Studying Religious Figures: The Path of the “Global Citizen,” Sun Myung Moon

Ki-Hong Han - Monthly JoongAng
May 2014

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon Proclaims the Cheon Il Guk Scriptures and Actively Carries on Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Work

The following appeared in the May 2014 issue of the Monthly JoongAng, a news publication associated with the JoongAng Daily, an influential newspapers in Korea.

Dreaming of a Nation without Borders and a World without Conflict

Heading Toward the Completion of the Ideal True Family Based on the Pure Love of Couples

Rev. Sun Myung Moon always taught his followers that they should not “speak without following through with actions.” Just as his life demonstrated, he devoted all of his strength to changing the world through the power of actualization. The accomplishments he achieved on earth were beyond those of an ordinary man. Many still wonder how he was able to continue exerting so much strength to accomplish such extensive missions, even in the midst of the extreme persecution and misunderstanding he faced throughout his life. The answer is that he possessed determination to establish the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity (Cheon Il Guk) on earth. On February 12, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification held commemorative events on the first anniversary of Foundation Day at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province, in order to announce the substantial launch of Cheon Il Guk. This was just one of the many endeavors left behind by Rev. Moon.

Rev. Moon’s vision of one community of humankind, Cheon Il Guk, refers to the actualized ideal world of one family under God, in which all humankind can serve God as their parent. Cheon Il Guk is not to be simply an abstract idea or philosophy. It is meant to be the ideal world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, managed through true love, and a world centered on God. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon advocates that this ideal world would be governed under a constitution of heavenly law based on true love and God’s word. Hence, she proclaimed the Cheon Il Guk scriptures, which are meant to serve as guidelines for the citizens of Cheon Il Guk in leading their lives.

Rev. Moon revealed that Cheon Il Guk would be completed in adherence to laws and standards and stressed that God’s word (logos) was to be the basis and the root philosophy of the Cheon Il Guk Constitution. Three principles in particular were listed as the foundation for the Cheon Il Guk Constitution, protection of the pure bloodline, respect for human rights and thorough protection and management of public funds. Rev. Moon stated that anyone that commits adultery destroys the family, that anyone that misuses public funds or violates human rights destroys the structure of society and that anyone that abuses these laws has no right to be a citizen of Cheon Il Guk. The Cheon Il Guk Constitution contains a preamble, general provisions, eleven chapters, ten sections, ninety-two articles and a hundred and ninety clauses, including six chapters on the establishment of each organization. Chapter three in particular reveals the members of the Cheon Il Guk Supreme Council, who are to be the ultimate deciding authority in all important matters pertaining to Cheon Il Guk.

(The August 23, 2013 Commemorative Ceremony of the First Anniversary of Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Universal Seonghwa at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center. Rev. Sun Myung Moon always boldly promoted efforts toward the actualization of a conflict-free world.)

The Cheon Il Guk Constitution was enacted last year on Foundation Day. For the past year, efforts were made in preparing laws regarding the operation of the Cheon Il Guk Supreme Council. This year, on the first anniversary of Foundation Day, the Cheon Il Guk Constitution was officially proclaimed as Dr. Han conveyed the Constitution to the regional presidents representing the world. Over the next sixty days, the Constitution was publicly promoted; and the Constitution assumed its role in stating the customs, standards and guidelines by which the substantial Cheon Il Guk will be settled and completed.

In addition, Dr. Han laid the groundwork for a new beginning by publishing three holy scriptures, which are to become the basis for the lives of Cheon Il Guk citizens. Cheon Seong Gyeong and the Pyeong Hwa Gyeong were revised and released last year on Foundation Day. With the release of the final volume, the Cham Bumo Gyeong, the three holy scriptures are now complete. The Cheon Il Guk scriptures were composed from material extracted from the 650 volumes of The Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, as well as from given lectures in Korea and abroad, systemized and reorganized in book form. Cheon Seong Gyeong contains guidelines of faith that Rev. Moon gave to his disciples throughout his life. Cham Bumo Gyeong describes in detail the accomplishments of a life lived for the salvation of humankind and for God’s liberation. Pyeong Hwa Gyeong is a compilation of Rev. Moon’s public speeches. Each volume is 1,648 pages long.

