Sun Myung Moon
April 8, 1978
Manhattan Center
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
As you all know, today is the 19th Parents Day As we celebrate an important holiday such as this in our movement, I cannot help but think back over the history of the past 18 years since 1960, of how much we have accomplished over this period and also of how much the world has been overtaken by turmoil. We also think about how, if there had been no fall in the Garden of Eden, there would be no Parents Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things or God's Day; they would not have been necessary.
The very fact that we are celebrating Parents Day is vivid evidence that something went wrong at the outset of human history, that these days are not God's primary desire, but that He is trying to retrieve something that is at least second best. Originally, there should have been a Parents Day without a stain or fall, but now we are coming back to restore Parents Day after the history of fallen man. As a generation begotten of fallen parents, we have to go through this process of restoration.
Human history began with fallen parents who gave birth to fallen children, a fallen tribe, fallen nation and fallen world. That has been the reality. Between the original Parents Day and the restored Parents Day everything existed in a dark realm dominated by Satan. Mankind has been living in this period between the two Parents Days, belonging to Satan and taking the position of rejecting God and resisting restoration back to Him. The problem has been how to lead mankind out of the satanic, God rejecting world and bring them back to the restored world. The work of salvation needed some foundation upon which to thrust mankind out of satanic control into the heavenly realm.
What is the difference between the satanic realm and heavenly realm? The satanic world is filled with division, hatred, arrogance and ungodliness. What should God's realm be filled with? Harmony, unity, love and service for others. If Satan is going to the left, then heaven is going to the right. The people who are born in the satanic world do not know and cannot even imagine what the heavenly world is like. Therefore, they think that the circumstances under which they live and the goals they pursue are normal. They assume that this is the way the world was meant to be. Mankind has to be separated from the stagnation of the satanic world, but what kind of people will initiate such a movement?
Love is our greatest weapon against Satan
There are primarily three categories of people. Men with power, wealth and knowledge are a symbol of the existing world and they want it to stay as it is. They are content to continue as they have been and don't want to change themselves. They can't imagine leaving their mode of life. There are also people oppressed by the men with power, money and knowledge, and it is likely that these people will desire to be liberated from this world. Thus, there is more possibility for oppressed people to be utilized in religion as the champions of God throughout history. These are the people most likely to stand up for righteousness. They are ready to obey a different order and can be ignited to move boldly in a different direction.
Religious people throughout history have been working in non-violent, non-resistant ways. Why didn't they strike back when they were persecuted, taking an eye for an eye? If God intended to restore the world by utilizing fists and swords to shed blood, the ideal of the Garden of Eden could never be realized. God never intended to restore His original Garden of Eden by force or the sword. The purpose of restoration is to restore ourselves back to the first Garden of Eden, the place of absolute peace and love, where there is no fighting, disharmony or bloodshed. Since that was God's intended Garden of Eden, He cannot resort to coercion.
The original Garden of Eden, which is the ideal world, is not the world of arrogance, division and fighting, but the world of meekness and humility, of peace and harmony. The Garden of Eden is the world of love, the world of service and of helping others in sincerity and meekness. Since that is the ultimate goal of restoration , the people who are heading in that direction cannot resort to fighting or bloodshed. Even in the satanic world they must practice the ideal of the Garden of Eden.
The great puzzle of history has been why the almighty, omnipresent God left mankind to a history of bloodshed, even allowing His own people to be mercilessly persecuted and sacrificed. Throughout history, true religion never resorted to violence or war to achieve its goal. If any religion justifies such methods, it reflects satanic ambition and cannot serve true religious purposes. God intended the original world to be filled with love and peace, and though we are still engulfed in the satanic world, the person who is arrogant and self-centered, self-loving and self-serving will never be a part of God. It is impossible for such a person to share in or inherit God's character. From God's point of view, those who resort to bloodshed, jealousy, animosity and hatred are really diseased.
God's method of restoration is to pick His champions from among the oppressed people and let them practice God's principles while in the extreme circumstances of the satanic world. Those qualities of humility, love and service will become their weapons, and by using them they will expand their territory, step by step. That's the way God intends to restore His kingdom. No true religion in the last days would advocate a violent showdown with the satanic world, encouraging anyone to harm or kill his opponent. That method could never represent the true religion of God. Our method and true instrument is always love. We go with the power of love, which has been proven to be ultimately supreme.
The Unification Church has four major celebrations in Parents Day, Children's Day, Day of All Things and God's Day. What do we gain by remembering and celebrating such holidays? Through the celebration, we want to experience love in action and re-emphasize that the world of love is the greatest reality. Do you think the Unification Church can be an exception to historical principles? No, we must follow the principle which guides history. I will never tell you to fight or confront anyone in a violent way.
We have been attacked by the world, but the day will come when all these things will be over, the day that we have paid back all the historical debts by indemnifying everything in history. Once we have paid back the debt of history, what will happen? It is not God's intention that the religious people who are His champions always live under oppression and miserable persecution. We will stand up to fight, but in a different way. What will make our fight different is that we will not do anything for ourselves. We have our battles for the sake of God and humanity but they will not be violent. Our method is not to go out like the terrorists with submachine guns and shoot people down.
The greatest fighter is the one who can love the people of the world the most. Love is the most terrible weapon Satan can confront. He is the king of hatred and animosity and he cannot cope with love. When you appear with the weapon of love, Satan will be demolished.
