The Path to World Peace in View of God's Will

Founder's Address ,,Reverend Dr. Sun Myung Moon, Assembly 2001 , The Search for Solutions to Critical Global Problems , Global Violence: Crisis and Hope  October 20, 2001,  New York, NY Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations Honorable Chairman, world leaders representing various fields, Ambassadors for Peace, leaders from the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, leaders of Non-Governmental Organizations, ladies and gentlemen. Today, at this transitional point in human history, leaders from the world over who are concerned about the future of humanity have gathered here in mutual consideration of how to resolve the crisis facing the Earth. The tragedies that took place in New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania on September 11 truly shocked the entire world. Along with the concern over peace and safety, we came to reflect upon fundamental and serious questions of modern civilization and future of humankind. Resolving the Root of Conflict Throughout history, human beings have continuously aspired for world peace. However, that dream has never been realized. We can look back at the end of the Cold War, at which time fierce political and military conflicts and struggles concluded. Many people expected that the long-awaited era of peace and stability would arrive based on the foundation of highly developed science. Nonetheless, we came to realize that conflict, hatred and selfish desire are imbedded deeply within each of us and are still active. These are creating ever more serious disasters in new shapes and forms. Violence wreaked upon innocents is certainly an inhumane criminal act, and it must be stopped. However, what can eradicate those inner conflicts and struggles, and resolve the fundamental human problems at their root? Where was the seed of hatred, conflict, and struggle sown, and how did it come to be rooted deeply within us? The seed was planted in the family of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve. The conflicts and struggles that resulted have continued from generation to generation until the present time. Then, where is the path to resolve those conflicts and realize peace on Earth? Historically, human beings have been attempting to overcome conflict and pursue peace through economic, political, diplomatic and military means. However, such methods obviously do not provide fundamental solutions, as we are still struggling with many unresolved problems. There is but one fundamental way and it is simple. It is to restore the family that the first human ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family of God. That is the family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love both vertically and horizontally. God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. However, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships and it can bear fruit only through relationships. That is why we were created as God's children, through whom He sought to realize His true love. The Three Blessings of God The First Blessing of God to human beings, "be fruitful" (Genesis 1:28), called God's children to become the object partners of His true love by becoming true persons. When we love someone, we want our object partner to be better than ourselves. Thus, in love, God, as the Father, wants His children to be better than Him. That is why God repeatedly invests Himself in human beings, the object partners of His love, and nevertheless constantly forgets about what He has already given and desires infinitely to give love more and more. This is so because love has its origin in the desire to live for the sake of others for eternity. God then bestowed the Second Blessing, "multiply," (Genesis 1:28). The first human ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God. After having reached perfection, as one with God in heart, they were to have become True Husband and Wife. Then, they were to have become substantial True Parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life and true lineage from God. As such, God's ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, that family also was to have become the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal family, centered on true love. Human beings would have become substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart. They would have enjoyed perfect freedom, happiness and the realization of all ideals. Then they would have become the Lords of true love whom all beings in the universe would have loved and welcomed. This was God's Third Blessing (Genesis 1:28). This is the Blessing to create a living environment in which we can experience joy and happiness, having dominion over the creation. This includes the care for and preservation of the world's ecological balance as true masters of the creation. Not Power or Knowledge, but True Love Tragically, our human ancestors could not inherit the Three Blessings of God and establish the family of true love. That means they failed to become true persons, true spouses, true parents, and true Lords centered on true love. Instead, they disobeyed God, and He expelled them from the Garden of Eden. As the fallen human ancestors, they became false spouses to each other, with false love that has nothing to do with God's Blessings. They gave birth to children and those children multiplied to populate the world of today. Since the fall at the beginning of human history, human beings have not been born on the foundation of true love, in the attendance of God. Instead, we have lived in conflict and struggle between our own mind and body. This conflict manifested as a tragedy of hatred and murder between two brothers, Cain and Abel, in the first family. That was the miserable reality of a family that left God. A family built upon the basis of human relationships alone cannot become a family of the original ideal of creation. An ideal family must connect to God vertically and have a true person as its pivot. Under the true love of