God's Will Which We Must Untangle - Matthew 10:34-39 & Matthew 18:15-20
June 14, 1959, Former Church Headquarters
Prayer
Father, we know that Your ideal of creating the original garden and embracing the original true children with the original heart never appeared on this earth. Please forgive humanity. We have not sung to You with our original hearts from the time we were seized by death until today.
Please forgive us, the miserable ones who were unable to call You from the glorious original position. Father, please have compassion on us, for we did not attain the original heart and were unable to call You "My Father" with yearning.
Humanity lost the original garden, fell into the world of death and struggled against the darkness. We have been in the midst of lamentation and hopelessness, entrapped in the hands of the enemy. However, we long for the original homeland in our consciences, the remnant of the original mind. With Your touch, which we felt hour to hour, we have sought the stream of heavenly life. Father, even as You persevered through the historical battles, You helped us. We are so grateful.
Father, You know that being immature and unworthy, we are tired from this course. I ask You to spread Your hands of compassion over us. Please grant the power of re-creation and restore our original hearts. My Father, I sincerely ask that You hold us so that we may approach You with our original selves.
We must go toward the original world for which You long, even if we have to cut away everything of this world. Therefore, Father, please allow us to be totally immersed in desperate longing for the homeland. Please drive us so that we may run to the homeland, even if our bodies and legs become exhausted.
Please allow us to long for God's heart with both our minds and bodies. Please allow us to build the garden of happiness in which You will finally rejoice together with us and with all of humanity. Father, I earnestly ask that You permit us to push the task forward with a loving heart, even if everyone in this age opposes us.
We know that as fallen people, we must find our original selves and our original homeland through the process of restoration. We must build the original world together with You.
We the evil and fallen people were ignorant of Your loving heart, the original homeland, the original character, and the original self. Father! I truly ask that You refurbish us with all the elements we need to become original selves through Your word, Your character, and Your loving heart, so that we may attend You without any shortcomings and establish our glorious selves.
Countless satans, our enemies, have indiscriminately attacked our forefathers in the historical course and are attacking us today to prevent this. We now know that it is our responsibility to prevent and dispel this. We sincerely ask that You allow us to become true heavenly sons and daughters, armed with Your heart and Your words, able to stand confidently before our enemies.
We must now search for our original homeland. Our families, our society, the thirty million people of this nation, the countless people on earth, and even all the spirits in the spirit world are seeking the lost original homeland, Father. Please allow us to be the leaders who can build the original homeland that is connected to Your heart. Father, please make us the workers and soldiers who can find and unite the true sons and daughters out of the world of the enemy and build the original garden.
Father, please have compassion on us. We come to You with spirits wounded during the week. Please eliminate all the unrighteous elements and make only the original elements appear that can harmonize with Your original nature. As a result, Father, permit us to bring the greatest glory and joy to You. Father, I sincerely ask that You make this hour an hour of joy by the recovery of our original selves.
Please purify us, the unworthy ones, for it is a time for bowing. Please prevent the myriad satans from invading this hour. I earnestly pray that You allow this hour to be an occasion for numerous saints and angels to attend You and a time for bonding of heart to heart.
As I ask earnestly that You personally dominate and move upon the rest of the schedule, I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, who moves this earth! Please forgive the sorrowful sin of history, which must be indemnified. Although countless people praised You, sad history has passed for six thousand years without fulfilling Your will. When we think who is responsible for all this, we cannot lift our heads. However, we ask You to have sympathy on our poor hearts and please preside over us personally.
We now kneel in Your presence with disheveled minds and bodies. Loving Father, please subjugate this hour, for we know You should be our sole owner. You are the only one who can see through all our situations.
Humankind has struggled to search for You in the course of history, yet none attended and lived with You on the earth. Is there anyone piece of land that belongs to You? Is there any one family that is Yours? Any one people? Any one nation? Nothing on this earth is claimed as Yours.
We dare to understand Your sorrowful heart. We know Your sorrow is that You cannot stand as the owner of this earth even though You are the actual owner, and that You cannot take the authority over this land, even though You should do so.
You worked without being able to take responsibility for humankind on the earth even though You should do so. You were in the position to directly subjugate and command us throughout our hearts, yet You could not do so. You should rejoice over us as the fruits of goodness, yet You could not find any one person, any one day. We did not know in what a sorrowful situation You were involved.
Please permit us to be Your sons and daughters who can be connected to Your sorrowful heart even if we have to lose everything on this earth at this moment. We sincerely desire to feel Your situation and difficulty from the standpoint of Your real children, to shed tears when You shed tears, and to experience hardships when You experience hardships. Father, You toiled for a long time to find and to establish such a person, yet You have not met the central figure who can represent humanity, heaven and the heavenly law.
We know that in the midst of all this, You formed the Israelites through a long historical process and sent the substantial Messiah who represents You and who works centering on Your heart to this earth. The Israelites, however, did not attend the Messiah and did not live together with him; as a result, they have wandered throughout the world. Today, as we face the last days, we are expecting the day of the Lord's Second Coming. We know that you are searching for one who feels heartache when You feel sadness, one who fights with You, knowing Your situation; one who sings together with You representing Heaven's joy. Father, there are countless people living on this earth, yet they have not recognized the one person who will represent the future together with history and the age. Please forgive them at this time.
Father, we pray kneeling down in front of You until today waiting for the hopeful day when we would receive that one person. Oh, Father! Please let the precious person who will bring a sincerely loving heart to come to the permitted garden at the permitted hour. Let the joyous day come quickly to heaven and earth. We earnestly hope for and ask this.
Father! We realize that our mind is inadequate, our body worldly, and that our desire moves together with Satan's. Possessing these internal elements, we are miserable, for we are not qualified to await the one central figure representing God coming at the permitted hour, the permitted time, and in the permitted age. Father, please allow us to lament for our pitiable selves, our pitiable families and society, pitiable humanity, and pitiable heaven and earth.
It is the time for us to atone for our sins in sight of Heaven and earth with a sorrowful heart. Father, please open our minds. Oh, Father, we earnestly ask that You reshape our minds and bodies into the substance which can harmonize with Your hyung sang and Your heart, for our heart does not know how and is not in a situation to relate to Your heart.
