Sun Myung Moon
October 19, 1978
Breakfast presentation for the Korea District Development Research Center
Chosun Hotel, Seoul, Korea
Photo date and location unknown
Respected leaders from every field of endeavor, I am sincerely grateful to have received your invitation to this meaningful meeting, and I am much honored to address you as leaders who are the backbone of our nation's development.
God has chosen Korea
I have been overseas devoting myself to proclaiming the realization of God's kingdom, even while encountering many difficulties. Now at last, after two and a half years, I can finally walk again in my homeland. I have longed to do so, and I would have often returned here under ordinary circumstances. However, because I needed to conclude my intense confrontation with the Fraser Committee, I had to postpone the return to my homeland for two and a half years. Mr. Fraser's committee sank its teeth into our movement and refused to let go, but last September 12, 1978, Congressman Fraser was defeated in his Democratic Party primary. Seen even through human eyes, he is truly an unfortunate person. Therefore I said to our church members, "Let us pray for him, because we should love even our foes."
Congressman Fraser was defeated in a battle that seemed impossible to lose. What is the reason for this? He was defeated because he was going against God's Will. According to a holy man's words, "People who are for Heaven remain, and people who are against Heaven disappear." It seems that Congressman Fraser received God's judgment during that election.
Mr. Fraser’s efforts to turn Korea into a second Vietnam were exactly opposite the Will of God, who has chosen Korea to accomplish Heaven's great providence. Once we know God's providence, we can understand that Korea is an important nation. Korea is a nation that can play a decisive role in stopping communism from taking over the world. God can never permit communism to dominate the world, for that would mean nothing less than the destruction of God.
In this final historic battle between the ideologies of theism and atheism, God has chosen Korea as His champion. Therefore, before Heaven, Congressman Fraser's plot to destroy Korea was unforgivable. I could clearly foresee that God's judgment would come upon Mr. Fraser. Since he stood in the position against Heaven, I knew that no matter how great his power was, in the end he would be miserable. No one who opposes the principles of Heaven can survive and remain. Therefore, we can only say that Congressman Fraser's defeat was the judgment of God.
On my return to Korea this time, I felt God's special love for Korea to the marrow of my bones. As I looked down on Gimpo Airport, which I have seen so many times before, it seemed to be welcoming me in a special way. The warm welcome of my fellow countrymen has moved my spirit very much.
As soon as I returned, I traveled the 350 kilometers from the north to the south. I wanted to see again our mountains and rivers, which are as beautiful as silk embroidered paintings. The greens and blues of our mountains and rivers, and their grace, have no equal.
In addition, the many aspects of our national development please me to no end. Brothers and sisters of my homeland, you have truly done mighty works. But as we catch up with the developed nations, we should not be self-satisfied like they are. Our homeland, the Republic of Korea, is destined to accomplish a great task for God.
Two thousand years ago in the little village of Bethlehem in Judea, unknown to anyone, a great thought appeared. That was the thought and the teaching of Jesus. Centering on that thought concerning the salvation of the world, God has carried out His work for the past two thousand years.
Now once more history has changed. Today God is looking at Korea, a small nation of the Far East, as the birthplace of a new teaching for world salvation. This teaching will establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and deliver the world from communism's evil hand. We should joyfully take on this task that God is giving us. This is precisely the way to eternal prosperity for our homeland, the Republic of Korea; it is the eternal and shining way.
The world has become the antithesis of the ideal of creation
Today I wish to frankly share a part of my faith with you.
All religions of the world start by recognizing the ultimate cause of the cosmos, the first cause, as God the Creator. If God exists, then God is good and God is eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute.
God's purpose of creation is joy. It was to experience joy that God created the world and human beings. In order to feel joy, however, one should definitely have an object partner. When a subject partner and an object partner form a relationship and engage in give and take action, they can feel joy. The greatest joy can be felt when love is being given and received. Therefore, God created human beings to be His object partners, and through an infinite give and take of love for eternity, God wanted to experience joy eternally with human beings. This was God's purpose of creation.
In order to accomplish this purpose of creation, God created one man and one woman as the first ancestors of humanity. In the Bible they are called Adam and Eve. If Adam and Eve had become the perfect object partners of God's joy, then their give and receive of love would have multiplied descendants of goodness. As that family multiplied into a society, the society into a nation, the nation into a world, the whole earth would have been filled with this one tribe of Adam and Eve. This would have been a world of joy that completed God's goodness and love. That world, called the kingdom of heaven, would have been established on this earth in the beginning.
