife, creating a beautiful happy family and keeping absolute sexual ethics and absolute purity. Through this, we fulfill our portion of responsibility. Such a determination you must have when you receive the holy wine today. Otherwise you just drink and forget everything, and then it has no meaning at all.

Father said you must receive this Blessing as a virgin. It means a virgin person, who doesn’t know any man or woman. You should go back to that state with a pure heart. Even towards your wife, you may wonder, is this my wife? With this kind of pure heart you should become a newly wed couple. We should receive this Holy Wine and Blessing as a virgin. This is what Father said a few days ago in America. We should live a life of jeong seong condition, like Hyung Jin Nim, a jeong seong life, a true love life, with passion for the truth, for God’s way -- such a life. We should be determined to inherit True Parents’ Seven Deaths and Resurrections and practice jeong seong condition everyday, true love condition, true love action and passion for God’s will.

Let’s show our deep appreciation and gratitude to Hyung Jin Nim who gave us the Seven Deaths and Resurrections, who gave a great awakening to us. Let’s give a big applause. He wants desperately for us to inherit the Seven Deaths and Resurrections, so he did a 21,000 bow condition, a life and death struggle. He desperately asks us to inherit True Parents’ love. With receiving Holy Wine and the Blessing we will make a new determination to create a happy family and eventually all mankind will become a great happy family through True Blessed Couples and Blessed Families.

I will now conclude my speech reading Father’s speech:

I pray that you may form wise and new families of citizens in God’s Kingdom, Cheon Il Guk -- families whose members clearly distinguish between Cain and Abel in their lives, who integrate them into a new realm of Abel, placing goodness at its center, and who restore the realm of the three eras of the Old, New and Completed Testament ages and the three generations of my family. I am asking you to form and live as new true families based on original human nature through which the new true grandparents, true parents, and true grandchildren can enter, hand in hand, into the new Kingdom of Heaven. I pray and proclaim in the names of the victorious True God and True Parents that the new authority of the great blessing of the True God, the king of kings of all nations, can flow abundantly into your new families, new nations, and throughout the new cosmos.
(Book 17, Pyung Hwa Shingyeong)

Thank you very much.

Explanation of Meaning of Holy Wine Ceremony by Rev. Hyung Jin Nim:

Let us just briefly look at the meaning of the very special ceremony, as Dr. Seuk has eloquently explained.

From the viewpoint of the Divine Principle, the Holy Wine Ceremony is a ceremony of completely removing the original sin and changing the lineage. That is to say, through the Holy Wine Ceremony, the evil lineage of Satan will be removed completely. You are being brought from the realm of Satan to the realm of God, from death to life. Only True Parents can bestow this special grace. Let’s give them a big round of applause of appreciation. (Applause)

This Holy Wine Ceremony has three special meanings:

Number one, the October 14th Holy Wine has been given as an important condition for participating in this ceremony of Cosmic Blessing. So, before we partake in the ceremony, the condition is that we receive the Holy Wine again.

Number two, the three generations in the family are allowed to take part in this great grace, bestowed through the Holy Wine, and therefore carry the responsibility of establishing the legitimacy of the realm of three blessed generations. So three generations will be participating with us today.

Number three, all families that take part in the Holy Wine Ceremony should drink the Holy Wine after fully repenting on our individual level, family level, etc. with the resolution to make a new beginning at the start of a new era.

So, now we will partake in the Holy Wine Ceremony.

Benediction after Taking of Holy Wine by Rev. Hyung Jin Nim:

Dearest, most beloved Heavenly True Parents, Heavenly Parents of Heaven and Earth! Father, we thank You so much for this incredible blessing that You have bestowed upon us. You intended the original lineage from the beginning of time and creation, wanted to have children that would be able to inherit Your true love, be able to multiply that true love and spread it and have dominion over the creation, stewarding the world with responsibility, true love, true life and true lineage.

We understand that this portion of responsibility was not fulfilled during the fall and that the lineage of mankind was separated from Your grace, love and lineage. Father, this day, the Holy Wine that we partake of, is upon the victorious foundation of our True Parents, who are the first human ancestors, the first to fully inherit Your true love, Your essence and Your divinity, who are able to stand as the parent of all humankind, who are able to go the path of death, to willingly sacrifice and lay down their life and their soul, multiple times, over and over, so that their children may receive eternal life and may inherit the lineage that You have always intended from the beginning of creation.

We pray that we may understand and that we can repent for our shortcomings this day, that we may be purged of any negative strongholds, fallen natures and that we may come into new birth and new resurrection with the power of the seven resurrections. We pray that we may come into the new resurrected life, so that we may offer our lives, our love and our lineage and our families for the sake of Your kingdom and Your providence.

