Sun Myung Moon
December 13, 1995
Speech to Christian Clergy
The Closing Banquet of the IRFWP-Washington Times Foundation Conference
Unofficial Notes
Montevideo, Uruguay
Interpreter, Peter Kim
Father and Mother receive a declaration from Dr. Ninian Smart, the J.F. Rowny Professor of Comparative Religion at the University of California in Santa Barbara, representing all participants of the conference.
People believe what they inherit, but they do not understand what they believe. Therefore, the separations within Christianity will increase. Belief in various ideologies will continue to decline. Democracy will decline just as has communism. Democracy supposedly supported belief in God.
God's providence is bringing people closer to God. As if we are climbing a mountain, we are coming closer and closer to God. To get to the peak of the mountain you must overcome many obstacles. Once people reach the peak, they share experiences and determine which was the best route. All will agree to use the one best route from that time on. Then the other routes can be given up. Similarly, when the many religions find the right direction to God, they will all have to adopt that route.
The Mainstream Historical Work of God
The world is changing rapidly, and religions are coming and going. Young people are leaving the churches, but they are the ones who are coping with the changing world. By the year 2000, there will be a greater number of senior citizens all over the world. They keep their old traditions, and lose the young people. Therefore, the religious leaders must gather and find the best route, the one which all can adopt in common.
To do this we must take an historical view. We must know God's providence in human history. We have to find the actual historical foundation through which God has worked, in order to know God's character and viewpoint on human history.
We are in the transitional period from the twentieth to the twenty-first century. There is a risk that we will lose the young people from the churches, and create the wrong kind of world in the future. Most of you are over fifty. How can you lead the youth? I am almost eighty; I am close to the spirit world, but I am thinking of laying a stronger foundation for the youth to inherit.
I have been persecuted by Christian churches, but I know how God is working through history, and that I needed to do what I have done for the sake of the young people. People cannot cope with the changing world, and do not know God. We are in the last days. People do not know where the world is heading. No one knows what way to go. When I was young, I majored in science, and we were trained to accept only that which is logical. In this transitional period, we must change our clothes and adopt the same spirit as the young people. It is a matter of our attitude and spirit. The youth say there is a generation gap. For them, we must be able to explain existence of God logically.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace and of the Washington Times Foundation at the conference
The Invisible is of Greater Value than the Visible
This may seem somewhat vague to you, but let me ask you how we can understand God's existence. Whether we are men or women, we all have love. Look at your finger. You can touch it and cannot deny its existence. But can we see or touch love? No. Nonetheless, everyone likes love. We consider our life important, but can we see life? We cannot. We can only see the embodiment of life. Without men and women there would be no nations. Men and women exist because of lineage, which is necessary to create nations and the world. Of course, men and women create history. Yet without lineage, we cannot conceive of history coming about. Men and women have the seed of life. You can feel your conscience, but you cannot see it. Thus, which is more important, the visible or invisible? Lineage, life, love, conscience, and the destiny of our nation: all these are invisible.
When we trace to the origin, even though we possess life, love and lineage, we cannot feel them when we are alone. When I am absolutely alone, can I kiss the air? If I did, people would think me crazy, because I would have no object. So when it comes to life, love and lineage, the origin is not human beings. We are not the cause. The origin is God; God is the root of life, love, lineage and conscience. God is origin; human beings are the result. The path between the origin and result should be straight and singular.
God is unchanging, so His will of creation should not change. If God is like that, why are there so many religions? Why is the world so complicated, with each one thinking their belief is the best? Why does God allow this? Who can say absolutely that their faith is the ultimate one? Though there are many doctrines, there is one mainstream doctrine through which God has been working. If there were not, I would not be able to be here, teaching.
Reverend Moon may represent love. But even if I do, still I need love, lineage and conscience. So, what does God need first? You need your object to feel love. Because of man and woman, human life exists. The origin is One, God. In this respect, I see ladies here who are professors, and who may have had a difficult time because they have too much education. No matter how famous a person is, he or she is not happy without an object. A beautiful woman may think see is self-sufficient, but she cannot feel her life, love, lineage and conscience without a man in front of her. You all must have experienced this. Life, love and lineage are activated by your complimentary partner. The love thus created is like lightning and thunder. This love is the origin of all music and art.
