Reverend Sun Myung Moon
February 21, 1972
Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University
Washington, D. C.
Probable Translator: Bo Hi Pak
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. I thank You very much for your coming. The subject tonight which I would like to deal with is "The New Messiah, and the Formula of God in History."
The Messiah means the savior. It is not a joyful thing, and it is not pleasant either, that mankind has to look forward to the savior. It is not a happy event. If our ancestors had not fallen, there would have been no necessity for the savior. Because of the human fall the necessity for salvation arises. If we had not fallen, we would not have to worry about either heaven or hell, because we would be born in heaven. However, because of the human fall, the great problem of salvation arises. We need the Messiah. we need a savior.
At the end of this age, we are looking forward to having the Messiah on earth. But no one is really sure for what specific purpose the Messiah will come. No one is sure. Many people are not sure why a Messiah is necessary. There are many denominations in the Christian community which say there is no need to speak of the Lord of the Second Advent. But I do say here: the Messiah must come.
Jesus taught: "You must forgive your enemy seven times seventy." We believe that when the Messiah comes, we will separate good from evil and he will uplift the good; in other words, he will come for judgment. Of course, his mission will be to save mankind. In order to save mankind, he will have to subjugate Satan, who has been the lord of this earth. When Jesus said "You must forgive your enemy seven times seventy," that does not mean we must forgive our enemy, Satan, Jesus was not telling us that. What he was saying is that you must forgive the men who are the victims of Satan. We know that God is a living God. John 3:16 says, "God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, And those who have believed in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus is the center of God's love. Then, why is it that God must not forgive Satan? We must discuss this problem: it is a very important one.
What was the sin of Satan? Why could not that particular sin be forgiven? There are many people who believe that Satan has existed together with God from the very beginning. In other words, there were two points of origin in the Universe, God and Satan. I met a very famous minister in the United States who expressed this view, saying that Satan was there from the beginning. If that were true, then Satan is an original being. This leaves no hope for human salvation, because if Satan was there from the very beginning, then God can do nothing to get rid of Satan, because they are both points of origin. Then, how could we expect to overcome the Satanic power? Our battle for salvation would never cease, even after reaching the spirit world. God is the center of the spirit world. If Satan exists there, then our battle will never cease. Jesus is fighting against Satan; therefore we must fight against Satan, too. To have two points of origin for the Universe is not a believable theory. Then, we must consider when and how Satan came into being. If there is no Satan, there is no need for a savior; there is no need for the coming of Jesus. As long as there is Satan, God's work of salvation will continue, and the Messiah must come. Then, we come to the conclusion that Satan came into being after the beginning of human history.
The fall of man indicates an abnormal condition. Something is out of order. The fall of man was brought about by Satan, the Devil. Let's look at the true picture of Satan, then. The reality of Satan's existence today is represented by the fact that there has been no one who has uncovered the true picture of Satan, and no one who has truly exposed Satan's sin. Any criminal, as long as his crime has been left in the dark, can remain free. Without proof, he cannot be accused. But even the littlest boy who has himself witnessed the crime, can present evidence to accuse the criminal of his crime. Then, we can reveal the nature of the crime and the very nature of the criminal himself. That same principle applies to Satan. Let us consider several verses from the Bible in order to reveal the true picture of Satan.
When we look at the Book of Revelation, Chapter 12, verse 9, it says "The great Dragon was thrown down, that ancient Serpent who has been called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world." In other words, somewhere in Heaven, something went wrong, not here on earth. Satan is called the ancient Serpent and is the same one who enticed Eve. In order to deceive Eve, Satan must have been able to understand the conversations between God and man. Therefore, he must be a being of intelligence -- a spiritual entity. Thus, we can understand that what is meant in this verse is not literally a serpent here on earth. Then, what kind of crime has the spiritual being whom we symbolically call "Serpent" committed?
The Book of Jude, Chapter 1 , verse 6, states that those angels who sinned were cast into the pit of darkness, to be kept there until the Day Of Judgement. Furthermore, we are told that they committed immoral acts and experienced unnatural lust and for this they were put under punishment until the last days. Therefore, we can readily understand that the crime of Satan must be adultery. Satan won over the first man and woman, thus becoming Lord of the Earth, and King of the Universe. Then how did Satan deprive God of that power of controlling all mankind? How? Ever since the fall of man, this world, this universe, has not been controlled by the power of God. It has been controlled by the power of Satan. We must sadly recognize that all men come under the control of Satan, the evil power. Also, we know we have original sin. This sin was committed by our ancestors, Adam and Eve. Then, what kind of crime was it that caused us to inherit their sin from generation to generation up until today? We have not been able to root out this original sin. It still persists in every human being, and therefore, Satan remains ruler.