If You abandoned us, then we would only be a feast for Satan in this world of death. Oh, Father! You have waged the dispensation for six thousand years! Please do not abandon us in these last days. We know that Your will, which wanted to set the victorious mark, build the victorious garden through us, and show it to the enemies, still remains. Therefore, we ask You to guide us so that we may bring the glorious presence in any kind of difficult position. Father, we sincerely hope that You guide us to be the loyal heavenly subjects who will leave an absolute unchanging heart toward Your will in front of Heaven and earth, even if we are shattered to pieces by the hardships.
Father! Please have compassion on us for we have gathered here today. Please make us understand Your heart now. Allow us to understand our situation. Please eliminate anything and everything that may not be acceptable to Your will. Father, please spread Your mighty hands directly upon us so that our bodies cannot help moving with You, and we cannot help repenting before You, Your heart becoming ours.
Please remove any worldly concepts, ideologies and assertions which are unacceptable to You yet which we have held until today. Please elevate the standard of original sensitivity and conscience so everything may harmonize only with what is Yours. We earnestly ask that You connect our hearts and make them unite with Your heart and Your situation in this hour, Father.
Please make us realize that we are the sinful people who cannot lift our heads, no matter how good we think we are, and that we are the fallen descendants who cannot present any excuse before You no matter how many internal conditions we may have as our excuse.
Father, please purify our surroundings by sending the numerous holy saints. Please reshape us with Your mighty hands by shattering each heart. Oh, my Father, I sincerely hope and desire that You give us the words, as well as the character of re-creation, so that we can be transformed from the substance of death into the substance of life and can welcome the joyful hour of calling You in glory, ecstasy and happiness.
Today is a sacred day, Father, a day in which all people should glorify You. The people of this nation, however, do not know You and most of humanity opposes You. The time has come to understand Your pained heart that laments over humanity. Father, please allow us to be Your sons and daughters who can kneel down and shed ceaseless tears in front of You at this time, as we feel the historical sin of not representing Your lonely heart and situation. We sincerely ask that we can be Your children who can sing and comfort Your heart until our bodies disappear, for we realize how much Your heart has been wronged.
Your sons and daughters who are gathered here are miserable people. They do not have any friends, any defenders, nor any companions on this earth. They searched and followed this path by crossing lonely hills, lonely trails, and lonely thorn bushes, being beaten time after time. Father, have compassion on them, for they understood that they have to keep to this path at any cost, even if they fall and die.
You are the only one who can take responsibility for the lives of Your children who are longing for Your heavenly ideology out of their thirst for life. You are the only one who can comfort their situation. Father, please subjugate their heart, their situation, and their environment. I truly ask that this hour be a sacred hour in which You reveal Your presence to them and sacred hour of worship.
We have arrived at the last days, the period where time rushes forward. The time has come for us to assess where we have been from the objective perspective. Please make us see clearly and criticize ourselves: where we are at, in what direction, and with what purpose we are going. Father, we know that we must desperately work to eliminate any gap that may exist between Your wishes and ours.
Father, please make our mind and body united as one. Please make us move only if You move and stop when You stop. Please establish a turning point in Your dispensation, and please make us prepare ourselves as the representatives of Your heart who can sing the glory of Heaven and move the countless holy saints in the spirit world.
Please grant the same grace to the lonely members in the countryside who are kneeling down and praying to You now. Please spread Your loving hands and bring about the motion of life to all those places where members are pleading to You with desperate situations.
Father, please guide us to the realm of Your dominion where we can sing of the glory of resurrection. Please embrace us with Your loving heart. We sincerely ask You to bless us to become offerings to You with childlike hearts, minds and bodies that admire and long for you. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, my Father! Please make us feel that our mind belongs to You. Please make us feel during this hour that our body is flawless and untainted, just like the original Adam and Eve. As we realize our responsibility to become the glorious fruits that can be offered to You with our minds and bodies united into one, we ask You to please grant us the heavenly grace of calling You "our Father."
We know well that the greatest sorrow of humanity is not being able to connect with Your love, losing the original conscience which can communicate with Your heart, and the disunity between our mind and body, which have the role of uniting that conscience and heart. Sensitivity toward Your heart was lost due to the fall. The mind that can love all things by experiencing Your heart disappeared from us. Father, please guide us to regain that heart. Please make our mind and body united and please make everything we have belong to You. Oh, Father! We earnestly hope that You will move us in this hour to possess a broad heart that can proudly spread the wings of love and embrace all things as we bring our all to You.
My Father! We desperately need Your word, which can connect us with that kind of heart. We know that we lost Your word; the next thing we lost was the substance, and the next was the heart. Father, please raise in us the lost original heart through Your word. We sincerely ask that You will grant in this hour the grace to be embraced in Your glorious bosom by our minds bowing to Your original words and our bodies listening diligently.
You were the one who initiated the task; You shall be the one to fulfill it. Everything was started from goodness; thus, the end shall also be goodness. Father, You said that You are the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. However, humankind lost the original heart at the beginning, and we cannot be connected to the heavenly heart even at the end. Now, in the last days, we should hold and connect with the original heart, yet we are still struggling in the grievous pits of the fall. Father, please forgive us.
Please make us understand in this hour that our mind is not ours but Yours; our body is not ours but Yours. Please, Father, make us experience substantially and actually the reality that all of our heart, sensitivity, and everything we have does not belong to us, but to You.
Father, I am about to convey Your words. Please do not allow any gap between the mind of the conveyer and the minds of the receiver. We know that it is easy to block heavenly grace if we assess things from our subjective viewpoint. Therefore, please make us reciprocate and harmonize for Your sake alone. We earnestly pray that we can return to a childlike heart, hear the words, and receive the feelings as they are. Please permit everything to start and end with Your presence.
Father! Please allow us to be connected to the heart and the situation of Jesus at the time of his ministry. Allow us to become the substantiation of his ideology and hope so that we can welcome Jesus, become harmonized with his situation and his heart, and establish the condition of joy by which to attend You. Father, please bless this hour which we received with Your permission to be filled with the grace of Your glory. I ask all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
When we look at ourselves, we realize that we are not alone. There are certain families and a society which have special relationships with us. When we look at this from the perspective of conscience, we realize that all these are intertwined within the relationships that promote the larger and higher goodness.
