Hyung Jin Moon
February 19, 2010
Cheonshim International Youth Center
Chung Pyung, Korea
Transcribers: Mary Ellen Legay, Thea Lepercq, Anna Schneider, Cathy Quebral, Beatrice Clyburn
Proofreaders: Marcia Schlichting, Teresa Ledesma, Beatrice Clyburn
We were up in the True Parents' banquet, and Parents were so delighted; they were so happy; and as you notice, when we went up there, Kook Jin hyung gave an awesome, wonderful toast. As you notice, we all are strongly declaring True Parents as the Messiah and the Lord of the Second Advent, let's give it up for True Parents -- because it's really a joy to do so. It's so invigorating to declare them as the Messiah -- because that's who they are.
We were out on the street witnessing one day, wearing our yellow vests and yellow hats that say "Tong-Il Kyo" on it, and we were running around in the streets and handing out pamphlets of our True Parents' autobiography, and I bumped into these Christian grandmas. They were waiting at the bus terminal and so I went up to them at the bus terminal, they were sitting there, they were so very cute, these grandmas, they were talking to one another, and we came with the Tong-Il Kyo hats and Tong-Il vests and I said, "Oh, yes! We would love for you to read this book!" They said, "What kind of book is that?" and I said, "Well, it's the book by Reverend Moon! Reverend Moon, his autobiography, he wrote this book, it's the best seller in Korea! It's absolutely incredible; it will change your life."
They said, "No, I'm not going to read that. I won't read that. I'm Christian. I'm not going to read Moon Sun Myung." So I said, "Why?! Reverend Moon's the Messiah! Why are you not going to read it?" She said, "What?! What you say?! Reverend Moon the Messiah? Crazy! Crazy! How can this person be the Messiah?" She's getting all flustered. I said, "Oh, madame, thank you so much, you are giving me so much excitement today! It's so fun to talk to you about my father!" And we started talking. We had a wonderful conversation; eventually they asked me to leave, but that was OK because I was very happy. I was very happy; I said, "Madame, thank you; thank you so much for this wonderful experience, because I got my day's worth of exercise today! I feel fantastic!"
You see, Brothers and Sisters, there is something about declaring your faith; there is something that happens on the inside of you. When you actually believe and you actually step out in faith and confront your fears. You know, our church had not witnessed in over 30 years (the Korean church). As you know, you will hear the statistics in the next couple of days, but the Korean church had not witnessed in about 25-30 years. We had lost the excitement that we had when we joined. You remember when you found the Messiah when you were young people? You found the Messiah and you went home and told your Mom, told your Mom, "Mom, I found the Messiah! He's Korean!" She almost killed you! But you survived! Right? You found the Messiah, you were so excited. We were so excited to find the Messiah; to declare him, to talk about him, to share our faith; but then, over time, that conviction became somewhat blurred. I'm not going to say it went away, but it got blurred, because we had to do many many different things in the growth stage, so to speak. Father gave us many things, many events, many ceremonies, etc., we had to do such things, but in doing so, unfortunately many of us lost our identity; and also many of us, maybe not the leaders, but I'm sure everyone has the moments , but many members had lost faith, in God and even True Parents. And this was the state of our movement, and so in that kind of atmosphere our faith cannot grow, it will not grow because it will not be blessed by God.
So we had an incredible task to undertake here in Korea. Actually I have to say we did many many changes here in Korea but it would not have been possible without the unbelievable genius, the incredible mind of Kook Jin hyung. I've been working with him for about a year and a half. He has an unbelievable mind. Most of you will not know this but in Korea, of course our business group has turned around completely due to his leadership: in 2005 it was at a 100 million dollars loss for the year, that was Tongil -- as In Jin-Ah said, that was the "sore loser" of the businesses in Korea. The groups. It wasn't even listed on any of the public listings for groups. And within three years he turned that around.
Remarkable turnaround; he turned that around to 50 million dollars profit and even in this economic slump the business group is still profitable. So he has created incredible result in the business group.
