Evening Banquet
Friday, August 18, 2000
The United Nations, New York
Honorable and distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen!
I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for the Universal Peace Award my wife and I have received here at the United Nations, this historical landmark of world peace. Let me use this opportunity to speak briefly on the theme, "Breaking Down Boundaries and World Peace."
Ladies and gentlemen, if we could break down all the boundaries in this world, world peace would come necessarily. But the thing we have to remember is that God is not the lord of boundaries. Satan, the devil, first made them. Satan and his followers are dwelling wherever there are boundaries. Satan sits on the boundary between Oriental and Western civilizations, for example.
God did not create boundaries among various different cultures, traditions, races, etc. God desires one unified world, a world without boundaries.
God does not have even the concept of boundaries. Therefore, He does not tell us to take revenge on our enemies; if He did, it would imply that He had such a concept. By loving our enemies and bringing oneness amongst us, boundaries will naturally come down.
Thus, God's strategy and tactics is to have us love our enemies. That is a great strategy. It is unfortunate that throughout all human history until the present, humans have not understood the value of the words, "Love your enemies." Unification Church members, as representatives of human history, have come to understand this strategy and are practicing it in reality. By exemplifying these words, they have become leading lights who can bring peace to the world.
What do you think? When our hearts are not happy, when our bodies are not comfortable, when we our dissatisfied with our actions, when we speak angry words, don't these create boundaries? Therefore, unless we unite our mind and body through the five senses, all kinds of boundaries will come into existence. For this reason, we need to reflect upon how many boundaries we are living with in our daily life.
When we say, "Go beyond having enemies. Stop building boundaries," some might think we should have to pull out our eyes. Actually, there are two kinds of eyes. If our eyes, without differentiating evil from goodness, welcome anything we see simply as good, then enormous boundaries will be built. The same is the case with hearing. If we rejoice over hearing the words of goodness or truth and at the same time listen to all the evil words of this world and support them, then boundaries will be built also in our ears.
Members of the Unification Church are not prohibited from singing popular secular songs, while some Christian denominations have rules against it. The question is not whether we sing popular songs or classical songs, but rather how we can digest the lyrics of those songs. Does singing the song create a boundary, or does it break down a boundary? If by singing a certain song or by speaking rough language a person is able to break down a boundary and thereby create a wider and less restricted world, certainly that will please God.
In sum, wherever we live with boundaries, whether through our senses or in our environment, we belong to Satan's side. On the other hand, if we can live without boundaries anywhere, we can stand on God's side. Satan is the champion at building boundaries. On the other hand, God is the master of breaking down boundaries. God, the King of kings, does not like boundaries at all. He hates boundaries the most.
Ladies and gentlemen, look at the Korean peninsula. Do you think God appreciates a Korean who says that the 38th parallel that divides the peninsula is a good thing? Of course not! Hence, if someone works hard to remove it, that person will become God's favorite champion. If all the 70 million Koreans have the determination to die for the cause of removing the 38th parallel, then the reunification of North and South Korea will arrive without doubt. That task, however, will never be easy. We must understand that those who want the 38th parallel to continue to exist in the Korean peninsula are on the side of Satan, the devil. Satan is the master of the 38th parallel, and God is the master of where efforts are being made to remove it. That is why Unification Church members have been leading a reformation to break down the 38th parallel.
Ladies and gentlemen, when the day comes that people everywhere want their children to marry their enemies, desiring to have sons and daughters-in-law from among their enemies, the entire world will be automatically united. This is the gift that I would like to offer to you tonight. Where boundaries exist, certainly Satan and his followers reside; but God and His people, born of His lineage, dwell where love and harmony abound, without boundaries.
Today, Unification Church members are very much interested in developing the leisure industry, which encourages people to travel all over the world and live anywhere in the world that they desire. This foresees a future international federation based on the United Nations, established someday in whatever location and name. When it is established, we should all come together under the name of this international federation. For this purpose, Rev. Moon suggested to Unification Church members that they gather a special fund, called the Total Living Offering Fund. In the future, we will use this fund to facilitate the development of this international federation of the United Nations.
