True Path to Peace: One God, One World Religion
Divine Message Calls Sun Myung Moon to Unification Church and God
Gary Stone
February 24, 1972
The Hatchet, George Washington University
"If God does not exist, then we can have no solution for today's Problems," according to Unification Church advocate Sun Myung Moon, who offered proof of the existence of God to an audience of 300 in Lisner Auditorium Saturday.
Moon, Korean founder of the Unification Church, claimed he received a divine message at the of 16, when Jesus Christ appeared to him on Easter Sunday. Moon explained the vision inspired him to teach what he called "the Divine Principle" until he was captured by the North Korean Communists and imprisoned for three years because of his "religious practices."
The Unification Church, which has a worldwide membership of half a million people in 26 countries, is based on the belief of one universal God and religion.
Moon asserted, "If all people understood the existence of God everyone would want to follow in His direction."
Speaking through an interpreter, Moon added, "Even among Christians, among Christian ministers and Christian leaders I say there are many who do not understand the existence of God." Moon felt the existence of God could be explained by expounding on the intricate and complex structure of each human being.
Impressing upon the audience "whenever we do evil our conscience tries to stop us," Moon stressed "man is a resultant being, a being of effect. There must be cause to him." Moon sees God as that cause.
The New Messiah and the Formula of God in History
The Ideal World for God and Man
One God, One World Religion
The Ideal World for God and Humankind
Sun Myung Moon
February 4, 1972
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Photo date and location unknown
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my gratitude for your attendance this evening. For a long time I have yearned to meet with the people of America, and I am truly delighted and thankful for having been given this opportunity. The topic I would like to discuss with you today is, “The Ideal World, or the United World, for God and Humankind.”
Where does the pursuit of the ideal world begin?
In their hearts, all people long for an ideal world, a world of oneness. However, at this point it seems like an impossible dream. This can only be a source of sadness for humanity.
If there is a God, He too undoubtedly is longing for such an ideal world, the world of oneness. Without a doubt, both God and humankind yearn for this ideal world of oneness. If there is a God, He must bring about such a world, without fail, and if you are a person who believes in God’s ability, you will think that this task must be accomplished above all else.
Although all human beings yearn for a united world, we must acknowledge that it is not simple to bring this about. The democratic world and the communist world, from their own positions and in their own ways, both are thinking about uniting the world. Then, could the communist world submit to the democratic world and become one with it? Or could the democratic world submit to the communist world and unite with it? This is an extremely difficult problem.
Before we start our search for a way to realize unity and an ideal world on the global level, we first need to ask if there is a nation which is itself united. Only through such a nation can we bring about a united world.
Before there can be a united world, there must be a united nation, and before there can be a united nation, there must be a united tribe. Before there can be a united tribe, we need a united family, and before a united family, there must be a united individual. This is where the problem lies.
Human beings are the origin of good and evil
Where is unity first achieved? Since this world is a resultant world, we can conclude that unity must begin with the causal beings. Where are those individuals? It cannot be denied that we human beings are torn between two purposes that lead us in contrary directions. Our minds desire to go toward goodness, whereas our bodies lead us the opposite way. The two are fighting with each other. There are two different individuals, a man and a woman, who come together in union to form a family. Because they each possess an internal self and an external self, when the two meet as a couple, they in fact come together as four beings, each acting in different ways. In the same way, whether it is a clan, a tribe, a people, a nation or the world, everything is divided. Nevertheless, we can be grateful that they are not divided into hundreds or thousands of directions; they are divided in two ways. This is what is fascinating.
If there were a God, He surely would not allow people to continue like this. He would have no choice except to work in the background of history, even without their knowing it. And if there were a Satan who had driven human beings to evil, that Satan would keep trying to pull them in the direction opposite to that of God.
Nonetheless, even if Satan opposes the absolute God, he does not have the right to rise up and oppose the principles that God set up with absolute authority. God governs what is good and Satan governs what is evil. The resulting fight between God and Satan starts within us as individuals. We need to understand that this is the reason that human beings can be the origin of evil and the origin of goodness. In short, a person can be the starting point of goodness and at the same time the starting point of evil.
Ladies and gentlemen! Going up symbolizes something good and going down signifies something bad. When you are complimented for some reason, you wish to boast loudly of it. In contrast, when you are criticized for doing wrong, you shrink into yourself. When you do something good, you advertise it and call for others to follow your example. When you do something bad, you hide it for fear of it being known. No one goes about boldly advertising having done something bad, like stealing. Rather, such a person goes his or her way in secret.
You need to understand that people have two parts, one desiring to go up and the other desiring to go down. The part that desires to go up is the conscience. There is no person, even one of great power or fame, who does not suffer pangs of conscience when doing something evil. We need to understand clearly that the human conscience is the guardian of God, whereas the body is the guardian of Satan, and that the conscience is the origin of heaven, whereas the body is the origin of hell.
This leads us to realize the fundamental difference between the essence of good and the essence of evil. Goodness seeks to benefit the whole, whereas evil seeks only its own benefit. Good people live more for the sake of their family than for themselves, more for the sake of their village than their family, more for the sake of their nation than their village, and more for the sake of the world than their nation.
Until now, history has unfolded as a struggle between the perspective of living for one’s own sake and the perspective of living for the sake of others. God’s absolute demand is that we completely uproot and destroy the basis of evil in our bodies. In contrast, Satan’s evil demand is that we mercilessly destroy the conscience and anything associated with it. History continues to unfold through this conflict.
God’s side is centered on the conscience, while the side of evil is centered on the body and on material things. They oppose each other, and we can conclude that this is why humanity is divided between the realm of materialism and the realm of spirituality. If there were no God, we would not have such a resultant world. Evil manifests as jealousy, disunity and conflict that lead to self-destruction. From this viewpoint, where can unity and the ideal be realized? In the end, they start from the most fundamental level, from “me,” the individual. Thus God needs to teach us about the united world, the ideal world for which He yearns.
The teachings of religion
Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to know how this is done? It is not done in a way that you desire. In fact, no one desires this way. First of all, you need to chastise whoever or whatever opposes the conscience.
God cannot do this. Human beings are stuck in the midway position, with God and Satan both struggling to claim them, and if God were to strike them, so would Satan. So God’s teachings center on the conscience and tell you, “Strike, strike, strike your body!” We need to carry out this campaign worldwide. You have to do what your body hates. It is religion that teaches this.
Then what are the teachings of religion? All religions teach, “Strike the body! Don’t eat what you desire to eat! Don’t do what your body desires to do!” All major religions teach this. Buddhism places great importance on asceticism. Also, self-sacrifice is an important principle in Christianity. However, because it is extremely difficult for people to practice this, God has had no choice except to find a way to work with us just as we are.
Since our minds and bodies exert a similar degree of power over us, we tend to alternate between going this way and that, back and forth. Religion teaches us to deny what the body wants while offering devotions that give us strength from God. This has been the role of religion until now. God started out working with one individual and advanced through the family, tribe and people in His desire to gain one nation. In this way the nation and people of Israel emerged. In short, they were the chosen people. The existence of the terms “chosen people” and “chosen nation,” testify to the existence of God.
