True Mother's Talk To Members

Charlotte, N.C., 6/26/93

We must realize to the core of our being the pain of Heavenly Father's heart. We must think about how long Heavenly Father has waited for this day, when he could have true heavenly sons and daughters. God didn't want Jesus to die on the cross. God has been waiting for day he could have True Sons and Daughters.

There have been 2000 years of suffering Christian history. True Father has given so much to America. So now we need to know Father's message to the bone. Through True Parents, God has blessed the blessed members and all of America.

How much are we living with the understanding of our responsibility? Without knowing that the Messiah might come, the Rev. John Barber has built ninety churches in his lifetime.

Mother's message is the importance of the lineage of God. If the core of Mother's message enters our heart then we have to be different people after today. We have to realize our blessing is not for ourselves, but for all of mankind.

Today America is dying. The media says that forty million Americans are involved in broken families, drugs, and alcohol, but Mother believes that there are far more. This nation is contaminated by this filth. Are we going to just stand by and watch our children be polluted? We have to do the job of cleaning it up.

For 2000 years Christians have waited in vain for Christ to return on the clouds. But we have seen the coming of True Parents. We have to work in three different countries before we go to the spirit world.

You saw the video of Father's life and how much Father has suffered. But the video didn't show how much Father wanted to help his family. Father didn't think of his own life or his family when the war was over. He thought only of God and easing God's suffering. Father's entire life has been one of sacrifice for God and mankind.

Someday we all will end up in spirit world and meet True Parents. True Parents will ask us, How much did we love humanity? We cannot claim salvation just because of the Blessing. In spirit world we breathe the air of True Love. So this is the final opportunity you have to change your life. What kind of change? We must have a passion to save the souls on the earth today. We must multiply ourself to show our gratitude to True Parents. We need to read Father's and Mother's words for breakfast, lunch and dinner. We must not be indebted.

A member recently told mother about a dream. In the dream two dragons appear before Mother. Their eyes are very bright. Then the eyes of the two dragons drop out in front of Mother.

Mother says the two dragons represent the Old and New Testaments, and Mother represents the Completed Testament. When the eyes fall out it means the Old and New Testaments bow down before the True Parents.

We have to have pride and determination to tell the message of True Parents. The day will come when we will all go to spirit world. We need to be able to say that we lived our life to the fullest, with no regrets.

Mother Speaks to Members - Now You Must Fly

May 30, 1993 St.
Louis, Missouri
Translated by Peter Kim

Mother really brought God's power and love and True Parents' presence and history to each state and she spoke after the public meetings to smaller private gatherings of brothers and sisters. We have here transcriptions of two of those talks. A report from Rev. Kwak will follow in the coming issue. At the conclusion of this Thirty-three City Tour Father asked Mother to speak in the remaining states on a new tour and from there to speak around the world. As we go to press she is engaged in this second tour of the United States.

We may forget other things, but we must understand this one thing, that God spent more than six thousand years of the history of restoration to find the True Parents, and True Parents have shed tears and blood and sweat all throughout their lives. Upon that victorious foundation of suffering, pain and persecution, now True Parents can proclaim to the world True Parenthood, the Messiah and this new Completed Testament Era. We must remember that this kind of joy must not be hoarded. We cannot be the only ones who feel this kind of joy and happiness. Father and Mother fulfilled the ideal family. Now you are living together with True Parents. Since we are the ones who know this reality and we are the ones who enjoy this blessing life, we must not stop here. We must make a new determination. We must have a new start and share this with every possible person before we pass away. This is our new determination. Otherwise, we are not worthy to receive this kind of blessing.

As a tribal messiah, this is the time for you to set your roots in your home town, make yourself an influential leader in your home town, and represent True Parents and God properly. Can you do that? [Yes.]

Rev. Henry Wells in Philadelphia was told by Father over the phone when Father received the report about him, "You have done well so far, but this is the time you have to make a quantum leap. Up to this point you have been running, but now you must fly." So Rev. Wells said he would start flying.

The same principle applies to you. Who among you is willing to have sleepless nights in order to spread this truth and blessing to as many people as you can? If you set such a condition, then your community and your ministry will prosper.

We must be new people today, from this moment on.

Can You Say You Are True Parents' Children?

June 3, 1993
Albuquerque, New Mexico
Translated by Peter Kim

You might have felt something from my speech today. The speech clearly explains the history of indemnity and how much God has been suffering for six thousand years. Furthermore, in seven years it will be two thousand years since Jesus Christ's time. Father has gone through forty years of pain and difficulty since World War II. He has gone through immeasurable struggles. Nobody really knows how much indemnity he has paid for the sake of all humanity. Only God knows. You must realize somehow the kind of life course Father and Mother have come through. Therefore, you should examine your heartistic relationship with True Parents and repent for your lack of closeness with True Parents. You consider yourselves children of True Parents and call us Father and Mother. Do you say this just with your lips? How deeply in your heart do you really feel you are True Parents' children? That is something you must think about again, and to the degree that you are not qualified to say this you should repent.

Father's life

I truly hope that each of you can feel what kind of life Father has gone through, even after he came to America over twenty years ago. Of course, some of you have followed Father more than twenty years, others of you maybe fifteen or ten years. However, all these years you were just following Father, so you do not really feel the kind of foundation and the kind of accomplishments he achieved in that time. Finally, upon the foundation of the completion of his mission, Father and I declared the Completed Testament Age. I hope that you truly feel what kind of life course Father has gone through in this country. Not even for one second has Father relaxed; not even for one hour has Father tried to rest. All twenty-four hours of every day Father's focus was the providence, saving this country and humanity. You should grasp this, not just with your understanding, but feel it with your heart.

I testified that throughout his entire life Father never slept more than three hours a day. Do you know why? Because in Father's heart he is so desperate to save this entire humanity. Also, he knows that he is the only one who can save humanity and bring them back to God. He never forgets that, even for a second. Therefore, he couldn't sleep. If there is even one available second, he wants to spend it for the sake of the entire humanity. We must understand Father's heart.

From my speech today, you have learned that there was a tremendous amount of historical indemnity to be paid to enable Jesus Christ to be born. Because of his mother's help, Jacob was able to restore the elder sonship. However, behind the scenes Jacob paid indemnity for over twenty years to restore his elder sonship. Do you think he could sleep any time he wanted and eat any food he wanted during those twenty years? All God's champions in the history of restoration have gone through that kind of life course. What about the life of Jesus Christ? How desperate he was! Do you think Jesus Christ wanted to be crucified? No.

I wonder how much you understand Father's life. In my speech today I explained that Father has been in prison six times for doing God's work. It is easy to say that. Father is never afraid of being in prison. Father fears one thing in his lifetime: being unable to fulfill his mission before he passes away into the spirit world. Father never complains about physical conditions, even in prison, because he doesn't care about pain or struggle. However, Father clearly knows that among these five billion people in the world he is the only person who can save all of humanity. Therefore, if Father can't fulfill his mission, the history of restoration will be postponed. That's what Father has feared.

Non-Unification Church members who have some connection to the spirit world testify that when they see Father's heart, they can't open their mouth without shedding tears, because they clearly see the life course of Father. Just to look at Father makes those mediums cry for several days. They testify that God has pity on Father. Please understand that after six thousand years of restoration, when God sees Father in such a difficult position, paying indemnity for the sake of all humanity, God Himself comes forward and comforts Father. We must understand that Father is in that kind of position and that God's heart is reaching out to comfort Father.

Unity with True Parents

Do you understand what I said? Do you really feel that in your heart? Father, as the Messiah of all humanity, must come with glory and victory, but the Father we are serving right now is the Father of pain and agony. You should feel that in your heart. If you truly don't feel that, if your heart doesn't go out to Father, if you can't stop shedding tears of sorrow and sympathy for Father, then you can't claim to be True Parents' children. You truly should be able to feel that in your heart. By this standard you can see how distant you are from Father and Mother.

Do you all believe in the existence of the spirit world? [Yes.] So you believe in eternal life? [Yes.] Do you also believe that your entire life in this world will be reflected when you join the spirit world? Every detail of your entire physical life will be reflected in the spirit world, just like on a microfilm. The spirit world is a world of love. Therefore, if you can't establish the bonds of love with True Parents and the foundation of total unity with True Parents in this world, imagine what kind of position you will have in the spirit world. When you join the spirit world, the first condition by which you will be evaluated as children of True Parents is how much you loved True Parents. The second condition is how much love you offered to your neighbors, to humanity. Those two conditions are important.

Here in America, people easily say, "I love you. We love you." However, it is questionable what depth of love is meant. Most of the time, when people say they love somebody or something, we interpret that love as having a self-centered base. However, if you are confident that you are children of True Parents and are serving True Parents, you should be different when you say you love someone or some thing, shouldn't you?

Of course, I am wondering how many years you have been in this church and what kind of blessed couples you are. Whether you are from the 1800 Couples or 6000 Couples doesn't matter. You are the ones who know about yourselves the most, therefore you should evaluate your life and examine the quality of life that you are leading in front of True Parents and God. I want you to have a brand new life starting from this moment. In the past you may have deviated a bit in the eyes of God and True Parents. However, since you know the Divine Principle and True Parents and you serve True Parents, you must be born through this truth and make a brand new start from this moment on. Can you do that? [Yes!]

In one city where I already spoke, a person who was not a Unification Church member came to my speech. She went to work the next day, but because of the truth she received and because of her seriousness she couldn't work. She was constantly thinking about the truth. "What shall I do?" she asked herself. "The Messiah is here, the truth is here, true love is here. Should I sit here and continue working in this office, or should I do something else?" She was serious.

When we look at the secular world, it is decaying and declining and perishing. However, there are still some people who are serious about life. Therefore, please think that among the five billion people on earth, many of them have a serious enough attitude to receive True Parents, yet they didn't have any chance to hear because nobody told them. They are living in the same time period as True Parents, they are breathing together with the True Parents in the same era. Yet if they pass away to the spirit world without hearing about True Parents, whose responsibility is that? When they join the spirit world and they find out that they were not told because you didn't do your responsibility, they will criticize and accuse you.

