Reverend Sun Myung Moon
May 1, 1979
Belvedere, New York
Translator: Sang Kil Han
This morning is the first day of May, and it also happens to be the Labor Day commemorated by the Communist countries.
Although the Unification Church was founded in Korea, it was not begun for a local purpose, but with a religious meaning for the worldwide dispensation. A drop of water can originate deep in the mountains and trickle down the hillside, gathering with others and becoming a brook, then a river, and finally join the ocean, and in that way travel around the world. Yet when we look at water we don't speculate about which nation it belongs to or came from; it is a part of the world. Though water may land in Korea, it can go anywhere in the world. The same is true of the air, which also circulates and moves around.
Aren't people like that as well? We know that though water may become dirty at some point, it is purified again as it moves from place to place and can unite with other water. The same thing can be said for human life. Men mingle and mix culturally, and out of this can come something good which will advance and elevate all people. This also happens in religious development. At first a few people gather, like drops of water from different mountains. Then more will come together and a river will form, then the ocean, all the time enhancing man's standard.
When we think back on human history, we can clearly see that man's history has been one of war. Has human civilization advanced or regressed as a result? We can roughly say that it has developed. The religious and non-religious person also clash. Both of them are determined to win, and as a result of the conflict all their rough places will be rounded off and the undesirable aspects perish, leaving the desirable things to rise to the surface. Russia and America may seem to be at peace for the time being, but no one can deny that internally they have great conflict with each other. Wars are fought on every level, between individuals, between families, societies, and nations. War has now reached the world scale, such that if war started today almost no one would be left out.
If there are two boxers fighting in a ring but there is no referee and no one is paying attention, they feel miserable. When will their fighting end? It will just go on and on. When both are tired after a long fight, they will get together to negotiate their own rules. Under those circumstances, once they finish the fight and a winner is declared, the loser will have no deep grudge or complaint. If the loser complains after having lost according to the rules, he is the one to be blamed, not the victorious fighter who didn't complain.
If the world is going to get caught up in fighting, will it be with or without a referee? Who will the referee be? Whenever children fight, they always come to their parents to ask them to be the judge. If children fight in the classroom, they go to their teacher. On every level this is so. Even in a small village there is always someone to be the judge or referee of a fight, and in national affairs it is the same. If the world were caught up in fighting and there were no one to be the judge, it would be very difficult to continue living.
If brothers and sisters in the Unification Church have a conflict then eventually they have to come to me for a solution. We can say that the law is not intended to adjust evil things but to adjust good things, and if we can find nothing to mediate conflicts on the world scale, we must create one somehow. The person who says he will never compromise his stand has obviously never fought in a war. If someone feels he cannot compromise on which school he will attend but then he is refused admission to that particular school, he will have a difficult time adjusting. The only way to be admitted is to meet the requirements, so you must study them if you want to get in. When the time comes you must take examinations and follow the rules; you cannot insist on using your book if it is not allowed. The universe follows specific rules, without exception.
Are you consciously aware of breathing all the time? Have you ever counted how many times you bat your eyelashes? If there is even a small particle in your nose or eye, however, you notice immediately and take action. You know it is abnormal and take steps to remedy it. If something tickles one of the little hairs on your arm, your nervous system is immediately alerted and your respond. If everyone on earth knew about a world war in progress, wouldn't God know as well?
Once people are involved in a conflict they want their side to win, but after the battle begins they have to fight in accordance with the agreed-upon rules. Even after war starts some citizens, even the president, may not want to fight at all, but once it is proclaimed then no one can decide he is exempt and not participate. If no one will fight then their side will lose and be overrun, leaving the enemy country to dictate what should be done to them. If you refuse to fight until the enemy soldiers march into your living room then you have no more choice about what happens to you. In war time there is little mercy and the enemy will run you out.