In accordance with His plan, God promised to send His representative who, as an individual, could completely unite his body and mind, then unite his family, tribe and nation, and completely unite the world. This was the messianic vision of Israel. Following this pattern, God anticipated that the people would unite with this individual, family, tribe and become the nation to save the world, creating one world and bringing it to God’s side.
Jesus came as the embodiment of unity
Of course, God’s purpose was, in part, to have the people of Israel receive the Messiah and live happily. However, His providence is not merely to save one people; it is to save the world. He was, in fact, trying to save the world, and for that He established the people of Israel as the foundation upon which He could send the Messiah. Yet at that time, although the desire of the Israelites and the direction of God’s providence ought to have been the same, they went different ways.
Jesus came as an individual with the ideal of a united world. Based on that ideal he was to form a perfected family, then go on to establish an ideal tribe, people, nation and world. Instead he was crucified before he could accomplish this. The nation of Israel was like a field of wild olive trees with which the owner could do whatever he pleased. When Jesus came as the true olive tree to this field of wild olive trees, God’s plan was to engraft all the wild olive trees, from individuals to families to the entire nation, into His ideal. If this had come to pass, the people of Israel would have become true olive trees. If Israel, based on Judaism, had become one with Jesus and backed him with its sovereignty in carrying his mission to the world, the two-thousand-year history of Christianity would not have been necessary.
God sent Jesus to a world filled with people whose minds and bodies were not united, to embody the ideal and to unite all people. However, the people to whom he was sent nailed him to the cross and murdered him. Because Judaism and the nation of Israel went against God’s Will, the nation and the foundation established by God over the course of thousands of years were lost to Satan’s side. The Israelites became a people without a nation, groaning under tyranny, overrun by other peoples for two thousand years, having to fight for survival. Israel became an independent state in 1948. This indicates that we have entered a new global era in which the people of Israel can overcome their suffering and regain their good fortune. This means that the time for the Lord to come again is approaching.
Do you think there was a foundation, an individual, family, tribe and nation that God could use as His stepping stone, after the people of Israel did not fulfill God’s providence? There was none. Since the First Israel was unable to fulfill the Will of God, Christianity inherited its position. Christianity must accept the mission of the Second Israel and fulfill God’s Will. However, you must know that Christianity has been unable to set the foundation to unite the physical world and the spirit world. Instead, it denied the physical world and tried to find the one nation based only on the spirit world.
Today’s Christians believe that the Lord of the Second Advent will come from the sky. However, based on such an event, he cannot bring unity within individuals, families, tribes, peoples and the world. We must know with certainty that the place where the coming Lord can fulfill his purpose is not the sky; it is this earth, this physical world. To do so, Jesus, as the man who has achieved the ideal of integrity, the man whose mind and body are united completely, must find a woman of integrity and form a family with her. Only when this occurs can the united nation and world come to be. How can this be brought about?
Among today’s Christians, is there anyone who is prepared to become the bride of the Lord and form a family with Him? Christians don’t know about this. They don’t even know where and how he will come. The Lord of the Second Advent does not come on a cloud in the sky. The Lord comes to restore the family of oneness, which God desires. It will take more than one family to restore that family. There needs to be a tribe that can live for the sake of the family. There needs to be a people that can live for the sake of the tribe, and a nation that can live for the sake of the people. Present-day Christianity needs to understand clearly that without going through this pattern in one nation, the nation that inherits the mission of the Third Israel cannot be restored.
Christian doctrine is the teaching of service and sacrifice
Let us take a moment now to think about the way in which a person can enjoy eternal life. If we as individuals wish to be respected in this world, we cannot simply praise ourselves. To earn respect, we need to sacrifice. If, for instance, you have ten friends and you have served those ten friends for a long time, you will become the central figure among them. Not only that, their relatives and friends will want to unite with you.
In contrast, let’s say there is a person who tells his ten friends, “You need to live for my sake. Live for my sake.” Those friends will break away from that person. In short, that person will be left alone and in the end will have no place to go. You need to realize that this is the point that distinguishes between good and evil in society.
Let us consider a nation’s patriot. When you think about the United States, you surely respect people like President Lincoln and President Kennedy. Why do you respect them? You respect those two presidents because they gave their lives for the United States. Among the presidents of the United States, there are those who died miserable deaths for the nation. The more they sacrificed themselves, the more they are revered as patriots and the higher is their position as presidents.
The more a person sacrifices out of love for the nation, even at the risk of his or her life, the more that person is revered. Those who suffer miserably through their sacrifice are considered even greater. Even though they are miserable at the time, their misery is only for a moment, and as history goes on, that person’s impact in the world broadens in scope.
This holds true in the death of Jesus. If you were to ask for whom Jesus sacrificed himself, the answer is for the sake of humankind and for the nation. In the position of having loved humanity more than anyone else, of having loved God more than anyone else, and of having loved even his enemies, he died miserably after praying for them to be blessed. At the time, Jesus died without a name, for he was accused of being a traitor to his people. No one could have known that he would give rise to today’s worldwide realm of Christian culture. At this point we can propose one principle: It is that those who sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose, for the greater good of the whole, cannot fail. We know that they cannot fail. Such people are historical saints.
In this regard, if there is a God and He has a strategy for fighting the world of evil, we can discover His strategy at this point. The nature of evil is to follow the complete opposite of God’s strategy. It sacrifices others for its own sake. If it does this on the individual level, then other individuals will oppose it, and when it does this on the level of the family or the nation, it inevitably leads to a dictatorship that is denounced by history.
You need to understand that the strategy of evil is to promote oneself by sacrificing others, whereas God’s strategy is to sacrifice oneself to save others. That is why the people who asserted goodness in the course of history were not welcomed in their time and were sacrificed, yet nonetheless the names of those who sacrificed themselves out of their love for their nation and the world came to be known long after their time. We cannot deny that this is the truth.
That is why the doctrine of Christianity is the teaching of service and sacrifice. If a Christian denomination existed only for its own sake, it would come to ruin. However, if there were a denomination whose entire purpose was to save the United States, one that stepped forward and sacrificed itself to achieve this, Heaven would cooperate with it. Having saved the United States, Christianity would thereby become a movement for the United States to sacrifice itself to save the world. This would be the Christianity that could be considered suitable to guide the world.
The reason God blessed the United States
If we ask whether God loves the United States or the world, we would say that God loves the world more than the United States. Because of this, God has placed the United States at the forefront, to have it pay the price of sacrifice to save the world.
American citizens! Do you think that the United States has an ideological tradition? You cannot find it among today’s youth. As you know, the Puritans were among those who pioneered the United States. They were a group who came to the new world, the land of America, leaving behind their nation because it limited their freedom to practice their faith and serve God as they desired.
At the time, a small number of Pilgrims risked their lives and held on to God as they struggled to survive in a new land with native inhabitants. I am aware that their beliefs were based on their reverence for God, and they overcame many difficulties while holding on to Him, which became a founding principle of the United States. I also know that this is the reason they built their homes only after first building a church and a school. Because they stood in such a position, God pulled them out of an environment in which they were oppressed and protected them in this land. He thus made this nation a global power in a period of less than two hundred years. Why did God do all this and give you such blessings? Do not think that God blessed you so that only the people who live in the United States can live in comfort. Instead, you have to take the point of view that God blessed you to make this land the representative nation for saving the world.
