Sun Myung Moon
June 2, 1975
Tarrytown, New York
Translated by Won Pok Choi
My topic this morning is "Complete Restoration." Man must always bear in mind what restoration will be like when it is completed. We are in need of restoration because of the human fall. The fall came about due to the misconduct of our first ancestors. In the course of perfect or complete restoration, we must have true parents to replace them.
We know that the human fall was caused by misuse of love. Because of it our human ancestors came under satanic lineage, instead of God's lineage. If Adam and Eve had not fallen they could have been the temple of God, but due to the fall they became one with Satan, and their descendants created a satanic lineage. If Adam and Eve married with God's blessing, they could have given birth to children of God's lineage.
In the book of John we read that instead of our becoming God's temple, we became Satan's dwelling place. This is why we say that our father is the Devil, and why Jesus said, "You are of your father, the Devil." (John 8:44) In other words, by our being fallen descendants, we are Satan's temple, rather than God's temple.
Against God's desire, our first human ancestors fell in illicit love with each other. In order for us to have perfect restoration, we must have true parents instead of false parents, and we must be made part of their lineage by going through a process of rebirth.
In the Bible we read that when Nicodemus visited Jesus and heard him talk about rebirth, he asked, "How can we go back into our mother's womb?" Jesus reportedly said to him, "You are the leader of the Jewish people, and still you don't know what rebirth means?" In conclusion, he said, "If you are not born again, you cannot enter the Kingdom of God."
To be born again and to become part of a new lineage is resurrection. Being men of the fall and born out of satanic lineage we are destined to be reborn and then alone can we enter the Kingdom of God. The course of restoration is the way of reversing the course of the fall. What are the details of being reborn into the new world?
This means that you must restore the original lineage. Your blood lineage was stained by Satan. Do you feel that? (Yes!) You have been taught that by the Divine Principle, so you know that in your mind. But do you really feel that there is stained blood running in your veins, stained blood of Satan? Every minute of your life? What do you think about your eyes? What kind of eyes do you have? Satanic eyes. You have been seeing through satanic eyes. Your nose, your mouth, your ears, your hands, every limb of yours belongs to Satan.
In Christianity, we talk about cleansing ourselves of sin. In prayer we shed tears. We shed tears of repentance, and these tears cleanse us of our sins. True religions teach how to pray in repentance, shedding many tears. Then alone can we remove our sins. If we did not have stained blood it would be easier for us to be restored to the original position of man before the fall. But because of our blemished lineage it is very difficult for us to have God on our minds and think of God at all times. It's as though satanic lineage resides at the North pole, while godly lineage is at the South pole.
It is most difficult for us to alter our lineage. Through religions men have hitherto been striving to go back to Adam's original position, but their stained lineage has indelibly marked us, making it nearly impossible for us to go back to the original position. Once you are aware of having been born into satanic lineage, you must start by denying yourselves. Can you completely deny yourself?
It is such a difficult job. It took even God 6,000 or more years to restore human beings into His bosom. There have been persons who have realized that they are of God's lineage, and who perceive God dwelling in them. Do you think there have been many such people? (No.)
Have there ever been any? The Bible teaches us to be humble, while the satanic nature is to be arrogant and to tread down upon others. So, we must be humble, serving and sacrificial. The fall came about when man wanted to be like God. He was arrogant.
What is the central point that the Bible is teaching us? About true husband and true wife? First there must come a man of the original status, one who is not stained by satanic lineage. In the course of restoration we must locate a true husband and wife, a true couple. Adam and Eve became one in illicit love and fell.
We must locate a true man and woman who are united under God. In the course of perfect restoration, we must find perfected man with his perfected wife. That is the Lord of the Second Advent and his bride. In order for us to follow them, we must deny ourselves, our family, tribe, nation, and the whole world.
People who are not successful in the worldly way of life joined religion as you have done. You are no exception. You reached a stalemate, you came to a dead end in the worldly way of life, and then in search of light, you came to religion and to this movement. That's the way you were prepared. The whole world is groping in the darkness. Where is there a possible breakthrough?
