By Rev. Sun Myung Moon
November 9, 1988
Belvedere
Translator: Dr. Bo Hi Pak
The word providence means the history of God and man working together for God's purpose. Therefore, knowing God is the first step in knowing providential history.
Each one of you is the fruit of history and in the center of the past, present, and future. People have always hoped that one day they will achieve or experience something greater, more noble, or more prosperous in the future. God is also striving toward a higher goal so there seems to be no possibility for man to have an encounter with God. The question is whether God's ideal is like a line going straight forward, or like a circle coming back to the original point. On a straight line, no ideal can be accomplished. In order for an ideal to come into being there must be a circle. Circular motion is harmonious and smooth. If God is aspiring toward some noble ideal, it must be a circular ideal; otherwise His ideal is just not real.
The universe is so big that no one can conceive its immensity. It has a depth and width of at least 21 billion light years. It also exists in a circular shape. It's no fun if you just go off in a straight direction and disappear! And a globe or a circle has to have a core or center so that everything within it exists in a harmonious relationship.
Let's say that God exists and you find Him and grab Him. Wouldn't you want to completely encircle and cover Him with yourself? You would want to cover up God in a globe so that He is the core. Then God would be like a prisoner inside, but would He be sad or happy? Wouldn't you find satisfaction and happiness in that kind of relationship?
You can't really have fun alone. When you have your partner to dance and jump around with, you have freedom of movement and you radiate joy and happiness. Everybody likes harmony because joy and fun always come about when you have harmony.
Nobody likes fighting. Fighting itself is not a joy, but if there is something you truly want to fight for, there is an enjoyable element in it. Through fighting, some good is achieved or some evil is destroyed. It is inevitable that two parties have to struggle in order to advance toward some higher goal. Is this good or bad? At the Olympics there were athletes who had prepared for four years, day after day, to attain one moment of glory. How heartbroken were those who didn't make it. But they still served a great purpose, because they became a ladder or a stepping-stone for the winners.
Someone wins a gold medal because someone else was second. Therefore, the loser also contributes to the winner's gold medal. In such a case, that person need not feel bad. The most important thing is the ultimate purpose for which a person struggles or fights. Once a noble purpose is achieved, all the competition--the winning and the losing--can be regarded as good. If you are fighting in order to pursue a greater and nobler purpose, that fight is a good fight. But anything you fight for which is self-centered is an evil fight.
I came to America and engaged in an incredibly fierce struggle, but it was not for the sake of America; my fight was for the sake of something much larger. The U. S. government declared that it won over me. However, from a providential point of view, I am the winner because I was fighting for the sake of the world.
Do you think God has a goal for which He strives every day? He must; otherwise, His life would be very dull. What about you? If you have no goal to pursue in your life, are you a happy person? Like you, God wants His life to be active and exciting and have meaning. The thing that God has been pursuing every day with His entire might all throughout history is what we call the providence. God's greatest vulnerability is big T and big L--True Love. This is like a string which, if you pull it, makes God follow helplessly.
God is not talking about cheap love. America is abundant in that kind of love. To only say you love your spouse, with no greater purpose, does not make any great sense. Is that the ultimate love? The love of men and women must be connected to the love of the clan, and even beyond that to the love of the nation, the world, and the cosmos. If the center and root of love is God, then true love has to reach the ultimate depth, which is God. We have to reach GTL: God's True Love.
When a husband or wife says, "Darling, I love you," that love is only one horizontal level deep. How can there be true love if there is no true husband or true wife? A true husband or wife is connected to GTL. Yet no matter how intensely a husband and wife may love each other, if that couple fails to love their country, they do not belong to GTL. If that country is not a true country, then that country has no connection with GTL. So you have to have a true husband and wife, a true country, and a true world--all connected to GTL.
Once you become a true man or woman, you are loved by your true spouse, the true community, the true nation, the true world, and the true universe. To become that kind of men and women is our primary goal. You may say, "Well, I don't need to care about my country because I just belong to the Unification Church." That is the wrong attitude. True members are connected to GTL from the bottom all the way up to the top as they climb through every level.
God wants to capture that which is true and hold onto it permanently. You have that desire too. Once you unlock the secret of what God really wants, then you hold onto God and God follows you, instead of you following Him. That is true love.