Most of you will not know this but in Yonsei University, which is one of the premier universities here in Korea, it's like Columbia University in the United States, they have an MBA program, they have a Master's in Business program, and we actually have two Blessed children who are in that, young Unificationists who are in that program, they're in the MBA course. And they're there sitting in class one day listening to the course and their studies on business administration, etc., listening to all the wonderful things that the professor was talking about, and then he pulled out a case study. "We're going to do a case study of a modern business group." Guess what he pulled out of his pocket: Tongil Group! Tongil Group! Our Tongil Group! He pulled Tongil Group out and he talked about Tongil Group as the case study of incredible turnarounds from 2005 to 2008! Oh, that deserves applause, Brothers and Sisters. That definitely deserves applause.
So we have young Korean professionals who are being trained in business school now, we're learning about Kook Jin hyung's work. We're learning about the incredible results that he did make in the marketplace which is highly competitive. Of course all of you know that, in the free market it's so competitive, you have to be the best. And in Yonsei University they are teaching the Tongil Group as a case study, and I'm happy to announce that they also foresee that the Tongil Group will become one of the big Jeabeol in Korea; this is what they're predicting. That means one of the biggest, big conglomerates of Korea. Like Samsung and Hyundai. This is what the professors are saying in Yonsei University. About the Unification Church foundation! This is unimaginable, actually, if you think about it. Can you imagine in the Columbia MBA program, if they're talking about the Unification Church business group as a remarkable case study? This is what they're doing already on the ground in Korea. The success will continue and so I do foresee it quickly moving to Harvard Business School and Columbia Business School and all the wonderful other schools around the world, talking about it. But see this is the incredible change that is happening: for the first time we've made an incredible failure into an enormous success. That started from the business group, because the reality of our business group was so, so unimaginable.
Due to that incredible turnaround and amazing organizational skill, Kook Jin hyung partook on a 120 church tour where he actually toured Korean churches, Unification churches around Korea; we had 450 at the time and he would go unannounced; he would not tell ministers which church he was going to attend, so they did not know he was coming to church, because he wanted to see the actual reality of what the members were actually experiencing in church. So he would go and sometimes he would be in a church and he would look in the back -- somebody sitting in the back with a black cap on, just sitting there listening to the sermon, and he did an analysis, a field study, of 120 churches: did 40 in Seoul and the rest around the country. And he made a strategic plan for church growth. Now this required many hard decisions, very tough decisions: we had to reduce the number of churches from 450 to 250. That's 200 churches. We had to let go of over 100 ministers. That's a lot of ministers to let go of; a lot of ministers who feel that they contributed greatly to the church. Had to let go of over 100.
We had to implement new systems into the church; we had to create a decision line chain, management, which is the system they use in the free market in major organizations. We had to implement that into every organization, Mission department, we had to put that into Headquarters Church; Chedan already had it; we had to bring in their HR system that he had created. So we had to do so many things, the KPI system, the Key Performance Indicator system that we had to do, where we actually had to rank ministers and churches based on performance. And the performance is all faith-based and driven towards church growth, so they were focusing on witnessing and tithing and donations, and Blessing attendance, etc., such things, where there were different percentages, etc. And we had to actually create this systematic analysis program that's unbelievably complex. We're so grateful for our Dr. Seuk and Kim Jong Won Shil Chung, who is our Shil Chung at Headquarters. They help work with the professionals to create that program. Just literal analysis of every single church, we can now analyze every church to exactly what number they are doing in terms of any one of the major factors: witnessing, donation, education, etc. We actually can have that data base complete.
A lot of those changes have already occurred. There have also been changes made with the leadership and with empowering membership; i.e. 'owner members' with the right to choose their own leader. It was decided that the condition to be considered an 'owner member' is for a member to have been tithing for at least one year without having skipped even once. To have members elect their leader was a big thing, too, because in the past our leaders were selected either by our True Parents or by other leaders that were above them. However, we developed this new system of giving 'owner members' the right to also vote for their regional directors. The regional director you met in Kang-Nam has been selected by members for the first time in the Unification Church history. Also, the leadership has to be accountable to the congregations. It's directly tied to their professional work and is a key performance indicator. As Kook Jin Nim said, this is not done in a way that a leader manages and let's everyone do as they want. It's the opposite. He has to focus everybody and push them in a strong direction to move and glorify God and True Parents. The purpose is to create result, that is, to successfully witness and to create financial success for the local churches, etc. And we've done that.
