A Selection of True Parents' Speeches Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Family Pledge 1. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to seek our original homeland and build the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love. 2. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending the Heavenly Parent and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and on earth, by centering on true love. 3. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family, by centering on true love. 4. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is the Heavenly Parent's ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love. 5. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to strive every day to advance the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners, by centering on true love. 6. Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to become a family that moves heavenly fortune by embodying the Heavenly Parent and True Parents, and to perfect a family that conveys Heaven's blessing to our community, by centering on true love. 7. Our family, the owner of Cheon II Guk, pledges, through living for the sake of others, to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, by centering on true love. 8. Our family, the owner of Cheon II Guk, pledges, having entered the Era of Cheon Il Guk, to achieve the ideal of God and human beings united in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and to perfect the realm of liberation and complete freedom in the Kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, by centering on true love. Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Pyeong Hwa Gyeong The Holy Scripture of Cheon II Guk Published in the original Korean on 1.13 by the heavenly calendar in the founding year of Cheon Il Guk (February 22, 2013) English edition published 7.17 by the heavenly calendar in the second year of Cheon Il Guk (August 12, 2014) Published by the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Edited by the Committee for the Compilation of True Parents' Words Supplied by Seonghwa Publications, Korea Address Tel Fax 176-6 Cheongpa-dong 1-ga, Yongsan-gu, Seoul, Korea 82-2-701-0110 82-2-701-1991 ~~~ Preface Pyeong Hwa Gyeong is a collection of public speeches given by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon and his wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, on themes related to peace (pyeonghwa). They are a testimony to God's plan for humankind. Reverend and Mrs. Moon teach that the strongest human desire is for love. When we pursue love selflessly, peace emerges. When we pursue it selfishly, conflict erupts. Both selfish and selfless motives war within each person, and so too has our history been one of war. The mission of religion is to inculcate selfless love and bring an end to such conflict. Yet we often turn even religion into a new arena of the same conflicted behavior. Rev. and Mrs. Moon were called by God to become the True Parents of all humankind. As do all good parents, they teach how to overcome selfish desires and serve a higher purpose. Their model of a true family is one in which husband, wife and children are in love with God and with each other; a family that is a school of love and a foundation for a peaceful way of life. Such families unleash a quiet revolution from selfishness to unselfishness that reaches to the neighborhood and the community. Yet the blessing of peace within families must expand to the society, nation and world. Leading by example, Rev. and Mrs. Moon have expanded the gospel of selfless love, ofliving for the sake of others, into all fields of human endeavor. To give testimony to this, a team guided by Rev. Young Whi Kim was commissioned to select speeches that together represent the depth, breadth and scale of True Parents' work under God's providence. Some of these were given at assemblies for religious leaders, or at conferences for scholars, scientists, diplomats, politicians or media professionals. Some were addressed to the leaders of women's organizations, or to young people at sporting events. Some, such as the public rallies of the 1970s or the marriage Blessings for thousands of couples in later years, were delivered in front of huge crowds in plazas or in stadiums; others were given in more intimate settings including Rev. and Mrs. Moon's own home. The selection also reflects Rev. and Mrs. Moon's willingness to travel on exhausting schedules to personally bring their message to people of every land and culture. In presenting principles for the resolution of conflict on all levels, whether within ourselves or between nations, True Parents' words challenge leaders to look beyond their disciplinary, religious and national boxes, and to view the world as one family under God. They clarify for all of us God's original ideal for creating, the tragedy of the human Fall, the suffering but victorious path ofJesus, and the advent of True Parents. Thus, they illuminate the path ahead and provide a roadmap for the building of God's kingdom on earth. While the majority of the 178 speeches in Pyeong Hwa Gyeongwere given by True Father, a significant number were given by True Mother. Some were given on their behalf by their children or grandchildren. Many appear in English for the first time, or have been retranslated from the original Korean text, or have had missing parts restored. Sincere appreciation is due to the translators and editors who worked to prepare this English edition. Their work included verifying titles, venues and organizations, and comparing the English and Korean texts, which often diverged. Thanks go to those who discovered missing English texts of speeches in a computer, in a forgotten archive or tucked away in a drawer at home. Although all who were involved felt inadequately qualified for the task, the team's spirit to take ownership of the process bodes well for the future of the work to render scriptural works into the world's languages. We are grateful to God and True Parents for taking the burden of the historical providence on their own shoulders, and pray that this book may ignite many a heart to follow their path. May the blessings of God be abundantly with all readers of Pyeong Hwa Gyeong. Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Pyeong Hwa Gyeong A Selection ofTrue Parents' Speeches Preface ........................................................ 3 Book 1. The Principles of True Peace .......................... 17 Book 2. God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom ................. 193 Book 3. The Mission of Religion in Achieving God's Ideal ..... 347 Book 4. The True Family Movement ............................. 509 Book 5. Absolute Values and a New World Order ................ 695 Book 6. The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World ........ 873 Book 7. The World of the Culture of Heart ................... 1007 Book 8. The Reunification of Korea and World Peace .......... 1135 Book 9. The Role of Nations in Realizing World Peace ........ 1295 Book 10. True Parents, the Hope of God and Humankind ........ 1459 Guide to the Speeches ....................................... 1631 Pyeong Hwa Gyeong Book 1 The Principles of True Peace 1. The Ideal World for God and Humankind ...................... 19 2. God's Hope for Humanity .................................... 31 3. A World ofLiving for the Salce of Others ................... 51 4. The New Future of Humankind ................................ 67 5. A Life Devoted to Others ................................... 81 6. The Fundamental Principle of True Peace .................... 89 7. A Truly Peaceful World ..................................... 98 8. View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation ...................................... 105 9. Liberation of God's Homeland .............................. 119 10. The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity ......................................... 130 11. With HeartfeltLove and Thanks ............................ 141 12. God Is the Origin of Peace................................ 146 13. God's Homeland and One World ............................. 160 14. God and a United World of Peace .......................... 170 15. Declaring the Era of the Peace Kingdom ................... 181 16. Let Us Build a World of Peace through Living for the Salce of Others ............................... 187 Book 2 God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom 1. The Background and Significance of the Founding of the Unification Church ................................. 195 2. The Foundation of the Future World ........................ 206 3. In Search of the Origin of the Universe ................... 211 4. The Cosmos Is Our Hometown and Our Homeland ............... 225 5. The True Land for a King .................................. 237 6. God's True Love and Restoring His Relationship with Heaven, Earth and Humankind .......................... 242 7. To Realize the World of Peace ............................. 251 8. God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom ...................... 258 9. Fifty Years on the Providential Path to Realize God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom ...................... 262 10. God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom Are Built on the Foundation of the Realm of His Liberation and Complete Freedom ..................................... 272 11. Our Mission in the Last Days of Providential History ..... 284 12. Complete and Perfect Restoration of Cain and Abel Brotherhood and the Ideal World of Creation.......... 294 13. The Restoration of Our True God's Homeland ............... 304 14. Establishing the Kingship of Original True Love from the Self to the Cosmic Level ........................ 314 15. The Value and Significance of the Family Pledge .......... 318 16. Advance without Ceasing .................................. 334 Book 3 The Mission of Religion in Achieving God's Ideal 1. One God, One World Religion ............................... 349 2. The New Future of Christianity ............................ 360 3. Today's Intellectuals and Religion ........................ 380 4. America and Religious Freedom ............................. 387 5. Let Us Bring Religious Harmony for the Salce of World Peace ...................................... 393 6. In the Hope That You Will Participate in the Unification Movement ...................................... 398 7. The Will of God ........................................... 405 8. Dialogue and Alliance ..................................... 413 9. The Fundamental Truth ..................................... 420 10. Bequeathing the Tradition of True Love ................... 442 11. Islam and the Establishment of World Peace ............... 449 12. Religion's Mission for World Peace ....................... 455 13. Religion and the Creation of World Peace ................. 461 14. Religion and the Ideal World ............................. 468 15. Understanding Life and Death ............................. 474 16. The Path ofLife for All Humankind ........................ 492 Book4 The True Family Movement I. TheTrueFamilyandI ......................................... 511 2. The Ideal Home and World Peace ............................ 525 3. True Family and True Universe Centered on True Love ....... 532 4. The True Family Movement to Save Humankind ................ 543 5. Realization of a Peaceful World through the Ideal of True Families ................................ 552 6. Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life ......................... 560 7. True Family and World Peace ............................... 573 8. Blessed Families and the Ideal World ...................... 581 9. True Love and True Marriage ............................... 588 10. The Holy Marriage Blessing Is the Way to Unite the Virtues of Heaven and Earth and Harmonize and Unite the Cosmos ........................... 594 11. God's Ideal Family and the Kingdom of the Peaceful Ideal World ..................................... 605 12. God's Model Ideal Family and Nation and the Peace Kingdom .................................... 618 13. God's Model for Absoluteness, Peace and the Ideal Is the Family and Global Kingdom Upholding Absolute Sexual Morality ....................... 627 14. True Families: Gateway to Heaven ......................... 644 Book 5 Absolute Values and a New World Order 1. The Role of Unified Science in the Moral Orientation of the World ............................ 697 2. Modem Science and Our View of Moral Values ................ 705 3. Science and Absolute Values ............................... 709 4. Harmony among the Sciences and the Search for Absolute Values ............................ 714 5. God and the Limit of Scienc................................ 720 6. Absolute Values and the Search for Peace for Humankind .... 724 7. Absolute Values and the Creation of a New World ........... 729 8. Absolute Value Perspective ................................ 737 9. Unification Thought as the Basis of a New Cultural Revolution ................................. 744 10. Professors World Peace Academy and Our Resolution ........ 752 11. Absolute Values and the New Cultural Revolution .......... 760 12. Leaping Forward and Gaining Momentum ..................... 764 13. True Love and the Unified World .......................... 770 14. Absolute Values and a Reassessment of Contemporary Society ..................................... 776 15. Absolute Values and a Reassessment of the Contemporary World ................................ 781 16. Absolute Values and the New World Order .................. 786 17. True Knowledge, True Family and World Peace .............. 792 18. Problems Confronting Society and the Responsibility of the Media .............................. 800 19. Media Credibility and Social Responsibility .............. 805 20. The Responsibility of the Media in a Divided World ....... 810 21. Media Standards and Journalistic Accountability .......... 815 22. True Unification and One World ........................... 819 23. God's Strategy for Victory ............................... 828 24. The Mission of the Media in the Twenty-first Century ..... 836 25. Media in the Twenty-first Century: Focus, Roles and Responsibilities ........................ 844 26. Globalization and the Media: Looking to the Twenty-first Century ...................... 851 27. A United Direction for the Media in the New Millennium ... 857 28. The Life of Jesus from the Perspective of God's Will and God's Warning to the Present Age ..................... 862 Book6 The Role of Women in Creating the Ideal World 1. The True Love Movement Bringing Salvation to Asia and the World ............................ 875 2. The Coming of the Age of Women ............................. 881 3. The Unity of the World and Humankind's Responsibility ...... 885 4. Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World I ........ 895 5. Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World II ....... 907 6. World Peace and the Role of Women I ........................ 917 7. Women Will Play a Leading Role in the Ideal World III ...... 922 8. God, Women and World Peace ................................. 930 9. The Twenty-first Century and the Mission of Women .......... 946 10. World Peace and the Role of Women II ...................... 950 11. Opening, Inheriting and Fulfilling the Era of the Victory, Liberation and Completion of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind ....................................... 956 12. The Role of Women in the Era after the Coming of Heaven and the Mission of the Women's Federation for World Peace ..... 964 13. Keynote Speech at the Inauguration of the Abel Women's UN ....................................... 976 14. Let Us Become Leaders in a World of Peace ................. 983 15. Let Us Open a New Era of Civilization ..................... 988 16. Establishing a World of Moral Principles .................. 995 17. The Central Role ofYoung People in the Realization of True Love ............................. 1000 Book 7 The World of the Culture of Heart 1. The Path of the Movement for Finding the True Ancestral Root ................................... 1009 2. Congratulatory Remarks at the Inaugural Celebration of the Universal Ballet Academy ............... 1015 3. Becoming Leaders in Building a World of Peace ............. 1018 4. Building a World of Heart-Centered Culture ................ 1024 5. Become a Standard-Bearer for Justice ...................... 1033 6. The Youth Culture Must Become a Pure Love Movement ........ 1038 7. Everything Wants True Love ................................ 1042 8. Congratulatory Address for the World Hanmadang Sports Festival 2000 ...................... 1052 9. Dialogue and Harmony among Civilizations .................. 1057 10. The Kingdom of Heaven: Who Will Enter It, and How Will They Get There? ............................. 1061 11. The Root of Peace Is in True Love ........................ 1066 12. The Path for the True Salvation of the World and the Nation ..................................... 1074 13. Education Based on Godism ................................ 1079 14. The Significance of the Inauguration of the Sun Moon Peace Cup ....................................... 1085 15. Let Us Achieve Everlasting Harmony among Religions ....... 1093 16. Determining the Owner of True Love According to the Absolute Value System of the True Ideal Family ........... 1099 17. The True Revolution of Heart and the Opening of the Era of True Liberation and Complete Freedom .............. 1106 18. God Is Our True Parent, True Teacher and True King ....... 1118 19. The Three Great Subject Partners Principle from the Viewpoint of God's Providence ........................ 1123 20. Event to Mark the Distribution of Fifty Thousand Copies of Father's Autobiography .......... 1129 Book8 The Reunification of Korea and World Peace 1. Korea in the World ........................................ 1137 2. May Our Homeland Shine Forth .............................. 1147 3. The Resolve of the World and the Korean People ............ 1164 4. Our Homeland for the Sake of the World .................... 1174 5. God's Will and Korea ...................................... 1180 6. Address at the Inauguration of the Citizens Federation for the Unification of North and South Korea .............. 1187 7. True Peace in Our Time, the Reunification of Korea, and East-West Cooperation ................................. 1197 8. True Love and the World of Unity .......................... 1203 9. Heaven Is Calling Korea ................................... 1219 10. Speeches Given during an Official Visitto North Korea .... 1230 11. Opening the Path for Genuine Dialogue .................... 1235 12. The Reunification of Korea and World Peace ............... 1238 13. World Unity and the Reunification of South and North Korea Will Be Accomplished by True Love ............ 1244 14. The Course of Life for the Princes and Princesses of God ................................................... 1260 15. God's Kingdom of Peace Is the Eternal Home of Our Blessed Families .................................. 1282 Book 9 The Role of Nations in Realizing World Peace 1. America in Crisis-Answer to Watergate: Forgive, Love, Unite ...................................... 1297 2. God's Plan Centered on the United States .................. 1302 3. God's Hope for America .................................... 1311 4. America and God's Will .................................... 1319 5. The Foley Square Address .................................. 1325 6. Challenges and Possibilities for World Peace .............. 1328 7. Let Us Become Leading Figures in the Asia-Pacific Era ..... 1334 8. The Way to World Peace .................................... 1341 9. The Role oflsland Nations in the Twenty-first Century ...................................... 1351 10. The Role of Peninsular Nations in the Twenty-first Century ..................................... 1358 11. The Role of Continental Nations in the Twenty-first Century ..................................... 1366 12. Let Us Open Wide the Era of World Peace .................. 1374 13. The Direction for the World and the United Nations ....... 1378 14. Breaking Down Barriers to Establish World Peace .......... 1387 15. The Path for America and Humanity in the New Millennium .. 1401 16. The Status of Korea, Japan and the United States from the Providential Viewpoint .......................... 1413 17. Let Us Perfect the Peace Kingdom through the Peace UN ......................................... 1423 18. The Path of Humanity and the United States in the Era of the Peace Kingdom .......................... 1436 19. The Mission of Ambassadors for Peace at the Dawn of the Era after the Coming of Heaven ............... 1449 Book 10 True Parents, the Hope of God and Humankind 1. The Appearance of True Parents and the Ideal Family ....... 1461 2. True Parents and the Completed Testament Age .............. 1471 3. The Unity and Complete Settlement of the Parents of Heaven and Earth ........................... 1481 4. The Owners of Re-Creation ................................. 1492 5. The Messiah and True Parents .............................. 1502 6. The Harmonization of Values, and the Liberation and Complete Settlement of the Realm Transcending Religions and Nations from the Providential Perspective ............. 1508 7. True Parents Are the Hope of God and Humankind ............ 1525 8. Let Us Become Filial Children of God Who Liberate His Heart .................................... 1536 9. True Parents Are the Embodiment of God .................... 1544 10. Address at the Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Gimpo Aviation Industrial Complex .................... 1549 11. Cheon II Guk Is the Ideal Heavenly Kingdom's Reign of Eternal Peace ......................... 1552 12. The True Owners in Establishing the Kingdom of Cosmic Peace and Unity in Heaven and on Earth ............ 1558 13. A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God's Will I ............................. 1572 14. Building a Peaceful World Based on the Parent UN.......... 1592 15. Establishing the Truly Peaceful World of the True Parent UN .................................... 1597 16. A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God's Will II ............................ 1603 17. Owner of Peace, Owner of Lineage ......................... 1612 BOOK 1 The Principles of True Peace 1. The Ideal World for God and Humankind .................................... 19 2. God's Hope for Humanity .................................................. 31 3. A World ofLiving for the Salce of Others ................................. 51 4. The New Future of Humankind .............................................. 67 5. A Life Devoted to Others ................................................. 81 6. The Fundamental Principle of True Peace .................................. 89 7. A Truly Peaceful World ................................................... 98 8. View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation .......... 105 9. Liberation of God's Homeland ............................................ 119 10. The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity ............... 130 1 I. With Heartfelt Love and Thanks ........................................ 141 12. God Is the Origin of Peace ............................................. 146 13. God's Homeland and One World ........................................... 160 14. God and a United World of Peace ........................................ 170 15. Declaring the Era of the Peace Kingdom ................................. 181 16. Let Us Build a World of Peace through Living for the Salce of Others ... 187 1 • The Ideal World for God and Humankind February 4, 1972 Lincoln Center, New York, USA Seven-city speaking tour in the United States Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my gratitude for your attendance this evening. For a long time I have yearned to meet with the people of America, and I am truly delighted and thankful for having been given this opportunity. The topic I would like to discuss with you today is, "The Ideal World, or the United World, for God and Humankind." Where does the pursuit of the ideal world begin? In their hearts, all people long for an ideal world, a world of oneness. However, at this point it seems like an impossible dream. This can only be a source of sadness for humanity. If there is a God, He too undoubtedly is longing for such an ideal world, the world of oneness. Without a doubt, both God and humankind yearn for this ideal world of oneness. If there is a God, He must bring about such a world, without fail, and if you are a person who believes in God's ability, you will think that this task must be accomplished above all else. Although all human beings yearn for a united world, we must acknowledge that it is not simple to bring this about. The democratic world and the communist world, from their own positions and in their own ways, both are thinking about uniting the world. Then, could the communist world submit to the democratic world and become one with it? Or could the democratic world submit to the communist world and unite with it? This is an extremely difficult problem. Before we start our search for a way to realize unity and an ideal world on the global level, we first need to ask if there is a nation which is itself united. Only through such a nation can we bring about a united world. Before there can be a united world, there must be a united nation, and before there can be a united nation, there must be a united tribe. Before there can be a united tribe, we need a united family, and before a united family, there must be a united individual. This is where the problem lies. Human beings are the origin of good and evil Where is unity first achieved? Since this world is a resultant world, we can conclude that unity must begin with the causal beings. Where are those individuals? It cannot be denied that we human beings are torn between two purposes that lead us in contrary directions. Our minds desire to go toward goodness, whereas our bodies lead us the opposite way. The two are fighting with each other. There are two different individuals, a man and a woman, who come together in union to form a family. Because they each possess an internal self and an external self, when the two meet as a couple, they in fact come together as four beings, each acting in different ways. In the same way, whether it is a clan, a tribe, a people, a nation or the world, everything is divided. Nevertheless, we can be grateful that they are not divided into hundreds or thousands of directions; they are divided in two ways. This is what is fascinating. If there were a God, He surely would not allow people to continue like this. He would have no choice except to work in the background of history, even without their knowing it. And if there were a satan who had driven human beings to evil, that satan would keep trying to pull them in the direction opposite to that of God. Nonetheless, even if satan opposes the absolute God, he does not have the right to rise up and oppose the principles that God set up with absolute authority. God governs what is good and satan governs what is evil. The resulting fight between God and satan starts within us as individuals. We need to understand that this is the reason that human beings can be the origin of evil and the origin of goodness. In short, a person can be the starting point of goodness and at the same time the starting point of evil. Ladies and gentlemen! Going up symbolizes something good and going down signifies something bad When you are complimented for some reason, you wish to boast loudly of it. In contrast, when you are criticized for doing wrong, you shrink into yourself When you do something good, you advertise it and call for others to follow your example. When you do something bad, you hide it for fear of it being known. No one goes about boldly advertising having done something bad, like stealing. Rather, such a person goes his or her way in secret. You need to understand that people have two parts, one desiring to go up and the other desiring to go down. The part that desires to go up is the conscience. There is no person, even one of great power or fame, who does not suffer pangs of conscience when doing something evil. We need to understand clearly that the human conscience is the guardian of God, whereas the body is the guardian of satan, and that the conscience is the origin of heaven, whereas the body is the origin of hell. This leads us to realize the fundamental difference between the essence of good and the essence of evil. Goodness seeks to benefit the whole, whereas evil seeks only its own benefit. Good people live more for the sake of their family than for themselves, more for the sake of their village than their family, more for the sake of their nation than their village, and more for the sake of the world than their nation. Until now, history has unfolded as a struggle between the perspective of living for one's own sake and the perspective ofliving for the sake of others. God's absolute demand is that we completely uproot and destroy the basis of evil in our bodies. In contrast, satan's evil demand is that we mercilessly destroy the conscience and anything associated with it. History continues to unfold through this conflict. God's side is centered on the conscience, while the side of evil is centered on the body and on material things. They oppose each other, and we can conclude that this is why humanity is divided between the realm of materialism and the realm of spirituality. If there were no God, we would not have such a resultant world. Evil manifests as jealousy, disunity and conflict that lead to self-destruction. From this viewpoint, where can unity and the ideal be realized? In the end, they start from the most fundamental level, from "me." the individual. Thus God needs to teach us about the united world, the ideal world for which He yearns. The teachings of religion Ladies and gentlemen, would you like to know how this is done? It is not done in a way that you desire. In fact, no one desires this way. First of all, you