The Role Of Unified Science In The Moral Orientation Of The World

Sun Myung Moon
November 26, 1972
First International Conference of Unified Science
Closing Address

Distinguished Chairman, Notable Scientists, and Welcome Guests,

The emergence of Unified Science, with its tremendous potential for improving our world is a very important and historic event. I want to personally thank all of you for the time and effort you have put into this conference to make this great beginning possible. I am grateful to offer the concluding remarks for this historic conference.

I will speak on: the role of unified science in the moral orientation of the world.

To be happy is man's insuppressible desire and ideal.

During the past several thousand years of man's cultural history, there has been no man who did not have this ideal of happiness.

The ideal has never matched the reality, but man has constantly tried to achieve this ideal in his life. In this way, great progress has been made in every field of human culture, politics, economics, society, religion, science, and so forth.

As you well know, man has established a highly developed, affluent society which cannot even be compared to those of ancient or medieval times, and there is no doubt that science has been the decisive factor in this development. If science had not developed, economic prosperity such as we have today could not have occurred.

This fact shows that the majority of scientists have made the realization of a happy, ideal society their mission; that is, scientists developed science and technology with a keen sense of mission to actualize the dreams of mankind. Sometimes the results of scientific research have been misused by men of power for unrighteous purposes, but still the fundamental spirit of scientists has aimed towards the fulfillment of an ideal society for man.

In this way, the purpose of science is to realize man's dreams. But in the past, even when science made great strides, these couldn't always be immediately used to better all mankind because of national and racial barriers.

This indicates that some people insisted on national boundaries for science. But actually science should belong to all mankind and not be monopolized by any particular nation or bloc.

This reminds us, however, that many scientists with a strong sense of mission fought against the unrighteous forces which ignored its original purpose and hindered the realization of the true ideal society.

Among all the scientists there may also have been a few who forgot the spirit of serving mankind because they became too involved in their own immediate interests. But the basic attitude of most scientists was to contribute to the peace and prosperity of all mankind.

In science there are many fields, but there is not one single field which does not aim at the realization of human happiness. Physics, chemistry, medicine, biology, geology, astronomy, all have the same purpose. Of course, in the past several centuries science has been divided and specialized into many small fields by its analytic method, but recently a new and hopeful trend is appearing to consolidate and unify all the divided knowledge by the synthetic method. The emergence of Unified Science is the most conspicuous example of this tendency.

Despite its many divisions, up to the present time science has worked towards one goal, one direction; that is, each specialized field has worked for the realization of a happy world in its own particular way, and there is no doubt that it will continue towards the same goal in the future.

Yet when we look at the present world situation there are many deplorable conditions. Despite the development of science and the prosperity of the economy, there are still many tragic situations throughout the world.

Despite scientists' deep desire and diligent efforts, poverty, illiteracy, and disease still prevail in the underdeveloped countries; various troubles, crimes, and immoralities prevail in the advanced countries; and tensions, wars, and hostilities continue among nations.

Thus mankind continues to suffer from sorrow, distress, and pain even in the midst of our luxuriously developed cultures.

Many leaders are trying to eliminate this misery and to establish true peace and stability, but the world is filled with empty words of peace, and mankind is sinking deeper and deeper in to restlessness, anxiety, and fear.

How has this come about? The main reason is that the standard of value which regulates man's behavior has been undermined. As ethics and morality have lost their power, the standard of goodness has all but disappeared.

Now I am going to explain why. No one can deny that every creature, including man, is a unified being with two natures -- a material nature and a mind -- like nature. Man is the unified being of body and mind, animals are the unified beings of body and instinct; plants are the unified beings of matter and directive energy.

From the standpoint of ontology, the cosmos is a world of effect and it must therefore have an ultimate cause. Materialism says this ultimate cause is matter and idealism insists that it is spirit.

However, because the world of effect is made of unified beings with two natures, the cause must also be a monistic being with the potential of the two natures of matter and mind unified into one.

In other words, the ultimate cause must be an absolute unified being with two natures which can create the attributes of mind and matter respectively. Only from unified and monistic cause can a unified world of effect be brought about. That is, the unified effect must have a unified monistic being as its cause.

Therefore we must say that materialism, which takes matter as the fundamental cause of the universe, is incorrect.

The cause cannot be matter, for matter is an expression of only one of the attributes of the cause. This cause existed as non-matter prior to its expression in matter.

Man is also a unified being brought about by the unified cause. Consequently, man cannot be considered only material being nor only spiritual being. Therefore, the improvement of physical life or body alone cannot create happiness. Only by improving both the spiritual and physical life at the same time can true happiness be brought about.

Science has put its efforts into improving material life because its domain was limited to the material world. Therefore, in spite of the hard work and deep desire of scientists, mankind has not been able to escape distress and chaos.

Here we can conclude that scientists must participate in the reformation of spiritual life in order to secure the true happiness of mankind and to protect the precious work accomplished so far by scientists. The reformation of spiritual life means creating a world of goodness, that is, a society of new morality, by establishing a new standard of value. Then how can we create the spiritual reformation? For this we must set up a standard of goodness, and to determine goodness we must decide the center of love. This is because goodness is the practice of love. Then what can be the center of love?

It must be God, who is unique, eternal, and unchanging being existing since before the formation of the cosmos. Love is the flow of heart; that is, the outpouring of deepest heart.