For the last 30 years the Unification Church in Korea didn't grow. It declined from 16.000 members to 11.000 members in 2005. Minus growth. When I arrived at Mapo there was actually no hope. There was only a small church with 70 family members. Members didn't feel any hope for the future. And there was also no organization. There was no witnessing team; nothing had been organized. When we arrived at the headquarters church we found the same situation. The church was not run at all. So we actually had to request Kook Jin with the human research department to help us in organizing. The organization you now see at Cheon Bok Gung is the organization that we created.
I explain these things because I want to share with you that many of these things seem as if they can be done if you understand them. And sure, to some degree that's true. But remember, we are a religious organization. And no matter how much you implement these systems, even though you all may seem to understand them -- as leaders you have to instill faith into the membership. You have to have a powerful faith in yourself. You have to be in the frontline running with members: witnessing and declaring True Parents as the Lord and Savior. We've come to a point where the leaders feel embarrassed to declare True Parents as the Lord of the Second Advent. That is the reason why we cannot grow as a church; why we will not grow without finding our faith and our belief that the True Parents are the Lord of the Second Advent; that this is what we believe and that we are happy to believe in this. And what we believe is absolutely necessary for our church to grow. If you don't have that faith, I can guarantee you your church will not grow because the spirit of God will not be there.
I'm so grateful for In Jin ah, because in America we had the same situation. As the American church members may know, for the last 30 years our American church has not grown at all. We have moved from declaring our faith to -- as she said: 'The warm and fuzzy; Yes, we have that peace kind of thing.' And to some level we have become embarrassed about declaring our faith and hiding it. Instead we have been declaring: 'Oh, the True Parents, they are great peace activists.' 'They are a great man and woman of God.' 'Oh, they are great educators, global educators.' Yes, we are comfortable with those explanations, but we have become uncomfortable with, 'They are the Messiah, the Lord of the Second Advent and the Savior of humanity.' That's the difference which can be felt in the churches and communities that grow. They all declare that True Parents are the Lord of the Second Advent… If your churches have not grown during the last 20 or 30 years, even if I don't visit, I can almost perceive from the atmosphere that most likely you don't declare True Parents as the Lord. The evangelical spirit has subsided. The decision to proudly share your faith has weakened. You see, these are the things that are absolutely critical if you want to make success, and as leaders we not only have to want to make but we actually have to make success for our True Parents. This is the reason why we are leaders. If we don't make success for True Parents we should be the first ones to step down when we feel I'm not fit for this role. This is what a honorable leader must do. This is the difference.
I believe all of you can sense the difference in the spiritual atmosphere when we hold the events now. Can you feel it? What do you think it is? -- Well, we met with Muslims and Christians. We were told that 'If you tell them Rev. Moon is the Lord of the Second Advent -- it's too early, it's too fast. They all will be running away, they are not going to work with us.' I found exactly the opposite to be true. I spoke to them and said: 'True Parents are the Messiah; they are the Lord of the Second Advent.' I explained to them the seven deaths and resurrection and that they have inherited a greater type of love than we can see in the history of men. I told them that the love that Jesus could give to the world, the greatest love which he defined in John 15:13 changed the world history for the last 2000 years. True Parents have inherited the parental love, which is even greater. And I went down to the crowd and many of the Muslims and Christians said, 'Oh, thank you, we feel so clarified.' Because, brothers and sisters, they all know that Unificationists believe that Rev. Moon is the Messiah. You know why? Even though you don't tell them, they can look it up in the internet. All they have to do is open up Wikipedia and type in 'Rev. Moon' and they will find that Unificationists believe Rev. Moon is the Messiah. So it's better to tell them straight away because they'll find out anyway. Better to be honest and open about it because when you are hiding it and they bring it up they will say, 'Why didn't you tell me?' This is very strange.