true parents, among siblings who own and share a common vertical pivot, the family finally can establish the relationships of ultimate harmony and peace. We can experience true love within an ideal family that bears good fruit. The family is the original and best school of love. Power or knowledge can never create true love. The Loss of God's Blessings Honorable world leaders! What do you feel when you look at the reality of human society and at the youth of the contemporary world? Do you feel hope for a bright future? I believe that you experience agony over the increasing rates of crime, violence, drug abuse, immorality, corruption, teen pregnancy and so forth. These arise out of a confusion of values and foretell darkness enveloping our youth. How did we arrive at this point? Better school systems and social improvements would have delayed the onset of these problems, but these endeavors do not address the fundamental cause of these problems, which is the breakdown and loss of families. This breakdown is a product of the time we are in, a time when humankind is harvesting the fruit sown by the loss of the first family of true love. The destruction of the foremost school of true love leads to the phenomena of family breakdown, with enormously destructive side effects. This breakdown not only causes personal anxiety but also leads to manifold problems on the national and worldwide levels. Of particular concern is the emotional instability of youth, which leads to changing life goals, spiritual wandering, and even deviation from healthy lifestyles. World leaders who are concerned over the future must take very seriously the real problems of youth avoiding marriage, rampant divorce, and so forth, which destroy the fundamental foundation for families. Having lost the First and Second Blessings, humankind does not understand how important it is to perfect one's individuality. As a true individual we can experience sacred and eternal conjugal love. Most of today's youth are not educated in a thoroughgoing way about the importance of keeping purity before marriage and reaching individual maturity through true love. Thus they do not understand the value of true love, which is the fundamental root of joy, happiness and all ideals. The tendency to make light of trust and fidelity between husband and wife, and to ignore the sacredness of marriage, is an internal cause of indescribable disasters and tragedies for humankind. True love has no place in the so-called free sex culture, in which people seek only the physical love between a man and a woman as the cardinal but momentary pleasure. The rapid spread of HIV-AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) threatens the very existence of the human race. It is said that there is no safety zone against the AIDS virus. A greater terrorism than that over which the entire world is now trembling is before our eyes, allowing us no safety zone. Once contracted, its victims must give up their dreams for happiness, ideals, and life itself. Unless we resolve this catastrophe plaguing our planet, how can we claim that we are world leaders? Nor have we taken responsibility for the Third Blessing endowed by God, to "have dominion over the creation." This requires that we take care of all creatures with true love. What would happen if the natural world were to rebel against the abuse and misuse it suffers at the hands of human beings who lord over it? Are not those symptoms beginning to appear? Before the natural world punishes our intolerable arrogance, we should stand before nature in true love as people of restored integrity. Steps to World Peace Respected world leaders! Now is the time for humanity to voluntarily repudiate pride, ignorance, selfishness and hatred. Let us follow the laws of Heaven and humble ourselves before God. Ever since God called me at the tender age of 16, I have committed myself totally to the realization of world peace, which has been God's deepest wish. And at this time, I would like to set forth several crucial steps that are necessary for us to take in order to bring peace to the world. First, we must live for the sake of others. A self-centered life not only causes discomfort to others, but also violates the laws of Heaven. Living for the sake of others, on the other hand, is the way we can resemble God. Loving our family, our community, our nation and the world is the way to inherit God's true love. It is the way to live in accord with the fundamental order of the universe. Only through practicing true love can we become true individuals, true parents, true teachers and true Lords. Only then can we finally become the leaders who can bring about peace on Earth. A life of living for the sake of others is the first gate to peace. The path to peace ultimately must be based on "Godism" or "Head-Wing Ideology," the teaching that can reconcile and embrace all sides in a conflict, from the thought to the fruit, by dealing with the starting-point of conflict in the relationship between Cain and Abel. How can we break the chain of hatred and violence we perpetrate against one another? Returning hatred in response to hatred only leads to more hatred, terror and destruction. This is certainly not the path to peace. We can touch, embrace and educate conflicting parties only by true love. True love that places God in the center disregards national boundaries; therefore it is international. True love transcends the high walls dividing religions and races; therefore it is interreligious and inter-racial. True love centered on God's ideal of living for the sake of others can generate the power to touch a person's heart and spirit. By true love alone can the various reasons and causes of conflicts on Earth be overcome, whether the confrontation is between right and left, front and rear, above and below, or inner and outer. By true love alone can we establish a world of eternal peace. Marriage as an Instrument of Peace Second, the family is the fundamental unit for building peaceful nations and ultimately a peaceful