Joy Schmidt [Pople]
February 28, 1974
Immediately following Reverend Moon's 21-city Day of Hope tour the International One World Crusade teams for the 32-city Day of Hope tour were launched. Seven teams of 70 each were given itineraries for four or five two-week campaigns in preparation for the Day of Hope programs. The opening banquet and speech in Portland, Maine established an excellent foundation for this new tour, with about 500 guests attending the speech.
Members of the Unification Church publications department attended the Day of Hope speech in Wilmington, Delaware. On arrival at the stately DuPont Hotel, we were greeted by members of the New Hope Singers and the mobile staff. Excitement filled the air. We talked to a radiant Charles Hart, whose stepson had previously joined the Unification Church. The week before, Mr. Hart had come to the Unification Church center and heard the lectures on the Divine Principle from Joe Stein, a member of Reiner Vincenz's IOWC team. He had been a born-again Christian for two years and then his wife and son began praying for him to be open to a new understanding of God and His will at this time. But until the previous week he had resisted.
"At the Day of Hope dinner last night I wanted to cry," he said. "I prayed, 'God, please give these people a clear mind that they may be open to what you have to say.' I felt Reverend Moon looking at me, and I thought, how can I explain something that I have longed for all my life and have now begun to experience? It's so wonderful."
"It has been tremendous to have the Day of Hope campaign here,'.' said Miss Nan Crist, who has been acting as state representative of the Unification Church in Delaware. She reported that the previous night the state Lieutenant Governor came to the Day of Hope dinner and read a message on the Governor's behalf. There were many distinguished guests and a writer who is psychically gifted had invited many of her friends from all over the East Coast to the dinner.
At the dinner, Reverend Moon recalled the story of Caesar Rodney, an 18th century Delaware patriot, who despite severe illness rode through the night to Philadelphia to be among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Reverend Moon spoke for about 30 minutes at the dinner, on such subjects as subject/object relations, love, and the role of the family. Tony DiMarco of the Day of Hope mob· e staff noted that the results of the 32-city tour have been better than the previous one. "The response of the people is better," he said. "Now we are reaping the benefits of the hard work that has gone before."
From the point of view of the Delaware One World Crusade commander, the Day of Hope campaign "looked like a dream -- a very good dream." Mr. Guido Lombardi feels very responsible to all the people who came to the programs. "It is an incredible responsibility all at once. I helped in Philadelphia, Baltimore, and Washington, D.C. on the last tour. There I was the one who was to give; here I can receive. It is difficult to take the attitude of a loving parent to all the people. I wish I had enough experience to bring them all to the Heavenly Father."
According to Mr. Marc Lee, chief of the mobile staff, "the people who came to the banquet were extremely responsive people, and rather conservative. There was a good spiritual foundation laid by Mr. Vincenz and his IOWC team. All details of preparation were taken care of."
The Day of Hope singers opened with "Praise to the Lord the Almighty," a new arrangement by their director, Mr. Randy Remmel. In new long white gowns and tuxedos they lifted the spirits of the audience. They continued with the "Kyrie" from Schubert's Mass in D and an original arrangement of "Ezekiel Saw a Wheel."
Mr. Neil Salonen, President of the Unification Church of America, introduced the evening's program with a brief description of the life of Reverend Moon and read an announcement of Mr. Thomas C. Maloney, Mayor of Wilmington, proclaiming the week of February 25 through March 4 a week of hope and unification, urging the citizens to devote themselves to brotherhood. The audience was reminded of an observation of de Tocqueville, a French visitor to the United States a century ago: "America is great because it is good. When it ceases to be good, it will cease to be great."
Reverend Moon, speaking through his interpreter, Mr. Bo Hi Pak, began his speech: "God spoke to me in 1972 and told me to go to America and speak to America for three years. I told God I didn't even have the language to speak. He told me to go anyway."
We need a new message
A warm, embracing atmosphere pervaded Reverend Moon's speech, punctuated by his characteristic gestures. According to the unofficial notes from his speech, he said, in part: "Some of you may have come by train to Wilmington. You don't have to worry about anything until get here, but after you arrive, you have to find your own way home. Christianity is like this. It has now arrived at its destination, and we must find our own way from here. The old way of thinking that has been good enough for so long no longer suffices. It is my proclamation that the day of fulfillment is here. We need a new message from God.
"Why does Christ come? He comes for salvation. The fallen people of the world must be restored. Also, he comes to fulfill the will of God."