Human history has witnessed two great world wars. In 1945, one bomb, dropped on one city, killed 250,000 people instantly and there was not even time to feel pain; it was instant death. God certainly knows when such a war is being fought, so which side would God take in such a war, the side which fought the war according to regulations or without? It is likely that both sides will ignore the rules to some extent, but the question is who fought in the most lawless, inhuman way. Does it appear today that the Communists are violating more laws, or the democratic nations?
How did the second World War begin? Did people agree to fight each other, or was there one group which arranged or instigated the fighting? In World War II it was obvious who fought in the least decent way; Hitler purposely killed many non-military people during that war -- among them 6,000,000 Jews and the Japanese mercilessly killed civilians in the Pacific during World War II. These are elements which God considers.
When God compares the Communist world and democratic world, He will side with the realm which is less guilty of inhuman deeds. We can assume that in a world war God will support the fairer side and afterward raise it up to be the leader of the world. Korea and Israel both won their independence after World War II, and they share a similar history of suffering.
The victorious side is usually the more just of the two, but now thirty years after World War II we see that without exception these victorious countries are declining. Why? Naturally God continued to observe them after the war ended, and if there is more to blame than to be praised then He will leave those countries and not give them His assistance any more. There is always a reason for a country's decline, but citizens hardly ever realize the reason for what is happening. I have an explanation for why England and America are declining today, even though they won World War II: They failed to promote goodness after the war. God has turned away from America to support people who show a higher standard of goodness than this country.
Even to a layman's point of view, President Carter always seems to do that which benefits the Communists. The public notices this and will support him less and less. It is not hard to imagine that God and Satan will arrange the sides like teams, with the free world and Communist world confronting each other. Is the free world dominant today, or the Communist world? Shall the free world acknowledge its decline and give up, or brace itself up and stop drug usage and immorality in order to win over the threat of Communism?
We can reason that when the two sides fight, something good will remain and something undesirable be weeded out. If that is always a result of war then we can apply this principle to situations today. God's purpose in all of this is for mankind to create better and better unity, and from out of all that confusion one champion can be selected on the worldwide scale who can demonstrate his ability to the maximum.
It stands to reason that God will choose one champion to represent all levels, and events will be driven in his direction. If that champion represents both man's world and the spirit world, would he tend to be religious or not? It is logical that God would choose a religious person in this role who is capable of influencing even non-religious people to change. This is what God had to do after World War II; He had to find someone who could move the world in the direction of religious unity. It is a new phenomenon since World War II to see such a group emerging.
The world atmosphere after World War II was such that a strong religious movement was likely to happen. The time had come for this, like a cosmic season in the trend of history, and the Unification Church appeared in Korea to begin this task. God's chosen individual was supposed to do something which no one in history had ever achieved, and no matter how great the odds against him might be, that person had to fight for justice. By winning, this person would be in a position to judge what is right and wrong on the world scale and no one will be exempt from that judgment.
These events will encompass all of the earth and spirit world, without exception. If everyone had accepted that standard of goodness earlier then God would never have allowed Korea to be divided, nor Germany. There would have been no reason for conflict to continue there, nor even between the Communist and democratic worlds as a whole. Human history would have been consummated at that time. Then all creation would only struggle over love until one standard of love was agreed upon. If God erred in the standard of love, then all mankind and creation would point it out to Him and even God would have to admit it.
All creation can be regulated only by the law of love, and once it is established every problem will be solved, without exception. What kind of war has the Unification Church been fighting? It has been fighting according to the criterion of love; we fight for justice which conforms with the law of love on every level. Even on the national and world scale, we insist that nations and races must not fight each other, no matter what. Our Japanese, British and German members are coming to America and saying, "I love you," but Americans are skeptical that this is possible. Nevertheless, our members do impossible things and come from all angles to reach a person in love, changing him into a loving instead of a hating person.
Does the Unification Church fight? What is your weapon? How long do we have to fight? We have to fight to the end, to such an extent that God can say we are like Him. Eventually even our enemies must say, "Yes, you have won," and beg us to stop. We have to go on fighting until our enemy recognizes that we are victorious. They will be thankful we have won because once they understand love they will see that even though they seem to have lost they too have actually won.
