Reverend Sun Myung Moon
January 1, 1981 (Midnight)
World Mission Center
Translator - Sang Kil Han
Now we have met the new year 1981. By meeting 1981, all of the seventies are now gone. Now we have crossed the threshold of 1980-81, leaving the 1970s behind. I am heading towards my seventies as well. Forty four years have passed since I learned the dispensation and started it. It was 44 years ago when I was 16 years of age.
The numbers six and four have traditionally been the numbers which were held by Satan. But after the time of victory they will be received as the number seven, which is the godly number. We are entering the era when the number four along with six will be the basic numbers of heaven.
This also means that starting from this year, as we go into the eighties, the Unification Church is entering a new era as well. We expect the 1980's to be fast progressing years for the Unification Church. God's close help is with us. We will be offering our lives during these ten years. After this decade we will enter the 1990's, when I will be in my seventies, so we must understand the importance of our meeting at this time.
As you are aware, we are now in the second of three seven-year courses, which is your time. What does that mean? So far I have been working the dispensation, but now I am transferring it into your hands. This means it is possible for you to do the work successfully without me.
Then on what ground can you do it? Home church. The motto for 1979 introduced home church: "Home Church and the Completion of the Kingdom of Heaven," and the motto for the following year was "Home Church is the Base of the Kingdom of Heaven." Now for the third year in succession the motto is focused on home church: "Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven." That "my" is more yours than it is mine. The concept of home church during the past two years was related more to the whole, but this year it is more personal: Home church is "my" responsibility, "my" heaven.
Then where is that heaven? Heaven is where Satan has no place he can work. In Jesus' time, even the entire mind was not of God; in the mind there was a boundary where the Kingdom of Heaven met the satanic domain. Now that borderline can be pushed further and further away-even out of our bodies. Unless we chase Satan not only out of our minds, but further and further out of our bodies as well, we will be unable to enjoy heaven in our surroundings. "Home church" means heaven on earth in our daily surroundings.
Then what is this foundation of heaven on earth? Home church. Now this foundation of home church is given to you as your own Kingdom of Heaven. Through home church you have a direct connection to the nation and to the world. Thus, we can connect the mind kingdom to the body kingdom, to the home church kingdom, to the country kingdom, all the way to the world. Now we can look back clearly and see that Jesus was intended to do exactly that, pushing Satan completely away and making heaven possible in the environment. He wanted to extend the border even beyond that, making the entire country and the world into heaven as well.
We know that Satan is occupying the entire world, that there is no place Satan cannot claim as his. A certain part is God's, but Satan also occupies the individual's body and sometimes even his whole mind, and especially the environment. Even in the spirit world, all the evil spirits have divided up the territories and exercise jurisdiction over each area.
Satan is the power or influence which exercises satanic dominion. Someone must appear on earth and dispel that power. Who can drive that power out of the environment? The Messiah is to do it. Jesus was supposed to do it, but he could not. When he comes again, the Messiah is to expel all the Satans from this world. When Jesus failed to complete that mission, the foundation was lost from this earth, and became like a drifting cloud which never settled down in any one place. Even though it encompassed the entire world, it was only on a spiritual level; there was no solid foundation on earth.
Because Jesus was crucified and had to give his body to Satan, there was no such thing as a Kingdom of Heaven on earth. This is precisely why he must come back on earth in the flesh, to accomplish what was left undone.
What is the Unification Church supposed to do? It must pass on to the world the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven which Jesus accomplished. In order to do that, someone had to go to the spirit world-standing in the presence of Jesus, God and Satan-and win the victory, with Satan recognizing that this person won the inheritance from Jesus himself. For this reason, I went to the spirit world and got the inheritance; it was approved by God and Jesus, and even Satan had to endorse it.
Upon that foundation I had to fulfill the same thing on earth. In order to do that, I had to cut off all the claims Satan has had on the physical body and the earth for the past 6,000 years. Through the Unification Church, I had to disconnect all the ties and claims of Satan on the world over the past 6,000 years.