No matter how much this has been said to you, it hasn't really come into your bones. I am not speaking about love in a shallow sense. I am not speaking about a love just between a husband and wife, or the love of your clan, tribe, nation, or even the world. I am speaking about a love that is connected all the way to God. This is love that God holds dear and precious. God wants to fly down to hold on to true love. That's the goal of God as well as the goal of men.
Within true love's parameter everything is contained including my smelly foot! True love doesn't say, "You smelly foot--get out!"
Within true love there is room for everything, including Satan. When you know the depth of true love then you can understand the Bible when Jesus said, "You have to love even your enemy."
True love has been in existence for millions of years, and God created a universe that is gigantic, so how can you--a seemingly insignificant person born into contemporary history--say, "I'm going to occupy God--ancient, historical God--and universal true love?" But of course it doesn't matter how big one party is or how small or trivial the other one is. God created everything in order to fulfill and enjoy true love.
Did God create in order to obtain true love or in order to give true love? The principle of true love is to give first. The power of giving multiplies; taking only makes things get smaller. If you only take, you will ultimately be all alone. When you give, you can grow bigger and greater. Everything you give goes in a circling motion and ultimately comes back to you--with interest! You leave home as Abraham did and sojourn in a far-off land, circling, and then when you fulfill your goal, where do you go? Ultimately, you reach your home you come back to the original point. So by giving, you grow and prosper.
Why don't people know this secret? It's because they do not know how God created the world. God's original principle is based upon prosperity through giving. Whoever lives this Principle will prosper, because they are taking advantage of God's secret law.
During the recent Blessing in Korea, two American brothers said, "I must be blessed with an Oriental woman!" Why did they feel this way? The basic cultural difference is that American women want to take. They tell their husbands, "You must love me and take care of me." Japanese and Korean women tell their husbands, "I will serve you. I give myself to you."
The root of true love is eternal giving. The amazing secret of true love is that it is the opposite of the natural law of physics that says that energy dissipates as it is used. When you give true love, it multiplies and keeps getting bigger. Unfortunately, not too many people know God's secret and this is why they don't want to practice true love. Historically, this principle has proven true. No religion was ever instituted without persecution. Each one started out with a very small group of people, yet when they practiced the love principle, they eventually covered the entire world.
The only thing God needs is love. Think about it: Did God create men and women arbitrarily, because He had nothing else to do? In order to obtain a woman's love, sometimes two men may duel and even kill each other. So how serious do you think God is to obtain love? God is the root of love, so the root has to be the most serious.
Many people think that God simply said one day, "Let there be light." [Father pretends to snore. ] Then He said, "Let there be ocean." [Father continues to snore. ] That's how they think God created the universe half-heartedly. No! God invested every single ounce of His energy to create He was that serious. In creating man as His supreme creation His partner of love that is to have the capacity to completely accommodate His own love God wants a full return on His investment. In order to return that love, men and women must constantly give themselves to each other as God planned when He created them. The power of love, bringing men and women into oneness, is the greatest power in the universe.
Every individual has a mind and a body. The mind's desires are vertical and noble, but the body always seeks after horizontal fulfillment and tries to make the mind follow its desire. If your horizontal desire is growing in balance with the growth of your vertical desire, that is good. Evil comes in when your horizontal desire is growing and tries to obtain its desire but no vertical desire is growing.
True love is mind-centered love and body-centered love crossing at 90 degrees. Why 90 degrees? This angle can fit anywhere. The ideal is something that can fit anywhere on any level. A 91-degree angle is just a little bit off, but it's not right at all because then nothing fits. Minus and plus cannot be united anywhere else except at the true center point. Deviations always bring repelling action. God wants to make a relationship with men and women at a perfect 90- degree angle. Once you are crossing God's love at 90 degrees, even the power of God cannot detach you or separate you. From there, everything will prosper.
When you are mature or perfected, it means you have reached the center point and you understand true love. Ideally you grow to that level from childhood. When men grow to be a certain age, they come to the poignant realization, "God created me to meet a woman." Women also realize, "God created me to meet a man." The question is, where do you meet? When you meet at the vertical line of God's love, you are meeting eternal life. Only God's true love can make your life eternal. Therefore, unless men and women meet at the point of true love, their lives cannot be eternal.
