Reverend Sun Myung Moon
September 20, 1976
Tarrytown, New York
Translator - Col. Bo Hi Pak
This morning I'm sure you can almost fly. You have been very heavily burdened, and now all the burden has been lifted. I think everyone must be on cloud nine, so be sure to land safely when you come back to earth.
Let us together extend our heartfelt thanks and appreciation to God, our Heavenly Father, for the victory at Washington Monument! And to all of you who made this victory possible, congratulations from the depths of my heart. Let us thank God, thank one another, and thank all those hundreds of thousands of citizens who participated in this rally.
I hereby proclaim that, culminating with the victory at Washington Monument, the first phase of the ministry that I initiated when I came to America in 1972 has been successfully concluded. The target has been reached. The goal has been won. This I proclaim and declare.
As I look back three and a half years ago to my arrival in Washington on December 18, 1971, to begin this crusade, I recall that at that time nobody knew my plan, but my heart was truly trembling with God's great command, His scheme and His instructions. At that time there was already a master plan and strategy for this crusade in America. God has called me to proclaim the great truth which He was unable to proclaim 2,000 years ago in the Roman Empire. Today the United States holds a world position similar to that of Rome in those days. And so now when I look back, I see just how momentous an occasion this victory in Washington really is.
The American news media and many narrow-minded American people rose up against me and against our movement. They scorned us and persecuted us. Yet even under such adverse conditions our movement forged ahead and won a tremendous victory. It is clear that our Heavenly Father, the living God, is with us.
In Washington when we held the first meeting of all the American members, do you know how many there were? Seventy-two! And to those 72 members gathered from all around the nation I revealed plans to speak in every major city, to form the IOWC, and to hold huge rallies at Madison Square Garden, Yankee Stadium and the Washington Monument. Among our members absolutely no one could believe it, so how could we expect the American people and the media to believe it?
Back in 1972 the American people didn't pay any attention to Reverend Moon. I was just a stranger from Asia, another yellow man who came to America. But what they saw at that time was only horizontal, whereas I was looking vertically, two very different views. All my life I have clung to that vertical reality, when often from a horizontal perspective things looked so poor, so impossible. Yet I always upheld the vertical as being the reality, and my conviction never diminished. the unchanging eternal truth, represented by this vertical line, cannot be bent, undermined or altered by any power or persecution. From the very beginning our movement had this vertical axis, and although initially we had no foundation, no ground upon which to stand, it has been our job to create that ground, to build that foundation. This is what we have been doing. Each time we elevate ourselves to a new level there is always additional attack, additional persecution. It is inevitable, and without it we cannot progress. But it has always been my attitude and my strategy never to bend even one iota. I have struggled all alone to keep that vertical trunk line strong and solid. That has been my policy for the last three and a half years, although I knew from the very beginning that until after the Washington Monument Rally there would be a most heated battle.
Our victory in 1974 at Madison Square Garden laid our first substantial foundation, and it was an eye-opener for the American people. For the first time the American public paid some attention to Reverend Moon. On September 17th at our Waldorf-Astoria Day of Hope Banquet, Mike Wallace from CBS News stuck a microphone in front of my face and asked if I were confident I could fill Madison Square Garden. "Yes," I said immediately, "100 percent." He couldn't believe what he had heard, but the very next day my prediction was proved true. It is a well-known fact that our most influential newspapers, including the New York Times, tend to have a certain bias in their expectations, and so they all predicted that Reverend Moon could not fill Madison Square Garden, that it would be empty. They did not just hint at this but stated it blatantly in the headlines. But my prediction was different, based upon information from God's computer, and God's computer proved to be superior to theirs.
After Madison Square Garden I emerged as a powerful and almost fearful or somehow threatening leader, and so the mass media collectively took the offensive to attack me and our movement. And after the Watergate crisis when we pleaded with Americans to "Forgive, love and unite," they twisted my words, and my message and used them as further ammunition against me. But through their attack I was able to fulfill my God-given responsibility to become known not only in America but throughout the Free World during the past three years.