Give more than you received

Particularly in this time period, American members in this country are the key. Think about the role of Messiah. The Messiah is not just for Koreans, not just for Americans, but for all humanity. For over twenty years Father has been teaching you every single day. You have studied Father's teaching, Father has been taking care of you, and you have been living with Father, but what did you do? Think about the people in African countries who haven't even seen Father. Don't you feel sorry for them?

Can you pledge in front of me that you will give more than you have received from True Parents and God from now on? [YES!]

When I got off the plane today, I was welcomed by your regional director, Rev. Chung Young Yoo. I told Rev. Yoo, "When I look at New Mexico, it does not look green like New York or New Jersey. More than half of it is desert; there is no life, no trees, no water. Still there are some cities like Albuquerque with some green areas, people and houses." Albuquerque is fairly high in elevation, something like three thousand feet, so I asked Rev. Yoo, "Since this city is pretty high up, we can say that it is closer to heaven. Can you restore this city of Albuquerque and furthermore this state, New Mexico, and offer it to God?" Rev. Yoo said, "Yes, Mother, I will." Will you? [Yes!] Okay, it is good to answer yes. However, to give an answer is not enough. Your result will be your answer, so please have a serious attitude about accomplishing this goal and live a serious life so you can accomplish your work. Will you do that? [Yes.]

Among the fifty states in this country, what if New Mexico becomes the first state to receive True Parents as the True Parents in the entire state? [We will do it.] In Korean, the word Albuquerque sounds something like, "This becomes well-roasted and belongs to Heavenly Father." After it gets roasted, it becomes Heavenly Father's. That means you have to work really hard and fast. Can you do that? I will wait and see.

How to get closer to True Parents

Therefore, please set a goal in your daily life to become closer to True Parents. If you have that kind of determination and invest all your effort and prayer, God will lead you. For example, two of the true grandchildren are in Kodiak with Father now. One is Hyun Jin Nim's first son, Shin Won Nim, who is four and one-half years old; the other is Un Jin Nim's daughter, who is less than three years old. Of course, after the speech every day I call Father and have a conversation over the phone. Usually these two grandchildren get on the phone and say hello to grandmother. They know how to comfort grandmother. They have such wit; sometimes they sing, "I wish I could see my beautiful grandmother on the TV screen," or something like that. Nobody taught them, but they instantly composed something like that to sing over the phone to ease grandmother's heart. You should have that kind of attitude, that kind of pure heart, to get closer to True Parents, to be able to comfort and please.

When you wake up in the morning, read my speech as your prayer. Of course, if you can do it together with your spouse and children it is better, but even by yourself do it as your prayer. Then do your mission, and before you go to bed read the speech over again with your family, using it as your prayer. That way you will get closer to True Parents' heart. I will give you a tip how to improve your heartistic relationship with True Parents. Suppose you are just about to have a hamburger for lunch. Before eating a hamburger, hold it in your hand and try to have a conversation with True Parents by saying, "Father, Mother, I am just about to have this humble hamburger. Father, would you like some? Do you want to eat it?" Have some dialogue, some give and take with True Parents in your heart. That is the way you can train yourself and bring your heart closer to True Parents.

When you are trying to witness to somebody, instead of just praying and going out to talk to that person, have a discussion with True Parents. You don't have to come all the way to New York to be face to face with True Parents; you can do that in your daily life. That doesn't mean you should walk along the street and talk aloud, but deep in your heart you can talk to True Parents: "Father, Mother, I am trying to witness to that particular person. Father, is this way better or should I wait a few more hours and talk to him?" Have that kind of discussion with True Parents. If you develop such a genuine attitude and way of life, then spirit world will be mobilized to help you.

Attend and prepare

The Completed Testament Age is the age of living with True Parents, serving and attending True Parents. How long do you think you will be able to serve True Parents in this physical world? You must have confidence that your life of attendance in this physical world will be approved before you go to the spirit world.

I am coughing a lot. Maybe someone should tell me not to talk. My speech is a little over one hour long. However, when I prepare this speech, I think about hundreds of new people coming to the speech, so my prayer and preparation and concentration are unimaginable.

You tend to take it for granted when you see Father speaking freely, because Father is the very origin of the truth which he is giving us. Therefore, you think Father is loaded with truth, Father is the essence of truth so he can any time just bring out and share with us. When Father speaks, he always tells us that this is not just an academic lecture. He says that my talk must be able to mobilize spirit world so I can give a new spirit to people, give people rebirth. In order to give a one-hour talk, Father prepares for three hours. For example, when Father was speaking in twelve major cities just prior to my tour, Father had read the speech over a hundred times. Of course, Father wrote it. Every single word is Father's, nothing came from anybody else, yet Father always practices and prepares in the morning. He works during the daytime and prepares at night before he goes to bed. From midnight until 3:00 or 4:00 a.m., he studies this speech and prays about this speech.

If Father is leading that kind of life, what do you think you have to do? You have to do maybe ten times more than Father, a hundred times more than Father. You haven't done it up to this point. Can you live up to the expectations of your Father and Mother?

True Parents and the Completed Testament Age

Mrs. Moon's Public Speech in Washington DC
March 1993

Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:

I wish to thank you for coming to this invitational address. My subject today is 'True Parents and the Completed Testament Age.'

Today, we are at a crucial crossroads of history. Therefore, if we are to take the road to a bright future, it is essential that we understand God s original purpose for creating humankind.

God s ideal in creating the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, was that they perfect themselves through true love so that they could then create a good family of true love, true life, and true lineage. Such a good family would have been formed on the basis of unified heart and mind among family members in front of God.

In general, all people want their loved ones to be better than themselves. All parents want their sons and daughters, for example, to look better and achieve more than themselves. This tendency comes from God. God wants His children to be better than even Himself.

Similarly, God wants to give limitlessly to His children. God is not content in giving just 100 percent. God's desire is to give a thousand times more than what He has. The nature of God is to give love completely and then forget what He has given. Unlike some who calculate how much they have given and decide that it is enough, for God enough is never enough.

Moreover, God s purpose in creating the world was to have an object of love. His purpose in creating parents and children, husbands and wives, and all things in this world in complementary pairs was to substantiate true love throughout His creation. Likewise, parents are to live for their children, and children for their parents. Husbands are to live for their wives, and wives for their husbands. All beings in creation are to live for and give to others.

If God s ideal of true love had been realized through Adam s family, that family would have become the beginning of the heavenly kingdom. It would have expanded throughout all of history to the clan, to the nation, and thence over all the earth. This would have been the world of true love, the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth. Furthermore, there would have been a parallel expansion of the heavenly kingdom in the spiritual world.

Human History's False Start

If God s original ideal had been realized, then there would have been no need for a Messiah or for God's providence to save humanity. Adam s family, though it was merely a single family, would have been the center of the clan, of the nation, and of the world. It would have been the blueprint for all families in the future. It would have been the model for the realization of God's ideal world.

Because of the fall of the original human ancestors, God s work of salvation had to begin. Salvation history had to be repeatedly extended through the complicated and suffering courses of the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age, culminating in today s Completed Testament Age. God s ideal of the true family and the heavenly kingdom, which He wanted to realize through Adam s family, was destroyed because Adam and Eve fell away from God.

Due to the Fall, this present world is far from the good world of God s ideal. Today s world is, in fact, a 'false' world, in that it is flooded with self-centered love. This came about because Adam and Eve became false parents based on false and self-centered love with Satan. They multiplied evil rather than goodness, creating a false family and passing on false life and a false lineage to their descendants. Thus, false clans, false nations, and a false world came into being.

Formula for Reconciliation

Therefore, the key goal in God's dispensation of salvation is that a man and a woman, representing Adam and Eve, should be restored as True Parents centered on God s true love, so that the true family can be formed. From them would eventually flow the true clan, the true nation, and the true world. In other words, the seed from which God s true love, true life, and true lineage can grow must be created.

My dear friends, have you ever wondered how a world filled with such evil and corruption could come from a God of love and goodness?

If you read the Bible carefully, you will see that the fall of man involves the loss of Adam s entire family. First, the position of parents was lost through the fall of Adam and Eve. Second, the position of children was lost as Cain murdered Abel. God's 'blueprint' for an ideal family and world perfection was lost. Therefore, to restore the original family, God works in reverse to reclaim the positions of Cain and Abel, and then the positions of True Mother and True Father. This pattern of reconciliation of Cain and Abel as the foundation for restoring the True Parents has been God s consistent formula throughout the history of restoration.

The separation of fallen mankind into a Cain-Abel division occurs over and over again in Judeo-Christian history. Therefore, God first of all separated fallen mankind into two 'brotherly' sides of Cain, symbolizing Satan, and Abel, symbolizing God, to work out the hatreds resulting from the Fall. God used the method of having Abel be hit first and sacrificed. As a result, Abel could stand on that very foundation to embrace Cain and recover the blessing given to the elder son. For example, the religion that most advances the purpose of salvation always receives Satan s most severe persecution. It walks the path of constant opposition yet continues its sacrificial effort to save the sinful world. Likewise, good people always stand in the position of being struck first and sacrificed.

Looking almost anywhere in our fallen world, it is easy to notice struggles between good and evil, similar to the struggle between Cain and Abel. These struggles start in the conflict between each individual s mind and body. The mind, which represents the Abel side, struggles to overcome the body, which represents the Cain side. The struggle within individuals has expanded to the family, nation, and world. As a result, humankind has always been divided into two opposing camps, one good, or Abel-like, and the other evil, or Cain- like, locked in struggle at every level. It has always been God s intention, however, that both sides be restored, not that one triumph over and destroy the other.