Kook Jin met the Secretary of State in the Blue House the other day. The KCIA director of the military intelligence will be coming for the opening of the Cheon Bok Gung Temple because of him. The World Expo Yeosu leader will be coming. The Dong-a Ilbo Editorial Chief will be coming. All these incredible people are going to come to the Unification Church for our opening. I love to go into the room with him. It's the most exhilarating and funny thing I have ever experienced in my life. Everybody around is trying to say: 'Oh, that's a VIP. Let's speak nicely to him.' -- But Kook Jin tells the guests: 'Thank you so much for all your hard work and support for True Parents. We are so happy that the Lord of the Second Advent has come to Korea. We are so happy that Rev. Moon is the Messiah.' And some of the VIPs say: 'Oh, yes, yes.' Some of them don't know what to say. That is most delightful, because they think about it and they can't forget it. You see, when you want to witness to somebody you need to make an impact on them.
You shouldn't be the same old person they met a million times before. You should make an impact on people and this you can do by telling them straight on what you believe. This is what Kook Jin does. He will tell anybody straight up what he believes. And this is why he has successfully witnessed to so many people. When he came to the Chedan group he had to bring in all new professionals so that the Chedan group was composed of 95% non-Unificationists at the time they started. Three years later 40% of the Group was already Unificationists. They are all newly proclaimed Unificationists. Do they just say 'I'm an Unificationist, I will just hang around with Kook Jin Nim?' No, that's not at all what they do. They also donated a lot to the Temple, the world providence guided by True Parents. Did you know that Korea alone raised 25 million Dollars for the Temple? That was never done in the history of the Korean Church. The most that was ever raised within a year were three million Dollars as a 'Faith donation'. But now the Korean Church offered within one year 25 million Dollars to True Parents for the Temple.
Japan of course, made 70, so we don't want to boast too much, but we were very proud of the Korean members. All stepped up in faith, "We are going to do this. We will do this." And guess what? Out of the 25 million dollars that was raised for the Temple, over 7 million were donated by the new professionals working in the Chedan. They are donating to the Unification Church. It is not a small amount. They are donating $21,000 to the Temple, per person. Now if you have to donate $21,000 you are not going to just talk that you are an Unificationist, you have to actually wrestle with the idea, "My God, I am going to actually invest in the Unification Church. I am actually going to make this commitment." These are the tangible things that he has shaped the organization to do.
And what has been the result of that? The result of that is that church membership has now doubled in Korea. Now church donations are up 110% across the country even though we have reduced the number of churches. So, more is less, less is more. Members can actually congregate, not with just 10 brothers and sisters but in a larger faith community where they can sing together and feel a spirit together and bring guests together. They feel like they want to witness again.
And brothers and sisters, as leaders in your respective countries you are called to bring on this apostolic mission to your countries, and not just called to make friends. You are called to make believers in Christ as Paul did. That is your mission. If you are a missionary, if you are a leader, a national leader or whatever, your mission is to bring believers into Christ. That is what apostles do. That is what the Apostle Paul did, that is what Peter did.
Look in the Acts of the Apostles. They go around persecuted, condemned, Stephen was stoned. They come forth with a strong faith to declare the name of Jesus in a place where it has never been declared, to declare with faith and conviction that the Lord has come, and that it is through Jesus that you will find salvation. You see they come with faith and conviction.
And remember it is the religions that are strong in their conviction that impact the world. You know, Muslims are very strong in their faith. You know that it is a very hot topic about Muslims in the West or in other countries because they are very strong about their faith. You insult their faith, you insult the prophet Mohammed, and they will not stay still. Right? Isn't that the case? They are very strong in their religion, in what they believe. And it is for that reason that they are able to confidently move forward wherever they go. By 2050 the Muslim tradition will be the largest religion the world according to statistics. It will be the largest. But think about it that is how much they protect the value of the prophet Mohammed.
How much do we protect the value of True Parents? When somebody says to us, "True Parents are not Messiah, I don't believe that. They are Korean people, Korean people, Korean man running around, not the Messiah. I don't believe they are God's people". When we hear those words… If you said that to a Muslim, "I don't believe the Prophet Mohammed is God's messenger, I think your religion is quite useless; it's a cult", if you said that he would be absolutely irate. Isn't that correct?
