Sun Myung Moon
March 26, 1978
Belvedere, New York
Translator - Bo Hi Pak
We all know that the people of the world are looking forward to a day of happiness and the ideal. I'm sure also that the world looks to America as some kind of heaven and many people dream of coming here to live an ideal life. But you know clearly that America is not yet heaven, that the American people also need a resurrected heaven and the achievement of the ideal.
When heaven is truly accomplished and fulfilled we surely won't need any form of religion, but the Kingdom of Heaven remains as a goal for the future, and men find themselves still striving toward that goal every day. Then where can we find the Kingdom of Heaven? That is the real question. To make a long story short, it is religion that has been striving toward that one goal to fulfill the kingdom of God.
Three elements are essential in order to talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. There must be a sovereignty, a territory, and a people. Who is going to be the sovereign of that Kingdom of Heaven? God is the sovereign. It is common sense, then, that the people who will truly inherit God's kingdom are the children of God, and that from generation to generation they are entitled to be the citizens of heaven. The eldest son of God's family shall succeed to the kingship and receive the inheritance. Then all people together shall constitute the sovereign heavenly nation. Therefore, this sovereignty belongs not only to the eldest son but to everyone. It belongs to one family, which is all people. That kingdom is organized with the eldest son at the head of the rest of the children, making one harmonious family of man. That is the kingdom of God on earth.
Where is the territory of the kingdom of God? It is the entire globe, for God created the earth as His territory. The three essential elements, sovereignty, people and territory are all united together by one love centered upon God. When love unites them together they create the ideal kingdom of God on earth. The love we are talking about for that kingdom is not the love we talk about in the fallen world; it is true love with God as the center. Everywhere that love is extended will be under God's umbrella and everything will blossom together. That love is absolute and will not be infiltrated by the fall; it is so pure and genuine that it has nothing to do with any fallen action.
Shimjung unites all elements of the universe
The message today is "Resurrected Kingdom of God". We need resurrection because we have not yet entered the ultimate Kingdom of Heaven. Why not? Because the fall of man prevented man from going there. The fall came to the family of Adam and Eve, who were the very basis and origin of human history; as a result they not only fell themselves but brought the fall to the tribe, nation, world and the entire ideal of the kingdom of God. Because of the fall of these two individuals the entire ideal of God has remained unfulfilled.
This world which was supposed to be the kingdom of God on earth fell into the dungeons of hell. How can we reach up to heaven from that position? What is the most essential problem? We have the earth and we have people, but what we lack is the love of God. The problem is actually very simple: how can we restore the love of God to this territory and to this people? This is the historical question which has been the focal point of restoration.
The heart of God represents not only God but all of mankind, as well as creation and the entire universe. Why does everything depend upon that one centralized point? Through the fall Adam and Eve not only destroyed their own hearts of love and the heart of all the creation, but also the very heart of God. Their link with the heart of God was severed and destroyed, and all of creation was affected by their fallen action as well. When Adam and Eve fell the creation was brought down with them. Further, because Adam and Eve were the forefathers of mankind, all mankind has been brought down by the fall. Because God lost man and all things, He also lost the ideal and lost perfection.
There is one heart, one mind, and one love that unites all three. When heart and mind are united together, we have what is described by the most significant word in our movement, "shimjung". The literal translation of this word is "heart of God, heart of man". When you say "heart", love is always involved, so when we say shimjung, it means far more than just simply "heart".
In this heart the three major elements of the universe join together -- all of creation, all men and God. We commonly say that man must love all creation because there is a common heart between man and creation. People must love people, of course, and man must love God. When you love someone you move your heart toward that person, bringing your heart out toward that object of love. Even if the fall hadn't taken place, the heart would need to be in the forefront, so in the fallen world how much more must we resurrect our hearts?
Do you think the mind or heart of God is always changeable, wavering several times during the day? If the mind of God is shifting, that means the love of God is also changeable. Do you have a wandering or a stable mind? In Korea we have an old saying: "The heart of man changes from morning till night, but the green of the mountains remains the same." This illustrates how changeable man's mind can be. Do you think that saying applies to Oriental people and not to Westerners? Truthfully, I find that the Western mind fluctuates even more often than the Oriental.
Marriage should be the unity of heart and mind, but in the Western world you marry in the morning and separate in the evening. This illustrates how changeable the Western mind is. A man and woman trying to join their minds and love together for eternity is what we call marriage. A marriage is the unity of two minds and two loves. Do you have confidence you can permanently unite your heart and love with your mate's?
What is the purpose of marriage? Is it for men and women to live together? The purpose of marriage is the perfection of their minds and heart, the perfection of their love. Through marriage they can achieve that goal. When you declare to the world that you are married, you are actually declaring the initiation of your venture to perfect your mind and heart and love. When you die, you are supposed to have accomplished all that in your married life and be qualified to go to heaven.
A father and mother should be regarded by their children as representatives of God because through their parents children should see unchanging unity of mind, heart and love. Children should live in that atmosphere from morning till night, day after day, year after year. This unchanging quality is symbolized by parents; that's why children think their parents are like God. In the ideal family, therefore, children always think, "I want to be like my daddy; I want to be like my mommy. I want to unite with my parents." If that kind of spirit surrounds the family, it denotes the perfection of the home.
When men and women are growing up their most serious goal is to find their subject and object of love. They are pushing themselves together in that unity of heart, mind and love. Their ultimate goal, the goal of marriage, is to find the ideal object and unite in love and heart. That love, however, must represent or correspond to the love of God. When we talk about love, we are automatically talking about the love of God. Parents represent the total love of God and through them children see the total representation of the love of God.
This is the first time people have heard of such a goal. You know that what you are now listening to is historic. No one in history has ever heard this. Is it convincing? Would you like to have that as the goal of your life? Where is joy and happiness? When you enter into the realm of true love you enjoy total freedom, which means that you possess the world. In love, the world and universe are at your disposal.
Love is the bolt which can unite anything
Every one of us has a certain nature which wants to enjoy total freedom. We want to have our own world where we can do anything. Once you become totally immersed in that perfected love, you will be able to enjoy total freedom. You can dance in joy, hit your head against the wall or fight with someone and still love will be there. Everything you do will automatically be a manifestation of that love. That is total freedom and we must seek that total perfection of love.
In today's world people only think about having freedom while disregarding God and love, the most fundamental and important elements of freedom. That's a crazy idea that will lead to disaster. Only based on true love can we enjoy freedom; without the love of God true freedom cannot exist. It's an utterly impossible task to find freedom without having first attained the love of God.
What is the taste of love? Bitter or sweet or sour? Sometimes love is the most bitter, but when love is sweet, no other sweet things in the world can compete with it. Love can bring the utmost happiness and joy, but if it is misused it will bring disaster and the worst kind of tragedy. Do you think love changes form? Are the love of ancient peoples and the love of modern people different in content? If love were to change with each generation then there could be no perfection of love. I am using elementary school concepts to teach you of love and if we spend too much time on this level we will never get very far, but understanding love takes time.
The Kingdom of Heaven is very desirable because there we can have the unchanging love of God. Why is the unchanging love of God precious? Because once you own it you have total freedom. A bolt of the love of God can unite everything-God and man, man and woman, east and west. Whatever things you have, one bolt of the love of God will unite them. Whoever can be individuals of this love shall have the ideal. Even just thinking of it is exciting. It is not just a dream, however, but is actually achievable. When you achieve that goal, you can truly be intoxicated.
Love is unchangeable; that is its primary quality. The love that unites men and women into marriage cannot be changed. When love unites a family it becomes the focal point and that family can never be separated. It's like glue. A super-glue is being advertised now that is so strong that even a giant muscleman can't unfasten it. The love of God is just like that, but even far stronger. Once God's love is applied and two things are stuck together, it's final. Those two things cannot be pulled apart by any temptation to fallen action.