Our fight is to plant the love of God and the love of people. Then that love will unite and stimulate the original minds of others. Because the original mind longs to go back to the original world, our power will be exercised by stimulating it with love. Furthermore, we will draw the focus to a common center. Then who will be the center of all mankind? There is no doubt that God is that center.
I tell you to go out and fight to win the victory, but not in the way that others interpret this to mean, which is by violence. What is the first weapon we use? Love. What is the second? Service to the central person, as ultimately that central person will be God. Love people and serve the central person. Go out and live day by day with this attitude and heart, dealing with and loving the world. That is the true way of serving the True Parents, of revering them and showing them your love.
Where is heaven and what kind of world should that be? It is the world of God, the Kingdom of Heaven, the world of love. The Kingdom of God is the world in which everything exists solely for the sake of God. Then where does that leave the human race? If we all give everything to God and God is everything, then what are our rights and what position is left to us? President Carter made two words famous: human rights. Does having human rights mean you are free to dance all night or to do whatever you choose? As long as we are still trying to restore the world of human rights, if having that sort of freedom will destroy the world of human love and the world of God's morality, then those particular rights are in reality the worst enemy of man. Human rights are good and necessary as long as they help restore the right of true love, the right of God. If a husband and wife or parents and children bicker over human rights and fight among themselves then they have misunderstood the freedom that God has in mind.
The true purpose of Parents Day is to honor God with love. We proclaim the world of love in which God is the center and the only one to be worshipped. We love Him and unite around Him. That is the resolution we are adopting this Parents Day.
The flowering of love
These are the major elements in God's world: God is the center with man as His children, all things as the environment of the children, and the angels as the servants. All things are the creation of God and they are waiting to receive the love of God through their physical master, man. What is the capacity of the archangel? He is the servant whose ideal is to receive the love of God through his master, man. Man should become the channel of the love of God to the angel. What this universe needs, therefore, is true man, the true master.
Who is this true man who will become the true master? The true man directly receives the love of God. What kind of love is that? Friendship? Patriotism? Love of a servant or of an adopted son? No, none of these. The most precious of all love is parental love, having God as Father and coming into the position to receive God's love as His son and daughter. Man is the bridge of love and must become the recipient of the love of God in the parent/child relationship, serving God as father and receiving His love as son and daughter.
When will that love be consummated and perfected? Not as a one or two year old baby. Love must mature and have the capacity to embrace all, horizontally and vertically. You can do that as you mature physically. When you enter young adulthood you want to express your feelings and get involved in everything, doing something all the time. Each of us has grown through that period.
American football is a savage game; a player gets his arm broken, his leg broken, his heart broken. Nevertheless, young people feel fever-pitch excitement over their teams, and at one time or another every boy wants to become a football hero, even though it's a very tough game. Teenagers also have their idols, like Elvis Presley, for example. Some young people like to think of themselves as Elvis Presley, and want to be like him or even be better than him. This is the age in which you want to become involved in the most intense way.
This is also the age at which young people want to plunge into romance and think of someone else more than themselves. There are many young people who, without thinking of God, are thinking of someone of the opposite sex more than they are even thinking of themselves. During this period, your eyes are working like search lights, constantly scanning the universe. During those years, you consider yourself a great writer or poet. This is also the period you feel like a king or emperor, having the entire world under your fingertips. This is no sin. If you don't feel these things then you are not in the human species; God made youth to be that way. That is the natural process.
Why did God implant such a desire in man, wanting such passion and zeal to flower during the teenage years? If we analyze the psychology of young people and ask why they want to become great football champions, great singers, or great poets, we find that the ulterior motive is a search after love. A young person wants to find someone of supreme love in order to become a recipient or giver of that love himself. The football champion is living football; football is his life. Yet when football can't bring love, it becomes worthless and he gives it up for love. There are many students who work hard to become Ph.D.s, doing research and academic work, but when they can find love, all those accomplishments become secondary to that love.
The problem is whether or not people are committed to true love. If there is an unfailing formula to find true love, then finding it is more important than becoming a football champion or poet or scholar. Everyone has to find true love because that is the ultimate goal of life.
God is the origin of true love. God is true love. Will God come out and declare, "Here's the way to reach true love's? If God revealed the way to reach this love and to reach Him, what would happen? God did not give man a map to follow to reach Him. This is not the way God has taught man in history. God gave one direction and showed man the realm in which he could find God-the realm of religion- saying, "In the world of religion you can really find me." That much we know. Ultimately, reaching true love and the source of love will be the fulfillment of man's life. By reaching that goal you fulfill everything and reach perfection. If you reach the ultimate true love, nothing will be lacking.
God wanted to see young adults burning with passion and zeal and infinite energy to reach true love. The one who finds the way or reaches out for that true love will fulfill his life. Love is supreme, and God made man with that nature so he could readily reach that supreme love. By knowing this principle we can readily understand at what age the fall of man took place. It was at the age of adolescence. We can readily understand that it was the same search and burning zeal which made the fall possible.
Our greatest realization is that we can hook God with love
I want you to understand that the motivation for good and the motivation for evil both start from the same origin of love. Love can develop into evil or into goodness. You may use tough words in speaking to someone, but if you do this in trying to make that person love the world then there is no selfish motive and that action will always be good. No matter how sweet or tender your words might be, if the motivation is selfishness then that is evil. Even though you may use the same words or even the same phrases, one statement can stand for good and another for evil.