If traditional Christianity had welcomed me instead of opposing me, its spiritual foundation for the realization of God's ideal could have been used as a starting point and been connected directly to the physical foundation. If Christianity had united with this responsibility of the Unification Church, then 6,000 years of indemnity would have been completed. The resultant new body would not have been solely Christian or solely Unification Church.
If Christianity had united with Unification Church, Christian churches would have found themselves on a much higher level than they are today. Of course, communism could not have made even a small foundation in the United States in that case. But the Christian churches failed to unite with the Unification Church, so it has had to hastily organize and reindemnify the 2,000 year history of Christianity in a period of twenty years.
The timing was exact; all the highlights of indemnity were fulfilled in this country by 1976, which happened to be the bicentennial year. The major conditions of indemnity were accomplished through the great events including Yankee Stadium and Washington Monument. This stood on the foundation of the 200 years that have passed since America's independence.
There was tremendous persecution and opposition, as every kind of organization opposed us during 1976. Because we were successful although we were opposed, we gained a physical victory which qualified us to represent Christianity and the country itself. That was the foundation of victory which established a condition by which the physical victory could be won; it only became a matter of time after that.
At the same time we inherited the spiritual accomplishments, we could begin the new foundation to establish the physical heaven on earth. In other words, from that time on, Satan no longer had any justification for separating the spiritual entity from the physical entity. That also means not only that the spiritual heaven was accomplished, but also that the inner work could begin on the physical foundation of heaven on earth. Both were secured, internal and external.
After securing the mind and the body, we can go one step further, to the environment in which we live. Once the foundation was formed, spiritually and physically, Satan had no justification for accusing me or dividing the foundation I had laid. The next thing we had to do was to push this foundation further out to include our environment.
Whenever there was a deficiency, or whenever members did not fulfill the necessary conditions, all the blame came right back to me. Satan would turn all the accusation against me while I was still in the process of building the physical heaven on earth.
When we confront Satan he will oppose everything we do in order to knock out this threat. But when we win over the opposition, Satan has to withdraw. Because of my victory, Satan withdrew and had to acknowledge that I won not only the keys to the spiritual heaven, but to the physical heaven as well. This is the reason I can now say that the Kingdom of Heaven is in both the mind and the body.
Then where is Satan now? He has been pushed out to the country, tribe, clan and family levels-outside the perimeter of mind and body. Even that opposition is not full scale; now that Satan has suffered defeat, resistance is sporadic and no longer all out.
But here we can observe that even while I am being persecuted, our Unification family has spread around the world. Though I was persecuted, I was not wiped out, and in addition my family, the blessed couples, and Unification members around the world are well. Because I overcame persecution completely, we all overcame opposition together. When our opponents set out to strike me and my body, those who were connected to me also received the blows. But at the same time, all have shared the victory.
This means that opposition was directed towards me not only on the personal level, but also on the family level, and even all the way up to the world level. When the opposition ended, the result was not only my personal victory, but the victory of those connected to me-the family, the clan (blessed couples), the nation (the church can be considered as the nation), all the way up to the world level. It was a successful completion of the indemnity condition. Satan attacked on every level, and his retreat automatically means that I have won the victory over the world level. In other words, the condition was prepared upon which the world level-not just the country or clan levels-could be restored.
Jesus came to indemnify the world level, but he achieved indemnity only up to the clan or tribe level. John the Baptist's family and Joseph's family should have been united; then Jesus would not have had to die.
The Unification Church is linked with me, so since my victory was recognized even by Satan, the Unification Church will no longer receive any persecution on the level of mind and body. Still, when we go out to the environment and home church, then we will in fact meet opposition. Satan's limit is now set. He is allowed to go only to the home church level. On the foundation of home church, I have given this entire inheritance to the members. From this time on you are personally working in the home church area representing me.
The Israelites went the same course as Moses; all Christians had to follow what Jesus did. Likewise, whatever I have gone through must be experienced by Unification Church members. It is your five percent, and connects you to the 95 percent which I did, and which Moses and Jesus each did. Even without this spiritual reason, when you go out to witness and do other things would you expect to meet opposition similar to what I faced here? If I were to go out into the street and witness today, many things would happen; but now when you do it people are not as concerned about opposing the Unification Church any more.
