Sun Myung Moon
February 22, 1959
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
1 In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying, "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near." 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah: "A voice of one calling in the wilderness, 'Prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.'" 4 John's clothes were made of camel's hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River. 7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: "You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, 'We have Abraham as our father.' I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire. 11 "I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire." 13 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. 14 But John tried to deter him, saying, "I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" 15 Jesus replied, "Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John consented. 16 As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting on him. 17 And a voice from heaven said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Matthew 3:1-17
Prayer
We know how much and for how long You, who lost the original true love, have endeavored to fulfill the providence of restoration. At this time, let us be able to experience with our minds and bodies the fact that You have crossed hill after bloody hill of a historical course, longing for the original Adam and Eve. We know that our ancestors, who inherited this task and observed the will of the providence, also walked the sorrowful road of the cross.
We who are situated in the last days know that today we have the historical and providential responsibility to walk the road of the cross which remains. With Your power and advice, urge us on again. Let us go over all the remaining hills of the cross. Let us become manifestations of joy who can sing the song of the Father's glory in the original garden for which You have hoped.
We know that what belongs to us is not eternal. Today, allow us to make a heavenly determination to push aside the crisis of the cross, which blocks providential history, to fulfill the remaining tasks.
The time has come when we must advance with the attitude of marching toward a battlefield, armed and with grim determination to fulfill this task. Father, today, tomorrow and always, let us fight with our utmost energy. Give us strength to fight the numerous satans who are blocking the road.
Let us emerge from the battlefield with victorious faces and dwell with and attend You closely in Your garden of glory. Let us become sons and daughters who fulfill the whole will of Your desire and who sing the songs of Your love. Let us become sons and daughters of whom You can be proud before the satanic world and all things.
Let us be able to live with You eternally as Your recovered sons and daughters. Let us become true children who can comfort You with songs of glory and happiness as people who have fulfilled Your work, Your ideology, and Your desire. Let us become people who can sing of Your glory after passing through the remaining road of battle and the cross.
This is a holy day. Please hasten the day when all people can uphold Your will and build Your nation of victory.
Please bless the people of this nation and give special blessing to the sons and daughters gathered here today. Embrace the people of this nation with Your heart of love. Let them become people who can move according to Your will until they appear as people of glory who fulfill the will of Your hope and Your remaining sorrow by taking responsibility and fulfilling it. Let them become sons and daughters who can do this.
We have gathered here today, disloyal and unprepared. Please remove all things that are improper, and manifest only the aspects of the original nature that can be embraced in the bosom of Your glory. Make this a meeting where each person's heart can connect only with the original glory and can be offered to You as one of Heaven's desired ones. Let them be Yours alone, belonging to no other. Please also be with all the people who are spread out all over the land and work with them. I pray all this in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, You have gathered us here. Therefore, do not let us be the only ones who survive in this hour. We thank You for protecting us from many difficulties that we may come to this place. We know that You have led us this way for our sake. We also know that the sorrow of Heaven and the sorrow of earth must be reversed, depending on us as the condition. We know we have this historic responsibility.
We are deeply grateful that You gave us the glorious grace of calling You "Father" when we face You. This came to us through the privilege of Your words, Your grace, and Your life.
We know today how precious is our responsibility. Loving Father, do not abandon us in this hour. Hold us to Your heart that You may transmit Your Shim Jung to our Shim Jung. Impart to us Your whole will, and mold us into people You can trust.
Please let our minds and bodies not be our own. Make them move as Your possessions in this hour, altars over which You have dominion. Please let nothing be admitted in this hour that is not of You.
Billions of satans are desperately seeking to obstruct our movements. We desire to have heavenly power and ability that we can use with all our minds and bodies to block those obstructions. Father, allow us Your power and give us Your grace that we may become heavenly soldiers equipped with the authority of resurrection, standing ahead of the realm of death. Loving Father, we sincerely ask You these things.
Father, Your sons and daughters, who went through the period of the workshop that You approved for us, have spread out all over the whole country with sincere Shim Jung and new determination and conviction. Father, please open up their ways and tell them where they should go. When they fight, give them strength. Allow them to establish and exercise Heaven's real authority.
Give them the ability to conquer their enemies with words of iron and the shield of life. Give them the glory of heavenly victory.
We already know that the time has come to liberate Your Shim Jung, which has endured for 6,000 years. You have already shown us that time. Let this time become a triumph. Please give the movement of life to the whole, and manifest Heaven's whole power wherever they go. Give them the shape of life, and allow them to meet the day when their enemies surrender.
This is Your day of promise; therefore, please bless us. You have approved this day; therefore, manifest Your will to us. Transmit to our minds the Father's Shim Jung of love, and allow us to sing the song of Your grace. Make us display Your glory. Father, let this be an hour when we can truly bow before You.
Allow us to awaken the people who are asleep, and allow us to bring the numerous people of this earth to awareness. We know that Your care goes out to those who are in the field, that You are holding onto them so they do not fall. Let us in turn hold onto the people of this nation. Let us fight to hold onto humankind.
