Sun Myung Moon
February 3, 1972
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Photo date and location unknown
Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude that so many of you have gathered here tonight in spite of the inclement weather. For decades I have thought about meeting with you. Now that I have met you for the first time this evening, I would first like to thank you all, and at the same time, I would also like to thank God with all of my heart.
Does God really exist?
The title of my speech today is, “One God, One World Religion.” I believe that when the residents of New York hear the term God, they associate it with the belief that He is dead. However, God does exist, and if we say that He is dead, we are committing the gravest sin. It could even be that saying God exists, if in fact He does not, is better than saying that the God who actually exists is dead.
With regard to the title, “One God, One World Religion,” there would be no issue to discuss if people did not exist. However, people do exist. We have people and we have God. Therefore, a religion that works to bring those people and God together in oneness is necessary.
If God is an Absolute Being and is all alone, we can imagine that the place where that God exists would not be a happy one. Even thinking of God all alone, if He were glad and delighted all by Himself, then that would not be what we call normal. On the other hand, if that God were to look upon something, regardless of how small, as His object partner and laugh, “Ha-ha-ha,” and delight in it, that would be normal. No matter how small that thing is, if God were looking upon it and laughing, and someone came along and said that this laughing God is senseless, then in fact the person who says that would actually be the senseless one. So, I first want to impress upon you the intrinsic value of the object partner. Words such as unhappiness and misery stem from the lack of an object partner.
Then if God were to like an object partner, what kind of partner do you think God would like? Would it be something like minerals, which do not have feelings? It would not be minerals. It would not be plants either. He would show more interest in animals than in plants. By this line of thought, if you were to ask what the central entity could be, the one that could attract His attention the most out of all creation, even a kindergarten student could point out that it is human beings. Don’t you think so too? Based on this viewpoint, we cannot deny the fact that human beings constitute the greatest masterpiece of all created beings. That is why we can reach the conclusion that, when God seeks after an object partner, He seeks out human beings.
When we think about the destiny of the United States or the destiny of the world in light of the complicated circumstances of today, the question of whether we would prefer for God to exist or not is a problem that we have to consider seriously. It would be favorable if there were an Absolute Being who could deal with the truth as the truth and evil as evil. Without such a Being, the future of the world would be uncertain. That is why our hope is that such a God does exist rather than not. Then the question is whether or not God exists.
God of dual characteristics
We know that this universe exists. This is a fact that everyone acknowledges. We also know that in order for anything to exist there first must be energy. At this point, a question arises: what comes first, energy or existence? Without energy, there cannot be existence. However, energy cannot emerge without action. In order for energy to come into being, some kind of action is absolutely necessary.
Moreover, for action to take place, subject and object partners are absolute prerequisites. This we cannot deny. When the subject partner and object partner engage in give and receive action, energy is generated for existence. To put it another way, before there can be energy, there first must be subject and object partners.
Since the subject and object partners are in different positions, for them to engage in action, each needs to be in harmony with the substance of the other. Otherwise, they cannot be engage in action. For this reason, in order for the subject and object partners to interact with each other, there must be a common base for them to unite for the same purpose. Otherwise, they cannot engage in action.
When anyone goes out for some reason, no one would do so in order to suffer a loss. Many people visit Times Square here in New York. Yet, I do not believe that even one of them would leave their home, thinking, “I am leaving home to incur a loss of at least a dollar.” When you leave home, you always set out hoping for something that will benefit you and wish for something that will add to what you already have.
When you meet your friends, or when you love someone, you never plan to get together with them in a situation where you would diminish each other and be worse off than you were before you met. When two people, A and B, come together, each envisions being better off than they were before they met; and then action takes place and they unite.
In this regard, we can conclude that there must be a dual purpose. That is, in addition to their own individual purpose, the subject partner and object partner desire something that would add to the purpose of the other. Otherwise they will not unite as one; nor will they engage in action.
For example, in an atom, electrons surround protons. Because these electrons and protons are also in a place where they can unite their dual purposes while giving and receiving, they can form an atom. In short, they are united in their pursuit of dual purposes, the purpose of the electron and the purpose of the proton.