Reverend Moon described the will of God in terms of God's original ideal in creating the world and the effects of the fall of man, which created an evil world, with false parents, false children, and the dominion of evil instead of goodness. God's work since the fall has been the work of restoration. "God's will has been the realization of a world of goodness and perfection. God cannot change His will."
The Messiah comes not just for the Christians or for the churches, but for all mankind, Reverend Moon explained. "The Christians are the instruments of God. They are to unite with the Messiah and fulfill the will of God."
"Any blessing comes with a responsibility. To be a Christian is a blessing. But along with it is a responsibility to fulfill God's will-to bring the world back to God. God is our Father. There can be no room for fighting among Christians, who are His children."
A coded message
The Bible is the record of the communication of God to His chosen people, Reverend Moon added. But it is written in code. It may be compared to the intelligence activity of some country. The intelligence agency has a code which it uses to communicate with its agents, in order to protect the interests of the nation. Similarly, the Bible is written in symbols and parables. If God had spoken clearly, it could be used by the enemy against God's people. This is why we now see some 450 different denominations, each with different Bible interpretations.
Reverend Moon explained that before God sends the Messiah, He prepares a people to receive him, a "landing pad." "These people must be united in love with the Messiah so they can protect the Messiah, even at the cost of their lives. For that purpose God chose the nation of Israel. And now, for 2,000 years, Christianity has been pre· pared as that landing pad. "But how many Christians today can really protect and unite with the Messiah, even unto the point of their own death? Can they unite with the Messiah at the cost of their own nation, or at the cost of their own lives?"
Reverend Moon mentioned the widespread eagerness to know how the Lord will appear. Jesus said, "But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only." (Matt. 24:36) So, to find out the manner of the Lord's return, we must either find it out from God (through communication with God) or by studying history. However, few people have direct communication with God. Therefore, Reverend Moon said he would use a study of history-Biblical his· tory-to communicate a new revelation from God.
"We can see parallel situations. Two thousand years ago, the Jews were anxiously awaiting the coming of the Messiah. Today, Christians are anxiously awaiting Christ's return. Two thousand years ago, the Jewish people's desire was much greater than that of today's Christians, for God had given them the promise of the Messiah 4,000 years before. Also, they were under tremendous bondage and deeply longed for God to send them a liberator.
"Two thousand years ago, God fulfilled His promise. He sent His Son. But nobody received him. He was rejected, and nailed to a cross. It is as if the Messiah that you are expecting to come in this age came and the Christian leaders banded together against him and put him in jail and killed him. That is the exact parallel in today's society.
"Therefore, we need to know exactly what happened in Jesus' time, and why such a tragedy occurred. You may say to me, 'You don't know anything; Jesus came to die.' But, I ask, if God wanted to send His Son to die, why did God wait for 4,000 years? Why did He call a chosen people? Why did He send prophets to them? In fact, God could have sent His Son to a barbarian nation, and he could have died much more quickly. Did God's only son have to be sent to earth merely to die?
"We know that God worked very hard to prepare His people to accept the Messiah. Then why didn't they accept him? Because they didn't know him.
Elijah's return prophesied
"The faithful Jews wanted to accept the Messiah, but their scriptures would not let them do it. The last book in the Old Testament is a prophecy of Malachi. It is similar to Revelation, the last book of the New Testament. In Malachi 4:5-6 we read: 'Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse.'
"Here God promised to send Elijah before the coming of the Messiah. Elijah was a prophet who lived 900 years before Christ. He ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire. So the people expected Elijah to return, out of the blue sky, on a chariot of fire. (In the same way, Christians today are looking for Jesus to come out of the blue sky). The Jews expected Elijah to come on a chariot and say, 'That man is the son of God.' If Elijah comes and testifies to someone as the son of God, the Israeli people will accept him.
"But then one day a young man named Jesus appeared and said, 'Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.' The people who were loyal to the Old Testament could not accept Jesus' words as truth, because they thought the Messiah had not yet come. People asked, 'How could this man be the son of God?' Even today, according to the Jewish faith, Elijah has not yet come back. Therefore, for the Jews today, the Messiah has not yet come. Jesus was not the Messiah, but just a prophet.
"When Jesus' disciples went out to the streets to witness to the people that Jesus was the son of God, the people asked, 'how can your master be the Messiah? Elijah has not yet come.'
"In Matthew 17: 10, Jesus' disciples asked him, 'Then why do the scribes say that first Elijah must come?' In other words, they were asking, 'Is John the Baptist Elijah?' John the Baptist did not come in a chariot like the one that took Elijah into heaven. John the Baptist was like everyone else-he was born of a woman. They were just like the people today who expect Jesus to come on the clouds of heaven. When a man comes in the flesh saying that he is the son of God, they can't believe it.
