Sun Myung Moon
February 1986
From Tong Il Sae Gae
Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han January 23, 2012
What is the Kingdom of Heaven?
What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is a home where even wandering beggars want to come and sleep, where wandering dogs want to come and linger in front of the door, and where the birds in the sky want to come and dwell and leave their droppings. Are the homes of our blessed families like this? If not, they cannot be called the Kingdom of Heaven. If you cannot show a good example, you should at least not become troublemakers in your neighborhoods.
The Kingdom of Heaven is the world of original character.
What is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is the place where Satan cannot work, and where no satanic accusations can be made. You should expel Satan from your bodies. You should know that you cannot build the Kingdom of Heaven in the environment without first becoming people who can say that the Kingdom of Heaven exists in your minds and in your bodies.
What kind of place is the Kingdom of Heaven? It is the place where love dwells, where there is peace -- where we can rest. You should not enjoy even your rest by yourself. Your parents and children, your entire family, your clan, your people, and the whole world should enter in. You should not have any enemies.
The Kingdom of Heaven is a world that all people treat with deference, and a world that even God treats with deference.
The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is the place where you live together with your physical True Parents; the Kingdom of Heaven in the spiritual world is the place where you live together with your spiritual True Parents. You should know this.
Misguided Viewpoints of the Kingdom of Heaven
Our viewpoint of the Kingdom of Heaven is completely opposite from the traditional viewpoint. Most people expect to go to the Kingdom of Heaven after they die. We want to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. We should complete the Kingdom of Heaven on earth before going on.
Do you think it is likely that the people who say, "I will be saved and go to the Kingdom of Heaven whether my nation and the world perish or not!" will actually go to the Kingdom of Heaven? No way. If you say that Jesus taught that, then you are making Jesus into the enemy of God and humankind. Nationalism, chauvinism, and sectarianism, to say nothing of individualism, do not work anymore.
What kind of people go to the Kingdom of Heaven? Those who hold their beliefs for the sake of God and all humankind can go to the Kingdom of Heaven, while those who hold beliefs for their own benefit cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven -- even though they may attend church until they become old enough to die.
It is a big mistake to think that the Kingdom of Heaven can be realized in midair without any effort on our part. Fundamental rules should be set up through which our emotions and behavior can be in complete accord with God, even from the very moment we sit down to eat every day.
Build and complete the visible, substantial Kingdom of Heaven before yearning for the invisible Kingdom of Heaven! This is what Jesus liked to emphasize.
Christianity will perish if Christians want to have their faith fulfilled through Jesus' words alone. They cannot avoid judgment. They can enter the Kingdom of Heaven only after they connect themselves with the heart of Jesus himself, who spoke in such a heartbreaking way, and after they settle accounts with everything that belongs to the secular world.
Many of you, especially leaders, seem to think that the Kingdom of Heaven will be realized in your own style. You should know that such an idea is not only quite mistaken, but dangerous.
You may believe that Jesus now resides in the Kingdom of Heaven, but actually he is in Paradise. He said that he would go and stay in Paradise. Paradise is the waiting room for the Kingdom of Heaven. The purpose for Jesus' coming to earth again is to liberate Paradise and open the door to the Kingdom of Heaven.