Had the creation been united by the true love of God, it could never have been fragmented. Once you go into that world of love you simply cannot separate yourself from it. When you wear yellow-tinted glasses, everything you see through them seems yellow until you remove your glasses. Love is the same. Once you come into the world of love, everything is love and you cannot help but see everything that way. If you looked at an Oriental man you would see his love before you would see that he was Oriental. Whether a man was Western or not wouldn't matter. When you look through the glasses of love, you see only in love.
Today's America has lost its dream. We talk about a dream but most young people don't have a dream and they hardly ever talk about ideals. Those things seem to be all gone; the world has become tasteless. But we are going to initiate the movement which will unite the minds of men. The human mind operates the same whether one is white, yellow or black. The minds of people of each race are the same because they came from one origin. Even though the one origin manifests through five races, the mind is internal and is one mind.
How many minds do you have, one or two? There's supposed to be only one mind, but nowadays people are so changeable that sometimes they have 1,000 minds. Nevertheless, men are looking forward to one unified world. Do you think it can be accomplished by 1,000 different minds? The American mind is one, the Mexican mind is another, and the Canadian mind is something else. Even a man's mind wants one thing and a woman's mind something else. How can they become one? It's impossible. We have to research how to make a world of one mind, one thought, and one direction.
No matter how big the universe may be, all lines will go through the central point and be united there. The present world, however, is like a world without a center, with everyone blowing around all over the place without an anchor. This universe has no anchor. People aren't that bad, but what they need is a coordinating center so that they can unite with and anchor themselves to something permanent, which is the love of God. Then everything can relate to the center. Everyone has all the necessary qualities and ingredients within themselves, but those qualities will never become fruitful or manifest in perfection until they are anchored to the center.
Then what is the purpose of religion and what is the Unification Church trying to do? The purpose of religion is to build the Kingdom of God on earth, and to do that we must unite heart and love. That unity of mind and love corresponds to the unity of all things of creation, mankind and God. God is the center, of course, so we must find that heart and unity as the common joining point.
Love doesn't just automatically emerge; it needs a warm-up period. First of all we must put our minds together and then a united love will follow. The mind is like an antenna that will feel out and create the proper atmosphere. The mind goes first. The mind is the meeting point of the eyes, nose, and mouth, the "advance party" of love. The mind goes first and then sends back a communication to love, saying, "Everything is all clear. Now you can come." Then love, like a king or queen, regally responds, "Yes, I'll come now." That's the way it should be.
Whenever a head of state travels, an advance party is sent ahead to ensure security. Then they send a message back, "Now you can come." Love is a far greater sovereign than the United States' president. Love is the true sovereign of the universe, so when love travels some advance party should check ahead. Wherever the mind goes, love can follow
We are trying to join our minds in a Mind World
If you visit a home where there are united minds and united loves then you have seen the Kingdom of Heaven in that home. In the true heaven white and black are joined together. In today's world that might seem to be an impossible family, but if they are united somehow with perfected mind and love, they will create a most beautiful home. In that beauty you will find the Kingdom of Heaven.
In another home a white couple might be united in one mind, but when you compare the two, which one is more exciting, more stimulating? Black people alone might have heaven on the family level, but when you have black and white together making up the ideal home, they not only create heaven on the home level but also on the worldwide level. They see the vision on the universal level and can thrust themselves into it.
We come to the conclusion that the more exciting and stimulating heaven can be found where there are more interracial marriages. That is the key. Then let me ask the ladies: do you want an interracial marriage? Most Americans cannot abide a marriage between black and white, so how can you claim to want an interracial marriage?
I say harsh things to you, but you must realize that many American women are the cause of the destruction of the American family. Some older women may not like to hear that, but it's the truth. Two thirds of the divorces here in America are instigated by women. A woman made the trouble in the garden of Eden and now you make more trouble! But we men need this creature. Without women we cannot get by.
What can we do? There is only one solution. Women are like patients who need treatment. Religious leaders are like doctors, but is there one who can treat American women? What about scholars and professors, can they take care of American women? God will say, "Well, I tried this doctor and that educated man and it didn't work. Reverend Moon, will you take care of it?"
Is it shocking to you when I say a white girl might have a black husband? Indeed I am causing controversy in one way or another. Americans have never seen a man like me because what I am trying to do is very unusual. It is not America's way but God's way. I am a very fearful person because I have a very decisive way of life.
The Unification Church courses are not going to be easy; they are going to be difficult, painful and very harsh ordeals. Would you protest to your teacher like the average student, "You give tests that are too hard. Can't you make the problems a little easier?" You have to go the tough road because you have not overcome indemnity and sacrifice yet.
This road will be so tough that even Satan can't follow and will give up. For 6,000 years Satan has been scheming to destroy God's kingdom, and now he must say, "This is the first time I ever had to surrender. I just cannot go any further. These Unification Church members are tough. If I say 1 will give them a good husband or wife, they will say, 'No, God will give one to me. Don't bother me.' I cannot deal with these young people any more." We are going this tough way because we would like to invite Satan to go this way. But he will protest, "Oh no! Leave me alone!" It's all logical. We have to be logical.
The important thing is this: get tough. This body will get tough under hardship, but the further you go, the more your mind will feel free and exhilarated. Your mind will just burst with laughter. As your body becomes tougher, your mind becomes freer. The more your body goes down, the more your mind goes up.
Does God contain some contradiction? Is it because God made a mistake that the mind can't be happy? Is there something wrong with God? No, this body became a prison because of the fall. Without knowing this fundamental cause of human difficulty, man has tried to somehow justify human struggle by saying that struggle is essential to development. Only religion has declared the truth, that all the evils of the world came from the fall of man. The world was not supposed to live in hardship and struggle. Mind and body together were supposed to rejoice over one love. Only because of the fall of man did this situation occur. Religion gives a clear explanation.
When the mind of a child travels in a straight path toward his parents, we call it filial piety. A true husband and wife each have a straight mind toward each other. A straight mind toward the nation is what we call patriotism. A straight mind toward God is what we call sainthood. Even though events may force you to give up your life, nothing can change such a mind.
Life in the Unification Church is the training session in which we are trying to bring all minds to one parallel level, where being an American or Oriental makes no difference. We are trying to join our minds into a one-mind world. When we have the same mind, then there is no struggle or conflict, even between Western and Oriental. When you see everything through my mind, Orientals and Westerners don't look different; they are the same. You look at me with the same point of view and don't think of me as Oriental. There is no different understanding here because being Korean, American or Japanese makes no difference.
Because I am Korean and Oriental, do I want to shield just the Japanese members and push the American members? Is that my way of life? You see the opposite instead. Because I come from the Orient I will say to the Koreans, "You set the example. You Japanese set the example," and will push them out further. That's my philosophy because God works in that fashion. God always makes those closer to Him the sacrifices for the satanic world.
Regardless of nationality or race, Unification Church members are pursuing the goal of one race and one mind. We are not talking about this way and that way, mulling it over in confusion and chaos.
No, we have one direction, one mind. In the rest of the world people live differently every day, today like this, tomorrow like that, but when you become a Moonie you look at one goal and one direction. People say we are brainwashed because we go in only one direction toward one goal, but if this is making you into an ideal man, is it a good thing or a bad thing? There is no hope for this achievement in the rest of the world, but we have hope and a clear direction and goal.
Even though Americans criticize me, I know I have succeeded here in America since every day your minds are becoming more like God's. Then why is there so much opposition and persecution? It is because of jealousy. Suddenly a man from Korea has come and extraordinary things are happening. If I were a white man, I'm sure that already we would have a larger following and people would be trying to make me a hero. Even if I had an ugly face, if I were white then Americans would look upon me as one of them and accept me. That doesn't make sense, however. Is true gold only that which is dug up in American soil? Is the gold dug up in Africa or Asia somehow different'? Gold is gold everywhere. America doesn't produce diamonds and America knows that the diamonds from black Africa are best. Then why can't heavenly diamonds come from Asia, from Korea?
