Fifth Anniversary Of The 8,000 Couples Blessing

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
July 5, 1987
Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han

I had not planned to come here today, but when I heard that you were meeting, I thought it might be a good occasion to speak to many people. Therefore I decided to come. In the future when you organize such a gathering, you and headquarters should contact me first for approval; then the invitations you send out can indicate my endorsement. If members receive an invitation, they may not know how to take it, but when they find out that I know about the meeting, they will respond.

Those families who have children, raise your hands. How many of the children of the 8,000 couples are present and how many are not? Somebody should have the figures. Also, you should prepare statistics for events like this so that when I ask questions you will have the answers available. For instance, how many of the 8,000 couples are living in this area? How many have children? How many boys? How many girls? How old is the oldest? How many international couples are there?

In preparation for each anniversary of the 8,000 Couple Blessing, you should compile all these statistics. Also, you should call the different regions and find out how many couples are coming. On the basis of such preparations, you can invite me to your anniversary celebration and I will be happy to respond.

You should not take this kind of meeting lightly. Make sure everybody comes, whether I am here or not. Then if I do come, the meeting will be very powerful. Do you know the significance of a gathering of the 8,000 couples? It is much more important and meaningful than any conference of scientists or scholars.

When you hold your meeting on a Sunday, like today, you should make sure that everybody comes since it is such an important event. If the details are not arranged, members don't know how to respond and they may or may not come. This is not a work day, so 100 percent of the invited people should be here. You have to make good plans and lay a strong foundation, which takes a lot of heart. So from now on, you should organize the foundation and then invite me.

Does anybody know how many children have been born from this Blessing? Each month, you should know how many children there are. This looks like a multitude without a master; if so, you are in an inferior position to the Israelites in the wilderness. Is that what you are? You want to belong to somebody, don't you? You want to belong to some nation, don't you? What nationality do you belong to? If you really belong to True Parents, you should realize that all the other couples belong to the same nationality.

I have been at Gloucester where fishing activities are being organized for the season. I wanted to stay there for a few days to organize the beginning of the program. Two hundred and sixty participants are there, including all the Barrytown graduates, the blessed couples' children from age 18 and over, and all the members of Ocean Church. I am overseeing the program, but when I heard about this meeting I came here.

Do you have any preference for what you would like me to do? You can see me on other occasions. If I say I want to leave now, do you have the right to say no? Those couples who feel very confident that your child is the best child of all the blessed couples, raise your hands.

(Testimonies by Georgia Lewis, speaking about her child and her commitment to becoming an ideal couple; Valerie Shimoyama, speaking about her Japanese / American marriage; and Mrs. Tacco Hose speaking about making harmony within a marriage and the special difficulties of East/West marriages.)

You are strange people, aren't you? Strange and mysterious! Are you sitting together as couples? It was in 1982, wasn't it, that the Blessing took place? It's been five years. Time goes fast, too fast. Those who haven't seen me in person since the Blessing, raise your hands. No one.

What did I have in mind when I gave the Blessing to you? What did I want to do after the Blessing? You have experienced some difficulties in your marriage, right? Did I just match you and marry you and expect you to have no problems? No, I have to keep encouraging and educating you and helping you to become stronger.

Nobody likes to suffer or go through persecution. For whom are you doing this? It is not for me, but for God and mankind. Our lifestyle is very different from that of other people. Most people live only for their own purpose; they aren't concerned about their nation or the world. Our situation is different. We have taken up this difficult lifestyle in order to help God and all humankind. This is the important point.

In the past, God was never able to enjoy a day of celebration because of the human fall initiated by Satan. This has been Satan's world. People have lived completely surrounded by Satan, so God has always been concerned about liberating people. Originally it was God's world and God was our Parent, but people in the fallen world have been unaware of the original situation. Only God knew.

Heaven's side is one place and Satan's side is another place. How can we connect them? No matter how hard fallen people try, they cannot contact God's side; no matter how hard they work, they cannot cross over to God's place. People can reach God only through a God-centered person.

God has been preparing a foundation in the "basement" of the world, using religion. In this world basement many cultures exist: Asian, European, African, Latin American, and so forth, each with different backgrounds. There is also a collection of religions in that basement: Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, and so forth. But they all disagree and fight among themselves. They have not been able to unite. This is the difficult situation within the fallen religious world.

God's purpose is to unite religions and save mankind, making one ideal world. He has worked through many kinds of people in the Old Testament era and the New Testament era in order to save mankind. But how can God make people one? If they do not unite, they cannot go to the original world.

What about the Unification Church? What can we accomplish? Our purpose is to unify the world and that means we have to feel oneness with each other, share a common lifestyle, and create a common culture. Rather than each person choosing an independent course, we need a common direction. Since individuals go their separate ways in our present world, how can the multitudes of people in the world today gain unity? It isn't so easy.

Consider how difficult God's situation is compared to yours. One sister today described how many difficulties a Japanese woman and an American man experience even after living together for several years. That is true. If it was not difficult, it would not be true. Truth is difficult. That is the natural way. We might compare racial differences to differences between colors. Red and yellow are quite distinct colors, for example, and it is not easy to harmonize them.

International marriages are the most difficult kind of all. Why do Moonies want to take on that kind of challenge? It's not because of our human viewpoint but because of God's situation. We understand what God and mankind have gone through. Those who undertake such a challenge will liberate and eventually unite the world. Those who refuse to get involved will not appear in such a world. You Moonies know that, but most others don't.

You know the way. You are on God's side. In your mind you can decide to do it. With love, you volunteer to undertake a difficult marriage in order to develop true love for humanity. You make that precious choice very seriously, knowing that God wants you to rescue mankind and God. God cannot be liberated until the fallen world is liberated. After God is free, He will bless all people.

Your situation may be difficult; you may have only one room to live in, for example. I know that. But you are turning the spiritual world upside down. In order to liberate God through love, you are making these sacrifices. In terms of liberation, you are closer to God than the rest of the people.

What is the meaning of a good person? A good person is one who lives for the sake of others. The family member who is most dedicated to the well-being of the family is a good person. Good people automatically become the center of their environment. The outside world doesn't know that, but the Moonies do. The most important thing is to reach the center point. It is a universal phenomenon that good people automatically arrive at a place of value. Our original mind knows that good people reach the place of greatest significance.

Your mind should direct the actions of your body because your original mind recognizes God's place and knows that a good person will automatically reach the good world. Like a military officer, your mind ceaselessly tells you to act for a good purpose. Every Moonie knows this.

How much persecution have I received since I came to America? Many Americans wonder why I am here. My purpose is to make a contribution to humanity. The United States is not heading in a good direction; in fact, it is declining. Think about how difficult my situation has been. Only God has understood it; Americans don't know it at all. Instead they oppose me and say, "You are an enemy of our country. Korea's situation is worse than ours so you should go back home."

I know very well that the people of the United States don't want me, so why should I stay? It is for the sake of God and mankind. If the present way of life continues in the United States, it will perish. Not just anybody can help save this country - only one man. God is urging me to save this country because if it perishes, God's providence will be completely lost. All nations are looking at the situation of the United States. Why has the family system broken down here if this country's background is Christian? The Bible doesn't condone such a situation, so who caused it? The American people don't want that situation; God doesn't want it; Jesus Christ doesn't want it. It was caused by Satan, working through bad people.

Satan uses people such as atheists and secular humanists because they don't recognize that they should live for God. They don't consider God's heart; they completely deny God. They have made America what it is today. God cannot remain in such a situation. The American people have virtually lost God and therefore this country is experiencing God's punishment in the form of family and social breakdown.

Think about it. American young people are diseased with drugs. Who will save them? The American government cannot do anything about it. The Department of State and the Department of Defense cannot resolve this situation. With all its scientific technology, with space programs reaching the moon, the United States cannot reach the spirit world or save it. Who can? It can be done Only with God's help.

I came to the United States 15 years ago and I organized this breed of Moonies. Has it been hard? It is not easy to transform you. The Moonie world is unlike the outside world and, being different, you find yourself in difficult situations. Once you know God's situation you feel you must do something. To fulfill God's purpose you want to break out of the present world system, no matter how difficult it is.

I have chosen to take up the challenge. Both mankind and the spirit world desperately need you. You Moonies are strong. Neither God nor mankind will make your determination for you; you must make it. Such determination is so precious and valuable. To help God and mankind is the most valuable decision you can make, and once you have made it, you should resolve not to complain.

If yours is an international marriage, will you complain and make excuses? When you marry a person from another country and grow to love him or her, you double God's territory. An international marriage is most important because it enables a true person to connect two nations and save them. One spouse may be an American with mostly German ancestry and the other a descendant of Japanese samurai, but as long as both know God's situation, they can build a marriage.

If you can understand the Japanese culture as well as that of the United States and combine the two, uniting both countries for the sake of God and mankind, you are achieving something wonderful. Who else in history has done such a thing for God, mankind, the United States and Japan? This is a historical consummation. God and mankind have been yearning for such fulfillment; Japan and the United States have been longing for it. Your marriage becomes the intersection of all these realms. Isn't this a wonderful Moonie concept? This is our source of pride and our authorization to receive God.

During this age in which I am living, people can attain such victories. Without meeting me, you would never be able to reach such a point, even if you tried for eternity. We are living at the same time and you have met me and were blessed by me, so your blessed marriage at this time should be your most prized possession. Once you make your pledge of true love here, you can go throughout this country and even visit many different countries and cultures without being hindered by any boundaries.

An ideal person doesn't erect any barriers. Whoever wants boundaries is no model for others. A perfect person wants to eliminate borders and see one common culture. Who made the many boundaries of this world? It was people such as Americans, Koreans, Germans - but not God. True people don't draw boundaries; they were made by Satan's side working through people.

By the same token, the things of creation never heed man-made boundaries. Does a snake ask someone for permission to cross a border? Does a fly ask for a visa? Even an insect can travel freely, but what about mankind? Aren't human beings the most valuable creatures? Who made such restrictive laws? Black cattle can mate with white cattle without restrictions; that is the natural way. Who opposes that? The barriers of background and culture originated with Satan. The outside world doesn't know that, but you understand it clearly and are willing to marry someone from another background.

You should be willing to transcend boundaries because that is how you become historical people. God longs for you to broaden yourself. In the future, such people will be in positions of authority. If you resolve to do it, you can take pride in that willingness.

Suppose in the future you have five children and each marries someone of a different nationality. What language will those ten people use? If each one claims that his or her country's language is number one, what will you do? This may become a reality in your lifetime, and it would be a big problem. Concerned about your family's language, you will discuss the question among yourselves and ultimately decide to use Korean - because it is the True Parents' original tongue.

You have to learn Korean. It is both a scientific and a spiritual language. For instance, hundreds of different adjectives in Korean may express the same concept, each one having a subtle variation in meaning. There are hundreds of different ways of expressing color, for instance, and in order to comprehend it you need a mind like a computer. This is one reason Koreans tend to be intellectually sharp. Only a spiritually attuned mind can do that.

Linguists say that people with the most highly developed language will never perish. Japanese, for instance, normally cannot speak other languages fluently because their ability to pronounce certain sounds is limited. The reason that I could master English as well as I have at my age is that I am Korean. Korean is the ideal language. God certainly had this in mind when He developed it and He is proud of it.

As a result of meeting me, have you developed or have you regressed? Have you improved just a little or a lot? People may leave the church for one reason or another but eventually they have to return. Do you think I am smarter than the ex-Moonies, or do you think they are clever for having left and I am dumb for staying? I remain in the movement because I am smart. Others may think they are smart to leave, but eventually they will return.

In the near future the general public will come to understand what you international couples have had to go through. All who meet you will cheer and applaud you. They will consider you the pioneers, those who sparked the revolution of goodness and true love. You are truly paving the road for all others.

Your environment may change from time to time, but once true love develops within you it will abide there eternally; it will never change. Do you comprehend this? Can any of you say to me, "I think I have some idea of what you are going through. Maybe I can lead the Unification Church now"? No American or Korean can say that. No matter how much money, power or knowledge you may have, you cannot do what I am doing now.

From the bottom of your heart you keep yearning for me to come and be with you because you cannot live without me. I am Korean, with no American background, but it is the Americans who are crying out for that. I represent something far beyond Korea, far beyond any country. I represent true love and that is why you want to connect with me and follow me. That is what distinguishes you from the outside world. You have to know this.

Normally, when people give things up they can soon be reduced to nothing because they exhaust themselves and have nothing more to give out. But with true love, the situation is different. In true love, the more we sacrifice for the sake of others, the more we grow. Our internal capacity expands because of true love.

In the physical world, any motion requires a certain output of energy. Every time motion occurs, energy is depleted until the supply is exhausted. But that rule does not apply in the case of true love. The more love we give, the greater the supply of love we have. God wanted to exercise true, loving dominion over all things through His sons and daughters because that way His power would never be exhausted. The more we love our children with true, sacrificial love, the more we will receive love in return and the more energy we will have to keep on giving. Thus the greater the number of children, the more energy will be available to fill the corners of the universe.

During these past 40 years many people have tried their very best to destroy me, but has the Unification Church been damaged by their efforts? It may have appeared to be weakened, but in the long run we have become stronger and have developed a broader foundation. No one can claim that I started out with a large foundation that has been shrinking under attack and is in danger of disappearing. My life is an example of the principle that the more one gives out, the greater one's supply of love.

What has made this foundation grow? The power of true love brought about this prosperity. The more people oppose me, the more I keep loving them. That is my secret. When the government of the United States came against me, I resolved to save this country and invest everything to restore it. The greater the opposition, the more love I pour out. Love has flooded the American basement and now my name has become famous throughout the world! Who made that happen? It was God's true love.

Through the CAUSA seminars, many people in high position have been hearing the same kinds of things you learned years ago, and they have been so deeply touched that they are dedicating themselves to it. Can anybody cut off this force with political or intellectual power? No. Nobody can turn back this tide. With the power of true love we can embrace all mankind; no matter how difficult it may be, we can keep on loving people from this position.

Previously, nobody knew how far mankind has been from God; now you are beginning to see it. But what is God's response? Does He want to take revenge on people for what they have done to Him? On the contrary, God is trying to make a nation for us and give us an easier way of living. God's attitude is that people oppose Him out of ignorance, so He keeps forgiving them. That is what we, too, should do. God's love is so great that He has been trying to encompass even those who oppose Him.

You might want to say, "Father, we know that Korea is a central country in the providence so why didn't you stay there instead of coming here to America? We can manage without you." The Koreans are saying, "Father, we need you in Korea; we don't know what to do here." Not only the Moonies say this, but others as well. Professors and leaders of society are asking me to do something about Korea, confident of my ability.

But I say, "No, I must go to America." Why? Am I so overjoyed with America because it serves me so well? Is that why I want to come back? No, this country received God's blessing as a second Israel, and unless the second Israel is revived and helped to fulfill its mission, the third Israel can never be properly connected.

Nothing is simple. The scales may tip one way or the other. The Moonies are called to re-indemnify the entire second Israel. If we do it right, America will certainly live; if we do things wrong and the outside power prevails, God's dispensation will be destroyed. This is the responsibility we are called to fulfill.

Suppose I told you to forget about America and concentrate on saving the world instead. Would you object and say that since you come from America you must focus on this country? Or would you be willing to sacrifice America in order to save the world, realizing that the world is more important than America? Can you think that way? Isn't that what I have taught you?

I am putting into practice what I have been teaching you. I gave up my own country, Korea, to work for the sake of the world, not just America. The liberation of God requires that the world be liberated. What is the final goal of our true love mission? It is to liberate God in true love. God hasn't been able to freely pour out His love and He has never received true love. God has been bound by many restrictions and is longing for love to come and set Him free. The highest calling of the Unification Church is this mission of liberating God with love.

Christians and other religious people long for God to bless and help them, but they don't think about liberating God. No nation or religion in history has been devoted to liberating God before the Unification Church appeared. Instead of seeking our own liberation, we seek to liberate God. Whether we make money or not, we cannot abandon this mission. It is easier to make money than to dedicate our love, but we have to pour out our love in order to liberate True Parents and liberate God. Liberation will be accomplished by giving true love. Love is the crucial point.

Now that we know we are called to liberate God, how shall we go about it? At the beginning of history, God's children deviated from their position as His filial son and daughter. They revolted against their Parent and betrayed Him. Since the fall took place, our God has been shackled in prison. How can He be liberated? Unless we develop filial love for True Parents, we cannot liberate God in love.

I have come to fulfill this most important mission in history: to practice true love and liberate God. I am bringing this message to the world. After receiving this message, all people can liberate God through true love. This is why God sent me. Now that you have received this message, you should each be able to liberate many individuals, many families, nations, and finally the world. Then you can liberate God. These are the progressive levels of our work. You cannot stop along the way and say you have fulfilled the task and liberated God. After accomplishing one level, you must reach for the next level.

If you are only working on the individual level, your base is not adequate to reach God. First you need to reach the family level. After raising up a family of true love, you can connect to the tribe of true love. Based on such a tribe, you can work to create the nation of true love With such a nation as your base, you can reach out and make it a world of true love. This is how the tier system works. Finally, with a loving world as your base, you can reach the God of true love.

You can truly liberate God through this course of true love. But before you can liberate God you need a worldwide foundation. You cannot liberate Him on just an individual foundation or just by making noise. You need to know this clearly.

I have been following this pattern myself. I came to the United States because it is the leading nation of the world. If I can liberate this country, it will be the foundation for liberating God. By liberating the territory occupied by Satan, it can be connected to God. This is the course of liberation. I did not create this course; it is the original way of the Principle.

Many people want to become ideal men or women, but they can achieve that only through true love. The ideal world itself cannot be established without true love which bears happiness as its fruit. Without love, mankind cannot find happiness, freedom, blessing or prosperity. Anything that is centered on true love can be successful. You must know this clearly.

How can you find a perfect individual? There can be no perfect person without a center of true love. There can be no ideal family without a center of true love. It is impossible to reach God without a nation of true love.

God's purpose and our purpose are actually one. The endpoint of God's desire is the same as the endpoint of our desire; God's purpose and our purpose merge into true love. God is our subject and we are His object. When both combine, centering on true love, unification results. This is the ideal and it can only be based on love.

Love always takes two; one is not enough. God is the subject and we are the object, so how can we take it upon ourselves to liberate God? After we become His true objects we can liberate our subject, God. When God sees you as the representative of the individual foundation of true love, the family foundation of true love, the tribal, national and worldwide foundations of true love, with everything in order, God will come to you. That is how to approach God, who is the absolute, unchanging, unique being.

God wants to possess His children completely with absolute true love. He has the authority to establish that connection. I am aiming to accomplish this. Many blessed couples have been complaining, but God doesn't want to hear such complaints. Before focusing on your spouse, your priority is to become a perfect object to God. God doesn't want husband and wife to concentrate on each other without first becoming perfect objects to Him. The only way you can be truly united with each other is by uniting with God.

We are working to liberate God, but God in turn is concerned about your liberation. I have been in difficult situations throughout my life. Americans realize that I have received much persecution in this country but still I deeply love the American people. As people recognize that, they eventually come to respect me. The environment in the United States has changed a lot.

Our mission is to totally liberate God on every level. I have been working toward this goal for 40 years. I cannot liberate God next year, but I can work on liberating individuals, families, clans, nations, races and the world - then one day I will liberate God.

There are always crossroads along the way. Suppose we have to decide whether to liberate the world or to liberate God? Of course, we should liberate both at the same time, but if that is not possible, which takes priority? I always think that even if I have to sacrifice the world, I must liberate God. This is not so difficult to understand if you compare it to deciding whether to liberate first an individual or a family. The individual should be liberated, but the higher goal is the family, even if it means sacrificing the individual benefit.

I always sacrifice the individual benefit because when the family is liberated, the individual is automatically liberated as well. Likewise, when we liberate God the liberation of the world will follow almost automatically. Thus, we must work for the liberation of God.

How many of you 8,000 couples have thought, "I must sacrifice my family's benefit in order to liberate America"? Have you been living that way? My own children have had to go through many difficulties in school because their name is Moon. They were persecuted for being Moonies. You know how difficult it is for a child to be different from others. I felt terrible, but I always paid attention to America and not to my family. When this nation realizes what it has unwittingly done, it will praise my children. Since they have persevered through the antagonism, the American people will want to serve them and raise them up. I know that one day this will happen.

The American people have treated me very badly but eventually they will realize how much I have done for this country and they will bow down to me and want to serve me hundreds of times more than they persecuted me. They will do that out of their respect for God, not just for me. All people in history will bow their heads in gratitude for what I was doing while they were unaware.

Recently there have been many conferences to teach people about God's providence and God's will for this country. One participant was deeply touched and said, "We must erect a statue of Reverend Moon in all 50 states." Everyone was surprised, but this is an example of a person filled with gratitude who wants to give back ten times more than he received.

To God it really makes sense to work not just for the sake of today but for tomorrow - and not only for tomorrow but for the sake of ten years from now, a thousand years from now. How wonderful it is to make such an investment!

It is good for white Westerners to begin to appreciate and bow their heads to the sacrifice and love coming through me. People are beginning to feel and express their gratitude. Many white people, however, don't realize the situation they are in. It is very wise for modern American women to choose a Japanese husband, for instance, rather than someone of their own race and customs just in order to have fun together. Even though American women know their country is the top nation, they ask for a Japanese husband because they feel somehow it is right and closer to God's heart. Such women make a wise choice.

How wonderful it is for an American woman to resolve to open up the love of a Japanese man and thus unlock the gate of his nation! When husband and wife can each open the gate of their nations, together they will be able to open the gate of the spirit world and ultimately include even God. How wonderful! Do you feel that way?

You may think your situation is so full of problems that it stinks. That is what fertilizer is all about! But fertilizer guarantees a good harvest for the future. Why do I do things like this? It is so you will receive in return a thousand times more than you invested. I do these things to liberate God and mankind - not to be understood right away.

Whenever I go to another country - Germany for instance - my first desire is to visit the international blessed couples. I might look first for a German-Korean couple or a German-Chinese couple. If there were none, I would look for any Asian blessed to a German, because people in international couples can feel very lonely. That is why my mind is drawn to them. I am a friend of the lonely people. If everyone in a family is satisfied, I am not drawn to that family. If someone is lonesome, my mind goes to them.

Because I love Americans, I give them Korean and Japanese spouses. If I considered them my enemy, I would not want to give them my own people. The Korean and Japanese sisters who love me so much are the ones I give to Americans - people who may not know what love is or who are indifferent to love. For this, I look for women with a strong, true nature. Therefore, no matter how difficult the situation may be in your family, never forget that your wife is my beloved daughter. Don't be stuck at the individual level of love; always aim for the highest standard of love.