With the coming of the new year of 1976, the real showdown battle between God and Satan commenced with the opening of the Yankee Stadium campaign. Here in this room again and again we pledged a great historical victory for Heavenly Father at Yankee Stadium. Yet nature intervened, and because of the rain every member of the Unification Church felt anguish and heartbreak over Yankee Stadium. But I felt differently. I knew God had a better and longer-range strategy aiming at victory at Washington Monument. Stop and think for a minute: if we had won a spectacular victory at Yankee Stadium, wouldn't you have been proud, perhaps a little boastful? Relaxed? Less desperate about the Washington Monument campaign? That kind of feeling would creep in unconsciously. It's human nature. Then what would have happened? It means that we would not be having this joyful and liberating victory celebration here today. It could never have happened. But because of what happened at Yankee Stadium,. every member of the Unification Church got something stuck so deeply in his heart that he was able to really give himself totally to bring about the more important victory in Washington.
These last several months since Yankee Stadium have been a test period for the Unification Church. Many members have doubted God, wondering how this could have happened, if God is really with us. Many of the leaders assembled in this room today begged me desperately for one more chance and pledged to do their absolute best to win victory for Heavenly Father at Washington Monument, and our members in every echelon of the Unification Church were united with them in that determination. With that heart we immediately plunged into the Washington campaign, shooting forward like bullets, without first taking time to evaluate or review anything. Then eventually the leaders met with me and we analyzed what went wrong at Yankee Stadium. We realized we had not placed enough emphasis on individual contact, so this time I instructed person-to-person, heart to-heart contact. That and the bus method of mobilization were the keys to the success of the Washington Monument Rally.
I was determined from the very beginning of the campaign for us to break all past records for attendance at an evangelistic religious meeting in Washington, D.C. I knew very well how awesome the consequences would be, based on our success or failure. The impact, whichever it might be, would be truly fearful. If we were to fail with the Washington Monument Rally, people might conclude that God does not dwell in the Unification Church, and nothing we could say would convince them otherwise. There would be no way we could refute or explain, no excuse. Our critics could say, "Reverend Moon claims God is with him and the Unification Church, but he failed. Obviously he is wrong." And to this allegation there could be no satisfactory answer. Moreover, should we fail, there would be a great and terrible impact upon the spiritual state of every Unification Church member throughout the world, and nothing, no power, could lift that burden. The consequences would be immeasurably serious. If we had failed, I would have unveiled a strategy today which we would have followed from now on, but there would have been no way to execute God's plan, with Reverend Moon and the Unification Church standing in such a miserable position. So the destiny of the Unification Church depended upon the Washington Monument Rally. With success there would be new hope, new horizons, but with failure, on the contrary, we would move down into the dungeons of hell.
I determined that if white people refused to respond, that was fine; I would mobilize all the black people. At the time of Jesus Christ a black man, Simon of Cyrene, carried the heavy cross to the Mount of Calvary for Jesus, so I knew that black people were destined to play a most important role in this final day dispensation. That expectation was fulfilled at the Washington Monument Rally, and I now know that the black community is going to play a most important role in the future of the Unification Church.
I proclaim to you that the Washington Monument Rally was an unqualified victory. It is a victory for God and a victory for the providence, and it is a fact. It has been recorded as truth in heaven and earth.
I confess I feel light as a feather. I feel like I can fly. I have borne a tremendous burden of responsibility, but with the victory at Washington Monument I feel like I have been liberated from that weight. I can now walk as a free man. I can hold my head up before heaven and earth, and I can now proceed with the original strategy. So I say to you again that with the Washington Monument Rally we, the Unification Church, won the victory. It is the truth, recorded by history.
Then what shall we do from now on? This is a most important and critical question. Washington Monument has been our goal until this time, but after that beautiful victory, in what direction should we be moving? This is the most important purpose of this meeting. First of all, let us decide: shall we retreat or move on? (MOVE ON!) Once we have decided to move on, we must decide in what direction. We can move on a horizontal level, or at a 45 degree angle, or even at 90 degrees straight up, which one? We must look straight upward, yet our two feet must be steadily and soundly planted on the ground. Don't lie down and look up! Unless your feet are securely planted on the ground, when you look up like this, just a little push can cause you to fall down. A normal person walking along looking straight ahead would not be thrown off balance by a little push or a kick, but the person looking straight up is in a way vulnerable. We must decide to look both straight up and down at the ground, up and down. Your body should not lean backwards at a 45 degree angle, nor should you wiggle and sway and twist. You must be solid like a statue, like a rock. Stand firm, and then move ahead. This way if some powerful force kicks you, you will not be affected by it. What kind of facial expression would you be wearing, show me. Would you look tired out? Or would your smile reflect confidence and power and peace? (Confidence!) You answer well, don't you? From today on, I make one policy: I trust your words 100 percent.