Today, many Christians believe that by the power of Jesus, by the blood of Jesus, we have been saved to perfection. Then, I must ask you if you are completely saved to perfection. To be this, you must be without sin, like the original man. You must be able to give birth to children without sin. Is there any such person who exists? No. Consider the disciples of Jesus. When they married, and gave birth to children, could those children have been saved Without faith? No. They too had to walk the same road for salvation. This is proof that original sin has not yet been rooted out.
Then, what is it that affects us from one generation to another? It must somehow be related to our lineage. Therefore we call readily understand that the original sin which our forefathers committed was adultery. Adultery cannot be committed alone. In the Garden of Eden, there was God, Adam and Eve, and the angel. We have already determined that the angel committed a crime. Then the angel must have had somebody, all object, with whom to commit the crime. The angel's object must have been Eve. Therefore, this evil act originated from the angel, came to Eve, and then to Adam, thus spoiling the entire human generation.
In the Bible it says that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Jesus said that what goes into the mouth cannot defile man, but what comes out of the mouth, that is what can defile a man. Consider the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. If Adam and Eve ate the fruit, it must be touched by the hands first, then brought into the mouth. And from the mouth, it would be brought into the body. The Bible also says that as soon as they committed the evil act, instead of hiding their hands or mouth, they hid their sexual parts. Why is that?
Here we can see some related truths. We already noted that the angel's sin was adultery. Then the human sin was hidden by aprons which covered the sexual areas of their bodies. Therefore, they must have had a sexual relationship. And Eve, after having committed this act, the eating of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, forced Adam to do the same. We can see that the sin of adultery occurred between the angel and Eve first. Then Eve suddenly knew that her God -- given husband was not supposed to be the angel. She realized it was to be Adam. So she forced Adam to repeat the same act.
The moment she and the angel committed the sin, their eyes were opened and they became wiser, meaning they realized their transgression. When Eve became wiser, she knew that she had committed a crime. Seeking comfort, she went to Adam, her companion. Then, both of them repeated the same crime of adultery, felt shame, and hid their lower parts.
We all have a tendency to hide a shameful area. They could not expose that portion of the body to the light of God. In the Book of Job, it says, "When did I hide my iniquity like Adam?" For Adam must hide his iniquity. If anybody has a scar on his or her face, then the person who has that scar will try very hard to conceal it. This is just human nature, a natural tendency. So, throughout the Bible, that same human tendency was exercised -- not hiding the hands or mouth, but hiding the lower parts of the body.
The Gospel of John, Chapter 8, verse 44, says "You are of your father the Devil. Your will is to do your father's desire." Here Jesus is saying that your ancestor is the Devil. Similarly, John the Baptist, accusing the people of a lack of faith, shouted "You brood of vipers." The New Testament reveals that human iniquity, human sin, has something to do with the Serpent. Ladies and gentlemen, this is not my own logic, created by me. It is only through revelation from God that I have reached this truth. In other words, we have inherited stained blood from Satan. That stained blood passes down from generation to generation. Alas, it is such a sad fact that in our bloodstream the Satanic blood and not God's blood has been handed down. Therefore, the fall involved the staining of man's blood. It is not easy to cleanse stained blood. We call then realize how God's Heart must ache, knowing that the human fall involved the deep crime of adultery.
There are many teachings of the Bible which are paradoxical. For example, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it." Thus there is something of a deadly or very serious nature which we have to go through. Jesus proclaimed, "You must love me most, more than your own father, mother, or brother. You must love me most, more than anyone else." This means that we must establish a new relationship of heavenly love. We must separate ourselves from this Satanic, stained love. From this I draw the conclusion that to go to heaven, men must deny the worldly relationship of love.