The Intertwined Hopes of Humanity and God
If we want to clarify ourselves completely and stand in a perfectly secure position, then we must resolve all relationships from our old environment and make an absolute relationship with the new value. We must make an absolute relationship with the world of heartistic ideology. We must make that kind of determination while we are alive on this earth and claim it as God's, humanity's, and our own. That would be the greatest hope and mission of humankind.
God's lamentation is that humanity, whom God personally created, did not unite with the heavenly value, did not harmonize with the value for cosmic existence, and did not become ones who could praise the absolute relationship from a secure position. This is the lamentation of God and of human history, and it still remains as a condition of lamentation in our minds.
Our mind unconsciously desires to sing about that absolute relationship, about that happiness and the ideology of liberty and peace. Even though that is the wish of both our mind and body, no one has fulfilled such a world with his mind and lived in such an environment with his body. This is proven by history, by your lifestyle, and by your life.
When we analyze and criticize ourselves objectively, we are certainly not a happy people. If we are miserable, we must be miserable for You, for humanity, and for society.
If we do not have the solution to our problem and a method of replenishing ourselves, then we cannot remain in a secure place from which to glorify the absolute value. In religious terms, we call this "living in the secular, sinful realm of the fallen world."
If God exists, He would want to liberate such people, to make them the substantiation of liberty, and lead them into the garden of liberation and the world of liberating ideology. The final hope of humanity is to become the center of harmony who respects his value as the representative of all things and who can move together with the world of cosmic beings. The final hope is to achieve the absolute standard by which the Creator God is moved to be present. If God's dispensational will exists, finding such a being would be the final purpose of His dispensation. If a stream of history exists, then its purpose would be the building of the world in which all individuals are connected. When we look at ourselves, we are connected to a certain world of relationship. Our existence today did not start from ourselves; it is connected to our past relationships and to our era. Moreover, we are destined to have future relationships.
How then would we explain the intricacies of our past relationships, of our relationship to our era, our future relationship, and our relationship to the spirit world? Philosophers should strive to explain this; religions should strive to solve this. Conscientious and heartistic persons of character should have this kind of ideology and assert it; only then are they qualified to possess new hope and a new ideology in front of past history, the present era, and the future. Only then can they represent that value.
However, ever since the beginning of human history, no one has presented himself as the substantiation of such value to humanity. No one has sung together with the cosmos and glorified the cosmic joy.
God's purpose, hope, and the ideology of creation were to find and establish this kind of person. Why then was God unable to present the condition of such an ideology, and the experiential emotion which we long to find and connect with our heart to the human world? Why were none of the great people of history able to introduce this kind of situation? We realize it is because human history did not become the foothold that could hasten in the world of goodness in which the original essence and the original nature are harmonized. We should know that our society does not have the proper conditions for establishing the substantiation of the ideology of goodness and for praising and cultivating such a value. History and society do not harmonize with our ideological world. They are actually against it.
For that reason, a certain event, a certain new ideology, or certain assertion must come forth to resolve this contradictory and conflicting situation. Humanity cannot reach the ideological world that can only be understood by our original mind and heart as they are now; therefore, a certain new ideology must come forth to present the direction. That ideology must possess all the historical and environmental conditions if it is to change all that is contradictory and conflicting.
The Purpose of Dispensational History through Religion
God has been stubbornly pioneering one aspect of history in which the masses did not take interest: religion. Religion has not followed the trend of history and has maintained the singular path that went against the course of history. It has developed a conditional foundation which worked to foster the concept of holistic goodness in the background of history.
Had God not prepared that foundation of relationship and the conditional environment in the course of history as He developed the direct relationship with humankind, then He would not be able to have any relationship with us today. Had He not accomplished it, He would not have any relationship with our conscience today.
Religion has developed through the historical relationship and has prepared and advanced the foundation in the environment from the position that went against the contemporary society. I myself also advanced from a position that could not harmonize with reality and went against the trend of this age. However, if religion does not harmonize with society until the end, the garden of happiness, freedom and peace for which God, humanity and the whole cosmos long cannot be constructed in the dispensational last days; such an ideology cannot be established. If God is driven out, then the standard of absolute goodness in our conscience would also be driven out. Therefore, that absolute goodness also must pass through the process of historical relationship if it is to make a relationship with historical humankind. For that reason, God has worked the dispensation in this way.
What did God do during the long six thousand years? God established a new concept of goodness and upon that foundation developed the form of religion. He then advanced the ideology of goodness for the purpose of liberating all the conditions and all the relationships in the entangled history. God has waged a movement to liberate individuals from their entangled history and from their adherence to their culture. In other words, God has been toiling to disentangle us until now.
Human history started not from goodness but from evil. Evil started first. The communists assert the theory of dialectical materialism and explain history through the theory of thesis-antithesis-synthesis. However, that is not the truth. The assertion that from a thesis a conflictive antithesis emerges and produces something new (a synthesis) through the process of struggle is incorrect. The proper assertion should be this: since something untrue (antithesis) exists, a true form (thesis) should emerge, and harmonize to produce something new (synthesis). The developmental process of history has been this: since history started from evil, something new (a thesis) which confronts that evil must come forth and reconcile the evil.
When the time comes for the fulfillment of God's purpose, the highest goodness will have been established and the greatest point of resolution will appear. Such a time is the end of history, the end of religion, the end of the humanity's hope, and the end of the heavenly dispensation.
Therefore, God has suffered and toiled to reform people who are entrenched in their wrong habits and narrow-minded traditions in their various environments. We should be grateful to Heavenly Father for guiding us from the time of our historical ancestors to today.
God has been working to disentangle knotted human history. God is working to transform it because human history did not harmonize with the ideology of goodness and instead became connected with the illicit content of the fall. God's dispensation has the will to transform the wrongful history. For that purpose He has sought to transform the individual, the family, the people, the nations, and the world. You should remember this point.
Therefore, my topic today is "God's Will Which We Must Untangle." We must remember that God will continually fight until the day this world is completely untangled from the position of denying all the tangled and knotted relationships of history.