But for how many years do we have to tolerate being called, "Heretical, cult, useless, no future, has no value, crazy"? We must not tolerate being abused in such a manner. We must be confident in our faith, stand up for our faith, stand up for True Parents when people attack them. Stand up for them! Do not allow people to attack True Parents! This is the kind of heart that we have to have, the heart of faith.
The reason why I believe the Korean church has grown so much is because of the incredible managerial expertise that Kook Jin hyung has brought. You just can't ignore it. I work with him for a year and a half. It is just unbelievable! We have decisions that are so hard to make -- because an organization's success is the accumulation of good decisions over time -- and when we have really tough decisions to make we have teams that wrestle with this for days at a time and then at some point we are so flustered we can't answer how exactly to decide this. So many times we have brought it to Kook Jin hyung and said, "What do you think about this?" and within five seconds he has answered the question. And we sit there just simply flabbergasted, "How does he think this quickly, how is his mind that organized?"
It is because of an incredible experience. For 16 years he has been CEO of his own company. He has six US patents. He has created a company from scratch to become a 30 million dollar company per year, with sales of 30 million and a market value way greater than that. He has 16 years of that kind of experience which he brings to the table. When we work with him it is just unbelievable because his mind is so organizational. He thinks as an organization, he does not think as an individual, about his reputation or whatever. He thinks, "What is the best decision for this organization?" And that is the reason why we have had tremendous success.
What people don't understand about Kook Jin hyung -- and many times they just think that he is a businessman -- He is an evangelist. I think you all understand this today, but he is an evangelist. Guess what? Some of the most successful evangelists were merchants. Yes their former profession was merchant; they were merchants. They were selling and buying goods.
He is an incredible man of faith. He brings professionalism to the table but he also brings unquestionable faith to the table and that is why we have been so inspired to work with him. I think the Korean church is just one example because it is essential that the Korean church is strong and successful because this is the Fatherland and True Parents are residing here and we will continue to work in every capacity to bring glory to True Parents. But that fundamentally starts from our admission and our declaration of them as the Messiah and the Lord of the Second Advent.
When was it in the Unification Church that you heard people in big conferences say, "I believe True Parents are the Messiah and the Second Coming"? How many years has it been? Probably 20 or 30 years right? This has been an issue, a problem because I tell you when we declare True Parents; True Parents don't have to do it themselves.
I explained this to the Taiwanese leaders when we were in Taiwan. I have lived with a Tibetan monk for one year. I have known so many Tibetan Buddhists. I met the Dalai Lama. He doesn't tell me that he is the incarnation of the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar which he is in that tradition. He is basically a deity. If you know anything about Tibetan Buddhism, he is a deity. A bodhisattva is somebody who has completely become a Buddhist, a completely perfect and stainless being, with universal compassion, who has mastered the four Bramaviharas, etc. He is a deity! But he does not go around saying he is the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar. Why? Because every Tibetan you meet will tell you he is the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvar. Do you understand? All the Tibetan Buddhists do it for him. So he doesn't have to be in the spot to do it himself and be jeered at and mocked. They stand up for him in their belief.
This has been the problem of our church. We pushed Father forward, "Declare that you are the Messiah!" We hide in the back. This is what we don't want to do, because it is a tremendous burden to True Father, to True Parents, and because if we are filial sons and daughters that is our job, that is what we are supposed to be doing.
And I tell you when we do that…. As you can sense we are doing that all the time. When we go to conferences, UPF conferences, ILC conferences, we don't care what it is, if you are going to listen to anyone of us talk, you are going to hear that Rev Moon is the Lord of the Second Advent and the Messiah and the Savior. I BELIEVE! You see you are going to hear that. You are going to hear that.
So the atmosphere is different. Father feels that atmosphere. Did you notice in the last couple of days that Father is not speaking for 13, 14 hours? Did you notice that? Why is He not speaking for 13 and 14 hours? Because we are doing our job. We are telling people and educating them He is the Lord of the Second Advent. He is the Messiah. He does not have to tell you that. We will tell you. Do you see what I mean?