However, do the American people have a truth that calls them to join forces and save the world? No, they don’t. In contrast, the communist world, the enemy of the United States, has an ideology that can conquer the world, and it is displaying its confidence that it can swallow up the United States without a problem.
American people need to remember that reducing support for Asia or other parts of the world is not the Will of God. I believe that President Kennedy was the president who first began this trend. The United Nations secretary-general at the time was Mr. Hammarskjold. It is a matter of speculation as to why they both met such tragic ends.
I had a meeting with former President Eisenhower in 1965. I pointed out to him, “You may think that you did well to call for a truce in the Korean
War. However, it was actually a historical error.” I also said to him, “Do you trust communists? Communists are a group of people whose words and actions differ.” Their actions and words are different. You need to know this. Now, twenty years after the ceasefire agreement, we can see with our own eyes how North Korea has done everything in its power to militarize. Can you deny this fact?
On February 21, a meeting is scheduled between Mao Zedong and President Nixon. Mao Zedong has nothing to lose; he can attack or do whatever he wants to President Nixon. The American people need to be aware of this fact. Communists may announce with regard to the United States, “We are very close,” and suddenly do an about face. Theirs is a dictatorial system; it can go forward or retreat on command at any moment.
The American people, on the other hand, cannot do that. Let’s say the United States made an agreement and all its people had gone forward. If they then were told to retreat, do you think every one of the American people would retreat? You ought to know that at least half would break off. I am now thinking about what would become of the United States if such a thing were to happen. From the viewpoint of providence, I believe that God will protect the United States until its fortieth president, or for two hundred ten years of its history.
Ladies and gentlemen! I know that the year 1976 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States. Also, forty-two generations lie between Abraham and Jesus, and two thousand-year historical cycles, of forty generations, have been unfolding based on the Will of God. Though the actual number of generations is forty-two, since the God of three generations, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is considered to be the God of one generation, we can say the number represents forty generations.
We must transcend the nation to save the world
It is my view that a history of indemnity is unfolding during the Last Days centered on the United States. If the United States is unable to fulfill its responsibility during this period, I believe that it will no longer remain under the protection of God. Americans must not boast about the United States shouldering responsibility as the leading global power now in the latter half of the twentieth century. Even if the United States ceased to exist as a nation, you need a philosophy that you can be proud of, even to the thirtieth and fortieth centuries. If you Americans have such a commitment for the sake of the world, I believe that you will become a people who can guide the world.
Based on this viewpoint, let us interpret the mission that today’s Unification Church is trying to fulfill. The Unification Church is trying to attend the bride of the Lord, and to prepare a multinational movement to construct the kingdom of heaven of hope that God requires on this earth.
To do so, this Unification Church must reject the idea of working for its own sake. God’s strategy requires the individual, family, tribe and nation to sacrifice for the world. It is our mission to raise such individuals, families, tribes and peoples and pave the way for the kingdom that God desires.
We need to become individuals, families, tribes and peoples established on the principles of internal unity and unity with the Messiah. Who will take the lead in carrying out this task? Will it be a nonbeliever or a believer? Will it be a person of religion or a person without religion? This task needs to be carried out through the joint effort of Christians and all religious people. Such a movement needs to be realized in the world now.
Thus, do not focus only on your own religious denomination. Instead, become one with the motto of serving God’s Will and saving the world. In organizing such a movement, do not think about taking a leadership position. Instead you need to go to the lowest position and support the movement by serving others. Do not become a central figure by employing every means you can and seeking influence through the power of money, authority or knowledge. You need to build a new movement worldwide through which others will voluntarily install and revere you as their central figure. Otherwise there is no way to save this world.
The man standing before you has had to walk the path of much persecution before he could be where he is today. Even though I was working for Christianity and proposing the way for it to go forward, Christians have opposed me. Even though I was proposing the way for the nation to go forward, I have been opposed by the nation. Based on this viewpoint, I believe that a day will come when this group of hardworking people will also be criticized by the United States.
The way of goodness is to endeavor to save the world even at the sacrifice of those on your own side. This is the historical tradition. Therefore, unless we inherit such a tradition on this earth in this day and age, and build a movement worldwide through sacrifice, we cannot show the direction toward the ideal. Henceforth, only an organization that teaches people around the globe to save the world by living for the sake of others, and promotes the principle of working to save the world even if it means sacrificing oneself, will have authentic authority.
Let us think about the United States, which represents the democratic world. If the United States had stayed its course in giving assistance for the sake of the world, it would have remained a nation that is revered by the world. If it had continued its movement to love the world even more than its own people and nation, the United States would not be in the position in which it currently finds itself.
However, as a nation representing the democratic world, if the United States believes that historically there has never been a country that prospered by supporting other nations, and that it must follow that historical tradition, and it turns around and starts to prioritize itself before others, it will be isolated.
The United States today is placing its national interest ahead of that of the world, and serving the people of America more than the people of the world. God’s vision is different. God is trying to save the world by mobilizing the United States. God is trying to have the United States go beyond itself and serve the world. Democratic nations cannot progress if they are divided amongst each other.
Only a united world can realize God’s ideal
A movement that teaches and practices the principle of serving the world more than its own nation or people, that is, a movement capable of loving God above all, will remain to the end. Therefore, the problem is finding that principle and multinational movement that can transcend the nation and lead us to the place where Heaven’s love and the love of the people of the world flow freely, beyond national borders.
If the Lord of the Second Advent is indeed coming, he does not come to save just one nation. He comes to save the world. When that time draws near, it will be the Last Days. Therefore, we conclude that the world will come to ruin unless we can love beyond our own nation, honor the people of Heaven, and establish a movement through which we can go beyond the nation and love God. This is the path of unity, the teaching that the world will need in the future.
Respecting this ideal, one’s skin color is not an issue. In this matter, one’s cultural background is not an issue. Our shared hope and purpose will be to love God and become one for the world that lives for the sake of God’s Will. When the world becomes one in this way, I believe that the ideal world desired by God and humankind will be realized. Therefore, the mission of the Unification Church is to teach the path for individuals to follow, the path for families, tribes and peoples to follow, and the path for the nations and the world to follow.
In closing, please have faith that the ideal represented by the title of my speech, “The Ideal World for God and Humankind,” will be realized, and that we are beginning the work to bring this about on the earth. Thank you.
The Ideal World for God and Humankind
Sun Myung Moon
February 4, 1972
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Photo date and location unknown
Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my gratitude for your attendance this evening. For a long time I have yearned to meet with the people of America, and I am truly delighted and thankful for having been given this opportunity. The topic I would like to discuss with you today is, “The Ideal World, or the United World, for God and Humankind.”
Where does the pursuit of the ideal world begin?
In their hearts, all people long for an ideal world, a world of oneness. However, at this point it seems like an impossible dream. This can only be a source of sadness for humanity.
If there is a God, He too undoubtedly is longing for such an ideal world, the world of oneness. Without a doubt, both God and humankind yearn for this ideal world of oneness. If there is a God, He must bring about such a world, without fail, and if you are a person who believes in God’s ability, you will think that this task must be accomplished above all else.