We know that they do not exist for us; we exist for them. We know that You are still fighting for their sake. We know that we should not live for ourselves, but for You. Let us feel Your will of wanting to hold onto the people of this nation and feel the critical responsibility of facing all the people. With this kind of duty and responsibility, let us become heavenly soldiers who do not waste a day or an hour, but who save every moment for Your will.
Please bless all the groups who have gathered today, representing all the people of this world. We know that there are many hidden sons and daughters, filled with the grace of life, building lonely altars unto Your presence and yearning for You. Please grant them Your special grace. Please show them Heaven's will in the last days, and show them that the time of Your glory is coming. Please let the day come quickly when they can gather centering on Your grace. Let the day, when all people can prepare one altar and sing the song of Your glory and bow down to You, come to this entire land.
Let the day of the glory of the will of the providence come quickly. Let the day of joyous victory come swiftly for those of us who are fighting for that day. Allow the garden of happiness, where glory can spread in Heaven and the triumphal song of victory can resound on the earth, to be built with all dispatch.
Please guide us with Your presence in all the hours starting from now. We have gathered here in this hour. Therefore, remove our opinions and concepts from us. Allow us to be transformed by the heavenly Shim Jung. We request to be enraptured only with Your presence. We pray all these things in the name of Christ the Lord. Amen.
Prayer
Father, let those of us who have gathered here today become the determined group of people who gathered around the River Jordan. Allow us to become the group who gathered around John the Baptist to listen to new tidings.
Let us become those who examine the footsteps of the Israelites as they longed for the coming of the Messiah and struggled. Let us take on the appearance of the group of people who followed John the Baptist, connected with each other, having overcome all historical sadness and centering on heavenly love. Let us become the manifestation of the group of people who were following Jesus, who were rejoicing with new hope, each connected to each in Shim Jung.
We know that Your tears still remain in this land. You were proud of the power of the chosen people and the chosen citizens of Your nation. You lamented, "Where has Israel, living in the realm of blessing, gone?"
You held onto the Israelites, enduring 4,000 years of historical sadness, because You wanted to send the one Messiah. Instead of being embraced in the Messiah's bosom, they were embraced in Satan's bosom. The sorrow You felt when You saw that did not last for that moment only. It was a sorrow comparable to a million years. When we see that the chosen Israelites did not know this, we feel deeply sad that we have the responsibility to expose this historical sin, with humble and sincere attitudes, and to repent for that historical sin in the place of those who committed it.
Father, give us Your hand. Father, manifest Your Shim Jung of love to us. Father, find us by moving Your exhausted feet.
Jesus sought the perishing people with the sorrowful Shim Jung of Heaven. He looked for them, pitying them, willing to give his life for them. The people of Israel, who called themselves "chosen," treated the Heaven-sent Messiah and John the Baptist, who had prepared the way for the Messiah, with carelessness. They hid the two in the shadow of historical sadness. We know this fact today.
Please allow the people gathered here to realize that the Israelites did not betray Heaven because they were less worthy than we. They did not forget Heaven because they had less Shim Jung to live for Heaven than we do. Instead, they lacked hope for a new age. They expected the appearance of Christ, who came with the new ideology of the Messiah, to be grand. When the actual appearance of the Messiah was beggarly, pitiful and small, they betrayed him.
Please let us examine the position of each of us. Today, we easily criticize historical Israel and the historical situation of the time. However, let us understand that there is no difference between their situation then and our situation today.
Let us acknowledge to ourselves that if we lived at that time we would have been similar to them and would have acted similarly. Make us realize that we have within us remnants of that historical sin and that the evil hands of Satan are aimed at us.
Many times we lose the authority of life out of ignorance, and we languish. Let us overcome this contradictory environment and suppress all circumstances that are bound by the environment. By doing that, let us not make any base for Satan to rejoice. Let us become an offering of Shim Jung that can soothe Your sadness.
Why have we come here? To see whom? The only thing we desire is to find the Father's Shim Jung. Let us not become a group who looks for a historical teacher, but a group who looks for Your Shim Jung manifested through a prophet.
Father, the bitter root of sin remains within our minds, tainted by the world. Our bodies have been invaded by Satan and have received wounds. Appear to us with a heart of compassion, and embrace us in Your bosom at least for this hour. Let this be a time when we can face You with the appearance of original character, intoxicated in Your eternal life, overcoming all consciousness, and transformed by Your presence.
Grant us the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven that You have kept until now. Let tidings of a new nation, which You have saved for us, come. Let the day come quickly when the bell of liberation tolls and we can dance with joy for the grace of freedom and liberation. In this way, let a new garden of hope unfold before humankind.
Please guide the remaining hour, and give us the words You wish to impart to us. Remove the dark shadow of Satan from us. Let this become an hour when a heavenly relationship is formed that can introduce the happiness of attaining new life. Let this be an hour when the dead receive the grace of re- creation and resurrection, and come to recognize You. We pray that words of re-creation and movements of re- created life can be manifested here. We pray all this in the name of Christ, the Lord. Amen.