So when he comes, he understands because Father can sense spiritually whether or not the crowd is full of believers or doubters. He feels the spirit and then he is confident and then he is able to give the words that he wishes to give but not stressing him, his body and mind, to pour out his heart to convince the one doubter that he is the Messiah.
We have to bring back that spirit of being confident about True Parents; being confident about our faith because it is only upon that spirit, when we believe that True Parents are the Lord of the Second Advent. They come to fulfill the mission of Jesus Christ. That it is through their teachings that all the paths are united, where they are brought to the new level of understanding of love, when we understand True Parents have that value.
We were meeting with one Muslim delegate. He said, "You guys have no boundaries." In a good way, he meant it in a good way. He said, "You have no boundaries. You have unlimited potential to grow." This was a Muslim congressman that we were talking to just the other day. "Unification Church has no boundaries to grow because you bring all to the parental love!"
Oh, that deserves applause for the Unification Church. Come on! (Applause)
So for me this was very key. For me doing ministry… I'm going to wrap it up quick. I know I'm going way too long. But for me doing ministry, one of the biggest dilemmas for myself personally because I studied the world religions was, is it true? Do we actually bring a greater type of love? We say we are going to unite all religions, we say we are going to bring them all together. We have a new level of love that would revolutionize the world. Is that true?
Well, I studied the religions; studied the love of Christ, how Christians believe in the Agape love of Christ. We understand that Jesus defines the greatest love in John 15:13, a love that lays down his life for his friends. Lays down his life, sacrifices his life. You can study Buddhism and understand the Bramaviharas one of which is Karuna or compassion, the greatest type of compassion, Mahakaruna, the universal type of compassion that the Buddha will have. You can understand the obedience and the great love that is expressed through that kind of surrendering to God in the Muslim faith. So with all this different incredible expressions of love, if you read, you will be inspired.
Is our truth really greater? Is the true love that we talk about greater? If it isn't, then there is no way really that we are going to bring them to the new level because we are just about the same or less. And so when I listen to anybody talking about true love, it was live for the sake of the other, it was a selfless type of love; it was a love that could defeat any obstacle. But I could not feel what that was. I could not feel what that meant. Does it just mean that I could do a little service work I am practicing true love? Does it mean that I could be kind, just nice? When I bring my wife a glass of water or things like that, then that's the actualization of true love? Is that the level that we are talking about? Of course that is important but, is that the level that we are talking about, ultimate level?
Or is it a love that is like Christ that will lay his life for his friends, or like the Buddha, like the compassion that seeks to save all sanctioned beings or the surrendering of the heart to God? Those are incredible. Those have changed millions of lives. And nobody could answer this question for me in the Unification Church. How is true love greater than the love that Christ showed on the cross?
I talked to theologians, professors, ministers; no leader could explain it. Why is our true love greater? How is it that we are going to bring the religions to the newest level, the new understanding of God's heart? We cannot understand even what true love is. I still cannot get the concept of true love, was my feeling. I know it is the center of the three blessings that I have to unite my mind and body centering on true love that I have to unite the husband and wife and unite in true love. I know that nature and man is united in true love; the great blessings that we see in the Principle.
So what is true love then? And this was a huge dilemma for me doing ministry because if I do not know what true love is, if I cannot explain why it is greater, then I cannot be inspired to preach to you why True Parents have saved my soul. So this was a big problem for me, as you can imagine, because at that time Father had asked us already to take on larger responsibilities and it was a very big burden. Spiritually, I could not answer this question.
At some point I just gave up. I am not going to answer the question because it will not come from me. To make a long story short, essentially, I think now all of you have heard about the seven deaths and resurrections that, when we understand, that even Christians when they want to understand the love of Christ if you want to be saved and redeemed by Christ, you have to open your spiritual eyes. You cannot see Christ with your physical eyes. If you see Him with your physical eyes, you will see a Middle Eastern Jew that died at the age of 33. That is all you are going to see, not even 12 followers. That is all you are going to see. But if you open your spiritual eyes, you will see the man who died for your sins, who was the perfect offering, who died so that you would be free and could enter the Kingdom of God. That is what Christians believe. In order to believe that, you must open your spiritual eyes. You must see Christ with your eyes of faith.