In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, Rev. Moon says, “I have always promoted a world in which all religions, all peoples and all nations are united. All of human history has been filled with endless division.” This passage clearly demonstrates his wish for the fulfillment of one family under God.

“A Country Divided by National Borders Cannot Last Forever.”

Rev. Moon stressed that national borders must first be eliminated before world peace can be realized. He believed that “a country divided by national borders cannot last forever. Religion is the only thing that is able to overcome national borders.” As seen through the establishment of the European Union, the collapse of national borders has now become an unstoppable trend that is catching on so that regions, too, will no longer be separated from one another. Rev. Moon’s proposal for the construction of an International Peace Highway in 1981 also reflects his sentiment and wish for “a world without borders.”

The International Peace Highway is to connect Japan and Korea through a tunnel running along the ocean floor, as well as North America and Russia, through a tunnel or bridge across the Bering Strait. When this highway is completed, it will be possible to drive by car from the Cape of Good Hope in Africa to Santiago, Chile, or from London to New York. The entire world will be connected without any obstacles, as veins are when running through a healthy body. Naturally, depending on the conditions, tracks may take the place of roads, creating high-speed railways.

The International Peace Highway project is to be constructed with four lanes on either side of a median strip. The kilometer-wide strips of land flanking the highway are to become international neutral zones. Hotels and various leisure facilities are to be constructed in these areas as well. A pneumatic tube system will be implemented to accommodate freight. Immigration offices will be made redundant by a no-visa international immigration system; and major cities and suburbs will be connected to the highway, together with airports. Shipments of war goods and supplies will, of course, be banned from the International Peace Highway, as proposed by Rev. Moon.

In order to carry out his plans, Rev. Moon immediately formed a preparation committee in Japan for the construction of the International Peace Highway. In April 1982, a construction company for the International Peace Highway (HCC) was established. In May 1983, the Committee for the Research of the Korea–Japan Tunnel was formed; and in July of that same year, inquiries into the land and sea quality began in Karatsu (in Saga Prefecture on the Island of Kyushu, Japan), as well as on Iki and Tsushima. Then, in October 1986, pilot construction began for research purposes in Chinzei (also in Saga Prefecture) and Nagoya (on Honshu, Japan’s main island). Currently, excavation work is underway in Karatsu on the Higashimatsuyama Peninsula (on Honshu). By July 2005, they had dug down four hundred meters, ending beneath the ocean floor.

The International Peace Highway is a project that aims to connect Japan and Korea through a tunnel beneath the ocean floor, as well as Russia and the North American continent through a bridge or tunnel across the Bering Strait. The project’s goal is to connect the world as one global village.

At the end of June 2005, Rev. Moon went on tour, speaking in Washington, D.C. and three other major United States’ cities, where he again discussed the importance of an ocean floor tunnel across the Bering Strait. On September 12 that year, he officially announced the Bering Strait Project in New York. And in January of 2008, he registered the World Peace Tunnel Foundation as an official nonprofit organization with the Korean government’s Ministry of Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs. The Foundation has held a Korea–Japan Tunnel Forum and a Bering Strait Peace Forum and is carrying out work in which people from the countries involved—namely, Japan, Russia, and America—are able to cooperate with one another.

The UN Must Live Up to its Name as a Peacemaker

Rev. Moon talked about how the world can be changed in just a day—how anyone would be able to cross national borders and get along with other nations like neighbors—how peace could come naturally in this way. He felt that this phenomenon would break down the walls between religions and promote communication between races, thereby completing a united cultural revolution.