God's Dispensation Sparked Reform Movements and the Situation of Today
We must untangle God's will. God's will is to reform history. If we observe history, all the past sovereignties were gradually destroyed by reform movements. That process continued until the present form of democracy. In other words, in the medieval age, God liberated the surfs, liberated the feudal society, destroyed the monarchic states, and established today's form of democracy. God has worked to advance the reform movement toward the standard of the whole representing the state, the world, and the ideology, the individual representing the whole, and at the same time the whole representing the individual, and the whole unable to ignore the individual and the individual fully able to confront the whole. That, however, has not moved to harmonize with the direction of history but went against it. For that reason, there are two major streams that are confronting each other at this historical period of the last days: one is communism and the other, democracy. Communism and democracy are confronting each other.
From historical evidence, the democratic camp belongs to God's side, for it moves upon the foundation of God's dispensational will. What about communism? It is the camp that moves upon the materialistic external foundation, and it goes against what can be allowed in the human world. These two camps have been spearheading the worldwide reform movements. They are professing the reform movements on the world level. Now these two camps will crash into each other, and that is the time when which is right or wrong, correct or incorrect will be decided.
When we discuss the value of a person, we cannot evaluate him as a great person merely out of his external appearance. By what do we evaluate a person? The standard should be his conscience and world view.
We talk about someone's character according to what depth is the heart connected to his conscience and world view. This applies not only to the character of a person but to the ideology also. If an ideology is founded upon a certain external form only, then it will not satisfy a human being. A human being does not become satisfied only by the external things. When we feel happy, we do so only when the internal condition of happiness is satisfied. That is the original nature of a human being.
Therefore, when the ideology or the world view, which has a materialistic foundation and emerged out of the reality of the present society, is introduced to humanity who ultimately moves toward the highest goodness, it will not be able to connect to the humanity in the end.
Therefore, now humanity must recognize the existence of the Divine, move their conscience according to the movement of the Divine, and establish an ideology and a world view based upon that conscience. We know well that without having the ideology and the world view that upholds peace, happiness and love, and that contains the original essence of unconditional sacrifice, without the human being sensing and experiencing the goodness automatically through the conscience, humanity cannot establish the condition of happiness, the ideology and the world view of happiness in the human world. History has moved to the time when nationalism is passing away and globalism must stand representing the whole.
The world should move toward where a single organization or person does not rule the world but all people from an equal position claim the world as my own, the sovereignty as my own, and the world view as my own, within the democratic system. God has been opening and will open history to reach such a state. He is working in this manner.
When we look back at God's dispensation, He has been working in the internal aspects from the position that goes against the trend of that period. God has been working to unify the people of the different nationalities by setting a general direction of goodness and making the whole move toward that direction. God unified the people of different nationalities by establishing a new form of religion which can mediate and move them toward unity.
If we look at religion from that perspective, Christianity is in the leading position among many religions. The history of Christianity, which represented God's dispensational will and lasted through the process of reform and revolution of the human history, prepared the content that can move the present world and can become the hopeful foundation for the future.
When we understand this we can understand what is God's love. Why? God did not permit the religious people who were responsible to God's will and His dispensation from making a relationship with the world, for God had to reform the ideologies, the world views and the national traditions as human history progressed. Those religious people were in the lonely, poor and miserable position from the perspective of their period; however, that was the genuine love of God who prevented and led them, knowing history and its process of reform.
God allowed the people of the Old Testament to come to Him through the Law and made the people of the New Testament come to Him through the faith which advocates character. Just as the Old Testament period ended by the advent of Jesus, the New Testament period will also end when the Lord comes again. In other words, religion also moves toward the form which can accommodate the reform-minded historical viewpoint. Among many of God's dispensational programs, how to spread the major religions, such as Christianity, Buddhism, Confucianism, Hinduism, would be an important issue.
The Mission and the Essence of Christianity from the Viewpoint of Reform History
If God has presented the history of reform and of liberation, then the period that centered upon and venerated the church leader should end. Just as God waged the struggle to enlighten the feudal society which served the feudal lords, in the last days, religion is needed that allows equal value to the followers, as well as the esteemed church leaders. God will look for a people of character who can transcend all denominations and sects. Wouldn't that be true? Only then, God's dispensation of liberation would be concluded in the historical last days.
The Christians now and in the past have regarded other religions as inferior. However, if their attitude does not change, then the efforts of a million-fold would be required to open their mind when the time comes for a new day.
Combining everything of the past is not the way; however, all should be resolved as one and become open in the end. The one who shows the open-mindedness to history, the ideology, the world view, and our mind will be on the side of God. The religion which is led by that kind of person will be the religion that all humanity will worship.
Therefore, if the Christians today realize God's dispensation has been moving toward reform and openness, then stretching and opening their limited concept of faith would be their most urgent task. At the same time, they would have the responsibility to reform and uncover all the general conditions of their society to make these acceptable to God. Wouldn't that be so? Religion and politics have been separated until now, but they will merge together from now. The Catholic kingdom of the Vatican will establish its own political form in the not-so-distant future. The time will come when it will fight against the system that asserts a different ideology and world view. Wait and see.
For these reasons, the direction of reform and openness has been divided in two main directions in history: one is right, the other left. These directions, however, should not divide without limit and become destroyed; they should be guided, centering on one common purpose to the position where they would need each other. In other words, we should know that the purpose of division into the right and the left is not the destruction, but the unity into complete one. This is true, not only in the area of ideology, but also in the area of religious world view.
For Christianity which claims to be a world religion and for the Christians who claim to have that kind of value system, the question is to what extent they can open their minds and their denominations and be flexible. There will come a time when God will proclaim this to every religion, denomination, and the believers at the forefront of the last days. The time will surely come.
When we observe Christianity today, they are tied down to certain forms and concepts, just as the Catholic church was bound by certain rituals and forms. She cannot stand in front of God, if she is entrenched in such rituals and forms. The person of character who subjugates the formality and ritual may stand in front of God, but the one who is subjugated by those things cannot. That is why Luther insisted that we should abolish formality and the unnecessary concepts and return to God by faith alone, centering on the Bible.
Those who lean on the words, those who are subjugated by the words, those who are restricted by the word, and those who move by the word cannot become God's children. Jesus was the one who could subjugate the word, and those who could give the word. Those who can stand his place can become God's children. God is demanding such a people.
For what are we all, regardless of being Protestant or Catholic? We need the words of Bible; but we also need the substantiation of the word, which is the core. That means, we need the person Jesus. We should long for that one person. Words may pass us by, but the one thing which should not pass us by is the Subject of the word.
