Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 1983
Morning Speech
Excerpt
World Mission Center
New York, NY
New Year's Day is supposed to be a happy, fun-filled holiday, but in the Unification Church, God's Day is a very tough day, laden with difficulties! Most people celebrate holidays with lots of food; we celebrate with lots of words -- the word of God. Physical food, when you take in more than a normal amount, will always give you stomach problems; but what about an overdose of the word of God? No indigestion.
Consider God's situation. He already knows what I am going to speak about this morning; so will He decide to go off and take a nap instead of attending the speech? God is very interested in observing the audience and their reaction to these words. He is thinking, "I know the people in this audience have been confronting problems and feeling discouragement, so I hope that this message will renew them and bring them back closer to Me." God has an intense interest in you and knows precisely where you are spiritually. "My son and daughter over there have not been doing too well," He thinks. "I hope they can become a new man, a new woman, from listening to Rev. Moon this morning." God knows what topics are intended for which son or daughter, and when those points come up, He looks for that son or daughter to see whether or not they are dozing.
What kind of day is God's Day? For God, it is a joyful day and a good day. He wants to encounter good people on this day. He wants to bless you and celebrate this day with you, but actually, He has no one qualified to receive that blessing. All around the world people are celebrating this first day of the year, but only members of the Unification Church celebrate it as God's day. Therefore, God wants to be with you this day.
What Is Your God's Day Gift?
When God attends the celebration, all spirit world sends representatives as well, each bearing his or her most valuable gift. Can you have a casual attitude towards God's Day and just attend any celebration you want, at any time? Time will come when special professors and scholars will have to wait for ten years in order to be admitted to a God's Day celebration. Representatives of entire nations will come and be lit up like lanterns, upon hearing a God's Day message.
What kind of gift did you bring? A sleepy head that dozes throughout the sermon? Did you at least wear clean underwear? If so, was it your everyday underwear, or special underwear which you began preparing even one year ago? Actually, God is not interested in some material gift, but rather in the heart and sincerity you can offer Him. Compare your attitude of heart and soul towards your wedding day with your feeling about God's Day. Which one should be more intense and deep?
We must celebrate God's Day with a solid content. Never before has God had the chance to fully manifest His love throughout history. God's Day gives Him the opportunity to show His love to His children. God has been suffering for so long, awaiting this opportunity. Love, which was supposed to be God's property, was stained and given away to Satan; ever since, it has been misused and perverted by Satan for his own purposes. God has been desperately seeking the day when that love would be purified and returned to Him. Finally, that moment of restoration has come.
In the Unification Church, we have four major celebrations each year. Forty days before each celebration, you should set certain conditions through which you can devote your heart and soul for the sake of that celebration. Only in that way can you truly come bearing a valuable gift.
People on earth are in the Abel position to those in spirit world; therefore, you should be making deeper heart and soul conditions than anyone in the spirit world. All humanity has been agonizing, waiting to become true sons and daughters of God. Anyone who really knows the meaning of this day will dedicate himself totally to becoming a child of filial piety. To help you accomplish those conditions, you need a mate; for men and women must come as a pair to make these offerings.
In order to make an offering, you need an altar. People frequently fluctuate in spirit, sometimes up, sometimes down. But once an offering is placed upon an altar, it remains there forever. So you must have some offering in order to be really acceptable to God. The offering will have value according to the depth of heart and soul you invest in it; only in that way can God acknowledge your sincerity and integrity, and accept your offering.
In the Old Testament era, things of creation were offered; lambs, doves, and other animals were cut in half, placed on the altar, and the person making the offering bowed down before the altar. In the New Testament, the son of God was offered; Satan crucified Jesus on the cross, which became the sacred altar for all mankind, before which the faithful bow down. In the Completed Testament era, the parents become the living sacrifice, bearing one cross after another in everyday life.
Long in advance, you must begin to prepare for each new God's Day, planning what to offer from the depths of your heart. In this Completed Testament era, you make offerings which combine all three levels. Your material gift is offered as the fulfillment of the Old Testament era; your spiritual children consummate the New Testament era; and when you offer yourselves in the parental position, representing the Completed Testament, your offering becomes complete. Your children make a better offering than things; but you yourselves are the very best offering. An offering is not limited to the time in which it is made. It becomes the gift of all things of creation, the gift of the children, and the gift of one's self.
In the Old Testament era, people worshipped in the tabernacle or temple. The temple contained a holy place and a most holy place; only the chief priest was qualified to enter that most holy place, to offer a yearly sacrifice on behalf of all the people. A certain sacred procedure had to be followed in making an offering to God. Today you represent all the fallen generations when you come back to God through the high priest and ask him to receive you as a pure offering.
In order to sanctify and consecrate this kind of offering, God's Day was established. We did not come here today just for festivities and having a great time. Tomorrow, God's Day will be over, but the particular offering you made will continue every day and grow in value. As we accumulate such grateful offerings of heart, we sanctify this earth and bring the kingdom of heaven closer. That is the way transformation comes. When everything has been consummated, I as chief priest will be able to offer everything to God, and He will be able to accept it all and claim it as His own.