I realized this was the problem. We had seen True Parents with our eyes of the flesh. "They are great peace activists, great educators. They are great mobilizers and peace…" whatever. That is not what they are. They are not peace activists. They are not patriots of a nation only. They are not great educators. They are the Lord of the Second Advent. That is quite a difference.
So when I saw True Parents, viewed Him spiritually, His life course, when He opened our eyes to that, we saw the six tribulations that marked His life course. The six imprisonments, plus the seventh, what True Father himself called the substantial resurrection which was the helicopter attack -- those seven incidents that occurred in his life.
I had a dream about that, actually. Because in the dream, True Parents were there and they were being tortured and beaten and ripped and all that in the prison, but also at the same time their spirits were going into hell.
Just like Jesus in the three days between His crucifixion and resurrection, descended into hell to save the souls that were waiting to be saved. True Parents not only did that once for the salvation of all humanity. They paid the seven stages of indemnity so that we can enter the eight level of perfection. They paid the individual, family, tribe, society, nation and world and cosmic sin that had accumulated. They had to give up their lives, sell their souls. They had to descend into death not just once like Christ, but they had to do it over and over and over for you and me and our children.
When True Parents showed me that, once I realized that, I confess to you, I completely broke down because I cannot see True Parents now with my physical eyes only. Of course I could see them with my physical eyes, not only though because through their life, they have given their souls for me in order to save me, my children. They cleansed me of any individual sin or family sin, or tribe or societal or national; that they actually had to die for me, not just once, not twice, not three times but over and over again so that I could go to the eighth stage, what we call the Direct Dominion of God. God's stage, so that I could enter the world of Cheon Il Guk, the world that God had waited for.
Then I realized, the love that they are talking about is not just service work, it's not just kind-heartedness. It may be some of those things, but it's much more powerful. It's a love that is so heroic and so profound! It is a love that will lay its life down for the children, not once like Christ, but forever, over and over will suffer on behalf of the children, over and over will descend into misery and despair and hell so that we can be free.
Then I realized, "My God! The level of true love that they have been talking about and living is none like I have ever seen or felt in religion. It is greater than the love of Christ who died for our sins and was resurrected by the power of love." They have actualized the seven deaths and resurrections to perfect the eight stages vertically and horizontally from the servant of servant to the servant to the adopted son, step son, true son, mother, father and God's level.
When I understood this I realized, "Oh! No wonder they call true love the parent's heart. Oh! No wonder True Parents are called the True Parents. Oh! No wonder true love is, as Father explains, 'Give, give and forget'." Father says, "Giving and giving and forgetting" but really what Father has lived is "Dying and dying and forgetting". That is the love we are talking about.
And when we inherit that kind of true love -- which is the ideal of creation -- when we inherit that kind of parental heart then we become saints, greater than saints.
With that kind of inheritance of parental heart, now I understand why all the great saints of religions, the religious founders are bowing to True Parents in spirit. And now I understand what price they had to pay to save a fool like me and my kids and my descendants.
And that is why we declare True Parents as our Lord and Savior, not just as our teacher. We declare them as our Lord and Savior who give us eternal life, who give us salvation from suffering, who give us the gift of the parental heart which we don't deserve. And that is why in the Korean church we have been declaring True Parents very passionately.
Brothers and sisters, it is time! As you feel, it is now time for our faith to come back. The Unification Church will not die. I know many people have prophesied that we would die. And many years ago, it looked like we were going to go away. But guess what? We have the power of the seven deaths and resurrections! We have the resurrection power of True Parents!
You may try to get rid of us, you may try to kill us, just like they did to True Parents, but we will be resurrected from the grave every single time, and we will come back stronger, we will come back with more love and we will come back with more faith.
Brothers and sisters, it is now time to once again declare True Parents as your Lord and Savior because that is who they are. Get comfortable with that; get it on the inside of you! Get really comfortable with that, because I know some of you may be still uncomfortable with that. That's the part. Once you are comfortable with that, you start sharing that, I guarantee you; it will change your life. It will change your life completely and you will understand why people talk about being reborn.