need to chastise whoever or whatever opposes the conscience. God cannot do this. Human beings are stuck in the midway position, with God and satan both struggling to claim them, and if God were to strike them, so would satan. So God's teachings center on the conscience and tell you, "Strike, strike, strike your body!" We need to carry out this campaign worldwide. You have to do what your body hates. It is religion that teaches this. Then what are the teachings of religion? All religions teach, "Strike the body! Don't eat what you desire to eat! Don't do what your body desires to do!" All major religions teach this. Buddhism places great importance on asceticism. Also, self-sacrifice is an important principle in Christianity. However, because it is extremely difficult for people to practice this, God has had no choice except to find a way to work with us just as we are. Since our minds and bodies exert a similar degree of power over us, we tend to alternate between going this way and that, back and forth. Religion teaches us to deny what the body wants while offering devotions that give us strength from God. This has been the role of religion until now. God started out working with one individual and advanced through the family, tribe and people in His desire to gain one nation. In this way the nation and people of Israel emerged. In short, they were the chosen people. The existence of the terms "chosen people" and "chosen nation." testify to the existence of God. In accordance with His plan, God promised to send His representative who, as an individual, could completely unite his body and mind, then unite his family, tribe and nation, and completely unite the world. This was the messianic vision of Israel. Following this pattern, God anticipated that the people would unite with this individual, family, tribe and become the nation to save the world, creating one world and bringing it to God's side. Jesus came as the embodiment of unity Of course, God's purpose was, in part, to have the people of Israel receive the Messiah and live happily. However, His providence is not merely to save one people; it is to save the world. He was, in fact, trying to save the world, and for that He established the people of Israel as the foundation upon which He could send the Messiah. Yet at that time, although the desire of the Israelites and the direction of God's providence ought to have been the same, they went different ways. Jesus came as an individual with the ideal of a united world. Based on that ideal he was to form a perfected family, then go on to establish an ideal tribe, people, nation and world. Instead he was crucified before he could accomplish this. The nation oflsrael was like a field of wild olive trees with which the owner could do whatever he pleased. When Jesus came as the true olive tree to this field of wild olive trees, God's plan was to engraft all the wild olive trees, from individuals to families to the entire nation, into His ideal. If this had come to pass, the people oflsrael would have become true olive trees. If lsrael, based on Judaism, had become one with Jesus and backed him with its sovereignty in carrying his mission to the world, the two-thousand-year history of Christianity would not have been necessary. God sent Jesus to a world filled with people whose minds and bodies were not united, to embody the ideal and to unite all people. However, the people to whom he was sent nailed him to the cross and murdered him. Because Judaism and the nation oflsrael went against God's Will, the nation and the foundation established by God over the course of thousands of years were lost to satan's side. The Israelites became a people without a nation, groaning under tyranny, overrun by other peoples for two thousand years, having to fight for survival. Israel became an independent state in 1948. This indicates that we have entered a new global era in which the people of Israel can overcome their suffering and regain their good fortune. This means that the time for the Lord to come again is approaching. Do you think there was a foundation, an individual, family, tribe and nation that God could use as His stepping stone, after the people of Israel did not fulfill God's providence? There was none. Since the First Israel was unable to fulfill the Will of God, Christianity inherited its position. Christianity must accept the mission of the Second Israel and fulfill God's Will. However, you must know that Christianity has been unable to set the foundation to unite the physical world and the spirit world. Instead, it denied the physical world and tried to find the one nation based only on the spirit world. Today's Christians believe that the Lord of the Second Advent will come from the sky. However, based on such an event, he cannot bring unity within individuals, families, tribes, peoples and the world. We must know with certainty that the place where the coming Lord can fulfill his purpose is not the sky; it is this earth, this physical world. To do so, Jesus, as the man who has achieved the ideal of integrity, the man whose mind and body are united completely, must find a woman of integrity and form a family with her. Only when this occurs can the united nation and world come to be. How can this be brought about? Among today's Christians, is there anyone who is prepared to become the bride of the Lord and form a family with Him? Christians don't know about this. They don't even know where and how he will come. The Lord of the Second Advent does not come on a cloud in the sky. The Lord comes to restore the family of oneness, which God desires. It will take more than one family to restore that family. There needs to be a tribe that can live for the sake of the family. There needs to be a people that can live for the sake of the tribe, and a nation that can live for the sake of the people. Present-day Christianity needs to understand clearly that without going through this pattern in one nation, the nation that inherits the mission of the third Israel cannot be restored. Christian doctrine is the teaching of service and sacrifice Let us take a moment now to think about the way in which a person can enjoy eternal life. If we as individuals wish to be respected in this world, we cannot simply praise ourselves. To earn respect, we need to sacrifice. If, for instance, you have ten friends and you have served those ten friends for a long time, you will become the central figure among them. Not only that, their relatives and friends will want to unite with you. In contrast, let's say there is a person who tells his ten friends, "You need to live for my sake. Live for my sake." Those friends will break away from that person. In short, that person will be left alone and in the end will have no place to go. You need to realize that this is the point that distinguishes between good and evil in society. Let us consider a nation's patriot. When you think about the United States, you surely respect people like President Lincoln and President Kennedy. Why do you respect them? You respect those two presidents because they gave their lives for the United States. Among the presidents of the United States, there are those who died miserable deaths for the nation. The more they sacrificed themselves, the more they are revered as patriots and the higher is their position as presidents. The more a person sacrifices out of love for the nation, even at the risk of his or her life, the more that person is revered. Those who suffer miserably through their sacrifice are considered even greater. Even though they are miserable at the time, their misery is only for a moment, and as history goes on, that person's impact in the world broadens in scope. This holds true in the death of Jesus. If you were to ask for whom Jesus sacrificed himself, the answer is for the sake of humankind and for the nation. In the position of having loved humanity m(?re than anyone else, of having loved God more than anyone else, and of having loved even his enemies, he died miserably after praying for them to be blessed. At the time, Jesus died without a name, for he was accused of being a traitor to his people. No one could have known that he would give rise to today's worldwide realm of Christian culture. At this point we can propose one principle: It is that those who sacrifice themselves for a greater purpose, for the greater good of the whole, cannot fail. We know that they cannot fail. Such people are historical saints. In this regard, if there is a God and He has a strategy for fighting the world of evil, we can discover His strategy at this point. The nature of evil is to follow the complete opposite of God's strategy. It sacrifices others for its own sake. If it does this on the individual level, then other individuals will oppose it, and when it does this on the level of the family or the nation, it inevitably leads to a dictatorship that is denounced by history. You need to understand that the strategy of evil is to promote oneself by sacrificing others, whereas God's strategy is to sacrifice oneself to save others. That is why the people who asserted goodness in the course of history were not welcomed in their time and were sacrificed, yet nonetheless the names of those who sacrificed themselves out of their love for their nation and the world came to be known long after their time. We cannot deny that this is the truth. That is why the doctrine of Christianity is the teaching of service and sacrifice. If a Christian denomination existed only for its own sake, it would come to ruin. However, if there were a denomination whose entire purpose was to save the United States, one that stepped forward and sacrificed itself to achieve this, Heaven would cooperate with it. Having saved the United States, Christianity would thereby become a movement for the United States to sacrifice itself to save the world. This would be the Christianity that could be considered suitable to guide the world. The reason God blessed the United States If we ask whether God loves the United States or the world, we would say that God loves the world more than the United States. Because of this, God has placed the United States at the forefront, to have it pay the price of sacrifice to save the world. American citizens! Do you think that the United States has an ideological tradition? You cannot find it among today's youth. As you know, the Puritans were among those who pioneered the United States. They were a group who came to the new world, the land of America, leaving behind their nation because it limited their freedom to practice their faith and serve God as they desired. At the time, a small number of Pilgrims risked their lives and held on to God as they struggled to survive in a new land with native inhabitants. I am aware that their beliefs were based on their reverence for God, and they overcame many difficulties while holding on to Him, which became a founding principle of the United States. I also know that this is the reason they built their homes only after first building a church and a school. Because they stood in such a position, God pulled them out of an environment in which they were oppressed and protected them in this land. He thus made this nation a global power in a period of less than two hundred years. Why did God do all this and give you such blessings? Do not think that God blessed you so that only the people who live in the United States can live in comfort. Instead, you have to take the point of view that God blessed you to make this land the representative nation for saving the world. However, do the American people have a truth that calls them to join forces and save the world? No, they don't. In contrast, the communist world, the enemy of the United States, has an ideology that can conquer the world, and it is displaying its confidence that it can swallow up the United States without a problem. American people need to remember that reducing support for Asia or other parts of the world is not the Will of God. I believe that President Kennedy was the president who first began this trend. The United Nations secretary-general at the time was Mr. Hammarskjφld. It is a matter of speculation as to why they both met such tragic ends. I had a meeting with former President Eisenhower in 1965. I pointed out to him, "You may think that you did well to call for a truce in the Korean War. However, it was actually a historical error." I also said to him, "Do you trust communists? Communists are a group of people whose words and actions differ." Their actions and words are different. You need to know this. Now, twenty years after the ceasefire agreement, we can see with our own eyes how North Korea has done everything in its power to militarize. Can you deny this fact? On February 21, a meeting is scheduled between Mao Zedong and President Nixon. Mao Zedong has nothing to lose; he can attack or do whatever he wants to President Nixon. The American people need to be aware of this fact. Communists may announce with regard to the United States, "We are very close." and suddenly do an about face. Theirs is a dictatorial system; it can go forward or retreat on command at any moment. The American people, on the other hand, cannot do that. Let's say the United States made an agreement and all its people had gone forward. If they then were told to retreat, do you think every one of the American people would retreat? You ought to know that at least half would break off. I am now thinking about what would become of the United States if such a thing were to happen. From the viewpoint of providence, I believe that God will protect the United States until its fortieth president, or for two hundred ten years of its history. Ladies and gentlemen! I know that the year 1976 marks the two hundredth anniversary of the founding of the United States. Also, forty-two generations lie between Abraham and Jesus, and two thousand-year historical cycles, of forty generations, have been unfolding based on the Will of God. Though the actual number of generations is forty-two, since the God of three generations, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, is considered to be the God of one generation, we can say the number represents forty generations. We must transcend the nation to save the world It is my view that a history of indemnity is unfolding during the Last Days centered on the United States. If the United States is unable to fulfill its responsibility during this period, I believe that it will no longer remain under the protection of God. Americans must not boast about the United States shouldering responsibility as the leading global power now in the latter half of the twentieth century. Even if the United States ceased to exist as a nation, you need a philosophy that you can be proud of, even to the thirtieth and fortieth centuries. If you Americans have such a commitment for the sake of the world, I believe that you will become a people who can guide the world. Based on this viewpoint, let us interpret the mission that today's Unification Church is trying to fulfill. The Unification Church is trying to attend the bride of the Lord, and to prepare a multinational movement to construct the kingdom of heaven of hope that God requires on this earth. To do so, this Unification Church must reject the idea of working for its own sake. God's strategy requires the individual, family, tribe and nation to sacrifice for the world. It is our mission to raise such individuals, families, tribes and peoples and pave the way for the kingdom that God desires. We need to become individuals, families, tribes and peoples established on the principles of internal unity and unity with the Messiah. Who will take the lead in carrying out this task? Will it be a nonbeliever or a believer? Will it be a person of religion or a person without religion? This task needs to be carried out through the joint effort of Christians and all religious people. Such a movement needs to be realized in the world now. Thus, do not focus only on your own religious denomination. Instead, become one with the motto of serving God's Will and saving the world. In organizing such a movement, do not think about taking a leadership position. Instead you need to go to the lowest position and support the movement by serving others. Do not become a central figure by employing every means you can and seeking influence through the power of money, authority or knowledge. You need to build a new movement worldwide through which others will voluntarily install and revere you as their central figure. Otherwise there is no way to save this world. The man standing before you has had to walk the path of much persecution before he could be where he is today. Even though I was working for Christianity and proposing the way for it to go forward, Christians have opposed me. Even though I was proposing the way for the nation to go forward, I have been opposed by the nation. Based on this viewpoint, I believe that a day will come when this group of hardworking people will also be criticized by the United States. The way of goodness is to endeavor to save the world even at the sacrifice of those on your own side. This is the historical tradition. Therefore, unless we inherit such a tradition on this earth in this day and age, and build a movement worldwide through sacrifice, we cannot show the direction toward the ideal. Henceforth, only an organization that teaches people around the globe to save the world by living for the sake of others, and promotes the principle of working to save the world even if it means sacrificing oneself, will have authentic authority. Let us think about the United States, which represents the democratic world. If the United States had stayed its course in giving assistance for the sake of the world, it would have remained a nation that is revered by the world. If it had continued its movement to love the world even more than its own people and nation, the United States would not be in the position in which it currently finds itself. However, as a nation representing the democratic world, if the United States believes that historically there has never been a country that prospered by supporting other nations, and that it must follow that historical tradition, and it turns around and starts to prioritize itself before others, it will be isolated. The United States today is placing its national interest ahead of that of the world, and serving the people of America more than the people of the world. God's vision is different. God is trying to save the world by mobilizing the United States. God is trying to have the United States go beyond itself and serve the world. Democratic nations cannot progress if they are divided amongst each other. Only a united world can realize God's ideal A movement that teaches and practices the principle of serving the world more than its own nation or people, that is, a movement capable of loving God above all, will remain to the end. Therefore, the problem is finding that principle and multinational movement that can transcend the nation and lead us to the place where Heaven's love and the love of the people of the world flow freely, beyond national borders. If the Lord of the Second Advent is indeed coming, he does not come to save just one nation. He comes to save the world. When that time draws near, it will be the Last Days. Therefore, we conclude that the world will come to ruin unless we can love beyond our own nation, honor the people of Heaven, and establish a movement through which we can go beyond the nation and love God. This is the path of unity, the teaching that the world will need in the future. Respecting this ideal, one's skin color is not an issue. In this matter, one's cultural background is not an issue. Our shared hope and purpose will be to love God and become one for the world that lives for the sake of God's Will. When the world becomes one in this way, I believe that the ideal world desired by God and humankind will be realized. Therefore, the mission of the Unification Church is to teach the path for individuals to follow, the path for families, tribes and peoples to follow, and the path for the nations and the world to follow. In closing, please have faith that the ideal represented by the title of my speech, "The Ideal World for God and Humankind;' will be realized, and that we are beginning the work to bring this about on the earth. Thank you. 2 • God's Hope for Humanity October 20, 1973 Lisner Auditorium, George Washington University, Washington, DC, USA Twenty-one city speaking tour in the United States Ladies and gentlemen, first of all I would like to express my heartfelt appreciation for your coming tonight. I thank God for this opportunity because I have been looking forward to visiting this city and meeting all of you. Because we speak different languages, even though I can speak, from your standpoint I am dumb. Also from my standpoint, even though you can hear, you are deaf. In order to correct this, we need the man standing next to me as my interpreter. However, as you know, interpretation from one language to another is not an easy task. So this man beside me really needs your sympathetic understanding. My topic tonight is "God's Hope for Humanity." This subject is vast in nature and rather complicated in content. I will try my best to stay on the central point of my topic. God and human beings are subject and object partners If there is a God, God definitely needs human beings. God created all things, but in creation, human beings occupy the most precious and distinguished position. It is therefore very important for us to have a clear understanding of the relationship between God and ourselves. Historically, there have been many theories concerning this relationship. Varying opinions, theological concepts and academic schools abound, however the true, living relationship between God and humankind remains an unsettled question. Since this relationship is so fundamental to life, our understanding cannot proceed until we have clarified this question thoroughly. As we pursue the answer, we discover that there are two main perspectives that we might take. One view is from God's standpoint, and the other is from our point of view. A variety of religions have developed through developing these two perspectives, and there must be one principle common to all religions, one that can clarify the relationship between God and ourselves. God wants us to understand this truth in the ultimate sense. As someone living on this earth, what do you consider to be most precious? If somebody were to ask you this question, I'm sure your answers would vary. Some might say, "Power." Some would undoubtedly say money, Money is everything." And others would suggest, "Wisdom or knowledge." Then are those elements-power, money, knowledge- the most important things in life? If we take time to reflect on this question, we can conclude that there is ultimately no one who will claim these as most precious. What, then, do we hold as most precious? When we look into this question deeply, other thoughts emerge. We soon come to the conclusion that the most precious thing is love; love is the most precious thing in life. And second to love, life itself is most precious. If we have love and life, we need one more thing-an ideal. These three elements, love, life, and an ideal, are not just precious and profound in value, they are the very things that make our lives worth living. While it may seem like an expression from a fairytale, it is understandable that we need to emphasize the notion of unchanging, unique and eternal love. No one wishes for love to change. Regardless of whether we are teenagers, middle-aged adults, or senior citizens, we all wish for love that is eternal. Also, in the same way, with respect to life, there is no one who wishes to live for a short period of time and then just die. We wish for life to last forever, to be unchanging, uniquely special, and absolute. The goal of your religions is ultimately for salvation and eternal life. If there were no belief in eternal life, we would not have religion. Religion is necessary because it is through religion that people can strive toward the ideal of love. Thus, love, life and an ideal are the most precious things to us, and we cannot help but strive for eternal life. Furthermore, we see that the words "love'' and "ideal" are without meaning by themselves. Love exists only when there is someone to love and someone to be loved by. In the same way, an ideal is something to be shared with someone. Love and ideals come alive as soon as there is a reciprocal and complementary relationship of giving and receiving established. We are in the object partner position and always need someone to be in the subject partner position. Love and ideals will bud and blossom into full flower only when two elements are in a relationship as subject and object partners. Are we the cause, the source of the universe, or did someone create us? How can we be the cause of the universe when we do not even create ourselves? It is obvious that we are resultant beings. We are the products of some cause. Therefore, a cause that is in the subject partner position has to exist. There must be a cause for our existence. This subject partner, or cause, then, is the essential reality. We must be as certain of this as we are of our own existence. Whatever name you choose for that cause does not matter. The most important thing is that there is a causal being. And we call that being, "God." Let us put our question to God. "What is the most precious thing to you, God?" The reply will be no different from your answer and mine. God will answer, "Love, life and my ideal are the most precious things to me." Does God need money? God created all things. Everything belongs to God anyway. God does not need money. Does God need power? God is already the source of all power. What about knowledge? God is omniscient and the source of all knowledge. Yes, God is all these things, but God cannot have love, life and the ideal alone. God needs to share, to give and receive with someone in a reciprocal relationship. Even almighty God cannot experience the value of love, life and His ideal when He is alone. That is why God created human beings to be object partners. Now I shall ask, "Why do we act the way we do?" The answer is simple: because God acts that way. All human traits originate in God. Why are we the way we are? Because God is that way. We are mirrors reflecting the characteristics of God. God is just like you and me. God is the origin. Therefore, our love comes from the love of God. Our life comes from the life of God, and our ideals come from the ideals of God. We feel these are the most precious things because God felt these were most precious first. God is the subject partner of love, the subject partner of life, and the subject partner of ideals. We are the object partners of love, the object partners of life, and the object partners of ideals. Therefore, if God is absolute, we are to be absolute. If God is unchanging, we are to be unchanging. If God is unique, we are to be unique. If God is everlasting, we are to be everlasting. Our eternal life is not a fantasy. It is reality. Since God is eternal, human beings were created to be eternal. Otherwise, we would not reflect the nature of our eternal God. Human beings are God incarnate If there is a God of love, life and ideals, and that God does not manifest all these qualities in human beings as His object partners, then God has defeated the very purpose of creating. God either projected God's own full value in the object of creation, or created nothing at all. God is the subject partner to human beings, and we are the object partners to God. An object partner is the full reflection of the subject partner. So we are the visible form of God, and God is our invisible form. Subject and object partners are one in essence. God and human beings are one. Human beings are God incarnate. Otherwise, we would not be able to reflect God's full image. God could not realize joy, the purpose of the creation. When we as object partners are not perfect as God is perfect, we cannot reflect the full love, life and ideal of God. So human beings, the object partners of God, are as important in value as God. If I made excited gestures and shouted to an empty auditorium, I am sure that anyone who saw me would wonder, "Is that man crazy?" Although if there were someone listening and responding, some object partner there to receive my words, even one small child in front of me, and I poured out my heart and soul to that person, then I would be considered normal. The sole difference is the presence of a person as an object partner. What I am trying to illustrate is the value of an object partner. As we are the object partners to God, we are placed in a position equal to God. Thus, people share the same value as God and are just as important as God. Even though God is most high, and noble and mighty, God too has to have an object partner. Otherwise God feels no joy. Joy comes when you receive stimulation from the object partner. Not even God can be joyful alone. Please realize that God created us and the universe for joy. However God's joy remains dormant until God gives and receives with an object partner. Until now, through Christianity we placed God so high up in heaven, and pushed people so low in hell, that there has been an unbridgeable gap between us. A wide and raging river has separated us from God. We do not dare to reach out to God as a living reality. We have been unable to realize that God is so close, so real, and so approachable, that we can even dwell with God. We are supposed to be the living temples of God. Yet conventional Christianity has been unable to make that a reality. No matter how wealthy and famous you may be, unless you have someone with whom to give and receive, so that you can share your joy, your sorrow, your opinions and your ideals, you are just a poor person. We feel joy and sadness because God's heart can feel joy and sadness. Not until this time in history did we ever believe that God could feel sorrow. And God can feel excitement and indignation, just as we can. We, the object partners of God, have this ability to experience emotion because our subject partner, God, has the same capacity for emotion. God is the first