Rev. Moon was optimistic even about the tremendous financial resources needed to complete the two projects. He said that the amount of money that America invested in the Iraq War would be more than enough to complete the tunnel projects. He emphasized that the money would not be wasted as it was on war and that guns and knives could be melted down to make plowshares and ploughs.

He also argued that in order to bring about harmony between the countries involved, the UN’s role as a world government needed to change. The UN should not seek to serve the needs of one country, but rather the needs of the whole world. To carry out this role, Rev. Moon proposed that the UN should be restructured as a bicameral institution consisting of an upper house and a lower house that lives up to its name as a mediator of conflicts. He believed that when diplomats from the countries fulfilled their roles as upper house members that discussed solutions to the world’s problems, peace could eternally come to dwell on earth. Thus, Rev. Moon proposed the creation of the “Abel UN” as a substitute to the current UN. These and Rev. Moon’s other plans for world peace are unexpected and yet concrete.

Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, who inherited Rev. Moon’s work, is investing her energies in comforting those in need in neighboring countries. Through the events on the first anniversary of Foundation Day, she especially encouraged the married migrant women of the Philippines after the typhoon that ravaged their nation. Dr. Han donated one million dollars in relief funds to the victims of the typhoon. And on February 8, she hosted the “Peace Sharing Event for Migrant Married Philippine Women–Love you, Philippines! Thank you, Korea!” event at the Seoul Citizen’s Hall.

Rev. Moon’s model for a Cheon Il Guk community begins with the family. He stated that when a complete man and woman become a couple, form a true family, and then expand that true family to a tribe, race, nation and world, the ideal community can be formed. Rev. Moon’s method for fulfilling a concrete vision for an ideal human community can be found within the Marriage Blessing. The utopia and heaven on earth longed for by all of humankind can now be established on earth through the Marriage Blessing.

The “Unification Principle” records in detail God’s purpose for creating human beings, the cause and result of the Fall, the goal of the providence of salvation, the principle of indemnity needed to return to God’s embrace and all processes of restoration. According to these teachings, the Marriage Blessing is the concrete program of salvation that allows humankind to return to God’s embrace.

On February 12, at the Commemorative Ceremony of the First Anniversary of Foundation Day, the Cosmic Blessing Ceremony by the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind (International Mass Marriage Blessing Ceremony) was held at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, Gyeonggi Province. The ceremony was attended by two thousand five hundred couples on site and twenty thousand couples in about fifty other countries via satellite.

The transnational, interreligious international Blessing Ceremony held by Rev. Moon contains the grand, lofty will of God’s providence of salvation. Starting in May 1961, with the marriage of thirty-six couples, Rev. Moon has been performing International Marriage Blessing Ceremonies on a larger scale than anyone else throughout all of history.

View of the inclined shaft of the Korea-Japan Ocean Floor Tunnel located in Saga, Japan. These lofty plans represent Rev. Moon’s wish to tie the world together as one. (Photo provided by the Family Federation)

On August 24, 1992, Rev. Moon defined the mass marriage ceremonies as “eliminating the original sin of humankind, recovering the true love, true life and true lineage of God, and a ceremony of rebirth for all of humankind. It is the cradle of peace that manifests the ideal of truly becoming one global family that transcends race and national borders.” The Marriage Blessing is significant as a rite of passage for human beings to return to their original state at the time of the Creation.

During his lifetime, Rev. Moon established many movements for true families and the propagation of high moral standards throughout the world, in order to solidify the foundation for the Blessed Families. Rev. Moon’s “Restoration of a Completed Family” can be seen as a philosophy that is universally shared by all humankind.

