Sun Myung Moon
February 19, 2010
Pledge Service for True Parents' Birthday
Cheon Jeong Gung Peace Palace, Korea
This speech was read by True Father at the 8 a.m. kyung bae ceremony for True Parents' Birthday and True Father's 90th Birthday held in the Main Hall of the Cheon Jeong Peace Palace on February 19, 2010 (sixth day of the first month of the heavenly calendar). At 11:00 a.m. on the same day, Rev. Peter Kim read this speech on True Parents' behalf and in True Parents' presence at the Celebration Banquet and Commemorate Ceremony on the Occasion of True Parents' Birthday and True Father's 90th Birthday.
Leaders from around the world, distinguished guests from at home and abroad, ladies and gentlemen:
My wife and I and all members of our family would like to extend our heartfelt appreciation to you all for coming here amid your busy schedules to celebrate our birthday and making it a great success.
As of today, I take my first steps toward the hundredth year of my life. I have been blessed with a long life, beyond the average lifespan in this world, and my wife and I were recently able to celebrate our Golden Wedding Anniversary with people from all over the world.
We have fourteen children; five have graduated from Harvard University. Among our forty plus grand-children, several of them are already studying there. Moreover, a great number of good men and women from 194 nations in this world have come to attend and recognize us as the King of Kings and the True Parents.
Throughout our lives we have established many international organizations and institutions to promote world peace. We have invested unreservedly in many fields including interfaith, projects to benefit society, intercultural activities, sports and education, and we have successfully led these initiatives with the aim of promoting peace and bringing salvation to humanity.
After working to succeed in all these things, people would probably commend us, saying that we deserve to look back at our lives and pleasantly celebrate our birthdays with the good wishes of all people. They would probably encourage me to forget about everything and sit back and enjoy the successes achieved during the past ninety years!
However, the life that my wife and I have led is not a life that can be perceived in such a worldly way. We have had to complete the mission of the actual True Parents who received that seal from God, who is Himself the True Parent of all Humankind. Now, with three years remaining in this mission, we are leading each day of our lives with more seriousness than ever before.
Throughout my life, I have offered myself for the liberation of God, the one and only True Parent of Heaven and Earth, and to restore the position of our parent to Him. For this purpose, I persevered and triumphed over countless tribulations while leading humankind, who are like orphans searching for their parents, while lost and unaware. Due to the fall of the first ancestors, people are born from the false lineage. Every one without exception wanders in darkness even now, unable to break free from Satan's bondage. Under such circumstances, how could we be other than absolutely serious in our lives as we show the 6.5 billion people of this world the way along the path toward the building of God's kingdom on earth?
One Family under God
Ladies and gentlemen, what is the path that humankind should take today? Even now tens of millions of innocent lives are being lost each year to war, disease, starvation and natural disasters that arise in all corners of this world. In every field you observe -- whether it is religion, politics, education, culture or ideology -- individuals and even nations are completely mired in the swamp of self-centered egoism. We now live in a world brought to ruin, where genuine communication has broken down.
Ultimately, the problems afflicting humanity can only be resolved through the vision of "One Family under God," in other words the teachings of true love, which my wife and I learned from Heaven and have championed and taught throughout our lives. This is the only way for humankind to find the path toward peace and happiness.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a historic time of great transition. It is a time for a great, historical revolution to unite the spiritual and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or prolong the fulfillment of His wish. I have already proclaimed that January 13, 2013 will be a "Foundation Day." That day will be the actual beginning and birth of God's Kingdom, which in Korean we call Cheon Il Guk. Yet, only three years remain.
Therefore, now it is time for all people to be humbly obedient to Heaven's decree. An unavoidable time is upon us today where we must invest ourselves completely in a life or death commitment for the remaining three years under the guidance of the True Parents who carry out the providence on this earth as the substantial representatives of God, the King of Kings. All the good spirits in the spirit world are mobilized and are already moving forward, one step ahead of you.
Ladies and gentlemen, how great is the pain God suffered the moment His children, whom He had created through His continuous devotion since time unmemorable, fell and disappeared into the darkness, becoming part of Satan's lineage? Have you ever thought how your Heavenly Father -- who had to endure thousands and tens of thousands of years in excruciating pain that numbed the bones and stung the flesh -- had to go through the long, dark tunnel of reversing the effects of this as he tried to save his lost children? I'm asking you if you have ever shed a tear for this pitiable Father.
The Mission of the Korean People
Ladies and gentlemen, God raised and prepared the Korean people over thousands of years. We all know well how God sent Jesus Christ, His only begotten son, to this earth 2,000 years ago to save humankind. However, Jesus suffered a tragic end. The leaders of Judaism and the people of Israel who were supposed to receive Jesus as the Messiah and follow the path of absolute faith and obedience were tragically unable to recognize him. Jesus was forced to take the path of the cross. He unexpectedly left this world, leaving behind the words "It is finished." Yet these words indicated only salvation in the spiritual reality. After two thousand years of preparation, his Second Coming has finally borne the fruits of his labor on this peninsula.
From the past, the Korean people have worshiped God as the highest and primal ancestor of their forefathers. They called that single being and progenitor of all people "The One"; in other words, God. As all numbers began from one, all things begin from the one God. The Korean people served God as their original ancestor and thus the spirit of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values are alive in the soul and tradition of this race. They have maintained themselves over five-thousand years of history, yet not once have they invaded or plundered another nation or people. The spirit of "benefiting all mankind" still flows in the veins of the Korean people.