God Created Adam and Eve as the Masters of All Things
We know that from the day of the fall, people have fought, longing for the lost ideal nation, holding onto hope, and experiencing endless hardships. The environment in which we live is supposed to be a joyful one; yet, we suffer unhappiness, not connecting to all the conditions of happiness for which we have longed in our minds. We must remember again that human beings stand in this situation because we lost the Kingdom of Heaven that God established as the ideal of creation.
God created all things in six days. God created Adam and Eve as the masters of all things. Adam and Eve were to have dominion over all things in God's ideal garden of creation in His place. At the same time, they could enjoy God's glory. They were the center of glory, the center of victory and the focus of happiness, able to be in harmony before heaven and earth. Adam and Eve appeared in this manner in the presence of heaven and earth, but they lost their position and failed their responsibility. From that day forth, this earth was transformed into a place of sadness, hardship and death.
If there is someone who claims this is not true, that person is denying his own mind, historical fact and the reality of our lives. People on earth today must realize that they are living in an uncertain and precarious land. They must realize that they are living in a harsh environment of fear and death.
We must awaken to this point, aroused to a new realization. We must eliminate contradictions in our reality and become filled with a new Shim Jung. We should possess a new ideology and hope. Moreover, if there is a Creator, we must possess the ideology for which the Creator hoped, and resolve to fight today, tomorrow and our entire lives alongside that ideology. Only in that way can we break down this contradictory environment and form a heavenly relationship.
It is a path of death that we cannot hope to bypass and an environment of suffering with which we must collide headlong. Yet we must possess a mind to eradicate all this and the hope to deny them all. A new, ideal garden where we can forget all this, a haven, is our goal. That is our goal in the course of history and in the last days. We must know this clearly.
That is God's hope, humankind's hope, the hope of the people, and our hope today. Standing in this position, you should feel that you must take responsibility for that hope today. Thus, the topic of the speech today is "The Ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Our Hope."
The Result of the Fall
Because of the human fall, God's hope crumbled, and human beings' hope also dissipated. Humans are the object of God's hope, the central being representing the universe, an individual of universal ideology. Each human was to be an ideal individual, an offering representing the whole. As such, they had to be able to move Heaven and earth. Because they did not become so, hope remains unfulfilled, and God's hope remains unattained.
When we think of this point, knowing that the garden of creation was built for human beings and that the ideology of creation was for God to enjoy happiness with human beings, we must reflect upon ourselves again. We must again realize that we are the ones who decide the fate of the garden of creation and its ideology. We should take responsibility for this, fight for it, and dissolve God's historical sorrow.
There is no greater sadness, no worse mortification, no greater vexation than that caused by the fall. The moment this kind of mental shock explodes in us is the moment we can find the new ideology and hope.
Therefore, we must not forget that Heaven has fought until now to impart new shocks to the minds of fallen people. Numerous prophets and martyrs, who took on the mission of Heaven in Heaven's place, also fought and died to awaken sleeping humankind from the realm of death. They tried to impart that the world of a new ideology and the garden of new hope exist, to shock the people into denying the environment in which they lived.
We must know that no group or people became shocked by the words of the prophets warning people in each age, in place of Heaven, as they lived through their course of history, nor did any nation. We must know that no one depended on those words and overcame their age centering on those words. We should mourn this historical sin, yet we do not even recognize it.
We know that Jacob lived through 21 years of an unexpected wilderness course. Jacob possessed a heartistic standard with which he could overcome all the collisions in a 21-year period. Jacob's steadfast Shim Jung toward Heaven, based on the shock of Heaven that collided with his mind, was able to dominate his life. Thus, he was able to win over all the hardships in his environment and triumphantly go over the course of restoration.
Jacob stepped forward, not minding all the suffering and hardship that visited him, holding onto the resolution he had made on the day he received the shock of Heaven. He was a man of faith who stopped the history of prolongation affected by the mistake of Abraham, the ancestor of faith. Jacob subjugated Satan.
The luxurious, royal lifestyle of Pharaoh's castle could not dominate the mind of Moses, who was born bearing national responsibility. Even though Moses led a poor shepherd's life in the Midian wilderness for forty years, the royal environment could not dominate the internal shock that penetrated Moses' Shim Jung. Because Moses possessed a heartistic shock burning inside him, wanting to go over the nation, over humankind, over the world to make a relationship with Heaven, he was able to go over the forty years in the Midian wilderness with ease.
To what did our ancestors look forward? They were longing for a new nation, a place where God could reside. We know that they fought with their lives to establish that place.
In the forty-year period when Moses led the 600,000 people and wandered in the wilderness, the surrounding environment was very difficult. He was able to forget all the difficult conditions of the environment and deliver 600,000 people to Canaan. This is because his Shim Jung, pierced with longing to enter the land of Canaan as he had promised God, and his Shim Jung of hope toward the land of Canaan were greater than the Shim Jung of the opposition of the 600,000 people.
