Sun Myung Moon
March 9, 1975
Excerpt
Tarrytown, New York
Photo date and location unknown
Like it or not, in your life you must have relationships with other people around you. We are used to centering upon ourselves. Suppose there are two people, and each one of them thinks of himself or her elf first. Then in their relationship with each other, they won't communicate well, but will be at crosspurposes.
We find that whenever we meet other people, we cannot whole-sidedly associate with them. At first when two people meet with each other, they defend themselves. They are cautious toward each other. But then they will open their minds a little bit, and then a little bit more, and then become associated with each other, and finally become one. The same thing applies between man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, adults and children, and the aged and the middle-aged. So it is that human relationships are always very difficult. If God were involved what kind of relationship would He have with man? Would He at first be wary of man, and then approach him, gradually forming trust? Or would He open His mind and heart and approach man wholeheartedly? Would He open the whole of His heart to man? Why? Because God is omniscient, He knows everything concerning man; so He's not cautious, He's not uneasy when He sees a man, because He is not in the position to have to defend Himself before man.
But if the opponent is Satan, what would God's attitude be? This is the question, "What would God's attitude be towards man, towards nature, and towards Satan?" If God keeps Himself in the position where He can approach man only at cross-purposes then can Satan accuse Him? When He's open-hearted, Satan always can come to Him accusing Him. But God will not accept it. Even though the accusation is not acceptable, all through 6000 years of providential history God has had to listen to the accusation at least, and try to correct the situation.
Up to the present moment, all through human history God has been accused of His children being evil and things like that. How could He have endured that? If that is true, would Satan have praised Him more, or accused Him more? If Satan didn't exist would men have praised God more, or accused Him more by complaining and all sorts of things like that? You as individuals have been complaining against God very often I think, saying "If God is good, He cannot have created the world like this, and let evil exist." Well, there have been many people accusing God, and complaining about Him -- some in the extreme. But has there ever been a man who could praise God in the extreme, in the ultimate sense? If that is true, would God want to meet either Satan or man? Would He feel like meeting men, or be rather afraid of meeting them?
If He's reluctant to meet men and fearful of meeting them, then if we as men feel like complaining to Him, instead of praising Him, what would He feel like? In what manner should He want us to approach Him? Furthermore, when God hears us asking Him, "Oh, bless us! And forgive our sins and bless us, and help us!" -- What would He feel? Would He feel happy? Would He be sad and hurt? Well, if you are faced with such things from your opponent, or from someone who has sinned against you, how would you feel? Is "sad" the only feeling? You are also angry; you want to kick at him, and just chase him away. You kick at him and chase him away, but he comes again and again, and asks and begs for forgiveness and blessedness. What will happen in that situation? You -- and God -- would even feel like killing him! If he comes to you every day, begging for the same things, what would you feel like? When you think of that, is God a sad God and a pitiful God, or a glorious God as the established Christians would believe? They must know this fact.
Well, God is in such a sad position, but still was it God who tried hard to approach man, or man who tried hard to approach God? It was not man, but God who was so anxious to approach man. God has without doubt been approaching us every minute, enhancing His relationship with man. He does this in the hope that man might be so elevated as to reach Him, and be restored and united with Him. He is visualizing the world of goodness. God Himself knows He's omniscient and almighty, so He cannot remain still when His children are fallen in agony, and in the dungeon of life. That's why He is exercising His power to restore men. The almighty and absolute God created man to be His children. Their position of children is eternal and He is anxious to get them back. With the heart of a parent -- however agonized His heart may be, and however rebellious His children may be -- He has to recover them, and restore them. He's complaining against Satan for His own children who have been so rebellious. He is feeling the responsibility for them. He's desperate in trying to recover them.
Man is the result of His creation. So, instead of placing the responsibility on the shoulders of men, He feels like shouldering the responsibility Himself. Satan is the fallen entity, and men are in the category of the fallen world. But for them, there's no way to approach God and be restored completely on their own.
