Sun Myung Moon
August 29, 1970
"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it." What do those words mean? Those placed in the position to die for God's will must die.
Then what happens when we die? Before we die, we belong to ourselves, but after we die, we belong to God. That is because we inherited the fallen lineage. Thus, our lives cannot be freed from satanic bondage before we die, but we bond together with God after death.
Which is stronger: life or death? Is life stronger than death or is death stronger than life? Death is stronger than life in the satanic world. Therefore, after coming to know God's will, do not hate death when you are in the position of having to die. You have to die anyway in the satanic world. Unless you die, you cannot resurrect. Unless we pass through one age, we cannot welcome another.
What kind of death is the Bible referring to? It does not end the life that God has eternally, but that life which inherited the fallen lineage of the satanic world. Thus, those who seek to die for the Will shall live. These words sound paradoxical, but from what we understand about the Fall and restoration, restoration cannot be achieved unless that is done. This is the normal logic of restoration.
The biggest question then is whether we can offer our lives. When I started out on this path, I asked myself if I was resolved to lay down my life.
I was resolved to die. I also thought about how I would die as well as the last words I would utter. I did not think about how I could live.
Since God's providence revolved around Korea, I sought the position of death. Where was that? It was the place to confront the enemy, that is to say, the place where the enemy was to be found. I went out in search of the enemy headquarters. Because the foundation of the Will based upon Korean Christianity fell into satanic hands, I went to North Korea, which was Satan's den, to recover it.
Because I had to fight the worldwide Communist Party from that time on, I went to North Korea. I entered the nation of the implacable foe, fully prepared to be chained in irons and imprisoned. Despite the atrocious ordeals that were imposed upon me, I never surrendered. I never lost God's dignity even at the point of extreme starvation. No matter how constricted my living conditions were, I never violated heavenly law.
In spite of my confinement, I was able to restore everything within those limited circumstances, and sought after the motivation for a new start and a new meaning of life before God. I started out doing that. Even though I was made to perform all manner of heavy labor, I maintained the conviction that I would never break, and that I would never die even if all others did.
The Unification Church did not start from the place of seeking life but that of seeking death. Yet were you resolved to die after you came to know the purpose of the Unification Church? When Colonel Heo, the head of special operations under the Freedom Party, and the government's chief suspect in the murder of Kim Chang-ryong, was executed, he was asked if he felt any remorse for having planned and ordered the murder. He said he felt no remorse and died like a man. When such assassinations or shootings occur, you should compare those executed with yourselves, and ask yourselves how you would die in comparison.
You might be driven by the conspiracies of your enemies to die as a great traitor, or you might die as a result of your comrades, friends, or loved ones, or others, plotting to harm you, but when you die, do so with the heart of benefiting the world. Die without enemies. If you are to die anyway, die after planting something, and without making any enemies. Be resolved to die while loving the enemy as a friend rather than otherwise. Jesus' prayer on the cross for his enemies was great in this way.