Reverend Sun Myung Moon
February 21, 1972
Probable Translator: Bo Hi Pak
The term Messiah means savior. It is not, a pleasant matter that mankind needs a savior -- it is not a happy situation. If our ancestors had not fallen, there would have been no necessity for a savior. Because of the Fall, however, the necessity for salvation arises, If man had not fallen, we would not have to worry about heaven or hell, because we would be born, in heaven, here on earth. But such is not the case and 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 fully sure for what specific purpose he will come. No one is certain. Many people are not sure that 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 say here: the Messiah must come.
When the Messiah comes, he will separate good from evil and he will lift up the good. In other words, it will be a time of judgment. His mission will be to save mankind. In order to do so, he will have to subjugate Satan, who has been the Lord of this earth. When Jesus said, "You must forgive your enemy seventy times seven," he did not mean that we must forgive our enemy Satan. He was saying that we must forgive the men who are 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 believe in him will not perish, but have everlasting life." Jesus is the center of God's love. Then, why is it that Satan must not be forgiven? We must discuss this problem; it is an important one.
What was the sin of Satan? Why could that particular sin not be forgiven? There are many people who believe that Satan existed together with God from the beginning -- in other words, that there are two points of origin in the universe, God and Satan. I met a 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 existed from the beginning, God can do nothing to rid the world of him. 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. Jesus fought against Satan and we must fight against him too. To have two points of origin for the universe is not a credible theory, so we must consider how Satan came into being. As long as he exists, God's work of salvation must continue and the Messiah must come. Then, we come to the conclusion that Satan came into being. The Fall of man indicates an abnormal condition, something out of order. The Fall of man was brought about by Satan, the Devil. Let's look at the true picture of Satan. The fact that no one has uncovered the true identity of Satan or fully exposed his sin is a significant factor in his power in the world today. Any criminal, as long as his crime remains undiscovered, can remain free. Without proof of guilt, he cannot be convicted. But even the littlest boy who has witnessed the crime, can present evidence to convict the criminal. That same principle applies to Satan. Let us consider several verses from the Bible in order to reveal his true identity and the nature of his sin.
The Book of Revelation, 12:0, 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, as recorded in Genesis. 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. The Serpent in the scriptural passage was not literally a serpent then. What kind of crime has this being whom we symbolically call Serpent committed?
The Book of Jude, 1:6, states that the angels who sinned were cast into the pit of darkness, to be kept there until the Day of Judgment. 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. there are also many instances in the Bible where it is stated that the spirit of adultery, the spirit of the harlot, was the spirit of Satan. Sodom and Gomorrah and the surrounding cities which were involved in immoral practices were likewise punished. We can readily see then, that the sin of Satan was adultery. Through his sin Satan won over the first man and woman, thus becoming Lord of the Earth and King of the Universe. Since the fall of man this world has not been controlled by the power of God; it has been controlled by the power of Satan. We must sadly recognize that all man are still under the influence of Satan and those who work with him. Then how did Satan deprive God of His power -- His control -- by love of mankind? What kind of sin was it that we inherit from Adam and Eve from generation to generation right up to the present day? We have not been able to root out this original sin. It still persists in every human being., and therefore Satan remains the ruler of this world.
Today many Christians believe that by the power of Jesus, by his blood, we have been saved. Then I must ask you if you are completely saved. That means, without original sin and its effects, like the original man. You must be able to give birth to children without sin. Does such a person exist? No. Consider the disciples of Jesus; could their children have been saved without faith? No, they too, had to walk the same road for salvation. The evidence that original sin has not yet been rooted out is abundant.
Then what is the sin that affects us from one generation to another? it must somehow be related to our lineage. We already understand from scripture that the angel committed adultery. Since adultery cannot be committed alone, the angel must have had someone, an object with whom he sinned. Genesis indicates that the angel's object was Eve. Therefore, this evil act originated from the angel, came to Eve, and then to Adam, thus affecting the entire human generation. Let us examine this further.