The Unfolding of a Movement for Purity through New Values

The True Family Movement is to become the foundation for the establishment of the order of love, centered on God. A man and a woman are to become a true couple based on God’s love, forming a family together. The goal is to give birth to good children and expanding the family to create a true race, a true nation and a true world, creating God’s nation on earth. When this happens, all humankind will become brothers and sisters with God as their parent. This is the meaning of the Marriage Blessing, which serves as guiding principles for the True Family Movement. The movement was carried out to have human beings be reborn into true parents, true couples and true sons and daughters amid the blessings of God, who is the origin of true love. There are currently hundreds of thousands of second- and third-generation blessed children around the world today. The International Marriage Blessing is the key factor in the True Family Movement, which is receiving praise as a practical alternative for saving humankind, which is groaning in the quagmire of immorality.

At the 14th World Media Conference, held in Washington, D.C., Rev. Moon said that “expanding and solidifying the True Family Movement so that it becomes a worldwide phenomenon is surely the most important spiritual and cultural revolution for humankind in the twenty-first century.” At that time, America as a whole was pondering the issue of the nation’s youth, who had become ensnared in a culture of decadence and pleasure. Rev. Moon argued that the Fall came about through the misuse of love, and emphasized the importance of pure love. In the Creation as God originally envisaged it, humans were to receive their true parents’ love and grow up mentally and physically protected in true love. The men and women that resulted were to enter into holy marriages with God’s blessings, become true parents and complete the ideal of a true family. It is with this knowledge that Rev. Moon has dedicated his life to purity movements centered on youth, as well as true family movements for those in older generations.

Rev. Moon was so invested in the purity movement that he established a Pure Love Department at Sun Moon University and provided full scholarships for its students. He stressed that men in particular were very important to the purity movement and that both men and women needed to become examples of a pure lifestyle. He developed a new set of values for the purity movement and presented the Marriage Blessing as the most important virtue of a couple’s purity.

When purity movements were first introduced to the world, they received a lot of criticism from Korean women’s groups, which said that they originated from the ideology of male domination. However, recently, people are coming to understand the truth regarding purity movements and the need to redefine the sexual culture, which has traditionally revolved around men. In today’s society, where sexual crimes are becoming increasingly serious by the day, Rev. Moon’s arguments appear quite solid.

Arranged by Senior Reporter Ki-Hong Han

Sun Myung Moon: The Path of the "Global Citizen"

April 2014
Monthly Joong Ang

Rev. Sun Myung Moon in his high school days. In those days, Rev. Moon held lofty academic ambitions; but he was spiritually reborn through understanding the meaning of life and receiving his life's mission.

He Dedicated His Life to God's Liberation

Through prayer and research, Sun Myung Moon discovered a God of sorrow and imprisonment... The Unification Principle clearly analyzes God's creation of human beings, the Fall and the providential process of restoration.

In 1935, when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, Christian churches in Korea underwent a historical change. Japanese imperialism had deprived Korea of her sovereignty and was forcing Christians to worship at Shinto shrines. The Korean people stood at a crossroads. They could either reach a compromise with this reality or fight to overcome their oppression. Spurred on by the Russian revolution, the leftist faction gained power and quickly engulfed the ideological world, causing chaos and confusion. The rest of the world was left paralyzed by the Great Depression. In 1933, Hitler had just gained control of the German government; he would form the Axis Powers with Japan and Italy in 1936 and begin a full-scale military expansion. With these and other events, the world was shaking and swiftly changing.

It is said that the night is darkest just before the dawn. During the darkest time in human history, Rev. Sun Myung Moon was just beginning to understand his own mission. Rev. Moon was born on the sixth day of the first month of the lunar calendar in 1920, a year after the March 1st Movement? In 1935, in his sixteenth year, he received his mission from Heaven on Easter. Shouldering the missions of both human salvation and world peace, he set out on a rigorous life course. He passed away in the eighth month of the lunar calendar in 2012, to fulfill a "second revolution." Rev. Moon shocked the world with his impressive legacy of having evangelized 194 countries in a short period. He boldly reclaimed history and illuminated the path for humanity through countless organizations and large-scale rallies.

