Sun Myung Moon
May 2015
April 2015 marks eighty years since True Father, as a youth of fifteen (sixteen by the Korean way of reckoning age) had the profound spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ through which Jesus asked him to work to end human suffering. Father speaks of the time as being on or around Easter.
Father has testified that as a boy, he would often go into the local hills to pray. His cousin testified that although many Christians went out to pray in nature, few would stay out all night praying as Father did in his youth. The following quotations are from the forthcoming English version of Chambumo Gyeong.
I had a great spiritual revelation given to me by Jesus when I was sixteen years old. That was the beginning. After that special encounter with him, I conversed endlessly with God, Jesus and countless saints in the spirit world. It would take forever to describe all the things we talked about. God chose me in accordance with his providential schedule. (1976)
I was sixteen years old when I first had the experience that led me to know God. It was a humble beginning. Since I was very young, I began to contemplate the fundamental questions regarding human life: Who am I? Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? Will our life continue after we die? Does God really exist?
Is God omnipotent, or is he powerless? If God is truly omnipotent, why won't God solve the problems that humanity is facing today? Why is it that so much suffering exists on this earth?
I lived with the omnipotent God and with Jesus for nine years following that day. I visited the spirit world many times. God gradually revealed amazing truths to me. It felt as if I were welcoming the rising sun after a long night of walking in the darkness. I was able to see the light of the new glorious culture that was to come. This special revelation based on the New Testament was on a higher level than the teachings of Judaism.
This revelation had the power to bring all religions into agreement and unite them as one. The revelation that I received is now called the Principle.
I was commanded by God to spread this teaching to the ends of the earth. (1979)