Although all human beings yearn for a united world, we must acknowledge that it is not simple to bring this about. The democratic world and the communist world, from their own positions and in their own ways, both are thinking about uniting the world. Then, could the communist world submit to the democratic world and become one with it? Or could the democratic world submit to the communist world and unite with it? This is an extremely difficult problem.
Before we start our search for a way to realize unity and an ideal world on the global level, we first need to ask if there is a nation which is itself united. Only through such a nation can we bring about a united world.
Before there can be a united world, there must be a united nation, and before there can be a united nation, there must be a united tribe. Before there can be a united tribe, we need a united family, and before a united family, there must be a united individual. This is where the problem lies.
Human beings are the origin of good and evil
Where is unity first achieved? Since this world is a resultant world, we can conclude that unity must begin with the causal beings. Where are those individuals? It cannot be denied that we human beings are torn between two purposes that lead us in contrary directions. Our minds desire to go toward goodness, whereas our bodies lead us the opposite way. The two are fighting with each other. There are two different individuals, a man and a woman, who come together in union to form a family. Because they each possess an internal self and an external self, when the two meet as a couple, they in fact come together as four beings, each acting in different ways. In the same way, whether it is a clan, a tribe, a people, a nation or the world, everything is divided. Nevertheless, we can be grateful that they are not divided into hundreds or thousands of directions; they are divided in two ways. This is what is fascinating.
If there were a God, He surely would not allow people to continue like this. He would have no choice except to work in the background of history, even without their knowing it. And if there were a Satan who had driven human beings to evil, that Satan would keep trying to pull them in the direction opposite to that of God.
Nonetheless, even if Satan opposes the absolute God, he does not have the right to rise up and oppose the principles that God set up with absolute authority. God governs what is good and Satan governs what is evil. The resulting fight between God and Satan starts within us as individuals. We need to understand that this is the reason that human beings can be the origin of evil and the origin of goodness. In short, a person can be the starting point of goodness and at the same time the starting point of evil.
Ladies and gentlemen! Going up symbolizes something good and going down signifies something bad. When you are complimented for some reason, you wish to boast loudly of it. In contrast, when you are criticized for doing wrong, you shrink into yourself. When you do something good, you advertise it and call for others to follow your example. When you do something bad, you hide it for fear of it being known. No one goes about boldly advertising having done something bad, like stealing. Rather, such a person goes his or her way in secret.
You need to understand that people have two parts, one desiring to go up and the other desiring to go down. The part that desires to go up is the conscience. There is no person, even one of great power or fame, who does not suffer pangs of conscience when doing something evil. We need to understand clearly that the human conscience is the guardian of God, whereas the body is the guardian of Satan, and that the conscience is the origin of heaven, whereas the body is the origin of hell.
This leads us to realize the fundamental difference between the essence of good and the essence of evil. Goodness seeks to benefit the whole, whereas evil seeks only its own benefit. Good people live more for the sake of their family than for themselves, more for the sake of their village than their family, more for the sake of their nation than their village, and more for the sake of the world than their nation.
Until now, history has unfolded as a struggle between the perspective of living for one’s own sake and the perspective of living for the sake of others. God’s absolute demand is that we completely uproot and destroy the basis of evil in our bodies. In contrast, Satan’s evil demand is that we mercilessly destroy the conscience and anything associated with it. History continues to unfold through this conflict.
God’s side is centered on the conscience, while the side of evil is centered on the body and on material things. They oppose each other, and we can conclude that this is why humanity is divided between the realm of materialism and the realm of spirituality. If there were no God, we would not have such a resultant world. Evil manifests as jealousy, disunity and conflict that lead to self-destruction. From this viewpoint, where can unity and the ideal be realized? In the end, they start from the most fundamental level, from “me,” the individual. Thus God needs to teach us about the united world, the ideal world for which He yearns.
The teachings of religion
Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to know how this is done? It is not done in a way that you desire. In fact, no one desires this way. First of all, you need to chastise whoever or whatever opposes the conscience.
God cannot do this. Human beings are stuck in the midway position, with God and Satan both struggling to claim them, and if God were to strike them, so would Satan. So God’s teachings center on the conscience and tell you, “Strike, strike, strike your body!” We need to carry out this campaign worldwide. You have to do what your body hates. It is religion that teaches this.
Then what are the teachings of religion? All religions teach, “Strike the body! Don’t eat what you desire to eat! Don’t do what your body desires to do!” All major religions teach this. Buddhism places great importance on asceticism. Also, self-sacrifice is an important principle in Christianity. However, because it is extremely difficult for people to practice this, God has had no choice except to find a way to work with us just as we are.
Since our minds and bodies exert a similar degree of power over us, we tend to alternate between going this way and that, back and forth. Religion teaches us to deny what the body wants while offering devotions that give us strength from God. This has been the role of religion until now. God started out working with one individual and advanced through the family, tribe and people in His desire to gain one nation. In this way the nation and people of Israel emerged. In short, they were the chosen people. The existence of the terms “chosen people” and “chosen nation,” testify to the existence of God.
In accordance with His plan, God promised to send His representative who, as an individual, could completely unite his body and mind, then unite his family, tribe and nation, and completely unite the world. This was the messianic vision of Israel. Following this pattern, God anticipated that the people would unite with this individual, family, tribe and become the nation to save the world, creating one world and bringing it to God’s side.
Jesus came as the embodiment of unity
Of course, God’s purpose was, in part, to have the people of Israel receive the Messiah and live happily. However, His providence is not merely to save one people; it is to save the world. He was, in fact, trying to save the world, and for that He established the people of Israel as the foundation upon which He could send the Messiah. Yet at that time, although the desire of the Israelites and the direction of God’s providence ought to have been the same, they went different ways.
Jesus came as an individual with the ideal of a united world. Based on that ideal he was to form a perfected family, then go on to establish an ideal tribe, people, nation and world. Instead he was crucified before he could accomplish this. The nation of Israel was like a field of wild olive trees with which the owner could do whatever he pleased. When Jesus came as the true olive tree to this field of wild olive trees, God’s plan was to engraft all the wild olive trees, from individuals to families to the entire nation, into His ideal. If this had come to pass, the people of Israel would have become true olive trees. If Israel, based on Judaism, had become one with Jesus and backed him with its sovereignty in carrying his mission to the world, the two-thousand-year history of Christianity would not have been necessary.
God sent Jesus to a world filled with people whose minds and bodies were not united, to embody the ideal and to unite all people. However, the people to whom he was sent nailed him to the cross and murdered him. Because Judaism and the nation of Israel went against God’s Will, the nation and the foundation established by God over the course of thousands of years were lost to Satan’s side. The Israelites became a people without a nation, groaning under tyranny, overrun by other peoples for two thousand years, having to fight for survival. Israel became an independent state in 1948. This indicates that we have entered a new global era in which the people of Israel can overcome their suffering and regain their good fortune. This means that the time for the Lord to come again is approaching.
