Sun Myung Moon
March 9, 1974
Hyatt Hotel, Birmingham, Alabama, USA
Thirty-two-city speaking tour in the United States
Photo date and location unknown
Ladies and gentlemen who have gathered here this evening:
I thank you with all my heart. The title of the speech I wish us to consider together this evening is, “The New Future of Christianity’’ Please allow me to share with you for a while on this topic. As you may well know, when people talk about the United States, what often comes to mind is that this greatest nation in the world is based on Christianity.
The Lord comes to fulfill God’s Will
What I am going to speak to you about is not something that can be learned and understood through today’s life of faith or theologies. It deals with a completely new perspective, and so I believe that you Americans need to listen to it. This is the reason I am appearing here.
Since the Last Days are almost at hand, it is important that we clarify crucial facts of history beyond any doubt. Since hearing the command of God to go to America and speak out to you for three years, from 1972 through 1973 to this year, 1974, I have stood on podiums in every corner of the United States. I hope you will understand what is happening here.
I hope and pray that you will realize that you and I are in the position of brothers and sisters who are living for the sake of God’s Will and working to fulfill His Will. I hope and pray that, with a tolerant heart, you will not make a judgment right away if what I say offends the faith you have lived and believed until now. I pray that you will make a judgment only after you have searched and investigated extensively through prayer and meditation.
We know that for the past two thousand years and up until this day, Christian faith has called believers to wait for the Lord. However, now that the Last Days are almost upon us, the time has come to do more than just believe in him; we need to make preparations to receive the Lord who comes in the Last Days. I believe that it is unacceptable for us not to make such preparations.
Even when we are planning to hold a small event, it is only when we have drawn up a program and taken steps based on the exact details of that program that we can bring that event to a satisfactory conclusion. This event of the coming of the Lord in this day is the greatest event since the onset of history, the most important in the course of human history, and so we cannot think that it could be carried out blindly and without preparations. I believe the time has come for us to know clearly the exact details of what is to come.
If you came here on a train bound for Birmingham, all you had to do was to ride on that train at your ease. Now that you have arrived, however, you must understand clearly the new direction and purpose you need to follow. It makes perfect sense that, within the order of Christianity you have believed in until now, there must be a certain organization that is making preparations for the coming of the Lord.
The Lord must come without fail. Then for what purpose does he come? He comes for the Will of God. Then what is the Will of God? We, the believers of today, know that God carries out His providence through a Will behind the providence of salvation. What we also need to realize is that there can be only one essential Will of God.
This providence of salvation of today is something that was not necessary in the world of the ideal of creation, the world as originally planned by God. Because that original Will was not fulfilled due to the Fall of humankind, the providence of salvation emerged as the process of working to complete the fulfillment of the Will. We need to clearly know this.
God cannot go against the Will He has set. Since He is the Absolute Being, only when He has perfected that Will can He stand in a position of authority and dignity. Because this is the truth, we need to realize that God cannot become the absolute God unless He perfects fallen humankind by lifting us to the standard He originally purposed.
God’s Will for salvation and the mission of Christianity
Then, if Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, had not fallen, what kind of a world would have been realized? If they had reached perfection under the protection of God’s love, He would have called them and conducted their marriage Blessing ceremony. That was the reason for His creating man and woman.
If this had come to pass, we would not have the fallen ancestors of humanity on this planet; rather there would be the sinless, perfected and true ancestors of humanity beloved by God. Adam and Eve would have become the True Parents. After that, the true bridegroom and bride whom God could truly love would have been on this earth. Moreover, instead of brothers who are each other’s enemies, true brothers would have been born on this earth, who could cooperate completely with the Will of God, who would live in the midst of His love, and who would belong to Him. This would mean that a family centered on God would have been formed on the earth, where sinless parents would have given birth to sinless sons and daughters, who would in turn have formed a sinless clan, a sinless people, a sinless nation and a sinless world. Thus, the human beings living on earth would have been under God’s dominion both in name and in substance, and God would have become the King of this world. Such is the conclusion we can reach.
If all this had taken place, there would have been no need for a Savior. Neither religion nor prayer would have become necessary. We did not know until now that the reason we need a Savior, the reason we need religion, and the reason we need salvation is a result of the Fall.
Salvation presupposes the Fall having taken place. When one is ill, one needs a hospital to cure the illness, and when something is broken, one needs a shop to repair it. What is religion? It is similar to a repair shop or a hospital. This all refers to salvation. You need salvation because you are ill. Today’s Christianity has not set the standard based on this principle; it advocates believing in Jesus unconditionally, without an understanding of the true meaning of salvation. This will not be enough.
