REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON , At the Monthly Breakfast Meeting of The Leaders of Every Field for the Establishment of National Thought October 19, 1978 Seoul. Korea
Respected leaders of every field of endeavor, I am sincerely grateful for your invitation to this meaningful meeting and I am very honored to address the leaders who are the backbone of the development of our nation.
I have been overseas devoting myself to the proclamation of the realization of God's kingdom, even though I encountered many difficulties. Now at last, after two and a half years, I could finally walk again on the fatherland I have longed for, this fatherland where I would have so often returned if these were ordinary days! But because I wanted to reach a final conclusion in the intense confrontation with the Fraser Committee, which sank its teeth into our movement and refused to let go, my return to the fatherland I have longed for was postponed two and a half years. Last September 12, Congressman Fraser was defeated in the primary election of his Democratic Party. lf we look at him through human eyes, he is truly an unfortunate person; therefore, I said to our church members, "Let us pray for him because we should love even our foes."
He was defeated in a battle which seemed impossible to lose. What is the reason for this? He was defeated because he had been going against God's will. According to a holy man's words, "People who are for heaven remain, and people who are against heaven are destroyed." That is to say, Congressman Fraser received God's judgment during that election.
Fraser's efforts to turn Korea into a second Vietnam were exactly opposite to the will of God who had chosen Korea to accomplish heaven's great providence. Once we know God's providence, we can understand that Korea is an important nation. Korea is a nation which can play a decisive role in stopping the world takeover of communism in the future. God can never permit world domination by communism. That would mean the destruction of God Himself.
In this last historical battle between
the ideologies of theism and atheism,
Korea has been chosen as God's champion.
Therefore, Congressman Fraser's plot to destroy that same Korea was an unforgivable effort before heaven. I could clearly foresee that God's judgment would come upon Mr. Fraser. Since he stood in the position of a person against heaven, I knew that no matter how great his power was, in the end he would be miserable. No one who opposes the principles of heaven can survive and remain. Therefore, we can only say that the defeat of Congressman Fraser was the judgment of God.
On my return to Korea this time I could feel to the marrow of my bones that God loves Korea very much. This time as I looked down on Kimpo Airport, which I have seen so many times before, it seemed to be welcoming me in a special way. The warm welcome of my fellow countrymen has moved my spirit very much.
As soon as I returned I traveled the 6,000 kilometers from the north to the south. I wanted to see again our mountains and rivers which are as beautiful as silk embroidered paintings. It is hard to find the greens and blues of our mountains and rivers, and their grace, anywhere else. In addition, the many aspects of our country which are heading towards national development please me without end.
Brothers of my homeland, you have truly done mighty works. As we catch up with the developed nations, we must not become satisfied as they have. God is trying to accomplish a great task through our fatherland, the Republic of Korea.
Two thousand years ago in the little village of Bethlehem of Judea, which was known to no one, a great thought appeared. That was the thought and teaching of Jesus. Centering on that thought concerning the salvation of the world, God has carried out His work for two thousand years.
Now once more history has changed. Today God is looking at a small nation of the Orient, Korea, as the birthplace of a new ideology for world salvation, an ideology which will establish the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and deliver the world from communism's evil hand. We must joyfully take on this task which God is giving us. This is precisely the way to eternal prosperity for our fatherland, the Republic of Korea; it is the eternal and shining way.
Today I wish to share frankly this part of my faith with you.
God's Purpose of Creation
All religions of the world start by recognizing the ultimate cause of the cosmos, or the first cause, as the Creator, God. If God exists, then He should be good, and He is eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute.
God's purpose of creation is joy. It was to experience joy that God created the world and mankind. In order to feel joy, however, one must definitely have an object or a partner. When a subject and object form a reciprocal relationship and have give and take action, then they can finally feel joy. Furthermore, the greatest joy can be felt when love is being given and received. Therefore, God created mankind as His object and through an infinite give and take of love for eternity, God wanted to experience joy eternally with man. This was God's purpose of creation.