I am fighting to promote love, even though everyone is against me. Why should people hate me? I have started the greatest war imaginable, coming to fill the world with love. We can deduce one principle here: God will certainly notice and take steps to inhibit the person who tries to block such a movement of love. It is only a matter of time until he inevitably declines, and so will any country in the same position. What if Christians around the world oppose such a movement of love? Do you agree that the opponent of a person fighting the war of love has to be defeated?
What about people who lived 1,000 years ago, how would they feel? What about people 1,000 years from now, will they have the same opinion? How would God feel, who has existed for all time and will exist billions of years from now? It is easy to understand logically that God will write His constitution to protect love; love itself may be the constitution and He will personally work to preserve it. Is your home church work a war too? A war of what? It is a struggle over who will love the most, a war in which you will win over evil or evil will win over you.
There are children who love their parents very much, but if you have more love than the parents do, then you will gradually bring the children out into the heavenly circle. A husband and wife may love each other very much, but the love which comes from God will be even stronger, and gradually the husband or wife will be drawn away from the other to come to God's side. You have to have love of such absolute power. A spectator might think that I am saying this because I belong to the Unification Church. My reply is that I wonder if this is possible for you, even within the Unification Church; what do you think?
Are you going to get blessing first or get love first? As long as you have love you don't have to worry about the blessing because it will just come to you. On the other hand, no matter how much blessing you have now, without love it will all dissipate. So don't worry about blessing until you have worried about love.
What are you doing, you people who come here early Sunday after Sunday? You are now being trained to fight the fiercest war so you can be champions who can take beating after beating and s fill win. There will be no greater war in the future than the one being fought now, and I am fighting for that cause. What would happen if I said to God that I was going to call off the fight and give up the love He has been promoting? Would God give His approval, or would He go berserk and not know what to do?
God is quite dependent on me, and to make sure I won't leave, God would give me an even bigger bundle of blessing. Are you applauding now because what I said was true, or because it would mean the Unification Church, and therefore you, would also prosper? Are you applauding absolute love itself, or calculating that as the Unification Church gets bigger you will go higher? If you applauded for love itself, then you passed the examination.
With this understanding the conclusion is very simple. No matter how long a person has prospered, he will plummet down if he opposes God's champion in the war of love. If the rich nation of America opposes that champion then it will tumble, in even less than ten years. There is no other alternative in God's dispensation. If the Communists oppose the Unification Church movement, they will decline also. Since God has utmost wisdom, He knows the best way to carry out the dispensation.
When a country or a person perishes this way, what happens to his blessing? It will be given to the Unification Church instead. You now know a valuable secret here of how to get blessing by the dozen -- let people persecute you but overcome it all. The more you are persecuted, the more blessing will come, so you can be eager to be opposed. That is our deepest pride. Those who agree, raise your hands.
In the future will you continue to work for what you believe in and be persecuted? If the free world had recognized the Unification Church when it was first founded then there would be no reason for the free world to be in the chaos it is now. If the Korean people and government had welcomed me in 1945 then North and South Korea would not have been divided, nor would Germany have been divided; neither would the Christianity that God nurtured for 2,000 years have declined. People still do not know why the Christianity that was so painfully built on a foundation of blood and sacrifice has recently declined so much in such a short time.
On the other hand, the Unification Church has been struck hard but has grown and grown, day after day, like bamboo after the rain. The spirit world yearns for true love to be established and so does God, so whoever opposes this love could not possibly have a chance to survive. In that respect are you grateful to be a member of the Unification Church? Now that I have explained all this to you, you become strong and confident but were you as confident yesterday as you are now?
Yesterday concluded the sixth year since I had been granted permanent residency in this country, and today marks the anniversary of the day the Unification Church was founded. What is the significance of the number seven? It marks the realization of the ideal of love. Why didn't I give you such a grand message as this a long time ago? Today is the appropriate day because this starts my seventh year here. From this moment you will inherit this war of love and you will take over for me.
