Sun Myung Moon
August 28, 1991
Inauguration of the Federation for World Peace
The Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea
Photo date and location unknown
Respected present and former heads of state, international leaders from all walks of life, esteemed scholars and leaders of religion:
Today, upon the founding of the Federation for World Peace, I am very honored and pleased by the presence of such distinguished leaders of the world. Please accept my heartfelt gratitude for coming and for making this ceremony most memorable.
From the beginning of human history until the present time there has never been a period when people did not long for lasting peace, nor has there ever been a person who did not wish deeply in his heart for true peace during his lifetime. Yet, contrary to the desires of all people and in spite of our great achievements, humanity has yet to secure world peace. Quite the contrary has been the case. At no time has human life been free of war and bloodshed. Why is this so?
In contemporary history humankind has experienced two world wars. In 1914, with the assassination of an Austrian archduke at Sarajevo in Bosnia, the First World War was ignited. Eventually this war engulfed the whole of Europe and beyond. Sixteen nations were involved. In the end at least thirty million men and women were either dead or wounded. It was Europe’s worst cataclysm.
Hopes for the League of Nations and the UN unfulfilled The inhumanity and severity of this war caused world leaders to acutely realize the need to strive for world peace at all costs, to end all wars. On the wave of this genuine desire for peace and longing for the improvement of human welfare President Woodrow Wilson of the United States spearheaded the founding of the League of Nations. Although the League handled over forty political disputes with varying degrees of success, its inability to resolve major crises between the powers eventually led to its failure. Sadly, President Wilson could not even bring the United States to participate in the League, and his noble dream for peace failed. The world’s ardent desire to put an end to war remained unfulfilled.
Less than twenty years after the ending of World War I humankind faced another cataclysmic war. At that time, World War II engulfed not only the Atlantic region but the Pacific region as well. Many more millions of human beings were the victims of war, suffering injury, displacement and death. Only after the atomic bomb was used against Japan did this most tragic world war come to an end. Once more world leaders were alarmed and anguished. They sought to find a means to prevent the world from again becoming a living hell through war. The fruit of their efforts was the United Nations, whose charter was drafted on April 25, 1945, in San Francisco. The history of the United Nations has thus spanned forty-six years until today.
Yet, has the United Nations been able to alleviate the tragedy of war? Is humanity living in peace? Unfortunately the answer to these questions is no. Even after the founding of the United Nations, wars have continued to break out. There have been more than sixty wars and skirmishes since the end of World War II, including the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War. The tragic cycle of human destruction continues as before.
Why is peace so difficult to achieve? Today we are gathered together for the inauguration of the Federation for World Peace. Before we proceed, however, bearing in mind the previous record of humankind, we must think deeply and analyze accurately as to why peace is so difficult to achieve. Without knowing the causes of war, without a deep analysis of the past, we may very well repeat past history, and fail to achieve the noble goals and ambitions of this federation.
Peace cannot come without God
Ladies and gentlemen, up until this time people have longed and anguished for peace without having a true philosophy of peace. Without this philosophy of peace, there can be no true methodology for achieving peace. Dear honored guests, the fundamental reason that peace has constantly eluded humankind is rather simple yet profound. Human beings have lost their relationship with God. Because of that, they have lost the ability to attain true peace. Since that time, men and women have repeatedly tried to restore peace, but have met with failure after failure because they have been trying without God. This is the fundamental error humankind has been committing. This is the real reason why we have not yet achieved peace.
God is the source of true love and true peace. Yet in the world, which God created, the inhabitants are pitted against each other in war and mutual killing. This is completely paradoxical. God created man and woman in His own image. Furthermore, God created us as holy temples in which He, God Himself, wants to dwell.
Suppose each individual were a perfected temple of God and that each individual were living every minute of every day with the Spirit of God dwelling within him or herself. In this situation could one person war against another? In the original world of God’s creation people struggling against each other would be something like your right hand fighting against your left hand, or even more, your hand pulling out your own eyes. In other words, in the ideal world of creation it would be impossible to have war. In this world, people would be capable only of loving each other and harmonizing together. The only challenge would be in competing in ways to glorify our Creator better and further.