In order to accomplish this purpose of creation, God created one man and one woman as the first ancestors of mankind. In the Bible they are called "Adam" and "Eve". lf Adam and Eve had become the complete objects of God's joy-as they had give and take of love and multiplied descendants of goodness, and as that family multiplied into a society, the society developed into a nation, the nation developed into a world, and the whole earth became filled with this one tribe of Adam-then on this earth there would have been a world of joy which accomplished God's goodness and love. That world would have been called the Kingdom of Heaven, and this Kingdom of Heaven would have been established on the earth.
The Kingdom of Heaven on earth is one extended family centering on God where all mankind are brothers and sisters. There would be one culture and one tradition, and it would clearly be a united world. There could be no racial problems; there would be no differences of language, divisions among the nations, or confrontations of ideologies, and there would be no killing and no wars.
The Fallen World
If we imagine this world of God's ideal and we look at the world in which we are living today, we feel strongly that we are living in a world exactly opposite to God's ideal.
First of all, today we can see that even as individuals we are divided between mind and body. Our world nowadays is a world of division: division of nations, division of cultures and traditions, division of races, division of ideologies and division of love. Because of divisions like these the history of mankind has been a succession of wars, battles, and killing one another. No matter how we look at it, we cannot call this the Kingdom of Heaven.
lt is true that we live in hell on earth. This is the result which came about because the first ancestors of mankind, Adam and Eve, fell. To say they fell means that they disobeyed God and separated from Him. Therefore, history began where God could not dwell directly. The history of mankind has been a succession of disobedience to God, right up to the present.
God's Will is the Restoration of Heaven
I mentioned before that the will of God is eternal, unchanging, absolute and unique. Therefore, even though the fallen world came about through the betrayal of the first ancestors of mankind, the original ideal and purpose of God have not changed. God is He who will accomplish His original will.
God must finally accomplish His original ideal of creation. Therefore, after the fall of man God could not just stand by. After the fall of man, God's will became the history of salvation to save fallen mankind. What is salvation? Salvation is restoration of an ill person back to his original state of health. Then in relation to our fallen world, salvation is restoration of our world back to its original state before the fall. That is to say God has worked to end this fallen world and to restore the original ideal world He planned before the fall.
The Messiah's Task is the Accomplishment
of Restoration
Two thousand years ago God sent the savior Jesus Christ to the world. The purpose for sending him was the salvation of a fallen mankind, and salvation can be said to be restoration. To say the Messiah saves the world means that he restores the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Even though the Messiah definitely came to the earth two thousand years ago, however, the Kingdom of Heaven has still not been established. This is an important problem. Jesus proclaimed the coming of the Kingdom of Heaven, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at hand." But there was no sign that the Kingdom of Heaven was at hand. Rather, Jesus was judged as a criminal and nailed to the cross in a miserable destiny. This is a testimony to the fact that God's will in sending the Messiah was not completely realized two thousand years ago. What could be the reason for this?
The ignorance and Disbelief
of the Chosen People of Israel
The reason lay in the ignorance and disbelief of the chosen people of Israel. God nurtured and led the chosen people, the Israelites, for 4,000 years before he sent the Messiah because He intended for those people to accomplish His will by receiving the Messiah when he came. But when the Messiah came in reality, the chosen people of Israel did not know God's will exactly.
They dreamed that when the Messiah came, they, who were suffering under their Roman conquerors, would revenge themselves and conquer Rome by power in one mighty leap. They thought that the chosen people of Israel would reign over the whole world with the power of emperors. The Messiah they wanted was a Messiah of power who used the force of arms. But the Messiah's ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven cannot be realized by force of arms. God's ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven can be realized only by truth and love.
The chosen people of Israel rejected the Messiah whom they should have served. Moreover, they did not realize that the Messiah came to save the whole world even at the expense of sacrificing the chosen people of Israel. Rather they believed that he would give freedom to their nation alone and would give them royal authority. Jesus' barefoot, shabby and powerless appearance was a failure in the eyes of these people who dreamed of attaining self-centered power and political victory through fighting.