When you and your spouse go through difficult times, you should get together, hold hands and cry out with tears to God. Then heaven will find a way to give you some help. You know that your situation is miserable, but you should realize that God's situation is also miserable and that He wants to alleviate the misery of all people. Therefore even in your greatest difficulties, seek to liberate God from His misery.

You, your family, and all mankind may be in distress, but even then you can be one with God. Misery is certainly not the ideal of creation; no one ever expects or longs for misery. Even though nobody in history wanted things to be this way, still we must go through trials. Why? We must realize that in the midst of sorrow we can find the key to liberate mankind and God. We must never weep just for our own misery but pray that God's misery can be liberated. In this way we can liberate God.

What makes a Japanese woman go to a foreign family situation where she will not be understood, where she has little in common with others, where everything - even the height and color of the eyes - is different? She does it for the sake of America. If she married someone of her own kind, she wouldn't have to go through such adjustments. But once she decided to sacrifice herself here, she took that responsibility.

If you Americans want to find out how difficult it is for your Japanese or Korean spouse, try going to Japan or Korea and living with your in-laws for one year. Then you will realize what your spouse must be going through with you. Once you realize that, you must treat your wife like God! The American environment is against her, time is against her. How can these women overcome such pressures? Think how difficult it is for them. No one can talk to them and understand where their mind is. They have to digest everything by themselves. Since they cannot unburden their situation to anyone, they just pray in tears to God. What a predicament they are in! By living in the normal way they could never find a solution, but they have to keep reminding themselves, "Father blessed me," and then look for ways to digest the circumstances. These are the experiences they are building up.

The average American man doesn't think about that. He typically likes American ways better than the Japanese style, so his way of thinking is different from that of his wife. But you should remember that God's daughter from Japan is trying to bring the heart of America around to God's side. That is why Japanese brides were given to Americans.

Since the environment is so difficult for his wife, the husband should respond by easing the pressure and protecting his wife more. These brides are foreigners, and I am always thinking about their difficult situations, looking for ways to protect them. Sometimes I help couples in which the wife hates her American husband. It's true. An Oriental woman is generally not as strong as her American husband. She is physically small, weighing perhaps only half as much as he does. How can she stand being in a bad environment? It's not easy. If she isn't confident that God and I are always with her absolutely, she might want to commit suicide.

Realizing these difficulties, why did I form international marriages? I did it for God and mankind. No matter how difficult it may be, this is what God desires and what mankind needs. There is no other way to bring world salvation. You married couples should think about that. When your situation is difficult, thank God for it. Raise your right hand and say, "Thank you, God," and then raise your left hand and say, "Thank you, mankind."

No husband can be negative toward a woman who remains thankful no matter what difficulties arise. You men must remember that I gave you my blessed daughter. In the spirit world, I will treat the international couples in a special way; they will get additional "credit." Those who think that I will never go to the spirit world but will remain here forever and ever, raise your hands. No one! Everybody, sooner or later, goes to the spirit world.

I never do anything just for the sake of pleasing this world. I know that this world is temporal and its standards are not godly. I couldn't care less about pleasing the world, but whatever I do, I want to be consistent with the spirit world and to conform with its law. You too shouldn't exist to please this world but to please the laws of spirit world, where all of us will one day go. Do you understand? This is why I do the things I do.

Today is a time of relaxation, a one-day leave of absence, so to speak, when I can meet all you members. I am speaking like this so you can learn about your goal: to liberate God and mankind by a success in your family. That requires self-sacrifice. If you carry this out, the ideal world will automatically result. After liberating God and mankind, everything else can be yours, but without the liberation of God and mankind, you can't accomplish anything. In other words, it's all or nothing. The family is not our only level; we must also reach the national and worldwide levels. If we don't liberate the world, our family has no meaning. Do you understand?

The pride of the blessed couples is to establish by your own hands and by your own work the foundation on the individual, family, tribal, national and worldwide levels, and ultimately to liberate God. It was human beings who fell, not God. Since the human relationship with God has been distorted, the bonds between nations, families, and individuals have been twisted as well. We must untangle these knots. God cannot do it; we have to. That is why everything depends on your decision and your family's decision. People fell, so people have to restore the fall. This is what you must realize.

It is through the family that we must liberate the world and liberate God, not the individual. After falling, Adam's family went to hell. We have to go the reverse way; we have to carry out restoration and return to our original place. How can we do it? We must take a different way, a course diametrically opposed to that of the secular world. Moonie activities are absolutely different from those of the outside world. I do not teach the "normal" way, but the abnormal way. Many young Americans don't want to go that way. They want to enjoy life and be happy. Even though they do not see it, their lifestyle is being directed by Satan.

We must take the opposite way. All humanity is diseased, so in order to be healed we must receive an injection of medicine. No one likes the medicine or the injection, but receiving such treatment is taking the opposite course. When the doctor tells us to take something to cure our disease we must do it. You Moonies know what is good for you; you do what I tell you to because you know it is the antidote for spiritual disease.

You know you must move from the realm of the individual to that of the family and tribe. There are many tribes: North American, Latin American, Korean, German, and so on. Each of you is reaching out to save your country. By organizing these tribes we can save the world. Now that you know that, would you like me to mobilize you?

I will let you enjoy the afternoon and carry out your own program but before that, I want to add something. Remember that international marriages are very difficult - extremely difficult. How does your situation rank on the scale of difficulty? When husband and wife are of the same nationality, their marriage is the easiest. If I give some direction to such a couple and you say it is too difficult, I will plug your mouths up! You can't say your life and your relationship is that difficult. So from now on, couples of the same nationality can be given any order and should never complain. If you do complain, you will become like a tiny insect from the viewpoint of the spirit world.

A new standard for marriage is being set by the international couples. This is the first time in history that a religious group has created such marriages. Do you think I make such matches easily? Would I just lightly match a Korean and an American? No, I am totally serious about it. I know such marriages are very difficult, but I have laid so much of a foundation with you that you know it can work out and you resolve to make it work. It is a miracle in itself that your mind works that way. It would never happen normally but only on the right foundation. Your original mind knows that.

It is not just getting married that is great, but what follows. As you work to build your marriage, you experience a powerful, magnetic pull from your original mind and the good spirit world.

Who started this kind of marriage for the first time in history? There have never been any truly blessed marriages before but there was plenty of illegal love, adultery and promiscuity. The only totally legitimate marriage is that given by God through the True Parents.

Because of the fall, people left God and lost knowledge about themselves; they became ignorant even of their origin. Throughout history, God had to make sacrifice after sacrifice to lay the foundation upon which legal marriages could take place for the first time in human history. According to biblical chronology, this took 6,000 years but those years are symbolic. Actually, God has been working for more than a million years to make these arrangements.

The Unification movement comes upon this foundation. After millions of years, at the right moment in human history, everything has been arranged in the proper order. Do you think my desire to bless couples is just an impulse? No, this is the focal point of the entire course of history that God has been developing. When we reached this destination, I knew what to do and I did it properly. You couples are the fruits of my work.

Some day you blessed couples may say to other couples, "How long have you been giving suffering to God's heart and all mankind? Your so-called happy marriage has brought so much pain to the rest of mankind and to God." But what if those couples turn against you and say, "You are in a historical position, but you always sought only your family's happiness and never cared about us"? You may not fully comprehend your situation now, but your ancestors do and your descendants will. How can you escape the accusation of the spiritual world? Such accusation is most fearful.

If you go to the spirit world without making a clear foundation on earth, how will you appear there? What kind of name and history will you make during your lifetime? Everyone sets some kind of tradition, bad or good, and passes it on to his descendants. If you make a bad tradition, your descendants will inherit it and then accuse you for it.

Your ancestors are watching your situation closely because they are very interested in what you are doing. You are standing in an important position and you have a duty and responsibility to fulfill it. If you are concerned only about yourself, your ancestors will become very angry with you. You are a living representative of three ages - past, present and future. Think about that; it is a serious responsibility. Even in the midst of persecution I concentrate on fulfilling my responsibility; that is the only way I can accomplish it. Our mission is most serious.

More important than your individual situation is your family's situation. More important than your family is your tribe's situation. More important than your tribe is your nation's situation. More important than your nation is the world. And God's situation is the most important of all. If you visualize each of these positions as a series of points reaching around in a circle, God's position is almost next to yours. But there is a barrier between you and God that you have to tear down. Not everyone tears it down, but you should do it. People created that barrier, so it is logical that people have to destroy it. Others may make excuses for not removing it, but we clearly understand the situation, we know the direction to take, and we have the method. You have to know these things as clearly as you can see your face in the mirror.

Your lineage has received this message only one time. The universal opportunity comes only once - during my lifetime. It will not return. I am in this world only once, so this is a very precious time. How can you pass up this opportunity? You should tell yourself that no matter how difficult the challenge may be, you will not avoid it. You should resolve to accomplish everything during my lifetime on earth.

I have faced so many difficult situations but I have overcome them one by one up until the present time. The communist world and the democratic world can no longer coexist. Only God's teaching through Reverend Moon can solve the problem and unite public opinion around the world. Think about it. This is the level we have reached.

Think how much God has helped to bring about this level of achievement. Think about how much the spirit world has been helping. God paid the price for all this; He paid the price for me and the Unification Church movement. You have to realize that you are not here on your own; God is standing behind you.

I have devoted my lifetime to setting this tradition and my family has done the same. My ancestors are also working toward this victory. Instead of resting at night, they are busy helping our movement all over the world. You are deeply indebted because of that. How can you try to snatch freedom for yourself? The attitude of the fallen world is to seek freedom and happiness for one's self. If you focus just on your own happiness, God won't recognize you. God cannot acknowledge anyone concerned only with personal happiness.

I never look for the easy way out. I take the direct way, no matter how difficult it may be, and I always penetrate the obstacles. Don't look for an escape route; challenge the difficulties and go through them.

My children don't complain to me. No matter how difficult things may be or how long it takes, they follow in silence. Mother has done this as well. Can't you do it, too? Of course you can. Now you know clearly how important this time is. You will never be able to find another such opportunity. This is a serious matter.

Like the Israelites in the wilderness, you don't understand God's providence thoroughly. The Israelites didn't know right away that they were going to Canaan, or Paradise. Moses had to teach them. You are in the same situation; you don't know everything. You don't understand how to penetrate Satan's world. God knows and I know, but no one else does.

How many times have you American leaders complained to me? Some of you wonder why other church leaders seem to be doing opposite things. An ocean church leader, for instance, asks why we need the home church system. Some complain about the expenses of ICUS, CAUSA, PWPA, and ICC conferences. We are working in many different ways. We are educating ministers and bringing them to Korea. I have been making every kind of preparation; these conferences and assemblies are for the purpose of saving this country.

For 40 years I have been making a foundation to save America. Now the leaders understand and recognize the foundation that has been laid. It is amazing that a foundation has been established in all four directions.

Many young leaders feel that it is time for them to think about themselves. How miserable an internal situation they have! Why didn't they say that 10, 13, or 14 years ago? How much encouragement are such leaders giving the American Unification Church movement? It would be good if they can repent for their attitude. Consider how many Americans have died during these past 14 years. Perhaps 21 million people have gone to hell during this time. Isn't it obvious how urgent the situation is?

Consider the world situation; think about the 5 billion people living on this earth. How many have died in the past 10 years? How many people have been lost while the providence was delayed 40 years? How much harm has been done in the world? The situation is most serious!

You are one individual out of the billions of people on this earth. I am concerned about you and your family, but not for your sake as individuals. My concern is for saving the world and for liberating God; that is why God has been working with me. God deals with individuals and families from that perspective. Is that clear?

Because my purpose is the same as God's, God has been working with me and helping me. That is why I have been able to console Him. This is the only thing I focus on. God is real. I think about the same things God does. I have clearly taught you everything and now it is your responsibility to carry it out. I have invested my full effort and completed all my responsibility. How can you say you are busy with your own affairs?

According to the Principle, three things are required for a conditional offering: a person or central figure, a time period, and the offering. If you make your offering after the conditional time period is over, God cannot use it; it has no value. In the future you might want to do good things for the Unification Church or help out financially, but you have to make a timely decision. The providential way means decision-making during a specific time period. Then God will command you to act. I want you to take your responsibility seriously and have no complaints.

When you thoroughly understand the Principle and practice it, you can accuse Satan. You will be able to recognize his work and not get involved in it. We are fighting a war on the front line. There is no time to waste. Satan's world has much time. Satan doesn't like any intrusion into his territory, but God sends forth His spies to make holes in Satan's defenses in order to take over. So are you going to complain again? The American family complains too much; it's too noisy!

You blessed couples should realize your own value. This historical time will never recur. You are the first in your lineage to receive the Blessing. The nucleus of the spirit world is the blessed family; ours are the only legal marriages in the spirit world. Spirit world doesn't recognize any other; the rest of the married couples go their separate ways in the spirit world.

Whom will you follow in the spirit world? You must follow the True Parents' family; you are part of their lineage. Has my family been indifferent to the task of world restoration or have they accompanied me even through all the persecution? They have been with me.

You are the connection between your lineage and True Parents. Your ancestors and descendants are linked with True Parents through you; so you are now the ancestor. Through the True Parents and centering on God, you have received a new blood lineage and are making a new root. In order to be engrafted to me, you must cut back everything else. You must cut off your fallen trunk in order to receive the graft of the new tree.

God doesn't like the American focus on individualism; no other nation has such a strong concept. You should become like children, starting fresh with no concepts. The first thing children do is memorize their parents' faces. The Bible clearly says that unless you become like a little child you will not enter heaven. Are you like a child?

The values of American society need to be changed. God doesn't like free sex, drug abuse, family breakdown, youth problems, or a self-centered standard. God cannot accept the fallen concepts or qualities passed on to you from your parents. In the Garden of Eden, God was the only one in the parental position. There was no family, country, or world level at that time. According to the Principle viewpoint, all of mankind's concepts should have come from God.

Compare this to your current situation. You may be proud of living in the United States, but my attitude goes beyond nationality. If I had stuck to Korean traditions, I would not have received so much persecution there. But since I took a different course, people naturally resisted me. You should clearly understand that I am opposed to Satan's world. You need to give up the habits that provide Satan a foundation to influence you. By denying your bad habits you can keep Satan from entering you.

Our aim is to jump over into another world. You need to develop a whole new system in order to cross the boundary into God's world. You have to make a new family, tribe and nation based on one central person. With God's permission, you will establish your family and tribe and dedicate them for the sake of the world. Remember how seriously I have worked to establish this during my lifetime.

You should be proud of your family system. Your family's roots are not in you or the world, but in God. You don't realize how precious this is. God knows and I know the value of this family system, but your perspective is more limited. We see you more clearly, so you must trust our view. A revolution is truly in progress. Please evaluate yourself from the viewpoint of Principle and see how well your family measures up. I have been speaking to you and teaching you over and over so you should understand the truth very well. Isn't that correct?

This is the only time when people can be given the Blessing by the True Parents. Once we are gone from the earth, this opportunity will be gone, too, so this is a most special time. Those who broke this precious Blessing of their own will have blocked the way for up to 70 generations of their good ancestors. Their progress is hindered and they don't know where to go. You must realize how important your marriage is. It takes an incredible amount of hard work to indemnify it. Because I realize the importance of your marriages, I am so serious and I am working so hard.

Those couples who have fought with each other in the past, raise your hands. I see that some of you haven't raised your hands. Does that mean you have never had a fight? You are being given a special chance: if you raise your hands now you can receive pardon. Spirit world is watching you. This is a good opportunity, so you shouldn't miss it! I will ask again: those who have fought, raise your hands. Be on the safe side and admit it!

Okay, here's another question: those who promise never to fight again, raise your hands. Now stand up. If you can't make that promise just stay seated. If you are seated, that means you are determined to fight! Now I want each couple to hold hands. Go out and find your spouse if he or she is not in this room. Those who aren't sure, in the future don't raise your hands, but if you are determined never to fight again raise both hands. If one refuses to raise his or her hand, the other can force it up! Let me see your hands - both of them.

Now I will forgive you for your past mistakes, and spirit world will forgive you as well. But you really shouldn't fight with each other. Those who are determined not to fight any more, please lower your hands and sit down again.

(Father speaks for a while in Korean, without translation. ) Do you understand what I have been saying? Why not? You have the same ears, so why don't you know Korean? You came from a different place! One thing special about Koreans is that no matter how hard I pound on them they realize that they deserve it. They want to follow their Father, even though I am harsh. They respond, "Yes, Father, if you say so, that is right."

Do you Americans have the same attitude? You turn away when I pound on you, don't you? I have seen many people do that. But you are not normal Americans. You are different. Who caused such a different breed of people to arise? Not me, but God. God worked through your original mind and you responded. you actually did it.

Your families will live for the ideal and be happy, right? Let me ask you one question: do you have a tribe to welcome you? When will you have such a tribe? It will be in home church. Will you make home church successful? When past, present or future? Many people give the same answer: sometime.

I expect you to continue to do your mission as well as raise your family and connect them with God. Adam and Eve multiplied and the result is this fallen world. This whole realm needs to be brought back to God's original, ideal realm, centering on parents and God's true love. False love entered the world through Satan. At that time there were only two human beings, Adam and Eve. If Satan had attacked later and had influenced only a few people, history would have been different. But he infected the very root of humanity.

God has been working to recreate the original realm, returning this world to its central point. He has been interceding in human history at key points, striving to give mankind new parents and a new lineage. Working through Judaism and Christianity and now at the time of the Second Advent, God has been bringing mankind back to this central point.

At the time of the Second Advent, all people should become one under one common set of parents. The only occasion for it to happen smoothly came immediately following World War II. Centering on Christianity, God's world could have been realized at that time of history. The aftermath of World War II was the golden opportunity. At that time Christianity had a strong foundation which God had worked hard to create. Christianity's foundation extended throughout the world, so it was possible that people throughout the world could have welcomed the True Parents. Then the original family, clan, race, nation and world could have been established. The original position had to be restored from bottom to top.

Two thousand years ago, Jesus and his bride should have appeared and been welcomed by the whole world. Then the will of God would have been fulfilled. The Jewish religion on the right hand and the Jewish nation on the left hand should have united to welcome Jesus, and within 40 years the whole world, centering on Rome, could have been united. Then the God-centered, restored country would have been created.

Since that did not happen, the Lord of the Second Advent had to come to re-indemnify what Jesus could not do. At the end of World War II, established Christianity on the right hand and the Christian nation of the United States on the left hand should have united. Thus Americans are the second Israelites, called to fulfill what the first Israelites failed to do at the first coming. American Christians represent the Jewish religion and the United States the nation of Israel 2,000 years ago. Thus America is in the position of second Israel, and other nations can be connected to the providence through it.

The Second Advent was necessary to repair on the worldwide level the lack of unity at the time of the First Advent, but neither American Christians nor the United States recognized the Second Advent. Since this failed, the Unification Church had to be established and the whole course of preparation re-indemnified. Then Korean Christians and the nation of Korea took over the position of Israelites.

If Jesus had achieved his goal, he could have restored the world within 40 years. At the time of the Second Advent, the situation was similar. During the past 40 years, we have been working to re-indemnify the world situation. During these 42 years of Unification Church activity, I have been leading you through the wilderness like Moses leading the first Israelites. We have had no land, no place to settle.

The work of preparing the foundation was repeated three times. At Jesus' time the providence centered on the Jewish faith. At the Second Advent the providence centered upon Christianity and the United States. Since both of those failed, Korea has had to stand in that position. That is why Korea comes into the picture.

Jesus could not accomplish this restoration before going to the spirit world. He worked for 400 years in the spirit world to re-indemnify that foundation. But when Christianity failed its mission, I worked to indemnify it within 40 years during my physical lifetime. That period corresponds to Jesus' 400 years of effort in the spirit world and the 4,000 years of preparation for Jesus' coming. Those 40 years re-indemnified all these conditions.

Now 42 years have passed since the end of World War II. Now Koreans are in the leading providential position. Koreans are always at the center of an issue, either in a good way or a bad way. If they turn toward the good, goodness will prosper; if they turn toward the bad, wrong will gain strength. As you know, Korea is divided into two; the democratic side is the right wing and the communist side the left wing. North Korea is fiercely communist and has violently opposed the South. For 40 years they have been confronting one another.

I have been laboring in Korea to plant the seed of unity at the core of division. We established the National Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland; this means unification of North and South Korea. Before the organization was formed, the incumbent party and the opposition party in South Korea were constantly fighting. But it has become apparent to both of them that there is no longer any point in fighting. Now Korea looks to us for direction. If we move one way, Korea will take that course; if we move another way, Korea will take that course. This is forming the axis around which the people of the world are arrayed.

The United States must follow the same law. Just as Jesus was supposed to be able to go and talk to the leaders of the Roman Empire, I have come to the United States. I have been working so hard to set the direction that this country can follow.

Two thousand years ago, the Roman Empire had many far-flung colonies, including Israel. At this time, the United States is the broad, mother country and Korea is like her colony. The relationship between the Israelites and Rome was similar to that between Korea and America today. We have to pay the indemnity now to restore that situation. According to the historical time identity, the same pattern reappears because the previous failure needs to be restored.

Another function of the last 40 years was to allow for the third Israel to grow up to maturity. After World War II, the third Israel had nothing - no family, no clan or country - in contrast to the fallen civilization, which had developed clans and nations and had spread throughout the world. Starting from nothing, we had to pay this indemnity in 40 years; we had to bring everything to fruition centering on this horizontal axis.

If Jesus had fulfilled the whole dispensation, nothing additional would have been necessary, but since that didn't happen, we now have to re-indemnify it. That means the third Israel must go and restore the second Israel and help it fulfill its function as the restored nation. This would accomplish the indemnity. This restored position must be implanted in the United States so it can make up for its failure 40 years ago. Otherwise, the United States will not be able to survive.

This is why I have been working here - bringing back all the scattered spiritual fortune, you might say. I have been indemnifying worldwide conditions, recovering all the lost requirements and bringing them back to be firmly implanted here. Korea is divided into two countries, but we are restoring the position of individuals, families, clans, races, nation and the world in Korea and are bringing them back to the United States.

This is not just a symbolic accomplishment. True Parents are real people, not symbols. In the same way, both North and South Korea have to be united. This is going to happen soon. Then out of this unity will arise the family, tribe and nation - North and South Korea. When the United States follows God's will at this time, it will reindemnify its failure after World War II. Once North and South Korea achieve unity, the free world and the communist world can unite.

As you know, in 1988 all four of the major providential nations will elect their leaders. The president of the United States, the premier of Japan, the president of Korea and the chancellor of Germany will all be chosen in 1988. Who holds the key to the direction those elections will take? When North and South Korea become one, it will solve the problems between East and West Germany as well as heal the divisions between the communist and the free world.

