Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Barrytown, New York
March 15,1975
Master Speaks
Translated by Mrs. Won Pok Choi
Today I'm going to tell you about the relationship between Cain and Abel, which is most important in the Unification movement. If you have the wrong idea of the relationship between Cain and Abel, it is apt to lead you nowhere, or to the place opposite to where you should be. As you know, Cain is on the side of Satan, while Abel is on the side of God, the side of Adam before the Fall, too. As you know, man fell by being tempted and by not being able to resist Satan's temptation. But he cannot go back to the original stage all by himself. Without God being responsible for the restoration of men, they have no way to come back to God. It is impossible for Satan, who caused the fall, to be responsible for their restoration.
Men have to struggle to go back; God can then help them to be restored. If men struggle hard calling to God for help, for salvation, to go back to God's bosom, it's all the more safe and good, but there has not been such a struggle on the part of men, and it is God's agony to have to restore those men. Since man does not know the way to be restored to the original status, God has to work for that. In order for man to be able to climb up the ladder to reach God, God must be in the ultimate position. If the ladder can barely support one person, can you look back and try to take others on the ladder? You must get rid of other people for the time being, and with your naked being just desperately try to climb up the ladder. Wouldn't you think of that ladder as more valuable than your life? So, our faith has to be absolute. If you had fallen into a well, and a rope was there, you would cling to the rope to be restored. But God cannot give you strong enough rope, so that you can safely come back. The rope will be of the strength equal to your power of faith. However hard God may struggle to save you, if its strength is weak, your rope will break when you want to climb up. So, the first thing you must do is strengthen your faith. You want to get other people around you too, and get all the faith together so the rope may be strong enough to carry not only you, but other people.
At the time of creation, God created man in consultation with the archangel; if around you there are persons in the position of the archangel, in restoring you, God can consult with those people. God created the angels, especially the archangel, to praise God and be consultants to God, co-operating with Him. The purpose of God's sending the Messiah in the position of perfected Adam is to re-create the whole world, re-create mankind. So before sending him, God had to send someone like the archangel. This archangel has nothing to do with sin, or at least, is indemnifying sin by fighting against sinful people in the archangel position and is thus preparing the way for the Messiah. In the spirit world, those who correspond to the archangels or the angels on God's side are good spirits who did many good deeds while living on Earth. They are in the position of the angels before God's creation of man, so before God sends His son the Messiah, they have to come to the human world to co-operate with good people and elevate them, preparing them to receive the Messiah.
Why does God have to bear the responsibility of saving man? It is because God must take the responsibility of raising His children until they are perfected, mature. Man fell -before his maturity and perfection, so God has to take the responsibility for bringing him back to the status of perfection. Those in the archangel position, and His son the Messiah should become one: God, Adam and the archangel. That is the ideal of creation.
In the course of the restoration, God and the angels have been more or less one with each other, but there's someone there in between, who has not been able to become one with them. Who is that? It is Adam. All men are in Adam's position. They must struggle hard to become one with the other two. On the left side, who is there in place of God? Satan. Who comes next? Fallen man. Who is the archangel on the satanic side? They are the evil spirits who did many bad things in their earthly life. So the whole is roughly divided into two: good and evil. As for you, are you still living in the fallen world or the other world? The individual must go step by step toward God. But even while He is still in that stage, God will come down and call to him, work for him. God is working on man from above, and from down below, the archangel should work. Those two in cooperation with each other want to lead men towards the goal, and as they do, the scope is broadened from individual, family, through tribe, nation, and the world. Finally they bring all those things back to their original status. The problem is, men are more apt to go towards the satanic world. On that side, Satan will work in co-operation with evil people in the angelic position to lead people towards evil.