world. As I already mentioned, the root of conflict originated in the first family. Therefore, until the family of the True Parents appears, it is impossible for us to enter the era of world peace. The international Blessings that I promote worldwide are not the wedding ceremony of a particular religion. They are a movement to save all nations and the world. We teach youth to keep their purity before marriage and, when they reach adulthood, to marry under the Blessing of God. However, as a condition to receive the marriage Blessing, they first must pledge to their spouse that they will maintain absolute trust and fidelity as husband and wife. Thus, the Blessing is a holy movement to build true families and lift up true parents who live centered on true love. Families built upon such an ideal and such an education have no need to feel threatened by the AIDS virus. For them, preventing AIDS is easier than preventing a cold or flu. If we educate the youth of the world in this vision and practice it, we will completely eliminate the AIDS epidemic. We will eliminate the scourge of family breakdown as well. Further, these families of true love will serve as the cornerstone for peaceful nations and a peaceful world. In particular, if individuals of enemy nations, who have lived in discord throughout history, come together in true love as in-laws, their reconciliation will bring nations and races together. It is a high wall to overcome. Nevertheless, here is the supreme formula for bringing true peace to the world: bring together children from enemy families and nations for the "Exchange Marriage Blessing." These interreligious and international families can build a realm of Blessing, perfecting true families of true love that both Heaven and Earth desire. From that point will begin the world of eternal peace that God and all humankind have desired. A Challenge to Religious Leaders Third, inter-religious reconciliation and cooperation is an essential condition for world peace. I have campaigned tirelessly for interreligious harmony and dialogue. I always have devoted a far greater proportion of my funds for that purpose than for the growth and development of the Unification Church. Do you think that practicing such sacrificial love with an unchanging heart is easy? By no means! But we cannot expect world peace unless religious people reconcile and cooperate. World peace is the original ideal of God. Therefore, religious leaders and believers should be the guides who lead people to peace. If religions only emphasize narrow-minded denominationalism and fail to teach true love for God and the universe, we will never free humankind from the horrors of war. In the face of this global crisis, religious leaders have to practice true love, humbly following God's Will, walking hand in hand beyond the boundaries of their own religion. The inner power of religion touches our hearts and can recreate us as people of peace. It can cultivate our ability to practice self-control from within. It can overcome historical hatreds and resentments among us. This is the root from which arises true peace and stability. If religions demonstrate love for each other, cooperate with each other, and serve each other, putting the higher ideal of peace ahead of particular doctrines, rituals and cultural backgrounds, the world will change dramatically. Beyond National Self-Interest Fourth, I once again emphasize the proper role of the United Nations in realizing world peace. As a representative organization for world peace, the United Nations has made many contributions. Last year, I presented my proposals to solve the fundamental problems plaguing the planet Earth, given that the world's circumstances have changed and the complex situations in which nations find themselves today are unlike those at the time of the United Nations' founding. One of these proposals was to establish a special body that would discuss and evaluate the religious, spiritual and moral dimensions of world problems. The United Nations must serve the world and God's ideal of creation effectively. To do so, it must transcend the power of politics and national diplomacy, which reflect the motives of nations seeking their own self-interest. Only then can it truly protect the human rights of all peoples and nations and build world peace. This is not limited to the United Nations. Maintaining order in the world and protecting public prosperity and peace will be difficult as long as political sovereignty operates on the principle of national self-interest and ignores or undermines moral and spiritual values. What is required is that high-level leaders ground themselves spiritually and morally upon God's ideal and govern according to universal principles. No political power or earthly authority should stand above God and the laws of Heaven. Moreover, the United Nations should to listen to and embrace many of the views of the Non-Governmental Organizations. This is the reason we established WANGO. I encourage all NGOs, while not losing your original founding spirit, to dialogue and cooperate with one another. I request that you continue serving the world, be unselfish and stay free of corruption. Our Historical Quest Respected world leaders! A person who only talks about world peace without practicing it is not a true leader. Given the current world situation, we cannot leisurely wait for the arrival of world peace while sitting down. Each of us, the Ambassadors for Peace and everyone else, must create world peace by all means. Let us all take active roles as leaders in the movement for peace. I wish and hope that, centered on the Peace Embassies, all international organizations including the United Nations will participate actively in the movement for world peace and ideal nation. It is our historical quest. International organizations: let us be united as one in mind and heart. Let us become pioneers for world peace, by first building ideal families of true love and living for the sake of others. May God bless you forever. Thank you very much.

