YESTERDAYS AND TODAY

REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON, April 30, 1978, Belvedere, New York ,Translator - Sang Kil Han

Every soul who lives on earth has days lived in the past and days to be lived in the future. A country is the same, as is a group and even God's dispensation. There is always a past and a future. Each of us has his past before joining the Unification Church, and also his future since joining. Let us compare our past and future, both before and since joining the Unification Church, and see which was better. Essentially everyone lived centering on himself in the past. If someone was a higher-level person then he also lived for his family and clan and society, but essentially the food he ate, the hours he slept and the things he did were centered on himself. If he had some hope, it was that he might amount to something. Most people indulge in the pursuit of one of three major areas-money, power, career. To an individual the world certainly seems farther removed than his country. His country appears farther away than his own society or clan, which in turn looks farther away from himself than his family. How much he is aware of himself as part of the bigger picture remains to be questioned. Even if a person concerns himself with bigger things, the core is still himself as an individual; he always thinks of those bigger things centering on himself, instead of thinking of himself centering on the bigger things. The average individual has not thought about whether heaven exists or what it is like. He just happens to find himself alive, and he just tries to keep on living without investigating these basic things. When he gets married it is still for himself and his happiness. Instead of thinking for his children's sake, he thinks of them in terms of himself. The multitudes living on earth are the same way, thinking on a scale as small as a grain of sand, and creating an environment that is very much like a desert.

What is worth pursuing with our devotion?

Look at the situation of someone who has worked hard to become rich. Perhaps he is a millionaire several times over, but to reach that status he had to work slavishly until he was sixty. By that time he is not far from leaving this earth for spirit world. When a man really works frantically toward some goal, forgetting everything else, by the time he reaches sixty and can call himself a success he is about ready to retire. By the time a million dollars is accumulated, you can imagine how desolate he will feel when he thinks back to his past and surveys the future. While he was working hard he probably did not notice it, but after he has time to reflect on how his whole purpose in life was to make money, he is apt to feel miserable. More likely than not, he probably does not have anyone to inherit either that hard-earned cash or his zeal to succeed. Most likely everyone in his company is disposed to disharmony, and he will feel even more miserable about the situation. The money a zealous individual earns over a period of years almost never remains. Through my own experience I can see that money has almost nothing to do with anything meaningful inside a man. If you had much money in your possession, chances are that you would be so busy watching it that there would be little time left for anything else. Because you know that someone will always be after it, you spend sleepless nights guarding it. One of the older Korean family members was once entrusted with a large sun of money, and spent a tense, sleepless night guarding it in his own home. The next morning he said that if the amount of money had been any larger, he probably would not have just had a sleepless night but gone crazy. If you had been in his position you would have felt the same, or even more so. What remains of all the effort made to accumulate much money? People who go through a Ph.D. program do nothing but study all the time for many years. Later in his career a professor might have achieved significant work and received a Nobel prize, being acclaimed with respect by many people. We may think he would naturally be a happy man, but if you visit him individually in his home such a person is often discontent or even unhappy. Pursuing academic achievement is like going down one very narrow street. The whole universe awaits every scientist and philosopher, but they usually become so specialized that they only know about a very narrow area. We cannot expect to be made happy by acquiring much knowledge. The more we learn, the more we realize we don't know and the process becomes endless. Having studied deeply and worked many years as a teacher, a professor inhales more chalk powder than anyone else, and that's often all it amounts to. If you indulge in study, you can continue endlessly without any clear destination. A Ph.D. may have great knowledge in his own field, but he finds himself quite helpless in exercising influence over areas outside his own specialty. By the time he is deeply involved in his studies, he has no time to think about the world. He is farther away from the most basic, important things than anyone who has never seen a book. If a well-known authority says something then he has to give his attention to studying and critiquing it. He jumps here and there, studying what other people are saying, and by the time he does that often enough, he is not even confident about what he thinks himself. That's what most professors confess. If at best he becomes a famous scholar, how would he feel about himself after achieving that goal? If he is honest with himself he knows it is not worth pouring all his energy and total involvement into one narrow area of study. Let us take the example of political figures who aspire to high office. Someone who has been successful in achieving power has had to work his hardest his whole life. Perhaps finally he has got the power of the presidency, where he can do anything he wants. Will it last forever? In America, that power lasts four years. Compared to the expanse of history, four years is less than the blink of an eye. When you quietly, sanely think about it in perspective, it seems completely crazy to try and find some reality in that. Once his time of power is gone, what remains of a former President? Are the retired presidents visited and honored as they were while in office? Soon people forget, and chances are that former Presidents will be lonely later on. More often, ordinary people find themselves happier than a once famous, powerful man who has returned to everyday life. Everywhere he goes people recognize him and make comments. He is no longer a free person. Look at Jackie Onassis, who was a president's wife. She has money and fame, and she can get married any time she wants to! But would any of you sisters here wish you could be in her place? We have a saying in Korea that power never lasts longer than ten years. Money is always insecure. What is this life all about? We have seen the glamorous aspect of power, but a great burden of responsibility accompanies it. President Carter might be happy at times being President, but he has all kinds of big problems to solve. In Korean, "carter" means "pro and con". People always debate about whether this President is right or wrong. Even when he does his best he gets all the blame. It would have been far better for him to continue living in a country cottage, getting up early in the morning, washing his face in fresh water and singing with the birds. He could look at all the changes of the seasons and have time to appreciate those things, but once in the White House all kinds of people besiege him. He can't even go to the bathroom freely. Former friends become enemies and look for ways to use him. It's a very difficult life. What's so desirable about power? Having power for a short while might be nice, but everything that goes with it is bad. No matter what a person might have been in the past, on his deathbed his feeling is the same. Does he hopefully look forward to his future because of his past? Certainly not. At the time of death, preparing for the next world, everyone who has achieved great worldly status most likely feels desperation and hopelessness. Everything in the past was vanity By the time he is dying, he has no idea of what the future holds. Because he doesn't know about spirit world, death is like pitch black night. In that total darkness a person needs some light to guide his footsteps, but would knowledge be a light, or the power of the presidency? Whenever one is on the verge of dying, he usually feels despair, even when he has been successful by all worldly standards. That has been the fate of all men, however, not just one group of accomplished people. Even though your family and nation surround you, when you really think about your self, you think, "What have they got to do with me?" The common realization at the time of death is that you don't have as much association with them as you would like. That's a description of all life, not only here in America, but in the Orient as well.

Salvation through indemnity

Does joining the Unification Church make any difference? We can say that we discovered one thing after joining the Unification Church: God. We have come to know God. This God is not just a vague, would-be God who might be here. Our religion is not like others, which say there probably is a God. We know God. A concept has nothing to do with the living God, but we can know and visualize how God has worked throughout history. We know God through our daily lives, and we know God is residing everywhere, working through indemnity to judge all mankind. Sometimes it seems as though we are trying to explain everything with the same word, "indemnity", but we are in the process of learning the depth and the profound meaning of this simple word. Christians believe in being saved, and we know we will be saved also. At most, other religions believe that a person is saved through God's grace, but what we understand is that salvation is obtained through the minute-by-minute, day-by-day path of indemnity. We know realistically how we are saved. The concept of grace is vague, and when you really investigate it you run out of material. But salvation through indemnity is real, because that is the way God has been working throughout history. Indemnity is not detached from day-to-day life, being something which might or might not happen. We know how salvation is connected to what we do in everyday life and we can even predict what to expect. How precious this finding is! This is bigger than the greatest scientific discovery. As long as we live we will be governed by this law, and even life in spirit world has to do with indemnity. Let us look closely at indemnity. All Unification Church members know, either vaguely or realistically, that there is individual indemnity to be paid. When a person has his own family, he is aware of the need for indemnity on that level too. Perhaps as an individual he has fulfilled all the necessary conditions of indemnity, but without going through the family level, he cannot go straight into heaven. The clan-level of indemnity must be met before the heavenly life can surround that clan. We actually have to go through eight stages of indemnity before we can say we have finished with indemnity and can live the original life. This includes the society, nation, world and universe. If you consider for a moment, you will realize how impossibly difficult it is to fulfill even one of those eight realms of indemnity. Yet we cannot evade any of them. Look again at how fortunate we are to be going the realistic course. Everyone else is pursuing happiness, but not as realistically. We know that indemnity is the law of the universe, and without going through that law we will never get anywhere. God is right behind us, watching and sometimes helping, making sure we go through that law of indemnity. At no time in the past has God done that so intimately with such a large group of people. We know that we will steadily advance. Suppose one ambitious and innovative member of the Unification Church decided that he didn't like the way of indemnity and decided to go another way instead to meet God. Is there any chance of his direction being approved by God? We know there is only one way. How valuable that realization is! He could go in a different direction and meet a certain aspect of God, but he certainly will not see God welcome him and give him assurance that his way is right.

Where does God reside in this age?