God Will Give You Stewardship
Once all things are offered to God, He will give you certain stewardship over them: He will make you a caretaker or administrator of all things. When God gives you something to care for, you can use it for your children, for example because your ultimate offering will be your children, you can employ material things to fulfill your total offering to God. That is the only way we can justify the use of God's materials.
Any offering you make, even material things, must be linked to the love of God. Certainly children have that connection, and you yourselves have to become one with God's love. Only when all those positions are offered can God accept your gift.
You must see all things, at all times, as linked with the love of God. All the material things you use, your children, and you yourselves have to be connected with God. Look at every day as preparation to welcome True Parents to your home; then, when we come to visit you some day, we will feel completely at home.
The clothes you are wearing are not yours; your physical body is not yours; your husband or wife is not yours. There is only one way these things can become yours -- by connecting them and yourselves with the love of God. Our marriages are formed in the name of God -- not for our own sakes but for God's sake. You want to have children so you can consummate the love of God.
Men and women who dedicate their entire lives to making a proper offering to God will always feel they have not offered enough and always long to bring a greater offering.
After living this way, when people reach the point of death, they should gather together the younger generations and tell them, "I upheld the principles and love of God. You must now carry on." When such people die, they go straight to the highest possible heaven.
God created all things and gave the stewardship over them to His children; therefore, you have the right to take care of those things, with the heart of appreciation to the Creator. If you live such a public life, even without receiving a proper reward from God while on earth, God will bestow upon you everything you desire when you are elevated to spirit world.
There is only one direct way to God -- the way of true love. As restored Adam and Eve, you will take care of all the things of creation and connect them to God's love. Then there will be no more boundary between God and you. I feel obligated to nurture you and make each of you a heavenly person, while you are here on the earth; this is your only opportunity.
The Principle of Creation clearly teaches that God created people and all things because of His love. The Unification Church is a very privileged church, because we have a way to legitimately claim other people and all things. But unless you fulfill this process while on earth, there will be no bridge between you, the physical world and the spirit world.
Love's Transforming Power
Love has the power to transform bad things into good. Love can sweeten and sanctify everything. For example, Judas showed so much ugliness toward Jesus and betrayed him for money; but Jesus' love had the power to digest that ugliness in Judas and transform it into something sweet.
Love works miracles. Whoever falls into wrongly-directed love will be shattered into pieces. However, when your love is redirected in the proper way, you can jump right into the bosom of God.
God put no limits upon Adam and Eve. He gave them total freedom -- except for the commandment not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Such is the power of love and danger of its misuse that if you make only one misstep of love, you will be dragged to the bottom of hell.
You cannot exercise love by yourself; you need a partner. You must have parents, children, brothers and sisters. Free love is a satanic strategy to bring people down into hell. The Unification Church aims to affect a revolution in love.
Why does God let us suffer so much, if He loves us so deeply? Because He wants us to find the deepest, sweetest, most perfect love. By going through ordeals such as fundraising and witnessing, you will be able to experience that kind of truest love.
How To Make Offerings To God
When you fundraise you face opposition from every direction; your parents and relatives give you a hard time. But when you return to your center, you bring your offering before the altar and cry out to God, "God, You are a suffering God, and I want to make this offering to You. You have been waiting for an offering of true love, but no one else has succeeded in giving it. Heavenly Father, I will go out to the toughest mission, as a representative of all mankind, and bring some comfort to You, as my gift of love. I will not fail in this gift of love." That is how you can bring all things to the love of God.
How do you offer children to God? When you go out to the world, tell God, "Heavenly Father, You have been looking for Your true children; without them, Your heart has been broken. I will go out now to represent Your love and bring as many spiritual children as possible, to become Your sons and daughters. I want to do Your will, and I will not hesitate to take on any hardship in order to accomplish it."
Finally, you can say to God, "I have brought You the offering of my fundraising; I gained spiritual children for You. Now I want to create my heavenly four-position foundation. I need to get married. I want to bring into the world true children, free of sin, for You."
After you are consummated as husband and wife, you can walk the road of restoration of all things, children and parents. Your home becomes your "love workshop," in which you experience all the dimensions of love. By living this way, you become like the royal family of God, entering the royal inner circle. You become love-kings and love- queens.
We celebrate Day of All Things, Children's Day and Parents' Day; but all these celebrations are consummated on God's Day. Each year we return to celebrate God's Day. One year you come as husband and wife, next year with your children, and finally with all things of creation. Then you are given the passport to the royal palace of God.
Before you come to God's Day, repent of all your ungodliness and sweep it away. If you have had quarrels in your family, cleanse them and create harmony, before attending the celebration. You should be able to offer your children; if they are not worthy, they cannot come to celebrate God's Day. The Bible teaches that before a person makes an offering before God, he must first go and settle his differences with his brethren; otherwise he is unworthy of making an offering. This is exactly what I am telling you.