Which crime would be more fearful to commit, one which risks your life, or one which risks your love? There is a certain sin you can commit with your life-for example, killing someone. You risk giving up your life to commit that crime, but you are the one involved in doing so. When you give up your love for the sake of fallen love, however, there are two persons involved. Everyone who is involved in that lust is involved in that fallen criminal action. What is the worst tragedy of any home? It is the departure of love. If love leaves, nothing remains but hatred, division, animosity and jealousy.
There is something even God cannot control in this world: Even though God is all-powerful, omnipotent and omnipresent, He too needs love. Do you think God wanted to control love like a computer, or did He also want to be a part of the flow of love, embraced and uplifted by it? You might protest to God, " I thought You were almighty, but You are not because You cannot control love. You must not be almighty because You cannot force someone to love You." God will reply, "I would rather be imperfect in that area than be the almighty manipulator of love. Otherwise, I would not even have created all things." "Why is that, God? Why didn't You make things in such a way that You could do everything You want?" "I created love, but if I just manufacture love or if I force someone to love me then that love is not precious." Would you feel the same way or differently?
Suppose you are elected the 40th President of the United States. Would you say, "Since I have become a great and powerful man I do not need love. Because I have power, I do not need love"? The more powerful you become, the lonelier you become too, and the more you need love, warmth and trust. Am I a weak man or a strong man? Since I'm a strong man, do I just want to become a person of authority, or do I want to be proud of my love? God feels the same. God doesn't feel too happy being called a God of power. He doesn't feel too much joy when you call Him Almighty God. He doesn't want to be called the God of knowledge and truth, but wants to be known as a God of love. Then He smiles from ear to ear. That's why our God is so great.
God is love; God has tears and compassion. God is sensitive and feels sadness; God feels deep passion as well. More than anyone else, God also needs a companion. The one who is most powerful in the universe is lonely too, and needs a companion. We know God's weakness and vulnerability. We are actually the greatest fishermen on earth. We are fishing for the love of God, and we know the way we can hook God. When you hook the love of God, will God cry out, "Oh, I'm hooked! I'm dying! I'm caught by the fisherman. Some savior come and rescue me." No, even if some angel ran to help when God was hooked by the love of man, God would say, "Get out of here. I want to be hooked."
This is a beautiful secret we have unlocked. It is the very way we can reach God and have Him and truly be restored to Him. We people of faith are really the smartest people under the sun because we have discovered the shortcut. We don't have to fool around and become football champions or great poets first; we go fishing directly for the love of God and hook it.
If my statement this morning is true, do you really want to become the champion fishermen for that love of God? Do only young people need that, but not old people? Maybe that love is needed only by white people and not by black people. What do you think? No, you are all the same. Black people suffered for 200 years in America. Even so, white people have nothing to boast about and black people have nothing to be sad about because there is only one glorious way to become a winner-by hooking the love of God. That triumph is the highest, most supreme victory in heaven and earth. There is nothing greater than winning the love of God.
God cannot declare martial law in love
Because of the fall of man, no one has had that love and no one has been a winner, but anyone who discovers the secret and lives the Principle will hook the love of God. That victory is going to be the supreme victory in all of history. No accomplishment in the past or in the future can surpass that victory; there is only one golden opportunity to do it. We are in the unique position to restore this to mankind; once it is restored then the triumph has been won and no one else can taste that special first victory.
Once you realize the magnitude and seriousness of the work to which we are committed, you can give yourself without reservation. Once religious people know the truth, they can commit themselves totally. This is why Jesus said, "Those who lose their lives for my sake will find their lives." You have to commit your life to gain it. Though you might still have regrets now, ultimately you will lament nothing.
What would you say is the extreme expression of love? Would you say to your lover, "I will love you while I'm living"? That's not so dramatic. Wouldn't you rather hear, "I love you with the whole of my life. My own life means nothing to me because you are my life." Are you that serious about love that you want to love someone with your life? Once we start talking about love, we forget whether the days are coming or going and we can stay indefinitely.
Once we know this truth, we know another truth, too. We know the fall of man made God so miserable that He couldn't easily handle the situation. Even after many thousands of years, God has not completed restoration. That work is so difficult because the fall of man involved love. This is the one area in which God declared a hands-off policy and maintained it even when His heart was broken. This is the one area where God cannot directly intervene with power. Restoration has taken so much time because He cannot declare martial law in love. Man's fall is hurting God most because love is utmost and supreme in His life as well as ours.
Suppose someone took your loved one; could you easily forget? "Well, it's a tragedy, but anyway, I have to keep going." Do you have this kind of feeling when love is gone? No. I don't know how Westerners might feel, but Orientals feel that once you lose your love you are lost. How about you Americans, do you feel the same way? If you do, then what about God? Suppose you love your wife but you discover her in a bar somewhere dancing with another man. Is it a pleasant feeling? Is it a joyful, ecstatic feeling to see your wife having a good time with someone else?
Why do you think our culture contains dancing? Have you ever thought about why men and women dance all night together, instead of men dancing with each other and women with each other? Why not men for men and women for women? That idea is very dry, isn't it? What benefit are people trying to derive from dancing? Right now discos and dance halls are twisting the original ideal into a selfish and mechanical thing to derive a certain profit. Many people go dancing because they are lonely and looking for a partner, but they are actually seeking carnal, temporal comfort. The original purpose of dancing was good because in dancing you can share the joys of the love of God and the love of man and woman as husband and wife. The principle of our church is to dance as husband and wife, but not until then.