In such a world there would be no conflict, no misunderstanding. There would only be harmony, cooperation and mutual assistance. There would be unity among people in the pursuit of truth, goodness and beauty. This would truly be the world of peace that everyone seeks. This world would reflect the nature of God, whose primary characteristic is unselfishness -- unselfish love and peace.
In religious terms this is called the kingdom of God on earth. The basis of such a world is the worldview of Godism, or head-wing thought. If God is almighty, He is certainly capable of realizing a world of peace and happiness for all humanity. If this type of world could not be achieved, then we would be forced to conclude that there is no God. This is the original ideal of true peace envisaged at the creation.
Our separation from God
At the dawn of human history, when God began to realize His world, something tragic happened. Our first human ancestors lost God. God created one man and one woman to be the beginning point of humankind. In religious terms they are called Adam and Eve. Tragically, at the outset of human history they committed sin, and by not allowing God to dwell in them, they were expelled by God from His kingdom. At that very moment, with their departure from God, man and woman failed to achieve their potential, and were unable to become temples of God. At that moment peace was lost. Instead they became the temples of Satan, whose characteristic is selfishness.
Since this occurred at the very start of human history with the very first human ancestors, all their descendants up to the present generations have grappled with the arduous task of finding God. Without the knowledge of God as our True Father and the understanding that all humans are true brothers and sisters, people have become each other’s enemies. Originally if you were to hurt someone else, it would be the same as hurting yourself, since the same God is dwelling in both. But humankind has become spiritually darkened. Under the present tragic conditions, when one kills one’s own brother or sister, one might not even feel any pain.
Furthermore, to make things worse, since people have become the dwelling place of Satan, each person is aware only of the self and not the whole. The natural result is the manifestation of selfishness from the level of the individual to that of the family, society, nation and world. With this limited outlook, when someone’s own interest or profit is violated, he or she is ready to fight. War is thus inevitable. This is the real reason for war on every level.
Then what does God intend to do with this fallen world? God is living and God is almighty. As I said, God is a God of love. God, our Creator, has a Will. That Will is to restore this world into the world of true peace. In other words, He will restore the world of His original nature and ideal by re-creating the present world. For this reason, there is hope for true peace in the future. God’s Will is to eradicate selfishness from each individual, then transform or re-create that person into His own temple, and make all people holy.
For this reason true peace between nations begins not at the national level but with the perfection of the individual. Each person, by becoming the temple of God, is perfected. This is where world peace is germinated. Each one of you, ladies and gentlemen, is the true beginning point of world peace.
Did you know there has been a constant war going on within each of us because of the human Fall? It is an inevitable consequence of the Fall that there is continuous struggle and conflict going on within ourselves between mind and body, and between the desire for good and the desire for evil. Originally mind and body were to be one. The human mind represents God’s mind. The human body is to be a container to accommodate the mind, or a dwelling place for the mind. Separation came between these two when the Fall occurred. The Fall resulted in the body coming under the domain of Satan or selfishness. Thus tragically the human body has become the servant of Satan.
On the other hand, the human conscience is the agent of God in the individual person. One’s conscience does not exist for the benefit of oneself. God plants the conscience for the sake of righteousness. Thus, the conscience always strives toward goodness and unselfishness. Yet the body rebels against this conscience. The body only seeks after comforts and tends to act selfishly, going after carnal desires. The conscience in turn is trying to chastise the body and direct it toward the mind. This is why there is always inevitable conflict and struggle within oneself.
This is the reason the traditional religions of the world unanimously teach the principle of chastisement of the body through fasting, prayer and other disciplines doing things the body does not want to do. Religion is the training ground where the desire of the body is suppressed, thus bringing the body to obey the will of the mind. For this reason religion has been the instrument of God to bring people back into the original ideal.