In the course of restoration, where do we start? It is more than natural that we start from the individual level. For an individual, where does he or she have to start? He starts right from himself, where he doesn't have any nation. He's all by himself in that case. Before the fall, did Adam have any nation? He had no family in the real sense, either. Do you have any family? You do, in the satanic world. You have your own physical parents, your own brothers and sisters, your own family, and you have your relatives, clans, tribes, and the nation. That's the way the whole world is formed. But in the sight of God, when you want to go back to the original status, does your family do anything, or your clan, tribe, or nation? (No.) Would it be easier for you to be restored by not having your families around? (Yes.) In the course of restoration, God wants to restore each one of you to the position of Adam or Eve. In God's sight, can He recognize, can He approve your family, clan, tribe and nation? (No.) You are all by yourself before God. God cannot recognize such structures. Starting from one person. He wants to re-create. You must be able to dissolve al I other relationships, and stand all alone before God as in the case of Adam, and you must have nothing to do with the satanic world. From God's standpoint, God cannot save you or restore you if you have worldly ties. He cannot tell you to enjoy your life, talk highly of your parents, and do many things for the world, and still serve me. Why is that so? It is because you are in the position of Adam-all by yourself in the sight of God-and He's anxious to save you as individuals. Can you tell God that you must save your families first? What did Jesus say to his disciple who begged Jesus to let him go and bury his father'? He said, "Let the dead bury their own dead." Up to the present, people have not understood the real meaning of these words, because they did not understand the Principle. Jesus went on saying, "You must love me more than you do your own parents, or your spouses." But with this Principle in mind, you can clearly understand.
Can you leave all worldly things or put them aside, for the time being at least? If you want to go the Heavenly way, you must at least be resolved not to be swayed by any power exercised on you; you must have your own subjectivity and power so that you can start on your way, however hard the hardships and persecutions may be. Which of the two ways do you belong to? Did you leave all those things to stand all alone before God, or are you still living in the satanic world but with such a strong faith that no satanic power can make you waver? This is something very critical; at the starting point, you must have a clear picture of where you are situated and what way you are going. Have you left your old world and segregated from those people, or are you still living among them but with strong subjectivity and faith to steer forward on your way without minding persecutions or difficulties coming from the involvement? Some belong to the first category, while others belong to the next. You must belong to either of the two, or you can never be restored. The easiest and the only way possible for you to start with is to leave the old way of life, leave the old world.
But, even though you want to deny them and leave them, can you really leave them or can you really deny them? You want to go your own way, but your parents and brothers and sisters are clinging to between Cain and Abel comes in. You must clearly you, pulling you back. If you nudge them aside and go your own way, then all your relatives, all your neighbors will pull you back because they are angry with you. If you want to discard and deny all your relatives and neighbors, then the whole city or whole nation will cling to you to pull you back. What will you do with more added power pulling you back? If there's a robber running away, the policemen and the whole city, all the citizens will be aroused and mobilized to catch him. If he rebels against the whole nation, leaving the nation for another nation, the whole nation will be mobilized to catch him. In the satanic world, if one man is rebellious against the satanic world and wants to leave the satanic world for another world, what will the satanic world do? They will not leave you alone. You don't know how you are besieged by satanic powers. That's what's happening on the spiritual level, and you don't know. You are besieged all around. Is there any possibility for you to escape from it? (Yes!) They will test you to see if you still have strong faith, even though your arms are torn off, your eyes are plucked out, your nose is cut off, your head is cut off. In that case, will your faith still be intact? (Yes!) That is why Jesus had to say: without denying yourself, without sacrificing your life you are not entitled to Heaven. When you are ready to lose your life you are bound for Heaven.
When you have absolute faith, it means your whole body, your eyes, nose, ears, every cell of yours is there for faith. Then alone, God will come to your side, embrace you, and carry you to His world. God at times will have to test you, and if you are test proven, God will say to Satan, "This is a test-proof child of mine. However hard you may test him, he will not fail. So you must leave him. " And Satan will give you up and leave. If there are two powers pulling you on either side, wouldn't you cling to God's side? If you cling to Him, Satan can never claim you.