The Purpose of Heaven and the Ancestors' Labor
Jesus Christ, who came as the culmination of 4,000 years of Heaven's hope, came to introduce to humankind the ideology of the ideal Kingdom of Heaven and to fulfill that ideology. He was not caught up with words that indulged the customs of the age. He was not satisfied with the lifestyles of that society. He was not captivated by the customs of the ritualistic Jewish religion, entrenched in formality and rules.
Jesus appeared with the internal standard of new loyalty, denying every aspect of history. He had new words centering on that standard. When he appeared, taking novel action together with those new words, the chosen historical individuals, the chosen historical group and nation, raised a banner of revolt against him. We must realize that this was what obstructed the course of Christ's establishing his ideology.
We can know through history that God, the Creator, exists and wants to raise human beings to a standard of the greatest ideology by connecting them to a better ideology, tomorrow more than today, next year more than tomorrow, this century more than next year, and in the next century more than now.
We are living in a time which all agree is the last days. In this time, when the fate of humankind hangs in the balance, we are at a point when we cannot be proud of our existence. Therefore, each person has to receive a new shock from the ideology that Jesus introduced 2,000 years ago. Each person living in this antiquated system of reality has to ignite the explosion of a new mind. If a movement does not appear that can do this, this age will not be able to escape the depths of historical sadness.
Living in the historic last days, we have learned all that the Bible can teach us. Numerous scholars have researched the Bible with their utmost effort for 2,000 years, but their research ended with themselves. They thought of their movements as complete and that they had presented human beings with an ideal ideology, but it was not what human beings sincerely desired. Through merely observing reality, we can see that it was not a movement that could pioneer the garden of Shim Jung. We must become people who can break down this wall and plow our way through the debris.
Since every person is in despair today, what is the biggest problem? If there is a Creator who wants to build the Kingdom of Heaven, how can someone introduce the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven to human beings? That is the problem. Let us then say that there is a person who feels that there needs to be a new ideology. He feels that the ideologies presented up to now are and have been insufficient. If he feels this but does not possess a yearning heart for that new ideology, he is a historical criminal.
If you long for that ideology and desire for all humankind to be happy, you must go over all hills of sorrow. You must possess a determination in your mind to push aside all problems of reality and fight to surmount them. Whether you possess that determination is the issue.
The Problem of Introducing a New Ideology
What I want to ask you today is: where is the ideology that can re- create people, the ideology which can break down historical adherence to old habits that humankind has not been able to escape, the ideology which can burn like a shock in the human heart? If there is a God, can He introduce this ideology to us without any condition? Have you ever thought about this? If you have not, you are a shameful sinner in the presence of your ancestors, who longed and fought for the ideal garden, the ideal world.
Jesus was pierced with his Shim Jung toward Heaven. He felt deeply about the new ideal world of creation, the world of hope humankind was to find. He acted according to what he felt and said to us, "Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand."
In what kind of surroundings did Jesus act in accordance with the heavenly shock he felt? All people were supposed to agree with each other and welcome Jesus wherever he went, but no one welcomed him. This was true, not only at that time, but even now, numerous people who live and who have lived in history, innumerable spirit persons in the spiritual world, also have not deeply understood the words that Jesus spoke and Jesus' responsibility. None have welcomed Jesus.
Yet Jesus, coming with the new ideology, felt deeply that to fulfill that ideal, he had to conquer all conditions of opposition which struck him. The more intensely the shock of knowing the ideal came to him, the more Jesus solidified his firm determination to withstand all conditions of evil in his surroundings. Therefore, Jesus could overcome any kind of confrontation.
Today, our minds long for something. Our bodies suffer to find that something. We groan in fear and anxiety. Living thus, we must yearn for the day when we can be free of all these conditions of fear and apprehension.
We are not the only ones who face this. Jesus also lived in this kind of environment 2,000 years ago. You should reflect upon this fact and think about how Jesus lived through that.
Jesus knew that God had created all things. He knew that the Kingdom of Heaven was to be fulfilled with true owners having dominion over all created things. He knew that the ideal Kingdom of Heaven which God desired had turned into hell on earth through the fall. He knew that this world had turned into a world of unspeakable fear and uneasiness, a world of conflict. Thus, Jesus started a course of public life to take responsibility for and bring salvation to this hell on earth, forsaking his own ideal kingdom.
Advancing toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven, Jesus faced indescribable loneliness, adversity and sadness. Nevertheless, Jesus knew he had to go this way. Therefore, he felt that he had to go this way until the ideal garden was fulfilled, until he met God in that garden, representing humankind. You must feel this way also. We are in the same situation. We also must advance toward that ideal garden.
If you have received this new shock, you should say in your mind, "Father, I want to go this way! I want to go toward that ideal Kingdom of Heaven, our hope!" You should be filled with that kind of Shim Jung.
The road that goes to the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope is not a level road. It is a road of sorrow. The road to the Kingdom of Heaven does not start from the Kingdom of Heaven. It starts from the world of sin and hell. If we surmount that hell and come out on the other side, we will be connected to the Kingdom of Heaven.