This is what I have been working to accomplish. As soon as this is fulfilled, the free world will follow this direction and the whole world will enter God's realm. The differences between communism and democracy will completely fade away. Even now communist countries are adopting aspects of the free market system and democratic countries are adopting more centralized policies. The distinctions between left and right are no longer clear.

Now you know why I called the United States the second Israel and why Korea has to be the third Israel. The third Israel is playing this role because the first and second failed completely. The challenge is to make everything successful; there is no other reason for Korea to be in that position.

The situation of Israel in the Middle East is very tense and difficult. The United States is facing many difficulties both around the world and domestically. Korea, too, is in the midst of great turmoil. Why are such things happening to all three countries? The first Israel - the Jewish state - is undergoing tremendous difficulties for basically religious reasons. Since Judaism has virtually given up the idea of the advent of the Messiah, Islam and Hinduism have gotten the better of them religiously. The war that Israel has been waging in the Middle East is a religious war. Then the Russians moved in and took advantage of the situation in the Middle East. The communist way of thinking has exerted much influence there. Actually, Christianity should have influenced the region, but when they didn't, the Soviets moved in.

It was good that the United States assisted Israel in gaining its independence; this was the proper thing to do for the dispensation. Jewish people who had been scattered all over the world came back to their homeland and recreated the nation of Israel, but look at how many problems it is now experiencing.

As I have said many times, the United States was in an ideal situation in 1945. It was primarily Christian in religion and that faith was flourishing. Communism was not attracting many people at all. If this nation had done the job right it could have stimulated rapid unity throughout the world. Everything was set up, waiting for fulfillment, but the United States failed to recognize the Second Coming.

Since God lost the body of His son in Asia, that lost body must be restored from Asia at the time of the Second Coming. In other words, if Jesus' mission had been completely successful, his thought and teaching would have spread from the Middle East to the Far East, rather than first moving West. It would have embraced all of Asia, including the realms of Hinduism, Confucianism and Buddhism. After traveling around the world to Europe, it would have finally reached the Roman Empire, which could have automatically accepted his teaching.

However, since Jesus' mission was thwarted, a different direction had to be taken. After the first Israelites failed, the second Israelites took a different course. They went west, reaching Europe first. Finally, at the last dispensational moment Christianity was brought to Korea. It arrived only 200 to 300 years ago. Instead of spreading to Korea within a few centuries of Jesus' lifetime, Christianity took nearly 2,000 years to get there.

Without question, Korea is a most religious country. Buddhism has flourished there even more than in the country of its origin, India. Likewise, China virtually neglected Confucianism, while Koreans adhere faithfully to its precepts. When Billy Graham visited Korea, he said that it was the most fervently Christian nation in the world. The spirit of God is in Korea and it is truly a religious nation.

Furthermore, Korea has other significant characteristics. Like Italy in Europe, Korea is a peninsular nation. The Roman Catholic Church made mistakes in medieval times and, as a result, humanism has taken the place of a God-centered viewpoint in the West. As a result of the Roman Catholic Church's failure to fulfill the original mission of Christianity, the prevalent attitude of Western life is materialistic, and many divisions have taken place in the world.

All this has to be restored. The only country which has the same conditions as Italy is Korea. Both countries are peninsulas and they have similar climates and even strikingly similar national characters. The ideal of the Catholic Church is now the ideal of the Unification Church and should become the ideal of the entire religious world.

The mistakes of the Vatican gave rise to materialism and secular humanism; ultimately, communist theory resulted from such failures. Now these things must be reindemnified in Korea. The Unification Church must offer the remedy. We must mend the American way of thinking, particularly secular humanism, and transform it into Godism. Then we must correct the communist way of thinking. Both worlds must be indemnified, centering on the Unification Church. After that is cleared up, the mistakes made by the Vatican will be re-indemnified. Do you follow me?

Why am I opposed to communism? Why am I against the prevailing American attitudes? America promotes individualism, and communism promotes materialism, and both of those are satanic ideologies.

The leaders of the Vatican were ignorant of God's will and direction, so they made a lot of mistakes. But how about us? We have been told everything so we have no room to make mistakes. We are proclaiming loudly and clearly the need for ecumenism and unification of religion. We are pleading with people to bring all religions into unity, not just the Christian denominations. That is why we sponsor the Congress of the World's Religions as well as the International Conferences for the Unity of the Sciences and the CAUSA conferences. I initiated all those projects in order to bring unity, not division. All these activities are to re-indemnify past failures. We are reaching world leaders through programs such as the Summit Conference and global economic programs.

Religious people in the past meant to do good but, because they did not realize where God's direction was heading, the result was error and tragedy. We can see the fruits in the United States today. Restoration needs to be centered on one person because everything starts from one original point. Everything has to return to one person and through him spread out again and re-indemnify conditions properly. This is why I am leading all these activities.

The Israelites lost their country because of historical failure. For 2,000 years the Jews had no country of their own, but at the time of the Second Coming they reestablished their nation. Jews who had been scattered throughout the world returned to help re-establish Israel. Many true patriots chose to return to the land of their origins. People gave up everything they had for the sake of Israel.

The United States has lost so much, but we are working to bring everything back again. Secular Americans don't know how to accomplish it but the members of the Unification Church do. In this way we will indemnify everything for the sake of the United States. We are the re-indemnifiers of America.

While this is being done, I am also working to bring the third Israelites into the picture so they can indemnify the failures of the first and second Israel. Although Korea is a small country, it is a most crucial one. Many high officials in the Reagan administration have gone to Korea because they understand that nation's critical importance. The United States is doing everything it can to help bring about a solution to the current problems in Korea because it senses spiritually that if it loses Korea, it loses everything. By helping Korea work out its situation, the United States will be restored.

Centering on Korea, the first and second Israel must work together to bring God's dispensation to its culmination. Now all the failures must be restored, failures of 2,000 years ago as well as of 40 years ago. Everybody must help spiritually at this time.

What is the responsibility of the Unification Church? The Moonies are the church of the third Israel. The church of the third Israel must invest its full thrust into the restoration of Korea. Do you agree? Don't you think that the second Israel should participate in the successful restoration of the third Israel? Once the third Israel is restored, the first and second Israels will also be restored.

This is why I have sacrificed and invested so much effort to bring the Jewish and Christian faiths together. I have been inviting rabbis and ministers to Korea, where they have been learning a great deal. "We should unite," we suggest to them. Many of these religious leaders are receiving direct revelations from God about this point and they return to the United States with a clear understanding that Korea is the religious core of the world.

When that Jewish-Christian unity comes into being, it will be just a matter of time until the rest of the work of restoration is accomplished. Once religious unity is accomplished, economy, ideology and other aspects of society will eventually link up with the one central point.

We must understand the characteristics of the church of the third Israel ourselves. We are a microcosm of humankind; the entire world family has been condensed into the form of one family, such as those of the 8,000 couples here today. The Korean blessed couples are the central core of the 8,000 couples.

If you call the central core Abel, the blessed couples outside of Korea are in the position of Cain. But Cain and Abel are both true children of the same God and parents, and together they encapsulate the entire world. So when I bring the Cain couples from around the world to Korea they will have enough power to outweigh the current situation in Korea. Once all of us join together on God's side, our weight will be enough to counterbalance all the satanic elements in Korea, and unification will begin to happen. When we unite around the strongest ideal, we will enhance the Korean nation. Then God's side will win, and North and South Korea will begin to unite realistically.

I have mobilized the Korean blessed couples in order to build the country of the third Israel, our Fatherland. All of you are blessed couples of the third Israel too, but we still don't have a country of our own. The first Israel has its country, the second Israel has the United States, but the third Israel - the Unification Church - has no nation. Therefore, it is logical that we have to build our nation, isn't it? Whatever the cost, the Fatherland must be built.

What is the purpose of the blessed couples? It is to build the third Israel. Only families can build it. If you ask what you should do, the answer is to go and build the nation of the third Israel, our own Fatherland. The Unification Church needs that foundation.

Both God and mankind have been longing to see that one country. Our ideal is to build that country, the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, even though we don't have enough of a foundation yet. Once we establish this foundation, we will be able to make a connection with virtually everybody. We need to substantiate God's everlasting ideal. Centering on that, God can control and build everything up.

Blessed family members from outside of Korea must go there to build a nation for the third Israelites. The goal is to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, so shouldn't you be mobilized for this purpose? Those who can say, "Yes, I will be mobilized," raise your hands. Thank you. This is one well-organized and effective organization for fighting in this spiritual war. Normally any government that raises an army has to supply everything the soldiers need. But this is a group that supplies itself and even helps other nations. No government is supporting us.

By going to Korea and helping it become independent, blessed couples from around the world will automatically be able to connect with Korean people and even be able to live in Korea. This is the key connection you need in order to live legitimately in Korea.

In terms of dispensational history, what time is it now? This is the time for Cain to come to the front line and fight. This is different from the past, when people in the Abel position always stood on the front line of God's side. Now people in the Cain position are to stand on the front line. Cain means the whole communist world, the fallen archangel, but it also includes the archangel on God's side. Do you follow me? There are heavenly archangels and satanic archangels, and this is now the last war between them.

From now on, your family, clan, race and nation will all be connected. Your family should be qualified to represent the entire world. All blessed families should have this position. By raising the vertical standard, you can make the new ideal world, nation, tribe and family. My family represents the family, tribe and nation of the original world, a world where Satan cannot enter. This whole new world will be under God's dominion; God's realm will encompass everything within this huge circle. When everything is restored, Satan can no longer accuse. With the absence of accusation, restoration will be complete.

You haven't known much about what I have been doing because this is the first time I have explained it clearly. Now you can understand. During all the years since I came to the United States, I have been working for this ideal. I have laid 95 percent of the foundation; the rest is yours. You have a 5 percent condition to fulfill, one which you can carry out with your own hands. You should clearly understand that the first Israel, second Israel and third Israel all share one common purpose.

Satan invaded and caused the fall. Restoration must take place, but how will it be done? Satan enticed Eve, then Adam, then their children. As a result of the fall, Adam and Eve's children followed Satan down to hell. Therefore, all the couples and families of the third Israel have to indemnify the original family. Also, since the third Israel represents all countries, your families are families of the whole world. All the families of the third Israel must join together and indemnify Adam's original family.

In the Unification Church I have always sent out the women to do witnessing. The Korean blessed wives are now working with other Korean women and their families in order to bring about restoration. The families in our Korean church represent God-centered Eve, or Rachel, and the rest of the Korean families represent Leah. Once these two kinds of families can unite, both of them will be saved. Korean people in general know about me and what I am doing. Many like me now and want to support me in some way. Why don't you go and see for yourself?

Women are the center of their household so if they follow me, the husbands and children will follow as well. Then when we announce we are going to march forward to save and liberate North Korea, everyone will want to follow the liberation march. Today the people in North Korea are not given any information; they are treated just like slaves. Once we set out to liberate them, many people will follow us.

North Korean children are taught that Kim II Sung is their father. That is the only country teaching such a thing about its leader. Korea is the site of the most direct confrontation between the true father on the heavenly side and the false father on the satanic side. Our "weapon" is love, whereas their weapons are violence, fear, and coercion. But it is our responsibility to overcome all that.

What is my position in relation to women? To the women members of the Unification Church, I am father and they are daughters. To the rest of the women of the world, I represent all males and the unfallen elder brother, as well as the position of Adam, or father. Unification Church members are not only sons and daughters to me but also heavenly archangels. So you women must follow Adam, me, and embrace Cain and Abel as your two sons. The satanic world distorted or reversed this original pattern but now God is restoring it and harvesting the fruits. The original will of God has not changed.

In the future, if you are asked when you paid the indemnity on all levels from that of the family to the world, you will be able to say, "I did it by helping the Korean family at this crucial time. In that way I fulfilled my 5 percent portion of responsibility for world restoration." That is good enough. This is a one-time chance to indemnify everything in a very short period, so it is a rare and precious opportunity.

At the fall, the parents made the mistake. So I have come, representing parents, in order to work to indemnify everything. Now I am able to pass everything on to you. You can receive your true family, true tribe, true nation and true world. In theory, that is all there is to it; it is relatively easy to accomplish. Seven thousand blessed wives will go to Korea to work for this cause. The number 7,000 represents a multitude. In Elijah's time, for instance, there were 7,000 faithful people in Israel. There should have been 7,000 couples in the Christian era, but it wasn't accomplished. Now seven thousand women of the third Israel will go to Korea and work together to indemnify everything. With 7~000 we can indemnify all things.

While I was in Danbury, connection was made with 7,000 ministers in order to link us to the rest of the world. Now we are in the process of sending 7,000 ministers to Korea. Internally, 7,000 blessed wives will go to Korea to connect with Korean families. Then the leaders and members of both Christianity and the Unification Church will come into unity. Once we are engrafted into the Korean spirit and viewpoint, that unity will expand to the whole world.

While you are in Korea, your husband and children will no doubt have a difficult time. You know what a family without their mother can be like. But whatever the sacrifice, this needs to be done. Each husband also has to support his wife while she is working far away in Korea. The husbands will be fighting their lonely battle, not only taking care of their family in America but supporting their wife too.

The condition may last for three years or one and a half years, until October or November of 1988, depending on the situation. But it will be at least one and a half years. This has to be done at this ending point of fallen history.

With our own hands we will build our own country; we will call it our Fatherland. That country will not be just a Korean country but our own, the third Israel. Do you understand? After that happens national borders and passports will no longer be necessary! People may need certificates, but no more passports or visas.

The Little Angels School has a program to bring the teenaged children of the older blessed couples for one or two years of study. That school is very crowded now so I want to establish schools in each province of Korea, where you can all send your children when they reach that age.

We have many examples to follow. You know how hard the Jewish people, the first Israelites, have worked during this century, dedicating their lives and investing everything they had to build their homeland. They are making a beautiful country out of the desert. The American pioneers worked hard to build this nation, the second Israel. Certainly the Unification Church can do better! In building the third Israel, we should surpass the standard of any American patriot and any World War II hero. We should be capable of working three times harder and setting a higher standard than anyone from the first or second Israel. Do you think I am just a big dreamer, or am I realistic? This is our reality.

People of all five colors of skin will assemble in Korea. You may have had a hard time achieving unity here in the United States, but in Korea you will have to make unity. I trust that you will succeed there. There are many varieties of women, and when they get together they are usually very talkative. What a noisy place Korea will be! The Chinese character that shows three women together means something very noisy and very bad, the worst thing imaginable! Ask any Korean or Japanese about this. It's true!

You may think you will be helping me but, actually, I have nothing to gain by bringing many women to Korea. I have never done things just because I like them. In fact, I always do things I don't like. You will have a lot of freedom; the terms and conditions are good. You can do anything you like, really: you can fight among yourselves, you can fight with the blessed women from other countries, you can even fight your central figure. But there is one person you may not fight against, your parent. I am in Adam's position, and there is only one commandment: don't fight Adam. You may fight anybody else, to your heart's content!

I am saying this laughingly, but actually it is a serious point. The Principle is serious, not something to laugh at. The entire tragedy of the fall resulted from a woman's disobedience to Adam. But now, in the time of restoration, there is no place for disobedience. So please control yourself and don't oppose Adam. As long as you say yes to whatever I ask, you may throw a tantrum with anybody else.

If I direct you to fast, for instance, all of you must obey. Of course, if you cheat and go to the bathroom to eat something, I may tolerate it because I would understand that whoever sneaks into a bathroom to eat must be miserably hungry! But otherwise, you shouldn't eat if I tell you not to.

Now is the time to plan how you will participate. Each woman must pray and make plans. You should make this resolution: "When I go to Korea, I will indemnify all the bad things in America. Once I get to Korea I will do much better than I did here." You need to prepare for the day when you hear the word, "Go to Korea tomorrow." We will even have some training program for reaching out to the communists in North Korea. Don't think that North Koreans are wicked people; they are very pure people who have been taught totally wrong things.

You are fortunate to still have a preparation period. In terms of geopolitics, the world can never abandon Korea to turmoil. Strife in Korea would cause many problems for the United States, Japan and even China. Each of those countries would like general elections to be held in both North and South Korea. Eventually there will be a consensus that elections are necessary. In preparation for that, we want to go to the North and teach people to vote for God's will.

We can teach people, "Reverend Moon has made a foundation throughout the world and that is why we have come here. God's world is so much better than the communist world." You can explain in detail; you can teach Godism, Unification Thought and Principle. Every North Korean must know the truth and be liberated.

Until now people have been ignorant under communism but when you come and tell them the truth they will be amazed. "Is that true?" they will exclaim. "We didn't know anything about that." It will be the first time they hear about it. Then the country will completely change. If we take 10 million North Koreans to tour the South, they will see how different and how much better life is there, and their attitudes will completely turn around.

Then if they are given the chance to vote on their choice of a system there would be no contest. They would respond, "We hate Kim II Sung and his system, but we welcome Reverend Moon's ideal." After that, Korea will be united as one country. It will not be so difficult. That is the kind of situation that will be created. You can explain how we have built a foundation in 150 countries. The Korean people will follow when they know we have the economic foundation, the manpower, and the strongest ideal.

Your only responsibility is to follow me. You didn't know everything I have been doing, but now you do. Will you follow my instructions and make the same commitment to this goal? Will you help restore Korea? Will you be the people of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth? How wonderful Moonies are! What an exciting time this is! How do you feel now? Wonderful! I trust you.

All you women should prepare for that day of mobilization. Actually, all we need are 7,000 women, not everybody. Imagine how many Japanese members there are. The Japanese women have short legs and can move very fast. They will move very quickly to fill those 7,000 positions. Please prepare yourself. I won't give you many days' notice. You may hear the announcement, "Tomorrow you go."

Discuss this with your husband and children, even your small children. Also discuss it with your relatives and plan what to do. Tell them about the situation in Korea. Your family members will receive blessing through this. Koreans have come here to help this country; you will be doing the same thing for them.

(Question: How much time do we have to prepare?) I don't know how much preparation time there will be. Only God knows. The Korean women have already begun the work; they went out the beginning of June. Your turn is next. Those who will say, "Yes, Father, I will go," stand up.

Don't expect me to keep coming here to speak. Many different things are now happening. Professors are visiting from Korea, for instance, and there are many places I should be going to work. So just forget about me! You know what you must do, so from now on, you should act of your own accord. Make your own decision and don't wait for me. Let's accomplish what must be done.

(Gifts presented from the 8,000 couples. Three cheers.)

Preliminary Remarks at the Fifth Anniversary of the 8,000 Couples' Blessing

Sun Myung Moon
July 5, 2012
Directed to James Baughman, representing all 8,000 Couples
Translator: Sang Kil Han

James Baughman welcomes Father to the 8,000 Couples' Fifth Anniversary Celebration.

When I heard about your meeting, I thought it would be a good occasion to speak to you. I was in Gloucester for the start of the fishing season, and I drove down from there this morning. But it is apparent from the late communication to me* and the small numbers of people here that many people did not realize the importance of this anniversary celebration. If people don't understand the seriousness of a meeting, they may not come. But when you can tell members that I approved it, they will make much more effort to attend.

Those families with children raise your hands. How many children of the 8,000 Couples are there now? You should keep a record of how many blessed children are born each month. At events like this, the 8,000 BFA should have prepared all the data so that if I ask, you will be able to tell me exactly how many boys and how many girls have been born as well as their ages. You should also have statistics on the number of interracial and international couples. You should have found out how many were coming to this meeting from all the different regions so that you could inform me of the preparations you have made. Then you could ask me, "Can you please come, Father?" How can I respond without the proper preparation?

Do you know the significance of the 8,000 Couples Anniversary? It is much more important than the Science Conference, any theologians' seminar, or any other meeting prepared for non-members. You must have this in mind when informing the members about the event. Unless you can help them understand the vital importance of this gathering, they won't know how to respond. You have to plan such a meeting very well and make a strong foundation for it. Good planning takes a lot of heart. First you create the foundation, then you invite me. This is the way it should be -- now and in the future.

You should not take these meetings lightly. This is a Sunday, so all couples should have come-100 percent. Make sure that everybody comes to such a meeting, whether I am scheduled to come or not. Then on top of that, if I do come, it will be an even more powerful meeting.

It looks like this multitude does not have a leader to follow. That means you are in a more inferior position than the Israelites wandering in the desert. Is that what you are? You want to belong to somebody, don't you? If you really felt that you belonged to True Parents, you would more deeply feel that other people should become a part of the same "nationality" as well.

Do you have a preference for what you would like me to do? You can see me when you like, but I would like to leave now. Do you have a right to say no?

At this point Father asked three blessed wives in turn to share about their international marriages -- their struggles and victories and their attempts to create harmony with their husbands. Their testimonies helped prepare a warm and receptive atmosphere. After this Father took a seat on stage and began his speech.

---

Note

*Although much effort through various channels was made by the 8,000 BFA to inform True Parents about the July 5 meeting, they only heard about it the day before.

Expanding the Level of Messiahship
Blessed Family Associations
James Baughman
July 5, 2012

Father spoke on July 5 at the Fifth Anniversary Celebration of the 8,000 Couples' Blessing [see p. 4]. He gave guidance on not only the Blessing but also the importance of Blessing Associations. In the following article based on an interview with Victoria Clevenger, James Baughman, who has chaired the 8,000 Blessed Family Association (8,000 BFA) for the past two years, shares his understanding of the purpose of Blessed Family Associations, his experience with the 8,000 BFA, the July 5 event, and his feelings about the responsibility of blessed couples.

In the spring of 1985, Father and Mother asked Rev. Won Pil Kim, the head of the national Blessed Family Department at that time, to start Blessed Family Associations for each Blessing level represented in the United States -- the 43, 777, 1800, 35, 74, and 8,000 Couple Blessings. True Parents wanted to make sure that the needs of blessed families in the United States were being met. They feel it should be the responsibility of the Associations, not the church, to deal with couples' specific concerns. These Associations had already been established in Korea and Japan for couples of earlier Blessings; in fact, the couples of each Blessing elected their Association officers the day after their wedding in many cases. These were local organizations set up in a democratic way but always closely connected to True Parents and the elder couples.

Rev. Won Pil Kim had meetings with those from each Blessing group in the New York area, but since our Blessing is so large, he met with 35 representatives chosen by department leaders. These representatives nominated candidates, cast ballots, and thus elected officers for the 8,000 BFA. Although not all members could be consulted, at least a beginning was made. Rev. Chan Kyun Kim, a 36 Blessed Couple who had served as head of the Blessed Family Department in Korea for 10 years, Dr. and Mrs. Hugh Spurgin, and other elder blessed members oversaw the election process but did not get directly involved. We want to continue these traditions initiated in Korea of democratically choosing our own officers and agenda and having elders as our advisors.