Where is God then? We must realize that God resides wherever the indemnity law is at work. The place of indemnity is where Satan must leave you alone, where he can no longer touch you. That's where God is and that's where we want to be constantly. Where did God hang around in Old Testament times? God was found wherever an offering was made. No matter where anyone searched for God, He was never found anywhere except at the altar where offerings were made. Was God at the altar in the New Testament age? No, He was wherever Christians gathered for deep prayer, giving up everything of their own and praying for the world and God. Wherever an individual or group was praying deeply, God was there. What kind of work does the Unification Church do? Where exactly does God reside in the Unification Church? God resides wherever that indemnity law is working. We can see a very vivid comparison between the three ages. In the Old Testament times if you wanted to meet God you had to go to where the offering was made on the altar. In the New Testament times you had to go wherever fervent prayer was being offered. In our Church, however, God is found wherever indemnity is being paid. Wherever there is actual work to recover what was lost, we can always find God there. At first, man had to become detached from the world and go deep into the mountains to make an offering to find God. In the New Testament age God could come down to wherever a church was praying very hard. But now God is found wherever there is restoration through indemnity, wherever we are physically expelling Satan. It is not necessary to make an offering or even to pray extensively, except for a few moments in your waking hours. What is necessary is to help clean away all elements that God does not desire, namely Satan. We have to visit the place where Satan is, working through the law of indemnity to cast Satan out, and then God will be right there. That is the very real problem, not a conceptual or procedural problem. We have to go where Satan is and cast him out. We have reached the destination for which all the offerings and deep prayers were preparation. We are now living in that day, doing all the things that were offered for and prayed for. How can you make indemnity work? Happily going to the place that is so difficult and so hard that no one else likes it makes you eligible to pay indemnity. The simple rule about indemnity is that it is the place which no one likes to go to. Only a few select people have a desire to go there. It is not hard to understand why the road is so small. All mankind is in the satanic domain, influenced by what Satan likes. Good people don't like that, however. Only after going beyond what everyone likes, going to a different place, can a person be on God's side. Throughout the ages religion has taught men to go against the world. Religion never instructed believers to do what everyone else likes. All through history families and nations have persecuted religious people. If one is going the path of justice then everyone else opposes him because they are Satan's descendants. Yet through him God will indemnify everything, and eventually all others will give in to the righteous side.

Now that you know the value of indemnity,
you can eagerly meet it

What are you supposed to do if you are not intelligent or you lack knowledge, or if you lack prayer power? The simple solution is to go where no one else likes to go, and chances are that you will succeed more than other people. Are there only a few people who have to go this way? No, without exception everyone has to go basically the same road of indemnity, whether on earth or in the spirit world. Americans are so privileged that they must not have to go the road of indemnity, right? What about Africans, who have gone through much hardship already? They too must go; it might even be easier for them because they are accustomed to suffering. Is it easier for rich people to go the indemnity road, or poor people who have always felt hardship? From God's point of view, life is very impartial; it is very difficult for rich people to go through indemnity, but it is easier for the people who struggle through life. God is very much alive in daily life all over the world. The loving God is everywhere. You only feel grateful for indemnity when you know this for sure. Before now you might not have understood why we had to live such a poor life when everyone else is doing so well-God is training us to pay indemnity quickly. Now we can thank God for this life we lead. When Americans realize this, they will say to God, "This money You gave us makes going the road of indemnity much more difficult, so we are going to give it away to everyone else." Then the other people will say, "No, we don't want it! We don't want more difficult indemnity." This knowledge is the key for everyone to be joined into absolute unity. It is the all-important area where we can meet God. Once we know this for sure, we will never trade this understanding for anything else. Who would exchange even millions of dollars of hard cash for this knowledge? This law is not new, but you are accustomed to trying to avoid indemnity because until now you may not have understood it. From now on you will never avoid it, right? 1 am not trying to have you do something easy, but something you cannot do. You cannot do easy things, starting at eight in the morning and finishing at six. No, you don't even have time to go to the bathroom during the day. You have to go various impossible ways. If you find you just cannot do this, however, you have to at least pretend that you are. When you just don't know what to do next, instead of vigorously complaining, just sit still and mumble the word "indemnity". When God looks down at everyone in the movement He sees that everyone tries to work hard, but some just can't do it. The person who is panting, trying to catch up, should sit still sometimes when things get impossible, and God will still know that he is trying his best. He will take pity and come down to meet that person. If someone is quite capable yet still complains, however, God will not meet him. I give you all kinds of work which you cannot handle, but nevertheless, do as much as you can and accomplish something. I deliberately overburden you. We already know that the law of indemnity is great, but we have to prove ourselves to be different from the world outside our Church. We cannot just say that we have the way of salvation; we have to demonstrate that we are better. One characteristic of indemnity is that the law does not apply whenever something is done for oneself. What's wrong with thinking about oneself? Indemnity does not apply to selfishness because that is where Satan moved in. The fall took place at the very moment Adam and Eve discovered "1". The first thing Adam and Eve should have realized was God, then the rest of the world and the ideal world of creation. Last of all they would have realized themselves as individuals. You have to know for sure where indemnity applies. It is good indemnity to go to the place which no one else likes. The law of indemnity applies when the person wants to do something for everyone else but himself. When you become like that, the law of indemnity starts to apply to you as a child of God. First you have to think of God and the ideal world of creation. How can we complain? How can we refuse to go? Complaint actually has no place here. God sacrificed many righteous, religious people throughout history because of this one law, and no one could explain why God did it. During the 400 years of persecution after Jesus' crucifixion, many Christians sacrificed very much and many were killed. If, as they were dying, they called out to be saved from the persecution and asked to be avenged, they went to hell. There were actually some who died like that. Until now no one realized that. The early Christians were put in the place of indemnity, but if they did not meet the indemnity standard, they did not go to heaven. Whoever died thinking that his death was for the sake of God and mankind automatically went to heaven. But if a man asked revenge even for the sake of Christianity, he still would have found himself in hell. Jesus is a good example. He was in fact the supreme man on earth, but when he died he said, "Father, forgive them." That's the very thin line between heaven and hell. Here there are some members who say that I make them work hard and never allow them a moment to relax. Some other people might say instead that they are told to do impossible things, but that they still haven't done enough for God and mankind. With that attitude of asking forgiveness you will most likely meet the standard of indemnity. Satan is always saying that you are not good enough, and he never wants to approve your meeting the standard of indemnity. Because this is so precious and valuable, if you are not very stern and serious about it you can become a living instrument of Satan. Using this criterion and looking back into your past in the Unification Church, have you been more a friend of Satan or a friend of God? Just like God, Satan is never far away; he is right beside you. In the Old Testament Satan was always waiting to snatch an offering away if it was a failure. The same was true of prayers in the Christian churches. As long as a person was concentrated in prayer, Satan could not touch him in the New Testament era, but the moment his mind relaxed, Satan was right there. We are involved in the most momentous work of God, but when you make a mistake and complain, Satan comes right in. We have proof that now we are all living under the law of indemnity in the tact that all the world is coming to oppose us. All you have to do is think about how you are doing this work for God and mankind. Of course, we are not working for mankind as it is, but for that day when all mankind will come to the ideal world. It is our responsibility to each feel that we are recreating and reclaiming the original world. Since a man lost it, through "me" everything is regained. We are going through the indemnity course to restore all lost mankind to God's side. This is the way to live your life.