In order for us to be reborn we must go back to our mother's womb. Can you go back to your mother's womb on your own without help from others? (No.) To go back to your mother's womb, you need the help of your father. When you are born, who is the initiator, the father or mother? The seed of the baby originates in the father. The mother is the soil to raise the seed.
We must have a father in whom the true seed abides. And that can be accomplished only by God. Well, has there ever been such a man? You are in the position of wild olives; you need true olive trees to be engrafted to. On the spiritual level, engrafting means to become completely one with the central figure, or the Messiah, so that you can be the heirs of God's wealth.
And what must God's wish be? God's desire is to have the Messiah be accepted. And also God Himself wants to talk to the Messiah. God is supposed to send the Messiah, and mankind must receive him. Are you in need of the Messiah? (Yes!) It's the main ideal of Christianity and other religions, but even in Christianity, Christians have not been able to deeply grasp the true meaning of God's restoration.
Jesus once said, "A man's life is worth more than the whole world." By that he meant that the value of the life of a perfected man, not just an ordinary, fallen man. Our conclusion is that, in order for us to meet the Messiah, we can do anything and everything.
In the Bible, there are many phrases that you don't understand deeply. For example, Jacob cheated his elder brother. How on earth could God bless him? The answer lies in that the world has been under an evil sovereignty, so that God had to confront and fight evil authority in any way open to Him through one on His side. In the world after the fall God is situated on the right, while Satan is situated on the left. It is no coincidence that we came to call the communist world "leftist", while God's world or the God-loving ideology is the "rightist" ideology.
In man there are two powers at war with each other, the mind and the body, the spiritual side and the flesh side. And now, we must bring those two into unity and harmony. The communist world represents the material side of man, while the God-loving side represents our spiritual side. So we must deny our body. Likewise, we must deny communism.
We must be stronger and more determined than the communists, or else the whole world will be handed over to them. If you are weaker than communism, you will be swallowed up by that evil power. If we have the Messiah and are taught by him how to win over the satanic power, then alone can we be victors. Soviet Russia and Red China may even fight with each other. In the democratic world, the same is true.
At the close of the age, God will send us the Messiah. Then we will create a new world under his guidance. In this world, on the right side, people must be alert for the Messiah's coming. Unless we positively long for him to come, we cannot receive him or find him. We know that Christianity is doomed to perish, and that it is corrupted.
Christianity is declining in a time when the people under Christianity must become stronger than the communists. Has there ever been a person who is stronger than the communists? Do the established churches have that kind of person? (No!) Communism denies everything but their ideology. They are planning to swallow up the whole world.
The God-loving, democratic world is so weakened; Christians think of their own churches, their own beliefs about the salvation of the nation and the world. Can God find anyone out of that world to lead the whole of mankind? In the democratic world, God cannot find anyone stronger than the communists. Can God use such people as His instrument, to save the world?
That's why we see the decline of the Christian world. But out of the corruption, our movement is so conspicuous because it moves at God's command. Its leader is a man of God's choice. God is going to see this person save the world. We are the only such group in the whole world. We must take pride in being Unification Church members. This is what the world is like, and what we must do.
In this kind of world, man's desire is to have the Messiah. We must know in what manner he would come. It is both our desire and God's desire. Immediately after the fall in Adam's family, if you were in God's place, would you not have wanted the Messiah to be sent at that moment? (Yes.) It was also man's desire to have the Messiah right then. But God had to pave the way until He could send the Messiah.
That has been the course of restoration of man. In order for the true father of mankind to come into being, what must be done? He must go the reverse way until he perfects himself. In the course of the fall, man believed Satan more than God. That was the first stage. In the course of the restoration we must believe in God strongly, absolutely.
The end result of the fall was our satanic lineage, under Satan our blood became stained. In order for Jesus to deny satanic lineage, he had to shed his blood. We have to receive his blood in order to belong to his lineage. In Holy Communion, the wine symbolizes godly lineage. By partaking of bread and wine, it signifies that one comes to be of His lineage. So, we are removed in that manner, from the satanic lineage to divine lineage.