personality, and human personality comes from God. How then can we become true object partners to God? By our efforts and hard work alone? No. There is but one way to come together in oneness with God. That way is through love, through oneness in love with God. Let me illustrate. Suppose there is a famous man. Opposite him is a woman who is unassuming and meek and without beauty or education. However, once this great man and this humble woman establish a circuit of giving and receiving in love, she will immediately achieve his level of prestige. Let's say the man's name is Jones and he falls in love with this woman and marries her. She then becomes Mrs. Jones and returns his love with all her heart. Whatever power, authority and prestige Mr. Jones enjoys, Mrs. Jones would share in every respect. Now, what does this teach us? Once we have a relationship of love with God and become one with God, our value increases instantly to the level of God's value. And love such as this is everlasting, unchanging and unique. The alpha and the omega Now is the time when we have to fulfill this fundamental relationship between God and humankind. The subject and object partners must be one just as cause and effect are one. Therefore, the Bible says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." (Rev. 22: 13) Within God, two are one. God is the beginning and we are the end. He is the first and we are the last. And the relationship between God and humankind is a circuit, because the beginning and the end come together in oneness. Peace, happiness and joy are the fruits of harmony in love. Therefore, in God's ideal of creation, the relationship between God and human beings was planned to be one of harmony in love, harmony in life, and harmony in ideal. Thus we know that God is the subject partner and we are the object partners. We also know that the object partner is just as important as the subject partner. We now want to know precisely what our position as God's object partner means. When God created human beings, God gave us wisdom and ambition. Wisdom gives us the power to compare, and ambition gives us the power to strive for the best. If there are two choices before us, A and B, we will automatically compare them to determine which is better. Our human desire leads us to choose, and our ambition does not let us rest until we have attained ultimate fulfillment. Let me make another analogy. Let's say there is a most handsome man and most beautiful woman. They are not only attractive, but also all-powerful and all wise. You would be anxious to have some kind of personal relationship with this great man and woman. What would you want it to be? Would you like to be their servant? No, in your heart you know there is a position better than that of servant. Would you like to be their friend? No, you would still not be happy. Would you like to be their adopted child? Will this position bring you complete happiness? No, I don't think so. You would still crave a closer position. There is one relationship beyond which there is nothing more intimate. That is to become a true son or daughter of this man and woman. With this relationship you will have reached the ultimate fulfillment, and you cannot desire anything more. Why, then, do we want to become true sons and daughters? It is because that is the position in which we receive this man and woman's love most fully. There is no closer or deeper relationship in human society than that between the parents and children. Once you have your parents' love, you possess everything they have. Every joy of the father, all the power of the mother, all their skill, wisdom, ambition and desire will be yours. In receiving the love of a father and mother, there is no procedure; there is no paperwork or ceremony necessary to grant those things to their son and daughter. The parents and children are automatically one. This principle applies throughout humankind, and it applies between God and us. The true child of God Then, what kind of relationship would you like to have with God? Would you be content to be just a servant? Or would you prefer to be a friend? Would you rather be an adopted son or daughter, or would you like to find a way to become God's own child? I know you would be satisfied with nothing short of the ultimate position as sons and daughters of God. God's ultimate purpose in His creation of human beings is to give to us all God's love, life and ideal. You are to occupy the entire love of God, to the depth of His heart. By becoming God's true sons and daughters your desire will be fulfilled. That is your ultimate destiny. Then you will be saturated with the love of God. You will be filled with joy and feel overwhelmed by a total satisfaction with life. There is no limit to this joy. True happiness has no end. When you are standing in the love of God, every cell in your body jumps for joy. You breathe in and out with the entire universe. In this state your life is fulfilled. This is how God means for us to live; enraptured in love and joy. And through our joy, God receives joy. The joy of humanity is the joy of God; the joy of God is the joy of humanity. Early in my life I was called for a mission as God's instrument. I was called to reveal God's truth, as God's prophet. I committed myself unyieldingly to the pursuit of truth, searching the hills and valleys of the spirit world. The time suddenly came upon me when heaven opened up and I was privileged to communicate with Jesus Christ and the living God directly. Since then I have received many astonishing revelations. God told me that the most basic and central truth of the universe is that God is the Parent and we are God's children. We are all created as children of God. And God said there is nothing closer, nothing deeper, nothing more ultimate than when parent and child are one; one in love, one in life, and one in ideal. Love, life and the ideal are the central point where parent and child meet. Once we unite, at that point God's love is our love, God's ideal is our ideal and God's life is our life. There is no relationship where you can have the eternal unity of life, love and the ideal other than in the parent-child relationship. This is a fundamental reality of the universe. How do we come into being in this world? The father and mother become one through their love, and bring together their lives and ideals. Their love precedes our birth. Love is the force that unites. Husband and wife become one in love. This means the husband's love, life, and ideal become the wife's, and the wife's love, life, and ideal become the husband's. This is the way that two live as one, and two become one flesh. Upon this foundation of oneness in love, a new life can be generated. When a child is born, that child is the manifestation of the parents' love, life and ideal. When you look at your own child, you are actually seeing another you. You are looking at the fruit of your love, the fruit of your life, and the fruit of your ideal. You are looking at your second self, another visible form of yourself. Now let us expand this truth to a universal scale. Man and woman were created as God's son and daughter. God wanted to be reflected in human beings. Therefore the Bible says, "God created humankind in His image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." ( Gen. 1:27) Humankind is created in the likeness of God. In other words, human beings are God incarnate. Humankind is the mirror of the living God, and God's every virtue, characteristic and quality is reflected in this mirror. God surely wants human beings to reflect God's love, life and ideal. We are the fruit of God's love, life and ideal. The state of perfection How wonderful, how simply wonderful it is to live this perfected life of God! This is the true life of joy unequaled by any earthly joy. Once you reach this state of perfection you do not need prayer. Why would you? You meet God face to face and you live heart to heart with Him. You converse with God. You no longer need religion and you do not need a Savior. All the things of religion are part of the mending process, the process of restoration. A person of perfect health does not need a physician. The person in perfect union with God does not need a savior. Life in union with God is the one great way to live life with God, you living in God and God living in you. This was the spiritual state of Jesus when he said, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" (John 14:1 O) God and human beings will embrace in one all-consuming love. This is the state where God is made the living reality. You no longer believe; you know. And you live the truth. If you really experience this love in oneness with God, then you have tasted the supreme experience of life. There are probably many Christian leaders among you, yet how many of you have had that wonderful experience, receiving the profound love of God? God made us to live a life of intoxication. We are meant to live intoxicated by the love of God. Since we lost this original capacity, people seek unnatural, artificial intoxication, getting drunk on alcohol or deadened with drugs. The perfect person, however, is created to be intoxicated in the love of God. There is nothing that can go beyond this feeling of joy. Every cell in your body will explode with joy. Your eyes and ears, the tissues in your face, your arms and legs, everything will be newly alive in a rapture of joy. Nothing else can ever match this quality of joy. This is the plan of God's original creation. When you say, "Heavenly Father;' do you really have a living and vibrant feeling of God's presence? Don't you want to hear God answering, "Yes, my child"? Here is my gift to you tonight: I want you to realize that the true relationship between God and human beings is that of a subject partner and object partner. You are God's sons and daughters. Once you have achieved unity with God, nothing can trouble you. Neither sorrow, nor loneliness, or sickness or anything else under the sun can discourage you. God is the ultimate security. You could pay many millions of dollars and still not have that kind of security. It is priceless. No money can buy it. This is the total experience of life. We are meant to live with God. Your life is therefore the most valuable thing in this universe. That is why Jesus said, "For what will it profit them, if they gain the whole world and forfeit their life? Or what shall they give in return for their life?" (Matt. 16:26) Jesus is talking about life with God. Life without God has the value of a burned-out light bulb. A life without God is death. Jesus Christ is the one person who lived God's ideal in its fullest realization. He was the first person of perfection ever to walk the earth, and he came to restore the true relationship between God and humanity. But after Jesus' crucifixion, Christianity identified him with God. This is why the gap between God and humankind remained. Jesus is a man in whom God is incarnate. But he himself is not God. Paul's first epistle to Timothy in the Bible says, "For there is one God; there is also one mediator between God and humankind, Christ Jesus, himself human." (1 Tim. 2:5) The dwelling of God within Jesus was a complete reality. He said, "Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me?" (John 14:10) Jesus is, indeed, the only begotten Son of God, yet God does not want Jesus as the only son. All human beings are created to say, "I am in the Father and the Father is in me." This is everyone's fully attainable goal. God's view of good and evil Our first step in becoming the true sons and daughters of God is to clearly comprehend God's view of good and evil. What is goodness and what is evil? We are not concerned with a man-made definition. God defines the eternal standard of good and evil. The sharp definition of good and evil existed at the time of His creation, long before evil ever came into being in the garden of Eden. God's view of good and evil will never change. God is eternal, His law is eternal, and His definition is eternal and unchanging, despite the passage of time. All of our human traits originate in God. We recognize that there is some human tendency for selfishness. This is natural because at one time God Himself was self-centered. This fact may surprise you, but you must understand that before God created man and the universe, He was completely alone, with no one to care for except Himself. However the very instant that God initiated creation, His full concept of life emerged. God now lives for His counterpart, not for Himself. What is creation? Creation means nothing more than the Creator, God, projecting Himself into a substantial form. He made Himself incarnate symbolically in the universe, and He made Himself incarnate directly in man. When the spirit takes form, this is creation. God invested Himself in the creation. God's investment of energy is the creation. The book of Genesis in the Bible makes creation sound simple and easy. Genesis gives us the impression that God's creation is accomplished through the magic of His words. God simply says, "Let there be a world" and presto! The world comes into being. Then He says, "Let there be man'' and poof! Adam and Eve come into being. But now it has been revealed that it was not this easy at all. God invested all of Himself in His creation. He did not reserve even one ounce of energy. Creation was His total labor, His total effort of giving all of Himself. When God put His entire heart and soul into the creation of His object, He was investing 100 percent of Himself. Only in this way could He create His second self, the visible God. Therefore, after His creation, God no longer existed just for Himself. God began existing for His son and daughter, Adam and Eve. He exists to love, He exists to give. God is the totally unselfish existence. God cannot exist alone. "Love'' and "ideal" only take on meaning when partners are in complementary relationship. God initiated creation and made an investment He cannot lose. When God poured all of His love, life, and ideal into His second self, in a sense, He had to realize a profit. God knew that when He invested all He had one hundred percent, His object would mature and return to Him many, many times over the fruits of love, life, and His ideal. His object, humankind, is everything to God. The life of the object attracts God. God wants to go and dwell with His object, with humankind. Let us look at an illustration. Suppose there is a great artist. If he works at random without feeling, he cannot create anything worthwhile. To create the masterpiece of his lifetime, the artist must put all of his heart and soul into his creation. That is the only way for him to come up with a great work of art. If an artist works in this way, his art becomes his life. God is the greatest of all artists. When He created His masterpieces, man and woman, He poured His heart into the process. He poured His soul into it. He poured all of His wisdom and all of His energy into it. God wished only to exist for Adam and Eve, and all mankind. He saved not a single ounce of energy when He created them. In this way, humankind has become the life of God. Goodness is total giving God set the pattern for the universe. In the ideal existence we live for others. The subject exists for the object, and the object exists for the subject. God's definition of goodness is total giving, total service, and absolute unselfishness. We are to live our lives for others. You live for others and others live for you. God lives for man and man lives for God. The husband lives for his wife and the wife lives for her husband. This is goodness. Here unity, harmony, and prosperity abound. Would you, as a man, be disturbed if I said that you were created for a woman? Perhaps some of you are proud of your masculinity and would not want to hear this. But this is the principle of God's creation, and you must not be sorry to hear these words. Man lives his life for his partner, not for himself. Let us assume that one of you ladies is a beauty queen. No matter how beautiful you are, your beauty is not for your own gratification; it is for the delight of men. We are created to live for each other. This is the very reason for our existence; we exist for others, for an object, for a counterpart. This is the principle for all human relationships in our society. Parents exist for their children, and children exist for their parents. Then both parents and children, when they give unselfishly, become united in a circular motion. This circling motion is the motion of unity. When you give and receive, the give and receive action creates a circular motion. Circular motion alone can be eternal, because there you will find no end. Therefore, all of God's creation is based on a pattern of circular movement, since He created for eternity. Even our faces are round, although there is one central vertical line. Our eyeballs are round, and there are upper and lower lips, which make up a round mouth. The sun is round, the moon, the earth, and all heavenly bodies are round. They are each rotating on their own axes and revolving around others. Everything in this universe has complementary give and take action between subject and object. Give and take action occurs between arteries and veins, and so the blood circulates through the body. Human sickness is the state where the balance of give and receive action is broken, and normal circulating motion is stopped. Without having this give and receive action between subject and object, without abiding by this principle, nothing endures for eternity. All existence that is based upon God's principle is a good existence. Then, what is evil? Evil is the emergence of selfishness into this world. God's principle of unselfish giving was twisted into an ungodly principle of selfish taking. The ungodly position of desiring to be served, rather than to serve, was thereby established. The origin of evil is satan. He was in the position to serve God, but instead he posed as another god and subjugated man for his own benefit. God is the absolute positive force in this universe. Then satan posed as another positive force. Two positives naturally repel each other. satan is a fallen archangel. He left his position as a faithful servant to God and man, and he challenged and competed with God. His motivation was selfishness. Out of his selfishness comes the origin of evil and sin. What happened is this: Eve fell from her position as God's first daughter, becoming the first victim of satan and transforming herself into a creature of selfishness. Together Eve and satan then successfully brought Adam into their selfish world. Through this tragic event, God was isolated by man in the garden of Eden. Human history started on the wrong footing, without God. The foundation for the evil history of man was laid, and satan was established as the ruler of this world. Selfishness came into being at the beginning of history, and now our world is rampant with killing, lying, and stealing. All of these actions in the evil world are motivated by selfishness. Evil subjugated others for its own benefit, while good sacrifices itself for the benefit of others. Since the fall of man, God's work has been the restoration of original goodness. God wants to destroy the world of evil and recreate the world of goodness. We have lost our health. We have become sick people. The salvation of God is, therefore, the restoration of man to a healthy state once again. God sowed the seed of goodness, but before He could gather its fruit, satan invaded with his evil seed and harvested his evil fruit. For this reason, God must sow the seed of goodness once again. To do this job God needs certain tools. The religions of the world have served as these tools for God. Throughout history, good religions have taught God's way of life, centered upon sacrificial love and duty. Thus Christianity may be considered the most advanced and progressive religion because it teaches this sacrificial love and duty in supreme form. Jesus came as a savior, but his teaching was, "The Son of man came not to be served but to serve." (Matt. 20:28) Jesus taught that the greatest love in this universe is to give one's life for his enemy. The teaching of the Bible is contrary to the common rule of our worldly society. It is exactly the opposite of the way of this self-centered world. The Bible teaches complete giving and total sacrifice. "He who finds his life will lose it, and he who loses his life for my sake will find if' (Matt. 10:39) It seems almost foolish to think seriously about living this way in man's evil society. However, once you know God's principle, you discover that there is actually no wisdom greater than this. You reap as you sow Jesus Christ's teachings were hitting the very core of this fundamental truth. The more you give the more you receive. God rewards total giving with total love, and total sacrifice with total life. Giving creates room for God's love to enter. The more room and the greater the vacuum created by your giving, the faster you will be filled by the flow of God's love. To be treated well you must first treat others well. You reap as you sow. Sow evil to reap evil; sow goodness to reap goodness. Your concern should be how to give, and how to give well. As for the return to you, you must trust in God. He will take care of it. Let us take an illustration of a good man and a bad man. Let us say there is one man who has ten friends. Day in and day out this man is unselfishly serving his ten friends. People cannot help but love this man. He can become the very best friend to ten people. Then his influence will spread to the relatives and friends of those first ten people. By giving and serving unselfishly this man becomes prosperous. He is a center of harmony and unity because he lives God's principle. Unselfishness brings prosperity. Here is a good man. But suppose, on the contrary, this man said to his friends, "You ten, bring everything to me; you are here to serve me." If he spoke this way to his friends three times, everyone would end all connection with him. They would want to have nothing at all to do with him. So he would be left all alone. Isn't that true, even in our society? It is universally true. A self-centered doctrine, a self-centered philosophy, a self-centered way of life will fling you head over heels down the tragic road of self-destruction. However, if you live your life in service to others, you will find prosperity. It may seem that such a route would lead you to ruin, but it will not. The only reason it may not always bring prosperity to you is because you do not give to the very end. In the middle you suddenly become skeptical. You change your heart or pity yourself, and so you shrink from God's law of total giving. A good result never materializes. Total giving is the way of prosperity, because it is the way of God. If any individual sacrifices himself for another individual, he becomes a hero to others. If one family is sacrificial for the well-being of another family, then that family becomes a heroic family among all families. Peoples and nations who sacrifice themselves for the benefit of others become champions of nations. A man who gives his life for his parents is a pious son. A man who gives his life for his king is a loyal subject. And a man who gives his life for all mankind is a saint. Jesus Christ proclaimed this very truth you are hearing tonight. He strove for the fulfillment of God's truth on earth. He came not to satisfy his nation's selfish purpose, but to achieve salvation for the entire world. God intended the chosen people of Israel to serve as the prepared instrument of the Messiah for his mission of world salvation. The people of Israel did not know this. They conceived of the coming Messiah as an invincible military conqueror who would restore the political empire of King David for the glory of the Jews. How wrong they were! God's purpose is not the salvation of any particular man, church, or nation. God's purpose is to save the whole world. Therefore, the true church would give itself as a sacrifice for the benefit of the world. Yes, true Christians must be willing to sacrifice their own lives for the salvation of the world and all mankind. However, Christian teachings today are selfcentered. Christians are seeking their own personal salvation. Christians are crying out for "my salvation'' and "my heaven." This is contrary to God's truth and contrary to God's ideal. We must steadfastly give, love, sacrifice, and live for the sake of others. We must all work for the ideal way of life. I exist for my family, my family exists for our society, our society exists for our nation, our nation exists for the world, the world exists for God, and God exists for you and me, for all mankind. In this great circle of give and receive there is harmony, there is unity, and there is an eternal process of increasing prosperity. Furthermore, since in this circuit all existence will fulfill its purpose of creation, there is abundant and profound joy. This is the kingdom of heaven, in which feelings of happiness overflow. In this world, selfishness ruins everything. Selfishness in the family causes disharmony, which then erupts into bitterness and strife. Everyone wants to be served, instead of serving others. Wives tell their husbands what to do and then seek to be served. Husbands want to be served by their wives. Parents expect service from their children, and the children take their parents for granted. This is demonstrated in our families, in our societies, and in our nations. In this world today, nations exist solely for their own national interests. They plot, connive, cheat, and lie. They destroy other nations for their own national benefit. Is there even one nation on earth, which pledges to God, "God, you may use this nation as your sacrifice and as your altar, if that is the way you can save the world"? Tell me, where is such a nation? Where? It is a recognized fact that when America demonstrated the spirit of service and sacrificial duty in the world, and went out of her way to help others in their need, when America gave lives, money, and a helping hand, she enjoyed a golden age. But now America has a selfish attitude. Its domestic problems today are very difficult. America's situation is chaotic. Today there are greater divisions, more corruption, and graver problems choking this land. I am not criticizing any people or nation. I am merely proclaiming the heavenly truth that all mankind is seeking. I started the Unification Church. If this Unification Church exists solely for the benefit of the welfare of the Unification Church itself, then it is doomed to perish. I founded the Church so that I could give my life, my heart, and my soul for the advancement of the salvation of the world. Among this audience there are many members of the Unification Church. Their great desire, their only motivation, is to serve others, to save this nation and the world. Jesus did not teach his disciples laws of retaliation. He told them, "If anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also; and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go with him two miles." (Matt. 5:39, 41) You never have to retaliate; all you have to do is give completely and totally, and then God will return to you more and more abundantly. When Jesus was crucified, Roman soldiers pierced him. And Jesus prayed for his enemies, "Father, forgive them; for they know not what they do." (Luke 23:34) Even at the moment of death on the cross, Jesus was so earnest in forgiving. His very last act was motivated by his love for his enemies. He was the supreme example of a paragon of love. The example of Jesus Christ is the absolute standard for all mankind. Just imagine an entire nation composed of men like Jesus. What would you call it? The kingdom of heaven on earth; it could be nothing less. Jesus Christ was lord over all life because of his unparalleled form of loving, giving, and sacrifice. He will remain the Lord forever. In the same way, no one in this universe surpasses the total giving and loving of God. So God is God forever. He reigns over all creation. Look at the decline of Rome. The entire Roman Empire collapsed in front of an army with no weapons, the army of Jesus Christ. By what means did the Christians conquer Rome? They conquered by love, sacrifice, and total giving, up to the cost of their very lives. History is a witness that no empire can withstand the army of sacrificial love. And this history shall be repeated. Up to now in our lives we did not know clearly the definition of good and evil. We could not be certain where to commit ourselves, when to act, what to serve. This has been the source of the greatest confusion in human lives. We must not become Christians who merely crave their own wellbeing. As Christians, we must live the life of Jesus and give ourselves totally for the benefit of others, so that others might have life. This is God's way. This present world is evoking the wrath of God. It truly deserves His uncompromising judgment. But God is love, and He is long-suffering. God is suppressing His anger because He wants to save us. He is giving us a chance to change. He is waiting. I know that Western culture is characterized by individualism. However, selfish individualism is doomed. Sacrificial individualism will blossom. Individuality in itself is good. God gave each one of us a unique way to serve. But individualism without God can only build castles of sand. The quiet revolution I can see a great change, a great new surge of revolution coming to Americanot by fire, not by bullets, but by God's truth kindling a revolution in men's hearts. I have come here to ignite this spiritual revolution. I do not need to demonstrate in front of the White House or in Lafayette Square. The answer does not lie there, but in the hearts of men, in the quiet revolution from selfishness to unselfishness. Can you imagine how wonderful the ideal society will be? Individuals will belong to their families, the family will belong to the society, the society will belong to the nation, the nation will belong to the world, the world will belong to God, and God will belong to you. He who gives the most will know God most deeply. Some young people might say to me, "Rev. Moon, you are coming here repeating the same old stuff." But