Grass-Roots Organizations

To clear away any confusion, the national Blessed Family Department is an official church department that sets policy under the direction and guidance of True Parents. The Blessed Family Associations, on the other hand, are more informal, grass-roots organizations, similar to alumni associations. Rev. Chan Kyun Kim told us that in Korea, when members of the same Blessing would gather, a warm, happy atmosphere would be generated, like that of a class reunion. Though BFAs don't set policies, they exist to help fulfill the needs and concerns of blessed families.

As explained to us by Rev. Won Pil Kim and Rev. Chan Kyun Kim, the BFAs have five important spiritual and practical purposes.

The primary purpose is to help blessed members connect with True Parents and God's providence more deeply. Creating a sense of genuine friendship and shared identity among those of our own Blessing can enhance our ability to fulfill this goal.

If we have to worry too much about our own situations and aren't being supported by each other enough, some of us may feel, "My family's suffering, so I've got to figure out how I'm going to pay my bills...I've got to get a job outside the movement.: and may start to pull away. But if we can support each other as a Blessing community, it will be easier for us to accomplish all our public and private responsibilities.

Secondly, our Blessing protects the True Family as well as the Blessings before us. Our united commitment creates an incredible fortress around True Parents and their family. It is vital that we develop a strong unity with those of our own and other Blessings so that we don't allow any spiritual penetrations to occur that would cause the True Family to suffer, as happened with Heung Jin Nim's sacrifice. Our unity helps protect us and our children, as well.

The third purpose is to do for each other what True Parents would like to do for us. Those of us who have, need to give. For example, couples who have found a way to get a job or a house while maintaining a church mission should show others how to do it. Those who have experience in cutting costs in the process of having a baby or in creating harmony in wondering why he, a church leader, gave such regard to one in a subordinate position. He explained that our tradition teaches us to always respect our spiritual parents no matter what their current mission or status is. Of course, we respect those in official positions in the church hierarchy, regardless of their age or Blessing, as well.

The third type of system is the family system of Blessing groups. It is important to respect those from earlier Blessings, no matter what their position in the church. Within our Blessing level, our position doesn't matter -- we are all brothers and sisters and should relate to and care for each other equally.

Thus a person may be elder in terms of physical age, spiritual age, Blessing group, or position in a mission. The more we respect and consult our elders, the richer in wisdom and heart our movement can be. It is very easy to have unrealistic expectations of church leaders. The BFA should provide personalized care and concern -- "being there" for members so that no one need harbor bitterness toward the church for not fulfilling his or her needs. Many members have difficulty balancing their priorities: Some focus only on their mission, some only on their family. Helping members learn how to deal with all their concerns helps the whole purpose, True Parents, and ultimately God's providence.

Establishing our Identity

The 8,000 Couples' Blessing is by far the largest and most international, interracial, and intercultural Blessing. We have members at every stage -- from those who are single to those with up to four children. (In many ways, the problems that exist in our Blessing also exist to the same degree, percentage-wise, in every other Blessing, but because there are so many of us, the problems are much more visible.) We are also the only group that is made up of two Blessings -- the 2,000 and the 6,000. We face the challenge of helping each other identify with a group as large, widely dispersed, and diverse as we are.

Rev. Won Pil Kim explained to the BFA officers the tradition of preparing a status report for Father at every anniversary. Indeed, on July 5 Father asked us for statistics on the number of children born, those couples without children, etc. To keep track of about 4,000 incredibly mobile individuals in such a large country as the United States is almost impossible because there is not enough communication from the field. Having this information would enhance our ability to specifically extend personal care to those in the field as well as to report to True Parents.

To deal with these challenges, we started our newsletter, the Home Front.

We decided to send it free to all members of the 8,000 Couples in the United States and some overseas -- whatever their status -- to reinforce the principle that everybody in our Blessing is equal. On the newsletter itself is printed: 'Address change requested. Return postage guaranteed.' If there is any change in the address, the post office will return it to us if it did not get to the individual. We make note of that change and send it back. Thus we gain an up-to- date address list that would be much harder to maintain otherwise.

We want the Home Front to be a mixture of practical issues related to marriage and family life, and spiritual guidance and inspiration, as well as ideas on how to start local Blessed Family Associations. We want to open it up to discussion of all issues, no matter how sensitive they are, but always in a constructive way. Because it is the most widely circulated publication to our membership in this country, the Home Front has also become a vehicle for information from the national Blessed Family Department, with whom we have close ties.

Holy Wine Ceremony, 1982

Of Critical Importance

An additional purpose of the newsletter is to try to nurture a sense of seriousness about our Blessing and our Association. The BFA and our Blessing have critical importance, spiritually and providentially. At this year's celebration Father's words to me as the executive director of ICUS -- that the anniversary celebration was more important than ICUS mandated this without a shadow of a doubt. In essence, he indicated that participating in the Association has at least the importance of a regular church mission, if not more, although we can't sacrifice our mission to work for the Association.

Our brothers and sisters are feeling tremendous pressure from working at a church mission and trying to deal with the practicalities of living a family life when finances are difficult and living conditions are cramped. Some couples are helping each other, but we have to do much more. Since the only way we can truly fulfill the nurturing aspect we all need is at the local level, we strongly encourage the development of local BFAs. I hope that soon representatives of all areas and concerns can contribute articles to the Home Front and attend meetings with the national Association officers. The founding spirit of each local association should be the same as the national one, but their natures will be different, of course, depending on the area.

Rev. Chan Kyun Kim told us that in Korea, whenever the BFAs met, the main focus was: "How can we help God's providence succeed?" The couples would gather and pray especially for True Parents. They would discuss how to help each other and would often organize programs featuring special speakers. Sometimes they would sponsor contests -- with prizes awarded, for example, to those children who served their parents best or those parents who were the best in the eyes of their children. Funds were collected to purchase gifts of appreciation for True Parents' family and to donate to the church for public purposes. Scholarship funds were set up for the blessed children. Men's and women's groups were established to help support the work of the church, and a newsletter informed members about activities and matters of personal interest.

Trust Fund

These traditions are being carried out already in several local associations in this country. On a national level, a trust fund has been set up by the national 8,000 BFA to assist with certain individual family needs. Trustees collect donations and oversee this fund, which is used to help families deal with such crises as serious health problems, handicaps, disasters, or accidents, and anything else the trustees feel is appropriate. Church funds, which are non-profit funds, can only be used for things that benefit the entire group. For these expenses, the national Blessed Family Association account is used to pay for the Home Front, education, and anything else that benefits the whole. We want to create no burden on the members and yet be self-sufficient. It is important that people be able to contribute on the local level as well. Once Father asked the members of one BFA in Korea, "Would you cook a chicken dinner for Mother and me? Then why don't you bring a chicken to the church instead? Moreover, why don't you donate that money to the BFA at each general meeting for the sake of the world providence?!" Our national BFA funds come from departments and other church-related organizations and from individual donations for specific purposes.

Holding anniversary celebrations is another tradition from Korea and a way to generate a feeling of solidarity, identity, and commitment among those of our Blessing group. At these times we offer gifts to True Parents and the True Family on behalf of our entire 8,000 BFA. The Tradition: Book I explains that our Blessing anniversary actually becomes our new spiritual birthday and should be commemorated as a day of victory for God and a renewal of our commitment to fulfill our responsibility as the children of True Parents. Father and Mother have attended the anniversary celebrations of the different Blessings whenever possible. They want to lend strength to the BFAs because they started them. Our goal is always to get True Parents to come.

Three Anniversaries

The first official anniversary celebration by the 8,000 BFA was held July 1, 1985. Father was in prison, so it was hard to celebrate, but we did, and we had a very large turnout. Jin Sung Nim gave a wonderful message from his unique position as a blessed husband in True Parents' family. He and Dr. Bo Hi Pak delivered a letter of congratulations from True Parents and a large donation, and several of the 36 Couples attended. It was not just a small get-together, but rather a vertical, uplifting experience that people took seriously.

For the following anniversary, held October 14, 1986, we had a fairly good turnout. True Parents were in Korea, but Dr. Bo Hi Pak sent a telegram extending True Parents' deepest blessings. I'm very grateful for Dr. Pak and all those leaders who have given us guidance; however, I feel it has not been clear to everyone just what kind of priority should be put on our BFA and anniversary celebrations.

This year, for example, attending the celebration was not a high priority for many leaders and members. However, Father's coming and speaking indicated without a doubt the great spiritual importance of this yearly event, and it signaled that our mission as a community of blessed families is more important than we often realize.

For the celebration, we had planned a program with speakers followed by an afternoon picnic, to bring in a spirit of fellowship as well as inspiration and renewal. Many couples came who are not centrally connected with the church. Amazingly, the day turned out to be a six-hour meeting with Father, and I was very glad that those couples who don't often see Father got to be with True Parents again.

Are We Really Willing?

We wanted to encourage members to take more personal responsibility for the success of the July 5th celebration and to help each other out. We announced on the flyers: Bring your own lunch and find your own transportation. There was a way for every- body to get there if they really wanted to go, yet people still complained that things hadn't been arranged conveniently enough for them. I realized painfully that it all comes down to the question, "Are we really willing to take responsibility for ourselves and each other and the traditions we've been given?"

It is difficult for many of us to go beyond our implicit or explicit expectation that the church -- or someone -- should do things for us. I remember a leader once shared how people are always "expecting miracles" He said that in Biblical history, God had to perform miracles only because the people failed to take responsibility for something they could have done themselves. For example, if the Israelites had been determined enough to cross the Red Sea, they could have jumped in and started swimming -- thereby at least showing that they were willing to cross at the risk of their lives. They should not have just waited for Moses to perform a miracle.

After having made final preparations at Belvedere the night before the celebration, I thought about these things and began praying and crying. I understood that True Father is always in the position of Moses, being asked to do one more thing because we feel we can't do it ourselves. "Why can't we break out of this?" I wondered. I realized that Father has been putting up with this attitude all his life and will probably continue to do it -- this is his unconditional love. He will bring that manna down to- morrow again if we ask him to, but he shouldn't have to. I am sure he is very concerned about the time when he won't be around to divide the Red Sea anymore. Who is going to take charge? Are we going to be truly responsible?

In that prayer I wept and wept and begged that Father would come to our celebration. The next morning, when Father and Mother actually did appear, the first thing I felt was, "After all these years, they finally came!" The second thing was, "Father, please don't leave!" I really wanted the members there to feel how precious True Parents' coming was. I wanted Father to feel our support. Father could perceive that we hadn't sufficiently pre- pared our hearts to receive him. Before he could speak, he had to create his own foundation to be received. With incredible love he instructed us in what we should have done, thought, and felt.

Father Wants Us to Succeed

I was so happy that everyone could hear what Father had to say before he began his speech. For three years, based on the understanding Rev. Kim gave to the BFA officers, I have felt very serious about this Association. Often people would come to me with their problems, looking for solutions. In many cases, our Association served as a liaison, because some members didn't feel comfortable to go directly to a church leader. Because I have become so aware of the suffering of our brothers and sisters, it is clear to me that finding solutions to our problems requires more than external answers; we have to connect everything to Father and Mother. But how can we instill that feeling of seriousness in all of us? On that day, only True Parents could do it. In his speech, Father gave the most wonderful guidance I have ever heard regarding not only international marriage but marriage in general in our church. Father's coming to speak to us demonstrated that True Parents are vitally concerned about our Blessing and each one of us. They really want us to succeed and become the backbone of True Parents' work in America and the world.

In summary, I feel it is important that all the traditions initiated in Korea for the BFAs be maintained in the United States. The new BFA officers should keep in mind the incredibly diverse nature and situations of our group so that everyone's needs can be met as much as possible. It is also essential that BFAs be started on the local level. We should always strive to maintain our vertical connection, so that everything we do has a spiritual and internal dimension; otherwise this Association will lose its meaning and function.

It's a great challenge to heal and embrace others -- to transcend our own hardships and complaints and become truly parental. There is a lot of potential for us, as the 8,000 Couples, to meet these challenges, because I believe our Association has gained momentum now. I feel that wonderful things are going to happen.

After Father's speech, the out-going officers of the 8,000 BFA cut the anniversary cake. Left to right: Jack Hagel, James Baughman, Robert Morton, and Stephen Pres.

After the July 5 celebration, the newly-elected 8,000 BFA officers were installed:

Chaircouple: Mark and Victoria Clevenger
Vice Chaircouple: Bill and Lisa Lay
Vice Chaircouple: Larry and Akemi Krishnek
Secretary: Dale and Joy Garrett
Treasurer: Richard and Georgia Lewis
General Affairs: Steve and Louise Honey 

We Shall Live In the Original Homeland

Sun Myung Moon
July 1, 1987
Belvedere
Translator: Bo Hi Pak

Which is more important -- "I" or "we"? This is a fundamental question. "We" usually means men and women, but actually "we" should include everything God created -- the trees, the animals, all things of creation. The most important point we must establish is that each person, each "I," dwells within the group, within the "we" -- not "we" within the "I" Saying "I" signifies an individual surrounded and protected by a multitude, called "we."

Whenever you speak of "I," you already denote "we" in that each "I" can be seen as a representative of the whole group. It is only when you speak of yourself in reference to the whole -- everybody else -- that the emphasis upon yourself is acceptable.

But in this society of America today, individualism has become the pervading spirit. When individualism goes to its furthest extreme, a person begins to repel everything else. He thinks, "Why do I need my family? Why do I need my country? Why do I have to care about the world?" All of these attitudes are the extreme manifestations of individualism.

True Pride

If you don't care about anything other than yourself, then that "I" becomes very selfish. An American might say, "I am second to none in the world because I am a citizen of the number-one country" However, it's all right to feel proud if you are also thinking, "I am a representative of the United States and I want to represent my country well" In that case, thinking proudly of yourself is acceptable. When you act as a spokesman, representing the entire entity, then your value is virtually equal to that of the whole group.

Suppose one of your eyes proclaimed, "I don't care about that nose or that mouth or those things called ears. I'm the most important" It doesn't make sense for the eye to try to focus on itself alone. Only when the eye recognizes the importance of the whole body and strives to serve for the sake of its overall well-being can that eye correctly feel it is indeed import ant and plays a most significant role.

When you say "we," what does that include and where is your position? You are in the center of your loved ones. Above you are your parents, below you are your children, on the left and right are your brothers and sisters. If you are a woman, your husband is in front of you, and if you are a man, your wife is behind you. Wouldn't you like to be in the middle, surrounded by those you love, or would you like to just go off to the side somewhere, isolating yourself and dwelling alone? Certainly you want to be at the center.

When you are at the center, that means you are a representative of the whole. You represent everything above, below, to the right and left, to the front and rear. All the elements of the whole can be found in the representative.

How many people are needed to become the representatives of all human beings? Actually, two people -- one man and one woman. Should just women be the women's representatives? Someone else could represent women even better. If there were a man among your representatives, wouldn't you feel stimulated? If only men were the men's representatives, the men would be bored, but if women became involved, that would be exciting. Don't you want to become a representative, a champion of something? Anyone without such an aspiration has a life that's not worth living.

The Highest Purpose

It is natural to want to be proud of your country, to be a representative of your people, a champion of your nation. The United States, with every race here -- black, white, yellow, brown, red -- is a microcosm of all humanity, containing people from every race from around the world. This is truly something to be proud of. Therefore, God approves of your pride in being a representative of a nation that represents all humanity.

But if you are trying to push everybody else down to give yourself number-one importance --that is satanic. Look at your hand. Ask it, "Would you like to exist only for your own sake, or would you like to be doing something worthy and good for the rest of humankind?" Certainly the hand would prefer the second option. Compare one person who represents the United States with a person who represents the entire world. The one who represents the world has the greater value. Why do you prefer to live for the sake of the world? Because everything in the universe welcomes the person who lives for the largest purpose. To be welcomed, valued, and respected is the desire of all existence.

To take another step, which has the greater value -- living for the sake of all 5 billion people on the earth today, or for the sake of all the people who ever lived? Certainly historical humanity is the larger purpose. Going a step further, we know there is a Creator of the universe. To live for the sake of God -- isn't that an even greater purpose?

What does God like to represent? Money? Knowledge? Power? Suppose there were something that embraced the past, present, and future, as well as all men and women; something that would not tarnish in value; something that everybody liked -- children, parents, grandparents, people from the East and people from the West, high and low, rich and poor, educated and unlearned. If such a thing were to exist, then wouldn't God say, "Yes, I will represent that"? Is there such a thing? Yes. It is what we call true love.

All creation throughout history is looking forward to finding its true representative. Do you think history has found that person about whom the whole of creation can say, "Yes, I am well represented by that individual"? Do you want to place yourself in that position, to represent all creatures? You say yes. What a revolutionary difference that is from the conventional, selfish outlook of people!

A Circuit of Love

By now you have come to the realization: "I am the representative of the nation and the world and the universe and all creation." But do you want to represent that all by yourself, or together with your loved ones? You want to be together, don't you? Why is that? Togetherness means there's a circuit of love, and only through a circuit can love be enacted.

If you are an Olympic champion, you don't want to win a medal just for yourself -- you want to win it for your nation. You want to see your nation's flag being raised and hear your national anthem being played. You want your parents and children and your whole family to be there with you, and you want to represent all of them well, isn't that true?

People salute the person who represents them well. They are not saluting some idol; they are paying homage and respect to their representative. There are thousands of statues of heroes all around this country, but that does' not mean that Americans are idol-worshippers. Honoring your nation's champions and building statues to them is a good tradition and will inspire all future generations.

The large tree out on the lawn here at Belvedere -- what does it represent? That tree is declaring to the world, "Look at me! I represent God's ideal of creation. What a wonderful being I am!" You should salute that tree every morning, saying, "You are a greater champion than anything else because you represent God's ideal."

Even a tiny blade of grass can say, "Don't look down on me. I am the representative of the love of God, a creature who appeared because of God's love. You must show respect to me." Then you've got to salute that blade of grass.

The Center of All Things

Everything is connected to the love of God. Every creature on earth says to love, "Please come and dwell with us." Love does not have any particular dwelling place, nor any particular direction -- but amazingly it becomes the center of all things. This is its secret.

You always find true love in the very center. You must not forget this concept. When you look at something, wherever your attention goes first becomes the focus or center -- and that is where true love dwells.

Let's say there are 360 closed doors in a circle. Only love has the power to open them all at once. Were it not for love, even God would have to go around opening them one by one. When your husband comes home, it doesn't matter which door he enters. You won't say, "You can't come in the back door, just use the front door." When your loved one is coming home, every door is open to him, isn't that so? Even if a big man who looks fearful -- rough and dirty like a beast -- is touched by true love, he blossoms like a flower. He smiles and shines with the beauty of true love. If you are intoxicated by true love, there is nothing you cannot do.

In true love, the lower your position, the better. This is because the lowest position can best complement the highest position. The truly virtuous king is the one who loves not only his cabinet members or his ministers but also those who are the lowest, poorest, and most miserable. A good king must be able to harmonize with even an old lady in the countryside.

Hell into Heaven

There is no one whom God, with His true love, cannot love. God tries to embrace even the ugliest, most evil and vengeful person with His true love. He is able to love even His own enemy. If you go down to hell with true love, you can change it into heaven. Where do you think true love shines most -- in the broad daylight or in the darkness of night? The darkest night is the opposite of light and is the enemy of light, in a way, but actually that enemy is the one who can most fully recognize the brilliance of the light of true love.

The greatest statement to man that Jesus Christ made was "Love your enemy." That statement can conquer the world. I have not only reiterated that statement but explained it completely. If the enemy is invaded and totally surrounded by true love, will he cry out in agony, "Oh no, we are dying"? Or will he say, "Hooray!" Even the enemy would be jubilant to be conquered by true love.

You resemble God. Do you love your enemy, as He does? You are destined to resemble and to pursue love because you were created by God.

If love had a certain shape, like a square, then it could only accommodate a square-shaped person. But love is like the air -- there is no shape, no form to it. Love can sometimes be round, sometimes thin, and can even be stretched like a thread. But that love thread will never break. It can stretch endlessly and will never say, "Don't pull me anymore. I'm already stretched too much!"

Love wants to bind God together with all those within the love string. That love string will make God stretch out vertically -- He will become very tall and thin. God will even feel pain at being so stretched out, but it will be a joyful pain. He will say, "More! Stretch me more!" Only the power of true love can do such a thing.

Where Your True Self Dwells

Wherever your love dwells is the place where your true self dwells. Vertically speaking, you are dwelling within the heart of your parents. Of course you can't dwell physically in the heart of your parents so something that represents you -- your true love -- dwells there.

You also dwell in the heart of your beloved spouse, and when you have children, then you dwell in their hearts as well. When you are asked, "Where are you?" you can answer, "I am dwelling amidst my beloved universe': This is most incredibly convenient: Since love has no particular location or shape, love can go anywhere and stay anywhere. When you have planted the seed of true love everywhere, then everywhere is your home and you are welcomed by everyone.

God has a very long range vision. He knows that even within the individualistic nations we see now, someday there will emerge righteous people who will truly embody His love and embrace all of humanity. Even from the enemy's descendants, someone will be born who will reciprocate the love we give our enemy now. America's help for Korea now can be seen in essence as a reciprocation for all that I have done here.

One good example of the work I have accomplished is your Blessing. You all began from very different backgrounds and cultures, but coming to the point at which you could allow me to suggest an eternal spouse for you is the greatest testimony to how selfless and God-centered you have become.

What is our title today? "We Shall Dwell in Our Original Homeland" Where is the homeland of God? Our original homeland is the place where God dwells. But where is that? The focal point and essence of the homeland is true love.

Global Families

If you examine any seed, you will see that there are two parts within it surrounding the embryo at the center. Each seed might be said to be a symbolic representation of the whole universe -- the positive and the negative joined together. Every human being also has two parts -- the physical and the spiritual united together. At the center, like an embryo, is true love. God created two parts of the human race -- male and female -- and He designed them so that they should be joined into one, as a couple. What makes two parts into one? It is only true love, not any other power.

Men and women come together as a couple and create a family, which represents the universe. Husband and wife are like the eastern and western points coming together. But God wants to see a round, globe-shaped entity. In order to create that round unity, men and women must have children. Thus the family comes to exist. When you become such a global existence, then you represent all four directions -- east, west, north, and south. Your harmony creates a vertical and a horizontal line of unity, which cross at the center, forming an axis. This axis must be centered on God and true love.

What actually is the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven? That is when families have been perfected here on earth and can enter the spirit world to live forever, centered upon God and true love. Without that, there is no way we can even talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. Once you accomplish this formula on the earth, then it will fit anywhere and everywhere.