"Jesus was speaking to the people with power and authority proclaiming the Kingdom of God. The leaders had to do something about him. So they decided to send emissaries to John the Baptist to find out once and for all who he was. 'And this is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, "Who are you?" He confessed, he did not deny, but confessed, "I am not the Christ." And they asked him, "What then? Are you Elijah?" He said, "I am not." "Are you the prophet?" And he answered, "No."' (John 1: 19-21) "John the Baptist denied that he was Elijah. He denied the words of Jesus. He ~ prophet, who was supposed to know the will of God, made Jesus seem to be a liar. John the Baptist, who came to prepare a people to receive the Lord, was now doomed.
"Tonight the Bible has a new meaning. The faithful Jews read their Bible faithfully. However, they wanted to interpret the Bible literally. They did not know the secret message, the coded message. There is room for some sympathy for the faithful Jews. But John the Baptist, who was a prophet of God, came to show the will of God to the people. He had no excuse.
Blessed is he who takes no Offense
"In Matthew 11:2-3, we find John imprisoned for getting involved in a scandal with King Herod. He sent two disciples to Jesus and asked, 'Are you he who is to come, or shall we look for another?' At the Jordan River, when he baptized Jesus, John was filled with the Holy Spirit. He testified of Jesus saying, 'This is the Lamb of God.' Now he was saying, 'Is this the Messiah, or shall we go elsewhere?' If he had died proclaiming that Jesus was the son of God, he would have died as an honored martyr. But he didn't. When Jesus heard John's question, he refused to answer directly. He said, 'Blessed is he who takes no offense at me.'"
Reverend Moon continued with an exegesis of Jesus' comments concerning John in Matthew 11. Because he rejected Jesus, John became less than the least in the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus said, "For all the law and the prophets prophesied until John.'' In other words, John the Baptist came to earth as the consummation of the Old Testament, and to bring the entire Old Testament tradition to Jesus, so Jesus could consummate his ministry. Yet John failed to follow Jesus, so Jesus chose his disciples from among the fishermen and the harlots.
"You may ask," Reverend Moon continued, "on what authority am I speaking? I met Jesus Christ. I met John the Baptist. I confirmed this truth by their words. Then I read the Bible again. The Bible has an entirely new light now. One day you will know the truth-because heaven will be yours, and heaven will be your home. But blessed is he who knows the· truth while on the face of the earth.
"The Jewish people were waiting for the coming of the son of man on the clouds of heaven. Why? Because they interpreted literally Daniel 7: 13: 'I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and he came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him.' People try to explain that this prophecy was intended for the second coming of Christ. But, as I explained before, all the Old Testament was culminated in John. It was to be fulfilled then.
"Jesus came from the home of Joseph and Mary. II John 7 reads, 'For many deceivers have gone out into the world, men who will not acknowledge the coming of Jesus Christ in the flesh; such a one is the deceiver and the antichrist.' Some denied that Jesus was the son of God just because he came in the flesh. The writer of John says that these people are the antichrist. If the people of Israel had accepted Jesus as the Messiah, starting with John the Baptist, Jesus would not have had to die on the cross. Even Pilate wanted to free Jesus because he could find no fault in him.
"The apostle Paul has been regarded as the greatest champion of Christian history. His name before his conversion was Saul-he was an enemy of Jesus and ruthlessly persecuted every follower of Jesus. But when he was converted, he saw the truth. He wrote, 'None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.' (I Cor. 2: 8) Therefore, the crucifixion of Jesus was the result of the ignorance of the people.
Man has the ability to betray God
"Within the Old Testament are dual prophecies: a Lord of glory and a Lord of suffering. Why? Because man has the ability to betray God. He is unpredictable.
One day a man will profess faith in God and the next day will follow Satan. But even then, God must work with such men. Therefore He gave two kinds of prophecies: Isaiah 9, 11, and 60 and also Isaiah 53. Because the Jewish people did not demonstrate faith in Jesus, the second prophecy was fulfilled, and the prophecy for the Lord of glory was unfulfilled.