Some might say I am a dictator, controlling everyone's life. No, I'm only telling the truth. In the Garden of Eden Eve had only one partner and Adam had only one partner, and who assigned them to each other? God. The eyes of Adam and Eve could only look in one direction, Eve toward Adam and Adam toward Eve, not toward two or three others. When you are blessed and become loving husband and wife centered upon God, you can dance in your home 24 hours a day. Go ahead. If you are really God-centered and want to be more dramatic in showing your love, I'll let you dance in the subway, or even in an airplane.
Save your pure love and explode with it when the time comes
A husband and wife can go right ahead and dance in public, provided they genuinely show an outburst of love toward each other and are not doing things hypocritically. Then all the onlookers around you will applaud to behold such a beautiful sight. People will feel, "I wish I could have a wife like that, a husband like that. I look forward to some day having a life like this couple is enjoying." As long as you are doing it as husband and wife, I don't mind if you are streaking or even doing topless dancing. If it's truly an outburst of the love of God between husband and wife, there's no formality involved and you don't have to bow to each other. But until then, I am absolutely strict. Until you get blessed, men and women cannot even hold hands. Do you support my way of loving, or the method that's prevailing right now outside our Church?
You should want to save the energy of your love so that you can have an explosion of love when the blessing of God comes. I do not want you to lose the powerful energy of love bit by bit by holding hands or by this or that little thing. God feels the same way. He wants to see men and women who are blessed as husband and wife explode in love. You Westerners have high noses and l see that some of you even have noses that are crooked. I feel that such a person must be a person of intense love, who ran into his wife and passionately kissed her with such intensity that his nose got bent. If that is the case, what a beautiful sight it is. If the love of God exploded in that fashion, would God say, "Do it a little more decently. You don't have to ruin your nose like that"? No, God would give you an A+.
Save 100% of the energy of your pure love and explode with it when the time comes, for that is God's desire. In God's eyes the real husband and wife are so brainwashed about each other that they don't see anything else. They are so blindly united that the husband only sees his wife and the wife sees only her husband. That's God's standard and that's the way Adam and Eve were in the Garden of Eden.
Husband and wife are like two giant magnets pulling each other. If the wife is standing far away, then automatically, without even knowing, her husband is pulled to her. You don't even need the formality of saying, "Hi, my darling." Which is more dramatic, to spend all kinds of energy and time in formalities, or to be totally intoxicated as you are pulled together? You want to have the intoxication of love, don't you? If this is the true nature of man, do you think it's common sense that the fall of man came one day when Eve picked up an apple? That's not a very believable story.
Let's conduct an interview with God: "I understand You are a God of love." God will answer, "Yes." "Then I have a question, God. I understand that there is nothing You cannot forgive." God will say, "Well, yes." "Well, Satan did the wrong thing and caused the fall. You said there is nothing in this world You cannot forgive, so can You forgive Satan?" Then God will say, "No." Why is God contradicting Himself?
If God forgives the same Satan who brought the destruction of love, which is the very purpose of the existence of all creation, then God is self-denying. Then God's authority would no longer exist because He would be totally yielding Himself to Satan, allowing Satan to become a god. In that case God is surrendering to Satan because Satan brought the fundamental destruction to the universe through the misuse of love. If God forgives Satan then He is denying and destroying not only Himself but His own creation. and that is the one thing God cannot do.
The formula for true love involves being a conductor of God's love
If there had been no fall, God would have become the dwelling of Adam and Eve, and Adam and Eve would have been the temple of God. There would have been no separation or difference between them at all. God would have literally been Father, literally Abogi. This would not just be an honorary title; He would have been the real Father. What is the essence of being a true Father? It is found in a connection of love, because the love of the Father created the son. If you want to become a true man, you need true life; you cannot have true life without true love. Love comes first.
Did Adam and Eve become a true man and true woman? No. The Bible clearly states that death came after the fall, just as God said it would. The misuse of love brought death; the fall of man caused the fundamental destruction of the universe. Then what is the roadway or path of true love? Here we have people gathered together from five races. We are united together in love, but what is the origin of that love? The origin of that love is found between men and women. These two are the originators of love. True love, therefore, will grow from the relationship between true men and true women. The true husband and wife are the originators of true love, and when they give birth to children and create a family they are manifesting true love. The most important linkage of love is between parents and children, but the origin of that love lies between the husband and wife.
Once you become true man and true woman united in love, would the thought of divorce even enter your mind? Can you divorce your body from your mind? Every day we can see the tragedy of a father and mother leaving their children at home while they go and seek their own pleasure. In the sight of God they are human trash.
What is the right formula of true love between husband and wife, between parents and children? The brightest light bulbs are useless unless there is a powerhouse to generate electricity for them. The father and mother and children may be ready to shine beautifully, but unless there is a power source giving energy to those electric bulbs, none of them will light up. Once the power plant supplies energy, they all generate light and warmth. In that environment everything will be melted in the atmosphere of love. That is the spiritual home. A home is like a brightly shining electric bulb which is powered by God's power plant. A fallen family is like a bulb with no connection to the powerhouse. Today the Unification Church is trying to repair that shorted circuit.