Mother and I have a covenant. Mother's delivery date is getting nearer and she is getting heavier every day. I said, "Mother, come with me and be with the members for one hour and then you can go." Today Mother has already stayed one hour and a half. Shall we go too'? Should I stop? You say no; by the democratic principle I have to follow the majority rule, don't 1?
Heartle
You must know this concept very clearly -- we must make the mind unite into oneness. The mind is like an advance party of love. Wherever the mind is united the love of God is always dwelling. I would like to create a new English word that represents shimjung because the American language doesn't have shimjung yet. I want to create a new word representing heart and love so I borrowed one from love.
In Korean the "tul" sound means some mode of transportation; for instance, in Korean we call an airplane "nul tul". I have been experimenting and I have decided upon "heartle" When we say "heartle", people outside our Church will say, "What are you talking about?" They understand heart, but among us we understand something deeper that means heart and love together. The adjective form should be heartlistic. We've been using the word heartistic in Unification Church terminology, such as a heartistic relationship, but now I am inventing a new word, so it's going to be heartlistic.
God's mind and God's heart are God's heartle. Fallen man has a fallen mind and fallen heartle. The fallen mind has no anchor and just drifts anywhere it wants, and fallen love also lacks an anchor or center. In this fallen mind and love I would like to plant true love, true heartle, starting from a small base and getting larger and larger. In order to achieve this new revolution in the fallen world heavenly martial law must be instituted in which everyone must obey his mind and subjugate his body. It is because the world of mind is God's front line while the world of the flesh is Satan's front line. There you can see the boundary of heaven and hell.
Under the heavenly revolution the mandate for the mind is to occupy the physical territory of the flesh absolutely. The mind must penetrate the physical world and never let go. Even if someone cuts your head off, your mind will say, "I will never change." This is the kind of discipline God wants to establish and that is the entire focus of the religious world.
There is always betrayal in the physical world of politics, economics and so forth. The religious world suffers betrayals too, but in that world there have been a greater number of martyrs, more people who have gone forward with a straight mind even when it meant losing their lives. That has been the tradition. If a great disaster came to the Unification Church and people threatened you with death unless you recanted your faith, what would you say? Would you quickly pack, saying, "Give me a few minutes and let me run away"? Your report card has not been given to you yet. You will never know what kind of grades you have until after you go to spirit world, so how do you know whether you are better than someone like Peter?
Sometimes you don't like the word "Moonie", do you? Some day fate may put you in a position to give up your life in order to keep your faith. What would you do? Your answer comes very easily, but can you really do it? What would you do if the ultimate moment came even before your blessing? Would you say, "Leave me alone; I need to get blessed"? You would not? This is really a funny, amazing group gathered together here. Do I force you to be like that, or is your answer voluntary? You can voluntarily become strong men and women of faith because the truth has made you free. We have freedom because the truth really liberated us.
We know the true man, family, society, nation and world all through the truth. Through the truth we rediscovered all of these things. All men are destined to be searchers for the truth. Although you searched, you couldn't find any better truth. Some Unification Church members become so tired that they leave and try to find something greater, but they can't find it so they have to come back again. You have to come to the truth.
The sacrifices of each era in restoration
There are three stages to reach heaven. The first stage is the period of the Old Testament era, then the New Testament era, then the Completed Testament era. Of course, the entire dispensation has but one common goal, one heart and one love: All things of creation, man and God must be united into one love.
What is the dispensation of the Old Testament era? In the Old Testament era man had to unite with the offering of a sacrifice. The reason for this is that the realm of all creation is under the domination of Satan. Originally all things of creation were supposed to belong to perfected true man and through man belong to God. Man was to dominate all things, but because of the fall all things went into the hands of Satan. Therefore, good and evil must be separated and for this reason an offering was cut in two. This meant that making the sacrifice necessitated bloodshed. Satan's false blood has been flowing within men's bodies. Strictly speaking, man should be divided as the offering, but that cannot be done. Therefore, animals were offered as a sacrifice and shed blood in the place of men.
For an animal to give up its life for the sake of men demonstrates total obedience. Which animal is most obedient and loyal? The first one which comes to mind is the lamb. When the lamb's wool is taken it submits with no resistance, and when the master comes with a knife to cut the lamb's throat, it will not frantically run away but receive the knife, cry out once and die. The lamb is symbolic of obedience.
The cow, or heifer, is the symbol of giving and sacrifice. The cow gives its skin, meat and bones -- everything -- to the service of man. The cow is born to give itself in service. Another significant animal is the dove. One symbolic feature of doves is that they always move in pairs. The dove is the harbinger of spring and is very sensitive to love. It represents the new season more than any other bird.
These animals represent three essential things: the lamb, total obedience; the cow or heifer, total sacrifice; and the dove, total love. Because of the fall, the position of man and all things has been reversed. Man sank lower than all things of creation and in order to reach God man has to go through all things of creation. By offering these three animals to God man is symbolically pledging to God that just like the lamb he wants to be totally obedient; just like the heifer he will be a total sacrifice for God, and like a dove he will have total love for Him. Man's pledge and covenant with God is the meaning of the offering. An offering from the mineral world should be a mineral like gold, that will last a long, long time and will not tarnish or change. We would like to show ourselves as having the same unchanging quality.
Most of today's religious leaders and scholars don't know why God asked the people in the Old Testament era to make such offerings. The Unification Church has a clear explanation, however; the offering is a showdown between Satan and God, so that when man in the central position makes the proper offering, the ownership of all things returns to God. When man makes an impure offering, the ownership remains with Satan. In other words, if an offering is given in an improper frame of mind, all things remain in the satanic world, for Satan would not acknowledge that offering as a heavenly one. The external act of separation means dividing the offering into two parts representing good and evil.
The ultimate purpose in offering the things of creation is to restore man. After man is restored we can restore heartle, heart and love. The offerings of the Old Testament era were intended to restore man, but after man is restored then God is looking forward to restoring heartle. I want you to understand that the resurrected kingdom of God is the same as the restored kingdom of God. Resurrection is synonymous with restoration. Erection of the resurrected realm from the family level, national level, worldwide level and then heaven all are steps toward the one simple goal-that is, the heartlistic world, the world of heart and love.
From this most intricate method of restoration God wants to advance into a newer, more simplistic form of restoration, the dawn of the new age. The age has come when the offering of animals does not matter; what matters is man himself. In the new method God would be sending a heavenly example or prototype of God-centered man. All the world is occupied by Satan-centered men and God wants to send a God-centered individual as an example whom everyone can imitate. This world is controlled by Satan but within this world God is nurturing an orchard which He controls. That is the calling of the chosen people.
The word "Israel" means "he who is victorious", referring to those who are victorious in faith over Satan. The chosen people of Israel were the orchard God tended for two thousand years. Then among them God sent one pure example of a true man, the Messiah. That was Jesus.
Jesus drew an analogy about men, using wild olive trees and the true olive tree. God created the orchard of His own wild olive trees and then sent the true olive tree, which is Jesus. From that time on all people, as wild olive trees, should have grafted themselves into the true olive tree, becoming true olive trees themselves. That is the dispensation.
Suppose the branches of a new, heavenly olive tree are grafted onto a wild olive tree which is 1,000 years old. Because the root is 1,000 years old, the new olive tree will grow from a l,000-year-old foundation. The foundation will remain but with new life grafted onto it. That new life will quickly grow but still enjoy the l,000-year-old tradition.
The Old Testament is the era of offering animals, but the New Testament era, when the Messiah comes, is the era of offering man himself. By the crucifixion, God Himself as the priest offered His only son, Jesus, on the universal altar for the sake of mankind. That was the meaning of the crucifixion. All individuals who unite with the priest and the sacrifice shall be claimed in the heavenly position and become heavenly people. Those who do not recognize it will remain in the satanic realm
Total obedience, total sacrifice, total love
Sacrifice is needed on the individual level, family level, tribal level, national level and worldwide level. For 2,000 years after the crucifixion Israel was a sacrifice as a nation for the sake of the world. This is why Israel lost its nationhood and why Jewish people all over the world have suffered. They are the sacrifice. Furthermore, Christianity has also been a sacrifice for the sake of the world and the ultimate restoration. Christianity has seen much martyrdom and bloodshed, which was an offering on the universal level, a continuing symbol of the crucifixion.