Some examples of this division are: the thief on the right side of Jesus on the cross, representing Abel, and the thief on the left, representing Cain, and South Korea versus North Korea, which represents the last conflict between right wing and left wing on the world level. Moreover, there is the Christian-Muslim conflict in the Middle East. So the key issue in God s work of salvation has always remained how to unify such divided sides, based on His ideal, in order to build a foundation on which to reclaim the True Mother and True Father.

Ladies and gentlemen, if a family is not centered on God s ideal of love, there will be conflict among the members of that family. Without God s love as an absolute center, such a family will ultimately break down. Moreover, a nation of such families will also decline. Because illicit, self-centered love invaded the first family, selfishness and greed have continued to dominate human history from the individual to the family, society, nation, and world. For this reason, God's work of restoration begins at the individual level. Since Satan knows this, he focuses his efforts also on the individual level.

It is not by chance that self-centered individualism has become the dominant way of life in these last days. People feel increasingly alienated from those around them, and bear little sense of responsibility for the well-being of their country, society, or even their own families. Rising divorce statistics indicate that husbands and wives feel little responsibility toward their marriages; parents do not take responsibility for their children; individuals, devoid of any sense of human dignity, fail even to take responsibility for themselves.

America has seen such phenomena at work beginning with the youth movement of the sixties. Idealistic youth rejected the materialism around them in order to seek love and peace, but in the process, they also abandoned morality and responsibility. Unable to attain the true love they sought, many disillusioned young people resorted to suicide, drug abuse, and free sex.

True Love vs. Free Sex

Of all these, what pains God most is free sex. A world of free sex is absolutely contrary to the will of God. Love comes from the stimulation of unblemished emotion, but free sex is totally devoid of purity or true emotion. How many of us have been touched by the cruelty of infidelity and divorce? Where is God in all the one-night stands? What about the nightmares of the children who are sexually abused by a parent? Is free sex worth the price of a broken child? Where there is homosexuality, free sex, drugs, and alcoholism, the world of true love is far away.

In this world, Satan openly tells people, 'Drink! Smoke! Take drugs! Have sex!' Those who do God's Will, on the other hand, live a lifestyle that is 180 degrees different from this. Throughout history, those who chose to walk a spiritual path of self-sacrifice have been bitterly opposed and persecuted by the rest of the world. It is only God's love and blessing which have allowed the Unification Church, despite worldwide opposition, to prosper. The fact that our church has risen from obscurity in war-torn Korea to become a world-level religious movement in only 38 years testifies to God's continued guidance and support.

There are those who continue to oppose the Unification Church, spreading wild rumors or trying to prevent our teachings from being heard. Again, Satan s way is always to attack that which is most precious to God. Yet those who go against the will of God can never prosper. The principle holds true that those on God s side, who can endure unjust persecution, will win the right to take back the blessing. God s strategy is always to be hit first and then take back what is rightfully His.

Restoring True Love

Ladies and gentlemen, the Bible teaches that Eve first disobeyed God and entered into a relationship with Satan. Due to the Fall, not only Eve, but also Adam and their sons Cain and Abel, inherited Satan s lineage, based upon selfishness and false love. As the descendants of the original couple which was compromised by Satan, we have all inherited a satanic lineage. This is why Jesus said in John 8:44, 'You are of your father, the devil.'

The Old Testament described a process of restitution according to the formula 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' In the Divine Principle, we refer to making restitution for a wrong as 'paying indemnity.' To make restitution for her wrong actions, fallen Eve needed to take the entire responsibility upon herself. She should have reversed the actions of the Fall and made spiritual and physical restitution for each step of the Fall.

It was God's Will that Eve assist her younger son, Abel, to unite with the Will of God. We know from Genesis that Abel's offering was accepted by God. However, this was not all that was expected of Abel. Through Abel s love, Cain was supposed to recognize Abel as God's chosen person and unite with him.

If Cain and Abel had united, the second of the two problems of the Fall could have been solved. God would then have addressed the problem of Adam and Eve. Eve was meant to stand as the first mother of humanity. She should have united Cain and Abel, and worked to establish a foundation for True Parents. Eve, however, did not fulfill this mission in her lifetime, and history had to wait for another woman who would pay fallen Eve's restitution.

Rebekah: A Model Case

In the Bible, one of God s great heroines is Rebekah, the spouse of Isaac. As the mother of Jacob and Esau, Rebekah held the same position in Isaac s family that Eve held in Adam s family. Unlike Eve, however, Rebekah understood God s providence and helped her second son, Jacob, representing Abel s position, to gain the blessing destined for the first son, Esau.

Just as Cain killed Abel, Esau wanted to kill Jacob when the blessing went to his younger brother. But with Rebekah's help, these brothers eventually reconciled in a warm embrace, rather than resorting to violence. This reconciliation was a major victory for God. This victory, nevertheless, was not complete, since the reconciliation represented only a symbolic purification of blood lineage. The substantial purification of blood lineage had to be accomplished in the womb. This is the reason for the paradoxical story of Tamar.

By understanding that Tamar, like Rebekah, was in the position of fallen Eve, it becomes possible to understand why Jesus was born of her lineage, the tribe of Judah.

I am sure that many of you have read the story about the birth of her twins. She conceived with Judah, her father-in-law, the twins Perez and Zerah. The Bible tells us that the two sons struggled even in the womb for the position of first-born. During Tamar s labor, Zerah's hand emerged and the midwife tied a red string around his wrist. Then, Zerah's hand disappeared back into the womb and Perez, the younger, was born as the elder! Thus, the positions of Cain and Abel were restored even before birth took place. It was from this point that the Israelite people became the nation chosen to receive the Messiah.

In terms of conventional morality, the stories of Rebekah and Tamar would be questionable at best. Why God blessed them was a theological mystery until today. As we now see, God needed to reclaim His lineage from Satan so that Jesus could be born. Purified, true-love blood lineage was the point from which the Israelite nation started expanding. The word Israel also means victory. Their victory was the purification of blood lineage.

Mary's Life-Risking Course

The lineage of Judah developed for generations, expanding to the levels of tribe, society, and nation. From this same lineage, Mary was born in Israel 2,000 years later.

Mary had the responsibility to unite Cain and Abel figures on the family, clan, and national levels through paying appropriate indemnity and restoring elder sonship. Mary responded to God's call and conceived Jesus even though, in the eyes of others, she had betrayed her parents and Joseph, to whom she was engaged. At that time, it was customary to stone to death any woman who became pregnant out of wedlock. However, Joseph, standing in the position of Adam, courageously protected his fiancee and resisted abandoning her.

Because of Mary s faith, and the work of Rebekah and Tamar, Satan could not claim sovereignty over Jesus in Mary's womb. Jesus was born in the position of a true son under God's complete, direct lineage. He is the first true son of God after the purification of the fallen blood lineage. That is why Jesus is the saint of all saints and the ancestor of the true blood lineage. His birth represented the conclusion of the Old Testament Age at the national level and the dawn of the New Testament Age at the worldwide level.

Mary, in the position to restore fallen Eve, had to build a unity between Jesus, who was in the position of Abel, and his elder cousin, John the Baptist, who was in the position of Cain. This unity was essential for the people of Israel to identify Jesus as the Messiah.

John was the elder. He had a great following and was widely respected. As Jesus explained to his disciples, the ministry of John was the fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecy that Elijah the prophet would return to 'make straight the way of the Lord.'

But did John fulfill his role in God's providence? The Gospel of Luke tells us that John came 'in the spirit and power of Elijah.' John, however, denied that he was Elijah, and doubted the Messiahship of Jesus even after he had received a clear revelation at the Jordan River at the time of Jesus baptism. John was a well-respected religious figure, while Jesus was seen as only the illegitimate son of a poor carpenter. Without the support of John, it was impossible for the Jewish people to believe in and follow Jesus. Alone, Jesus undertook the difficult path of proclaiming himself.

John the Baptist should have helped Jesus reach the religious leadership of Israel. If John had fulfilled his role, then Judaism, in the position of Abel, and the nation of Israel, in the position of Cain, could have united centered on Jesus.

This would have laid the foundation for the Marriage of the Lamb. Jesus would have stood as the True Father of humanity, and his bride would have stood as the True Mother of humanity.

In less than seven years, his teaching would have expanded rapidly to the worldwide level, winning Asia and Rome to his side before he was 40. Eventually, Jesus and his bride would have achieved the individual heavenly kingdom, family heavenly kingdom, clan heavenly kingdom, and national heavenly kingdom.

A Dream Unfulfilled

However, this glorious destiny could not be realized. It was the religious people themselves who rejected Jesus words and called for his crucifixion.

Confronted by the faithlessness in Israel, Jesus determined to give his life to achieve spiritual salvation for humankind. However, he would have to come again in order to bring physical or earthly salvation in addition to spiritual salvation.

This is why the mind can draw close to God through Jesus, but the body continues to be tempted by evil. Even Saint Paul anguished over the contradiction of the desires of the flesh and the desires of the spirit. Many great Christian evangelists have also suffered because of this contradiction. At the dawn of the Completed Testament Age, the crucial challenge is to accomplish both physical salvation and spiritual salvation.

Because of Jesus death on the cross, the conflict between left wing and right wing appeared. This is like the separation into Cain and Abel necessitated by Adam s fall. Likewise, Islam and Christianity appeared and began struggling. Because such separation was caused by the crucifixion of Jesus, Christ will work for unity at the time of the Second Coming.

The Unity Imperative

God's preparation for the Second Advent required a world-level foundation of successful Cain-Abel reconciliation. This dispensation was carried out through the events surrounding World War II. The Allied countries of Britain, America, and France represented Christianity and were in the position of Abel. The Axis countries of Germany, Japan, and Italy were under the influence of nationalistic militarism and stood in the position of Cain. This war represented the expansion of the conflict between Cain and Abel to the world level.

