Sun Myung Moon
February 3, 1987
True Parents' Birthday
World Mission Center
Translator: Bo Hi Pak
Father and Mother cut their celebration cake on True Parents' Birthday, February 3.
Who is assembled here? You say "Moonies" but what are you? Moon-men and moon-women? Behind the familiar moon, there is the sun; and what is beyond the sun? The sun of love and that is God. Famous people are called stars; many people yearn for stardom. But the way of life of the Moonies is greater than stardom. More important is to be like the moon or the sun.
Which aspect of the moon is most appealing to you -- the full moon or the virtually invisible, new moon? I know you like the full moon. On the first day of the month on the lunar calendar the moon is insignificant, but every day it grows until the fifteenth, when it is full. That is the period of building up, like the first half of a day. Then the moon descends towards smallness again. That's like the second half of a day, heading toward nighttime. Which do you prefer -- the daytime or the nighttime? You say "daytime" very firmly.
If you had a choice of living on the stars, the moon, or the sun, which would you choose? It doesn't matter because, after all, my name contains them all -- Sun, Myung which means bright light, and Moon. Which would you like to be -- a Moonie or a Sunnie? In order to become a Sunnie, you have to free yourself completely from your shackles and become real and true people. Have you done that? What is the difference between Moonies and Sunnies? The moon receives light and then reflects it, while the sun is the generator of light and gives it out everywhere.
The Moonies are those who can only gain their strength from me, receiving that light and encouragement and then giving it out. But for Sunnies it doesn't matter whether I am present or not. Sunnies are dynamos, giving out the light to the world themselves. The wish of Heavenly Father, as well as my own desire, is for you to become Sunnies. Don't stay too long on the Moonie level; promote yourselves to Sunnies.
Be Stronger Than the Darkness
Throughout my life I have always stirred up things; therefore, everywhere I go there is controversy, particularly where it is darkest. That is what we all must do: bring light to the darkness. Do you think I have experienced more bright, sunny days in my life, or more cloudy, dark days? Just as we experience many cloudy days here on earth, the life of the Unification Church, particularly my life, has been full of many cloudy days, many gloomy and dark days of persecution. That does not mean the sun is not shining -- it is always there behind the clouds.
Incredibly evil and satanic forces have been trying to block the benevolent, shining sunlight. Those who can continue under constantly turbulent weather and can survive and prosper must be men and women who know the sun is always shining above the clouds. They have experienced the bright light of a sunny day and have the energy to persevere through the darkness of even a hurricane; they know another sunny day is just ahead. How can you members of the Unification Church survive and prosper during these dark and turbulent days? Only those who have the power of absolute faith, those who have seen the coming of the Lord -- the sunrise -- will survive. They know that this time is temporary and will pass away.
What is the nature of the sun? The sun burns its own body in order to give out energy. If you want to become a Sunnie, you have to burn yourself up in order to give energy and warmth to the world. If your life energy is not strong enough, you will be overcome by the power of darkness. So you should be stronger than the darkness that surrounds you.
Imagine that the sun itself had a mind to think about the fact that its limited resources were being depleted a little more every day. If there is an ongoing depletion of the sun's mass, someday it will face its moment of death. Then what will happen? All the creatures of the earth will die as well, because they depend on the sun for life. So no matter what happens, we cannot let the sun die. There must be some source of refueling for the sun. Can we create a big laboratory and bring out huge buckets of gasoline to pour into the sun's reservoirs? For the sun to survive, it must have some way of bringing back its lost energy. Something else has to sacrifice itself. There must be some element with which the sun can interact and by which the sun can receive some energy back.
In the same way, in order for someone else to live, our sacrifice is required. The Unification Church members suffer a great deal, and willingly make many sacrifices. Our job is to eliminate the darkness, to clear up the clouds that have been obscuring the sun from humanity.
We Represent the Future
If anybody is greedy, you Moonies are the greediest because your ambition is to not only occupy God's love but to even liberate God. You want to free God from His sorrow. No one is harboring a greater ambition than the Moonies. But some people might say that Moonies are the worst possible people because they are so greedy. Wherever you go, people are horrified to hear that you are a Moonie. They fear you and think that their town will suffer because you are there, so they try to get rid of you. You Moonies don't ride into town upon golden chariots, like kings and queens; you enter almost like beggars, humbly fundraising with peanuts and flowers. But even with that, the villagers want to drive you away. There is no reasoning behind it but rather it is just a blind impulse -- to reject the Moonies no matter what.
