Sun Myung Moon
December 30, 1971
Washington, D.C.
Photo date and location unknown
Every man longs for the highest position in the universe. No one likes to be the last one, but wants to be the first one. Also, when a man makes friends, he wants to make the best friends, not inferior friends. When people select teachers, they want superior teachers, or nice teachers, not inferior teachers.
As a president to lead them, they want a special one, a model one. If there is a famous president, then they want to have an intimate relationship with him. The reason they want to have such a relationship is to inherit all his good things and absorb his strong points.
But there is one thing you cannot inherit from him. No one can inherit the relationship of love between the president and his son. So a third person, regardless of how good his knowledge or experience, still cannot surpass the relationship between the president and his son, even though the son might be a very weak or small one. And the president himself would want his son to have a superior position to that of other men.
Now let us apply this thinking to God Almighty. After the fall of Adam and Eve, God called fallen people to come to Him to become His first Son. Then all people should compete to become the first Son. What kind of man can become His first Son? Some would insist that the path to become God's first Son must be in one particular way. So many people would follow that way. Some would follow that way for ten years, maybe a hundred years, even a thousand years.
You can't follow the multitude
But God is selecting only one man. Therefore, if you want to follow the multitude, then you can understand that your ideal thinking is wrong, because among so many people God cannot choose you.
God would not want to select His beloved Son from among those who have come the easiest way. If you want to go to the best university, you have to overcome severe competition. How difficult the test for selecting the Son of God must be! He must be someone who is not ashamed when he is compared with the past. If the Son of God is inferior to those of the past, then those spirits in spirit world would accuse him. And if the Son were selected from among those people who came the easiest way, then the other people would want to pull him down. Therefore, God's Son must be the one who overcomes the most difficult way -- a way that no one but him could overcome. That man must become the standard for all descendants too. So he must have authority as the Son of God, and God must be proud of him-in the past, present, and future.
In the past, there have been many outstanding people. Sacred men such as Buddha, Confucius, Mohammed, and Jesus were not patriots of one nation. They had greater ideas than universalism even. They thought of heaven and earth. So throughout history, all the moral standards and all concepts of the ideal were set up by the ideals of sacred men.
From among these four, we have to select the one who faces God directly. There will be just one position from which man can face God directly. That place must be the place where man can have the deepest relationship of love with God. So we must find out who had the deepest relationship of love with God. This will determine which religion can stand in the closest relationship with God.
Jesus -- God's only Son
If we look from this viewpoint, Buddhism is a little vague about God. Also, Confucius teaches of God as a God of morality. And Islam is almost the same in that sense. But Jesus was different from the others. When he was on earth, Jesus spoke the most dramatic words: "God is my Father." No one else spoke in this way. He said "God is my Father, and I am His only begotten Son." He emphasized that there could be no other Son than himself. So that means he can receive all God is and has. Also, he loved God as His only Son. So, there was no other one who could lo ' e God. Jesus was the only one who insisted upon such a claim and had such a feeling. Therefore, he must be superior to others.
Also, he mentioned that he was the bridegroom, and his followers the bride. He called his disciples friends. Then from what position did he say "brides" and "friends"? He said it in the position where he and God were united into one. What was the purpose of his saying this? So far, Christians thought that it was to save us. But that is not so. His first purpose in saying "brides" or "friends" was not to save individuals and bring them to the Kingdom of Heaven, but rather to establish the first heavenly family on earth. For him it would be proper to think of establishing the first family to which God could give His full love.
Because he was the only begotten Son, the only begotten Daughter must come through him. So these two, Son and Daughter, must be united as a couple. And from this couple Jesus wanted to bring forth children who could have the deepest love. If you were to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, would you want to go alone, or would you want to establish such a family on earth in order to go? Going to the Kingdom of Heaven is not the problem, but in order to do that you ha e to establish a family.
Then what kind of object will God want for a direct relationship of love? Out of the 360° range of positions facing God, there can be just one position that will face God fully. Only such a family can stand in that position. God felt that way and Jesus also. And if Jesus' followers had felt that way, then the Kingdom of Heaven could have been established on this earth. Therefore, the most important thing to know is how to reach the position of only begotten Son, and only begotten Daughter.
Concentration of love is the key
Jesus lived for just 33 years. When we compare his life with others' lives-let's say someone who lived for 100 years -- which of the two loved God more: Jesus or the 100-year-old man? We say that Jesus did. But how can we say Jesus, since the other one lived longer than Jesus and could claim that he loved God? How could you say that Jesus loved God more? The answer is decided by the concentration of love or the degree of love. If Jesus loved God three times as much as other men, then God's love would come to him. If one man thought of God three or four times a day, and another one thought of God just once, the first man would be thinking of God three times as much, and then God's love would come to him. An ordinary man would think that he would like to see God, but he would sleep as he wanted, eat as he wanted, and live a regular life. But Jesus didn't live that way. He wanted to see God weeping, crying. He sacrificed all his eating, sleeping, and working for this end. That makes the difference.
I think Jesus lived like this: whenever he saw a man, he would think, "That man must be the one who can give some news of God." Or when he heard a voice, he would think, "That voice might be the voice which will introduce God." He concentrated all his perceptive senses and all his strength on the love of God.