The same principle that persisted in the Old Testament era was elevated and perfected in the New Testament era. That formula of total obedience, total sacrifice and total love applies to Jesus also. Was Jesus totally obedient to God? Yes. Was Jesus a total sacrifice? Jesus died for all mankind and even his enemies. On the cross he prayed to God to forgive them because they didn't know what they were doing. Jesus prayed even for the sake of the Roman soldier who pierced his side and let him die. We see that Jesus truly died for the sake of all mankind.
Jesus was lacking only in that he could not leave descendants who also exemplified perfected love. He did not have a chance to fulfill the level of love that God wanted, which is that of a husband and wife and a family. Like the doves, love is always seen in pairs, the bridegroom and bride. Christianity is looking forward to communion with the Lord in mid-air, almost like a flying dove, which is a fantastic thing. What God wants is a realistic world and realistic love fulfilled in pairs here on earth. In order to do that do you think that Jesus should return on the clouds of heaven? That would be an absolutely impossible achievement. Still, Christians are looking up at the blue sky and awaiting that day. They will never see it.
God wants to say to them, "You don't have to look up at the blue sky. Nothing will happen there. Look around you." This unrealistic belief is the reason Christianity has no power. That's why the resounding word of the new truth of God is only found here on earth, "Repent, for the kingdom of God is at hand." For what shall we repent? We shall repent to receive total obedience, total sacrifice and the total love for God. We shall "kill,' ourselves or deny ourselves and bring ourselves down to repentance to receive these qualities.
Are you in a position of total obedience? Total sacrifice? Do you ever complain? I must live the same principle as well. Do I ask one thing of you and do something else myself? No, there is one criterion by which we must all live. There must be one universal, unchanging formula or rule by which God will judge each individual. This standard is what sends one person to hell and another to heaven. This is not my device or theology; this is the formula of heaven and it will solve the crisis of the universe.
Today's religious leaders preach without knowing anything about this. They are in pitch darkness yet they still have the guts to say that the Unification Church is heretical! No matter what they say or how much they want to destroy me, they will not succeed. When truth and falsehood clash, the genuine part and that which is untruthful will become clearly discernible, and the falseness will burn away while the genuine will remain. Our critics think that the Unification Church should be put in a great furnace. What shall the remnant be? The tough, genuine, pure element of the Unification Church shall remain. Do you think you have that something which will remain forever, no matter how much heat burns you? Should I make you an element that will burn away in the furnace or a shining, surviving element? You shall become a heavenly remnant.
Our outstanding characteristic is toughness. Nothing can tarnish us, regardless of what the New York Times says. They portray the Unification Church as the trash of the universe, but God looks at the Unification Church as a jewel, the diamond of the universe. Because everyone tends to steal diamonds, God wraps His diamonds up in rags so He won't lose them. The Moonies are disguised by a poor image, but inside are shining diamonds. The egoistic, self-centered people who come to this Church cannot remain. Can self-righteous people survive here? No, only God's fools will survive, those who have total obedience, total sacrifice and total love. Those who are the fools shall become the remnant.
Is receiving persecution a good or bad thing? Unless we are hardened by persecution, when the day of rejoicing comes to heaven we will not be part of it. All the great people will take their seats but we will never be involved. However, since God wants us to be there, He devised a special eliminating process by which all the self-righteous persons will be weeded out
Ours is the cross of heartle, the test of love
What is our asset; what is our power? Our asset and power are hope and the guarantee of the future. No matter what the U.S. Congress says about me, I have hope and a vision of the future. The antagonism from the U.S. Congress is just another one of many instances of persecution that have happened throughout my entire life.
The history of Christianity is a history of sacrifice and chastisement of the body. In this manner Christianity laid the foundation that Satan cannot overtake. Satan has been hounding Christians but their true tradition is so high that Satan could never quite dominate them. Christianity has one more step to go, however, the realm of heartle. The heartlistic tic world, the world of God's original hope, shall remain. The Unification Church has gone beyond the level of Christianity. We graduated from Christianity a long time ago and are in a new era, the Completed Testament era.
In the Unification Church our cross is the cross of heartle, the test of love, and we know that we must love that which is impossible for us to love. Some might think they simply could not love a black man. Then God will require them to love a black man. Another might say, "I could never live with the Oriental people. They are impossible." Then God will say, "That's the cross you must bear. Go ahead and love Oriental people." That's the kind of test the Unification Church is going through, the test of love, far the creation of the world of heart and love.
I came to America to bear the heartle cross. Why have I been here? I don't have to deal with these impossible white people and impossible black people who have an entirely different cultural background and language from my own. It's an impossible world I have come to, trying to make harmony. It's an impossible cross I am bearing. I could go the easier course and return to Korea where I know the culture and can speak the language, but that is not the way God asked me to live. I came to a strange world and live with strange people. I shed tears to bear this heartle cross. I organized many international marriages as a foundation for that ideal, and when problems inevitably arise everyone points an accusing finger at me. All the problems and responsibility come to me.
Conquering the world by force and creating one unified empire at gunpoint is not easy, but what I am trying to do is to harmoniously bind the five colors of skin together with love. Is that easier? Do you believe in the possibility that we will win? Why should we do it? You might say, "I must do it because I pity God. He is a poor fellow. I want to comfort Father and God so I will do it." Do you have that sympathy? God prepared and hand-picked you of the Unification Church to make a tightly knit family. When you pray, God says, "You must listen to your Father," for trying to unite you and me is God's work.
The archangel brought Eve to hell, and now there are countless physical archangels trying to bring you down to hell. No matter what appearance a person might have, if you know that he is trying to bring you into heaven rather than letting you go down into hell, that person is far greater and more precious than the archangel. He is more precious than anything else in the sight of God.
Suppose you have a choice between an archangel-type white man trying to bring you down to hell and an ugly black man who can lead you into heaven. What is your choice going to be? Who am I then? I am bearing the cross, the heartlistic cross for the sake of the world. I sometimes think I would like to have some white man take my place, but then I think that no white man could take my place because no one would last more than one week in this difficult life. Particularly no individualistically trained American could last even one week.
When I hear the word "American", it sounds like "empty can". That's the impression 1 get. Empty, no substance. Sometimes it sounds like "merry can". It is all right to be happy cans, but don't overdo it. No one prefers canned food to fresh, genuine food. American people don't like to hear me speak like this, but you are patients, and your doctor must make the correct diagnosis. When you have cancer the doctor should tell you. The doctor must be very honest and tell the truth.
Our way of life is the cross of heartle, and heartle is nothing but obedience like a lamb and sacrifice like a cow and total love like a dove. Even though there are many married couples in Korea, Japan and America, when I declare an emergency and the martial law of heaven then it's good-bye wife, good-bye husband, and each must run to the front line. The people in the every day world can't conceive of such a thing happening. We bear the cross of love. My wife's love is important, but for the sake of God it is secondary. First I am the front line soldier of heaven. That's the way I live my life.
I bore many different crosses for the sake of the family, the nation and for the sake of God. Some people have tried to use that as a point to attack me, but nothing comes ahead of God. There is nothing I cannot give up for the sake of God. Many people regard me as a crazy man. At first glimpse it seems that I am doing all kinds of destructive things, dividing families, societies, nations and the world, but we cannot just reuse the old things over and over. We have to rebuild by breaking the old ways down and reshaping them with new concrete and heavenly steel beams. At first it may look like destruction, but in order to make a new structure you first have to level the old site.
Do you know why I picked Mother as my bride?