Heavenly love is always giving, always altruistic. The action of giving means you are participating in the act of creation. God created first, and you are creating a second time. That is what the action of giving represents. You must understand that not only God creates -- we, too, are co-creators. We are constantly creating every day.

God's creation is nothing more than the investment of Himself -- manifesting Himself and giving Himself. Therefore, as we engage in our own second creation, we must invest ourselves through sacrificially giving. The person who gives most, leads. Why are the parents always the central figures of the family? It is because they are always giving unconditional love.

The True Family celebrates Kook Jin Nim's and Sun Jin Nim's birthday on July 9. Back row, left to right: Hyun Jin Nim, Kook Jin Nim, Jin Whi Nim, and Jin Sung Nim. Middle row, left to right: Hyo Jin Nim, Jun Sook Nim, Nan Sook Nim carrying Shin Young Nim, Kwon Jin Nim, True Father, Sun Jin Nim, True Mother, Ye Jin Nim, In Jin Nim carrying Shin Myung Nim, Un Jin Nim, and Jin Hun Nim. Front row, left to right: Hyung Jin Nim, Young Jin Nim, Yeon Jin Nim, Jeung Jin Nim, and Shin Jeung Nim.

Unselfish Giving

Who is the patriot? It is he who is willing to give everything for the sake of the nation, even his own life. The whole country can turn around centering on the tradition of that one patriot. This society of the United States has not understood this central point. People feared that by unselfishly giving, they would diminish themselves. But on the contrary, by giving one can gain. The more one gives, the more he can receive. That beautiful secret seems unknown as yet to the people of this society. We have to teach them this principle.

What God has been doing is investing His whole being for the sake of creation, without any reservation, without withholding an ounce of His energy. That is what God's tradition is all about. We as co-creators can do no less. If you do this you will prosper.

In the satanic world there are no absolutes and everything is relative, as we see in today's society. Setting a good family tradition is crucial because there one can find a solid centering point. A tradition of love always manifests itself in beauty and virtue.

The United States must have some unchanging axis that it can present to the world, saying, "Look at the tradition we have in our country. We are so proud. Everyone should follow our example." What do you think that axis is? It is the tradition of true love. In the home, the highest virtue is that of filial piety. In the nation, the highest virtue is patriotism. In the world, the quality of sainthood is the highest. At each level, the central practice is that of true love.

The Unification Church is the school of this true love axis. We are people of different races and cultural backgrounds, yet we practice the same principle of love. In fact, what the Unification Church is practicing throughout the world in more than 120 nations is the tradition of holy son. The Korean word sung ja means "holy son." Even more than a saint, the holy son of God embraces and practices the principle of love for the sake of all heaven and earth. That is the tradition I am trying to create. Every member of the Unification Church who practices this same principle, regardless of what race or culture he or she is from, can become a holy son or daughter of God. That is our ultimate goal.

Your Place in Heaven

The order or hierarchy in spirit world is determined by one's fulfillment of true love. How much true love "equity" you have will determine your position. The king of the spirit world is the one with the most true love. Once he is ordained in that position, it is permanent.

We want to live in the homeland -- the place where true love dwells. God wants to dwell within the hearts of men and women, within the parents' heart, and within the children's heart. Those hearts can be the dwelling place of God only if they are places of true love.

In order to secure your place in the constantly revolving, cosmic motion of God, you must be able to push out and give rather than trying to pull in and take. How does love come to exist between a husband and wife? It is when both want to serve each other. Instead of pulling on each other for love, they should push love toward each other, giving everything of themselves to the other.

What is true brotherhood? It is when brothers try to give to each other, pushing out toward each with their love. If one brother tries to take from the others for his own sake, there will be a big hole, a puncture. Then that family has to move forward on a flat tire.

The parents who live their entire life for the sake of their family, serving and loving them purely, cannot go anywhere else except a high place in heaven. All the people in the spirit world will want to come and be around such parents because they will also enjoy the benefit of their true love.

You cannot invite God to dwell within you as long as you remain flat. You have to create room for Him by becoming round, like a ball. Then you can invite God and the whole universe to dwell with you. You should have this kind of purpose in your mind: "I want to be a higher, bigger, wider person. I want to be deeper and longer." That means you want to become global. You've got to create your family as a global dwelling place, not just a flat plane. You want to expand into all directions. When this intensified true love entity is assembled, it is no longer flat. Like good bread, it rises up and swells into a nice round shape.

Only One Way to Prosper

If there had been no fall of man, this process of creating God's homeland on every level would have occurred automatically. But because of the fall, we must struggle and fight for each step forward. As we constantly confront our enemies on each level, we must melt them with love; then we can move up. I have encountered enemies along every stage of the path of life. But I struggled, overcame, and always embraced my enemies with love. Then I could move on. As long as I dwell in the original homeland, which is true love, no satanic power can infiltrate. This is my protection.

You have to live for the sake of others. You've got to invest yourself without any hesitation. That is the role of the co-creator. As much as God invested His entire being, you have to invest your whole being. When you do, that brings a new creation. Because I have followed this secret throughout my life, I have been able to make the most extraordinary accomplishments, something that will remain for a million years to come.

Even if all 240 million American citizens run away from this country, I will remain to the very end. I will defend and protect America. The citizens of this country want to be loved by someone who brings true love, someone who can love them in an extraordinary way. Americans want to deserve such love; they are waiting and longing to receive such love.

Ask the entire world, "Do you want to be governed by a person who truly represents the love of God?" The world will say yes. This is the secret. The fallen world is trying to conquer and subjugate through force, through war, but we have a different strategy. By practicing true love as our way of life, we can win the world for God. How convenient and practical this is! God's idea is not just theoretical.

On a hot summer day like this, July 1, why have I been speaking for so long and working up such a sweat? Because I want to give to the absolute degree, with nothing left over. This is for you. I only know of one way to prosper -- that of giving totally, absolutely, to perfection.

Live Without Shame

I want you to live happily. Particularly you husbands and wives, I want you to be truly happy couples. But I also want you to live without any shame in the sight of God or the nation. You must be able to stand with your chin held high, with true pride. What is the secret to living like this? Can you say to the nation, "Give me more. Take care of me"? That brings shame. You must give to the nation. Ask, "What do you need? Let me give it to you. Let me provide whatever service you need."

You must be willing and ready to sacrifice your family, if necessary, for the well-being of the nation; you must be willing to sacrifice your nation for the well-being of the world. That is the true way. When you struggle and win, then you become a true representative of the nation, world, and cosmos. Only because of the fall of man is this kind of sacrifice and struggle necessary. Perfection would have been an automatic process if the fall of man had not happened.

Don't ever think that the homeland is someplace far away. Wherever you practice your true love, that is your homeland. Don't you want to live in dignity, walking down the street with your head held high? In order to do that, go ahead and sacrificially serve this nation. Then you can become truly proud, without shame. You men and women who live your lives in this manner will be protected by the universe; the universe will be your "security guard."

So many times I have been thrown into jail. But every time I came out of prison, I experienced leaps and bounds of prosperity. Why is that? It is because the power of true love is supporting me, pushing me forward like a tailwind. Anyone who pays attention to each individual, anyone who passionately loves and tries to meet the needs of his brothers and sisters and his society -- such a person can never go wrong or be neglected. Nothing is more precious to your life than love. Love does it all.

You Have to Be Determined

At East Garden, I am always in the position of host, whether it is morning, noon, or evening. I am always there to pay attention to everybody. Sometimes my family and household members tend to neglect the people who come to visit, saying, "Oh, Father will take care of them." Even sometimes those on the East Garden kitchen staff disappear to their own families at night. The people who leave their jobs are not my kind of person. They should think, "I am always the one responsible for this household. No matter who comes or when they come in, I will serve them and have something ready for them." Instead of just me feeling that way, everybody should feel that way.

Each of you should feel, "I want to take Father's big burden upon my shoulders and gratefully bear that burden. I want to become the number-one person in the church to take the initiative in practicing Father's message' If you want to take the heavy burden of God and the True Parents and sprinkle true love here and there and everywhere -- in every direction, if you are always emptying yourself out and then coming back to get refilled by the word, then you are a true Moonie.

Now every aspect of the environment is ready -- everything except you. It's all up to you now to choose what route you want to take. You have to be determined, "I want to follow Father's living model, to be like him." Nothing else.

Today is the first of July, and half of this year is over. The second half of 1987 is beginning today. I want you to live these remaining six months of 1987 with this love principle that I expounded on today. Those who can say, "I will live by that principle, Father. You can trust me. I pledge this to you," raise your hands. Thank you and God bless you.

---

The Significance of Home Church

Where God Resides and His Course
3/19/78, Belvedere

I gave you each 360 homes in order to distribute God's love to you. As you distribute more love to the people, you in turn will become bigger and bigger. If you do not distribute love, however, you will stay as gaunt as you are. If a tree wants to live and be healthy, it must grow many branches. If a tree grows no branches, it will simply wither away and die. However, I have never met one sensible person who asked me why I assigned him only 360 homes to distribute love to instead of three times as many.

The Start of the 40-Day Witnessing Condition
7/4/78, London

I am very serious inside when I consider how you did the last 40-day condition. How are you going to make it through this one? I decided to pray for you for 40 days and make sure you got started very well; then I could leave to visit other countries. But if you slump down like this, how can I be free to go? I must make sure that you understand this condition properly.

Tomorrow, begin everything fresh, not like yesterday or today. Now that you know how important this is, you can make a new start tomorrow. I actually blame the leaders, because they were responsible for explaining the purpose of this condition to you. If a leader didn't understand, then he should have asked me once more to explain it to him. Now do you know for sure? If you don't, ask those who do to explain it to you.

When I made plans for home church I made sure with heaven first that it was the right plan. I got assurance not just once but many times, and God said to go ahead with it. You must know that I always check things in advance. There may be some disadvantages or shortcomings, but they don't matter. We must be united and go ahead full speed. If you aren't serious, then it will be impossible for you to follow me in the spirit world. I am going so fast that you will never catch up with me otherwise.

If restoration were not a difficult task, then Jesus would never have died on the cross. There is no excuse or compromise in restoration. God and the spirit world have chased me also. God did not prevent me from going to the communist prison camp or stop people from opposing us. God could have prevented those things but He would not. The path of indemnity is utterly serious. Even if you miss some meals or don't get much sleep, you must keep going to your houses and witnessing to the people....

I have explained everything to you in detail, so now if you still don't follow, it is no longer my responsibility. What can I do if you refuse to listen? It is only after you do your five percent that you can be connected with me. If I had not done my five percent I would not have any connection with God.

State Leaders' Conference
3/27/79

Do you think I am doing home church as a hobby, or simply because I like it? Without doing this dispensation, there is no Kingdom of Heaven on earth. Ten thousand people could create a huge network. If we created such a network of home church, we could save New York....

I have been preaching this for three years. Do you know what an incredible age of dispensation this is? Although you don't understand completely, you can demonstrate one great virtue -- obedience. The Kingdom of Heaven hinges upon your ability to fulfill home church. Whether or not we can demolish and clean up the satanic world depends on home church. It is the one way we can win.

I know this is the most difficult dispensation we have ever faced. If ever I plant a tree, I'm going to plant the tree that is the most difficult to grow. That should be our experience.

Spring Season of the Providence
4/1/79, Belvedere

The cherubim with their fiery swords represent an impenetrable curtain that no one can pass unless he embodies the love of God that can break down that wall. The cosmic spring of the providence of God is here. We shall see the spring of heaven come to this world, and when we penetrate the barrier we will liberate ourselves from the fallen world and enter God's realm. You have learned the secret weapon for penetrating that barrier. I came to this world to teach this to whomever is willing to learn.

The hill I crossed over was no ordinary hill. Crossing over that hill was the most severe kind of test, but by doing so I laid the highway. Your hill, even though it is of the same kind, is much smaller.... God's hill was incredibly big. God crossed over the biggest hill to reach out to meet me, and I crossed over my hill to search for you. Your hill is a microcosm.

Eventually, those hills will be flattened and no more will remain to be crossed. The way to cross over that hill is home church. The springtime of home church is the springtime of the cosmic dispensation of God. The time for home church is at hand. The people who are anticipating the spring are like the birds who know even in the cold weather when spring will come. These people will respond to home church. These are the people who will be awakened and who will rejoice together in the song of spring.

Abel's Path from the Providential Point of View
12/ 30/79, Belvedere

Now you know why home church is important to you, to God, and to all humanity. You know this is the last war that you or anyone will have to fight. You need to have a renewed outlook and determination in the 1980s. I feel I should establish the standard and tradition in America, and with that prototype the whole world can benefit. 

We Shall Live In The Original Homeland

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
July 1, 1987
Belvedere
Translator - Bo Hi Pak

(Dr. Pak: The title this morning is like a poem. The problem is, I cannot translate poetry!) When we speak of "we" it means men and women, but more importantly "we" includes all the things of creation, including the trees, animals and everything God created. What is the stimulus or the power which can move all those elements? How are we moved? Generally, it is oneself, "me," who is most important in moving or motivating "we."

Which is more significant - the individual or men and women together? Or we might ask, which is more important - "I" or "we"? This is a basic, fundamental question. The most important thing we must establish is that each person, each "I," dwells within the group, within "we." It is not the other way around - "we" within "I." When one says "I" it signifies an individual who is surrounded by a multitude, called "we." Thus each "I" is a representative of the group. Whenever you speak of "I," you already denote "we." In that respect, it is acceptable to speak of yourself, in reference to the whole - everybody else. The emphasis upon yourself, "I," is acceptable in that case.

But in this present American society, individualism has become the pervading spirit. The concept we have been discussing is alien to this society. When individualism is taken to its farthest extreme, a person begins to repel everything else. He thinks, "Why do I need this society? Why do I need this nation? Why do I have to care about the world? I don't need my family, either, including my children. Why should I love my wife?" All of these attitudes are the extreme manifestations of individualism.

Thus there are two different ways of viewing oneself. As an American, you can be proud, thinking, "I am second to none in the world because I am a citizen of the number - one country." This is all right as long as your attitude also includes, "I am a representative of the United States, so I want to be a good one. I want to represent my country well." In that case, thinking of yourself is acceptable. But on the other hand, if you don't care about anything other than yourself, then your "I" becomes very wrong, very selfish.

Which perspective is truly valuable? That is another key question. When the individual represents all, when he speaks for the entire entity, then the individual has value virtually equal to that whole group. Many people around the world want to come to live in the United States. This country is a goal for many people simply because it has one special characteristic - it represents all the rest of the world. It is a microcosm of the world and all of humanity.

Let us consider the eyes. Imagine if one eye proclaimed, "T am number one and I don't care about the nose or the mouth or those guys called ears. I'm most important." That just doesn't make any sense. When the eye recognizes the whole entity and strives to serve the overall well - being of the face and body, then the eye indeed is important and plays a most significant role. But if it disregards the larger entity, trying to focus on itself alone, it cannot succeed.

How does your mind work? Are you always comparing your situation to others? Suppose someone has 10 good things, and someone else has 11. Which would you prefer - 10 or 11? What about a choice between 11 and 12? Suppose you are holding on to 12 good things, thinking, "This is the best." But then you say, "Uh oh, that guy has 13! I'd better get more!" Then someone else comes along with 14.

When you speak of "we," it includes your parents, spouse, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters. What is your position? You are in the center, so above you are the parents, below you are the children, on the left and right are the brothers and sisters. If the husband is at the center, is the wife in front of him or behind him? She can be in either place. Would you like to place yourself in the middle, surrounded by all these loved ones? Or would you prefer to just go off to the side somewhere, isolating yourself and dwelling all alone? Certainly you want to be at the center. Everyone wants to be there and stay there.

When you are at the center, it means you are a representative. A representative includes everything - what is above, below, to the right and left, to the front and rear. All elements can be found in that representative.

How many people, then, are needed to become the representative for human beings? Actually, two people - one man and one woman - represent all men and all women. Who is most central for men and women? It is each other. For men, the central representative is a woman. You women feel good to be able to say, "Yeah, we represent those guys." Then women cannot be the women's representatives. Someone else can represent you better. If there is a man among your representatives, you feel excited about that and you like it.

We have spoken so far about the definition of "we." Next we need to talk about how we live. Where do you want to live? One type of woman might say, "I want to enjoy my life and just live for myself. I don't care about anything else." Another woman will say, "I want to live for a man and the excitement of having an important object. I want to live for the sake of my object." What do you think - which kind of life is more exciting? Don't you American women like the first kind? You know that the second one is more valuable, although you probably didn't have that opinion before. This is a manifestation of the value of education - you have learned the right way!

The prevailing attitude of American society today is individualistic selfishness - "I am everything. I don't care about anything else." That is actually ruining society. American people always enjoy being number one. Among the nations of the world, you want to be second to none. That attitude is not necessarily bad in itself, as long as you want to excel within the framework of the world, as a nation among the rest of the nations. It is natural and an original concept to want to be proud of your country. If you want to be a representative of your people, a champion of your nation, that is good and right.

America can have additional pride for being the microcosm of the world. Every race lives here - black, white, yellow, brown, red. You name it, you've got everything. Therefore, you can say, "America represents all of humanity and I am a representative of America." Then you have a legitimate reason to be proud. But if you think, "America is great because of us, the white people," that is not valid.

When you think about the numbers of white people in the world, they are actually a small minority. Probably there are only 800 million in the entire world. But the total population of the world is 5 billion! Thus white people are only one out of six. Can you say, "I don't care about the other five-sixths of the world"? If you take that attitude, you are just being self-destructive. Don't you think that such a concept, which pervades in some quarters of this nation, should be eliminated?

I am saying that you should be proud of America being number one and proclaim it to the world day and night. As long as you are proud from the perspective of a representative of America, then I approve. God also approves of it. When you think, "I am representing all of humanity," then God will welcome it. Do you want to think like that?

The satanic concept is, "I am number one all by myself." If you are trying to push everybody else down to make yourself the only important person, that is satanic. Look at your hand. Ask it, "Would you like to exist just for your own sake? Or would you like to be doing something worthy and good for the rest of mankind?" What would the hand answer? It would certainly want the second option.

The self-centered attitude which is so common in America today will perish, without a doubt. It can never be prosperous. Do you like the idea of perishing? Maybe American people like to perish! When I give you such a clear definition, you can realize which direction America is going. Is it descending or ascending? Descending means going down, and that means going to hell. Maybe American people like to go to hell? No one likes to go to hell.

What we need, then, is some sort of "shock treatment." We've got to turn the heads of Americans - both men and women - around 180 degrees. Those who deny this, and do not want to be turned around, actually deserve to decline. If they continue to follow the road of decline, they will find themselves truly in hell. If somebody's head is so unyielding and refuses to move, then you have to add extra force and yank it around. Don't you think America needs that kind of treatment? You good Americans may not like to hear this, but you've got to answer yes. You recognize it is the truth, no matter how much you dislike hearing it.

When you women not only represent yourselves but also men, then you will be welcomed. You will not be rejected by any component of humanity. Women should say, "I am a representative of men," then men will say, "Good for you. Come on in. We welcome you." But how have you American women been living? What has been your attitude? You say independent. Do you like independence? There is no true independence when you don't represent anybody or anything else. The woman must represent man and the man represents woman. They live for each other, have give and take, and there they find value.

Now you know who has the greatest value among men and women. Compare one person who represents the United States and another person who represents the entire world. Which has the greater value? Certainly, it is the one who represents the world. When you hear the things I have been teaching, do you want to become an American who not only lives for this country but also for the sake of the world? Or would you prefer just to think about America? Why do you prefer to live for the sake of the world? Everything in the world welcomes the person who lives for the largest purpose. The desire of all existence is to be welcomed, valued and respected.

Which has the greater value - to live for the sake of the five billion people on the earth today, or to live for the sake of all humanity throughout history? Certainly historical humanity is the largest purpose. It includes all those who lived before and are now in spiritual world, as well as those on earth now. Going a step further, we know there is a Creator of the universe. Isn't it an even greater purpose to live for His sake? Amen! That means number one man! I like the word "amen."

Whom does God like to represent? I know - God wants to represent money, right? Or maybe God says, "No, I want to represent knowledge. I'm going to be the King of knowledge and then I will be happy." Or perhaps God says, "Power is all that matters. I want to take revenge on all the bad guys."

Perhaps God wants to represent human beings, but would He prefer men or women? Human beings live about 100 years, at the most. If God had to sign certificates

of representation for each person, then He would be doing nothing else. He would be so busy! God is certainly clever. Something represents the past, present and future, as well as all of humanity - including all men and women. If such a thing exists, then God would say, "Yes, I will represent that." It would be much simpler. Does such a thing exist?

It is something which everybody likes - children, old people, parents, grandparents, people from the East and the West, rich and poor, educated and unlearned. Is there such a thing? That is what we call true love. Do you know true love? Historically, then, who likes true love the most? Is it God or Reverend Moon? Reverend Moon has had only a limited existence here on the earth for 67 years. I am limited by the physical laws of nature. But there is an unlimited entity with an eternal, unchanging, unique quality - God.

Therefore, who will appreciate true love the most? Who will truly love true love the most? True love is eternal and it is also unchangeable. If God represents that eternal true love, do you think He can be changing from morning to evening, going in one direction and then another? God doesn't do that. But what about you? Are you an unchangeable being, or a too changeable being? You don't like these words very much. Even if I take away those words, still you are too changeable.

If I were to tap you on the head in a way that is unusual or different, immediately you would react and be upset, saying, "Why did you do that to me? What for?" If you say, "You shouldn't hit me because I am a representative of the whole world and humanity," then that is a correct attitude. But if you are just thinking of defending yourself in isolation, then it is inappropriate. You must consider yourself as a representative of the whole, not just a selfish individual being.

Moonies are a different breed, in a way, like different kinds of creatures. Do you think you are an unchangeable person, clinging to eternal truth and value and true love? You answer yes, but you don't look so confident about it. Your eyes are rather evasive. That is because you don't have true confidence.

All creation throughout history has been yearning to find their true representative. They want to find someone about whom they can say, "I belong to that person." Do you think history has found that representative? Has such a person ever appeared, someone about whom the whole of creation could say, "Yes, I am well represented by that individual"? So far, no. You have listened to me this morning and you have come to the poignant realization that this is true. What about you? Are you in the position to become such a representative? Do you want to place yourself in that position to represent all creatures? You say yes. What a revolutionary difference that is from the conventional selfish outlook of people!

By coming to the level of seeing oneself as a representative of all the creatures of the universe, have you moved a short distance, or have you gone a revolutionary distance? When you listen to me at this hour, in this place, are you completely committed to these teachings? This means that here at Belvedere, on the morning of July 1, 1 am speaking to historical men and women. When historical men and women gather together. what are we going to do?