Who among you is glad to inherit that responsibility from me? If you really mean it then I am off the hook now, and I can travel around the world to care for other nations. I have persevered through impossible persecution to see this moment; I have been waiting to see members of all five colors of skin gather here and be happy to inherit this historic blessing.
I am not even American so you should love this nation more than me, and I trust that eventually you will. Would you lose an ear for America? Half your nose? Would you become an invalid for the sake of this love? If you are willing to die for the sake of love then you will have no regrets. It may end your physical life, but you will never die.
Jesus did not fulfill any part of this, yet the thought he left on earth enabled Christianity to prosper for 2,000 years. If you carry this out now, how many times more than Christianity will this movement prosper in the future? You should be able to feel this most realistically, even though you are sitting on a cold concrete floor. If your legs are hurting then you can realize it is the pain of love. It is not make-believe.
This is preparation for love to travel in any direction; that is what you are doing now, preparing for the worldwide scale. When you violate the most basic law you have no chance of surviving. There are many examples of this in history. My first wife wanted me to be an ordinary husband and father and could not see the magnitude of what I was doing. Many families that opposed me have since split up. Even the nation of Korea, which refused to recognize me, was divided into two parts, with no hope of being reunited soon.
By the end of the second World War the world was essentially united and Communism was not very strong. The United States was practically almighty, but now today it has plummeted. Here in America it is hard to know the reality in other parts of the world, but if you travel abroad you will frequently find a common hope for America to perish, even while those same people still cling to some small hope that America will stand up for righteousness.
There is little hope for the many people who are addicted to drugs, and the immorality in America is staggering, but the Communists everywhere are applauding this. No American has cared enough to do something drastic about this problem, but I came all the way from Korea to help, single handed. In a short time I have raised you to that same standard. I have brought hard-won money to America to spend here, even though this nation is so big that it is like dumping a bucket of water into a lake. Many hard won people have come here from Korea and Japan to help. Certainly I did not do this for myself or the Unification Church, yet the response has been accusation that I am trying to brainwash the young people and dominate this country.
Probably at some point you felt the same way, didn't you? You may deny it, but didn't you have some reservation inside? You have no complaint whatever about what I say to you? Then if you go full steam ahead America may have hope yet and ten years from now things will be different.
You don't want to see just Americans embracing each other, but to see the whites embracing the blacks and all the unfortunate people of the world, loving those people as they love themselves. All the social problems of this country could be solved overnight if all the whites who live in nice houses would willingly trade with people living in the poorest houses, no questions asked. If people do it willingly will God say they are foolish? In no time at all such people would find themselves living in better houses.
Since, for obvious reasons, it is not an immediate practical solution, what are the alternatives? That is for you to introduce God's thought into American homes. If so, then some day people will volunteer to live that way. Fashion is unpredictable, you know, so it's not impossible that some day a white person would go to a plastic surgeon to trade noses with a black person - Or to have one black ear and one white ear. I am not saying that should happen, but that some day it just might happen!
No one can evade having to lay the individual foundation in this war and gradually extend the foundation of God. The first seven years of my mission were a fight to secure the individual level, but since that time the biggest war on earth has been underway. Now there are many people around me, but there was a time when no one, not the government or the churches or even my first wife, was not persecuting me. Satan was almost all-powerful, and he mobilized everything to stop me, knowing that his world would crumble if I were successful.
The height of persecution came in 1955, one year after the Unification Church was founded. The government was determined to eliminate me so they probed and probed, looking for something I had violated, checking our money and all our affairs. They even tried to accuse me of being a Communist to justify keeping me in prison. They called me a dictator worse than Hitler, but what had I ever done? Nothing. I just stood firm and endured all of that. After putting me in prison without evidence they had to support their allegations so they investigated every possible thing, but they found nothing wrong, so on October 4 they released me. The first thing I did was to grow stronger. I just prayed for the forgiveness of those who had opposed me and continued working.