Then let us find out through the Bible what kind of world we are living in. It is written in John 12:31 that the devil Satan is “the ruler of this world.” How could that evil Satan, the devil, become the ruler of all humankind, who are beloved by God? It is because humanity fell. For this reason, God and Satan are enemies. As a result of the Fall, we came to have fallen, sinful human ancestors.
A false couple came into existence, and false brothers who killed one another came into being. That couple gave birth to sinful sons and daughters, and this sinful family expanded to become a sinful tribe, a sinful people and a sinful world. Consequently, Satan, the devil, naturally came to stand as the ruler.
From this evil world, we need to move to a sinless world, and this is what salvation is. This move refers to salvation, and we need to know that it is nothing other than restoration. The original Will of God did not include the process of salvation. Therefore, we need to return to His original Will. The purpose for the coming of the Messiah is to fulfill God’s Will. What is God’s Will? It is to save all people in the world from Satan, the devil, and then to exile Satan from this world.
In the places where you live today there is the devil Satan, who accuses you when you commit a sin. You need to exile him. Today’s Christianity does not know what purpose they need to pursue. Saying, “I will be saved and will go to the kingdom of heaven” refers to a trivial salvation. We did not know until now that it is the Will of God to save humanity, and that it is also His Will to eternally exile from the earth the devil, Satan, who ruins and violates humanity.
If the Messiah, who needs to begin such a world, comes as a lone individual before Satan, Satan will seize and kill him. That is why the Messiah was sent to govern the world only after God had laid the foundation of forming a nation, passing through the restoration stages from the individual to the family, tribe and people, so that the nation and the people could unite with the Messiah at his coming.
However, the followers of Judaism did not know that the purpose of their religion and the reason for them being called as the chosen people was to make preparations for the Messiah’s coming. This resulted in God’s providence being extended, but even when the Lord comes again for the world, God’s Will remains the same. Thus, we need to realize that, when the Last Days come throughout the world, Christianity will be required to expand the Will and build a global foothold. This is the mission of Christianity.
The Biblical background of the crucifixion of Jesus
Then the question at hand concerns how the Lord is going to come, and we need to clearly know the answer. The Bible tells us that, with regard to the Last Days, neither Jesus himself, that is, the Son of Man, nor the angels, will know anything. Only the Heavenly Father will know. That is why there are two ways of answering the question of how he is going to come. One is to find out by discussing with God, and the other is to find out through our own human wisdom. By the latter, we can positively deduce the answer by examining the way the Messiah, the Lord, came and departed in the past. You must know that there are only these two ways to find the answer.
If I found the answer by discussing with God, going to the spirit world to receive revelations, would you believe it? If Reverend Moon standing right here were to speak on that foundation, you would not believe him. Therefore, I need to present my answer based upon clear evidence. This being the case, by clearly learning about the Messiah who came before, you can draw conclusions about the future. This is the normal method by which we draw conclusions.
The yearning of today’s Christianity for the coming of the Messiah is exactly the same as the yearning of Judaism two thousand years ago for the Messiah. In the case of today’s Christianity, it has continued down its path for two thousand years in its longing for the coming of the Messiah, whereas in the case of Judaism, Heaven sent many prophets for four thousand years and sacrificed them to convey God’s promise to send the Messiah. For four thousand years, God promised them the Messiah, and people believed devoutly for four thousand years, so that when the Messiah came, they would unite completely as one and fulfill the Will of God.
God sent Jesus Christ, the Messiah, to that people as promised. According to His plan, the people were in the position of having the responsibility to receive him. However, the people who had yearned for the coming of the Messiah did not receive him. Rather, they watched their leaders persecute him, seize him and have him killed. Ladies and gentlemen, is this not confusing?
To give an example to illustrate this, let’s say that when the Lord returns, today’s Christians who are waiting for him stand by as the highest leaders of Christianity, such as the pope, cardinals, bishops and pastors, seize and kill him. What happened back then can be said to be the same. Simply saying Jesus came to die is insufficient. It is logically wrong. If you came to die, why would you ask God to forgive those who killed you? There is no reason for the death of innumerable prophets for four thousand years and the suffering of the people of Israel if their role were to reject the Messiah.
If the purpose of his coming were rejection, God could have sent him to a group of uncivilized savages. How easily they would have killed him. How would you answer that?