Woman needs man, and man needs woman. Catholic priests may disagree, but man needs woman. People are proud of their careers, but they do not know that they need the opposite sex. You are born to perfect and liberate your partner, centering on love, life, lineage and conscience. Have you realized this value of your spouse? You cannot achieve the goal of your conscience without your spouse. Even ants have partners. If a man does not, he is lower than an ant.
What is purpose of a religion, of a theologian, of the founder of the Unification Church? You must be needed by God; so needed that God will grab you. I may sound rude, but have you thought of this? Many have opposed me, saying "Reverend Moon, go home," but I invited you here to help you build harmony. Does anyone disagree? Raise your hand! No one, absolutely no one. God will give the same answer. Isn't it logical?
Consider an apple tree. An apple does not come out of nowhere. Its origin is in the history of apple trees. God is origin of life, love, lineage and conscience. Have we become men like God, who is our origin? Do we have life, love, lineage and conscience like God's? Apple seeds are the same as they were one thousand years ago. If humankind originated in God, we should have the value of the seed. We have to restore that seed, by restoring the original family.
Reverend Sun Myung Moon, founder of the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace and of the Washington Times Foundation at the conference
The Necessity of Partnership
God is origin of life, love, lineage and conscience. Do you resemble God? If you did, would you need religion? Answer me! The answer is: no! When you have a perfect love life, if someone tries to intervene, you will kick that person away. In front of the absolute God, we should be the absolute objects of God. If we are, our children will enter the Kingdom of God automatically. That kind of family does not need religion.
When people marry, do we need to teach them how to make love? No. But we need religion; this presupposes that something went wrong, that something is broken. Religion is like a welding rod. I, a religious leader, tell you this, because it is a fact. Do you all agree? Then I will continue. I have shocking news, which I will say if you are agreeing with me. Be careful, it is said that I brainwash people, even priests and ministers.
Does God need a partner? He needs one absolute partner; a love partner. If you think He does not, raise your hand. I know I am being rude, but I want you to open your minds. You esteemed professors and ministers, you have worked hard. I also have worked hard; I have been in prison six times. I know how to walk an easy path if I want to. You do not know my path. Without knowing your enemy, you cannot win.
God needs His partner. Do you all need a partner? If God does not need a love partner, God is not the origin of men and women. Don't speak unless you are entirely sure. Do you want your spouse superior to yourself? No one can deny that they do. Our spouse is the greatest gift from God. We want to be even greater than God, and God wants us to be so. The conscience is the ladder through which we can climb up to be greater than God. Ask God if this is true; open your five spiritual senses. To find life, love, lineage and conscience, God needs His partner. He then wants to build a world upon that foundation.
You want your spouse and children to be greater than yourself, not inferior. Who would be the children for whom God would have such a desire? Adam and Eve. If they had perfected themselves, Jesus would not have been necessary. If you opposed me, repent! I want to lead you to the highest place.
God is almighty; He can create anything. What does God need, then: money, knowledge, theology? No. The only thing God needs is the object of love, the manifestation of His life, love, lineage and conscience. The object of God's love is human love. To be object partner to such a subject partner, we have to become like God. The life, love, lineage and conscience is not ours; it all belongs to God, originally. We are only caretakers. To do so, we must practice living life like God: giving and giving and forgetting we have given, and giving again. There must be constant giving until you become a total vacuum. This is selfless, sacrificial love. Through husband and wife practicing this between them, they will ascend closer to God and become like God. The extension of such a couple is God's family, God's society, God's nation and God's world.
You Christian ministers, you are trained to be honored and served. Are you really following Jesus' footsteps? You must become persons who cover all three hundred sixty degrees. Have you loved your wife as a perfect man? If you did, your children would resemble God.
Maybe you regret coming to Uruguay, now, thinking that if you hadn't come then you wouldn't have to listen to Reverend Moon. But if you were true Christians, you wouldn't have been able to sleep, because you would have been wrestling with my proclamation ("The True Family and I"). If you didn't do so, repent! This is not a sermon; it is a proclamation to the world and history.