God takes the whole responsibility. Those who complain against someone are doing that because they're not happy in their present situations. The word "accusation" is applied when one is unhappy; isn't that true? When one is unhappy he wants to clear away the resentment by way of complaint or accusation. At times, you, too, complain, don't you? When you complain it is a kind of accusation to clear away your resentment towards each other. You complain against each other among brothers and sisters, but if you do so vertically towards your parents, it means you are accusing them.
God has to think of how to handle these men of the fall, and then of Satan when they complain and accuse. First of all, He wanted to take the responsibility on Himself. If God complains back and accuses men there will be no end to accusations and complaining. If He's angry at men of the fall and Satan, He would feel like eradicating them. Do you think God has even once thought of exterminating men, annihilating all His Creation? At any moment? It is possible that He thought of that. But, the next moment, He would deny that and just tell Himself again and again that He had to save these men. When you plan something, wouldn't you think of that in this same way? Wouldn't you plan all the way through, until you've put it into action? What you have been thinking in your minds will not violate the law. In a nation, where there's law, what you have been thinking would not be a violation. You cannot be punished for your thoughts. It is natural for God to have thought of that again and again, but then resolved in His heart again, to save man.
If God had exterminated men and Satan from the face of the Earth, what would have happened? God would be placed under more difficulty, because He could not hope for anything coming from the world He created.
We can well imagine that He's going to be the most miserable God, with all His creation exterminated. So it offered more hope for God to re-create man or restore man instead of annihilating him or nullifying him. God thought that He could not but save those men and restore them. And once He decided and determined to do that, His desire became eternal. His hope and His determination was to re-create man. It will take more energy -- so many times more than when He created man, and maybe it would take years and years, or almost for eternity, but He would not cease to do this. Once He's determined, He's in the position to be unable to give it up. No doubt, God has been struggling hard to recover man, because He wants to be determined Himself. God is anxious to liberate you from the world of satanic accusation. It is the only hope for God, and who else will do that? Nobody, right? It is not within our power to save ourselves. This is why God Himself must take the responsibility.
He has determined to take the responsibility of making or re-making man to be good. Once He was determined, He would work for that until He recovered the last man on Earth, even though it took Him eternity. When He's so anxious to recover man, and He's approaching you, would He not want to save the man who would just cling to Him for forgiveness and blessing from Him first? Would He not want to save that kind of person first?
First of all, God takes the responsibility Himself. That is the thought or conclusion God reached after the human fall. This is because man was the result of His creation, and He was compelled to take the responsibility to recover them. The sentiment of sympathy welled up in His mind, in His heart. Can you imagine it? When He decided to save man, it was not out of duty or out of law, but out of sympathy. Without compassion for man, you cannot save him; you cannot even feel like saving him. So, the first thing was that He decided to take the responsibility Himself, and then the sentiment of sympathy welled up in His heart. It was with His heart that He wanted to save man, not out of law or duty. With a compassionate heart He could forgive men. Do you follow me? Firstly, He took the responsibility Himself because He thought that everything happening in the human world was His responsibility. Take the example of your parents. You are rebellious against them, but they feel that they have to take the responsibility themselves, because you are the product of their love. Therefore they have the sentiment of sympathy.
With God, when you beg for forgiveness, His heart will be open, and He will feel like forgiving you. When God is taking the responsibility to Himself if you come to Him begging for forgiveness, will He not accept it? When you leave everything to God He will feel like forgiving you; furthermore, if you beg Him to forgive and bless you, He will feel like giving every blessing to you after forgiving you. If you ask God to defend you against the attack coming from your enemy, well, God will do that in order to help you in your difficult situation. You being in the fallen world, if God is there -- the God of sympathy, the God of forgiveness -- then how grateful you must be. However ugly we are as sinners, and however rebellious we have been towards God, if and when we know that there is the' God of responsibility, the God of sympathy and the God of forgiveness there as our Father, we must be very grateful, we must praise Him, and we must glorify Him. We can do this in the hope and in the thought of His being our Father always, prepared to forgive us. That is how God is a Being of goodness and subjectivity.