What is the secret for that? Where is the boundary line between the satanic side and God's side? According to the Principle, Satan cannot dominate men above the level where Satan invaded Adam. If you are above that level, Satan cannot invade. You have to reach that point. Then how exactly can we reach that point? Here the question of the relationship understand where Abel is situated, what his position is. His position is that of Adam before the fall, otherwise, he cannot bring you back to the position of Abel. Where are you situated? Without doubt, you are still in the position of Cain. Of course you are struggling hard to go to God's side but you are pulled by Satan. You are in between, always. When you are barely in the situation of Abel, alone, those angels on God's side will push back the satanic power and protect you, to push you ahead to God's side. That's the Principle. Do you feel that there are angels protecting you all around? (Yes!) Then you can order the angels, "You must attack Satan, protect me!" Are you doing that? (No.) Then for sure you are still somewhere in between Satan and God, always vacillating, back and forth. Can you safely say, "I'm in the position of Abel because I'm old enough in the movement?" (No!) You are apt to fall into the position of Cain, and danger comes more to the early comers into the movement, not the new ones. Those who are born first are in the position of Cain, the younger one is in the position of Abel. If you are so arrogant as to call yourself Abel because you are old enough in the movement, you are apt to fall into the position of Cain, and even into the position of Satan. However, if you are in the position of Cain, but co-operate with God and work in place of God, then you can remain in the closer position, like successful Cain.
If we look at the outside world and compare it to our group, then the outside world is in the position of Cain because they are first-born. Compared to Christianity and other religions, we are newly-born. So, we are in the position of Abel. Even in the outside world, there are people a little more to the good side and a little more to the bad side. So, we can divide the outside world into two groups, Cain and Abel. In the. external world there's a battle taking place between the democratic world and the Communist world. In the internal world of religion, there's a battle between Christianity and other religions, and between the Unification movement and other Christian groups. Established Christians are in the position of Cain, because they are first-born. We are newly-born, and we are in the position of Abel. If they don't cooperate with us and surrender to us, they are apt to fall away. We see clearly that there are always two groups in any society. In the external world, democracy is in the position of Abel, while Communism is in the position of Cain; in the internal world, too, there is a battle between those who are in the position of Abel and those who are in the position of Cain.
In the United States government, too, there is the ruling party and the opposition party, the ruling party being now the Republican party. The Republican Party is thus in the position of Abel now, but what if political power shifts? In God's sight, can those positions be shifted like that? Even in the Communist world, where Satan is ruling, they don't shift political power like that. Why is it taking place in the free world? There will be an eternal battle going on between the two parties, but no development in God's sight. So, is the democratic world being beaten by the Communist world, or the other way around? If they are beaten, where are they headed for? Destruction, yes.
In light of the Principle, would God like the democratic world just as it is) (No!) If the Christian population could get hold of the power to manipulate both parties-Democratic and Republican-there's a way for them to be saved. If Christian people play the role of brain to them, manipulating them, there's a way for this nation to be saved. If not, there is no way. But with Christianity declining in this nation, where is this nation headed for? This is the last chance for the Christian people to be united into strong oneness, and rule the rulers in this nation. If so, this nation can be saved. This is because the nation will have uplifted those who are in the Abel position. But if the Christian world cannot exercise subjectivity over the government this nation is apt to decline, because by principle the positions of Abel and Cain cannot shift all the time like that. Furthermore, the whole population of world Christianity must unite into strong oneness to dominate their respective governments. Unless they do that, they cannot keep their position of Abel over those in the position of Cain. In that way, God cannot bring back the earthly Kingdom of God. All the Christians will fail to erect the Kingdom on Earth.
However, we see the Christian world is being dominated by the Communist world. All the Christian leaders are more or less becoming pro-Communist. They left the position of Abel, so they are doomed to decline. If God is going to smite anyone, He will do it to the Christian people first. We are now situated at that point in time. It is God's view to have those in the Abel position dominate those in Cain's position. If this is not prevailing, God has to smash this world. But if God, out of His indignation, is going to smash what is evil, He has to smash the whole world. So, He's anxious to have one group sprouting out like a new bud of life. The Unification Church is that group. In America, we must be strongly united and play the role of the internal base to supply energy and ammunition to all the people going out to other nations. In other words, it means we must secure the base of Abel, so that, looking down upon the Earth, God will say, "I can trust these people, I can rely on them. " You must be able to take the responsibility and carry out your mission.