You have seen me in action, working, time after time. You know that when I tackle something, sooner or later I always achieve it. From this time on you can be 100 percent confident that whatever we plan, we can accomplish.
Let me ask you a question: are you superior to me or inferior, better or worse? You say worse, but I think you are better. You speak better English, your faces are white, and you are young. In all those things you have the advantage. You are model young American citizens, so you are superior in every respect. Also, most of you are a little taller than I am, and your eyes are deep and large. In so many respects your qualifications are superior to my own. Moreover, I have had to work on faith alone, without any living example to follow, but you can follow me. I have shown you the way. You have been eye-witnesses to what I have been doing during these last three years, isn't that true? I want you to feel confident that if you do the same things and follow my example, you can win the same victories. Only then can this movement forge ahead. Otherwise we will stagnate and decline. You must be convinced that, "I can do better than Reverend Moon, because he has shown me the way. Reverend Moon didn't have an example to follow, but I have him and by following his example I can accomplish more than he did." The time is ripe. After the Washington Monument victory I concluded that I must inspire you with the conviction, power and confidence that you can exceed even that victory, because I have shown you how. That kind of confidence has to be planted in your heart.
This morning after our victory you probably expected me to say only rosy, sweet and glorious things in my speech, but this is not the way it's going to be. The weather is good outside, but you are going to have to face something tough inside. You don't mind, do you? So are you going to achieve more than Reverend Moon? Can you do it? Only one-third of you answered. What about the other two-thirds? Think of it: I came to America three and a half years ago, and in those short three and a half years this victory has been won. Let's say that each one of you in this room determines right now to be another Sun Myung Moon. That means in another three and a half years there will be thousands more Sun Myung Moons, soon hundreds of thousands around the world, all working for God's providence. We can shatter the sin of this world, transform it, turn it upside down. Can you picture it?
From today on, we are different people. You must walk differently, to save even one extra second and get there faster. Normally in the past you would look this way and that as you walked, and take a certain amount of time, but from now on your every moment and every action must be done double-time, even triple-time: walk faster, look around faster, read faster, grasp everything faster. Do not be limited by the old standard. Your hair should be cut even slightly shorter than in the past, instead of growing longer, and you women with tong and polished fingernails must cut them short like your toenails. Everything must change. You are a different being from this morning on. You move in the opposite direction, towards heaven and God. Even normal breathing is no good anymore. You must save up air, and inhale and exhale in a different way with the heart of God, with a different meaning. You have no time to exercise, so you can exercise simultaneously while you are sleeping. You must determine to visit mountains and jungles no man has ever visited. Then you will become an entirely different person. Your attitude, your outlook and your way of thinking must all change. Nobody will have to tell you to climb, because you will have already taken off straight up.
World unification is a tremendously huge task, yet success is determined by an accumulation of little things. Gigantic accomplishments are composed of success in millions of little tasks. Thus you must be a most thorough person in everything you do, When you go to a meeting, for example, you must be the first one to show up and the last one to leave, not going out until you have taken care of the last person, straightened up the room and turned out the lights. What makes news? If the meeting starts at 9:00 a.m. but the person arrives at 8:00 o'clock, he creates one hour's worth of news, because the meeting isn't until 9:00 o'clock. But suppose he comes at 6:00 a.m.? He creates three hours' worth of news. Unexpected situations happen all the time in our lives. We never know what to expect. Heavenly Father might suddenly decide one morning that He will give His most cherished prize to the person who shows up at 6:00 o'clock for the meeting scheduled for 9:00. Then that person is the winner, because he expected the unexpected.