In the Bible it says that Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This was not literally a piece of fruit. Jesus said that what goes into the mouth cannot defile the man, but what comes out of the mouth can. Consider the fruit of the Tree. If Adam and Eve ate the fruit and it was literally a piece of fruit, it must have first been touched by their hands, then brought to the mouth and consumed. The Bible also says that after their sin Adam and Eve covered not their hands or mouths, but the sexual areas of their bodies. The fruit is a symbol of their sexual relations. Genesis indicates that Eve gave Adam some of the fruit after she had received it from the angel. The sin occurred between the angel and Eve first. They immediately realized their transgression; Eve knew that she had done wrong. Seeking comfort, she went to Adam, her companion. They repeated the act, and feeling shame, covered their bodies. They could not expose them to the light of God. It is a natural tendency to conceal anything imperfect or of which one is ashamed. In the Book of Job, it says, "When did I hide my iniquity like Adam?" Throughout the Bible that same tendency was exhibited, that of concealing the lower parts of the body. The Gospel of John 8:44, says, "You are of your father the Devil, and your will is to do your I father's desire." Here Jesus is saying that your ancestor is the Devil. Similarly, John the Baptist, accusing the people of lack of faith shouted, "You brood of vipers." The Now Testament human iniquity, human sin, has something to do with the Serpent.
What I tell you is not from my own logic, not created by me It is only through revelation from God that I, have reached this truth. In other words, we have inherited Satan's lineage. That is, in some way our very life's blood has been affected by the Fall, even though Satan is spiritual and we are both physical and spiritual. That blood passes down from generation to generation It is 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. We can then realize how God's heart, must ache knowing the suffering that has resulted.
There are many teachings of the Bible which are paradoxical. For example, "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who looses his life for my sake will find it." There is something of a very serious nature which we have to go through. Jesus proclaimed, "You must love me most, more than anyone else. You must love me more than your father, mother, or brother. 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 relationship of love which is not of God.
John, Chapter 3, records that. Nicodemus came to Jesus . Jesus explained to him, "You must be born again in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Don't you know that?" Nicodemus did not understand. " How can I go back to my mother's womb? And how could I be born again?" But the truth remains, we must be born again, because the first birth was the wrong one. I am sure you find that a great gap exists between the conventional belief of Christianity and the truth which has just been explained.
In the Bible we find that the elder son could not receive 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. He crossed his arms so that his right arm went to the second son, Ephraim, and his left arm went to the elder son, Manasseh. Joseph protested, saying, "Father, do not do that, Ephraim is the second born, and Manasseh the first born. Please put your right hand on the first born." But Jacob said, "No. I know my son; I have a reason to do it."
According to the Bible, all the Hebrew men of the Old Testament had to undergo circumcision according to the covenant between God and man. The Old Testament says, "an eye for an eye, a wound for a wound, life for life, and death for death." You must pay as you receive. Circumcision was the covenant between God and man because it strikes that part of the body having to do with original sin. Furthermore, circumcision symbolically lets out the blood stained by Adam's sin. When Jacob was returning from Haran, he struggled all night with an angel. However, before he received the blessing from the angel, the angel touched and injured the hollow of his thigh. God time after time reminded mankind of the original sin.
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, your self. Do you think God likes blood? No, He does not -- He is the God of love. Then why does He ask for sacrifice? Through sacrifice one symbolically lets out, the blood affected by original sin. This is a conditional ceremony, blood effected by original sin. This is a conditional ceremony to reveal to people what kind of crime our ancestors committed. So we know we cannot literally interpret the Bible and believe that by eating a piece of fruit they committed a sin. It was not a literal fruit. There is a deep meaning behind it; it is a symbolic revelation of human sin. From every angle it is revealed that the first human sin was adultery, staining the bloodstream of mankind, passing this stain from generation to generation.
With this truth we must took at ourselves. Satan gave us his own blood. We are children of Satan. He is ruling over us, making a claim on us. The Messiah must come to correct this formidable wrong, this crime that prevails upon the earth. God cannot leave His children in a fallen state. Therefore, on the very day of the Fall, God initiated the work of restoration. In other words, the whole of mankind has symbolically become like wild olive trees. 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, He has been working step by step to restore fallen man.
He began His work with Jacob. 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 could 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?
Because of the Fall, human lineage is stained. Therefore, the Messiah could not come through that lineage. He had to come from a different source. Yet there is no one who can claim that he is not affected. Without knowing these things, the Messiah could not come. Therefore, God has been working to cleanse the blood of mankind. In the original world which God designed, man was supposed to have been perfected in God's love, and then united in marriage. Together man and woman would have produced children who would become the children of God and the Temples of God. Adam and Eve would have become Temples of God, and His visible external form. Corinthians 1,3:16, states, " Do you not know that you are the temples of God and that the spirit of God is dwelling in you?" So you can readily see that Adam and Eve were created as temples of God in which He could dwell.