The Nature of Subject and Object
If you love your wife 100%, you'll die for her many times. That is what Unification Church members are trying to do. Men and women are not complete; they become complete only when they perfect each other. Each are born for the other's perfection. You prominent scholars, if your spouse is living sacrificially for you, you are happy. If she loves you with both her mind and body. But all have conflict of mind and body. The Messiah is mechanic in repair shop.
God exists for sake of His love partner, and we exist for God and man for woman, and woman for man. Without His love partner, God is only half-God; He is not the perfect God. This is the problem. Who can perfect God? Human beings. And man can perfect woman, and woman perfect man, in the husband-wife relationship. Thus, man and woman are born for each other; together we can face God squarely.
Who is subject, husband or wife? "Subject" is the one with the major role: it is an absolute position, which does not change. Which is in it, husband or wife? What does God think? Husband is in position of subject, in the central position. The subject should take responsibility. Second, the subject should provide protection. Third, the subject nurtures the object. These are the three points describing the subject: responsibility, protection, and nurturing.
When I was indicted by the American government, the world predicted that I would not return to America, but I returned, because I knew God would protect me. I came back as the subject, to take responsibility, protect, and nurture. When it comes to husband and wife, who does this? If there is an athletic competition between male and female athletes, women will almost never win. If some woman thinks otherwise, she is wrong. Some husbands want to escape from their wives.
The Ideal of the Family
Are you born for the sake of knowledge, money or power? Are your sex organs shaped as they are for the sake of money? No! They are that way for the sake of love. We are born for love. There are many problems in the world because there is no traffic control. The bottom line is the problem between men and women. All other problems will be solved based on that being solved. So now you know, for the sake of love man's organ is convex, woman's is concave. Because of the fall, the absolute children, parents and ancestors were lost. All here are descendants of Satan's world. Why did God create us? There is one straight course humankind has to follow. We are created for others.
Ladies and gentlemen, you all have five senses. Each exists for the sake of others. The mouth does not exist to talk to the mouth, nor do hands exist to touch hands. Ministers exist for sake of the congregation. If you oppose and persecute me, your church will decline; I will not decline. Christianity prospered through four hundred years of persecution in the Roman Empire, but has declined through the last forty years because it has been persecuting Reverend Moon.
No being was born for itself. For the sake of love, you should not have your own concepts. The last days is time of selfishness, in which people say they don't need parents, a spouse, or children. It is an individualistic era. So they lose their parents, spouse and children. Self-centeredness is contrary to the universal law, so it will be destroyed. To exist, you need plus and minus. The mineral kingdom, plant kingdom, and animal kingdom all illustrate this. If there were only one sex, then extinction would soon come. Homosexuality, if all follow it, will destroy human race in one hundred years. Free sex will do the same. Democratic individualism, secular humanism, as such trends will lead to decline. Democracy represents Cain and Abel, who are brothers. But in the near future we will need Parentism, not brotherism.
If you don't want to follow Reverend Moon's teaching, go to the spirit world and see your fate. We need husband and wife, children below us, and brothers and sisters to the front and rear. Thus a sphere is formed around us. Unless we can complete these realms of heart, we cannot be children of God in the spirit world. Even God needs His object. Position and career do not count. True men and women need each other, not knowledge, power and money. This is the place of perfect settlement. God can connect to that one place: the place of the connection of marriage. True parental love starts there, with God in heaven and man on earth, including and reaching all family members. All humankind reaches completion there. That is the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. That is the absolute center of the unification of mind and body. It cannot change. It is the ideal of love. That is the preciousness of love.
The True Family Is the Standard of True Love
You Catholic priests, if you stay alone, you'll face grave consequences in the spirit world. You need your spouse. Monasticism, such as in Catholicism and Buddhism, will disappear. Without truth, you cannot find God. When Buddha said, "I am the only one in heaven," he was talking in the state of perfect resonance with God. If you don't understand that, follow Reverend Moon. If you don't believe this, go to the spirit world and find out there.