This being the case, we need to examine how the chosen people came to seize and kill the Messiah, in spite of the fact that they had long yearned for God to send him. I hope you will not find this too serious if you are hearing such a thing for the first time. We need to find the answer to the question of why they seized and killed him.
They did so because, first of all, the Old Testament persuaded them to do so. The Book of Malachi, the last book of the Old Testament, corresponds to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Malachi 4:5-6 states, “I will send you the prophet Elijah before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes. He will turn the hearts of parents to their children and the hearts of children to their parents.” We need to know that such a return of Elijah was definitely prophesied.
Who was the prophet Elijah? He was the man who ascended to heaven in a chariot of fire nine hundred years before the coming of Jesus. Because God loved this people and had foretold that He would send Elijah again, the people knew that Elijah, who had ascended, would come down again, for the Bible definitely said that he would return. But Elijah himself actually did not come. Now, the Bible is a book that traces the identity of Israel for four thousand years. It was the center of Jewish faith and devotion. Could the mere words of Jesus drive such a people to abandon their Bible?
Ladies and gentlemen, would you yourself do such a thing? It would be as if you were yearning for the Lord to come down from heaven upon clouds, and then someone came up to you and said, “I am the Lord.” Could you, a Christian of today, believe that person?
Let us now find out, from Jesus’ own words, if he had troubles like this or not. I refer you to the Gospel of Matthew 17:10. The disciples did not know much about the Bible. So we had people who were relatively ignorant of scripture believing that Jesus was the Savior and going out to witness, crying out, “People! The Messiah has come, so believe!” Then the scribes answered, “Hey! If your teacher is indeed the Messiah, don’t you know that the Book of Malachi says that God will send Elijah before the coming of the Messiah? So where is Elijah?” The disciples did not know about this, and the Bible records that they asked Jesus about it, and his response.
Now, if Elijah had come, it would not have mattered even if Jesus had been blind, deaf or lame. The problem was that, as far as the scribes were concerned, Elijah had not come.
So, it is written in the Bible, “And the disciples asked him, ‘Why, then, do the scribes say that Elijah must come first?’ Jesus replied, ‘Elijah is indeed coming and will restore all things; but I tell you that Elijah has already come, and they did not recognize him, but they did to him whatever they pleased.’ Then the disciples understood that he was speaking to them about John the Baptist.”
Was John the Baptist Elijah? If you had been there, would you have believed Jesus’ words? Elijah had not come from the sky, and here was Jesus, attaching the name of Elijah to John the Baptist. So the religious authorities decided that Jesus was attaching the name of Elijah to John the Baptist because he was a fraud pretending to be the Messiah. Thus Jesus was called a blasphemer who brought ruin to the Judaism of Israel and the chosen people of Israel, established by God for four thousand years, and they determined him to be empowered by Beelzebub, the ruler of the demons. They concluded that he was without a doubt the son of Satan, the devil. They would not believe that this man, who seemed to claim that Elijah had come when he actually had not, was the Savior.
The religious leaders wrongly interpreted the Old Testament
Throughout the centuries, Judaism and Christianity have been at odds. At this point, we need to take a moment to figure out what sort of a book the Bible is. In the work of making a person, family or nation that can fulfill the Will of God in the fallen world, the people involved are in a position similar to that of intelligence agents who have been sent into enemy territory. God would have to instruct them in words that the enemy could not decipher.
The Bible is a record of God’s instructions issued in parables and symbols. If, for instance, the Central Intelligence Agency of the United States were to send an agent to the Soviet Union, would they send a letter stating clearly, “Do such and such a thing at this place and time?” No, they would send the message in code. If God had taught us about the coming of the Lord with vivid clarity, the fallen world would have easily seized and killed the coming Lord at the earliest opportunity. We need to know that God needs to create an environment where the Lord cannot be seized and killed in the Last Days. Therefore, most people would not know the details of his coming, for God teaches and guides us in code.
We need to realize that for this reason, the people interpreted the Old Testament wrongly and so ended up killing the Messiah. Just as only one person, the director of the CIA, has the means to reveal the ClA’s code, only God and no one else can reveal the code of the Bible.
However, in order to fulfill His Will, God must teach us in advance, and also teach us again when the time comes. If you were to look up Amos 3:7, you will read, “Surely the Lord God does nothing, without revealing His secret to His servants the prophets.”