It can be said that there could be no greater tragedy than this and there could be no greater misfortune for mankind. The sad outcome was that God's kingdom could not be realized at that time and it became necessary for God to send the Messiah again in the future.
We call the days in which God will again send the Messiah as savior, the days of the Second Advent. God's will, which was not fully accomplished in the days of Jesus, has been extended to the Second Advent. From the very day Jesus was nailed to the cross, God has devoted Himself to preparation for the day of the Second Advent. Two thousand years of history have passed since that time. Nowadays, the voices which proclaim the coming of the last days are growing louder and louder. We can understand that people all over the world are waiting for the Messiah. Then what kind of history has God been accomplishing for the last two thousand years, and what is the key for beginning the new history?
The Second Israel for the Second Advent
of the Messiah
Before sending the second Messiah, God will prepare another chosen people. Just as one cannot build a house without a foundation, God cannot send the Messiah without the foundation of a chosen people. Before sending Jesus Christ God prepared the chosen people of lsrael, and accordingly, one can conclude that God has laid a foundation of a worldwide chosen people to receive the coming new Messiah. This is Christianity, which has reached all over the world.
The teachings of Jesus, who was laid in a manger in Bethlehem, have become the foundation of a worldwide religion throughout the last two thousand years. This is the result of God's providence to form a worldwide chosen people in expectation of the day of the Second Advent. The task of Christianity nowadays is to welcome and serve the Messiah when God sends him again. Christians absolutely must not nail him to the cross again as the chosen people of Israel did two thousand years ago. Christianity today stands in the position of the second Israel in both name and reality.
Moreover, God has two important tasks which He needs to have accomplished before sending the Messiah again. One of them is the creation of a highly developed material civilization. To say that God's will is accomplished is to say that God's Kingdom of Heaven on earth is realized. This doesn't mean only a spiritual Kingdom of Heaven but also a physical Kingdom of Heaven, or paradise in the material sense. It is necessary for God to prepare a vessel to contain the highly developed spiritual culture which will come into being with the Second Advent of the Messiah. This vessel is the highly developed material civilization. Moreover, since in God's ideal the world is one nation, in that world all mankind will live in close contact with one another through the modern means of transportation and communication made possible by the development of science. This development is a very important element for the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth and is a necessary and indispensable condition tor the creation of the culture of a united world.
The realization of the highly developed material civilization, which started from the Industrial Revolution in England and has continued through the last few centuries, is all part of God's master plan. The very fact that men all over the earth could simultaneously watch the landing of Apollo 11 on the moon shows that today we are all living within a common boundary, and this means that the day of God is at hand.
God must also form the circumstances in which the Messiah can come. What does this mean? It means the creation of a system of law such that people cannot kill others at will. If we look at the time of Jesus, people's lives were as insignificant as flies to the persons in power. The system of laws into which Jesus was born was just like a world without laws. If the administrators or persons of power wanted to have him killed, it could be done as easily as killing a fly. Jesus' proclamation of a fundamental human revolution could not be permitted or accepted under the system of that society. We can say that the fact that Jesus was nailed to the cross was an almost unavoidable occurrence under the system of those days. God, who knows this so well, knows that one of the most necessary things for the days of the second advent of the Messiah is a system of laws in which a person cannot be killed just because it is someone else's will. The system which God prepared for the last two thousand years is democracy. Democracy is the system which respects human rights. Democracy is the system in which a minority group can survive in the midst of a majority group. Democracy is the system which guarantees freedom of speech, freedom of association, freedom of press, and freedom of assembly. If we consider the Constitution of America, which can be regarded as the representative nation of democracy, the most absolute freedom among all freedoms is the freedom of religion. It is stated in the Constitution that the American Congress and Government shall not make any laws which can restrict religions.
This is the system in which God's son can come and even preach a revolutionary message without being nailed to the cross again. To take a familiar example in this light, the Unification Church has preached a revolutionary message in America and has incurred the displeasure of some Americans, but they could not nail our Church to the cross.