that is not at all true. I am speaking, not from theory, but from life. I am telling you that we are all here to live the truth, as Jesus lived the truth. This is not a theory, a philosophy, or a theological doctrine. It is the ultimate truth of God - not to be talked about, but to be lived. When man makes this truth live, it is going to bring about the greatest change upon the face of the earth. Although in one sense you know the truth of the things I have been saying, still nobody truly believes them. Since nobody believes the truth, nobody ever lives it. This truth is as old as God, yet as new as the twenty-first century. You must live the truth. If the revelation of the Divine Principle has made this age-old truth real in your heart, then you have in effect discovered a brand-new truth. The Divine Principle is touching the hearts of millions of young people, showing them the way to our very real God. People throughout the world are learning that God is absolute and perfect, and the perfect God demands perfect human beings as His object. Jesus said, "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your Heavenly Father is perfect." (Matt. 5:48) He is clearly indicating that our standard of value is the perfection of our Heavenly Father. Otherwise we cannot be God's objects and God cannot accept us. All of us want to be perfect. All of us want heaven on earth, but we ask, "How can it be done?" We wonder if it is at all possible for man to be perfect. Some contend, with apparent justification, that all one has to do is merely look at man to see the gross error of such an aspiration. We point to the sin and suffering inherent in all things, even in the things that are most holy. We say, "Only God is perfect." However, when we fully comprehend the design for man in God's concept of creation, we will understand that perfection is within our grasp. In God's ideal of creation we were designed as temples of God, temples of the spirit of God, where God is master. "Do you not know that you are God's temple and that God's spirit dwells in you?" (1 Cor. 3:16) We were designed to be God's temples. When we attain this status, we shall cease to possess a will that is corruptible. Limitations or laws will no longer be necessary, for His will is our will. With His spirit dwelling in us completely we shall move only as He dictates. We shall then be perfect, because the force that is guiding and directing us is the perfect force. When man achieves this ultimate goal he is in perfect union with God. He is no longer living on the human level alone, but on the God-like level. He takes on God's qualities because the Spirit dwells in and possesses him as a perfect temple; he reflects God's virtue and power. Thus man can be as perfect as Heavenly Father is perfect. This was the original pattern, which God intended for humankind through Adam and Eve. Marriage is the most important means of establishing God's kingdom on earth. Adam and Eve were God's first children. They were born of God, grew up in God, and would have matured into perfection in God. God intended to make Adam and Eve one in heavenly matrimony. Then they would have borne sinless children and become the true mother and father for all mankind. They would have been the first "king" and "queen;' establishing the heavenly kingdom on earth. Has such a kingdom ever existed? No. Instead, history started in the wrong direction. From the evil first step, satan has been the god of this world. It has, therefore, been God's purpose of restoration, His purpose of salvation, to restore the perfected nation so that He can truly have His kingdom upon the earth. For this God needs a model. Who can set the criteria of perfection on this earth? To meet this need the Messiah comes. Jesus Christ came as the Messiah. He was to be the model of perfection upon every level: the individual, family, tribal, national, and worldwide levels. He came to establish a perfect world in his lifetime, not over a period of centuries. Before God sent His champion Jesus Christ, He prepared the field with the chosen people of Israel. They were the foundation for the Messiah's coming. The people of Israel could have perfected themselves and their nation if they had united with the coming of the Lord. The kingdom of God would have been a physical reality at that time. The mission of Jesus However, his people did not accept Jesus. Instead of welcome, he met rejection at every level. Jesus was denied the opportunity to take a bride in the position of restored Eve, and to establish the first God-centered heavenly family. Instead, the people of Israel nailed him to the cross. Read 1 Cor. 2:8: "None of the rulers of this age understood this; for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." In this way, the mission of Jesus Christ was left undone on earth. The history of God's providence is a very sad story. To comfort the heart of God and fulfill His work, we must clearly understand His process of restoration. When God created man, He placed Adam and Eve, man and woman, in the garden of Eden. They both united with satan and became sinful, thereby leaving God isolated. In the process of restoration, God must restore both Adam and Eve. Jesus came as the sinless Adam, or perfected Adam. His first mission was, therefore, to restore his bride and form the first family of God. All fallen generations would have been grafted onto him as the true olive tree. God-centered families, tribes, and nations would have been restored in this way. Perfection would have reigned. The sinless state of God's kingdom could have been a reality for the last two thousand years. This is why 1 Cor. 15:45 says Jesus is the "last Adam;' the second Adam. Jesus came, but he was crucified. He was not given the chance to restore his bride. This is why Jesus promised his second coming. Jesus Christ must come again to consummate the mission he left undone two thousand years ago. Let me repeat: Jesus was a man, not God Himself. When he returns to earth he will come as a man in the position of the third Adam. Let us understand more fully the significance of these revelations in the book of Revelations, where there is the prophecy of the marriage of the Lamb. God intended Adam and Eve to come together in heavenly matrimony in the garden of Eden. Since it was not realized at that time, God intended Jesus to fulfill this marriage in his time. However, it was not realized by Jesus either because of the faithlessness of the chosen people. Jesus was the second Adam. It was God's Will for him to be blessed in heavenly matrimony with the second Eve, his restored bride. They would have become the True Parents for mankind. In this way all mankind would have found life by grafting onto them. Jesus cautioned the people, "You are of your father the devil." (John 8:44) Because of the beginning point of human history, we were born as satan's children. Through the restoration of True Parents we will be reborn as children of our Heavenly Father, God, with full salvation. God's Will was denied fulfillment in Jesus' time. That is why he is coming again as the third Adam. The marriage supper of the Lamb will take place. True Parents for all mankind will be realized in our time. God will bring forth His true family upon the face of the earth. All people will be made new through their True Parents. All will be made capable of bringing sinless children into the world. This will be done when Jesus Christ reappears. The kingdom of heaven on earth will then begin. This will be the day when the dwelling of God is with men. God will be full of joy. His own son, as perfected third Adam, will initiate an entirely new history upon the earth. On that day, we shall become living images of God. God will bring His kingdom on earth. I pledge to you from the bottom of my heart that the realization of all this is at hand, in the fullness of God's time. The ultimate realization of this ideal has been the hope of God, as well as the hope of humanity. Thank you very much for your attentive listening. You have been a most gracious audience. Thank you. 3 • A World of Living for the Sake of Others January 16, 1975 Chosun Hotel, Seoul, Korea Korean Day of Hope Banquet I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to you eminent figures from all walks of life. Your coming here this evening in such great numbers has made my night of celebration a great success. This man standing here is, as you all know, the very man who has been stirring up considerable controversy both in Korea and the United States. I am aware that many of you are attending this event wondering, "What kind of person is this Mr. Moon?" Love, the ideal and happiness cannot be achieved alone It is a great pleasure to be able to eat together while watching and listening to a good performance. Therefore, let us give a big round of applause to show how grateful we are to Mr. Kim Gang-seob, leader of the KBS lounge band, and his band members, for providing us with musical accompaniment during this delicious dinner so we could enjoy it all the more. In addition, I would like to thank the staff members of the Chosun Hotel, who are working hard to entertain guests at this late hour. I have given considerable thought to what I would speak about before all of you gathered here this evening. It would be easy to say just a few courteous words and end it there. However, if I did so, I'm sure you would feel quite disappointed that Mr. Moon did not speak, since you have come to meet him. Therefore, if you will allow me, I will now take this time to share my thoughts. We know that from early on humanity has yearned for true and unchanging love, the ideal, happiness and peace, which are eternal, true and unchanging. However, in this day and age we live in a world of distrust and chaos. Under these circumstances, we are faced with the fact that it is impossible to attain the conditions that human beings long for. At present, humankind has made every possible effort, yet still has not achieved these basic conditions. If we as human beings cannot achieve this through our own efforts, we will have no choice except to go beyond our own capacity, to find and rely on a certain Absolute Being who is eternal, unchanging and true. If that Being also yearns for true love, a true ideal, true peace and true happiness, we must conclude that it is possible to attain these things only through that One. Based on this viewpoint, if there is such a Being, it can only be God. God is a Being who can be the King of love, the King of the ideal and the King of peace and happiness. Therefore, we can conclude that in order for human beings to attain the ideal conditions we pursue through God, we have no choice but to discern what God is proposing and to respond to it. This is an obvious conclusion. When we think about love, the ideal, happiness and peace, we know that we cannot attain these things as individuals. We can do so only in a reciprocal relationship. Even though God exists as the Absolute Being, He also cannot achieve by Himself the love, ideal, happiness and peace that He desires. It is an inevitable conclusion that even God needs an object partner. Then, if we were to ask who, among all created beings, can be the object partner of God, we can declare without argument it is none other than human beings. Until now, we have been unable to consider that humankind is the very object partner to achieve the ideal of God and realize the love of God, the happiness of God and the peace of God. What meaning would there be for God to love all alone, strive for the ideal alone or be peaceful and happy alone? The obvious conclusion is that none of this is possible without human beings as God's object partners. God desires an object partner that is better than He is In light of this, I would like to ask a question of the many prominent figures present here today. When you were young and were about to choose your spouse, did you seek someone inferior to you or better than you? If I asked anyone among you this question, you would answer that you wanted someone better. Furthermore, if a handsome man and a beautiful woman married and had their first baby, and you looked at the baby's face and saw it was quite plain, compared with the mother's or father's, and yet you said as you looked at the infant, "This baby is more beautiful than her mother or father;' you would see the parents smile from ear to ear with delight. Keeping this in mind, we can ask, "Why did we turn out this way? Whom do we take after?" Human beings are in all respects resultant beings, not causal beings. Resultant beings possess certain characteristics because they are made of the same material as the causal being. We can conclude that we are a certain way because we resemble God, who is like us. If you were to ask God, "Do You wish for Your object partners to be better than You or inferior to You?" God would answer that He wishes for them to be better than Himself. This is why we also desire our sons and daughters be better than ourselves. When we look at ourselves simply as human beings, we may seem insignificant, yet when we look at ourselves based on this principle, we can see we are beings whom God originally desired to be superior to and more precious than God Himself. We have been completely unaware of this fact. Today's established theologies state that the Creator and the creation do not stand on equal terms. If this were true, it would be impossible to realize love, peace, happiness and the ideal as envisioned by that Creator. In this regard, humanity up to the present has been unaware of the fact that we originally were created with the right to become God's object partners, who can be even more precious and noble than He is, and who are qualified to stand as His children. Based on this viewpoint, all of you present here this evening need to remember that we stand before God as His object partners and His children, who possess a value that is greater than God's. Therefore if God is eternal, we cannot exist for only a short time on the physical plane and then just disappear. Even though we live in this physical world, we know there is not one person who wishes for their loved ones to exist for a short time and then just disappear. There is not one person who wishes to live apart from his or her beloved children throughout eternity. In this respect, as long as God is eternal, unique and absolute, we can logically conclude that, as His object partners, we also need to become beings possessing eternal, absolute and unique value. Among those of you gathered here, there may be some who do not believe in religion and who do not lead lives of faith. Nonetheless, the fact that these ideal requisites resonate with you, leads to the conclusion that God exists. If we possess the value of His object partner then, if God is eternal, it is reasonable to conclude that we will live eternally. I believe that if all of you present here this evening remember this and nothing else, I will have provided you with the starting point of a more meaningful life. Living for the sake of others is the original ideal If God were the King of wisdom and the center of everything, where in the relationship between the subject partner and the object partner would He place the origin of the true ideal, true happiness and true peace? God pondered whether it was better to make the object partner live for the sake of the subject partner, or vice versa. If God had made the object partner live for the sake of the subject partner or for Himself, as soon as He had done so, every person in the position of a subject partner would also have made the object partners standing before them live for their sake. If this had taken place, the path to unity would have been blocked. They would have become divided. So where is the path that can serve as the origin of peace, through which the subject and object partners truly can become one? Not only God Himself but also true human beings accept the principle that they need to exist for the sake of others. That is why true love stems from living for the sake of others, why the true ideal stems from living for the sake of others, and why true peace and true happiness can be found only when one lives for the sake of others. Humankind has not known that this is the basic principle of the creation of the universe. If you ask me to describe true parents, the answer would be that they are people who were born for their children, who live for their children and who would die for their children. Only then can the love of the true parents be established, and only then can they appear before true children as ideal parents. Furthermore, we can understand that only then can the parents become the center of peace and the standard of happiness before their children. On the other hand, where should the standard of true filial piety be set? It needs to be set in the position corresponding to that of true parents. Only children who feel that they were born for their parents, who live for their parents and who would give their lives for their parents can become true filial children. Only such children become ideal children before their parents, become children who can be truly loved, and become the object partners of happiness and peace. Based on this standard, if we were to propose a formula at this point, I am sure you would assume that such ideals as true love, true happiness and true peace can be found only at the place where one exists for the sake of others. The principle of creation of the universe and the origin of happiness Then what kind of person is a true husband? If there were a husband who felt that he was born for his wife, who lived for his wife and who was willing to die for his wife, his wife could only praise him, saying her husband was the owner of true love, a husband of the true ideal and a husband who was the subject partner of true peace and happiness. The same would be true for the wife. When applying this formula to the nation of Korea, what kind of person would be a true patriot? If you were to ask this question, you would have to say it would be someone like Admiral Lee Soon-shin, who was born for the nation, lived for the nation, and in spite of difficult circumstances gave his life without a word for the sake of the nation, for his king above him and for the people below him. If we were to apply this principle of living for the sake of others to the world and ask who is the greatest among all the saints in the course of history, we would find the answer right away. That person, more than anyone else, could only be someone who lived for the sake of humanity. Many among those present here are not Christians, yet I tell you, the person who lived and died for the sake of humanity and who also prayed for the enemies who took his life, whom he very well could have hated, is indeed Jesus Christ. Thus he is the greatest saint in history. This is what we can conclude by applying this formula. In this way, we must always remember that the principle of the creation of the universe, and the origin of human happiness, begin from existing for the sake of others. To give another example, if you were to ask why men were born, many among the prominent figures here tonight could easily think they were born for the sake of themselves, especially since you are in high positions here in Korea. Originally, however, men are born for the sake of women. Nobody can refute this fact. From a proportional perspective, men have broad shoulders and women have wide hips. If you go somewhere like New York City and get on a subway car packed with people, you will see that when a man with broad shoulders and a woman with big hips sit adjacent to one another, they fit perfectly in that limited space. This just goes to show that we were born to form a reciprocal relationship in which we can live for the sake of each other. In short, men were not born for the sake of men; they were born for the sake of women. Correspondingly, women were not born for the sake of women; they were born for the sake of men. You need to know that problems arise when we are unsure about this fact. I know well that since God, the Lord of creation of the universe, established this as a principle of creation, we cannot enter the world of goodness, truth, happiness and peace, the world of love and ideal, without following this principle. Religion teaches us to align with the original law You may not know that I have had many spiritual experiences through which I explored and learned about the spirit world. If you ask me about the standard of life in the original world where God dwells, that is to say, the place called the kingdom of heaven or paradise, the answer is simple. It is a place where only those who lived for the sake of God can enter, the place where only those people who knew they were born for the sake of others, who lived for the sake of others, and who were ready to die for the sake of others can enter. Since this is the structure of our ideal, original homeland, God has established many religions throughout the course of history through which He has trained human beings to help us find our way to that world. Religious believers need to be gentle, humble and sacrificial, because that is the law of the original homeland. You need to be trained in the course of your life on earth to fit in when you go to the original homeland, as preparation for the moment of your passing to that place. The higher the level of a religion, the more it emphasizes a higher degree of sacrifice and service. Such religions have to emphasize this, because we need to live in accordance with the laws of that world. In light of this fact, we have no choice other than to admit that God carries out His providence as history progresses. Regardless of how voluminous are the scriptures that make up the Bible, they are all in accordance with this one principle: "One exists for the sake of others." Jesus said, "Those who find their life shall lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake shall find if' (Matt. 10:39) We know that he spoke such paradoxical words ultimately to have us harmonize with the principle of the original world where we exist for the sake of others. Then why did God have to establish this principle of existing for the sake of others? I will point out a few reasons. Taking our better nature into consideration, if you owe a favor to someone who truly devoted his life to you, would your original mind tell you to put fifty percent of what you owe in your pocket and pay back only fifty percent, or would it tell you to pay back more than one hundred percent? If you were to ask your original mind this question, it would give you a clear answer. It would tell you that you ought to pay back more than one hundred percent. To put it another way, if Person B owed a debt to Person A, Person B ought to give back more than one hundred percent of what he or she owed. In that case, Person A would wish to give an even higher percentage back to Person B in return. As they pursued this giving and receiving back and forth, the value of their exchange would not decrease; rather, it gradually would increase. The concept of eternity is based upon this principle. The concept of eternity vanishes when you live only for your own sake. If you were to consider the motion of any entity, you would see that the greater the resistance it encounters, the stronger its response has to be in order to maintain itself. The reason that God, the King of wisdom, established this law of living for the sake of others was to enable us to maintain our position eternally. We have to bear in mind that God had to establish this principle of existing for the sake of others because God Himself embodies this principle. Not only that, to establish the foundation for eternity is to establish your foundation to develop and prosper eternally. We can advance and develop beyond our present status only when we feel stimulated, and only when we are growing beyond our present status will we be happy. Since this is the case, God had to establish the principle of existing for the sake of others. What is another reason that God established the principle of existing for the sake of others? Let us say there were ten family members in a household. If the youngest were to live for the sake of the family more than anyone else, then the parents and brothers and sisters would place that one at the head of the family, even though he or she was the youngest. By living selflessly, in time the youngest family member would emerge naturally as the central figure of that household. The place where ideal unity is achieved Just as God exists as the central Being of the entire universe because He exists for the sake of others, a person who resembles God by existing for the sake of others will become the central figure in the household. This will be the case even if he or she is the youngest sibling or the smallest child. At the place where we live for the sake of others, we do not decline. Rather, the more we live for the sake of others, the closer we come to the position of the central figure. Since God is like that, He establishes the person who lives in such a way as the central figure. Furthermore, only by living in such a way can ideal and complete unity be accomplished. I know that there are many of us who would rather die than be under another person's dominion. You see this trait more often than not in those renowned people who belong to society's intelligentsia. However, there is one thing you need to know. Not even in your wildest dreams have you conceived of how happy you would be under the dominion of a being who exists for the sake of others. God had to establish the principle of existing for the sake of others because He knew that by establishing such a position in the realm of ideal unity we would be grateful to be under the dominion of someone in that position for tens of thousands of years. Another reason why God established this principle is to address the fact that many people today think, "Love is my love. The ideal is my ideal." Although many think this way, they are mistaken. Love does not begin from oneself, and the ideal does not begin from oneself. Love and the ideal, which are more precious than life, can be found only in one's object partner. They cannot be found elsewhere. The being who can discover and receive sublime love and the ideal is the object partner. This is why in order for us to receive that love and ideal with humility, we need to stand in a position where we live abundantly for the sake of others. Otherwise we cannot receive love and the ideal. This is another reason that God established the principle of existing for the sake of others. I hope that those of you present here this evening will remember this one fact. Throughout the world, people commonly wonder about the meaning of life. For human beings, the matter of establishing a view of life, a national perspective, a worldview, and even a view of the universe and of God poses a problem. The most serious one of all is how the system of the universe is ordered and how that multidimensional system connects together. A new perspective on values based on existing for the sake of others When we consider our lives based on this principle of existing for the sake of others, the most positive view of life would be one that says we exist for all humanity, for the entire world, for the nation, for the society, for the family, for the husband, for the wife and for the children. You can discover happiness within yourself by living in such a way, and so I would say there could not be a better view of life. The same is true even if you were to consider what an ideal nation would be like. We know all too well that the nations that made others serve them throughout history are reproached as bad nations. Yet, among the nations in the present world, there is not one that is carrying out unselfish policies for the sake of the world. As you may well know, the communist world is on the verge of collapse. The year 1957 was when it reached its maximum global expansion. Why did the communist world start its decline from that point? It was because communism prioritized the Soviet Union's self-interest and dreamed of taking over the world centered solely on the Slavic people. Communism will break down in the end because it is an ideology that serves only the interests of its own people. We also are facing the reality of America's decline from its position as the leading nation of democracy. Why is this so? It is because, while America could have become a democratic nation existing for the sake of the world, it unfortunately has abandoned the world and decided to pursue its own interest. Now America is on the road of retreat, and it looks as if there is no way for it to correct its course. In light of this issue, we see that Korea too is advocating its own national interest. If our nation embraces a worldview that focuses only on this Asian nation of Korea, it will fade away with the passing of history. Look at what is happening with the communists of the Soviet Union and with America. However, if Korea embraces the worldview of existing for the sake of the world as a national belief system, even though today it is a small nation with a small population, Korea will lead the world. Even if the nation is no longer here, such a people will lead without fail in the twenty-first century, the twenty-fifth century and the thirtieth century. We can come to this conclusion based on this principle. A true nation is one that exists for the world. Furthermore, extending from that, a true world is not one that exists only for itself. Since the world stands in the resultant position, if there is an absolute God who is its origin and motivating force, that world needs to have a belief system that is in accord with God's view. If you follow a worldview that supports only your own interest, you cannot lead the world or solve its problems. What kind of place is our heavenly home? It has to be a home in which the wife exists one hundred percent for her husband, and the husband lives one hundred percent for his wife, and is willing to die for her. 1his is the home that can be called heaven. There is a Korean saying to the effect that, "When one's home is harmonious, all goes well." The same is true for a nation to flourish. The sovereign who rules over a nation draws his