In 1860, in the midst of the Meiji Restoration, Japan underwent rapid militarization. While seeking to expand their power and territory; they brought victories in both the Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars, and were waiting for the moment to pounce on the Korean Peninsula. The Japan-Korea treaty of 1876 was a stepping stone for Japan to interfere in Korean domestic affairs and become an imperialist country. This treaty was dissolved in 1910 to make way for the enforcement of the Treaty of Annexation of Korea by Japan, which reduced the Korea to a colony of Japan. The Korean people endured atrocious imperialism and humiliation, having had their long history trampled as they failed to keep up with world currents.

However, even under Japanese oppression, Korea churches were greeting the winds of change. A revival, led by Presbyterian ministers Seon Ju Gil, Ik Doo Kim and Methodist minister Yong Do Lee, became just the tonic that the Korean churches needed. At the same time, Confucian theologians were beginning to return from overseas, bringing with them new and varied trends in philosophy and theology

Notably, Rev Seon Ju Gil, who was imprisoned for two years with thirty-three other people during the March 1 Movement, brought hope to churchgoers through his ideas about eschatology and the Second Coming. Rev. Yong Do Lee professed unity with Christ, through his innovative spiritual movements during his short life of thirty-three years. He transcended denominations and kindled the fires of revival by bestowing grace upon every place he visited.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, president of the Women's Federation for World Peace, gave the benediction for the brides and grooms at the Blessing Ceremony in the Era to Open the Gates to the Victory, Liberation and Completion of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind in 2012, at the Cheong Shim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, Korea.

Academic aspirations: Coming to Terms with His Mission from Heaven

When viewed from a providential standpoint, Rev. Moon's appearance, just after the deaths of Rev. Yong Do Lee and Rev. Seon Ju Gil in 1934 and 1935 respectively, was not a coincidence. Why was he called by God to this mission at such a crucial turning point in history? The answer can be found in the philosophy under which Rev. Moon led his life. Even at the young age of ten, he had big dreams for the future. He had academic aspirations to obtain a doctorate degree. In the spring of 1934, at the age of fourteens he transferred to Osan Primary School in Jeongju, which is in North Pyongan Province, in what is now North Korea. There, he was exposed to theological texts for the first time. He began to view the world differently; and his standard of values and judgment developed. He began to doubt his own aspirations and hopes.

"Let's assume that I become a great scholar, attain fame and live in splendor as I wished. Would that mean anything to me? Would that be meaningful to the countless people that are suffering around me? Would my own personal success benefit anyone else? Why is humanity living amidst agony, misfortune and tragedy? What is my purpose in this situation?" These were sonic of the questions he asked himself. He also wrestled with fundamental questions such as "What is the reason that humankind lives in suffering, misfortune, and tragedy? What exactly should I be doing under these circumstances?" In his anguish, Rev. Moon's mission began to become clear to him. He resolved to liberate humankind from agony, misfortune and tragedy, and to illuminate a path and vision of an eternal, ideal world for our descendants.

He deeply pondered questions of life and the universe; and as he sought answers, he came to have a spiritual encounter with Jesus Christ. In the year that he turned fifteen, as he was praying on Easter morning, Jesus suddenly appeared in front of him. It was a revelation through which he reconfirmed his mission of saving humankind.

On October 5, 1985, Rev. Moon's wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon recounted this event. "At the age of fifteen, my husband was living in North Korea, where he received a series of very deep spiritual experiences. To describe in words the things he experienced at that time is difficult. To put it briefly, the spirit world suddenly unfolded in front of him, and he was able to speak with the saints and sages of that world. In the tranquil mountains of North Korea, my husband had several spiritual conversations with Jesus Christ."

Rev. Moon revealed through prayer and research that God was not a glorious God, but rather a sorrowful and imprisoned one. He confirmed that after the Fall, God had been engulfed in sorrow and tears as he searched throughout history to find his lost children. This is how Rev. Moon came to devote his life to the liberation of God and to seek universal truths.

