Sun Myung Moon
April 20, 1975
Excerpt
Tarrytown, NY
Human beings living on earth easily think of things centered on themselves.
Organizations also think of themselves and their own success. All nations, without exception, think of things centered on themselves. But for the human fall, that kind of desire would be good, not bad. Without the human fall, if you thought of yourselves, it would be as children of God; you would think the way God would want you to. If you thought of your family it would be of your family centered on God. When you thought of your tribe, you would be thinking of God's tribe. When you thought of a nation, you would naturally think of that nation under God. This would be the relationship between God, society and yourselves, if there had been no human fall.
But, since the human fall, human beings have come to think of themselves selfishly and to think of their families, their tribes and their nations in the satanic way. We don't understand that we have been doing that because we didn't understand that Satan was evil. Why aren't we supposed to think of things centered on ourselves? Since we are living on Satan's side instead of God's, when you think of things in a selfcentered way you are making the bond between you and Satan stronger, so that you cannot separate from him. You and Satan are bound together, and by doing things that way it means you don't want to be separated from Satan. But your original mind tells you that things are not right, that you are on the side of evil while you belong on God's side.
Deny the satanic environment
So it is reasonable for fallen human beings to want to be separated from Satan by denying themselves and by denying the satanic environment. Look at yourselves: you may be handsome or beautiful yet you still are not satisfied. Somehow your lives feel empty and in vain. Isn't that true? (Yes!) The same thing applies to families, tribes and nations. They are not at all satisfied with what they have. They are groping in darkness for something higher, better and happier because they are not satisfied with what they are now. To step up and up towards a higher goal means that you must deny where you are situated. Only by denying your present situation and sacrificing what you now have, can you climb up the ladder to reach the goal.
When you know that goal and believe you must restore yourselves to that point, just imagine when you are restored to that point on the individual level; unless you restore your whole family, you are not happy at all. Even though you may have restored your whole family, if your clan and tribe were still below that level, then you could not be happy and you would have to come down again to lift them up.
Again, even if your tribe is saved, and brought back to the original point, if your nation as a whole was still down below, without having been saved, then you would have to go back and lift them up, too. Unless you do that, you are not happy at all. If one nation is lifted up to meet the standard of being united with God and if the whole world were still in Satan's hands, the people could not be happy.
If we view things from God's standpoint, we must ask how He would feel. If God could educate us in love, what method would He use? God wants to restore individuals, families, tribes, nations, and the whole world at once, if possible. Therefore, God is somehow trying to prevent us from going the satanic way on the individual, family, tribal, national and worldwide levels, all at once. God would want us to wait until we restore the whole world. He wouldn't be happy if just we as individuals were saved. If you are completely separated from Satan, with all the nations and the whole world under you, then God would be overjoyed. God being wise and always thinking of the whole He would not be satisfied if you had restored yourselves as individuals, families, tribes or nations, unless you also restore the whole world. So, God is always waiting for us to restore the whole world and only then will He make His last move.
God will start all over again
We know that God needs religion because only religions are concerned with salvation and people struggling to save the world. In this sense, all religious people are waiting for the last days to come because they know that the last days mean the consummation of sinful history. If consummation means that everything on the face of the earth will be destroyed, that would mean God is a failure. So, God is struggling hard to restore individuals, families, nations, and the whole world. He will start all over again, with a new world order in which people will live happily ever after and perfected people will be living with God.
Human history must witness the time when all religions and religious people assume hegemony over the world, ruling the world with conscience. Out of all the religions, there must be one central religion of God's choice through which God would exercise His power and restore all mankind. Only Christianity can carry out that mission. It has been the nature of God's heart to wait until that day comes, then God will set up the new standard. Has human history ever witnessed that kind of period?
Looking back into our past, we must clearly understand whether there has ever been such a period in which any of the religions took the lead towards that goal.
Roughly divided, there are two main blocs or ideologies, democracy and Communism. We are well on the way to becoming united into one ism or ideology, but in the future we must expect an inevitable collision between democracy and Communism, one winning over the other. "When will that be?" is the question. When will that time come? Which ideology will achieve its prize? Has democracy won over Communism in the past? (No!) Is it coming in the future, them (Yes!) Do you think that the democratic world will ever win over the Communist world? (Yes!) The leading democratic nation is now America; do you think America will win over Communism? (Yes!) Did America win in Vietnam? (No!) Vietnam was the obstacle and since you retreated from Vietnam, what will happen?