Looking at the big picture, God too is an existing being. In order for Him to actually exist, He too needs to engage in a subject and object partner relationship, based on the dual purpose, and stand in the position of total union. If He cannot do so, God cannot eternally exist. This ultimately means that God exists as the One Being in the union of the subject and the object partners within Himself.
God’s existence as seen through the action of the human conscience
In the Bible, we read in Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in His image; male and female He created them.” If we were to make an inference based on this passage, we could conclude that God is the united being of masculinity and femininity.
Since such a God could not stay all by Himself, He needed an object partner, and it was inevitable that He create this world. Consequently, He created a man and a woman. When you consider a human being, you see that person has a mind and a body. This mind and body give to each other and receive from each other, and if something goes wrong while they are doing so, we feel pain. It is because either the mind or the body moves too far to one side or the other. However, when they are united and thus elevated, we feel joy. If someone has complete unity between his or her mind and body, he or she would be a perfected person.
If there were an Absolute Being, what kind of a human being would He seek? He would seek a man whose mind and body were in complete unity. The same goes for the woman. If there were a woman whose mind and body are completely united, God would like to meet that woman, without a doubt. From the viewpoint based on the dignity of the Absolute Being, He seeks to meet the best man and the best woman. Heaven needs people who can stand tall, bold and fearless before Heaven, and we wish to be such people.
When we look at ourselves, it is clear that we are not causal beings. Human beings are resultant beings. Can you freely determine whether to exist or not? You cannot. Since you cannot be the cause of your own existence, you cannot deny that you are in the resultant position. However, when the Cause is also absolute, even resultant beings can stand in the position of absolute partner.
God’s existence as seen through the mystery of the human body
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take another moment to talk about whether God exists or not. When we trace our ancestry, we will eventually reach our first human ancestors. Those ancestors were born on earth. And let us now consider whether they knew of the sun before they were born on earth, and prepared accordingly, or didn’t know about it at all.
When they were born on earth, their eyes would not have known that there would be a sun. However, even though their eyes were unaware of the sun, their design is based on the knowledge that there is a sun in the sky and that they are to see its light. When you describe your eyes, you say that they are always blinking. This design assumes knowledge of the fact that the moisture in the eyes evaporates due to the dry heat on earth, and so they need to be moistened. Moreover, the design of the eyelashes is based on knowledge of the need to keep the dust away. In this respect, human beings were born based on knowledge of nature and astronomy.
The eyes already “knew” that people would sweat. Since it would be a serious problem for foreign matter to enter these precious eyes, the breakwater of the eyebrows was created. The location of the eyes also shows that they knew that human beings would walk, standing vertically on two feet, unlike other animals. Now, look at your ears. They were created based on the knowledge that they would hear sound waves. Look at your nose. Why is the nose pointing downward? It is because it would be detrimental if sweat or rainwater entered the nostrils. Because of this, in addition to the breakwater above the eyes, the nose was made to point downward. Everything was designed on the basis of prior knowledge. Could all these things come to be on their own accord?
As you can see, when we study the human body, it is a palace of mystery. It could not have been made as it is just like that. Based on these observations, a question arises: Though human beings did not know of such things when they were born, was there or was there not a Being who knew of them? We cannot say that we were born as we are just like that. And the Being who knew of all such things in advance is none other than God Himself.
Original value of human beings as seen through their relationship with God
Granted that God created humankind, let us now look into the matter of where God placed us, and what relationship God wished to form with us from the start. If God created human beings, there must be a reason. And if we were created for this reason, then our purpose would arise from that. The purpose of created human beings and the purpose of the Creator, God, cannot be two separate things. There must be a certain common ground. That common ground would be desired both by God and human beings.
If there were a world-renowned president among the people gathered here, would there be anyone who would wish to be inferior to that president? Would you wish to be superior or inferior to that person? You would wish to be superior. In fact, you would wish to be in the highest position. Human desire is like that. By the same token, if you knew about a person with the highest position in the world, you would wish to form a relationship with him or her.
Even if you became close to that person of high position, if there were a person in an even higher position, then you would wish to become close to that person as well. Everyone possesses such a heart. No matter how lowly a person is, he or she has such thoughts. Then, if there is a God, the Absolute Being who created heaven and earth, would you desire to form a relationship with Him or would you not? Even if you had taken possession of this God, if you still had not taken possession of His love, you would not feel at ease. After you have taken possession of God, only after taking possession of His love will everything feel right. On the day you have taken possession of His love, all His possessions become yours. Our conscience drives us toward this goal. We cannot deny that it is carrying out such work, and this is because we occupy the position of human beings’ original value, and that compels us to do so.