You have come to the realization: "I am the representative of the nation, world, universe and all creation." But do you want to represent then all by yourself, or together with your loved ones? You want to be together. Why is that? What is the meaning of togetherness? It requires a circuit of love. Only through a circuit can love be enacted.

Let's say you were an Olympic champion, just about to receive the award. But you wouldn't want that medal just for yourself. You won it for your nation, so you would want to see your nation's flag being raised, hear your national anthem being played. You would want your parents and children and your whole family to be there with you. You would want to represent them well. Isn't that true?

Other people salute the person who represents them well. They are not saluting some idol; they are paying homage and respect to their representative. The United States is a basically Christian nation, yet there are thousands of statues of heroes all around the country. This doesn't mean that Americans are idol-worshipers. When a country pays homage to its champions, do you think the country will tend to prosper or decline? Naturally, that is a good tradition. Honoring the nation's champions and erecting commemorative statues to them will inspire more champions to arise.

Look at the large tree out on the lawn here at Belvedere. What does it represent? That tree is declaring to the world, "I represent God's ideal creation. What a wonderful thing I am!" The statue of George Washington in Washington, D.C., represents this country. Which is actually a higher form of representation - that statue or this big tree? It is the tree. Therefore, you should salute that tree every morning, saying, "You are a greater champion than anything else because you represent God's ideal."

When you really mean such a thing and it's not just lip service, it becomes a reality. Even a tiny blade of grass can say, "Don't look down on me. I grew because of God's love, so you must show respect to me." Then you've got to salute the grass. It is telling the truth. Even Almighty God has to listen to the grass and agree, "You are absolutely correct. Amen to you!" Isn't that wonderful?

Everything is connected to the love of God. In love there is no east or west, north or south. If some entity is not limited to any particular direction, all the creation will say, "Please come and dwell with us. You can stay everywhere, anywhere you want!" They want to be with it. What is it occupies the central position without any concept of north, south, east and west? It is true love. True love doesn't have any particular dwelling place, not even a little home anywhere, but Everything has to go through that center. So where do you find true love? It is in the very center. You must not forget this point.

Do you think Reverend Moon is a fearsome person? I have an iron will, and uphold a most incredible teaching with utter firmness. But then, at night, what am I thinking? "Where is true love, where is true love?" My whole body and self are going in the direction of true love - my eyes, nose, legs, every single cell in my body heads toward true love. This is the case every day.

True love can come to us from the top, bottom, side, any angle - it doesn't make any difference. It can come from anywhere and you will welcome it. What about you women? You know this is true. When your loving husband's hand comes to you from the back, do you say, "No, that's not the loving direction. Don't do that!" It doesn't matter what direction the loving hands of your husband touch you. He can approach you from the top of the head or the bottom of the foot. The loving hand is always a welcomed hand.

Think about it: imagine that your husband's love penetrates you from the very bottom all the way to the top, and you have an axis. Then he can turn you around on that love axis. What do you think about that? We might call it the true love turn. Would you like to turn like that? Would you say, "Turn me more, more!" or, "Stop it, forget it, I don't want it"? Which would you say? Would you protest to your husband, saying, "What a savage man you are!" Or would you say, "More, more, turn faster!"

God said, "I represent true love," but how much more important and grateful you can be to say, "I not only represent true love, but I represent God as well." So your position would be far more dramatic, even greater in a way. Love plus God - that's what God's object is all about. Would God be higher than His object or lower? What do you think? Think about God. Would He be jealous if someone went higher than he does? The more someone practices the give and take of true love, the greater the joy God can derive. There is no limit.

Let's say there are 360 doors around a circle and they are all closed. Can something open all those 360 doors at once? What a great power that would be! Even God has to go around opening them one by one. Something other than God would have to have such power to open all 360 at once. What is that? Only love can do that. From the center, all you would have to do is push one button and all the 360 doors would be opened up at once. Every door would be opened to true love.

When everything within you is open to true love, do you think your mouth would be opened up, too? Even your tongue would be hanging out, ready to receive love Imagine if every cell in your body had a mouth. Do you think every one of those tiny mouths would be open? Every door opens to love - all at once. Whether there are a million doors or a billion, it doesn't matter. It's the power of love that does it. God Himself doesn't do that.

When the husband comes home, he can enter through any door. The wife won't say, "You can't come in the back door, just use the front door." When the beloved approaches, every door is open to him.

Therefore, true love is everything to us; it is truly good. Even some big man who looks rough and dirty like a beast will blossom like a flower when he is touched by true love. He will smile and shine with the beauty of true love. Anyone can become intoxicated by love so that he can do anything for love - sit down, lie on his belly. There is nothing love cannot inspire.

In true love, the lower one's position, the better. Thus when you are in the servant's position, you are in the better position because the lowest position can correspond with the highest. The truly virtuous king is the one who loves not only his cabinet members and ministers but also the lowest, poorest peasants. The king must be able to relate with the old lady in the countryside.

What about God? God is the greatest in history - truly He is the supreme King of all. Has that supreme King been concerned about only those who have been well-off, who have had comfortable lives, with no experience of suffering? Or has that King been dwelling with the miserable people on the bottom, those who have clung to righteousness and been persecuted for it? Which level do you think the King would dwell with more and correspond with - the higher level or the lowest?

There is no one whom God, with His true love, cannot love. He tries to embrace even the ugliest, most evil and vengeful people with His true love. Therefore, He is able to love even His own enemy. Wherever true love goes, there is the Kingdom of Heaven. If you go down to hell with true love, you can change it into heaven. Where do you think true love shines most brightly - in broad daylight or in the pitch darkness of night? The darkest night is the enemy of light, in a way, but then that enemy is the one who can most fully recognize the brilliance of true love's light.

The greatest of all statements made by Jesus Christ was: "Love your enemy." The power of that statement can conquer the world. Although Jesus made that great declaration, he couldn't fully explain it. Today, however, Reverend Moon has not only affirmed that statement but has fully explained its meaning. God wants to occupy or conquer, in a way, but how? By power, brute force, or through his vast knowledge? None of these is God's way. It is only by true love that God conquers.

When the enemy force has been invaded, totally surrounded, and is about to fall to the siege of true love, do you think they will cry out in agony, "Oh, no! We are dying!" Or would they say, "Hooray"? Even the enemy would be jubilant to be invaded and occupied by true love.

You have come to resemble me. What does that mean? Reverend Moon resembles God so God also resembles Reverend Moon. That means you also resemble God. Do you love your enemy? True love penetrates everything, including the enemy's head, back, and belly. Does the United States have a lot of enemies? You white people have a lot of enemies, don't you? The American white people might feel that Reverend Moon is their arch-enemy. But I have the power to penetrate those white people; with God's love, I can penetrate them from the back and front, through the belly, from head to toe.

Actually, I am sewing through the middle of all the white people with an invisible needle and thread. You white people here in this congregation are already penetrated. You cannot see the thread, but you are already sewn up, in one line. If you try to run away, you feel yourself drawn back by that invisible thread. You feel you have to come around and be near Reverend Moon, isn't that true?

Would you like to invite me into the center of your home, or would you only allow me to visit you on your porch, or outside your gate? Why do you want me to come inside? I am an Oriental man, not white; everything about me is different - even my way of breathing. You white people breathe through your long noses, while my nose is flatter. You eat soup one way and I eat it another. You gesture for someone to come to you by crooking your finger upward, while I gesture with my fingers downward.

It doesn't matter, as I have already explained, if the tail becomes the head or if right becomes left, because no special, given position exists in true love. If my handkerchief is hung up on the wall as a symbol or manifestation of love, it becomes beautiful. People passing by would want to touch it. no matter from which direction they came.

Let's draw the conclusion. What are we seeking in our daily life? You said it - true love. In order to attract true love, you need a powerful enough vacuum to pull the entire universe. The bigger the vacuum, the greater pulling power it has. Have you done that?

Why do we happen to be the way we are? Did you choose your life, or were you destined for this? You were destined to be this way because the cause is beyond you. That cause is God. God is the Creator, but have you seen Him? Nobody has really seen God or love. You don't know the shape of love, but men and women are constantly chasing after it. That is amazing!

If love had a certain shape, like a square, then it could only accommodate a square-shaped person. But love is like the air-it has no shape, no form. Love can be sometimes round, sometimes thin, and it can be stretched longer and longer, like an elastic thread. But the love thread will never break. It will stretch endlessly and will never say, "Don't pull me any more. I'm already stretched too much!"

Love always has the attitude, "Pull me more. Stretch me further." That is opposite from, "Too much! Stop it!" Love wants to bind God together with all creation. That love string will pull God and make Him stretch out vertically - He will become very tall and thin. Even if God felt pain at being so stretched out, it would be a joyful pain. His "Ouch!" would be a joyful one and He would say, "Stretch me more!" Only the power of true love can do such a thing.

We come to the same question I asked before: which is higher, God or true love? Are true love and God separate entities? Do they dwell in different places? What is the homeland of true love?

What is your name here in front? ("My name is Greg.") Where does the true Greg exist? You can say that every part of Greg is Greg - his hair, his hands, everything. Wherever Greg's love dwells is the place where Greg dwells. Vertically speaking, Greg dwells within the heart of the parents. Greg is a big guy, a big physical entity. He couldn't dwell physically in the heart of the parents, so something that represents Greg - his true love - dwells there.

Are you married yet, Greg? He has been given the Blessing. So the true Greg dwells in the heart of his wife, his beloved. When he has children, then true Greg will also dwell in their hearts. When you are asked, "Where are you?" you can answer, "I am dwelling amidst my beloved United States." Furthermore, you can say, "I am dwelling amidst my beloved universe." This is most incredibly convenient - your love has no particular location, no particular form, so it can go anywhere and stay anywhere.

Imagine some woman who is beautiful to look at but whose personality is extremely sharp and hateful - always expressing anger and resentment toward others. What can melt such a woman? True love can melt her. When you stick the love needle into such a woman, she will change and become like a spring day. All the icy coldness of winter will depart. She will say to true love, "I open every door to you. You can control every part of me!"

Dr. Kim is here today - a great and powerful speaker who uses a lot of humor. He is virtually a Korean Bob Hope, yet his humor cannot melt anybody. But when true love comes, it can melt Dr. Kim, and then Dr. Kim can melt others. The power of love is such that it can make a person happy any time he thinks about it. At night all alone, the person who is loved will break out laughing, dancing, singing, just to think, "I am loved!"

Think about it. You are fallen men and women, yet you still harbor the desire to dwell in the place of true love. How much more does the pure and absolute God want to dwell there? Can you imagine? You can compare fallen human beings to pieces of rusty metal and God is the clean, pure being of absolute nature. How much more does He desire true love?

God just cannot stand still. He has to see who really wants true love, who is most joyful with true love. God is like a spectator, looking for true love in action. Suppose God spotted a woman giving birth to her baby, breast feeding him, patting and kissing that baby - such a beautiful sight to behold. In another place, God sees some woman embracing a dying elderly man, trying to feed him and comfort him with true love. Picture those two scenes. Which would hold more interest for God's eyes and which would He like the best?

Look at Reverend Moon, who has been accused, persecuted and rejected by the American public, media and government. Great suffering has been given to me, yet I have forgotten all that and have instead tried to embrace this country, to nourish and revive it. Therefore, which of the two parties is God most interested in - the United States, or Reverend Moon? No such attitude and actions exist in the satanic world. There, if someone hits you, you just hit him back; if somebody curses you, you curse him back. Only in the heavenly world of God can such a thing happen.

When students take an examination, if they all breeze through it, answering the questions easily and making high marks, can that be a good examination? It cannot be a good one. There has to be something pushing the students to study, some pressure exerted day and night so that they say, "Too much! I can't stand it." In a way, driving the students like that is driving them to a 100% mark.

Do you like to be challenged for a difficult examination, or do you want an easy way? This is a Moonie assembly. Among you, there are three categories: true Moonie, fake Moonie, and gray Moonie. Which category do you belong to? Among you Japanese Moonies, there are many who say, "We are the best. Those American Moonies are no good." Is that attitude going to get you a passing grade or a flunking grade? That is a flunking attitude. That is a fake Moonie's attitude.

Some American Moonies are saying, "Absolutely, we do not like those Japanese Moonies, period. I don't even want to look at any more of them." Korean Moonies are saying, "Come on, you Japanese and American Moonies, let's unite." But there is one thing the Japanese and American Moonies can agree on and that is, "We don't like those Korean Moonies! Except for Father." (Laughter)

One thing is true that, regardless of their nationality, I like all Moonies. So who is the true Moonie? Everyone thinks he or she is the true Moonie. The Americans wear their own particular eyeglasses and say, "From my point of view, we are correct." The Japanese wear their eyeglasses and say, "Our view is correct." The Korean Moonies say, "Our view is the correct, more important one." Therefore, we need to have a revolution - everybody must take off his eyeglasses and throw them away. Now take the eyeglasses I give you and wear them. Then everybody will have the same vision, right? Amen!

When an American person wants to find an object of true love, he should find someone he can love more than other Americans. This is true for Japanese and Korean people as well. Such a tradition cannot be found anywhere in history in the fallen, secular world. This is a totally new tradition brought by the True Parents.

God has very long range vision. Looking at today's American society, He feels the urge to wipe it out. He feels, "I cannot stand it any more. I want to bring judgment upon this land." Every day He has that urge. However, God knows that within this nation and among these people someday righteous ones will emerge who will embody His true love for the world and all humanity. Because of that hope, God has been patient and trying to nurture this society and work with it. Do you understand?

We must love our enemy. How can we do that? It seems virtually impossible but we know that in future generations, from the enemy's posterity, someone will be born who can reciprocate the love we are bestowing in the present.

Reverend Moon is a good example of this. I have been persecuted and rejected by America, even given incredibly harsh treatment. Rather than accusing these people and trying to take revenge upon them, I have loved them and given more and more to them. Because of this fact, the Americans of the future will realize, "Look at the terrible thing our forefathers did." They will want to recompense that mistake and exhibit a tearful, heartfelt desire to protect the posterity of Reverend Moon.

The Korean political situation has become heated in recent weeks and even very dangerous. When that began, which country was most activated and concerned? It was the U.S. government. American officials, including those in the White House, have paid much attention and gone to great lengths to bring reconciliation in Korea. Even without realizing it, they were already reciprocating Reverend Moon's efforts here in America to save this country from its crisis.

If I worked solely in Korea to save that nation, it would save just one country. But by pushing the United States to save Korea, my work here can save a multitude of nations. Reverend Moon is a historical man, living and breathing with history every day. Because of Reverend Moon, the time will definitely come that the American people will love the Korean people deeply. That is the destiny of America.

This country and others will not only come to love the Korean people, but they will also love and respect all those who followed Reverend Moon - the so-called Moonies. That time will come. Therefore, eventually in this country because of what Reverend Moon has done, the American people will want Moonies to be leaders. They will push more and more Moonies into positions of responsibility. Our goal is not to conquer anybody or to gain any sort of domination but to bring people to the point that they want to be guided voluntarily because of our love.

If it happened someday that the True Parents needed to use your own home, would you willingly welcome them in? Does that mean that anyone who really loves me is willing to evacuate his premises, even some small cubbyhole of an apartment, in order to give it to me? Nobody would force you to do that, but you feel you would be proud and happy to be of such service to the True Parents. By the same token, if you resemble me - even someday becoming greater than me - then eventually the whole country will want to do the same kind of things for you. That same feeling of loyalty will be felt for you. That is how our history will develop.

This is my firm conviction. Do you want to live the kind of life that becomes indebted to history, receiving loans from your environment? Or do you want history to feel indebted to you? What kind of person would you like to become? It is easy to say that you want history to become indebted to you, but achieving it is not so easy. There is only one borderline, not two, between those two different ways of living.

Where can you go to dwell? When you have planted the seed of true love everywhere, you can dwell everywhere. Your home can be anywhere because you will be welcomed anywhere. In that respect, am I a happy or an unhappy person? Up to this time, my life has been one of great suffering. But once the suffering passed, looking back and reflecting upon my entire life, it has clearly been the happiest, most worthy life.

One good example of the work I have accomplished is your Blessing. Each of you came from different places - different races, nationalities and cultures and each person was stubborn and adamantly self-righteous. But you came to the conviction that you could leave to Reverend Moon the most central decision of your life - the choice of your eternal spouse. That alone is the greatest, most eloquent testimony to how far you have come-you became truly selfless and God-centered. That is sufficient testimony.

The greatest revolution of history is in the making. Is that true or not? But you don't really know it and that is the problem. You don't know how much you have been transformed just during these past two hours that I have been speaking today. The status of your mind two hours ago and your thinking right now is a difference as big as night and day. Have you been transformed for the better?

Our title today is "We Shall Dwell in Our Original Homeland." We are talking about the ideal homeland. Where is that? It is the place where God dwells, but where is that? The focal point and essence of the homeland is true love. Why must God dwell in true love?

Every seed might be called a symbolic representation of the whole universe. If you examine any seed, you will see that it has two parts within which surround the embryo at the center. Within the "circle" of one seed there are two parts, like the positive and the negative, joined together. Each human being is composed of two parts - the physical and the spiritual-united together. At our center, like the embryo, is true love. Everyone is included - we all have these two parts of physical and spiritual.

God also created two parts of the human race - male and female - and designed that they should be joined into one, as a couple. At their center is their true love. Only true love can make those two parts into one, not any other power.

Men and women come together as a couple and create a family, which is another microcosm of the universe. Husband and wife are like east and west - the horizontal realm - coming together. But God wants to see a round, globe-shaped entity. Thus the family comes to exist. When children are born, a global existence exists, and you represent all four directions - east, west, north and south. Your harmony creates a vertical and a horizontal line of unity.

The top is the area of the parents, the bottom is that of the children. The right side, or east, is the husband and the left side, or the west, is the wife. So we see north, south, east and west. This sort of global entity must be anchored in a proper center so that it can turn. Then that turning can continue for eternity. But if you don't have an axis, a true center, then the global entity will just tumble around without any special principle. That center where the axis must be located is God and true love.

Has humanity ever experienced that true axis of God and true love in history? No, we have not. This is the reason mankind has known only a fallen, imperfect and evil history. Instead of having that wholesome axis, we have seen distortion. In some cases, one corner is missing; some places, there are even two or three parts missing. In fallen history, no one has experienced true love-centered or God-centered life.

Let's say Albertina here represents one line of the 360 degrees of the universe. If we pull that line out of that circle and throw it all around the universe, it will circle around and go everywhere, but it will eventually come right back and fill the position it left behind. So when Albertina goes someplace, she will proclaim to the world, "What 1 need absolutely is God and true love. I need parents, children, husband and wife - those components - connected to true love and God." God and true love are at that center which connects everything within the 360 degrees. Wherever you go it is the same, no matter which country you live in.

This formula is basic, like the atom. Atoms assemble into molecules and a multitude of them dwell together. That is what we call heaven - the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven. Such a unit dwells in the bigger circle, so each small entity represents that model exactly, with no deviation. It is parallel with the giant model. Every little model is connected with the center, the giant model. That is the Kingdom of Heaven.

What actually is the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven? That is when the perfected family cells have been perfected on earth and can enter the spirit world to live forever. Again, everything is centered upon God and true love. Without that, we cannot even talk about the Kingdom of Heaven. Once you accomplish this formula on the earth, it will fit anywhere and everywhere.

The United States society is no exception. There is the central family - let's say the President and his wife, and their family. Then they are surrounded by a multitude of families, which makes up a society. Which is more important - one individual family, or one nation? Which is more important - the Kingdom of Heaven, or the United States? In that case, our concept is absolutely clear and without confusion.

What is the world community? It is nothing other than the expansion of the family, a small community. Expand it in all directions - your parents, brothers, uncles - and that becomes the community of the nation and the world. Everywhere in the world you can find parents, children, husband and wife. World society is organized like a family.

An Eastern man and a Western woman can only be united by love. Only true love binds parents, children, God and humanity. Nothing else can do that. Love is the center through which you can connect everything. Nobody can be connected except through that center.

Which family will become the recipient of the true blessing? It will be that family who truly becomes the center and plays the central role in practicing this particular principle. That family will remain throughout eternity.

Let's say there are five children in one family. Suppose they all try to unite everybody else, but each is centered upon himself, saying, "Love me and you can benefit." That is not heavenly love. Heavenly love is always giving, altruistic. The act of giving means you are participating in the act of creation. Just as God created first, you are creating a second time. You must understand that not only God creates - we, too, are co-creators. We are constantly creating every day.

What is God's creation? It is nothing more than the investment of Himself - manifesting Himself and giving Himself. Therefore, as we engage in our own second creation, we must invest and manifest ourselves. That is sacrificial giving, which is the only way we can truly manifest ourselves.

In a relationship between a white person and a black person, when they have give and take, they create a beautiful tango. Their turning action is beautiful. Who becomes the central figure in such a case? It is the one who gives the most. Why are parents always the central figures of the family? They are always giving unconditional love.

Who is the patriot? It is the person who is willing to give everything for the sake of the nation, even his own life. The whole country turns around, centering on the tradition of that patriot. America society has not understood this central point. People thought that by unselfishly giving they would diminish themselves, but on the contrary, it is by giving that one can gain. The more one gives, the more he can receive. That beautiful secret has been virtually unknown to this society, so we have to teach it to them.

God has been giving without any reservation, without withholding an ounce of energy and effort, investing His whole being for the sake of creation. That is God's tradition. We as co-creators can do no less: then we will prosper. That is the Principle

What is Satan? There is no axis in the satanic world. There are no absolutes. Everything is relative and this is what we see in today's society. A good family tradition is important because one can find the good axis there. That axis goes down through all the family members and always manifests in beauty and virtue.

The United States must have some unchanging axis which it can present to the world, something about which it can say, "Look at the tradition we have in our country. We are so proud and you should follow our example." What do you think can be that axis? It is only the tradition of true love. True beauty is always centered upon virtue. In the home, the highest virtue is that of filial piety. The nation is centered upon the beauty of patriotism. On the world level, the quality of saintliness is the highest virtue. Then there is the holy son of God who embraces and practices that principle for the sake of heaven and earth. Those entities on each level all have the same axis - true love and nothing else.

When you sacrificially love your parents, children, and spouse, you establish the axis of true love in your home. As a heavenly family, when you expand that tradition to the national level, you become patriots.

The Unification Church is the school of this true love axis. We are people of different races, cultural backgrounds and nationalities, yet we practice the same Principle. In fact, the Unification Church is practicing the tradition of holy men in more than 120 nations throughout the world. This is even greater than saintliness. I am trying to create the tradition of the holy son - "seung ja" in Korean. Every member of the Unification Church, regardless of what race or culture he comes from, can practice this same principle and become a holy child of God. That is our ultimate goal.