One idea always haunting my mind is that I have to stir up this nation, influence this whole nation, to be able to influence other nations. When I first landed on this continent, I was strongly determined to make this nation change towards God's side. I had a strong sense of mission, and I knew I was called by God to work for this nation. I want each one of you before leaving for your own nation, to be as strongly determined as that. You must be able to influence the top level of people while raking in all the people from the bottom. For three years at least, you must be able to change the nation, working in my place and always reminding yourself of what I have been doing in your nation. Then alone are you qualified to be Abel to your nation.
Those who are in the position of Abel must be able to win over Satan. That's the first thing. Our target of attack is the evil foundation in the nation, and the government, the ruling power of that nation, which may have created that evil foundation. What is our weapon? (Truth!) The truth, yes, but you yourselves as Abels, used as bullets. What is Abel, again'? Abel is one who is entirely united with God, who represents all mankind. You represent the whole world, you represent your nation, you represent your tribe, your family, God, and Adam. You yourself, as Abel, are the bullet to attack the enemy power. Abel's mission is to look for and restore those who are in Cain's position. Without Cain, Abel cannot play the role of Abel. Suppose you are going to restore your family. You must look for the most vicious one in your family. If you win him over and restore him, then the rest of your family will naturally be restored. It is because under him there are many satanic relationships with other people, and through him, we can dominate others.
Here is the strategy to win over Satan. Satan wants you to become like him. So, if you fall prey to him, becoming like him, he will not attack you. When Satan wanted to tempt Eve, did he go attack with a battle-cry to scare her, or with smiles and tenderness? You are going to employ the same tactic. You must be able to even warm the heart of Satan by your tender smile and all those sweet things. You can let them know that they are living in a dungeon, but we are living the heavenly life. The attribute of Satan is that he is something dark and evil inside but looks sweet and good outside. But you must be composed of every goodness. Inside and out, they must find nothing but goodness in you. If you quarrel with each other, people will immediately sense what you have inside you, and say, "You are no different from what I am." There is a vast difference between the happiness of evil people and good people. When you are happy, you must have something inside welling up to energize you, to beam out your happiness so that it will be contagious to other people. They have only external happiness, but we have both internal and external happiness, so our happiness is twice as much as theirs. Happiness being the human goal, in the battle against Satan, Satan will be defeated by our being solely happy in attacking them and in winning their hearts. That's the only secret you must be armed with when you go out witnessing to people. When Satan planned to tempt Eve his heart was full of hope. In order for us to be able to win over Satan, we must be happy and hopeful, inside and outside. When Satan tempted Eve, he did that centered on himself. But we have God working through us and for us, so we are stronger, and of course, purer in our happiness.
When Satan found that Eve could be tempted, did Satan tell Eve, "Well, I'm sleepy-I'll come back tomorrow to meet you. " No, at the moment the victim was being tempted, he lured her away. In our witnessing, too, when people listen to us, we must get hold of them and in a very sweet way draw them to our side. Then the trick of the thing is to bring him or her to the workshop. Feed the person if he's hungry; if he's clad in rags, clothe him; if he's anxious to be educated, you must educate him. When Satan tempted Eve, since Eve had that tendency, God had to allow it to happen. In turn, if a person tends to God's side, Satan cannot claim the person. What happens if this person, who has once been drawn to God's side, chooses on his own to return to the other side? In the dungeon of Hell he will call to you, "Why did you let me go? You did not do your best to keep me on your side. You had the power to keep me on your side, but you let me go because of your carelessness. " He will accuse you. Since you know that, once you get hold of him, don't let him go, even if you must bite him. If you hurt him, that's just a physical injury, and you can cure it, but a spiritual injury caused by you is hard to cure, sometimes impossible.