When will the time come when America will win over Communism? Do American youth have confidence that America will win over Communism in the future?(No.) Are they confident that America will keep its leadership over the rest of the nations? Do you think America is rising or declining? (Declining!) If you go on like this, you are doomed to peril! If that happens, is it against God's will or in accordance with God's will? (Against!) But the American public doesn't understand that. The democratic world doesn't understand the situation.
The presidency of President Nixon was the culmination and if he failed to keep his presidency, I knew that America would decline. So I was desperate to help him. People were calling me "pro-Nixon," but I was not at all pro-Nixon. I was pro-God and I saw things from the viewpoint of God. That's why I was desperate to help President Nixon at that time.
Religions and democracy must unite
Communism could have been defeated. God's heart was seeking any person or group which set the goal of uniting religions with the democratic world. The rest of the world would then unite into one, and win over the satanic power of Communism completely. God was looking for such a person or group. If that person or group thinks that unity between religions and the democratic world and then unity among all humanity will be brought about by them, then Communism will be defeated.
God would love that group. There's no other group in the whole world but ours which is able to carry out the job. So, would God depend upon you or not? (Yes!) God needs us.
The members of the Unification Church want to sweep the whole world, starting from the individual level of things, and going to family, tribal, and national levels, finally reaching out to the end of the world. It is only in the Divine Principle movement that we are all united, never wanting to separate from each other. When we are separated, it is only when we want to go back to reach out to the people and bring them back and have them united with us in even stronger causes. So it is natural that we are constantly on the battlefield while there are still Communists left in the world. We are alert, and not only that, we advance forward to fight against them and win over them. We will live and die for this cause, and we will never retreat until we win over the last Communists. We cannot be frustrated. We cannot sit idle.
What kind of a leader would you want? One who will be just sweet and kind and not push you hard or one who is almost like a dictator, pushing you hard so that you can dash forward to attain the goal? In a time of emergency, for instance when America is declining without hope of rising again without strong leadership, your president must be strong enough to dictate to the people and push them hard enough so that the nation will win over Communism or any invading power. Would you want a president who is always weak in decision-making? (No!) I wouldn't want such a president over the people of America. God would not want one like that. You would not want one like that. Isn't that true? (Yes!) That's God's way in a time of turmoil and confusion. From the standpoint of God, if you zigzag during an emergency it will last indefinitely. You will not be able to attain the goal.
We must go straight up, without going zigzag. Which of the two ways would you want? (Straight!) Would you choose the easy way or the tough one? If you would choose a ·difficult way, are you wise or foolish?(Wise!) Now you have the general picture of what I mean, and if there is a God, He would want to have us go that way. Then alone God can rejoice over what we are doing. Only in that way can we have victory.
God wants to dance and sing
God cannot but help think of things this way. God always remembers the days on which He loved Adam and Eve before the fall. He was omnipotent and His plan was to have His children live in the world without satanic invasion forever, under His divine love. If men had not fallen and could have experienced God's heart without separating from Him, they could have lived in the ideal world; they would have lived under the protection of God's love. They would have lived in utter satisfaction, intoxicated by divine love. What would sinless Adam and Eve look like? Would they frown and be discontented all day? Or would they sing and dance all over? Would the angels frown at the ideal son and daughter of God rejoicing? No, the angels would have had to sing and dance with Adam and Eve.
God also would have danced, sang, smiled and laughed, so that the whole world would shake. He would have caused all creation to be in harmony with the happiness of dancing, smiling and singing together. When you are happy and laughing and dancing, would you feel like escaping from each other or like coming closer to each other, hugging each other and dancing hand in hand? Then what would have happened in the world? Would we have unity or separation? When all are united, will people be happiest or the most miserable? If the whole world is laughing, dancing, and singing songs, who is the top leader? It is not God, but Adam and Eve. Your physical parents, too, when their children are dancing and singing, would smile and feel like dancing and singing.
We now clearly understand that man is in the position to dominate the whole creation when the whole creation is harmonized in joy and happiness. Isn't that wonderful? (Yes!) Have you ever thought of that? That's why you need me. It is God's wish, man's wish, and the wish of all creation that such a world come about so that they can sing, smile, and dance in utter happiness, harmonized with each other in beauty and goodness. Both God and the angels are looking at the world, waiting for that day to come. Have you become like that?
God will beat you, then save you
You're always begging to God, "Oh, please! Help us, save us from the dangers of life!" How disgusted God must be, to look at you always begging in misery! Do you think God would be happy in your doing that and call you to His side with a happy heart? What would He do to those people? Would He kick at those people? First He will frown at you and feel like beating you, and after that He will feel sympathetic to you and try to save you. That is why, in the religious world, people are always beaten first and then saved. That's what we call indemnity. You'll be beaten, you will bleed, and you will look miserable. And then God will become sympathetic with you, and soothing your heart will say, "You were originally created to be loved by me, but you are in satanic hands, and in order for me to save you I had to do this." Then He will take you back to His side. That's God's heart -- it's His way of loving you.