In my opinion you are not yet shining bulbs like that, but I know that at least you are connected to the circuit. Your body is the conductor of electricity and the electric current is flowing through you. I control the dimmer switch, but I know that if I turned it up all of a sudden, you could not take it. Instead, I am slowly turning it up more and more, so that slowly but surely you will become a shining light. That's a realistic description of the work of God; God connects you to the circuit first and then slowly increases the voltage.
Would you like God to appear on earth with certain preferences, giving His first priority to white people and telling the blacks to stand in line and wait their turn? What would you have said instead? First come, first served? There is one condition, however. The first comer is important because as God's first harvest he must not come to receive God's entire love for himself. He must receive the love of God and pass it around all over the world. That actually makes you like a high voltage wire; God will help you grow stronger and stronger, enabling you to carry ever more electricity. You will become sturdier and sturdier because you receive more and more love and send it to the world.
You can be a conductor of love, but only according to your capacity. A thin wire cannot carry 1,000 volts. That is why you are growing into a heavier wire which will finally become so gigantic that all the power of the love of God can flow through you. When God sees from the spirit world that you are capable of carrying billions of watts at one time, He will push the big switch in His power plant. Through you, power will flow to all of the world and all of a sudden this dark, sick continent will become flooded with bright daylight. How would you like that?
When the switch is off and you look into an electric bulb you see a little tungsten wire which is gray and black. It's not that impressive-looking at all, but once the switch is on you don't see the gray wire. All you see is shining light. That's what you're going to be.
Spirit world is just like that. Before the switch is turned on, black people look black, white people look white, and yellow people look yellow. But once the switch is on, all you can see is shining light. The only important thing is whether or not you have full conductibility, so that when the switch is on the electricity will not fail to flow through you. If you are sensitive in terms of the love of God, then wherever the love of God is generated you are sensitive to receive it and convey it to the world.
When this love of God happens to be flowing through a black man, he will convey that power and energy to white people. Will the white man say, "I don't want any electricity that comes through a black man"? It is like your brain refusing to allow any blood to enter which has been all the way down to your foot. If someone denies that drop of blood simply because it passed through the foot, then that person is self-destructive. This attitude is not just my opinion. I researched every corner of the spirit world and left no area untouched. From first-hand experience I know that arrogant and discriminating people have a sad fate in spirit world.
We look forward to building homes of love, embracing three generations
Where will true love be initiated? Where should true love be practiced first here on earth? At the White House? In the American home? Yes, it should be lived in the family, but look at the American family tradition right now. Parents become upset if their twelve-year-old daughter doesn't have a boyfriend. It is a tragic thing, like snipping off a little bud before it even blooms. God's love is not like animal love. We have a tragic situation here in America.
Can you say that American young people are nurtured in the beauty of true love and taught to be chaste? No, there is much immorality and impurity instead. Are those things happening because they are God's will, or are they happening out of man's own degradation? America is a mighty country with lots of money, power and resources, but most important of all is whether or not America is going to become the birthplace of the true love of God. That love will appear in a model family on earth, but what are the chances of having that family appear in America?
Who was God in the Garden of Eden before the fall? Imagine that Adam and Eve were blessed and had children. From their children's point of view, who would God be? He would be their grandfather and grandmother. The three generations of grandfather, father and son would link heaven and earth, with one in spirit world and the others in the physical world. Where can you find three generations living in one home? We are going to do it. The Unification Church is a three-generation home and our goal is to create three-generation homes on earth, with grandparents, parents and children all living together. Can anyone in the modern Garden of Eden insist, "I don't need a grandfather or grandmother. We should live separately"? Our tradition must be that we live and die together as one family-grandparents, parents and children.
I want you sisters to answer this question: What kind of husband do you want? Do you want someone who has no grandparents and no parents, but only himself? Have you been thinking even in your early days before the Church that you wanted a husband whose parents and grandparents were living? Is it a good tradition or bad tradition that in American families the three generations usually do not live all together in one home? Why not? You can say no because we know the principle of God's love.
I want to research and discover how senior citizens really feel who end up in senior citizens' homes. When I pass through Central Park in the spring I see benches full of senior citizens. I sometimes sit down with the lonely-looking people and ask, "Where are your children? Would you like to live together with them in the same house?" Practically all of them reply, "I miss my son and my family. I'm very lonely. I'm just waiting to die." When I hear this, I am very sad. Do you think that's the way American grandparents should live?
The American way of life is very convenient. When someone dies you just call the funeral home and they come with make-up and perfume to take care of the body. They do everything. Would you want to be prepared for burial by impersonal, uncaring hands, or have your loving sons and daughters prepare you for burial with their own hands, even though it's not a professional job?
Because man was born in love, he wants to live in love and die in love. We want to leave this world in love. In the Unification Church we are looking forward to building this home of love. Those who live here on earth without experiencing true love between the three generations of grandparents, parents and children will be crippled in the spirit world. Your love in the spirit world will be imperfect and you cannot wholly sustain your life for eternity. The world is now all broken into pieces. Taking the restoration path means putting the pieces together, mending and building a heaven restored by mankind. By rectifying past sin in restoring the family and society and fitting all the pieces together, we are trying to bury the past. That has been the task of God.
Three stages of restoration
God first needs unity with a true man. That man is God's first priority because man is the foundation. Thus, the purpose of the history of religion has been to search after that one true man of God. That is God's target. Will that true man just appear all of a sudden one day? Man is departed from true parentship, true sonship and daughtership, from true relationships with the things of creation and from true servanthood. Man is totally departed from the path of love on every level; therefore, restoration must take place in steps. The true man must be restored into servanthood, then he must restore all things of creation, then adopted sonship, true sonship, and then parenthood. In restoration we go in the reverse way, going backwards by beginning with servanthood, the things of creation, adopted sonship, true sonship, and parenthood.