Again, you will not go through exactly the same things I did in going from the individual to the family level, and finally to the world level during the past twenty years. That is not feasible for each of you; instead you will set up a 360 home area which encapsulates all the elements found throughout the world. The 360 homes will represent all the different nations and races on this earth. This has been endorsed by both God and Satan.
If you do not do well in home church, it will not matter how well you have done in the past, or whatever else you accomplish in the future. Without actually doing home church. there is no way for you to go to the Kingdom of Heaven.
There is a mind heaven and there is a physical heaven. Mind heaven is the mind which contains nothing that Satan can accuse. By the same token, in physical heaven Satan cannot claim any part of our bodies. Thus, if we are completely out of Satan's claim, we are in heaven.
Then beyond that, we need the environmental heaven, in which we can step out of our home and walk through a neighborhood which Satan has no claim over. That is what Jesus set out to achieve.
If all people knew of my victory, everyone would come to the Unification Church and cling tightly to me, and to this ideal and heart; then instantly the accusation of Satan inside that person's mind and body would be void; Satan would have no way to accuse him. When such a person goes out to witness in the environment, however, Satan's opposition will meet him there. The battle is now being fought outside the home.
The fall could take place because Adam and Eve did not yet have this environment set up. When this environment is established, then heaven is secured up to the clan level. That is the essence of heaven. Heaven is formed primarily in the family. Doesn't it make sense that you would have almost instant family level heaven once you secure the environment? That environment has to be created by winning over persecution. Without winning victory in home church, or victory over the environment, you cannot be filial sons and daughters of the True Parents, because you have no base to stand on. The environment gives you that base.
God will recognize home church as the foundation through which you serve as filial children, as patriots and even as saints. God will recognize as a saint the person who accomplishes this. A saint is a person who lives on the world level, but God can recognize you as such on the foundation of home church.
Home church was announced in America rather than in Korea. How was that possible? In New York and in this country as a whole, you can find different races living in 360 homes. There is no other country like this. If all the 360 homes oppose you, it means that not just an individual or a family, or even a nation is opposing you, but many nations and races. In America, therefore, it is possible to go through the worldwide level of indemnity. After winning in New York, we will concentrate our efforts in Washington, Philadelphia, Boston, etc., and it will become easier and easier. For this reason, we cannot go to heaven without having home church.
This year's motto is "Home Church is My Kingdom of Heaven." As I already said, in the past two years home church was not that very near or personal to you. So far, you may have thought of home church as a kind of witnessing technique, or an innovation of the Unification Church. But it is the heavenly way. The home church is your personal affair; it doesn't belong to anyone else. It is your personal matter on earth and in heaven, not the Unification Church's.
After Jesus gave the keys to heaven to Peter, did Peter ascend to heaven, or did he go to the cross? What should Peter have done? We know that he should have gone to heaven by opening the door of home church on the dispensational level of that time, which was the tribal level. Then the foundation of the Kingdom of Heaven could have been laid. But now we are starting home church on the world level, which is much more difficult. Peter would have secured the environment through home church, and thereafter organized twelve tribes. Jesus had indicated that whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven; likewise, unless we realize the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, the Kingdom of Heaven in spirit world will not come about either.
When I do come back, will I return to the Unification Church boundary, or to the home church? The Church is like an office for the families and the society, but the home church is where the parents and children can live, and where God can dwell.
There are 365 days a year, and if I visit one home church per day for 100 years I could visit only 365,O00 home churches. But I will not live 100 years more because I am already over sixty years old. If I spent five years visiting one home church per day, I could visit only about 1800 homes. Do you think I will visit your home church because you invite me? NO, I will go if I feel like going; it is not up to you, but up to me.
Now you have a better idea of what home church is like. Would you like to inherit the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven? Even though Jesus died, he could not receive that. You can now inherit something which Jesus did not enjoy, but what condition have you made to inherit it?