What then is the final purpose of Christianity? It is not the completion of the Bible. It is not the completion of the words. It is the one substantiation that passed through the word and that can control the word. The final purpose is the Lord of the Second Advent, i.e., the standard of the hope of Christianity. Moreover, that substantiation is the standard of hope not only for Christianity, but also for Buddhism, Confucianism, or any other religion. The perspective of that one substantiation might have been different, but the content they testified and introduced was the one and the same. This is evident by the standard of character that must be met for that one substantiation, regardless of the kind of religion or denomination.
The Completed Testament Age is the Age When the Ordinary Believer Must Take Responsibility
When we look carefully at the six-thousand-year history, the Old Testament Age was the age of law and the New Testament Age was the age of faith. In the near future, the Completed Testament Age, which will fulfill God's will, should come. The vertical history has progressed in that manner. The age when a certain system or sovereignty will move the whole will pass away. It should change into the age when individuals will move the sovereignty and the system.
It is the same in Christianity. When we observe Korean Christianity, it looks as though it is an organization for the ministers, where the believers exist for the ministers. Original Christianity, however, was not such. It should be an organization for the believers where the ministers exist for the sheep. Therefore, the age of the minister will pass by. It will be gone. It should be driven away. It cannot be left alone.
God is working in that way. God is breaking this apart. If the age of the minister passes by, then the age of presbyter is coming. Famous so and so presbyters appeared now; then, it changes into the age of the deacon. Therefore, so and so deacon is showing up. If the age of the deacon passes away, what age will come? We are entering into the age of the ordinary believer.
The historical last days and the dispensational last days will come equally to all people. The denominations representing a certain period are moving upon the equal standard. God's dispensational history searched for a person who upholds the absolute value and who can prepare the holistic value, in front of the one standard, which holds the view that Jesus, the ministers, the fellow believers exist for me.
How will the Korean church change? It will be as I predicted. Please wait and see. What is the thing we must cry out to the Korean church, to the world church? The authority of the church leaders should decline and establish the equality. The world religion should become unified. That is the reason for the advent of so and so world organization, so and so association, and so and so Christian association.
Now is the time for us, the ordinary believers, to take responsibility. Isn't this so? This is true if we look at history. The Old Testament was the time when God personally moved the dispensation, and the New Testament was the time when Jesus and the Holy Spirit moved the dispensation. This time of the last days is the time for us to move the dispensation. With our hands, we should push God's dispensation. We no longer need the life under the command of certain church leader. We should possess the value of our life, which can enjoy equality to the value of the world level.
We the young people should rise against the denominationalism in the reality of the Christian church today, and cry out for the unity of ordinary believers. The ordinary believers should unite and drive out all the corrupted and unrighteous church leaders.
You should know the time is calling for such an action. In the past, certain sovereigns, monarchs or lords acted in place of God. However, were they God? Should only those people act representing God? No, it should not be that way. All people were born with the flesh and blood of God; therefore, they are the children of God.
The democratic form came about for that reason. Democracy granted the right to be the sons and daughters of God and drove the reform history. It was opening everything.
History progressed until today in this direction of reform and opening. The problem is how to resolve it from now on. The history, dispensation and religion are being opened and moving toward the form of equality. World history is moving in this way. In these conditions, the problem of today's politicians, historians, and religious leaders is how to mediate the world that is moving in that direction. How to resolve this?
God has been toiling for six thousand years to liberate humanity from the history of sin. God has persevered through the sacrifice of countless holy people and even the sacrifice of His only son, whom He so loved. However, Christians today are ignorant of the heavenly mission to change the world into a new ordered form. Humanity today does not know. No religion or denomination realizes this. Society and religion are moving in this direction. What will happen in the last days? We must now change what must be changed.
Love Me More Than Anyone
Jesus said, "Do not think that I have come to bring peace on earth; I have not come to bring peace, but a sword." (Matthew 10:34) It was an amazing proclamation. The people of Israel thought of the Messiah as the king of peace, the Savior who will redeem the sins of all people; but Jesus announced this surprising proclamation. It was a single proclamation that violated everything that existed, in the aspect of society, nation, family and personal level.
He then spoke, "For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be those of his own household." (Matthew 10:35-36) How can this be? Moreover, he continued, "He who loves father or mother more than me is not worthy of me; and he who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me; and he who does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of me. (Matthew 10:37-38) Jesus then further stated, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matthew 10:39) These words are certainly the greatest contradiction of the viewpoint of that period.
Two thousand years have passed since the time of Jesus. If we understand the time of Jesus as the consolidating and unifying period of dispensation, then the words spoken at that time should be fulfilled in the period of last days. All the unsolved passages of the 66 books of the Bible should be resolved in the period of last days. The entangled world, the entangled sovereignty, the entangled society, family and individual should all be untangled in the period of the last days. What will happen to me then? You must think about this.
Jesus said, "Love me more than anyone." It was indeed a most revolutionary statement. In this statement, the concept of loving one's parents, loving one's children, and loving one's husband or wife is never mentioned. God recognizes that this world is the fallen world. From where did our history begin? It is the history that started from the illicit blood relationship between Adam, Eve and Satan, centering on Satan. The history began from the illicit relationship with the archangel. God cannot allow we, the nation and the people, who multiplied upon that foundation, to multiply the seed of evil, centering on evil. This is where God's pain lies.
We know of the flood judgment at the time of Noah when God destroyed the whole world, except Noah's eight immediate family members. Why did God judge humanity and every living being by the flood, except Noah who built the ark for 120 years and his eight family members? The reason for judging humanity, who inherited Satan's blood lineage at that time, is that God needed the people who can connect with God's heart, unite their mind and body, and make the lineal relationship. God did not need the people who made lineal relationships with Satan, just the ones who can make a lineal relationship with God's love. God, therefore, destroyed humanity, except Noah's eight family members.
Jesus came as the Savior to all people, but what kind of Savior was he? He did not come to advocate a certain ideology or world view. He did not come to make a happy environment by pioneering the social environment. What kind of Savior was he? The Savior who can guide the life of all people into heavenly ones, who can inspire people to abide by the heavenly ideology, and who can guide the people to the position in which they can enjoy God's love by acquiring the heavenly life and ideology. No one understood the life course of Jesus who came with such a content, his life which possessed such a heart, and his heart of love.