Do you think there are royal palaces in spirit world? Do you think the kings who reside in such palaces are elected by general ballot every four years? The order or hierarchy in spirit world is determined by the fulfillment of true love. How much true love "equity" you have will determine your position. The king of the spirit world is the one with the most true love. Once that is ordained, it is permanent.

We want to live in the original homeland. The place where true love dwells is our homeland. Do you think true love can exist in isolation, without any object? No, it can't. God is the center as the plus. Human beings, including men and women, are the minus. When men and women are totally united, they create one entity. That means God wants to come and dwell in their midst.

God wants to dwell within the hearts of men and women, parents and children. Those hearts can only be God's dwelling place if they are truly places of true love. In order to secure your permanent turning motion, you must be able to push out - that is, to give. Instead of trying to pull and take, you have to give out, to push. That is what makes the turning motion. What is the true wife and husband relationship? It is when each wants to serve the other. Instead of pulling on each other for love, they are pushing out their love and giving to the other.

What is the true child and true brotherhood? It is when brothers are trying to give to each other, pushing out with their love. What are bad children? They are those who only try to get, to take from the others for their own sake. When that happens, the family has a big hole or puncture, like a flat tire. That family has to move forward on a flat tire.

The parents who live their entire life for the sake of the family, serving and loving them purely, cannot go anywhere except to a high place in heaven. Those two places are directly connected. Also, all people in spirit world want to come and be around such parents because they also want to enjoy the benefit of their true love. Now do you know what the true couple are? What are the true children? They are those who try to give altruistically for the sake of their parents. True parents want to give their pure, unconditional love for the children's sake for their entire life.

When that kind of action is expanded from the center, it becomes bigger and bigger until it forms a globe. You cannot invite God to dwell within you as long as you remain flat. You've got to create room for God and thus you have to be spiritually round, like a ball. Then you can invite God and the whole universe to dwell with you. You should have that kind of purpose in your mind, "I want to be a higher, bigger, wider person. I want to be deeper and longer." You've got to create your family as a global dwelling place, not just a flat plane, to expand to the four directions.

I have written a famous Korean saying on the blackboard which means, "When the family is in peace, everything will succeed." The important word is "peace." Family peace must be centered upon true love; only then it is true peace. This particular truth can be applied everywhere - East and West, and universally.

Do you think elderly people are happy go to senior citizens' homes? Is that a happy situation? I certainly don't like such a system. Do you American people like it? If you don't do something to change it now, you too will end up in senior citizens' homes. The truth is that if the parents have to dwell in such homes, the rest of the family should go and live there with them. They should dwell together.

We shall live in our homeland. What is that homeland? It is the place where the object of God's true love dwells. The homeland, ultimately, is the true family. In the true family, you find every component of true love. There you will find the dwelling place of true parents, true children, true husband and true wife. That represents the nation, world, universe and cosmos, so the components of the entire world can be found within our family.

Just as there are all types of people in the world, there are all types of people within one's family. There are men and women, children and siblings in the world and all of these elements are in one family. By the same token, everything you find in the family, you can find in the society. They parallel and correspond. Therefore, when the family is expanded to the worldwide level, it becomes a world community. When the world is made smaller, it becomes a family.

The direction of the family is to move forward, not to stand still. They want to move up to the nation and dwell there. The nation wants to move toward the world and dwell there, becoming a world community. The world wants to move on to the cosmic community. If there had been no fall of man, this process would have occurred automatically. But now, we must struggle and fight to win and move up to each level.

Therefore, on each level we have to confront the opposition of our enemies and we have to love our enemies. We must melt them with love and then move up. I want you to understand that I have encountered enemies along every stage of the path of life - on the individual, family, tribal, national and worldwide stages. But I struggled and overcame and embraced the enemy with love. Then I could move on.

The satanic world has tried to put up barricades and obstacles to prevent my advancement. But I know the basic and fundamental truth of what the family should be like. Because I have only followed the Principle on every stage, overcoming with the power of true love, I have victoriously moved forward all the way up to the cosmic level. As long as I dwell in the original homeland, no satanic power can infiltrate. This is my protection.

We have to live for the sake of others. That means we must invest ourselves without any hesitation. That is the role of the co-creator. As much as God invested His entire being, you have to invest your whole being in re-creation. Only because I have followed this secret throughout my short human life span, I have been able to make the most extraordinary accomplishments that wilt remain for a million years to come.

When I came to this country, I declared that I came to save America. My concept is this: even if all 240 million American citizens abandon this country, I will remain to the very end. I will defend and protect America. The citizens of this country - ordinary people - want to be loved by someone who brings true love, someone who can care for them in an extraordinary way. Americans are waiting and longing to receive such love.

Most people would try to run away and avoid jail if they were facing such a prospect. But, on the contrary, I walked straight into that situation. There are criminals who do terrible things and then make every possible effort to avoid prison. However, I was totally innocent of wrongdoing, but I walked willingly into the prison. Even if all the people of this country deny it now, America will eventually follow my tradition. You know how much change took place during the year and a half after my incarceration in Danbury and how greatly America has been changed.

What about the satanic world? I have been struggling against communism, not to kill the communists but to liberate them and bring them salvation. This is why we have already sent underground missionaries to the Soviet Union and the communist satellite countries. It is not to destroy anyone, but to save them. Even if we must be sacrificed, we must bring liberation to the communists. Our missionaries do not go out and make demonstrations to destroy the Soviet Union. But the communists are doing that all over the world - to destroy the United States and the free world. Day and night, the communists work against our underground missionaries, but our strategy is opposite: our missionaries work day and night to save the communist people.

We are moving forward and developing; we are not going backward. Even though we encounter a lot of enemies and obstacles, we want to overcome them with the love of the original homeland. Nowadays in Washington, D.C., people in the upper echelons of government and society - the movers and shakers of this nation - are expressing a totally different concept about me. They are saying, "Reverend Moon may not have the piece of paper saying he is an American citizen, but we now see that he is a true American patriot." I never asked anybody to say such things, but automatically, people are coming forward.

Who is losing and who is winning? I am winning every day. Why is that? I have a very simple secret: I want to bring everybody to the original homeland, the original place of purity with no pollution or contamination. Therefore, I am bound to be successful, regardless of how many obstacles I encounter.

Consider the buildings and trees of the White House - wouldn't they like to see someone who is truly giving every ounce of energy for the sake of the United States? They would like to see such a person dwelling in the White House, just as would all the people of this country. If you asked the very soil of this country, "Do you want to be ruled by that kind of President?" the land would say yes.

Ask the entire world, "Do you want to be governed by a person who truly represents the love of God?" The world will say yes. This is our secret. The fallen world is trying to conquer and subjugate through force, through war, but we have a different strategy. By practicing true love as our way of life, we can win the world for God. How convenient and practical this is - God's idea is not just theoretical!

We want to live in the original homeland, the true home where true love dwells. The question is whether you are qualified. You have the aspiration to be a somebody, to climb to the top of the world, don't you? You want to have your own identity, don't you? That indicates you have a built - in qualification as part of your nature. You certainly know how to receive love. So far, people in the fallen world have just wanted to receive love, but now God is manifesting the new tradition: Let's give love, for a change.

On this hot summer day of July 1, why do you suppose I have spoken for three hours and worked up such a sweat? A thirty-minute sermon would have sufficed, after all. I have been sweating like this for every minute of these past three hours because I want to give to the absolute degree - to the perfection of giving, with nothing left over. This is my gift for you. This is Reverend Moon's way of doing business. I only know one way to prosper - that of giving totally, absolutely, to perfection. That is why my "business" has been booming all over the world, ever since I opened up shop.

I want you to live happily. I want you husbands and wives to be truly happy couples. But I also want you to live without any shame in the sight of God or the nation. You must be able to stand with your chin held high, with true pride. What is the secret of living like this? Can you say to the nation, "Give me more. Take care of me"? That brings shame. You must give to the nation. Ask, "What do you need? Let me provide whatever service you need." Even if the whole country came against you, you would have no shame and you could stand with dignity. I am simply saying that you must practice true love.

You must be willing and ready to dedicate your family for the well-being of the nation. Sacrifice the nation for the well-being of the world. That is the way it goes. Only because of the fall of man is this kind of sacrifice and struggle necessary. Moving up would have been an automatic process if the fall of man had not happened. When you struggle and win, you become a true representative of the nation, world and cosmos.

Don't ever think that the homeland is someplace far away. This is the homeland, right here. It is wherever you practice your true love. You Japanese people, your homeland is right here, not in Japan. You naturally want to live in dignity and walk down the street with your head held high. In order to do that, go ahead and sacrificially serve this nation. Then you can be truly proud. The men and women who live their lives in this manner will be protected by the universe; the universe will be your "security guard." I have been thrown into jail many times. But each time I came out of prison, I experienced leaps and bounds of prosperity. Why is that? It is because the power of true love is supporting me, pushing me forward like a tailwind. The person who pays attention to each individual, tries to meet their needs, passionately loving his brothers and sisters and his society, can never go wrong or be neglected. Nothing in your life is more precious than love.

Everywhere I go, I deal with individuals. I never shrink from this or try to avoid anyone. At East Garden I am always in the position of host, whether it is morning, noon or evening. I am always there to pay attention to everybody. Sometimes my family and household members even neglect the people who come to visit, saying, "Oh, Father will take care of them." Sometimes the East Garden kitchen staff, for example, who are mostly married and have their own children, are all gone-nobody is in the kitchen. I might call for some water or something at midnight and no staff people are in the kitchen, so I go and get it myself.

The people who just disappear from their jobs are not my kind of person. I will remove such staff, one by one, from East Garden because they do not understand their responsibility. They should think, "I am always the one responsible for this household. No matter who comes in or when, I will serve them and have something ready for them." Everybody should feel that way, not just me.

Some people may come to Belvedere at 2:00 in the morning, praying, "I hope Father will speak." Those people come and sit in the front and they are the true masters, true hosts and hostesses of the Unification Church. Each of you should feel, "I want to multiply Father's message. I want to take this big burden upon my shoulders and become the number one person in the church, the person to take the initiative in practicing Father's message." You should want to take the heavy burden of the words of God and True Parents and sprinkle them everywhere-in every direction. You are always emptying yourself out, then coming back to get refilled by the word. Those who are doing that with bubbling enthusiasm are the true Moonies.

I have been practicing this way of life for more than 40 years. When I first began, nobody could even imagine what would happen. But today the Unification Church is booming. Established Christianity is declining. The communist world is virtually bankrupt and the United States is also faltering. But our movement is expanding. In 10 or 20 years, the showdown will be completely apparent.

Even though you are rather hesitant, saying, "I don't know if I want to go in that direction," I am always forging ahead. That is a shameful situation. I know how to live without shame, how to stand tall in the universe. You American people answer me: am I indebted to the United States, or is this country indebted to me?

Many American people thought, "Reverend Moon is trying to exploit our young people, sending them out to sell flowers and fill his own pockets with dollars. Soon he will take away all that money and disappear from the American scene." What a mistaken idea that was. When the truth is known, they will completely change and surrender to the truth. I have consistently lived by the same principles, done the same things.

Satan has no business in the original homeland. If Satan even tries to touch that homeland, his hand is burned up. Don't you all want to dwell with me in that same homeland? Amen? (Amen!) Every aspect of the environment is ready-everything except you. It's all up to you now to choose that route. You have to be determined, saying, "I want to follow Father's living model and be like him."

Today is July 1, so half of the year is over. The second half of 1987 is beginning today. I want you to live the remaining six months of 1987 according to this principle that I have spoken about today. Can you say, "Yes, I pledge to live by that principle. Father, you can trust me"? Raise your hands if you can do that. Thank you and God bless you.

Witnessing

Sun Myung Moon
July 1987
Taken from The Way of God's Will

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han March 4, 2012

Witnessing should be preceded by heart; to witness you should have so strong an emotion that you become a heartistic magnet who can draw the minds of all people.

Witnessing is like creating a second self. It would be no problem if you dedicate as much heart as a mother does to nourish and care for her newborn baby.

Have you ever heard the groaning and wailing of many people trapped in the tomb of Satan? And have you ever felt righteous indignation to liberate them?

There are many who want to save good people, but few who want to raise bad and pitiful people so that they may become good and happy people. Since sinful history has lasted for 6,000 years, you must spend at least six months dedicating your heart in raising each person you have found. 

Unification Theological Seminary -- Commencement Address

Sun Myung Moon
June 30, 1987
Barrytown, New York

The 11th Graduation Day at UTS. Father delivers his Commencement Address; Mother prays before Father speaks.

The 11th commencement exercises of the Unification Theological Seminary took place Tuesday, June 30, at 11:00 a.m. There were 54 graduates - 41 from the two-year Religious Education Program and 13 from the three-year Divinity Program.

Respected professors, parents of our students, ladies and gentlemen: Today we are congratulating the 54 honorable graduates who are participating in the 11th graduation ceremony at the Unification Theological Seminary. Hereby we are celebrating their future.

You graduates are now departing with hope, after having studied here two or three years, to go out and practice your ministry in order to fulfill the will of God. Before offering my encouragement to you, I must first thank God for the protection that allowed you to celebrate this day and also praise the outstanding education given you by all your professors.

Despite the short history of our school, the Unification Theological Seminary has become famous throughout the world for its uniqueness. It has been giving its students an interdenominational and inter-religious education, and it serves as a model for breaking scholarly barriers by inviting scholars from various denominations to teach and share with those students of our own faith. This is a truly historical achievement. In the near future, a department devoted to researching all the great religions of the world will be installed at the Seminary.

A positive article on the graduation appeared on the front page of this Kingston, NY, paper. The photo of Father was in color.

Harmony among Religions

God established many religions in order to guide us to the full realization of His ideal for the creation. In these Last Days, the Unification Church has been erected as a religious movement for fulfilling the entire will of God through bringing harmony among religions and among denominations within religions. It was not established by the will of human beings.

God is not a being who dwells in doctrines, nor is God restricted by rituals and forms; God is the creator of the universe as a living spirit. Religions are intended to be the exemplars to all mankind of correct teaching. God's heart aches the most when He sees religions struggle because of conflicts among their own denominations or when they fight against other religions.

Centered on the Unification Theological Seminary, I initiated New ERA and the God Conferences, two truly ecumenical movements. Through these, I demonstrated both the possibility of and the necessity for the harmony and unification of Christian denominations, and, further, of other great religions. I believe that this unification and harmony will be the precious result of patience, sacrifice, and true love. To advance the will of God on earth and bring peace to the world through sincere dialogue and harmony among religious bodies, I also founded the Council for the World's Religions and the Assembly of the World's Religions. These organizations have performed miracles in the religious world. Further, I founded the Youth Seminar on World Religions and the Religious Youth Service, which bring young people together to help prevent racial and religious wars and to establish a peaceful ideal world under God. Through all these organizations, I am presenting to the world's religions a new alternative. All of these programs and projects are part of the Unification movement that I initiated. It is my wish that you graduates, and everyone here today, may inherit this foundation with the heart of an owner, expand it, and bring forth new fruit.

Beloved graduates! You are departing today as important members of our church, bearing grave responsibility toward fulfilling God's will for salvation. At this time, what should be the deepest wish in your hearts? It should be to establish true lordship as ideal individuals, creating ideal families, societies, nations, and ultimately an ideal world, which our human ancestors were unable to initiate due to the fall.

A Mind of Righteousness

Because of the fall of man, all human beings came to live within the bondage of Satan, the master of false love, without being able to become the worthy objects of the love of God, who is the Lord of life. Hence, this world ceased to be the original world. This reality has been expressed as "paradise lost." The fall has affected not only individuals, but also families, societies, and nations, and thus the world and the entire cosmos.

We who have lost paradise should proceed to the ideal through the process of restoration, or recreation. However, we cannot proceed directly to the path of recreation; we must first go through the path of indemnity, reversing the way of the fall. Adam and Eve and the archangel fell due to false love, abandoning their public-centered way. Therefore, one should walk the way of recovery through the heart, by loving God more than Satan, loving goodness and rejecting evil, and loving that which is public more than that which is private.

This is not some vague theory but a practical principle. For individuals, this means loving God the most by following one's original mind -- the mind that is oriented towards public righteousness -- and rejecting Satan, who is rooted in the fleshly desires of our daily life. At each social level -- family, society, nation, world, and cosmos -- one should eliminate the bases of evil, such as greed, indulgence, distrust, and false love, through the practice of sacrifice, service, trust, and true love centered on God.

From ancient days, outstanding religious leaders have strongly emphasized a disciplined life of faith. This is because the conditions that religious persons establish here on earth affect their eternal life. You should understand that your living environment is a battleground between good and evil that both God and Satan are watching carefully. I ask you to understand this serious point: Depending on whether you speak or act out of true concern for the public benefit or only for yourself at the public's expense, that word or deed can belong either to God or to Satan, to life or to death.

Humankind has inherited fallen nature and easily becomes a slave of habit, and even religious people are inclined to live an easy life. But a life of routine faith is hazardous. Such a life of faith presents a condition for Satan, who works without ceasing, to try to infiltrate. As people walk the way of restoration, Satan, who doesn't want to lose anyone, looks for every opportunity to reinvade. Even if Satan must depart from a person because of the indemnity conditions he or she has set on an individual level, he may invade again on the family or the national level.

Are you not feeling a sense of liberation with graduation? However, in certain ways, strict regulation is helpful for a life of faith. A secular life relying on habit, which can easily involve your own past life, is not the way of true life. Only by living a life of true love and continual self- sacrifice can a person overcome Satan. Moreover, great satisfaction can be gained by exercising public righteousness even when it is difficult. I hope that all of you may lead such a life.

The Ministry of Love

The Messiah comes to teach mankind to overcome Satan, to destroy Satan's base in this world, and to build God's Kingdom on earth. The Messiah shows the example for this through his own life. Thus the Messiah comes with the love of True Parents, which is the highest love. Unification Church members should be able to embrace the world with love, but only when you are totally united and centered on the love of parents who have become one with God can you win the world back to God.

Through this love, and by overcoming Satan's cunning tricks in your daily life, you can live in the eternal realm of liberation. When you are an individual of such love, you can finally build a true family and an ideal society, nation, and world, which will be the Kingdom of Heaven.

Beloved graduates! In order to find the best location for our Seminary I looked at many different places. This place was not chosen easily. I put great emphasis on finding a place in a beautiful natural environment, where the spirit of the mountains and the river could help educate you in developing wholesomeness of character. After this school opened, I came here many times and prayed, and I personally educated students from many different perspectives. My heart and my dreams dwell in the Hudson riverbanks, the surrounding mountaintops, the trees, the grass, and even in every small rock. On this campus, there is nothing to which my heart has not been given. You have been living here day by day, drinking in the life spirit provided by God, under the protection of the world of good spirits. I hope that you will not leave this campus with only a bag of knowledge accumulated through your years of research, but also with God's hope and my expectations for you as you go out to the field to practice the ministry of love.

I expect all of you, who are graduating at a time whose importance can hardly be matched in the entire providence of God, to become witnesses of the living God and of true love. For this, I pray that each of you will become a lighthouse and an example for all humankind, and that you can educate all people through an exemplary life.

I pray that God's blessings will be with you and that you will become true disciples of love and heart.

Thank you. 

Harvest Time

Reverend Sun Myung Moon
June 21, 1987
Belvedere
Translator - Sang Kil Han

In the Unification Church, we have brought together people of all five colors of skin. God must be very happy to see this. If heaven was a huge warehouse of people harvested from the earth, what kind of people would be found there? Billions of human beings have lived here on earth and all have eventually gone to spirit world. They come in all different shapes and forms, but until now none was able to meet God's original standard. This is because of the human fall. We must always keep in mind that we also, without exception, are far from the original standard.

How different has mankind been, compared with God's original standard? To begin with, the fallen blood flowing through man's veins is completely different, it is as different as night and day. Human blood is stained by the love of Satan, not the original love of God. No matter how many people have lived here on earth, God could have no real relationship with them because the root, or origin, was different. People look pretty much the same to our eyes whether they are good or bad, but to God there is a world of difference.

The world is upside down now. Satan is on top and God is in the lower position. How to make things right side up is the question. At the last days, the purpose of the Second Coming is to reverse the wrong order which has prevailed. We have reached a point of intersection and from this time on, we will begin to go in the normal direction and position that God originally intended. God will be in the upper position along with the True Parents. Eventually, we will think and live as if the past had not existed. We will erase it.

Since the day we entered the church, we were in a position to put the past behind us. Are we in any way related with it still? That is a very serious question. We shouldn't have a relationship with the past because it was unprincipled and it had nothing to do with God. The sooner we forget it, the better off we are. We can start anew here, building a new world.

For instance, we might have the concept, "I am an American, so my loyalty is to this culture and country." Does that thinking have any place in us? Many different kinds of people and families are living in the United States, but where have they originated from? Clearly, they exist within the unprincipled realm. How much are they influenced? How much dye have they absorbed, so to speak, and how much have they been stained through the thousands of years of history?

Imagine what is required in the process of salvation and restoration. Do you think the restoration process is an instantaneous one? We could compare it to the process of black people turning into white people, or vice versa. It's that difficult. By the same token, would it be easy for American people to become Korean, or vice versa? Which do you think is more difficult? Would it be easier for a communist nation to become democratic, or the other way around? This illustrates the difficulties in the process of being saved or restored. Many ways of changing the world have been tried in the past but none could succeed. People didn't even know where to begin.

Looking at this diagram on the blackboard, we can understand why we absolutely need the Second Coming. Only through the Messiah can we change directions and put things upright. Without that change, the individual can never be truly saved or restored. The family and the country, everyone and everything absolutely needs the Second Coming. The world must go through this time of restoration.

You Moonies are the hand-picked disciples of God, but even in you the fallen influence is so deeply ingrained that you don't have a clear idea of what you must do. No matter how deep the abyss or how high the peak, we have to climb. Even if we feel discouraged, still we have to go on. The Second Coming is necessary for the people here on earth, but the spirit world also needs it. In fact, people in the spirit world feel the necessity of this more acutely than we do.

We have to open our eyes wide and be very watchful. These are the last days. What is happening and developing? The True Family has been formed on earth in vivid reality under the full protection of God. We have to confirm that with our own eyes. Are they in any way related with the past and with Satan? We have to be able to see clearly that they are not. The turning point is being reached now, right in our midst.

If the fall hadn't taken place, history would have progressed normally, not in the reverse way. But as a result of the fall, the wrong side took the upper position. At the time of the last days and the Second Coming of the Messiah, a new history begins which was supposed to have been our beginning point. It is actually the normal history. God inspired the creation of religion and spoke through the prophets and good people of history. The whole purpose of their efforts was to bring the world to this original point, and then to start anew. Many people have paid with their lives just to get mankind back to the Original point.