Immediately after the Allied victory, great strides were made toward creating a world of peace centered upon Christianity. With Britain in the world-level position of Eve, and America and France representing Abel and Cain, respectively, these Allied nations stood ready to receive the Lord of the Second Advent.

Despite all of this preparation, God's dispensation was not fulfilled at that time. God's representative came to bring His word and was met with tremendous persecution and almost universal misunderstanding. This paralleled Jesus' situation 2,000 years ago. Just as the Israelites of Jesus' time awaited the Second Coming of Elijah on a chariot descending from heaven, Christians awaited the Second Coming by expecting Jesus himself to descend on a cloud from the sky.

In Revelation, Jesus reveals to the Apostle John that he will come with a new name. This foreshadowed that Jesus would come again through another man, just as Elijah had done.

At this crucial time after World War II, then, God instructed me to bring a new message of truth to Christians in Korea. Korean Christian leaders, however, rejected the possibility that I, a humble young man, had been chosen to bring this new message. Because the New Testament Age is an extension of the Old Testament Age, they could not believe that the Second Coming would be born as a man on earth any more than the Jewish people could believe it at the time of Jesus.

If I and the Christian churches had become one, the heavenly kingdom would already have been established on earth as well as in heaven. During the seven-year period from 1945 to 1952, when the New Testament Age ended, the entire world could have united in accordance with the providence of God.

A Thorny Path

Instead of uniting with me, however, these religious leaders became jealous of the growing number of my followers. They blindly opposed me without hearing me out. They even spread lies about me. Rumors of sexual misconduct and greed, the very antithesis of my teachings, were used to assassinate my character.

God had expanded Christianity and had raised up a mighty Christian nation like America for the purpose of preparing the way for the Second Coming. Whether they realized it or not, those ministers in Korea represented all of Christianity. Because America and worldwide Christianity failed to unite with me after World War II, they began to decline in their power and moral authority.

After World War II, the United States and Christianity stood on a victorious foundation of Cain-Abel unity. The time was ripe to receive the Second Coming. However, this opportunity failed to materialize and the whole world opposed my work. Therefore, I was expelled into the wilderness. I was forced to the bottom and have been climbing back up ever since.

Thus, the Cold War began. The world separated again into two worldwide spheres of Cain and Abel, just as it had during World War II. Denying God, just as the thief on the left denied Jesus, communism represented the Cain- type world. Christian democracies, which affirmed the existence of God, represented the thief on the right, and the Abel-type world.

It was God s Will that the Messiah of the Second Coming should unite the two hostile blocs. That is why I mobilized my church to help settle conflicts between the right wing, represented by the free world, and the left wing, represented by communism. We have also worked on behalf of Christianity and Judaism as a peacemaker with our Islamic brothers and sisters.

During the Cold War period, I fought to break down barriers on the individual, family, clan, national, worldwide, and cosmic levels in order to rebuild the lost foundation to receive the Messiah. This required a minimum indemnity period of 40 years. Since I cannot live for 4,000 years or for 400 years, I knew that I would have to indemnify all of history in just 40 years. During this period of four decades, I restored the 4,000-year history before Jesus, and the 6,000-year biblical history since the Creation. After this indemnity was paid, the Cold War ended through the unity of Cain and Abel countries. This was consummated by the Unification Church at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, where 160 nations of the world came to Korea.

For decades, I have been completely misunderstood. For three years, I was imprisoned in a North Korean communist concentration camp. Altogether, I have been wrongly imprisoned six times for doing God s work. Moreover, the media have mocked me as a monster who brainwashes the young for self-benefit. Can anyone disagree when I say that Reverend Moon is the most persecuted religious leader in the world? My heart is broken when I think of how God has suffered to see His messengers rejected time and time again. My only desire has been to comfort His heart, yet I find that it is God who always comforts me.

I have walked a path of indemnity, or restitution, in order to restore the failures of the past, including those of the Old and New Testament eras. Korea can be compared to the Old Testament Age, while America, a mostly Christian civilization, can be compared to the New Testament Age. For the first 20 years, I walked the road of indemnity of the Old Testament Age, centering on the Korean nation and the Unification Church, representing the positions of the Israelite nation and Judaism, respectively. On the foundation of this work, I established in 1960 the Holy Wedding of True Parents on the national level. Then, in 1971, my wife and I came to America. Over the next 20 years in the U.S., I walked the path of indemnity to fulfill the New Testament Age and to begin the Completed Testament Age. Thus, I established the True Parents family, the origin of true love, true life, and true blood lineage, based on God.

The reason why America is essential in the providential dispensation is because of her close ties with the Christian churches, Judaism, and Israel.

Even though America has dismissed and opposed my work, my wife and I continue to pray for America to realize her providential responsibility. It is our sincere desire that America avoid repeating her failure. A failure to unite with God s Will would create the need for further indemnity and would deprive America of the blessing that God wishes to bestow upon this great nation. America, in fact, would have waned long ago without the help of the Unification movement.

Rome thought that the world existed only for the sake of Rome. She did not realize that God had raised her up for the purpose of uniting with the Messiah and serving the world.

America faces a similar situation today. People must realize that God blessed America not for herself but for the sake of the world. America s Pilgrim Fathers did not come here for wealth. They came here to attend God. If America fails to remember the purpose for which she is blessed, then her blessing will cease and she will perish. I desperately want to prevent this. I must save America.

For 21 years I have struggled in this country, trying to bring God s message to the American people. American leaders, prominent Christians, and other leading figures of the world have only a faint idea of the forces that shape the future. Therefore, they can offer little insight, hope, or guidance to their people. In these chaotic times, humankind is longing for a true direction and purpose, yet America and the churches have no confident answer. God has granted me an understanding of the forces involved in His providential history. Thus, I know the direction that humankind must go, and I, with the help of God, will lead the world there.

What the Unification Church Offers

The truth which God has revealed to me is contained in the Divine Principle. Looking at the history of humankind and the stories of the Bible from the providential viewpoint, the Divine Principle unlocks the answers to questions unsolved for thousands of years. Those who have sincerely studied its contents have found it to be a true gift from God, providing the only solutions to the problems facing our society today. Even in the formerly communist C.I.S., Soviet leaders and thousands of young people have found their lives renewed through their studies of my teachings. Finally free from the oppression of communist ideology, they are hungry for the spiritual truth to guide their nations. Russian classrooms where our members are teaching 'Godism,' or 'Head-wing Ideology,' are overflowing.

There are countless other testimonies to the power of the Divine Principle to give hope and new life to young people. Last year, in Korea, we held a wedding celebration for 30,000 couples, all dedicating their lives to one another, to God, and to the world. In most families today, parents cannot effectively guide their children, especially on such intimate matters as love and marriage. Yet, my wife and I brought together young people from 131 different nations and realized their most cherished dreams of love in a historic way. This was indeed a great miracle of the modern world. In the future, as people come to understand the value and quality of these precious families, millions will seek such marriages. Through them, God can restore the family that Satan has destroyed. Such restored, God-centered families are the very building blocks of an ideal nation and world.

My dear friends, when Jesus taught the coming of the Messiah, he told the parable of the virgins who were awaiting the arrival of the bridegroom. According to the book of Revelation, Christianity is portrayed as a bride. America, representing Christianity, can also be seen as a bride nation.

Women's Crucial Role

Therefore, America must take the responsibility of creating a foundation for worldwide unity upon which the bridegroom can finally be received. This signifies the restoration of the original positions of man and woman, restored Adam and Eve, to the realm of true equality. At this turning point in the history of restoration, a woman in the position of True Mother must prepare the world to receive the True Father.

When Christianity failed to meet her bridegroom the first time, God s dispensation had to be delayed 40 years until 1992. During this time, I have worked and prayed to bring about the unity of Korea, Britain, America, France, Japan, Germany, and Italy.

That is why, in April 1992, my wife and I founded the Women s Federation for World Peace. Last year my wife, as True Mother, visited these seven countries, as well as Russia and Oceania. She gathered together the women of these countries to form chapters of the Women s Federation for World Peace. With these events, the nations that had been the worldwide Cain and Abel countries since World War II united together to receive the True Mother and prepare again the foundation for meeting the True Father.

Based upon this foundation, my wife and I can now stand on a worldwide foundation as the first True Parents. As the world enters the Completed Testament Age, we will live with God again.

At this historical turning point, we have to practice on the worldwide level the principle that an individual's mind and body must be united centered on God. To facilitate this, we have founded two organizations working for world peace. The Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace represents the world mind, and carries out the internal mission of uniting all the world s religions on the basis of God s love. The Federation for World Peace, on the other hand, represents the world body, and pursues the external mission of building up ideal societies with leaders in the fields of politics, economics, media, academia, and science.

Completing the Family Foundation

During the last 40 years, I broke down all of Satan s obstructions, traveled into various parts of not only the physical but also the spiritual world, crossed over many world and national barriers, and have now reached the present family stage.

Through the law of indemnity, all the problems of the world will be solved by establishing the family ideal centered on God s true love.

Looking at the vertical perspective of love, Adam and Eve should have related directly with God by developing in themselves the four types of love: children's love, brother-sister love, conjugal love, and parental love.

Therefore, Adam and Eve should originally have gone through the four spheres of the heart, centering on God's true love, as completed children, completed brother and sister, loving couple, and perfected parents. In this way, they would have achieved the completed family.

Adam and Eve should have become the role models for all in their family. Their children would have looked to their parents as ideal role models. They would have become brothers and sisters who loved each other as their parents loved them. Then they would have become married couples resembling the husband-wife relationship of their parents. Finally, with the birth of children, they would have established their own completed families, identical to that of their parents.

By setting up ideal, unbreakable families that fulfill the vertical and horizontal unity between parents and children, brothers and sisters, and husband and wife, we can finally build the eternal basis for God s kingdom on earth as well as in heaven. Thus, all the families in the world originating from the same God-centered ancestors, Adam and Eve, would have equal, divine value.