For that reason, Jesus lamented, "If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? (John 3:12) and "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matthew 8:20) What are these words based upon? He did not speak these words centering upon the foundation of any worldly ideology or world view, of certain system, of his family, or of any emotion, or human relationship. He spoke as he thought of the system that centers upon the new ideology, as he dreamed of the substantiation of life who may be enjoyed within the realm of that new system, and longed with his heart for the time when those substantiations may sing of eternal love with God.
Jesus did not have any place to lay his head from this viewpoint. He was the most lonely and miserable person. Why? Because he came with the internal heart and the world view that have a direction 180 degrees different from the world. The place he stayed was the enemy's land, his living environment was the enemy's environment, the sovereignty under which he was ruled was that of his enemy, and the place where he searched for love was also the enemy's world. Under such circumstances, wherever he went there could be no peace. Everything that came upon him was his enemy.
In the midst of all that, Jesus had the responsibility to establish the living foundation for God and wage the movement for reform and openness instead of God. He also had to establish the foundation of God's eternal ideology and spark a revolution centering on that heavenly ideology. He was not the small man you know who saved the people by simply dying on the cross. Jesus was the person who wanted to connect the heart and conscience of millions and millions of people and to start a movement in which all those people will act out of his command. His concern was there.
The Content and the Standard which Can Unite the History of Reform and Openness
God initiated and drove the movement of reform and openness. After reforming and opening the periods of history, all the ideologies and world views of the world, and religions, God will unite them with one heart which never existed in the human world before. God is working to abolish the world of illicit relationships, because the humanity today is the result of the fallen relationship.
Therefore, in the last days, my parents, my children, that is, the parent-child relationship, will become my enemies just as Jesus advocated in the past. He also said, your husband and wife, your family itself will become your enemy. Look at the situation of our society today from the viewpoint of the family as the unit. The parent-child relationship is breaking down. Isn't it so? Parents killing their children, a child killing the parent, and the fidelity of the conjugal relationship breaking down. The fundamental family relationship itself is breaking down. Ethics and morality which humanity advocated are breaking down. Religious doctrines are breaking down. Consequently, we are arriving at an age when we no longer can recognize which is which. Everything is shaken.
In this chaotic situation where most people are confused, depressed and lamenting, a people who pray "Father, please hasten the coming of that age," should come forward among the thirty million people of this nation. Heavenly sons and daughters who pray likewise should come forward.
The declared words of Jesus are being realized automatically in its external form. Why did Jesus speak these words? Because it is the history which is bound to pass by and it is the illicit emotional foundation which is bound to fade away. For these reasons, Jesus said, "I am the son of God." He was the son of God who came with heavenly heart and love, not with the human heart and love. He said that he is the bridegroom representing the heavenly heart and love and the believers are his bride. Representing heavenly heart and love, he called the believers "the brothers and sisters." He said it all.
What then should all of humanity feel at this age of the last days? God has reformed and opened history, the religions, and even our family foundation by waging the movement of reform. We should now look for the one standard that can unify all this.
God gave the blessing of dominating all things to the humanity. He promised that all the things He created would be in the domain of human subjugation. For that reason, the world is moving toward the global formation that humanity can dominate. This is happening externally.
We said we will restore God's will. Restoration does not start from God, but from an individual. We then should restore our brothers and sisters and our parents in the family level restoration.
The time has come for you to long for yourself to be able to represent Jesus, to be able to connect the words of Jesus with your heart. Your self is the problem. No matter how many people are here, the one whom God loves the most cannot be two persons. Two people cannot rule the world of heart and love. The problem is the one person, who can represent God's ideology and the world view, and the people, who can represent today's Christianity, the changing social history, and everything of history, the age, and religion. God has been resolving everything that is scattered all over, and He needs to set one center there.
Just as Jesus came with the representative mission to resolve the scattered four-thousand-year history, the Lord of the Second Advent comes to resolve everything of the six-thousand-year history. What ideology or world view would he bring? He brings the ideology of heart. Historically, there was the age of truth before the age of ideology. It meant that society was guided by a certain philosophical foundation or standard of knowledge. Through that process, humanity has arrived at the age of ideology today. When things change upon the philosophical foundation, they are criticized in the realm of ideology.
The Content and the Function of the Lord Who Is Coming Again
When the age of ideology passes away, the final age, which humanity demands, is the age of heart. It is the age of heart which is connected to the heavenly heart and love, not that of the human heart. We need to think about that age. No matter how great a problem-solver anyone may claim to be, history will be resolved only when such an age comes.
If the time of the global last day is indeed coming, Christianity out of all the world level religions saw that reality through most accurately. What then is the heartistic foundation of Christianity? It is the ideology that establishes the horizontal bridegroom and bride relationship, which pronounces that "I am your bridegroom and you are my bride." It is the ideology that enabled the relationship of father and son, which pronounced God as "my Father" and I as "His son." It is the ideology that can connect all people of the world in brotherhood, which pronounced all people as "my brother." It is not the ideology in the realm of thought, but is the ideology of heart which transcends the conscience. That age is the age of the cosmic ideology which can connect with the heavenly heart and love.
God destroys everything that is false to find one thing which is untainted and perfect. Just as a new revolution emerges out of corruption, the world will become internally unified out of division. We should understand these principles. Such a world will surely come; that world is coming as a whole and as an individual. The problem is not in the whole, but in the individual. Therefore, the concept that respects the individual is the problem. Where are you now? God will ask what ideology, what religion, what historical trend, and what situation do you have?
You should become a person who can reply "Oh, Father, I came not to bring peace but to bring the sword," just as Jesus did toward the chosen people of Israel, and who can say with confidence and courage, "Love God more than anyone else," just as Jesus did. You should become a person who fulfills that responsibility.
Therefore, we should liberate everything. We should liberate history, religion, and the world of heart. We should have a new ideology, instead of past ideologies and world views; have a new power of life, instead of the one we had in our past life environment; and have a new heart that can enjoy our new ideology and the new power of life.
Jesus was not welcomed in his time for he came to the fallen world. He did not have any friend or comrade. He was persecuted in his time and died on the cross in utter loneliness. He came representing God; but before he came to the enemy Satan's world, he was the enemy of the world. Can the enemy be welcomed? It would be a lie.