In the Old Testament, animals representing all of creation were sacrificed on behalf of humans. They were divided into two, which represented two parties struggling against each other, the right side in the position of God and the left side in the position of Satan. However, as a result of the failures of some of the central figures in the Old Testament Age, God and Satan came to struggle over Jesus, who as the Son of God had a value was far above that of the creation. As a result, when Jesus, the eldest Son of God, came to earth, he shed his blood, with his body taken by Satan and his spirit belonging to God. Because Jesus must yet recover his physical body, he proclaimed that he would return.
Ever since Jesus, the Son of God, was divided into the two realms, problems likewise have continued to plague the spirit world and the physical world. Further, men and women were divided, and the mind and the body were divided, remaining in continual conflict and struggle. Therefore, Jesus, who went to the spirit world to restore God's dominion over that world, must still return to earth in order to restore God's ownership of the physical world and bring oneness between the two worlds. What, then, would he do when he returns to earth? He would marry and establish his own family. Nevertheless, Satan took Jesus' body and the physical world with it, while God could claim the spirit world as His. In the spirit world, Jesus has been toiling for two thousand years to bring the hearts of people on earth to one direction and lead God's dispensation centered on Christianity.
However, Christianity also was divided into two: Catholicism and Protestantism. They became enemies to each other and fought each other just as Cain, the elder son, had fought his younger brother Abel. Thus human history has developed, constantly creating more boundaries, multiplying struggles. We, therefore, have to liberate ourselves from this attitude of erecting boundaries and struggles.
And so when the Lord returns, he will unify the heavenly world. Then, to bring oneness between heaven and earth, he will conduct many marriage ceremonies, bringing together men and women from tribes and nations that have been divided for thousands of years. He will conduct this providence centered on the Unification realm, which is in the same position as the chosen people of Israel in Jesus' day. This is the very Marriage of the Lamb prophesied in the Bible.
There was a wonderful opportunity immediately after World War II when heaven and earth could have been united centered on Christianity. At that time the Christian cultural sphere was united and leading the world. With Jesus playing the leading role in the spirit world, a united Christian cultural sphere was prevailing all over the earth. This would have been a perfect chance for Jesus and the Holy Spirit to come to the earth and substantially marry as husband and wife. They could have started laying the foundation to resolve all of the existing problems resulting from the separation and division between mind and body and between man and woman, and built the veritable Kingdom of Peace on earth.
I am not talking about something vague and unclear. Who should have been married first from the perspective of God's ideal of creation? It was Adam and Eve. But due to their fall, they created the first human boundary, and the source of all subsequent boundaries. Now, in order to break down that barrier, all men and women should be restored to the state prior to the fall and then should marry. Then, not only our ancestors, but God also will rejoice with dancing. When such a world arrives, it will be the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
However, such a day has never existed in human history. Instead, humans have been grieving and struggling in pain, entangled by countless boundaries. Accordingly, the starting-point of peace in the world requires that humankind find the way to break down this primary boundary. Yet the people of the world have not understood. This is why Rev. and Mrs. Moon have come into this world in the position of True Parents, giving God's Blessing to the men and women of the world and showing the world, for the first time in human history, the way to resolve the most fundamental human problems.
Even if there are a million boundaries, I am certain I can break them down. How can I do it? True love is what makes it possible. To get rid of these barriers, we have to know true love as God knows true love, otherwise we cannot do it. This means that we must know God one hundred percent.
Ladies and gentlemen, the spirit world consists of heaven and hell: heaven is likened to a world of daylight, and hell can be likened to the nighttime. But someone who is unable to tell the difference between day and night, how can he possibly take control of the boundary between the realms of heaven and hell? It is impossible. Only a person who knows them in reality can have dominion over the two worlds. That person can eliminate the darkness, because he clearly knows the substance of hell.