Another attribute of Satan is that he's arrogant. You must be as humble as possible. Always exalt God above you, then you can tell Satan, "You uplift yourself, you become loftier than God; but we uplift God, we exalt Him first." Then Satan will test you to prove whether or not it is true. Satan will test you through the person you brought into the movement. Very possibly, by your witnessing to him and bringing him into the movement, his whole family, all his relatives, neighbors, and friends will persecute him. If you don't want to let him go, raise him as soon as possible into such a solid member that he can fight that opposition on his own. Then you will remain intact from the persecution. If you yourself cannot do the job, have him come to the workshop and have another person raise him. With this knowledge, you can never say it is difficult to raise a person. If you fail to raise him, it is because you have witnessed to him and brought him into the movement for the sake of your honor, not for the sake of the spiritual life of that person. In educating him, you should have talked more about God, more about True Parents, instead of telling him about yourself.
So, you must be as humble as possible, serve your members, and raise them as you would your own children, taking care of them, loving them all the time. What I have in the way of knowledge, wealth, position, everything, I am ready to pass on to my members. Who is more on God's side, those who are ready to give ten and receive less than ten-say 8 or 7-or those who are giving out ten and who are ready to receive 12 or more'? The first one. If you are ready to receive nothing in return then you become like God, because God is always giving out love with His whole being, getting nothing in return. That's the point where Godliness starts. A leader is not a person who can give orders to people below him, but one who can serve them, be exemplary to them, and smooth the way for them. That is the qualification of Abel. By doing that alone, you are placing yourself in the position of Abel in the place of God. Givers are always blessed and entitled to become like God. When you are always ready to receive something from others, you are placing yourself in the position of Cain. Up to date, there has been the notion that Abel's qualification was to give orders to other people, with you just sitting there, waiting for direction to come to you. If you want to be in the position of Abel, you must have someone in the position of Cain, and you must win him over with sweetness and a loving heart. Cain is the first-born, he's in the position of your elder brother or elder sister. The younger one must emit such a light of love and warmth that those who are in the position of Cain would be more than willing to give him anything.
Satan, when he's slapping the person belonging to God, does so with the most viciousness and ugliness. In restoring man, we must be able to have him drawn to our side by willing arms animated with love and life. In fighting against an individual, you must choose the most vicious person; when you want to restore a family, your target must be the strongest enemy on the satanic side; the nation you want to choose is the one which is most malignant and vicious; and in the whole world, your target must be Communism, which is the ultimate target and strongest enemy of God. The most suitable nation is Korea-a nation cut apart into North and South-the North belonging to satanic power, the South belonging to the Godly side. Master went through untold persecutions, in North Korea, but also in South Korea. That is the attribute of Cain or Satan; he won't just bow down before you and welcome you with open heart and extended arms. He would first of all attack you and want to shatter you; but if you are not shattered and stay intact and strong enough to come to him with love then he will listen to you. He will do just about anything and everything he can do against you; only then will he give up. So, you must fight against him with an all-out effort, concentrating and focusing on the battle, and investing your whole being on the individual level, family level, tribal level, national level, and world-wide level. Then alone, Satan will leave you.
You have seen what I did in this nation in the past three years. In the face of persecution, in the face of revilement, I kept myself intact from invasion. Never once have I made a public statement against these people. Most people may have thought I'm a fool to have stayed silent like that. But now they know I am test-proof, and they have to give up because I will never be defeated. Even in the satanic world, there are better people and worse people. Those who are a little more on God's side may say, "Well, he's not a bad man at all! We find no fault in him! Why don't you leave him alone'?" Or "Why don't you listen to him'?" Men of conscience at least would be anxious to know who I am. They are listening to us, and their eyes are wide open to watch what we are doing. They will see and hear that I'm laying more and more of a foundation in this nation, widening the scope and broadening the territory under God. And they will finally think that what I have done has been for God and for the sake of mankind. They cannot but recognize that. Who else but this man can stir up the whole nation of America like a whirlwind, sweeping this nation with a Godly wind'? They will see that this is a most capable man, most courageous man, and most God-loving man. He's the hero of the age, and he's stronger than any other saints and heroes who have lived on the Earth. I'm always ready to face opposition coming from other Christian denominations, other religious sects, and other ideologies, even Communism, and I'm confident of winning.