However, what is starting to happen? The first generation, which blindly rejects the Moonies, is passing away, while the second generation, which is going to take over the management of the world, is coming more and more to our side. That is why we have so many young people in this auditorium today. We represent the future.
We have come to the point when the rejecting, persecuting generation is passing away and the new horizon is opening up. The time will come when the forces that have rejected the Unification Church -- all the nations and sovereignties, even democracy and communism -- will decline. That includes the adherents of secular humanism, those who glorify materialism. They are all being moved out of the planet.
What about the American political situation? Sometimes the Democratic Party holds power, and sometimes the Republican Party takes control. In the meantime, this country is heading downward into more and more moral degradation. From the viewpoint of God, this country is in its death throes. Many people have come to the point of writing off the future of the United States; they cannot see any hope for it. There was a time when people put their faith in science; they thought technology would liberate mankind, but that hope has been gone for a long time now. Nowadays people are desperately searching for answers somewhere. Many are coming to the realization that the Moon philosophy might be their hope. A Special Prescription
Do we have Moonie power? When we sprinkle our Moonie power it has a healing effect, doesn't it? It can heal people from their drug habits, from immorality, and from homosexual problems. When Moonie power is sprinkled, the clouds of darkness will vanish; then people will see their own value and find the direction they should be going.
When you men encounter a beautiful woman, you don't feel the selfish desire to entice her, isn't that true? With Moonie power you are protected from the temptations of the world. When you have that Moonie power, you don't just consider yourself a citizen of your particular country. You don't say, "I'm an American, first and foremost'' or "I'm a Japanese." or "I'm a Korean." Rather you always think of yourself as a universal person, a child of God.
We have been receiving attack, over and over, but the time will come when the tables are turned. Then the Moonies can take the offensive. Then we will see that the world has become so corrupted from within itself that it has no energy to get up and resist. Look at the corruption within all realms of society. People are losing their families: Their wives, their husbands, their children are all leaving. People are becoming completely demoralized. The country itself is no longer intact.
But we have a special prescription, a unique solution. It is not a killing prescription but rather a restoring prescription -- that is home church. We will become tribal messiahs for the people. New vitality is being created; a new engine has been turned on. By pouring new energy into this society, we will see its resurrection. We want to turn this desert into an oasis and bring the springtime by centering upon the love of God. We will transform the people into a united, ideal society.
New Heavenly Territory
If there had been no fall of man, we would have seen the consummation of the vertical line, the love of God coming directly down from heaven. [See diagram.] Both the right side and the left side would have belonged to Heaven. But at the fall, the right and left sides were taken under the satanic domain. Everything became turned around. What was supposed to be left became right; what was supposed to be right became left. In order to enter into full restoration, you have to go through the crossroads. If you started out from the left side, you have to cross over to the right; from the right side, you have to cross over to the left.
All of humanity came to dwell below this horizontal line. That was the consequence of the fall. The evil people in the world, who should be on the left, are flourishing on the right or dominant side, while the good, righteous people are suffering on the left or subordinate side. Incredible human conflict between good and evil is constantly going on. The left side, occupying the right or dominant sphere, is called the left wing. The right side, occupying the left or subordinate sphere, is called the right wing. From the individual level, the scope of evil has broadened through the family, tribe, clan, society, nation, and world, moving up and expanding its territory on the dominant side.
Therefore, a horizontal line must be created in order to establish a new left and a new right, a new heavenly territory. When both wings reach the horizontal line, they have to cross it. Therefore, at this junction, everybody comes to the point of nothingness, emptiness, confusion. It is the spirit of total denial and doubt of everything -- the individual, family, society, nation, and world. In order to cross the line, into the place where a new order is created, everyone has to go through this period of chaos. It is a natural phenomenon.
Then the left wing, representing evil, which has been occupying the dominant side of the world, will cross over and move to the true left side. The right wing, which has been suffering so much within the evil world on the left side, will cross over to the true right side.