Therefore, the essence of God is heart. This God is the unified being which is the fundamental cause of the cosmos dealt with in ontology. The formation of the cosmos by this fundamental cause is simply the creation of the cosmos by God.

Then how could God create the cosmos and man? God could do it because God had heart. And where there is heart, life appears; and where there is life, development and creation can take place. For creation there must always be purpose. This is because heart directs towards purpose. The purpose of creation could only be joy, which fulfills the desire of heart. This joy comes when the creation, especially man, comes to resemble God. God's goal of creation is to have man and the world of happiness, that is, the Kingdom of Heaven, reflecting the love and creativity of God, which relate to mind and matter respectively. We know this is true from the fact that man's ideal is actually to seek after such a man and world.

The ideal is the world which was originally given to man as his home. The fact that man seeks a joyful world as his ideal means a joyful world is the one God planned for man. Such a world reflects God's love and creativity and thus becomes joyful.

Through our amazing scientific progress we have begun to take after God's creative power, but not yet His love. In order to take after his love, we must practice love. and lead a life of goodness, because the practice of love is goodness itself. For the life of goodness, man should make God, who is the subject of love, the center of his standard of goodness. Since God is both the center and the essence of all things, his love is unchanging and everlasting, even though his creation, the phenomenal world, is transitory.

Therefore when we take God as our standard of goodness, absolute value can be established, and then the eternal world of peace and happiness will be realized.

Since the ideal world is the realization of God's purpose of creation and is the world which reflects God, man always seeks to have a harmonious and peaceful life filled with God's love, and also seeks to improve his environment by creating new things continually.

Here creation does not mean mere production, but rather all the creative actions such as originating new ideas, planning, improving and producing.

Since God is a unified being, man and social life should also be unified. This means man must love while he lives a creative life, and he must live a creative life while he loves. Such a man is the unified man and the world he lives in is the unified world. As repeatedly mentioned, man has come to reflect God's creativity through outstanding scientific progress, but t so far has not learned His love.

So this world is still filled with sorrow, pain, and distress.

Since harmony is the essential nature of love, harmony cannot exist where there is no love, likewise peace and happiness cannot exist where there is no harmony. Thus mankind's present suffering continues because of the lack of love.

Therefore, it is natural that both God and man have been longing for the ideal life and world which would resemble God. In other words, the ideal man which God and the original mind of man seek is a creative and good man practicing God-centered love. The ideal world is the world filled with creative actions to improve the environment and would be filled with love between individuals and between nations.

When this new type of person comes to live in this new unified world, all the sorrows, pains and hostilities which have plagued man throughout history will be eliminated forever.

The original man and world should have been good, resembling God's nature, but to date man and the world have not been realizing their original nature. Therefore to save present mankind from his distress and chaos, we have to restore the original state of man and the world and manifest it in our actual life. For this we have to find out the absolute standard of goodness and must practice the life of goodness. The standard of goodness is the center of love, which is God.

The fact that all mankind is struggling so hard to escape the reality of pain and chaos and is longing for peace and freedom shows that man's original mind is seeking the standard of goodness and the center of love. To find the center of love and to establish the eternal world of happiness on earth is the universal desire of all mankind.

Now I mentioned that the world both God and man desire is the unified world in which creativity and love are practiced. In this world the desire of both God and people will be fulfilled, but to practice love man must first find the center of love.

To practice love a norm must be set up, because a true life of love requires order. In a society where order has been destroyed a life of love cannot be practiced in harmony. That is to say a life of love needs order and for order a norm is required. Norm means laws and principles which regulate man's behavior, and these are morality and ethics. Therefore to have a good life centered on love, man must set up sound morals and ethics, and must practice them.

The morals and ethics which apply to the unified world must be clear and applicable to modern man. The reason why past morals and ethics have been undermined lies partly in modern man's tendency towards materialism, but it also comes from the fact that the standards of value no longer satisfy modern man's reasoning capacity. From this the establishment of new morals and ethics based on the new standard of value becomes inevitable.

Then how can this new standard of value be set up? It can only come from an elevated, unified system of thought which can unify all the past philosophies and religious doctrines.

All the philosophies and religions of the past had their own views of value (views of ethics), each with strong points which are still beneficial. But people have nearly left them behind because these views could not adjust to the coming new age. Therefore, to establish the new view of value, we must absorb all the strong points of past views of value and develop new values which can meet the needs of modern man.

Thus a new unified thought system must appear to unify all the past philosophies and religions, because the past views of value and ethics were based on the philosophies and religions of their respective ages.

When the new morals and ethics emerge from the unified thought system, the unified world of goodness will be created for the first time. The moral orientation of goodness will be created for the first time. The moral orientation of the world, then, the very theme of this conference, means spreading this new view of value world-wide in order to build the new unified world.

In conclusion, I'd like to say more about the role of Unified Science. First, I am very grateful to the organizers of Unified Science for their efforts to synthesize the subdivided knowledge of science.