God is taking responsibility for the person for whom He cannot take the responsibility. God is ready to sympathize with you when you don't deserve His sympathy. God is ready to forgive you when you don't deserve that. So, you cannot but be grateful to Him. That is what makes God, God. God must love you. Do you understand? History will prove that we can know that God has been a God of responsibility, forgiving men all through human history. If God was indignant at the human fall, and instead of forgiving man had annihilated or nullified him then there could be no single man remaining on Earth.
If there's anyone here who is so confident as to think that your ancestors could have remained on earth because they have sinned less hold up your hand. None of you is so confident. Thus we can state that God is the source of goodness, always ready to forgive others. This is our discovery this morning. If there be anyone on this earth who will take responsibility for others and is sympathetic with them, and is read to forgive them while he or she is not really in the position to be able to do that, then we can we say that that person is in the position of sister or brother to God or even His twin! When we study and examine the passed-away saints and sages in human history, has there ever been such a man who had been like this? However closely we study great persons of the past, even George Washington, we cannot find those qualities in the ultimate sense. He may have taken responsibility for his people, but is what I said true or not? What about Abraham Lincoln? What about Buddha?
What about Confucius? Jesus? When Jesus was crucified on the cross, he took full responsibility for fallen man and he was in the position where he can say that he was fully responsible. When he was nailed down by the Roman soldiers, he thought he had to take the responsibility, because they were ignorant of who he was and that's why he was being killed by them; he was sympathetic with them and he was ready to forgive them.
That's why he prayed for them, before God. From this point, we can recognize him as being qualified. All through human history we cannot find any one such as Jesus Christ who is qualified enough for that position. That's why God could even identify with Jesus; he resembled God so much that God could call him brother, friend or anything. Finally, He called him, His son. That's why God would want to have fallen men gather together, centering around the personage of Jesus Christ; through him mankind could be saved. That's why we can call Jesus the saint of all the saints. There's no doubt that all men of the earth can respect Jesus and worship him, because he's the only such man.
God is God because He has both Qualities -- the ability to take responsibility for those who sinned against Him, and the ability to be sympathetic with them, ready to forgive them. If you have the same quality as God has, you are in the position of God toward other people, and there's no problem at all. You will become responsible and mighty and powerful, and you can exercise God's power over other people. What kind of people would God be looking for?
Those -- I think -- who can take the responsibility on themselves for others. Even though you are not as qualified enough to take the responsibility or other people, if you really seek forgiveness in deep repentance, and if you are ready to take the responsibility for others after you are save then would God not forgive you.
Are you like that? However heavy sinners you may have been, it is not too late. At this very moment, if you are ready to take responsibility for other people God will forgive you, and use you. This is our wish. If you are ready to take the responsibility for others, in place of God, then you can say towards your brothers and sisters, "It is not that you are bad, but it is because I am bad that you commit mistakes."
God has been investing the whole of His being in re-creating man, just as He did at the time of the creation of man. This time, if you're feeling sympathetic towards your rebellious friends or brothers or sisters and you cannot give up, but as God has been doing, you persevere to the end until that person comes back to you, then you are acting in place of God. If your friend or even your spouse commits any mistakes, you must feel like forgiving him, saying to yourself that "It is my responsibility to have let her or him do that." Every sin, every mistake of theirs is nothing if you take the responsibility for that. On the other hand, those who sinned or committed mistakes must be frank in confessing their sins and mistakes. From this viewpoint, you must criticize and analyze yourselves. Are you like that?
This is the great thing, and this is the knack of how to become a God-like man. This is the messianic ideology while it is also a Godly ideology. With these three qualifications, you can reign over the world. You must be like that in human relationships, in your attitude towards others. The greatest of all the disciplines must be those three.
Once long ago, I discovered those theories, and then I determined to be qualified in those areas and work in place of God. If this man Reverend Moon would go on doing the job like this, his name will be recorded in human history: and never, never be forgotten. It is not impossible for you. You are in the same position. If you are triumphant with those qualifications, everything in the world can belong to you. If you female members can find any such man, well, you would want to take him before all others. If any parents have such children, they must be the happiest in the whole world. If a king or the president of a country has such a man among his people, then he must be the happiest king, the happiest person. If I can find any one like that in my group, then I must be the happiest religious leader in the whole world and the most successful. If I can make you into that kind of person, and if the whole world will be made like that, God will be the happiest one in the whole universe.