or her value not from the exercise of sovereignty, but rather from acting on behalf of the people. Likewise, the people find value not by living only for themselves, but for the sake of the nation. The day this becomes a reality, that nation will become heaven. If we were to expand this formula and realize a world where people live for the sake of others, transcending nations and peoples, without a doubt we would have the world of love, the ideal, peace and happiness for which all people yearn. If you go out into the world upholding this principle of existing for the sake of others, you will find that there is not one place where that principle will not bring success. What do you think was the motive that drove me to go to America and cause so much controversy in such a short period of time? It is the fact that, though I am a Korean, I love America more than the Americans do. All my efforts were for America, shedding my own sweat and blood day and night to find a way to inspire the American people to embrace a noble worldview. I have eaten for the sake of others, worked for the sake of others and lived for the sake of others. While doing this, I came to experience that ifl contended with an individual, afterward I became one with that individual, and if I contended with an organization, afterward I harmonized with that organization. How the UN General Assembly passed the Korea bill You may not know that I had a keen awareness that the issue of Korea was causing much trouble at last year's United Nations General Assembly session. I gathered all the information I could, including the evaluations of everyone at the Assembly, from the president of the General Assembly to his aides, ambassadors and observers, in order to understand the problem. The consensus was that the South Korean position was hopeless. As the founder and leader of the Unification Church, I have always believed that the Unification Church exists not for itself but for the nation as well as the world. With this principle in mind, I brought together Unification Church missionaries from about thirty nations and selected thirty-four representatives from among them. I paired them with thirtyfour Japanese women and called these sixty-eight members to pray for and attend the UN General Assembly meetings. They shared their faith with everyone they met in the Assembly and moved their hearts, one on one. What did I tell our members to say? It was nothing special. I did not send them because they were excellent speakers. I just told them, "You need to devote yourselves completely for their sake! When you meet them, make every effort to live for their sake. Speak with them, dine with them, counsel them with God's heart." After experiencing our ministry for forty days, the hearts of these delegates were moved by our efforts. As a faith leader, I knew that the issue of the Japanese women who had been deceived into moving to North Korea to join their husbands and then denied freedom of travel, would open people's eyes about that regime. While the general sentiment of the world toward South Korea was unfavorable, I knew that the United Nations ambassadors' support for the Japanese wives would change international opinion on Korean issues. When I said this, however, no one believed me. The UN General Assembly brings together intellectuals from all parts of the world, and our Unification Church missionaries were not confident to open their mouths and speak with such people. However, I asked them to work from the position of truly attending with sincerity and faith. So they looked at an ambassador's office, not as that of a stranger from a random nation, but rather as from their own. They served and selflessly helped those people, day and night, even calling taxis after one or two o'clock in the morning for them. They served in the background with love. As you may know, we have a conference center called Belvedere in the village of Tarrytown, just north of New York City. We hosted UN ambassadors from seventy nations there. After this kind of ministry, they opened their hearts to the cause of justice for the Japanese wives. During this process, we discovered that friends of North Korea had reached out to underdeveloped nations in Africa, offering bribes for their support in the General Assembly. And so the North Koreans toasted their vk:tory even before sending their delegation to the United Nations. Nonetheless, as a result of our having invested our service for the world, shedding tears and staying up nights for the sake of freedom and justice for God's daughters from Japan, South Korea's proposal was accepted by sixty-one votes to fortytwo, whereas North Korea's received forty-eight votes against forty-eight. Thus we brought a victory for freedom. I am not telling you this to boast. It is only to show how unimaginable miracles can be wrought based on this principle of living for the sake of others, miracles I have experienced on many occasions throughout my life. The reason the Unification Church is developing globally Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to ask you, what do you think the Unification Church is? In the course of history, many theologians tried to bring together the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church, yet success remained only in their dreams. Moreover, many Protestants tried to unite, yet they now are divided into more than four hundred denominations. This is the actual state of affairs, so how can the Unification Church unite all religions? You may think Mr. Moon is somewhat weak in the head. However, I think the solution to division among religions is quite simple. It boils down to whether Unification Church members can love Christians more than their ministers do, and whether Unification Church members can love Christian ministers more than their own congregations do. Can we exist more for their sake than for ourselves? If this is possible, the unity we are envisioning is also possible. The Unification Church has now passed through a history of twenty years. I know you must have heard all kinds of rumors and controversial news about the church. Yes, we have been persecuted globally; nonetheless we have achieved a global impact. How do you think we achieved such an impact? It is because we learned that when people betray us, a path is opened that leads to the world. Everyone ought to tread the path that is taken for the sake of the world. If this path is indeed the principle of heavenly law and the common formula that everyone must follow, the world will come to know this fact. When it does, the Korean people can automatically come to know this as well. Based on this principle, we continue to carry out mission work abroad, even in the face of bloody persecution. To give an example, our missionaries pioneered Japan seventeen years ago, when the Liberal Democratic Party had just come to power. At that time, the Ewha Women's University incident had erupted and Mr. Moon's reputation had fallen to the point where he was deemed contemptible. However, I actually intuited how the political situation of Japan would develop in the future, and in my own way I had an inkling of how the situation of Asia would unfold. Therefore, while I was aware that Japan was barring missionaries, I knew that this would change soon, and that in five or ten years the Unification Church of Japan would serve the world. I decided I had no choice except to take this path, even though I might be branded an outlaw. It was in 1956. As you well know, I had just been released from Seodaemun Prison and had gone to Gabsa Monastery in South Chungcheong Province to recuperate. A young man visited me and I called him to go to Japan. I told him, "When a person sets out on the path of his choosing, he ought to do so at the cost of his life." On his first entry, he was arrested as soon as he set foot in Japan. So the first try was unsuccessful. I sent him a second time to try again. He was rebuffed in his second entry too, and came back. Upon my release from prison I found that the Unification Church had disbanded and its one-room house had been lost. I had to borrow money in order to send that man a third time, which I did for the sake of Korea and Asia. It seems like that happened only yesterday. That was in 1958. In Japan the Unification Church began under such circumstances. When he went to Japan for the third time, again he was detained. This was a major crisis for him. He had made me a solemn promise to succeed, yet instead of being in a position to lay the foundation for the church in Japan, he was blocked and there was no one to whom he could turn for support. So he found a way. He drank a large quantity of soy sauce and he became feverish. He was admitted to a hospital and was kept there for three days. From there he escaped and made his way to Tokyo. This is how the Unification Church began in Japan. Now we have reached the stage at which the Liberal Democratic Party of Japan respects our voice. When a major event is taking place there, they listen to us; we have faithful members on that level. While the movement was growing, I taught the members in Japan the principle of living for the sake of others, established by heavenly law. When you uphold it, you will succeed. Because they are aware of this, the young men and women of the Unification Church in Japan have spread nationwide. They carry out activities on the premise that "the Unification Church exists for the nation. It needs to be a church that exists for Asia and, furthermore, it needs to be a church that exists for the world." This is why they are prominent in Japan today. My meeting with you on such a formal occasion as this and delivering these words is unprecedented in the twenty-year history of the Unification Church. While visiting all parts of North America, I was very sad. I said to myself, "You poor man, you are no better than an orphan! You are in a pitiful position, having left behind your young members who are distrusted and mistreated in your own country, while you are asking for the trust of the people of a foreign nation. However, since God called a man such as you and is working through you, God is supporting you. He knows your situation." While saying this, I held on to God and invested all my effort, and as a result I have come to experience the beginning of a new history of creation both in name and in reality. The realization of the kingdom of heaven Those of you present here this evening may wonder how you can know whether someone is evil or good. How can you determine whether even a religious believer will go to heaven or hell? The answer is simple. If the person has lived more for himself or herself than for others, then the person is bound for hell. Yet if the portion of his or her life lived for others is greater even by one percent than the part lived for himself or herself, that person will travel the road that bypasses hell and leads to heaven. Again, if the percentage of his or her living selfishly is even a little higher, then he or she will sink into hell. Distinguished leaders, up to this point we have contributed to Korea as its citizens. We have all contributed something from our respective positions. However, what was our motivation? If all of Korea's citizens can be reenergized in their respective fields through the worldview of living for the sake of others, then no matter how dismal Korea's current situation is, there will still be hope. If such a worldview is adopted in shaping the attitude of the Korean people in the family, in society, in the government and among the leaders of organizations, this nation will never come to ruin. I believe that this people without a doubt will influence Asia and the world. The single formula based on this worldview, by which we can conceive the ideal social system, is simply that of a husband living for his wife, a wife living for her husband, a couple living for their children, a family living for their clan, a clan living for the society, a society living for the nation and a nation living for the world Such a nation will never perish. If there is a God, He desires such people. He wants everyone to be His children. Therefore His goal is to save all humanity and even the universe. Religions need to take off the fetters of nationalism, ethnocentrism and racism in order to stand before the full Will of God. Since God's main purpose is to save the world, we must ponder how to develop a step-by-step process to make this extent of salvation possible. The principle is actually very simple. All it takes is for the family to exist for the clan, the clan to exist for the people, the people to exist for the nation, the nation to exist for the world and the world to exist for God. Unless you are a person who exists for the world, you cannot be eligible to become a child of the omnipotent and omniscient God, who created the universe. If the world stands in the position of existing for the sake of God, God will stand in the position of existing for the sake of the world, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of the people, for the sake of the tribe and for the sake of the family. In other words, a world that upholds the notion that what belongs to me belongs to my wife, what belongs to the couple belongs to the family, what belongs to the family belongs to the clan, and what belongs to the clan belongs to the people, what belongs to the people belongs to the nation and what belongs to the nation belongs to the world, such a world will eventually belong to God. When something belongs to God who does it also belong to? It belongs to me. Only when you have attained such a position can you hope to achieve your greatest desires. Ladies and gentlemen, is this not true? Everyone has the desire to become the best in the world. Since we can become beings of such value, we human beings can stand in the position of glory, where what belongs to God, the center of all things in the world, also belongs to us. In this regard, the realization of heaven in the family, heaven in the nation and heaven in the world becomes possible only through living for the sake of others. Not only that, we will also connect to the world where God can be happy together with humankind. This will be the world that can be called the ideal garden, wherein everyone can dance and sing. Such a place is the heaven that religions pursue, and it is this heaven that will be realized on earth. Thus, we can conclude that such a place is the kingdom of heaven on earth. Ladies and gentlemen, I hope that through this event you have embraced this principle of "existing for the sake of others" and that you will now embody it by practicing it in your homes and workplaces. On the day you begin living in such a manner, you will see a future more and more hopeful and joyful unfold, and you will discover yourselves boldly fulfilling central responsibilities as the pioneers of tomorrow. I hope you will strive to become such people, and I pray that the great blessings of God will be with your families, your society and this nation. I have spoken before you this evening on the subject of existing for the sake of others. With these words, I now conclude this address. 4 • The New Future of Humankind April 14, 1975 Jangchoong Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Nine-city Day of Hope Tour in Korea Ladies and gentlemen, I would like to express my deepest gratitude for your gathering here this evening. This evening I will speak on "The New Future of Humankind." I hope you will reflect on this topic along with me. We live in a chaotic world. We have passed through an age of theocentric culture, the Christian culture of the Middle Ages, which began to decline at a certain point, and today we live in the era of humanism. Our age is also the era of materialism, a fitting word for the current secular attitudes and worldviews. Having passed through such states of confusion, no one has been able to come up with clear answers to our problems; humanity today is at the beginning of a post-ideological era, in which everything is out of control. Our value as object partners of the absolute God The problems we currently face do not arise from a shortage of resources, whether human or material. They arise because a clear view of God has yet to appear. Until humankind establishes a view of life or a spiritual interpretation of history based on a definitive view of God, I believe that a new future for humanity cannot appear. In my opinion, when we understand God clearly, we can resolve the problems that originate from ambiguity in our view of God, which began in the medieval ages, as well as from the trends of materialism and humanism in the present age. Therefore, the matter of whether or not God exists poses a profound problem. It is important that I make a permanent impression on you this evening. Throughout the ages and to this day, people have longed eagerly for love, ideals, happiness and peace that are true, eternal and unchanging. Yet people, who are apt to change their attitudes and values, cannot achieve these ideals. The current world situation clearly illustrates this. If there is an absolute, eternal, unique and unchanging God, we need to know the origin of true love, true ideals, true peace and true happiness that derives from a new viewpoint about this God. We can usher in a new world of peace and happiness only when we have clarified our view of God, of life and of the material world from God's perspective. What is the problem here? It is that, even if God is absolute, it is impossible for Him to achieve love, ideals, happiness or peace by Himself. Love, ideals, peace and happiness are words that are not realized in isolation. They can be achieved only with an object partner. Therefore, even in the case of the absolute God, unless He has an object partner, He cannot achieve the absolute love, absolute ideals, absolute happiness or absolute peace that He desires so very much. Based on this viewpoint, what being could appear before that absolute God as His object partner? We can think only of human beings. Until now, we did not know that human beings alone possess the value of the object partner who can achieve God's ideals, the object partner who can realize God's true love, and the object partner who can complete God's happiness and peace. God is the subject partner and human beings are the object partners. We need to understand that we are beings of infinite value, because we human beings are the object partners before the God who can be the King of true love, true ideals and true peace. God desires for us to be better than He is I would like to ask you: When you were young and you were about to choose your spouse, if you are a man and you were about to choose your wife, did you want someone who was inferior to you or someone who was better than you? When asked this question, anyone among you, regardless of who you are, will answer that you wanted someone who was better than you. Furthermore, if there is a couple and their beloved child is about to be born, would any parent wish for their child to be inferior to them? There would not be such a parent anywhere. It is the desire of each person's original human nature that one's spouse or one's child be better than he or she is. Since human beings feel this way, whom do they resemble? We cannot deny that human beings are in all respects resultant beings and not causal beings. If human beings wish for their spouse or their children to be better than they, whom would they take after in this desire? The obvious conclusion is that we have such a desire because we resemble God, who is the causal Being. Today many people think of themselves as being worthless. There are many people who regard themselves as no better than animals, saying, "I have no special value at all." The one thing I hope you will remember today is that God wishes for you to be better than He is. If you think about this once you return home, I am sure that you will consider this to be an important discovery. I believe that only when we recover our original value as dignified human beings can the path that leads to the world of true love, true ideals, true happiness and true peace open. On the contrary, most theologians until now have believed that the Creator and the creation cannot stand on equal footing. We say that God is love. And we know Him to be an ideal God. However, what could He achieve by being ideal all by Himself? Can you be happy by yourself? Can you have peace and freedom all by yourself? In this regard, we are in the state we are in because we lost our original value. If we fully possessed our original value, without a doubt we would have become human beings who could be elevated by God. Because we still have this original nature latent in us, through which we can restore our original value, we desire to become the best possible object partner or subject partner. Even among fallen human beings, is there anyone who wishes for the object partner of their love to exist for one year, or ten, and then disappear or change? Love and love's object partner are meant to be eternal and unchanging. We desire unchanging and absolute love from an absolute and unique higher level. If human beings, who have lost their original value due to the Fall, ask for such love, could God, the eternal, unchanging, unique and absolute Being, want the object partner of His love to exist for only a little while and then disappear? Certainly not! Since God is eternal, our most obvious and logical conclusion is that He desires for us human beings, who are the object partners of His love, to be eternal as well. Please understand clearly this pivotal conclusion, namely, that our life has to be eternal. Only then can the statement, "Humankind is the most precious existence in all of creation." be fulfilled. Our life needs to be eternal, unchanging and absolute. Why do human beings need to be unique beings? You need to understand that because God is the subject partner, human beings, who are the object partner of His love, ideals and happiness, also need to be like Him. Now you understand that only when there is a relationship between a subject partner and an object partner can the realization of God's ideal, the world of love and happiness, the world of peace and true freedom, become possible. Now you understand with certainty the concept of subject partner and object partner. The creation of heaven and earth and the cause of the Fall Until now, we have not considered the significance of the ideal origin of the creation. What does the word "creation'' mean? It implies investing everything. In order to actualize an idea, you need to invest your own energy, which corresponds to that idea. Existence begins from the act of investing. When God considered how to design the relationship between the subject partner and the object partner, He had only two choices. One was to make the object partner live for the sake of the subject partner, Himself, and the other was to create His object partner, human beings, and to live for their sake. This was the point at which God had to establish the foundation and ideal origin of creation. If God, who is the subject partner, one day said that all beings, who are His object partners, must obey Him absolutely and live only for the sake of their subject partner, what would happen? In the case of the relationship between a man and a woman, where the man is the subject partner and the woman the object partner, if the man said to the woman, "Live for the sake of your subject partner." what would happen? Their way to unity would go off course. However, if God, the King of wisdom, were to say, "Live for the sake of the object partner." every couple would be able to unite as one. For this reason, we now need to understand that the ideal origin of the creation of the universe cannot be established by telling others to live for your sake; instead it is established by telling others to live for the sake of their object partners. Then what is the Fall? Human beings are meant to exist for God, and God is meant to exist for human beings. God established this principle by which they exist for the sake of each other. However, the Fall occurred when human beings went against this principle and began to center on themselves. In other words, they tried to create a position for themselves in which everything would live for their sake, centered on themselves. That is the point where the Fall originated. In short, the application of the principle of the heavenly way began to fall apart. The principle of existing for the sake of others In spite of that, if human beings had taken after God, if God had been able to educate them and if they had lived for the sake of God, the realization of the ideal world would have been possible. Unfortunately, human beings did not do so and instead, centered on themselves, emphasized their identity as separate from God; then the Fall took place. The Bible clearly describes this. Therefore, if we were to draw a formal conclusion now, it would be the principle that all ideal created beings exist for the sake of others. The model is true parents; parents who are born for their children, who live for their children and who would die for their children. Such parents are parents of true love and true ideals. They are the parents of true happiness and the subject of true peace for their children. What would true filial children be like? They would be born for their parents and not for themselves, live for their parents and not for themselves, and would give their lives for their parents. Then what is the purpose behind a man coming into being? It is not for himself. He came into being for a woman. When a woman dresses in nice clothes and puts cosmetics on her face, for whom is she doing so? Is there any woman who does that for herself? She does so because of a man. The purpose of the birth of a woman is a man. They exist for one another, so the moment they think that they were born for themselves, problems arise. Then what is an ideal husband like? Would an ideal husband say that his wife must always live for his sake? No. Where can you find a true husband and a true wife? In the case of the man, only when he knows that he was born for his wife, is living for his wife and is ready to die for his wife, can his wife say, "Oh! He is my ideal husband and the eternal and unchanging subject partner of my love." Therefore, only a wife with such a husband can claim, "I am a happy wife." And we truly can say that only such a family can be a family of peace. On the other hand, we know only too well that, if a woman's husband says that she has to live for his sake, she will be unhappy. Based on this viewpoint, we have to praise God as the King of wisdom, for instituting this principle of existing for the sake of others as the origin of the creation of the universe. Here we have reached one conclusion. At this point we can establish the formula that only where one exists for the sake of others can true love, true ideals, true happiness and true peace begin. If God has established such a formula in the creation of the universe, through this formula alone can the love, the ideals, the happiness and the peace desired by God become possible. Otherwise, obviously we have to conclude that they cannot come about. Patriots, great men and women, and saints live for the greatest cause If you ask what a true patriot is, by applying this formula the answer would be that only someone who is born for the nation, lives for the nation, does everything for the nation and its people, and who would die for the nation can be a patriot. We know very well that Koreans consider someone like General Yi Sun-sin a patriot. If you were to rank such people, those who live more for the sake of others would be of higher rank. Therefore, even a person in a miserable situation who kept his or her integrity and cared more for the sake of others would be a patriot on a higher level than others. Based on the formula, this conclusion is logical. In the course of history until now many great men, great women and saints have come and gone. If you were to ask who is the greatest and most honorable among them, we could find the answer right away by applying this formula. That person would be someone who was born for humanity, and lived and died for humanity while pleading for them to be blessed instead of blaming them. That person would be truly the greatest saint in history. I know that many among you are not Christians; you believe in other religions. Let us take a moment to find out who Jesus Christ was. He did not come to this earth for himself. He came for humankind and for God. Moreover, he did not live for his own sake; instead he lived for the sake of God and humanity. If there were one person who fulfilled one hundred percent the standard of living for the sake of others, in good times and in bad, in accordance with God's heavenly laws, that person would be none other than Jesus Christ. For this reason, God had no choice but to protect Jesus and develop Christianity. Therefore, Christianity became a global religion, both in spirit and in reality. The Bible stresses living for the sake of others Jesus' words are very clear, when we analyze them. We need to know that he was disclosing a great heavenly principle when he said he came "not to be served, but to serve." (Matt. 20:28) In other words, he came to live for the sake of others, not to ask others to live for his sake. Since Jesus' life was anchored in God's ideal, the origin of all forms of existence, we need to realize that Jesus preached about this origin and followed a life course that was in complete accord with this origin. Despite the great volume of the Bible's sixty-six books in the Old and New Testaments, they can be summed up by the phrase, "Live for the sake of others." We did not understand until now the paradoxical reasoning behind the idea that those who wish to go up will go down, and those who wish to go down will go up. This is certainly the truth in light of the principled origin of the creation. I am aware that there are many people who do not know much about the spirit world. Thanks to God's special grace, I have had opportunities to experience the spirit world thoroughly. What does the structure of that world look like? Who can go to the kingdom of heaven? Who is allowed to go near the throne of God? Those who have