Imagine this situation: the meeting is to start at 9:00 a.m. but the person comes at 9:00 a.m. one day early. He creates news for 24 hours. They ask, "Are you crazy? The meeting is tomorrow morning. Why did you show up at 9:00 o'clock today?" He will be abused and criticized, treated almost like a criminal, and in a way his whole day is spent in hell. But the greater the degree to which you are crazy, the greater your prize will be in the sight of God. God measures that way. He doesn't look at things from our normal perspective. In the past the patriots and saints and great men who accomplished something in history were all thought to be crazy by the people of their day, but were they? They were crazy about something, some value or dream they clung to and never released, sometimes even at the cost of their lives.
For 2,000 years Christians have been crazy people, in this sense, because they've been waiting for the return of Jesus Christ. There was no sign or anything, yet still they have waited for 2,000 years. Thus from a worldly viewpoint Christianity can be said to be 2,000 years of crazy people. But the important thing is not how the people in the world look at you, but how Heavenly Father's heart looks at you. If what you do is seen as crazy by the people but it moves God to exclaim, "What faith! What commitment! What dedication!" then as Creator of all, God can arrange things to make the impossible happen. Do you understand?
We of the Unification Church are crazy people, too. Our Washington Monument Rally was a crazy act. And after the rally was over we did still another crazy thing: that very night we cleaned up all the debris and refuse on the monument grounds, and we took down all our posters throughout the city. We did that while everyone else was at home asleep. We have done all these crazy things, but in the sight of God that's the way history is made.
And even among the Unification Church members we compete to see who can be craziest. In de-postering and cleaning up the monument grounds, the person who remains longer than anyone else, walking around several additional hours picking up more things, taking down more posters, that person is even crazier than the rest of you. Then that person is the winner, right? Other people say, "Well, tomorrow is another day. We can clean up tomorrow," but we don't think that way. We live life like there is no tomorrow. We want to do everything today.
Show me your hands. When you walk, what do you do with your hands? Maybe you haven't ever thought about it. From now on, decide to do some crazy thing no other people do, even secretly-perhaps you stretch out one finger like this when you walk, whatever. You are a new person. You must say to yourself, "From today on, I am different. I am not the same person I was yesterday. I look at things differently, and hear things differently, and different things are attractive to me now." Do you understand?
Why should we be that way? It is because the victory that is coming to us from this time on will come faster and faster. The blessings we have received so far are peanuts, compared to the blessings to come. I am telling you these things so that you can make yourself ready to deserve those extraordinary blessings that are coming to you. You must prepare yourself in every aspect of your life-at home, working, eating, sleeping, washing, in virtually every mode of your life.
How different should you be? Let me draw an analogy. When a single man marries, do you think that man's way of life becomes different from that moment on? When you are a bachelor, you tend to be careless. You can eat or brush your teeth when you feel like it, throw things on the bed or stack dirty dishes on the floor, and nobody cares. But once you have a wife, you have to behave differently, don't you? By the same token, we must become that different. You must change yourself more than a single person does when he marries.
From this time on, you don't need my presence. Each one of you can go on and achieve greater victories than I have achieved. When the mature son gets married he doesn't come nagging to his father, "Daddy, do this for me," "Daddy, give me an allowance," "Daddy, solve my problem." Nag, nag, nag. That is not the way of a good and loyal son. The mature and pious son instead becomes independent and takes over the father's role. By the same token, you must do the same in the Unification Church. Do you love me? Then you must become a person who deserves the Heavenly Father's love more than Reverend Moon does, by accomplishing more. Then you can come to me with your love and I'll accept it. Until then, I won't. Do you understand? Only if you are truly a God-centered person, and God dwells with you, can you come and profess your love to the True Parents. Only then is your love worthy to be received. Until then nobody is worthy of love.
From this day on we move to a new plateau, a new stage of our movement. I want you to remember that from today on you are different. How different? You are becoming a true representative of Heavenly Father and of the True Parents.