THE HOLY MARRIAGE BLESSING IS THE PATH TO UNITE THE VIRTUES OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND HARMONIZE AND UNIFY THE UNIVERSE AS ONE Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon

THE HOLY MARRIAGE BLESSING IS THE PATH TO UNITE THE VIRTUES OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND HARMONIZE AND UNIFY  THE UNIVERSE AS ONE  Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, August 20, 2005  

The following address, delivered by True Father, was presented in Seoul, Korea at the Olympic Gymnasium on August 20, 2005, to a gathering of more than fifteen thousand dignitaries from Korea and abroad, including many Ambassadors for Peace, and marking  the 1^st anniversary of the International Leadership Convocation, sponsored by the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, when True Father was honored at a venue at the National Assembly in Korea, with the “King of Peace” award.

Respected guests from home and abroad, beloved Blessed Families:

I would like to express my deepest gratitude for the work you are doing in many places around the world to establish God’s homeland and bring peace to humanity. We are gathered here today to commemorate the historic days in 2004 when ceremonies were held at venues on both Capitol Hill in the United States and the National Assembly in Korea, honoring me with a crowning as “King of Peace.” As it happens, this is also the 20th anniversary of the day I was freed from Danbury prison in the United States after achieving victory over the difficulties of incarceration there. That was the last of six times in my life when it became necessary for me to be imprisoned due to persecution and unjust accusations.

On this meaningful day, I would like to convey to you Heaven’s message concerning the value of the Holy Marriage Blessing and its significance. The title of my remarks is “The Holy Marriage Blessing Is the Path to Unite the Virtues of Heaven and Earth and Harmonize and Unify the Universe as One.”

The Family of the Ideal of Creation

Beloved guests, in what form does God, the Creator of all things in the universe, exist? God exists as the dual characteristics of a subject partner in the male position and object partner in the female position. God created Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, by dividing the male and female positions within Himself. The children of Adam and Eve were to have been created in the same pattern of male and female as a result of the union formed by Adam and Eve.

God’s creation takes place according to this principle of origin, division, and union. God is the first generation, Adam and Eve were the second generation, and the children of Adam and Eve were to have stood in the position of the third generation. These three generations were to have formed a single family. God gave His blessing so that sinless descendants could be multiplied through myriads of generations. This is how God created human beings.

If Adam and Eve had achieved individual perfection in accordance with God’s will – that is, if they had achieved the perfection of their character – and entered into conjugal relations with His blessing and accomplished a perfect oneness with Him, then a bond would have been formed enabling God to reside within them. Also, their children would have been linked to a holy order of love enabling them to form bonds of parent-child relationships directly with God. This is God’s greatest blessing to humanity.

In general terms, to bless someone means that we pray for their good fortune. What, then, is the zenith, the apex of good fortune? What is the most precious aspect of good fortune? It is not money. Nor is it fame. It is not power or knowledge. If Adam and Eve had only been able to marry with God’s blessing and multiply sinless children, this would have been the most precious of all blessings. All creation would have responded with joy, and it would have been the day of God’s greatest joy as well. It would be the place where the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth and the Kingdom of Heaven in Heaven meet.

What would have happened if God’s creation in the Garden of Eden had ended with man and there had been no woman? The miracle of all miracles is that men and women exist together in this world. For only one to exist would be the same as no existence at all. Humankind would have ended in less than a hundred years. It is only when men and women are together that the heavenly path can be established and ethics and moral principles have their beginning.

So the marriage of the perfected Adam and Eve would have been God’s own marriage. God would have remained as God, but also Adam and Eve would have become the embodiment of God. Adam and Eve would have become God’s body, and God would have settled inside their minds to become humanity’s True Parent in both spiritual and physical aspects.

Fall and Restoration

But, ladies and gentlemen, as a result of the fall committed by the first human ancestors at the beginning, human history deteriorated into a history of sin and struggle. Human beings, as a matter of course, should have attended God as our True Parents, but instead we became the prisoners of hell, dominated by the false parent, the devil Satan. The bodies of Adam and Eve were to have become temples of God and God was to have resided within them, and they were to have become people possessing divine value. Instead, their bodies became the hotbeds of all manner of sin and falsehood, and the devil used them as his dance stage.

In practical terms, the fall meant that the marriage that should have been performed with God’s blessing was instead performed centering on Satan. According to the Principle of Creation, true love, true life, and true lineage are inherited from parents. This means that human beings born with Satan as our parent, through no choice of our own, inherit false love, false life, and false lineage.

We became a pitiful humanity, exhausted by the struggle between our mind and body, with each one forced to leave this world having been unable to resolve this problem even at the moment of our death. We ignore the voice of our conscience, which represents the voice of God within us, and we conduct our lives controlled by the desires of our body, which has become the slave of Satan. This is a picture of the human condition.