John, Chapter 3 records that Nicodemus came to Jesus. Jesus knew what he was up to. Jesus explained to him, "You must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Don't you even know that?" But Nicodemus couldn't understand. "How call I go back to my mother's womb? And could I be born again? How could that be possible?" But the truth remains. We must be born again, because the first birth was the wrong one. I am sure you find at this moment that a great gap exists between the conventional belief of Christianity and our true Father's Heart, which has just been explained.
In the Bible, we find the fact that the elder son could not deserve the blessing from God. Only the second son was given the blessing. For example, there was the blessing which Jacob gave to his own grandchildren. There, he crossed his arms so that the right arm went to the second son and the left arm went to the elder son. His son protested saying, "Don't do this. Why should you do this?" But Jacob was adamant. There must be some serious meaning behind this.
According to the Bible, all the Israeli people of the Old Testament had to go through circumcision, according to the covenant between God and man. Then also, the Old Testament says "an eye for an eye," "a wound for a wound," "life to life," and "death to death." "You must pay as you receive." Why did circumcision happen to be the covenant between God and man? Because it is this very condition which centers on that part of the body having to do with the original nature of the sin.
Adam, through this evil relationship, brought stained blood into his body. Therefore, all men since Adam have had to make this condition by cutting that particular part; thus through circumcision symbolically letting out the dirty, stained blood. The Hebrew people, when they used to swear, put their hand on their thigh bone. This is also related to the nature of the original sin, because our forefather committed a crime, using that particular part of the body. Therefore, God is saying, "Whenever you swear, remember the sin which your father committed." Also, when Jacob was returning from Haran, he struggled all night with an angel. And he was winning. However, before he received the blessing from the angel, the angel touched the hollow of his thigh. Then he blessed him. Why? God time after time reminded mankind of the original sin, which was adultery.
During the Old Testament Age, you could not come into the sight of God without a sacrifice. The sacrifice is a symbolic representation of your being, yourself. Do you think God likes blood? No, He doesn't. God is love. Then why does He ask for sacrifice? You must, through the sacrifice, let out the stained blood. This is a conditional ceremony, to let people know what kind of crime our ancestors committed. So we know we cannot literally interpret the Bible and believe literally that by eating the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we committed a sin. It was not a literal fruit. There is a deep meaning behind it; it is a symbolic revelation of human sin. We cannot deny, then, that from every angle the first human sin was adultery, staining the bloodstream of mankind, passing this stain from generation to generation.
With this truth, we must look at ourselves. Satan gave us his own blood. We are the children of Satan. Thus, Satan is ruling over us, making a claim on us. There was an illicit relationship of love committed by our ancestors and this original sin has stained our blood. The Messiah must come to correct this formidable wrong, this crime that prevails upon the earth. God cannot leave His children fallen. Therefore, on the very day of the human fall, God initiated the work of restoration. In other words, the whole world has become symbolically like the wild olive tree. According to His law, God cannot claim His rightful ownership of man without paying the necessary price. To do this, He must make certain conditions. Therefore, God has been working step by step to restore fallen man.
He started His work from Jacob. Yesterday I explained how Jacob won over the angel and over his elder brother, Esau. Therefore, Jacob created the first foothold of God upon the earth. Expanding this base, God has been planning to control one nation. God has been in this way making the wild olive tree His base or foundation upon which the true olive tree can be sent. This base was Israel. For 2,000 years, God promised to send the Messiah, the one true olive tree, to this nation. But where and how did he come?
If man had not fallen, the original man would have had no relationship with Satan. But, because of the fall, the human lineage is stained. Therefore, the Messiah cannot come through the Satan controlled human lineage. He must come from a different source. Yet there is no one who can claim that he is not stained. Without knowing all these things, the Messiah cannot come.
Therefore, I would like to explain how throughout history God has been working to cleanse the stained bloodstream of mankind. This problem arises because of the fall of man. The first day of my lecture I explained the concept of the original world which God designed. In other words, man was supposed to have been perfected in God's love, and then united with his mate. Together man and woman would multiply unstained children who would become the children of God and the Temples of God, having no relationship whatsoever with Satan. Adam and Eve should have become temples of God, and His visible external form. Corinthians (1) Chapter 3, verse 16 states, "Don't you know that you are the temple of God, and that the spirit of God is dwelling in you?" So you can see readily that Adam and Eve were created as temples of God in which God could dwell.