We must go. We are destined to go toward the ideal Kingdom of Heaven of hope. We should think of Jesus who had to go this way. What kind of road did he travel? He did not travel a flat, level road. Jesus did not go the way of being welcomed by society. Jesus was the redeemer of all people and the master of the cosmos, but he never exercised the role of master, and he hesitated to boast of himself and proclaim that the masses should follow him.
Jesus Walked the Road of Hardship
Jesus was supposed to walk the road of the providence in front. Yet, he could not go in front. Instead, he stood behind everyone and said to each, "You go the easy way. I will walk the most difficult path." He shouldered the difficulties of the nation and the world alone. He carried the cross of hardship, which humankind repels, by himself and lived for the sake of humankind. Jesus had to walk the road, even though it was one of historical sadness, entangled with evil conditions. Thus, with a thirty-year period of preparation and a three-year period of public life, he walked that road with intense, internal determination. The more intense that conviction became, the more he became a friend to sorrowful humankind. Moreover, he was mortified over the fact that human beings were suffering a life of fear and that Satan ruled humankind. In the humblest place in history, in the humblest place of the age, he fought with Satan.
He walked the road with a mind to say, "If humankind is in sorrow, I will take responsibility for its sadness. If humankind is in difficulty, I will take responsibility for that difficulty. If humankind lives in death, I will take responsibility for death." His footsteps were those of an individual, but his mission was a historical mission, a mission of the age, a mission for the future.
If there is a Shim Jung God felt after the creation, if there is a Shim Jung of humankind and of all things, then Jesus had the responsibility to know all that and liberate them. Where did his path lead? His path did not lead to a luxurious palace nor did it lead in glory to the house of some high official or authority. Jesus knew that he was placed in a position to do God's will in a time when all the conditions had not been fulfilled for the age. He went the opposite way.
Jesus knew that the path of Israel, which Heaven had trusted for 4,000 years, the path of hope for connecting to Heaven, was blocked. Therefore, he attempted to go forward to break open that path of hope. The people did not believe, however. Hence, Jesus had to go to the lowest echelon of the Israelites.
Jesus was to go toward the Kingdom of Heaven of hope. He was to go over the individual level, over the family level, his nation, over his race, and lead the world to Heaven, the ideal world. He stood at the forefront of his race, but the race drove him away. Religion chased him out. His family drove him away. His disciples rejected him, even a robber rejected him. How sorrowful do you think Jesus' heart would have been at that time?
Jesus was supposed to march forward with the ideology of God. He was to introduce the garden of happiness to humankind, yet he had to go the opposite way. What do you think Jesus' appearance and his Shim Jung would have been like? If Jesus could not go to the destination the right way, he still had to go, even if he had to go backward. Since 4,000 years had passed, he had to go, even if he had to go back through the 4,000-year history. Because this was the mission and responsibility of Jesus, he repeatedly prayed to God. He prayed, "Even if there are obstacles that block the Father's will, I will still go the way, even if I have to walk the road of several thousand years. I will march toward that garden of hope. Father, please do not despair. I am here."
The race that God established, the religion that God established, the family that God established, and the party of John the Baptist that God had established obstructed Jesus' way and betrayed him. How could God even face this situation? His will and dignity were completely compromised.
When all the conditions that had been set up over 4,000 years for the attendance of the Messiah collapsed in a short moment, Jesus comforted God, instead of moaning over his own situation. Since God was sad, Jesus must have been sad also, but he had to deny his situation and comfort God. Jesus was treated as an enemy by his people. He was driven out as a heretic by the religious. His family criticized him as a traitor, even criminals ridiculed him. Later, nailed on the cross at Golgotha, he blessed and prayed for his enemies, those who had killed him: "Father, please forgive them."
Jesus stepped forward, pledging to go toward God's ideal garden, even if his path did not end in glory, happiness and joy, but in sadness, agony and mortification. He had to go toward that garden of ideology which is the goal of God. The fact that Jesus traveled toward that ideal garden means that he went in place of humankind, in place of history and in place of all things. Therefore, we who are following him are fated to go that way, too. If we cannot go there while we are alive, we must go even after death. That is our fate.
Christianity Is a Religion of the Cross
Jesus carried with him the suffering of humankind. He started from the lowest point of humanity and ended at the top of Golgotha. There he sacrificed his whole self. Where was God's son, the heir apparent, the Prince of Heaven? Where was the Messiah of humankind, the Savior? At that place, Jesus could not assert one iota's worth of his value. It was a tragic and pitiable place. Yet Jesus was able to go over that hill of death, look to Heaven and advance toward Heaven's ideal garden. His ideology was more powerful than death. His ideology was more powerful than any force in history. Thus, he was able to push aside the realm of death and resurrect. He brought the people who opposed him to repentance and, hence, Christianity today has a base of victory.
We the followers of Jesus must go the way he went, whether we live or die. The problem is whether you really want to go this way.
You must have a feeling more powerful than the power of death, saying, "I will go toward that ideology no matter what comes my way. I will go that way whether I eat, whether I get hit, am treated unfairly, or am persecuted." Otherwise, you will not be able to go over the realm of death in the judgment appearing in the last days. You must feel, "I will go whether this happens or that happens. Father, I know You are there. I know that Your ideal world lies this way. Even if no one else goes, I will certainly go."
