Reverend Sun Myung Moon
December 27, 1981
Belvedere
Translator: Bo Hi Pak
The Foundations of Faith and Substance
The order of restoration, then, is all things of creation first, next relationships among brothers and sisters, and finally the position of parents. This is how the process of creation originally took place: God created all things first and then Adam and Eve. Finally they were supposed to become the true parents of all mankind. The ultimate goal was the complete unity of Adam and Eve's family with God's love.
The family is the building block of the Kingdom of Heaven. The family is the boundary line that separates the heavenly world from the satanic world. God's plan is to hold husband and wife in His arms, within His domain. If God rules the husband-wife relationship, He has all other relationships and all things of creation as well.
When husband and wife come together, there should be no room for Satan to accuse them. If Satan can say, "That person is not worthy; he didn't set a proper foundation of faith and he didn't do any witnessing," that would be unfortunate. In order to be completely free of accusation, you should go through this course before you get married.
The foundation of faith is necessary before restoring the relationship between Cain and Abel. Because of the human fall, all things of creation fell into the hands of Satan through Cain; Cain has everything and uses them for satanic purposes. But you must be different from previous people. As Abel, you must be different from Cain. Unless you restore the position of all things and the relationship between brothers-Cain and Abel-you are not worthy to receive the position of parent.
Until the brothers are united, they cannot come to their parents. Why? The elder brother's position was supposed to be the one closest to God but Satan stole that position. Therefore, God assigned to the younger brother the restoration of the elder brother. Only upon the foundation of their unity could the Messiah be received. Cain must go to meet the Messiah through Abel, his mediator. Eve is supposed to help Abel successfully restore Cain. Holding her two sons Cain and Abel in her arms, Eve can then go to her husband and restore family unity.
In the last days, the world is divided into two basic sides: the communist and the free world. They are in the position of the Cain world and Abel world. Both must meet the Messiah and both must find unity. Christianity should stand in the position of Eve, but since Christianity's influence in the world is so weak, the Unification Church has come forward to take that position and embrace the two worlds of Cain and Abel. Although Christianity was supposed to fulfill that role, the Unification Church is now in the position of Eve.
In order to receive the Messiah, you must become an Abel and restore your Cain. Then you can unite with Eve and meet the Messiah. Centering upon the parents, you can then enter into a union with God as a family unit. This is the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the end of Satan's rule. Because of the human fall, mankind's lineage became stained by sin. Through the Blessing, the blood lineage is changed and purified.
Since this is the culmination of human history, confusion is rampant, especially among young people. Teenagers are being led into all kinds of immoral and impure activities. As teenagers in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed. Now the original human fall is being reenacted on the worldwide level among teenagers through such phenomena as "streaking," free sex, homosexuality, and sexual abuse of children by their own parents and grandparents. Incredible perversions are occurring all over the world; the human fall is being multiplied on a worldwide scale.
But we are in the position to set a new tradition. We are creating historic family foundations. We must not fall victim to the world's temptations because we are in a position to begin God's realm. You engaged couples must be completely free from lust for some other man or woman. Even to think of sexual relationships with someone other than your fiancé is a sin. You should remain completely pure, liquidate the past, and become new men and women. You must nurture your relationship with your heavenly counterpart, your fiancé.
In the Garden of Eden, God created only one man and one woman, not two men and two women. What if Adam had been deformed or had a hunchback? Still he was the only man and Eve could not have rejected him. Eve was supposed to marry Adam and they were supposed to become the parents of all mankind. They were to marry primarily for the sake of God, not for themselves.
Your Marriage Course
This should be the motivation for your marriage as well. Whenever you think, I don't want to marry my fiancé," you should remember these points. Adam and Eve were completely at the mercy of God; they had no choice of a mate. In the true tradition, therefore, parents should decide whom their children ought to marry. You are marrying for the sake of your parents, in a way. Until you marry, you live in your parents' home and have no real claims of your own. From the Principle point of view, do you think that what I am saying is correct or not?
Even after Eve fell, if Adam had been stronger and had not fallen, God could have restored Eve much more easily. The great tragedy was that they defiled each other. According to the same principle, women who fall away from the truth today must not defile their fiancé. If you men cut off from such a woman, God will provide you with a better bride. God selected Mother for me; I didn't do it myself. If either fiancé commits sin and becomes defiled, there is still room for restoration as long as the other remains pure.
Fallen love is the trap, which Satan has been employing for 6,000 biblical years. In a split second, you can make the gravest mistake. You are like sticks of dynamite; but for a couple's love to explode in beautiful joy, the fuses of two dynamite sticks must not be lit until the right moment. Otherwise, their explosion will shatter them. For the consummation of your love to be constructive, the order must come from God, through the True Parents, and then on to you. If it happens at the wrong time, Satan will direct the love. Your love should focus outward for the sake of God and True Parents, and not inward on yourselves.