The divisive specialization of science, just like the dismantling of a machine, ultimately paralyzes the unitary function of the whole, and keeps science from fulfilling its mission. But here, today, some pioneer scientists are systematically integrating and unifying the truths of past scientific discoveries into a new system of philosophical science. I think this is a noteworthy event, deserving high praise. It corresponds to the historical emergence of the new system of unified thought which unifies all past philosophies and religions, and establishes a new view of value for the modern age. As I previously pointed out, the main mission of science is to improve man's material life. I expect unified science will contribute with a new effectiveness to that end.

However, just as the original man is a unified being of spirit and body, true social life unites both the spiritual and material, and the ideal world unites love and creative action. Therefore, the true world of happiness cannot be realized by the improvement of material life alone. By this we can come to the conclusion that Unified Science must unite with Unified Thought in order to accomplish its mission.

When this unification is accomplished, the long-standing problem of uniting Science and Religion will be resolved and finally the unified world of prosperity, happiness, and goodness will be established. "The old systems and thoughts" will pass away, and the ideal unified world with new age systems and thoughts will be established on earth.

The sacrifice of Abel

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
God's Will and the World -- Why We Have to Go Through Hardships

Who is Abel? It is Abel who can restore God's objects of love to God by going through the way of hardships. Thus, he must subjugate Cain by the heart of love. On the horizontal level, Abel stands in the position of God. Just as God loves fallen man, Abel must have the heart of love toward Cain and restore him at the risk of his own life. The way of Abel is the way of sacrifice. In that way, God's love can be manifested on the earth. Everyone bows his head to the one who offered his life. Thus, the history of Abel became the history of shedding blood. This is the fundamental teaching of the Bible.

How miserable is God who has been standing in that position, driving the historical dispensation! The Messiah is the one who carries the responsibilities of the entire world and says to God, "Please take a rest. Give me the whole cross, the way of all indemnity." This is why Jesus could pray in the garden of Gethsemane, "Please, not as I will, but as You will." If God is suffering in the spiritual world or in the earthly world, then the Messiah has the sense of mission to shoulder all the sufferings of God. Therefore, even though the Messiah suffers he doesn't even think of it as suffering.

No matter how painful it may be, suffering lasts for your life time only. At most it would be about one hundred years. It is only a joke that you cannot conquer such a short time period. No matter how hard you work, you should feel inadequate to God. There is no study or research that justifies that you can be proud of yourself. Such is a way of faith for us, the fallen people.

As human beings who have to go along the way of recreation and restoration, we must go through that path of sacrifice. We cannot recreate ourselves by ourselves; we must go with God's help along the path of pouring out energy for the realization of the ideal self. We are standing in the position in which God must pour out His power again, so there must be sacrifice.

Since this is the original standard of the Principle, a religion which seeks the ideal world or the perfection of human beings must go the way of hardship. We must sacrifice our self-centeredness; in proportion to the degree of that sacrifice, our original nature from God is restored. As the result of the fall, we must go this way of recreation; accordingly, religious people must go through the way of hardships. This is the fundamental point of recreation.

History that Searched for One Adam

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Why We Have to Go Through Hardships

Sun Myung Moon and Hyung Jin Moon, September 20, 2011

God created the archangel and Adam in order to achieve His ideal of love. In the course of restoration, therefore, we must go through the principle of recreation. We human beings must restore the sphere of the archangel first.

The way of faith requires the restoration of the invisible substantial sphere, or the realm of the archangel. This is the sphere of process, during which we need to have a life of faith. In the process of our life of faith, we must restore the path of the archangel through history.

Viewed from the principle of restoration, we go up from the age of servant of servants to the age of servant. After that, we must go up to the level of adopted son and into the realm of true son, which is the original standard of perfection. This is the standard upon which the bridegroom and bride, perfected Adam and Eve, can establish ideal horizontal love.

We must go through the process of the archangel and the process of Adam's growth, receiving God's vertical love until we reach perfection. Then we can make a departure to the horizontal level. Accordingly, God's goal in history up until now has been to complete one person, Adam, who can stand in the position of God's object. Thus, Adam becomes the central figure on the horizontal level. If God and Adam become one and Adam and Eve become one, then God and Adam and Eve become one. At that point the vertical and the horizontal are perfectly united by love. Wherever they go, they are filled with joy. We call this environment the Heavenly Kingdom.

Since God's ideal of the Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed because of the fall, we must recreate it. Herein, the problem is the existence of Satan, but if the archangelic sphere is perfected, Satan must disappear. The perfection of the archangel is not done by the archangel but by the perfection of Adam. If Adam is perfected, the ideal of the archangel is also perfected, and Satan has no place to exist in this cosmos.

Since the archangelic sphere is imperfect, Satan can still exist, but once perfection is accomplished, he cannot remain. Therefore, the perfection of Adam is the ultimate and most important task. That is why God has been working up until now to achieve the perfection of Adam. The perfected Adam is the Messiah.

To go back to God, fallen man must first become the servant of the servant, who is the archangel. The best master is the master who works for the sake of the servant. And the servant must find this master

The fall destroyed God's ideal by centering love upon oneself. God's ideal is love. Therefore, where one's love is self-centered, the way of restoration can never be born.

Our path of sacrifice

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Why We Have to Go Through Hardships

Sun Myung Moon, Hak Ja Han, Hyung Jin Moon, May 15, 2011

Adam is the being who stands in the position of perfecting the archangel's purpose, and stands as the central person of God's ideal. Accordingly, it is Adam who stands in the position of perfecting the purpose of the archangel and of God.

