Complete content of the first 15 Peace Messages, September 12th 2005 – July 4th 2007 - reorganized into a continuous text.
Salutation
Ambassadors for Peace, leaders from all walks of life, current and former heads of state, and beloved blessed families! First of all, my wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, my true family and I would like to welcome you personally on this occasion. Thank you for attending despite your busy schedules. We would like to express our sincere gratitude for your efforts on the front line in fulfilling your mission in advancing the Universal Peace Federation and realizing peace for all humanity.
I would like to impart to you today a revelation from God that is absolutely essential to all the 6.5 billion people of the world, outlining God’s plan and dispensation and the direction humanity should take. It is about your role and mission as seen from the viewpoint of God’s providence, and of the importance of the age in which you are living. I hope you will all be wise leaders who open your minds to listen to the voice of Heaven. Please bear in mind that you, as leaders from throughout the world, are given the heavenly mission to build God’s substantial homeland, which is nothing less than the ideal that God intended at the time of Creation.
The message that I convey today contains the secrets of Heaven, which God has sent down to humankind in this Era after the Coming of Heaven. I sincerely ask that you open your hearts and engrave the words of Heaven upon them. May you have the wisdom to uphold these words as the standard for your life and pass them on to your family and clan, your descendants and the people in your community.
Chapter One
The hope of humanity is world peace
Throughout the ages, human beings have yearned and waited for the realization of the ideal of world peace. This is a dream common to all people, regardless of gender, age, time or place. However, never in history has the everlasting peace that brings joy to heaven been achieved. This fact remains the basis of our historical sorrow and anguish. The twentieth century was a period of ceaseless struggle, including wars for colonial dominion, the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War and the Cold War. Living through this era, I dedicated my life entirely to the accomplishment of the Kingdom of God, the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. I have always prayed sincerely that the United Nations, founded after the Second World War, would be an institution for peace, and that it would uphold God’s will for the realization of eternal world peace.
Throughout history humankind has continuously worked toward peace on the basis of human effort. The confrontation between democracy and communism is a prime example of this. Outwardly, the difference between the two was the extent to which individual rights and freedoms on the one hand and equality on the other were recognized and ensured. Yet, from the viewpoint of God’s providence, communism and democracy were like children who had lost their parents. The two divided into positions of Cain and Abel respectively and became entrapped in the fetters of fraternal conflict.
There are now some 200 nations in the world, yet aren’t many of these nations engaged in fierce conflicts, directly or indirectly? Aren’t they all intent on pursuing their own interests? Even the United Nations, founded with the noble ideal of protecting the welfare and peace of humankind and with the splendid dream of realizing world peace, must admit its innate limitations and confess that it can no longer give hope to humanity. Watching helplessly without a solution to the global crises of war, starvation and disease, isn’t the UN becoming an organization that exists more in name than in substance? The peace movements of history inevitably reached their limits and ended in failure because they were carried out by imperfect human beings. The UN was launched during the era prior to the time when God could directly govern the unfolding of His providence in history.
Humankind in the Last Days
Can we find anyone among the current leaders of the world who is genuinely concerned with the future of humankind and who is making the sacrifices necessary to bring harmony and peace to humanity on an interreligious and international level? Human beings are like children who have lost their parents, like misdirected youths who do not recognize their teacher, like sheep who have lost their shepherd. Human beings have become spiritually blind, unable to see even an inch in front of them.
Thinking of ourselves as “lords of creation”, we human beings have forged our own history. Although humankind had seen terrible massacres, and suffered natural disasters, the human race has survived and continues to multiply to this day, seeking a bright and happy world – although with only a vague concept of what that might be. Why is it that the human race is still unable to escape from the mire of sin and disease?
Chapter Two
God and the miracle of His creation
God, the Creator of all things, is the True Parent of all humanity. God is not a parent in the parochial sense, existing only for a certain religion, race or residents of a certain region. You may call Him by any name, be it Jehovah, Allah or any other. What is important is that He positively exists, lives as the True Parent of all people, and is carrying on the great work of creation. In accordance with the principles and the laws of nature that He set up at the beginning of time, he governs everything in the Universe, and He carries out His providence through history.
God’s creation is indeed profound. Everything He created was to prepare an environment for the perfection and happiness of human beings whom He created as His children and partners in love. Consider a flower: it is one of the masterpieces of God’s creation. Hidden within a flower – even in a nameless wild flower blooming in a field – we can easily discover the Creator’s will and purpose. To see a flower alive and growing to perfection is truly to witness a miracle.
Flowers display beautiful colours and the harmony of yin and yang. Even human beings, the lords of creation, cannot fully replicate their beauty. Flowers continuously give off fragrances that captivate the hearts of the bees and butterflies attracted to their dazzling colours. Flowers can absorb the powerful, brilliant rays of the sun that humans cannot bear to look at. They diffuse their light into natural rays of harmony and peace and utilize them to create and preserve life. Flowers also do not neglect their duty to provide honey nectar to the bees and butterflies that busily fly to and fro, helping them reproduce.
The miracle of God’s creation is infinite, transcending and defying any human description. Even a picture drawn by the greatest artist in the world cannot compare to a cluster of living wild flowers. Even in creating a single, insignificant flower, God the Creator opens the way for it to realize harmony in itself and contribute to the interdependence and mutual prosperity of the whole of creation. Given that this is so, how much greater is the stature of human beings, whom God created as His children, His eternal partners of love and His heirs?
The value of human beings as individual embodiments of truth
Each and every one of the millions of different kinds of flowers in full bloom maintains its dignity as an individual embodiment of truth under the majestic Principle of Creation. They create harmony in Mother Nature and abide by the laws of interdependence and mutual prosperity. Likewise, each and every human being has Heaven’s blessing and grace to seek harmony, peace, freedom and happiness and to find eternal life. Heaven has bestowed on each person the life and characteristics of an individual being. That is to say, every human being is born with the rights and privileges of an individual embodiment of truth. This means that every person, regardless of age, sex, rank or status, is destined to follow a course of life that is uniquely his or her own and that reflects his or her individual nature.
Can you find another person who resembles you one hundred percent? Think about it. Is there anyone else who has the same individual qualities that you have? Would the lives of identical twins who were born on the same day and time and who die even at the same time, be the same? No man can take another person’s individuality, even if he is the handsomest man in the world and the other person is the world’s ugliest man, because the ugly man is a unique embodiment of truth.
God, the King of Wisdom, continually creates eternal, individual embodiments of truth through the process of origin-division-union action, in accordance with His principle of creation. In this we can discover the standard of absolute value that makes a human being human. As with the interdependent and harmonious relationship between flowers and butterflies, human beings were created to live for one another and share true love. This means that the human standard of absolute value is established only within a life of true love, when the relationship between subject and object partners blooms in harmony.
Flowers and butterflies form relationships as subject and object partners. They depend on one another and prosper through their give-and-take action. In the same way, the Principle of Creation defines and predicts the course of relationships between humankind and nature, between people, and between God and human beings. Thus, Mother Nature is the combined body of all the individual embodiments of truth in creation, harmoniously bound together. Mother Nature stands as an absolute object partner before human beings, her subject partners. Her ordained role is to enable human beings to realize their absolute value.
In the same way, people establish families of three generations to live within this basic framework. There they learn and familiarize themselves with the vertical and horizontal relationships of above and below, left and right and front and back. This means that each individual seeks a life of harmony and love through give and take action within the relationships of subject and object partners. These relationships enable each family member to attain his or her absolute value as an individual embodiment of truth.
What about the relationship between God and human beings? As the Creator, God’s nature is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. On a closer look, however, we find that God stands in the subject partner position as He engages in reciprocating relationships with His creation within the sphere of the Principle of Creation that He established. This is because, although we think of God as the Absolute Being, He cannot feel joy outside of the give-and-take relationships with His partners.
Had Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, not fallen but instead perfected themselves according to the Principle of Creation as individual embodiments of truth, people today would be manifesting our absolute value. We would serve God above as our Lord with absolute obedience, and we would relate with the creation, the natural world, as our object partners, rejoicing in God’s eternal kingdom of peace. We would live as the citizens of the eternal kingdom of heaven, not only on earth, but also in the spirit world.
God’s purpose of creation
God created the world to receive joy from it. Since even the Absolute Being, God, could not feel joy while alone, he needs a partner with whom he could share the giving and receiving of love. This is because joy cannot be learned all by oneself, but can only be experienced through a partner.
In a transcendent state, asking God prayerfully what the center of the Universe is, the answer will be “the parent-child relationship”. This is because it defines the fundamental relationship between the Creator, God, and human beings. Securing a parent-child relationship with God, living while attending God as our Father, is the quickest way to cultivate a character of true love. By living as one family with God, each person becomes an owner of true love.
To put it another way, God created this world in order to feel joy from seeing humankind and all things of creation become one through His love, forming a harmonious and peaceful world of love. On such a basis, human beings were meant to form true conjugal relationships centering upon His love, and to establish families, tribes, peoples, nations and a world of true love. God created this world to participate directly in this process and to feel joy from it.
We can see that human beings are absolutely essential to fulfil God’s ideal of love, and, in light of this, we can better understand the concept that absolute value is derived from an absolute partner. God, as the Father, and humankind, as His children, were to form a vertical axis, and this was the purpose for the creation of human beings. If this axis had been connected perfectly, that is, if a relationship that united humankind and God as one through true love had been established, that relationship would have been as absolutely inseparable one, which no force in the Universe could break apart. How could anyone who has been bound to the original love of God, and who has tasted that love, ever be separated from it?
Chapter Three
The reality of the spirit world
The human mind is more elevated than the human body and the spirit self is more elevated than the mind. God resides in the world in which we live with our physical bodies and also in the spirit world, where our spirits are destined to pass on. He resides in a place more elevated than the spirit world. Only when we have become completely one with God in true love are we complete. Such a perfected person might be a small individual, but would nevertheless represent all of history and all potential future relationships and so could be said to possess infinite value. Once we are aware of having such universal value, we realize that our lives should be led by and carried out in service to our minds.
Looking at the structure of a human being from another perspective, we can recognize that God created us as beings with dual characteristics. He created our physical bodies as miniatures of the corporeal, tangible world and our spiritual bodies as representatives of and lords of the incorporeal world. Accordingly, His intention was that we would live for one hundred years or so in the physical world and, once the physical body ceases to function, pass on naturally and automatically into the incorporeal spirit world. In this way, though it cannot be perceived by the eyes in our physical bodies, the spirit world is the automatic and inevitable extension of our lives on earth, humankind’s eternal, original homeland, created by God.
The spirit world does actually exist. It is not a world that has been fantasized or imagined into existence. We do not have the right of choice concerning it. It is not a world we can go to if we please, or refuse to go to if we would rather not. Just as God is eternal and unchanging, the spirit world created by Him is also eternal and unchanging. Just as we live in the physical world in our physical bodies and form all sorts of relationships with the existing world, even in the spirit world we are destined to continue living in our spiritual bodies, forming and maintaining close relationships with all phenomena of the spirit world.
The relationship between the spirit self and the physical self
In the relationship between the spirit self and the physical self of a human being, the spirit self is the more important of the two. The physical self lasts for about one hundred years before it ceases to function, but the spirit lasts eternally, transcending time and space. No matter how well you fare in the physical world, you are bound to die. Therefore, before you pass on to the next world, you should achieve harmony between your spirit and your physical self by living your earthly life in such a way that you meet the standards of both the physical and spiritual worlds.
In other words, you have the responsibility to perfect your spirit within your physical self on the basis of the finite life you live in the tangible, physical world. This does not mean, however, that the perfection of your spirit self happens automatically. Only on the basis of your having achieved complete unity between your mind and body during your earthly life, by expressing true love through your actions, can your spirit self fully mature.
The Kingdom of Heaven must first be achieved on earth. What this means is that the Kingdom of Heaven being established in the corporeal world is prerequisite to establishing the Kingdom of Heaven in the incorporeal spirit world. Therefore, heaven is not the by-product of imagination existing only in the human brain, but refers to the substantial Kingdom of Heaven on earth, which can only be created when you have led a life expressive of true love. When you leave the physical world on that foundation, you automatically enter the spiritual kingdom of heaven. This means that only when you have led a heavenly life on earth, can you lead such a life also in heaven.
Only the fruit that has fully ripened on the tree is classified while in storage as a product of the best quality. Herein lies the reason why your life should not be one that is bound for hell, like a fruit that is devoured by insects on a tree. You should never forget that through your life on earth, you yourself determine whether you go to heaven or to hell. In order for fruit to ripen and be put into storage in autumn, it must first pass through the growing process of spring and summer and be provided with the nutrients supplied by nature and the tender loving care of the farmer. Fruit grown in an orchard by a lazy and ignorant farmer will be afflicted with all kinds of diseases and be affected by foul weather. Eventually it will fall from the tree before it is ripe, or be classified as worm-infested. Though it will still be fruit, it will be different from other fruit, since it will never be good enough to sell in the market.
Fruit that has fully matured on the tree will automatically go into the owner’s storehouse. Similarly, only when the spirit of a person has reached perfection during his life in the physical world, which can be likened to the tree, can it automatically enter the incorporeal spirit world of the kingdom of heaven. In other words, a person will enter the kingdom of God in heaven automatically only when he has qualified for and enjoyed the kingdom of heaven on earth by living as a fully mature person while in his physical body.
While living on earth, your every action and movement, without exception, is recorded on your spirit self, with the public laws of heaven as the standard. Accordingly, you will enter the spirit world in the form of your spirit self, which has recorded your life on earth with 100 per cent accuracy. Your spirit will show plainly whether you have led a ripe life of goodness or a wormy, rotten life of sinfulness. What this means is that God will not judge you; you will be your own judge. If you are aware of this astonishing rule from heaven, will you spend the remaining days of your life on earth in selfishness and immorality, succumbing to all the temptations of Satan and in pursuit of nothing but pleasure? No, rather you will abstain from injuring and scarring your spirit, even at the risk of your earthly life. Please bear this truth in mind: whether you are bound for heaven or for hell is determined by your thoughts, speech and behaviour in each moment.
This does not imply, though, that the spirit leads its own life or that it can express true love through actions on its own. Your spirit self grows, matures and is finally perfected only within your physical self, through an earthly lifetime of having actualized true love, bringing your mind and body into a smooth, unified relationship of give and take. Nevertheless, undeniably, your outer self and inner self are in a constant relationship of conflict and struggle. How much longer will you allow this fighting to continue? Ten years? A hundred years? In contrast, there is undeniably a proper order for all forms of existence in the Universe. This indicates that God did not create human beings in this state of conflict and disorder. You need to know that it is your duty and responsibility as a human being to dispel all temptations directed at your outer self - your physical self – to perfect absolute sexual purity and be victorious in life by following the way of your inner self - your conscience. Heavenly fortune will be with those who lead their lives in such a way. They will attain the perfection of their spirit selves.
The kind of place heaven is
What kind of places are heaven and hell? What kinds of people enter heaven? If it really does exist, where would it be? Would it be outside the galaxy? Or is it only a product of our imagination? These are questions that everyone will have pondered and asked at least once. In brief, the kingdom of heaven is a world overflowing with God’s true love and established with true love as its axis. True love is everywhere, in the outward expression as well as in the inward thought. Everyone’s life is filled with true love from beginning to end. In the kingdom of heaven, people are born through true love, live in the embrace of true love and follow the track of true love until the day they finally pass on into the next world, the spirit world.
The kingdom of heaven is a natural world filled with the air of true love, where everyone breathes true love. Consequently, antagonism and jealousy cannot be found anywhere in that world, for it is a natural world where each person lives for the sake of the other. It is a world that is not governed by money, position or power. It is a world wherein the success of each person represents the success of the whole, the likes of each person represent the likes of the whole, and the joy of each person represents the joy of the whole.
The kingdom of heaven is a world filled with the air of true love, where everyone breathes true love. Its life throbs with love everywhere, all the time. The citizens of the Kingdom are all linked together through their common membership in God’s lineage. It is a place where the whole world and all its people are linked together in an inseparable relationship, like the cells in our bodies. True love, the love that is God’s essence, is heaven’s only governing power. Accordingly, God also exists for true love.
Chapter Four
God’s purpose for creating human beings
Simply put, God’s purpose of creation is to experience joy through relating with families filled with true love. What does an ideal family look like? When God first created human beings, He made Adam representing all men and Eve representing all women, with the intention that they become owners of true love. Then what was the quickest way for them to cultivate a character of true love? In a word it was to secure a parent-child relationship with God, whereby they could live in attendance of God as their Father and form a model family embodying God’s ideal of peace. They were to have followed the path of living as one family with God, experiencing eternal joy.
Basically speaking, a family is formed through the coming together of husband and wife and of parents and children. At the center of that family group, there must be God’s love. At this point, the husband represents heaven and the wife earth. A man or a woman alone can only be one half of the whole. Although they are two separate beings, when husband and wife have become one, horizontally speaking, their union symbolizes the unity of heaven and earth. Simply put, when husband and wife are in unity based on God’s love, the way to bring unity in the Universe opens up.
God created Adam and Eve and established them as the first ancestors of humankind to form the model family and realize the ideal of peace. He committed Himself absolutely to raising them as His son and daughter, who were to be encapsulations of the entire cosmos, mediators between the spiritual and physical worlds, and lords of creation, who would be joined with Him in true love, true life and true lineage.