We have tolerated injustice in order
to satisfy the law of indemnity

Am I also bound by the law of indemnity? This is why I came to America when God ordered me to. All America opposed me, but still. when God spoke, I had to come. The peak was crossed on September 18, 1976, and since then I have gradually gone beyond the hill of indemnity. As we remain constant, people will eventually change their views about us. They will begin to realize that their former opinions were wrong and that we are really a group of good people. First they thought I had horns and wasn't even human, but now they are beginning to see I am a normal person, and lately to think that I am even handsome! There is nothing in the way of propaganda that has not been used to oppose the Unification Church. When I sent a missionary to every country, with few exceptions the inhabitants in those countries stood against the Unification Church. When I sent the missionaries out I told them not to come back for three years under any circumstances. Our members are holding up well because they know their responsibility. They ask God not to pay attention to the persecution but to save their nation and their continent and the world. During this impossible persecution at the world level I will keep on praying for God to forgive and restore our opponents. The peak of indemnity will be over for us also. Since I sent missionaries to the world, no country can accuse me of excluding them from sharing the blessing. Until now the persecution has been one-sided because we sat still and received all the blame, but now the time has passed and we can take an equal position. We are not going to be persecuted any longer. If someone attacks us unjustly then we will counterattack to chase Satan away from everywhere. Now we are even confronting the Congress and telling them about the mistakes they have made. 1 have a very fiery temper. When I was small and some big boy wanted to bully me, I would fight back no matter how big he was. If someone did something wrong to me or to someone else, I just left the house until I got an apology. With this strength God could give me the full measure of indemnity. During the course of my mission I never fought back against accusation. I was like a boneless man, without integrity or gumption. I have a mouth, but I never spoke out in protest because I know the law of heaven. I just persevered and put up with it. Many years ago our members came to me pleading to have us fight back when our opponents were so much in the wrong. But I said to them, "Shut up." I knew the law of indemnity and I never gave them the go-ahead. Thinking back through the past I know that God sent me to every last place I didn't want to go. More than anything else I have never liked to be outdone by other people, but nevertheless I withstood harsh criticism and did not even speak one word in my own defense. I have always been solidifying my determination, even tolerating injustice to satisfy more than fully the law of indemnity for the sake of God and mankind. The law of indemnity applies to everyone, but God's idea is not to let every person suffer the same life 1 have. What God is thinking instead is to let one man suffer most, with those around him representing the family and nation and world. Through having them going through unparalleled suffering, the remaining individuals and nations won't have to endure that. As far as God is concerned, we now have our own race in the Unification Church. We now have all five different races and representatives of all nations in the Unification Church and this is a new race of God. America is the country representing all four corners of the world. There is no country unrepresented in America. I came here to meet the whole world in one place, first receiving impossible persecution here, but finally receiving approval and gradually even receiving welcome. Now in the United States there isn't even a small town where Unification Church members haven't been; our fund raising teams go everywhere as the representatives of God. If the public will respond to the people whom God sends then His blessing will be shared with them. If the public opposes them, however, then that blessing will be transferred back to God's representative instead. Through His representative God even tries to give the blessing to evil men. Wherever Unification Church members go the people will be divided into two groups-those who say there is nothing wrong with Unification Church members and those who are convinced we are bad. At first our critics were heard above everyone else, but now their voices are lowered a little and things are half and half. Gradually their criticism will become fainter and fainter. Fund raising is not primarily a money-raising activity, but a method of significantly separating good from evil. According to how people respond to our fund raisers, God has a great chance to see who is good and who is evil. Those who support our fund raisers will be given credit for helping God directly. Everywhere we look we can see the signs of the demise of this nation. Everyone agrees that there are few positive signs anywhere. Yet out of nowhere has come a seemingly small group through whom God is letting this nation see the light, the light which will gradually dominate their entire country. I told all of you that if someone opposes you for what you do, push forward instead of being pushed back. It is for the sake of the whole country. When this nation welcomes us as the only hope then it will gradually be revitalized. So far the persecution has been one-sided, and many times when you were tired you wondered why you joined the Unification Church and where you are going to end up. You must realize that things are gradually changing. You might have thought that your back ached or your health was bad because you worked so hard in the Unification Church in your early years, but you are forgetting about what physically harmful things you did before you even joined. When God sees such an attitude He is stunned. This country has a tendency toward individualism, and some members even claim that the Unification Church must take the responsibility to cure them of all their ills

Once you grasp the value of indemnity,
no one will need to tell you what to do

The first thing that you really didn't like about the Unification Church was indemnity, right? During your yesterdays you really didn't like indemnity at all, but what about today? Out of all man's discoveries, this is the greatest. The difficulties involved to discover this are far beyond anyone's imagining. Even if you find yourselves in jail or in places horrible beyond description, the future is still bright there because with this realization about indemnity you can feel God right there with you. When things are pleasant and going well then of course there is no need to think about it, but even if things are difficult there is nothing more you need than this realization. The greater our suffering is, the more clearly we can see God and hear His voice. The future of mankind becomes clear to us through our grasp of this law of indemnity. We do not have power or much money or anything else which most people envy, but we have this great realization. Because of this one realization we know that God is right beside us and in us, and we know that mankind will be together with us forever after. You can have absolute confidence deep inside that God really cares about you because His future and the future of mankind depend upon you. Without you God cannot achieve His goal. We always thought we were just small people, but now we realize how much God cares. When the rest of mankind realizes this, then all races will gratefully worship God and be grateful for my pioneering discovery. Not long ago we lost one sister in New York. The world doesn't think so much about her death now, and some would even say it was meaningless. She died seemingly just like any number of other people in New York City. But as the years go on and people realize God's dispensation, they will cry out and repent at her tomb. If you are a millionaire and have great power, would all your money be more valuable than this one seemingly insignificant death? There is no millionaire's tomb which God will especially remember, but God will protect this one humble tomb which no one outside our Church yet honors. God chose me to go through such impossible difficulties because through me God wanted to gather a family and race and eventually all of mankind. In doing so He wanted to ease the suffering of mankind. You are very much an integral part of God's work. Of course, there are bound to be professors and millionaires who will follow in the future with the desire to be blessed, but when that happens the value of their service to God will be much less than what you do now. Your effort has maximum value now. God will place less value in those who come in the future than He now has for what you do. Once you realize this value, and above all realize this law of indemnity, no one will have to watch over you and tell you what to do. Naturally you work according to how you understand your value. I am called names and persecuted, unsupported by the famous, but I am capable of making even billionaires and men of influence out of you as I help you become aware of your true value. The powerful in this world must come to God; God will not go to them. Even by worldly standards I am the Abel person. I could never budge once I knew the law of indemnity; I couldn't do anything else until the cosmic climate is balanced. I am quite adequate for you young, ambitious people to respect and follow, don't you think? There is absolutely no other center of God's dispensation and we are part of it, so what do we have to complain about? No one could lead the Unification Church without knowing this law. As I have told you many, many times, if this were not the truth then I would not have stayed in the Church either. Long ago I would have gone in search of other things. We have to think about ourselves a moment. The new members understand the law of indemnity better than the older members. When you first join you have no reservations but just jump right into everything and do your utmost. But as you go on and suffer indemnity you often start to complain. One thing leads to another and you start looking around to find an easier way. By just jumping in, the new members learn more in one day than a complaining older member learns in one year. As time goes on the older members may expect to be given special consideration over younger members, but then they become Cain instead of Abel. That's the worst kind of man imaginable. We can compare how God has been working far more than any individual in the Unification Church, every day for 6,000 years. There are many families who have been working harder than you have and no one has given them recognition yet. It does not stand to reason that anyone can be discontent at not receiving recognition after ten years. It is easier for older members to commit this simple mistake than the new ones. The old members should be more powerful because they have more knowledge and experience, but instead they often get run-down, while the new members are fresh. I like those who are fresh. I am nearly sixty, but I am never run-down. The older members should be able to like the things of today, of the past, or of the future. God's attitude is the same today as 1,000 years ago, and He will be the same for a thousand years to come. Is He losing power every year because He works so hard? Are the older members looking up to heaven and to the future and the rest of mankind with hopeful faces, or are they getting tired and centering around themselves? I look at your eyes to see whether they are sparkling and active, but over there I see old-time members looking like old rags. Until yesterday, when you first came to the Unification Church you usually smelled a fresh smell, but if you smelled something noisome and checked what it was, you would find it to be an older member! Until yesterday, that is! Today we are going to wash up again. Let us have a new hope. I remember that I told you many things to do, but I also know that many of you haven't done them. I will never forget, however, and I will push you to do it all. Who is more blessed-the person who doesn't have anything to do or the person who has so much to do that he doesn't know where to start? If you know your responsibility but don't do it, then the punishment is much greater. All in all, we are fortunate to be in the Unification Church, aren't we? The Bible said, "Behold the lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Now I look at the members who are carrying the load of indemnity and going on the way and I think the same thing about them. You are walking the way with the law of indemnity upon your shoulders. We do that not only on the level of the individual, family, clan and nation, but even after we go to the spirit world, where we have to carry on the unfinished task of indemnity. What it amounts to is that after I have gone through each level of indemnity successfully, each one of you must try to cling on so you can go over the hill with me. That way all of us will eventually be at the same level of blessing. If you are going to ride a horse a long distance then you have to care for that horse. Can you complain to your horse? Now you are going to ride on me, but haven't you been complaining? If you do that then you gain nothing. Neither spirit world nor God likes that, and it benefits no one. Eventually everyone gets sick of it, so why do it? If you came to hear me and I took you all out to a restaurant you would all be happy, right? But when I tell you to work then you don't like to Listen so much. If I came along in the middle of the night and told you to go fund raising you wouldn't like that at all! Now you know about what is more valuable than going to a restaurant or movies; going out fund raising in the darkness of night is better because you have to go through the law of indemnity. Jump at the chance to pay indemnity. I have much reason not to trust you American brothers and sisters when you reply to me. When you moved into the World Mission Center from your small centers you felt as though you were in heaven, but by the time you ate your third meal you had forgotten about the value of the World Mission Center and took it for granted. You get accustomed to the good things too quickly. Until yesterday this description was accurate, but how about today? You can come to the inevitable conclusion that in order to fulfill the requirement of indemnity it is better to ride in a horsecart than in a bus, and it is better to run around on foot than to ride in a horsecart. When I hear people say they are short of cars, I think, "So much the better that you have less." Everyone has the unfailing car #11, their two legs, which never runs out of gas. This is exactly why I selected Manhattan; it is easier not to ride in a car in Manhattan. You can get everywhere by walking and still get all your work done. I really feel that it is no coincidence that God chose to concentrate on Manhattan because at the end of the day Unification church members don't have to depend on cars to go places. In one town they can reach people from all the different nations. I often ride from here to Manhattan and I planned to give rides to any Church members I saw running around doing their work. But until yesterday I never saw anyone like that so I never gave anyone a ride. Indemnity is the key to all things. I have been watching you closely and I never thought about bringing you to live with me in my home, but in the last few days I have thought about it. I have not done it yet, but I thought about it! I thought, however, that before I could bring you to live with me you must first like indemnity. If you hate indemnity that means you hate me, and therefore, I couldn't be with you. You must like the law of indemnity; I must make you like it and then 1 can bring you into my home. If you take after me then you will like it. You have to prove it to yourself over and over again until you can honestly say, "I love it!" Let us dedicate a moment of prayer.