In 1960 the foundation of my family was established and the next year there was a blessing of 36 couples, then later 72, 124, 430, 777 and 1800. The year I blessed 430 couples was the year 4,300 in Korean history,, paralleling the 430 years the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt; it was also the year that the world-level dispensation was launched. The exodus of the Israelites out of Egypt was paralleled by the beginning of the world-level mission. The worldwide exodus centering on the Unification Church began in that year, at the close of the national-level dispensation.
In 1965 1 blessed 120 holy grounds in 40 nations; as part of that I blessed holy grounds in each state here, as though each was one country. My actual dispensation in America began in that year, for I knew that when America had won in this cosmic war that the whole world would benefit eventually. On this foundation the world could come into blessing on the world level and so in 1970 the 777 couples were blessed, with couples of all races included. Here the earth as well as men had met the condition for world-level blessing.
I launched the worldwide dispensation after earth and men were secured. Consequently, our economic work in the Unification Church only began after 1970. Before that I never paid attention to economic things. Now you know the famous rumor that we have endless money and resources! In nine short years we have achieved that much. Keep in mind that the more persecution we get, the more riches we will get.
It is difficult to witness to even one person because one person is infinitely precious. Money is coming to the Unification Church, and after that hundreds of thousands of people will follow. If we paid people to come for three weeks' training, who would refuse? After the training, more than likely the person would give the money back again so that someone else could be trained. You will invite many people who are leaders and opinion-makers to be in that class.
I will invite only leaders, and then other people will criticize me for not inviting them with a salary too. However, you can tell the people you witnessed to in the past that they had their chance but refused it. You will really feel happy when that day comes, won't you?
Those of you who haven't yet passed the fund raising course, raise your hands. Sooner or later you will go to do that. Everyone will go. Would you volunteer to go, or need some push? Am I fund raising now or not? When the departments are out of money they always come to me; when I look at them and ask, "Money?" they reply, "Yes!" The News World is typical.
How would you like it if I blessed 3,000 couples this year? I already have almost 3,000 couples engaged now. I am thinking whether I should do it now or wait a couple more years. What do you think? Are you confident that you can be a better warrior in the war of love than the person you marry? Once you are married you will start a competition and see which one will outdo the other in three years. If the wife wins the race then maybe we will have her stand on the right side at the wedding! That is the equality American women have been fighting for, isn't it?
Would you men feel that you could never submit to that, even if you lost? I have seen that usually women are more religious, however.
I don't want you to go just two hours to your home church but to pay constant attention to it, going back and forth sixteen times a day if necessary. If the men go twelve times, the women will go fourteen times. Later you will just stay there, not sleeping, but even just standing there. Neither male nor female will budge for fear of being outdone. You can go on seven-day fasts together. Don't you think the home church people will come to stare and see what is happening? You won't have to visit them because they will visit you first! When they come to find out what is going on you can give a speech or cry or anything. Are you fully determined to do even that?
Why should I perform your marriage ceremony -- is there any difference in me or anyone else doing it? Why not be light and free American-style, and go pick your own mate? Why not? You have tried that already and it didn't work, did it? You have a simple explanation-it is because no one can see an individual like I can. I can tell you a thousand different things about a person, whereas even after observing him for a long time you may be all wrong. I am thinking of having up to 4,000 couples matched by this year.
Do you men miss women so much that you want to get blessed? Are men so vitally necessary to you women? Always in your mind you must think that the blessing is good preparation for the war of love. You are not marrying just anyone. You have to be sure that your spouse is quite ready to tackle this war of love; once you are sure he is, then you are ready to marry. When people get married in the usual way they first go on a honeymoon, but we are ready for "honey-war." Then when you get married and can travel together, that is "honey-sun." You have heard that soon we will have Deli Suns, which will be family-style fund raising.