Rev. Moon discovered the Divine Principle, the new truth that would reform the people of the world. With the Divine Principle as the foundation, he planned to guide the world to do God's work. After receiving his mission from God, he devoted every second to elucidating the Divine Principle and establishing Unification Thought!

While studying abroad, in Japan, he kept three Bibles open on the desk in his room -- one in Korean, one in Japanese and one in English. To capture the fundamental essence of the Principle, he invested his whole heart and sincere prayer into understanding its rules and processes. He cross-referenced the Bible to books on science religion and philosophy in order to make his findings accessible to all people. Scientifically investigating the whole providential truth of God and digging up the roots of Christianity were not easy tasks. Rev Moon remembers God as having been cold and merciless toward him at that time. If God had openly shown him affection, it could have become an opportunity for Satan to slander and attack him, so instead he had to pioneer that path alone.

On June 14, 1976, Rev. Sun Myung Moon was featured in the weekly magazine Newsweek for his international evangelical work. "The Unification Church's interpretation of the Bible can be seen as simply a different approach to Christianity,' expressed the Rev. Won Ryong Gang at a 1968 seminar at the Christian Academy House.

The Principle of Creation and Realization of the True Family

Rev. Sun Myung Moon was most curious to understand the origin and basis of the universe and of humankind. After years of struggle in prayer, the answer that God gave was this God and humankind are in a parent-child relationship. From that day, the core teaching of the theology became God is our parent, and we are his children. He has since dedicated his whole life to advocating the philosophy of true love.

Rev Moon wrote Wolli Wonbon, the original text and foundation for the Divine Principle, when he was living as a refugee in Busan. Beginning with the line, "All things originate from the same source," Wolli Wonbon was written over the course of about a year, beginning in May 1950. It is said to be the beginning of the Divine Principle. In 1957, seven years after he wrote Wolli Wonbon in pencil, the Explanation of the Divine Principle was released, and within a further ten years, by 1966, Exposition of Nee Divine Principle was finally published. The process for recording the truth is explained on page twelve in the preface of the Exposition of the Divine Principle.

In the fullness of time, God has sent one person to this earth to resolve the fundamental problems of human life and the universe. His name is Sun Myung Moon. For several decades, he wandered through the spirit world so vast as to be beyond imagining. He trod a bloody path of suffering in search of the truth, passing through tribulations that God alone remembers. Since he understood that no one can find the ultimate truth to save humanity without first passing through the bitterest of trials, he fought alone against millions of devils, both in the spiritual and physical worlds, and triumphed over them all. Through intimate spiritual communion with God and by meeting with Jesus and many saints in Paradise, he brought to light all the secrets of Heaven.

Exposition of the Divine Principle covers three major themes: "The Principle of Creation," "The Human Fall" and the principle of restoration. Other areas covered include "Eschatology and Human History," the Messiah: His Advent and the Purpose of His Second Coming, Resurrection, Predestination, Christology and the Second Advent.

The core teachings of the Unification Principle are revealed in the chapter, "The Principle of Creation." The relationship between God and human beings, the purpose of the creation of human beings and of the incorporeal world (the world after death) are explained in detail in this chapter. This chapter reveals that the purpose for which God created human beings was to obtain individual perfection of one's character, which is necessary to substantiate a true family centered on God, in order to return joy to him. It also states that all beings contain the dual characteristics of an internal character and an external form, and positivity and negativity; and that God created human beings in his image as his substantial object partners. Furthermore, humans were originally to enjoy life in the substantial world death, when they shed their physical bodies and pass into heaven in the incorporeal world, to enjoy eternal life.

'The Human Fall" concretely explains the root of sin that caused all of humanity to descend into contradiction and misfortune. It also outlines the method of eliminating sin in the world and of bringing about a good world. Satan seduced our first human ancestors when they were still in a period of immaturity, and they fell through adultery. The chapter emphasizes that if the standard of love is properly established and a true family is formed, an ideal world can be established on earth for the first time in history.