However, people are not capable of dominating their body without uniting with God within the self. The only power that enables the mind to have dominion over the body is that generated by the unity of the mind with God’s truth and love. Mind is the subject partner and the body is the object partner. God’s love and truth have the power to bring them together into one harmonious person. This is what religion defines as a person of perfection, or a holy person.
Becoming the visible manifestations of God
God-centered men and women in perfection are called men and women of goodness. These good men and women may receive God’s Blessing of marriage and be united as husband and wife. This will be the beginning of one ideal family of humanity on the face of the earth. This model family is what God wanted to have as a building block of the society, nation and world.
There is an old saying in the East that “once peace is dwelling in the family, everything goes well.” A happy and harmonious family is a family of peace and the foundation of the heavenly kingdom. The dynamic of the family is true love. You must love God first, and then love your husband or wife and your children with truly pure and sacrificial love. This is the manifestation of true love. God created love to be the supreme force in the universe. He has created nothing greater in this universe. True love is supreme. True love, of course, originates from God.
God has invested everything, every ounce of His energy, for the creation of all things and humankind. True love is the only thing that when invested fully, returns fully. When you invest true love, no attrition occurs. It will multiply and prosper. Investing one hundred percent of true love will yield or return one hundred twenty percent. One might think that those who practice true love would become poor and miserable, yet the end result is the contrary. By practicing true love you will acquire prosperity and eternal life.
Such a family of true love becomes the foundation for creating a society, nation and world. That society, nation and world shall be true-love centered, and shall become ideal and peaceful. There you will find harmony instead of contradiction. You will find understanding instead of misunderstanding. You will find unity instead of division. You will find unselfishness instead of selfishness. This is the society, nation and world where sacrifice and good service become the dominant virtues. The realization of the ideal of God is the way to achieve the ideal of true peace in the world.
When the Bible says that God sought to create human beings in “His own image,” this means that the invisible God wanted to manifest Himself into a visible form. In other words, men and women would have become the personifications of God. If the first man and woman had realized the ideal of God, they would have become the first visible form of God and created the first family of humankind. Then Godcentered children and grandchildren would have formed an ideal society, nation and world. In this case the invisible God would become the vertical True Parents of humankind centering upon true love, and the first man and woman, Adam and Eve, would have become the horizontal True Parents of humankind centering upon that same true love.
Centered upon these True Parents of humankind, all people would have become one family for eternity. However, the Fall of Adam and Eve meant that humanity lost True Parents. That day we became orphans. Siblings turned into enemies. As a result, nations came to develop antagonistic relationships rather than friendly ones.
In the final fulfillment of human history, therefore, God’s work of restoration is the restoration of True Parents first, liberating humanity from its orphan status. Today this is the central dispensational work of God to bestow True Parents upon humankind, to create the original family of humanity centering on God and true love.
Revolution from selfishness to unselfishness
Ladies and gentlemen, today’s creation of the Federation for World Peace must be different from that of the League of Nations and the United Nations. Most important is that we must found this organization upon the true ideal and philosophy of lasting peace as well as the ideal of True Parents. In the final analysis, peace in God and with God is the newest level of awakening. This is therefore a refreshing new beginning toward the attainment of peace. The exclusion of God from human efforts for peace is the core reason for their failure. Therefore we shall make God the center of this movement and the dynamics of this movement will be true love.
For men and women who are fervently longing for world peace, today’s gathering is historic. There are many presidents and former presidents here today, as well as prominent members of the clergy and leaders from every walk of life. This is truly a rare and extraordinary assembly. Furthermore, there are leaders from the East bloc and the West bloc. Until recently, those leaders were mired in the Cold War and locked in a chilling confrontation. In this auditorium, however, there is no East or West. Everyone is gathered together in one spirit of cooperation and reconciliation.
On November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall finally came tumbling down. Ever since that event we have been living in a different world. The world is moving quickly toward reformation, change, mutual understanding and friendship. Everyone today feels acutely that the mood of the world is opening up to the blossoming opportunity of peace.
