Sun Myung Moon
April 19, 2004
Forty-Fourth Anniversary of True Parents' Day
Grand Ballroom of the New Yorker Hotel, in New York City
Respected guests from home and abroad, until now, the world has been ruled by those nations that had superior political, economic and military power. However, a nation that does not stand directly aligned with God's providence cannot last forever. The downfall of the resplendent civilizations of Greece and Rome are good examples. The position of the United States, which is soaring high as today's greatest and strongest power, is the same as that of Rome two thousand years ago. Please remember that the decline and fall of the Roman Empire was not the result of external invasions, but was in fact due to the loss of Heaven's fortune. It was a consequence of its immoral culture, which led to a collapse from within.
Until recently, political regimes based on materialism and the materialistic interpretation of history, which exalted factory laborers and farmers, controlled one-third of the world's population and two-thirds of the earth's land area, centering on the former Soviet Union and China. Of course, they did not last forever, and I tell you that a time will come when religious believers who speak for the will of God will gain influence.
Religious leaders are prophets who ought to proclaim God's will on earth and guide humanity in the direction it needs to follow. However, the conflicts and infighting that continue among religious denominations discredit them completely. These conflicts are major obstacles blocking the providence of God. That is why for decades I have invested more than half of the Unification Church's budget into interdenominational and inter-religious efforts to resolve conflicts between religions. Furthermore, I founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace to bring about peace for humanity through reconciliation and unity among religions. All humanity, transcending race and religious denomination, needs to understand God's providence for the realization of the world of the ideal of creation. We ultimately need to be in accord with God's heart.
God's liberation will open the path of authentic human liberation. We need to recover the original positions of parents and children by restoring our relationship of heart with God, which was lost through the Fall. Hence, the Last Days promised by God are the time when True Parents are manifested. In other words, they are the time of hope when human beings, who lost their True Parents through the Fall, can once again receive their original Parents. Therefore, the True Parents are the fruit of the hopes, desires and victories of human history. The Unification Church has continued to globalize this tradition through the international mass wedding ceremonies. The coming together of black, white and yellow as brothers and sisters to be joined as husbands and wives, transcending nationality, race and culture, is one of the most important works in achieving God's will to unite the global population as one family.
As can be seen, the path to true happiness can be opened only when today's people ultimately liberate God, who lost his children and has continued in lamentation over our plight. We can do so by restoring the lost original ties between brothers and sisters, husbands and wives, and parents and children. Until now, democracy has asserted political liberation and human rights. By contrast, we must henceforth assert God's liberation and God's dominion. Once this problem has been taken care of, political liberation and the recovery of human rights will take place automatically.
In various respects, the United States is a nation that has been prepared through the blessings of God. Among the ancestors who founded the United States were the Pilgrims. These people risked their lives to find their way to a land where they could have freedom of faith. In search of true freedom of faith, they bid farewell to their beloved parents, brothers and sisters and hometowns, and crossed the Atlantic at the risk of their lives.
They resolved to forsake even their own country. The Mayflower arrived at the shores of New England in November 1620. As they endured their first winter, more than half of the 102 Pilgrims who had arrived there died from the extreme cold weather and starvation. What was incredible about them was that they starved to death rather than consume the seeds to be planted in the coming spring.
The US has lost its founding spirit
No matter what happened to them, the Pilgrims stayed true to their faith in living for God's will. They thanked God for the harvest of the first year and built their homes only after they had first built a church and school. In their pioneering course, whether they were about to start farming or defend their homes, the first thing they did was to pray.
At the time of the American Revolutionary War, as General George Washington was in dire straits at the now-famous Valley Forge, he offered a prayer staking his life for his country. He dedicated the coming battles for the will of God, who stood on the side of the United States and brought it victory.
Great Britain, which was then the mightiest power in the world, stood with the combined forces of the king and his people, while the United States stood with God and his beloved sons and daughters. That was how the United States, the nation upholding freedom of faith, came to be established. Even now, the United States Congress opens its sessions with a prayer. It is a nation where the president takes the oath of office by placing his or her hand on the Bible and pledging before God, and then a minister offers a prayer.
What is more, it is the only nation that has the words "In God We Trust" printed on its currency. In this way, the United States became the one nation on earth that, basing itself on the Protestant faith, assumed global stature.
However, what is the United States like today? The courts have banned prayer in public schools. School boards force teachers to explain the theory of evolution and leave out the hand of a Creator. Moreover, the divorce rate topping 50 percent is mercilessly destroying the integrity of the family.
Upon hearing the voice of God, who feared for this very reality, I came to the United States in 1971, leaving behind my homeland and my family. I spoke throughout this nation several times, shouting out, "I came as a firefighter to a burning house, and as a doctor who has come to heal the ailing United States."