New international initiative with a goal to organize parades to bring God back to human life in every country is looking for Partners Globally from all fields of life: Business, Government, Nonprofits, Churches, Sports, Culture, Science, Health, Arts, etc. organizations, also individuals: governors, mayors, local leaders, police, military personnel, as well as local residents, volunteers and youth clubs are more than welcome to partner. Partners will organize annually a parade in their country. Parades with performances, field shows, procession of people along main street, accompanied by marching bands, floats or large balloons etc. Parade to celebrate God is the best key to solve all today’s global problems from any perspective: - Science, - At a local level, -Socio-economic benefits. - Religion: John 14:23 Jesus: “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. “John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but shall have eternal life. " “This is our supreme mission. It is truly our God-given, sacred mission. God is crying out to the world, and we are His instruments. The world must respond to His call. Listen to God's commandment. Initiate a courageous march towards the Kingdom of God on earth. Whatever the difficulty, let it not stop us. Our march is God's, and it will go on to the end. Today let us pledge to God Almighty our loyalty and dedication to the fulfillment of this divine mission. In the name of God, let us unite, and together build the Kingdom of God on earth!” Reverend Sun Myung Moon Please join the initiative by filing out Partnerships form:__________ Family name: ____________________, First name(s):_____________ Phone number(s) ___________, E-mail address_______, other contact (Skype)___ Organization or institution you represent: __, - Position: __ Date and place you will organize parade _____ Signature: __ ( please send filed forms to pacea21 ( @ ) gmail.com) Also you could join with a sponsorships or donations: Sending donations by Bank wire etc. to International Volunteer Academy___________________ For more details Contact us IVAcademy

Organize in every country parade to bring God to human lifeNew international initiative with a goal to organize parades
to bring God back to human life in every country is looking for Partners
Globally from all fields of life: Business, Government, Nonprofits, Churches,
Sports, Culture, Science, Health, Arts, etc. organizations, also individuals:
governors, mayors, local leaders, police, military personnel, as well as local
residents, volunteers and youth clubs are more than welcome to partner.

Partners will organize annually a parade in their country.

Parades with performances, field shows, procession of
people along main street, accompanied by marching bands, floats or large
balloons etc.

Parade to celebrate God is the best key to solve all today’s
global problems from any perspective: - Science, - At a local level, -Socio-economic
benefits.

- Religion: John 14:23 Jesus: “Anyone who loves me
will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and
make our home with them. “John 3:16, which says, "For God so loved the
world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him shall
not perish but shall have eternal life. "

“This is our supreme mission. It is
truly our God-given, sacred mission. God is crying out to the world, and we are
His instruments. The world must respond to His call. Listen to God's
commandment. Initiate a courageous march towards the Kingdom of God on earth.
Whatever the difficulty, let it not stop us. Our march is God's, and it will go
on to the end.

Today let us pledge to God Almighty our loyalty and
dedication to the fulfillment of this divine mission. In the name of God, let
us unite, and together build the Kingdom of God on earth!” Reverend Sun Myung
Moon

 Please join the initiative by filing out
Partnerships form:__________

Family name: ____________________, First
name(s):_____________

Phone number(s) ___________, E-mail address_______,
other contact (Skype)___

Organization or institution you represent: __, - Position:
__

Date and place you will organize parade _____

Signature: __ ( please send filed forms to pacea21 ( @
) gmail.com)

Also you could join with a sponsorships or donations:
Sending donations by Bank wire etc. to International Volunteer Academy___________________