The going is not easy. The progenitors of human beings did not start with peace, happiness and joy; they began with sadness, grief, adversity, fear and anxiety. Therefore, we who are living in the last days must also travel through that road of historical sadness to indemnify this. Unless the Messiah appears in this time and introduces a heavenly ideology, humankind will not be able to escape the realm of fear and death. Humankind will not have a way to salvation.
Thus, Christianity was originally a religion of sacrifice. It was a religion of the cross. It was a religion of shedding blood, a religion of service. It was a religion that stepped forward to die before others. Moved by Heaven, Christianity shone out its tradition through the course of history. If Christianity today does not keep this kind of tradition, Heaven will punish it. We can conclude this.
Christianity is supposed to pioneer the fate of the world in place of Jesus, who lamented with a worldwide sadness. Christianity should become a shepherd, a lamb. It should remove the resentment of Heaven and earth, filled with the Shim Jung that Jesus had when he said in the moment of death, bleeding on top of Golgotha, "Please forgive them." Christianity should be able to introduce a new ideology, new hope and the new ideal garden. This kind of person must exist.
Peter, James and John, in the position of the Israelites and among them, did not realize that when Jesus died on top of Golgotha in the midst of opposition and persecution, he would resurrect. When they did, they marched toward Heaven, risking their lives as they pondered his death. You must realize that if there is a shepherd who can appear before Heaven, risking death with that kind of herd of sheep, they are the ones who can connect the world to a new age and a new heavenly ideology.
We must realize this today. Today, we must re-examine everything around us. We must examine our leaders. What kind of group were the Jewish religious leaders? They were a group who devastated Heaven's new truth. We must re-analyze today what is really controlling us, what is controlling our country's spirit.
You must receive a shock that can make you burn with the new ideology that can destroy all foundations of sin in this age and can lead people to new hope. If you cannot receive such a shock in your church, then that church cannot escape the same judgment as the first Israel.
Human Beings Must Meet God
We must go. We must go over the idea of faith that religious people hold. Furthermore, we must go over the cross of Jesus. Beyond the cross, we must go over Jesus' heart of resurrection. We must even go over God's heart and comfort Him. We must advance toward that kind of position.
How can we stop our footsteps from heading toward that longed-for place, the place where God resides, the place where Jesus dwells, the place of the true brotherhood of humankind? Before you lies the road of ideology that we must go, no matter what on earth holds us, stepping over every obstacle. We must even lead the people who have been those obstacles into following that road.
Have you ever thought about God's hard work in finding us? From the day of the fall, God always sought Adam. God never failed to follow Adam's descendants. He has been seeking you when you did not know He was doing so. Have you ever sought God? You must know that 6,000 years of sadness and millions of people's deaths obstructed His path. When we know the hard work of God in seeking us, we should have the same kind of heart as we in turn seek God.
Jesus did not come to found an ideology for himself. Jesus came as the center of all people, to introduce all people to the garden of happiness and hope. Thus, he worked hard for all people, he suffered hardships for all people, he walked the road of sadness for all people. No one in heaven or earth was unrelated to Jesus' sadness; yet he had no place to go. Nevertheless, Jesus did not lament and grieve over that situation; he left behind a new hope. Subsequently, he completed the standard of the Messiah and became the owner of pioneering a new garden of hope. We must understand this point.
We did not know about Jesus' situation before now, but now we can see that Jesus passed away bearing sorrow and pain of heart. Since we now know this, we must go after Jesus, of whom human beings have let go. We must meet him. As you are filled with longing for Jesus, you should seek to meet him. Jesus fought to meet God, who had suffered for 4,000 years. Likewise, holding God's hand, you must possess a mind filled with longing to meet the heavenly appearance that represents the 2,000 years after Jesus and the 6,000 years of history. You can meet God and Jesus, who were comforting you when you were sad, who were suffering with you when others wronged you and mistreated you. There is a hidden story behind meeting them.
When Jesus was passing away, he told many people many things. He said, "I will prepare a place for you in Heaven." He promised to meet them again. We still have a way to go and a day when we can meet Jesus. Therefore, the conviction to go is not enough. We must meet that person.
The day we meet is the consummation of human history and the day of the second coming, in Christian terms. Therefore, you should possess a heart that longs to see the day of the second coming and a heart to march on to that day. You should go, overcoming hardships, persecution and wrongdoing and break down the gate of hell in the realm of death. The Kingdom of Heaven is a place where all conditions through which Satan can accuse us are vanquished, and everyone moves according to God's ideal. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is a place free of all agony, if you leave behind any condition of suffering on earth, you will suffer in Heaven, to the degree of your lack of fulfillment on earth.
We human beings are in a situation to connect only after walking all the roads. We can connect only after walking all the historical roads that Jesus has already passed. Who are we to meet?
The Responsibility of the Bride
After Jesus passed away, God prepared for 2,000 years for the meeting to come. Jesus has been praying and preparing for 2,000 years from the spiritual world so that we may meet the bride of Heaven in the last days. Jesus has the responsibility of a bridegroom, and people on earth have the responsibility of a bride. Jesus has been fulfilling that responsibility in the spiritual world. We know this through the Bible.