You may say, "Father, you married a Korean lady, didn't you?" Is Mother an ugly woman or a beautiful woman? One thing is sure. Mother is probably the loneliest person under the sun. Her history has been an incredibly lonely path, but that was her destiny. She had to be like that. Now she has become a mother and has a respected position and she looks like a tremendously fortunate person, but until she reached that point she was a most miserable, lonely person.
When I was looking for my dispensational bride in Korea, all the members of the Church felt I must be looking for some well-educated college graduate, a good-looking woman with social standing, and they never imagined that Mother would be chosen. Do you know how old Mother was when she became a bride? By the American way of calculating she was 17, and by the Korean way she was 18. That was an impossible age for anyone to get married in Korea.
Mother was like a little girl and didn't know anything about the world of men or about love. I was forty at that time and planning for the universal mission, the worldwide mission. Common sense would say that there must be some person more qualified than Mother, but I chose a young innocent girl.
Do you think I picked Mother because she was the only candidate? No, there were numerous candidates who were well-qualified and they were all competing with each other to become my bride. They had all learned the Principle and knew what my position was and what my wife's position would be, so you can imagine the competition. Some families thought their daughter would be the candidate because they had good social standing and she was well-educated, with beautiful social training and charm. But I said to one after another, "No, no, no." Then all of a sudden I picked Mother.
The entire Korean Church was shocked. I was destined to make many unusual matches in the future so I wanted one for myself too. Mother was the only daughter of her mother and she had no brothers and no father at that time. With something lacking in her family situation she was a lonely person. It was a combination similar to a Harvard Ph.D. marrying a humble black girl. Do you think I did the right thing?
I wanted to dramatize my own marriage, showing the example for the future. Mother was put in that difficult position at such a young age, being trained to be totally obedient and to totally sacrifice for the sake of her husband. The condition was that she be totally obedient and sacrificial for her husband, giving total love. If she had had everything in life and a big family, she could very easily have become arrogant. But she could not say that her father or her elder brother were better than her husband. She could not even consider any comparison. She could not think that any man, whether her grandfather or any teacher or professor, was better than her husband. In the garden of Eden Eve had only one choice. There were no other men around and she was to focus on just one man, Adam. This is why I picked an innocent young lady like Mother.
Before I was a husband to her I was a father to her and also an elder brother to her. That was for restoration. Eve should be restored in that sequence. She lost God, her Father, so she must first be restored to God and her father. Adam was supposed to be her elder brother when they were growing up, so next she must be restored to her brother, then to her husband.
I wasn't looking for a worldly woman. In order to accomplish the perfect pattern and God's formula I picked an innocent young lady, aged 17, to be father, elder brother and then husband to her. I taught her the tradition of total obedience, total sacrifice and total love. I walked that road myself and she was to walk it as well. I educated Mother on three levels: as a father, as an elder brother and ultimately as a husband. By restoring what Eve lost in the Garden of Eden I could restore everything at once through one person.
There are many crosses of love. The Mother you see today has experienced a lot of pain. She met many tests and tribulations and had to overcome each step of the way. I was sometimes very ruthless and cruel in testing Mother. One day I would be kind and loving but the next day be ice cold and like a tyrant to her. She would cry for many hours. After the blessing we lived like separate persons for almost three years, not even in the same house. She couldn't even come to me freely.
Not only did I treat her harshly but I gave similar treatment to Mother's mother. She was given strict orders not to enter through the front door for three years. I said, "As the mother of the bride, you must not tell your daughter that she is to be pitied and that you wish she never had this position. Don't ever speak like that. If you do that you are committing a tremendous crime, not only to yourself but to all women on the same level in spirit world." I was so severe all throughout those years that even now Grandmother Hong is very reserved and hesitant about coming before me.
You can imagine how for the first three years there were all kinds of jealousies among the Church women over Mother. Many candidates were suddenly eliminated, and they felt that the one chosen was not capable and had no qualification for her role. Everyone talked about Mother having this deficiency and that deficiency, and how her first child was a girl and not a boy. During the first three years there was all kinds of gossip. Some even said that Mother was only in the John the Baptist position and that a real bride was yet to come. Can you imagine the intense jealousy of love there? All of that was within the strategy I mapped out for those three years. When people felt intensely jealous, I was strict with Mother and Mother's mother about giving total obedience, total sacrifice and total love, and they did that for three years. After those three years everyone bowed down to Mother, "Yes, Father's choice was right and Mother and Mother's mother must be respected. They are genuinely the heavenly central family." They were given open recognition after three years.
I bore invisible crosses of love, the heartle cross. After I came to the United States for the world dispensation, I felt that if I had come to America at the age of forty, I would have selected a black girl for my bride. That would have been my thinking. If I had some hesitation about receiving a black bride, God would not have permitted me to marry. Restoration would have had to start out again from the bottom.
International couples are the flag-bearers on the family level
Do you know what kind of cross we have to bear in the Unification Church? The cross of heart and love. You can see that I have a tremendous burden upon my shoulders. I have to take care of all of the members of all different nationalities and colors of skin. There will be more blessings and there should be more international and interracial matches. All kinds of headaches are bound to occur which will boomerang back to me. People don't praise me for the good things, but if something unfavorable happens they are ready to accuse me. Do you want me to retire and not bother you anymore? Or would you want to cooperate with and obey me? If you wholeheartedly respond and cooperate with me, my job will get easier.
Why do you marry? This is an important thing for you to understand. Marry for the sake of God and humanity, not for yourself. Mother is now a mature Mother, disciplined and trained in every way, but it was different when I was forty and thinking about the universal problems, discussing them with a 17-year-old girl. What a mismatched team that was! But I persevered and was patient and now it is all fulfilled. God created Adam first and Eve after Adam. In the same pattern, God hand-picked me for the mission as His instrument and then I recreated Eve. It was the same process as the first creation. Is it the Principle?
You are no exception. We all live the Principle. Can you pledge to God and True Parents that you can bear any kind of cross of heart and love? If you want to love the impossible person for God and humanity and go that way of life, raise your hands please. Thank you. That is our destiny. You cannot avoid that destiny.
Those couples now and in the future who will marry internationally will have done one thing I didn't do. Those couples are in a special privileged class. I always think that when I go to another country I want to be the guest of some blessed couple in a heavenly home and will always look for the international couples first. Wherever I go in the world I will knock on the doors of international couples so those marriages will have some added blessing from heaven. Good sons and daughters will be born to them, but of course they have to pass heaven's test; it's not good if they fight from morning to night. They may not even speak the same language, but if they truly unite in love then God will nod twice, more than usual.
Those who are already married internationally are the flag-bearers for the heartle cross on the family level. They are bearing an additional burden. It's not easy to live with someone strange and foreign. They are bearing the extra burden for God and humanity. They are committing themselves to an extraordinary cause. The time will come when those international couples will be given extra admiration and love. The sooner that time comes, the sooner we will fulfill the Kingdom of God here on earth.
Trying to create one mind between two people is not easy, but trying to make one love between two strangers is really difficult. For two extremes to come together is a virtually impossible task, but I am asking for that to be fulfilled. Such people are truly heroes and heroines. In my lifetime here on earth I must fulfill that unity of love from two extremes. Otherwise, I will not be able to raise my head before God in the spirit world.
Here in New York City when you go out knocking on doors you receive all kinds of persecution and scorn. Primarily white people are nasty to you, yet take it regardless. The greater the white persecution that comes, the greater your love will be toward black brothers and sisters. White members should know that this is the heavenly strategy. It is God's strategy to have more white people come against me because by doing so it generates a universal feeling, enabling us to quickly go beyond race and not even feel any national boundaries between us.
It's quite evident that more black people and other minorities like the Spanish and Puerto Ricans are supporting me. The white support is far less. This is not because God is taking any revenge against the white people. It is merely heavenly strategy. If white people supported me fully, the Unification Church would become a white-oriented group and slow us down in our goal of racial unity. I don't want that. Having white people on the lower level will inspire unity on a greater level more quickly. We should be an international, integrated movement. You white members should prepare yourselves for that.