We pray that we may inherit this type of true love, the true love of True Parents, the true love of Your essence, Your divinity and that through that inheritance we may create the true families which You have so desired from the beginning of time.

Father, we pray that these families may come together and the members of the Unification Church may embody and actualize that and spread and share the message, the conviction, faith and love of our True Parents to all humankind. We pray that the world may inherit this and that we may move into the new realm of liberation and that we may move into the new realm of establishing Your true kingdom here on earth as it is in heaven.

We thank You so much, Father, once more for this most precious gift and grace that You give to us and bestow upon our families and descendants, our ancestors and upon all the families that are here with us in this sanctuary and joining us around the world.

Father, we pray that this may be the preparation for receiving the Cosmic Blessing of the King of Kings, our True Parents, on Oct 14th, this Wednesday, and we pray that we may have a prayerful and thankful heart when we receive the incredible cosmic grace and blessing. We thank You so much and we pray all these things returning all glory and thanks and gratitude to You, as central blessed families, we pray in True Parents’ name. Aju!

Three Cheers of Eog-mansei:

On this special occasion, we thank Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim for leading and guiding us and for the guidance from Dr. Seuk today, and also for the presence of the True Family here. It is a great, great privilege for us all. We want to celebrate this occasion with three cheers of Eog-mansei:

Eog-mansei for the victory of the establishment of God’s kingship! Eog-mansei!

Eog-mansei for the victorious True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, the King of Kings! Eog-mansei!

Eog-mansei for the 10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony! Eog-mansei! 

True Parents’ Guidance Regarding the October 14 Blessing Ceremony and Instructions for Holding the Holy Wine Ceremony

Hyung Jin Moon
October 9, 2009

Ref. No. FFWPUI 2009-47

To: Regional presidents, National messiahs, National leaders
From: FFWPU International Headquarters
Date: October 9, 2009
Re.: True Parents’ Guidance Regarding the October 14 Blessing Ceremony and Instructions for Holding the Holy Wine Ceremony

May God and True Parents’ blessings and love be with brothers and sisters in all regions, mission nations and providential organizations who are working hard to inherit the victorious fortune of True Father’s 90th anniversary and True Parents’ Golden Anniversary.

This is to announce the official name of the upcoming Blessing Ceremony, its significance, and True Parents’ instructions, given on October 4 and 5, for the Holy Wine Ceremony. Please guide all families so that they can prepare accordingly and take part in the Blessing Ceremony.

1. Name of Event: “10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony”

2. Guidance Regarding the Blessing Ceremony

True Father: "Families that wish to receive the blessing in this era of the realm of the king of kings should do so unconditionally to make a new beginning. All blessed couples should participate in the Blessing Ceremony with hearts and bodies like those of a virgin.”

From this we can see that the upcoming Blessing Ceremony is a comprehensive grace blessing for all couples, who are participating to be reborn as new blessed families, and who have received the Blessing grace on a cosmic level on the condition of completely repenting about one’s faith and life to this day and of all the mistakes one has made including unresolved problems that went against the Principle. Therefore, all families that participate in the Blessing Ceremony should establish a condition of offering their utmost devotion based on the standard of their conscience for this absolute blessing grace from True Parents.

3. Additional Guidance from True Parents

“All blessed families should all be educated again through the books Explanation of the Principle, Exposition of Divine Principle and Original Divine Principle by October 14 this year. On that foundation they should come together with seven generations of their ancestors and all their relatives and receive the blessing again. (August 16, 2009)

“You must again receive the blessing, which True Parents officiate. To this day, there has never been an intercultural and international realm beyond the level of particular families and nations. Only if I make the condition for this occasion will the substantial reality will come about. The condition of blessing an entire race [the Korean people], all 80 million of them, the 6.5 billion people of the world, and all of the spirit world in the same place must be established even if they do not want it. On October 14, my own family, the blessed families and the families of the saints will make this an occasion to establish a condition on behalf of humanity. (August 20, 2009)

4. Conducting the Special Holy Wine Ceremony

1. Significance

1. This Holy Wine has been given as an important condition for participating in the 10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony.

2. All three generations are allowed to take part in this great grace bestowed through the Holy Wine and therefore have the responsibility of establishing the legitimacy of the blessed realm of three generations

3. All families that take part in the Holy Wine Ceremony should drink the Holy Wine after fully repenting and with the resolution to make a new beginning with the start of a new era.

4. There will still be personal issues that should be restored through indemnity for individuals and families that drink this Holy Wine. Additional guidelines regarding this will be announced at a later date after the Blessing Ceremony.