The kingdom of heaven on earth is one extended family centering on God, where all people are brothers and sisters. It would have one culture and one tradition, and it would clearly be a united world. There would be no racial problems; there would be no differences of language, divisions among the nations, confrontations of ideologies, no murder or war.
If we imagine this world of God's ideal and then look at the world in which we are living today, we feel strongly that this world is the exact opposite of God's ideal. First of all, today we can see that even as individuals we are divided between mind and body. Our world today is a world of division: divisions among nations, divisions among cultures and traditions, divisions between the races, divisions between ideologies and divisions of love. Because of these divisions, history has been a succession of wars, of battles, of killing one another. No matter how we look at it, we cannot call this world the kingdom of heaven.
Truly we live in hell on earth. This result came about because the first ancestors of humanity, Adam and Eve, fell. To say they fell means that they disobeyed God and separated from God. Therefore, history began where God could not dwell with them directly. History has consisted of acts of disobedience to God, one after another, to this day.
Jesus was sent for the salvation of the world
I mentioned that the Will of God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. Therefore, even though the fallen world came about through the first human ancestors' betrayal, the original ideal and purpose of God have not changed. God will accomplish the original ideal of creation by all means. Therefore, after the human Fall God could not just stand by. His Will from that point drove the history of salvation to save fallen humanity.
What is salvation? Salvation is to restore an ill person back to his or her original state of health. Pertaining to our fallen world, salvation is to restore our world back to its original state before the Fall. God has worked to bring an end to this fallen world and restore the original ideal world He had planned before the Fall.
Two thousand years ago God sent the Savior, Jesus Christ, to the world. The purpose for sending him was the salvation of fallen people, and salvation can be said to be restoration. That the Messiah saves the world means that he restores the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Even though the Messiah definitely came to the earth two thousand years ago, the kingdom of heaven has not yet been established. This is a major problem. Jesus proclaimed the coming of the kingdom of heaven, saying, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand." (Matt. 4:17) But there was no sign that the kingdom of heaven really was at hand. Rather, Jesus was judged as a criminal and nailed to the cross. He suffered a miserable fate. This is a testimony to the fact that God's Will in sending the Messiah was not completely realized two thousand years ago.
What could have been the reason for this? The reason was ignorance and disbelief on the part of the chosen people. God nurtured and led the chosen people, the Israelites, for four thousand years before sending the Messiah because He intended that they accomplish His Will by receiving the Messiah when he came. But when the Messiah came, the chosen people of Israel did not know God's Will.
They dreamed that when the Messiah came, they, who were suffering under their Roman conquerors, would avenge themselves and conquer Rome by force in one fell swoop. Some among the chosen people thought that Israel would reign over the whole world with imperial power. The Messiah who some wanted was a Messiah of power, one who would use the force of arms. But the Messiah's ideal of the kingdom of heaven cannot be realized by force of arms. God's ideal of the kingdom of heaven can be realized only by truth and love.
The chosen people rejected the Messiah whom they should have served. Moreover, they did not realize that the Messiah came to save the whole world, even at the cost of sacrificing the chosen people. Rather, they believed that he would give freedom to their nation and would give them royal authority. Jesus' appearance -- barefoot, shabby and powerless -- was a sign of failure in the eyes of a people who dreamed of attaining self-centered power and political victory through militant means.
It can be said that there was no greater tragedy than this and no greater misfortune for humankind. The sad outcome was that God's kingdom could not be realized at that time and it became necessary for God to send the Messiah again in the future.
We call the day when God will again send the Messiah as Savior, the day of the Second Advent. God's Will, which was not fully accomplished at the time of Jesus, has been extended to the Second Advent. From the very day Jesus was nailed to the cross, God devoted Himself lovingly to prepare for the day of the Second Advent. Two thousand years of history have passed since that time. Nowadays, voices are growing louder and louder proclaiming that these are the Last Days. We can understand that people all over the world are waiting for the Messiah.