On the foundation of such preparation, and riding on the energy of this peninsula, I finally came as the True Parent of humankind, the King of Kings who received the seal from Heaven. I have inherited such traditional values as the true filial piety exemplified in the folk tale Shim-cheong, about a devoted daughter who offered her life so that her blind father could see; the profound love and fidelity displayed by Choon-hyang who overcame the fear of death in order to keep the promise she had made with her husband; and the unbreakable loyalty exhibited by Admiral Yi Soon-shin who gave his life to save his nation and people. The lofty values and traditions of Korea are not just matters of historical chance. Based on these values, Heaven has prepared this people; this was all part of the providence of creating a foundation to send the Messiah.
The Path Humanity Should Take
Distinguished guests, the path that humanity must take is clear. What would give you cause to hesitate in the face of the "D-Day" that Heaven has revealed through us, the True Parents? Heaven's blessings will be with you on your ambitious course.
If you view the flow of history through eyes that focus on God's providence, you can see that the changes of the times can be broadly classified into three stages. First, is the "era of worldly matters," in other words, a time where materialism took precedence. Next came the "era of human affairs," a human-centric era where peoples' knowledge and emotions took precedence and dominated the world.
However, these eras were transitional. They were courses of preparation necessary to enter the era in which human beings could rid themselves of their fallen nature, return to their original self, and live as one family where they attend God as their Father.
The "Era of Heavenly Affairs" is the final stage, in which humanity should follow the path of living for the sake of others. They should do this through establishing an absolute standard on the foundation of purifying themselves, both inside and out, through the holy marriage blessing ceremony. The era in which we live today is the time of opening up the era of God's kingdom of Cheon Il Guk, a time in which we can return to the heart of the one true God. Please engrave this point on your hearts.
Once the actual time of Cheon Il Guk begins, the spiritual and earthly worlds will be connected and brought into oneness, and all things will be governed under this unified "association. " Moreover, the providence will be carried out under the heavenly law and the heavenly way. Elections conducted in a purely secular way will disappear from the face of this earth. All people will become one family through cross-cultural marriage and the World Peace Marriage Blessing and we will enjoy tranquility and happiness in the sacred reign of peace. I am saying that only three years remain until that day.
As part of preparing for that time, a few days ago on February 14, I proclaimed to all of heaven and earth the start of the new "heavenly calendar." The Gregorian calendar and lunar calendar shall now stand in the position of Cain and Abel and serve the role of supporting the heavenly calendar by which we will record and indicate the progress of God's providence.
You must all now engrave my teachings onto your bones and lead a life of practicing them. We have no choice. If we do not prepare now we will surely be left behind. We should learn from the courage and fortitude of the white-necked cranes that fly across the Himalayas, which are more than 7,000 meters high, in preparation for winter.
My Last Words for Humankind
I already have prepared the last words I will give to humankind. These words have been prepared based on my triumphs over more than six life-or-death situations during periods of unjust imprisonment I have experienced during my life. I have left behind eight different volumes of books as the textbooks and teaching materials for humankind for all eternity.
These include, among 1,200 volumes, The Sermons of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, Divine Principle, Cheon Seong Gyeong, Pyeonghwa Shingyeong (The Peace Messages) and the Family Pledge. Then there is the booklet True Families: The Gateway to Heaven, my speech Owner of Peace, Owner of Lineage, and a comparative anthology, "World Scriptures." These textbooks are books that you will have to read and study even after you go to the spirit world. They are not just teachings that come from the mind of one human being: they are the textbooks that teach the heavenly way, which God has granted to His suffering children for their salvation.
You should now set up the tradition of Hoon Dok Hae centering on your family; that is, the tradition where three generations of a family start each day by reading the words of Heaven, practicing that with a new mind. Let's create a world where the spirit world and the earthly world can both attend True Parents at the same time, and read the words of the Heavenly Path together. Once this happens, no matter how hard Satan may try to worm his way in and infest your lineage, he will have no place to stand in the face of the Hoon Dok Hae tradition. If a family lives aligned with God as at high noon -- where no shadow is cast -- and still does not receive God's blessings, then who would merit them? When such heavenly families fill this earth, this world will automatically become the heavenly kingdom on earth that fulfills the vision of "One Family under God."
Ladies and gentlemen, last year, my memoirs, which contain an honest and candid account of my life, were published. Through this book I have clearly shown where you can find God's will for humanity and the path that human beings, as God's children, should follow. My life has been a typical model of the saying, "If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again." I have as much faith in this book as in the hoondok textbooks I have mentioned. For this reason, I recommend my autobiography to you, believing that it will show you about leading life according to true principles. It does not subtract or add anything to the ninety years of my life, which I have led under Heaven's decree. I pray you will carefully read this record of true love and find great inspiration.
I have said that a life of vertical "noon-time" alignment casts no shadow. If we can all shine as we live such a glowing life, there will be no chance for the shadow of sin to be cast. Those who receive the light will be indebted to the light. I pray that we can now wipe away the tears of people in misery and poverty, and lead an illuminated life of eternal true love that dissipates all darkness.
Once again, I offer you my heartfelt thanks for gracing this occasion with your presence to celebrate our birthday with us. I pray that you will live in good health and in the abundance of God's love. And I hope that we can offer greater glory and honor to God on the same day next year.
I pray that the blessings of God, the King of Kings, will be upon you, your family and your nation.
Thank you very much.