Since the body sinned by illicit, satanic love, we have to let the evil blood out of our bodies. The body is not acceptable as it is, and for this reason we suffer. We use things of creation as a means to reach God, offering them on our behalf, and at the same time loving and uniting with all things. We must love all things because they represent a higher level than our own. We bow down and offer all things of creation as a sacrifice. In bowing down to God you are paying homage to the animals and all things. That is the Old Testament era of the dispensation.
After the Old Testament era, we move to the next stage, that of adopted son, and approach God through a priest or mediator to offer all things. When you become an adopted son you are accepting the concept of sonship, and the way is opened to become a direct son. Jesus Christ came as the son of God to open the new era of sonship. He came also in the role of priest so that he could unite with the people of Israel.
The Messiah brings true sonship
Jesus came as priest to unite with the people of Israel, who were in the servant position, and with their land which represented all things. When the Messiah came bringing the true sonship of God, He brought the great opportunity to fulfill the condition for restoration of the Garden of Eden. Everything was lost in the Garden of Eden, but everything could have been restored by the chosen nation of Israel and the priests if they had united with the Messiah. That acceptance of the Messiah should have occurred the day Jesus appeared in his mission. The bloody battles that occurred for many centuries after Jesus' appearance should never have been. God had prepared Israel for many thousands of years to be ready to accept the Messiah the day he appeared.
Israel is of the Jewish faith and should know one thing very clearly. The Jews thought that the Messiah would manifest himself as the highest authority and then offer them salvation. That is not the way he came, however. In the Garden of Eden the creation was prepared for Adam. The Jews were prepared and were supposed to have had the wisdom to accept and work together with the Messiah the day he came.
John the Baptist was in the adopted son position and God used him in the position of chief priest. He was a prophet of salvation. He declared to the world, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand." Jesus repeated that same warning, with his first words being, "Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand."
John the Baptist was to have lived and died under the command of Jesus. John the Baptist and the people as a nation were supposed to rise and fall together with Jesus. In God's sight there was no such thing as defeat, so even if they were destroyed, they should have been destroyed together with Jesus. In this way, a greater victory would have been won.
The Messiah came with the heart of God so that he could be united with God's love, while as a human being he could connect with the people of Israel. He was the bridge between God and all the fallen world, and by accepting him the people would have been accepting and uniting with God. God's will was the acceptance of the Messiah, not his rejection. Jesus was truly the Messiah, and through the total obedience of the people he should have been given the power to lead Israel.
Jesus' death was not suicide; it was murder. Today the Christian gospel preaches salvation by the blood of Jesus. How ridiculous that is in the sight of God! In the Bible is recorded the story of a prostitute who was condemned to death and about to be stoned. Jesus said to the people gathered around her, "Whoever is without sin, let him cast the first stone." Everyone self-consciously dropped their stones. After everyone had drifted away in shame, Jesus spoke to the accused woman, saying, "Has no one condemned you? Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."
What does this mean? By his own words Jesus offered forgiveness. Even before Jesus shed one drop of blood there was already salvation. No one had to wait for Jesus to die. There was salvation in accepting the word of Jesus. That's in the Bible. He did not give a rain check by saying, "I will forgive you and save you, but wait until I die on the cross." Jesus offered salvation to everyone by the word of God. God's plan of salvation does not require bloodshed. The word salvation means that the Garden of Eden shall be here on earth, with living men, women, and families. What we need is living consummation, not bloodshed and death.
Christians today truly misunderstand. They are absolutely blind. They preach resurrection, but resurrection does not mean that dead bodies will rise again. That's a fantastic misconception. Death came when man departed from God, through the misuse of the love of God. Man's physical body remained alive. Resurrection means accepting the word of God to become the possessor of God's love. Suppose Jesus appeared here. Would you want to have only the spiritual salvation which comes by blood, or would you want to have the living, working salvation of soul and body? Would you want spirit and body restored together by the living Jesus? We need repentance. That's the first thing the world must do.
Whoever is grafted to the Messiah would become the true parents of mankind
Is Jesus a man or a woman, or something in between? God created Jesus as a natural man. Jesus recognized the world of women. Wouldn't it be natural for him to want a wife and family? Or would Jesus think, "No, I'm the son of God. My title is that of Messiah. I cannot allow myself to be anyone's husband"? Don't you think Jesus wanted to become a grandparent? He felt that way because from the beginning God wanted to be a grandfather. Jesus knew clearly that his death and crucifixion would not bring the will of God here on earth. He knew he must come back, and he knew clearly he'd come back as a groom who would take a bride and then become a father and grandfather.
I want you know that for the first time in history the truth has been declared to the world. I want you to know that God has worked for 6,000 years to substantiate the title of True Father. Christianity was waiting for 2,000 years to see the one day when the person of Jesus would reappear as a bridegroom. Christianity's mission for 2,000 years was to prepare itself as the bride for the return of God's son as the bridegroom. There will be tremendous satanic power unleashed at that time, just as in the days of Jesus' crucifixion when darkness fell; Christianity is like the nation chosen to become the protector of the Messiah.