A Second Israel for the Second Advent of the Messiah
Then what accomplishment has God been seeking during the last two thousand years of history, and what is the key for beginning the new history? Before sending the second Messiah, God will prepare another chosen people. Just as one cannot build a house without a foundation, God cannot send the Messiah without the foundation of a chosen people. Before sending Jesus Christ, God prepared the chosen people of Israel. Likewise, God laid a new foundation of a worldwide chosen people to receive the coming new Messiah. This is Christianity, which has spread around the world.
The teachings of Jesus, who was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, are the foundation of a religion that over the last two thousand years expanded worldwide. This is the result of God's providence to form a worldwide chosen people, in expectation of the day of the Second Advent. The task of Christianity today is to welcome and serve the Messiah when God sends him again. Christians absolutely should not act as the chosen people did two thousand years ago, and nail him to the cross again. Christianity today stands in the position of the Second Israel in both name and reality.
Moreover, God has two important tasks that need to be accomplished before sending the Messiah again. One of them is the creation of a highly developed material civilization. The accomplishment of God's Will means the realization of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It doesn't mean only a spiritual kingdom of heaven, but also a physical kingdom of heaven, or paradise in the material sense. Hence, God needs to prepare a highly developed material civilization to encompass the highly developed spiritual culture that will come into being with the Second Advent of the Messiah. In God's ideal world, all humankind will live in close contact with one another. Through the advancement of science, there will be means of transportation and communication serving our every need. This advancement is a very important element for the construction of the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is a necessary condition, indispensable to the creation of the one world culture.
The realization of a highly developed material civilization, which began with the Industrial Revolution in Great Britain and has continued through recent centuries, is all part of God's master plan. The very fact that men and women all over the globe could simultaneously watch the landing of Apollo 11 on the Moon shows that today we share a common connection. This means that the day of the Lord is at hand.
God will form the circumstances in which the Messiah can come. What does this mean? It means the creation of a system of law such that even kings cannot kill others at will. If we look at the time of Jesus, people's lives were as insignificant as flies to the people in power. The system of laws into which Jesus was born had little meaning; it was a world without laws. If the administrators or people with power wanted to have him killed, they could do it as easily as killing a fly. Jesus' proclamation of a fundamental human revolution could not be permitted or accepted under the system of that society. We can say that Jesus being nailed to the cross was almost unavoidable under the system of those days. God knows this so well, so He knows that one of the necessary conditions for the Second Advent of the Messiah is a system of laws in which a person cannot be killed just because it is someone else's will.
The system that God prepared for over the last two thousand years is democracy. Democracy is the system that respects human rights. Democracy is the system in which a minority can survive in the midst of a majority. Democracy is the system that guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of the press and freedom of assembly. If we consider the Constitution of the United States, which can be regarded as the representative nation of democracy, the most essential freedom is freedom of religion. The Constitution states that the American Congress and government shall pass no laws respecting the establishment of religion or denying the free exercise thereof.
This is the system in which God's Son can come and even preach a revolutionary message without being nailed to the cross again. To take a familiar example in this light, the Unification Church has preached a revolutionary message in America and has incurred the displeasure of some Americans, but they could not nail us to the cross.
America is the central nation of God's providence
When the days of the Second Advent come, God will need to choose one central nation from Christianity, the worldwide Second Israel. What does this mean? Since the ultimate ideal of the kingdom of heaven on earth is to be substantially realized on the earth, it needs to start at a particular central point and then spread step by step to the world. That is to say, there should be a nation adequate to serve as a model. The nation that was predestined and chosen long ago, and which is capable of carrying out God's central providence in the Last Days, is the United States.
Now for a short time I would like to look back on the formation of the United States. In spite of being such a mighty continent, North America did not enter world history until the sixteenth century. We can explain this by thinking that God planned to use it in a special way during the Last Days and therefore hid it away in secret.
The United States is a nation that began through immigration. That is to say, it had no owners. The original inhabitants, the Native Americans, lived there, but they did not consolidate their rule over the continent as the owners of one nation. Because there was no one owner, we can say that God was the owner. Therefore, America was a place to which God could send His special people, whom God had chosen. On the European continent people called America the New World. The first people who immigrated to North America came with hopes to serve God. They were seeking freedom of religion.
These early immigrants living under the tyranny of the Old World had so completely lost hope that, even knowing they might lose their lives, they left their homeland and crossed the Atlantic Ocean. They possessed heroic determination and sailed for fifty-seven days on the tiny ship called the Mayflower, with their lives constantly in peril on the rough seas. After a difficult voyage, they finally landed in the New England region of North America. These people were the Pilgrims. They were America's forefathers.