If a certain representative in the democratic society who opposes that society appears, if someone in the communist society appears with an ideology that opposes that society, if someone in Christian society appears with an ideology that may be opposed by Christian doctrine, and if someone brings a certain ideology of the world of heart, then all people would be drawn to take interest. We should know that such a time has come.
The thing that can resolve history, the present age, and the future is not the existing world form. It has got to be a new form which opposes the established one, a content which can transcend our conscience and connect with the heart, and a content which can transcend human morality and connect with the heavenly law. It is not existing logic which defends the existing point of view. It has got to be an ideology which contains a new logical content that can unite and harmonize the existing logical arguments. If such words, such an ideology is introduced to the millions of conscientious people, it could change the direction of their conscience 180 degrees and cause a revolution in their minds.
That ideology would not stop at bringing a revolution in conscience, but it could bring the heavenly heart and love that will pierce our mind and cause the heartistic relationship that will not break for eternity. If that ideology appears, then it is the last age.
Jesus' Ideology of the Bridegroom and the Bride, and God's Love
Jesus taught "I am your bridegroom and you are my bride" to teach the ignorant people these things. The bridegroom and bride which Jesus talked about are the relationships that transcend the mundane concept of a loving relationship between a man and a woman. You should understand that history moves toward a new world through the new door, only from the position where the direction of the conscience and the action of the heart may move toward God. The work of God will be completed only if the openness is progressed to that extent.
In the process of human history, the revolution does not exist in the heartistic matter. However, Jesus asserted two thousand years ago that "he who loves parents or children more than me is not worthy of me." It is an amazing statement.
Jesus said "love him more than anyone." What is that content? That content was not found, for Jesus was killed. Therefore, we should realize that when we desire to find that content, that is the time of our hope and the time of the Second Coming. The words were given, but the content or the ideology which can connect with the heart of those words did not appear. When that appears, it will be the day of world peace.
The center of our mind is our conscience. God, however, cannot subjugate the person with the conscience. God cannot command you to go here or go there, even if you are a good person of conscience. However, if you make a heartistic loving relationship with God, then He can command you without restriction.
Humankind did not lose the conscience by the fall. Not being able to make the heartistic loving relationship with God was the fall. Therefore, we must go beyond our conscience and make the heartistic loving relationship with God. Only then will God's aching pain and resentment disappear and the restorational dispensation end. Only by emergence of that standard, can humanity represent God. Only when that ideology, world view, and teaching of religion are practiced, can God move freely upon the realm of all things.
We, therefore, must drive out the denominational conflict in and between religions. There were numerous religions before the advent of the Unification Church. We must peel off the denominational mask and eliminate the formal church. God is longing for the family church and the individual church. God is longing to move about freely, even to the realm of all things, by them becoming the temple of goodness and the holy of the holies. God is hoping for that kind of garden.
The fall was the loss of the relationship that was created out of the unity between the human heart and God's heart; therefore, trying to re-establish that relationship is God's restorational dispensation and the standard of human hope. For that reason, Jesus who came as the representative of that dispensation and that hope called himself "the bridegroom" and us "the bride." What should we do to cross over to that state? We must have the direct experience of emotion, shock, admiration, and the heart of yearning, centering on God, that transcends that of the bridegroom and bride. Without that, we cannot go forward.
What is God about to show to humanity, whom He liberated and opened thus far? History until now was filled with the word "human love." God's dispensation of restoration is the breaking of that and refilling that space with the word called "God's love."
Is there anyone who experienced God's love? If there are people among you who experienced God's love in its mysterious state, you would have felt that loving feeling is the comprehensive and unifying emotion of the whole existential world. Human love is not such a love; however, at that moment when you feel God's love, you can feel that comprehensive and unifying emotion of the whole existential world. God's love holds such value.
Therefore, the state of God's love can be described as the state where the individual and the whole are completely connected. The spiritual world is the supernatural world of recognition based upon such a love. Therefore, that world is not limited by time and space.
Just as all things admire the sunlight and move according to the sun, all people will bow their heads if someone appears, who possesses the foundation of God's heart and love, which the human original nature desires. That time must surely come.
Jesus came to present such conditions; he, however, could not bring out the standard of such a heartistic and loving relationship because he was killed. This is the lamentation of God and the aching pain and resentment of God for six thousand years and of Jesus for two thousand years. We should realize that God persevered through the six thousand years of dispensational history to see the day when his pain and resentment are comforted and liberated.
When the time demands this and God's will to unify the movement of reform and openness exists, we should pray, "Oh, God! Where is Your love? Where are Your loving denomination, Your loving servant, Your loving sons and daughters?" If that person exists, he would be the one most persecuted by this world. God said He is the Alpha and the Omega. The beginning and the end will come with the same appearance, although there may be a difference in its size.
A true human being, who can feel the sorrow God felt when He lost Adam and Eve, must come. He is the representative of God. He should be the owner of heart who can embrace the sorrowful God, who cried for all people throughout the historical course and for the chosen people of Israel, and cry for God in place of history. The people who felt God's heart as their own, who prayed sorrowfully to God when they saw humanity lost and confused in the realm of death, and who struggled without concern for their dignity when they saw the flock of true sheep being trampled upon, were not welcomed in their time.
In the age of the last days, no matter how desperate the heart is to connect with God's heart, it cannot connect all at once, just as is God's work often. We have to think of what kind of process took place when humankind lost that heart. We lost God's words and lost our body, which God created, by not keeping God's words. We lost God's love after losing our body. We, therefore, must go through the process of restoration.
For Everything That Was Entangled to Become Untangled
Today, we need the words that can penetrate into our mind and body, into our original nature, into our original emotion, even into our heart which is hidden deeply in our conscience, and move us for all eternity. We need the words that have the internal power to influence our conscience and our heart to make us yearn for God's love. We need the words that can instantly break down any ideology, any world view, any conceptual understanding of the past, and make us determine to do God's work by generating a new heart. Religions of today, especially Christianity, should do this work. This is the work that Jesus will do by coming again.
#We need the words that can make us attach to God's eternal words for eternity. We, therefore, should become the substantiation that harmonizes with those words. With respect to our lifestyle and our heartistic standard, we can build the character of which God will be happy, when we make relationship only with God's eternal world and not with the satanic world. Wouldn't God love us then? Do you think God will love what is not good?