Extension of the Messianic Ideal

Ladies and gentlemen, at the dawn of the Completed Testament Age, the time has come for each family to take up the messianic mission of completing the work of salvation all over the world. After restoring your family, the next step is to restore your community, tribe, and nation. We call this process 'tribal messiahship.'

Mother Testifies about Father's Workshops

November 11, 1993
Oslo, Norway
Translator: Peter Kim

At the end of the August Kodiak workshops [see the November issue of Today's World] Father continued with a new series of workshops for Japanese women. When Mother finished her speaking tour of Japan [see the November issue of Today's World] and went to Korea to speak at the universities there, Father moved these workshops to Cheju Island where he continued teaching until the end of the first year of the Completed Testament Age.

Another wave of fifty thousand Japanese sisters began coming incrementally to Cheju Island on January 3, 1994, for workshops.

In Korea right now. Father is educating eighteen hundred woman leaders from Japan. Each team goes through three nights and four days of training. After each team leaves, another team comes. By the end of this year, Father will complete educating up to fifty thousand Japanese women leaders. Father himself is giving personal, special training-Divine Principle and teachings for life of faith in general. Think about it. Father, at the age of seventy-three, sleeping less than two hours a day, speaking fifteen to sixteen hours every single day. On top of that, Father and the participants are staying up at night to listen to my speech. Right now in Korea it is 6:10 a.m. In order for them to listen to my speech, they have to stay up, because they started listening from 4:00 a.m. until now, 6:10 a.m. Father will probably have something simple for breakfast and then go out and talk for another fifteen or sixteen hours. Think about it. These teams of Japanese leaders come and go-three nights and four days. Then a new team comes, but Father stays there every single day, without rest he keeps going on. We are really praying for Father's health. Of course, Father's spirit is higher and stronger than anyone else in the world, but Father's physical body has limitations. We must send our support and prayer. Next year Father may come.

Bring Them Back to God

Talk to Philippine Brothers and Sisters
December 8, 1992-Manila, Philippines
Translator: Peter Kim

Have you been longing to meet True Parents? Have you understood what Father and Mother were talking about over the phone? Are you studying Korean? (Yes!) Since you are young and are intelligent, if you are determined then you can learn Korean very quickly.

I have been missing you and I pray that you will work hard.

Let's think about God's creation for a while. When you try to create certain things, either as a sculptor, artist, or musician, if you are not satisfied, you put more effort into it and try again and again until you come up with something you are satisfied with, don't you? That's exactly the heart of God at the time He created the entire universe. Therefore, we can think about God's heart of creating starting from the mineral world, then the plant world, and going up to the level of human beings. At each level of creation, what kind of heart did God invest into it, how long did it take, and what kind of plan did He have in mind? Think about all these levels of effort and heart.

What was the last level God created? (Man!) Therefore, human beings are the last level of creation, right? (Yes!) When we say human being, we are talking about man and woman. Then who was created last? (Woman!) When I look at you today, we have more sisters than brothers. Aren't you proud of that, sisters? (Yes!) But don't just be happy. Eve is symbolized by the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. That means you have more responsibility than men. In other words, woman is an object who can possibly return the most glory to God and at the same time the most sadness and sorrow to God. Both possibilities are awaiting you women. God has dual characteristics too, right? Does He side more with men or with women? In my speech today I said that men need women. Therefore, whom does God need more? (Women!) [Laughter.] You follow my logic!

"How do you feel?"

When I was speaking with True Father over the phone, one of the questions he asked me was, "How do you feel after you finished one hundred and twelve speeches?" My first answer was, "I felt pain. The kind of pain which I experience as a mother when I give birth to my child."

When Father told me to make a speaking tour in Japan, I didn't know how to speak Japanese. I had no chance to study Japanese and I knew only a little bit of Japanese. Put yourself in my shoes and imagine that you are sent to Korea and within one month you have to master Korean and give more than a one-hour long public speech in Korean. Are you confident you could do that? It is not enough just to try. You have to think that you would give up your life to do it.

If I was an ordinary woman and could take the podium and give an ordinary speech, maybe it would be a little bit easier. However, I had to appear as a public figure and on top of that, move people's hearts when I spoke. Think about what kind of pressure I had to deal with. Of course, I have my own life and my own pride too. I also have to follow Father's foundation which he had been laying all these years, with one hundred percent obedience. How many children have I produced up to this point? Fourteen. To give birth involves more than just ten months of pain and struggle during pregnancy. You young people may not understand what I am talking about, but to give birth to a new child is like giving up one's life. On that foundation, new life emerges. Therefore, I interpreted the mission of giving speeches in Japanese to Japanese people to be like giving birth to a new child. Therefore, I determined to give up my life in order to give new life to the Japanese people who would come to my speech. That is how I prepared for my speaking tour in Japan.

To begin with, I did not know how to read Japanese. People say Japanese is not so difficult to learn. However, in reality, a lot of little details of pronunciation have to be added and subtracted here and there. Did you watch the videotape of the Tokyo Dome rally? (Yes!) All the Japanese brothers and sisters say that I did an excellent job. While I was speaking in Japan, Father stayed in Alaska and heard my speech over the phone. Each time I spoke, there were comments from Father. Father was playing the role of a strict teacher to me. Then by the end of the ten-city tour Father told me, "Mother, now you have an A-plus."

Western rebirth

Towards the end of the speaking tour, Father told me over the phone, "Now Mother, come back to America and give the speaking tour in America." Father said that the first city on the American tour must be Washington, D.C., because it is the capital of the United States of America and many dignitaries are there. For a non-English speaker to come to Washington and give a public speech is not easy, because everybody is watching and analyzing you. From my point of view, it wasn't an easy job but Father said do it. That was a big challenge. As you know, I finished the eight-city tour with great success and victory. Then I spoke in the major cities of Europe. Throughout the European tour and the American tour, I could witness thousands and thousands of new lives just being born right there during the speech.

Towards the end of the European tour, Father suddenly told me, "Now Mother, this is the time you step out and go to Moscow." Brothers and sisters in the CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) planned to hold the rally at the Palace of Congresses in the Kremlin, where the former Soviet Union's Politburo held meetings. That's the best convention site in the former Soviet Union. They were planning to attract more than seven thousand people. With an additional room there was a capacity for twelve thousand people. However, the political situation was unstable then. Two days before my speech President Yeltsin became inebriated and hid out in his dacha, [Russian country cottage] and nobody could find him. We could not get the final okay to use the Palace of Congresses. Therefore, we had to use another theatre nearby with a capacity of three thousand people. About four thousand people came, and I had a great victory in Moscow.

Our brothers and sisters in the CIS sent word everywhere that Mother would speak. From St. Petersburg they chartered five trains to transport two thousand five hundred high school teachers. I had never heard of chartering an entire train! The night before the speech, all brothers and sisters in Moscow got on the phone to inform their contacts not to come because the substitute theater held only three thousand people. Two thousand five hundred people were already on the trains coming from St. Petersburg, so we had to tell all those contacts in Moscow not to come. The guests from St. Petersburg and our members occupied the entire hall, so almost no contacts from Moscow could enter. Therefore, brothers and sisters from Moscow are now planning another rally for me in a few months, probably in the Olympic Stadium, with its capacity of fifty thousand people. In East Garden, Father showed the videotape of my Moscow rally to about three hundred brothers and sisters and said to me, "I'm so proud of you."

After Moscow, I visited Australia and New Zealand. It took almost twenty hours to fly there. The return flight from Australia to America took about seventeen hours. I returned from New Zealand four days ago, stayed with the children and the family for two days. Then, as Father wished, I flew another twenty-four hours to come to the Philippines for you.

Invested more heart

At the beginning of my talk this evening I talked about God's creation and the pain of childbirth. It was very hard to come all the way to Manila for tonight's event, my one hundred and twelfth speech this year. I am going around the world rapidly. Today I may be in hot weather like in the Philippines and tomorrow in a snowy climate. My body chemistry doesn't adjust quickly; my biorhythm is not in good shape. Therefore, today, even while I was speaking, I had to control myself to keep from coughing. I have a headache and all kinds of symptoms. Do you understand?

I have given the one hundred and twelfth birth today. Do you think I have done well? Anyway, as I see your faces, I feel very good, and I even get some energy from you. How do you like it? Yet to know how I feel, you have to really put heartistic effort into your work.

Also, to be honest with you, when I compare your preparation, it isn't the best. Just like God, who put every effort and every experience He had obtained through the process of creation into the last creature, woman, I wanted to make the best creation today through this speech, putting all my effort and all of my heart into it. That was my desire in coming here. For that reason, even though I have given this speech more than one hundred times I studied even harder and invested more heart and more effort to do an even greater job today.

Father always tells the leaders, "If you are supposed to give a one- hour long Divine Principle lecture, you have to prepare and pray at least two or three hours." A good example has been set by Father. Of course when Father preaches to our brothers and sisters, he prepares a lot. However, he prepares even when he is giving a short talk, such as the ten or twelve-minute congratulatory speech he gave during my speaking tour in Korea. Father knew the contents inside out. He had memorized the talk. For Father to give a ten or twelve-minute speech is a piece of cake! Even so, Father always prepared, always studied his speech, and always prayed.

The brothers and sisters I met in Moscow all look young, fresh, bright and hopeful. I felt great joy. I told them the Bible quote: "The first shall be last and the last shall be first." Therefore, I said, "The Russian movement may be the last, but you have the hope of becoming the first." I will be grateful only if you bring the great victory in the end.

Essence of essence

Let's forget about what happened yesterday, this morning and until now, while you were preparing for my speech. Some good things happened, and some sorrowful situations developed. However, let's drop that feeling; the more important thing is the result. What kind of result can you bring back to God? That's more important. It's up to you: what kind of determination can you make, what kind of responsibility can you take, and what can you do for the sake of your country? Bring the entire people of this country and restore this country back to God: this is your responsibility. Therefore, please have that kind of determination and march forward from now on, and I will be grateful to all of you.