At that time, I discovered that God had all but left the United States. Even though he needed to be everywhere in the United States, he had in fact begun to leave the nation. He was leaving the hearts of individuals, families and teachers. When I look back, it seems like only yesterday that I walked along Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and held on to God, begging him with endless tears not to leave the United States. Unfortunately, as I foretold, the United States is sliding down the path of moral decline.
The person who loves the United States is its true owner. Ladies and gentlemen, why is Rev. Moon shouting out like this in the United States, while being subjected to opposition and enduring suffering? It is because I know better than anyone the hard work carried out by God with blood, sweat and tears to find his way to the United States today. During the thirty- four years that I have been in the United States, there has not been one day when my heart has felt at ease.
Who is the owner of the United States? It has nothing to do with race. The person who loves the United States as much as God does is its true owner. The United States represents the eldest son position on the world level, the position chosen to establish God's kingdom on earth. Therefore, Jesus is dwelling spiritually mainly in this land. He earnestly hopes that this nation will fulfill his will.
Meanwhile, in accordance with the will of God, I founded in the Washington Times in 1982. This newspaper has led public sentiment as a conservative political voice that proposes the true direction for the United States. Also, through the True Family Values movement and the Pure Love movement for teens and young adults, I have continued to support strong movements to save the nation and the world. I have made these investments with a heart hoping for the United States to stand truly in line with God's providence. When I visited Washington, DC, in 1965, I dedicated a holy ground near the White House. Even now there are many people who stay up nights and pray there for this nation, the United States. You need to open the doors of your heart, so that you can hear the earnest desires, shouts and hopes of patriots dating back to the Pilgrims.
Restore families, nations, the world
Most honored guests, the fourth year of Cheon Il Guk is when the history of God's providence of salvation, which he has pursued for six thousand years, draws to a close and the ideal of creation, lost in Eden, is realized in heaven and on earth. It is the time when liberation will end the lamentations of all created things, which lost their owner through the Fall, the moment when the longestranged parents and children meet again. The new heaven and earth, where there will be no more tears, are being realized. The new age, wherein the spirit world and the physical world are united as one and God's kingdom is established on earth and in heaven, is finally upon us.
This is the age in which the direct dominion of the living God is manifested through his overall, complete, absolute and omnipotent authority. It is the time when the world based on the understanding of humankind as one great family is realized. East and West will become "one universe under one God," centering on the Parents of Heaven and Earth. This signifies perfection of the Completed Testament Age, when the biblical promises of the Old Testament and the New Testament are fulfilled. Now that moment has come. The time has come for the United States to wake up once again.
The time has come to carry out a movement for the second founding of the nation, dedicated to restoring the true parents, true family, true nation and true world, with God in the central position. By so doing, you need to bring back God, who is leaving. If God, who found his way here after six thousand years of preparation, were to leave the United States, where would he go?
If you attend God correctly, the problems of the family, the problems of morality, the problems of young people, and the problems of racism will automatically be resolved. The United States, which is a melting pot of five races living side by side, could become a model of the kingdom of heaven on earth. From now on, we need to unite and harmonize in order to open the path for humanity to follow. This is the time when the United States, which is the eldest son nation, needs to take the lead in attending the Heavenly Parents. It must fulfill the mission of the leader who can guide other nations of the world to the presence of God. I ask you to participate together to carry out this historic task successfully.
The era of God's direct dominion
The enthronement of the Peace King as the Cosmic Parent, the Parents of Heaven and Earth, and the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind was held on March 23 of this year at the United States Capitol building in Washington, DC. It was a major declaration that substantially secured God's kingship on earth. Furthermore, the declaration of the ideal Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity, made at the Capitol on the same day, is the historic opening of the age of the federation of blessed families of the member states of the United Nations.
It is now the fourth year of Cheon Il Guk, in which the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven can be established in reality, based on ideal families that are centered on the Cosmic Parent, the Parents of Heaven and Earth, and the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. Thus, during this period in April, declared on this day, the forty-fourth anniversary of True Parents' Day, we have ushered in the day of the liberation and complete freedom of the angelic world, the complete freedom of Cain and Abel and, furthermore, the complete freedom of the Parents.
Going a step further, we are approaching the date May 1, which marks the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. On that day, we will usher in the day of national liberation. Now that the age of liberation and complete freedom has arrived, henceforth everything will be entrusted to the overall, complete, absolute and omnipotent authority of God, and the era of his direct dominion will arrive, when he can guide us personally.
Once again, I express my deepest gratitude to you for gracing us with your presence. I would like to close by expressing my hope that a new millennial kingdom overflowing with peace, freedom and justice will begin, both on earth and in heaven. May the blessings of God be with your families and your nations.