For more details Contact us IVAcademy · Causes

God's Warning To The World (Part II) - Sun Myung Moon

God's Warning To The World (Part II) - Sun Myung Moon

What is the Unification Church? The Unification Church (officially named the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) is a new religious movement founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in Korea in 1954. The Unification Church is a unique interpretation of Christianity that regards Rev. Moon as the Messiah and believes world peace can be attained through the creation of "true families." It is especially known for its mass weddings and seeking of converts. Both the Unification Church and Moon himself have been the source of controversy in Asia and especially the USA. The movement's followers have been dubbed "Moonies" by critics. History Sun Myung Moon was born in 1920 in what is now North Korea. At the time, Korea was under Japanese rule. Moon was raised in the Presbyterian church, one of many faiths persecuted by the Japanese rulers. The political upheavals caused divisions and new movements in Korean Christianity, including a group known as "spiritualists" who received new revelations from God and looked for a Korean messiah. Moon says that on Easter morning at the age of 16, he had a vision in which Jesus asked him to complete his unfinished work as messiah, which is to bring the Kingdom of God to mankind and peace on earth. Accepting this call, Moon studied the Bible and other religious teachings and developed his complex doctrines about God, love, sin and the means of salvation. Moon began to preach his doctrines in Korea in 1946. Two years later he was excommunicated by the Presbyterian Church, and shortly thereafter he was imprisoned and tortured by the North Korean authorities for reasons that are not entirely clear. In 1950 he was released and fled to South Korea, where in 1954 he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), or the Unification Church. One of Moon's early converts would come to be tremendously influential in the spread of Unificationism in America. Young Oon Kim, known as Miss Kim, was prone to seeing visions in her youth and came to believe she had a religious role of importance to fulfill in the world. She was especially interested in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (which influenced New Thought), and even reported receiving visits from him in visions. Miss Kim met Reverend Moon in 1954, converted to Unificationism, and became the first missionary of the Unification Church to the United States. She settled in Eugene, Oregon, in 1959, where she was student at the University of Oregon in order to stay in the United States. She worked to support her expenses and in her spare time proselytized and began translating the Divine Principle into English. She gained a few followers, and the group relocated to San Francisco. Meanwhile, Sang Ik Choi led the movement in Japan beginning in 1958. He had much success in prosyletizing, especially among high school and college students, and he employed a very systematic approach to gaining converts and then training them in Japan. Sun Myung Moon built his Korean and Japanese enterprises, which included factories that produced armaments, paint, machinery, and ginseng tea, into a multimillion-dollar empire. In the early 1970s Reverend Moonbegan full-scale missionary operations in the United States. In 1971, he toured America for the third time and was successfully unified the disparate Unification groups. The 1970s saw the emergence of a national movement in which members lived communally and proselytized heavily. Converts actively worked on fundraising for the Church, primarily through selling candles and flowers on the street. Youth from the counter-culture movement were attracted to the movement in large numbers, and as a result the media and counter-cult organizations began to pay close attention to the group. In 1973 the Moons moved their headquarters to Tarrytown, N.Y., from which they operated an international network of businesses. Reverend Moon began to get involved with politics, and his strong anti-communist feelings and his willingness to spend his money strategically gained him acceptance into many political circles. Moon give a series of public speeches, including one in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1974 and two in 1976: In Yankee Stadium in New York City, and on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., where he spoke on "God's Hope for America." Moon was an outspoken supporter of Richard Nixon throughout the Watergate scandal, taking out ads on his behalf and holding a rally in Washington. This was based on the principle that God works through designated central figures throughout history, and that America played a crucial central role in the ongoing Providence of God on the world level. It was a disappointment to many in the Unification Church when Nixon resigned. In 1978, a Congressional subcommittee issued a report that included the results of its investigation into the UC, and into other organizations associated with Moon. Among its other conclusions, the subcommittee's report stated that "Among the goals of the Moon Organization is the establishment of a worldwide government in which the separation of church and state would be abolished and which would be governed by Moon and his followers." In 1981 the Unification Church's bid for U.S. tax-exempt status as a religious organization was denied when an appellate court ruled that the church's primary purpose was political rather than religious. In 1982 Moon was convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and fined $25,000. He began serving his term in 1984, and some fellow prisoners have written statements describing him as humble, hardworking and joyful. His followers, as well as many non-Unification religious leaders, regarded the trial as religious persecution by the government. At the same time, Eileen Barker, a sociologist specializing in religion, studied Unification Church members in England. She concluded that the Unification Church did not use brainwashing for conversion and published her findings in the book The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984). Having survived this period of intense criticism, the Unification Church emerged in the 1990s with an expansive international program. In 1992, Reverend Moon officially confirmed that he is the Messiah, or the second coming of Jesus Christ as prophesied in the Bible (see Beliefs, below). Members had long believed that this was the case, but it was not officially announced until then. At this time Moon also announced that his successor would be his wife, who is about 20 years his junior. The influence of the Unification Church is extended by a variety of organizations that embody Moon's ideals, such as the Professor's World Peace Academy and the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. In 1994, on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the church, Moon announced the formation of the International Federation for World Peace, which assumed many of the functions formerly performed by the church. Although the early 1990s was a period of relative stability for the Unification movement, problems arose for the church in Japan following the AUM Shinrikyo incident in 1995, when the country was gripped by anticult hysteria. The church was also hurt when Nansook Hong left her husband Hyo Jin (son of Rev. and Mrs. Moon) and in 1998 wrote an exposé of life in the Moon family, In the Shadow of the Moons. This is perhaps the most serious issue facing the Unification Church, since its theology centers on the belief that Moon's children are sinless. But Nansook Hong wrote that Hyo Jin, who grew up in luxurious surroundings and rarely saw his busy parents, was physically and emotionally abusive and addicted to cocaine and pornography. In March 2004, Reverend Moon was crowned King of Peace, completed with kingly robes and golden crowns, in a building of the U.S. Senate. Afterward the ceremony, Moon made a long speech which included the statements: "Emperors, kings and presidents... have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent." "The founders of five great religions and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin... and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons." The event, which also gave state and national "crowns of peace," was organized by the Unification Church. The members of the Congress who attended said they were misled about the content of the event . It was reported in very few newspapers other than Moon's Washington Times but was widely reported in Washington blogs and websites. Today, the church has a presence in more than 100 countries, though exact membership figures are difficult to estimate. The Unification Church says it has 3 million members, but others sources say it is far less, estimating membership at anywhere from 250,000 to just over 1 million. Texts The main text of the Unification Church is Reverend Moon's book The Divine Principle (1952). His speeches are also considered authoritative. The Christian Bible is highly regarded, but used to a lesser degree. Beliefs Reverend Moon's teaching is called the Divine Principle. According to the Church, "The Principle is the result of divine inspiration, prayer, and the study of religious scriptures and of life itself. Many tears and much intense suffering were part of the price of gaining this profound understanding." {dp} The Divine Principle is based on observations of the creation in order to understand the Creator. Moon observes that everything in nature comes in pairs: male and female, positive and negative charges, arteries and veins, and so on. This duality of Sung Sang (causal and masculine) and Hyung Sang (resultant and feminine) must come from God because God is the creator of all. God's nature is thus characterized by equal masculine and feminine aspects joined together in perfect harmony. In addition, because humans value love and harmony we can conclude that "Heart" is the essence of God's being. Heart is the impulse to love and seek an object to love. God feels joy when He can give and receive love with His beloved. God loves each one of us individually, and rejoices when we return His love and multiply it by loving others. {dp} In addition to this inner nature of duality and love, God has an outer nature that Moon calls the Universal Prime Energy. This is what creates, develops and sustains the cosmos. The purpose of creation and the purpose of life is to experience the joy of love. "In His original ideal, God wanted everyone to be perfected in love, able to give true and unconditional love to every human being and to the creation." This was to happen by Adam and Eve's free will in a three-step process called the "Three Blessings": Becoming perfect, which means to have God's character and be in a "Four Position Foundation" consisting of God, the perfected individual, and the individual's mind and body. Have an ideal marriage, in which a Four Position Foundation is formed among God, the man, the woman, and their children. This marriage produces perfect and sinless children. Have dominion over all of creation, creating a Four Position Foundation among God, man, things, and a dominion of love. After the third blessing, the Kingdom of Heaven would be established on earth. But Adam and Eve fell short and failed to realize God's purpose. Specifically, while still working towards the first blessing, Eve was sexually seduced by Lucifer. This caused the spiritual fall. Then, feeling ashamed, Adam and Eve consummated their marriage. This was the physical fall because it was not supposed to happen until they had perfected themselves. Ever since, selfish love has dominated human existence. Instead of multiplying goodness and love through their descendants, they multiplied selfishness and corruption. As a result, we have never seen "true parents" who could raise sinless children and create a sinless lineage. Every person has been deprived of true parents, parents who perfectly embody God's love. {dp} This state of affairs causes suffering in God, as parents do when they see their children suffer. God has continually sought to restore his original plan for mankind, which must be done by fulfilling the three blessings. In other words, someone must attain perfection, marry, raise a sinless family, and propagate this perfection throughout the earth until the Kingdom of Heaven is established on Earth. However, before the blessings can be fulfilled, there must be a restoration of the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance, which were destroyed by the fall. (These are referred to as indemnity conditions and together form the Foundation for the Messiah.) The Foundation of Faith was broken by Adam and Eve's lack of complete faith in God, and must be restored by someone having perfect faith. The Foundation of Substance was destroyed when the role of man and angel was reversed in Satan's triumph. It can be restored when someone in the position of the archangel Lucifer humbles himself before someone in the position of Adam. God has frequently offered his assistance in accomplishing this and will eventually succeed in his purposes, but has been continually thwarted. God's first attempt was to separate Adam's good and evil natures into his two sons, Cain and Abel. If Cain had submitted to Abel, this would have restored the Foundation of Substtance. But Cain killed Abel. Failed attempts were also made with Noah, Abraham, and Moses, who restored the Foundation of Faith but not the Foundation of Substance. It was John the Baptist who finally succeeded in preparing the Foundation for the Messiah. He restored the Foundation of Faith through his asceticism. This put him in the position of Abel and the Jews in the position of Cain. When they venerated John the Baptist, the Foundation of Substance was restored and the Messiah (who was Jesus) could be sent. But then, the Foundation for the Messiah disintegrated when John denied that he was Elijah and even questioned whether Jesus was the Messiah. Therefore Jesus first had to restore the Foundation for the Messiah before he could do his work as Messiah. He restored the Foundation of Faith through his 40-fast, but the people rejected him and therefore he did not restore the Foundation of Substance. But then Jesus allowed Satan to invade his spirit, was killed on the cross, and then his spirit self (not his physical self) was raised three days later in victory over Satan. When his disciples believed and followed him, this restored the Spiritual Foundation of Substance. Thus Jesus became the Spiritual Messiah and provided a spiritual salvation to believers. But since he did not marry, he did not restore the three blessings and complete God's plan. He failed to bring physical salvation along with the spiritual. This is where Reverend Moon comes in. God prepared the way for his coming in the last 400 years, with events like the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakening. Various calculations of parallels with biblical figures have led to the conclusion that the second messiah (or Second Coming) must be born between 1918 and 1930 and in Korea. Reverend Moon says that at the age of 16, he was called by Jesus in a vision to be the second Messiah who will complete Jesus' works. According to Unification Church teachings, Rev. and Mrs. Moon were the first couple to conceive children without original sin. Moon and his wife are regarded as God's first ideal family and they are addressed as Father and Mother by disciples. Moon calls on members of the church to follow his example of marriage and thereby participate in God's plan for restoration. In accepting the Moons' blessing of their own marriage, followers believe that they have children without original sin and help establish God's kingdom on Earth. From true parents, a true family, society, nation and world can be generated, with children experiencing the love of God as an everyday reality. It is in the true family that God's love can blossom on all levels: between parents and children (parental love), between husband and wife (conjugal love), from the children towards their parents (filial love), and among the children (brotherly and sisterly love). If the members of a God-centered family practice these forms of love within their own home, then their family will become a model for their neighbors, their community, their country and for the family of humankind. This true family would lead to nothing other than the kingdom of God on earth. {dp} In addition to the creation and propogation of the ideal family, the indemnity conditions for the Three Blessings must be fulfilled. According to Unification teaching, World War I satisfied the indemnity condition for the Restoration for the first Blessing and World War II satisfied the indemnity condition for the Restoration for the Second Blessing. Finally, World War III, which Unification Church members say is yet to come, will satisfy the indemnity condition for the Third Blessing. After this, the Kingdom of God on earth can be established, in which all peoples, cultures, races, and religions will be united together and united with God in a Four Position Foundation. The world will finally enjoy eternal peace, love and joy. This is the ultimate hope of the Unification Church and its followers. Practices The central practice of the Unification Church is the Blessing Ceremony, popularly known as "mass weddings." The ceremony has five steps, three of which take place in the mass gatherings:{bc} Chastening Ceremony. The husband and wife chasten each other three times from the position of God. This cleanses them of historical sin and lays the foundation for a "new life of pure love." Holy Wine Ceremony. The officiator gives the Holy Wine to the woman, who bows to him and drinks half of it. She then gives the Holy Wine to her husband who bows to her and drinks the remainder. He bows and gives the empty cup to his wife who bows and returns it to the officiator. This restores the couple to the position of Adam and Eve before the fall. Holy Blessing Ceremony. In this part of the ceremony, the couple become married (or re-dedicated, if already married). They are sprinkled with Holy Water, which represents the rebirth of the husband and wife as a blessed couple. Then the couples recite vows to consummate the ideal of the creation of God as an eternal husband and wife, to be monogamous, to rear their children to live up to the Will of God, and to love the people of the world as God does. Rings are exchanged. The officiator proclaims the participants husband and wife "standing within the realm of God's original and eternal Blessing." Separation Period. In marked contrast to the traditional honeymoon, the newlyweds observe 40 days of sexual abstinence "just as Jesus began his mission on the foundation of forty days of fasting." The Three-Day Ceremony. The Church website does not go into detail on this ceremony, but states that it is "the completion of sanctification, in which the couple is restored to the position of true husband and wife. Over a three-day period, the wife gives rebirth to her husband from the position of mother and then receives him in the position of wife. Then in the position of father, the husband gives rebirth to his wife and receives her in the position of husband. Through this process, God breathes into the couple a new conjugal life." The Blessing Ceremony was originally only for Unification members and for those who were getting married for the first time, usually in a pairing arranged by the Church. It is now open to people of any faith and those who are already married, but the majority of participants in the Blessing Ceremony are still members of the Unification Church and many of the marriages are arranged by the Church along with the couple's parents. This has been controversial in the West, but is much more common practice in the East. Reverend Moon encourages international marriages as a means of spreading true familes, true love and world peace across the planet. Ethics and Values The Unification Church strongly promotes family values as the most important aspect of society and of religion. Rev. Moon is anti-divorce, anti-premarital sex and anti-homosexuality. Symbol The Unification Church symbol was designed by Sun Myung Moon in Korea. The center circle symbolizes God, truth, life, and light, the four elements that reach out or radiate from this origin to the whole cosmos in 12 directions. The number 12 represents the 12 types of human character and that truth (the Principle) is able to spread out in 12 ways (such as in the 12 tribes and 12 disciples). According to Moon, the structure of the heavenly kingdom is also patterned after this system of 12. The outer circle represents the harmony of giving and receiving action, the principle of the cosmos. The square represents the four position foundation. The symbol is used on Blessing Ceremony rings, jewelry, on churches and in publications. References Unification Church - official website Reverend and Mrs. Moon (biographies and history) An Introduction to the Divine Principle Introduction to the Blessing Ceremony The Unification Church - Religious Movements Homepage John Gordon Melton, "Unification Church." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. "Moon, Sun Myung." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Sun Myung Moon - Wikipedia. Related Links Unification Organizations and Websites Unification Church - official website The Washington Times - owned as part of News World Communications, Inc. True Parents Organization Summit Council for World Peace The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification The Inter-Religious Federation For World Peace The Collegiate Association for the Research of the Principle Professors World Peace Academy - founded to "contribute to the solutions of urgent problems facing our modern civilization and to help resolve the cultural divide between East and West" Kahr Arms - gunmaker owned by Moon's son Kook Jin "Justin" Moon Supportive Unification Home Page - unofficial but comprehensive website True Family Values Home Page - website of a Unification member Critical Steve Hassan's Home Page - personal website of the foremost apostate of the Unification Church, who views the Unification Church as a destructive cult that practices mind control Craig Maxim's Homepage - a former Unification Church member who views it as deceitful and destructive The Watchman Fellowship on Unification Church - profile by an evangelical counter-cult organization Trancenet on Unificationism - one of the more active anti-cult sites on the Internet New Covenant Publications - a counter-cult ministry of conservative evangelicals that focuses on the Unification Church, emphasizing its theological heresies and questioning the morality of leaders Unification Church - Christian or Cult? - overview from an evangelical counter-cult website News and Editorials Moon over Washington - Andrew Cusack The Rev. Moon Honored at Hill Reception - Washington Post, June 23, 2004 Related Books Academic Studies Barker, Eileen. 1984. The Making of a Moonie. Oxford, UK: Basil. Blackwell Bromley, David G. 1985. "Financing the Millennium: The Economic Structure of the Unificationist Movement." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 24/3:253-274 (Sept). Bromley, David G., and Anson Shupe. 1979. "Moonies" in America. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications. Bryant, M. Darryl, and Herbert W. Richardson. 1978. A Time For Consideration: A Scholarly Appraisal of the Unification Church. New York: Edwin Mellon Press. Chryssides, George D. 1991. The Advent of Sun Myung Moon: The Origins, Beliefs, and Practices of the Unification Church. New York: Saint Martin's Press. Dean, Roger Allen. 1992. Moonies: A Psychological Analysis of the Unification Church. New York: Garland. Fichter, Joseph H. 1985. The Holy Family of Father Moon. Kansas City, KS: Leaven Press. Grace, James H. 1985. Sex and Marriage in the Unification Movement: A Sociological Study. New York: Edwin Mellon Press. Horowitz, Irving Louis. 1978. Science, Sin, and Scholarship: The Politics of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press. Lofland, John. 1966. Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization and Maintenance of Faith. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Lofland, John, and Rodney Stark. 1965. "Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective". American Sociological Review. 30/6:862-875 (Dec). Melton, J. Gordon. 1996. The Encyclopedia of American Religions, 5th ed. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co. Shupe, Anson. 1998. "Frame Alignment and Strategic Evolution in Social Movements: The Case of Sun Myung's Unification Church." in Anson Shupe and Bronislaw Misztal, eds. Religion, Mobilization and Social Action. Westport, CT: Praeger. 197-215. Sontag, Frederick. 1977. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press. Official or Supportive Bryant, M. Darrol, and Susan Hodger, Eds. 1978. Exploring Unification Theology. New York: Rose of Sharon Press. Durst, Mose. 1984. To Bigotry, No Consent: Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Chicago: Regnery Gateway. Fichter, Joseph H. 1987. Autobiographies of Conversion. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellon Press. Moon, Sun Myun. 1956. The Divine Principles. Kim, Young Oon, trans. Seoul, Korea: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Hwak, Chung Hwan. 1980 Outline of The Principle. United States of America: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Mickler, Michael L. 1993. A History of the Unification Church in America, 1959-1974. New York: Garland. Mickler, Michael L. 1987. The Unification Church in Ameirca: A Bibliography and Research Guide. New York: Garland. Pak, Bo Hi. 2000. Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Vol 1.. Translated by Timothy Elder. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.