Do you think there was a foundation, an individual, family, tribe and nation that God could use as His stepping stone, after the people of Israel did not fulfill God’s providence? There was none. Since the First Israel was unable to fulfill the Will of God, Christianity inherited its position. Christianity must accept the mission of the Second Israel and fulfill God’s Will. However, you must know that Christianity has been unable to set the foundation to unite the physical world and the spirit world. Instead, it denied the physical world and tried to find the one nation based only on the spirit world.
Today’s Christians believe that the Lord of the Second Advent will come from the sky. However, based on such an event, he cannot bring unity within individuals, families, tribes, peoples and the world. We must know with certainty that the place where the coming Lord can fulfill his purpose is not the sky; it is this earth, this physical world. To do so, Jesus, as the man who has achieved the ideal of integrity, the man whose mind and body are united completely, must find a woman of integrity and form a family with her. Only when this occurs can the united nation and world come to be. How can this be brought about?
Among today’s Christians, is there anyone who is prepared to become the bride of the Lord and form a family with Him? Christians don’t know about this. They don’t even know where and how he will come. The Lord of the Second Advent does not come on a cloud in the sky. The Lord comes to restore the family of oneness, which God desires. It will take more than one family to restore that family. There needs to be a tribe that can live for the sake of the family. There needs to be a people that can live for the sake of the tribe, and a nation that can live for the sake of the people. Present-day Christianity needs to understand clearly that without going through this pattern in one nation, the nation that inherits the mission of the Third Israel cannot be restored.
Christian doctrine is the teaching of service and sacrifice
Let us take a moment now to think about the way in which a person can enjoy eternal life. If we as individuals wish to be respected in this world, we cannot simply praise ourselves. To earn respect, we need to sacrifice. If, for instance, you have ten friends and you have served those ten friends for a long time, you will become the central figure among them. Not only that, their relatives and friends will want to unite with you.
In contrast, let’s say there is a person who tells his ten friends, “You need to live for my sake. Live for my sake.” Those friends will break away from that person. In short, that person will be left alone and in the end will have no place to go. You need to realize that this is the point that distinguishes between good and evil in society.
Let us consider a nation’s patriot. When you think about the United States, you surely respect people like President Lincoln and President Kennedy. Why do you respect them? You respect those two presidents because they gave their lives for the United States. Among the presidents of the United States, there are those who died miserable deaths for the nation. The more they sacrificed themselves, the more they are revered as patriots and the higher is their position as presidents.
The more a person sacrifices out of love for the nation, even at the risk of his or her life, the more that person is revered. Those who suffer miserably through their sacrifice are considered even greater. Even though they are miserable at the time, their misery is only for a moment, and as history goes on, that person’s impact in the world broadens in scope.
This holds true in the death of Jesus. If you were to ask for whom Jesus sacrificed himself, the answer is for the sake of humankind and for the nation. In the position of having loved humanity more than anyone else, of having loved God more than anyone else, and of having loved even his enemies, he died miserably after praying for them to be blessed. At the time, Jesus died without a name, for he was accused of being a traitor to his people. No one could have known that he would give rise to today’s worldwide realm of Christian culture. At this point we can propose one principle: It is that those who sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose, for the greater good of the whole, cannot fail. We know that they cannot fail. Such people are historical saints.
In this regard, if there is a God and He has a strategy for fighting the world of evil, we can discover His strategy at this point. The nature of evil is to follow the complete opposite of God’s strategy. It sacrifices others for its own sake. If it does this on the individual level, then other individuals will oppose it, and when it does this on the level of the family or the nation, it inevitably leads to a dictatorship that is denounced by history.
You need to understand that the strategy of evil is to promote oneself by sacrificing others, whereas God’s strategy is to sacrifice oneself to save others. That is why the people who asserted goodness in the course of history were not welcomed in their time and were sacrificed, yet nonetheless the names of those who sacrificed themselves out of their love for their nation and the world came to be known long after their time. We cannot deny that this is the truth.
That is why the doctrine of Christianity is the teaching of service and sacrifice. If a Christian denomination existed only for its own sake, it would come to ruin. However, if there were a denomination whose entire purpose was to save the United States, one that stepped forward and sacrificed itself to achieve this, Heaven would cooperate with it. Having saved the United States, Christianity would thereby become a movement for the United States to sacrifice itself to save the world. This would be the Christianity that could be considered suitable to guide the world.
The reason God blessed the United States
If we ask whether God loves the United States or the world, we would say that God loves the world more than the United States. Because of this, God has placed the United States at the forefront, to have it pay the price of sacrifice to save the world.
American citizens! Do you think that the United States has an ideological tradition? You cannot find it among today’s youth. As you know, the Puritans were among those who pioneered the United States. They were a group who came to the new world, the land of America, leaving behind their nation because it limited their freedom to practice their faith and serve God as they desired.
At the time, a small number of Pilgrims risked their lives and held on to God as they struggled to survive in a new land with native inhabitants. I am aware that their beliefs were based on their reverence for God, and they overcame many difficulties while holding on to Him, which became a founding principle of the United States. I also know that this is the reason they built their homes only after first building a church and a school. Because they stood in such a position, God pulled them out of an environment in which they were oppressed and protected them in this land. He thus made this nation a global power in a period of less than two hundred years. Why did God do all this and give you such blessings? Do not think that God blessed you so that only the people who live in the United States can live in comfort. Instead, you have to take the point of view that God blessed you to make this land the representative nation for saving the world.
However, do the American people have a truth that calls them to join forces and save the world? No, they don’t. In contrast, the communist world, the enemy of the United States, has an ideology that can conquer the world, and it is displaying its confidence that it can swallow up the United States without a problem.
American people need to remember that reducing support for Asia or other parts of the world is not the Will of God. I believe that President Kennedy was the president who first began this trend. The United Nations secretary-general at the time was Mr. Hammarskjold. It is a matter of speculation as to why they both met such tragic ends.
I had a meeting with former President Eisenhower in 1965. I pointed out to him, “You may think that you did well to call for a truce in the Korean
War. However, it was actually a historical error.” I also said to him, “Do you trust communists? Communists are a group of people whose words and actions differ.” Their actions and words are different. You need to know this. Now, twenty years after the ceasefire agreement, we can see with our own eyes how North Korea has done everything in its power to militarize. Can you deny this fact?
On February 21, a meeting is scheduled between Mao Zedong and President Nixon. Mao Zedong has nothing to lose; he can attack or do whatever he wants to President Nixon. The American people need to be aware of this fact. Communists may announce with regard to the United States, “We are very close,” and suddenly do an about face. Theirs is a dictatorial system; it can go forward or retreat on command at any moment.
The American people, on the other hand, cannot do that. Let’s say the United States made an agreement and all its people had gone forward. If they then were told to retreat, do you think every one of the American people would retreat? You ought to know that at least half would break off. I am now thinking about what would become of the United States if such a thing were to happen. From the viewpoint of providence, I believe that God will protect the United States until its fortieth president, or for two hundred ten years of its history.
Ladies and gentlemen! I know that the year 1976 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States. Also, forty-two generations lie between Abraham and Jesus, and two thousand-year historical cycles, of forty generations, have been unfolding based on the Will of God. Though the actual number of generations is forty-two, since the God of three generations, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is considered to be the God of one generation, we can say the number represents forty generations.