What would it mean for Jesus to appear as the bridegroom and meet his bride? For the first time in history Jesus would fulfill God's will in the real sense, as the husband that God wanted to see here on earth. Once Jesus could establish the love of God manifested as a husband and wife, God's true children would be born here on earth. Jesus and his family would become the true olive tree, the center and origin of God's world. Then, no matter of what race or culture, people of the world would be grafted into that true olive tree. Once Jesus' family could be established, other families could be grafted into the olive tree and Jesus would organize a tribe and nation. On that foundation Jesus could graft the whole world into the true olive tree. God's plan was for all of this to happen before Jesus reached the age of 40.
God's desire all these years has been to find His son, His pride and joy. Before God talks about making a tribe or a world, He needs one son and one daughter who will bring the true family here on earth. That family will become the channel of the love of God. From then on the grafting process will take place.
As soon as Jesus could establish the position of the first true bride and bridegroom and organize his own home, he and his wife would automatically be elevated to the position of the true parents of mankind. Not only Jesus and his whole family would be elevated into true parenthood, but everyone who was grafted into that true olive tree would become the true parents of mankind. The family is the training ground for experiencing the three basic aspects of the love of God-parental love, conjugal love and children's love. The ideal world is the expansion of the pattern of those three loves. That is the ideal Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Marriage is the channel to inherit love
Ideal love is not related to how handsome or beautiful you are. That is totally unimportant. A wife is always in the role of woman, mother of all mankind, and she represents heaven and earth. Also, a wife is in the role of sister. As a husband and wife, a man and woman are really a microcosm of the entire universe. You men should love your wives and mothers and sisters as you love God.
What is genuine love? In love you do not exploit or use the other person for your own benefit. This tradition must be planted here on earth. Can you give up your own mother or sister? You cannot give up your mother; you cannot give up your sister. How can you give up your wife? Your wife is in the role of mother, in the role of sister. Your husband is in the role of father and brother. You cannot give up your father. No matter what he is, he is your father. You cannot deny that, and neither can you give up your brother.
You might love your wife so much that your father might be jealous and complain, "Why do you love your wife so much? Why don't you love me more?" No true parent could say that. No sister who sees how much her brother loves his wife should be jealous. The true pillar of the universe is husband and wife. The relationship of the husband and wife combine together all the relationships of the universe. Once you come to that level nothing can pull you to Satan or to hell because all attachment to Satan is already gone. Heaven starts here on earth when a husband and wife live together like this. Wherever they live is the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.
This hope, this heavenly principle has never changed, and I am no exception; I do not have my own rules. I have only one rule and that is the rule of God. We have a gigantic factory here to create this way of life. When you are out and see an older woman, look at her as your grandmother; look at her as your own mother. If you meet a younger person, look at her as your sister. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was supposed to love God as his Father and Eve as his sister. There is no one who will deny his own mother and sister. In the Garden of Eden, Adam was supposed to love God as his Father and Eve as his sister. Until they grew up there was no feeling of Eve being a candidate for his wife. Adam and Eve began their lives as brother and sister. When you were born, the first person you recognized was your own mother. You don't think about marriage and having a husband and wife relationship until you enter young adulthood. The first view of your own family is mother, father, brother and sister.
When you come into the Unification Church you are like a newborn baby. You recognize your mother, your father, and you recognize your brothers and sisters. You should look at each other as brothers and sisters, not as potential wives or husbands. In our Church it is forbidden to look at brothers or sisters as a potential spouse. When you come into the Unification Church, you are like a child born in the Garden of Eden. You recognize Father, God. You recognize parents, Father and Mother. You recognize brothers and sisters. Once you are fully grown, your parents will worry about your marriage. That's the natural way of doing things.
In the Garden of Eden God was waiting for one day to come when He would call the name of Adam, saying, "Come. Eve, my daughter, you come. From this day on I proclaim you to be husband and wife." This blessing must come from God, not from them. That's the way the original first family was supposed to have been organized. Matrimony is the ceremony in which you inherit love. It is like a change in command.
It is an ironic thing in this world that when a son and daughter are ready to marry they go to a priest or pastor, to someone outside the family. No parent in this world officiates at his child's marriage ceremony. The parents should be not only in the position of father and mother, but also in the position of king or master in the home. Children must grow up looking at their parents as their models, thinking, "I will be like my father. I will be like my mother." That is the best tradition. It is the most natural thing that parents be the judge.
In the Unification Church we have one strict rule in regard to marriage, and because it involves the fundamental truth of the Divine Principle, there will be no compromise. If you want to marry the most beautiful woman in the world, go out and first love all the women in the world as your mother and as your sister. Then you might be qualified. If you women want to marry good husbands, go out and love all men as your father and brothers. That love must permeate all aspects of life.
That is the concept of messiahship, which Jesus brought. God has been waiting for the fulfillment of that concept. Without going through this path, you are not in a position to talk about a family, tribe, nation or world.
All these different things have been done, so let's have an anniversary celebration. Let's commemorate the day of the first fulfillment of all these creations Whoever would form the first prototype, the first God-centered family here on earth, must go through the course as parents on the family level, tribal level, national level and worldwide level. That has been the history of my last 18 years.
From 1960 on, but particularly after 1970, a wave of persecution on the worldwide scale engulfed me. I had a showdown with the Korean government. I fought with the Japanese government. Now I am having a showdown with the American government. Now in 1978 we are at the peak of this course on a worldwide level. In September, 1976, we were victorious at the Washington Monument Rally. This year of 1978 is truly the culminating point of the three years following that victory.