God created man in His own image. In other words, God, the invisible spirit being, created a visible image, a visible God, through whom He could have give and take and receive joy. This was man. If Adam and Eve had consummated this ideal of creation, uniting with God, they would have established the Kingdom of Heaven. Then, through their unity in perfect marriage centered on God's love, their firstborn child would have become the child of God through whom God would receive the most joy and glory. The second son, of course, would also be the son of God. Such terminology as "sacrifice," or "battle," or "fighting" would never have existed in that world. But Adam and Eve, instead of welcoming God's spirit in their heart, united with Satan. Therefore, their first child, Cain, became Satan's son. Originally, there was one love -- God's Eve, and the position of the firstborn, the fruit of that love, was very precious in God's sight. However, this precious first love was lost: it was given to Satan. Therefore, God could not claim the firstborn.
Satan knew that even though he took Cain, the fruit of the first love of Adam and Eve, God remained the original Lord of Man. Therefore, Satan had to recognize God's claim on man. Man is in a position between two lords. Man's first love, through Eve, was with Satan, a fallen angel. Eve's second love with Adam, even though it was a fallen relationship, was closer to God's law or principle. Thus, the process of the fall was committed through two consecutive illicit love relationships.
The first love was with Satan and the second love was with Adam, with Eve as the center. However, between the two, the second love was the lesser evil. Therefore, even though God had to give up the first relationship, which was totally Satanic, He could still make a claim on man, on the basis of the second relationship. So, throughout history God has been claiming ownership of the second born son. However, this is not the original concept of God's creation. Originally, the firstborn should, of course, have been God's. And so, God's work of restoration in history has hinged upon restoring the birthright of the first son.
In the course of man's fallen history, God has always blessed the second son and hated the first son. After the fall, Cain and Abel offered sacrifices to God. Cain was the firstborn, and Abel was the second born. God accepted the offering from the second son, Abel, but rejected Cain's offering.
Until now, conventional theology has explained this by saying that Cain's sacrifice was rejected because it was the sacrifice of blood. We can see that this is not so. The person who offered the sacrifice is the key. If Cain had really returned to God, with absolute faith, the human race would have found hope and human history would have been entirely different.
Originally, Adam was created to fulfill the sonship of God. The angel was created to fulfill the servantship of God. Therefore, Adam was given the right to have control, or dominion, over the angel. But, instead, this was reversed and the angel gained control over Adam and Eve. This was the fall.
To restore this, Cain, who represented Satan's side, could not go to God directly. He had to go through the proper channel or acceptable line. This was Abel. Thus, he should have made his offering through Abel. This is why God accepted Abel's offering with joy and rejected Cain's.
Because Cain was in Satan's position, he had to pay restitution for the crime which Satan committed. Therefore, even after God's rejection of his offering, instead of becoming wrathful, he should have gone to God through Abel. But he did not do this. Instead, he was so angry that he killed his younger brother. In other words, Cain actually repeated the Fall of Man in the Garden of Eden.
The angel, who was supposed to be Adam's servant, dominated him and killed his spirit. Similarly, Cain dominated and killed his younger brother. Thus, the fruit of evil came into being on the earth. Because of this, God has been seeking restoration of man's birthright. In order to pay for Satan's crime in the Garden of Eden, man's lost birthright must be regained. To do this, the elder brother, in the position of servant, has to go through the younger brother. However, because the separately born brothers, elder and younger, failed to restore the birthright in Adam's family, God worked to narrow His Providence down to an even more difficult situation.
The human fall came about because of divisive love. Originally, man was supposed to be the fruit of one love. However, through the fall, illicit love came into being. Therefore, in order to restore His one unifying love, God narrowed down the path, from the brothers Abel and Cain, to the twins Jacob and Esau. The one who sowed the crime (of the fall) was Eve; the one who reaped the crime was Cain. The crime was committed from cause to result: from mother to son. Therefore, since restoration means movement in the opposite direction, reversing what failed, mother and son must cooperate.
When Rebecca was pregnant with the twins, they were fighting, even before they were born. So Rebecca came to the Lord and sadly protested, "What should I do? The children are fighting, even before their birth. I should have been dead." The Lord declared to her, saying that "There are two nations inside your womb, and the elder must serve the younger." Then Esau and Jacob were born as twins in that order. The second born son was Jacob, who was thus in the position to receive God's love. So God's providence centered on Jacob.