How can the brides on earth meet the bridegroom? They must fulfill their responsibility. When Jesus appears on earth, he appears after having fulfilled his responsibility. Therefore, we should also fulfill our responsibility. As the reward for fulfilling Your responsibility, you will receive a gift from Heaven. Therefore, all the Christians of the world should fulfill their responsibility as the bride.
Jesus said, "You shall witness unto me, unto the uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8) He said, "For whosoever will save his life shall lose it; and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it." (Matthew 16:25)
We must be people who fight to keep giving, in the course of fulfilling our responsibility. That is the only way we will not be ashamed in the presence of the hearts of those who fought for the earth through historical courses, like Jesus, the bridegroom. They did not eat when they were hungry and never had a day free of anxiety and concern. Each of you must know that you can be qualified to meet Jesus only after fulfilling your responsibilities.
There has been no fallen person who has fulfilled the responsibility to meet God. Therefore, no one has entered the Kingdom of Heaven. Even Jesus is in Paradise. Paradise is only the anteroom to the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is the hope of humankind? It is to become people who can liberate the resentment of the fall and attain the appearance of people who say, "We have fulfilled all the responsibility of being human beings," by indemnifying the conditions of Heaven's sorrow and by going through the course of restoration. That is what Jesus has been seeking in his preparations of 2,000 years.
Filled with a heart of longing for Jesus, we must cleanse Jesus' sorrowful, historical conditions in our daily lives. We must become victorious and walk with happiness through all the conditions of adversity that Jesus walked with sorrow.
Christians today must walk a pioneering course and be able to prevent Jesus from going to Golgotha. They should welcome Jesus from the position of having fulfilled the responsibility of accomplishing his desire by pioneering a victorious course.
Do we have a mind that longs for that meeting? We do not. Even if one is torn apart and faces death because of the longing with which he is filled, a group must appear which possesses a sincere heart capable of going over that situation. Only then can we have the dignity to meet Jesus, who has been trying to find us for 2,000 years.
We should be able to shout, "We want to see Heavenly Father! We know that Jesus' hope was to make heaven and earth into the ideal Kingdom of Heaven. In order for that Heaven of hope to be built, there must be citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven, the land to establish the Kingdom of Heaven, the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven, and a leader who can wield that authority. Allow all people of this land to become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. We want to see that."
No matter how broad this land, there is no piece of land which God can claim as His own. There is no land about which Jesus can say, "This is mine." Jesus did not have one piece of land about which he could say, "Satan can never invade this."
That idea of Jesus was Heaven's idea, and the idea of a Kingdom of Heaven to be built on earth. Because there must be people who long for and agonize over wanting to see that idea realized, wanting to become citizens of God's kingdom, Jesus told his disciples to find those people, seek those people, and knock on their doors.
We Must Fight to Build the Kingdom of Heaven
As we break apart the road of resentment that remains on earth, we must have a sincere desire to see the ideal world for which Jesus yearns in his heart. Only then can we meet the substance of that ideology.
After the first Israel perished, the second Israel, the Christians of the world, have worked hard to create that nation, race, land and authority, and are waiting for their leader to appear. Reality does not coincide with that ideal. There is no greater sadness than this.
What is a patriot? A patriot feels miserable when he sees the citizens of his nation in pitiful situations. He feels more pain than if his body was being dismembered when he sees his land trampled upon by other nations. He feels it more keenly than the leader of his nation when he sees the leader being treated unfairly and put in a miserable position.
What words are these about being brides who must meet the Prince of Heaven? We have the appearance of disloyalty, ugliness and sin and cannot even face the words. Therefore, we should have humble hearts. When we see the rights of the citizens of Heaven being infringed and Satan trampling this land, we must fight to recover them even if we die. We have a heavenly mission to restore the authority of goodness.
Christians today must realize that the time has come to eradicate the criminals of this earth through the ideology of conscience. You must know the day of appearance and hope Jesus desires. If there is a human being in a nation who possesses a heart of longing to see the land of ideology and its citizens, power, and leader such as Jesus yearned for, that nation will never perish. Such a person will have the heart to say, "I want to see that heavenly nation before dust fills my eyes, before my body disappears. I want to meet the citizens of that nation in order to fulfill the will of that person who went over the crisis of the cross with a heart of forgiveness."
You must be able to say in your heart, "I want to build Heaven's land. I want to recover the authority of goodness. I want to be loyal to Jesus."
You who have gathered here must feel, to your bone marrow, the incredible fact that our fate will come to the historical point of demanding a firm resolution as the final age becomes more imminent. That time has come. For whom do you exist? It seems that you exist for yourself, but in actuality, you do not. It seems that you exist for your family, but you do not. It seems that you exist for your nation or the world, but you do not exist for them either. We can conclude this: our families, our society, nation and our world cannot become Heaven's ideal world as things stand now.