2. Participants:

1. 1st and 2nd generation blessed couples and their children (single 2nd and 3rd generation)

2. Married couples who are blessing candidates

3. Single 2nd generation blessing candidates

4. Single 1st generation blessing candidates

5. Important notices

1. For those living outside of Korea, patients and those who are unable to participate in the Holy Wine Ceremony due to unavoidable circumstances, a family member should receive confirmation from the local church leader and bring that person’s photo to the Ceremony. Holy Wine should be lightly dropped on the lips in the photo as a condition. Later, that person should take part in the Holy Wine Ceremony officiated by the local church leader.

2. The new Holy Wine made for this occasion should be used for the Holy Wine Ceremony. However, if it is not available, please use the currently existing Holy Wine that True Parents bestowed during the Entrance Ceremony of Cheon Jeong Gung but only after offering a special condition (the national leader and all officiators should offer a condition of 120 bows).

6. Holy Wine Ceremony

1. Procedure

1. Please be sure to offer a brief bow when receiving the Holy Wine from the officiator and staff.

2. The wife should stand on the right; the husband on the left and the children should stand next to the husband in order of birth.

3. The couple should receive one cup and all the children should receive one cup together.

4. After formally receiving the Holy Wine the wife should first drink half the cup and give the cup to the husband who should drink the rest.

5. The children should all drink an appropriate amount from the same cup in order of birth.

6. If a spouse has ascended or if someone is blessed to a spirit person, that person should first drink half and then drink the other half as if one had received the cup from one’s spouse.

7. There is no particular formality in returning the empty cups to the officiator.

2. The Holy Wine Ceremony should be held from October 11 to 13 at the local churches.

3. Holy Wine Officiator: Regional presidents, national leaders or local church leader

4. Holy Wine Ceremony program

1. Holy Song

2. Prayer

3. Guidance regarding the significance of the Blessing Ceremony and Special Holy Wine Ceremony

4. Holy Wine Ceremony

5. Benediction (The family should stand in a small circle when receiving the benediction)

6. Three cheers of eog-mansei

7. Eog-mansei for the victory of the establishment of God’s kingship

8. Eog-mansei for the victorious True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, the king of kings

9. Eog-mansei for the 10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony

5. Each family that takes part in the Holy Wine Ceremony should fill out and submit the Holy Wine Ceremony Participant’s card.

7. Administrative matters

1. Regional headquarters should submit the results of the Holy Wine Ceremony to the International Headquarters.

2. Deadline: 12 noon, October 31, 2009 (Korea time)

3. Regional headquarters should collect and compile the reports from each mission nation and submit this to headquarters.

4. Please guide all families that take part in the Holy Wine Ceremony to participate in the Blessing Ceremony.

5. Holy Wine Ceremony cards should be filled out by the participants and collected by the regional headquarters. Regional headquarters should compile a name list of all participants in a Microsoft Excel file and submit this to the International Headquarters.

Attachment 1: Holy Wine Ceremony Card

Hyung Jin Moon
International President 

Live Webcast Information For The 10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony

Hyung Jin Moon
October 9, 2009

To: Regional presidents, National messiahs, National leaders
From: FFWPU International Headquarters
Date: October 9, 2009
Re.: Live webcast information for the 10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony

May God and True Parents’ blessings and love be with all regions, mission nations and providential organizations.

The “10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony” will be held at the outdoor plaza of the Sun Moon University in Korea on October 14, 2009, with True Parents officiating. This ceremony will be broadcast live via the internet. Members who are unable to come to Korea for the event can view the ceremony through the internet.

1. Event name: “10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony”

2. Date: 11:00 am, October 14, 2009 [Korea time]

3. Venue: Outdoor plaza, Sun Moon University, Korea

4. Webcast time

Date: 11:00 am, October 14, 2009 [Korea time]

Please go to www.tongil.or.kr and follow instructions.

A VOD of the event will be available on the homepage of the Korean Headquarters (www.tongil.or.kr) after the event.

5. Details of the webcast

1) Live webcast will be provided in Korean, Japanese and English.

2) Live webcast will be accessible on the homepage 30 minutes before the start of the event.

3) Live webcast schedule may be subject to change according to the local situation. The broadcast quality may be affected due to unforeseen incidents or server overload.

6. Requirements

1) Personal computers connected to the internet through ADSL, Cable, etc

2) Please check to see if your computer has a Sound Card and Speaker installed.

3) Web browser program such as Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher

4) Media Player Program 9.0 or higher

7. Additional note

More information will be provided later for those living in areas where internet access is unstable or unavailable and for those who are unable to participate in this Blessing Ceremony via internet due to unavoidable circumstances. We are currently planning to make and send out DVDs of the “10.14 True Parents’ Cosmic Blessing Ceremony.”

FFWPU International