Who Is He? - Personal Testimony
Angelika Selle
May 2009
Born in Pforzheim, Germany, I grew up in the Catholic faith tradition, which I observed sincerely even as a child of a very young age. My grandmother, who came from Bohemia, taught me how to pray to God and Jesus. She counseled me that if I didn’t know what to do in a difficult situation or if I needed an answer, to ask Jesus. As I practiced her wise advice over the years, Jesus became a very close friend -- even like a brother -- whose presence I felt often and whose life I wanted to emulate with all my heart. In fact, I wanted to live my life for and with him.
As I studied Catholic theology in Freiburg in my later teens I asked a lot of questions concerning faith, the purpose of life and what I would be doing in the future. To my surprise I discovered that most students, and even theology professors tended to intellectualize faith In God and Jesus, to the point where there was no more faith left! If I had not also been involved with the Catholic Youth, including counseling young people, I might have lost my faith at that time.
Finally I remembered to ask Jesus. I didn’t get an answer right away, but I do remember sitting in one of the beautiful Baroque churches in Freiburg on many an afternoon after class, just looking at Jesus' picture and communicating with him. Deep peace and love filled my heart when I did that, which gave me the confidence that he would guide me. It is just that sometimes it was hard to have patience.
Finally the answers came, but not in the way I had expected them!
One day as I walked down the main street in Freiburg, a woman with an Austrian accent asked me if I believed in God. I said, "Yes, of course!” This actually startled her, since many students at that time didn’t believe in anything. Then she asked me, "What does God mean to you? Who do you think God is?" I didn’t know what to say. I had no clear answer ready. She challenged me to spend fifteen minutes with her in discussion, which we did, during which time she explained to me about her concept of God -- a male/female being whose core is love.
That sounded reasonable, and in fact I thought I knew that already. When I asked her who she was representing, she explained to me about the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Again, I felt and thought that this was a good idea and very needed. I had never liked the split between denominations, since there is one God and one Bible.
She then introduced me to the teachings of the Divine Principle, and when I heard them, I felt to my bones, that this was the TRUTH. Again, I felt that these teachings were something that I had known about in my heart all along. It just made a lot of sense, and I was happy to finally have found a logical explanation of deepest truth for this very scientific age.
Then one day I was asked about the return of Christ, and what I thought Christ should and would be doing when he came back. The first thing I thought was, "Make peace in Vietnam." That same day I further heard that he has already returned! So who could it be -- the Korean man and his wife whose picture I saw in the other room? I was then asked to think and pray about this, and to ask God. And that I did.
Given the amazing teachings that I had just heard about, it made a lot of sense that the one to whom God would reveal this truth would be at least a very special person, anointed and called for a special mission. That night I wrote in my diary that I had heard that the Messiah has returned. Is it true? “Yes, it is!" was my spontaneous response from the heart.
But just like John the Baptist, after a few days I began to doubt what had been revealed to me. These doubts were heightened by some newspaper articles I had come across, which were very critical of the Unification movement. But I wanted to know the truth, not what other people were thinking. Mr. Paul Werner, the pastor of the German Unification church at that time, challenged me to ask God once more, who Reverend Moon was, before making a decision. He also asked me to study the Divine Principle further, and the lifestyle that comes with it. I accepted that challenge. I prayed that night very deeply -- in tears -- asking God to give me a sign! No special sign came to me, so I decided to go on faith, saying to God, "I will stick around and check this out for a month, and if I should find out that this is a hoax I make You responsible, and I am out of here!"
About three months later while in Augsburg, Germany, a smaller town near Munich, I sat in the prayer room of the small church center, of which I had become the leader, looking at Reverend Moon’s picture. I was wondering again, who this Korean man is.
Suddenly the picture faded out in front of my eyes, and I saw another face looking at me with deep brown eyes, middle length hair, sharp nose... I “knew” immediately that this was the face of Jesus looking at me! A moment later, his face also faded away and yet another face was looking at me -- Mother Moon. And again her face faded and Father Moon looked at me, then again Jesus, Mrs. Moon, Father, and so on, like in a movie.
This went on for I don’t know how long -- moments, minutes or hours! I just sat there, mesmerized, absorbing the spectacle in front of my eyes, not knowing if this was real or not. Finally dusk set in, and I was not able to see that picture very clearly. I felt surrounded by a very high spiritual atmosphere, as if angels surrounded me in the room. The vision had stopped, and I was just sitting there supping in this peaceful, rich atmosphere, wondering what it all meant.
Then suddenly it became clear that this experience held a message for me. Jesus was letting me know that he is working together with and supporting Father and Mother Moon. He wanted to confirm to me that he wanted me to do the same, and that it was in fact he who had brought me here to work together with them to fulfill God’s dream and ideal.
That was all I needed to know. From that day on I had no more doubts as to who Father Moon is -- the returned Christ, the King of Peace, and most of all, the True Parent of humankind together with Mother.
I am proud to be a coworker together with them, to help usher in this new era of lasting peace, equality and prosperity centering on blessed families.