Most people are not even aware that they have fallen to the point of living in such a wretched and oppressed state. They look around and see that others are in the same situation. They think appearing to be able to see, but being in fact blind, is quite natural. They become such foolish and pitiful people. How much longer will you live oblivious to this tragedy?

In principle, the person who causes a problem is responsible to solve it. Because we fell by false love, we must eradicate false love even to its last vestiges. On that foundation, we must receive the true holy marriage blessing centering on God’s true love, and set out to build true families. We must put down true roots that will enable us to multiply true descendants, generation after generation.

This is not something, however, that one can achieve just by wishing it would come true. Isn’t it true that, during the tens of thousands of years since the beginning of human history, no one has been able to achieve this state and save humanity from evil and sin? The many religions that have risen and fallen over the course of history have done their best to achieve this purpose, but even they have been unable to overcome the obstacle of fallen nature and have either failed or been forced to take detours.

But God is a Parent of true love. He gave Jesus the status of His only begotten son and made Himself incarnate on this earth. Jesus came with the mission of the Savior and Messiah and dedicated his life of 33 years to bringing about this will of Heaven. Yet in the end, even he passed away midway through the course as a sacrifice on the cross.

I am not referring to any failure on the part of Jesus himself. Jesus, who was qualified as the perfect human being, or second Adam, searched for his bride. However, Judaism and Israel, which Heaven had prepared for thousands of years, were unable to understand Heaven’s will and their ignorance forced Jesus to go the way of the cross. Jesus was the incarnation of Heaven’s seed of true love, sinless and pure, but in the end he had to return to Heaven without being able to plant that seed on this earth. Jesus came to find a bride on earth, hold the Marriage of the Lamb in the presence of both Heaven and earth, establish a family of true love and multiply Heaven’s sinless and true lineage. Yet this mission was blocked, midway through the course.

The Incarnation of True Parents and the Value of the Blessing

God’s love is absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal, and so too the attributes of His will are absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging. Therefore, God’s ideal of creation must absolutely be completed on this earth. The providence by which Heaven has sought the children of God who were lost in the fall of Adam and Eve must be fulfilled.

Please understand that, even though Jesus passed into the spirit world because of disbelief in Israel, today Heaven has sent True Parents, who are the saviors of humanity, the Messiah and the returning Lord, to this earth, and is bringing the history of the Providence of Salvation to a close. God is carrying out His absolute and eternal providence in accordance with a program for the providence of salvation that cannot be delayed or extended any further.

Ladies and gentlemen, you are standing today in a very active scene of the providence. Let those with ears to hear, hear. Let those with eyes to see, see with certainty. Let those with mouths to speak give witness to all nations. The Rev. Sun Myung Moon who stands before you now is the Savior, Messiah, Returning Messiah, Peace King, and True Parent.  He has manifested on earth with Heaven’s anointing as the one for whom humanity has waited with eager yearning for such a long time.

This is not my own claim. Founders of the major religions and tens of thousands of other saints and sages in the spirit world have sent messages testifying to this fact. God himself has sent a message asking that all 6 billion people work to establish the Peace Kingdom on earth, centering on the True Parents. These messages have already been widely published. If you cannot believe these facts, please put your life on the line in prayer. Surely, Heaven will give you the answers that you seek in prayer.

Ladies and gentlemen, what then is the path that humanity, which became wild olive trees as descendants of the fall, must take? It is to receive the Holy Marriage Blessing from God through the True Parents. A wild olive tree will always be a wild olive tree, even after a thousand years. It must be grafted on to a cultivated, or true, olive tree and secure for itself the true blood lineage. The Holy Marriage Blessing that is received through the True Parents is the blessing and grace of being grafted on to the true olive tree.

It is sometimes said in the world that the Holy Marriage Blessing led by Rev. Moon is nothing more than a marriage performed in the style of the Unification Church. This ceremony, however, is much more than just a wedding to mark the coming together of a man and a woman for the purpose of beginning to build a family. Weddings held until now were centered on the two individuals involved, but the Holy Marriage Blessing contains content that returns joy to God. It is a precious condition for indemnifying history. It is a holy and grand ceremony of blessing and grace. Please understand that, in this ceremony, we resolve the grief of God from the fall of Adam and Eve and pass through the standard of bride and groom that Jesus was not able to accomplish.

So the term “Holy Marriage Blessing” did not just begin with me or with the Unification Church. Instead, it existed within the innermost heart of God since the time of Creation. After the human fall, however, it became one of His cherished desires. Please understand that God has always pursued this as a goal and longed to see it happen.