Esau was not serious about God's blessing. When Isaac, the father, was ready to give the blessing, the mother, Rebecca, cooperated with her second son, Jacob. He took his father's blessing, which should have gone to Esau. God's blessing and love was lost by the cooperation between Eve and her son Cain. Therefore, in the course of restoration, the mother, Rebecca, must work with the second son, Jacob, to produce God centered results. The account in Genesis reveals that they used their wisdom. Isaac, who was nearly blind, knew that his firstborn was a hairy man. So Jacob, with the help of his mother. became a hairy by covering himself with the skin of a lamb, and thus pretended to be Esau. (Esau. as I said before. was not serious about God's blessing. He had previously sold his birthright to his younger brother. This was very significant, for it was at this very point that a condition for the establishment of the foothold of God on earth was set.) Learning that his father had blessed Jacob, Esau almost repeated the fallen act of Cain, by killing his younger brother. He Was furious with Jacob. I will not, however, go into detail on this particular part of the truth, because it takes much longer than we have available.
Are you aware that twins often understand each other's feelings quite readily? Jacob won the victory over Esau. In other words. he won the birthright from Esau. However, this entire process of restoration was accomplished after they were born. Since they were twins, their successful restoration of the birthright represented a narrowing down from the relationship of Cain and Abel, who were born separately. When Jacob and Esau succeeded in this process of restoration, they were most probably in their middle age. Thus, God could claim that period of time in man's life. However, life before that time was still claimed by Satan. Therefore, it was necessary to continue the process of narrowing down the restoration another step, going into the mother's womb itself.
Jacob had a son called Judah. Judah had a daughter-in-law named Tamar, who should have had children through her regular marital relationship. Realizing that this was not possible, though, she tempted her father-in-law Judah into an illicit relationship with her and children were conceived. In Chapter 38 of Genesis you will find the complete story of this particular event. Tamar, even at the risk of being stoned as an adulteress conceived a child. She was fully determined to do God's will, putting her life on the line in this case. It was necessary for the Providence that she be in this position of rejecting her very life, which had been received from the Satanic world. Thus. she had an affair with her father-in-law and conceived a child.
The struggle between the two brothers began before birth, in the womb of Tamar. Tamar, knowing this fact, came to the Lord. God gave her the same answer as He did Rebecca, saying that "You have two nations inside your womb, and the elder must serve the younger." As the time of birth drew near, the first son was ready to emerge, and his arm came out first. The midwife put a red string on his wrist. This was a symbolic sign, representing the emergence of the Communist world (whose symbol is red) at this time in human history.
In the womb, at that critical moment, the struggle continued. The elder son, Zerah, who had the red string on his wrist, went back inside and his younger brother Perez came out first. The name Perez comes from the expression "to push aside." So the struggle of restoration which God had intended for the brothers Cain and Abel, and then for the twins Esau and Jacob was now once more mysteriously repeated in the struggle between Zerah and Perez inside their mother's womb. So, God was victorious in restoring the birthright of the elder son before birth. For the complete fulfillment of this act, however, God had to wait quite some time, until the birth of Jesus. Jesus was destined to come from this lineage. It was necessary, however, that God wait until this line had passed through the tribal and racial levels and had become the nation of Israel.
Mary, to whom God gave the most important mission, that of giving birth to the Messiah, had to put herself, like Tamar, in a sacrificial position. In other words, she had to separate herself from the Satanic world. To do this, Mary had to undergo a grave risk.
Why was it that she and Joseph were still in the engagement state and not already married when the child was conceived? This was because Adam and Eve fell during their period of engagement, not after their wedding. During the engagement period, Adam and Eve were taken by Satan. Therefore, to restore this, it was necessary for the time of Mary's conception of the baby Jesus to be during the engagement period.
The baby Jesus was conceived in the womb of Mary, yet Satan could not claim his own blood in Jesus. This was so because God had already set the necessary conditions throughout history in the generations since Tamar and the affair of Zerah and Perez. Throughout the lineage of Jesus, God had already paid indemnity for Jesus' birth to be a special one. I wish I could have time to explain all the background information. However, it might take five hours or more, so I will not. What I am driving at is this: Jesus was born without sin. Jesus came without having anything to do with Satanic blood. It had been completely separated from him -- God had prepared this line for a long, long time, so that Jesus could come as a sinless child. Therefore, he was indeed able to claim "I am the only begotten Son, the only Son of God."