God, who is omnipotent and omniscient, can eliminate the darkness. But first we must know God. Can you say that you know God? How well do you know Him? Is it your understanding that God is pleased with wealth, power or knowledge? Such a God could never bring liberation to humans. You must fully know God in order to expel Satan completely and resolve the fundamental problems of this world. Moreover, even if you fully know God, do you also know what it is about God that is useful in bringing down all the boundaries, erected over thousands of years? This is the important thing.
God is the master of the universe. Then shouldn't there be an environment where God can dwell, a neighborhood and a nation where God can dwell? In order for us to know God, we must restore His nation as a realm that is objective to His governance. Still, the earthly environment remains blocked by numerous boundaries. By taking them down, we should build a world with which God can be happy. Wouldn't all creation like to be governed by God? Indeed, all creation is anxious to be liberated from its groaning, from pain and persecution caused by the control of Satan, and from the many borders that divide it.
Ladies and gentlemen, more than anything else, we need to understand God clearly, and we need to understand clearly the way to build the Kingdom of God. Then, wherever we go, and in whatever situation we are in, we will automatically receive answers about how to deal with difficulties among the world's diverse cultures and traditions.
Surely, God exists in heaven. However, today's world is blocked by countless boundaries. How did this happen? It happened because there are hardly any people who know God, His Kingdom, and the tradition in His Kingdom. Once people clearly know them, liberation will take place in both the spirit world and physical world. We will even be able to call out, "Hey, Satan!" and he will obey. Then we will come to know the ways through which we can live in unity with God's heart and with His Kingdom, in a culture with heavenly tradition and values.
Such people are the ones who live with love for the sake of others. Therefore, instead of seeking love for our own sake, we should seek to love others for their sakes, making them masters of love and letting them dance with love. Thus, we can become God's heirs, people who know God and beautify and protect His Kingdom. Satan will have no way to interfere with the heirs of God.
If you love our enemies, transcending anger and hatred even in situations where they kill the ones you love, you shall be able to have dominion over the world of enemies, and Satan will retreat. Eventually, the world of your enemies will show respect to you. If you live for the sake of others to the extent that you love your neighbors more than your own parents, then Satan will run away. Whatever you have given, God will reward you thousands of times more.
Again, what is the secret of knowing God, His Kingdom and His thought, which will enable us to chase out Satan from everywhere? It is to live for the sake of others, die for the sake of others and practice love for the sake of others. When we do that, Satan will certainly run away. And he will not just run away without doing anything. Before he leaves, he will break down all the boundaries that he had erected around us.
What will happen next? Once Satan is gone, the people who had been headed for hell will all be able to rise up and enter heaven, by practicing these principles of eternal life. Eternal life will finally become a reality. People who call on God, the Source of love, as their Father will earnestly desire to practice God's tradition of living for others and will continue to do so for tens of thousands of years. This is how individuals can become the people of eternal life, practicing the tradition of eternal life and endowed with God's eternal lineage.
Eternal life is essentially an attribute of love. Even God, when He created the universe, adhered to the standards of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. God lives this way, always desiring to invest more love for the world, even though everything in the world is transient. For this reason, there is no being that cannot help but attend Him as the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal Lord.
We humans, created as God's children, should likewise be able to completely invest our own love absolutely and eternally. If we do so, then the Kingdom of God will become our kingdom, and God will belong to us. In short, our life-style should be the same as that of God, the master of the heavenly tradition. Then we shall surely become God's sons and daughters, and eternal life and immortality will necessarily be ours. That is why the Bible verse, "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it," is so true, although it may sound paradoxical.
The task of removing boundaries includes the lowering of national boundaries through the work of the United Nations, getting rid of religious boundaries, tearing down ethnic and racial boundaries, and ultimately destroying the boundary between heaven and hell. Since all these boundaries stem from Adam and Eve, the false parents, no one other than True Parents can break them down. God alone cannot do it, and certainly Satan cannot do it; he is the one who has been creating them. Who can stop the conflict between God and Satan? Only True Parents can resolve that war also, since the false parents started it.
Ladies and gentlemen, I hope you will leave this place this evening with determination to go out and destroy every boundary, bringing this message of liberation to all humankind. Thank you very much.
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