Is there anyone who knows the circumstances of God, who had to walk a path of unspeakable suffering in order to bring about this historic day? This is a historic day of resolution of grief and a providential day when God’s cherished desire is fulfilled. Seen on this level, the Holy Marriage Blessing is an incredible blessing, but it can also be an incredibly fearful blessing.

The position of the Holy Marriage Blessing is where all the sorrow in history, from the farthest past into the present, can be brought to closure. A new beginning can be made toward fulfilling the cherished desires of God. It is a starting point, an opportunity to create a new future for humanity. It is the most certain way to extricate oneself from the dominion Satan exercised in the Era Before Heaven.

Only through the Holy Marriage Blessing can you inherit the bond of True Parents’ love. It is the process and end result of the transfer of Heaven’s full authority. When a family that has received the Blessing goes to the spirit world, True Parents will be responsible for them. This means that such a family will live under the dominion of True Parents. Once a heavenly bond is made with the True Parents through the Holy Marriage Blessing, this becomes an eternal and unchanging bond. The Holy Marriage Blessing becomes the key to opening the gates of Heaven.

The Fulfillment of the Blessing in the Era After the Coming of Heaven

Then, ladies and gentlemen, what kind of time and age is it when the Blessing becomes reality? The Era Before the Coming of Heaven, when the world was under Satan’s dominion has ended, and we have entered the Era After the Coming of Heaven, when the Peace Kingdom will be established. This is the best of times, when the grief of God, who has worked for six thousand years to see this day, is resolved and the cherished desires of humankind for peace are realized.

It is the time when we see the fulfillment of the cherished desires of Jesus, who came to this earth but left before he could completely fulfill God’s will. In addition, it is the time when the blossoms of true love bloom and bear fruit for the first time since the creation of human beings, and when we can be welcomed by all nature and receive its respect and glory.

How strongly has God yearned to see this day? We come to a new era in which evil disappears. At this time, a new Heaven and new Earth are established under the bright light of the sun, and all creation communes together and the entire universe dances in a new morning of victory.

I have said that the heavenly ideal cannot be fulfilled without establishing the family through the Holy Marriage Blessing. The heavenly ideal is completed when the will of God is fulfilled and the heavenly way is established in the family, centering on true love.

What kind of love is true love? True love exists for the public benefit; it is a love that seeks first to give and live for the sake of the whole. It is a love that gives but then does not even remember that it gave, and it gives without end. It is a love that gives joy. It is the heart of love of a mother embracing her child and feeding it at her breasts. It is the love of a child who practices filial piety toward the parents and feels joyful. Just as it was with God when He created human beings, true love is the creation of a love that is absolute, unique, unchanging, and eternal without condition or expectation of receiving anything in return.   

True love creates for us the wellspring of the universe, the center of the universe, and the owner of the universe. True love also symbolizes God’s root, His determination, and His power. So when we are bound together in true love, we can be together forever and still enjoy each other’s company. The universe and even God will follow when we pull them with true love.

The value of true love is reckoned by its power to bring an eternal end to the walls that human beings descended from the fall have created, including national boundaries, race, and even religion.  An absolute prerequisite for entering the Kingdom of Heaven is a life lived for the sake of others, that is, a life of true love.

What is the heavenly way? In short, it is the tradition of Heaven. It is a tradition of practicing true love rooted in Heaven. A life of the heavenly way is an exalted life that transcends the human laws of the world. Violent social or political revolutions are unnecessary in true love, and the same is true in the heavenly way. You only need to follow the path of true love, the heavenly way, and practice a life of sacrifice and service that is for the sake of others. This is the path that will bring about an explosion of God’s love. It is the path to develop and expand God’s lineage, and the path to preserve God’s blood lineage forever.

You now need to run forward in this Age After the Coming of Heaven with a determination that says: “As long as God does not change, I will not change. No matter the circumstances, I will continue on this path. Even if the life, love, and ideals that I have preserved until now in the satanic world are all taken from me, I will continue on this path. Even if God should change, I will bring God back and continue on this path with Him. If God is not absolute, I will make Him absolute, if necessary, and continue on this path.”

Ladies and gentlemen, why do we marry? I have said that we marry in order to enter the Kingdom of Heaven and to save humankind. We must understand that when two people become husband and wife through the Holy Marriage Blessing, the wife who stands before the husband is a daughter of God and a daughter of humanity. If the man can love his wife as much as humanity loves her and as much as God loves her, then he is qualified to be her husband. The same is true for the woman. Just because he is your husband, don’t say: “Look, that’s my man.” Before you claim him as your man, think of him as God’s son and as a man who represents all the men in the world.