We have to know the fact that the leaders who spoke for the Old Testament interpreted it wrongly, and thus came to commit the historic sin of seizing and killing the Messiah. Now, the Jewish believers of the time were relatively righteous, and the actions of Jesus who claimed that John the Baptist was Elijah were alarming to them. I’m sure they had many conversations along the lines of, “The people have seen him perform mighty works and miracles, and also many new and strange works never before seen, and they could neither deny them nor approve them. And so let us hold a public discussion, saying, ‘Now then, since he claims that John the Baptist is Elijah, everything will be resolved if we decide whether Elijah has come or hasn’t come. So, let us ask John.’”
The question they asked is recorded in the Gospel of John 1:19 and following. When they asked John the Baptist, “Who are you?” he answered he was not the Messiah or Elijah or a prophet. Even if he did not confirm that he was Elijah, at the least John the Baptist could have emphasized that he was a prophet. However, he answered all the questions in the negative.
Why did he do so? The people of Israel all firmly believed that he was a prophet, so why did he deny it? It was because the situation had already become unfavorable to him since Jesus was being cornered by the leaders of the nation and the religion. Because it was clear that these people were referring to what Jesus had said, John the Baptist looked upon the actual circumstances of the matter. The leaders of Israel and the Pharisees were determined to seize and kill Jesus by consensus, and John knew there was trouble brewing.
Therefore, John the Baptist would not speak on behalf of Heaven from the position of a human being. Instead, he denied even the fact that he was one of the prophets. This being the case, do you think that people would give more credence to the words of Jesus or the words of John the Baptist? To bring it home to the United States, if a certain young person came forward and said of Reverend Billy Graham, “Billy Graham is Elijah and I am Jesus,” and Reverend Graham denied it, would you believe it?
History thus turned a corner, and we cannot deny the fact that, though God had sent Jesus Christ to the Jewish people, whom He had prepared for four thousand years, with faith and hope, the people of that time seized him and let him be killed in their ignorance and disbelief. Let us now find out if this is true or not through the apostles of the New Testament.
At the time, Paul, before he became an apostle, stood at the forefront as an instigator of Christian persecution after the execution of Jesus. Paul was on his way to Damascus to oppress Jesus’ followers, when a holy light struck him. Thus he came around to God’s side and repented and testified to Jesus.
Paul knew what had happened to Jesus better than anyone else, and so he was able to declare boldly in I Corinthians 2:8 of the mysteries of God, “None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory”
Without even thinking about how appalling it is that the Lord who came was made to walk the miserable path of the cross, we have believed blindly. In spite of the fact that Jesus did not have to die, we believed that since he died on the cross, he must have come for that purpose. How then can we go before Jesus? Even if we are saved, can we dare meet him?
The mistake of John the Baptist
The Jewish people could seize Jesus by virtue of their understanding of the Old Testament, yet what about John the Baptist? When you read Matthew 11:2 and following, you find the story of how, when John the Baptist was imprisoned and about to die for having spoken about the love affairs of Herodias, he sent two of his disciples to Jesus to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” Did John the Baptist, then, believe Jesus or not? How could he, with the same mouth that had once declared at the river Jordan before a large crowd, “He is the Lamb of God who bears the sins of the world,” ask the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?” And by proxy!
Think about how dumbfounded Jesus must have been when he heard these words, for it was at a time when no one in the world acknowledged him and the entire nation was opposing him. And here was John the Baptist, whom Jesus had looked upon as his last ray of hope and only lifeline, asking him at the last moment, “Are you the Messiah or not?” That was why he pointed out in Matthew 11:6, “And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me.”
In the next verse, Matthew 11:7, Jesus criticized what John the Baptist had said and done when he had witnessed to Jesus in front of a crowd. That is why Jesus denounced him with the words, “What did you go out into the wilderness to look at? A reed shaken by the wind? What then did you go out to see? Someone dressed in soft robes? Look, those who wear soft robes are in royal palaces.” And in verse 11 he said, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women no one has arisen greater than John the Baptist; yet the least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” How could he say such contradictory things about John? The prophets who have passed on into the next world were all born of women, for they surely were not born from rocks, were they? They were all born of women and John the Baptist was also born of woman, and so he must be great even in the next world. Why, then, would he become the least of them?
It is because the prophets who came and passed on into the next world were sent to earth to testify to the Messiah from a historical distance, yet John the Baptist was sent as the prophet whose mission was to testify directly to the Messiah. Since he was the one who was to see the Messiah with his own eyes and testify to him, his mission was the greatest.