Genesis 1:27 tells us, “So God created man in His own image; male and female He created them.” From observing God’s creation as expressed in this passage, we can conclude that God is a being who comprises the essence of one man and one woman. Having these attributes, God could not enjoy a solitary life. Therefore, He created the Universe as His object partner. That is, He created all things in the Universe as an object partner in image, and in the midst of this environment, He created human beings as His object partners in substance. In this manner, the first masculine representative created by God as His object partner in substance was Adam, and the feminine representative He created was Eve. God had an objective in mind when He created human beings as separate beings, one man and one woman.
First, God desired to take on a physical form
First, God, who exists as an incorporeal being – though He is the subject being with dual characteristics in harmony – needed to assume a physical form through which he could relate with the entire world of substance, and not only the body of the man or that of the woman. Embodied within both Adam and Eve, he intended to communicate and work freely in relation to the entire Universe, the world of substance. This is because the incorporeal God, without a physical body, meets certain limits in dealing with the corporeal world of substance.
Therefore, if Adam and Eve had attended God in their hearts and become one with Him, then married on the basis of having perfected themselves, had children and created a family, they would have become external and horizontal True Parents in substance, while God would have been the internal and vertical True Parent in substance. If only this had come to pass, Adam and Eve would have resembled God one hundred percent, both in their inner nature and outer form. If Adam and Eve, as a perfect resemblance of God, had become the True Parents of humankind, human beings in their daily lives would have perceived, through their experience of them, the true reality of God.
Second, God created Adam and Eve for the fulfilment of love
God intended for Adam and Eve to reach perfection and become the embodiments of love in complete union. On that basis, He would have come and dwelt with them and become the Parent of true love for all humanity. Adam and Eve, standing in the position of the parents of substance in the image of God, would have established an ideal family, and consequently an ideal world, through having their own children and multiplying. If this had come to be, the spirit world and the earthly world would have been linked through human beings. We can conclude that God created us with the purpose of our being the connecting point between the spiritual and physical worlds.
By coming to dwell in Adam and Eve based on true love, God could remain as the True Parent, the parent in substance of humankind. Moreover, when the time came for them to end their lives on earth and pass on into the spirit world, even in that world, He could take on the spirit bodies of Adam and Eve and manifest as the True Parent through their form. However, due to the Fall of Adam and Eve, God had not seen that ideal fulfilled.
God does not need money, knowledge or power. Since He is the absolute, almighty Being, He does not need such things. Though modern science may be accomplishing spectacular advances, these are all part of the process of discovering new facts and truths within the realm of God’s creation. The vast expanse of this Universe operates in accordance with laws following an order that cannot be fathomed by human thought or science. In this sense, God is also the absolute scientist.
Then, what would have been the ideal that God hoped to achieve through the creation of humankind? It was to fulfil the four-position-foundation. This structure - man and woman united with God in their midst, embodying the divine nature, becoming an ideal couple and giving birth to ideal children - signifies Adam and Eve in a state of complete union with God. This makes it impossible for them to separate from the realm of God’s love, no matter how hard they may try. In other words, it refers to the foundation of a family with God as the center, established when the husband and wife have achieved complete oneness not only with each other but also with God. When the family four-position-foundation is thus completed, that family becomes a family of the ideal of creation desired by God.
The purpose of marriage and the holiness of the sexual organs
Why should we marry? It is to restore the position of an owner. A man or a woman alone can only be one half of the whole. That is how God created us. For that reason, he has interchanged the owners of the sexual organs, the love organs. The owner of the wife’s sexual organ is the husband, and the owner of the husband’s is the wife. Only when each is rooted in love for the other can they stand in the position of the owner of their spouse. Human beings can only become perfected individuals – rather than one half – when they have secured the position of an owner through marriage.
The human sexual organ is sacred. It is the palace of life where the seed of life is sown, the palace of love where the flower of love is made to bloom, and the palace of lineage where the fruit of the lineage is given life. Through this absolute sexual organ, the absolute lineage, absolute love, and absolute life are brought forth; and absolute harmony, absolute unity, absolute liberation and absolute tranquillity are brought about.
Then what are we trying to achieve by restoring the position of the owner of the sexual organs? It is to possess and embody God’s love from that position. God is the subject of the three great loves. As the Owner of the Universe, He is the True Teacher, True Owner and True Loving Parent. These form the basis for the “three great subjects” principle. All these teachings and truths are created through the life of a true, model family, and with its expansion, the society, nation, world and even the universe will be transformed into the peace kingdom of the model ideal family.
God, the Absolute Being, created human beings as His children in order to instil in them absolute values which spring from an absolute standard. This means we must follow our destined life course in order to attend God, the Absolute Being, as our Parent. In other words, for people to perfect themselves in resemblance of God and obtain the stature of people of character who can be called sons and daughters of the Absolute Being, they must follow the path based on the absolute standard God has determined. The essence of this path is the standard of absolute sexual purity.
The first stage of sexual purity: maintaining absolute sexual purity prior to marrying
After we are born, we go through a process of growth. We pass through infancy and childhood in a very safe and secure environment embraced in our parents’ love and protection. We then enter the time of adolescence, which signals the start of a new and dynamic life as we forge relationships on a totally new level with those around us, as well as with all things of creation. This is the moment when we begin to travel the path to becoming an absolute human being – internally, through the perfection of our character, and externally, by reaching adulthood.
Yet, at this time there is an absolute requirement that people must meet, no matter who they are. This is the requirement of maintaining their purity. This is the model of absolute sexual morality for human beings. God gave it to His children as their destined responsibility and duty, to be carried out in order to fulfil the ideal of creation. This heavenly path is thus the way toward perfecting the model of absoluteness in conjugal love.
What was the single word, the one and only commandment God gave to Adam and Eve, the first ancestors, upon their creation? It was the commandment and blessing to maintain an absolute standard of sexual purity until God’s approval of their marriage. We find the basis for this in the Bible passage that indicates that Adam and Eve would surely die on the day they ate of the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. If they had refrained from eating and had observed heaven’s commandment, they would have perfected their character and, as co-creators, stood with God, the Creator, as His equals. Furthermore, they would have taken dominion over the creation and become the lords of the Universe, enjoying eternal and ideal happiness.
It was God’s blessing that He told them to preserve their purity so that they could marry with His blessing as His true children, become true husband and wife, become true parents, and give birth to true children. This knowledge deepens our understanding of this commandment. It is connected with the principle of absoluteness in conjugal love, which is a principle of God’s creation. The profound truth within God’s commandment lay hidden throughout history: human beings must inherit and live by a model of absolute sexual purity that is intrinsic to God’s idea for creation. This is so that they might perfect their individuality as God’s children and establish themselves as lords of creation.
The second stage of sexual purity: establishing the model of absoluteness in the love between husband and wife
The heavenly law of absolute marital fidelity is more precious than life itself. Husband and wife are eternal partners given to each other by God. Through having children, they become the co-creators of true love, true life and true lineage, and the origin of that which is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. This is because it is a heavenly principle that one person cannot give birth to a child by him or herself, even in a thousand years.
How can people who preserve their purity before marriage, and whom God binds together in a pure marriage as husband and wife, ever deviate from the way of heaven and go astray, following a wrong path? We human beings are different from animals; if they understand God’s purpose in creating them as His children, they will realize that the wrong path is one of unimaginable betrayal and defiance of the Creator; it is a path of self-destruction along which they dig their own graves. Resulting from the human Fall, this path falls outside the realm of the ideal of creation.
Absolute and sacred conjugal love is the greatest blessing that heaven has bestowed on humankind. Without adhering to the principle of absolute sexual purity, the path to the perfection of one’s character and spiritual maturity is closed. Furthermore, without securing the foundation of absolute sexual morality within a true family of perfected individuals, it is impossible for God to manifest His presence in dignity as the incarnate God of character.
In order for God, the Absolute Being, to have direct dominion over our lives and to live and share joy with us, we who were created as His object partners and children must assume the form of a perfected family based on the standard of absolute sexual ethics, as God intended. Only within the boundaries of a family upholding absolute sexual morality is it possible to create relationships based on an ideal model of sexual ethics for life as it should have originally existed. This life includes the three-generational realm of grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren. Please understand clearly that God’s eternal life and a human being’s eternal life are possible only on this foundation.
Therefore, if Adam and Eve had achieved individual perfection in accordance with God’s will – that is, if they had achieved perfection of their character by upholding the principles of absolute sexual purity and then entered into conjugal relations with His holy blessing, they would have achieved complete oneness with Him. God would have dwelt within their union. Their children would have been linked to this holy order of love and enjoyed a direct relationship with God as their Parent. In other words, the marriage of the perfected Adam and Eve, based on absolute purity in conjugal love, would have been God’s own marriage.
God is forever God, but at the same time Adam and Eve were to have been His incarnations. They would have become God’s body, and God would have settled inside their minds and hearts, to become the True Parent of humankind in both the spiritual and physical worlds on the foundation of absoluteness in conjugal love.
Our conscience as a true parent, true teacher and true owner
The conscience comes first and precedes your parents, your teachers and even God. Many people do not realize its value because the body has been dominating the conscience. That is how it is in this fallen, hedonistic world – a world in which many focus on physical pleasure and having fun. If we depend solely on money, we shall become lost and be driven into reckless relationships of love that lead us to ruin.
Your conscience knows and remembers not only every action you have performed, but also every thought you have entertained. Your conscience is aware of these things before your own teachers, parents or even God are. Hence, if you were to live in obedience to the commands of your conscience, which is your teacher for eternity, you would be absolutely guaranteed to have eternal life. Such is the way of God’s creation.
God’s creation is truly mysterious and profound. God created us as His children and to be the lords of creation. To this end, He gave each of us the highest and greatest gift – a conscience. This special gift of a conscience is given to us as a compass to guide us through life in this earthly world. We can say that our lifespan may be one hundred years. Regardless of who we are, from the moment of our birth to the moment we die, we cannot escape the influence of our conscience.
The most elevated function of the conscience is its role as our true parent, true teacher and true owner. In other words, our conscience acts as a true parent, true teacher and true owner on behalf of God, guiding our lives and educating us from the time we are born. Our conscience functions as a guide, keeping watch over our every action at every moment. It is aware of our every word, thought and deed even before our parents, our teachers or God are aware. God infused into the conscience the fundamental function of guiding and supervising our lives.
Yet the conscience, which should be clear as crystal, has been clouded due to the Fall and is now unable to fully manifest its original function amid all manner of sin and spiritual sickness. That is why you must become people who can listen to the voice of your conscience, cry out to be liberated even one day sooner, and to be given innermost freedom from this evil world that is under Satan’s dominion.
However, there is no way for fallen people to restore the original function of the conscience by their own power. This is because they have not established a direct vertical relationship with God. The six and a half billion people in the world today are all off at a tangent, each and every one living under the illusion of being genuine and the best in his or her field. However, no one will be able to find the path to salvation until someone reaches the absolute standard of a direct ninety-degree-angle relationship with God.
Chapter Five
Love, life and lineage defining the parent-child relationship
God is the Absolute Being but nevertheless cannot be happy alone. Adjectives such as ‘good’ and ‘happy’ cannot apply to any being that lives in isolation. They apply only where there is a robust mutual relationship. Just as an artist, such as a singer, cannot be happy unless he can share his or her creations, so also God needs a partner with whom to share love in order to experience joy and be happy. God created human beings out of His absolute love, to be His partners in love. This relationship forms an axis of love, linking God the Father with human beings as His sons and daughters. There is nothing higher to aspire for than being a son or daughter of God.
When the omniscient and omnipotent God created human beings to be His partners to share absolute love, He could not reserve the highest position for Himself and make humans second best. God invested His entire being, one hundred percent in the creation of human beings and endowed us with the right to enjoy equal status with Him, to participate in His work as equals, to live with Him and to inherit from Him. He bestowed upon human beings all of His attributes. God created Adam and Eve based on the standard of absolute love, absolute faith, and absolute obedience. He gave them His lineage as the seed for their love and life.
A life of true love
Three things define the parent-child relationship: love, life and lineage. You should lead a life that is completely devoted to true love. Your life should be one in which you love God more than did Adam, Eve or Jesus. By thoroughly actualizing true love, you should perfectly unite your mind and body and find and establish the realm of the relationships of true love with everyone around you. To put it another way, you should perfect a true family on earth, and the three generations of grandparents, parents and children should live together in true love. Only when you accomplish this during your time on earth, will you be eligible to enter heaven. To resemble God, the Original Being of true love, we should become the owners of true love. We should embody true love and practise it in order to develop our character. This is the way each of us can become true parents.
What kind of love is true love? The essence of true love is found not in having others serve you. Selfish love is the mask hiding the desire to have one’s partner exist for one’s own sake; true love is free from that corruption. Rather, it is found when you give out to, serve and live for the sake of others and for the sake of the whole. True love is the spirit of public service; it brings the peace that is at the root of happiness.
True love is love that gives and forgets it has given, and continues to give endlessly. It is love that gives with pleasure; it is the heart of pleasure. It is the love of a mother who cradles her baby in her arms, nursing it at her breast. True love is a sacrificial love, such as that of a devoted son, who gains his greatest satisfaction in dedicating himself with all of his body and mind to helping his parents. God created the Universe and humankind, out of just such love: an act requiring absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love that gives without conditions or expectations of receiving anything in return. True love brings about the spiritual order, peace and happiness that serve the common good. True love is the wellspring of the Universe. Once we possess it, true love makes us the centers and the owners of the Universe. True love is the root of God and the manifestation of His will and power.
When we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever, continually increasing in the joy of each other’s company. The attraction of true love brings all things in the Universe to our feet; even God will come to dwell with us. Nothing can compare to the value of true love. It has the power to dissolve the barriers fallen people have created, including national boundaries and the barriers between races and religions.
The main attributes of true love is that it is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, so that whoever practises God’s true love will live with God, share His happiness, and enjoy the right to participate as an equal in His work and the right of inheritance. Therefore, a life lived for the sake of others - a life of true love - is the absolute prerequisite for entering the Kingdom of Heaven. We are able to love with true love, because God our parent has loved us with true love.
With the coming of spring, honeybees wake up from their long slumber and desire the taste for the fresh nectar of the blooming flowers. Try pulling the abdomen of one such honeybee while it is oblivious to all else but sucking on that nectar. You will see that it cannot tear itself from that nectar even if its abdomen is pulled off. Once you really get to know the taste of God’s love, you will not stray far from it before you return and cling to it once again. This shows that the power of vertical true love that connects us to Him is greater than the power of life.
How shall we live such a life that we become God’s partner and return joy to Him? How can we be such people that God delights to call “my son” or “my daughter” because He sees in us a divinity equal to His own? How can we become partners completing the work of creation and inheriting the creation? We must emulate the ideal that God set up at the beginning of His creative acts. God acted upon the principle of living for the sake of others. In other words, everything He did was for the sake of His creations, who He hoped would develop into His partners of true love. The practice of true love is the core of God’s creative activity.
Therefore, to become God’s children, our first responsibility is to resemble Him. We need to embody true love. The way to embody true love begins by living as a devoted child, then a patriot, a saint, and finally a divine son or daughter of God. At that stage, we can experience the innermost emotions of God’s heart and resolve the grief that He has experienced for tens of thousands of years ever since the Fall of Adam and Eve.
Lineage as the fruit of love and life
Lineage is more important than life and more precious than love. Life and love come together to create lineage. Lineage cannot be established if either life or love is missing. Therefore, among the three qualities that define the parent-child relationship – love, life and lineage – lineage is the fruit. God’s lineage contains the seed of true love; God’s lineage contains the context and environment for a true life. So to become the ideal people envisioned by God, that is people of ideal character to create ideal families, we first need to be linked to His lineage.
Only when we are linked to God’s lineage, maintaining absolute sexual morality, is it possible to create His homeland, the ideal nation, and establish the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. Without lineage neither life nor love can endure. You strive to set a good tradition, but it will endure only through your lineage. Lineage is the bridge allowing the parents’ spirit to carry on through subsequent generations. Lineage is the first and final condition necessary for parents to harvest the fruits of their love and the fruits of their joy. Lineage is the most special of all the gifts parents bequeath to their children.
Please inscribe the importance of lineage in your hearts. I cannot emphasize this enough. This is because the parent-child relationship is the highest and most important of all relationships, and the model, lineal relationship between parent and child is the only way through which God’s lineage can be bequeathed and made to last forever. You must be clear on this point.
Chapter Six
The Three Subject Partners Principle
It is important to know that God endowed human beings with the Three Great Subject Partners Principle at the Creation. The first great subject partner you are to become is a true parent. God created us as His children. We were to become true children by perfecting our individual character after going through an autonomous period of spiritual growth based on the principles God established. We were then to become true couples, have our own children and attain the positon of true parents. In this way we were to perfect ourselves by practising and embodying the true love that God bestowed on us when He created us.
In reality, however, moral values in our world today are deteriorating rapidly. The moral laws governing the relationship between parents and children have been rejected. Fidelity between couples is being discarded as an old-fashioned idea of previous generations, and brotherly love between siblings has become rare and buried in the swamp of self-centered individualism. For these reasons, the most important thing to do is establish true families based on true love. This means we must build families in which three generations live together in true love with true parents at the centre.
The second great subject partner you are to become is a true teacher. Although the world is full of evil influences, one way or another, a person enters relationships in life where either he or she is in a position to teach or in a position to learn. Our first teachers are our parents. They should be our first and greatest teachers. As true teachers, it is the parents’ primary responsibility to raise true children.