I encourage you to continue studying the text of my speech. Don't take this lightly because it is the essence of Father's forty-year teaching to the entire Unification Church membership. You may think this is only a forty-five minute speech and you know all the contents, but this is the essence of essence. Read it before you go to bed at night and when you wake up in the morning-anytime you have more than one minute. Don't waste it but keep studying. Each time you read it, you will get new inspiration and hear a new kind of truth. The text will be different each time you read it. This is truly the truth. Just like the Bible says, the truth will set you free. There is the truth here; so don't let it go.

At the same time, remember your contacts who came tonight. Don't lose them. Utilize the inspiration and knowledge you gained out of this text, keep contacting them, and bring them back to God. Your responsibility is to win them over.

Edited for Today's World.

Women's Role in World Peace

Mrs. Moon is the president of the Women's Federation for World Peace. This is the speech given on her eight-city tour of America in October, 1992.

It is my great honor to share my vision for world peace with such an illustrious gathering of women leaders from throughout the nation. Our participation here today is truly historic. It marks the beginning of the American Chapter of the Women's Federation for World Peace, and, for many of us, marks the beginning of an active new phase in our roles as women.

We are now entering an age of globalization. Ours is a time where the conflicts between cultures and races, and the walls of ideology and language, no longer keep us from realizing the creation of one, unified world. It is not by chance that we women are holding this conference today. We are called by history. It is the providence of God.

In our audience, I see the greatness of God's handiwork in America: women of every racial, religious and cultural background. But there is one thing that binds most of us here: we are women united to build a better and safer world for our children and families.

We see the signs of decay and confusion all around us. We need look no further than our own communities to find babies born addicted to drugs, children scarred by physical and sexual abuse, young dreams destroyed by unwanted pregnancy and neighborhoods under the siege of random violence.

As women we are deeply affected by these images. Our families and our children are casualties of a culture that exalts living mainly for the self. The impact of this selfishness reaches from the individual to our families, communities, nations and world.

That is why we have launched the Women's Federation for World Peace. This year alone, I have spoken to more than one million women in Asia urging that we join together to fight this war to save our families. As women we reject the ideologies of the past that have oppressed humanity. We are all united in our desire to banish war, oppression and exploitation from this world, and to hasten the anticipated future of true freedom, peace and prosperity.

During this historic age of transition, my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and I have advocated Godism in our efforts to overcome the forces of oppression. It is my belief that our efforts have played a role in the demise of the cold war era. Today, I would like to introduce a philosophy that advocates that we rise above racial, religious and national barriers to heal this world. This philosophy is called Godism.

How, then, is a world of true freedom, peace, and prosperity to be achieved? To know this we must first start by understanding God and His purpose of creating the universe.

Originally, God created an object of love in order to feel joy. To create one masterpiece, a sculptor, for example, works day and night, investing his youth and all his strength. Where does this heart of such a sculptor come from? It comes from God, who has the same desire in wanting an object of love through which God can experience joy.

If we look at the physical world, we can see that everything has an inherent duality. Minerals, plants, animals and people all exist in pairs. This is so that each being has an object with which to interact. In the mineral world, there is the action between positive ions and negative ions. In the plant world, we have the relationship between stamen and pistil. Likewise, in the animal world, we have the relationship between male and female. God created all things with a reciprocal partner so that all levels of creation would experience joy and love. At lower levels, the expression of God's love takes the form of harmonious laws of physics and natural instincts. At the highest level, God's love is expressed through the dynamic loving relationship between a man and a woman.

My dear friends!

We all have loving husbands and loving wives, don't we? How much do we love our spouses? If someone offered you a fortune for your loving husband, would you give him up? Is there a husband who would exchange a loving wife if he were offered a crown? When I asked my husband this question, he looked me in the eyes and said lovingly, "Not even for the world." What it all comes down to is that man was born for the sake of woman, and woman was born for the sake of man.

Who, then, is God's partner of love? It is the universe centered upon God's sons and daughters. In other words, God created the universe so that He could reciprocate and experience love.

Living For The Sake Of Others

Moreover, if God created the universe for the sake of love, it is important to understand the nature of God's love. In our world today, we use the word love in many ways. I have heard some say that they love chocolate, or that they love to dance. The often heard expression, "I love you", no longer refers to everlasting love. How often has "I love you" turned into "I want a divorce" in our society today? This kind of limited or self-centered love is not God's love.

God's love is true, selfless and unchanging. True love is the act of giving without the condition of receiving. When God created us, He invested one hundred percent of everything He had again and again. The reason why God wanted to invest Himself completely is because He wanted His object of love to be better than Himself. The act of living for others means that you give one hundred percent of yourself until there is nothing left to give. Only then will the love of your object rush back to fill the void. An example of this is the earth's atmosphere. When a low pressure system forms, air moves in from a high pressure system. The air starts circulating, and can even result in a hurricane. In other words, it is the complete rendering and sacrificing of yourself for the sake of others that produces a vacuum, which will be the very source of tremendous power when God replenishes you with His love.

God's true love is such that though He loves and loves again, or gives and gives again, He does so unconditionally and unconsciously. If you consciously remember what you have given, then you will begin to calculate how much giving is enough. And if you decide that you have given enough, then love cannot continue eternally. Love flows perpetually only if it is given unconditionally.

If your mind and body become one centered on true love, then each of you will become God's companion of love, and will assume the position of God's eternal object. Moreover, you will come to inherit the eternal love of God.

God created the first humans, whom the Bible calls Adam and Eve, to achieve true love and to serve as a paradigm for ideal human relationships. These relationships can be likened to a vertical line that bisects a horizontal line. In this model, God is positioned at the top of the vertical line, and Adam and Eve are positioned at opposite ends of the horizontal line. The point of intersection of the vertical and horizontal axes symbolizes true love, where God, Adam, and Eve meet in a harmonious relationship.

God is the parent of vertical true love, and Adam and Eve are the parents of horizontal true love. If we are born of the love, life and lineage of God, our Heavenly Parent, as well as of our earthly, physical parents, then our minds are vertically connected to God while our bodies are connected to the horizontal, physical realm. More importantly, when our "vertical self" and our "horizontal self" are unified, we become the true love companion of God.

If humanity had matured according to God's will and inherited God's absolute, unchanging love, then our history would not have been a history of war, bloodshed, and misery. Instead, it would have been a history of harmony and peace.

As God's true love companions, we can communicate freely with God and feel everything God feels. Our minds and bodies will resonate in unison with the original heart of God. From this principle of "resonance," or communal oneness, we can say that God's love is my love, God's life is my life, God's lineage is my lineage, and God's creation is my creation.

Three Attributes Of True Love

True Love contains the three great attributes of "inheritance", "participation", and "equality". Thus, if you truly love God as He loves you, then you can possess what God possesses, you can participate in everything that God does, and you can share in God's infinite value. Take, for example, a poor man who did not have the means to get an education. If he is married to the President of the United States, and they are a loving couple, then what belongs to the wife belongs to the husband. He has the right to participate in his wife's affairs. Moreover, because the husband and the wife each love the other more than themselves, they are equal in value.

Ladies and Gentlemen, which do you think comes first, love or life? A person's life is conceived from the ideal of love, therefore, it is love that comes first. The essence of life is love and life is the embodiment of love. Thus, life, from the moment of conception, has infinite value and should be lived for the sake of others.

If we claim that our lives are to be lived only for the sake of ourselves, and for no one else, then we would never experience love. True love starts only when we sacrifice ourselves for the purpose of loving others. This is captured by the classic Charles Dickens tale in which Mr. Scrooge, who, despite all his riches, was never able to experience joy until he learned to live for others. When Mr. Scrooge sacrificed himself for the sake of his community, he became the initiator of love among his neighbors. Likewise, when a person sacrifices herself for the sake of her family, she becomes the initiator of love in her family.

When we sacrifice ourselves for the sake of others, it may seem as if we will lose everything, but actually the opposite is true. Not only do we become the subject and master of love, but we also transcend to a higher realm of love.

It is the principle of love that the more we sacrifice for the sake of others, the higher our level of love becomes. When we sacrifice ourselves for a greater purpose, we will not simply be absorbed by it, but rather will come to hold a central position within the greater purpose where a higher level of love will be realized. A good example of this principle of love can be seen in the history of Christianity. The very reason that Christianity became a religion of resurrection lies in the fact that its principal teaching extols the virtue of sacrificing oneself for the sake of others. Jesus himself practiced this very principle of love. Even as he was being sent to die on the cross, his heart of sacrifice and love was captured by his last words, "Father, forgive them for they know not what they do."

Jesus' life was the paradigm of God's true love. His life of love and sacrifice resulted in the attainment of a higher level of life for many Christians around the world.

Another example of this principle of love is our beloved Mother Teresa. She herself may be small and fragile, but as a woman of God, living for the sake of others, she becomes the strongest of all. The reason is that if a woman loves and gives one hundred percent to others, then God's love will fill up the vacuum that is left after she has given everything, and the power of God's love will replenish her. Thus, if a woman resembles God and becomes the subject of love, a tremendous force will be unleashed and the power of that love will give life to the family, to the nation, and to the world.

Last year, in November, my husband and I traveled to North Korea a Communist society closed to the outside world. There we met Kim Il-Sung, the president who has ruled that nation for 40 years.

Forty years ago, before we were married, my husband spent nearly three years in a Communist labor camp for preaching the word of God in North Korea. Since that time, my husband has been in the forefront of the effort to educate people about the error of Communist ideas and the tyranny of Communist governments. Because of this work, the North Korean government did its best to propagate misinformation about my husband and even threatened his life on several occasions. But Reverend Moon and I felt called by God, and went to North Korea, relying only on God's protection. We put into practice the words of Jesus, "For those who want to save their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will save it."