Why then did Jesus say that the least in the kingdom of heaven was greater than he? Even the least prophet who had gone to the spirit world knew Jesus Christ was the Messiah and attended him as such. On the other hand, John the Baptist, who would have become great by testifying to Jesus, was unable to attend him when he was supposed to attend him, and so he could be only in the bottommost position. You need to know that this is the content upon which Jesus based his words.
Let us look up Matthew 11:12 to see if this is in fact true. It says, “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.” This refers to the fact that a struggle could have broken out between Jesus and John the Baptist to occupy the kingdom of heaven. What this signifies is that John the Baptist did not devote his energies to fulfilling his mission. We must now find out what would have happened if he had devoted his energies properly. If he had done so, John the Baptist would have become Jesus’ first disciple.
If John the Baptist had become the first disciple, wouldn’t his disciples have joined the twelve disciples, wouldn’t John the Baptist’s multitude of followers have been included in the ranks of the seventy disciples and 120 followers, and wouldn’t the ruling class of the entire Jewish nation have joined the group following Jesus? Was John the Baptist sent to oppose Jesus? Then let us look into the matter of how great a man John the Baptist was. Through the words of Jesus and the Bible, let us find out what a special man he was, sent down with God’s official approval.
In Matthew 11:13, Jesus declared, “For all the prophets and the law prophesied until John,” signifying that John came as the fruit that culminates the Old Testament. If John the Baptist had become one with Jesus, the people who believed in the Old Testament were bound to follow in his footsteps and become one with Jesus. If such a thing had come to pass, who could have seized and killed Jesus? The Messiah, the prince of God, came to utilize the foundation that was laid down. Would he have had to bring together lowly fishermen, prostitutes and tax collectors and feed them to become their master and teacher?
Let us once again look clearly into the matter of whether John did indeed follow Jesus or not. If you read the Gospel of John 3:26 and following, you will find that the disciples of John the Baptist reported to John about Jesus, “Rabbi, the one who was with you across the Jordan, to whom you testified, here he is baptizing, and all are going to him.” John the Baptist answered, “He must increase, and I must decrease.” Christian tradition interprets this to mean that since John the Baptist was a great prophet he humbled himself before Jesus in this manner and said that he, John, would decrease.
If one has suffered hardships for three years to receive the Messiah and then has finally met the Messiah he has been longing to meet and has testified to him, he needs to be ready to die for the Messiah if the time comes for that. What this means is that, if John the Baptist had walked the same path as Jesus by his side, if the Messiah increased he too would increase, and if the Messiah decreased he too would decrease. Therefore, when he said that they had to go separate ways, he plainly stated the decisive truth that he would not follow Jesus.
Based on this, we realize our ignorance until now that the Crucifixion of Jesus was caused first by the wrong interpretation of the Old Testament, and second by John the Baptist.
The Lord will not come on the clouds
Let us go on to the third cause. At the time, the Jewish people believed that the Messiah would come on clouds. Why was this the case? In Daniel 7:13, it is prophesied, “I saw one like a Son of Man coming with the clouds of heaven.” Therefore you need to understand that those people, who valued the Old Testament as much as their own life, could not help believing that he would come on clouds.
The ministers gathered here may say, “Reverend Moon is saying that because he doesn’t know any better. Those words refer to the Second Advent and not to the time of Jesus.” But that’s not the case at all! If everything had happened as Jesus had called for, everything would have been finished at the time of John the Baptist. All the prophecies and prophets of the Old Testament would have culminated in John the Baptist.
With the people of Jesus’ day believing that the Messiah was coming on clouds, do you think that Jesus, who was born as a man and as the son of Mary and Joseph and who had brothers and sisters, appeared qualified to be the Messiah? Christians believe that the Lord is coming on the clouds, so would they believe him if he came as a human being? It is the same today as two thousand years ago. Let us find out through the Bible if this matter posed a problem at the time of the apostles.
If you look up 2 John 1:7, you will find these words: “Many deceivers have gone out into the world, those who do not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh; any such person is the deceiver and the antichrist!”
What this means is that some early Christians believed that the Lord came with only the appearance of flesh. But Christians today may have the same attitude and will oppose him if he comes as a human being. Then, according to the apostles’ words, they will be the same as antichrists. There is no way whatsoever to make excuses. All that I have spoken today is based on the Bibles words, which you believe in. Because I love the Will of God more than anyone else, and because I hope for us all to walk the path of His providence rightly, I have no choice except to speak these words before you.