The Unification Church movement is born out of the crossing juncture of the right and the left. The left-hand side is surrendering; people on the left are starting to recognize Rev. Moon as a good man, a force for goodness. They are beginning to recognize him on the individual level; then eventually the families, clans, tribes, and nations on the side of evil will recognize the forces of good. It will take about seven years for this recognition to come to its full fruition. Those seven years will be over in 1992; then the new order shall be created.
Embracing Both Worlds
Today both the democratic and the communist worlds are dying. Almighty God will not allow them both to perish without having some alternative. He will let them die but only so that they can be absorbed into the new order. That new order will encompass and embrace both those old worlds.
So far, we have used the classification of right wing and left wing. But with the new order of the Unification movement, we are building up the "head wing," the central wing. We are creating the individual, family, tribe, society, nation, and world head wing. When we reach the crossover point, when we go beyond the horizontal line, what will we see? It will no longer be the case that the right signifies the righteous side and the left evil. Instead, both left and right sides will be part of heaven. The original situation will be restored for the first time in history. This situation is what we call the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Everyone has to go through this crossing junction. This is almost like the moment of judgment -- you have to cleanse yourself, get rid of your past and become a new creature. That is the mission of the Unification Church.
It will happen first on the level of the individual, then on the level of the family, tribe, nation, and world. From that point on, we can say that the true nation will come into being -- the true nation that God can recognize, the true parents that God can recognize, the true brothers and sisters that God can recognize, the true teachers that God can recognize.
When I began my pioneering task, do you think I had even one assistant? There was a time when I was completely alone. I was the only one representing the heavenly goal of a true individual, family, society, nation, and world. When I began my pioneering task, did I start from the highest throne of God in Heaven, or from the lowest possible dungeons of hell on earth?
A Far Greater Foundation
In 1945, right after the end of World War II, there was a golden opportunity for the restoration of the Kingdom of Heaven to take place. God's plan was to consummate the entire restoration process within seven years, if established Christianity had united. You know, however, that that opportunity was lost. Therefore, I had to build up a new foundation through the Unification Church; this was done in 40 years' time. However, the Unification Church's foundation today -- its strength and power -- is far greater than the level of the foundation that existed in 1945. We have come to another time, the second opportunity for the Golden Age of Restoration of the world. This time we don't have to rely upon anyone else's foundation because we have built our own, the Unification Church foundation.
Today we are passing through a very important period of history -- the years of 1986, 1987, and 1988. In this three years' time, our movement has to achieve victory in every realm. We have come to that point.
This year, we are celebrating Mother's 44th birthday and my 67th birthday. As you know, Satan took away the number four, and the heavenly four position foundation became satanic. Also the number six, representing the day of the creation of man, was lost to Satan. Therefore, the total number of days of creation -- seven -- was also lost. This birthday represents the restoration of those three numbers.
The year 1986 was a most important year, the first of these pivotal three years. For that reason, I returned to Korea and made substantial inroads there. We organized the entire nation into Victory Over Communism associations. Every segment of Seoul has been touched; VOC leaders have been chosen, educated, and organized. The Korean government did not have the ability to organize such a thing, but we did. It is now common understanding among all the Korean people that the person who can defend the country from the hateful, warmongering North Korean Kim II Sung is Rev. Sun Myung Moon.
My strategy is not just to restore the great nation of America into a God-centered nation but to liberate the very center of the communist world -- Moscow itself. Without doing this, we cannot liberate God from His sorrow. We cannot liberate the True Parents from their anguish. At that point the Moonies too shall be liberated. From that time on, no one will even conceive of persecuting the Moonies. There will be no more clouds between the sun and humanity. The bright sunshine will be seen all the time. We shall not only be anointed as Sunnies but will move on to be Kingies. Each one us shall enjoy the eternal true love of God, basking in that warmth and light!
The "King" of Servants
The restoration of mankind can be divided into eight different stages. You must go from the servant of servants' position to the servant's position, the adopted son's position, the stepson's position, the son's position, the mother's position, and the father's position, and then ultimately you will plunge into God's loving bosom. That is your ultimate goal. At that point you will be dwelling in the world of love, the direct domain of love.