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What is the Unification Church?

The Unification Church (officially named the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) is a new religious movement founded by Reverend Sun Myung Moon in Korea in 1954.

The Unification Church is a unique interpretation of Christianity that regards Rev. Moon as the Messiah and believes world peace can be attained through the creation of "true families." It is especially known for its mass weddings and seeking of converts. Both the Unification Church and Moon himself have been the source of controversy in Asia and especially the USA. The movement's followers have been dubbed "Moonies" by critics.

History

Sun Myung Moon was born in 1920 in what is now North Korea. At the time, Korea was under Japanese rule. Moon was raised in the Presbyterian church, one of many faiths persecuted by the Japanese rulers. The political upheavals caused divisions and new movements in Korean Christianity, including a group known as "spiritualists" who received new revelations from God and looked for a Korean messiah.

Moon says that on Easter morning at the age of 16, he had a vision in which Jesus asked him to complete his unfinished work as messiah, which is to bring the Kingdom of God to mankind and peace on earth. Accepting this call, Moon studied the Bible and other religious teachings and developed his complex doctrines about God, love, sin and the means of salvation.

Moon began to preach his doctrines in Korea in 1946. Two years later he was excommunicated by the Presbyterian Church, and shortly thereafter he was imprisoned and tortured by the North Korean authorities for reasons that are not entirely clear. In 1950 he was released and fled to South Korea, where in 1954 he founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), or the Unification Church.

One of Moon's early converts would come to be tremendously influential in the spread of Unificationism in America. Young Oon Kim, known as Miss Kim, was prone to seeing visions in her youth and came to believe she had a religious role of importance to fulfill in the world. She was especially interested in the writings of Emanuel Swedenborg (which influenced New Thought), and even reported receiving visits from him in visions.

Miss Kim met Reverend Moon in 1954, converted to Unificationism, and became the first missionary of the Unification Church to the United States. She settled in Eugene, Oregon, in 1959, where she was student at the University of Oregon in order to stay in the United States. She worked to support her expenses and in her spare time proselytized and began translating the Divine Principle into English. She gained a few followers, and the group relocated to San Francisco.

Meanwhile, Sang Ik Choi led the movement in Japan beginning in 1958. He had much success in prosyletizing, especially among high school and college students, and he employed a very systematic approach to gaining converts and then training them in Japan.

Sun Myung Moon built his Korean and Japanese enterprises, which included factories that produced armaments, paint, machinery, and ginseng tea, into a multimillion-dollar empire. In the early 1970s Reverend Moonbegan full-scale missionary operations in the United States. In 1971, he toured America for the third time and was successfully unified the disparate Unification groups.

The 1970s saw the emergence of a national movement in which members lived communally and proselytized heavily. Converts actively worked on fundraising for the Church, primarily through selling candles and flowers on the street. Youth from the counter-culture movement were attracted to the movement in large numbers, and as a result the media and counter-cult organizations began to pay close attention to the group.