You may ask, “With what authority is Reverend Moon saying these things?” Yet I do have the authority to say such things. I met Jesus and John the Baptist in the spirit world and discussed this with them. From them, I found out that my understanding is correct. I also studied about these things in the Bible and discovered them to be true. Since both accounts match, I am sure that what I am saying is true. Why don’t you bring this to the world, to see whether what you believe is right or whether what Reverend Moon is saying is right? If you do not believe it, your sons and daughters will believe it without a doubt.
What was lost at the cross
In this light, the fact that Jesus died in such a manner, when he did not come to die, remains as the sorrow of God, the sorrow of humanity, the sorrow of history and the sorrow of the future. We have not known this. You need to understand that the Old Testament has prophesied the coming of Jesus, the Messiah, in two ways. When you look at Isaiah 9, 12 and 60, you see that he will appear as the Lord of glory, while chapter 53 of the same book prophesies that he will die a cruel death. We need to find out why it was necessary to make contradictory or dual prophecies.
We fallen human beings fear God, and we also fear Satan. This is because at one time we will believe devoutly in God yet then betray him, pair up with Satan and attack God’s world, and then, after we are paired up with Satan, we will come back to God and attack Satan’s world. We need to know that for this reason we fear both God and Satan.
We also need to realize that if the Jewish people had believed Jesus, he would have become the Lord of glory, yet because they did not believe him, it came to pass that he had to die on the cross. You need to comprehend the fact that his coming to bear the cross was a sudden and contingent event. Then when was it decided that he would die on the cross? Let us find the answer in the Bible.
Luke 9:30-31 says, “Suddenly they saw two men, Moses and Elijah, talking to Jesus. They appeared in glory and were speaking of his departure, which he was about to accomplish at Jerusalem.” To make a long story short, it was decided at the time of the Transfiguration.
This was because Judaism was opposing Jesus, as was the nation of Israel, and even John the Baptist had taken an opposing position, and so all the footholds through which God’s Will could be fulfilled had collapsed. So God had no choice except to abandon His Will to complete the work of salvation in both the kingdom of heaven on earth and the kingdom of heaven in heaven, restoring spirit and flesh in the providence of two dimensions. He had to cut off the physical world and establish the world of spiritual salvation by having Jesus walk the path of the cross. If Jesus had not died on the cross, both sides would have been lost. Therefore, in order to bring at least spiritual salvation, God had no choice other than to hand over Jesus to be nailed to the cross. You need to clearly understand this.
Today’s Christians assert that Jesus undoubtedly came to die, based on words written in the Gospel of Matthew 16:22-23. Those words describe the scene where, when Jesus spoke of having to go to Jerusalem to die, his first disciple Peter said, “Lord, this must never happen to you.” Then Jesus turned upon him and said, “Get behind me, Satan!” Christians think that Jesus said this because he had come to die and Peter opposed his fulfilling his mission. However, you need to clearly comprehend that this incident took place after Jesus’ death on the cross had been decided at the time of the Transfiguration, and so Jesus had no choice except to give Peter such an answer.
What would have happened had John the Baptist, the Jewish leaders and the people of Israel believed in Jesus? The people of Israel would have become one with Jesus. The Arab realm then would have become one with Jesus and together they would have reached out to Rome. Within forty years, Rome would have been brought to God’s side. Since Jesus conquered Rome in four hundred years after his Resurrection, centering on the living Jesus, Christians would have been able to declare the constitution of the heavenly kingdom within forty years. Then there would be no Protestantism or Catholicism today; everyone would be in the position of the people of Israel fulfilling the Will of God.
If all this had come to pass, the people of Israel would not have met such harsh circumstances in the Middle East and Christians would not have had to shed blood so tragically. If Christianity had attained the godly foundation to move the world by bringing together the rulers of the nations, who would have hunted and killed them?
The world would have become the heavenly kingdom in accordance with the will of Jesus. The world would have been united and there would be no need for the Lord to come again. Christians need to realize this. From this perspective, the place where Jesus died on the cross is the place where God and Jesus lost everything. The cross was not the victory of God; it was the victory of Satan, the devil. It was the place where the Son of God was had nails driven into him.
On that cross, God lost the nation of Israel, the Jewish people, the global historical providence and all the apostles. At the very end, only the thief who died on Jesus’ right-hand side stood with him. At that place, there was neither Christianity nor the beginning of Christianity. Everything was lost. From where did Christianity begin? It began after the Resurrection of Jesus, forty days later. We did not know until now that ours is not the path of the cross, it is the path of resurrection. Two thousand years of Christianity teaches us this fundamental lesson. You cannot deny this when you read the Bible. When Judas Iscariot came to help seize him, didn’t Jesus call that moment a time of darkness?