But you too often betray God's love, you leave God again after coming back to Him. He looks for you again, but you are separated farther and farther from Him. What would God's heart be like at that moment? He would feel like beating you harder and harder and when you cling to Him again, He cannot sympathize. Just imagine, if your parents love you dearly and you betray their love, sin and come back to them, they would welcome you. But if you separate from them again, and commit even more mistakes, and repent to your parents, what would they feel? You are prodigal sons, always breaking your parents' hearts nut you are so greedy that you want to be loved by your parents more than your brothers and sisters. When God looks at you being like that, what do you think He feels? We can well imagine that God is miserable looking at us. God knows that we are miserable people, but more than that, God will look at Himself always miserably because His children are in such a condition.
When God is so miserable, who will console His heart? Whenever God is disappointed at human beings now, He's sure to remember sinless Adam and Eve living in happiness. Isn't that true with you? Suppose you have sinned, when you look back to your past you repent and say, "Oh! If only I hadn't done such a thing. I could have been happy in the bosom of my parents. Before it is too late, I want to go back to Father and Mother" and you struggle hard to go back. You recollect the days in which you were utterly happy. Comparing your present life to life in that previous world, you want to leave this situation and go back to the original state.
God will be happy when we are
Man was created in the image of God, so we can imagine that God's heart is the same. Only by having us become happy will He become happy. It is God's desire to bring man back so that He can love them as He would have done before the fall. It is not only God's desire, but the desire of the whole creation, including the spirit world. God, man and the whole creation are waiting for the day to come in which all will be restored. The first desire of man is to see the day in which some people at least will be restored to the point above the stage where Adam and Eve fell. Secondly, he or she would want to see the day come in which not only some are restored and live in that world but he himself, too.
So you must find one person who is entitled to be loved by God, and then by uniting with him, you also go back to the original status. Without our finding such a person doing the central job, we cannot follow his example and restore ourselves as individuals and we cannot take a mate and build such a family, clan, tribe, nation and world. Religious people have been prepared for that person to be found, and then to have the people follow his example. In all the major religions, people are expecting the Messiah, whatever the terminology may be for the leading figure by whom or through whom the rest of the people can be saved. When the Messiah comes, he's the central personage whom other people would miss and to whom they would like to bring their families, clans and nations. Even religious people want to lay a foundation to live in this world, and to receive benefit from their religion. But when we really understand that we are now living in the fallen world, we want to have nothing to do with that world: First of all, we must deny ourselves and our former circumstances in order to be able to come back to man's original status. Has there ever been such a religion? If there were no such religion in the world, it would be miserable. So, our purpose in this movement is to build such a group.
In our movement, all young people are obedient to the call of God. If God ever finds such a group of people, He could have hope that He could build the ideal world of unity through these people. If they found the Messiah, they would follow him, and whatever is said by him would be put into practice. A very beautiful young white lady could marry an ugly black boy if that is God's will. If a girl of 18 is supposed to marry an old man, can you say, "If it is God's will... as you please! I will do that." If in such circumstances the answer is always "yes" then you are going to be introduced to God by the mediator. The Messiah can introduce you to God because he's the greatest example of that dedication. Whatever he is told by God, he will always answer with "yes." If you do the same, the Messiah will find his image in you, so he can easily introduce you to God. Those who are entitled to the kingdom of heaven are that kind of people. Jesus Christ was one, and anyone who is obedient to commands coming from God is one. Those who are in the highest realms of spirit world are those who lived that kind of life. Are you the sons and daughters to the Messiah, inheriting his way of life? (Yes!) Are you ready to be crucified if it is God's will? (Yes!) If you are able to say "Yes" to whatever God tells you to do, then God will respect you and smile at you instead of being angry.
Be obedient to God's will
At the time of the fall, what was the attitude of Adam and Eve? Were they obedient to God's will? No. So we must go the reverse way, doing opposite things. Girls, if you are told to shave your hair and even shave your eyebrows and everything, if it is God's will you will obey without reservation, won't you? (Yes!) When you are told to go fundraising, will you say, "Oh, I'm a graduate student with an MA degree! How can I go out on the street selling flowers? That's a nobody's job." Instead of doing that, you must say that you can be the king of fundraisers.