Children who are brought up by true parents through a true and good family education easily progress into their school education; this is the next stage. School provides an institutionalized education, but even within that framework teachers have the responsibility – with the heart of true parents – to guide and educate them to become true children. By this I mean that horizontal, academic education must be carried out on the foundation of vertical, character education. Therefore, a teacher must first possess the heart of a true parent.
The third great subject partner you are to become is a true owner. God created the universe and is the true owner and lord of all creation. God’s creation is the fruit of His complete investment, carried out based on absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. From this example, we can gain the wisdom that enables us to become a true owner. The secret is to invest true love on the basis of that absolute standard. The prerequisite of becoming a true owner is to possess the heart of a true parent.
The organic relationship within the Three Great Subject Partners Principle
The Three Great Subject Partners Principle expresses an organic relationship that is mutual, absolute and indivisible. This is because a true parent, true teacher or true owner can stand in the position of either a subject partner or an object partner in relation to the other two. In other words, once you attain the position of a true parent, the positions of a true teacher and a true owner emerge. Once you reach the position of a true teacher, the positions of true parent and true owner are included. When you attain the position of a true owner, you will immediately become a true parent and a true teacher as well.
From the outset, human beings were born to inherit and embody God’s complete Three Great Subject Partners Principle. To become a person of character, perfecting the Three Great Subject Partners Principle, we must become like God Himself. We must have heart that is like God’s and love other people and all creation on the basis of His absolute standard, just as He does. In other words, we must attain a state of loving unity with God, wherein we can love the creation. At that point, the true parent, the true teacher and the true owner all converge.
The world operates through the harmony of various systems and relationships. In this complex and varied world, the principle of becoming a true owner naturally applies to the relationships between people; but it also applies to the relationship between human beings and the creation. The question is what kind of person can be called a true owner. Someone who lives for others, caring for and sacrificing to serve others – in other words, a person who practises true love in daily life – can be called a true owner. Only someone who cares for all things in the creation with true love, protecting and nurturing them, can become a true owner of all creation.
In light of this, it is not your position or status that makes you a true owner. It is determined by your character and capacity to love. The president of a company who loves and cares for all his employees with a parental heart is a true owner of that company. Only the president of a nation who loves its citizens like a parent, who caringly raises his or her children, and who shares the sorrows and joys of life with them, can become the true owner of that nation.
Due to the Fall, the first Adam lost the original, true lineage and consequently failed to form the original couple and the original family. Adam, who should have become the true teacher, true parent and true king, inherited the lineage of Satan and was degraded to the position of false authority as a false teacher, false parent and false king.
Chapter Seven
The suffering of God and humanity resulting from the Fall
God created Adam and Eve and established them as the first ancestors of humankind. He committed Himself one hundred per cent to raising them as His son and daughter, connected to Him through love, life and lineage. This is because the parent-child relationship is the highest and most important of all relationships, and the lineal relationship between parent and child is the only way through which God’s lineage can be bequeathed and made to last forever. However, this parent-child relationship, more precious and important than life itself, was severed through the Fall of Adam and Eve.
What went wrong? What brought about the descent of humankind into ignorance of the ideal that God cherishes for His creation? Perfection cannot be found in ignorance, even if one waited for ten thousand years. Then how did human beings, created as the children of the omnipotent and omnipresent God, come to fall into such a state of ignorance? When, where and how did God come to carry agonizing sorrow in His heart? Who on earth could inflict this grief upon Him, the absolute and omnipotent Being?
As God’s own flesh and blood and as His eternal, only-begotten son and daughter, Adam and Eve formed a blood relationship with His enemy, Satan, and became Satan’s children instead. The first ancestors, Adam and Eve, followed the false parent, Satan, along the path of the Fall. Indeed, this is the first tragedy and the most mortifying and lamentable shame in human history.
All the problems of the world are rooted in the Fall of Adam and Eve, our first human ancestors. Adam and Eve, who were at the perfection stage of their growth period, had a sexual relationship before their rightful time, due to the temptation of Satan. The Fall was therefore an illicit sexual union of a man and a woman. This is why, over thousands of years, people have continued to commit such indecent acts, traitorous acts, that drive a sharp spike into the heart of God. They have been unable to escape from the realm of the fallen lineage.
The loss of God’s lineage
As we make our way in the world, we find that inevitably many connections and relationships influence our lives. Most of these connections come about as a result of the choices we make in the context of the environment or conditions in which we find ourselves. These connections are human-based relationships that can be changed or erased whenever we like through human effort. On the other hand, heavenly relationships, which are bequeathed to us from the moment of birth by God, lie outside the realm of choice. These fundamental and inescapable relationships are formed by connections of blood. Even though you may dislike your parents or siblings, for example, you cannot change them by choice or vote them out of office. Once you are born into a family with a certain name, you have to live forever as part of the lineage of that family.
What is the reason humankind is yet to escape from the snare of sin? It is because people are born inheriting the false lineage of Satan from the outset. However, this is not an innate, principle-based blood connection bestowed by Heaven in accordance with the providential will and purpose. Rather it is an acquired relationship that exists in violation of the Principle. It was brought about by human error.
When Adam and Eve fell, this lineage, which is more precious than life itself, was lost. Instead, it was false love, false life and false lineage that infested the earth. God’s love, life and lineage, which He had bequeathed to us, fell into the hands of the adulterer Satan, the enemy of love. Heaven and earth were suffocated and transformed into hell. The world became a wretched place, far from God’s presence. The fruits of true life and true love never matured. They became the fruits of Satan, lacking any relationship with God. Adam and Eve inherited the false lineage of Satan and descended to the status of his children. From them descended the six-and-a-half billion people now inhabiting the earth. We all belong to the lineage of Satan. Human beings without exception are the children of Satan, with each one born inheriting Satan’s lineage. Consider yourself, for a moment. In every moment and every affair of daily life, good and evil are fighting within you to gain the upper hand. Is that not so?
God intended for the seeds He planted in the springtime of the Garden of Eden to grow into a bountiful crop that He could harvest in the autumn. The ideal of creation was to raise Adam and Eve, to the point where they would blossom in true love, flourish with true life, and bear fruit in a true lineage. God desired to harvest owners and families of eternal life, eternal love and eternal lineage, and to harvest His kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world as their homeland.
Yet humanity to this day lives in ignorance of this. People are deluded into believing that the lineage of the enemy is the lifeline upon which the world depends. This is the wretched truth about humanity descended from the Fall. That is why we refer to this world as hell on earth. God views humanity’s tragic situation with a heart full of pain. The loss of His lineage is what has pained God’s heart most, causing Him the greatest grief over the long history since the Fall of Adam and Eve. With the loss of God’s lineage, He also lost the basis of human brotherhood and even His ownership over the creation. After creating Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God intended to wed them with His holy blessing and bequeath to them Heaven’s right of ownership. God wanted Adam and Eve to inherit from Him the ownership of the entire Universe.
When, due to the Fall, Satan gained control of the realm of lineage, he also usurped the right of the elder son and the right of ownership. God is like a father who worked and sweated His entire life to accumulate assets for His children, only to have a thief steal everything in one night. Who can comprehend the sorrowful, painful heart of God? God lost His lineage, lost His children, and was forced to hand over the ownership of the nations and world to Satan.
Although human beings have been reduced to the position of orphans who have lost their parents through the Fall, the fundamental relationship of parent and child endowed by Heaven, however, remains intact: God is our Parent and we are His children. Human beings, through the Fall, have become ignorant beings as if in a vegetative state, unable to recognize their own Father, even though He is right there within them and beside them. In the face of this, God’s heart has been crushed and wounded with grief and sorrow throughout history. This still remains the most mortifying and harrowing anguish, which no one before in history could know or resolve.
Has there ever been a time when God could rejoice and be in comfort with human beings as their True Father and True Mother, enjoying the natural bonds of parent and child and knowing that what He created was good? Not even for one hour. No one could comfort God in this pain because no one has known the reason for the unbridgeable gap that has separated God from humankind for tens of thousands of years. No one has known why God and humankind are in such a tragic circumstance. Therefore, all human beings belong to the fallen lineage regardless of who they may be, and they must without exception be born again through the conversion of lineage. This is the only way to be restored into the originally intended blood relationship bequeathed to us by God.
The corruption of the family
Look at the world we are currently living in! The people of the world are caught in the trap of extreme selfishness, clamoring for material gain. They have lost all sense of values and have fallen into the depths of self-gratification and degradation. The world is filled with alcoholics. As if drugs and free sex were not enough, there are even those who commit incest – an act not even seen in the animal world – and still live with their heads held high. This world has become one wherein beasts with human faces roam freely even after violating women – grandmothers, mothers, wives and daughters.
This world has become one wherein the swapping of spouses between couples is rampant. Such circumstances are without doubt the pinnacle of the destruction of morality and the very last of fallen acts. This world has become hell on earth, where the perfected world, embodying the ideal God envisaged at the creation, cannot even be dreamed of. In addition to the corruption of conjugal love, the Fall caused the loss of the realm of siblings love, when in the family of Adam, the older brother Cain killed the younger brother Abel. God’s original family structure was full of blessings, including love and harmony among siblings. The Fall degraded the sibling relationship to a rivalry filled with envy and resentment. The biblical account of Cain and Abel reveals the beginnings of human conflict even within Adam’s family. It reveals the archetype for humankind’s unending history of struggle, war and conflict. We are conflicted on many levels, beginning with the war between mind and body within each individual and extending to wars between nations and even to the global conflict between materialism and theism.
Extreme selfish individualism threatens our prosperity even today. We deem young people to be the hope of humanity holding the promise for the future, but drugs and free sex enslave them. Advanced countries seem to believe that material goods are all that matter. They recognize only their own interests while ignoring the misery of tens of thousands who die of starvation every day.
Chapter Eight
The way of restoration and God’s suffering in search of the True Parents
The way to restore God’s lineage
God’s ideal of creation, which was to establish a true family in the first generation through Adam and Eve, a family through which He could eternally pass on His lineage, was frustrated. Who can comprehend the sorrowful, painful heart of God? God lost His lineage and His children and was forced to hand over the ownership of the nations and world to Satan.
God, however, cannot forsake humankind. Within God’s grand ideal of creation, human beings were created to be His children and absolute counterparts in true love. God is the eternal True Parent of humanity who has had to endure through virtual imprisonment the long years in the shadows of history with a heart full of bitter pain, grief and anguish. No one has known this reality. The only way to relieve God of His sorrow is to restore and establish a true family unrelated to the lineage of Satan. Herein lies the reason why all of us need to establish true families, which is God’s ideal of creation. Herein also lies the fundamental object and purpose of the founding of the Universal Peace Federation.
God is almighty. It was not due to any shortcoming or lack of ability that He has been imprisoned in great pain and has endured immense suffering behind the scenes of history. There are provisions in the principle of restoration that He has not been free to disclose, that called Him to wait with forbearance until Adam and Eve’s positions, lost at the human Fall, were recovered through the appearance of the perfected “Second Adam”. Although God is all-powerful, He will not set aside the eternal laws and principles that He Himself established. There was only one way to recover God’s lineage, the right of the elder son and the right of ownership. This was the path to win the natural subjugation of Satan, to have Satan surrender voluntarily. What is the secret to accomplish this? It can only be accomplished by the power of true love, when we love our enemies more than our own children.
There are four great milestones that had to be reached and established in the providential course of restoration through indemnity, in order to fulfil God’s purpose of creation – the establishment of true families - that was lost through the Fall of Adam and Eve, our first ancestors. They are: God’s day, Parents’ Day, Children’s Day and the Day of All things.
The uncompleted mission of the Second Adam, Jesus
The purpose for Jesus’ coming down to earth was to reverse the effects of the Fall. If Jesus, who came as the second Adam, had not lost his life on the cross, he would have restored the original lineage of God, unrelated to the Fall, and would have made up for the failure of the First Adam, established the true family as the saviour of humankind, and founded the original homeland for humankind on earth. This would have been the global kingdom, embodying the ideal of peace, the kingdom of heaven on earth. However, his disciples, the Jewish leaders and the leaders of the nation of Israel, all failed to recognize the Christ and their disbelief caused Jesus’ life to come to an end in such a wretched and tragic way.
Has anyone really known the grieving heart of Jesus, whose passing from the earth was so untimely and who left no descendants? Though two thousand years of Christian history have passed, has there been any Christian who truly understood Jesus’ sorrowful circumstances? Jesus parted this world suddenly, leaving few traces other than a promise to return. Though his physical body has long been buried and become dust, the will that God had tried to fulfil through him is finally in the process of being completed at this time, the conclusion of history, through the True Parents, who have received the seal of Heaven and appeared on earth.
The Third Adam and the Appearance of True Parents
At the age of sixteen with nothing but a buoyant spirit and the aspirations of youth, I was called by Heaven and began to live for the will of God. This left no room in my heart for any worldly ambitions I may have cherished. It has never been an easy path but I have followed it for my more than 80 years, looking nowhere but straight ahead. This was the life I was fated to lead with no choice but to shake off the embrace of my beloved parents and brothers and sisters, who clung to me wanting me to stay with them. They endured great self- sacrifice and walked a thorny path of sorrowful suffering for my sake.
My life has been a journey through the wilderness that no one among the 6.5 billion people on earth could ever comprehend. Because I have spent my life discovering and disclosing the secrets of Satan, it was inevitable that I would face persecution. At times the suffering was so intense as to be utterly beyond words. Even when I persevered through the hardships of prison life six times, I never let go of the key to the providence; such has been my life. This was because I came to know only too well how anguished, aggrieved and full of bitter sorrow was the heart of God as He waited for thousands of years to find us. I realized that, if God, who is the origin of billions of people and the creator of everything in the Universe, was not relieved from His sorrow, human life would remain completely without value.
I have dedicated my life solely for Heaven; I have not lived for personal glory or comfort. I have walked a thorny, lonely path, stained with blood, sweat and tears, hovering in a state between life and death. Yet I have surmounted and triumphed over this course of inexpressible suffering and tribulations. I received heaven’s seal and was made fully aware of the destination of God’s will, holding dearly to heaven’s command to bring salvation to humanity. I rose again and again like a phoenix, pressing on with my turbulent life. Now that life is bearing victorious fruit for the sake of the billions of the world’s peoples. I was victorious over all obstacles and can now declare the Era after the Coming of Heaven, the age when the power of heaven becomes manifest.
God longed with all His heart that someone would appear and resolve the tragedies of God and mankind, but no such person appeared on earth. God waited and waited looking for someone who would take on the role of true parent. God’s joy on finding such a person is unimaginable. It is a miracle of miracles that for the first time in history, a man has succeeded in attaining the position of Adam. He has secured the status of the owner of true love and received God’s anointing as the True Parent of humanity. That person is the first and probably the last to hold such a position in history; he holds the keys to free humankind from Satan’s bondage and to lead them to heaven. That person is standing before you today. It is an amazing fact that his lifetime coincides with yours, and that you and he breathe the same air. He is the horizontal true parent who comes to rescue fallen humanity. I have gained the victory in that position. God called me to bring humankind to live as one global family in a sacred reign of peace under God, by overcoming the tragic reality humankind is facing.
I never wished for nor sought this position, but I was anointed by God and placed in the position of the Savior, Messiah, returning Lord, and the True Parent of humankind. It is a position that is absolutely free from the influence of Satan’s realm. I, Reverend Moon, have been charged by God with practising and demonstrating first hand a life based on the truth and on submission to the conscience. The path of a true parent, true teacher and true owner that I am walking will allow the people of the world, who are going six and a half billion separate ways, to be reconnected to God at a ninety degree angle. The absolute, good spirits in the spirit world, who number more than 300 billion, are testifying in unison to this fact. The founders of the great religions, principally Jesus, as well as great philosophers and thinkers, and even some communist leaders, are shedding tears of gratitude for this amazing truth.
However, the life of Reverend Moon, whose task is to complete the mission of true parents, has been one of sorrow, marked by inexpressible suffering and persecution. The Third Adam, the True Parent, needs to indemnify and completely reverse all the failures of the First and Second Adams. His task is to complete not only the missions of the Saviour, Messiah, and Lord at his Second Coming, but also the missions of all those major figures from whom religions have sprung. With similarities to God’s creation of the universe, his life has constituted the great work of the recreation of humanity, whereby not even the smallest error is permitted.
Mine has been a lonely course that can be neither fully comprehended nor shared with anyone. It has been a course that took me down thorny paths through the wilderness – paths that I had to follow while utterly alone. Not even God could acknowledge me. Hovering many times between life and death, even vomiting blood, my life has been one of establishing a model ideal family of absolute sexual morality; I have had to rise again and again to remain true to my promise to God.
Though I was innocent, I have had to endure unjust imprisonment six times: for working in the underground independence movement when I was studying in Japan in my early days; for propagating the will of God in Pyongyang, which was under communist control immediately after Korea’s independence from colonial rule; during the Syngman Rhee administration, after Korea had been reborn as a free nation; and, even in the United States, which proudly presents itself to the world as a model of democracy. Who on earth can understand my eventful life – a life that has been one of perfecting the model of absoluteness in conjugal love? Mine has been a life of misery; by biting my tongue I have endured for the sake of God, who deserves pity, and for the salvation of the fallen people of the world who are suffering in the realm of death. Even now, if someone were to look into my heart and speak just one word of sympathy, I would burst into tears and they would flow like a great waterfall.