When the days of the Second Advent come, God will need to choose one central nation from among the worldwide second Israel of Christianity. What does this mean? Since the ultimate ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth which God is trying to accomplish is an ideal which is realized on the earth in reality, it should spread step by step to the world after starting at a certain central point. That is to say, there should be a nation which is adequate to be a model. The nation which is capable of carrying out God's central providence in the last days, the nation which was predestined long ago and chosen according to that predestination, is America.
America is the Chosen Nation and
the Central Nation of God's Providence
Now for a short time I would like to look back on the formation of America. In spite of its being such a mighty continent, America went unnoticed until the 1500s. We can explain this by thinking that God planned to use it in a special way during the last days and therefore hid it away secretly.
America is a nation which began through immigration. That is to say, America had no owners. The original inhabitants, the lndians, lived there but did not fulfill the role of the owner of the nation. In the end, because there was no owner we can say that God was the owner. Therefore, America was a nation to which only the special people whom God had chosen could go. On the European continent people called America the "New World." The first people who immigrated there were those who came with hope to serve God and who were seeking freedom of religion.
They had lost hope so completely under the ancient tyrannies that they left their homelands even though they knew they might lose their lives while crossing the Atlantic Ocean. They had an heroic determination and sailed for 57 days on the tiny ship Mayflower with their lives constantly in peril on the rough seas. After the difficult voyage, they finally landed in the New England area of America. These people were the "Pilgrim Fathers"-the ancestors of America.
During the voyage many of them died, and another half of them died during the first winter after they landed. They were people who thought God and faith were more important than their lives. It cannot be called accidental that they became the ancestors of America and their spirit became the founding spirit of America.
The fact that the motto, "One Nation Under God," became the founding spirit of America gives clear proof of God's will to establish this nation and make it a central Christian nation which could receive the Messiah again. Therefore, all men who believed in God gathered together in this fertile land which God had hidden away and made a Christian nation of all races. This is the model of the future Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Now, centering on God's will, America has become the flag bearer to save the world. By religion and the nation uniting together, it is accomplishing God's historical wish for the salvation of the world, a one world family and a united culture. America has taken on the burden of this important task to accomplish God's historical wish of world salvation.
Out of virgin land God made this newborn America the most powerful nation in the world in just two hundred years, in order to prepare for the struggle against communism, the final evil power which would appear in the last days. Now the American people should realize that God's blessing which they are enjoying today is not a blessing only for America. They should realize clearly that this blessing is for the world and brings with it the responsibility of fulfilling God's will.
The American people should be burning with determination to save the people of the world, even if they would have to suffer martyrdom. Armed with the spirit of Christianity they should be willing to go the way of the cross. From God's point of view the most important new task for America is to protect the tree world from communism and to become the driving force which can eventually liberate even the communists.
Ominous Signs Appearing in the
Chosen Land of America
Since 1945, after the victory of the Second World War, America has been showing ominous signs that it is falling away from God's will. This is a tearful thing. I say this because I love America. I said the following words at a meeting with American congressmen because someone has to awaken America.
First, it was God who, through America, brought about the victories of the first two World Wars and who brought about the United Nations, which is like a global nation. From the viewpoint of God's will, originally the United Nations should have been the headquarters for all the countries of the world which were centered on the spirit of Christianity. A United Nations which included communist nations was not God's will.
After the victory of the Second World War, America did not play its role properly. America had the responsibility to guide in a proper way the victorious Allied nations and the defeated Axis nations which they governed. America had the responsibility to manage them as God's nations. If America had understood God's will clearly, it would have realized that a very good opportunity was at hand to overtake the Soviet Union, which is a nation on Satan's side, and to restore all the world to God's will. Instead, at that time America allowed many nations in Asia and Eastern Europe to be taken over as satellite countries by the communists.
The tragic division of Korea and Germany at that time has caused much misery. The victory of the Second World War was God's blessing through which He intended to widen the free world and to overtake communism. But if we look at the final results, it seems America let the blood of its young men be spilled in vain and instead gave benefit to the communists, even though they are proven adversaries who deny God. Americans should know that the blood of those young men cries out even today.