Between a husband and wife, the husband is the right foot, and the wife the left. They should leave footprints of a life lived for the sake of God and humankind. These footprints are, in fact, your families. But if either the right or left foot is not whole, the person will limp. Will you be people who leave footprints betraying a limp? When you become a couple in which the wife upholds the husband as she would Heaven and the husband holds the wife in esteem and protects her as he would the earth, then the place where they embrace will be where the virtues of heaven and earth are harmonized and the universe will be harmonized as one.

Our Mission

Respected leaders, we are now entering a glorious age. The Kingdom of Heaven on earth that is God’s ideal of creation, the Peace Kingdom, is being established before your eyes. The life that I have lived for more than 80 years, a lonely path speckled with drops of blood and sweat lived only for the path of Heaven, is now witnessing the fruits of victory for the sake of the six billion people in the world.

In more than 180 countries, Ambassadors for Peace who have inherited Heaven’s will and tradition are working hard, day and night, proclaiming the values of true love and true families. They are moving forward with full force to establish a world of peace on this earth.

In the Middle East, one of the world’s tinderboxes, Jews, Christians and Muslims have found the resources in my philosophy of peace to engage in a new dimension of peaceful dialogue. The Unification Thought of Rev. Moon also played a decisive role in ending the Cold War. Efforts behind the scenes to bring about the unification of my homeland of Korea are being carried out under my leadership.

But that alone is not enough to satisfy me. I began my life’s work at the command of Heaven. I have come as the True Parent of humankind with God’s anointing, and I am determined to keep my promise to Him to build His Kingdom.

Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to take the opportunity of this precious forum today to declare a truly historic and revolutionary project for the sake of peace and the welfare of humankind. This is a project to build a bridge over or a tunnel under the Bering Strait, where Satan has historically divided east and west, and north and south, and where the North American and Russian land masses are separated.

This “World Peace King Bridge-Tunnel” will be connected to a future “International Highway System” so that people can travel by car from Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to Chile’s Santiago and from London to New York, making the world a single community.

Heaven warns us that separation and division will no longer be tolerated. This project will bind the world together as a single community, tear down the walls of race, culture, religion, and nationality created by human beings, and establish the world of peace that has been God’s cherished desire.

The United States and Russia must become as one, along with European nations, China, India, Japan, Brazil, and all other nations, and indeed all of the world’s religions. Together they must combine their energies to succeed in this historic project.  The success of this project will play a decisive role in establishing a Peace Kingdom where there is no need for war or division.

Ladies and gentlemen, some may question how such a huge project can be completed. But where there is the will of God, there is a way. The science and technology of the 21^stcentury has advanced to a level where boring a tunnel under the Bering Strait is not a problem. The construction costs are also not a problem. For example, do you know how much money the United States poured into the war in Iraq during the past three years? The figure is going to reach 200 billion dollars soon. That is more than enough to complete the Bering Strait project.

The Choice Before Us

Why do not only the United States, but so many in the world continue the foolishness and barbarism of war, pouring endless money into the project of killing one another? Humankind should stop repeating the perversity of sacrificing our children’s lives, squandering astronomical amounts of money for the sake of war. The time has come for all the countries of the world to pool their resources and dash forward toward establishing the world of peace that is the desire of God, who is the master of the great universe.

Humanity has entered a dead-end street, and the only way for it to survive is to uphold the peace philosophy of true love, true life, and true lineage that is taught by Rev. Moon. When your good ancestors are mobilized and the heavenly forces of the Age After the Coming of Heaven sweep down upon the earth, even countries and peoples that appear strong will have no choice but to surrender.

The choice is now before you. There can be no perfection in ignorance. This message that I convey to you is both a warning and a blessing from Heaven. Will you join in step with me as I rise and gain victory in accordance with heavenly fortune? Will you become principal actors in establishing true families, true societies, true nations, and a true world? Or will you remain captive behind the same old walls that Satan likes – the wall of your religion, the wall of your culture, the wall of your nationality, and the wall of your race – and spend the remainder of your lives in agony and regret? Heaven is summoning brave leaders who will turn this world of evil upside down and establish a new heaven and new earth.

Today I have delivered Heaven’s message. Please inscribe it deep in your hearts and remember that the Holy Marriage Blessing received through the True Parents has the unifying value of bringing together the virtues of heaven and earth. Please use this information to set new coordinates for your lives so that you may become wise leaders.