When you go out fundraising, which people are more nasty and negative to you? You must be thankful to the Unification Church for that experience of being persecuted by your own race. Some time you might think, "God, why can't You bring down fire and brimstone and burn all the white people up? Why can't You show some of Your wrath?" The answer is that because of you God will not do that. You need those negative white people to make you a saint. As white people become smarter they will recognize the heavenly strategy and perhaps decide they should not persecute Reverend Moon because it will only help him. That will be all right too. I don't mind being accepted by the white People.
The persecution of the established white society coming against me is heavenly strategy in another way, too. The children of negative parents will say, "We must study Reverend Moon; he must really be some guy!" The children will be stimulated by their parents negativity and think, "If Reverend Moon is really that bad he must be knocked out, but if he is good then we must find out." The intensity of young people's interest in me is mounting and that is good. The time will come when these young people will all line up at the door of the Unification Church and knock, saying, "Please accept me."
More attention will be generated by persecution and negativity, particularly among the young people. One way or the other, we cannot lose. Isn't it great? The children will be attracted by the parent's negativity, but the parents cannot be too negative once their children join. Then the children will invite their parents to come. There is no way to lose.
Satan is listening to this sermon this morning as well as you. Inside he feels "I wish Reverend Moon wouldn't talk like that. He reveals all of our weaknesses and vulnerability and we just cannot cope with him." Satan must think, "Let's not persecute Reverend Moon any more." Then I will say, "That's all right too. I don't mind. Persecution is fine and no persecution is fine too." Either way we will smile. No one can make us mad. Are you like that? Logically we understand why the persecution comes and how it will help, so we aren't irritated by persecution. It is our daily diet. Wonderful.
We are going to be the personification of the living love of God
The heartle cross is the ultimate cross, worse than the cross of Calvary, worse than the sacrifices of the Old Testament era. We are bearing the worst kind of cross. The Old Testament era is the era of the physical body. The New Testament era is the era of mind or heart, and the Completed Testament era is the era of heartle. These are the three levels. In our own lifetime we will indemnify all three eras.
Then what is our ultimate goal? The first thing that should go is the body. If I sacrifice my body, I will keep my mind, but if I sacrifice even my mind, then my heart will remain. We are going to be the personification of the living love of God, the completely heartlistic person.
Once for a special dispensation in Korea I told several members to come forward to be spanked by me with a stick. Each person who was hit said, "Thank you very much, Father." Then everyone got up and said, "Let me be hit too." There were too many volunteers so I gave up. Why would people volunteer? Because that event made a deeper relationship with God in love. People want to have that relationship. Nothing done in love can be harmful, even giving a spanking.
Even if you are living together with your husband or wife and your services are needed in Africa, you just leave your wife or your husband and go. That's life in the Unification Church. Is such a thing cruel and tragic or is it something we can be proud of? Could anyone else give you a directive like that, the President or the leader of the Communist Party? Already people say that I am the worst kind of tyrant or dictator, but in the Unification Church the person who is leaving his family behind and going to Africa will say, "Father, thank you for giving me this opportunity. I want to live up to your expectations. I will do my utmost."
Do you know what a wonderful place you are in? Is it right for me to rush you out? What will I gain by it? I do it to let you experience the true love of God. Whenever you suffer for the purpose of God and humanity, God will appear at night to comfort you, revealing a new message to you. Have you experienced this?
Unification Church members have a secret source of power, but it's not the clandestine organization our critics accuse us of having. The world has not yet realized that we have inner spiritual power. As long as you have that heartle power you will be strong. What makes me strong? If I did not know the love of God, I would be the first one to have run away a long time ago.
Are you wise or foolish? We all look like fools and in a way we are, but internally, spiritually, we are real wise men. When I go to the New Yorker and the members see me walking by, they all come close. I never told them to do that, but on their own they want to come near and pay some respect; they want to come closer to the love of God.
Many times I don't return your bows but just walk past. Do not feel that you were disregarded. When passing by I was sending your greeting to God. Inside I think, "God, please reward them." Please understand that I want you to receive your reward from God. It is God's recognition that counts, so if you bow to me and I seem to be arrogant and unresponsive, remember that inside I am taking it and passing it to God, asking Him to remember you.
Many people are trying to fathom the Unification Church but they will never get down to the bottom of the matter until they become members. You cannot know the true value of this life from the outside. You must come and live it. There are hidden, silent heroes in the Unification Church. Such people may never show it so much or talk about it, but inside they are really living up to God's principles. Many people gossip in our world too. There hi always lots of talk among the women, but apart from all the gossip and complaining are the silent ones who just apply themselves and do what needs to be done. These are the real heroes of the Unification Church.
I am living this silent life while the entire world is talking about me. I am like a foolish person who doesn't hear or respond, but just concentrates on my own duty. That's the truly deep way of life. Your clothes might become rags, very old and worn out, but inside you are becoming like a shining diamond of heartle. Even your body may be worn out but inside lives the most shining, heartlistic relationship.
We must bear the heartle cross for Christianity
This is the first time in history this kind of truth has been revealed to mankind. Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden never imagined that such a heartlistic world existed because they never grew into it. They never learned of that world.
The first person who could talk about this heartlistic world was Jesus but he could not achieve it. The destruction and breakdown of the heartlistic world originated when Adam and Eve joined together. Therefore, restoration must also come jointly through Adam and Eve. Jesus could not achieve that goal and so the Bible promised the Second Coming in order to achieve the relationship of heartle.
Christianity struggled for 2,000 years, but this realm of heartle resurrection wasn't even discussed because no example or prototype had been given. In order to restore the realm of heartle, God needs not just one standard, but the two aspects of a couple. Never has such a couple appeared, but in the last days of history God will fulfill that image, that ideal of the bride and bridegroom together. This is the promise of the Second Advent.
When the Lord comes again to fulfill the Second Advent he cannot just suddenly achieve that heartle level; he must lay the foundation and pay the debt of history, the debt that humanity has accumulated for 6,000 biblical years. To lay the foundation upon which he can start his journey, the Lord must first pay that debt. Christianity was supposed to lay the foundation of faith and then when Christians accepted the Lord of the Second Advent, the dispensation would be instantly fulfilled. When Christians rejected him, however, he then had to rebuild the foundation from the ground up, going a most tedious and arduous road. Without this foundation being laid there can be no resurrection of the heartlistic world.
If Christianity had accepted him, however, the worldwide dispensation would have been completed in seven years. Because that didn't happen, the 2,000 years of indemnity paid throughout Christian history was lost and now Christianity is no longer the mainstream of God's dispensation. Just as the nation of Israel was scattered all over the world after the crucifixion, Christianity, if it continues to fail to accept the Lord, will also be scattered, especially by the communist world. Presently many Christian leaders advocate making some accommodation with the communists.
In light of this, what is our mission in the Unification Church? By reviving true Christianity we have to defend ourselves against communism and at the same time stop its spread. The Christian world is Cain to the Unification Church. Therefore, I am trying to work with other churches even though they are often antagonistic toward us. Through the Interfaith movement I want to nourish them somehow because I know how God thinks. We cannot resent or curse them. Abel needs Cain.
Eventually Christianity has to come to the Unification Church because in the end they will have only one of two choices: either they must surrender to communism or come to the Unification Church. There is no middle ground. When they see the reality of communism maybe they will come to the conclusion that it's better to embrace the Unification Church.
We have been going through a 21-year dispensation which is equivalent to the 2,000 years of Christian history. During these 21 years the world situation has been moving like a whirlwind. At the end of World War II, America's prestige and dignity were at the highest possible level, but after 20 years America's prestige has sunk to the bottom. America was proud of never being defeated in war but finally America was defeated in Vietnam. No matter how much Americans poured their resources into Vietnam, two hundred billion dollars was ultimately wasted. 56,000 men were lost and 300,000 more were wounded. All of that was in vain and America tasted its first defeat.