We preached God's truth to the Communist rulers of North Korea for the first time in that nation's history. Furthermore, we told Kim Il-Sung that "the unification of Korea can only be brought about through the ideology of Godism." In reality, we put our lives at risk by speaking out so boldly. Nevertheless, we were willing to sacrifice everything for the reunification of our homeland. It is precisely through the power of true love that one gains the ability to conquer even hell.

God's Strategy Of Love

Throughout human history, God's strategy for the salvation of humanity has always been the way of true love. Satan, on the other hand, uses force, for he does not possess the capability of true love. God's strategy is to receive the first blow but ultimately emerge victorious, while Satan's way is to strike first, but lose everything in the end.

Look, for example, at the First and Second World Wars, and the third world war between the ideas of Communism and the free world. In each case, the side of evil was the aggressor, and in each case the evil side was defeated. God is omnipotent, and has the power to strike and take back what is His at will. God, however, does not do so because to strike first is not the way of true love. God always remains true to the principle of love. God works patiently to win the world back by continually pouring out His love and by allowing those who are closest to Him to suffer for the sake of the world. God has deep compassion for those who are persecuted for doing His work. Being persecuted for doing God's work is one way to inherit God's blessing.

The history of the prophets shows us this principle at work. The prophets who came to teach the word of God should have been revered and honored as great teachers, but instead, they were bitterly persecuted and wrongfully beaten. Some of them have even lost their lives at the hands of their accusers. But do you know what happens in the end to the beaten and persecuted prophets? They eventually receive all that they had lost and more. Moses was driven into exile by the Pharaoh of Egypt. Confucius and Mohammed both received heavy persecution during their lives. Joan of Arc was burned at the stake, and Jesus was crucified as a criminal. But as time passed, history revealed their greatness as men and women of God. God has let my husband and me experience this many times in our lives. My husband is one of the most persecuted religious leaders of our time, yet God has allowed us to prosper.

If we truly come to understand God's heart, we would never seek revenge on our enemies. On the contrary, we would move heaven and earth to help them. By embracing and becoming one with your enemy centered on love, you will come to stand in front of the gates of the Kingdom of Heaven. There, God will be moved to tears. He will exclaim, "You are just like Me!" and He will be overcome with joy. This is the secret behind the words, "Love your enemy." No amount of money, power, or knowledge can ever match the infinite power of true love. Moreover, God knows that even His enemies have parents, spouses or children who still love them. Since God Himself has gone through the valley of tears, He understands the loving hearts of His enemies' families, and so withholds His punishment.

True Love, True Life, True Lineage

God has true love, true life and true lineage. Since we originated from God, we also have true love, true life and true lineage. Centering on the true love of God, we were born to achieve a perfect union with God through the ideal relationship between parent and child. Just as the mind and body of God are naturally unified through true love, the mind and body of men and women also should have been naturally unified.

Because of the fall, however, humankind has inherited Satan's love, life, and lineage. Satan seduced the first man and woman and prevented them from harmonizing their mind and body centered upon true love. This is why our body, controlled by Satan, fights with our mind which is on God's side. The self-centered love that we see around us today does not originate from an individual's mind but from his body. The mind was to represent heaven as the subject over the body, but the body has become another subject, centered on Satan, challenging our mind.

This is why religion teaches us to overcome the self-centered desires of our physical bodies through fasting, sacrifice, and service. Moreover, religion teaches us how to strengthen our mind through constant prayer, faith and devotion. Guided by religion, an individual can develop the ideal harmony of mind and body, and live as an enlightened being of true love. Philosophy, knowledge or conscience alone is not enough.

How, then, did Satan prevent man's mind and body from becoming one with God's ideal? The Bible tells us that Adam and Eve disobeyed God by eating the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. What part of the body, however, did Adam and Eve cover after they had eaten the fruit? If they were ashamed of eating the fruit, they would have covered their hands and mouths. But instead the Bible says that they were ashamed of their nakedness and covered their lower parts. Indeed, the fall was an illicit love relationship centered upon Satan.

According to God's plan, the embodiment of true love, true life, and true lineage is man and woman's reproductive organs. The act of love was meant to be a husband and wife's most holy possession. Because of the fall, however, the act of love has been considered shameful. Adam and Eve, the ancestors of humankind, fell when they were still immature teenagers. Influenced by Satan's initiative, they sowed the seeds of false love, false life and false lineage.

Today throughout the world, young people like Adam and Eve are destroying the ethics of love and living lives of corruption. Many of our youths are abandoning their hopes and dreams and pursuing lives of promiscuity, drugs and violence. How many more times must we bear the news of teenage pregnancies, of newborn infants addicted to cocaine, and of schoolboys getting shot and stabbed in our schools? When we see these phenomena, we know that the age of Satan's dominion has reached its climax.

Throughout history, any city or country that has ignored God and engaged in wanton behavior has been destroyed. Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed by fire and brimstone. Rome was destroyed because its citizens became morally decadent.

Look at America, Europe, Japan and the other developed nations of the world. Who can control the hedonistic way of life that only seeks to stimulate our carnal desires? We have to realize that this life, based on the desires of the body, will ultimately lead us into ruin. This decadent path is not what our minds want. In fact, our original minds are crying out in despair.

Humankind, which fell and became allied with Satan, is like the wild olive tree. Therefore, the wild olive tree must receive the branch of the true olive tree through which the wild olive tree can be adopted into the true lineage of God. God has prepared the religious people, and people of good conscience, of the world so they may be adopted into the true family of God when it appears on earth. Only as part of God's true lineage can we fulfill God's original ideal of true love. This is the reason the Messiah must come.

Ladies and Gentlemen, what is the Messiah?

The Messiah is the True Parents of humankind. God's original plan was to establish perfected Adam and Eve as the true ancestors of humanity. Satan, however, invaded this ideal, and God, ever since, has been working toward the emergence of ideal True Parents through which all humankind can be restored. As True Fathers and True Mothers ourselves, we must vanquish Satan, liberate humanity and build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.

As God's sons and daughters we must inherit God's love, life, and lineage. Moreover, we must also inherit True Parents' love, life, and lineage. Then we will have achieved unity between heaven and earth, vertical and horizontal, and mind and body. This will be the starting point for the eternal world of peace.

My dear guests of the Women's Federation for World Peace!

Starting now, in this year of the woman, we must be the model movement of true love for the whole world. We must begin with ourselves and unify our minds and bodies and become vertically connected with God's true love. We must then live for the sake of others to bring about love and understanding with those around us.

The Women's Federation for World Peace recognizes that the moral and spiritual roots of this great nation are still alive. Let us help each other, let us commit our time, let us share our ideas and our strengths to accomplish this noble cause. Centered on our leadership then, ideal families will join together and create the ideal nation and world. Upon this foundation, the Women's Federation for World Peace soon will initiate the Family Federation for World Peace.

My dear sisters, let us pledge to shed our blood, sweat and tears for the purpose of creating a world centered on God and true love.

Let us all rise up and take the lead in completing this historic mission.

May God bless all of you, your families and your nation.

Women Sacrificing for World Peace

Women's Federation For World Peace

"This speech was given in Tokyo at the banquet on September 23rd at the start of the WFWP seven-city lecture tour by Mrs. Moon in Japan."

On September 17, last year, I came to Tokyo as the principal speaker at the national rally held by the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia. Since that rally, this organization has received tremendous support in Japan and around the world, and has accomplished remarkable growth.

On November 20, last year, a Women's Federation for Peace in Asia rally was held in Seoul for the first time. It was a highly successful event, attended by 15,000 representatives of Korean women.

Then, on April 10 this year, Seoul's Main Olympic Stadium was filled beyond capacity by more than 150,000 women from 72 countries expressing their strong desire for world peace. That rally, the largest ever held of women, became the occasion for the inauguration of the Women's Federation for World Peace.

I have nothing but the highest words of praise for all of you for your strong dedication and hard work in bringing about such remarkable growth in this movement.

Following that international rally, I toured 81 cities in Korea and continued my lectures on the topic of "Women's Role in the Ideal World."

Everywhere I went, people gathered in such large numbers that they resembled the clouds of heaven. In all, I received the welcome and support of more than one million women in Korea. The enthusiasm of these women clearly illustrated that women hold an infinite capacity to contribute to future world peace.

In only eight years now, we will enter the twenty-first century. We are witnessing the passing of the era of brute force, in which men have held sway almost exclusively. This era has been tainted by war, violence, exploitation and destruction. In the new era we are about to enter, women will have the central role in leading humanity into love, forgiveness, harmony and cooperation. My tour was an important opportunity to bring this realization to the people of Korea.

Original role

Throughout these rallies, I stressed that women need to come to a new realization of their original, God-given role and become cornerstones for peace, happiness and freedom. The only way for us to build peace in each of our nations and in the world is to build true families, that is, families confirmed in true love.

The international wedding ceremony of 30,00 couples held in Seoul's Olympic Main Stadium on August 25 was a grand occasion validating the fact that world peace can be brought to reality through ideal families. This international mass wedding ceremony, held as a part of the First World Culture and Sports Festival, was, in a word, an historic declaration which opened the gate to world peace. It was a giant panorama of love manifesting to all that humanity is one family, and that all people in the world are bound by a common kindred tie centering on God's love.

On that day my husband, the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, and I, in our capacity as the True Parents, gave the blessing of eternal love to some 60,000 brides and grooms from 131 countries.

At this magnificent festival of love held under the bright sunshine and azure blue sky, each and every bride and groom made his and her pledge before God, True Parents and all humanity to establish true families and a world of true peace.

The covenants of love formed that day centering on God's true love are eternal and absolute. Such bonds of marriage can never be seen as conditional or limited. This is because true love is love that seeks to give perpetually. When two people come together in such love, they form an eternal association that no force can sunder. Thus, for these brides and grooms, there can never be even the slightest thought of divorce or the corruption of sexual morals, two problems which have become so widespread in today's society.