Moreover, by retreating from her holy position to protect the free world, America has given away even more offerings to the communists, nations such as Vietnam which were under its protection. Because of this, the international stature of America has fallen, and the voice of resentment against it is growing louder and louder every day. These days the U.N. has become a forum for the propaganda of the communist countries, thereby losing its original function.
This is not all. Day by day in America more serious things are happening. The racial problem between whites and blacks and the drug problem which is destroying American youth are some of its worsening problems. The immorality of youth, the breakdown of the family, and violent crime continue to increase. There are many other serious problems as well, but among them, the infiltration of communism is the most deadly attack.
The present viewpoint of life in American society centers on a search for physical pleasure with a standard of value of extreme individualism. If it continues like this, God will surely leave America and America will cause God's plan to fail. This is very clear and apparent. What shall God do at this point?
Light from the East
God sees the situation in America in all its stark reality. It would not be exaggerating to say that God foresaw the possibility that America would become like this. It can also be said that Western civilization, which centers on material values, would inevitably bring about conditions like these in America.
From any viewpoint it is clear that material civilization is like the body, not the spirit. If America today is a body which God made then God surely planned to make a spirit to fill this body, and He intended to raise it up first in the Orient. If the spirit of the East and the body of the West become one, then at last our world would function as the complete
being that God designed it to be. Today Western culture is waiting for an intellectual or a spiritual revolution. But the situation nowadays is such that this spiritual revolution cannot be expected to come from Western society. It should be raised up in the Orient.
Here for a moment I would like to look at the prophecy of the outstanding English scholar, Arnold Toynbee. He was a famous historian and philosopher. His brilliant viewpoint of history anticipates the future very keenly. Because of that, he is respected as a prophet even beyond his field of history.
He prophesied the collapse of Western civilization, saying, "Western civilization centering on Christianity has reached the verge of destruction." He also said the following: "The purpose of history doesn't dwell in the development of civilization. The progress and decline of civilizations was in reality a method for the realization of higher religions."
If we express it another way, Dr. Toynbee says that the goal of the stream of history doesn't lie in the development of civilization, but rather that civilization is at best only a means for the advancement and development of religion, which is the true purpose of history.
Furthermore, he said that it can be expected that a higher religion will appear in the Orient, a religion that can save collapsing Western civilization. ' Light from the East" is the famous prophecy of Arnold Toynbee.
This morning, even though it may seem revolutionary, I proclaim without hesitation that the light which Toynbee spoke about, the new religious ideology which can save the world, will appear in Korea. No, I should say the beacon fire of that spiritual revolution has already been raised up in Korea. It is already burning brightly for the world.
Even now Western civilization is bursting into flame! On a supra-national level and supra-racial level, hundreds of thousands of young people have a flame in their hearts already. In them a new standard of value and a new viewpoint of life have already been fixed. A complete moral revolution is arising. Sacrificial service for the sake of mankind all over the world is being practiced.
The beacon fire of that spiritual revolution is the movement of the Unification Church. If this spiritual revolution is properly grafted to the material civilization of America, then that will be the moment when the spirit and body meet.
At that moment America will have hope because it will meet with the spirit, and Korea will also have hope because it will meet with the body. Therefore, if America and Korea become one, when they go forward to begin the movement for the restoration of the world there will be hope in the world. This power of spiritual revolution is the power which can defeat world communism. I'll explain how big the shock of this spiritual revolution is by mentioning the following example:
In America the main accusation against me, as a person who created so many controversies and problems, is that I brainwash the youth. The shock of this spiritual movement is so large that intelligent American people said I brainwashed their children.
On December 12, 1975 when I spoke at the House of Representatives of the U. S. Congress, I said this: "Let me ask you distinguished congressmen a question. Are you dumb enough to be brainwashed by me, this man who came from Korea and always has to speak through an interpreter?" In response to my words, the congressmen said they had heard a wise answer.