In 1973 the Moons moved their headquarters to Tarrytown, N.Y., from which they operated an international network of businesses. Reverend Moon began to get involved with politics, and his strong anti-communist feelings and his willingness to spend his money strategically gained him acceptance into many political circles. Moon give a series of public speeches, including one in Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1974 and two in 1976: In Yankee Stadium in New York City, and on the grounds of the Washington Monument in Washington D.C., where he spoke on "God's Hope for America."

Moon was an outspoken supporter of Richard Nixon throughout the Watergate scandal, taking out ads on his behalf and holding a rally in Washington. This was based on the principle that God works through designated central figures throughout history, and that America played a crucial central role in the ongoing Providence of God on the world level. It was a disappointment to many in the Unification Church when Nixon resigned.

In 1978, a Congressional subcommittee issued a report that included the results of its investigation into the UC, and into other organizations associated with Moon. Among its other conclusions, the subcommittee's report stated that "Among the goals of the Moon Organization is the establishment of a worldwide government in which the separation of church and state would be abolished and which would be governed by Moon and his followers."

In 1981 the Unification Church's bid for U.S. tax-exempt status as a religious organization was denied when an appellate court ruled that the church's primary purpose was political rather than religious. In 1982 Moon was convicted of tax evasion, sentenced to 18 months in prison, and fined $25,000. He began serving his term in 1984, and some fellow prisoners have written statements describing him as humble, hardworking and joyful. His followers, as well as many non-Unification religious leaders, regarded the trial as religious persecution by the government.

At the same time, Eileen Barker, a sociologist specializing in religion, studied Unification Church members in England. She concluded that the Unification Church did not use brainwashing for conversion and published her findings in the book The Making of a Moonie: Choice or Brainwashing? (1984).

Having survived this period of intense criticism, the Unification Church emerged in the 1990s with an expansive international program. In 1992, Reverend Moon officially confirmed that he is the Messiah, or the second coming of Jesus Christ as prophesied in the Bible (see Beliefs, below). Members had long believed that this was the case, but it was not officially announced until then. At this time Moon also announced that his successor would be his wife, who is about 20 years his junior.

The influence of the Unification Church is extended by a variety of organizations that embody Moon's ideals, such as the Professor's World Peace Academy and the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences. In 1994, on the 40th anniversary of the founding of the church, Moon announced the formation of the International Federation for World Peace, which assumed many of the functions formerly performed by the church.

Although the early 1990s was a period of relative stability for the Unification movement, problems arose for the church in Japan following the AUM Shinrikyo incident in 1995, when the country was gripped by anticult hysteria.

The church was also hurt when Nansook Hong left her husband Hyo Jin (son of Rev. and Mrs. Moon) and in 1998 wrote an exposé of life in the Moon family, In the Shadow of the Moons.

This is perhaps the most serious issue facing the Unification Church, since its theology centers on the belief that Moon's children are sinless. But Nansook Hong wrote that Hyo Jin, who grew up in luxurious surroundings and rarely saw his busy parents, was physically and emotionally abusive and addicted to cocaine and pornography.

In March 2004, Reverend Moon was crowned King of Peace, completed with kingly robes and golden crowns, in a building of the U.S. Senate. Afterward the ceremony, Moon made a long speech which included the statements:

"Emperors, kings and presidents... have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent." "The founders of five great religions and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx and Lenin... and dictators such as Hitler and Stalin, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons."

The event, which also gave state and national "crowns of peace," was organized by the Unification Church. The members of the Congress who attended said they were misled about the content of the event . It was reported in very few newspapers other than Moon's Washington Times but was widely reported in Washington blogs and websites.

Today, the church has a presence in more than 100 countries, though exact membership figures are difficult to estimate. The Unification Church says it has 3 million members, but others sources say it is far less, estimating membership at anywhere from 250,000 to just over 1 million.

Texts

The main text of the Unification Church is Reverend Moon's book The Divine Principle (1952). His speeches are also considered authoritative. The Christian Bible is highly regarded, but used to a lesser degree.

Beliefs

Reverend Moon's teaching is called the Divine Principle. According to the Church, "The Principle is the result of divine inspiration, prayer, and the study of religious scriptures and of life itself. Many tears and much intense suffering were part of the price of gaining this profound understanding." {dp}

The Divine Principle is based on observations of the creation in order to understand the Creator. Moon observes that everything in nature comes in pairs: male and female, positive and negative charges, arteries and veins, and so on.

This duality of Sung Sang (causal and masculine) and Hyung Sang (resultant and feminine) must come from God because God is the creator of all. God's nature is thus characterized by equal masculine and feminine aspects joined together in perfect harmony. In addition, because humans value love and harmony we can conclude that "Heart" is the essence of God's being.

Heart is the impulse to love and seek an object to love. God feels joy when He can give and receive love with His beloved. God loves each one of us individually, and rejoices when we return His love and multiply it by loving others. {dp}

In addition to this inner nature of duality and love, God has an outer nature that Moon calls the Universal Prime Energy. This is what creates, develops and sustains the cosmos.

The purpose of creation and the purpose of life is to experience the joy of love. "In His original ideal, God wanted everyone to be perfected in love, able to give true and unconditional love to every human being and to the creation." This was to happen by Adam and Eve's free will in a three-step process called the "Three Blessings":

1. Becoming perfect, which means to have God's character and be in a "Four Position Foundation" consisting of God, the perfected individual, and the individual's mind and body.
2. Have an ideal marriage, in which a Four Position Foundation is formed among God, the man, the woman, and their children. This marriage produces perfect and sinless children.
3. Have dominion over all of creation, creating a Four Position Foundation among God, man, things, and a dominion of love.

After the third blessing, the Kingdom of Heaven would be established on earth. But Adam and Eve fell short and failed to realize God's purpose. Specifically, while still working towards the first blessing, Eve was sexually seduced by Lucifer. This caused the spiritual fall. Then, feeling ashamed, Adam and Eve consummated their marriage. This was the physical fall because it was not supposed to happen until they had perfected themselves.

Ever since, selfish love has dominated human existence.

Instead of multiplying goodness and love through their descendants, they multiplied selfishness and corruption. As a result, we have never seen "true parents" who could raise sinless children and create a sinless lineage. Every person has been deprived of true parents, parents who perfectly embody God's love. {dp}

This state of affairs causes suffering in God, as parents do when they see their children suffer. God has continually sought to restore his original plan for mankind, which must be done by fulfilling the three blessings. In other words, someone must attain perfection, marry, raise a sinless family, and propagate this perfection throughout the earth until the Kingdom of Heaven is established on Earth.

However, before the blessings can be fulfilled, there must be a restoration of the Foundation of Faith and the Foundation of Substance, which were destroyed by the fall. (These are referred to as indemnity conditions and together form the Foundation for the Messiah.) The Foundation of Faith was broken by Adam and Eve's lack of complete faith in God, and must be restored by someone having perfect faith. The Foundation of Substance was destroyed when the role of man and angel was reversed in Satan's triumph. It can be restored when someone in the position of the archangel Lucifer humbles himself before someone in the position of Adam.

God has frequently offered his assistance in accomplishing this and will eventually succeed in his purposes, but has been continually thwarted. God's first attempt was to separate Adam's good and evil natures into his two sons, Cain and Abel. If Cain had submitted to Abel, this would have restored the Foundation of Substtance. But Cain killed Abel. Failed attempts were also made with Noah, Abraham, and Moses, who restored the Foundation of Faith but not the Foundation of Substance.

It was John the Baptist who finally succeeded in preparing the Foundation for the Messiah. He restored the Foundation of Faith through his asceticism. This put him in the position of Abel and the Jews in the position of Cain. When they venerated John the Baptist, the Foundation of Substance was restored and the Messiah (who was Jesus) could be sent.

But then, the Foundation for the Messiah disintegrated when John denied that he was Elijah and even questioned whether Jesus was the Messiah. Therefore Jesus first had to restore the Foundation for the Messiah before he could do his work as Messiah. He restored the Foundation of Faith through his 40-fast, but the people rejected him and therefore he did not restore the Foundation of Substance.

But then Jesus allowed Satan to invade his spirit, was killed on the cross, and then his spirit self (not his physical self) was raised three days later in victory over Satan. When his disciples believed and followed him, this restored the Spiritual Foundation of Substance. Thus Jesus became the Spiritual Messiah and provided a spiritual salvation to believers. But since he did not marry, he did not restore the three blessings and complete God's plan. He failed to bring physical salvation along with the spiritual.

This is where Reverend Moon comes in. God prepared the way for his coming in the last 400 years, with events like the Protestant Reformation and the Great Awakening. Various calculations of parallels with biblical figures have led to the conclusion that the second messiah (or Second Coming) must be born between 1918 and 1930 and in Korea.

Reverend Moon says that at the age of 16, he was called by Jesus in a vision to be the second Messiah who will complete Jesus' works. According to Unification Church teachings, Rev. and Mrs. Moon were the first couple to conceive children without original sin. Moon and his wife are regarded as God's first ideal family and they are addressed as Father and Mother by disciples.