That is not the end. Tragedy after tragedy has come to America because God is pushing Americans to awaken and realize their true situation. God is beginning to vent His wrath on America, but the Unification Church is petitioning God to allow more time for us to take care of this nation. We are saying, "God, look at us and be comforted. We will suffer and pay any kind of indemnity to relieve Your wrath over America." We will take this for the sake of America.
We have confronted tremendous threats but we are resisting and soon we will see the light at the end of the tunnel. That day will come by the end of this year. The years of 1976, 1977 and 1978 are years of internal turmoil, including even confrontation between the Unification Church and the American government, but soon there will come a time of true resurrection in which the Unification Church and America shall be resurrected together. There is much meaning surrounding this Easter Sunday.
The heartle formula
We are headed toward the ultimate goal of the resurrection of the Kingdom of God. Our goal is clear and absolute. Do you remember the slogan for this year that I announced on God's Day? It is "The basic formula for the realization of the Kingdom of God on earth." The parent-child heartle relationship is the formula of the kingdom, of the whole dispensation. We are boldly marching forward toward that goal. Boldness and strength are our key words. When Bo Hi Pak went before the Fraser Committee I instructed him to blow everything wide open and he really gave it to them. That's the pattern of our struggle.
In the early days of our movement there was a showdown between the Korean government and our Church, and in Japan too our Church had a showdown with the government. Now here in America our Church has come to the level of making a showdown with the government. What will be the deciding factor in all of this? Whoever loves America most will be the winner. Who loves Korea most? Who loves Japan most? Who ultimately loves America most? That is the deciding factor. We are marching forward in this realm of heartle resurrection, in total obedience, total sacrifice and total love.
Even after a millennium mankind has not come to this feeling, but you have reached it after just two or three hours! This is the most precious truth because it is revealed by God and given to you. It is so valuable that even if America were sold, the price paid could never buy this truth. 240 million people live in America and if they were all given away as a ransom to win this truth it would still be worthwhile because 4 billion people could be restored. It would be a bargain sale.
It has taken 6,000 years for the fallen world to begin to reach this heartle world. Now God has picked the Unification Church to finish the task. Someone must come to the altar, giving his heart, body and soul in saying to God, "I am now ready to bear the heartle cross." That's the role of the Unification Church today. Adam and Eve fell at the top of the growth stage. In restoration at the end of the world God must restore one couple, the perfected Adam and Eve, who can say, "God, leave the job to us. We shall inherit Your spirit and Your love and Your heartistic relationship with man, not only spiritually but also physically. We shall fulfill Your ideal here on earth." Such a man and woman must appear and that will be the beginning of the new world.
The heartlistic world of God must be inherited on the human level. Adam and Eve were human and were supposed to fulfill the ideal of God on the human level, but so far the ideal and love of God have remained only on God's level. In order for them to come down to the human level there must be one son and daughter who can inherit the task, the mission of love. They are the beginning point of the resurrection of the Kingdom of God on earth. Then God will be liberated, His burden lightened. It shall be given to His son and daughter, the perfected Adam and Eve, and they shall bear His heartlistic cross, here on earth for the sake of mankind.
United together they inherit the mission of God and His cross for the sake of humanity. "God, as You loved the world, we too shall love the world. As You grieved over the fall of man, we shall bear Your sorrow. We shall bear Your hope and destiny in order to liberate You; and we shall bring their fulfillment by inheriting Your position, by being Your representatives here on earth." That is the one day all history and the world of creation have been waiting for.
The day that history has been waiting for has arrived. That day was April 17, 1960, when the True Parents were installed here on earth. That was the day I declared the world of heartle resurrection, and on that day I inherited the entire mission from God. God delegated His entire will to me, saying, "It is now for you to take care of." From then on the Kingdom of God depended totally upon me. I took up the heartle cross and gathered people such as yourselves together, thrusting forward to the worldwide level.
The heartle realm is the totally new realm that Adam and Eve never fulfilled and that Jesus never achieved. I am pioneering this entirely new realm and trying to perfect it. You can imagine how the satanic world has gone crazy and is desperate to stop it, mobilizing the power of nations all over the world to that end. It was inevitable that international turmoil should follow whoever carries this cross, trying to knock him down and kill him. A culminating point was destined to come in which the entire world would try to kill me. Once I declare the victory, however, Satan will no longer have any base and he will gradually dwindle away.
After April 17, 1960, I declared the start of three seven-year courses to indemnify the 2,000 years of Christian history. Now we are in the middle of the third seven-year course. We can see the end of the free world and the end of the communist world coming but no one can see the end of the Unification Church because we are just beginning.
Spiritually speaking the realm of heartle resurrection was declared a long time ago, but that's not enough. What we need is physical resurrection which includes physical children. In 1961 I declared the beginning of physical resurrection after Ye Jin was born, the first child of the True Parents. At that time we had a most weird celebration in the Church where all the members, including the elderly people, had a feeding bottle and drank milk and special soup just like a baby, celebrating physical rebirth. With the birth of a child a family was created and together that family needed to go through the three seven-year courses as a team. Everything must be accomplished as a family.
Next, I laid the victorious foundation in Japan and in 1971 came to America and wrestled with world restoration. Through the victory of the Washington Monument Rally in 1976 we triumphantly set the universal indemnity condition. That was the highest heavenly victory ever declared. Now we are engaged in a battle on the highest possible level, in confrontation with the United States Congress.
Restoration in the three years of 1976, 1977 and 1978 has been a most heated battle, but we are winning. Go ahead and work hard, suffering and dying every day to give yourself. Become a heartle person by giving your heart and body for the hope of God. God will be successful; that is certain. The best attitude you can have is, "Father, just do anything You wish to me. If You want to kick me or even grill me, go ahead." Then you don't have to worry about anything. By being obedient in that manner you are robbing me of all my love.
Nothing can withstand the power of resurrection
There is not much time left before 1981. There are people who have been working for the entire 21 years, but you just joined, six months or a year or two ago. These next three years will be the only time you can really suffer. After this opportunity, your suffering will not have the same value at all. In this time your suffering will reap great value. Even though you may not have the qualification to suffer, your desire will be justified because you say, " You are my Father. No matter how ugly I am, I am still your child. As your child my duty is to obey you, and therefore, I cannot take it easy. I want to suffer."
Why do you think parents let their children suffer? No parents want to see their children suffer. They permit it only because they know that suffering will bring more benefit to their children and that through it they can inherit all the blessing that their parents have. That blessing cannot be bought. You have to become one with it by total obedience.
There is one simple way to conquer the universe. If you can say that you worked harder and suffered more than the True Parents, more than Jesus, even more than God, then even God will bow down to you, and the True Parents and Jesus will not be able to lift up their faces to you. You will be nothing less than the king of the universe. Are you interested and ambitious enough to reach that goal? Persecution will be your proud point if you have the attitude, "I have a capacity for pain, and if you curse me I will become like a locomotive." Envision carrying a big bag where you can store persecution when it comes. In the end this is the bag that will be filled with blessings. The people who get the most persecution will have the most bulging bags.
When you are fundraising you usually accumulate many coins and your pockets sag with their weight; when you take them out it is as if they are diamonds. This is the kind of value you are receiving from your work. This is the secret reason why I push you so much. In this way I can help you to receive more blessings and deserve even more in the Kingdom of Heaven. When you apply, you will have to be accepted there. Do you know I am telling you the truth, or am I really only trying to make you work?
To whom would you like to give responsibility for New York? Your spouse or elder brother or sister? It is yours to keep, not to give away. We have the key to resurrection and we are like locomotives, having the power of resurrection; we are ready to take this power all over the world. Any power trying to hamper or stop resurrection shall be struck by God. No other power can withstand the overwhelming power of resurrection. Even though I always pray for my enemies, those who curse or oppose me have always somehow diminished and failed.