Only by our being filled with a heart of longing and by fulfilling our responsibility can we meet the being of hope. After meeting him, how should we face him? When Mary Magdalene tried to clutch the resurrected Jesus, Jesus refused her. This is because Mary Magdalene had not gone through all the roads she was to walk and was not equipped with the offering she had to make. Jesus was telling us through that act that a person who has not fulfilled his responsibility and prepared his offering cannot appear before him. Therefore, we must prepare our offering with the victorious countenance of having walked all the roads and fought all the fights.
What is this offering? You must become that offering. God will face you according to the kind of offering you have become. God will meet you according to the kind of offering you are.
After going through all the roads and meeting God, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. Moreover, after participating in the last marriage celebration and achieving a reunion of happiness, what shall we do? We must receive the love of the Father. This is the hope of humankind. The last project is to receive love.
The Qualifications to Become the Owner of the Kingdom of Heaven
You must meet the hour when Heaven grants your wish gladly as you say these words: "To receive this love, I have passed through the road of death, the road of difficulties, and the road of pain. I have endeavored even to love Satan, and I have fought to hold onto a dying life, even to become an offering in place of him. I have loved the people of this earth as You, the Father, have. I have poured out my heart upon the people who desired love. Therefore, Father, please love me!"
Jesus, whom you believe in, walked a road of tears for over thirty years. He crossed over the hills of sorrow and death. Then he resurrected and said to God, "Father, I have come. I have understood the Father's heart of 4,000 years, and I have come to this place as an offering in order to introduce that Shim Jung. Father!" Upon hearing that, God forgot all about His own dignity, deeply lamented, and cried tears of joy. That moment was the moment of finding one's lost child and the moment a relationship was bound between heaven and earth. Christians do not know that at that moment, God forgot His own dignity, held onto Jesus, and shed tears of sorrow and tears of joy. You also must appear in front of God and say, "I have come the way You desired. I have believed Your words of wanting to meet me and have come to meet You. Therefore, please embrace me in Your bosom of love." You must receive the blessing as you are embraced by God's love and as He says to you, raising His hands, "Let us live in the eternal realm of love." Only in that way can our ideal garden of hope, that is, the establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven, be concluded. The establishment of the Kingdom of Heaven starts from each individual perfecting himself in this way.
Jesus fought for this ideology. Our ancestors sought this ideal. All the people who are walking the way today are going toward this goal.
What is the Shim Jung you must unleash? You should have a longing heart and a heart of wanting to meet, but all that must pass away. That is what individuals of the fallen world have to indemnify. We must have the Shim Jung of wanting to receive God's love. We must appear as one substance of eternal love, having received the love God built up from an eternity ago.
In this way, when God boasts in the presence of all things, in front of all humankind and in front of Satan: "I have found sons and daughters of love," you must be able to say, "Yes, we are the fruits of love for which You have longed. We are the owners of the garden of love that You wanted to establish."
By receiving God's true love in mind and body without dying, you must become people to whom all things, even Satan, can testify and bow their heads, proclaiming that you are the being of hope God has sought and for which all humankind has hoped. You are the second God, Heaven's heir, who can build the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven and on earth and take dominion over it. Only if you do that can you become the owners of the Kingdom of Heaven and the sons and daughters of Heaven.
Prayer
When we experience Your heart, urging us on today, we cannot help realizing how weak are our bodies. When we realize, too, that the Shim Jung of Heaven is connected and flowing through us today, we feel deeply grateful. Father, please hold onto us. We want to go the way of the cross, with our minds and bodies becoming the offering, following Your request that we liberate Your hope, Your Shim Jung, and Your situation. Therefore, let us not weaken until the end. Make us go over the hill of death with a Shim Jung filled with a heavenly shock that penetrates the mind. Reinforce our exhaustion by allowing our connection with Heaven to be firm.
Allow us to come to the ideal garden for which we have longed. To do that, we have responsibility. Therefore, let us become countenances of joy offered to You as a gift, by fulfilling all the conditions for being a surviving fruit. Make us into Your original sons and daughters whom You want to love and who can receive Your love. Let us dwell in relationships of eternal love, the life of love, and the glory of love. Let us become people whom You cannot help loving and who cannot help receiving love from You. Please lead us this way.
On that account, let us not lack in any qualification to become the citizens of that nation, sons and daughters of that nation, and leaders of that nation. Let us become people of which You can be proud in front of a million satans. Allow the day when all the created world can recite a poem of ecstasy and liberation. Allow it to come quickly.
We know that this is not happening in some conceptual world. We know that if this is not defined through our minds and bodies, which live on this realistic earth and through substance, we cannot finish Heaven's ideal of creation. Therefore, let us be able to feel with our heart and practice with our actions in the whole field of mission which we take as our responsibility. Make us into sons and daughters who do not hesitate to pioneer any road of battle until the day of hope comes.
Let us be able to pioneer even a difficult road to remove the remaining resentment of the cross and to welcome the hour of happiness and hope, the hour of love in which we can rejoice. We pray that even today we can live in that kind of state. We pray all these things sincerely. We pray in the name of Christ, our Lord. Amen.