We won a victory at the Washington Monument, but do not be boastful or vain or arrogant. This is the worst thing you can do. Thus far we have fought together in a collective battle, but from now on each individual will fight his own battle to show how worthy he is, so an even greater battle is ahead for each of you. In the collective public crusade we won a great victory, but unless each of you shows himself individually worthy and deserving of God's blessing, unless each of you is individually victorious, your foundation of our public victory is going to be in vain. The era for the collective unified campaign has passed, and from this time on will be the era of individual achievement, in which you must prove your worth in the sight of God. It doesn't matter what city or state you work in. You must emerge as a champion on the universal level and win in that final battle. The blessings from heaven are all packed up and ready to be shipped; now is the era for distribution. You are the ones who must be worthy to receive the package from heaven to distribute. Those of you who have confidence and can pledge yourselves unquestionably as sons and daughters of God, raise your hands. Look at your hands, and at the same time examine your hearts to see whether or not they show the same thing. Thank you
What about me, am I a son of God or a son of Satan? (God!) From a worldly viewpoint I may look like a son of Satan. What makes me a son of God? It is because everything I do is 180 degrees opposite of what Satan would do. What Satan likes, I hate. I am 100 percent, 180 degrees absolutely different. That's why I am the son of God.
I am not afraid of arousing controversy or comments. I have stirred up controversy on a universal scale, in both the physical and spiritual worlds, in all of heaven and earth. People not only in this world and in the good spiritual world are talking about Reverend Moon, but also those souls suffering down in the dungeons of hell, in the unquenchable fire. I want to be so controversial that even the damned forget their own pain and want to hear more about Reverend Moon.
Yesterday our Korean leader, Mr. Moon, told me that when he introduces himself as Mr. Moon in his travels around the world, everyone looks at him with interest and wants to know if he is Reverend Moon, or related to Reverend Moon, so it seems that Reverend Moon is known throughout the world. Is it because I am a gangster, or a bank robber, or was involved in the notorious sex scandals in Washington'? Not at all. Am I famous because I kidnap young people? I am blamed for that, and people say I brainwash young people like yourselves. Some people seem to think that at the Barrytown Training Center Reverend Moon comes out with a big needle and injects something-maybe ginseng juice-into your bloodstream, and that converts you. You laugh, because you know that it was the truth of the Divine Principle which converted you, as it converted me. You know that it is God's power dwelling in you, so you can laugh at their accusations. The things they say about us on the radio and television and in the newspapers are like autumn leaves. Winter will come, and they will all blow away.
The news media are trying to brand Reverend Moon and our movement as political, and again we have to laugh. We are not interested in any worldly power or sovereignty, or in moving into the White House or any such thing. Not at all. When you call someone political, it means they are ambitious to take over the government or some public office, but that is not my goal. Our crusade is not political; our crusade is one of education. We seek to educate the leaders of this country, one by one, to become God-centered, God-oriented.
Would you rather I became president of the Republic of South Korea, or that I remain a spiritual leader to the whole world? You would much rather I became a teacher of the heads of state, preaching Godism and a God-centered way of life, wouldn't you? That's the way I feel, and that's why my job is one of education. The American leaders, for example, have become corrupted in many ways. They are asleep and do not recognize the menace of Communism. We must shake them awake, and inspire them with the conviction and confidence to lead this world into becoming a God-centered world. That is why Reverend Moon's job is one of education, not politics.
People criticize me for making slaves of you, because you work harder than anybody else, but that is not enslavement, because you work of your own free will. You want to do still more and more, and even that is not enough. You know that I am working harder than anybody else, and you have seen our European and Japanese and Korean Church leaders come to America and work very hard. How could you conscientious, patriotic, God-loving young people work any less hard? That is what motivates you. You are driven not by force but by your own willing desire to join this crusade and give your lives and sweat and labor for the purpose of God. I could never force you to work like this. You are working hard because you want to preserve your dignity as Americans; your conscience would not let you do otherwise. This movement is absolutely and totally voluntary, and this is our strong point, compared to any other ideology. Go ahead and speak out. Tell them, "We are working hard to save this nation, to preserve the dignity and pride of the American people. America has too much to be ashamed of; we cannot let her fall still farther. That is why we are working so hard." If the Japanese brothers and sisters come here and work 15 hours a day for America, can you work only 12'? That's the way you will become enslaved, not by Reverend Moon but by the Japanese. You must rise up and work hard to maintain the dignity of America.
Many people criticize me and say that I make you slaves to earn money for myself and for Korea, but like the autumn leaves, those criticisms will fall down and blow away, because they are absolutely untrue. I am not going to cam money through you for Korea or for myself, to make the remainder of my life a materially comfortable one. No, absolutely not; this is absurd. I am rather giving myself and everything I possess for the sake of America, not taking from her. No matter what they say, you know that I came to America to teach young people, to create a new breed of leaders who can save this country in the future. If I am successful, then my contribution to this country will be immeasurable.