Why did God bless Jacob after he had cheated his elder brother? It is because in the beginning, man fell by cheating God. By cheating Satan, God was going to restore His man. Cain and Abel should have been God's sons. If they had not fallen, their descendants should have been God's sons and daughters. But due to their fall, their lineage was stained.
All their descendants came to be under satanic lineage. So both God and Satan have claim over them. God could claim them because He was the creator; Satan had claim over them because he stained their blood. In love we become one body. Even though a girl may be the princess of the kingdom, if she's one with a gangster, then she belongs to the evil man.
In illicit love, Adam and Eve became one in flesh, so God cannot take them back without certain conditions being fulfilled. The first-born out of illicit love represented Satan, while the others were more or less for God. In the principle of creation, the first-born was supposed to belong to God. Satan won claim to the first-born, while God was left with claim over the second-born. But all this is against the Principle.
In the long run, God must restore the first-born. The history of the Old Testament comes down to this point. In Adam's family, there was a fight between Cain and Abel, and then their positions were shifted. God could not accept Cain's offering, but accepted Abel's offering. Cain was in the position of the archangel, while Abel was in the position of Adam.
Adam was the seed for the future Messiah. Cain's killing Abel was like the Archangel's killing or devastating him. This is the way history went until the Messiah was given birth. The Messiah is in the position of the first human ancestor, who is without stain by satanic lineage. You must know the historical providence for Jesus to be born.
In the Garden of Eden, Cain and Abel were different persons. They were brothers, but they were separate persons. Twin brothers were to carry out the plan of God's providence. They were Esau and Jacob. Rebecca, their mother, said that in her womb there were two nations fighting with each other, and the smaller one was going to win over the elder.
God wanted to have the elder brother shifted into the second-son's position; the second-son had to be born first. Esau represented the external, while Jacob represented the internal or spiritual. Jacob represented God's love, while Esau was in the situation external to that. How could Jacob come into the position of God's side? He cannot do it himself.
The fall came about from the first woman. So, their mother had to play the role of Eve to reverse the course of the fall. This is something you don't have in the Divine Principle book. Rebecca in the position of Eve, the fallen mother, had to deceive the sons' father, and the elder son. In God's eyes, it was all right for the mother to cheat the father and son. So Jacob bought the birthright from his elder brother with a bowl of soup. That's how he came to enjoy the birthright.
As in the case of Cain and Abel, Esau tried to kill his younger brother Jacob. But Jacob was wise enough to flee to another land. He had to go through drudgery in the land of Haran for 21 years. After a great deal of success there, he returned home. Jacob is in the position of Abel, who had to win over the archangel. Jacob's position is like Adam's.
Adam's mission is to rule the archangel. Therefore, Jacob had to win over the archangel. First he had to win on the spiritual level by wrestling the angel. Next, he had to win the physical side by fighting Esau. This is Jacob's course. That's why at the Ford of Jabbok he had to wrestle with an angel in the position of the archangel. If he had been defeated there, that would have been a great mistake. But he wrestled all through the night until he won over the archangel and finally received the name of Israel, or the "victor."
Esau was in the position of archangel to Adam, so Jacob, after having won over the archangel, had to win over Esau, who represented the physical archangel. In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve fell on the spiritual and physical levels. After Jacob had won over the spiritual archangel and the physical archangel, he was the victor.
Upon returning home, Jacob was ready to give everything he had earned in the land of Haran to Esau for having taken the birthright from him. Esau welcomed him. In that way, Jacob completely won over the satanic side. So Jacob undid what happened in the Garden of Eden. Cain actually killed Abel. Here they were reconciled. Esau welcomed Jacob, so Jacob was given the name of Israel, which means the victor. This is a historical event. Without knowing all these particulars, Christians have hitherto claimed to be Christians, with faith, but not knowing.