Right after World War II, the whole world had achieved a certain unity centering on the United States. Christianity was functioning at its best and was the guiding spirit of this country, so the U.S. was in the position to guide the rest of the world according to God' will. But the United States and established Christianity did not understand and they did not fulfill their portion of responsibility. Had they known and fulfilled their mission, God would have taken His rightful position in the world and Satan would have been subjugated, placed at the bottom.

All these intervening years of restoration effort would not have been necessary. God's will could have been achieved right then if people had realized, "God can take dominion and Satan can be defeated." If the world had been mobilized by this ideal centering on Christianity, these past 40 years or so would have been very different. But that didn't happen, and Satan continued to hold the upper position while God remained in the lower position. This has been the reality throughout the history of the Unification Church.

During these past 40 years, the power of Christianity in America has plummeted. Having once upheld the greatest glory of God and the highest standard in religion, established Christianity has been reduced to mere humanism. It has become more and more distant from God and concerned about secular values. Many Christians are living a self-centered way of life which has nothing to do with the original world of God. It is a terrible tragedy but people do not know why that tragedy occurred.

Now we have the right-wing and the left-wing in this world. The right-wing should have been advancing God's cause, but instead it has declined. The left-wing has had the better of the right until now. Communism has been advancing throughout the world in an aggressive way. Both the right and the left believed themselves to be superior to the other and could lead the world. They tried, but they have both failed and are becoming powerless. The right-wing, represented by the U.S., has lost sight of God. People don't know where God is any more. The left-wing didn't acknowledge God to begin with.

From Jacob's time until now, 4000 years have elapsed. But all that foundation was lost when the U.S. and Christianity did not comply with God's dispensation. Thus, a 40-year re-indemnification period was necessary. From Jacob's time to the end of World War II, both the first and second Israelites-the Christians-failed to consummate God's dispensation. All of the prior foundation was taken under the satanic dominion and what they did was nullified. Thus, the third Israelites had to re-indemnify that in the past 40 years.

In order to restore this foundation, the individual, family, clan, race and nation must be re-indemnified each step of the way. It may sound simple just to re-indemnify the individual level, but individual restoration is not easy. The individual has to go and fight within the satanic dominion and win a victory there before he can claim that victory. Who is supposed to accomplish that? Yes, it is the third Israel, but who is the leader of that third Israel? I came here to do this work of recreation which was supposed to have taken place earlier. As I have worked along the way, all levels of Satan from the individual, family, clan, to the national and world levels have come down and tried to stop me. They have done the worst they can to stop my progress because that is Satan's nature.

All of humanity exists within the unit of the family. But for the first time in history, with the advent of True Father, the family unit has started working properly. Before that, even though many people got married and had families, in God's eyes it could not be recognized. It was still on the individual level.

Each of you must go through the same pattern. You work as a God-centered individual and face the opposition of Satan in order to gain the victory on that level, then you must struggle on the family and clan level, facing satanic persecution. When you win over that, you create the clan foundation on the heavenly side. It is a desperate fight all the way through. Each of us have been through it. It is not just a concept. All of the Unification Church members are doing this under my leadership. When we are on one level, all of Satan's power at the next level comes down and attacks us. Even though you may not realize where it came from, that is what has happened. Then, after that fight, we are elevated to the same level of the opposition we were facing.

we go deeper into Satan's territory, we elevate and extend God's realm to that height. As we struggle on all levels-the family, clan, nation, and so forth-God is elevated to a corresponding height. Do you understand? We must fight against Satan on every level before we situate our victorious foundation on the eternal side. Even if you are ready to go straight forward, you cannot. First, you have to go back, win over, then come back, and be elevated. You must keep repeating the process. We cannot go to heaven unless we win over satanic dominion.

In the Unification Church today, the members don't think about this concept so much, even though you are right in the middle of it. Even though you are in the midst of the fight, you don't know what is happening for the most part. You only know you are suffering. A typical attitude of the Unification Church member has been, "Now that Father has blessed me, everything will be great." The idea never occurred to him that, even though I gave the Blessing and he now has a family, he has to go back and struggle, even alone, and rejoin his family later, in order to truly achieve the family level. Then he has to go back again, fighting for the still higher level. Such a realization seems foreign to many of you.

One must go back to his native land and fight to win on the individual level and then come back and elevate his foundation. We must keep on doing that on all the levels of struggle-the family, clan, and so forth. To achieve a national level foundation, you must win on the national level in your own home country and come back.

Why is this necessary? We are dwelling within a country under Satan's dominion. You are Abel living in Cain's country. Abel must love Cain and move him with God's love so that you can unite. The younger brother has to move the elder brother by doing whatever is necessary. On all different levels, Abel has to do that.

Since the United States goes against the Unification Church, then still it must be under the dominion of the fallen archangel who opposes God on every level. Once the fallen archangel comes around and no longer opposes God's work, the condition will be created for the beginning of the original world. The archangel was supposed to help the original human beings.

How is the fallen archangel transformed into the original archangel? By building the victorious foundation on the level of the individual, family, clan, nation, world, and spirit world, this turning point will be established. By doing that, we will restore the position of the unfallen archangel. Of course, we must face opposition, but by winning over that situation the archangel is in the original position. Do you understand what I am trying to explain?

The major point is that, even though we want to get ahead quickly, we cannot do it directly. We have to go back and win over the satanic world. We must win over the heart of the elder brother and move him so he says, "Oh, younger brother, I didn't know you were that good." Then we can come back to the higher level.

Step by step you have to create the realm where Satan has nothing to accuse you for on the individual level. You have achieved that much of a realm. Then on the family level, Satan has to have no condition to accuse you. When that happens, this much of the original family level realm would be established. And so on to the national level and up to the universal level. Then the realm of God's complete dominion will be achieved.

The reason I went to Korea recently was to achieve this. I have achieved to the point where there is no way Satan can legitimately oppose me. That was after Danbury. At no level, including the highest universal level, has Satan anything to accuse me with. Then I must implant the foundation right where it is supposed to be-in the land of Korea. We have to go there and achieve it, and return. We must come here and go back, and plant the foundation there eight times from the individual through the universal levels.

Unless Satan signs it, we don't have a valid passport to go to heaven. It's up to him to sign it. The love of God is the ammunition that we fight with. Originally, the entire world would have been under God's warm love, but Satan's love took over because of the fall. God's love is better than Satan's love, deeper and warmer, and God's love will never give up. This is all the more reason why the Unification Church must operate beyond national boundaries, beyond the whole world because that is our region and scope. After the national level, we have the world, cosmic, and the spirit world level.

As you see, there will be no side or hemisphere which is not under God's dominion. There is no shaded area where Satan will reign any longer. Do you understand? Our mission is to go into the evil world and make goodness prosper there. We must plant God there. Our job is to liberate hell on earth and hell in the spirit world, to chase out the darkness and bring in the light. Most Christian ministers don't know that this is the work of God, but that is what the True Parents are achieving now. While I was doing this, even you were unaware. Who in this whole world knew? True Parents did this, but they wouldn't speak about it was until they accomplished.

Why do True Parents have to do this themselves? It was the ones in the parental position who fell, so a person in the same parental position must re-indemnify this for their offspring. It is not a stationary position; rather it will have to move at great speed. Then God can be situated in the North as well as the South, in the East as well as the West. Upside down becomes right side up and the down side is also good because there is no Satan to interfere with or worry about. It becomes God's world, or the original world. This is where we are heading.

The symbol of the U.S. dollar is written as a large S with slashes through it. Thus the dollar sign means "Satan no more!" Unfortunately, the U.S. is now acting more in accordance with Satan. Whose territory is the extreme North, South, East, and West-the far extremes? Are they God's or Satan's? Have Eastern and Western civilizations become one yet? Have the South and North become one? Have the differences between poverty and wealth been eliminated? Why do these discrepancies still exist? Satan will not let go.

Now you know what God wants to achieve. Every area should have the same abundance. You shouldn't say that the South is low and underdeveloped and the North is much better. That sort of disparity shouldn't exist. Every country should be prosperous. I always yearn for the white people to go and clean up the disadvantaged black areas. What about the black people? They will see this and they will develop a sense of responsibility, saying, "Why should the white people clean up our mess? We will do it ourselves." Black people will not want to be indebted to white people. This is the lesson they will quickly learn. When that happens, can we call this one world or two worlds? One world! Centering on whom, this time? Centering on God and True Parents. There will be no more Satan.

How must we think now? All of our families are the center of the newly-formed, restored universe. That means "I"-you and your family-are the center of the universe. What does the world want with you and your family? You are the root. What is the root of you and your family? God is your root. On the way, True Parents are your roots. You and your family are bound with true love. This is our relationship. Everything will be connected with true love.

You might wonder why I am back here in America. Why didn't I stay in Korea and help the situation there? With all the demonstrations and political upheaval, there seem to be more dangers facing Korea than America at this time. Why did I come back here when Korea seems to be in more immediate need? It can be only one reason- to implant a higher level of love here.

All things bear fruit and all fruit has a rounded shape. Have you ever seen a square fruit? What you plant as an individual and what you harvest on the world's perimeter should be the same. It should be connected by original love. When God looks at that, He will say, "Well, I want that too-original love. I like that."

Wherever you plant this seed, the same fruit will come out of the soil. Today we have a technique called "cell reproduction," in which you only need one cell from the fruit or vegetable to plant, like cloning. Each cell is the same as its origin, so you don't have to plant a seed every time. After you are restored, maybe I will take one cell out of your body-a very tiny one-and smell it. Should it give out the fragrance of God, or the odor of Satan? Each cell should smell of true love. Are your cells all transformed into those of true love? Each individual gives out an odor, without our knowing it. Some give out a stench, some give out a sweet smell; but all of us here should give out the fragrance of true love. People look at the members of the Unification Church and say, "I like them-they have a good aroma!" All Moonies, without exception, should give out this sweet perfume. Our trademark, our nature, should be true love.

When you go back to your parents' home, they will usher you into the most comfortable chair in the living room and say, "We're so glad you're here." They can smell the true love fragrance coming out of you. Are you like that now? Do you give out the true love smell? When you visit your physical brothers and sisters, would they welcome you with respect? What about me, then? Do you love me? I am an Oriental and I never heard of Western people being crazy about Orientals. Why do you love me so much? We have to be specific. It's because I have true love! Now we know.

The title of my sermon this morning is "Harvest Time." What kind of harvest do we mean? To begin with, what seed did God plant? God planted the true love seed, so we must be consistent. We must be the fruit of the same seed that He planted. Those people in which God planted the true love seed will be welcomed wherever they go, whether in the physical world or in the spirit world, because they are God's own creation. The Moonies have the original seed for the family, tribe, nation and world.

The world wants to see the blossoming of the fruit from the original seed filling every space in the world. Any one of you can be planted in England, and the same seed will grow in the whole area. When the true family seed goes to Australia or Germany or anywhere, they will reproduce and prevail. The same true seed will immediately spread out and cover the whole universe. How wonderful it is!

The world has many systems and different factions- democracy, communism, white and black. But once these Moonie tribes appear, they will intoxicate people with the good smell wherever they go. In all four corners of the world, everyone will welcome the Moonie tribe. They will want them to be the center of their own nation so they can have true love themselves.

Is there anyone who doesn't know Reverend Moon now? People used to say, "The worst possible things are done by Reverend Moon." Now they say, "The best is represented by Reverend Moon." White people are observant by nature, so they will see that communism is declining, democracy is weakening, and everybody seems to be dwindling except Reverend Moon. What is so different about Reverend Moon that he doesn't decline, but just keeps rising higher? The people in power-the white people-don't like me because of this fact.

Scholars, in particular, are taking note of what I am doing. They are washing clean my name and calling me a leader in the field of political science, economy, the media, the religious world, and the cultural world. Those observant people can see that a powerful influence for good is being wielded, one which no one else in the world has ever exercised. They see it not only in a conceptual way, but in actuality. We know that the dawn of our time is coming now. But we must consider who is responsible for that? Who did that for you? It was God, True Parents and all our brothers and sisters who have transformed each one of us. We can begin to see that now.

The Unification Church has to really fill up this year. We should fill all corners of the earth because our origin is true love. That is an entirely different origin from the rest of the world. Moonies are promoting the glory of God and the restoration of true love, so who would dare work against us? What is wrong with what the Moonies are doing? You individuals are the fruit of True Parents' planting. You will multiply the fruits of the family, the clan and nation until you fill and influence the rest of the world, transforming it into the true fruit. Amen!

We have initiated the National Federation of the Unification of North and South Korea. Once that unity is achieved, the unity of the rest of the world can follow in no time at all. North Korea's Kim II Sung calls himself the "father of mankind." The Unification Church is proclaiming the advent of the True Parents. The communists make their claims by coercion and force, but we make ours with reason and joy.

I have been fighting against the illegitimate parent in North Korea. Now the true children must confront the false children and persuade them that their belief is wrong and what they need is True Parents. When we all have the powerful urge to rally around the True Parents, the unification of Korea and the entire world will come about very quickly. Let us all strive for that, shall we?

This is our mission now: not two different worlds, but one world under God with one set of parents. Those who say, "Yes, I want to be among the first fruits as an individual, family, and nation, and I want to bring the rest of the world into God's domain," please raise your hands. Let us pray.

Challenges and Opportunities for World Peace

Sun Myung Moon
June 1, 1987
The Summit Council Founder's Address
Grand Ballroom, Lotte Hotel
Seoul, Korea

While Mother looks on, Father signs a program at the Summit Council for World Peace.

Honorable Chairman, Former Presidents, Former Heads of Government, Former Prime Ministers, Members of Royalty and Nobility, Distinguished Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen:

It is a great source of inspiration for me to address this gathering of world leaders joined together in the quest for peace.

It is certainly the case that throughout history, men and women have longed for peace. They have adopted a variety of strategies in their attempts to secure it. In some cases, men have tried to achieve peace through conquests. In others, they have tried to achieve it through surrender.

In this century, we have seen two noble efforts made to resolve international differences without resorting to war -- the League of Nations and the United Nations. In spite of all these efforts, however, humankind has not achieved peace, and history has continued to be a history of conflict, often erupting in devastating violence. Why has it been impossible until today to achieve peace?

The reason is that the internal struggle that goes on within each individual has not yet been resolved. World conflict is nothing other than the manifestation of the inner conflict of individuals. Contradictions exist between human ideals and human practice, and the focal point of these contradictions is the struggle within each individual between the spirit and the body. The human spirit aspires to lofty ideals. It is the human spirit which reaches up to God. The body is the instrument with which we can practice our ideals, but this requires effort, discipline, and self- sacrifice. We find in human life a tension between the pursuits of the spirit and those of the body. The spirit seeks after the realm of faith, while the body pursues the world of reason.

Two Parallel Currents

Because of this, in human history, two parallel currents have developed. One of these, being more rational and external, has placed emphasis upon the predominance of the body, i.e., on physical satisfaction, physical beauty, and physical science, which is based on the evidence gathered by the physical senses. The other major current in human development, known as the religious tradition, has emphasized values which are transcendent of the human body: spiritual laws and values, and revelations from God, which cannot be verified by physical science. These currents in human life are the basis of the two dominant ideologies that are in conflict in our world today.

The democratic world, or the free world, has developed out of the religious tradition. The modern concept of democracy is set forth in the words of the Bible itself: "and God made man in His own image:' That is, the democratic world places value upon the individual person because he is a child of God. The greatest care must be taken to assure his liberty and freedom of choice, for without liberty, his actions have no value.

Communism, on the other hand, is an outgrowth of the more external and secular current of human history. Following the Enlightenment and the French Revolution, Karl Marx advocated the application of violence and social engineering to establish by force an orderly human society from which belief in God would be excluded. Marxist social engineering is based on a God-denying view of man. But what has been the result? Although today there are many individuals who defend this or that insight of Marx, the fact remains that after 70 years of the attempted practice of Marxism in the Soviet Union and elsewhere, the result is a tragic social failure. It is estimated that 150 million human beings have been killed in order to consolidate communist power, but the world of justice and prosperity which Marx promised is nowhere in sight.

Today these two ideologies and the nations that have adopted them are squared off in a global confrontation that threatens our world with greater destruction than was ever before imagined.

Two Latin American former presidents and Dr. Jose Maria Chavez present a portrait of South American patriot Simon Bolivar to True Parents.

A Plan for Peace

In this context, I would like to sincerely offer three steps as a solution in the quest for peace. These steps begin at the very foundation; they are fundamental. They may also appear to be idealistic, but any house standing on a false foundation cannot be restored unless we go down and rebuild the foundation.

My peace plan starts from the level of the individual. First we must find peace with God, then peace with our fellowman, and finally we can secure world peace.

I have devoted my entire life to the search for the truth. To find the truth about the origin of the universe and the existence of God, I have suffered greatly. Through arduous personal searching, I came to know the very essence of God. I even experienced many unique encounters with Him. And I came to realize that no one can obtain peace on earth without first making peace with God.

God, the First Cause of this universe, has created the world in all its magnificence. At the same time, He is our loving Father. Furthermore, He has carried out this work of creation in order to fulfill a specific purpose. That purpose is the fulfillment of love. God is the source of true love, but even almighty God cannot enjoy love by Himself. He needs to have an object to give his love to, which is capable of returning love to Him. That object would be the pinnacle and culmination of His creation. That object is the human being. Because of this, human life also has a purpose. The purpose of human life is to reach maturity and live in the fullness of the relationship of true love with God for all eternity. This is the foundation for peace with God.

Love Our Fellowman

Once we establish peace with God, then we are ready to make peace with our fellow human beings. What is the fundamental relationship that brings peace with our fellowman? Again, it is the relationship of love.

Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and the other great religions of the world teach that we are the children of the almighty Creator, God. This means that we are all brothers and sisters. We must understand that every person is made in the image of God; therefore we are all the children of God. The best way to honor and glorify God is by loving His children. This understanding is the foundation upon which we can establish a relationship of true love with our fellowman.

Achieving world peace is our long-cherished human dream. Yet the fundamentals of achieving it are essentially the same as those of individual peace.

The conflict of the two worlds is real. But it is not simply a conflict between the free world and the communist world. More fundamentally, it is the conflict between two opposing value systems. One is God-affirming and the other is God-denying. The rise of communism is, in a way, a manifestation of the failure of human beings to live by God's original moral code. In one sense communism is an ideology of accusation. It accuses the God-affirming people of the world of having failed to fulfill their ideals. Because many of its accusations cannot be denied, communism has power. When the ideals of the God-affirming world are realized in practice, however, communism can be overcome. Therefore, the world problem is fundamentally a spiritual problem. The solution must begin with an affirmation of the reality of God.

Father delivers his Founder's Address to the Summit Council.

A Spiritual Awakening

What our world needs today to save itself is a spectacular spiritual awakening. The world must be awakened to the reality of God and re-armed with a worldview based on God-affirming principles. This worldview is capable of eliminating the confusion in our value system. Of course, this spiritual reality will manifest itself in political and economic strength and military resolve, but the internal dynamic must be the spiritual foundation of faith in God and true love among human beings.

Based upon such an awakening into higher values, the nature of relationships between nations must be transformed. Until now, the driving force behind economic development has often been the desire for profits. In this way, a great amount of human potential has been unleashed, and remarkable world development has occurred. The time has come, however, for the developed nations to move beyond the profit motive. The principle of unselfish love must be applied on the level of international relationships. The developed nations of the world should feel that they have been blessed by God for the purpose of helping others. They must be willing to sacrifice for the underdeveloped nations of the world. They must give of themselves to free other human beings from misery. If the prosperous nations adopt this attitude, do you think they will be diminished? Do you think they will experience disastrous decline? Not at all. The opposite is true. If these nations do not think in loftier terms than the desire for profits, their prosperity will slip away in spite of their efforts to retain it.

How can anyone be at peace with himself when his fellowman is dying from lack of food, or ravaged by disease, or victimized by the darkness of ignorance? United together, the developed nations can launch a tremendous crusade to overcome the three scourges of humanity: hunger, disease, and ignorance.

A World Community of Nations Under God

Finally, on the basis of unselfish relations among all countries, a world community of nations under God can be substantially established. Today, in the latter part of the 20th century, we cannot help but realize that our world is shrinking every day. No nation is an island. No one can prosper without interaction with others. The world is fast becoming one global village. The survival and prosperity of all are dependent on a spirit of cooperation. The human race must recognize itself as one family of man.

Therefore, a world community of nations must be established to increase mutual understanding and respect. Cooperatively, we can protect our environment as we develop it, raise the cultural level of all persons, and secure freedom, justice, and dignity for everyone. What can be the basis of such cooperation? The world community of nations must respect a common value system and certain unchanging and eternal principles that can only have their source in God.

We have a common dream. It is the long-cherished human dream of an ideal world. The prophets have called it the Kingdom of God on earth. It is a lofty goal, but it is attainable. It must be, simply because it is the original ideal of the Creator. This is the meaning of securing world peace.

At this time, when we look at the world, the outlook may appear to be gloomy. Yet, I do not dwell on that despair. In the Bible, we find the expression of God's determination to restore His original ideal in this world: "I have spoken and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed and I will do it" (Isaiah 46:11). I am a firm believer that the ultimate peace of the world shall come about.

This Summit Council for World Peace is one of the highest forums ever assembled for the discussion of world peace. I feel that it is inspired by God. We have embarked together on a sacred and challenging mission for the peace of the world. What we accomplish will be our legacy to our children and to all of humankind. You have traveled the long distance to Korea, a far corner of the world, to launch this peace initiative. I have confidence in your experience and wisdom and the combined expertise of your statesmanship. As we take up this task, our hope is that the 21st century will be a new era of peace.

May God's inspiration and blessing be with you as you begin your deliberations.

Thank you.

The Summit Council for World. Peace Inaugural Conference

9 Former Presidents
9 Former Prime Ministers
12 Former Ministers of Government
17 Nobility
5 Former Ambassadors
3 Ambassadors
1 University President
6 Others

From May 31 to June 3, the above distinguished guests, representing leadership from the Americas, Asia, Africa, and Europe, gathered in Seoul, Korea, for the First Summit Council for World Peace. The purpose of this conference was to create a forum of leaders from around the world who could work together, in the spirit of freedom and democracy, to begin an attempt to resolve the world's conflicts and to design and administer a solution for peace in the world. Committees were established that produced papers in the areas of economics, social concerns, political concerns, culture and education, ideology, and organization and programs.

A closing banquet was held at the Little Angels School, followed by a gala performance given by the Little Angels. In the grand finale, all the participants were awarded medals for their participation in the event.