We must transcend the nation to save the world
It is my view that a history of indemnity is unfolding during the Last Days centered on the United States. If the United States is unable to fulfill its responsibility during this period, I believe that it will no longer remain under the protection of God. Americans must not boast about the United States shouldering responsibility as the leading global power now in the latter half of the twentieth century. Even if the United States ceased to exist as a nation, you need a philosophy that you can be proud of, even to the thirtieth and fortieth centuries. If you Americans have such a commitment for the sake of the world, I believe that you will become a people who can guide the world.
Based on this viewpoint, let us interpret the mission that today’s Unification Church is trying to fulfill. The Unification Church is trying to attend the bride of the Lord, and to prepare a multinational movement to construct the kingdom of heaven of hope that God requires on this earth.
To do so, this Unification Church must reject the idea of working for its own sake. God’s strategy requires the individual, family, tribe and nation to sacrifice for the world. It is our mission to raise such individuals, families, tribes and peoples and pave the way for the kingdom that God desires.
We need to become individuals, families, tribes and peoples established on the principles of internal unity and unity with the Messiah. Who will take the lead in carrying out this task? Will it be a nonbeliever or a believer? Will it be a person of religion or a person without religion? This task needs to be carried out through the joint effort of Christians and all religious people. Such a movement needs to be realized in the world now.
Thus, do not focus only on your own religious denomination. Instead, become one with the motto of serving God’s Will and saving the world. In organizing such a movement, do not think about taking a leadership position. Instead you need to go to the lowest position and support the movement by serving others. Do not become a central figure by employing every means you can and seeking influence through the power of money, authority or knowledge. You need to build a new movement worldwide through which others will voluntarily install and revere you as their central figure. Otherwise there is no way to save this world.
The man standing before you has had to walk the path of much persecution before he could be where he is today. Even though I was working for Christianity and proposing the way for it to go forward, Christians have opposed me. Even though I was proposing the way for the nation to go forward, I have been opposed by the nation. Based on this viewpoint, I believe that a day will come when this group of hardworking people will also be criticized by the United States.
The way of goodness is to endeavor to save the world even at the sacrifice of those on your own side. This is the historical tradition. Therefore, unless we inherit such a tradition on this earth in this day and age, and build a movement worldwide through sacrifice, we cannot show the direction toward the ideal. Henceforth, only an organization that teaches people around the globe to save the world by living for the sake of others, and promotes the principle of working to save the world even if it means sacrificing oneself, will have authentic authority.
Let us think about the United States, which represents the democratic world. If the United States had stayed its course in giving assistance for the sake of the world, it would have remained a nation that is revered by the world. If it had continued its movement to love the world even more than its own people and nation, the United States would not be in the position in which it currently finds itself.
However, as a nation representing the democratic world, if the United States believes that historically there has never been a country that prospered by supporting other nations, and that it must follow that historical tradition, and it turns around and starts to prioritize itself before others, it will be isolated.
The United States today is placing its national interest ahead of that of the world, and serving the people of America more than the people of the world. God’s vision is different. God is trying to save the world by mobilizing the United States. God is trying to have the United States go beyond itself and serve the world. Democratic nations cannot progress if they are divided amongst each other.
Only a united world can realize God’s ideal
A movement that teaches and practices the principle of serving the world more than its own nation or people, that is, a movement capable of loving God above all, will remain to the end. Therefore, the problem is finding that principle and multinational movement that can transcend the nation and lead us to the place where Heaven’s love and the love of the people of the world flow freely, beyond national borders.
If the Lord of the Second Advent is indeed coming, he does not come to save just one nation. He comes to save the world. When that time draws near, it will be the Last Days. Therefore, we conclude that the world will come to ruin unless we can love beyond our own nation, honor the people of Heaven, and establish a movement through which we can go beyond the nation and love God. This is the path of unity, the teaching that the world will need in the future.
Respecting this ideal, one’s skin color is not an issue. In this matter, one’s cultural background is not an issue. Our shared hope and purpose will be to love God and become one for the world that lives for the sake of God’s Will. When the world becomes one in this way, I believe that the ideal world desired by God and humankind will be realized. Therefore, the mission of the Unification Church is to teach the path for individuals to follow, the path for families, tribes and peoples to follow, and the path for the nations and the world to follow.
In closing, please have faith that the ideal represented by the title of my speech, “The Ideal World for God and Humankind,” will be realized, and that we are beginning the work to bring this about on the earth. Thank you.
One God, One World Religion
Sun Myung Moon
February 3, 1972
Lincoln Center, New York, USA
Seven-city speaking tour in the United States
Photo date and location unknown
Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude that so many of you have gathered here tonight in spite of the inclement weather. For decades I have thought about meeting with you. Now that I have met you for the first time this evening, I would first like to thank you all, and at the same time, I would also like to thank God with all of my heart.
Does God really exist?
The title of my speech today is, “One God, One World Religion.” I believe that when the residents of New York hear the term God, they associate it with the belief that He is dead. However, God does exist, and if we say that He is dead, we are committing the gravest sin. It could even be that saying God exists, if in fact He does not, is better than saying that the God who actually exists is dead.
With regard to the title, “One God, One World Religion,” there would be no issue to discuss if people did not exist. However, people do exist. We have people and we have God. Therefore, a religion that works to bring those people and God together in oneness is necessary.
If God is an Absolute Being and is all alone, we can imagine that the place where that God exists would not be a happy one. Even thinking of God all alone, if He were glad and delighted all by Himself, then that would not be what we call normal. On the other hand, if that God were to look upon something, regardless of how small, as His object partner and laugh, “Ha-ha-ha,” and delight in it, that would be normal. No matter how small that thing is, if God were looking upon it and laughing, and someone came along and said that this laughing God is senseless, then in fact the person who says that would actually be the senseless one. So, I first want to impress upon you the intrinsic value of the object partner. Words such as unhappiness and misery stem from the lack of an object partner.
Then if God were to like an object partner, what kind of partner do you think God would like? Would it be something like minerals, which do not have feelings? It would not be minerals. It would not be plants either. He would show more interest in animals than in plants. By this line of thought, if you were to ask what the central entity could be, the one that could attract His attention the most out of all creation, even a kindergarten student could point out that it is human beings. Don’t you think so too? Based on this viewpoint, we cannot deny the fact that human beings constitute the greatest masterpiece of all created beings. That is why we can reach the conclusion that, when God seeks after an object partner, He seeks out human beings.
When we think about the destiny of the United States or the destiny of the world in light of the complicated circumstances of today, the question of whether we would prefer for God to exist or not is a problem that we have to consider seriously. It would be favorable if there were an Absolute Being who could deal with the truth as the truth and evil as evil. Without such a Being, the future of the world would be uncertain. That is why our hope is that such a God does exist rather than not. Then the question is whether or not God exists.
God of dual characteristics
We know that this universe exists. This is a fact that everyone acknowledges. We also know that in order for anything to exist there first must be energy. At this point, a question arises: what comes first, energy or existence? Without energy, there cannot be existence. However, energy cannot emerge without action. In order for energy to come into being, some kind of action is absolutely necessary.