Esau and Jacob tried to shift their positions in the womb and during 40 years after their birth. They completed the shift of positions at the age of about 40. Until that time, the condition had not been carried out. But they were not able to shift their position completely in the womb of the mother. So once more in the history of Israel that kind of thing had to take place. It had to be done within the direct lineage of Jacob.
The fourth son of Jacob was Judah. At the time of Judah, this reversal of positions had to take place in the mother's womb. Rebecca, in the position of Eve, had to accomplish what was left unaccomplished by her predecessors. Judah's daughter-in-law, Tamar, played a key role in this development. Here a most unbelievable thing took place. Tamar had to cheat the father and son again.
Tamar, as I said before, was the daughter-in-law of Judah, but her husband was dead. According to Jewish custom, the widow of the elder brother must be wedded to the next son. The second-son refused to marry her, and he was smitten by heaven and killed. Then the third son was supposed to be her husband, but the third son was still a child.
Tamar knew that she had to give birth to a very important personage in the lineage. She was anxious to have a son for the sake of God, so she was determined to do anything for God's providence, at the risk of her life. The thought came that she must have her son through Judah, her father-in-law. There was no other way possible.
Judah was in the field working, and his daughter-in-law stood in waiting. When Judah was on his way back home, she pretended to be a harlot and enticed him, and they came to be one in the flesh. Then she bore twins, twin brothers. She had to deceive her father-in-law, because she could not do it openly, otherwise she would be stoned to death according to the Jewish law.
Right after the act of love, she demanded three tokens. She was given a staff, a seal, and a lamb. She was on the verge of being stoned because of the laws and customs regarding pregnant unwed women of that time. The father was very angry at his daughter-in-law, of course. But when she showed the three tokens she was given by the father-in-law, he realized what had happened and he protected his daughter-in-law.
So Tamar had to cheat the father and son. In order to liquidate the sinful lineage and connect to the divine lineage, God had to allow this kind of thing. Adam and Eve committed mistakes through illicit love. Tamar had to do things which in the worldly eyes are illicit, but by doing so she restored godly lineage.
Tamar conceived twins. When Tamar prayed, she was given the same message from heaven as Rebecca. She was told that two nations were fighting each other in her womb, and that the smaller one would win over the big one. When the first-born tried to come out, the midwife saw the arm first. She fastened a red thread on the wrist of the baby, and the fight went on in the womb and his arm withdrew.
Then the order was shifted; the younger brother came out first. Perez was the name of the first-born -- that is, the second-born who came out first. The name signified "to nudge aside and come first." This shift happened in the lineage of Judah.
After that, the descendants of Judah alone could marry in the tabernacle. Jesus was born in this lineage. The tribe of Judah became a very important lineage. Like Tamar, those who have a deep faith in God's providence and cling to the lineage under Judah, belong to the chosen nation. From this point on, the descendants of Judah multiplied into families, tribes, and a nation.
It is understandable that after the twins were born, Satan still had claim over them. But these twin brothers were liquidated of sin while in the mother's womb. Why could God not send the Messiah right at that point? It took God a long time to prepare a nation to which Jesus could be sent. In Jesus' time, the same kind of thing had to take place.
Because there are nations on Satan's side there also must be a nation prepared for God's providence. After the chosen nation of the Israelites had been prepared, Jesus was given birth. From the family of Judah, men of perfect lineage came about. And those multiplied into families, clan, tribes, and a nation. On that base alone Jesus could be sent. Before the birth of Jesus Christ, there had to be a woman in the place of Eve, Rebecca, and Tamar.
Mary had to either cheat or deny father and son again. At that time, when a virgin conceived, it was a great disgrace to the whole family. So she was in a position to be denied by her parents and by her relatives. Joseph, her husband, was in the position of Adam in the Garden of Eden. They were engaged. But Eve discarded Adam, who was in the position of her betrothed mate, to become Satan's mate.
The reverse thing happened here. She had to leave her future husband and come to be one with someone representing Adam. Mary was in the position of Eve, Rebecca, and Tamar, and on the basis of her lineage was cleansed of sin. The baby she conceived could not be claimed by Satan. God alone could claim him. That is why he was called the son of God.