God is a God of love, and if God desires to love human beings, in what position would He desire to give His love? And in what position would human beings desire to receive God’s love? Those positions would be wrapped up in the relationship between father and child, that is, the position of the father and the child, and no other. That is why today’s Christianity calls God Heavenly Father.
If God is the Father and we are His children, our relationship is a vertical one. On account of our desire as human beings, we can say we wish to be in the Father’s higher position at least once. So God concerns Himself even about this point and says that He will permit us to rise to such a level, and that He will enter our mind, that is, the internal position, and place us in a position external to Him, so that we become like God’s body. When this comes to pass, we stand on an equal footing with God.
From the viewpoint of human beings, if our parents are precious to us, where can we possibly place our one and only Heavenly Father and take care of Him? We will not wish to have God stay far away from us. In short, we will wish to have God in a place where God is always with us, where we can meet Him and rejoice with Him alone. For this reason, we wish for God to be invisible. Our human desire is to place God in our hearts, where we can know Him personally. We cannot put God any other place.
This is why God the Creator is saying that He will place human beings, His creation, in the same position as Himself. God intended to have human beings receive love in the position of His children and to place us in a position of equal status with Him.
Since God has the ability to create heaven and earth, He wished for us also to have this creative ability. After having created and shaped human beings, God found us to be so charming and lovable that He desired that we also be able to feel such emotions and to get a taste of such pleasure.
Since God is a Being who exists in the form of a perfected man and woman, to inherit this creative ability of God, man and woman, who were born as separate beings, need to become one as a perfected man and woman and have that one body become His object partner. By becoming His object partner, they can play the role of creator in His stead.
That is why when a couple become one through conjugal love, they can substantiate their creative ability and stand in the same position as God by creating children. To make us realize what a joyful thing it is to give birth to children, God gave us the heart of love for our children. In this regard, God has bestowed the very best things upon human beings. God created us so that we could become one with the eternal love of God in such a manner and live in a peaceful Eden in happiness and contentment. By so doing, we would live as happy people who stand in the position of the eternal object partner before the absolute God, centering on His love, and who could not separate from Him even if we tried. We need to understand that this was the way we were originally meant to live.
The mission of religion is to save the world
It is an undeniable fact that the purpose of beings, created by the absolute God, is one with God’s purpose. However, do you think there is even one human being on earth who stands in the position of absolute object partner centered on God’s love? There is not. Even though human beings aim for the same purpose, because we were all created by the absolute God, when we look at ourselves we can see that we are standing on another path, a path whose purpose is diametrically opposed. Some people may consider this to be another relationship of subject and object partners within human beings, but that is not the case. If the conscience is an internal plus, selfishness is a different plus, and these two oppose each other. Such a predicament is the one we human beings live in on this earth.
Human beings need to understand that we lost the ideal of love, the principle of absolute value that God endowed us with. We became miserable beings, living in mourning in a world of the opposing phenomena of good and evil In other words, we became defective beings. Nevertheless, since the absolute God inevitably needs to relate to us as His children, He could not leave us the way we are. Thus, He has been leading the movement to bring us back to life throughout the course of history. That is, He established a repair shop. That repair shop is called religion.
There are numerous religions in the world. In accordance with the standards of the different cultures and national backgrounds, God established religions to gather all people. Religions have the desire to save the world. God also desires save the world. Religions other than those that try to save the world do not last long.
Ladies and gentlemen, the founders of the world’s religions were not nationalists; they were globalists, and they were the people who purposed a global movement centered on Heaven. I know that we currently consider four people to be the four great saints: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad. Some people also include Socrates in that list; however Socrates was a philosopher and not a religious leader. You cannot save lives with knowledge. Only Heaven can save lives.
That is why the four greatest saints are those who founded the great global religions. There is not one among them who did not serve Heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, we must not become people who esteem these saints and yet disregard Heaven.
The central religion of the world is Christianity
Given that religion is carrying out the mission of a repair shop, so to speak, if God is an absolute Being, we need to know which of the four great religions approaches Him most closely.