Because these people come together in an environment of God's true love, differences of nationality, race, language, and customs do not become obstacles. God's true love melts down all obstacles, and these husbands and wives will discover in his bosom a common language of true love. They will come together in the common arena of true love. Their unions transcend nations, race and religion. They will grow to become citizens of the future world who will serve and embrace the world. When these people set down their roots of sacrificial true love around the world, the world will be swept clean of all the philosophies of hatred and conflict. There will be an end to the tragedies of war and human slaughter. There will only be true ideal families and a true world.

Peace through marriage

Already, in 1988, Rev. Moon built a bridge of eternal peace between Korea and Japan by joining in marriage more than 6000 Korean-Japanese couples. After these Korean and Japanese young people were made husbands and wives centered on God's true love, they formed families which, by virtue of their connection by lineage, have a greater love than anyone for the peoples, traditions and cultures of both countries. The peace in Northeast Asia, at least, is now guaranteed forever, by virtue of these Korean-Japanese couples.

Traditionally, the task of protecting and nurturing the family has been the special right and mission given to women. In our society today, however, there are innumerable fundamental problems which threaten to undermine our families. Certainly, the problems faced by the world today cannot be resolved by developing military might or economic power. What we see in our societies today is that the amplification of problems of an internal nature, such as the collapse of traditional values and the breakdown of social order, is out pacing external growth and development.

Even now, tens of millions of people on this earth are dying of starvation. Underlying this problem of the amount and distribution of the world's food supply, there is the even more fundamental problem of the desiccation of the love which would otherwise let us see these suffering people as our own sons and daughters, our own brothers and sisters, our own mothers and fathers. Societies today are increasingly afflicted with crime and drugs. It is said that humanity has escaped the threat of nuclear war. Yet our future appears more apt to be darkened by the clouds of despair than lit up by the sunshine of hope.

Such crises faced by the world today reflect deeper, more fundamental problems which will not be resolved by fragmentary or superficial means. Any effort to pursue the solutions to such problems solely through human means, while excluding the God Who has been in the background of human history working His Providence, is certain to end in failure.

This is the reason that Rev. Moon has declared Godism, which is referred to as "Headwing Thought." Despite having had to undergo every imaginable form of suffering, he has opened a new horizon of victory which enables humanity to find solutions to the problems of the world. His message is that the gates to a peaceful world will be opened only when humanity recovers its relationship with God and reestablishes original ideal families.

Not only in America but even in places such as Russia which have been controlled by atheistic communism, Headwing Thought is enabling large numbers of young people and intellectuals to come to know the existence of God, and is opening their eyes to the ideal of a true family.

Whether we are concerned with racial discord, violence, conflict between the rich and the poor, destruction of the environment, or even the issue of selfishness on the part of countries and peoples, we can begin to work out the solutions to the world's problems only after we have been trained within the environment of the ideal family for the practice of true love--that is, the love that seeks to sacrifice one's own self for the sake of others.

Practical steps

Rev. Moon, in order to bring Godism into reality, has endeavored in a wide variety of fields. Using the Unification Church as a foundation, he has established the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the Professors World Peace Academy, the World Media Conference, the Summit Council for World Peace, the World Congress of Religions, the Federation for World Peace, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, the World Collegiate Association for Research of the Principle, the World League of Universities, various international performing arts groups and many other organizations. Each of these organizations holds as its ideal and purpose the building of a world of peace centered on God.

Rev. Moon, who has devoted his heart and soul to the realization of world peace through the establishment of ideal families, was also the central figure in the establishment of the Women's Federation for Peace in Asia and the Women's Federation for World Peace. In addition, he has founded the House of Unification for World Peace for the purpose of enhancing the solidarity of the unified foundations and efforts which are already in existence in each country around the world.

No one can deny that Rev. Moon has established the world's greatest foundation in the world, extending into religion, thought, scholarship, media, education, science and culture. When all these different fields join forces and begin to march forward as one, the world of peace that has been the object of our desires is sure to appear before our eyes.

True love, by its nature, perpetually seeks to give and to sacrifice for the sake of others. In true love, there can be no allowance for any concept of an enemy. Rev. Moon, during the course of his endeavors to practice Godism centered on true love, has received all sorts of misunderstanding, persecution, slander, and innumerable hardships. Rev. Moon, however, would never even think of considering anyone to be his enemy. Thus, Rev. Moon visited Mikhail Gorbachev when he was president of the Soviet Union, even though the Soviet Union had been considered for almost a century to be the enemy of the free world.

Rev. Moon also went to North Korea and met with President Kim Il-sung and expounded on Headwing Thought, which is the principle of peace centered on God's true love. Rev. Moon has shown that he is willing to go anywhere in the world, even to the ends of the earth, if it is for the purpose of practicing the true love that seeks to give to others perpetually.

Japan's role

Even at this moment, Rev. Moon is working harder than anyone to lay the foundation for Japan to become a nation receiving the highest level of respect in Asia and the world. He is also working day and night to ensure that his teachings reach the young people of Japan so that they can live their lives according to a properly moral path.

Look at those young people working in a pure and healthy manner! Already, many Japanese young people have gone out across the world. As a result of their activities, they are receiving the unlimited love, esteem and respect from the people of the world.

Even this evening, Rev. Moon would have had much to say to each one of you regarding the true way to save Japan. I know very well how much love my husband holds for this country and for the people of this country. Unfortunately, however, I must appear on this stage alone tonight, even though I am not nearly qualified to give to you the full message of his deep love. Certain persons who are ignorant but are caught up in their own prejudices continue to persecute and oppose Rev. Moon's work. I hope that they will come as quickly as possible to be a true understanding of Rev. Moon's love and his true will.

Ladies and gentlemen, if Japan is to expand its relations with other Asian countries, it would be better to do so in a position of unity with Korea. this way, Japan will be able to have more friends and build a larger foundation for itself. Koreans and Japanese each refer to the other's country as "the country that is so close to us, and yet so far distant from us." Now it is time for our two countries to become close to each other in every meaning of that word and to stand side by side in shouldering the future of Asia. More than anything else, I believe that Japan must devote its full energies to the unification of Korea.

Japan's rule over Korea finally ended in a division of the peninsula. The deep pain that comes from this division can be relieved completely by such efforts on your part for Korean unification. As a first step, there needs to be an effort to establish a foundation for Korean unification by accomplishing unity between the two organizations of Korean residents in Japan, one of which is pro-Seoul and the other pro-Pyongyang. These two organizations can be brought together by means of Headwing Thought, centered on true love. If Korea and Japan contend against each other and fight each other, they will both lose all that they have. If these two countries combine their strengths, they will become the strongest forces for building Asia's future and accomplishing world peace.

Historically, Asia has been the leader in developing the spiritual aspect of world civilization. It is historically inevitable, then, that a new movement of women, a new movement of families and a new movement for peace should begin here in Asia.

Rights and responsibility

The women's movement that I have been conducting has a fundamentally different character from the women's rights movements that challenge male authority and stress female rights exclusively. The women's rights movements that have developed in Western societies until now reflect the mutual antagonism and animosity that is an integral part of Western civilization's spirit of struggle. Ours, by contrast, is a movement based on the East Asian principles of harmony that stress mutual accord and complementaryity. Our movement's ideal is to seek out tasks that men cannot perform, that is, tasks that can be performed only by women, so that we can join men in complementarity in order to establish true families.

The destruction of families is becoming the most serious problem in our societies, and yet no one is able to propose an effective solution. The very foundation of human existence is being shaken.

Thus, in the United States, family values and issues of social morality are becoming major issues in the ongoing presidential election campaign. Such issues are not the concern of America and Western Europe alone, however. They represent a serious crisis for all humankind.

Japan and Korea are also affected by such problems. We are at a stage where we must seriously concern ourselves with the moral crisis that has grown up parallel to our economic development. The only way to resolve this crisis is to teach Godism and Headwing Thought, which approaches the problem from the aspect of providential history.

We have a particularly urgent need for the moral education of our young people. In this regard, I was surprised to hear that many Japanese people responded positively to the recent series of rallies upholding the spirit of Yoo Kwan-soon. Certainly, Yoo Kwan-soon, who is known as the Joan of Arc of Asia, is a most appropriate role model for instilling patriotism in young people. What surprised and moved me, though, was the progressive and broad minded attitude of the Japanese people in their search to transcend the historically unpleasant relations between Korea and Japan and open a new avenue of understanding.

Take a stand

I would like to ask that the women of Japan, in particular, take your stand at the forefront of the effort to resolve the serious issues in our world related to the family. You possess the most admirable tradition of women in the world, because through your country's long history you have protected your families and nation in a spirit of love and sacrifice. Also, I know that you women were the hidden force behind your country's recovery after the total destruction of World War II to become among the strongest economic powers in the world.

You need to take the foremost position in our movement, because the virtues of sacrifice and service which you have cherished through your tradition now must be transformed on the worldwide level into the true love of perpetual giving for all of humankind.

Men have tried for the past twenty centuries to build a world of peace, but now the task has been entrusted to us women. It is the decree of Heaven that we take up the task of building world peace through ideal families.

In general, men tend to lead their lives centered on themselves, whereas women tend to be more willing to sacrifice themselves. With the coming of the age of women, we are entering a new history where, instead of sacrificing the whole for the benefit of each individual, we need to sacrifice ourselves for the benefit of the whole and, thus, exercise true love.

Let us all arm ourselves with Headwing Thought, and become leading figures in building a world of peace. We need to correct the family morals which are steadily deteriorating. We must take the lead in standing up against drug abuse and the spread of AIDS. We need to give proper guidance to our young people, who are wandering aimlessly down deviant paths.

We are in a new age of transition in which women must take a firm stand in order to contribute to world peace. I hope that everyone here this evening will take the lead in this march toward peace. In closing, let met thank you again for the support you have given to the national lecture tour which is about to begin. I pray that God's blessing will be upon you and your families.