Jesus spoke of the bridegroom and the bride. Those words were external, like a letter. Religion until now was the religion of conscience. It was not the religion of the heart. It set the heartistic target, yet did not have the heartistic content. Therefore, his words were a form of conscience and a letter of a promise. Thus, we need to find the words of heart by which we can relate to the content of that letter. We need to look for the words of heart in which I can be eternally intoxicated, for which I long, with which I can rejoice, with which I can love, and with which I can live together. Next, we should become the substantiation of our Father's words. We should become the substantiation which God will not deny and which Jesus will recognize as his bride. Only then, can we become the heavenly person.
From now on you should not say that you do not know the Bible which you believe in very well; that you do not know who is really Jesus; that you know him only by words, but not heartistically; and that you know Jesus conceptually, but not experientially. If you are like this, you have nothing to do with Jesus.
It was said that now is the time "to find," "to seek," and "to knock." We visited the fancy brick houses and great doors and looked for tens of years, yet we did not find anything. We should, therefore, look in the opposite direction. God is pushing us from behind. God is bringing the good people and driving them into the evil world. We should know that God's new dispensation starts from the people who are persecuted. That does not necessarily mean that such people are the Unification Church members. The people who came here for the first time may think, "Oh, look at this Unification Church. How could they do this." but think as you will.
In this world, this period of last days, a certain ideology or world view, which communism and democracy both oppose, should appear in the future. It must come. When a ideology or world view, which communism and democracy want to drive out in their concerted effort and which all kinds of denominations, so and so Presbyterian church, the Methodist church, the Holiness church, forty-odd denominations, want to drive out, should appear; only then will a new history begin.
If such an ideology or world view appears, then the feeling of wanting to go there, to be there, and to live there would spring in your mind. The place where the feelings of wanting to see, to move, to speak, and to live emerges would be the final destination point of human history. A person of character who opens everything that was tangled, who unifies everything again, and connects everything to one heart, one ideology, and one life, should appear. An ideology or world view that can harmonize the whole cosmos should appear. Only then will God's total will, which worked to open everything, be resolved. God can then rest. All people can rest because God is resting. History can find the stabilizing point and start a new age.
Prayer
Father, we now understand that Your historical course was the course of disentanglement. We know that in our body and our mind, there are desires for food, sex, material and sleep. When we think how much You struggled in the historical course to work with the people who have these desires, we realize that we are indeed the unforgivable sinners. Please forgive us.
We understand that countless satans work to entangle, even as You untangle, the historical course. It was described as the history of disentanglement; however, from the opposite world the work of entanglement is continuing to block and prevent progress toward a new place.
We stand in the crossroads between the history of sorrow for entanglement and the history of joy for disentanglement. We are in the realm of lamentation for our body longs for the entanglement and our mind longs for the disentanglement. We are looking at the final destination of the sorrowful history where our mind should strike our body and bring the joyful time of mind subjugating over body. Please make us never forget that we are in such a situation. Please make us never forget that we are in the realm of heavenly fortune, and in the process of restorational providence where we can liberate God's heart.
Oh, loving Father! You have suffered too long. How much have You toiled to weave us, centering on one ideology? How much have You worked to move the people of this nation by foretelling one ideology? As You established this externally, You established religion internally to connect with the standard of living goodness behind history. How many people have You sacrificed in the process of moving religion? As we hear and understand how much You have suffered and how many people You have sacrificed internally and externally, we cannot lift our heads and can feel only gratitude.
Father, we, the sinners, realize that You, the Original Substant-iation itself, have pioneered resentful history. We are truly embarrassed to ask for Your forgiveness. Being ignorant of these circumstances, we have so often betrayed You and so often tied the knot You wished to untangle. We are bound to repeat the same mistakes today and tomorrow. Father, please forgive us.
To what do you wish the minds of Your sons and daughters, who are gathered here, to be tied? To what do you wish their body to be tied? Among the people who do not know You, some want to tie themselves to an ideology or world view, or want their conscience and body to be tied to human morality and ethics. In their original nature, however, they can realize that they are in the miserable environment where they cannot stand in front of You.
There are many within humanity who feel the heart of anxiety, insecurity and misery in the face of their future course; yet there is no one who can stop it. Father, who will take the responsibility for humanity who cannot rejoice with history, the age, and the ideology, who struggles without knowing the principle of life, the direction of life, the course of life, and the purpose of life?
Father, please call true young people and present them in front of the thirty million people. We now understand the preciousness of being persecuted. We know that the blood stains of history remain in Your hands of dispensation, which drove us to a peculiar course, and in Your hands of suffering. We, therefore, must go through the position of historical sorrow and must go beyond the historical valley of death. We know that it is the time for us to fulfill the words Jesus spoke to us: "He that takes not his cross and follows me, is not worthy of me." "He that finds his life shall lose it: and he that loses his life for my sake shall find it."
Father! Today, we are walking the path which others avoid. Receiving the persecution and blows and overcoming numerous walls that block us, we kneel in front of You. If we have the relationship with the heavenly heart which knows how to hold the sorrowful heart and situation, please make us nurture the respectful and caring mind for each other through that relationship, so it will become the greatest heavenly relationship which is too big for this world to hold. We know that relationship should be the first that this world has ever seen.
We should untangle each other. The principle of restoration is to untangle wherever the tangled knot exists. Jesus became the person worthy of building the garden of thaw which untangles the enemy world, for he tried to untangle the enemy relationship when he could have shown the heart of resentment toward his enemy.
We know that You rejoiced over this and You established Jesus in the position of resurrection. Even if we receive rejection from the people of this nation and even if they turn into our enemies, please prevent us from hating those people. Father, we sincerely ask You to make us the leader of heavenly life, the sovereign of the life, and the owner of the heavenly heart, who do not have resentment toward the world, even if the world opposes us and who can transcend the heart of the enemy to leave behind only the open-minded heavenly heart.
Please make Your children who are gathered here today have the heart that seeks the standard of the historical thawing of resentment, instead of feeling the historical sorrow. Please make them sing the glorious grace, the glorious life, the glorious ideology, the glorious love, and the value of whole cosmos. Please make them respect their individuality which represents God in the world of ideology.
I sincerely ask You to enable Your children to proudly show their glorious value, their absolute value in sight of all things and Satan. I pray all these things in the name of the Lord. Amen.