"When was Jesus' mission altered from its primary course to a secondary course? In Luke 9:30-31 we read: 'And behold, two men talked with him, Moses and Elijah, who appeared in glory and spoke of his departure, which he was to accomplish at Jerusalem.' This was the moment of decision to go to the cross. Jesus was to give up his body for the salvation of the spirit. If Jesus came with the sole mission of dying on the cross, he would not have prayed a prayer of weakness, 'Father let this cup pass from me.' Peter begged to be nailed to a cross upside down, and many courageous people have overcome fear of death. Why couldn't Jesus, if it was God's highest purpose for him? In addition, if the sole mission of Jesus was to die, then his betrayer Judas should have been a very important person. But Jesus did not honor Judas."
Reverend Moon continued with an explanation of the reason for Jesus' sorrow while praying in the Garden of Gethsemane before his death. He knew that his death on the cross was an alteration of his mission. He knew the consequences -- that the Jewish nation would suffer, that his followers would suffer. All this has happened. "If Jesus had fulfilled his mission, we today would be living in the kingdom of heaven. The evil world would have been demolished long ago. The many different Christian churches would have been unheard of. We would all be citizens of the kingdom of heaven and we would be living in the presence of God.
"But as a result of the crucifixion, Satan took Jesus' body, and physical salvation was not accomplished. Christians have only spiritual salvation. Jesus Christ is King of King only in a spiritual sense. "There is no nation where God can exercise His sovereignty on earth. The cross was the victory of Satan, not God. There was only one defender of Jesus-the criminal on his right side. Yet, he was also killed with Jesus.
"Spiritual salvation has come by the resurrection of Jesus. This is where Christianity was born. So we take our faith and our salvation from the resurrection of Christ. This was God's victory.
History repeats itself
"All this is the background of the first coming of Christ. You are interested in the second coming. It is commonly said that history repeats itself. Jesus Christ came to fulfill the total mission of the Messiah, but since the people did not give him the opportunity to do it, it remain unfulfilled.
"There was a dual prophecy for Jesus' coming. Likewise, in the New Testament there is also a dual prophecy for the second coming. This is a prophecy coded in symbols.
In Revelation 1:7 we read: 'Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him.' And in I Thessalonians 5:2 we read, '.For you yourselves know well that "The day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night.' ''Will you accept only the clouds prophecy and deny that the Lord will come as a thief in the night? Who will decide which is true? Can you say, 'We will welcome the first and deny the second prophecy'?
"Tonight it is my recommendation that in this time we must be wise. In meekness let us accept both possibilities. The Lord can come with the clouds of heaven, but he can also come in the flesh, like a thief at night. If he comes with the clouds of heaven, the whole world will know him. But if you are humble enough to accept the son of man coming in the flesh, you are blessed."
Reverend Moon quoted Revelation 12:5, "She brought forth a male child, one who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to his throne." Many Christians interpret the "she" as the church, because their minds are already set that the Lord is coming with the clouds of heaven. But Reverend Moon also read Luke I 7:20-22, in which Jesus said the son of man is not coming with signs to be observed, and Luke 17:25-26, in which it is predicted that the son of man must suffer, and that the day of his coming will toe like Noah's day. If he is coming on the clouds of heaven these prophecies could never happen. "If Christians fix their minds to look up to the clouds of heaven, the son of God will surely be rejected," Reverend Moon explained.
He also quoted Luke 18:8, in which Jesus wondered whether the son of man would find faith on earth when he returned, and Matthew 7:21-23, in which Jesus predicted that many people with great spiritual gifts would be rejected by the Lord when he returns, because they didn't do the will of the Father. Why is this?
"When the Lord appears in the world as a humble man of the flesh," Reverend Moon explained, "he will be persecuted. However, he will later be lifted up to the throne of God, from which he will judge the people. But then it will be too late, because those people have done evil. They will be cast away.
"God is love. He proclaims that before this day comes, He will announce the truth, by His servants the prophets. Therefore He is declaring by this person, Reverend Moon, what will happen."
Reverend Moon concluded his speech with a review of God's purpose for Adam and Eve and how they fell. "God must restore the perfect Adam, the Father of mankind. Then after the restoration of the perfect Adam, it was necessary for Him to restore a perfected bride for him, perfected Eve. Then they would become the heavenly ancestors for man. That was the purpose for the coming of the Messiah." He explained that Jesus came in the position of Adam (I Cor. 15:45), but that he was killed before he could restore a bride in the position of perfect Eve. Now, God is sending to this world the Messiah, as a perfected Adam, who will restore a perfected Eve. This is recorded in the book of Revelation as the marriage supper of the Lamb.
"Then, for the first time in history, God will have His foothold on earth. Then He can share His perfection with us. We expect the Messiah to come again. We must not reject him-we must accept him."