Definitely we will have a 4,000 couple blessing before the third seven-year course is over, and all the recent engagements are in preparation for that. After the third seven-year course I won't continue giving blessing in this way. By that time my own children and the blessed children will be of marrying age and I will concentrate on their marriages. During the time of restoration I have been giving blessings to everyone, but after the 21-year course I will not because the Principle won't allow that. According to Principle I have been giving blessings first to those in the external position and then later will concentrate more internally; that is the pattern.
When I can give blessing to my own children, every blessed couple will rejoice as much as if they were really getting blessed this time. At that ceremony only blessed couples will be able to attend; single members will not be qualified. This is not just a logical decision, but one made according to strictest heavenly law. Certainly by that time the day of persecution will be over.
On this foundation I proclaimed the new era on February 23, 1977. In that new era there will be nothing for me to envy, either spiritual or physical, no power, wealth or society-because I will be more prominent than all of them. God will never be able to give up the Unification Church; He may give up the world, but not the Unification Church.
The coming of that age will be like turning the world upside down. So far even the best religious people have always been the underdogs, but now centering on the Unification Church we are almost equal, and as it keeps revolving we will be on top. Then no area of government will have any excuse to investigate or persecute us. They have persisted in investigating for five years and found nothing. The day is coming when Congress will be blamed for doing injustice to us while not doing justice for America. This is why I told Col. Pak to file suits against various departments in government. We have the best lawyers working for us and there is much talk about these suits in legal circles. Some really righteous lawyers who have defended us in the past when they saw we had done nothing wrong and who received so much pounding themselves are now really excited about our legal actions.
As I have told you many times before, we will now buy many jumbo jets. Once the world really understands the injustice that has been done to me, won't presidents come to apologize to me when I go to other countries? You will be my escort and I will take you with me on the jumbo jets. Imagine how they will receive us when the world finds out what we have had to go through.
We have been persecuted incredibly, yet the Church grew and you grew individually as well. If there had been no persecution, how much faster would the Church have grown? There will be alumni meetings for all the different blessings, and the couples will gather from all over the world. When the American government hears of it the Immigration people will come to bow and welcome them and urge them to stay as long as they wish. By then Unification Church members won't need any visas to travel. They Will be the champions in the war of love and there will be no one who can stand up against them. Citizens young and old will come out to applaud and respond.
Don't you think this boom is inevitable one day? You have nothing to be ashamed of because you have already been persecuted, but what about the people who persecuted you? They will feel ashamed and want to hide. Is there any argument or force that can dissuade you from this course? Will you do more than you have been doing already? You can measure out units of thread according to how much you are persecuted, and eventually you will have as much as the hair in a horse's tail. By the time you have gone through much tribulation the world will be coming into unity all around you. Why does everyone like me regardless of their sex or age or religion? It is because I have fought every single war of love and I have a big assortment of fixtures so everyone can be hooked onto me.
If I go tuna fishing this summer, who will volunteer to go with me? What about the women? I have only one boat and there is a limit to how many can get on it, so I will have more boats built for all of you to get on and we'll have an armada. We will have women as captains. Then you women would like your future husbands to be captains too, right? Does that mean you want to marry fishermen?
Jesus told Peter he would be a fisherman; being a fisherman is not bad at all. Often American women are somewhat stronger than men, so I think the 200 mile limit was reserved by God for American women. I don't believe that, I know it! When you have a full boatload of fish I will recognize and accept you. Did you know we recently got a new property for our shipbuilding industry?
What would you do to become rich? Fishermen in this nation are some of the poorest-paid professionals, so we will give the best schools and best living to fishermen. Now people visit the seashore for fun, but someday soon they will come to the sea to work and go to the mountains for recreation. If that trend doesn't appear automatically then I will create it. I will bring one woman and one man at a time to come fishing with me and the fish will come. Do you agree? Thank you.