You are for the most part young Americans in your 20s. When I was 20 1 had absolutely nothing, and on that foundation I started this movement. You, on the contrary, have all the foundation you need, so there is no reason why you cannot do far better than I have done. You have materials and experience and confidence, and my example to follow. I have worked like a slave myself for the past 30 years. I enslaved myself in the sight of God, yet I did not look upon myself as a slave. I saw myself as a champion, a pioneer 6f the kingdom of God. I suffered in prison, literally in chains, for the millions of people, both here on earth and in the spirit world, who are in chains and crying out at this very moment. But the important point is this: I worked like a slave and I suffered in chains in the prison camp, not as a slave but as the son of God. In that capacity, as a son of God, I took the role of the lowest slave. History will show that when you whip a slave the consequences are this small, but when you whip a son of God and treat him as a slave without realizing he is a son of God, the consequences will be grave and history will judge you severely.
You are sons and daughters of God, even though you are working like slaves. Do not be discouraged. This is a most normal and sacred responsibility. Hold onto your dignity inside yourself. Many people were enslaved and suffered in the past, but without any meaning. But you are suffering as the sons and daughters of God, and the heart of Heavenly Father is with you. In that dedication and commitment you are suffering, and your suffering thus has a different meaning. The suffering you endure on this earth sets a condition to establish God's kingdom for all eternity, and each pain you suffer sets a condition for God to praise you. As a slave your suffering would have no meaning, but as a son of God, the more severe your suffering, the more glory you earn from God. Which route shall we take then? We must take the latter one, suffering as the sons of God.
God knows how I have suffered all these years, and asks me if I don't want to sit back and relax for a while, but I reject His offer. I will run even faster and harder than ever before. And do you think Heavenly Father will criticize or reject me for this? I am 57 years old, and I expect that generally we can work for God up to the age of 70, so do you suppose I want to rest for the next 13 years, then go to heaven? No, I would never take that route. I want to fill the remaining 13 years with even greater achievement, greater suffering, greater hardship, to bring even more extraordinary impact in heaven and earth. Then God will give me my blessing to take and enjoy, but I will tell Him to give it instead to the members of the Unification Church. Do you think He would curse me? It will touch Heavenly Father's heart more than anything else, and He will pour down limitless abundance and blessings for thousands of years upon our movement and upon all mankind.
I will never retire. The only thing you can do to stop me is to leave no work for me to do. Do you think that if you do, I would hit you with a baseball bat and tell you to go away, stop blocking my way? Suppose I were to hit you with the baseball bat to stop you, bloodying your ear and breaking a bone or two, yet still you insisted on doing more work for Father. Imagine that scene and put yourself in Father's position. You would think, "Boy, that's an impossible son. I surrender." And God will surrender before you in the same way. That's the only way you can have God surrender. Then God will call loudly to Satan, "Come here and look at this man. Don't you think he deserves my help?" And Satan has no choice but to answer, "Yes, Heavenly Father, that man deserves Your love." Satan has to surrender and admit that kind of man deserves to be called the son of God for eternity. Satan will have to approve your claim and testify to it. Today, in that frame of mind, let us begin our new work.
We know that all men eventually die, physically. And we know that God is just like a person in that He, too, has emotions. Now when He sees the deeds of an absolutely pious son, like Jesus Christ was 2,000 years ago, His heart is melted. If you demonstrate that kind of loyalty you can have God as a complete prisoner of your heart. That's why God resurrected Jesus and initiated Christianity on that foundation. So no matter what happens, never complain or blame anyone. Don't seek revenge. God knows very well what you have endured, and Satan knows too. When you die you stand right in between God and Satan, and your own deeds during your earthly lifetime determine to which side you belong. In order to subjugate Satan, you have to demonstrate absolute loyalty as the son of God. You must walk side by side with God every step of the way. In that manner you can eliminate Satan's role on earth, because he is left with no human connection through which to work.
We now know that yesterday and today are totally different. Today we are new people. Give yourself for this cause as a son of God and you will leave behind such a great legacy and tradition that your deeds will be remembered and praised for all eternity.