Today we are celebrating Parents Day, 1978. We must pray for the day that we can expand the celebration of Parents Day to the whole world. That will be the realization of the Kingdom of God right here on earth.
After you are victorious in Haran you can return to restore your families
Right now in America we are on a high peak of setting certain conditions, particularly in the providence of home churches, which is coming into full blossom. That will continue until the month of September, and then I will let you go to your own home and relatives. You are going to restore your own tribe, engrafting your own wild olive tree. Before you go, however, you have to complete the journey of Jacob. Before you go home you have to wrestle with the angel and win in the conflict with Esau. Once you overcome all these confrontations you can ultimately meet your own family and restore them.
This home church program is like Jacob's journey of 21 years in Haran. You are going to accumulate your own flock and then fight a battle with an angel, and then go back to meet Esau and your own family. I have gone a great distance to pave the way, crossing the ford of Jabbok on every level -- the individual, family, tribe, nation and world. I paved the way by crossing the ford and wrestling with the angel. You only have to struggle once, however, and restore your own family. When you establish a home church, you are becoming a tribe leader; then I will give a blessing before you go back to your homes. For 21 years Jacob endured all kinds of mistreatment from his uncle Laban. Forming a home church like this. You are going through the 21 years of Jacob's life course right now. After you are victorious under those circumstances, you will be ready to gather together your family and your things and go back home.
We will create the tribe that can mobilize on the spur of the moment. Abraham was mobile, Jacob was mobile, and their families were all mobile. The Israelites in Egypt were mobile. The men of God all took off and the exodus began. In Korea I obeyed the call to go to America, an unknown, hostile land. I did not hesitate. In the same way we are going to create a tribe of people and leaders who will not hesitate to take off, whatever the command.
You are becoming the true parents of your tribes. Your people must grow in the love of God so that they can embrace the rest of the world in love, all five colors of skin. You can become the glue to put all the pieces of the world together. I organized my tribe to include not only Koreans, but everyone. In my tribe there are all the races you can think of-black, white, yellow, red and brown. You must organize your tribe in the same tradition. When you set the goal and begin marching on, move straight. Don't be distracted by what you see on the left or on the right. If you meet a roadblock and detour around it, what will happen? Your generations will follow that same winding way. What would you do under those circumstances, being aware of the people who follow you? Take the obstacle apart rock by rock and continue forward.
We are not going to fear any obstacle, and therefore, our way of life isn't going to be easy. When God's command comes, whether 1,000 or 2,000 members in New York have to move immediately won't make any difference. We will just pack up and disperse over all six continents. Don't ever think that only America is our concern. Those six continents and five oceans are all our territory.
The Unification Church movement is the one movement in history trying to love the people of all lands. Because we are becoming linked with the supreme power of the love of God, our love should be stronger than the world's love. This is what my work here in America is about. I want to challenge President Carter and challenge the American people to go out to the six continents and love the people there more than they love America.
What's wrong with this work? I am trying to change American young people into people who can be loved by people of other lands, people who will be memorialized in nations around the world for their unselfish contributions. What's wrong with that? Today America is coming against me because you good-looking young people are loving me more than your own families. But what is my ambition? I am not after money, nor asking for power. I am not trying to seize control of anything. I want to give out love and bring a new way of life.
Today your mission is to help America celebrate Parents Day together with us. We have parents, but America is waiting for them. Unless we achieve this goal in our lifetimes, we will have eternal regret in our hearts. I am trying to build a new tradition and heavenly way of life here in America, where three generations of families live together and where people look at each other as mother, father, parent and child. This is the united family pattern on which America is going to be rebuilt. Is that wrong? This is what America needs more than anything else. Do you think this task can be fulfilled by the President or the Secretary of State or by Billy Graham? No, they cannot do that.
I came to reconcile the races. There should be one common way of life in which everyone can be united. This nation must be alerted to know that one more formidable war is brewing: racial war. The worst war is yet to come, and there are negative forces which are trying to manipulate racial fear and tension. Once racial war finally begins, there will be no end until one race is exterminated. The conflict will continue on from generation to generation. It will be far worse than the white people's injustice against the Indians. The communists are agitating in various destructive ways. They try to stir up black people by fanning their anger at what white people have done, urging them to take revenge. This is the kind of attitude spreading now.
The original Americans were the Indians, who have Asiatic origins. Therefore, I came to the home of my cousins. That's the way I feel. I am not seeking revenge against white people; I came to tell the yellow people and black people to love the white people and to work together. I brought the Japanese to work here in America, people who were formerly enemies of America. The Koreans and Japanese lived in hostility for 36 years. Now they want to love each other more than they love their native home and parents. This is the greatest possible revolution of love, and it is taking place in America under my guidance. What's wrong with that?
Without the love of God, none of these things would be possible. No other power under the sun can penetrate these barriers of tradition, of language and nationalism. If science could destroy these walls then God wouldn't need religion. God would need a heavenly MIT instead of religion. If scientists could solve all the problems then why would God need religion?
It is the love of God, which penetrates all things, that will break the barriers. Therefore, I came to America to bring the true model of the love of parents, the model of the love of children and of husband and wife. With this we will create the Kingdom of God here on earth centered upon God and His love. What I have preached today is the tradition of Parents Day.
Thank you. Let us have a word of prayer.