When you think of underdeveloped nations like those on the African continent or places like that, and if you in your inmost self are determined to save the people of those nations, then you are working in place of God. If you are ever sent to those nations, you must be ready to take responsibility for the people there, not for the good points they have, but for the bad points they have. That's the way it is with God. God has been responsible for the evil side of people, ready to forgive them, be sympathetic with them, and remake them into good persons. If you take on the same responsibility and feel the same sympathy and forgiveness and if you want to help the people come to a better situation, then you are working for God more than anyone else.
I want you to become persons taking responsibility for the rest of mankind. I want you to take responsibility for other people for what they have evil or bad, and struggle hard to remake them into better ones. You are doing and you are going to do unusual things. That is the shortest cut to reach God, because you are going to do what God has been doing and is still doing. He's taking responsibility for the people for what they have bad, not good. So, if as a leader, you want to take responsibility for the people for what they have good, you are against God; or you are going farther and farther from God. But if you are ready to take responsibility for the people for what they have evil or bad, then you are coming closer and closer to God. That's why I am saying that this is the shortest cut to reach God.
This theory justifies what Jesus said, when he said, "Those who are ready to lose their lives will gain them, and those who are ready to gain their lives will lose them." In other places, he said, "If you are ready to lose your life for your friends, there's no greater love." If you think of things in terms of yourself, then, centering on yourself with arrogance and pride, looking down on others, you are going farther and farther away from God. You must be humble, you must be ready to sacrifice yourself, and you must do things for the good of others. If you teach other people the same things, that you must be ready to forgive others, and take responsibility for others and be sympathetic to others, then you must practice it or 'it would not convince them or move their hearts. We want to resemble God, and God would want to have us be like Him, to take responsibility for others.
It is God's law, and this is why God has been practicing it all through human history. If in your human relationships you exercise these qualities in relation to an individual, he will belong to you and obey you; he will come to his knees before you. If you act that way before a family, the whole family will either belong to you or surrender to you. If you put that into practice for a nation, the whole nation will come to its knees before you, and belong to you because this is God's law. If you do the same with the whole world, the whole world will be yours. And then ultimately, God will belong to you. He will nod at you, and smile at you. If you really understand this, and feel that you must have this qualification, can you ever complain on the way? If you really want to be persons like this, then when I want that kind of person at the earliest possible date, would you be glad, or not? (Glad!) If I really want you to become that in the soonest possible future, would I not test you? Would I not put you under trials, so that I can discipline you? In that way alone I can really know you.
God thinks, when an accusation comes from Satan, that this is the way. He lets Satan do that because, in that way, He can discipline His people. If you understand things in terms of this, there's nothing you cannot understand or comprehend. From this viewpoint, and with this philosophy, God has been working all through human history to recreate rebellious men. He just wept and cried all through the way with His grievous heart. The more accusation coming from Satan, the easier God can discern His people from others. If you take the initiative to cause evil things, and cause others to commit the same mistakes, you are easily going to fall prey to others and you have to surrender to those persons.
If Satan should accuse God, God will not fall prey to the accusation. God will not only be immune to the accusation, but also He will conquer the person accusing Him. Do you understand? Satan will surrender to God. When you are accused by someone when you did not sin or when severe accusation comes when you committed a small mistake and you get over that without falling prey to him, then you can occupy that person, or that person has to surrender to you. That is why we are even happier in the situation where we are persecuted by others.
When we are under persecution, we are on the verge of whether or not we are going to fall to the satanic side or the Godly side. Well, let us draw the conclusion. In human relationships, when you deal with individuals, families, and nations, if you are qualified in these matters, if you are equipped with enough qualifications, you are sure to be successful in your relationships. This will result in your being in place of the Messiah, and your identity will be like that of God.