It is said that one reporter sneaked into the Unification Church in America and made a desperate attempt to find bottles containing the drugs which Reverend Moon used for brainwashing. It seems that he thought we brainwashed by using some kind of drug. At last he found a bottle of our II Hwa ginseng tea. "Ah ha! This is it!" he exclaimed and ran off to try it. However, he could not experience any mental disorientation, only a feeling of well-being.
I have not brainwashed the American youth by any drugs. Rather, by hearing the words which God gave me they go through a revolution of character. Yes, that is true. If one hears even only one time the words which God has given through the land of Korea, a revolution of character takes place. Even the extremely individualistic American people step forth to sacrifice themselves for the world. Many become free from slavery to drugs and they become free from past sexual immorality. They become dutiful children and loyal patriots to their nation, and by giving their lives to serve God they are becoming holy men and women of character.
Moreover, they recognize communism as the toe of God, and their desire to liberate mankind from communism burns brightest in the world.
How is it that Korea was Chosen?
How is it that God revealed the final ideology to restore the world through our fatherland Korea? What qualifications does Korea have in the last days to become the chosen nation?
To put it briefly, it is because the Korean people are "A people who can understand the circumstances of God." Throughout history no one knew that God was not a God of joy but rather the King of Kings of sorrow. God was the Parent who lost His children from the very day of creation. A parent who has lost his children is miserable and to be pitied even if he is the King of Kings.
The God of history was a father to be pitied. The most dutiful son to this pitiable father is the one who takes on the burden of his father's sorrows. The Korean people were chosen for this position.
The five thousand year history of Korea was one of troubles and trials. Korea was poor for a long time, and due to the bitter harassment of foreign powers the Korean people knew the taste of tears and the taste of sorrow. The circumstances of the Korean people who have gone through so many trials during their difficult history were similar to God's circumstances as He lamented seeing fallen mankind, His dead children.
The Korean people know the taste of tears. Therefore, they can understand the God of tears. It is not by accident that from ancient times the Korean people preferred tragic plays. This familiarity with tragedy is the qualification which allowed the Korean people to sympathize with God who tasted tragedy through the fall.
There is a proverb: "A widow knows another widow's situation." We have thought that God enjoyed power in joy and glory, but when we come to know God, we see that He is a pathetic, lonely father who lost His children and is weeping. God is seeking with faith for us to become His dutiful children who will console His heart.
From ancient times the Korean people were recognized as having a high standard of loyalty and filial piety. When I was invited to the May 16 Plaza for our National Military Day this year and saw the majestic presentation of our arms my heart was filled with pride. And as the soldiers marched past the reviewing stand and shouted the slogan "Loyalty, Filial Piety" I was deeply moved.
If we understand these words as the slogan shouted by the chosen people of God, they are very revelational. I doubt there are any other soldiers in the world with a slogan like this. Koreans are the ultimate people who should give loyalty and filial piety to God. This is why the spirit of loyalty and filial piety has become the central thought of the nation today.
The famous filial love of the young girl, Shim Chung; the famous fidelity of the love of Choong Hyang for her husband; the loyalty of Chung Mong Ju to his king; and the spirit of patriotic martyrdom of the young Yoo Kwan Soon, all these are examples of types of filial piety, fidelity, and loyalty which are difficult to find in the East or the West, in the past or the present. Yet these stories reflect the spirit of the Korean people.
This spirit of loyalty and filial piety, together with integrity which is as steady as the evergreen and straight as bamboo, will become the backbone of the spirit and thought of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth to be established in the future. Since the Kingdom of Heaven is God's nation, one has to give loyalty to it eternally, and since God is mankind's Father we have to give eternal filial piety to Him. As much as God would test all the peoples of the earth, He could not find any nation with the integrity and a spirit of loyalty and filial piety higher than Korea. Therefore, He chose Korea and came here.
Moreover, the Korean people, who like to wear white clothes, love and keep peace. We are a nation which has never invaded another nation even once. It is like a miracle that a tribe like this which loves and keeps peace could have kept a pure history. This could be possible only through the protection of God. If we express it in slang, we could say, "God is backing our people."