lived only for their own sake cannot go there. Since God Himself, who is both the ideal Origin and central Being of creation, lives for the universe, and since He lives as the central Being of the principle of living for the sake of others, the structure of the kingdom of heaven is simple. Our obvious conclusion is that it is a place that can be entered only by those who live for the sake of others. The place where God, the Lord of the universe, dwells is our original homeland, the original world. How can you learn to be in accord with the law of the original homeland? It is through religion. What, then, would be the mission of religion? God's Will for religious believers is not to live only for the sake of their own religious denomination, as do sectarians. Even if it means transcending itself, a religious denomination needs to be able to live for the sake of God and for the sake of humanity. Instead of living for one's own church and fighting for one's own church, a religious denomination ought to fight against satan and direct its course for the sake of humanity. What makes a true religion? For this reason, today's religion is a training ground where you pr~ctice to live according to the law of the original homeland, in order to equip yourself to return there. For this reason, since the onset of history, the many religions that followed God's Will practiced self-denial. Until now, we did not understand why we were told to sacrifice ourselves and serve others. This is because the original world is the original homeland where one exists for the sake of others. Therefore, in order to go to that world, you need to train and prepare. In this regard, the higher the level of a religion, the more it emphasizes the need for sacrifice and service. This attests to the fact that God has continued to carry out His providence throughout the course of history. Then what makes a true religion? The answer is simple. A true religion is one that follows God's Will. What is God's Will? It is to save the universe and to save the world. Christians need to know this. God's Will is to save the world. This world needs to be saved, even if it means sacrificing Christianity. This is the Will of God. The original mission of Christianity is to fulfill God's Will. In order to achieve His Will, Christianity needs to fulfill the responsibility of bringing salvation to humanity. Otherwise, it will be judged and will not be allowed to go the way it is destined to go. I have looked into this and found it to be true. Where can we find the true religion? It is a religion that can sacrifice its own nation, its own denomination or its own church for humanity. Such a religion will not perish. What do we need to determine? You need to know that we can differentiate what is true and what is false based on the principle of who lives more for the sake of the nation and humanity. The reason for the principle of living for the sake of others Why did God have no choice other than to establish the principle of living for the sake of others? I shall elaborate on this question. Let's say you owed a favor to someone who was truly devoted to you. In that case, would you wish to pay back only fifty percent, or would you wish to pay back more than one hundred percent of what you owed? What would your original nature want to do in this case? Without a doubt, your original mind would desire to pay back more than one hundred percent. Because we have an original mind and can follow it, it is possible for us to be saved. You need to know the reason why God, the King of wisdom, had no choice but to establish this principle of living for the sake of others. When you live for the sake of others, you live eternally and you also prosper. And thereupon you can develop and grow. When you owe a favor, you pay it back, and it is utterly impossible to pay back just exactly what you owe. Your original mind desires to pay back more and spurs you on to truly devote your life to do so. You need to know that it is because you have such a heart that you can go to the kingdom of heaven. What is the second reason that God had no choice but to establish the principle ofliving for the sake of others? For example, let us say that there were eight family members in your family. If among those eight, the youngest child lived more for the sake of the family than anyone else, be it father or mother, or brothers or sisters, to what position would this youngest member advance? As time passed, everyone would think more and more highly of this child, and this son or daughter ultimately would emerge as the central figure. The logic taught by today's religions may seem paradoxical, yet if you were to follow this principle, you would see that as you lived more and more for the sake of others, you would become the central figure on a higher and higher level. How can you become the central figure? Since God exists for the sake of the entire universe, a person who lives for the sake of others comes to resemble God. Therefore, it is valid to say that He will install the one who resembles Him as the central figure in His stead. When you become an object partner who truly lives for the sake of a subject partner, who in turn truly lives for the sake of the object partner, you naturally become a central figure. A significant problem in today's politics and philosophy is the relationship between rulers and ruled. Until now, the solution to this issue posed a dilemma. However, we can solve it easily. Human beings in the contemporary world think it is a disgrace to stand in the position ofliving more for the sake of others and of being ruled and dominated by a central figure. They say, "I would rather die than be under someone else's dominion!" They don't know what they are saying. We miss knowing how happy it is to be under the complete authority and rule of a person who truly lives for our sake. Since God exists as the central figure of the universe, when you go to the spirit world, the longer you are under His dominion, be it for thousands or more years, the more you will come to know happiness. It becomes greater and greater. Until now we have been unaware of this, and also that if there is a person who truly can rule over us for our sake, we can bring about true peace. We need to understand that whoever lives for the sake of others becomes the central figure, and that by becoming the central figure they can build a completely united environment. What is the third reason that God established the principle of living for the sake of others? Until now, when you thought of "love." it was easy to think of it as "my love." When you spoke of "love;' you thought of it as your own love. Where does love come from? Love does not come from me. Ideals also do not come from me. You need to know that love and ideals, which are more precious than life and more valuable than anything else, cannot come from me. They come from the object partner. This is true even for God. We did not know that the object partner is so precious. Where do love and ideals that are more precious than life come from? They come from my object partner, not from me. We need to know that this is another reason that God established the principle of living for the sake of others. We must bow our heads in humility. Heaven's strategy to unite the church This Mr. Moon, who carries the name of the Lord of the Second Coming, has suffered most severely as a leader. Then what kind of church is this Unification Church? It is simple. The name "Unification Church'' suggests that you are trying to unite the church. Can you unite the church? Since their division, the Roman Catholic Church and the Greek Orthodox Church passed through a history of nine hundred and fifty years, and until now they have been unable to reunite. The Protestants divided into more than four hundred denominations. These churches have fought against one another for hundreds of years. Think of the idea of uniting them! You may even think that Mr. Moon of the Unification Church has gone a little crazy. Nonetheless, my conclusion is that it is simple. By what means can it be possible? It can be possible through the principle of living for the sake of others. Based on this reasoning, even though I was subjected to all kinds of attacks and slander by the other existing churches during the last thirty years, I stayed quiet. It was not because I was dumb. I walked my way silently, without saying a word, because I knew that the heavenly law follows a brutal and harsh principle. I needed to go my way as God and Jesus would. I became aware that Heaven's strategy is to be struck first and then to make a demand. For instance, if satan murdered a virtuous, high-level Christian, God could ask for compensation that amounted to hundreds of times greater value. Even if all existing churches came together to oppose the Unification Church, if the Unification Church were blameless, they would have to compensate God for what they had done. This is logical. We need to understand that God is yearning for the appearance of the one person, the one organization, the one people and the one nation that can go beyond the individual and the family and the tribe, people, nation, world and, furthermore, the universe, and live absolutely for the sake of God. Faced with the Will of God, who is searching everywhere, the Unification Church of today is endeavoring and struggling to advance to such a position. I hope you will remember us as such an organization. We can conclude that through this step-by-step principle and formula the realization of our ideals can be possible. The husband needs to live for his wife, the wife for her husband, and the parents need to live for their children. Furthermore, the family then lives for the tribe and the relatives. Moreover, the tribe lives for the people. And the nation, instead of prioritizing itself and trying to bring other nations in the world to submission, needs to say that it will live for the sake of the world, even if it means sacrificing itself. You have to know that God is looking for such a nation. The principle that makes the realization of the ideal possible There is no special law set aside to protect a dictator or a dictatorial empire. You need to know that when a nation prioritizes itself, and tries to tread over innumerable peoples and nations and says that others must live for its own sake, that nation is a dictatorial state and the enemy of God. As you know, today's communism reached a decisive turning point in 1957, when the relationship between the Soviet Union and communist China began to break down. The communism in both countries began to fall apart because the Soviet Union asserted what it called world communism but it was solely for the sake of the Slavic people. Because the Soviet leaders dream of a•communism based on the Soviet Union as the eternal superpower state, this communism will break down. However, if the communism of the Soviet Union had been an ideology of sacrificing itself for the sake of world communism, communist China and the Soviet Union would not have split up. The Soviet Union found it impossible to establish a belief system with a standard transcending nationalism. Therefore, it has begun to break down. From a viewpoint based on God's Will, how can today's United States go forward as a leading democratic nation? If the United States is indeed the superpower of democracy, it needs to sacrifice itself in order to lead democracy to live for the sake of the world. However, instead it remains in a position of living solely for its own sake, even when this means abandoning the world. And we know this to be the reason that the United States is suffering in today's miserable situation. From this viewpoint, where is the worldview and the ideal that can guide the world in the future? If there were a nation and a people that could transcend itself, that would save the world even if it had to sacrifice itself in the process and endure a miserable situation, a time surely would come when the world would need that nation, some time before the twenty-fifth century or the thirtieth century. When that time came, it would be the nation that would guide the world. Today's Korea also cannot put Korea first. I believe that the direct path that the Korean people of today, living in misery, must find and follow is that which will establish a Korea living for the sake of Asia, for the sake of the world and, furthermore, for the sake of God. In this regard, the Unification Church is fighting with communism head on, ready to sacrifice itself if necessary. We are working hard to prevent the downfall of the democratic world, and we are prepared to make extreme sacrifices if needed. When an organization stands on this solemn principle, by sacrificing itself if and as necessary, God will surely be with it. Who would have thought that Jesus, who died young, in his thirties, accused of being a traitor to his people on the shores of the Sea of Galilee, possessed the building blocks to create a nation through which the democratic world could be constructed which, in turn, could lead the entire world? My life followed the same logic. For this reason the Unification Church is continuing to pioneer its path in silence. I taught the members of the international task force who have come here from twenty-five nations around the world, "You have to love the world more than your own nations!" God has laid out this path, and a true religion has to follow it. So they have come all the way to the land of Korea today in order to create a movement of loving the Koreans more than their own people. I hope you will remember this. Let us head toward the ideal world God yearns for a nation that can take responsibility for the world. You need to know that He is longing for a church that can sacrifice itself for the sake of the world. If you were to ask Him, "Heavenly Parent, do you wish to be the God of Christianity or the God of the Unification Church?" He would say that He wants to be neither the God of Christianity nor the God of the Unification Church. He wishes to be the God of the world. A group that walks a path for the sake of others on a higher level is exemplary; therefore it can last eternally and prosper, become the center of its environment, and thus come to have authority automatically. You need to know that, from that place, one can possess the eternal love and eternal ideal that come from Heaven. That is the formula for the husband to live for his wife, for the wife to live for her husband, for the parents to live for their children, and for the family to live for the tribe. In this way we find the one formula that can encompass the view of life for the individual, the nation, the universe, and even the view of life for God. It is the ideal for the family to live for the tribe, for the tribe to live for the people, for the people to live for the nation, for the nation to live for the world, for the world to live for God, and for God to live for us. Only when you are able to say, "The great God and the love of the great God exist for me;' can peace, happiness, ideals and true love be realized. To state this conclusion differently: What belongs to me would belong to my wife; what belongs to the parents would belong to the family; what belongs to the family would belong to the tribe; what belongs to the tribe would belong to the people; what belongs to the people would belong to the nation; what belongs to the nation would belong to the world; what belongs to the world would belong to God; and what belongs to God would belong to me. The world where such a thing is possible, where every entity lives for the sake of others, whether as an individual, as a family, as a society, as a nation or as the world, and where everyone lives for the sake of others, no matter where they go, is the most wonderful ideal that we all yearn for. This ideal world has the true love, true peace, true happiness and true freedom that we long for. When such a world becomes real, having achieved unity based on God, it has to be the kingdom of heaven on earth. You need to understand that fallen humanity is advancing toward such a world, a world that will realize the new future of humankind, the world of new hope. I will conclude my speech by saying that I hope you will remember this for a long time to come. Thank you very much. 5 • A Life Devoted to Others April 27, 1991 National Theater, Montevideo, Uruguay Welcoming Assembly for Rev. Sun Myung Moon at the Tenth Anniversary of CAUSA Respected guests, members of CAUSA Uruguay, ladies and gentlemen: I am most honored to be with you here in Montevideo, your beautiful capital of Uruguay. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the citizens of Uruguay who have so warmly welcomed me, especially to those who prepared such a wonderful occasion today. I would also like to congratulate you who have devoted yourselves to your homeland Uruguay for ten years now, culminating in this celebration of the tenth anniversary of the foundation of CA USA Uruguay. Personally, I am so moved that I could visit this country that is located at the center of South America and that plays such an important role among the countries of Latin America. Technological standardization for the construction of a great world This is the first time for me to visit your beautiful country, although I made a tour of various nations in South America twenty-six years ago. Since then, I have never forgotten Latin America, and I have worried about the future of this region for years. I have been deeply concerned in particular about the spiritual salvation of the people of Latin America. We are now on the threshold of the five hundredth anniversary of the European discovery of the Americas, and we are at an historic and pivotal point where we have to think seriously about the origin of this continent's culture, our present reality and our future. I believe it is not by chance, but as a result of God's providence, that the Americas remained unknown to Europeans until the end of the fifteenth century. God had prepared these continents for a role in His providence. Many of the first Europeans to cross the Atlantic Ocean and settle in the New World were deeply devoted people, seeking a land where they could freely worship God and bring the message of Christ to the native peoples of the New World. It was certainly God's desire that unity and friendship would blossom between the native peoples of the Americas and the European settlers. The New World of America was supposed to have been a model of harmony under God for all people. However, this did not take place as God had hoped. Along with good people of devotion, many selfish people came to the New World. They abused the natives and took their wealth. Problems of slavery and racism added to these woes. As a result, God could not always bless the foundation of this new culture. In some cases, nations were established based on greed rather than on the model of Christian love. This unfortunate beginning developed into a tradition of selfishness and exploitation that remains to this day. If Latin America wishes to be an example of reconciliation and peace in front of the world, it needs to abandon the customs of the past and make a new start. Since the day of its liberation from Spain and the other colonial powers, Latin America has nurtured a great dream of unity as a neighborhood of countries. Simon Bolivar, with his idea of Patria Grande, Jose Artigas, who brought about the independence of Uruguay, and other Latin American patriots, all envisioned the unity of Latin America. Today all nations of the world are seeking greater unity through cultural, economic and political endeavors. It is clear that the vision of one world, with the Latin American dream as a precursor, is shining with ever-greater luster. Sharing this vision, I have supported and promoted Latin America's dream through organizations such as CAUSA, AULA, PWPA and the Global Summit. Through these organizations, for several years I have called many former presidents and prime ministers together. We have studied how to promote the cooperation and unity of all countries. It was for just this purpose that the former presidents of fourteen countries in Latin America met together under the auspices of AULA here in Montevideo in 1986. Your homeland Latin America still has serious cultural, economic and political problems. Your effort to resolve them is required in order to build a peaceful and abundant future. Latin American countries have the same responsibility in the task of reforming this world as the various developed countries. For the establishment of the ideal world, distribution of technology and free exchange of ideas need to be extended to all nations. The Unification Church is working for more rapid worldwide development in places such as China, Africa, the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, the Middle East and your homeland, Latin America. If Latin America is to show an example of harmony and peace to the world, the trend toward division and conflict has to be stopped and reversed. To this end, CAUSA is making a worldwide contribution in the field of ideas, offering a clear vision of the path that democratic systems have to take based on a solid foundation of moral and ethical values. CAUSA presents a moral perspective that can serve as the foundation to eliminate corruption and exploitation in democratic society. These serious problems and others that face all humanity, such as ignorance, hunger and disease are products of deeper, underlying spiritual causes that need to be addressed urgently by responsible citizens everywhere. In this time of grave importance, we live in a moment of transition in human history. In the past, many movements in the fields of religion, culture and politics were founded upon noble ideals in pursuit of a better world. Despite great accomplishments, the movements and the institutions they established often departed from their originally intended ideals. Religious and cultural movements, political parties and social systems often fall into division, contradiction and disharmony within themselves, and even fight with one another. In the world today, wrongful political and religious zeal and narrowmindedness still induce antagonism and hatred. Such are clearly not the desired objectives of people of faith and good conscience, and we must not bequeath such mistaken traditions to our descendants. Then what is the direction we ought to take? What is the proper tradition to bequeath? God's ideal of creation begins from the family In order for us to understand more about the direction humanity has to take to achieve harmony and peace, it is first necessary to understand God's ideal for the creation. For God, who is absolute and eternal, why was creation necessary? What could it have been that God absolutely needed? Was it material goods, knowledge or power? These are available to God anytime, and as He wants to, He can manage them. True love alone is what God cannot create by Himself. This is because true love can be achieved only with a reciprocal partner. Without a counterpart, even God cannot realize love. This is the very reason God needed the world of creation. Then what is true love? As we know, Jesus Christ sacrificed his life to love his enemies. This is true love, which is the love you give to others even if you have to sacrifice your life, a love you give without any thought of reward. Therefore, only through true love, like that of Jesus Christ, can we obtain eternal life and eventually become citizens of the heavenly kingdom. As we observe the creation, the mineral, plant and animal worlds, we see that all things are created to participate in relationships of subject partner and object partner pairs that can respond to each other in harmony, centering on love. Likewise there is a harmonious love between a husband and wife for each other and for their children. Such relationships are found on each level of the creation. Humankind is the center of all things, created to be on the highest level, the closest to God. We are the partners of God's love. Thus men and women are the object partners of God's true love, and without them, God's goal of true love cannot be accomplished. God established true love, which is the ideal for the creation, as the highest and absolute value. Even the absolute God likes to surrender absolutely to true love. Since even God is this way, all people and all things are drawn to true love. From this perspective, we can readily see how high a value each person has, as God's own object partner of true love. God initiated the ideal of creation with love for the sake of others. He gives and gives, without keeping any tally. In this way, God realizes true love. God began creation investing without limit. Likewise, all people are created to harmonize, exist and live eternally through God's principle of investing for the sake of others. Man came into being for the sake of woman, as did woman for man. In God's ideal for the creation, which is giving true love, both man and woman are born to love and become husband and wife. By doing so, they become the object partner of God's vertical love. This is the very purpose of their existence. God, who is the origin of true love and the parent of humankind, wished to give this absolute and unchanging true love as an inheritance to human beings. Since in true love perfect harmony and unity are realized, God's true love can be perfectly bequeathed to His children, who are His partners. Not only that, because of the attributes of true love, God also bestows upon man and woman the right to live together with Him and the right to share absolute value with Him. Parents want to see their children become more successful and better than they are. We also know that before they marry, all men and women seek a spouse who is better than themselves. By this same principle, God created human beings as His children and gave His blessing to them to become better than God Himself! This is true love. From this perspective, God made human beings to live with Him as His children and to have the same value as God Himself. Furthermore, God made human beings, centering on His true love, to be able to share their inheritance among themselves, live together and have equal value. Thus in the ideal world all human beings, centering on God's true love, would possess true individual ideals and happiness and would transmit these to their spouse and offspring. This was the world of God's originally intended ideal. Why we need to seek True Parents Today's world, however, is far from the world God intended. Contrary to its original purpose, the world has degenerated into a world of hell, full of sin, struggle and pain. In religious terms, this sick, broken human world is called the fallen world. To bring this fallen world to its originally planned condition and order, God wages a dispensation for salvation. Thus I have been teaching that God's work of salvation is the work of restoration, which is synonymous with the work of re-creation. God's purpose lies in the transformation of this world into the original ideal family, and beyond that to the establishment of the ideal world. This centers on God's true love and the worldview of true parentship. When we understand the mission of the Messiah as a mission of true parents to realize God's love in this world, we understand that we too are called by God to pursue and accomplish this mission. The mission of the Messiah is thus the cosmic mission that all men and women of faith ought to undertake. As described in the Bible, Adam and Eve, the first son and daughter of God, were to grow in God's true love and receive the Blessing of marriage and give birth to sinless children. Thus they, like God, would have become True Parents and could enter heaven. In this way, the world was to become the world of heaven on earth, where God's ideal family was to expand to realize a world where only God would reign. However Adam and Eve engaged in illicit love before becoming mature. The archangel became satan. Adam and Eve became evil ancestors and the world of spiritual death began. The world has become one where people spring from an evil lineage. satan became the god of licentiousness, and God hates licentiousness the most. Because of licentiousness, the America and Europe of today face the fate that befell Sodom and Gomorrah and Rome. The world needs to find the True Parent who can liberate all people from satan's love, life and lineage. This person is the Messiah. By Adam and Eve failing to fulfill their responsibility, God lost His hoped-for true children, and human beings failed to realize their potential as true parents. The Fall caused the loss of the true being who could have realized the true love of God and the ideal of True Parents. Thus the Messiah comes with the awesome task to stand as the True Parent, uproot the false love that was implanted by the human ancestors, who became false parents, and realize the ideal world of creation. In a family, the relationship among brothers and sisters exists only on the premise of common parents. Thus, before this world can enter into the realm of true love and true family, the True Parents' position first has to be established. To help fulfill this very purpose, God has called upon me. For this objective I have poured out my entire life. The Unification churches I am deploying worldwide, the projects I have sponsored covering all fields, ecumenical, academic, educational, media, technical, business, financial and so forth, were all envisioned with this one purpose in mind. I have suffered persecution and confronted death throughout my life with only one purpose in mind: to live with the heart of True Parents, loving people of all colors and cultures in the world more than I love my own parents who gave birth to me, or my own brothers and sisters. God is calling every human being to walk this same path of the Messiah, loving God and all humankind with true, unconditional love and giving all of oneself for the sake of God's eternal ideal of love, peace and harmony. This path of love is a universal path for all men and women of faith and good conscience to follow. God wishes for each of us to become a messiah for our community. With the heart of a true parent, each person has to love God and his or her community. This is the mission God calls every man and woman to fulfill. Urgency for the establishment of true values Presently, we are experiencing the winding down of the Cold War and a new era of peacemaking between East and West, North and South. Overcoming confrontations and divisions, we are heading toward the age of unification through harmony, as one world family of brothers and sisters. The decade leading up to the year 2000 is a precious period that God has allowed us for returning to the originally intended world. It is a golden opportunity. I have proposed already establishing the Federation for World Peace, and thousands ofleaders in the United States, the Soviet Union and other countries are responding enthusiastically. I have also established the Interreligious Federation for World Peace, which is actively supported by more than eight hundred of the most prominent religious leaders in the world. Many people have devoted themselves to the search for true unity and the achievement of one world, yet true world peace still eludes us. Everyone wants peace. We must first know what is necessary to bring it about. The key lies not in one's spouse, sons and daughters, neighbors, nation or world; it is within one's sel£ It depends on whether one can become a harmonious being, where mind and body have achieved harmony and unity centering on the "original mind." A person's original mind is the most precious gift from God. Even compared to the entire universe, the original mind has more value. When a person becomes a harmonious being centering on the original mind, he or she comes to have the heart of God and True Parents. They can begin to live fully for the sake of others, and consistently lead a life where true love is the center. Such a life is one in which an individual can achieve true peace to enjoy happiness and the unification of the world. Beginning with true love, which is the standard of eternal, unchanging value, we have to establish the unification of mind and body and the interconnectedness and unity of the world, which presently is so divided by worldviews both spiritual and materialistic. These are concerns of all conscientious people. The role of religion, politics and culture in realizing ultimate world peace is therefore indispensable. Accordingly, all men and women of all fields of human endeavor now need to begin to tear down the walls of sectarianism. We need to prepare to act with unified power in accordance with God's desires for the greater goal of the realization of world peace. Now is the time to reflect upon the fact that we have not contributed enough for world peace. Now is the time for each person to develop true love, which is the origin and basic element of world peace. We all have to come to the point of interacting with each other with true love, knowing that this is the shortest route to attaining world peace. Any one of us who insults or is hostile to our neighbor cannot contribute to world peace or God's providence. The world of today is awash with problems. To stop the rush toward corruption and immorality and engrain in people the way of goodness, we need to establish a true sense of values and a corresponding standard of universal morality. We have to call together all people of conscience and deep faith and educate them to be the workers of true love of our eternal God, workers who can practice the true love of God and True Parents. Regardless of age or gender, so many people throughout the world today are starving for true love. In other words, they are waiting for true people to emerge who are able to live for the sake of others. If we can establish the tradition of true love, all religions will be united, God and all humanity will be united, and our new hope, God's originally intended ideal of creation, will be fulfilled. Then let us push forward with establishing the ideal world, which Jesus also sought. Let us show the world and our young people that a new age of peace, an age of true families, and an age of the blossoming of true humanity is dawning. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude again to you for so warmly welcoming my family and me. May God bless you, your family and your country, Uruguay! Thank you very much. 6 • The Fundamental Principle of True Peace March 27, 1994 Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea Second World Peace Conference of the Federation for World Peace Dear President Mikhail Gorbachev, distinguished co-chairmen, honored heads of state and government, respected ladies and gentlemen: I would like to express my deep gratitude to all of you for attending the Second World Peace Conference of the Federation for World Peace. Solutions for serious global issues As we enter the age of internationalization and globalization in the twentyfirst century, we are confronted with the urgent task of overcoming a large number of difficult obstacles to world peace. I have an absolute conviction that our global problems can only be resolved through a process that addresses their fundamental root. I have dedicated my entire life to the pursuit of the Will of Heaven based on this conviction. Please allow me to share a few of its core elements with you. Our world today has become evil, filled with conflict, confusion and hatred. This is true of individuals, families, societies and nations. The root cause of so much wickedness is the conflict between the mind and body of individual human beings, a conflict that started at the beginning of human history and has been perpetuated throughout the ages. As embodiments of discord, individuals naturally produce families fraught with conflict, countries torn by strife and a world divided by struggle. What is the result? The result is an evil, hellish world. For Heaven, it is the most abominable of all possible worlds. The origin of this ongoing conflict lies in the relationship between two individuals, man and woman, who are themselves torn by internal conflict. Therefore, the solution to our complex global difficulties lies in creating unity between mind and body and in harmonizing the relationship between man and woman. By accomplishing these two goals, we will have found the solution to the problems of the entire world. Why have mind and body come into conflict with each other? Why have man and woman been unable to establish harmony and unity? It is my firm conviction that through the Fall, which took place at the dawn of human history, the mind and body of human beings became divided and strife emerged between man and woman. The human world became evil, with satan at its center. The first step in solving the world's problems then is to find God. The second is to cast out the evil satan. The third is for men and women to accomplish the unity of mind and body. God expelled fallen Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden when they left God and became husband and wife centering on satan. When they bore children while in that state, humankind inherited the lineage of satan. Their lineage was corrupted. Through adultery the archangel, who became satan, stole the intended bride of Heaven. It is a principle of Heaven that whenever a relationship of love is established, whether false love or true love, ownership is established from that point. Because of this principle, the human ancestors came under the ownership of satan. Originally, the mind and body were to have become one, centering on God's true love. However, before the true love of God had a chance to be perfected within the human mind, the mind became bound by satan's false love. That enabled satan to take root in the body. Originally the mind was to exert a positive polarity over the body, however due to the Fall the body formed another positive pole, repelling the original mind and finally dominating it. For that reason, God has been working to project the power of true love into the human mind, in order to bring about the absolute subjugation of the body now engulfed in false love. Only when they are unified through true love, can the mind and body return to the state where God dwells within them. We need to obey the commands of the conscience Through the Fall, our ancestors became false ancestors. This created the need for religion and for a Messiah. The task of religion and the purpose of the coming of the Messiah are to break down the hell of false love, false life and false lineage, which have given rise to false individuals, false families, false societies, false states and a false world. Religion and the Messiah must guide us back to the original world of true love, true life and true lineage, the world of true parents with God at the center. God is a relational being and He, too, feels loneliness. He created the heavens and the earth centering on a relational ideal and His reason was to find true love. Look at the created world. You will see that it is structured in pairs: the mineral world, the plant world and the animal world are all arranged in subject-object partner relationships as a way of providing ideal models for true love between human beings. True love is the reason women are born for the sake of men and men for the sake of women. Solutions to global problems become possible only when our minds and bodies, and when men and women, come to live for the very purpose of becoming one through true love. True love can be found only in a situation where a person exists for the sake of his or her relational complement. Satan's love is self-centered whereas God's love is other-centered. These two kinds of love are in total contradiction to each other. For our fallen bodies to be free from the satanic world, we need to know absolutely that the invisible God is our ideal subject partner of true love, and we need to achieve the position of a second, visible God as His absolute object partners. Our minds and bodies must be united by means of the invisible God and by means of true love, and we must honor and respect our heart and conscience just as we honor and respect God Himself. We can recover our original self only by absolutely submitting to the commands of our conscience. God is the Parent of parents, the Teacher of teachers, and the Master of masters. This forms the basis for the "three subject partners principle" that encompasses heaven and earth. It is only through the conscience that these three can form absolute unity and fulfill the three subject partners principle. Thus, the conscience is more important to us than our parents who gave us birth, more important than any teacher, and more important than the king of any country. Only when elevated to such a position can the conscience become an object of God's love. The conscience needs no education about right and wrong. We have to give it absolute honor and obedience, just as we would honor and obey God. There is nothing I do that my conscience does not know about; it sees everything. The conscience objects whenever the body schemes to do something wrong. Yet, because the power of selfish love was stronger than the power of the conscience from the time of the Fall, the body is able to drag the mind around wherever it chooses. This kind of problem would not exist if the human conscience had achieved perfection and had formed a relationship of true love with God in the garden of Eden. Adam's family in the garden of Eden was to be a family of true love, in accordance with God's ideal. God created Adam and Eve so that they would give visible expression to every kind of invisible existence. God, man and woman were in a subject-object partner relationship centering on true love. He created the two ancestral human beings, Adam and Eve, with the expectation that they would become the substantial perfection of the ideal children, ideal brother and sister, ideal husband and wife, and ideal parents existing within God's heart. God wanted the true love of children to be perfected in substantial form. He wanted to see His object partners of true love perfected as actual brothers and sisters in a family, as actual husband and wife and as actual parents. The family is where we experience the four realms of heart True love in a parent-child relationship is vertical, in a husband-wife relationship it is horizontal, and in a brother-sister relationship it is on a front to- back axis. God wanted such a spherical ideal of true love. Unity is accomplished at one central point, where there is a convergence of the upper and lower hemispheres on the vertical axis, the right and left hemispheres on the horizontal axis, and the front and back hemispheres on the third axis. This point becomes the focus of centripetal force. Four realms of heart-the love of the child, brother and sister, husband and wife, and parents- are perfected when a man and wife, each centered on God, are married and enter their first relationship of love. This is the central place where perfected love bears fruit. Marriage thus represents the synthesis of the virtues of heaven, earth and humankind and the perfection of all things vertical and horizontal, left and right, and front and back. Accordingly, Adam and Eve as husband and wife, as God's most beloved substantial object partners, were meant to be the second ancestors, after God. From that position they would stand as the second creators and would inherit everything that God feels. They would feel the joy of God in the positions of children, brother and sister, husband and wife and parents. Their joy as the second creators would be in the experience of bearing children by which they could experience the position of God, the first Creator. From this perspective, God was the first Creator; Adam and Eve were to be the second creators; and the children of Adam and Eve were to be the third creators. The first, second, and third creators, God, Adam and Eve, and their children, would have established a formal pattern; a pattern that would have enshrined the fundamental principle that all humanity would follow. From the perspective of Adam and Eve there would be connections between upper and lower ( the parent-child relationship), left and right ( the husband-wife relationship) and front and back (the brother-sister relationship). It would have led them to the perfection of their family. It would have been the united foundation of God, Adam and Eve and their children. As people approached God, they would accomplish the unity of mind and body and the unity of man and woman and they would form a stable foundation where peace, freedom, happiness and hope would converge, forming the fundamental basis of peace. God intended that Adam and Eve, as second creators in the visible and substantial world, would participate in His act of creation by having children, who would be the third creators. Through this process, the family becomes the place in which the four realms of heart can be experienced generation after generation. The family is the base through which each form of true love can be brought to perfection. In this way, the family achieves the unity of God and human beings through love, and it serves as the starting point toward the perfection that enables us to establish true ownership in heaven and earth. The family is the origin from which we come to have children, brothers and sisters, husband or wife and parents. Only in such families can we find men and women who have accomplished mind-body unity, and only in such families can we find husbands and wives who have achieved the ideal unity between man and woman. Such families are the starting point for ideal parents. Here, too, we can see the creation of a model, centering upon true love, for the perfection of children, brothers and sisters, husband and wife and parents. It was God's ideal of creation that this model would expand, not only to the level of the nation and the world, but to the entire cosmos. Thus it is possible to create a nation that is patterned on the family, and a world and cosmos that are also patterned on the family. The cosmos seeks families that perfect the four realms of heart Accordingly, the model for children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and parents, who represent the four realms of heart, can be found in the family, in the nation, in the world and in the cosmos. Since a nation contains many families and is larger than a family, families ought to exist for the sake of the nation. Since the world contains many countries, countries need to exist for the sake of other countries in the world In similar fashion, the world exists for the sake of the larger cosmos. Finally, the cosmos exists for the sake of God, who is the greatest and most central existence. Thus, when the standard of the perfected four realms of heart within the family is projected onto higher and higher levels, the ideal of unity becomes a reality. On that basis, we can enter a cosmos of peace, happiness and freedom. This is why we have a vital need for family harmony centering on the unity of mind and body and man and woman. God too has been growing, you see. He created Adam and Eve as the substantiation of the ideal within His invisible heart, of son and daughter, brother and sister, husband and wife and father and mother. With Adam and Eve, God becomes a growing child, a brother and a sister, a husband and a wife, and finally a parent. As God establishes children, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives and parents, God experiences His second self many times over. God unites them in true love, which brings boundless joy to Him. Human beings are designed to give joy to God and to give joy to one another. We are all in the position of someone else's child, sibling, spouse or parent. All human beings are members of families centering on the four realms of heart, which makes the family the foundation to experience the ideal realms of heart. We all have a longing to form families and the reason is that only those people who deeply experience and embody the four great realms of heart can become ideal human beings, capable of making oneness in heart with anyone in the kingdom of heaven on earth or in the spiritual realm. This explains the consummate human desire to achieve mind-body unity and husband-wife unity. Unless we achieve this all - important mind-body unity, we are unqualified in all other aspects and cannot develop unity in a true family. We will fall away from our families, from our nation, from the world, from the universe and from God Himself. Only through our utmost effort to accomplish mind-body unity and family unity can we achieve perfection. We have to know that we ourselves are God's representatives. We are in the position of a second God. All people need to work together to establish the family into a realm of goodness and joy. The kingdom of heaven begins with a couple united in true love Please realize that the position of husband and wife is the union between a son of God and a daughter of God, the union of a brother and sister within God's family and the union of a father and mother. From the perspective of the four realms of heart, the position of husband and wife is the absolute goal of human life, through which we can actually achieve the perfection of our individual selves. The husband, therefore, stands in the position that enables the wife to receive an ideal son of God, to receive an older brother of heaven, to receive a husband of heaven and to receive a father of heaven. This is also true of the wife in relation to her husband. Such husbands and wives bear children in a manner analogous to God's act of creation, and they feel joy through experiencing their own growth in a substantial manner through their children. God's love is absolute. Accordingly, it is a principle of heaven that the relationship of husband and wife cannot be broken. Fallen human society has lost sight of this principle, and we have to be restored so that we may return to the original homeland. When such a restoration is accomplished, the Federation for World Peace will have fulfilled its purpose. At that point, the family-level heaven will become a nation-level heaven; the nation-level heaven will become a world-level heaven; and the world-level heaven will become the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world. This will be the point at which we will finally have achieved a world of peace. The point at which a husband and wife marry and love each other with true love is the heavenly palace, which is the origin of the love, life and lineage of God and humankind. It is the starting point for the ideal of the kingdom of heaven on earth and in the spirit world. When children who are the fruit of such true love achieve perfect unity as husbands and wives, they form families living in attendance to God. This constitutes the base upon which peace and all ideals are established. Men and women, each the corresponding better half of the other, then become one body and as God's object partner, perfect the ideal of love. On the foundation of true love, God perfects humankind as an existence of unlimited value. When that is done, God, too, will see the perfection of true love, the fulfillment of the family ideal, the fulfillment of His own ideal for the creation and the cradle of eternal, ideal love. From the perspective of Adam and Eve's family, God is the first ancestor; Adam and Eve are the second ancestors and their children are the third ancestors. Adam and Eve were meant to form a royal family with God at the center. God is in the position of grandparents; Adam and Eve are in the position of parents, and Adam and Eve's offspring are in the position of children. In this manner, the original pattern of three generations within the family is established. According to this original pattern, the grandparents are in the position of king and queen of the spirit world, representing God in the kingdom of heaven in heaven. They are to be honored and respected as if they were God. The parents are in the central position of king and queen of the family, representing the kingdom of heaven in the present world. They are to be honored and respected just as we would the king and queen of the present world. Children are in the position of princes and princesses within the family. They are to be loved as the ones standing to inherit the future kingdom of heaven on earth and in the spirit world. In this way, the members of Adam and Eve's family were to form a royal family with God at the center and live peacefully on earth until they moved into the heavenly, eternal world. Only in that heavenly world can human desire, freedom, aspiration, peace and happiness attain complete fulfillment. This is the purpose that humankind needs to fulfill. The way to achieve world peace As respected representatives from countries around the world, through tireless efforts each of you has devoted an important period in your life for the sake of your nation and the world. As a result of your sacrifices, humankind today enjoys conditions much better than what existed in the past. Still, the ideal world of freedom and peace, which is the fervent desire of all people, has not yet been achieved. Even at this hour, countless individuals in many places around the world are dying from hunger and pain as a result of conflicts and struggles among peoples, races and religions. I have responded as a religious leader to God's calling. I have lived my life for the purpose of saving humankind from war and sin and of establishing a world of peace. Out of this calling, I have acquired a conviction and daily philosophy regarding peace, which I call Head-wing Thought. In my address today, I have expressed a few elements of that conviction. The perspective of Godism and Head-wing Thought is that world peace will not be achieved by means of political ideologies oriented toward power, nor by any initiative that relies on physical force. Peace will only be accomplished when all men and women share in God's love and truth and put these into practice. This starts with the individual and expands to the family, society, nation and world to form one global family. From this perspective, the founding purpose of the Federation for World Peace is to promote education and practices related to true peace as a means to realize peace in various societies, nations and the world. May all of us here perfect the family-level heaven and go on to play major roles in the accomplishment of world peace. I pray that God's blessing be upon each and every one of you. Thank you very much. 7 • A Truly Peaceful World August 23, 1995 Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea Third World Peace Conference Honored chairman, distinguished former and current heads of state, ladies and gentlemen: At the opening of the Third World Peace Conference today, I would like to express my deepest respect to you for coming to this historic event. It is a pleasure to take this opportunity to share my beliefs regarding true world peace. Matters of world peace are of greater concern than ever before. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to you who, out of your desire to realize world peace, have traveled from afar and brought into being this magnificent conference. I would like to share with you members of the Federation for World Peace my activities these past few months. Earnest advice for Central and South America Recognizing that God has a will for Latin America, I embarked on a tour of twenty-three nations on that great continent. In each nation, I shared my beliefs with key leaders, and in eight of these nations I met the head of state to discuss matters related to world peace. The title of my tour was "True Family and I." While traveling around the continent; north, south, east and west, I meditated and prayed about this special part of the world. I considered how the nations that make up Latin America can achieve true peace and establish an ideal society. Clearly the continent has stunning and rich potential. There are seemingly unlimited resources in a rich and peaceful natural paradise of grand mountains and unspoiled nature. The mountains and jungles remind us of the original creation, the garden of Eden. I envisioned glory-filled days that lie ahead in the Latin America of the twenty-first century. At each opportunity, I gave a single piece of advice. I said, "Please do not blindly follow in the footsteps of the developed nations. Do not repeat their errors in rushing to harness natural resources in the name of progress." Why would I give this advice? It is because the so-called developed countries have not found the balance with nature and the happiness that humankind has wanted from its inception. In the twenty-first century we will return to the original world Let us take the United States as an example. I am someone who genuinely loves the United States. For the past twenty-five years, I have devoted myself to establish the foundation for world peace in that country. Although I have suffered persecution for my efforts to guide America in the right direction, my love for America and my belief in its vital role for world peace has not changed. In the 1960s, when I first visited that land of opportunity, it seemed that the whole world wanted to be like America. We deeply admired the life depicted on television shows such as "Little House on the Prairie." Come Sunday morning, the sounds of hymns were heard from all directions. Superman, a superhero of justice, was a symbol of the righteous American spirit, and city streets were thought to be spotless, in good order and beautiful. The whole world looked at America with respect in those days. Yet if we look at America today, thirty years later, what do we see? It is a nation in decay, strewn with difficult problems they cannot solve. In the midst of this, moral decadence and increase in crime demand our close attention. Numerous, unimaginable acts, including murder, drug abuse, divorce, child molestation, gang violence and teenage pregnancy emanate from America today. As a person who loves that nation, I feel deeply hurt by what I see. Yet this phenomenon is not limited to America. All of the developed countries at the end of the twentieth century are struggling with many of the same problems. Having reached the summit of consumer wealth and technological sophistication, the developed world is caught in the trap of materialism. With the mind and spirit obsessed by material wealth, our true essence as human beings is enslaved by selfish desires. The result is a collapse of true love. Although there is an abundance of material wealth and our cities are crowded with skyscrapers, the human mind has become desolate and dried up like a desert, and the oasis of true love is not to be found. The absence of true love is the breeding ground for selfishness. The most helpless victim of this attitude is the world of nature. One of the themes of this peace conference is the restoration of the environment. We are abusing many of our resources, including our water supply. Even the atmosphere that protects our planet is affected by the misuse of natural resources. If this trend continues, the so-called benefits of materialistic civilization will lead to the earth's self-destruction. The most serious damage of all, however, is the destruction of the family as a basic building block for the nation. The family is the cell of society. If each of the tens of trillions of cells in our body is healthy, then the body is likewise healthy. Conversely, if the cells are weakened and destroyed, then the whole body will weaken and eventually stop functioning. Similarly, destruction of the true family system foretells the destruction of all humankind. Our society is charging toward a destination directly opposite to what was originally designed and created by God. The twenty-first century is inevitably a time to return to the original world of God's Will. A civilization placing the spirit and mind as subject partner is coming. The twenty-first century is only five years away. It is my sincere wish that the developing countries not follow in the footsteps of the so-called developed countries. Instead, they ought to use the developed countries' experience as a lesson, and move directly into the world where spirit and mind are in control. Do not fall into a pit of nationalism and materialism. This is the message that I want to share with you in our time together today. The Blessing of 360,000 couples is a celebration of world peace We have reached a time when the world