Let me end my remarks by asking you to pledge that you will become brave leaders who will maintain the heavenly way that has become the tradition of the Era After the Coming of Heaven and who will lead the world and humankind.

Thank you.

Paying the Ultimate Price to Follow God’s Path

As soon as I was released from Seodaemun Prison, I went to
the Gabsa Buddhist temple on Mount Gyeroung in Choongcheong
Province. I needed to heal the wounds from my torture
in Seodaemun Prison. Also, I needed a forest where I could pray
and think about the future of our church. This was not long after the
end of the Korean War, and just finding enough food to survive was
often a difficult task. Despite such short-term difficulties, however, it was
important that I make plans for the longer term. We still did not have a
church large enough to hold all our members for service, but I felt it was
important to spend some time looking out into the distant future.
Following the collapse of Japanese colonial rule and the liberation
of Korea in 1945, the two countries had not established diplomatic
relations. Japan had not recognized the government in Seoul, and
Korea considered Japan an enemy country. My belief was that, when
the situation of the world was considered, it was important for the two
countries to resume contacts. A number of attempts were made to send
a missionary to Japan, but these were unsuccessful. In the end, it was
Bong Choon Choi who accomplished this task.
In 1958, I called Bong Choon Choi to meet me on the mountain
behind the Gabsa temple.
“You need to go immediately to Japan. You will not be able to return
to Korea until you have succeeded.”
“Yes!” he replied, without hesitation.
The two of us then sang the Korean Christian hymn whose words begin:
Called of God, we honor the call;
Lord, we’ll go wherever you say.
We came down the mountain together in high spirits. He never
asked how he was supposed to support himself in Japan or how he was
supposed to begin his activities there. Bong Choon Choi was that kind
of audacious man. Travel to Japan was not allowed for most Koreans.
His only option was to try to enter Japan even without a visa. He would
need to endure many things.
Bong Choon Choi did not even know if he could enter Japan, but
he was prepared, if necessary, to lay down his life. Until I could hear
that he had safely crossed the strait to Japan, I put aside all other work
and sat praying in a small room in the church. I didn’t eat or sleep. We
even had to take out a loan of 1.5 million won to send him. We had
many members who had nothing to eat, but evangelizing Japan was so
important that everything else had to be put aside.
Unfortunately, Bong Choon Choi was arrested as soon as he arrived
in Japan. He was placed in prison, first in Hiroshima and later in Yamaguchi,
until he could be deported back to Korea. While in prison he
decided he would rather die than be sent back, and so he began to fast.
During his fast, he developed a fever. The Japanese authorities decided
to place him in a hospital and delay his deportation until his health could
be restored. While in the hospital, he managed to escape from custody.
After such efforts made at the risk of his life over a year and a half,
Bong Choon Choi established the church in Japan in October 1959.
Korea and Japan would not establish diplomatic relations for another
six years. In fact Korea, because the painful memory of suffering under
Japan’s colonial rule was still quite fresh, was rebuffing any suggestion
that it open contacts with Japan. I had our missionary smuggle himself
into this enemy country for the sake of Korea’s future. Instead of refusing
all contact, Korea needed to evangelize Japan so that it would be in the
position to be the senior partner in the bilateral relationship. Korea was
impoverished materially, so it needed to open a channel to the Japanese
leadership, get Japan on its side, and then link itself to the United States.
That was how Korea could survive. As a result of the successful effort
to send a missionary to Japan, owing to Bong Choon Choi’s sacrifice,
an exceptional youth leader named Osamu Kuboki joined the church,
together with a group of young people who followed him. The Japanese
church became securely established as a result of their work.
We sent missionaries to America in the following year. There was no
visa trouble this time. They were able to receive passports and visas before
leaving. In securing the passports, we were aided by some cabinet
ministers of the Liberal Party who had played a part in having me imprisoned
in the Seodaemun Prison. Previously, they had opposed us, but
now they were helping us. The United States in those days seemed like a
very far-off country. Some of our church members opposed the idea of
sending missionaries there, saying it was more important to grow our
foundation in Korea first. I convinced the members of its importance,
however, saying that unless America’s crisis could be resolved, Korea
would be destroyed, too. In January 1959, we sent Young Oon Kim, one
of the professors who had been fired by Ewha Womans University. Then
in September of that year, we sent David S.C. Kim. The work they began
in America was aimed at the entire world.