The qualifications of Sun Myung Moon
There are several clear reasons why Heaven designated the person standing before you, Reverend Moon, as the true parent of humankind and thereby opened up a new era. First, it was on the foundation of my having successfully practised living for the sake of others. That is, throughout my life I have practised the values of a life of true love, emerged triumphant, and offered that triumph to humanity. All human beings are born to live for the sake of others. However, because of the ignorance resulting from the Fall, people practise the complete opposite, selfish individualism. I have revealed this secret of Heaven and imparted this knowledge to humankind for the first time in history. God is fully aware of the path my life has taken, through thick and thin. Second, I have dedicated my life to overcoming all obstacles and laying a victorious foundation. Through the education provided by the actual practice of true love, I have fulfilled all the conditions necessary for recovering and establishing the parent-child relationship between God and humankind. I have opened the way for human beings, who became the children of the adulterer, Satan, the enemy of love, and who have lived as slaves to false love, false life and false lineage, to be reborn and resurrected into the true lineage of God, the source of true love. In other words, I have opened wide the path for people to reach full spiritual maturity as individuals and to establish true families, true clans, true peoples, true nations and a true world, by leading lives of true love.
Chapter Nine
The way to peace through the international and cross-cultural holy marriage Blessing
The Holy Blessing ceremony offers the grace of being grafted onto the true olive tree. It was instituted by the True Parents, who bring God’s lineage to humankind. Without changing your lineage, you cannot change your seed. Once you change your lineage to God’s lineage, your offspring will naturally belong to God’s lineage.
The best way to restore people to the position of the children of God through conversion of lineage is through cross-cultural holy marriage Blessing. This is the greatest of moral acts and a revolutionary event, creating the heavenly lineage on a whole new level, contributing to the enormous task of transcending barriers of race, culture, nationality, ethnicity and religion and creating one family of humankind. It is an act that severs all links of enmity. It is the sacred rite converting our lineage to God’s lineage, through which all can be recreated through the True Parents, the King and Queen of Peace, the substantial manifestations of God, who enable Him to exercise His providence in the present world.
What method other than cross-cultural marriage would empower Whites and Blacks, Jews and Muslims, Orientals and Westerners, and people of all races to live as one human family? In God’s sight, skin colour makes no difference; God does not recognize national borders. God does not stand behind the barriers of religion and culture. They are nothing more than the Devil’s tricks. The Devil has used them to rule over humanity as a false parent for tens of thousands of years. Imagine two enemy families who have cursed each other throughout their lives, people who would never dream of living together. If a son from one family and a daughter from the other became husband and wife, loved each other and built a happy home, would the parents in these two families curse their own children? When that son loves this beautiful daughter of a hated enemy, and she, as the daughter-in-law, gives birth to Heaven’s grandchildren as pure and clear as crystal, the grandparents would smile with pleasure. In time the two lineages once soaked with enmity would be transformed.
The ideal family is the model for living together in peace. The ideal family is the nest where we live and learn to become one. There we have the foundation of love and respect between parents and children, shared trust and love between husband and wife, and mutual support among siblings. For this fundamental reason, you should receive the holy marriage Blessing from the True Parents and establish Heaven’s tradition of ideal families, even if it means risking your very life. Our bondage to the lineage of Satan has caused so much suffering throughout history. Let us now boldly step forward to sever it and be grafted onto the root of the lineage of the True Parents. Why should we foolishly continue to live and die as wild olive trees? A wild olive tree, even if it lives a thousand years, will only continue producing the seeds of more wild olive trees.
This is the age when all marriages can receive God’s blessing. God’s promises are coming to fruition. The kingdom of heaven on earth, God’s ideal of creation, is being established before your eyes. Place your hand on your chest and ponder this question quietly in your heart. Is there any other way to deliver this world from the wars and antagonism we see around us? Is there a way more certain to create one global family, where there is no hatred between family members, than through intercultural marriages between enemy clans or, going a step even further, between enemy nations?
From this moment on, God is re-creating you as new people. The path is open wide for you to change your lineage through the holy wine ceremony that the True Parents have instituted. The Blessing is yours, either as newly wedded couples or as already married couples, that you may establish true families. The holy Blessing is received in three stages: rebirth, resurrection and eternal life. Once you receive the True Parent’s holy Blessing, you can give birth to pure, sinless offspring, and build an ideal family. I am speaking to the world, advocating that all humanity complete the change of lineage through participating in intercultural marriage Blessing. These marriages restore the original family order by enabling those who are “Abel” – relatively closer to God’s side – to take up a leadership role and the position of the elder brother.
You have the mission to teach the members of your families and clans that perfecting a life of absoluteness in the marriage relationship through the international, cross-cultural marriage Blessing is the ultimate means to establish a peaceful, ideal world here on earth. Your families and clans should all join the holy ranks of those participating in the holy marriage Blessing ceremony, based on the perfection of absolute sexual purity. Even the people in the spirit world have no way to be saved without receiving the grace of the Blessing from the True Parents.
The time has come for humankind to fulfil the heavenly decree of creating one family under God through the international and cross-cultural Blessing. As the True Parent, my teachings are for you to receive now. What way is there to create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven other than by becoming one family under God? The international and cross-cultural holy marriage Blessing is the way to create the ideal world that God envisioned at the time of the creation, the world in which all people are united beyond the boundaries of race, culture, religion and nation, and where war and conflict no longer exist.
Chapter Ten
God’s ideal family and the advent of the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world
The reason we miss the family we have left behind is because at home there is love for one another. It is where the love of mother and father, the love of elder brothers and sisters and younger siblings, and the love of one’s spouse and children and close neighbours are all deeply embedded. It is a place of mutual affection where all the relationships and affinities are brought together through mutual love. This makes you want to cherish each and every member of your family. A family represents the yearning and desire of any wanderer who has left his family behind to reappear before his family once again boldly, as a liberated being, and to embrace mountains, streams and trees, love his kith and kin, his relatives and countrymen, and sing songs of ecstasy.
The situation of humankind descended from the Fall has been different: banished from their original heavenly hometown, and destined to wander around in isolation and defeat, human beings are unable to go back, no matter how much they miss their family, for they have lost the root of the heart of their original homeland. Yet with the ushering in of the era of a new heaven and new earth after the coming of heaven, human beings have been pulled out of the swamp that was sucking them down, and the way has been opened for them to return to their hometowns – hometowns that they could not forget even for a moment – and meet with their family. Could there ever be a day of greater blessing for humanity? The time of heavenly power and fortune has now come, making it possible for us to re-establish the original family that was lost through the Fall of Adam and Eve.
The movement to realize a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values, by making humanity one great family, breaking down the walls in our hearts and eliminating even the boundaries between nations, begins from one family. Therefore, we should bear in mind that to form and establish true families is our providential calling, advancing the establishment of the universal peace kingdom on earth.
You should form families that God will miss and desire to return to after He has been away. You should raise families to which He can come freely and feel comfortable as a parent visiting his or her children. This is what it means to live in service to God. In such a family, God becomes the vertical subject of your conscience and your conscience is the vertical subject over your body. Thus, unity with God brings your mind and body into unity and harmony. Family members who have established that vertical axis can perfect the four realms of love and heart: children’s love, siblings’ love, conjugal love, and parental love. Only such a family can link all directions - above and below, front and rear, right and left. They revolve around each other, connected as one in everlasting spherical motion. This is God’s eternal, model ideal family, which expands to ideal model nations, and His peace kingdom.
If only the entire world were filled with such true families! It would be an orderly world where people governed themselves by the heavenly way and heavenly laws, with no need for lawyers, prosecutors, or even judges. Ponder this for a moment. Who would be most fully aware of your good and bad deeds? It would be your grandparents, your parents, your spouse and your children.
Is there anything that cannot be resolved within the family? When parents and children, husband and wife, and elder and younger siblings set an example of living for the sake of one another, how could they do anything unforgivable? What reason would they have to commit crimes? A world governed by the heavenly way and heavenly laws is a natural world, an unobstructed world of truth and pure reason. It would be a world at the “high noon” of absolute values where no shadows are cast.
The family sets the pattern for living together in harmony. The warm environment of oneness based on love and respect between parents and children, where there is mutual trust, fidelity and love between husband and wife, and trust and mutual reliance among siblings, is the manifestation of the model ideal family of peace. This means that you need to establish a true family wherein the stem of true love emerges from the root of true love and bears the fruit of true love.
Each of us should bear in mind that it is our providential calling to establish a true family. This is the way we can expedite the establishment of the universal peace kingdom on earth. When seeking after the lost original family, you should set out from the position of the perfected Adam, the position of the perfected Jesus, and the position representing the perfected Lord at his Second Coming. God will dwell in such a family. That family would be one of three generations – grandparents, parents and children – living in harmony, serving the eternally existent God. Parents and children will serve and attend the grandparents, because they represent the family’s ancestors, its historical root. God desires to see such families and you should know that to seek after and establish such a family of Cheon Il Guk – God’s Kingdom – is the responsibility of tribal messiahs, and the mission of the Ambassadors for Peace.
Such families contain the living root of history. In such families, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth takes root. They are the soil in which God’s everlasting kingship is firmly planted. The grandparents, parents and children represent the roots of the past, present and future respectively. The root of the past represents the spirit world; the root of the present is the palace representing the world today; and the root of the future establishes the grandsons and granddaughters as princes and princesses. Through such a family we erect the palace of peace, representing the harmony of the two worlds, the spirit world and the physical world.
You should now devote yourselves to practising a life of true love. Can you love God more than Adam and Eve did? Can you love God more than Jesus did? By thoroughly actualizing true love, you should bring your mind and body into perfect harmony. You should establish relationships of true love with everyone around you. To put it another way, you should perfect a true family, consisting of three generations of grandparents, parents and children, living together in true love. If you do this while you are on earth, you will be eligible to enter heaven.
Our ultimate purpose is to find and establish “God’s kingdom and His righteousness”. That is the nation that seeks to do the will of God and whose citizens will serve God as its center. What would that nation be? It would be the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. It would be a nation resembling the form of a model true family with three generations living together in harmony, trusting, respecting and supporting one another and becoming one in love. In short, the Kingdom is the nation humanity has desired throughout the ages, the Utopia where God is sovereign.
Then what is meant by “His righteousness”? It signifies the heavenly way and the heavenly rule. The command has been given to us on earth to pass judgement, with the heavenly authority of true love, upon this evil world, that suffers under scheming, treacherous regimes and to establish the ideal, peaceful world of true love, a liberated, free world, based on justice and truth. After all, humanity is meant to become one family. The remarkable advances of modern science are contributing greatly to making the world one global village and family. The time has come to establish on this earth the beautiful kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world, in which Whites and Blacks, and Orientals and Westerners live together in harmony as one great family. The Kingdom of the Peaceful ideal world is realized through the concerted efforts of all the nations of the world.
This means we need a movement to realize a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. We must make humankind into one great family by breaking down the walls in our hearts and eliminating even the boundaries between nations. This movement begins from each family. Therefore, we should all bear in mind that it is our providential calling to establish a true family. This is the way we can advance the establishment of the universal peace kingdom on earth.
Indeed, all this is coming to pass. In the Middle East, one of the world’s tinder boxes, Jews, Christians and Muslims have found the resources in my philosophy of peace to engage in a new dimension of dialogue. In past decades, my Unification Thought played a decisive role in ending the Cold War. Now I am successfully leading behind-the-scenes efforts to bring about the reunification of my homeland of Korea. But I am not yet satisfied, because I began my life’s work at the command of Heaven. I have come as the True Parent of humankind with God’s anointing and am determined to keep my promise to Him. I am determined to obliterate all national divisions and barriers that have poisoned this earth and to establish the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world, where all people everywhere can live hand in hand.
To establish the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world, we must transcend religious affiliation and nationality and remove all national boundaries and other barriers. This is the only way that humankind will be able to achieve the original ideal of creation. It is our destiny to fulfil this responsibility. By doing so, we will establish the original right of ownership lost by the Fall of Adam and Eve.
The Era after the Coming of Heaven
You are now living in the most blessed and exalted time in history. The Era after the Coming of Heaven has arrived! I proclaim the beginning of the new Heaven and new earth, long-awaited and yearned for by billions of your ancestors in the spirit world who have come and gone throughout history. By virtue of Reverend Moon’s devotion to the path of heaven throughout the more than eighty years of his life, a new world is emerging. On this victorious foundation, the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven has been proclaimed. This is the era of the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. The four great religious founders and billions of good ancestors have come down to earth to guide you on the blessed path to heaven. The age when the fallen and corrupt world wreaks havoc on people’s lives, allowing evil people to live better than others, is passing away. This is the era of a new sovereignty of goodness, in which humanity can serve and attend God as the central Being.
Without your being aware of it, the True Parents have proclaimed the opening of the Era after the Coming of Heaven, which will allow humanity to be liberated. Even God will be liberated and His heart set completely free. The True Parents are now taking the revolutionary truth that we must all become true parents, true teachers and true owners to all the corners of the world.
We are now living in the age of heavenly fortune, an age in which all people can be liberated and delivered from the quagmire of sin. It is the era in which the world of freedom and happiness, the ideal world as originally intended at the time of creation, can be established. Reverend Moon, who received the seal of heaven, has come as the True Parent of humanity and the King of Peace. I will be true to my promise to God. I will bring to fruition the era of the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world on this earth, without fail. Therefore, please bear in mind that all of you gathered here today are the central figures in establishing the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world on this earth, in attendance to the king and queen of peace, the True Parents.
You are now advancing into the era of liberation and complete inner freedom, which is the providential era of the realm of the heart of the Fourth Adam. In other words, it is the Era after the Coming of Heaven. This is the time when, metaphorically speaking, the sun is directly overhead, such that no shadow is cast. This signifies that we have passed through the era before the coming of heaven, which included the Old, New and Completed Testament Ages. These eras have required immeasurable restitution and atonement in order to re-create the ideal.
The present time, however, corresponds to the era, prior to Adam’s Fall, the era of building the original, ideal world. It refers to the era of true love that is all-encompassing, all-powerful and has overall authority. It is the realm of heart in which the spirit world and the physical world are bound together as a unified realm with the True Parents, the King and Queen of Peace at the center. In other words, it is the era of the kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and on earth.
The Era after the Coming of Heaven that God and True Parents have begun is a time of dramatic change. Please bear in mind that you have the mission to make this era blossom and bear fruit in blessing and glory. You are given the heavenly mission to build God’s substantial homeland, which is nothing less than the ideal which God intended at the time of creation. In the Era after the Coming of Heaven, we must recover the true lineage that was lost when Adam fell, by receiving the marriage Blessing through the True Parents. The providence of the Blessing should be perfected through five stages: the individual, the family, the tribe, the race and the nation. In this way, let is fulfil our divine mission as blessed families in the Era after the Coming of Heaven by restoring and establishing the ideal, three-generational family on the world level. This is the same purpose for which Jesus came to the earth, and which he sought to accomplish before passing from this world.
The sinful era of restoration through indemnity, the Era before the Coming of Heaven, has passed and the era of the constitutional government ruled by heavenly law is upon us. You are now living in an era of grace in which, after receiving the marriage Blessing from True Parents, completing the conversion of lineage, and leading a life that is vertically aligned with heaven, such that no shadow is cast, you can automatically enter the Kingdom of Heaven. That is to say, if you establish a true family on earth and lead a heavenly life, once you die your life will be connected to the Kingdom of God in Heaven, and you will enjoy eternal life. Therefore, in the framework of the family, you should serve God as the Father in the highest position. Every one of you should become His child, perfecting the parent-child relationship with Him through sharing your life with Him, connected by blood. In short, you should form a partnership of true love with God, and live together with Him.
Who would be the greatest grandfather of the Universe? The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, call God “Father”. Should their children call Him “Grandfather”? No, they too should call Him “Father”. From the viewpoint of God, the vertical centre, all object partners of love are equal. His object partners, who are produced through the horizontal expansion and multiplication of His love, assume equal value regardless of who they are, transcending time and space. Simply put, everyone has equal value in perfected love.
The declaration of the Age after the Coming of Heaven has instilled a fresh promise of hope for a new future in the hearts of the 6.5 billion people of the world. We are experiencing the dynamic time of the construction of God’s kingdom when a day feels like a thousand years and a thousand years feels like one day. In more than 180 countries, ambassadors for peace, who have inherited Heaven’s will and tradition, are making serious efforts day and night to proclaim the values of true love and true family. They are moving forward with full force to establish the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world on this earth. As you form this new Abel realm, please remember that you are charged with digesting the Cain realm throughout Heaven and earth. By doing so, you will create the conditions to establish the new heaven and new earth, the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, with God’s complete authority.
Once someone becomes an old man of eighty-eight, he would normally look back on his life and quietly prepare to enter the next world. Yet, my life begins from now. It is not because I have many lingering attachments to this life. It is because I still have yet to fulfil the mission for which I received my call as the True Parent – to save people, who are suffering in the fallen realm, unable to escape from it. Now the revolutionary era after the Coming of Heaven, the time of harvest, has arrived. This year, I will continue to guide you in carrying out this universal resolution for the restoration of humanity. Please do not hesitate! Let us hold hands and together uphold the heavenly decree in fulfilling our calling and responsibility! How can we avert our eyes from the situation in which tens of thousands of our brothers and sisters are dying helplessly while waiting for salvation?