While you are growing up, step by step, God is coming down, step by step, anticipating the time when He can make a rendezvous of love with you. When a man and woman finally meet at the point in the center, God comes right down. The man and woman jump into each other's true love pond and then God jumps in, even without a swimsuit! Boom! God becomes the center of the explosion between the two. Eventually God becomes the core, and Adam and Eve form a circle just outside the core. Adam and Eve are the body of God and their center is God Himself.
God is like the bone. Men and women are like the flesh. Combined, they can never be separated by anything. So always maintain vertical love and horizontal love at 90 degrees never shift, never deviate! That relationship shall go on for eternity. In this, God finds His love fulfilled, Adam finds his love fulfilled, and Eve finds her love fulfilled. All three parties can thus fulfill true love.
Today, all of fallen mankind is in a place of agony because they don't know where God is and can't find Him. If there had been no fall, love between God and man would be truly at a 90-degree angle. This love would fit everywhere. That means that everywhere in the universe the men and women of true love would be welcome. For this reason, everything is created in a pair system: male and female, plus and minus. All creation is a museum of true love to teach men and women God's principle and practice of true love. When you look at the birds or the bees going from flower to flower, or the male and female animals, you see love in action. You can realize that God is trying to teach us something through them.
Everything follows the true love way, but only man is capable of having ideal vertical love that lasts forever. So when you look at nature, everything becomes lovable to you. You want to hold the grasses, the trees, the flowers, and the birds because they are part of God's creation and are practicing true love. There's nothing out there that does not like true love. All of life wants to connect with true love, and that means with human beings because human beings alone can enjoy eternal true love. There is nothing you cannot understand or communicate when you possess true love.
God looks down at the world and sees the birds singing, the animals contentedly chewing the grasses, and the flowers blossoming. He is overcome with joy. He says, "Look, all of these are my creation! They are the expression of my true love centering on my true object-- men and women!" That's the way God wants to really enjoy His creation.
The Unification Church is centered on the True Parents. What are the True Parents? The simplest way to understand it is: God is like your mind and True Parents are like your body. God has given you both True Parents: vertical True Parents and horizontal True Parents. You were born into these two worlds and are able to receive these two true loves. So when you practice true love, then you are God's temple; God stays within you absolutely. You cannot leave God. You cannot leave True Parents. You need both. Therefore, True Parents on earth are the hope of man. God will never let them go! God is invisible, but God's love is everywhere, especially manifested through True Parents. True Parents are like the body of God, and from them true love permeates every segment of the entire universe. You attend God as the vertical True Parent; you attend True Parents as the horizontal True Parents. Both are combined into one forever.
Horizontal true love was to be represented through our parents' love our unfallen ancestors, Adam and Eve. If Adam and Eve hadn't fallen, we would have participated in our original parents' vertical love. We would be standing in the vertical and horizontal love center. Then "I" becomes most precious, centering on the true love of the original true parents. That is the original "me." You simply cannot deny your father and mother. In the same way, you cannot deny your God. You wouldn't be here today without God, or without your father or mother. Actually, if no fall had taken place, then your physical parents would have been your true parents.
Ideally your life cycle begins with love and ends with love. You begin your life with the love of your father and mother. You are conceived in your mother's womb, and loved by your mother before you are born. Then you are born, and as a child you receive your father and mother's care and love. When you grow to a certain age, you begin to love centering upon God you become an embodiment of true love and give birth to your own children. Then the process is repeated--with you as the parents and God as the center. Love thus continues for eternity. So the family system is the most important institution it is God's school of true love where you go through your life course, feel love, and obtain eternal life.
When your parents get old, can you just send them into an institution like a human zoo and let them wither away and die? Who is the oldest person in the universe? God your vertical Parent. You cannot send God into a senior citizens' home! Do you think you have a right to send your parents, who are the vertical extension of God, into a senior citizens' home? No, you have to serve and attend them. You serve your parents as a training ground to serve your eternal, vertical Parent--God. Parents represent heaven, and heaven is the love realm. In the love realm you receive training to attend parents it is easy in that kind of atmosphere.
To many American men, their world is one of practicality. They think, "Oh, a wife and children would be a burden! I don't want to be bothered. All I need is a one-room efficiency apartment." That's almost the same as if you stopped breathing. The atmosphere in the spirit world is entirely made up of love. When you stop the development of your ability to love in the physical world you stop living you are dead spiritually. You suffocate without love.