During the voyage two of them died, and fully half of them died during the first winter after they landed. They were people who thought God and faith were more important than their lives. It cannot be called accidental that they became America's forebears, and that their spirit became the founding spirit of America.
The founding spirit of America is expressed in the motto, One Nation under God. This is clear proof of God's Will to establish it as His nation and make it the central Christian nation for receiving the Messiah at his return. People that believed in God gathered together in this fertile land that God had hidden away and built a religious nation of all races. This is the model of the future kingdom of heaven on earth.
Now, centering on God's Will, America has become the flag bearer to save the world. Through the cooperation of religion and the nation, America is accomplishing God's historical wish for the salvation of the world, a one world family with a universal culture. America has taken on the burden of this central task to accomplish God's historical vision of world salvation.
Out of a virgin land, God gave birth to the United States, the most powerful nation in the world, in just two hundred years, in order to prepare for the struggle against communism, the final evil power that would appear in the Last Days. The American people must realize that God's blessing, which they are enjoying today, is not only for America. They need to realize clearly that their blessing is for the world, and that it brings with it the responsibility to fulfill God's Will.
The American people ought to be burning with determination to save the people of the world, even if they have to suffer martyrdom. Armed with the spirit of Christianity, they need to be willing to go the way of the cross. From God's point of view, the paramount task for America is to protect the free world from communism and become the driving force that can eventually liberate even the communists.
Ominous signs appearing in America
Yet since 1945, after the victory of the Second World War, America has been showing ominous signs that it is falling away from God's Will. This is a sorrowful turn of events. I say this because I love America. Someone has to awaken America, so at a meeting with American congressional leaders I made the following points:
First, it was God who, through America, brought about the victories of the first two World Wars and brought about the United Nations, which is like a global nation. From the viewpoint of God's primary Will, the United Nations should be centered on the spirit of Christianity and function as the headquarters for all the countries of the world. It was against God's Will that the United Nations welcomed communist nations.
Immediately after the victory of the Second World War, America did not play its role properly. America had the responsibility to guide in a proper way the victorious Allied Nations and the defeated Axis nations that it governed. America had the responsibility to manage them as God's nations. If America had understood God's Will clearly, it would have seized upon the opportunity to restore the world to God's Will by overtaking the Soviet Union, a nation which because of the godless ideology of communism is on Satan's side. Instead, at that time America allowed the communists to take over many nations in Asia and Eastern Europe as satellites.
The tragic divisions of Korea and Germany at that time have caused much misery. The victory of the Second World War was God's blessing, by which He intended to strengthen the free world and overtake communism. But if we look at the final results, it seems America let the blood of its young men be spilled in vain by giving the benefits they earned to the communists, even though they were proven adversaries who deny God. Americans need to know that the blood of those young men cries out even today.
Moreover, by retreating from her sacred trust to protect the free world, America has given away even more to the communists. This includes South Vietnam, which was under its protection. Therefore, the international stature of America has fallen, and the voices of resentment against it are growing louder and louder every day. These days the UN has become a forum for the propaganda of the communist countries. Thereby it is abandoning its original responsibility.
This is not all. Day by day in America more serious things are happening. Drug abuse is destroying American youth. Immorality and corruption, the breakdown of the family and violent crime continue to increase. There are many other serious problems as well, but among them, the infiltration of communism is the most dangerous malady.
American society promotes the viewpoint that life is primarily the search for physical pleasure. It promotes a standard of value that exalts extreme individualism. If America continues like this, God will surely leave America and America will cause God's plan to fail. This is very clear and apparent. What can God do at this point?
God sees the situation in America in all its stark reality. It is no exaggeration to say that God foresaw the possibility that America would become like this. It also can be said that it was inevitable that western civilization, by centering on material values, would bring about conditions like these in America.
From any viewpoint it is clear that material civilization is like the body, not the spirit. If America today is a body that God created, then God surely planned to create a spirit to fill this body. The place where God intends to first raise this spirit is in the Far East. If the spirit of the East and the body of the West become one, then at last the world will function as the complete being that God designed it to be. Today, western culture is waiting for an intellectual or a spiritual revolution. But the situation nowadays is such that this spiritual revolution cannot be expected to originate in western society. However, it will arise in the Far East.