Therefore, I am now leading all tribal and national messiahs to unite and bring to a final end the improper relationship between the political sphere, representing the Cain realm, and the religious sphere, representing the Abel realm. With this providential will in mind, I have declared that a second Cheon Jeong Peace Palace, for the religious sphere, be established in Geneva, Switzerland, a city with a significant history regarding the relationship between the religious and political spheres. As an heir and actual representative of the True Parents, you must now move beyond your concepts and level of awareness to fulfil the responsibility for which you have been called. There is no time to lose. A fearful day of judgement will come if we fail to fulfil our calling – the responsibility and mission that heaven has given us in this Era after the Coming of Heaven.
Please take to heart and engrave this in your mind: You are living at a time when God gives you the mission – through restoring the true, ideal family – to offer before heaven the realm of the siblings’ love and the right of ownership that were given over to Satan through the Fall of our human ancestors. Please become true princes and princesses who live in attendance to God as your True Parent, for He is the Peace King of the Multitudes. Let us build the everlasting peace kingdom by attending the True Parents, who have become the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth. Let us build the world of eternal liberation and freedom, where there is no need for a saviour, Messiah or Lord at his second coming, and fulfil the path of a true, devoted child, a patriot, a saint, and a member of the family of God’s sons and daughters.
In so doing, let us inherit True Parents’ victory, their completion of the restoration through indemnity of the realm of the three generations, that we may perfect the original world as it would have been but for the Fall! Let us establish model, ideal families to bring the complete settlement of the universal, ideal realm of liberation and complete inner freedom. This will be the kingdom of goodness in which we can enjoy absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal peace and prosperity. It will become the homeland of universal peace, exalted in praise for all eternity!
Chapter Eleven
The Pacific Rim Era
If you carefully examine the progress of history, you will undoubtedly discover God’s plan and sense His presence as He tirelessly worked behind the scenes. Consider the history of civilization, which began centering on four of the world’s great rivers. We are familiar with the Egyptian civilization centred around the Nile River, the Mesopotamian civilization between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers, the Indus civilization on the Indus River, and early Chinese civilization centred upon the Yellow River.
Civilization shifted over time to the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, where the Mediterranean peninsular civilizations flourished in Greece and Rome. History continued to progress and the European continental civilization emerged. The continental civilization in turn became the fertilizer for an island civilization, Great Britain, to flourish in the Atlantic sphere. The British Empire, which dominated the seven seas and wielded its might as “the empire on which the sun never sets”, passed its splendid culture on to North America. We know these facts from history.
Civilization arrived on the North American continent and soon took on the armour of democracy, which was rooted in Christianity. This civilization raised the banner of the freedom of religion and respect for equal human rights in its struggle against communism, which sought to establish an atheistic sovereignty of evil. Through victories in the First and Second World wars, and the Third – the Cold war – it won victory over totalitarianism and communism.
However, that victory does not simply mean that America is great, and the development of human civilization did not stop there. Victory came because God had chosen and raised the United States of America as the Second Israel in accordance with His providential plan, and had raised and trained the American people through Christianity. God worked through America to bring His providence to its present stage of fruition.
It is in the present time that the issue of the development of civilization becomes important. Civilization has completed a circuit of the entire globe and has now arrived in the Pacific sphere. Human history has now come to a point in the Providence where it should conclude and reach fruition through the Pacific Rim region. No force can stop the Providence now. Though there were both victories and defeats during the course of indemnity under the evil sovereignty in the era before heaven, nothing could prevent the rise of the Pacific Rim Era.
Our mission in the Pacific Rim Era
The arrival of the Pacific Rim Era signifies many things. What do you think the world would have been like if Jesus had fulfilled the complete messianic mission during his lifetime on earth? Jesus came as the Savior and Messiah to save all of humanity. He did not come just to save the people of Israel, a small nation located on a corner of the Mediterranean Sea. At that time, Rome, based at the centre of the Mediterranean, was the centre of human civilization. Rome was ready to rule the seas. Heaven’s desire was that Jesus first teach and transform Rome and then rule over her, in order to bring salvation to all humanity through the vehicle of Rome’s brilliant civilization.
After thousands of years of preparation, God was finally able to send Jesus to earth as His only son. There is no way to fathom God’s heart as He anxiously watched Jesus’ each and every action. Jesus’ cruel death on the cross was a tragedy that broke God’s heart. It brought Him anguish even more extreme than the time when Adam and Eve, whom He created as the first ancestors of humankind, were lost from the Garden of Eden due to the Fall.
During the two thousand years since the cross, God, in the background of history, has walked a suffering path that is beyond human imagination. Through this course, He prepared the United States of America to serve as the nation of the Second Israel. As a Christian nation that includes Catholicism and Protestantism as well as the Orthodox world, the United States’ mission is to bring harmony and unity to Christianity as soon as possible and, in the 21st century, to fulfil the responsibility that had been the Roman Empire’s, but which was not realized in Jesus’ time. The responsibility, within God’s providence, to bring harmony and oneness among the billions of the world’s population and to expedite the creation of a peaceful, ideal world, is on America’s shoulders. These are not simply the words of Reverend Moon. This is Heaven’s decree.
Then how can we unify Christianity? God has already revealed the solution through me, Reverend Moon, the True Parent of humankind. God has given me the supreme command to practise a life of true love, to understand completely the reality of the spirit world to which we go after we die, and to establish a model, ideal family – a true family.
The future of mankind is tied to the destiny of the Pacific Rim region
Peace-loving leaders from the Pacific Rim region! Among the 6.5 billion people on the earth today, almost five billion are our neighbours, relatives, and brothers and sisters belonging to the Pacific Rim region. In other words, many of us share the same root as the sphere of the Mongolian peoples. There is nothing we cannot do if we receive the Marriage Blessing and pull together centering on God’s ideal for peace! The future of humanity is in our hands.
God’s providence has now spread from the North American continent and has blossomed as an island civilization, the Japanese archipelago, which is in a position similar to that previously held by the United Kingdom. It is now about to fulfil its destiny by coming to fruition on the Korean peninsula, the homeland of the True Parents who have emerged on the earth as the Savior of humanity and the returning Messiah. The Korean peninsula, which stands in a similar position to that of Rome in Jesus’ time, is regarded as an area of conflict between the sphere of the religions and the sphere of politics, which have the mission of resolving the world’s problems. From the geopolitical point of view, the Korean peninsula is emerging as the arena of most intense confrontation despite the ongoing work to secure world peace.
The principles of restoration through indemnity dictate that civilization must bear fruit in the Pacific Rim region, centred on the Korean peninsula. Fortunately, during the Korean War, the UN forces, centering on the United States, were mobilized to the peninsula. Yet, they did not recover the homeland and hometown of God’s desire, as they should have, according to God’s will, and they left the job half done. As a result, global conflict and strife emerged, taking the name “the Cold War”, during which time people were deprived of their possessions and displaced, leading them to search for God.
In order to make up for this through indemnity, I established the Universal Peace Federation and then organized the “Peace Kingdom Corps” and the “Peace Kingdom Police Force”, comprising women on heaven’s side who have received the marriage Blessing, who love peace, and who are willing to serve and sacrifice for the work of UPF. I have taken the lead in educating those involved with these organizations. As the peace organizations that stand in the forefront of actualizing a world of peace with God at their center, they will create the peaceful, ideal world that God desires.
At such intense times, what should be the role of America and the United Nations? Hawaii in the Pacific and Norfolk on the Atlantic bridge East and West, link North and South, and represent the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and all the great oceans of the world. With the support and protection of the American continent, the Korean peninsula should protect and defend the Pacific Rim region by bringing together all the Island nations of the Pacific. I say this because the future of humankind lies in the preservation of the Pacific Rim region, centering on Korea, Japan and the United States.
I am now eighty-eight years old but I am as healthy as a young man and filled with the hope of living beyond my hundredth birthday. As I was well aware of Heaven’s plans for this area, I invested thirty-three of the prime years of my life in the United States, beginning in the early 1970s, for the sake of world peace. I visited Hawaii and prayed at a critical moment when I was on my way to meet Kim Il Sung of North Korea in 1991 with the purpose of bringing an end to the Cold war era. On that victorious foundation, I have now retuned to Korea and am working to complete the providence of establishing God’s homeland and hometown. You may not be aware of this, but I have been assisting the Six Party talks now being held for the sake of resolving the nuclear crisis on the Korean peninsula and reconciling the democratic nations with the communist nations. I am presenting a solution based on the principles of peace and harmony, rooted in the ideology with the Heavenly Father at its center.
I ask that you closely analyse the current state of affairs in the world. Although the days of communism are gone, even now, powerful nations such as China and Russia are constantly on the lookout for opportunities to aggressively pursue their own interests at the expense of the powerless and small island nations. Regardless of what nation it may be, no small island nation by itself can deal with these powerful surrounding nations and their economic, political and indeed military ambitions. Those nations are so powerful that, if they wanted to, they could dominate any of the smaller nations in a single day, without bloodshed.
Only when peace and security are settled in the Pacific Rim can peace for all humankind be guaranteed. As I have mentioned, the small island nations by themselves will not be able to stop the incredible tsunami of powerful nations moving into the region. The time has come, therefore, for all these small island nations in the Pacific Rim sphere to unite as one and build the homeland of the new civilization. The small island nations dispersed in both the northern and southern regions of the Pacific, on either side of the equator, as well as Japan, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, the Solomon Islands, Australia, New Zealand and other countries, should become as one country and form one union to sustain peace throughout the Pacific Rim civilization. This will secure peace and stability for all people. What I am saying to you is that you have the responsibility to protect and save the oceanic realm, which is a lifeline on which humanity’s future depends, from the environmental destruction and conflicts that are worsening by the day, and to shield the natural resources for the sake of peace in the future.
You have truly come to a meaningful occasion today. Please do not miss your chance to ride on the currents of heavenly fortune that will surge together during this important and sacred jubilee year of 2007. Take the lead in protecting and developing the realm of the oceans, which cover seventy-five percent of the earth. Where else will you find a new treasure store of natural resources that hold the promise to resuscitate the earth endangered by all manner of pollution and resource depletion? The oceanic era that has begun represents the women’s era. Transcending nations and oceans, the Pacific Rim region must fulfil its mission as the main vehicle for creating the culture of the oceanic sphere, which is the sphere of women’s culture. Please take this to heart.
The families of your good ancestors in heaven are blessed. Numbering in their billions, they have come to the earth today, and they are listening to this message with you. This is because they too must perfect themselves through you, their descendants, and advance to the positions of true parents, true teachers and true lords and owners. Furthermore, they must become one in heart and body with the True Parent, the king of kings. From the original position before the Fall, they must absolutely uphold the True Parents’ standard, take an active role in carrying out their works, and be mobilized for the creation of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and in Heaven through a life of service and attendance. Please do not forget that, in this way, the spirit world and the physical world unite as one living entity and move and breathe together.
You must all establish the victorious tradition of a true and good family based on the Family Pledge. The life that you lead in this revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven should be one of a victor. The bright light from the Pacific Rim era is illuminating your path. God, the source of true life, true love and true lineage, is with you in the homeland of the Korean peninsula and throughout the world. True Parents, to whom God has given the blessing of eternal value, are also guiding you on your path. Be assured that there is nothing you cannot accomplish on the path ahead! I pray that the abundant grace and blessings of God in heaven may be upon you and your families, the Pacific Rim region and the Peace UN!
Chapter Twelve
The value and significance of the Family Pledge
The Family Pledge serves as Heaven’s most precious and blessed guideline, given to us for our lives. It came from Heaven as a gift to all humanity on May 1, 1994, the day when the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) was inaugurated. The Family Pledge was given when the Completed Testament Age, which brings to fulfilment the Old and New Testament Ages, was proclaimed. It is to serve as a milestone and guiding principle, piercing through the darkness of the age before the coming of heaven, and opening a new heaven and earth in the Era after the Coming of Heaven. It is also the blueprint for the building of God’s kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and on earth in the era of the creation of a new heaven and earth.
Father and Mother Moon, the True Parents of humankind, emerged victorious from the battles they had fought throughout their long course of indemnity that lasted forty years after Father Moon founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity in 1954. On that foundation, we were no longer required to recite “My Pledge” as individuals. We were to recite and practice the Family Pledge together as true families, the basic units of triumphal entry into the Kingdom of Heaven.
This Family Pledge is filled with the pain and suffering of God and True Parents, and it should not be recited without tears. It is something that people should recite forever, long after they discard the mask of religion in the fallen world and attain liberation. This is because the family is the basic unit of the Kingdom of Heaven. The Family Pledge is the absolute standard and constitution for the establishment of God’s Kingdom of Cheon Il Guk.
Have you ever heard of the phrase “Family Pledge” anywhere in the world? It has appeared for the first time in human history. In the beginning, God lost the true family through the Fall of the first man and women. He had created them to be His children and the first ancestors of humankind. Consequently, as God has the providential mandate to fulfil His ideal for the creation to an absolute standard, He instituted and proclaimed the Family Pledge. It is God’s blessing to human beings that they would establish the prototype of all true families – of ideal families on earth – and return eternal joy to God. It is an essential tool for building the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and in heaven in which your families can live while directly serving and attending God.
The precondition to properly recite the Family Pledge is first and foremost to attain a state of complete mind and body unity, which is the state of “one heart, one body, one outlook and one harmony”. This means that we must reach the standard of perfecting our character through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Our body should fully obey the orders of our conscience, which was given to us as our first parent, teacher and owner.
Furthermore, all of our family members must perfect the basic framework of the unity of the mind and body, the unity of parents, the unity of husband and wife, the unity of parents and children, and the unity among siblings, centered on Heaven’s will. In other words, all of us are to perfect a sphere of unity in true love. Only then can we recite the Family Pledge. That is why the Family Pledge serves as the absolute standard and constitution in the creation of the kingdom of peace and unity in Heaven and earth, beyond the Completed Testament Age.
From now, people will succeed in life not as individuals but as families. This means that only true model families that acquire the recognition and respect of all people can stand in a position that can lead the world. The perfection of the family is Heaven’s greatest and highest blessing, but it is also a fearsome responsibility. It is the cornerstone of the building of Cheon Il Guk. Creating true families is the shortcut to acquiring citizenship in God’s Kingdom.
The Family Pledge is the greatest of all prayers. It is the record of True Parents’ complete victory. It is the code of law that reveals the teachings of the Completed Testament Age, the age of “justification through attendance”. At the heart of the Family Pledge is the true family within the framework of true love. The Family Pledge serves as a bridge, connecting our lives to God. It is like an explosion of true love that completely captivates God. The Family Pledge is the energy and wisdom that brings true love to the centre of the connections between the vertical and horizontal, north and south, and front and back, initiating eternal spherical motion. The Family Pledge is the key to the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. The gates to the Kingdom cannot be opened by a key made of gold or silver; they can be opened only be the key of a true family perfected through true love. That is why all eight parts of the Family Pledge have as a primary clause, “Our family, centering on true love”.
The age of justification by attendance means the age of attending God in our lives. Was not the first of the Ten Commandments revealed in the Bible about loving God? In the Era after the Coming of Heaven, God is revealing Himself in front of all people as the True Parent. That is why the movement that attends the True Parents represents Heaven’s authority and power, and is incomparable to any force of this fallen world. What can prevent you from living a life of attendance that enables you to observe the living God with your own eyes and to experience Him with all your senses?
For the first time since the Fall of our original ancestors, history is governed by the True Parents. The original source has emerged that allows us to return to a new world through the internal relationship with True Parents. That relationship can bring Satan to submission. It is the centre through which God is to be liberated. You all should offer thanks for the amazing grace of being able to live together with the True Parents and to receive their instructions directly.
When you are completely one with True Parents, your nation, people, tribe and family can prosper. The True Parents are the embodiment and encapsulation of all glory in heaven and earth. Once you clearly understand their value, would you exchange the True Parents for all the money in the world? Their value is such that they cannot be replaced even at the price of your life.
Explanation of each part of the Family Pledge
1. Seek our original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven
The first part of the Family Pledge is “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to seek our original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love”. You should know that being able to recite the family Pledge is the best piece of news in all history.
The “ideal of creation” refers to the ideal world with God at the centre. It is the ideal of creation to build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. However, since that ideal could not be attained due to the Fall, we must achieve it through restoration. This means that we must build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by seeking our original homeland.
Because the family was lost due to the Fall, we must now build God’s family. This is not an individual’s task. It is rather the task of our families, the owners of Cheon Il Guk. Centering on true love, our families must “seek our original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love”.
The “original homeland” referred to here is the original homeland centred on families. That is why all of you must go back to your own hometown and establish God’s Kingdom on earth and in heaven. Once you restore your hometown, your nation and the world will be unified naturally. Then, there will be nothing further for you to worry about.
People who have lived on earth in a unified family centering on God’s true love, where the kingdom of God on earth and the kingdom of God in heaven are one, will become a family of the heavenly kingdom. We no longer live in the age of individual salvation. Religions, and Christianity in particular, talk about the salvation of the individual, but that will not suffice. God’s will is for the salvation of the family. Restoration must occur in the family because the Fall destroyed the ideal for the family. That time has now come. In all of history, this has never before happened on earth. Finally, the family has entered the era of settlement.
It is through families that we must build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of God’s creation. Because we lost the family, our families must restore that kingdom. The original homeland is centred on families, not on a nation. That is why I am saying that you must return to your hometown. If you still have a family there, you must go back to your hometown and build God’s kingdom on earth and in heaven. Once we restore our hometowns, our nations and the world will naturally harmonize. The heavenly kingdom on earth and in heaven will automatically be established. This is to unfold centering on true families.