In my part of Korea there was one boy so mischievous that his parents could no longer control him. They told him, "You are out of our hands, so go ahead and die." The child took it seriously, so he went out and started to hang himself. When he was ready, he shouted out, "Now I am ready to hang myself." When the parents came and saw he was really ready to do it, what could they say? They embraced him and said, "Don't do it; now we tell you not to do it."
This is a favorite Korean expression, "When someone tells you to die, at least pretend to die." Oriental children know that even if their parents are so upset that they say, "Go ahead and die," that they don't mean it literally. In the same way, if I say you should be willing to die, you must realize that I am trying to find some minimum condition by which you can inherit the physical Kingdom of Heaven. Just as Isaac was willing to let Abraham offer him on the altar, that willingness to die is the minimum condition; but death itself is not the requirement.
Maybe you think, "Father talks too much about witnessing and 360 homes; I will do it sitting in my living room." There are some things which happen if you set the right condition, and some things you have to do with your hands. How nice it would be if home church would work by setting the condition; for instance, if you could write down names of 360 homes on a big piece of paper and every day make some drawing, and say, "This will serve as a condition of having visited my actual home church every day." But it doesn't work that way.
Just as I worked hard, you also have to work hard and do everything as I did. That kind of effort is needed to make home church successful. Heaven on earth is where your ideal and your love dwell. Home church belongs to you, and when you really work at it, all your surroundings-including your ancestry and your supporting spiritual world-will come down and help you accomplish it. You will find that the spiritual world actually helps you very much, but you will never know until you really do it.
While you are doing home church, you will come to realize that this was precisely the destination of Jesus' work. Why did Jesus work so hard gathering disciples and giving sermons? It was so he could eventually send his disciples to home church. When you do home church successfully, won't the restored tribe and nation come into being automatically? By doing home church, everything will be restored at one time.
If we have 150,000 members each taking care of 360 homes, that will cover all the homes in America. Some universities have 40,000 students. If you win only four such schools, that would be enough to yield 150,000 people. If you do not raise that number by witnessing, then CARP can do it.
What I have done can be compared to compiling an encyclopedia. In comparison, what you are going to compile is just a small dictionary. You do not have to be elaborate or give a detailed explanation of each item; just give a minimum explanation in a few words. The necessary basic words will be found in your dictionary; for instance, regarding tears; in my encyclopedia you will find the chemical components of tears, how they are produced, on what occasions, and all that. But in your dictionary, under tears you may have just "weep."
Do you know how many papers you have to write before you can graduate with a Ph.D.? What you are going to graduate with is worth 100 times more than a Ph.D., so can't you write at least a small dictionary? You have to be persecuted and kicked around, literally. I don't mind being kicked around. If by being kicked I could indemnify something which I could not do in 100 years, how fantastic that would be!
Do you want to go to the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? But you want to go to heaven only in the daytime, not the nighttime, right? Do you want to go to heaven after you eat, or before you eat? Do you want to go to heaven after wearing nice clothes? You will say, "I don't mind going to home church as long as people don't persecute me." But without being persecuted, you are not going to get the blessing. If you are persecuted and are hit, but you receive it with gratitude, the blessing is yours. It will take a while before people realize, "They only smiled when I persecuted them, but now I understand that they have been stealing my blessings!"
The Bible says that Christ will come again as a thief. I came to this foreign country and was persecuted to an incredible degree. But I knew that not just bags full but truckloads of blessings would roll in. In that view, am I a smart person to do something which induces persecution?
A big fish is caught by a small hook. Likewise, the persecution is small compared to what you will be gaining in blessings. So even thinking in terms of economics or business, you come out ahead; you are earning something.
Each home church is a fuel tank. Since you have 360 homes, you have 360 fuel tanks. You have to connect all of them and ignite the fuel, and then you will shoot up like a rocket. If you are going to fly up to heaven, will you need only ten fuel tanks? Even though you ignite them, ten tanks of fuel will not carry you to heaven. If you line up 360 fuel tanks and ignite them, then you will have enough fuel to reach heaven.
Instead of loving just your own family or children, or even doing service to your own country, you will do home church. If a husband spends all his time in home church and he doesn't even come home at the regular time, and his wife begins to say, "My husband is making me wait," she is the worst wife one could ever find.