The true love country is where there is giving, not selfishness. In the ideal world there is giving in every direction a wonderful family situation. The family is the school of true love, the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. When your family is strong, then you can love the nation, the world, the universe, and God.
As a result of the fall, which was illicit love, Adam and Eve came to be like enemies, as did Cain and Abel, even though they were supposed to be loving brothers. That situation became the seed of the fallen world. Therefore, at the end of human history, illicit love will appear on the national scale. Men and women who should become loving partners will be enemies. Husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children--all will become enemies. That is exactly what is happening today, particularly in the American home.
Satan is trying to confuse, divide, and conquer the world with the seed of illicit love. Can the American government solve this moral and ethical dilemma? No! Can it be done with military power? No! Can political power do it? No! Economic power? No! Love was supposed to be the creator of eternal life, but when that love becomes fallen, it brings nothing but corruption and immorality. This world today has no hope and is in despair, so what shall we do?
Unification Church members have a big mission. Our job today is how to create out of this divided and confused world a true unified Adam nation, an Eve nation, a Cain nation, and an Abel nation. That is the mission of the Unification Church. Adam and Eve started out as enemies. In restoration, the Adam nation and Eve nation should become truly united, not centered on illicit love but on true love. True love is the prescription.
In order to do this, you have to plunge yourself into the chaotic, sinful world, win the battle, and create the Adam nation and Eve nation. That is precisely what the providence is all about. I came to restore America. However, I cannot do it myself alone.
Individuals from the Adam nation, the Eve nation, the Abel nation, and the Cain nation must love their enemy, the United States, which has been an enemy nation to all those countries, more than they love their own brothers and sisters. They must practice the standard of true love; otherwise, they will not be able to create a true Adam nation in their original nations.
Because the United States is like a microcosm of the world, I chose it as the place to win the victory in the battle for true love. Until that victory is won, I cannot go back and create the Adam nation. Why is that? Satan knows he is a villain, yet he protests to God: "Originally, I was the archangel. Adam was supposed to love the archangel, so You must love me no matter what. You and your true children, Adam and Eve, have to love me to get into heaven. That is original way, the original Principle." Therefore, I came to America to love the enemy country. That means in order to enter heaven, you must even have the power and capacity to love Satan.
Jesus knew this principle of loving his enemy, so he forgave the Roman soldier who pierced him on Calvary. The same principle applies for me, too. Without loving this enemy nation of America, the True Parents, representing Heavenly Father, cannot open the gates of Heaven. My mission is to save America, not to make myself comfortable here.
Satan grabbed the United States of America and wanted to control her. But I got on top of Satan and said to him, "No way, Satan! Get out of my way! You cannot prevent me from loving America. I will open the gate to Heaven." After I have fulfilled the practice of loving, Satan cannot follow behind me to Korea.
You Americans who became Unificationists were not even welcomed by your own people. The foreign missionaries who have served here were not welcomed in this country. But all of them gave their lives purely and sacrificially for the sake of loving America. Adam and Eve countries used to be enemies. I am the only one who has the power to graft them into one root and weld them into one. By doing so, I have made room for the salvation of Cain and Abel.
On June 25, 1950, North Korea attacked South Korea. The whole country was ravaged. However, with God's help, South Korea was not destroyed and its freedom was not lost. But what happened? Two extreme poles were created: the communist North and the democratic South. But on September 16, 1988, after 38 years, Olympic delegations from 160 nations came together in Seoul, Korea. This included nations from all over the communist world. This was the first time since that polarization that there was an example of healing, harmony, and unity on the Korean peninsula.
This is an amazing thing: During the Korean War, 16 free nations participated to save Korea, but in the end they actually failed to unite the whole country in freedom. Those 16 nations represented the level of the nation, and the 160 nations that came for the Olympics represented the world. On the national stage, 16 nations failed, but on an international stage, 160 countries have succeeded in bringing harmony. The entire communist world and democratic world the entire polarized world came together, united in South Korea.
Who were those who came to South Korea for the Olympics? The second generation of both the communist and democratic worlds This was a historical event. During Moses' exodus, 600,000 first- generation Israelites perished in the desert one by one. Only the second generation made it. Furthermore, before they set out, all the elder sons of the Egyptians were killed by a plague. The second generation was on the side of God; therefore, they were saved.