I have never consciously cursed anyone, but sometimes in the midst of walking along I would hear myself saying, "Woe to that person," and then within 7 months that person's situation became very miserable. It is truly amazing. Therefore, I learned to be very, very careful about how I speak. I know I cannot speak freely, particularly about another person. Once I make some utterance about a person, certain consequences will definitely come to him.
I know you have felt that things do not proceed just according to your will, and that you must submit your personal will to the larger power that always surrounds you. But you also know that when you have worked hard and suffered, you feel uplifted spiritually. When you are just taking it easy then your body may be rested but your spirit suffers.
Sometimes I get so tired that my legs don't obey my mind -- they have walked so many miles or stood so many hours that they give up. Then I look at them and inwardly shout, "You legs! Keep going!" When I push myself all the way like that then my spirit is free. If I subjugated myself to my legs then my spirit would suffer.
Are you bored after listening now for four hours? There is a spiritual wave of energy surrounding us here. It is our Unification Church tradition to burn the midnight oil. If you polled all the people in the world who are my age, I am sure that I have slept less than any of them. For whom? All my suffering is for the sake of God and humanity.
You must have children who are better than yourselves
When I visited Barrytown I asked the seminarians if they would use birth control after they got married. If Jacob and his wife had not wanted too many babies then Joseph, one of the youngest, would never have been born, and if he had not been born there would have been no chance for the Exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. I have many older brothers and sisters. If my parents had used birth control and only wanted one or two children, would there have been any chance for me to be born? That would have been great for you because then no one would push you out! In my own family, the farther you look down the line of children, the brighter and more capable the children are.
How do you know what kind of son or daughter you may have in the future? God may want to give a special kind of son or daughter to my family a few years from now who may have the power to govern the world or who may discover some invention to speed the work of God. Who knows! But if Mother and I stop having children then when I go to spirit world God will accuse me of messing up His dispensation. Now you know whether or not birth control is best, right?
In His dispensation God may want to work through you to have a child of important ability. How do you know? No matter how much suffering or inconvenience it means, it is best to think, "God, if You desire to use my body to bear a child who will change the world, then no matter how difficult it may be or how ugly a mate You may give me, I want to do that."
Suppose your family has a tradition of having beautiful white girls. If God wants to give you a black husband and through the two of you He wants to send a child who will be a special leader, you must give up your family's tradition of white beauty. Will you be more than happy to integrate with the black race? Perhaps it will not be until the third generation that God will send such a child. Can you be patient with God's will? Then God will be in trouble because He will have to respond to your most intense desire and find a way to fulfill it. Do you think He will accuse you of being greedy and only give you weak children, or will He commend your desire and work in faith through your generations?
You must have children who are better than yourselves. If they are inferior to you then that will be another reason for you to repent when you get to spirit world. You will have to apologize to God. You must think that you should give better than you were given. "My parents loved me this much, so I am going to love my own children this much more and educate them this much more." Then your children will feel they want to give more to their own children and then their world will boom and prosper.
Until Ye Jin and Hyo Jin were twelve, no matter how late I came in at night I would always go to their bedrooms and pray for them. I feel rather sorry for the younger children now because they don't get that kind of attention. It is not easy to be a true father. Even so, my children feel that their parents are number one in the world and your children should feel the same about you.
Heartle resurrection starts with perfected Adam and Eve. They set out on the journey to fulfill that ideal on a physical level and we have come this far now. We can restore a physical heaven, literally establishing God's own kingdom here on earth. This is our job. The Unification Church has received many accusations and much physical persecution because we are dealing with physical Satan as we work to win physical people and establish a physical kingdom in the free world. After we restore the free world we will go to the communist world and later even worry about the spirit world.
You should become a physical body in which spirit and heartle are resurrected, becoming truly a temple of God. Once you go over that hill there will be no more suffering. You may even volunteer for suffering but there won't be much suffering left to take. God will even give the Unification Church much material blessing in the future.
So many wonderful young people will compete with each other to join the Unification Church that I will tell them to come later. Older people are always worrying about how they are going to take care of their children and send them to college and so forth, but single men and women are beautifully prepared for God's work and ready to plunge into this life. Why should the members of the Unification Church be young people? It is because in the garden of Eden God designed the ideal world to be made by unstained, pure young people.
There are two kinds of hippies in this world -- one on the satanic side and the other on the heavenly side. The satanic hippies have thrown everything away, even the good virtues and traditions, and they live like wandering gypsies, leading carnal lives. That's how the garden of Eden was destroyed; the fall came with that kind of sexual sin and brought the entire world down to the dungeons of hell. But heavenly hippies have a strict moral code. Sometimes when we have a shortage of space men and women even have to sleep in the same room, but because of this tradition I don't have to worry. If there is some concern, then while everyone is asleep one person should stay up all night and pray.
In Korea, when married couples came to the Church and learned the truth, even husbands and wives with children would separate, sleeping in the same bed but never touching each other until their marriage was blessed. If they did have some sexual relationship before that time then much suffering came to them. After a couple joined the Church they couldn't even think of married life until God allowed it. People just cannot deny the fall of man; this is a fearful thing. Many Americans in particular scoff at our teaching, but the world will be restored by the very Principle they reject.
I have already gone over many hills but still I have to finish the job. Even if I were to die now, however, I would not be a failure. After I go to spirit world my work will continue here on earth. Regardless of whether you are white, black or yellow, if you have wanted to be a good disciple of mine then even when you die you will want to be buried near me. That is natural. In the Garden of Eden parents and children would live close together in physical life, and when they died the children would still want to stay near their parents.
If you come to Belvedere on Sunday but I am away, how do you feel? Empty? It feels cool. Mr. Pak is taller than I am and speaks English so he can give a good sermon in the morning, but it still doesn't feel the same. You don't know why, but that is true, isn't it? This is a mysterious aspect of our way of life.
If I finished my work in America and went back to Korea to live for the rest of my life, where would you like to live? The State Department would like to get me out of the country, but they don't know what will happen after that. From that time on all the Unification Church members would want to sell everything and go to Korea to live. There would be a great exodus.
One tradition shall remain from this time: total obedience, total sacrifice and total love. For whom? For God. But where would you start with this obedience and sacrifice and love? With your own husband, wife, brothers and sisters and parents. That is the starting point. You must practice this totally. I want to see that tradition established in our Church so that when you grow to the worldwide level the entire world will eventually live like that. This is the road we are walking with our physical bodies. We aren't talking just about spirit or theory but about the physical road we will walk.
I want to see this tradition emerging in my own lifetime on earth. Then after I go to spirit world it will live on and on and bring generations of perfected men and women who will be welcomed in the highest possible heaven of spirit world. Unless you can demonstrate that total obedience, total sacrifice and total love to one individual here on earth, don't talk about loving the almighty, invisible God.
Jesus said that one of the two most important commandments was, "You shall love your neighbor as yourself." Who are your neighbors? They are your brothers and sisters. Christians think of loving people who are in dire circumstances but then they turn around and accuse their fellow Christians of being heretics. That's not loving your neighbor. Your first neighbor is right next to you.
Do the Americans love only the American members, and the Japanese only the Japanese members? We demonstrate this tradition of love given as one husband to one wife, one brother to one sister, one senior to one junior. If you can do this to your nearest neighbor all the way around then you are indeed doing that to God. That is the Kingdom of God on earth. If you become that kind of man and that kind of woman then resurrection starts from you and from there the resurrection of your family, society, nation and world shall happen around you.
The Kingdom of God shall start right here with you; you are the starting point. Who shall become the most pure, genuine living sacrifice upon the altar? We need both resurrected spirit and resurrected body, and with that we shall go on and fulfill God's ideal on a wider level, ultimately bringing the tribe, nation and world to the altar of God as a living sacrifice. The intensity of this dispensation shall hasten the day of the Kingdom of God here on earth. That will be the determining factor.
Shall we do it and live it? Whoever will do it, raise your hands. Let us pray.