In human history, this was the first time a sinless child was born on earth. "I am one with God," Jesus said. "The person who has seen me has seen the Father," he said. In the 14th Chapter of the Book of John, verse 20, Jesus says, "I am in my Father and you in me; and I in you. He who has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me; and he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him." So Jesus came to restore the sinless position of love, the love which had been lost since the time of Adam. This fact has not been known until now.
There is a reason, a most important reason, why no one could come to the Father except by going through Jesus. He is our only bridge, our only hope, our only channel for reaching God. Therefore, Jesus proclaimed, "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life, and without going through me, no one reaches the Father."
There have been in human history many saints, many religious geniuses, many wise men. But no one else could play the role of Jesus, who alone brings us to the Father. This is because he came in a stainless, sinless position which no one else has. He is the only channel to reach God. Though Buddha, Confucius and Mohammed were all religious saints, yet they did not have the same relationship with God that Jesus had. Therefore, the birth of Jesus as the Messiah was the Day of Hope for all mankind.
In His dispensation, God prepared a field of wild olive trees, symbolic of the nation of Israel. Upon this foundation, He sent one true olive tree. He intended to cut and graft onto this one true olive tree all of the branches from the wild olive trees, so that they could receive new life and a new blood lineage from God. Once grafted, the wild olive tree branches would bear true fruit, like that of the true olive tree. In other words, this grafting act makes things whole and new. So Jesus came as the true olive tree. For him to succeed, all the wild olive trees would have to become branches of the true olive tree on the family, tribal, racial and national levels. Thus, Jesus would be the center of each level.
Jesus came for this mission. But he could not accomplish it by himself. In order to bear true fruit, Jesus, the true olive tree, the savior, had to take a bride here upon the earth. Through their union, the new lineage would be multiplied.
Yesterday, I emphasized the importance of the Jewish religion and the Hebrew nation for God's dispensation, as preparation for the coming Messiah. Jesus was to be received by this nation, this prepared people. This, however, did not occur. Jesus was rejected. Jesus came as the Messiah. The people of Israel should have been the foundation for the coming of the Messiah. But they did not fulfill this purpose. Therefore, the Messiah must come again to consummate the mission which was not fulfilled two thousand years ago.
Instead of grafting branches of the wild olive trees onto himself, Jesus was crucified. When he left the earth, he promised "I will come as a bridegroom; you must be ready as a bride." God's history of 4000 years of preparation up to the time of Jesus was lost. All of the preparation was in vain. Thus, in order for God's Providence of restoration to be fulfilled, these lost acts must be repeated. Therefore, the new Messiah must come. In the last days of human history the new Messiah will have the role of the true olive tree. He must come again so that our branches can be grafted into him.
I wish I could go through the details of the relationship between Jesus and John the Baptist. However, I will skip this area and would ask that you read about it. I would like to say to you that the time for the coming of the new Messiah is at hand. How do you think he will come? Will he come from the air?
When Jesus ascended into heaven, he left the keys to the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth, in the hands of Peter. The Kingdom of Heaven failed, not up in the sky, in heaven, but here on earth. Matthew, Chapter 18, verse 18 says, "Whatever you bind here on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Today, no matter how deep our faith in Christianity is, we cannot become the true sons of God. The highest level to which we call be lifted up is the level of adopted sons. As Romans 8:23 states, "we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit . . . wait for adoption as sons . . . ."
What is the difference between an adopted son and a true son? An adopted son has nothing to do with his adopted father's lineage. Thus, there is another level ahead of us before we can become true sons of God. Adopted sonship, for which many Christians are waiting, is not the ultimate destination.
Also, the field of wild olive trees exists only in spirit. Currently, there is no area on earth, no nation, no place in which God can sow His wild olive trees under His own dominion. At the time of Jesus, Israel existed in order to receive Jesus. But today, there is no nation like Israel which is ready to accept the coming Messiah. Furthermore, there is no group, no race, no tribe which is preparing for his coming. There is no Christian faith, no particular denomination which is ready for this. There is no individual who is preparing this foundation. Therefore, in order for man to prepare properly, God must proclaim the Day of the Coming of the New Messiah. It is with this mission that I am here: to proclaim his coming. I am heralding the Kingdom of Heaven which is near, that you might prepare yourselves.