God created man in His own image. In other words, God, the invisible spirit being, created a visible image, a visible God, with whom He could have give and take and receive joy. This visible image 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 "war" would never have existed in that world. But Adam and Eve, instead of welcoming God's spirit in their hearts, united with Satan. Therefore, their first child, Cain, Satan claimed as a son. Originally, there was one love, God's love for Adam and 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 was with Adam, and even though it was illicit, it was closer to God's law or principle. Therefore God could still make a claim on man, on the basis of the second relationship. So throughout history God has been claiming the second born son. However this is not the original concept of God's creation. Originally the firstborn should have been God's. So God's work of restoration in history has hinged upon restoring the birthright of the second son.
In the course of man's fallen history, God has always blessed the second son and hated the first son as representative of Satan. After the Fall, Cain and Abel offered sacrifice 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 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 dominion over the angel. But Instead, this was reversed and the angel gained dominion over Adam and Eve. To restore this, Cain, who represented Satan, could not go to God directly. He had to go through the proper channel or acceptable line, namely through Abel. He should have made his offering through his brother. 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, he repeated the Fall of man. The angel, who was supposed to be Adam's servant, dominated Adam and killed his spirit. Similarly, Cain dominated and killed his younger brother. In that way the fruit of evil came into being on 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. Because the brothers in Adam's family failed to restore the birthright, God worked to narrow His Providence 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 Cain and Abel, to the twins, Esau and Jacob. The one who sowed the Fall was Eve; the one who consummated 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 fought within her. 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 said to her, "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 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 man by covering himself with the skin of a young goat, 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, i.e. killing his younger brother. He was furious with Jacob. I will not, however, go into detail on this particular part of the truth, except to say that they were reconnected many years later, because it takes more time 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 Abet, 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 of man's life. However, the life up to that age 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 that very life, which had been received from the Satanic world. Thus, she had an affair with her father-in-law and conceived twins.
The struggle between her two sons 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 older 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 level 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 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. So when an angel appeared to Mary and told her she was going to conceive, she was greatly surprised and shocked, and said, "I do not know man." Then God's angel said, "You will conceive of the Holy Spirit." However, in the eyes of the world the two are the same, to conceive is to conceive by man, still Mary, in the sight of the Lord, said, "Do thy will, not as I will, but as thou wilt." This later brought about many complications in the couple's relationship. But that is another story.
Thus, 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. Down through the lineage of Jesus, God had already paid indemnity for Jesus' birth to be a special one. What I am saying is this: Jesus was born without sin. Jesus came without having anything to do with Satanic blood. God had prepared this line for a long time, so that Jesus could come as a sinless child. Therefore, he was indeed able to claim, "I am the only begotten 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 28 Jesus says, "I am in the Father and you in me; and I in you. 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 many saints, many religious geniuses, and many wise men throughout the human history. 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 leaders, they did not have the same relationship with God that Jesus had. He I came as the second Adam. 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 now 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 level. 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 established.
The Jewish religion and the Hebrew nation had been prepared for God's dispensation, for the coming Messiah. Jesus was to be received by this nation, this prepared people. However, He was rejected. Jesus came as the Messiah. The people of Israel should have been the foundation for his coming, but they did not fulfill this purpose. There was a price to be paid for this, and for 2,000 years Israel was without territory, and its people became wanderers, receiving great persecution. It is incredibly sad that during World War II the dictator Hitler condemned the Jews and exterminated almost six million of them. Viewed in the history of restitution this was payment that had to be made so that the people could be saved. Therefore, the Messiah must come again to consummate the unfulfilled mission of 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 4,000 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, new preparation must be made. 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.
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 to take root, not up in the sky, but here on earth, Matthew 18:8 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 true sons of God. The highest level to which we can be lifted is that of adopted sons. As Romans 8:23 states, ". . . we ourselves who have the first fruits of the Spirit wait for adoption as sons . . .", The Kingdom of Heaven is open only to those true sons and daughters of God who are without original sin. Admission here is not gained individually but rather by family, tribe, and whole nations. If the Kingdom of Heaven is as yet not opened where are all those great spiritual followers of Jesus? They dwell in Paradise which is no more than a sort of "waiting, room" until the gates to heaven are opened. Jesus could only have gone into the Kingdom after completing his work and taking a bride, establishing a family, tribe, and nation. He came on the foundation of a nation but that nation collapsed. The church fell apart. Nothing was left. The symbol of the cross spells misery, not glory, because it was the instrument of his crucifixion. Satan claimed victory on the cross. Besides, the principle of Christianity is based not on the cross but on the resurrected Jesus. If it were not for the resurrection, even spiritual salvation would not have taken place. 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. So there's another level before we can become true sons and daughters of God. Adopted sonship, for which many Christians are waiting, is not our ultimate destination.