If I were to tell you all the small things that happened to me along this way, one month would never be enough to cover everything. Yet I have to finish my speech this morning in only a few hours. In 25 years the Unification Church has expanded so quickly that now there is no one who has not heard of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, especially in America. Is there anyone who does not know? You think I am tops, but in the world I am thought to be the worst.
Is the member who is coming from behind going to be on top, while the person already here sinks even lower? If someone who joins after you works much harder, he will have to be elevated. This is why I am training you in how to witness to many people before that happens. Then you can go up and down as you like. Instead of needing someone to push you up, when you know there is a difficult task you will want to go and do it yourself in my place. If someone joins later then they will want to volunteer to do it for you, just as you do for me. But first you have to have the foundation which comes from witnessing to many people.
We know that human history is the chronicle of restoration. What is the ultimate point of restoration? Of course it is home church. As home church becomes successful you will go from level to level, and finally to the world; ultimately you will take off and even gravity won't hold you down. You may not know it yet, but this course is the miracle of miracles. The fact that I could announce the providence of home church within 25 years is a miracle; compare that to the little that Christians have achieved in 2,000 years. God sent Jesus to earth for certain reasons, and ultimately Jesus died for that purpose. All of these events are culminated in home church, the center of the dispensation.
Jesus left the key to heaven with Peter because everything had to be done on earth. To achieve this I gave everything I have, much more than you can ever imagine. You are to inherit that, both those who know its full value and those who don't know. This is where we are now. You won't have to break your back for 25 years to build this; from now on you will pick up the position of glory and harvest blessing equal to your hard work. God's intention is to let you inherit everything I have worked for; I will not get the glory directly. Your glory may reflect on me, but you will receive it directly.
Imagine how the world climate has changed since I began. When I was fighting to make this foundation it was a bloody war, but your situation is one of welcome and the people will soon respond, even in a few days. From now on it will expand year after year. You are beginning to get the knack of home church now, aren't you? If you have 10,000 active home church members then all of New York will respond and help you. Once New York responds, all of America will respond. This is no exaggeration; when America responds to God then the whole world will respond as well. I have already proclaimed New York as the front line.
One of our brothers, Tom Ludwig, has been conductor of the New York Symphony and been guest conductor of famous orchestras, but he has put himself on the lowest level and now is scraping walls. I saw him yesterday helping with restoration and I felt good to see him working that way. It closely fits the description of the king of love.
If I take off my tie and white shirt, I am a first-class worker. Recently I went to Barrytown, and even though the water was cold I waded in to catch fish and didn't feel it. Mother felt cold just watching me. Each one of us needs to be versatile like that. I know how to stir up a fight too; when two people are fighting I sometimes agitate to make them fight more. First I will determine whether the small one was right and then I will tell him he is entitled to fight. If the small man doesn't have the guts to fight then I will tell him to step out and fight in his place.
If you see something wrong, you cannot just sit aside. If you are wrong then you should feel shame, but if you are right then you should never be defeated by any big guy. We should never compromise in the name of righteousness. Sometimes women are too quick to react and don't think so deeply, but there is much to learn by seeing how they react when someone prods them.
Love has many forms. It is not love to leave a person alone if he does wrong things endlessly. If he is doing bad things then it is love to give him a big whack. This is why we are training in karate to have fists of love. If you see someone doing something wrong yet no one is taking action then you will go and confront him, and if you have trained yourself you can win. Love is not indifferent or mediocre. When you are right, you have to speak out.
If you want, you can fight a duel and settle differences that way. I want you to know how to deal with violence too. If you don't, then your love will never be alive and vivid; you will just be cowardly. Don't strike first and then love later. First you love, and if the person doesn't respond then you strike him. That is allowed. You must know for sure how this works and how to combat with love. Then you will be refined in love.
Now you know the situation and why you have to work hard in home church. Once you have laid the necessary foundation you should confront people and ask what wrong you have done and you can demand to know why they do not respond. Because you can rightfully protest, the power of righteousness will work and they will begin to help you. They will have to wonder about what wrong you have done, and then conclude they must help you. You must have many reasons to protest in case they do not respond, really trying hard by putting in long hours and doing impossible things, and then if they don't listen you can confront them with your record.