As human beings who have to go along the way of recreation and restoration, we must go through the path of sacrifice. We cannot recreate ourselves by ourselves; we must go with God's help along the path, pouring out energy for the realization of the ideal self. We are standing in the position in which God must pour out His power again, so there must be sacrifice. Since this is the original standard of the Principle, a religion which seeks the ideal world or the perfection of human beings must go the way of hardship. We must sacrifice our self-centeredness. In proportion to the degree of that sacrifice, our original nature from God is restored. As the result of the fall, we must go this way of recreation; accordingly, religious people must go through the way of hardships. This is the fundamental point of recreation.

In the development of His creation, God created the angelic world prior to the physical substantial world. The angelic world is not the place in which God could fulfill His ideal of substantial objective beings. The creation of the angelic sphere was part of the process to the final purpose. Then God, together with the angels, created the substantial objective sphere, the physical world of all things.

God, together with the angels, created man. God's objects on the spiritual level were the angels. Man as a substantial being, is in a different position from angels. God made angels to stand in the position of objects, admirers, and consultants. In that way He could receive stimulation from the intermediary angelic world in the process of the creation of man. In each stage of the creation of man, angels as God's objects gave gratitude and stimulation to God, so that God received joy in the process of creating man.

God was expending all of His energy in the process of creating man. But He was able to receive joy because the archangel gave Him praise and comfort. Since God created man with the angels, man must accomplish the value and purpose of angels as well as the unique human purpose. Therefore, man has dual values. God aims for man's perfection, while the archangel has hope for man and assists him. In other words, Adam must become the perfected being of the ideal of the archangel, and he must also become the perfected being of God's ideal.

Then why did God create Eve? God and the archangel and God and Adam are in a one to one vertical relationship. It is an upper and lower relationship. They stay at one point on the vertical line. If the archangel stands in the central point, God also has to stand on the same point.

The objective sphere is needed because that is where the vertical relationship is enlarged. The purpose of creation is to apply the vertical relationship to the horizontal level.

When everything is perfected, God and the archangel, or God and Adam, will stay only at one central point. God created Eve in order to enlarge this vertical point on the horizontal plane. Thus, vertical love is developed into horizontal love.

Adam is the being who stands in the position of perfecting the archangel's purpose and he stands as the central person of God's ideal. Accordingly, it is Adam who stands in the position of perfecting the purpose of the archangel and of God.

God created dual objective beings in order to develop His vertical love on the horizontal plane. Adam and Eve were to become one, centered on God, to allow that power of vertical love to be connected horizontally. However, since this was not accomplished due to the fall of man, God's dispensation up until now has been to restore this position again.

The archangel's mission must be fulfilled first, since God created the archangelic world first. Next must be the accomplishment of the purpose of Adam, who should stand in the position of God's objective being. If he stands as the perfected being of God's ideal, the ideal of vertical love can be developed horizontally. This is the objective world of creation which is the Heavenly Kingdom centered upon God. 

The Purpose of Creation of Man

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Why We Have to Go Through Hardships

Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han April 22, 2011

Why did God create man? The first purpose was to have a being with whom He could relate as His object. The second purpose was that God Himself had to have a form through which to communicate with all things in the invisible world and the substantial world.

From this viewpoint, what kind of being is Adam? The invisible God manifested Himself in the substantial form of Adam, in order to stand as the subject in the substantial world. God's third purpose for creating man was in order to fulfill His ideal of love. In that ideal, the subject and the object were to become one. God wanted the ideal world of love to remain forever. God created man centered upon these three purposes.

In His act of creation, God had to pour out His power. Power is given from God, who is the subject, to man, the object. God's power has to be given until the object becomes perfect. God's ideal is accomplished only when the subject and the object become one in this way.

In order to go up to the perfection level, as the Principle teaches us, we must pass through three stages. This process is the period of growth and at the same time it is the period in which God pours out His energy. When His power is given totally, and when we stand as His objects, God's power can be returned to him. Viewed from the ideal of creation, God's love is born on the level of perfection. The power of God's love cannot return to Him unless the object's ability to reciprocate is perfected. Without love, the energy which God has poured out cannot return to Him.

To create the objective being, then, is the work of God Himself. In order to make those beings exist, some power must be sacrificed. This is the original reality of creation.

Accordingly, as human beings who have to go along the way of recreation and restoration, we must go through the path of sacrifice. We cannot recreate ourselves by ourselves; we must go with God's help along the path of pouring out energy for the realization of the ideal self. We are standing in the position in which God must pour out His power again, so there must be sacrifice. Since this is the original standard of the Principle, a religion which seeks the ideal world or the perfection of human beings must go the way of hardship. We must sacrifice our self-centeredness; in proportion to the degree of that sacrifice, our original nature from God is restored. As the result of the fall, we must go this way of recreation; accordingly, religious people must go through the way of hardships. This is the fundamental point of recreation.

In the development of His creation, God created the angelic world prior to the physical substantial world. The angelic world is not the place in which God could fulfill His ideal of substantial objective beings. The creation of the angelic sphere was part of the process to the final purpose. Then God, together with the angels, created the substantial objective sphere, the physical world of all things.