In order for us to be given rebirth, we must go back not only into our mother's womb, but also to the father's body. So we are destined to believe in Jesus. If the chosen nation of the Israelites became entirely one with Jesus; they could have been saved as a nation. But they failed to do that.
I have poured out my whole being all through so many years to find out this truth. In doing that I have had to fight against the fiercest force of Satan. I know the secret of this core of biblical history, and this alone is the weapon to fight against Satan. What would be your answer when asked: "Why is Jesus without original sin?"
This is the only answer to that question. Cleansing of the lineage is such an important principle. You cannot just vaguely say, "We are saved if we believe in Jesus." Can you really believe in Jesus without knowing him and without knowing his background?
When you believe in Jesus, it really means this. There have been many religious leaders in the world. But have Buddha, Confucius, Socrates, Mohammed, gone though all those things? Are they of cleansed lineage? Without your knowing this, you cannot understand why in the Israelite history the second-born is always given the most important duty and why the first-born was smitten.
Jacob, when he blessed his sons, crossed his arms and blessed Ephraim, the second-son, with his right hand, while he blessed the first-born with his left hand. The second-born has been playing the most important role. Circumcising babies meant to symbolically drain away satanic blood. It is ridiculous to believe that Eve's eating a literal fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil caused the fall.
Immediately after the fall Adam and Eve were deprived of the right to go to the Tree of Life. (Genesis, 3:24) After the fall, their way to the Tree of Life was blocked by a flaming sword and cherubim. The Tree of Life means perfected Adam. When he was perfected, he could have become the true father of mankind.
Because of the fall, your way to the true father is blocked, so you must wait for the way to open. And when will that be? At the time of Jesus the way should have been opened both on the spiritual and physical level. But only the spiritual way was opened by Jesus, and the physical way remained blocked.
At the time of Pentecost, after the death of Jesus, all the apostles assembled in the upper room of Mark's house. At that time they prayed hard and spoke in tongues, and then the Holy Ghost descended. On the spiritual level, it means that the flaming sword blocking the way to the Tree of Life was drawn aside on the spiritual level. So the channel was opened for them to reach the Tree of Life of the Father, the fatherhood there, but it was done only on the spiritual level.
The mission was not perfected by the personage of Jesus Christ because the physical level was left unaccomplished. That is why we read in Revelations (Rev. 22:14) that we have to cleanse ourselves and wear white robes in order to be entitled to the Tree of Life. That Tree of Life in Revelation means the Lord of the Second Advent. He and his bride we call True Parents.
Up to the present, all Christians have gone through the process of being cleansed of sin by the aid of the Holy Spirit; by going through the mother spirit, they had hope of reaching the father. Jesus was still a bachelor. So you must be planted in unity with him as a seed somewhere to be sprouted in the future when he gets married.
You are the spiritual seed, planted in him, not quite having the chance to sprout. You are destined to have the Lord of the Second Advent come to you. If you locate him, you must follow him in such a way that you become one with him. In that way you go back to the original position by being in with the mother's womb, and then somewhere in the father as the seed to be born again.
So you are going to be given rebirth on the spiritual and physical level, by following the True Parents on the physical level. That makes it very clear that all Christians have to wait until the day of the Lord of the Second Advent in order to be saved, both on the spiritual and physical levels. The Lord of the Second Advent is that important, so if you can meet him, you must be ready to deny anything and everything to follow him.
Can you deny your nation, your clan, your family, and even yourself? The United States must become like that. Especially the youth of America must come under him in order to save the country. Externally, this is taking place. American youth don't put much stress on their parents. They deny them, leaving their families.
In that way they are somehow prepared to receive the Lord of the Second Advent. But if they cannot locate this personage, they will go the worldly way to decay. The pseudo-form of what is going to take place in the godly world is the hippie culture. They deny themselves, their families, their nations and the entire world in a pseudo-form.