Here for a moment I would like to look at the prophecy of the outstanding English scholar, Arnold Toynbee. He was a famous historian and philosopher. His view of history is brilliant, and it anticipates the future very keenly. Even beyond the field of history he is respected as a prophet. He prophesied the collapse of western civilization, saying, "Western civilization centering on Christianity has reached the edge of destruction." He also said: "The purpose of history does not dwell in the development of civilization. The progress and decline of civilizations has in fact been a method for the realization of the higher religions."
Thus, Dr. Toynbee states that the end of the stream of history is not the development of civilization. Rather, the true purpose of the history of civilizations is to foster the development of religion. Furthermore, he expected that a higher religion would appear in Asia, a religion that can save collapsing Western civilization. The famous prophecy of Arnold Toynbee is, "Light will come from the East."
The fire of a new religious teaching blazes as a beacon from Korea
It may seem revolutionary, but this morning I proclaim without hesitation that the light which Toynbee spoke about, the new religious teaching that can save the world, will appear in Korea. The fire of that spiritual revolution has already been lit in Korea. It is already a beacon burning brightly for the world.
Even now, Western civilization is bursting into flame! Already hundreds of thousands of young people of all nations and races have the flame of that spiritual revolution in their hearts. A new standard of value and a new viewpoint of life have already been planted within them. All over the world they are bringing a total moral revolution, practicing sacrificial service for the sake of humanity.
The beacon of that spiritual revolution is the Unification Church. If this spiritual revolution is properly grafted to the material civilization of America, it will be the moment when the spirit and body meet. At that moment, America will have hope because it will meet with the spirit, and Korea will also have hope because it will meet with the body. Therefore, if America and Korea become one, they will go forward to begin a movement for world restoration. Then the world will have hope. This power of that spiritual revolution will be enough to defeat world communism.
I have created so many controversies in America. The main accusation against me is that I brainwash the youth. The spiritual movement I lead has created such a shock that intelligent American people say I brainwash their children. On December 12, 1975, when I was asked about this at the United States House of Representatives, I replied, "Let me ask you distinguished congressmen a question. Are you dumb enough to be brainwashed by me, this man who came from Korea and always has to speak through an interpreter?" The congressmen said I gave a wise answer!
A reporter is said to have sneaked into the Unification Church in America and made a desperate attempt to find bottles containing the drugs that Rev. Moon supposedly uses for brainwashing. It seems that he thought we brainwash by using some kind of drug. At last he found a bottle of our Il Hwa ginseng tea. "Ah ha! This is it!" he exclaimed, and ran off to try it. However, he didn't experience any mental disorientation, only a feeling of wellbeing.
I don't brainwash American youth, by drugs or otherwise. Rather, they go through a revolution within their hearts when they hear the teachings that God gave me. This is true. Even hearing only once the truth that God gave me in this land of Korea is enough to bring about a revolution within the heart. It brings even the most individualistic Americans to step forward and be willing to sacrifice for the world. They free themselves from slavery to drugs and sexual immorality. They discover their identity as God's children. They become patriotic Americans. They willingly dedicate their lives to serving God and take up the path to becoming holy men and women of character. Moreover, they recognize that communism is the enemy of God, and burn with desire to liberate humankind from communism.
How is it that God chose our homeland of Korea as the place wherein to reveal the ultimate ideology for the restoration of the world? What qualifications does Korea have in the Last Days to become the chosen nation? To put it briefly, it is because the Korean people are a people who can understand God's circumstances. Throughout history, no one knew that God was not a God of joy but rather the King of kings of sorrow. No one knew that God was the Parent who had lost His children from the very day of creation. A Parent who has lost His children is miserable and to be pitied even if He is the King of kings.
The God of all history is a Parent with whom we should sympathize. The most dutiful child to this Parent who is deserving of pity is the person who takes on the burden of his Parent's sorrows. The Korean people were chosen for this role.
Korea, a nation chosen in the midst of suffering
The five thousand-year history of Korea has been full of troubles and trials. Korea was impoverished for a long time, and due to bitter harassment from foreign powers the Korean people knew the taste of tears and the taste of sorrow. Having gone through so many trials during their difficult history, the circumstances of the Korean people have been similar to God's circumstances, as God lamented seeing fallen human beings, who, though His children, are as if dead.