God, together with the angels, created man. God's objects on the spiritual level were the angels. Man as a substantial being is in a different position from angels. God made angels to stand in the position of objects, admirers, and consultants. In that way He could receive stimulation from the intermediary angelic world in the process of the creation of man. In each stage of the creation of man, angels as God's objects gave gratitude and stimulation to God, so that God received joy in the process of creating man.

God was expending all of His energy in the process of creating man. But He was able to receive joy because the archangel gave Him praise and comfort. Since God created man with the angels, man must accomplish the value and purpose of angels as well as the unique human purpose. Therefore, man has dual values. God aims for man's perfection, while the archangel has hope for man and assists him. In other words, Adam must become the perfected being of the ideal of the archangel, and he must also become the perfected being of God's ideal.

You Must Deny Yourself Completely

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Why We Have to Go Through Hardships
Unofficial Translation

As a believer, you are not permitted to complain. Once you begin a life of faith, you must deny the consciousness of self. When you completely deny yourself centering upon God, as a result, you can be in the position to receive judgment. This will result in complete liquidation, which will result in complete indemnity; complete indemnity opens the way to recreation.

This is where the essence of religion lies. Religious scriptures were written from this perspective; thus, they cannot be clearly understood unless you know this essence. Without this, it is really hard to follow a religious way. This is because you do not understand it in an organized manner.

If you make a tragic and sorrowful sacrifice for the sake of God, with the passage of time, you will be placed in a position higher than your suffering. God himself will bow His head before this offering. Through such an indemnity condition, both God and Satan will come to bow their heads. Perfect recreation becomes possible through perfect denial. Therefore, don't complain in the life of faith.

You may say, "I can't give anymore." But, you should conclude whether or not you can give more only after you have done your very best unto death. To complain is essentially to accuse God. As you will have to repay God, you, human beings must, absolutely, not complain or say such things to God.

My life up until now has been like that. I could never become a man to complain, even though I was put in prison and tortured to the point of vomiting blood. Even if the entire world opposes you, you can be grateful if you think that your relationship with the satanic realm is being cut. It is natural that you receive opposition as long as the realm of resentment exists.

Don't complain. Be grateful. You must go your way without a word.

No matter how painful it may be, suffering lasts only for your life time. At most it would be about one hundred years. It is only a joke that you cannot triumph over such a short time period. No matter how hard you work, you should feel inadequate to God. There is no study or research that justifies that you can be proud of yourself. Such is the way of faith for us, fallen people. 

Complaint is Never Permissible

Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Excerpt
God's Will and the World
Why We Have to Go Through Hardships
Unofficial Translation

Why does God require you to be obedient? God does not do it for His own joy but for man. God puts man in the position of His ideal object and gives him the responsibility of completing the purpose of recreation. Thus, man must not only reject the factors of the fall but also overcome them. Because the fall originated from disobedience to God, He must order us to have absolute obedience as a requisite condition to reverse this. Therefore while living a religious way of life you must not complain. You must not make excuses for yourself. You must be absolutely obedient. This is the logical conclusion.

Absolute obedience is simply said, a hardship. The purpose of hardship is ultimately to set forth conditions for you to be recognized as standing in the perfected position from God's original state of creation. Therefore, if you undergo hardships and sacrifice, you will stand in the realm of perfection. You must fulfill that way of life knowing this is the only way to reach perfection. Then, the religion must emphasize living the way of hardships. You should clearly and logically understand this. To overcome the way of the fall, there is no way but the way of absolute obedience. Therefore, God has to demand for you to seek the way.

In the way of restoration, complaint is never permitted. It is not allowed. You cannot go this way crying and weeping with despair. Even though you are going through the hard path of absolute faith and obedience, you must be filled with hope and joy. Why do you have to go this way? This is the way of recreation. You are on the path of hope, therefore your attitude must only be that of joy. You must not walk the path of faith while feeling dejected and disappointed. Therefore, sacrifices and hardships are the instruments by which you give everything and gain everything.

Which religion has shown the greatest love in history? A religion which teaches the greatest self sacrifice is the one which is able to love the entire world. Christianity is a religion founded upon martyrdom. It has spread throughout the world by the sacrificial shedding of blood. Therefore, among all the religions, Christianity has shown the greatest filial piety in front of God. We can conclude that the world must return to God centering upon Christianity. How long can you continue to sacrifice with a heart of love? This is what determines whether you have victory or defeat.

However, if God is our True Parent, does He feel joy or sorrow when His children have to suffer? Even in the parent-child relationship of this fallen world, no parents want to cause suffering for their children. Then, why does God make man walk this path of hardship? God's situation has been most painful as He has to lead this dispensation! If you can understand God's situation, you will feel how miserable He is. No matter how much hardship you may have to go through, it is only your lifetime; your life on the earth is within one century.

Therefore, it is the way of filial piety and loyalty to offer daily encouragement to God. If you complain selfishly after knowing all this, you will be considered an unfilial child who cannot be forgiven by the cosmos.

Why We Have to Go Through Hardships

Rev. Sun Myung Moon
September 11, 1972
Soo Taek Lee, Korea

Any religion must pass through hardships in order to reach its ultimate goal. Why is this necessary? According to the teachings of the Principle, man fell into the non-principled realm. Man still has the form of man, but, viewed from the standard of God's original ideal, he does not have the internal value which corresponds to the principle. In order for fallen man to find restoration, he has to so the opposite direction, the way of recreation. According to Principle, God is the subject and we stand in the position of object.