The New Messiah, I conclude, will come on earth. In Revelation, Chapter 12, it says that "The woman will give birth to a son, who will have the power of iron, and he will be lifted up to the throne of God." The son who will come to the earth with the power of iron, ruling all the nations will be the Messiah. We must receive him when he comes. Otherwise, we will not have a true olive tree on which to be grafted.
In order for this foundation to be ready, similar to Israel in Jesus' time, we must go through the same process of preparation that Israel went through 2,000 years ago. God works according to principle and law. The fall of man came into being through the disobedience of man. Satan took man and thus the true love which should have belonged to God was lost. The results of the fall were first, disbelief; secondly, loss of one's own self; and thirdly, loss of love.
In the course of restoration, then, we must retrieve all of these by moving in the opposite direction. Therefore, in order to restore disbelief, God has been seeking individuals of absolute faith on earth. During the time of Abel and Cain, absolute faith in God was required. Thus, their sacrifices should have been accompanied by absolute obedience and faith, thus restoring the position of disbelief and overcoming Satanic accusation. We must separate ourselves from Satan. Only then can we receive the blessing from God. We must believe when belief seems impossible. We must reach the point where we cannot be separated from God. To do this, we must make the impossible possible. Through this process we will receive God's blessing and love without accusation.
There is a good example of this in the Old Testament. During the time of Noah, Noah did something which seemed impossible. God instructed him to build an ark. However, He asked Noah to build it not at the shore, nor at the riverside, but on top of a mountain! Could you believe this? And do you know how many years it took Noah to construct? Not 10 years, nor 40 years, but 120 years, during which time all his neighbors and friends just laughed at him. Suppose you were the wife of Noah, or his son. Do you think you could trust such a husband, or such a father for 120 years without losing face? No, it's impossible. Yet, God wants the kind of faith where you believe in Him, in His words, and in His instructions, when it seems impossible for you to do so.
Let's examine Abraham. Abraham had a very good family life. He was engaged in the idol making business. Then suddenly, the instructions came from God, "Leave everything, leave your place." If Abraham had thought, "No, wait a minute, I cannot leave here, I must stay and live and enjoy the remainder of my life," then Abraham's mission would never even have begun. If Abraham, before making up his mind, had discussed this with his wife and the members of his family. I don't think he would have followed God's way. But when the instructions came from God, he dropped everything and took off. He left for all unknown destination without any promise of anything: it took a great deal of faith. But Abraham never doubted God, not even for a moment. He placed his absolute faith in God and feared nothing. It was only on the basis of this condition that God could bless Abraham, saying "Your generation will be like the twinkling stars in the sky and the sand in the ocean."
Let us examine Jacob. Upon receiving the blessing from his father, he left for 21 years for all unknown destination in the land of Haran. Only upon such faith can God act. The case of Moses was the same. He trusted God, who loved Israel. Therefore, he gave up his own luxurious life in Pharaoh's palace and took off. Moses went out into the wilderness and suffered many hardships. But his faith in God was never shaken, and because of this, God gave him a great mission: to lead the Israelites into Canaan.
John the Baptist, too, was no exception. He lived in the wilderness for 30 years, eating only locusts and wild honey, while pursuing the road to God. His faith was there. I have mentioned these examples in order to demonstrate how these great men time after time demonstrated their faith in God even in quite abnormal situations. Today God is working for the foundation of the coming new Messiah. In His preparations, He cannot deviate from the principles He has applied throughout history. He is looking for the faith of Abraham, the faith of Jacob, the faith of Moses, and the faith of John the Baptist.
Today, we must admit that we are living in a difficult age -- an age of confusion. It is very difficult now to find true faith in God. However, God must find that very faith, in order for Him to work. Beyond nations, beyond circumstances, beyond all knowledge, and beyond all ideologies, God is looking for that deep faith which He can get hold of. He seeks the faith which enables a man to risk even his life, without being shattered. It is this kind of faith which God will use as the foundation upon which to send the new Messiah. Only upon seasoned faith can the proper foundation be created. The Messiah will come upon this foundation, working with this faith, overcoming all the difficulties and hardships that crop up. Then we will see hope.