The Korean people know the taste of tears. Therefore, they can understand the God of tears. It is not by accident that from ancient times the Korean people preferred tragic plays. This familiarity with tragedy is a qualification that allowed the Korean people to sympathize with the God who tasted tragedy through the Fall.
There is a proverb: "A widow knows another widow's situation." We have thought that God enjoyed power in joy and glory, but when we come to know God, we see that He is a miserable, lonely Parent who weeps over His lost children. God is seeking for us, believing that we will become the filial children who will console His heart.
From ancient times the Korean people were recognized as having a high standard of loyalty and filial piety. When I was invited to the May 16th Plaza for our Armed Forces Day this year, my heart was filled with pride when I saw the majestic presentation of our nation's weaponry. As the soldiers marched past the reviewing stand and shouted the slogan, "Loyalty and Filial Piety," I was deeply moved.
If we understand these words as the slogan shouted by the chosen people of God, they are revolutionary. I doubt there are any other soldiers in the world with a slogan like this. Koreans are destined to be the ultimate people who give loyalty and filial piety to God. This is why the spirit of loyalty and filial piety has become the central thought of the nation today.
The renowned examples of filial piety, fidelity, and loyalty such as a young girl's filial love in the story Shim Chung, the faithfulness of Choonhyang for her husband, the loyalty of Chung Mong-ju to his king, and the patriotic martyrdom of the young Yu Gwan-soon are difficult to find anywhere else, in the East or in the West, in the past or the present. Yet these stories reflect the spirit of the Korean people.
This spirit of loyalty and filial piety, together with integrity, which is as steady as the evergreen and straight as bamboo, will become the backbone of the spirit and thought of the kingdom of heaven on earth to be established in the future. Since the kingdom of heaven is God's nation, we have to give it our eternal loyalty, and since God is humankind's Parent, we have to give our Parent eternal filial piety. God tested all the peoples of the earth, and He could not find a nation with the integrity and a spirit of loyalty and filial piety higher than Korea. Therefore, God chose Korea and came here.
Moreover, the Korean people, who tend to wear white clothes, love peace and maintain it. We are a nation that has never invaded another nation. It is like a miracle that the Korean people could maintain their love of peace and keep a pure history. This could be possible only through the protection of God. Expressing it in a slogan, we can say, "God is with our people."
Throughout our five thousand-year-history, foreign nations have swallowed up our nation, but each time they suffered from indigestion. Each time they devoured us, they had to spit us out again. By whose power did this happen? It was God's power. Who gave us our independence on August 15, 1945? It was God, by His power. What stopped the North Korean invasion during the Korean War? It was the power of God.
During the Korean War, if United States President Truman's decision had been made even three days later, we would have been pushed into the sea at Pusan. Furthermore, if the Soviet Union had exercised its veto power in the United Nations Security Council, it would have been impossible to send UN troops here. But when the problem of sending troops to Korea was discussed, the Soviet representative was not present. At that moment, the plan to send in troops was being decided with complete consensus and at top speed. The Soviet representative did not participate at that very moment. Who made it so? It was God.
Carrying out a new movement of love
No one can touch Korea as long as God's special protection is here. By God's power, the powers that want to harm Korea are being broken down one by one. The recent defeat of Congressman Fraser, who sought to destroy Korea through the U.S. Congress, is a good example of this.
Ladies and gentlemen, God has protected our homeland Korea so that it can be the forerunner of a new era. Our long-endured difficulties have passed, and at last the day has come when we will step forward as leaders of this new era. However, the reason God called Korea is not to give life only to Korea; it is to save the whole world. Korea needs to realize that it has been called to the task of saving the world. Since God called us, we need to become kings and queens of love who can be the first to sacrifice ourselves for God's task of bringing salvation to the world. To die for this holy task is to live, and to suffer for it is the way to glory. This is the meaning of Jesus' words, "He who seeks to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10:39, 16:25)
Korea's New Village (Sae-maul) Movement is a brilliant, monumental demonstration of self-reliance and revival. Such an achievement is without parallel in our history since the time of Tangun, the founder of Korea. There is no record of any other nation having such an achievement. The present industrial development of Korea surpasses even the reconstruction of Japan and Germany after the war. The fact of this rapid growth has great meaning, especially when it occurs at the same time as Kim Il Sung is probing, looking for any chance to attack the South.