How would God react? He would be enchanted by you. He would miss you and want to see you. If God is with you, all satanic people will be repelled from you. So, without your being conscious of it you are already victors. Even in witnessing, when you are too old to witness to people, you can easily fear, "Oh! Again I must witness to the people. Not two hours, but five hours, eight hours, 24 hours, even in my dreams!" Instead of doing that, why don't you do the job willingly so that when you are told to do eight hours of witnessing, you want to do 24 hours. God will be beaten by that. At Barrytown, when I assembled all the overseas missionaries, at first I imagined that they feared going to unknown lands, but their faces were all brilliant and full of hope, so I was very happy.
To go back to the mainstream of my thought, you must think that nothing is impossible when you do things asked by God. In building God's kingdom, I need that kind of people as citizens. It is God's ideal to build a world in which the kings of the earth are going to live. Seen from this viewpoint, does God have such individuals, such families, such nations and such a world? No. We now know that it is the desire of God, man, the angels and the whole creation to have that kind of world established, but it has not been realized yet. Don't you want to see God's face all lie up? Do you want to see Him dance, and hear Him sing? (Yes!) It is not only your wish, but also the wish of the angelic world and the whole creation. It is the wish of God Himself. It is the focal point of all wishes, the goal of all wishes, the sum of all wishes. If such a family should ever exist, it would be one where God would want to live, the angels would want to live, and the whole creation would want to rejoice. Not, only a nation, but the whole world must be built like that.
Sing and dance through life
But if there's no such individual, no such family, no such nation, and no such world what would you do? You know that God wants that kind of a world established and you, too, want it. You should have the confidence to say, "I am above the level where Adam and Eve fell. I have nothing to do with sin. I'm the king of yes-men and I will fulfill every command from God." God would want to see if you can do it. He will trust you so much. Wherever you go, even though you have fallen into the dungeon of life, you will sing and dance. Satan cannot attack that kind of person. If you can do your job happily and smile and dance all through life, if there are obstacles before you, you will kick them out of the way. After going through all these things, you will sing songs of glory and victory. Toward such people, God cannot but feel joy. God cannot but protect you and help you, and to those persons, there's nothing but victory ahead.
If you can say, "Here I am, all ready, and my mate is here. We can form an ideal family. And with our family in the center we can form an ideal clan, tribe, nation and world," God cannot but rely on such people and use those people to restore the whole world. If there's any such individual, he's sure to make a family like that. If there's any such clan in the world, that clan is sure to be able to build a tribe like that, the tribe the nation, and the nation the world. If you are that kind of person, ready to build a family like that, would your wife follow you out of joy and willingness? Or would your wife say, "I have been with him 30 years, and he has not even bought a house for our children. We are living under such miserable conditions; how can I believe in his being able to make a future world?" There are numerous religions in the world, but there's only one religion in which people are confident to build such a family, such a tribe, nation and world. That's none other than the Unification group.
All through my life, I've known that I was born for that. I will live for that and die for that. In my lifetime I have got to build my family on that base, and build my clan, tribe, and the world into a place like that. I have been under great difficulties and hardships, but I survived all those things and came to the United States to win a victory here. The Unification Church excels any other church. It excels the democratic idea, and it excels Communism, so God cannot but rely on this group.
While in other Christian denominations there is rupture and division, in our movement there's strong unity. We are confident of winning the democratic world, and we are confident to win over and absorb Communism. So, God cannot but rely on this group. There's no other group but ours. Even in the free world there's racial discrimination and conflict between colors, creeds, and things like that. But our movement transcends that. The democratic world and even the Communist world discriminate between classes but we transcend that, so we are the only and the most wonderful group on which God can rely. We will always be standing in the vanguard, and all others are destined to follow us.
We are building a new world
You are born in America, but you are not an American citizen anymore. It is God's heart to want to do the job, and if you are really His children you must be able to carry out what is assigned to you by God. Then alone can you really call yourselves the sons and daughters of God. We are going to build a world in which everything will be God-centered, and all people will be united -- singing, dancing, and smiling. All will live together in unity and harmony.
This is our job to carry out; it is our task to build such a world, and we are confident of doing that. Just imagine: in the near future we will be using Telstar to televise what we are doing to the ends of the world. When we dance, people all over the world will see us dance and sing in harmony over TV. God will be so happy He will not only smile, but He will almost weep out of joy; angels and the whole creation will do the same, together with man. Here we transcend national boundaries: Germans, Americans, Japanese, and members from many nationalities are preparing for the day to come. We are practicing living that type of life in God's kingdom. It is God's heart and God's wish to establish and live in that kind of world. Can you do that?(Yes!) Knowing that this is God's desire for you, and this is God's heart, I want you to be confident to carry out the job, establish this kind of world and live as citizens of the world.