If Jesus had come to die, would he have said, “My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; yet not what I will but what You will,” when he prayed three times at Gethsemane? If he said such a prayer because he was afraid of dying, it makes him unqualified to be the Messiah. You need to know this. Why did he say such a prayer? Was it because he was afraid of dying? Christians say, “Oh, Jesus was also a man in the flesh, and so he must have done so for fear of the pain of death.” That is not it at all. He did not pray because he was afraid of death.
He had no choice except to utter such a prayer when he pondered the fact that, once he died on the cross, all Christians in the world would have to follow the path of the cross in his footsteps. Due to his having shed his blood, the condition was set through which Satan would be able to violate the physical bodies of all Christians in the world, and so many people would be made to shed blood and make sacrifices. Moreover, he knew that the footholds prepared for four thousand years, the nation of Israel and Judaism, would be left with no stone standing upon another. When he thought about the toils of God in the four thousand years of His providence, he had no choice except to cry out such a prayer, sweating blood. You need to understand this.
That is why, at the final moment of his passing, Jesus said, “My God, why have You forsaken me?” What do you think is the meaning of this prayer? We need to know that the world being engulfed for three hours in darkness when he died means that the world that could have been realized according to God’s Will was engulfed in darkness. You have now come to understand that the Messiah did not have to die in his historical age. He came to fulfill the Will for the kingdom of heaven on earth in his age. You cannot deny it.
Jesus was born from a woman
Then let us now ponder the matter of how the returning Lord will come in the future. There are dual prophecies in die New Testament, just as in the Old Testament. It means that today’s Christians are in the exact same position as the Jews at Jesus’ time. The only differences are that the Christian sphere has been expanded globally, and that Christianity does not have both the flesh and the spirit, for it only has the spirit. It does not have a nation. In other words, it does not have a foundation on the national level like the chosen people of Israel. Why is this so? It is because Jesus died. Therefore, we need to understand that its position is inferior to that of Judaism at Jesus’ time.
Jesus succeeded in becoming the spiritual king. In other words, in spite of the fact that the Will of God is to save humanity, to exile Satan, and to become the King, due to the death of Jesus God was unable to subjugate Satan’s world on earth completely. Since this Will of establishing a nation that God can govern, by exiling Satan and making Jesus its king, could not be fulfilled, and since it is the Messiah who needs to fulfill this Will, he must come again. Therefore, all Christians in the world need to become one and, centering on the Coming Lord, they need to make a strong global nation that goes far beyond the mistakes of the past, in order to establish the kingdom of heaven on this earth.
In the Book of Revelation 1:7, it is prophesied that the Lord will come on clouds. First Thessalonians 5:2, on the other hand, states that he will come like a thief. How can he come like a thief when he comes on clouds? Can you decide on your own not to believe in the Lord who comes like a thief and only believe in the Lord who comes on clouds? If you believe that he comes on clouds, you are the same as the people of the Old Testament when they believed in Elijah and the Messiah coming on clouds. If, on the other hand, he comes like a thief, as 1 Thessalonians tells us, he will come as a human being.
Based on how God has carried out His work in the Old Testament Age, do you think that Jesus will come on clouds? If you believe that, you will end up seizing and killing him again. The people who believe in Jesus will seize and kill the one who comes again.
What I am saying is that it is best to be open to both prophecies, and affirm that he could come on clouds and he could just as well come as a human being. Why? Well, if the people who believe that he comes on clouds see that he has come as a man, they might seize him and kill him. However, if you believe that the Lord will come as a man, and then he comes on the clouds, you will undoubtedly welcome him. It is written in Revelation 12:5, “And she gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” saying, in effect, that a woman will give birth to the Messiah. Until now, the church had no other way of interpreting this passage other than attaching it to a coming on the clouds.
However, let me suggest to you that such passages in the Bible will be falsified if he does indeed come on clouds. Please look up the Gospel of Luke 17:20 and following. “Once Jesus was asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God was coming, and he answered, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be observed.’” Would you not observe the Lord coining on the clouds? And Luke 17:22 states, “The days are coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, and you will not see it”
How would you not see it if he came on clouds? In Luke 17:25, it is said, “But first he must endure much suffering and be rejected by this generation. Just as it was in the days of Noah, so too it will be in the days of the Son of Man.” How could a Lord who comes on clouds be made to suffer? How could things be as wretched as they were at the time of Noah? Such a thing would happen only if he comes as a man. If he comes as a man, things will turn out as described without a doubt.