If man had not fallen, the subject and the object would have accomplished the same ideal. But, because of the fall, although we are standing in the position of God's object, we do not have the value of God's objects; God cannot relate with us as His objects. Why did God create man? The first purpose was to have a being with whom He could relate as His object. The second purpose was that God Himself had to have a form through which to communicate with all things in the invisible world and the substantial world.

From this viewpoint, what kind of being is Adam? The invisible God manifested himself in the substantial form of Adam, in order to stand as the subject in the substantial world. God's third purpose for creating man was in order to fulfill His ideal of love. In that ideal, the subject and the object were to become one, God wanted the ideal world of love to remain forever. God created man centered upon these three purposes. In His act of creation, God had to pour out His power. Power is given from God, who is the subject, to man, the object. God's power has to be given until the object becomes perfect.

God's ideal is accomplished only when the subject and the object become one in this way. In order to go up to the perfection level, as the Principle teaches us, we must pass through three stages. This process is the period of growth and at the same time it is the period in which God pours out His energy. When His power is given totally, and when we stand as His objects, God's power can be returned to him. Viewed from the ideal of creation, God's love is born on the level of perfection. The power of God's love cannot return to Him unless the object's ability to reciprocate is perfected. Without love, the energy which God has poured out cannot return to Him. To create the objective being, then, is the work of God Himself. In order to make those beings exist, some power must be sacrificed. This is the original reality of creation.

Our path of sacrifice

Accordingly, as human beings who have to go along the way of recreation and restoration, we must go through that path of sacrifice. We cannot recreate ourselves by ourselves; we must go with God's help along the path of pouring out energy for the realization of the ideal self. We are standing in the position in which God must pour out His power again, so there must be sacrifice. Since this is the original standard of the Principle, a religion which seeks the ideal world or the perfection of human beings must go the way of hardship. We must sacrifice our self-centeredness; in proportion to the degree of that sacrifice, our original nature from God is restored. As the result of the fall, we must go this way of recreation; accordingly, religious people must go through the way of hardships. This is the fundamental point of recreation.

In the development of His creation, God created the angelic world prior to the physical substantial world. The angelic world is not the place in which God could fulfill His ideal of substantial objective beings. The creation of the angelic sphere was part of the process to the final purpose. Then God, together with the angels, created the substantial objective sphere, the physical world of all things.

God, together with the angels, created man, God's objects in the spiritual level were the angels. Man as a substantial being is in a different position from angels. God made angels to stand in the position of objects, admirers, and consultants. In that way He could receive stimulation from the intermediary angelic world in the process of the creation of. man. In each stage of the creation of man, angels as God's objects gave gratitude and stimulation to God, so that God received joy in the process of creating man.

God was expending all of His energy in the process of creating man. But He was able to receive joy because the archangel gave Him praise and comfort. Since God created man with the angels, man must accomplish the value and purpose of angels as well as the unique human purpose. Therefore, man has dual values. God aims for man's perfection, while the archangel has hope for man and assists him. In other words, Adam must become the perfected being of the ideal of the archangel, and he must also become the perfected being of God's ideal.

Then why did God create Eve? God and the archangel and God and Adam are in a one-to-one vertical relationship. It is an upper-and-lower relationship. They stay at one point on the vertical line. If the archangel stands in the central point, God also has to stand on the same point. The objective sphere is needed because that is where the vertical relationship is enlarged. The purpose of creation is to apply the vertical relationship to the horizontal level.

When everything is perfected, God and the archangel, or God and Adam, will stay only at one central point. God created Eve in order to enlarge this vertical point on the horizontal plane. Thus, vertical love is developed into horizontal love.

Adam is the being who stands in the position of perfecting the archangel's purpose and he stands as the central person of God's ideal. Accordingly, it is Adam who stands in the position of perfecting the purpose of the archangel and of God.

God created dual objective beings in order to develop His vertical love on the horizontal plane. Adam and Eve were to become one, centered on God, to allow that power of vertical love to be connected horizontally. However, since this was not accomplished due to the fall of man, God's dispensation up until now has been to restore this position again. The archangel's mission must be fulfilled first, since God created the archangelic world first. Next must be the accomplishment of the purpose of Adam, who should stand in the position of God's objective being. If he stands as the perfected being of God's ideal, the ideal of vertical love can be developed horizontally. This is the objective world of creation which is the Heavenly Kingdom centered upon God.

The creation of Eve

Children have a vertical relationship with their parents. Through their experience of love with the parents, children learn how to love others. After they are united with the parents on the vertical level, they know the way to unite on the horizontal level. The vertical relationship is the subjective one and the horizontal relationship is in the objective sphere. God created the objective beings, Adam and Eve, in order to develop vertical love on the horizontal level. If Eve had not been created, man would have stayed only in the vertical relationship to God and in the same position as the angelic world.