The battle in Korea has been a serious one; they have done everything they could, and now they are convinced that this group alone can save the nation and the world. The general idea prevailing in Korea is that Rev. Moon is the number one person in Korea.
Our family transcends national boundaries. When I married 1,800 couples people were astounded. Why did I choose 1,800 couples? Six multiplied by three is 18. Six is the satanic number, and there are three stages of satanic number, that means the end of the satanic world. If Jesus had married and erected his family within the scope of his nation, and had his disciples marry girls of other nations, thus setting up the foundation on the world-wide level, then he could have laid the foundation in his lifetime for world salvation. That would have been the method for Jesus to establish the Kingdom of God on Earth.
I'm sending you out towards the end of April because April concludes our second seven-year course. In the third seven-year course we will have inherited both spiritually and physically the national level, and spread it out to the world-wide level. The Messiah should have accomplished this, but he died without fulfilling all those things, so you must fulfill it for him in your lifetime. Following the ascension of Jesus Christ right after the Resurrection, 120 disciples of his assembled to witness to other people. Our sending members to 120 or more nations corresponds to that, and we want to go out to the ends of the world. Now that I have set up the condition to win over Satan on the world-wide level, if in the face of difficulties and hardships you cling to that nation, never leaving the place, you are automatically going to win your battle there. You must be resolved to do that. The rest of you in the rear line of the United States will be trained to make a strong campaign for Yankee Stadium; we will explode here.
From the viewpoint of your being in Abel's position, you have to be able to move this nation. You want to win the battle over individuals, families, nations, and the world. But before you do that, you must go back to the satanic world to subjugate Cain on the individual level, you must go back to the Cain-like family and restore it successfully, and then you must win a nation out of the Cain position back to the right side. Would you rather do that step-by-step, or all at once? (At once!) There is one thing you must have and that is faith in me. If your faith in me weighs 1,000, you will win 1,000. If your faith weighs 10,000, you will win that much. And if Satan is chasing us, then you must turn back and fight against him.
You are still in the position of the fallen archangel; by participating in the same battle and turning around to fight against the satanic powers to annihilate them, you are going to become triumphant angels. Then alone, the providence of Cain will be terminated. You will be elevated to the standard of being adopted sons of God. Cain was originally God's son; having fallen, Cain was in the position of the archangel. Through servanthood, he must pave his own way by smoothing over the obstacles until he can be elevated to the standard of an adopted son. Without being able to subjugate Cain, you cannot be elevated to a higher standard. And without you as an Abel, Cain cannot be restored. So, you share in a common fate with me. You need Abel, I need Cain. You need your Cain, and Cains need their Abel. By you as an Abel becoming one with God above and Cain below you can enter the Kingdom of Heaven. It is your absolute responsibility to protect your Abel, our Father. And my responsibility is to bring you back to the Kingdom of Heaven. Until I have done the whole thing, my responsibility remains.
In human history, many people in the position of Cain have persecuted those saints and sages who had come in the position of Abel. I have to go through a bit of everything my predecessors faced. I welcome all those things, digest them, and make them fertilizer to strengthen me even more. After the battle to win on the national level, we have to win the Christian world, and then the Communist world. Until we have covered the whole world, our hearts will not be at peace, our Sabbath will not come. If and when you become exhausted on the way, you can neither become Cain nor Abel.
If you have really strong faith in Father, and carry on the fight in your assigned nations, the whole world will explode at once within seven years' time. With all this knowledge, I want you to be the victor, not the defeated. The strength of your faith and your courage will determine whether or not your battle will be successful. You must go this way all through your life. I want you to be really resolved to save the nations you are assigned to. And those who are in the rear must be able to restore this nation at the soonest possible date. By that, I mean in three years' time. Let us pray.