If all the Christians in the world believe that the Lord is to come on the clouds, and he comes as a man, wouldn’t people with unassailable foundations of power, such as the pope and the bishops, issue the command to seize and kill him as a heretic who is destroying Christianity and God’s Will? Ladies and gentlemen, wouldn’t that be the case? The Bible tells us as much, and because historical facts lead us to the same conclusion, we can be certain that God is alive and that His Will works according to a plan and with authority.
Fortunately for you, this Mr. Moon has appeared here and is teaching you these things enthusiastically. If there were no one teaching you such things, you would seize and kill the Messiah again. You would have no option other than to seize and kill him. The time has come. Can you guarantee that, if Reverend Moon did not cause you to think twice, you would not do so?
If we go on to read Luke 18:8, we find the question, “When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?” These words refer not to those who believe in him, but to those who will not have faith in him. If he comes on the clouds for all eyes to see, how could he find people on earth who don’t believe? You would act in the same way as the religious devotees of Jesus’ time. If everyone believes that he will come on the clouds, and then he comes as a man, would there be even one person who believes him? Among the disciples of Jesus, were there scribes and priests? Can you find among them even one person of conventional faith? Considering all this, the words of the Bible would be proven false if he comes on clouds.
Christianity has to receive the Lord who comes as a person
What would God want? Would He want to be the God of a Christian denomination, or would He wish to be the God of all humanity? His Will is to be the God of humanity on the world level. The Savior did not come to save only Christianity. He came to save the world.
The Bible verse that you know so well, John 3:16, states, “For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.” It does not say that He loved only a religious denomination or an individual, does it? It says He loved the world. Then has the entire world found this God? Has it exiled Satan? Since human beings were lost on earth, the Messiah must come down to earth to restore all people.
That is why it says in Matthew 16:19 that when Jesus went to the spirit world, he gave Peter the keys of the kingdom of heaven and said, “Whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven,” meaning that the earth is the central concern. Everything needs to be resolved on earth.
Has a kingship through which God can reign over the entire world of humanity been established on this earth? Since Satan holds the kingship, if God were not able to establish His kingship, He would not be able to carry out His plans and He would not be God of failure. Because of whom? Because of Satan. Then the conclusion would be that He is inferior to Satan. This is why God said, as stated in Isaiah 46:11, “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have planned, and I will do it.”
Let us come to a conclusion. We have fallen Adam and Eve, and from them came evil ancestors, evil husband and wife, and evil siblings. Because we have not had original, good and true ancestors, husband and wife, and siblings, we cannot give birth to sinless sons and daughters. We will not be able to do so unless we see all this realized here on earth. Therefore, if we cannot restore the True Family centered on God, we cannot recover the nation and the world either.
That is why Jesus needs to come back to this earth and form a family beloved by God. In short, he needs to come as the bridegroom and find his bride, for only then can True Parents come to be, can true husband and wife come to be, and can true brothers and sisters come to be. Because this was not conclusively achieved, Jesus prophesied that he would come again to achieve it, and this is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb at which the bridegroom will take a bride.
Only when there is a True Family can the tribe be restored, can the people be restored, can the nation be restored and can the world be restored, and so the family is the problem. You need to understand that the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is held so the coming bridegroom and bride can set up the family. You need to know that the bridegroom and the bride must meet. The Will at the Alpha, which would have been fulfilled by God when there was no Fall, will be fulfilled at the Omega after going once around in a circle and eliminating the evil world.
The Fall of the first Adam needed to be restored by the coining Jesus who is the second Adam. Because he was unable to complete this, it is something that needs to be completed by his coming and trying again for the third time. This is grounded in the statement in 1 Corinthians 15:45 that Jesus is the second Adam. You need to know that, since he cannot achieve all this if he comes on clouds, he needs to come as a human being. Therefore, you need to realize that it is the mission of Christianity to receive the Coming Lord, to make a new kingship in the world and establish the heavenly kingdom centering on the true ancestors of humanity, the true husband and wife, and the new Christianity.
I hope that, with the realization that such a time is approaching right before our eyes, you will be able to enter such a place in the midst of your prayers. I would like to conclude my speech with the request that you will ponder what I have said to you this evening, that you will not jump to conclusions, and that you will try to resolve your questions by talking to God in prayer.
Thank you.