That was not God's ideal for the substantial world. God had to create the substantial world in order to develop His horizontal ideal. The representative of this horizontal ideal is Eve. When Adam and Eve become one, they form a reciprocal subject-object relationship with each other. On the basis of unity between Adam and Eve, God becomes the vertical subject. Accordingly, they should function as the intermediary beings of God's love both vertically and horizontally. So Adam must have Eve beside him. When they become one on the horizontal level they naturally become one on the vertical level. Once Adam becomes perfect, the power which God expended in Adam's behalf can return to God even stronger than before. This power, which stimulates God, is what we call love. The love returned to God is a much stronger love than the love which God has given. Therefore, God can feel great joy.

Parents love their children, and they don't mind sacrificing for them. The heart of love is contained in their sacrifice; therefore, no matter how much energy they pour out, it returns to them as stimulating love. The more they give out, the more joy they feel. That is the power by which they can overcome the pain of sacrifice.

A man and a woman as well feel joy, even if they must make sacrifices for each other, to the point of giving their lives. One can feel infinite joy, even if one pours out infinite power. By the same token, love returns to God as a stronger power than that which God initially save out. Through this stimulation, God can feel joy.

Sacrifice in itself is consumptive; it is a minus force. How can one feel joy by becoming diminished? Viewed from the horizontal standard of the secular world, it is absolutely impossible. However, it is possible because of love.

Why did God pour out His love? Because through a relationship of love between subject and object, an eternal give and take action is set in motion which multiplies God's power. Therefore, we can conclude that eternity is not established without love and we can also say that God is love. According to mechanical or physical laws, there is no time when output is greater than the input. But in the realm of God's power, the result is more than the original.

Sacrifice behind love

Accordingly, a true parent-child relationship, a true husband-wife relationship, and a true brotherly relationship cannot be established unless we relate with sacrificial love. The genuineness of those relationships depends upon that standard.

Children know that their parents truly love them when they truly sacrifice themselves for them. Although the sacrificial position is a sorrowful one, if the children perfectly appreciate it and return love to the parents, then the parents can feel more joy.

Likewise if a true couple sacrifices far each other, then love can constantly bc restored in addition to the power of sacrifice. Therefore, husband and wife can become one eternally, if they share their suffering with each other. True friends are those who sacrifice themselves for each other. The position of love can be established when one sacrifices oneself and gives himself for others. Thus sacrifice accompanies love.

God could not truly love man up until now because man fell and did not achieve his perfection. Thus God's love could not be returned by a perfect object.

If someone truly desires love, he should stand in the same position as God and give everything until the perfection of his object of love, as God does. Parents give everything until their children grow up and get married. They have to sacrifice everything and give everything until their children understand the sphere of parental, heart. If the children appreciate it and give filial piety to their parents, then the parents feel joy, forgetting all of their sacrifice. This is the way of love.

From the Principle and God's point of view it is absolutely impossible for us to reach the perfection level unless we go through sacrifice. It is the way of restoration to work and recreate the ideal self so that one can reach God's standard.

God created the archangel and Adam in order to achieve His ideal of love. In the course of restoration, therefore, we must go through the principle of recreation. We human beings must restore the sphere of the archangel first,

The way of faith requires the restoration of the invisible substantial sphere, or the realm of the archangel. This is the sphere of process, during which we need to have a life of faith In the process of our life of faith, we must restore the path of the archangel through history. Viewed from the principle of restoration, we go up from the age of servant of servants to the age of servant.

After that, we must go up to the level of adopted son and into the realm of true son, which is the original standard of perfection. This is the standard upon which the bridegroom and bride, perfected Adam and Eve, can establish ideal horizontal love. We must go through the process of the archangel and the process of Adam's growth, receiving God's vertical love until we reach perfection. When we can make a departure to the horizontal level. Accordingly, God's goal in history up until now has been to complete one person, Adam, who can stand in the position of God's object. Thus, Adam becomes the central figure on the horizontal level. If God and Adam become one and Adam and Eve become one, then God and Adam and Eve become one. At that point the vertical and the horizontal are perfectly united by love. Wherever they go, they are filled with joy. We call this environment the Heavenly Kingdom.

Since God's ideal of the Heavenly Kingdom was destroyed because of the fall, we must recreate it. Here the problem is the existence of Satan, but if the archangelic sphere is perfected, Satan must disappear. The perfection of the archangel is not done by the archangel but by the perfection of Adam. If Adam is perfected, the ideal of the archangel is also perfected, and Satan has no place to exist in this cosmos.

Since the archangelic sphere is imperfect, Satan can still exist, but once perfection is accomplished, he cannot remain Therefore, the perfection of Adam is the ultimate and most important task. That is why God has been working up until now to achieve the perfection of Adam. The perfected Adam is the Messiah.

To go back to God, fallen man must first become the servant of the servant, who is the archangel. The best master is the master who works for the sake of the servant. And the servant must find this master. The fall destroyed God's ideal by centering love upon oneself, God's ideal is love. Therefore, where one's love is self-centered, the way of restoration can never be born.

No complaint is allowed

Why does God require us to have obedience? It is not for the sake of God's joy but for the sake of man's joy. God puts man in the position of His ideal object and gives him the responsibility of completing the purpose of recreation. Thus, man must push away and overcome the factors of the fall. Because the fall originated from disobedience, God must order us to have absolute obedience as a necessary condition to restore this. Therefore in our religious way of life we cannot complain. We have no excuse; we must have absolute obedience.