Now you know the most valuable thing. Now you know why I was so persecuted and went through such incredible difficulty. This is what I was up to, and this is what Jesus was up to. Now you know home church was the destination. This time is precisely analogous to the time when Jesus appeared to the disciples after the resurrection; now Pentecost is happening all around the world.
Amazing things will take place. Your ancestors will come and assist you because they themselves are one with you in your position. Just as Jesus' ancestors worked with him, thousands of yours can work horizontally. Even if they were not very religious, as long as they were good people they can share this privilege. This is because the blessing that has been given to you is extended to the realm all around you, to your ancestral community.
Jesus' disciples worked for the country and the mission, but they did not have home church, so they could only reach a certain level. However, all your good ancestors over the past 2,000 years can come down and work with you, and through working with you in home church they can have instant credit. This is an incredible privilege. This is the only time the liberation of your ancestors can take place. At the same time, the path of perfection for your own descendants will be laid. Because of this condition, you can go to the real heaven, not just the conceptual heaven. If you do not do home church well, those people will blame you, and your ancestors will blame you for not doing more. They know very well what is important in spirit world. All your family, your clan and your descendants-even your country and the world-will connect to this heaven. Don't you want to have that kind of heaven? Now do you know clearly about home church?
Now when someone asks you where heaven is, you will say, "Heaven exists in the environment of home church." Jesus said only that heaven exists in your mind; that is true, but now it exists in the body and in the home church as well.
What comes after that? There will be the national church, and after that the world church, and the cosmic church. Then this will truly be the universal Unification Church. After home church, other things will become more and more easy. You actually don't have to think about other levels, just home church. As the days go by, there will be more and more of this church activity and heaven will be realized in a more complete way.
From 1981 it is all yours. I have been preparing and focusing only on this point. I may take off one day, just like that, but don't even try to follow me. When I go to a resort or hotel, everyone would want to come, but I don't like that. If my hotel is right beside our Church and you know I am there, don't even think of trying to visit me. You have your work to do, and you are too busy even to pay attention to what I do.
We have to do restoration by going the way of indemnity. You say, "I have been fund raising and working incredibly hard for seven years." But compared to what needs to be done, that is nothing. So for the sake of building the kingdom on earth we have to be eager to hear the next impossible direction. As soon as a command is given, at that moment we have to be ready to go and carry it out. Would you respond just like that? If you are with your husband, but I tell you to go somewhere else, will you listen?
Now you know the explanation for what we have to do. If we are to go to hell, we might as well go straight forward, not trying to evade it and getting caught in hell anyway at the end. We might as well go right toward it.
In 1981 I am hereby giving you home church as your ground. Even the News World staff members should work hard at home church in addition to their newspaper work, and then they can in no way be blamed by Satan. If I call Dr. Durst and he is nowhere to be found because he is in home church, he can be excused. That is our most important priority. If one of the East Garden guards is missing all night, but in the morning he appears and says, "I was at home church," instantly everything will be forgiven.
Nowhere else in all of history was anyone else given this kind of priority and privilege. So long as you go to home church, all else is secondary. If in doing home church you don't take care of yourself and your clothing becomes very ragged-like what St. Francis must have worn-you will be 100 times greater than he. If you are running down the street, unaware of what you look like, and someone starts pulling and pulling on you, when you look around you will see me. Then I will buy you the best suit, and not only that but a top coat, shoes, etc. Mother will not complain, "You are spending money too fast." God cannot say I am spending too much money as long as I am spending it to support home church workers. This is the unprecedented privilege I am giving you.
You want to take care of your family, but if you take care of your home church instead, someone else will help take care of your family. Sometimes I will also help your family. But that does not mean you should think that if you are doing home church work you do not have to do anything to take care of them. If you think like that, it is not right.
Now you can say, "Father, you do not need to talk to us any longer. We will just go right ahead and do what we are supposed to do." After turning over everything to you, I may leave America for other places.
Now you must truly know that my responsibility is ended at this point. Can you pledge from this time on to really understand more deeply than ever that your purpose of working is nothing but home church?
God bless you.