Also, the prepared field of wild olive trees exists only in spirit. At the present time there is no area,, no nation in which God can saw His wild olive trees under His own dominion. No foundation is being readied anywhere on any level. Therefore, God must proclaim the Day of the Coming of the New Messiah, that man may prepare for it. It is with this mission that I am here: to proclaim his coming. I am heralding the Kingdom of Heaven, which is near, so that you may prepare yourselves.
The New Messiah will come on earth. In Revelations: 12 it says, "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 about through 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. In order to restore belief, God has been seeking individuals of absolute faith on earth. During the time of Abel and Cain, absolute faith 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, lunar calendar; probably 12 years as we measure time, during which time all his neighbors and friends 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 faith? No. It is 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 with 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 went. He left for an 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 him, saying, "Your posterity will be like the stars in the heavens and the sands in the sea."
Let us consider Jacob. Upon receiving the blessing from his father, he left for 21 years for an 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 was no exception. He lived in the wilderness for thirty years, eating only locusts and wild honey. In his mind was the absolute faith that he would meet the Messiah and would be ready for him. Do you think his family welcomed his going to the wilderness? Not at all. But he put aside all these circumstance and rose above them. He ate locusts and wild honey but if you took at this area geographically, it does not have an abundance of either. I'm sure he fasted many times, and begged many times, People from the neighboring villages no doubt pointed out to him and wondered about him. But he had the untiring faith, the absolute faith for God and the coming Messiah. Indeed, he did find the Messiah.
Jesus, of course, had absolute faith in God, too. Because he was one with the heart of God He was unaffected by the persecution he received from the people of Israel. 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 Messiah. Only upon seasoned faith can the proper foundation be set. The Messiah working with this faith will overcome all difficulties and hardships that arise. The formation of this kind of faith must take place on all levels of existence. Divisions of faith., divergence, and strife cannot lead to it. We must transcend all these and really seek after one God, one faith and prepare one nation. Though it need not be bound by any national boundary, still it must take the form of a nation like Israel. As I said the foundation of faith must go beyond the boundaries of any one nation. Therefore, faiths from the world over will work with the new movement, recognizing this need and the imminence of the last days.
Our movement emphasizes the importance of the family unit as exemplified by the mass wedding held in Seoul, Korea, in 1970. In this historically unprecedented event couples representing ten nations were married in a single ceremony. In this manner the Unification Church is building the foundation for the new Messiah. We are doing this . . . [missing lines]
. . . under one umbrella, preparing to receive the Messiah. We are often known as a youth movement because ninety-nine percent of the members are, young people with a clear cut purpose and a definite call from God. These youth do not have rebellion in their hearts. They have appreciated their parents and often have shed tears together with them. In some cases they may have left their homes, but never without purpose. This is not a rebellion, it is a crusade.
With blessings come responsibility. This nation is critically important, in God's eyes because of its specific mission to set a base for the Messiah. America must not fail Him now at this crucial moment In history. We must live up to His will and urgent expectation. God places great hopes in America.
The Unification Church will launch an extraordinary crusade for the next three years. We are mobilizing thousands of young people in this land, who will go east, west, north, and south to awaken this country to God and stimulate Its people into preparing for the glorious day of the new Messiah's coming. Of course it will take an iron will, among other things, to reach this goal, but this new breed of people -- the youth assembled under this banner -- are charged with energy and fire like bolts of lightning. They are willing to endure anything and joyfully bear all suffering and hard ships, even hunger. As I declared earlier, the years 1977 and 1978 are most critical We have launched our movement to be ready for this crisis. If you have some feeling towards this please pray for this crusade. Give us your support and your goodwill. Learn more about us, and after you have understood our work, join us with all your heart. Please be thinking of us, distinguished ladies and gentlemen. I venture to say to you that this new movement, this youth crusade, will be the hope of America!
I shall leave America on March 14. 1 know that there are many young people who will shed tears upon my departure. However, my final instruction to them is . . . [missing end of speech]