Absolute obedience is a hardship, but the purpose of hardship is to set conditions to allow us to stand in the perfected position, and achieve God's original goal of creation. Therefore, if we undergo hardships and sacrifice, we can come to stand in the perfection sphere. We must go this way because there is no other way, and religion cannot but emphasize the necessity of the way of hardships.

In order to overcome the way of the fall, there is no way other than the way of absolute obedience. God has no choice but to require this of us. In the way of restoration, complaint is never permissible. To follow in the path of absolute faith and obedience, we must go hopefully and joyfully. This is the way of recreation, and therefore it is the way of hope. We cannot go this way crying and weeping with despair. Sacrifice and hardships are the instruments by which we give everything and gain everything.

Which religion has shown the greatest love in history? A religion which teaches the greatest self-sacrifice is the one which is able to love the entire world. Christianity is a religion founded upon martyrdom. It has spread throughout the world by the sacrificial shedding of blood. Therefore, among all the religions, Christianity has shown the greatest filial piety in front of God. We can conclude that the world must return to God centering upon Christianity.

How long can you continue to sacrifice with a heart of love. This is what determines whether you have victory or defeat. However, if God is our true Parent, does He rejoice or feel sorrow when His children have to suffer? Even in the parent-child relationship of this fallen world, no parents want to cause suffering for their children.

Then, why does God make man walk this path of hardship? God's situation has been most painful as He has to lead this dispensation? If we can understand God's situation, we can feel how miserable He is, No matter how much hardship we may have to go through, it is only our lifetime; our life on the earth is within one century. Therefore, it is the way of filial piety and loyalty to offer daily encouragement to God. Those who complain selfishly at this point are cosmically unforgiven and unfortunate.

When we try to bridge the gap between ourselves and God, Satan is always working to destroy this bridge. Who defends this bridge? Only God and the spiritual world know. People do not realize how miserable are God and the angelic world, who have to do recreation and go the purpose of restoration. The longer the delay of perfection, the more God must stand in His unspeakably miserable position,

What would you do if you had to stand in God's position? Even though we go through hardships, it is not longer than the few decades of our lifetime.

You say that you have worked hard in the Unification Church, but for how many years? The oldest ones here are only about 15 or 16 years in the church. There are many members with less than 10 years; in that case, to say it's hard or painful is ridiculous.

Fallen men have the miserable destiny to carry the cosmic debt, yet cannot find the way to repay it. It is unthinkable even in a dream that we should raise our faces to God in complaint.

We who understand the misery of God's position must show filial piety to the parent. When one tries to alleviate the suffering of his parents, he becomes the man of the greatest filial piety.

The sacrifice of the Messiah

Who is Abel? It is Abel who can restore God's objects of love to God by going through the way of hardships. Thus, he must subjugate Cain by the heart of love. On the horizontal level, Abel stands in the position of God. Just as God loves fallen man, Abel must have the heart of love toward Cain and restore him at the risk of his own life. The way of Abel is the way of sacrifice. In that way, God's love can be actualized on the earth. Everyone bows his head to the one who offered his life. Thus, the history of Abel became the history of shedding blood. This is the fundamental teaching of the Bible.

How miserable is God who has been standing in that position, driving the historical dispensation! The Messiah is the one who carries the responsibilities of the entire world and says to God, "Please take a rest. Give me the whole cross, the way of all indemnity." This is why Jesus could pray in the garden of Gethsemane, "Please, not as I will, but as You will." If God is suffering in the spiritual world or in the earthly world, then the Messiah has the sense of mission to shoulder all the sufferings of God. Therefore, even though the Messiah suffers he doesn't even think of it as suffering. No matter how much we do, we must feel sorry before God. As fallen men in the way of faith, we cannot find anything like self-pride no matter how we search for it.

What was the fail? Everything was observed from the self-centered viewpoint and the result was complaint. Finally, there was rebellion. Therefore, complaint is not permissible for believers.

Once you begin the life of faith, you must deny the consciousness of self. Don't compare! Peter had to learn the same lesson. When he was told about the cross from Jesus, Peter asked Jesus what would happen to John, Jesus told him, "It doesn't matter. Just follow me." Once you begin to compare your situation with others, you begin to have complaint. The eyes with which you compare are the eyes of Satan. Those eyes inherited the blood lineage of the archangel.

So, erase every bit of self-centeredness. When you completely deny yourself centering upon God, you can be completely vindicated by God as a result. Complete liquidation will result in complete indemnity; complete indemnity opens the way to recreation.

This is where the essence of religion lies. If one does not know this essence, it is really hard to follow a religious way. Religious scriptures cannot be clearly understood.

If one makes a tremendous sacrifice for the sake of God, even God himself bows his head before this offering. Through such an indemnity condition, both God and Satan come to bow their heads. Perfect recreation becomes possible through perfect denial. Therefore, don't complain in the life of faith. You may say, "I can't give anymore," But, you should conclude whether or not you can give more only after you have done your very best until death.

To complain is essentially to accuse God. But man has to repay God, so, we human beings must absolutely not complain or say such things to God. My life up until now has been like that. I could never become a man to complain, even though I were put in prison and tortured to the point of vomiting blood. Even if the entire world opposed us, we can be grateful if we know that our relationship with the satanic sphere is being cut. It is natural that we receive opposition as long as the sphere of resentment exists.

Don't complain. Be grateful and let us go our way in silence.