Make A Covenant With God This Day
I am expounding pure, genuine principles. When you hear them do you receive them with a totally obedient heart? When you are spiritually imperfect, you need right principles to live by. These are supremely important principles. If you become very, very hungry and grab food, totally forgetting about God for the moment, you have to lay down your fork and repent, "God, I forgot about You; at the moment, I loved this food more than You. I'm sorry."
Since 1978, the rules of the Unification Church have been somewhat loosened; I couldn't feel confidence, even in the leaders. I have been observing what the Unification members are doing, and from 1983 on, we are going to tighten up. There will be no more halfway-type living in the Unification Church.
Let us pledge to God that we will be worthy of attending this God's Day celebration, without any shame or pain in our consciences. Before bedtime tonight, make a covenant between God and yourself. Tell Him, "God, I pledge to You that I will fulfill my promises to You. Please help me accomplish these things." Once you make a covenant with God, resolve that nothing will stop you -- not your husband or wife, not your children, not even the entire world. No matter what, you should fulfill that covenant.
How Can I Connect God's Love To You?
I never really wanted to have to deal with all different kinds of people, but God knew that I would be able to harmonize all people into one godly race. Therefore, He has been pushing everybody towards me, and I am relating with people of all races and cultures. My concerns are not personal, but for connecting the true love of God to all things, all people and all children.
I feel so much anguish and wrath when I observe the way in which some leaders have actually chased away the pure lambs of our membership. Many members become lost because of the poor demonstration of Unification Church leaders, who are so far away from True Parents' spirit.
Still, the more familiar people become with me, the more all things will be directed towards me and the more people will be attracted to me. All of you want to go through my "gate"; eventually all mankind will think that way. All things of creation will long to be touched by me. Why? Because I am representing the true love of God. Even God wants to touch me!
Therefore, Unification Church members who are led by me will never diminish or decline; they will go forward toward the ultimate goal of God's desire. Even under incredible persecution, we have continued to progress and develop. Once the opinion of society changes, think what will happen! There will be a rapid multiplying effect. Once the obstruction is cleared away and people start to welcome me, it will be too late for you to meet with me! North America wants to kick me out, but in Latin America, people want to meet me and welcome me.
Have you ever thought that this 1983 God's Day might be the last I will celebrate in America? God could give me a mandate tonight, and I would take off for whatever destination He indicated. That is what I am prepared to do. Once I leave here, it won't be easy for you to see me. You will have to be qualified, in order to receive an invitation.
I have often spoken about horizontal and vertical disciplines. Equality applies only to the horizontal discipline, not the vertical. History always recognizes the vertical chain of command, rather than the horizontal. Western civilization, especially American, is a horizontal civilization. There is little recognition of the love of parents, grandparents and elders, for instance; the love between men and women is all-consuming. If western civilization remains only horizontally-based, it will decline. The vertical dimension must come first, setting the tradition and discipline, and then horizontal prosperity can come about.
I came to rescue America. A hospital patient may not want to hear his diagnosis, if it is bad. Even though cancer may be consuming his body, he only wants to be told that he is fine.
I have given you the correct diagnosis, because that is the only way I can bring you hope and the only way I can treat the disease.
White people in this country have been selfish and have taken advantage of all the colored people. Africans, South Americans, Middle Eastern people come to this country; they have no power or influence, and they are not well-treated by white people. When God looks down on this discrimination, He cannot tolerate it.
The white culture needs to repent with tears for its selfishness. If people cannot repent, you will see what destiny will befall them. If I am forced to depart from this country, it will be a dark day for America. You should make a commitment, "Father, I will not let you down; I shall fulfill your role here in America, instruct the people and carry out your tradition."
There is some hope, however. Americans are no longer blindly accusing me, as in the past. They are beginning to recognize something of value. Even the media are beginning to change.
Always I am thinking of only one thing -- the salvation of America, the salvation of mankind. Therefore, I declared an emergency; I am living day by day in the context of an emergency. How about you? Maybe you are always complaining and trying to find excuses for yourselves. This is serious. Do you think the way I do?
This is 1983, when the destiny of our movement, this nation and the free world will be decided. We will go down or we will go up. It is up to you to decide that destiny.
We came here to celebrate God's Day, but in actuality, we have come for an awakening, a new determination and commitment. That is the true meaning of God's Day and the only way to make this day worth celebrating. In that respect, we are making the most important celebration. Some people might think I am being very severe, but I am saying these things because I love you. I do not want you to decline; I long for you to become qualified and glorious in the sight of God.
In 1985, the forty-year wilderness period of the Unification Church will be over. Starting today, we have to shift into high gear. Next year will be too late. Those of you who say, "We will not let you down; we will do it!" raise your hands. Let us all say, "Amen!"