Eschatology explains that the "end of the world" does not refer to the literal end of the world but to the collapse of the authority of sin, as well as the turning point that will establish a true world of goodness, centered upon God on earth -- the era of hope. Therefore, history has comprised the course of providential salvation and restoration in an attempt to restore what was intended and complete God's original purpose of establishing heaven on earth.

The principle of restoration explains in detail the process of God's providence of salvation, which he established in order to restore the world to the ideal he envisaged at the time of the Creation and reclaim his children from the usurper Satin. The principle of restoration explains the miserable situation of God, who had no choice but to take slow, agonizing steps establishing central figures throughout history for the providence of salvation.

Divine Principle the Alternative Philosophy of Religious Movements

The Divine Principle received great attention for depicting God differently from Christianity's cryptic God through its explanation of the creation of humans, of the Fall and of the providential course of restoration. It overcame the limits and sticking points that could not be explained to atheists or materialists by mainstream religions.

Because modern people live in an era that focuses on science and logic rather than on values, the Divine Principle is highly praised for presenting a systematic, concise view of God, of life of history and of the world.

Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Divine Principle is a topic of interest within religious circles as well. During a three-day public philosophy course held from October 13, 1969 at the Saemunan Presbyterian Church in Seoul, the late philosopher Nam Dong Seo, a retired Yonsei University professor; discussed the Exposition of the Divine Principle during a talk entitled, "The Critical Research of the Unification Church's Exposition of the Divine Principle." Baekseok University Professor Kyung Bae Min described the talk in this way in his book, Korean Christian History, "Professor Nam Dong Seo's research on the Unification Church caused a rare stir in Korean church circles. Professor Seo is a bright, sensitive theologian and the foremost leader in tackling the problems of the modem world within the Korean church, through theological explanations. He described the Divine Principle of the Unification Church as `the most extensive, organized, creative and original piece of theology written by a Korean theologian. It has become a source of renewed energy and new hope for the world's churches.'"

Even at the New Religious Research Seminar at the Christian Academy House in the Ui District of Seoul, September 9-10, 1968, the Divine Principle received high praise. At this seminar, the Unification Principle was introduced for the first time to about forty respected Christian leaders, including Christian Academy Director Rem Won Ryong Kang; Jae Joon Kim, the dean emeritus of Hanshin University; Methodist Theological University Dean Hyeon Seol Hong and Central Theological University Dean Byeong Mu Ahn. "I have waited for a very long time for this opportunity" said Rev. Moon. "I hope that today can provide the incentive to break down the wall between new and established religions, and that we can join hands to accomplish the vast task of the providence together as one."

Rev. Won Ryong Kang, after listening to four Divine Principle lectures, stated in the day's press report, "The Unification Church's interpretation of the Bible can simply be seen as a different approach to Christianity. Contrary to the deductive interpretation of the Bible by established churches, the Unification Church uses inductive reasoning to explain the Bible."

The Unification Church offers a very logical and reasonable interpretation of the Day of Judgment. This philosophy of the Last Days comes across to the people of today, who are surrounded by feelings of danger," remarked Dean Hong.

The "Unification Principle Open Hearing," attended by about two thousand Protestant ministers, also received a fervent response. This feverish attention caught on among clergymen overseas; between April 1985 and July 1988, approximately eight thousand American clerics visited Korea to attend fourteen Divine Principle seminars. The Divine Principle began to make waves throughout the world as it solved the most pressing issues of modem society, cleared up religious conflicts and established its place among religious movements as a legitimate alternative philosophy.

As he prayed and pondered deeply about the questions of life and the universe on Easter morning, Jesus suddenly appeared to the fifteen-year-old youth. It was a revelation in which he received the mission of saving humankind.