I would like to share something important with you. I have had many experiences in which I was misunderstood, yet I remained absolutely silent without protesting and stood quietly on the side of God, giving Him my utmost loyalty and knowing that He was on my side. There is no death anymore, and if I were to suddenly die I would continue to work in the same way in the spirit world. That is why I don't protest, even though the world curses and criticizes me and is scornful to me. After my death millions of people in the spirit world and here on earth will testify to my deeds, and to what f have done in history. This may not come in my own lifetime, but in eternity I know that my deeds will shine.
Moreover, I will have opened the way to help those who suffer most, after I go to spirit world. I can be in a position to assist those who are suffering here on earth, because by my suffering I will have set the condition. You see, in the spirit world those in history who suffered the most in the name of God occupy the central positions, so I intend to outdo or surpass the suffering of all the past saints, so as to not only dwell among them but rise up above them, so that together we can more quickly liberate the suffering souls of the world. Do you understand? It's all a part of heavenly strategy. Even though I have suffered, and will suffer still more, and I will be misunderstood and accused even more, by taking this treatment without protest I continuously nurture this tradition, and eventually our way of life and our truth will prevail. I know it. The work will never stop, whether I am here on earth or up in heaven.
Thus it is immaterial whether or not I can unify the world within my lifetime, for this work will go on and on, and I will continue to lead it, whether I am here on earth or in the spirit world. This ideology, this philosophy, this tradition and this heart will inevitably unify the world. Even after my death, as a spirit man I will constantly appear and lead you into the same tradition, the same way of life, until we have achieved the complete kingdom of God here on earth. This is the principle under which I am operating. I do not expect this to happen in ten years or even in my lifetime, but in eternity.
I know the spirit world so well. I know its system and organization inside out. At present that world is invisible to you, but the assault of the spirit world upon the physical world is almost like a hurricane or a typhoon. Soon the new heaven and earth will open up in front of you. I know that timetable so clearly. It is coming, and it will bring a new world and a new way of life. When an extreme high pressure point and an extreme low pressure point confront, the impact is great and the result is new form. We might say that an historical typhoon has come to blow in front of the Unification Church, and the high and low pressures will clash and explode, opening up the way for us. That time is not very far away. The spirit world and the physical world are getting closer and closer, and I must lead you and this movement in the right direction.
But no matter what the mass media may say about the Unification Church, it won't hurt us one bit. Nobody can touch us anymore. And the harsh treatment and persecution and scorn Reverend Moon receives from America and from all of the world in his lifetime is actually a blessing for the Unification Church. Even if it were to be prolonged for 2,000 years, I would receive it and digest it, in order to pay the indemnity for the future in the shortest possible time, to make the future rosy and prosperous. Do you understand?
This is a tremendous and extraordinary contribution to history. Many people say, "Reverend Moon, why can't you slow down a little bit? Why can't you be diplomatic and present yourself more acceptably?" They don't know anything about it. That is definitely Satan's recommendation, not God's.
For you, though, the days are rosy and your opportunity is great. You don't have to suffer and be tortured for three years in a Communist prison camp. All you have to do is pour yourself into your work.
The Washington Post said we drew 50,000 people at Washington Monument. I sometimes wonder why they didn't say 5,000 or even 500. If they are going to tell a lie, why not a bigger one? I wish they had said 5,000, because eventually the truth is going to be revealed, and I want it to be as dramatic as possible. That time will come, and soon. We have film and videotape of the rally which will be shown on television, and how dramatic it would be if while the announcer was saying, "Here you see what the Washington Post called a 'crowd of 50,000,' " the camera panned the crowd, showing a sea of faces as far as the eye could see. I would actually prefer they had said 500, but I know that Satan is too clever to give us such a dramatic victory. He wants it to look like just an adequate victory, nothing spectacular. So don't be heartsick because of the Washington Post and the Washington Star. Have pity upon them, because when we show our film and videotape the people can see for themselves the size of the crowd, and no word of explanation will be needed.
This morning Bo Hi Pak came running to tell me he had the most wonderful news, that Korea's leading newspaper reported a crowd of 200,000 to 300,000 people at Reverend Moon's Washington Monument Rally, and that it was an absolute success. I looked at his ecstatically joyful face and I had to smile. Do you understand?