The American people have tried to accuse me by saying that I have a close relationship with President Park Chung-hee, but in reality I never met President Park, not even once. It is not the way of a righteous person to refuse to recognize good acts for what they are. I firmly believe that President Park is a leader chosen by Heaven for this important era. I think that if it were not for him, it would be very difficult to endure the constant threat from Kim Il Sung, and the reconstruction of our homeland would I not be possible.
There is a reason why God has helped our homeland develop very rapidly by raising up such a leader at this time in history. It is because the time has come for Korea to guide the world. We need to take a great leap into the world as the nation that is creating a new spiritual culture. To do so, Korea should shed its past image as a poor and humble place. God wants to send Korea as an ambassador to the world, but God cannot send an ambassador in dirty, ragged clothes. Rather, God wants to send our nation forth in full ceremonial dress. Korea needs to acquire the image of global leadership, both in name and in reality. Korea should become a model for the whole world, an object of admiration, which can be respected by others in every aspect. President Park is the person whom God has chosen in order to accomplish this task.
Korea's New Village Movement ought to move ahead with the motto, "Let us live well," and develop int a movement to make the whole world live well. Therefore, my initiative to develop the New Village Movement into the "New Mind Movement" is in line with God's Will. Just as the New Village Movement is a movement to enable the body to live well, the New Mind Movement is a movement to enable the spirit to live well. The backbone of this New Mind Movement is the spirit of loyalty and filial piety. If the New Mind Movement spreads throughout the world, the world will learn the true spirit of loyalty and filial piety from us.
However, this New Mind Movement has to progress to the next level. The movement that we ultimately should begin is the "New Love Movement." The focus of the New Love Movement will be to love God as our Parent and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The crown of love is sacrifice. The New Mind Movement has to develop into a movement that teaches how to sacrifice for God, the world, the nation and all fellow citizens.
This is Jesus' ultimate teaching, but historically Christianity has always fallen short of accomplishing what I mean by this New Love Movement. Any movement that lives only for itself will inevitably fail, while any movement that is willing to die to let others live will remain eternally. Because the chosen people didn't understand this, they rejected Jesus. Rome enjoyed prosperity during the ascendancy of Christianity, but when it became self-centered, even that great empire finally collapsed internally.
Let us build Korea into God's homeland
God also once blessed England. There was a time when England's power spread so widely over the earth that it was said that the sun never set on the British Empire. But when its global colonial policy began to center on itself, and England forgot the significance of the material blessing God had given it, England's decline as a colonial power was as rapid as the falling leaves of autumn. It declined because it did not know the New Love Movement.
Today America's power and blessings surpass those of the Roman Empire at its height. For two hundred years, the United States practiced well its equivalent of the New Village Movement and the New Mind Movement. But if in the Last Days the United States does not practice the New Love Movement, by which it willingly sacrifices for the world, its future will be grim.
Korea cannot be excused from this principle of God either. The New Love Movement is our ultimate way forward. If we are not burning with sacrificial love that is willing to sacrifice even ourselves and our nation to protect the world from communism and to help the whole world live well, we may be prosperous for a while, but we will eventually fall into the same trap and decline, just as the developed countries are declining today.
The Unification Church is now spreading this New Love Movement to more than 120 countries across the five oceans and six continents. God is working with this movement. Through this movement, people of the five races are becoming brothers and sisters in both name and reality. The homeland of the New Love Movement, which the Unification Church is leading, is our homeland, the Republic of Korea.
Shine forth, my beloved homeland! At last God has summoned you. You have become the homeland of the New Love Movement, which will save the world.
This is the testimony I offer to you this morning. Our Korean people's most urgent task is to wake up. We need to wake up to the fact that God has summoned us. We need to wake up to the fact that we are the chosen people. We need to wake up to the fact that we have not been chosen just so we ourselves can live well, but so that we can help the whole world live well. When we wake up to this task, unite into one and accomplish this work, then God's blessing will remain with our homeland forever. We will become the forerunners of the new age, as princes and princesses of God, and the glory of our homeland will be eternal and limitless.
Finally, I wish for endless blessings for you and your families, upon your personal lives, and for the Republic of Korea.
Thank you.