The formation of this kind of faith must take place on the family, tribal, racial. and national levels. Divisions of faith, diversions and individual struggles and fighting -- these will never make good foundations. We must transcend all these and really seek after one God, one faith. We must prepare one nation. Though it need not necessarily be bound by any national boundary, still it must take the form of a nation like Israel, so that when the new Messiah comes, he can descend upon it and work with it. As I said, this formation of a new faith as the foundation for the new Messiah must go beyond the boundaries of any one nation. Therefore, faiths from all over the world, recognizing this need and the imminence of the last days, will work with the new movement which has already started.
Our movement emphasizes the importance of the family unit as exemplified by the mass weddings we performed last year in Seoul, Korea. Thus, the Unification Church is forming the foundation for the new Messiah. We are doing this on the family, tribal, racial, and national levels, and on the cosmic level as well, gathering all people who are ready under one umbrella, preparing to receive the Messiah.
Here in the United States I saw many broken down families. But those broken families are not necessarily broken for a greater cause. Rather, they are just broken. It is not necessarily for a special mission or dispensation for God. I saw that there are many wandering youths here in the United States. Many youths do not have direction, but are just wandering, dismayed. And I heard of a new term "hippie" in this country. The family unit is breaking down into pieces. So there cannot be any family in this situation that can be ready for the coming Messiah. It is very difficult for God to get His work done under these conditions, where chaotic situations or confusion persist.
There must be order. There must be some new hope, new movement. I am afraid that America is greatly confused. We put tremendous hope in America, it is our hope that America is the country that is not only seeking after national interest, or America's interest, but going beyond that for the interests of the entire world. But I am afraid that this is not so.
We of the Unification Church are known as a youth movement. Ninety-nine percent of the members are young people. In many cases, they left their homes, but not without purpose. They have a definite purpose, a definite understanding, and a definite call of God. I have seen many rebellions of young people against their parents. I have seen it with great sadness. But our youth have appreciated their parents and have shed tears together with their parents. And that is in no sense a rebellion. It is not a rebellion, it is a crusade.
What we need in America is a new direction, a new awakening, a new sense of purpose. We must have this. We are launching a crusade, a great movement to awaken America and prepare her for the coming Messiah, so that this blessed nation can be used as a base for him. The blessing of this nation must be for all mankind, not just for America. I must say that with blessings come responsibilities. God puts great hope in America. And America must not fail Him. America is the hope of the world. This nation is critically important in the eyes of God. We must live up to His will and His expectations. So, the Unification Church here in America is serving as a fresh awakening pill. We are saying, "God, please use us as a sacrifice. Please awaken this nation, so that this nation is worthy of You."
The Unification Church will launch an extraordinary crusade for the next three years. We are mobilizing hundreds, thousands of youths, in this land, and they are going east and west and north and south to awaken this country to be worthy of God in the day of the coming of the new Messiah. If you have a feeling towards this, please pray for this crusade, this movement. I dare say to you today that this forthcoming movement, this youth crusade, will be the hope of America.
I will leave America on March 14. 1 know there will be hundreds of youths who will shed tears upon my departure. However, my final instruction to them, to these young people of America, is this: "Don't shed tears for me, but shed your tears and blood for your country, for America. This is my covenant with you."
The young people who have assembled under this banner, as forerunners awakening this country to be ready for the new Messiah, are charged with energy, and bubbling with enthusiasm and fire, like a bolt of lightning. They are willing to suffer in joy, and hunger -- they will win over hunger, they will win over any kind of hardship in joy.
Yesterday, I declared that the most critical, dangerous moment in the history of America and of the world will be in 1977 and 1978. In order to prepare for this day, our movement has been launched. Please be thinking of us, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. Give us your prayers, your support, in order for this movement to be ready for the dawn of the new day, the hope of America. Learn more about our movement, and after you have understood our work, please be with us.
The time of the Messiah is just like the time of war. You leave your family, your loved ones, to protect your country and protect your freedom. The time of the Messiah is even a much greater day. God might call upon you to drop everything, like Abraham, to participate in this historical crusade. Would you be willing to respond to it?
The Day of Hope, the Day of the Messiah is at hand. This is my message to you. Let us prepare ourselves to be worthy of his service, so that we will receive and accept him instead of rejecting him. His mission is to restore the original concept of God's creation, the ideal world, which I explained. Let us all participate in this great homecoming into the Garden of Eden. I thank you for your most serious listening.