Moon calls on members of the church to follow his example of marriage and thereby participate in God's plan for restoration. In accepting the Moons' blessing of their own marriage, followers believe that they have children without original sin and help establish God's kingdom on Earth.

From true parents, a true family, society, nation and world can be generated, with children experiencing the love of God as an everyday reality. It is in the true family that God's love can blossom on all levels: between parents and children (parental love), between husband and wife (conjugal love), from the children towards their parents (filial love), and among the children (brotherly and sisterly love). If the members of a God-centered family practice these forms of love within their own home, then their family will become a model for their neighbors, their community, their country and for the family of humankind. This true family would lead to nothing other than the kingdom of God on earth. {dp}

In addition to the creation and propogation of the ideal family, the indemnity conditions for the Three Blessings must be fulfilled. According to Unification teaching, World War I satisfied the indemnity condition for the Restoration for the first Blessing and World War II satisfied the indemnity condition for the Restoration for the Second Blessing. Finally, World War III, which Unification Church members say is yet to come, will satisfy the indemnity condition for the Third Blessing.

After this, the Kingdom of God on earth can be established, in which all peoples, cultures, races, and religions will be united together and united with God in a Four Position Foundation. The world will finally enjoy eternal peace, love and joy. This is the ultimate hope of the Unification Church and its followers.

Practices

The central practice of the Unification Church is the Blessing Ceremony, popularly known as "mass weddings." The ceremony has five steps, three of which take place in the mass gatherings:{bc}

1. Chastening Ceremony. The husband and wife chasten each other three times from the position of God. This cleanses them of historical sin and lays the foundation for a "new life of pure love."
2. Holy Wine Ceremony. The officiator gives the Holy Wine to the woman, who bows to him and drinks half of it. She then gives the Holy Wine to her husband who bows to her and drinks the remainder. He bows and gives the empty cup to his wife who bows and returns it to the officiator. This restores the couple to the position of Adam and Eve before the fall.
3. Holy Blessing Ceremony. In this part of the ceremony, the couple become married (or re-dedicated, if already married).
   1. They are sprinkled with Holy Water, which represents the rebirth of the husband and wife as a blessed couple.
   2. Then the couples recite vows to consummate the ideal of the creation of God as an eternal husband and wife, to be monogamous, to rear their children to live up to the Will of God, and to love the people of the world as God does.
   3. Rings are exchanged.
   4. The officiator proclaims the participants husband and wife "standing within the realm of God's original and eternal Blessing."
4. Separation Period. In marked contrast to the traditional honeymoon, the newlyweds observe 40 days of sexual abstinence "just as Jesus began his mission on the foundation of forty days of fasting."
5. The Three-Day Ceremony. The Church website does not go into detail on this ceremony, but states that it is "the completion of sanctification, in which the couple is restored to the position of true husband and wife. Over a three-day period, the wife gives rebirth to her husband from the position of mother and then receives him in the position of wife. Then in the position of father, the husband gives rebirth to his wife and receives her in the position of husband. Through this process, God breathes into the couple a new conjugal life."

The Blessing Ceremony was originally only for Unification members and for those who were getting married for the first time, usually in a pairing arranged by the Church. It is now open to people of any faith and those who are already married, but the majority of participants in the Blessing Ceremony are still members of the Unification Church and many of the marriages are arranged by the Church along with the couple's parents. This has been controversial in the West, but is much more common practice in the East. Reverend Moon encourages international marriages as a means of spreading true familes, true love and world peace across the planet.

Ethics and Values

The Unification Church strongly promotes family values as the most important aspect of society and of religion. Rev. Moon is anti-divorce, anti-premarital sex and anti-homosexuality.

Symbol

The Unification Church symbol was designed by Sun Myung Moon in Korea. The center circle symbolizes God, truth, life, and light, the four elements that reach out or radiate from this origin to the whole cosmos in 12 directions.

The number 12 represents the 12 types of human character and that truth (the Principle) is able to spread out in 12 ways (such as in the 12 tribes and 12 disciples).

According to Moon, the structure of the heavenly kingdom is also patterned after this system of 12. The outer circle represents the harmony of giving and receiving action, the principle of the cosmos. The square represents the four position foundation.

The symbol is used on Blessing Ceremony rings, jewelry, on churches and in publications.

References

1. Unification Church - official website
   • Reverend and Mrs. Moon (biographies and history)
   • An Introduction to the Divine Principle
   • Introduction to the Blessing Ceremony
2. The Unification Church - Religious Movements Homepage
3. John Gordon Melton, "Unification Church." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
4. "Moon, Sun Myung." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2007. Encyclopædia Britannica Online.
5. Sun Myung Moon - Wikipedia.

Related Links

Unification Organizations and Websites

• Unification Church - official website
• The Washington Times - owned as part of News World Communications, Inc.
• True Parents Organization
• Summit Council for World Peace
• The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification
• The Inter-Religious Federation For World Peace
• The Collegiate Association for the Research of the Principle
• Professors World Peace Academy - founded to "contribute to the solutions of urgent problems facing our modern civilization and to help resolve the cultural divide between East and West"
• Kahr Arms - gunmaker owned by Moon's son Kook Jin "Justin" Moon

Supportive

• Unification Home Page - unofficial but comprehensive website
• True Family Values Home Page - website of a Unification member

Critical

• Steve Hassan's Home Page - personal website of the foremost apostate of the Unification Church, who views the Unification Church as a destructive cult that practices mind control
• Craig Maxim's Homepage - a former Unification Church member who views it as deceitful and destructive
• The Watchman Fellowship on Unification Church - profile by an evangelical counter-cult organization
• Trancenet on Unificationism - one of the more active anti-cult sites on the Internet
• New Covenant Publications - a counter-cult ministry of conservative evangelicals that focuses on the Unification Church, emphasizing its theological heresies and questioning the morality of leaders
• Unification Church - Christian or Cult? - overview from an evangelical counter-cult website

News and Editorials

• Moon over Washington - Andrew Cusack
• The Rev. Moon Honored at Hill Reception - Washington Post, June 23, 2004

Related Books

Academic Studies

• Barker, Eileen. 1984. The Making of a Moonie. Oxford, UK: Basil.
• Blackwell Bromley, David G. 1985. "Financing the Millennium: The Economic Structure of the Unificationist Movement." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion, 24/3:253-274 (Sept).
• Bromley, David G., and Anson Shupe. 1979. "Moonies" in America. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.
• Bryant, M. Darryl, and Herbert W. Richardson. 1978. A Time For Consideration: A Scholarly Appraisal of the Unification Church. New York: Edwin Mellon Press.
• Chryssides, George D. 1991. The Advent of Sun Myung Moon: The Origins, Beliefs, and Practices of the Unification Church. New York: Saint Martin's Press.
• Dean, Roger Allen. 1992. Moonies: A Psychological Analysis of the Unification Church. New York: Garland.
• Fichter, Joseph H. 1985. The Holy Family of Father Moon. Kansas City, KS: Leaven Press.
• Grace, James H. 1985. Sex and Marriage in the Unification Movement: A Sociological Study. New York: Edwin Mellon Press.
• Horowitz, Irving Louis. 1978. Science, Sin, and Scholarship: The Politics of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press.
• Lofland, John. 1966. Doomsday Cult: A Study of Conversion, Proselytization and Maintenance of Faith. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
• Lofland, John, and Rodney Stark. 1965. "Becoming a World-Saver: A Theory of Conversion to a Deviant Perspective". American Sociological Review. 30/6:862-875 (Dec).
• Melton, J. Gordon. 1996. The Encyclopedia of American Religions, 5th ed. Detroit, MI: Gale Research Co.
• Shupe, Anson. 1998. "Frame Alignment and Strategic Evolution in Social Movements: The Case of Sun Myung's Unification Church." in Anson Shupe and Bronislaw Misztal, eds. Religion, Mobilization and Social Action. Westport, CT: Praeger. 197-215.
• Sontag, Frederick. 1977. Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Nashville, TN: Abingdon Press.

Official or Supportive

• Bryant, M. Darrol, and Susan Hodger, Eds. 1978. Exploring Unification Theology. New York: Rose of Sharon Press.
• Durst, Mose. 1984. To Bigotry, No Consent: Reverend Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church. Chicago: Regnery Gateway.
• Fichter, Joseph H. 1987. Autobiographies of Conversion. Lewiston, New York: Edwin Mellon Press.
• Moon, Sun Myun. 1956. The Divine Principles. Kim, Young Oon, trans. Seoul, Korea: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.
• Hwak, Chung Hwan. 1980 Outline of The Principle. United States of America: Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity.
• Mickler, Michael L. 1993. A History of the Unification Church in America, 1959-1974. New York: Garland.
• Mickler, Michael L. 1987. The Unification Church in Ameirca: A Bibliography and Research Guide. New York: Garland.
• Pak, Bo Hi. 2000. Messiah: My Testimony to Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Vol 1.. Translated by Timothy Elder. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.