You will meet some day, after each of you has been cleansed as an individual. On that promised day when you come together as husband and wife, you will become one body and one family, with the approval and blessing of God and True Parents. After that you can live happily together. If you touch your fiancée in an intimate way while you are engaged, you are defiling her. Even though she is your fiancée, you are not authorized to take her love in that way. You must first cleanse your past.
When you walk down the aisle at your wedding, you must have no thoughts of the girls you dated in the past; you must never criticize your heavenly bride according to the standards of the fallen world, wishing she were prettier, or taller, or whatever. You must regard your wife as God's gift to you; your blessed spouse is the best one possible for you, much better than a king or queen. You are a son of God marrying a daughter of God; you are marrying a princess! There is no greater position in the world than that.
Don't defile your mind and think about your past fallen sexual experiences. You should consider your previous loves your worst enemies. You must cut off from that past; you must become clean men and women when you enter the Blessing. Cut off all the strings attaching you to the satanic world and free yourself; then you can cross over into the heavenly realm.
Once you enter the family-level dispensation, a higher standard of accomplishment is required. When you receive the Blessing and start your family, it is like you are given an automobile for driving along the highway to the Heavenly Kingdom. You must be able to drive the car; if the car starts to break down, you will be in trouble. When you no longer live as just an individual but as a family, your problems will be magnified.
Restoration through indemnity is your medicine. Even though the medicine tastes bitter, you must swallow it in order to be cured. You certainly don't enjoy the taste of the medicine, but you realize it is your only means to be healed.
You must realize that behind you lies a long history of ancestral sin. To liquidate that history as an individual requires a great amount of indemnity. If you are a fine, handsome man, a good way to do it would be to marry and love an unattractive woman. By doing so you can completely liberate your sinful ancestry.
I resolved to accept as my bride an elderly, very fat woman if God so desired. Since my attitude was to accept absolutely anyone God chose, God gave me a beautiful, young woman -- Mother -- as my bride. No one can accuse that match, either, because it was not of my own initiative; it was completely from God and the spirit world. That is the law of indemnity.
The Second 21-Year Course
Some of you may spend all your time worrying about your fiancé and your future marriage. But remember that until now the highest religious teachings have demanded a celibate life of their devotees. Each of you should regard it a great privilege to be allowed to live together as man and wife in order to accomplish God's will. I have come to give you this great Blessing; you should be totally humble and appreciate how precious it is.
Now we are embarking on the second 21-year course; you are now going to walk the path as children. It is not too late for you to resolve to follow the mainstream of the Unification Church tradition. Those of you who have not done fundraising must go through it; those of you who do not have spiritual children must gain some. Then you can meet the parents.
You have a home church, which represents the entire world; it is your small world. Whatever you accomplish in home church God will recognize as having been accomplished for the entire world. Your 360 homes are your microcosm of the world; within them you will find everything you would encounter in the world.
I cannot teach you about the foundation of faith unless you do fundraising. The same with the foundation of substance. What is the foundation to receive the Messiah? Jesus wanted to find his bride, but he could not; therefore, he predicted that he would return for his bride. The Old Testament era was the foundation of faith, the New Testament era the foundation of substance, and the Completed Testament era the foundation to receive the Messiah.
We must indemnify the entire world. For this reason, I started my mission from a lowly position. I had to indemnify all of history, beginning with the Old Testament era, going through the New Testament era, and finally reaching the Completed Testament era. During the past 20 years, these three eras have been restored. All the chaos of human history has been put into proper order.
Nothing comes easy. You must wage your battle and win it. Restoration through indemnity requires an enormous effort. Once my court battle is over in this country, Korea will welcome me. But if I do not win the victory here, Korea will be unable to welcome me. Once I go to the communist world and win a victory, I can return to the United States and be welcomed here.
I am waging my battles against the evils of this country. I have battled against the communist world as well. By now the communists realize that they cannot surpass the philosophy and commitment of the Unification movement and they are taking a defensive posture. In Bonn, West Germany, the leftists organized a huge demonstration of about 280,000 people. We mobilized only about 300 people for a counter-demonstration and we actually made the news before the larger demonstration. When Mr. Brezhnev visited West Germany, no one else did anything to challenge him. We were the only ones with enough guts and commitment to demonstrate against him.
Our goal is not to kill the Russians; we must educate and liberate them. We do not want to destroy Red China, either. Our international highway system will be a concrete example of a worldwide peace movement.