Serve your child as you serve God; when they grow up, they will be like God. God has internal character and external form. Man is the external manifestation of God. In a photo album, you always look for yourself, no matter how shabby you are and how famous the other people in the photographs are. This is because you are connected to yourself. By the same token, God does not want photographs, but substantial images. Therefore He created Adam and Eve. He did so for the same reason that we need our children. Husband and wife miss each other. By having our children, we can see ourselves in depth; we become more real to ourselves. We feel in depth. God is the first creator and man is second creator. Without the fall, human history would have gone on in this ideal way.
Why didn't God create two original couples? It is because to conquer the absolute love of God, we need only one couple. God made two children, but you can make many children. Of the many, you cannot kick out even one. If you lose one, you feel as if you lost them all. The invisible God is the first Creator, the visible Adam and Eve are the second creator. God is the first generation; Adam and Eve are the second generation, and Adam and Eve's children are the third generation. It all was to have been set from there. Our body consists of three stages in many ways (limbs, trunk, head; foot, lower leg, upper leg; hand, forearm, upper arm, etc.). Three generations comprise one unit.
Therefore, children's love, brother-sister love, conjugal love and parental love each should pass through the three stages of three generations. This is the standard of God's love. You can compare this with your family, and consider the gap between the ideal and your reality. With no family standard of love, everything breaks down. Therefore, we must restore the original Adam's family, in which God dwells as the root of life, love, lineage and conscience. God exists under this root. God is in the invisible, deeper place. God is underneath your love and life. If you take for yourself, God will be buried deeper and deeper. By giving to the point of creating a vacuum in yourself, God will surface and be with you. Therefore, you must practice sacrificial love for others.
The Will of God is the Life of True Love
When you pray, your mind should be the center. But because of the fall, the body becomes an obstacle. So you have to weaken your body. Do you have absolute unity of mind and body? If you do, God will be with you. Do not violate your conscience. It is in the position of God. I precedes your teacher and parent. It is the teacher of teachers, the owner of owners. Serve your conscience as if it were like God and your parents.
I am a smart man; I can blend with people if I want. Many thought I would perish, but I am still standing firm, because I am following God's direction. If America resists God, America will perish. I am one man, but I can declare that I am the way. I have never failed. When you find God, you don't need a teacher; you'll automatically enter the Kingdom of God. Your conscience is your treasure. With it, you can conquer the throne of the universe. I am not lying.
When you are alone, you cannot find life, love, lineage and conscience. You find these things only through your perfect spouse. Jesus had no family, therefore he went to Paradise, not Heaven. He needed a family; such a family could have saved the world. If he had not been crucified, he would have saved the world.
The will of God is life of true love. The way of true love is the truth. Therefore I do not take donations. Love comes first. No matter what, if I am connected to God, He will come to me. Human beings should be substantial manifestation of God, the temple of God. Your body is not shaped for you. A woman's body is shaped for sake of children. Who likes a woman's face, women or men? Men. On the other hand, a woman likes a bearded face. Same for your sexual organ. God is to use your love organ. It is the palace, the completion of Adam and Eve. It is the palace of true love, true life and true lineage. It is the originating palace of the True God. By it we are connected to the invisible God. Here is the individual's partner, the family's partner, nation's partner and world's partner.
My conclusion is that the will of God is the way of true love. Beginning from the individual, to the family, society, nation and world, God wanted to see the practice of true love. That is how we can occupy God's heart, as minus connects to plus. Connecting spirit and body as partners at the center point. This is the universal starting point of perfect love. Each member of a family has equal value, even if we have myriad families, there will be the universal existence of true love. The family lives for sake of the tribe, the tribe for the nation, the nation for the world, the world for the universe, the universe for God, and even God exists for the sake of true love.
If you understand this truth, you will succeed in your work. It is simple, giving and forgetting for eternity. That way, I can conquer. Whoever sacrifices more will become the central person. In the family, in the nation, in the world. True love is the life of sacrifice, which leads to joy. People do not know. When you go home, try to resemble the life of God.
Thank you, very much.