Throughout our five thousand year history, foreign nations have swallowed up our nation many times, but each time they have suffered from indigestion. Each time they devoured us they had to spit us out again. By whose strength did this happen? It was God's strength. Who gave us the independence of August 15? It was God's strength. Who stopped the North Korean invasion during the Korean War? It was God's strength.
During the Korean War, if U.S. President Truman's decision had been made even three days later we would have been pushed into the sea at Pusan. Furthermore, as long as the Soviet Union held its veto power in the Security Council of the U.N., it was impossible to send U.N. troops during the Korean War. But when the problem of sending troops to Korea was discussed, the Soviet representative was not present. At that moment, the plan to send in troops was determined with high spirit and at top speed. In the diplomatic history of the U.N., no one has understood why the Soviet representative did not participate at that very time. Who made it so? It was God.
No one can touch Korea as long as God's special protection is here. The powers which would like to harm Korea are being broken one by one through God's strength. The recent defeat of Congressman Fraser, who sought to destroy Korea through the U.S. Congress, is a good example of this.
Ladies and gentlemen! Our fatherland Korea is the forerunner of a new era and a favored child of God. Our long-endured difficulties have passed and at last the day has come that we should step forward as the kings of a new era. But the reason God called Korea is not to give life only to Korea: it is to save the whole world.
Korea should realize that it has been called to the task of saving the world. Since we have been called by God, we should be kings of love who can sacrifice ourselves before anyone else for the task of God's salvation of the world.
To die for this task of God is to live, and to suffer for it is the way to glory. This is the meaning of Jesus' words, "He who seeks to save his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find it."
The "New Village Movement" of Korea is a brilliant, monumental demonstration of self-reliance and revival. Such an achievement cannot be found in our history since the time of Tan Geun, the founder of Korea, and there is no record showing that it has an equal in the history of any other nation.
The present industrial development of Korea surpasses even the reconstruction of Japan and Germany after the war. The fact that this rapid growth took place in the circumstance of facing Kim 11 Sung, who is searching out every chance to attack the South, has great meaning.
The American people have tried to accuse me by saying that I have a close relationship with President Park Chung Hee, but this is a laughable matter. I have never met President Park even once.
lt is not the way of a righteous person to refuse to recognize good acts as goodness. I firmly believe that President Park is a leader chosen by heaven tor this important era. I think that if it were not for him it would be very difficult to endure the constant threat from Kim Il Sung, and the reconstruction of our fatherland would not be possible.
There is a reason why heaven has helped our t:atherland develop very rapidly through choosing such a leader at this historical time. It is because the time has come for Korea to guide the world and to take a great leap into the world as the creator of a new spiritual culture. To do so Korea must shed its poor and humble image of the past.
To say it in another way, God wants to send Korea as an ambassador to the world. But He cannot send an ambassador in dirty, ragged clothes. Instead God wants to send him forth in full ceremonial dress.
Korea should acquire the image of a leader of the world both in name and in reality. Korea should become a model for the whole world, an object of admiration which can be respected by others in every aspect. President Park is a person whom God has chosen in order to accomplish this task.
However, Korea's "New Village Movement" should not stop with the motto of "Let's live well." The Korean "New Village Movement" should develop into a movement to make the whole world live well. The fact that this "New Village Movement" has developed into the "New Mind Movement" is in line with God's will.
Just as the "New Village Movement" is a movement to let the body live well, the "New Mind Movement" is the movement to let the spirit live well. The backbone of this "New Mind Movement" is the spirit of loyalty and filial piety. If this "New Mind Movement" spreads throughout the world, the world will learn the true spirit of loyalty and filial piety from us.
But this "New Mind Movement" should progress to one more level. The movement which we should ultimately begin is the "New Love Movement." The focus of the "New Love Movement" is to love God as our Father and to love our neighbors as ourselves. The crown of love is sacrifice. The "New Mind Movement" should develop into a movement which knows how to sacrifice for God, tor the world, for the nation and for all fellow countrymen.