“Our family pledges to build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation.” Here we say “build”. Why do we use that word? It is because we must create God’s Kingdom. It will not come about by itself. We must build it ourselves. This current world is already hell on earth, and it is connected to hell in the spirit world. We must recreate this world and turn it around 180 degrees.
Again, it is the mission of all families who have received the Marriage Blessing from True Parents to seek the original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation. It is not just as individuals, but as families, that you must complete the building of God’s kingdom. This is your first pledge as blessed families.
2. Perfect the dutiful way of filial sons and daughters, patriots, saints and divine sons and daughters
The second part of the Family Pledge is “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, by centering on true love.”
“Our family… centering on true love”: true love refers to love that appears where there is unity between mind and body, between husband and wife, and between parents and children. If you fail to practise this standard of true love, then you will surely be in trouble when you go to the spirit world. This is how fearsome the Family Pledge is. You should always live by it. If in your family, the father were to violate even one part of the Family Pledge, then the mother and children would all be jointly responsible. The entire family would have to take joint responsibility for it. The significance of Eve’s fall was that it brought about the fall of Adam’s entire family.
This part of the Family Pledge also states “… by attending God and True Parents…”. We human beings were originally to attend and honor God and True Parents, but we were driven away due to the Fall. As a result of the Fall, we lose the value of our existence unless we attend God and True Parents.
God is the vertical true parent and True Parents, perfected Adam and Eve, are the horizontal true parents. We are to be born from the union of these two sets of true parents. On the foundation of these two sets of parents becoming one, we can also achieve unity, and be connected to God and heaven. For this reason, nothing can be accomplished unless we attend God and True Parents.
Then, what kind of family is a family that represents and becomes central to heaven and earth? It is the ideal family that God envisioned prior to the Fall of Adam and Eve. The representative and central family in heaven and on earth refers to the family that represents heaven and grows this relationship with God in expanding circles through the eight stages in both the vertical and horizontal realms on earth. What I am saying is that the family comes to the position where God representing heaven and the True Parents on earth are united perpendicularly.
At the centre of such a family, you must become a filial son or daughter; in such a nation you must become a patriot; in such a world you must become a saint; and in such a heaven and earth you must become a divine son or daughter. “We pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of… divine sons and daughters.” Each family member, as an individual, should be able to attain the position of a divine son or daughter. When such divine sons and daughters, who are members of the same family, gather together, a family of divine sons and daughters is formed. This is what we are pledging.
We are pledging to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents. For this, our family must determine to fulfil the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots and virtuous women in the nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and on earth – everything that Heaven desires. We are saying that we will, as parents, educate our children, educate citizens in the nation, educate saints in the world and make them qualified to become family members in the heavenly kingdom both in heaven and on earth – that is, members of families of divine sons and daughters.
That is why we say, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, by centering on true love.”
3. Perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family
The third part of the Family Pledge is, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family, by centering on true love.”
The Four Great Realms of Heart and the Three Great Kingships would have been fulfilled had Adam and Eve not fallen. But for the Fall, they would have fulfilled these and become God’s royal family. This part of the Family Pledge refers to restoring fallen people and making them into the royal family. The families who receive the marriage Blessing need to fulfil this mission.
Conjugal love should take place where the Four Great Realms of Heart and the Three Great Kingships are achieved. For a man and a woman to receive love from each other, they need to stand in such a position. Otherwise they are not to love each other. Yet these realms and kingships cannot be realized without love. This is why man absolutely needs woman, and vice-versa.
Blessed families should strive every day to achieve this goal. However, it cannot be fulfilled with only a theoretical faith whereby you believe that you can achieve the perfection of love because God can do it for you. It is your responsibility and you are to accomplish it in your own family on a daily basis.
4. God’s ideal is the creation of a universal family encompassing heaven and earth
The fourth part of the Family Pledge is, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God’s ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love.”
God’s ideal is that the world becomes one family, or household, under God. If those who have actualized the Four Great Realms of Heart and Three Great Kingships recite the Family Pledge, there should be only one family under God rather than two families or many. By building the universal family encompassing heaven and earth – the ideal of God’s creation – we should establish that one family under God.
To give you an example using air, when there is a lack of air in a low pressure system, air from a high pressure system flows in and fills it up. Similarly, water in a higher place will automatically flow down to fill up a lower place. Equilibrium is the ideal.
In the world today, there are advanced nations and underdeveloped nations. In the advanced nations, people possess much and end up discarding their leftovers, whereas people in underdeveloped nations lack many things, especially food, and may even starve to death. Twenty million people die of starvation each year. Do you think that is God’s will? What the advanced nations are doing is oppressing the universe’s natural system of interaction. If this continues, those nations will be unable to avoid divine punishment; Heaven will not let this go unnoticed. Signs of judgement are already appearing in various places. One of these signs is the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases, and another is drug and alcohol abuse. Both free sex and homosexuality are the madness of the lowest of the human race. God detests such behaviour the most; Satan, on the other hand, gives highest praise to such behaviour.
I, Reverend Moon, am leading a movement to save the tens of thousands of people who are dying of starvation and malnutrition each day in the underdeveloped nations, even if it means making people go hungry in the consumer paradise of advanced nations such as the United States. Despite disorder in the human race, the natural world is constantly trying to maintain equilibrium.
When we pledge to “build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God’s ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness”, the word “freedom” here does not mean only the freedom of an individual, but the freedom, peace, unity and happiness of all the people of this world as one family under God. It refers to a world whose people are living in happiness. That is why we should develop movements in all villages, towns and cities throughout the world. In any place of wealth, we need to set up structures through which it can be shared.
A world of one universal family is a world filled with families who have received the marriage Blessing. When you go to the spirit world, you will find people from all over the world living together. All five colours of the human race are gathered there. The question is who among these people is truly prepared with a family ideal that can unite the past, present and future? Such a person will become a central leader in the spirit world. That is why we must train for this while we are on earth. We have to receive that training on the basis of mind and body unity.
There are many people in this world who betray their conscience and act according to their body’s desires. They hoard money, commit fraud, while scheming and defaming others. However, money accumulated in this way will eventually strike them back in the form of a rod of judgment. It is the same in the spirit world. No matter how learned a person may be, if he uses the knowledge he has gained for his own sake instead of for the greater good, that knowledge will come back and strike him; that person will be thrown into hell. We should live for the sake of the world, centering on the ideal of one global family, which is God’s ideal. Yet, if we ignore the world and live only for our own sake, the world will judge us.
I have not asked you to recite the Family Pledge centering on my family. You are to pledge centering on your own families. Everyone is equal. I, Rev. Moon, pledge representing my family, but on behalf of all families. That is why we say, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God’s ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love.”
5. Stagnation leads to death
The fifth part of the Family Pledge is, “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to strive every day to advance the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners, by centering on true love.”
We must first think about the spirit world. It is in the position of the subject partner, and the physical world is the object partner. Do you think there are more people living in the spirit world or on earth? The population of the spirit world is far greater than the population of the earth. The spirit world is the subject partner, yang, and the physical is the object partner, yin. In the same way, the mind is in the subject partner position and yang to the body, which is in the position of object partner, yin. The body represents the physical world and the mind the spirit world. If we act in such a way that we do not recognize the mind and the world of the mind as the subject partner, we are bound to go to hell. If we have lived in such a way that our body has led our mind, we should now live so that our mind leads our body and subjugates it. I am saying that such a time has come.
In our daily life we should have a consciousness that the spirit world is the subject partner. Unless we reach perfection on earth – the object partner – we shall not be able to establish the foundation for perfection when we pass into the spirit world. There is a direct relationship between the two worlds. Only when the spirit world is linked to us every day and every year throughout our entire life, does it become our second sphere of activity and place of residence when we go there. In other words, “the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners” means that the two worlds must constantly move towards oneness. To strive every day to advance this unification means to develop and progress. We are prompted to do it quickly. We must not stop. If we do, we are already falling away toward hell and death.
Stagnation leads down to hell whereas pushing forward leads to development. To sleep long hours and be lazy, gluttonous and self-indulgent are not acceptable in relation to God’s providence. We should keep ourselves busy. Life is short; run without resting, just like me; run even without sleeping. Only then can you be connected to the world that you hope for. This is how oneness is brought about. How can you be connected to the world that you do not even think about? We should think about both the spirit world and the physical world as partners.
6. Become a family that moves heavenly fortune
The sixth part of the family Pledge is “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to become a family that moves heavenly fortune by embodying God and True Parents, and to perfect a family that conveys Heaven’s blessing to our community, by centering on true love.”
Let us consider the meaning of, “…by embodying God and True Parents…” You are a family that embodies God and True Parents. The families that embody God and True Parents are the families that mobilize heavenly fortune. When we say that we pledge to “become a family that moves heavenly fortune… (and) conveys Heaven’s blessing to our community,” we are not saying that we want to be blessed by God and enjoy a good life just for ourselves. We are saying that we are all ultimately to become part of the Royal Family and that everyone should be a citizen of God’s Kingdom of Cheon Il Guk.
We are making a vow to become a channel of God’s blessing, sharing His blessing equally with all the people of the world. The family of God and the True Parents is one family. There is only one set of True Parents. However, since there are many blessed families throughout the world, God wants all of them to become channels that share the blessings of God and True Parents with others. You should strive to become such a family. This means that you are trying to enable everyone to receive many blessings.
7. Perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage
The seventh part is “Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, through living for the sake of others, to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, by centering on true love”.
On our path of faith, the most important point is not to defile the original lineage. This means that your descendants should not stain their lineage in the same way as Adam and Eve did when they fell. That is why we say, “Our family pledges… to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage…”
The world of God’s heart, the world in heaven, the world on the earth and the world of True Parents’ heart are all one. That is why we say that our family pledges “to perfect the world based on the culture of heart…” - this is our ideal. The culture should not be two, but one. The cultures of the fallen world are complex and varied. Without establishing the world based on the culture of heart, there is no way for us to connect to heaven on all levels, from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation, world and eternal world.
Without that heart, the individual, family and tribe cannot be connected. Without a world based on the culture of heart, there is no way for us to make connections from the individual up to the cosmos. The world thus far has been going up and down in a zigzag fashion, and that is why it has not yet been able to reach the final destination, even after many thousands of years. Yet in the world based on the culture of heart, we can reach that destination right away. This is possible only through true love.
8. Perfect the realm of liberation and complete freedom in the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven
The eighth part is, “Our family, the Owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, having entered the Completed Testament Age, to achieve the ideal of God and human beings united in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and to perfect the realm of liberation and complete freedom in the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, by centering on true love.”
In your family, you must bring the royal family into being by becoming a couple where each of you is united in mind and body. You should know that this is God’s ideal for the creation, the fulfilment of the Completed Testament Age. The family where the man and woman are united in true love is the beginning of kingship. Originally, Adam’s family was to be the royal family. From there, the king of the tribe, the king of the people and the king of the nation were to emerge. Then this kingship on earth would have automatically been connected to and continued on into the eternal spirit world.
The words “Completed Testament Age” refer to our having advanced into a new age. It is the time when the world will be united, creating a peaceful world that begins with the family and progresses to the tribe, people, nation, world, and even to all of heaven and earth. It represents the whole; it is not confined to the family unit. We were able to enter the Completed Testament Age only after going beyond the level of the world and that of the whole. Through the new family that perfects the Four Great Realms of Heart and the Three Great Kingships, we can go beyond the realm of the world and achieve the required model for the Completed Testament Age. When this happens, the world will become one unified world – the ideal heavenly kingdom of peace.
Absolute faith, absolute love, absolute obedience! These constitute God’s ideal of creation. God began creating all things based on absolute faith. He initiated His creation for the sake of His object partners of absolute love. Absolute obedience means that there is no awareness of “self”. It is a state of absolute zero – complete nothingness. When God empties Himself and returns to nothingness, a natural and reciprocal circular motion begins. Because you give everything out and have nothing more to give, everything will come back to you. This is the origin of interaction in the Universe; it is the principle that everything comes back to you after you have invested completely.
For this reason, you must not insist on your own way. If you do, you will come to belong to the Devil. You must not let Satan use anything that comes through your five physical senses. Live in such a way that your eyes, nose, mouth, feet and hands are used as if they were God’s, living your life based on the standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience! God always has compassion for, and assists such people. When you let go of yourself, God can be with you.
God created you as His absolute partners of love, totally investing Himself. He created you because He needed you as His genuine object partners of love. Without having a substantial form either in the physical world or in the spirit world, God was unable to relate to His children. That is why He had to acquire a physical form. That form is of the perfected True Parents.
God wanted object partners of love on earth that He could love. That is why He began Hs creation. God created us human beings as His absolute object partners of love, and granted us the ability to reproduce so that we might live for eternity through our descendants. This is the essence of God’s creation.
The purpose of creation is God and human beings united in love
God is the root of love, the root of life, the root of lineage and the root of the kingdom of heaven in heaven. Had Adam and Eve not fallen, God would have entered their hearts when they married and realized a loving oneness with them. God would have become the vertical True Parent, and Adam and Eve would have become the horizontal True Parents. We would have been born with the flesh and blood of these two sets of parents. Our mind would have become the vertical self and our body the horizontal self, and we would have led lives based on one heart, one body, one outlook and one harmony.
In such a way, we are to perfect the unity of our mind and body by achieving unity with God in love and thus becoming His sons and daughters. Once we are in this parent-child relationship, we become God’s princes and princesses. We can enjoy a parent-child relationship with God and inherit everything from Him. When we, as His children, become husbands and wives, and unite totally based on true love, we become a family that lives by attending God. That family becomes a base for peace and the ideal. When a man and a woman, each being one half, unite together, they become the base through which they fulfil God’s ideal love as His partners. In other words, through the perfection of human beings as beings of infinite value through true love, God also perfects true love, and completes the world of the ideal of creation where His eternal, ideal love dwells.
In the relationship between God and Adam’s family, God was to be the first generation, Adam the second generation, and Adam’s children the third generation. God was to be in the position of the grandparent, Adam in the position of the parent, and the children in the position of the sons and daughters. In such a way, when three generations are firmly secured in your families, the grandparents stand in the position of God in His kingdom. They also are in the position of the king and queen of the original physical world and spirit world. The parents stand in the position of the central king and queen representing the present kingdom of heaven on earth. The children, who represent the future, are in the position of princes and princesses who inherit the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven.
In this way, Adam’s family and clan were to live as the royal family with God as its center. After their life on earth, its members were meant to go to heaven and live in the eternal world. That is the purpose that we were meant to fulfil. Heaven is where people go to after living together on earth and attending their grandfather, who represents Heaven, as if He were God, attending their parents as the king and queen of the present world, and loving their children as the future princes and princesses. Heaven is the only place where people’s desires, hopes and happiness are fulfilled.
The eighth part of the Family Pledge shows the way for us to live in the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is a path that is possible only through a life of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. At the time of creation, God totally invested Himself with absolute faith and absolute love based on the standard of absolute obedience.
We have lost the true love that was to be created from the unity of God and human beings in absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. The first people were meant to become perfect without knowing anything about the Fall. They were to create a realm of unity with God, yet everything was lost. That is why we must establish the realm of the unity of Heaven and earth. We must dissolve all the sorrow that we caused God for not having done so. Without releasing that pain and suffering, there can be no liberation for God or for human beings. Internally and externally, I have been resolving all of that. That is why I call this the completion and perfection of restoration. I am proclaiming this now because it must be brought to a conclusion in the right way.
Heaven’s tradition is the constitution of your family
Beloved blessed family members! The question now is how you will guard the pure and true lineage that you have received from God. The Fall occurred in the Garden of Eden, even though it was an undefiled place. It will surely not be easy to protect the pure lineage in this evil and corrupt world of sin. So, the people born in this sinful world, no matter how much they suffer, must take responsibility such that the children of future generations receive and maintain the Marriage Blessing. It is their responsibility to maintain a pure and pristine environment that will never again be defiled.
Consequently, your families should not be secular families immersed in old habits. What is the best way to live for the future? It is to thoroughly educate your descendants. It is also essential to live an exemplary life for the sake of your descendants. Despite difficulties during the wilderness course, the people of Israel overcame the seven tribes of Canaan. In the same way, you must also gain victory in your own battle, no matter what hardships you have to endure. Parents must plant the way of Heaven, even if they die doing so. If you live for the sake of Heaven and the True Parents, your children will be blessed with heavenly fortune and naturally come to inherit the heavenly tradition.
The people of Israel entered the land of Canaan, but later perished. Why? It is because they eventually succumbed to the existing environment and adopted the prevailing habits and customs. The Israelites were tempted by the extravagant lifestyle of the Canaanites, who ate better food and enjoyed a more comfortable life than theirs. The Israelites ended up coveting power and began to place their priorities on wealth and knowledge. They even began to marry gentiles – as long as they were from rich families. In this way, they betrayed the spirit of the chosen nation and ended up losing the heavenly tradition.
The lessons we learn from the Family Pledge come from universal, cosmic principles, not from any form of individualism. We should not try to avoid the various hardships that we face in our lives. We must boldly break through our circumstances and win the victory! To do this, our families must be armed with the tradition of the Family Pledge. It is not, however, a task for just your families or for a single generation. You must firmly and solidly establish the heavenly tradition over at least three generations. You have the mission of establishing a lineage that secures the tradition of the chosen people from generation to generation.