So, whenever he had clothes, he would want to give them to God, if God had a physical body. Whenever he had something to eat, he would want to give it to God before eating it himself. He did this not only for God, but for other men. Because God wanted to love other people, he wanted to open the way for God to love them. Also, he could love them in place of God.
If someone sees other men from this viewpoint, and love's them in place of God, then he can become one who can receive God's love fully. When God sees such a man, then God feels that He would like to give all His love, all He has to that man. Jesus' life must have been that way.
Also, when he was put on the cross, he still gave his life for God and for other people. He prayed that God would not do as Jesus wanted, but rather do as He willed. Jesus went the way of the cross thinking of God's mind and how sorrowful God would feel when He saw his crucifixion. He wanted to console God's mind, and felt sympathy for God.
Also, Jesus knew that he alone could understand and exercise God's love. But he was killed by others. However, he couldn't curse them, but he instead blessed them. From the time of his birth to the time of his death, Jesus lived that kind of love, that kind of life. Always he wanted to manifest God's love and give it to other people, on God's behalf.
Follow the way of Jesus. So wherever Jesus went, God had to follow after him. And wherever God and Jesus go, all people must follow. This is the only way by which one can go to the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, when fallen men know this way, they cannot but follow it; in such a way the providence of restoration can be quickly fulfilled.
Then when Christians wanted to testify that they loved God, they proved it by giving their lives. Therefore, their lives were ones which manifested God's love to people. But, if those who died thought that they died in order to go to the Kingdom of Heaven, they could never go there. If the purpose of a man's dying is for himself, in order that he might go to the Kingdom of Heaven, then he cannot go there. So when man dies, he has to bear this thought: I am dying for the sake of God and for the sake of people. With such a mind, then he can go to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is the main course to receive God's love. This is the only path to love God and to love man. If you go this way, you can receive all the love of God. So out of the many directions possible, this way alone is the straight way to God and the only way to get His love.
During the 33 years of his life, Jesus concentrated everything for this cause. He walked this way in order to give love to people and to receive God's love. He lived this way, giving his life for God and for people. He was the first one in history to do this.
God would want to make His Son live on this earth with great joy. Also, the people who owe so much to Jesus must prepare the setting for God's Son, in order for him to have the happiest life on this earth. Man must have such a mind for Jesus. But on this earth there never was one day in which God could be pleased.
Wishing that such a thing could happen on this earth, God planned the return of the Lord. Jesus wanted to love God and people with his life, sacrificing his life. But God Himself couldn't love sacrificing Himself and His Son. Also, people couldn't love God's Son with all their hearts, while he was on this earth.
It's our turn to give love
Jesus gave his life for God and for people. Therefore, there must come a time when he can get his love back from God and from people. We have to indemnify this, by preparing the setting now. So when the Lord returns to this earth, God must follow after him day and night, loving him. And also, all other people must follow after him, loving him day and night. If God wanted to get love from him, then He would be a greedy God. Also, if people wanted to get love from him, they would become very greedy people. But, actually, God owes love to the Lord, and people owe love to him. Therefore, we have to return love to him.
There must be a fundamental difference between the First Advent and the Second Advent. At the First Advent, the Lord wanted to love God and people. But at the Second Advent, God and people must want to love the Lord and thus indemnify what they owe. Jesus came as a bridegroom and wanted to love brides; therefore, people, as brides, must love the bridegroom when he comes again. When God first sent Jesus, He sent him to be loved by people. But that was reversed by the disbelief of the people. Therefore, in the Last Days, God must restore that. When the Lord comes to earth, we have to have the mind to "become crazy to love him."
Jesus told people to love him more than their own mother and father, sons and daughters, or brothers and sisters. So people must make such a condition that they can never forget the fact that they love him, that they love him more than anyone else, even though the greatest difficulties may arise.
Why do we have to do that? That is because the Lord comes with the love of a father, the love of a son, the love of a bridegroom. He comes with these three types of love. So he stands in the position of father to all mankind, bridegroom for all people, and the Son of God.
By the fall, mankind lost the three most precious things. The first was their position as son and daughter to receive God's love. Second, Eve lost her position to receive a true husband's love.
And third, Adam and Eve couldn't love their children as father and mother in God's love. They lost these three types of love. So by the fall, man lost these three types of love simultaneously. Therefore, God must restore these three types of love with the Messiah. So we, fallen men, have to love the Messiah as our father, think of him as the bridegroom, and love him as the Son and Daughter. When you see him, you have to feel you are his children, son or daughter, his bride or brother, and finally as parents together with him.
By feeling these three feelings, we can restore the three hearts in one human generation. Adam lost all these things in his generation, so we have to restore them in our life. Therefore, among us we have to feel as Adam and Eve before the fall occurred. The love between us does not come from ourselves, but from the Lord. Air love comes from him. He is the origin of new love. This is the first place where God can love. Formerly, God received love, but He couldn't love His Son. This is the first time He can do this. And the people must love him as well.
Therefore, in this relationship three kinds of love are united. Here the positions of son or daughter, bride and bridegroom, and also parental love -- God's love -- can unite. Here the ideals of God and man are concentrated into one.