The ways the government has persecuted us have all been recorded, and later on when you confront officials with the facts they will not be able to deny it. When the truth is revealed it will work to restore them by helping lead them to repentance. We never remember all of that just to punish them later, but to hasten their restoration. If they have to have a reason to repent then it will help them, so we are collecting reasons. Then they will live just as you have. Once you reach a certain standard then after three and a half years you can profoundly influence these people. That's how long it took me to collect basic information about Americans-what they like and how they live and so forth.
Finally, after 25 years, there is no area in which I have not done everything I should have. I have pretty much done everything necessary. Some of you are more advanced than others, but basically you are all just beginning; after you finish training you will carry on what you have learned. On this 25th anniversary, if you resolve to look ahead to the future and make today the beginning of your 25-year course, then this will be a very meaningful morning for you. If you deeply invest yourself in home church for 25 years knowing what you know now, what will you be like at the end? You will be like God to your people. That is what God and Jesus intend.
By doing that you will be recognized before heaven and earth as having all of my value. Regardless of how difficult it is, you are still destined to participate in my glory. Every person has to do it, and if you know this and yet don't do it, what kind of person are you? When I had difficulties in those 25 years, God came to console me many times. When you follow my path then I will appear in dreams and visions to help show you the way. You won't even have to close your eyes to see such visions.
Your home church members will see visions of me and of you also. When they are open like that then they will live eternally in the same spirit world, and realize they are to live as the same family. Love will open their eyes. You link that to your home church and they will link it to another home church, and yet another, and it will be an unbreakable chain of love which no one, not even God, can cut. This link will be directly sustained by the spirit world.
Are we going to fight this war of love now? You don't have to take my word about this. You have your own faculties for testing whether this is true or not. How do you test it? Go beyond the things and people you were close to; if one of your home church members dies and you feel more sorrow than if your own parent had died, then see whether your people won't see visions. When you cry daily for their sake, see if they don't respond. You should have such deep feeling for them that you sometimes don't sleep at night for thinking about your home church people. If because you are thinking about them so much you don't even remember how long it was since you last ate, see whether what I have told you is wrong. Any standard less than that is inadequate. Without that kind of heart you can offer them the Divine Principle but they will not listen.
There is strong love in the everyday world, but it is going in the wrong direction. You have to be able to love people more strongly before you can expect them to cut their old ties of love and come to you. Start loving them and start loving God. Certainly there is a barrier because of the fall and it is difficult to penetrate. You will never do it with a sharp object, but only with love.
There are barriers on the individual, family and national level. You have to have love great enough to break the national level barrier, and even more for the world. You have to think constantly what you are going to do with America and the world, even talking to yourself like a crazy person. There have been many American patriots, but you have to go beyond their standard, always going higher and higher. After you pass their standard then things will become easier.
There is a very concrete practical reason why we do this. If you are Abel then you need Cain, and only together with Cain can you come to God. You cannot go to God alone, no matter how wonderful you are. Let this be the start of your future for the next 25 years. Think of nothing but home church and then you will accomplish Gods dispensation. Then in 25 years America will be entirely restored, a big stake driven into the world as an anchor for God.
As I have established all these invisible conditions the Communist regimes have become divided and weakened. You are seeing signs now of internal Communist division; China and Russia are hostile because certain conditions have been established. Who in America could really know that though? In the meantime I am gathering the godly nation, race and tribe, like a big river coursing along as many sources come together. In summary, I have been establishing the tradition of love. When this is established, liberation follows. For the first time America will be a free nation, and so will the world. Free from what? From wrong love.
I want this to be the strong start of your new career; by visualizing the next 25 years ahead of you, let this be the very significant start for each of you. I want to let you march forward in the war of love with full commitment. A-man! God bless you.