You must broaden your base of true love and unite the hearts of all peoples. Light a candle, offer incense and pray to become families that can unite the hearts of all peoples. Live and die to create a bond of true love with all peoples and with heaven and earth. If you live this way, God will protect your families through all ordeals and tribulations. It is God’s desire to plant His seed of love in such families. May God’s blessings be with you and your family for eternity!
Chapter Thirteen
The Universal Peace Federation, the Mongolian People’s Federation, and other projects for peace
The beginning of the 21st century is the historic turning point at which we can decide whether to allow everlasting world peace to take root or when we become doomed to repeat the 20th century’s dark and oppressive history of war and conflict. Who can unite the ancient knot of Cain and Abel? It has been tightened for thousands of years and grows ever more tangled. The United Nations at its founding proclaimed the noble ideal of realizing world peace, and for sixty years it has dedicated itself to this task; yet peace among nations can never come when those entrusted with the task have not resolved the Cain-Abel relationship between their own mind and body.
The United Nations began has indeed made important contributions for peace. Nevertheless, around its sixtieth anniversary in 2005 there was a broad consensus both inside and outside the organization that the UN had yet to discover the way to fulfil its founding purposes, and world peace still remains far distant. The UN is now only a shadow of what it was meant to be, with the member states doing little more than insist on their own interests. Unable to turn away from this sad reality, I am promoting the renewal of the UN. The time has come to launch the Abel-type sovereignty for the peaceful ideal world that will set its course according to God’s will. In support of these efforts, I have founded the Universal Peace Federation as the new “Peace UN”, an “Abel-type UN”, with the belief that we must pour new wine into fresh wineskins. UPF will guide humanity in the era of the beginning of a new and universal civilization of peace. It is already active in more than 120 nations.
The Universal Peace Federation will renew the “Cain-type” UN and lead the way for millions of Ambassadors for Peace throughout the world who have taken up my teachings - teachings centered on the Heavenly Father, which consist of the principles of true love and the ideal of true family – and, without fail, fulfil the heavenly will of creating “One Family Under God”. It is now entirely possible for the Universal Peace Federation to fulfil its mission to unite heaven and earth and form the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. This is because it represents God’s victory; it is the fruit of the True Parents’ blood, sweat and tears, and was born though the concerted efforts of those here. UPF is the world’s cherished hope, opening wide the Era after the Coming of Heaven.
The Universal Peace Federation is a model UN-type organization. It should be elevated to the role of an “Abel-type” counterpart to the existing “Cain-type” United Nations and carry out that role. It should renew and reform the UN, and provide the leadership for a new sovereignty of universal peace known as Cheon Il Guk. This is the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world, which shall be realized through the concerted efforts of all the nations of the world. UPF is to provide a new level of leadership, a Peace Council - a legislative organization consisting of religious leaders from around the globe of the same rank as members of the current UN Security Council – established within it. This Peace Council will be free from any satanic influence; it will be a legislative body under the protection of God; it will speak not for the interests of a particular nation, as the existing UN representatives do, but will truly work for the welfare and peace of humanity from an interreligious and universal perspective.
The Universal Peace Federation will not be an arena of competition like that which exists between the member nations and departments of the United Nations. Instead, it will carry out a historic revolution for the peace and welfare of humanity on a pan-global and universal scale. Unlike the UN, which focuses on superficial matters and slogans, UPF will fulfil the messianic mission which is genuinely beneficial to humankind on a more fundamental and substantial level.
Practical tools for realizing world peace: Universal Peace Federation, Peace Kingdom Police Force and Peace Kingdom Corps
In the course of the peacekeeping work of the United Nations, it sometimes withdrew its forces before that work was completed; the Korean War was one such example. With this in mind, on October 20 last year, while in the Ukraine during my world speaking tour propagating the inaugural message of UPF in 120 nations, I proclaimed before the world the inauguration of the global “Peace Kingdom Police Force” and the global “Peace Kingdom Corps”. These two organizations will play the same role as the red and white blood cells of our bodies. They will safeguard order and peace in the new world, serving humanity and sweeping away the absurdities and the evil of this world through true love power, ensuring the peace, happiness and welfare of mankind in the future. In all corners of the world they will serve as heaven’s emissaries, protecting the blessed families who have made a new beginning by engrafting the lineage of heaven. They will also fulfil their duty as sentinels, defending, protecting and cultivating this beautiful earth, our blessed planet, this Garden of Eden given to us by God for which we must be grateful.
Humanity is still ensnared in the traps of division and self-interest, which are remnants of the age before the coming of heaven. The Peace Kingdom Police Force and the Peace Kingdom Corps will be the vanguard for educating humanity in true love in the Era after the Coming of Heaven. The purpose of this education will be to create the true individual, the true family, true nation, true world and true universe. I hope that you will put on the new “true love armour” in this new age and be wise and brave activists in the universal Peace Kingdom Corps, for the sake of humanity’s future. I pray that the blessings and grace of God may be with all of you leaders representing different areas of responsibility, whose presence has elevated this historic occasion.
The Universal Peace Federation and the Cross-Cultural Marriage Blessing
The Universal Peace Federation will be in the vanguard of carrying out the great revolution of restoring the original lineage of humanity back to that of Adam before the Fall through the international and cross-cultural marriage Blessing held on the interreligious and international level. Some may laugh and say that it is impossible. Yet, if it is God’s will, there will be a way. What do you think will happen if people from the United States and Russia marry across the boundaries of their nationalities through the international and cross-cultural marriage blessing, according to the teachings of Rev. Moon, who is doing God’s work? The two nations will belong to one family under God, the eternal, absolute Lord of all Creation. How could anyone harbour antagonism toward, much less point weapons at, a nation in which many millions of grandchildren from their own lineage make their home?
Distinguished guests, you who have been called by God! The holy task of building the ideal kingdom of heaven – the sacred reign of peace on earth – is being carried out enthusiastically in all corners of the world, through the recovery of our ideal homeland and hometown. This is God’s hope for changing the billions of people of the world to the lineage of the true tribe. At this very moment people are competing to fulfil their responsibility to hold hoondok rallies and marriage blessings in twelve thousand locations in each of the 185 nations of the world.
As the representative leaders of clans representing hundreds of thousands, or even millions, you each stand in the position of a clan messiah. Your ancestors going back tens and hundreds of generations have been mobilized to watch your every move. Hence your mission has now been made as plain as plain can be. First and foremost, you will need to make it known to every member of your clan that the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven, that is the era for the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth, has now arrived. It means that you have the responsibility to educate them about the providence God is carrying out on a worldwide level in this era, centering on True Parents. You will need to teach them without fail that the intercultural marriage Blessing is the ultimate means to establish a peaceful, ideal world here on earth, so that your families and clans can all join the holy ranks of those blessed through the intercultural marriage.
It is truly regrettable that you cannot sense with your own eyes this precious revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven, never before seen and never to be repeated. The reason for this is that you are relying on your five physical senses. It is my heartfelt hope that you will open your five spiritual senses as quickly as possible, so that you may definitely perceive how the providence of heaven is unfolding in this era. However, there is one thing you need to know for sure: this providential time, this era of heavenly fortune, which you have received without giving anything on your part, will not wait for you indefinitely.
I ask you to devote your best efforts, as True Parents have, toward the development and success of the Universal Peace Federation, and toward creating God’s ideal family, ideal nation and the peace kingdom. From the spirit world, the founders of the world’s religions, tens of thousands of saints and your own good ancestors are watching your every move. They will punish you if you stray from the heavenly path. Please become true princes and princesses who can attend and live together with God, the eternal peace king, as the True Parent of humanity. Let us each live up to the standard of a true, devoted child, a patriot, a saint, and a member of the family of the sons and daughters of God, in order to create the glorious kingdom of peace and prosperity.
The Mongolian People’s Federation
This is a time of transition into the era when heaven and earth are united and the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world is formed. During this period, the Universal Peace Federation and the Mongolian People’s Federation that I have founded will play important roles. The Mongolian Peoples’ Federation should bear in mind that the providential age is now upon us in which it should fulfil its duties by restoring the world through the Blessing on the national level. This will bring to a close the conflict between Cain and Abel, which had its beginning within humanity’s first family.
The concept of the Universal Peace Federation, which was launched according to God’s ideal purpose and goal of creation, could not have emerged from the wisdom of one human being. It is the supreme blessing that Heaven has given to humanity, and is ushering in the new millennium. Thus, it is my hope that the Mongolian People’s Federation too will fulfil its duty as a partner of UPF in achieving its noble goals bestowed by Heaven.
I have been building a worldwide Abel realm that brings together religions and nations that represent seventy-eight per cent of the current world population. To create a corresponding worldwide Cain realm, I have been bringing together all those born with the Mongolian birthmark, representing seventy-four per cent of the world’s population; it is the largest racial group in the world. We should inspire all five billion of them and generate a climate of true love on this planet. These two realms must become one and unite with UPF which has been initiated as the Abel sovereignty. The Mongolian People’s Federation is in the position of Cain, serving the Universal Peace Federation as the vertical Abel and the religious and national realm of the world as the horizontal Abel. It is to work as the central figure in establishing the global kingdom of the peace ideal.
The providential time has now come when we have the mission to unite the two sons, Cain and Abel. It is by True Parents’ love that they can become one. Then, having recovered their original positions, they should dedicate the restored, original ideal family before the True Parents, the King and Queen of Peace in heaven and on earth.
The Mongolian birthmark is not merely a physical mark of the Mongolian race. It is without doubt the mark given by heaven long ago to function as the sign by which True Parents would rouse and unite all humanity with the arrival of the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven. Furthermore, the Korean race, standing at the centre of the Mongolian peoples, should be at the forefront of the billions of the world’s peoples, fulfilling its mission to pass on True Parents’ tradition on their behalf. The associations of the more than 280 clans of Korea have preserved the spirit of the Korean people and the pride of the “white-clad race”. They should become one, transcending the limits of their names and clans, and uniting proudly as a people chosen by God in this era. Please bear in mind that this is a God-given mission, given to you as leaders representing the Korean clans and race. There is no time to lose. It does not matter what your clan name is or in what province you originate. There is no reason why you should not unite in harmony. North and South Koreans are brothers and sisters sharing a common language.
The descendants and kinsfolk of the white-clad race are a people called, selected and anointed by God in this era, to be the vanguard in building the peace kingdom in this, the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven. You peace ambassadors are proud descendants of a long line of Korean people who were born with the spirit to promote human welfare. You and I were born on the Korean peninsula; we share the same cultural background. You should therefore become the peace ambassadors and special envoys of heaven, conveying my teachings and educating others so they can establish exemplary families through true love, true life and true lineage. You should also expand and elevate to a global level the Family Party for Universal Peace and Unity, so that it may be reborn as the Cheon Il Guk House for Peace and Unification.
You who have become ambassadors for peace must now go forward with the conviction and dignity of a prophet that comes with heaven’s truth, having no fear of the path of death. You represent heaven and as long as humanity continues to drift aimlessly, it needs your help. You are heaven’s secret envoys, prepared to uphold heaven’s command. Go out as heaven’s special envoys, and God will certainly grant you eternal life.
Please become true princes and princesses who can attend and live together with God, the eternal Peace King and True Parent of humanity. Let us develop the Mongolian Peoples’ Federation and establish the Mongolian Shared Lineage Federation by receiving the marriage Blessing of the True Parents and completing the conversion of our lineage. Please take to heart that this is the task that God has assigned to you and become the true owners in establishing the kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and on earth. May God’s grace and everlasting blessings be with you, your families, clans and the Korean people.
Industry
I have dedicated my entire life to teaching the path of living for the sake of others through the practice of true love. This is a basic principle that surely applies not only to individuals but to all levels of life – from the family to the society and to the nation. Early on, I had the conviction that my homeland of Korea – which at the time was suffering in poverty – would become prosperous and, furthermore, that it would become a nation that would share what it had with the rest of the world; that it should be able to contribute spiritually. Furthermore, it would need a strong foundation of technical engineering skill. I therefore founded Tongil Heavy Industries Company Limited some forty years ago. The company imported the most advanced automobile technology from German companies and thus laid the foundation for the automobile technology of modern-day Korea.
Now that I have concluded thirty-four years of work away from my homeland of Korea, and have returned to my country, I have decided to lay the foundation for aviation technology – which of all industrial technologies requires the most precision. This is so that in the twenty-first century, Korea might become a leader in the machinery industry and, in particular, contribute to the development of the aviation industry. Therefore, I have established Times Aerospace of Korea LLC and pursued technological co-operation from the Sikorsky Company, which prides itself on having the best helicopter technology in the world.
Henceforth, Times Aerospace of Korea will focus on developing helicopters for the transportation of large groups of people to meet public demand, while opening new horizons in the helicopter industry. We expect that this will revolutionise not only mass transportation in Korea, but will also contribute to improving the quality of life in this country by raising the efficiency of the utilization of its territory.
It is my hope that Times Aerospace of Korea will, through the foundation of the Tongil Group, extend to 180 nations across the world through the actualization of a campaign for the even distribution of technology that I have always advocated. This will play an important role in establishing Korea as an industrial power, and thereby contribute greatly to the nation’s development and ultimately to the happiness of all people of the world. Times Aerospace of Korea will eventually become a big contributor to the fulfilment of the United Nations Peace Council.
The World Peace King Bridge-Tunnel
I have dedicated my entire life to teaching the path of living for the sake of others. This is the practice of true love. As a basic principle, it applies not only to individuals but to all levels – from the family to the society and to the nation. Pursuing world peace through efforts that reach beyond particular religions and nations, and with a view to building the ideal kingdom of heaven that is God’s desire, I am promoting the world’s grandest project, which is to build a passage for transit across the Bering Strait that separates the North American and Russian landmasses. I call this passage the “World Peace King Bridge-Tunnel”. It will be part of the creation of the International Highway of Peace that is to connect all oceans and continents, from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to Santiago, Chile, and from London to New York, allowing people to travel at full speed around the globe, linking up the world as a single community.
The divisions of the world into East and West and North and South were wrought by Satan. God is warning us that He will no longer tolerate separation and division. Carrying out this project will bind the world together as one village. It will tear down the man-made walls of race, culture, religion and country and establish God’s homeland and original hometown, the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world that has been God’s cherished desire.
The science and technology of the 21st century render it possible to construct a tunnel under the Bering Strait. Through such an undertaking, I am doing my utmost to inspire all technology to contribute to the peace and welfare of all humankind, which is the purpose and culmination of the history of God’s providence. The United States and Russia can become one. The European Union, China, India, Japan, Brazil and all nations, as well as the world’s religions, can combine their energies to succeed in this project. The success of this project will be decisive in establishing the kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world, where people will no longer wage war on each other. Through the completion of this project, humanity will become one great family and the establishment of the war-free world, espousing the blessings of the ideal of eternal peace, will come to be. Where there is a will, there is always a way – especially if it is the will of God.
The construction costs are also not a problem. Think of how much money the world is wasting on war. Humanity needs to realize that we are committing fearful sins in the presence of history and our descendants. Let us take one example. The United States has spent 300 billion dollars on the Iraq War. That would be more than enough to complete the Bering Strait project. In this age, war is the most primitive and destructive means of resolving conflict, and will never lead to lasting peace. Now is the time, as the prophet Elijah taught, to beat our swords into ploughshares and spears into pruning hooks. Humankind should end the perverse cycle of war, which only sacrifices the lives of our children and squanders enormous sums of money. The time has come for the countries of the world to pool their resources and advance toward the kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and earth, desired by God, the Master of this great universe.
World Culture and Sports Festival
Athletes participating in the interreligious sports tournament! The fundamental spirit of the World Culture and Sports Festival 2007 is one of fulfilling the sacred task of being a model of harmony and peace, bringing the billions of people of the world together as one family under God. Please remember that we, as people of religion, culture and athletic prowess, have the mission to come together as one and bring the era of beginning a new, universal civilization of peace into fruition. Religious people in particular must become the leaders of this sacred revolution of true love. I have already completed all the necessary preparations for this.
Chapter Fourteen
Address at the Entrance Ceremony for Cheon Jeong Peace Palace and the Coronation of the King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth
Highest leaders of all the nations of the world, honoured guests of heaven who have gathered from every corner of the earth to celebrate this treasured historic and providential day, and people of the spiritual and physical worlds who are being reborn as citizens of Cheon Il Guk: in the name of all humanity in the spirit world and physical world, numbering more than 300 billion souls, I offer boundless gratitude and glory to God, the Creator of all things, the eternal True Parent of humankind and the Great King of Heaven and Earth.
I ask you to raise your voices high in praise for the victory of the True Parents of Heaven and Earth, the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth. They have personally completed the entire course of restoration through indemnity in order to save humankind, who, as descendants of the Fall, would otherwise be eternally destined to wander in evil and suffering, ever sliding down the path to hell.
You stand today in the venue of a tremendous event in the history of God’s providence. This event is unprecedented and will never be repeated. It is the day when the King of Peace finally ascends in glory. Please recognize that, although they may not be visible to you, thousands and tens of thousands of good ancestors of blessed families have come here. They are above your head now, joining with you in celebration of this awesome moment. All nature is rejoicing, and heaven and earth resound with choruses of “Hallelujah!” If you truly understood the infinite value of this day, you would not be able to sit still. You would go throughout the world singing hymns of joy and dancing in ecstasy.