I have gone through the entire spectrum of human misery, from the very bottom all the way up to the top. Throughout my life I was hated and pursued by Satan more than anyone ever was throughout history. I could not go around or overlook any aspect of human suffering. This is why my past 40 years have involved the worst possible misery.
I started out from the servant of servants' position. I tried to become the best servant of servants that ever existed -- the "king" of servants. Becoming the king of servants means you have to be the model servant, fulfilling the worst duties imaginable. There have been so many people who died tragically and miserably, under the worst possible situations, but even those people can now come to me and say, "Yes, you suffered ten times, even a hundred times, more than we did" Thus their hearts can be comforted and melted.
No one in history has suffered more than me for the sake of God. Because of that, God can say to the people, "Look what my son has done and then everyone else's suffering will seem smaller at that point. Even Satan does not have anything else to say in front of me because my suffering is far beyond even Satan's imagination.
However, no matter what kind of suffering I faced, I was never in a weak position, saying, "God, this is too much. I cannot bear any more of this." I will never say that. The path of suffering should not be distinguished by tears; rather, it should be embroidered with the joy of acceptance. My attitude has always been, "I know, Heavenly Father, that You cannot abandon mankind; You want to save everyone. In the same way, I will never give up on humanity either. Even if You must use me as a sacrifice to save people, please do so."
I traveled to all the continents of the world and established holy grounds in almost every nation, including the most miserable, small, suffering countries. No matter what country I went to, I always have the confidence that I can comfort the people there and restore them, because I think, "I have suffered more than these people. Because of the conditions I made, please, God, help and save these people I have always prayed such a prayer. No nation has been overlooked.
The Seven-Year Path
What I have gone through in the past 40 years -- the seven stages of suffering -- I have condensed, in a way, into a small segment of seven years. All you have to do is walk that seven-year path. The method of walking that path is the home church providence.
The course of Jacob had to be walked by the Israelites. The course of Moses had to be walked by the nation of Israel. The course of Jesus had to be walked by the people of the world. The course of the True Father must be walked by you. If your seven years is a period of difficulty, if it is a thorny path, do not try to avoid it; do not avoid the persecution. Receive it. In seven years' time, you will have converted a hostile world into a loving and welcoming world, so that the people will open their doors and welcome you in as their tribal messiah. That is possible because of the conditions I set in Danbury and the victory there.
Our slogan for this year is "Unification of the Fatherland. Where do we accomplish this unification? Through the home church providence. Follow my direction and fulfill the mandate; give with true love. Later you can talk about it, you can tell me whether it worked or not. But first you must simply follow.
The entire consummation of history is centering upon you -- unless you do this, nothing will happen. Unless you move, nothing will move. The ideal family, tribe, nation, and world are all centered upon you. What will be your attitude? Will you try to dodge this suffering period, or will you plunge into it and convert it into joy? The course of restoration is one of breaking through, penetrating.
When Korea was still under the occupation of Japan, I was suffering in prison for the sake of the independence of Korea. The highest and the lowest echelons of the Japanese imperial government united in order to persecute me.
They had not even one ounce of sympathy for me, but I bit off that suffering and I chewed it up. At that time, my captors tried to tempt me by saying, "If you recant, we will give you freedom, as well as glory, honor, money, women, everything." But I chose to stay on the suffering path. When I look back on those days, I feel it was God's grace. By being in jail, I could be separated from normal earthly temptations, so I was protected, in a sense.
In North Korea, I experienced imprisonment three times. Persecution in North Korea came primarily because of money. Looking back on those days, I can see that God was showing me, "Completely separate yourself from money; have nothing to do with it" That particular discipline was the grace given to me during my imprisonment. There were established churches in that communist nation, but
I could not trust them. There was a government there, but I could not trust it. I became stronger by thinking that there was no one in the world that I could rely on except myself and God.
Nothing But Intense Gratitude
Every situation in Korea today will pass away -- whether political, social, or whatever. I see all those things as passing phenomena; they will not survive. The new order will soon come to that country, so I can stay aloof of the present situation. No earthly power can become a temptation to me. When I came to the United States, the entire free world banded together to come against me. I really have no yearning or longing in my heart for anything in this world. It was actually much easier for me to be isolated from the temptations of the world. I could deny the world entirely. Thus the world's persecution helped me; in a way, it was a grace.