If you agree that the principles I have expounded are the fundamental criteria for peace, then true peace is reachable and achievable. The industrialized North must reach out to help liberate the South from pervasive impoverishment. The developed nations must reach out with a helping hand toward the developing countries and the new democracies. Each nation’s attitude must be changed from a selfish one to an unselfish one. That by itself is a revolution. Nations can do this when leaders see from the position of parents. The most unselfish and sacrificial love of all is the love of parents. From that perspective, one can see that all nations are brother and sister nations. Then a fresh new vision emerges and new opportunities will open up in front of us.
It has already been announced that in September North Korea and South Korea together will join the United Nations. This is another significant positive development toward the achievement of world peace. Then the number of member nations of the UN will reach 163 countries. What ought to be the priority of those 163 countries in the days to come? The time of colonialism is over, when the powerful nations exploited the weakest ones.
The law of the jungle and Herbert Spencer’s “survival of the fittest” do not apply in our world. The age of the superpower arms race that drove the world and humanity into fear and uncertainty has also passed; humanity ought to be liberated from the devastating threat of nuclear arms. What time is it in God’s timetable? This is the time that the Holy Scriptures refer to as that of “beating our swords into plowshares.” (Isaiah 2:4)
This is the time for developing mutual trust based on a high moral standard. It is a time when all the member nations of the United Nations, with a relationship of mutual respect and love, must jointly declare one final war against our common enemies: the scourges of hunger, ignorance, disease and crime. This is in God’s plan. From this time on, the definition of “my country” will expand. Although everyone has their home country where their family lives, in a larger sense the world now becomes “my country,” because it is where God my Father and my brothers and sisters -- all the people of the world -- live.
From this point of view, advanced nations ought to seek to share high technology with the developing nations and new democracies. To do otherwise would be a crime against humanity. Things that are good and beneficial must be shared among all nations. When a new discovery is made, it can benefit all nations. If something is good for humanity and the world, we must share it, transcendent of national boundaries. For a long time, I have been fighting for equal access to the use of high technology by all developing nations.
The twenty-first century will be an era of peace
Ladies and gentlemen, your coming to this place is not an accident. Nothing happens by accident. I feel you are ordained to be here. You are chosen by God to be champions of peace.
Just nine years remain until we reach the year 2000. We shall commemorate that year within our lifetime. That year will be history’s new turning point. A new era is unfolding. With the cooperation of God, man and woman together, the twenty-first century will be a century of peace. In order to make that happen we shall work tirelessly together for the next nine years. If we do, we shall be able to eliminate all obstacles that might hinder the attainment of peace.
The twenty-first century shall be a righteous century. In the twenty-first century wealth will not be the dominating factor. Instead the human spirit and human soul shall be dominant. The twenty-first century shall be the era of unity between God and humanity. It shall be the era where a new awakening will come to every person, a realization that one benefits oneself more when one genuinely lives for the sake of others. In the twenty-first century selfishness will decline. Life, honor and glory based on unselfishness shall be triumphant. These are the characteristics of the coming twenty-first century.
The era for peace is approaching. Even the opportunity for the kingdom of heaven on earth is closer. The twenty-first century shall be a hopeful and glorious century. To make this happen, the Federation for World
Peace will provide the ideal and philosophy to educate the world’s population. The federation will assist spiritually, intellectually and financially in the development of all nations. The federation will set a high moral standard and take up a dynamic role in building a world of peace.
Ladies and gentlemen, you are the apostles of peace. A bright new hope and an exciting new future are awaiting us. Today we need to feel fervently the desire to fulfill the great mission that is being bestowed upon us.
In order to achieve this sacred duty and the historic responsibility of building lasting peace, we need to dedicate our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor with total commitment. The very first item on our agenda needs to be to invite God into our individual hearts and into our family, society, nation and world. When God is with us, who can be against us?
Respected friends, my beloved brothers and sisters, we are called to this sacred mission, the building of world peace. Our noble march shall begin today toward that glorious future. Let us build a world of true peace together with God.
Thank you.