Beloved citizens of Cheon Il Guk, today you are receiving amazing grace. You are participating in the coronation ceremony of the substantial King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth, and you are being registered as citizens of Cheon Il Guk. Not only you, but also your ancestors by the tens of thousands will thank you throughout eternity for the grace they are receiving along with you today.
The Bible says, “Seek ye first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness.” Today you are witnessing the miracle of miracles: the establishment of Cheon Il Guk, the substantial sovereignty in the Era after the Coming of Heaven. God truly works in mysterious ways. By the first day of the new millennium, God had already laid out the land for Cheon Il Guk. Who could have imagined though that they could see the day when the King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth would ascend to his throne? You thought it was just a dream, but you are witnessing it in your lifetime.
The path and lifestyle of the citizens of Cheon Il Guk
Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, this is a precious and blessed day of victory and glory. Now, as the King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth, I will declare on this thirteenth day of June in the sixth year of Cheon Il Guk, the fundamental duties and mission that every citizen of Cheon Il Guk should understand and live by as they walk the way of Heaven.
First, as God is the vertical true parent and you are true children of God, you will establish the realm of three generations in your family, perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, and attend God on the vertical axis for eternity. Further, you will inscribe on your heart the need to uphold the King of Peace in Heaven and on earth, who is the horizontal True Parent, and to live with absolute obedience on the horizontal axis for eternity as a citizen of Cheon Il Guk. You will make living for the sake of others, which is the practice of true love, the standard for your life. You will establish a true family and raise true children who are sinless and pure, thus protecting God’s lineage and bequeathing it intact from generation to generation.
Second, no matter what the situation, you will live with your mind and body united as one. In my case as well, from the day I first determined to follow Heaven’s path, I resolved to keep this as my motto: “Before you desire to have dominion over the Universe, you must first gain dominion over yourself.” God has given you a conscience as your guide in accomplishing this object. Your conscience knows everything about you. It has complete knowledge of every action and step you take; it even knows your thoughts. Your conscience knows all these things before your teacher or pastor knows. It knows them before your parents know. It knows them even better than God knows. So if you place your conscience in God’s position over your life, and go the way of absolute obedience, of “high-noon settlement” whereby your life casts no shadows, it is certain that you will establish a realm of resonance between your mind and body and perfect their harmonious unity.
The unification of the spirit world has been completed. The issue now is the billions of people now living on earth in the physical body. They struggle in agony in the midst of sin and suffering, yet they are your brothers and sisters.
Your third mission is to educate them and bring them home as people of Cheon Il Guk. You should educate everyone to understand that all human beings without exception are descended from the Fall and must change their blood lineage through receiving the Holy Marriage Blessing from the True Parents. You must continue the work of engrafting people into the True Olive Tree, by having them participate in the grace of intercultural marriage, until the day when all humankind, numbering more than 300 billion souls, is restored to God’s lineage.
Fourth, you are created to spend nine months in the womb, perhaps one hundred years on earth, breathing air, and then all eternity in the spirit world. You should understand that, just as proper preparation in the womb is required for a healthy life after birth, you must devote your earthly life for preparing yourself for the next stage of life in the spirit world. Never forget that in every time and place, and no matter what you are doing, your ancestors in the spirit world are with you. Be ever mindful to live in harmony with the spirit world. Communicate in prayer with the heavenly world with sincerity and dedication, so that you may become perfected in your spirit self while you are living on earth.
Fifth, your talents and abilities are required for the management and governance of Cheon Il Guk. Now therefore, cut away and cast off your mask of selfish individualism. It is but a remnant of the era before the coming of heaven. In order to belong to heaven, you must change ownership by participating in the Ceremony of Returning Ownership, offering everything you own to God and then receiving it back from God. In addition, all citizens of Cheon Il Guk will provide funds for the well-being and peace of humanity, not by taxation, but by voluntary contributions. They will demonstrate the model of offering the first three tenths of their income for public purposes. This cannot be an imposed tax; it has to be a gift that citizens offer willingly to Heaven with joyful hearts.
Sixth, in the Era after the Coming of Heaven, it is possible to recover the ideal world of creation that was lost as a result of the Fall. God created everything in the Universe as our natural environment; these are absolutely needed for human prosperity. Human beings and nature are meant to share a realm of mutual resonance, with humans as the subject partners of love and nature as the object partner thriving under human management and beautified by human creativity. We can no longer tolerate actions that destroy nature and pollute the human environment . As citizens of Cheon Il Guk, please have the wisdom to protect and love nature. Return to nature and enjoy a life of liberation and complete inner freedom. To love nature is to love God and humanity. When human life resonates with nature, human character can blossom in perfection. The flowers of a true culture of heart, a true artistic world, will bloom. It will be the Garden of Eden, the original ideal where God, human beings and all creation live in complete harmony and express their original nature.
If you practise such love in your daily life, how can God do anything but bestow great blessings upon you? You will live for all eternity in blessing and happiness.
Seventh, the Era after the Coming of Heaven that God and True Parents have opened is a time of dramatic change. As registered citizens of Cheon Il Guk, you have the mission to make this era blossom and bear fruit in blessing and glory. Therefore, please become Heaven’s emissaries, fulfilling the dual missions of the Peace Kingdom Police Force and Peace Kingdom Corps. Serve humanity under the banner of the Universal Peace Federation, which is working to establish the positon of the “Abel-type United Nations”. Worthy countrymen and women, if not you, then who will nurture and protect the blessed families and the blessed planet Earth that God has given us?
Please become princes and princesses who live in attendance to God as your vertical True Parent, for He is the Peace King of the Multitudes. Let us build the everlasting Peace Kingdom by attending True Parents, who have been enthroned as the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth in the realm of eternal liberation and complete inner freedom – where there is no need for the Saviour, Messiah or Lord at his Second Coming - and fulfil the way of a true devoted child, a patriot, a saint, and a member of the family of God’s sons and daughters! By following God’s commandment to maintain absolute sexual purity, let us establish exemplary families, inherit True Parents’ victory of restoring through indemnity the realm of three generations, and perfect the world as it would have been but for the Fall!
Beloved people of Cheon Il Guk, I hope you truly will celebrate and enjoy this precious and holy day. Brush off all your cares and worries and celebrate this day in joy while attending your Heavenly Father and True Parents with all your heart. The sincerity and education expressed by each of you brings even more glory to this day. The beautiful mountains, streams, trees and flowers here in the vicinity of Cheongpyeong Lake are showering their blessings upon you as your prepare to embark on your ambitious journeys. Your descendants too will take pride that you participated in this long-awaited day, and they will honour and praise you forever.
Chapter Fifteen
Parting messages
Humanity is traveling down a dead-end street. The only way to survive is to practise Reverend Moon’s teaching: the peace philosophy of true love, true life and true lineage. Now that we have entered the Era after the Coming of Heaven, your good ancestors are activated and the heavenly hosts are sweeping down upon the earth. Soon the peoples and countries that appear strong and mighty will change course and shift in this direction. Buddha, Confucius, Jesus and Mohammad, as well as hundreds of generations of your ancestors, have mobilized to watch your every move. Your mission is now as plain as can be: First and foremost you should declare to every member of your clan and to all your acquaintances that the world has now entered the revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven, the era for the establishment of Cheon Il Guk.
Please inscribe this warning from heaven deep in your hearts. Remember that the only way to inherit Heaven’s lineage and establish the realm of liberation and complete release is through the holy marriage Blessing instituted through the True Parents. Furthermore, the holy marriage Blessing provides the means to establish God’s ideal family and the kingdom of the peaceful ideal world.
I leave you with a choice. There can be no perfection in ignorance. The message from heaven that I convey to you today is both a blessing and a warning to this generation. I will take the lead in establishing true families, true societies, true nations and the true kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. Will you join me as I rise and gain strength in accordance with heavenly fortune? Or will you remain captive behind the same old walls, all of them Satan’s handiwork – the wall of your religion, the wall of your culture, the wall of your nationality and the wall of your race – and spend the remainder of your time on earth in agony and regret?
Heaven is summoning you to be wise leaders who will set aright this world of evil and establish a new heaven and a new earth, a new culture and an ideal kingdom. The time in which we are now living is a new spring of heavenly fortune. This is the dynamic period of the construction of God’s Kingdom, when a day feels like a thousand years and a thousand years feels like a day. I ask you to devote your best efforts, as the True Parents have, for the development and success of the UPF, and toward creating God’s ideal family, ideal nation, and the peace kingdom. Please become true princes and princesses who can attend and live together with God, the eternal Peace King and True Parent of humanity.
I sincerely wish that you will engrave on your hearts the blessed words I have conveyed to you, take them back with you to your nations, and utilize them in educating your children, other young people, and the citizens of your nation. Let is fulfil the dutiful family way of devoted sons and daughters, patriots, saints and members of the family of God, and create the eternal kingdom of the peaceful, ideal world. Please become princes and princesses who can attend and live together with God, the eternal Peace King, as the True Parent of humanity.
Please do not forget that the building of the ideal, peaceful world, that God envisaged at the time of creation, and that He desired when He created humankind, is now being realized right before your eyes. If this is not a miracle, then what is? All over the world, the couples blessed in the intercultural marriages are putting down roots of God’s true love. The new heavenly lineage is bearing fruit. The day draws near when this beautiful earth will become the original Garden of Eden, where we will enjoy everlasting peace and happiness, and where, for innumerable generations our descendants will shout, “hallelujah for Cheon Il Guk!” I pray that you may all attain the true family ideal so that you can say three cheers for the advent of the era of the kingdom of peace under the scared reign of peace, based on the Three Great Subject Partners Principle.
There is one more special request I would like to ask of you today. Please immerse yourselves in the contents of my Peace Messages, to the point where you virtually know them by heart, and make them the guidelines for your life. These Messages of Peace are a summary of my teachings that can be found in more than a thousand volumes of True Parents’ speeches. God will stand at the forefront. The spirit world and the physical world will unite to protect and aid you in creating the peaceful, ideal world of God’s desire in which you can enjoy eternal liberation and complete freedom.
We should all return gratitude and glory to God and True Parents for enlightening us about the incredible providential age in which we are living. We should give praise and thanks for eternity to True Parents for opening the Era after the Coming of Heaven, which is unprecedented in history and which will never be repeated in the future, and for bringing about the era of the settlement of the realm of true liberation and complete inner freedom. Just as the sun rises with brilliant light in the eastern sky, heavenly fortune is now shining upon all people. The curtain of darkness that shrouded us for tens of thousands of years is lifting at last as Heaven’s will is taking root in your hearts.
All you have to do now is trust in and follow the True Parents. With your conscience as your compass, attain the status of a true parent, true teacher and true owner. Manifest true love in your daily life, thus ensuring your eternal life in heaven. Heavenly fortune will speed you on your path, and your good ancestors who have received the marriage blessing will actively assist you in your activities. Have courage and strive to go forward! This is a path of destiny you cannot avoid. Therefore, stand up with courage and shout out, “Whoever wants to die will live, and whoever wants to live will die!” May God’s grace and everlasting blessings be with you, your families, clans and your nations.
Chapter Sixteen
Background to God’s greatest providential victories
For tens of thousands of years, God had endured an existence full of lamentation and grief, even as He conducted His providence with a parental heart. Heaven had been waiting for one event in eager anticipation: the Coronation Ceremony of the Kingship of God. This finally took place on January 13, 2001. It was the greatest and most exalted celebration and blessing that humanity had ever received in all history. On that day, Reverend Moon, who had received the anointing as the True Parent of all humankind, and travelled a path of indescribable suffering and pain until he gained the final victory, offered his life’s work and entire foundation to Heaven.
By that ceremony I released God, our vertical True Parent who has taken responsibility for the providence of restoration. This was the long awaited moment of God’s liberation and inner freedom. This victory was absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. Through this providential victory, God’s body and mind are completely liberated. On that providential day we declared to all heaven and earth that we would attend God as the vertical True Parent and the Great King of Heaven and Earth, that we would unfurl and raise the banner of Cheon Il Guk, and that the new sovereignty of Heaven had begun.
For three years, we, as the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind held firmly to the helm while the winds of heavenly fortune surged around us a like a typhoon. We dashed forward as though each day were worth a thousand years. In Jerusalem, in 2003, on the foundation of the victory attained through such blood, sweat and tears, I had Jesus proclaimed as the king of kings before heaven and earth with the acknowledgment of Christianity, Judaism and Islam. Then on the foundation of True Parents’ victory, we declared May 5, 2004 to be the day of Ssang Hab Shib Sung. On that day, the True Parents brought to a close the Era before the Coming of Heaven with its long years of grief, and opened the Era after the Coming of Heaven, the new age when we can build a new heaven and a new earth. This marked the beginning of a great and historic revolution to return the earth to God as a substantial reality.
After the coronation ceremonies at which I was acknowledged as the king of peace, held both in a United Nations Senate Office Building and the Korean National Assembly in 2004, I founded the Universal Peace Federation in New York on September 12, 2005, followed by a global tour of 120 nations with the purpose of conveying the inaugural message.
Carrying the baton on this foundation of True Parents’ victory, my wife undertook a second world tour in the spring, during which she held rallies to declare a message of peace in 180 nations within six months. It was a tremendous victory in which two generations of the True Family – True Parents and True Children – worked together seamlessly, declaring this message of peace, fulfilling the providence of mother-son co-operation. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon represents the true family in its original form. As a true parent accompanied by true children, she victoriously declared heaven’s message and officiated together over the World Peace Blessing Ceremony. Through this, she restored and offered to heaven the realm of the lineage and the realm of Cain and Abel unity, both of which had been lost by Eve, the mother of the first human family. The children of the Cain-type realm and the Abel-type realm were brought together on a universal level and offered to True Parents, enabling the providential realm of ownership to be returned to God.
On the foundation of all those victories, on June 13th 2006, we held the Entrance Ceremony for the Cheon Jeong Peace Palace and the Coronation Ceremony of the True Parents as the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth. These were each steps toward the establishment of the substantial kingdom of heaven on earth, or Cheon Il Guk. Heaven and earth were unified; God and the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind were firmly established in their rightful positions. Those events constituted a tremendous victory unprecedented in history. It was a day on which God, who had walked the course of the providence alone in bitter sorrow and in tears over countless years behind the scenes of history, could be liberated, set completely free, and firmly settled into His position as the King and Master of Heaven and Earth.
The victory of God and True Parents, who have entered the Cheon Jeong Peace Palace, is linked to an outpouring of tremendous grace through which the 6.5 billion people of the world can be returned to dwell within Heaven’s household. August 20, 2006 was the 21st anniversary of my release from Danbury prison in the United States, which was the last of six unjust incarcerations I have had to endure during my lifetime. My release on that day signified victory over imprisonment on the worldwide level and the attainment of the realm of liberation and complete inner freedom. To commemorate that significant day, and to welcome and congratulate my wife on returning from her recently-completed world speaking tour, I hosted a global-level peace rally in Korea. More than thirty thousand core leaders, representing 1.2 million Ambassadors for Peace and leaders in 120 nations, gathered and strengthened their resolve to realize world peace.
On the foundation of the success of these providential events, on August 31, the True Parents, in the capacity of the King and Queen of Peace in Heaven and on Earth, True Children and also the True Grandchildren were assembled for a third world tour to convey the word and bestow the Blessing. This was a tour that I personally launched here in Korea. I travelled to every corner of the world with three generations of True Parents’ family, in the capacity of the King of Peace in Heaven and on Earth, in order to proclaim the message. Can you sense the intense heart with which I am took up that world tour? As I approached my eighty-eighth year, I did not know when or where I might collapse along the way. I put my life on the line to embark on that world tour, as it may have been the last words that the True Parent, who appeared with Heaven’s seal, leaves to humanity.
The third world tour was like the advance of the peace kingdom corps of heaven and earth – an army that was restoring a nation each day with the truth and Blessing it was conveying. The word and Blessing were proclaimed simultaneously each day in twelve major cities of each nation, bringing the greatest joy to all humanity and opening the path to their salvation. The mobilization of the three generations of the True Family is an event that will be recorded in history for eternity. It is something that no saint in history could ever have imagined, and it is a miracle that will be praised for evermore as a victorious liberation for heaven.
Afterwards, I addressed the Mongolian People’s Federation for World Peace on October 14, 2006. This date marks a day of historic victory that I will never forget; it is the anniversary of the day when I was liberated by the United Nations forces and became a free man after spending two years and eight months in a North Korean prison. I had been unjustly imprisoned for conveying heaven’s message to the people living under the communists. They took over North Korea shortly after the independence and liberation of my country in 1945. October 14, 1950, was such a perilous time, and Heaven was compelled to create a miracle. It was on this day that I, the person with the seal of the True Parent of humankind, was to be publicly executed. There was no way that heaven could disregard such an incident. I declare this day, which bears such great providential significance, to be a historical day of victory through which I offer glory and respect to Heaven and blessings and love to the earth as the True Parent of humankind under the protection of God.
The world speaking and Blessing tour of the three generations of the True Family opened up the path of salvation for humanity. On this foundation, religious leaders, who represent the Cain-type world, took up the cause and travelled to every corner of the world, conveying heaven’s message, “The family rooted in absolute sexual ethics, which is the model for God’s absoluteness, peace and ideal, and the global Kingdom”. The year 2007, the seventh year of Cheon Il Guk, is a jubilee year in God’s providence, the likes of which God and humankind have never experienced in all the thousands of years of history. Heaven has greatly blessed that holy year.