Moreover, for action to take place, subject and object partners are absolute prerequisites. This we cannot deny. When the subject partner and object partner engage in give and receive action, energy is generated for existence. To put it another way, before there can be energy, there first must be subject and object partners.
Since the subject and object partners are in different positions, for them to engage in action, each needs to be in harmony with the substance of the other. Otherwise, they cannot be engage in action. For this reason, in order for the subject and object partners to interact with each other, there must be a common base for them to unite for the same purpose. Otherwise, they cannot engage in action.
When anyone goes out for some reason, no one would do so in order to suffer a loss. Many people visit Times Square here in New York. Yet, I do not believe that even one of them would leave their home, thinking, “I am leaving home to incur a loss of at least a dollar.” When you leave home, you always set out hoping for something that will benefit you and wish for something that will add to what you already have.
When you meet your friends, or when you love someone, you never plan to get together with them in a situation where you would diminish each other and be worse off than you were before you met. When two people, A and B, come together, each envisions being better off than they were before they met; and then action takes place and they unite.
In this regard, we can conclude that there must be a dual purpose. That is, in addition to their own individual purpose, the subject partner and object partner desire something that would add to the purpose of the other. Otherwise they will not unite as one; nor will they engage in action.
For example, in an atom, electrons surround protons. Because these electrons and protons are also in a place where they can unite their dual purposes while giving and receiving, they can form an atom. In short, they are united in their pursuit of dual purposes, the purpose of the electron and the purpose of the proton.
Looking at the big picture, God too is an existing being. In order for Him to actually exist, He too needs to engage in a subject and object partner relationship, based on the dual purpose, and stand in the position of total union. If He cannot do so, God cannot eternally exist. This ultimately means that God exists as the One Being in the union of the subject and the object partners within Himself.
God’s existence as seen through the action of the human conscience
In the Bible, we read in Genesis 1:27, “So God created humankind in His image; male and female He created them.” If we were to make an inference based on this passage, we could conclude that God is the united being of masculinity and femininity.
Since such a God could not stay all by Himself, He needed an object partner, and it was inevitable that He create this world. Consequently, He created a man and a woman. When you consider a human being, you see that person has a mind and a body. This mind and body give to each other and receive from each other, and if something goes wrong while they are doing so, we feel pain. It is because either the mind or the body moves too far to one side or the other. However, when they are united and thus elevated, we feel joy. If someone has complete unity between his or her mind and body, he or she would be a perfected person.
If there were an Absolute Being, what kind of a human being would He seek? He would seek a man whose mind and body were in complete unity. The same goes for the woman. If there were a woman whose mind and body are completely united, God would like to meet that woman, without a doubt. From the viewpoint based on the dignity of the Absolute Being, He seeks to meet the best man and the best woman. Heaven needs people who can stand tall, bold and fearless before Heaven, and we wish to be such people.
When we look at ourselves, it is clear that we are not causal beings. Human beings are resultant beings. Can you freely determine whether to exist or not? You cannot. Since you cannot be the cause of your own existence, you cannot deny that you are in the resultant position. However, when the Cause is also absolute, even resultant beings can stand in the position of absolute partner.
God’s existence as seen through the mystery of the human body
Ladies and gentlemen, let us take another moment to talk about whether God exists or not. When we trace our ancestry, we will eventually reach our first human ancestors. Those ancestors were born on earth. And let us now consider whether they knew of the sun before they were born on earth, and prepared accordingly, or didn’t know about it at all.
When they were born on earth, their eyes would not have known that there would be a sun. However, even though their eyes were unaware of the sun, their design is based on the knowledge that there is a sun in the sky and that they are to see its light. When you describe your eyes, you say that they are always blinking. This design assumes knowledge of the fact that the moisture in the eyes evaporates due to the dry heat on earth, and so they need to be moistened. Moreover, the design of the eyelashes is based on knowledge of the need to keep the dust away. In this respect, human beings were born based on knowledge of nature and astronomy.
The eyes already “knew” that people would sweat. Since it would be a serious problem for foreign matter to enter these precious eyes, the breakwater of the eyebrows was created. The location of the eyes also shows that they knew that human beings would walk, standing vertically on two feet, unlike other animals. Now, look at your ears. They were created based on the knowledge that they would hear sound waves. Look at your nose. Why is the nose pointing downward? It is because it would be detrimental if sweat or rainwater entered the nostrils. Because of this, in addition to the breakwater above the eyes, the nose was made to point downward. Everything was designed on the basis of prior knowledge. Could all these things come to be on their own accord?
As you can see, when we study the human body, it is a palace of mystery. It could not have been made as it is just like that. Based on these observations, a question arises: Though human beings did not know of such things when they were born, was there or was there not a Being who knew of them? We cannot say that we were born as we are just like that. And the Being who knew of all such things in advance is none other than God Himself.
Original value of human beings as seen through their relationship with God
Granted that God created humankind, let us now look into the matter of where God placed us, and what relationship God wished to form with us from the start. If God created human beings, there must be a reason. And if we were created for this reason, then our purpose would arise from that. The purpose of created human beings and the purpose of the Creator, God, cannot be two separate things. There must be a certain common ground. That common ground would be desired both by God and human beings.
If there were a world-renowned president among the people gathered here, would there be anyone who would wish to be inferior to that president? Would you wish to be superior or inferior to that person? You would wish to be superior. In fact, you would wish to be in the highest position. Human desire is like that. By the same token, if you knew about a person with the highest position in the world, you would wish to form a relationship with him or her.
Even if you became close to that person of high position, if there were a person in an even higher position, then you would wish to become close to that person as well. Everyone possesses such a heart. No matter how lowly a person is, he or she has such thoughts. Then, if there is a God, the Absolute Being who created heaven and earth, would you desire to form a relationship with Him or would you not? Even if you had taken possession of this God, if you still had not taken possession of His love, you would not feel at ease. After you have taken possession of God, only after taking possession of His love will everything feel right. On the day you have taken possession of His love, all His possessions become yours. Our conscience drives us toward this goal. We cannot deny that it is carrying out such work, and this is because we occupy the position of human beings’ original value, and that compels us to do so.
God is a God of love, and if God desires to love human beings, in what position would He desire to give His love? And in what position would human beings desire to receive God’s love? Those positions would be wrapped up in the relationship between father and child, that is, the position of the father and the child, and no other. That is why today’s Christianity calls God Heavenly Father.
If God is the Father and we are His children, our relationship is a vertical one. On account of our desire as human beings, we can say we wish to be in the Father’s higher position at least once. So God concerns Himself even about this point and says that He will permit us to rise to such a level, and that He will enter our mind, that is, the internal position, and place us in a position external to Him, so that we become like God’s body. When this comes to pass, we stand on an equal footing with God.
From the viewpoint of human beings, if our parents are precious to us, where can we possibly place our one and only Heavenly Father and take care of Him? We will not wish to have God stay far away from us. In short, we will wish to have God in a place where God is always with us, where we can meet Him and rejoice with Him alone. For this reason, we wish for God to be invisible. Our human desire is to place God in our hearts, where we can know Him personally. We cannot put God any other place.