They are leaving all those things for the sake of their own selves. But on the contrary, there must come about a group of young people who leave their nation, clan, tribe, and family, and their parents for the sake of God's providence. And who are they? You are like heavenly hippies. But we leave our family, our parents, and everything in the world in order to eventually restore them.
Why does the Lord of the Second Advent have to come again? For complete restoration, as I have been saying all this morning. By cutting and separating yourself from Satanic lineage and by engrafting yourself to the Lord of the Second Advent, you are going to restore yourself, your family, clan, tribe, nation, and the world. Complete restoration will come about in this manner.
By your doing this, you are going to restore the whole world, including God, the whole cosmos, the whole world, your nation, your family, yourself. If you really feel the joy, your eyes, your nose, ears, and every limb of yours, every cell of yours will dance about. Do you really feel that kind of joy, willingly? Then I will drive you hard on the way of restoration for that purpose. Why are you sometimes exhausted? When I drive you hard like this you are reluctant.
Now is the time when the 66 books of the Bible are being fulfilled. The important point is that those who want to gain their lives will lose them, and those who are ready to lose their lives would gain them. Those who want to deny themselves will restore themselves. You must be sacrificial, you must deny yourself, and you must go through difficulties and hardships most willingly.
If you are ready to die for the sake of your Father, God, then God will be right down to save you. If you are ready to die for your husband as a wife, or if you are single, if you are ready to die for the sake of your future husband, he will be ready to appear there and save you. Vice versa for the male members. That kind of thing will be done with the power of God.
We are in war against Satan, so we cannot sit still, idling away the time. You are on the verge of life or death. You must realize that, and you must dash forward on the battlefield. At the transitional point, you don't know which way is going to lead you to death and which is going to lead you to life -- the crossing junction of life and death. If you are not ready to die, you cannot cross over the junction. Only by your crossing this junction will your future expand and be prosperous.
If you deny your past life, you must put yourself in the position of a dead man. You must completely deny yourself in order to be given a new life. If you are going to die at all, why don't you die on the battlefield? If you are so lucky as to have met the Messiah, what you have to do is follow him to the end of the world.
If we follow him to the end, our territory must be extended, so our responsibility will be heavier and heavier. In the Unification Church alone we have to claim victory over Satan, so we have to go the narrow way. Sometimes I know you say to yourself, "It would have been better if I had not joined the movement."
If you feel like that, it is really better if you had not joined; you are committing a crime by being lax in this movement. If you are like that, you will become traitors to God; you are betraying yourself, betraying your family, clan, nation, and the whole world. You must not even dream of betraying God's will. You must be thankful that you are still alive and you can move your limbs, even though you are exhausted.
You must go to the cross willingly, just as Jesus welcomed the crucifixion when he was destined to go that way. If you meet the Lord of the Second Advent, will you most willingly obey him, or reluctantly? What if it is the will of the Messiah and the Will of God that a beautiful white girl should marry an ugly black man? There must be no boundary of race and creed.
I still have so many things to tell you, but you cannot bear them now. If you really understand that it took so many thousands of years for God to restore the lineage, you must be really serious. When you have the Lord among yourselves, you must deny everything including yourself, to follow him to the end. You must be grateful, even in the time of difficulties and hardships.
You must be ready to willingly follow him to the end of your life. We must be grateful that we are endowed with life in this age to welcome the Lord of the Second Advent. It took 6,000 biblical years for God to restore that lineage. But in our lifetime, we can accomplish what was assigned to us. That's why Jesus said you can do greater things than Jesus himself, or even than God Himself, because you can accomplish God's providence in six years' time, if you strive hard, while it took God 6,000 years.
If you can accomplish that task, you are entitled to be called the son of God, or the daughter of God. That is the point of complete restoration. So you must understand that you have to cleanse your lineage.
The Messiah is the only person who has found the secret. He has the formula. There has been no such person before this age, so you are the luckiest people in the whole world. I hope that in later days you will become the heroes and heroines of the world, having saved the whole of mankind.
Scanned by Hans-Juergen Hutzfeld, 02.01.2008-Duesseldorf.