When you consider Confucianism, it does not teach clearly about God. All it has taught is that when you do good, Heaven gives you blessings, and when you do evil, you receive punishment. When you consider Buddhism, while it recognizes the God of law, it does not know about the personal God. When you consider Islam, it is carrying forward aspects of the providence of Jesus.
Jesus Christ, however, made substantially different declarations. He appeared and said, “I am the only begotten Son of God.” In the course of human history, only one person, Jesus, has ever claimed that he is the only begotten Son of God. Next, he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” He also said, “As the Father is in me and I in the Father, so I am in you and you are in me.” He also went on to say, in effect, “I am the bridegroom,” and that he will return for his bride. In light of all this, if you ask centering on whom he tried to achieve all that he said, I would answer that he tried to do so centering on God.
In other words, the purpose of Christianity is to help us become the son or daughter of God, to become one body with Him, to become united with Him as bridegroom and bride, and thus to form one, united family. Before he passed on, Jesus taught us that our position before God is equal to that of children, a position bestowed on us as our highest treasure. He taught of the origin of the family in which we can carry out the great work of creation and feel the joy that comes from creation, as I mentioned before.
The limitations of Christianity
However, even though Jesus was the Son of God and had become one in body with Him, he could not prepare the position of the bridegroom with a bride who could become his object partner. If the nation of Israel and Judaism had, at the time, become one with Jesus and helped him receive his bride, he would have become the direct object partner of God and built the basis on which he could be a co-creator with God. Sadly, he passed away before he could achieve this.
If sons and daughters centered on God had appeared and formed families at that time, thus giving rise to a new tribe, people, nation and world, this planet would have become the heavenly kingdom. It would have become the heavenly kingdom centered on God. Jesus was crucified because the people and leaders of his nation and religion did not believe in him. If they had believed in him, he would not have been crucified.
If, at that time, the nation of Israel and Judaism had believed in Jesus and made a new beginning, attending the bridegroom and bride envisioned by God, its people would never have been scattered, and tragedies such as the Holocaust would never have happened. Such things came to pass because the first person in history who became the object partner of
God, totally beloved by Him, was not received on earth. There is no sin greater than that.
I believe that many followers of Jesus are here today. However, the Christianity that you now believe in is insufficient. If it continues down its present road, its followers may well be scattered like the people of Israel were, two thousand years ago.
Today’s Christians, who are spread out across the world, need to unite as one centering on God. Since the Lord of the Second Advent comes with Jesus’ mission, if Christians do not prepare the foundation to receive him, they may be exiled like the people of Israel were. If they do not fulfill this condition, I foresee that the future of this world will be bleak.
The Lord when he returns will come as the bridegroom and marry his bride in a wedding ceremony. This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
Because the first human beings fell, we came to have fallen, false parents. The good True Parents whom God had envisioned as the original model of His creation did not emerge. This plan that God had in mind will be realized in the Last Days. Unless the True Parents emerge and give rebirth to humankind, by engrafting them to bring them back to God, human beings worldwide cannot be saved.
The Unification Church emerged to build the ideal world of love
What is the mission of the coming Lord of the Second Advent? We human beings lost the True Parents, who were to have attained perfection, without having fallen, and remained in the position of the parents of goodness. Hence, the Lord of the Second Advent is the one who comes to achieve this. This will open the way through which humankind can be fully loved by God again, starting from the family of the True Parents who can receive love from God.
Which would constitute happiness? For sons and daughters who receive the love of God on earth and then go to the kingdom of heaven as a family, or for a family to be divided, with a devout mother going to heaven and the faithless father going to hell? Today’s Christianity believes the latter. However, I say that we need to enter the kingdom as a whole, from the parents to the children. Families need to enter together, tribes need to enter together, nations need to enter together, and the entire world needs to enter the kingdom of heaven all together.
When a global family centered on these new Parents appears in the future, and a new culture and tradition centered on the ideal of love are manifested on earth, this complicated, sinful world of today will be transformed into the kingdom of heaven on earth. For this to come about, you must know that there are clear steps for you to take. Therefore, it is the mission of the Unification Church to teach you about such things.
Having condensed such a vast amount of material into such a short presentation, I skipped many parts so I could elaborate more in other places. I thank you with all my heart for your understanding and close attention.