In Korea, all countries communist countries and free countries have an embassy. In relation to Korea, the embassies are in Cain's position. The second-generation athletes who came to Korea were in Abel's position. So I invited our representatives from 120 mission countries to Korea to unite with their own country's embassy and athletes; thus three parties would be united.
The athletes and ambassadors actually stand in Esau's place, and our missionaries are like Jacob. As you know, Jacob worked hard for 21 years and then gave everything to Esau, his elder brother, in order to unite with him. True Parents, in Jacob's position, gave everything that has been won in America to Esau. That historic action occurred at the time of the Olympics on the worldwide level.
Dr. Bo Hi Pak explains: The athletes coming from all over the world were lonely. Some athletes from small African countries could not get even one bronze medal, and no one cheered for them. But then they would see a big flag from their country waving in the stands. It was one of our missionaries from their country! When they met them, they could not help but feel united with those missionaries.
What does all this mean? The Unification Church missionaries, who are united with Father, made unity with their own country's champions and their embassies. This means that Father, the athletes, and the embassies from countries all over the world were united. We particularly concentrated on the communist countries. The communist champions may have sent telegrams home saying: "There was a team cheering us here in Korea! They were REV. Moon's people!" The entire communist world must have been shocked.
Father invited all the coaches, champions, and embassy officials to performances at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center. During one performance, coaches and medallists from the USSR, USA, the People's Republic of China, Portugal, Poland, and Hungary were all invited up on the stage and joined hands and sang together, "We are the World." Then all those medallists and coaches received a specially designed Little Angels medal created by Father, which was put around their necks by the little children.
This truly marks the beginning of a harmonious new world era. Can you imagine 160 countries ever coming together like this, particularly in Father's country? It is a launching pad! A most incredible foundation for world peace has been laid at this time.
Father continues: The 24th Seoul Olympics was a heavenly celebration of the culmination of 6,000 years of God's providence. True Parents played the major role, laying the foundation for the Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel nations to unite. The enemy nations were restored into a brotherhood, laying a new foundation during this Olympics for permanent world peace.
While I was in Korea this time, three primary providential steps were accomplished. First of all, a special ceremony was held that signified the age of transformation into providential unification. What kind of transformation? Cain and Abel have always fought throughout history, but this time Cain completely surrendered to Abel so that the elder son's birthright could be restored. The chain of command has been transferred. Also the transformation from the period of suffering for the Unification Church and the suffering of the True Parents to the period of being in command has occurred. We are no longer going to just suffer; we are going to transform the world into heaven.
A second dispensational will was fulfilled in the ceremony on October 3, 1988. This day marks the Opening of Heaven for the Korean nation; in other words, it marks the true foundation of the nation after 4,321 years. On October 3, I declared the "Foundation Day for the Nation of the World of Unification," not a secular nation, but the heavenly, unified nation. This means that the two worlds, spirit world and physical world, are one. At this morning's pledge ceremony, I made the declaration, "Heaven and earth are now one. The foundation day for world unification has been declared. Now the restoration of each nation has become possible. Not just communities and societies, but nations can be restored under this one unified nation of the world."
The third event I undertook as the culmination of my visit to Korea was the Blessing of 6,516 couples on October 30. Most significant was the international matching between Koreans and Japanese, between the Adam nation and the Eve nation. Korea and Japan have been enemies for a long time, and their animosity has never been healed. Through this matching, the two countries completely will now become one. All the emotional strains and hurt will be removed.
By the fall of man, individual separation brought separated enemy nations. By bringing two enemy nations Korea and Japan together through a unified heavenly couple, that couple can go beyond their own countries. Satan cannot follow the true love way, so it's good-bye to Satan!
Today is Children's Day, 1988. This is a very extraordinary Children's Day because in this year a most enormous, incredible providential accomplishment has been achieved in Korea.
The Olympics theme song this year, "Hand in Hand" is about breaking down every wall of cultural and emotional differences between the races and nations. We can create that kind of phenomena. You and I are going to make this song a reality!
Remember, everything must be centered on true love: husband and wife, the nation, the community, the world, as well as your mission. Everything centered on true love will be prosperous and victorious. You have to know this. That is the cardinal rule and way of life of the Unification Church. Amen.