If you have not yet accomplished enough for the foundations of faith, substance, and receiving the Messiah, you should do it now in your home church. Raise money, bring people, and organize all kinds of activities in your home church area. You will be married in a heavenly wedding when you accomplish these foundations of faith, substance and receiving the Messiah. Only then will you qualify to be married.
Home Church and Society
Have you fulfilled your home church foundation? Since 1977 I have been speaking and pushing you toward the home church providence. Through home church you can inherit everything from the past, present, and future. Times are changing. Public opinion is more open now, so your job is infinitely easier than mine has been. You can be accepted much more easily than I ever was.
In less than three percent of your 360 homes will you encounter outright rejection. Has anyone ever tried to kill you for coming to his home and trying to serve him? No such thing will happen. So far in history, Cain killed Abel, Esau wanted to kill Jacob, and Egypt tried to kill all the Jews. Murder of one's enemies has been the world's method. Even now, people want to have me killed.
I know Satan's tactics very clearly. The first attempt is character assassination. If that doesn't work, they will try to convict me through legal means and send me to jail. If that doesn't work, they will resort to violence. It is simply the satanic method nothing new. Certainly it is the method of communism. What if you walked down the streets of New York shouting, "I'm a Moonie. Shoot me if you want to"? Nobody would do it. However, people who wish to kill me are stalking me. There are many people who want to stop me.
Ronald Reagan is an example of someone who was protected by God. Even those who were critically wounded during the attempt on his life survived because God intervened on their behalf. Pope John Paul, as well, was saved directly by God. I know that God is protecting me, too, in a special way.
Would you like to have me come with you when you fundraise and do Home Church? You would like it, but you know my dangerous position in this world. Your attitude, then, should be to carry on the fight and work for the cause on your own. You should begin now, at the outset of this New Year.
We are living during an incredible dispensation. Over the past 2,000 years, multitudes of saints and martyrs have shed their blood and tears for God's purposes. Even with all that sacrifice, however, they could not see the day of glory and witness the return of the Lord, the marriage of the Lamb. Who are you? Each of you has been handed a better position than even Jesus Christ himself. He was not given the heavenly Blessing, but you are going to receive it. How great and amazing is your Blessing!
Think of it: your children will be in God's direct lineage, born without original sin. They will be entered in Heaven's register as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven. What qualifications do you have to bring your children to that level? What good things have you done? Can you expect to be given such an incredible Blessing, which God's people paid for by thousands of years of suffering, without making some kind of condition? In order to receive it, you absolutely must do something. The opportunity to make that condition is by doing home church; that is your mandate.
In order to restore Cain, you must win on all levels: individual, family, clan, and so on. Can you try to grab them all at once? Is seven years too long? Human history extends back at least 700,000 or 800,000 years. Can you grab all historical blessings in six or seven years? Such an attitude is that of a thief! In order to become a member of an ideal heavenly family, you must do home church.
Home church is the realm of the tribal messiah. Even Jesus could not establish his own tribe. The unity of Zachariah's family as Cain with the family of Joseph and Jesus as Abel would have achieved tribal-level restoration. Once you successfully restore your home church, your tribe and clan will automatically be restored. The two home churches will become one. After that, you will go to the national level home church. Your value to your nation will be proportionate to the number of people you can draw from your home church area to serve their nation. Home church is the criterion by which you will be entitled to receive reward from Heaven.
Within the Unification Church we are bringing together the Cain and Abel tribes of Judaism and Christianity. After that unity is truly achieved, I must bring unity between the communist and democratic worlds. After the mission is completed here in the United States, I will go to Russia. Once unity is achieved between the United States and Russia, I will go into the spirit world.
World Restoration through Home Church
The United States is a melting pot for all the world's races and nationalities. Your 360 homes represent the whole world. A circle contains 360 degrees and one lunar year has 360 days. You will discover every conceivable condition in home church, which is a microcosm of the world. The various races there might represent the various eras of the dispensation: blacks might represent the Old Testament era, Hispanics the New Testament era, whites the Completed Testament era. There is a certain logic to the development of history, and home church is the best place to bring everything together.
Yellow people are the most numerous race, followed by whites and finally blacks. Even whites and blacks combined do not equal the numbers of Oriental people. Realizing the vast power and numbers of people there, communism has sought out Asia. The United States has tried to retreat from Asia and it feels it has no need for Africa. I am concentrating on the yellow race as the key to world unity; there are now 3.1 billion Oriental people.
You go to your home church area under the direction of Reverend Moon, an Oriental. There you find all races, including blacks, whites, Hispanics, and American Indians. American Indians are a yellow race that the white people conquered with violence in this country. The extermination of the Indians in this country was an act of evil. It is appropriate to the law of indemnity that a yellow person, Reverend Moon, should come to the United States and send out you white people to conquer the nation, not by force but by love and truth. However, you are under my dominion only in an external sense; God, Himself is directing you through the love and truth, which I bring.