This is Jesus' ultimate teaching, but in history Christianity always failed to accomplish this "New Love Movement." Any movement which lives only for itself will necessarily fail, while any movement which is willing to die to let others live will remain eternally. Because the chosen people of Israel didn't understand this, they rejected Jesus. When Rome, which enjoyed the prosperity of the highest days of Christianity, became self-centered, even that great empire finally collapsed internally.
God also once blessed England. There was a time when England's power was spread so widely over the earth that one could say, "The sun never sets on the British Empire." But when her global colonial policy began to center on herself and she forgot the meaning of God's real blessing, England's decline hastened like the falling leaves of autumn. She declined because she didn't know the "New Love Movement."
Today America enjoys such power and blessings that it has no reason to envy Rome. For two hundred years America has practiced well the "New Village Movement" and the "New Mind Movement." But if in the last days America does not practice the "New Love Movement" which is willing to sacrifice for the world, the future of America will be gloomy.
Korea cannot be excepted from this principle of God either. The way we should ultimately go is the "New Love Movement." If we are not burning with sacrificial love which is willing to sacrifice even self and nation to protect the world from communism and to help the whole world live well, we may be prosperous for awhile but we will eventually fall into the same trap of decline that the developed countries are experiencing today.
The Unification Church is now spreading this "New Love Movement" to over 120 countries throughout the five oceans and six continents. And God is working together with this movement. Through this movement the ideal of unity of the five races becoming brothers and sisters in both name and reality is being practiced. The homeland of the "New Love Movement" which the Unification Church is leading is our fatherland, the Republic of Korea.
Shine forth my beloved fatherland! You have at last been summoned by God. You have become the homeland of the "New Love Movement" which will save the world.
This is the testimony which I offer to you this morning. Our Korean people's most urgent task is "awakening;" it is to awaken. We should awaken to the fact that we have been summoned by God. We should awaken to the fact that we are a chosen people. We should awaken to the fact that we have not been chosen just to live well ourselves, but we are the chosen people who should live to help the whole world live well.
When we awaken to this task, unite into one, and accomplish this work then God's blessing will remain with our fatherland forever. We will become the forerunners of a new age as princes of God, and the glory of the fatherland will be eternal and limitless.
canning the vast expanse of the history of God's providence, we come to realize that it took not just 6,000 years, but tens of thousands and even millions of years, in order to restore a single individual in the sinless likeness of the original person, Adam.. For this purpose, many individuals, families, clans, and nations sacrificed themselves selflessly down through the millennia. The person who came on the foundation of this selfless sacrifice was the Messiah. Then, what is the mission of the Messiah? First, it is to be a man who measures up to the original principles characterizing mankind before the fall. The sinlessness of Adam is thus recreated. Next, that of Eve is recreated by Adam.
he reason why parents desire their children to marry is because they want their children to pass on the love they inherited from them, the parents. Parents will die sometime, so they seek to leave their substance to their descendants. Parents need their descendants, since love should last forever and is the highest desire of mankind. Because parents leave behind such a precious thing, they can proudly go in front of God in the spiritual world. The family is the: place where they can accomplish leaving behind a wonderful heritage of love. Through the bonds of love generated in the family, people can go to the Heavenly Kingdom. Without learning such embracing love, it is absolutely impossible to go to heaven.
hen we confront this world centering on the heavenly Principle, only the firm and strong things can remain. We are now in the midst of a battle in which we must expand the realm of goodness by applying the Principle. In this battle, we must overcome not only temptation from men, but also numerous temptations and tests from Satan. Satan, who has been accusing God throughout the 6,0.0.0 years of biblical history, has great power and subtlety. Most people are defeated by him. The reason why I myself could proceed successfully until the present is because I clearly knew the Principle, the heavenly Principle. That is why I'm not snared by temptation.
our Blessing is for the purpose of setting an example for the rest of the world. I clearly know what conditions will be most beneficial for people in the spirit world, for those presently alive, and for future generations. Thus, I have clearly understood the providential significance of your Blessing, and upon this understanding I am initiating it. It is your mission to understand its significance just as vividly as I do and to live a blessed life in accordance with that understanding, examining yourself constantly to see that your way of life conforms with the way you know you should be living.