This is why God the Creator is saying that He will place human beings, His creation, in the same position as Himself. God intended to have human beings receive love in the position of His children and to place us in a position of equal status with Him.
Since God has the ability to create heaven and earth, He wished for us also to have this creative ability. After having created and shaped human beings, God found us to be so charming and lovable that He desired that we also be able to feel such emotions and to get a taste of such pleasure.
Since God is a Being who exists in the form of a perfected man and woman, to inherit this creative ability of God, man and woman, who were born as separate beings, need to become one as a perfected man and woman and have that one body become His object partner. By becoming His object partner, they can play the role of creator in His stead.
That is why when a couple become one through conjugal love, they can substantiate their creative ability and stand in the same position as God by creating children. To make us realize what a joyful thing it is to give birth to children, God gave us the heart of love for our children. In this regard, God has bestowed the very best things upon human beings. God created us so that we could become one with the eternal love of God in such a manner and live in a peaceful Eden in happiness and contentment. By so doing, we would live as happy people who stand in the position of the eternal object partner before the absolute God, centering on His love, and who could not separate from Him even if we tried. We need to understand that this was the way we were originally meant to live.
The mission of religion is to save the world
It is an undeniable fact that the purpose of beings, created by the absolute God, is one with God’s purpose. However, do you think there is even one human being on earth who stands in the position of absolute object partner centered on God’s love? There is not. Even though human beings aim for the same purpose, because we were all created by the absolute God, when we look at ourselves we can see that we are standing on another path, a path whose purpose is diametrically opposed. Some people may consider this to be another relationship of subject and object partners within human beings, but that is not the case. If the conscience is an internal plus, selfishness is a different plus, and these two oppose each other. Such a predicament is the one we human beings live in on this earth.
Human beings need to understand that we lost the ideal of love, the principle of absolute value that God endowed us with. We became miserable beings, living in mourning in a world of the opposing phenomena of good and evil In other words, we became defective beings. Nevertheless, since the absolute God inevitably needs to relate to us as His children, He could not leave us the way we are. Thus, He has been leading the movement to bring us back to life throughout the course of history. That is, He established a repair shop. That repair shop is called religion.
There are numerous religions in the world. In accordance with the standards of the different cultures and national backgrounds, God established religions to gather all people. Religions have the desire to save the world. God also desires save the world. Religions other than those that try to save the world do not last long.
Ladies and gentlemen, the founders of the world’s religions were not nationalists; they were globalists, and they were the people who purposed a global movement centered on Heaven. I know that we currently consider four people to be the four great saints: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad. Some people also include Socrates in that list; however Socrates was a philosopher and not a religious leader. You cannot save lives with knowledge. Only Heaven can save lives.
That is why the four greatest saints are those who founded the great global religions. There is not one among them who did not serve Heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, we must not become people who esteem these saints and yet disregard Heaven.
The central religion of the world is Christianity
Given that religion is carrying out the mission of a repair shop, so to speak, if God is an absolute Being, we need to know which of the four great religions approaches Him most closely.
When you consider Confucianism, it does not teach clearly about God. All it has taught is that when you do good, Heaven gives you blessings, and when you do evil, you receive punishment. When you consider Buddhism, while it recognizes the God of law, it does not know about the personal God. When you consider Islam, it is carrying forward aspects of the providence of Jesus.
Jesus Christ, however, made substantially different declarations. He appeared and said, “I am the only begotten Son of God.” In the course of human history, only one person, Jesus, has ever claimed that he is the only begotten Son of God. Next, he said, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father.” He also said, “As the Father is in me and I in the Father, so I am in you and you are in me.” He also went on to say, in effect, “I am the bridegroom,” and that he will return for his bride. In light of all this, if you ask centering on whom he tried to achieve all that he said, I would answer that he tried to do so centering on God.
In other words, the purpose of Christianity is to help us become the son or daughter of God, to become one body with Him, to become united with Him as bridegroom and bride, and thus to form one, united family. Before he passed on, Jesus taught us that our position before God is equal to that of children, a position bestowed on us as our highest treasure. He taught of the origin of the family in which we can carry out the great work of creation and feel the joy that comes from creation, as I mentioned before.
The limitations of Christianity
However, even though Jesus was the Son of God and had become one in body with Him, he could not prepare the position of the bridegroom with a bride who could become his object partner. If the nation of Israel and Judaism had, at the time, become one with Jesus and helped him receive his bride, he would have become the direct object partner of God and built the basis on which he could be a co-creator with God. Sadly, he passed away before he could achieve this.
If sons and daughters centered on God had appeared and formed families at that time, thus giving rise to a new tribe, people, nation and world, this planet would have become the heavenly kingdom. It would have become the heavenly kingdom centered on God. Jesus was crucified because the people and leaders of his nation and religion did not believe in him. If they had believed in him, he would not have been crucified.
If, at that time, the nation of Israel and Judaism had believed in Jesus and made a new beginning, attending the bridegroom and bride envisioned by God, its people would never have been scattered, and tragedies such as the Holocaust would never have happened. Such things came to pass because the first person in history who became the object partner of
God, totally beloved by Him, was not received on earth. There is no sin greater than that.
I believe that many followers of Jesus are here today. However, the Christianity that you now believe in is insufficient. If it continues down its present road, its followers may well be scattered like the people of Israel were, two thousand years ago.
Today’s Christians, who are spread out across the world, need to unite as one centering on God. Since the Lord of the Second Advent comes with Jesus’ mission, if Christians do not prepare the foundation to receive him, they may be exiled like the people of Israel were. If they do not fulfill this condition, I foresee that the future of this world will be bleak.
The Lord when he returns will come as the bridegroom and marry his bride in a wedding ceremony. This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation.
Because the first human beings fell, we came to have fallen, false parents. The good True Parents whom God had envisioned as the original model of His creation did not emerge. This plan that God had in mind will be realized in the Last Days. Unless the True Parents emerge and give rebirth to humankind, by engrafting them to bring them back to God, human beings worldwide cannot be saved.
The Unification Church emerged to build the ideal world of love
What is the mission of the coming Lord of the Second Advent? We human beings lost the True Parents, who were to have attained perfection, without having fallen, and remained in the position of the parents of goodness. Hence, the Lord of the Second Advent is the one who comes to achieve this. This will open the way through which humankind can be fully loved by God again, starting from the family of the True Parents who can receive love from God.
Which would constitute happiness? For sons and daughters who receive the love of God on earth and then go to the kingdom of heaven as a family, or for a family to be divided, with a devout mother going to heaven and the faithless father going to hell? Today’s Christianity believes the latter. However, I say that we need to enter the kingdom as a whole, from the parents to the children. Families need to enter together, tribes need to enter together, nations need to enter together, and the entire world needs to enter the kingdom of heaven all together.
When a global family centered on these new Parents appears in the future, and a new culture and tradition centered on the ideal of love are manifested on earth, this complicated, sinful world of today will be transformed into the kingdom of heaven on earth. For this to come about, you must know that there are clear steps for you to take. Therefore, it is the mission of the Unification Church to teach you about such things.
Having condensed such a vast amount of material into such a short presentation, I skipped many parts so I could elaborate more in other places. I thank you with all my heart for your understanding and close attention.