Many Western nations are currently suffering from widespread drug addiction. In the past, the Anglo-Saxon peoples, primarily Great Britain, imported opium into China and encouraged drug addiction there in order to obtain money and riches from China. The Opium War was a famous conflict in history. Now Red China is a major cultivator of opium poppies and is exporting great amounts of heroin and opium, causing the corruption of Western youth and gaining great amounts of money as well. This is evidence of the law of cause and effect.
For this reason I came to sow truth and love in this country. Nothing can stop me; no power on earth is strong enough to withstand the power of God, which is marching with me.
We must fulfill the mission, which was left incomplete by Jesus Christ. If you white Americans do not do it, God will shift to the black people. Then how ashamed you whites will be! Now Japan is overtaking the West in practically every area of technology. In this new age, Asia is playing an ever more prominent role.
I may appear stubborn and people may think I am blind to the world's reality, but I am not. I am very aware of God and how He is leading the world. It is truly God who turns the pages of history. No one before has spoken of history in this sense.
Are you happy people? Do you say yes because you are just passively listening to me, or are you happy because you have a great purpose in life and have found many fulfillments through it?
Our Unusual Ways
In Latin America people take siestas in the afternoon; in Europe summer vacations are a tradition. But for Moonies there is no time for such things. Some people accuse the black people of being lazy, but the fact is that once black people join the Unification movement, they become the most diligent and hardworking members, especially in Africa. They work so hard because they long to save the entire African continent. They are motivated by God's ideology.
When you come to Belvedere, you often wish that I would not speak more than two hours or so. The members in Africa, however, are praying for me to come to speak to them; they are willing to sit for 24 hours and listen to me. They think you are all spoiled!
Why do you suppose I speak for such a long time and insist on certain things? I never know what God's plan for me might be. I could be called to the spirit world today. If that happened, I wouldn't want to regret withholding some teaching you needed. There is no guarantee that I will live a certain length of time. When you come to Belvedere, you represent the people of the entire world. I can trust only you people. Therefore, I am teaching you everything. This is the parent's heart. You are a special, trusted breed; therefore, I am going to unload everything on you!
Our relationship will not end with this earthly plane but will continue in the spirit world, where we will see each other every day. When we all enter the spirit world, I do not want you to have any regrets. I don't want you to look back and realize that you did not take my sermons seriously. If that happened, you would not feel very comfortable and you would not be well accepted there. I would rather hear you say, "Father, thanks to your seven hour sermon on December 27, 1981, I was completely changed and my commitment to home church was doubled. Thank you so much." In that light, this seven-hour "ordeal" is nothing; it is actually a joy.
It is with a parental heart that I speak to you for such a long time. It is up to you whether you take it seriously or not. I know that scholars and thinkers will take it seriously in the future. I am speaking not only to you, but to history and all your posterity. This particular sermon is making a footprint in history.
There is no way you can bypass home church work and still come to the True Parents. Of all the gifts I can give you, home church is the greatest; receive it with all sincerity, integrity and seriousness. Through home church we will transcend all boundaries, whether national, racial, or cultural. The heavenly nation is blossoming and we are bringing hope to Christianity and to the United States through home church.
Even if I were to pass away now, you would be capable of saving this nation. Each of you has been taught your responsibilities. You must know that I have brought the historical victory. You know the True Parents well. Now your duty and mission is to fulfill your responsibilities. This will be your joy and blessing. Amen!
If you have been living by a lukewarm standard so far, change it beginning with 1982. From now on, have absolute confidence in what you are doing. You should regulate yourself according to the Principle.
Since I have completed my duties here, perhaps I should take a nap now and then, or go on a vacation. God is encouraging me to do that. Maybe in this coming year I will sleep for one month without stopping! If you come to Belvedere and don't see me, you might ask where I am and hear the answer, "He's sleeping." The following week, when you come again, the answer might be, "He's still sleeping." What would you say to that? Would you be indignant?
What if I started to wear a suit made of golden fabric? God wants to indemnify all the deprivation and suffering poor people have undergone in the past, and maybe He could do so by giving me a suit of gold. But wearing a gold-plated suit would not be easy; since it would be awkward and uncomfortable, it would still be indemnity! Would you point your finger at me and call me crazy?
Sometimes when I go to sea, I kill fish with my hands and eat them raw. Maybe by doing so I can vindicate all the thousands of people who died at the mercy of the sea!
The New Year is coming, and I might do some unusual things. Would you have trust in me, no matter what I do that I will not deviate from the Principle? Can you maintain confidence that there is a meaning and purpose behind everything I do?
I want to prepare you for the coming year so that you can be invincible champions for God. God bless you.