Brothers and sisters, all of us really desire and hope for True Parents, while they are here, to see that day that they call Cheon Il Guk, when millions and millions of Unificationists, proud in their faith, all around the world, declare, "Father and Mother Moon are the Lord and Savior. They are my Messiah and nobody can take that faith away from me." When that faith and that community grows, that is the growth of Cheon Il Guk.
There is no Cheon Il Guk without True Parents, think about it. Be honest! There is no Cheon Il Guk without True Parents. Is the Cheon Il Guk that we are seeking just to gather everybody and have a great party and then go home? That is not what we are talking about! Cheon Il Guk is centered on True Parents. It is centered on the manifestation, the inheritor of God's love and essence, True Parents. It is a nation of people that believe and profess and move with spirit, move with purpose with True Parents.
Isn't that what we actually think about when we think about Cheon Il Guk, if you really reflect on it, not the watered down version, the warm fuzzy version that In Jin noona mentioned in her talk? When you really think about it, that's how Father thinks of Cheon Il Guk.
It is our desire, and the reason we are witnessing very passionately and excitedly and why members are joining the Korean church again, is because we want Cheon Il Guk to be established for True Parents while they are here. We want them to see more Unificationists come forth, more faithful believers come forth, declaring, putting their actions where their talk is, stepping up in faith, leading the way, opening up the new future Unificationism which is full of confidence, pride in who we are, strong sense of identity, purpose, and the glory of True Parents and God.
I hope that all of you as leaders, can understand and imbibe this because in the next couple of days, you have the great opportunity to see many reports and hear many things, but let us always remember this is all for the glory of God and for the glory of True Parents, who are the first in human history to have fully inherited, in their life, become the living sacrifice, the living death, the living offering for the sake of the salvation of all our souls.
I hope we can get that on the inside of us, and we can allow other people to be reborn into that amazing life that waits for them.
Let's bow our heads in prayer:
Heavenly Father, thank You so much for this day. Father we know that up till now we have hidden our faith. We've not been proud Unificationists. We've been embarrassed about who we are. We tried to modify our conviction, so that we would be more accepted, more popular. But Father, You have taught us through the lessons of time that that is not the way to actualize Cheon Il Guk. Once we can come back to our faith, once we can remember who we are, once we can recall that we are people of destiny, that we are people of purpose, that we have historical significance as the ones who declare True Parents, then we can understand the amazing providential mission that we are undertaking.
Father, we pray that each and every one of the leaders here today will understand and renew that faith, will see True Parents, not only with their physical eyes, but will understand with their spiritual senses, will understand the type of love that will die and die, and has died for each and every one of us so that we can enter the Kingdom of God; the type of love that would sell their own souls so that our souls could be free, Father, not just once but over and over to pay off all the sins of the seven stages to allow us passage into the eighth, Your kingdom.
Father, we pray that we can understand this type of love that has saved us. We pray that we can declare this type of love and the True Parents who have manifested and actualized it in their life, as the living death and the living sacrifice, the True Parents that have had to pass through death and death again, and descending into hell only to be resurrected by the power of the love that they manifest.
Father, we pray that we can understand and feel the power of this love, imbibe this and understand this in our mind and our hearts that this is the type of true love that we must inherit, the great cosmic parental heart, the parental heart which will not only lay down its life for friends, but will endlessly lay down its life for the sake of its children and even for the sake of its enemies.
But we know that when our Unification members come together, stand strong, stand in conviction and stand with faith, and stand, Father, in hope and in belief, there is no force that will overpower us.
We pray that God's blessing may be upon these brothers and sisters here. We pray that Your merciful hand will be in each and every one of their endeavors and we pray that they may offer, may actualize the living embodiment of true love that True Parents have shown us through their life.
We thank You so much Father. Bless them, be with them for the next couple of days, and Father, as they return back to truly inspire and revive this movement for Your glory. We pray all these things in the name of our own brothers and sisters around the world, blessed central families, and the great name of our True Parents. Aju!
Notes
John 15:13 (New International Version)
13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.