When I look back upon my 67 years of life, I feel nothing but intense gratitude filling my heart. God always wanted to give me something better, something greater; therefore I look at my life as a life of blessing. Every step of the way, I can see that God has been with me. From this point, the foundation I have erected can never be diminished by any earthly power. Only by going this way of suffering could this foundation be completely rock solid today. I have seen nothing but the flowing love of God throughout my life, always with me, supporting and protecting me. Do you understand?
The remaining path is a bright and rosy one. All I can see is a wide-open road toward the Kingdom of Heaven -- in heaven and on earth. I can walk down that highway with true pride and confidence and gratitude. Up until now, living in this time of suffering was like dwelling in perpetual nighttime; every step of the way was in darkness. The path of restoration was like one night after another, on and on, with no sunshine. But during this whole time, as I encountered barriers along the way, I broke each of them down, one by one, and opened up the path, enabling me to see larger and larger territory. Now I can see the entire territory; no compartments or barriers can obstruct my view. That is why the spirit world can now come down freely. In the past, the ability of the spirit world to help was very limited; only in certain isolated cases could someone establish a vertical line of communication spiritually. Today, that is different because those compartments in the spirit world have been broken down and the barriers are gone. So all the forces of religion can descend with great impact on earth.
Do Not Scar Your Inheritance
In order for you to become entitled to the Kingdom of Heaven, you must become a historical person centered upon the love of God. You must be able to control the past, which is the spirit world, the present, which is the parents' world, and the future, which is God's world. I devised a way by which you can encapsulate that course. This is the home church system. When you go to your area, you can practice this.
Many people ask, "How will Rev. Moon build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth?" You have seen the blueprint this morning. Nothing is lacking in home church -- it contains all the facets. All the information that Satan has, you also have. Every component is there.
My entire life has been one of extraordinary suffering, but then when I look at it from another direction, I see what a blessing it was. God gave me that suffering path in order to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Why? God wanted to bestow His entire heavenly inheritance on my shoulders, and through me, God wants to distribute it to you and all of humanity. So you are the inheritors of this Kingdom. But you cannot put a scar on that inheritance.
Think of it. My entire life was involved in following this tradition. I always thought, "I cannot leave even one little scar in the God-given Kingdom of Heaven." In the same way, that is the tradition for you. I am bequeathing this Kingdom to you, so you must not leave any scar there, any shame. Do you have confidence you can do this? Do you want to receive the inheritance?
On this momentous historical day of February 3, 1987, which is January 6 on the lunar calendar, I have proclaimed to the world, "I promise I will bequeath to you all the inheritance I have received from God -- the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven." What determines whether you become a winner or a loser? It depends upon your responsibility to not leave a scar on that inherited Kingdom. Especially you blessed families must successfully transfer the true lineage, pass on all the historical tradition you have received. If you can say, "To fulfill the conditions Father has enumerated, I will not leave any scar" -- if I can hear that kind of commitment from you -- I promise to bequeath to you the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and in heaven.
Your stage to act upon is home church. This is where you can practice my tradition and my words and inherit God's lineage. Starting from home church, where do we go? Home church will be elevated into tribal church, then to national church, then to world church. Our goal is not too far away. We can mobilize all of Christianity in this kind of home church system. We have to knit the whole world into different layers of home churches. You may think that the home church system is sparse, but our goal is actually very near. We just have to begin.
Through home church, you will create your own tribe, your own nation, your own world! When this system succeeds in three nations -- the United States, Japan, and Korea -- we won't even have to worry about the rest of the world. There will be modern electronic media through which we can communicate with the whole world. So converting and transforming the world is not that big a task, once you get down to it.
By receiving this kind of inheritance -- home church -- you are moving into higher territory. But you are not zigzagging there; instead, you are going like a comet, propelling yourselves straight forward to your ultimate target, which is God's heart. On this momentous birthday of the True Parents, those who pledge, "I shall become the true child of our Heavenly Father and be victorious along this path, so that we can all ultimately go into the heart of God," raise both hands please.
If that particular pledge is not fulfilled, but rather is stained and scarred, then True Parents' Birthday will lose all its joy, and it will have no meaning. But I know you will not do that.
God bless you.