Right now there is a kind of war between the East and the West, the Orient and the Occident. It's a struggle in every way, just like the struggle between the white and black races. And who can mediate between them? Can the media do it? Can a white man or a black man? Only one person can bring about a reconciliation between white and black, between East and West, and that is Reverend Sun Myung Moon, through the Divine Principle revelation. In that respect the Washington Monument Rally was a most historical event.
Then let me draw the conclusion. Ask yourself, "Where am I going? What am I going to do? What kind of person am I?" Today you must set your respective individual goals and pledge your life to bring victory to Heavenly Father. Today is the day to plan your own campaign, your own Washington Rally. Follow in my footsteps, in the tradition I have set, but resolve to move even faster, to go even farther. That should be your determination. Think ahead to 1980, to the end of the third seven-year course, and what kind of victory you will have won by that year. By then the Unification Church will stand upon an invincible foundation. Visualize that day. From now on you don't have to walk each step but can race forward, progressing by leaps and bounds. That's the way our movement will grow from this time on.
So from today you are the representative of God and the representative of the True Parents. You are another Sun Myung Moon. With that dignity and that confidence and that sense of responsibility you can forge ahead, no matter what the difficulties and hardships, knowing there is nothing you cannot shatter and that you will move on to the final glory, the ultimate victory. In my youth I could not win such a victory, because we had no yet prepared the foundation. I could not rejoice as you can today, because we had not yet prepared the environment for such a victory. But the time is ripe for you to win similar victories, if you harbor that same ambition. That you can escape the suffering I endured at your young age gives so much comfort to your True Father.
This is a universal conference, with leaders assembled here from the United States, Europe, Japan and Korea, and I want to say to you that we must all be different together on a worldwide scale. We must all become different people and begin anew.
The main theme of my Washington Monument address was the necessity for the unification of religions, particularly the central religions of Judaism, Christianity and the Unification Church. Before world unity can come about, there must be religious unity, and we of the Unification Church are going to undertake that role. History has reflected the struggle and gap between Cain and Abel, and much blood has been shed. We are going to bring the universal historical Cain and Abel together into one unity.
Israel, the United States and Korea each represent the base of one important central religion in history, namely Judaism, Christianity and the Unification Church, and all three are being persecuted by the Communist world and in world public opinion. There are dispensational reasons why they are being pushed into a corner and chastised at the United Nations. Therefore, these three must unite and rise up together. Then, and only then, is there hope for mankind. Think of it: if the three religions united together and understood each other, we would have the power together to save the world, isn't this true? But if this unity doesn't come in the foreseeable future, then all the blessings accumulated by Judaism, Christianity and the Unification Church will be lost to the Communists. So in order to avoid that sad and tragic destiny, the three nations and the three religions must be united and must demonstrate one common principle of God: unselfishness. In a totally unselfish, sacrificial, public-minded spirit, they must elevate the most impoverished and miserable nations, one by one, creating the kingdom of God in each one. Is it possible? Yes, and it is absolutely essential. And before that, I want to build the kingdom of God for you. I would like to buy houses by the thousands for black people, white people and yellow people, and then you, in turn, could go out and buy thousands of houses for Africans, Americans and Asians. Some day those who know the truth will do that very thing.
The history of restoration is the history of persecution and oppression. Then who is going to bear that burden? Those who know, those to whom the revelation was given. Can you disagree? No, that's God's dispensation and God's will. The more the Unification Church membership grows, the more our wealth and power will grow, and I am going to mobilize them, not for our own selfish glory but unselfishly to expand God's kingdom.
Suppose the State Department and the American government listened to my advice and followed that principle? Within seven years the world would become an entirely different place. But they don't understand yet, so we must pioneer and educate them as quickly as we can. I proclaimed all these things in my address at the Washington Monument Rally. I said something which I had never before proclaimed in public: I proclaimed the Divine Principle as the Completed Testament, God's final declaration.
We successfully consummated that rally, that proclamation, and now history has moved on to another chapter. So from this time on I want you to know that you are my representatives. Each of you is another Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Go out, win the world. Forge ahead to the ultimate goal, giving your life as your investment. God bless you all!
Thank you.