has no alternative but to change. In religious terms, we can say that we have reached "the Last Days" of humankind. However, the Last Days I refer to does not mean darkness and destruction. From God the Creator's point of view, the Last Days are the end of the false world, the end of the fallen world. They will be followed immediately by the founding of the true world, the original world of God's creation. Therefore, the Last Days are what we all wish and hope for. Then, how can we achieve this historic transition from a materialistic civilization to a spiritual civilization? The transition begins with the emergence of God's truth. Truth is called light. The dawn's morning light is the power that liberates the night. That sun of historical transition is rising towards the highest point in the sky. This is what I have proclaimed as the Unification Principle and the great principle of true love. Upon receiving a call from God, I endeavored to deeply understand the great principle of the universe that had been hidden from the beginning of human history. In my discovery, I realized that the truth humankind has been yearning for throughout history is this very principle, upon which we can return to true love and realize true world peace. A physician needs to diagnose the cause of an illness in order to cure the patient. In the same way, the Principle clearly identifies why today's human society fell into misery. It explains the course of the Fall of humankind, the event that led to the unprincipled world that we struggle with every day. Once the cause is determined, the cure can be applied. For the past forty years, I have traveled the globe with this cure. I have devoted myself to revealing the cure clearly to the world. I want to explain some of these great principles. My explanation will be only skin-deep, as it is impossible to grasp the depth of the philosophical implications in a short period of time. One needs to study the Unification Principle sincerely with time and prayer, based on knowing that, if we do indeed live for eternity, it is clear that we need to reorganize our priorities. The first great principle is that God is alive, and that God is the Parent of humankind. The relationship between God and humanity is that of Parent and child This is the first truth that God revealed to me. Secondly, God's original nature is true love, and God created all things and human beings to realize God's true love. Human beings are therefore the object partners of God. God wants to unconditionally pour unlimited true love into the hearts of His children. Thirdly, God, the invisible Parent, established True Parents as God's substantial expression on the earth. God tries to save the world through the True Parents. By uniting with the ideals of the True Parents and regaining true love, true life and true lineage, human beings can be eternally restored. Amazingly, we are now living in the era of True Parents. There has never been and will never again be a time of this magnitude of blessing in the history of human existence. This enables us to be called the lucky generation born with heavenly fortune. Two days from now, on August 25, Mrs. Moon and I will officiate at an international wedding ceremony for 360,000 couples here in Seoul. I consider this ceremony the authentic path to world peace. As I stated, the reason the world is not at peace today lies in the breakdown of the true family structure. The true family structure begins by unity with the true love of God. This holy wedding ceremony will be simultaneously conducted in one hundred and sixty nations via satellite. It is a ceremony that will link human beings vertically with the True Parents, the substantial being of God, the invisible Parent. This ceremony affirms the participants as true brothers and sisters in front of God and True Parents, transcending territorial boundaries, races and religions. This wedding is a great transformation ceremony for humanity. It restores God's true love, true life and true blood lineage, which were lost due to the Fall of the first human ancestors, Adam and Eve. This is a moment of great excitement in which human beings, who have been suffering under the reign and dominion of satan for six thousand biblical years, will be set free and liberated for the first time. It is a ceremony of great joy, where we will see the shackles break loose. Humankind will sing hosanna as we return to the liberated heaven and earth of God's true love. This ceremony is possible at this time because of the appearance and manifestation of the True Parents. True peace signifies returning to the originally created world Ladies and gentlemen, this wedding is a ceremony in which men and women, bound in marriage before God, vow purity and fidelity to one other. The destruction of the true family means the destruction of chastity. Immoral love caused the Fall of our ancestors, and we descendants are victims of the same immoral, promiscuous love. This is the world phenomenon of today manifested in free sex, homosexual love, and decadent relationships. The promiscuity of today's world is completely unnatural. The time has come to return to the world of God's original purity by completely liberating fallen human beings from our false ancestors. The True Parents are transforming and liberating this world. The bride pledges pure love to the bridegroom as her subject partner, recognizing him as God's son who represents all men of the world and the substantial being of True Parents. The bridegroom pledges true love to his bride, accepting her as God's daughter representing all women of the world and the feminine incarnation of the True Parents. Can a dreadful disease like AIDS penetrate into the husband and wife relationship united in mutual fidelity this way? It cannot. Diseases such as AIDS are a facet of the Last Days, testing the purity and fidelity of humankind. Modern society tries to prevent AIDS through the use of condoms and to cure it through new medicines, without any recourse to the Will of God. The message of AIDS and other such diseases is much more central than safe sex and new medicine. Its lasting solution lies in the restoration of morality rooted in true love. A Harvard University institute recently issued a research report stating that by the year 2010 AIDS will have affected about one billion people worldwide. This staggering number threatens the very existence of the human race. The return to the true love desired by God, entailing purity and fidelity between man and woman, is the solution to diseases of false love. When I speak of fidelity, I do not mean the outmoded concept that it is to be enforced only upon women. The simultaneous purity and fidelity of men and women together is based on the principle of God. Fidelity is the ideal of one man for one woman. It calls man and woman to protect the sanctity and holiness of the act of love. It means not to engage in pre-marital relations and, after being blessed in marriage with their ideal counterpart, to love one another infinitely and eternally as subject partner and object partner. Today, I want to enjoin the call for purity and fidelity more upon the men than women. It is not an overstatement to say that the damage caused by men who indulge in uncontrolled lust is the very cause of the destruction of the world's chance for happiness. True Parents and the true love revolution It is not possible for today's decadent world to return to the original order of true love that God desires by human power alone. The power of God is needed, and this power of God is manifested through the advent of the True Parents on earth. The True Parents of humankind came to the earth to ignite a revolution of true love. Establishing the order of true love is a revolution. This revolution of true love is now catching fire. The international holy wedding is indeed a celebration raising the flames of the revolution of true love. It opens the door for the re-creation of the world. The event on August 25 comprises 360,000 couples, and when this spreads to 3.6 million couples, to 36 million couples, to 360 million couples, and to 3.6 billion couples, AIDS will be eradicated from human society and the world of pure love where God, man and woman become one body will be realized. This is not just a dream. The implementation of God's providence for the heavenly kingdom on the earth is an inevitable future because it is not my work or your work, it is God's work. Today, twentieth century technology has reduced the world to the size of a small global village. Human beings are the global family living in this global village. Nationalism, racism and religious bigotry should never have existed, only the ideal world of God and human beings as one body of love. I want to tell you that true world peace is to return to the original world of God's creation. Respected ladies and gentlemen, and participants in the third World Peace Conference, I sincerely wish for you to serve as apostles of true peace. I want to extend my heartfelt gratitude to you, precious colleagues and contributors to world peace. May God abundantly bless you and your families. 8 • View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation April 16, 1996 Washington Hilton Hotel, Washington, DC, USA Inaugural Banquet of the Washington Times Foundation Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, today I sincerely thank God that you and I can meet as we face this era of great, historic change. Religion and the purpose of the providence of salvation God is the absolute One, the unique, unchanging, and eternal One. His Will is the same. If the human beings Adam and Eve had become one body under the love of God, everything would have been complete and ideal. God's origin, purpose and process of creation, as well as cause, effect and direction are all absolute. The human ancestors Adam and Eve entered into chaos after they fell due to their ignorance. This ignorance and chaos expanded from the individual level to the levels of family, nation and world. It has been the task of religion and God's providence of salvation to liberate us from this sphere of the Fall. In the Last Days, the Messiah comes and teaches clearly the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal cause, direction and effect, from God's viewpoint. He will cleanse the world of ignorance and chaos and return it to the original bosom of God. This is the completion of the Will of God. If this does not happen, then in the Last Days all religions, systems of thought, "isms" and nations will pass away. Now humankind is facing the twenty-first century, entering the new historic era of the third millennium in just a few years. At this important moment, I would like to deliver this speech on the "View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation;' so that we can resolve to prepare ourselves for the new era. To bring about completion and the ideal relationship between God and humankind, centering on true love, God required that human beings fulfill a condition of responsibility in order to attain unity with Him. Therefore, God needed to give the commandment to the first ancestors. In other words, God knew that they were in the growth period, on the way to reaching physical and spiritual maturity, so He established the commandment as the condition for His children to inherit the most precious thing, true love. Originally, true love was to be gained through life experience and understood through internal realization. True love is not something that can be learned through words, a written text, or schooling. It is experienced completely only in the context of living our lives. Created as newborn infants, Adam and Eve were to grow and perfect themselves gradually through experiences of the heart of true children, true brother and sister, true husband and wife and true parents, encompassing their whole lives. Only after experiencing the true love of God in its entirety can one fulfill the purpose of creation and become an ideal human being. All people desire their object partner of love to be many times more valuable, even infinitely more valuable, than themselves. In the same way, God desires that humankind, His object partner of love, become infinitely valuable. When human beings perfect themselves, then those persons come to possess godlike value by participating in God's divinity and perfection. God is absolute, however He cannot realize the ideal of true love alone. That is because love always requires an object partner, a beloved. At this point, we need to understand the relationship between God's true love and humankind's true love, and how they begin and are brought to fruition. What would have happened if God had not chosen human beings as His absolute object partners of true love, and instead had sought to realize true love in some other way? In that case, God and human beings would have pursued the ideal of true love with different motivations, directions and purposes. God would have had to achieve the ideal of love through an object partner higher than humankind and, by the same token, humankind's ideal of love would have had no direct relationship with God. True husband and wife perfect God's absolute ideal of love God, as the subject partner of true love, did establish humankind as the object partner of true love. Accordingly, God can fulfill the ideal of true love only through humankind. The fulfillment of God's purpose of creation is the ideal world where God and humankind are united through absolute love. Human beings were created as the greatest object partners of God's love. They alone in all creation potentially embody the full nature of God and they are born the visible bodies of the invisible God. If a person matures, he/she become a perfect temple of God-a visible, substantial body in which God can freely and peacefully dwell. God's overall ideal of absolute true love is realized and perfected through humankind in a vertical parent-child relationship. God created Adam first; he was to be the son of God and, at the same time, the substantial body of God. Later, God created Eve as the object partner of Adam so that Adam and Eve could fulfill the ideal of horizontal love in conjugal love. Eve was to be the daughter of God and also as a bride she was to realize substantially the ideal of the horizontal love of God. The place where Adam and Eve are harmonized perfectly, consummating their first love by marrying under the blessing of God, is precisely the place where God meets His substantial bride. This is because God's ideal of absolute love descends vertically and joins where the ideal of conjugal love between Adam and Eve is realized horizontally. In this way, the true love of God and the true love of humankind join in perfect communion at a single point, although they come from different directions, one vertical and the other horizontal. God's act of creation was necessary and we cannot imagine creation without a purpose. There was only one reason God needed the creation: to realize the ideal of true love. God developed life in pairs, from the simplest and lowest levels up to the human level, subject and object and positive and negative, to form reciprocal relationships under the ideal of love. The creation's ideal of love and God's ideal of ultimate love are not separate or different. The Principle of Creation is at work to complete the absolute love of God through the realization of true love between men and women in the human world. This is the reason why, in the beginning, God created one man and one woman, Adam and Eve. God's purpose of creation called for Adam and Eve to obey the commandment from God, who is the subject of true love, and fulfill their maturation as a true man and a true woman. Beyond that, they were to become a true couple united in the true love of God and then, by having sons and daughters through true love, they would have become true parents and lived in happiness. Had Adam and Eve matured in true love, they would have fulfilled God's desire to wear a substantial body and when they perfected themselves as a true couple, the ideal of God's absolute love would have been fulfilled. By Adam and Eve having children of goodness and becoming true parents, God would have established substantially the position of parents eternally and achieved His ideal, which was to create infinite citizenship in the kingdom of heaven in heaven by means of multiplying myriad generations of loving descendants in the physical world. Adam and Eve, the human ancestors, fell away from God. When they were expelled from Eden, they had not yet had children. Having driven them out, God had no basis to follow after them to bless their marriage. The entire human race has thus descended from our fallen ancestors. Humanity has multiplied without any direct relationship whatsoever with the love of God. Human perfection includes the responsibility to love Ladies and gentlemen, could the Fall have been the result of eating the fruit of a tree? The Fall of Adam and Eve was an immoral sin against the ideal of the true love of God. The fact that Adam and Eve needed to obey the commandment shows that they fell in a stage of immaturity, that is to say, during their period of growth. The archangel, symbolized by a serpent, tempted Eve to eat of the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil, and she fell spiritually. She later tempted Adam, who was also too immature to eat of the fruit, and they then fell physically. The only possible sin that could have been fatal in the garden of Eden, where Adam and Eve were in communication with God and living in joy, was the sin of illicit love. The first consummated love of the human ancestors, because it was supposed to have been the perfection of the love of God Himself, was to have marked the beginning of a celebration that would continue throughout history, filled with the never-ending intoxication of joy and blessing for God, Adam and Eve and the universe. It was supposed to have been a joyous occasion through which the love, life and lineage of God would have been established within humankind. To the contrary, Adam and Eve covered their lower parts and hid themselves among the trees, trembling in fear. By disobeying heavenly law, they established an immoral relationship as the basis for false love, false life and false lineage. As descendants of Adam and Eve, all human beings are born with original sin. The Fall gave rise to conflict between the mind and body within every person, thereby causing our societies to be filled with tainted love and with people who do things that contradict the desire of their original minds. According to the ideal of love, all love relationships in the animal and plant kingdoms are for reproduction only. Human beings are the sole exception. Humankind enjoys freedom in the conjugal relationship of love, which is humanity's special privilege as the lord of all creation. God gave the blessing and infinite joy of love to His sons and daughters. However, the true freedom that God allowed requires human responsibility. When an individual insists upon and practices freedom of love without responsibility, how much confusion and destruction takes place! Achieving the highest ideal of human love is possible only when one takes responsibility for love. We can think of this responsibility in three ways. The first is for one to become the master of true love, truly free and thanking God for the freedom of love, wherein one knows how to cultivate and control oneself. This responsibility for a love relationship is not to be taken merely because of law or social convention. Instead, a person needs to establish responsibility through his own self-control and self-determination within a life-committing, vertical relationship with God. The second is one's responsibility toward the object partner of love. By nature, people do not want their spouse's love to be shared with others. Horizontal conjugal love, which differs from the vertical love between parents and children, loses its potential for perfection the moment it is divided. This is because the Principle of Creation requires husband and wife to become one in absolute love. Each spouse has the responsibility given by love to live absolutely for the sake of the other. The third responsibility of love is toward children. The love of parents is the basis for children's pride and happiness. Children want to be born through the total and harmonious unity of their parents in true love, and they would want to be raised in that kind of love. The most precious responsibility of parents is not only to rear their children externally, it is also to offer them life elements of true love that can bring their spirituality to complete fruition. This is why the family is so valuable. The daily experience of the heart of true children, true brothers and sisters, true spouses and true parents cannot be acquired in any place other than the true family. The Messiah is the true person who brings the seed of new life If Adam and Eve had become a couple of true love centered upon God, God could have dwelt in Adam as His substantial body and thus loved Eve. What is more, Adam and Eve together could have become True Parents who substantially embodied God, and thereby could have become the origin of the love of goodness, a life of goodness and a lineage of goodness. Due to the Fall however, Adam and Eve became the substantial body of satan and ended up becoming the original fallen couple, fallen parents and fallen ancestors. Their union became the root of fallen love, fallen life and fallen blood lineage. Because human beings originated from this root, they descended from the adulterous satan, who is the enemy of God, and inherited this lineage of fallen parents. Ladies and gentlemen! How great God's pain must have been when, by the Fall of humankind, our human ancestors destroyed His ideal of true love! Humankind was to have been the sons and daughters of God, yet they do not know God as their original Parent. Yet even though His sons and daughters serve satan, God has worked for the providence of salvation. Because He is an absolute being, and the ideal of creation is also absolute, He has carried out the providence of salvation even amid great sadness. God's providence of salvation is the providence of restoration, which means to recover the lost purpose of creation, centered on true love. The providence of salvation is also the providence of re-creation. Based on this understanding, the root of the providence of salvation is the re-creation of the seed of the original child, the human being who will fulfill the ideal of creation. That which God abhors, the life and blood lineage that began with the false love of the adulterer satan, must be cleansed. The essence of the providence is the task of setting up the birth of the True Parent, the Savior united with the true love, life and lineage of God. Since the ancestors of humankind failed to fulfill their responsibility, inherited the immoral lineage of satan, and came under the dominion of satan, God could not directly intervene and return human beings to their original position. Furthermore, God can neither unconditionally accept humankind, who chose to go to the side of the evil archangel, nor punish them. Rather, God uses the strategy of placing a central figure on the side of the good archangel. Then, by being struck first, that figure fulfills the indemnity condition to recover what was lost. Satan strikes first and as a result, must take the losing position. The First, Second and Third, or Cold War, World Wars are good examples of this. That is, the side that struck first lost. From the overall perspective of the providence of restoration, the foundation of cooperation between mother and son is very important. This was so at the time of Jacob, Moses and Jesus. God was working His providence to separate people from satanic life and lineage by establishing the foundation of cooperation between a mother, who needed to fulfill the responsibility of Eve, the originator of the Fall, and the second son of the family. God cannot directly relate to the first son, because he stands in the position of having a direct blood relationship with satan, who, through the Fall, was the first to dominate humankind. By having the second son, who represents the side of goodness, fulfill a condition, God has been restoring the blood lineage of goodness. Then God has had the first son, representing the side of evil, take a position subordinate to the second son. In the family of Adam, God carried out the providence of recognizing the second son, Abel, and having him subordinate the first son, Cain. Even though Eve had fallen, as a mother she could have made an effort to foster unity between the two brothers. In the end, however, Cain murdered Abel and the providence of salvation was not fulfilled in Adam's family, it was prolonged. There was also a required formula of cooperation between mother and son at the time of Noah, but that formula of meaningful cooperation was not realized until the time of Rebekah and Jacob. The Fall was committed by three beings: Adam, Eve and the archangel. The archangel seduced Eve, causing the spiritual fall, and later fallen Eve seduced Adam, causing the physical fall. As a result, they turned their backs on God, and the fallen archangel became satan. Since the providence of salvation is the providence of restoration, the principle of restoration can be carried out only by going in a direction one hundred eighty degrees opposite that of the Fall. God lost Adam who had the seed of true love and true life. So God needed to find a son with the new seed, free from satanic accusation. Just as God created Adam first at the time of the creation, God must prepare a son first who has no relationship to the Fall, according to the providence of restoration which is the providence of re-creation. 1his is the basis for the idea of the coming of the Messiah. The Messiah rejects the sinful lives of those with a fallen lineage under the dominion of satan. He comes as a true person who engrafts fallen humanity into the seed of new life. The Messiah has his roots in God and comes as the Second Adam, who wipes away all that was committed by the first Adam. This is the reason God cannot send a superman Messiah who will work only through miracles. Providence of the restoration of lineage centered on Tamar For a son to be born on earth with this seed of God's love and life, there first must exist a mother. Such a mother cannot give birth to this child in a conventional way. Conception must happen in accordance with the formula of restoration. All the cooperation between mothers and sons in the providence of restoration is a preparation and a condition for the Son of God to be born with the seed of new life, free from satanic accusation. By making conditions to avoid satan's attacks, and by subordinating the firstborn son who represents evil, mother and son restore the love, life and lineage that were taken over by satan. The Bible, which records the providential work of God, contains many stories that are difficult to understand. For example, Rebekah deceived her husband Isaac and her first son Esau, and helped her second son Jacob receive the blessing. God took the side of that mother and son, and although they used methods that at first glance seem unjust, God still blessed them for their actions. In Adam's family, Cain and Abel fought and their struggle resulted in the death of Abel, the second son. Then came Jacob. On the merits of many godly people who paid indemnity and sacrificed after the time of Abel, Jacob at last caught up to the level at which satan first dominated humankind. Jacob had to deal with his twin brother, Esau. At the ford of Jabbok, Jacob set up the condition of spiritual victory over the angel, and through winning over Esau, who was in the position of the archangel, Jacob consequently was blessed as the first victor in history, and was given the name "Israel." (Gen. 32:28) By then, however, Jacob was forty years old. satan had sown the seed of false love within the womb of Eve, which gave birth to evil life. Therefore, God needed to purify a mother's womb from which the heavenly son could be born. That purification period of separation from satan had to begin at the time of conception and continue to age of forty. Even though Jacob was victorious, he made only one step toward meeting that criterion. The great mother who assumed the responsibility to meet this condition was Tamar. Tamar had married Er, the eldest son of Judah, but Er displeased God and he died. According to the custom of that time, Judah gave Tamar to his second son, Onan, that they might bear a child for Er. Onan, knowing that Tamar's child would not be his own, spilled his semen on the ground. This was a sin in the eyes of God, for which Onan died. Then Tamar wanted Shelah, the third son of Judah, for a husband, but Judah did not give him to her. Judah thought that his two sons had died because of Tamar, so he was afraid that Shelah would die and end the family lineage. Tamar had the conviction that she was meant to carry on the lineage of the chosen people. In order to do that, she disguised herself as a prostitute and slept with her father-in-law, Judah, and became pregnant with twins. At the time of birth, one of the twin sons, Zerah, stretched out his hand from the womb to be born first. When he was pulled back into the womb, the second son, Perez, was born first, taking the position of the elder brother. Thus, within the womb of Tamar, the first and second sons fought, and their reversal of position was the condition that separated them from satan. In other words, this became the condition for restoration in the womb. Upon this condition, the Messiah could be conceived within the blood lineage of the chosen people, on the foundation of the nation of Israel, which could stand up to the Roman Empire two thousand years later. The victorious foundation on the national level could then be formed in the womb of a mother free from satanic accusation, prepared for the seed of the Son of God. On this foundation, the Holy Mother Mary emerged in the mainstream of God's providence. Jesus can solely possess God's first love Mary, when she was engaged to Joseph, received from the archangel Gabriel the surprising message that the Messiah would be born through her. (Luke 1:31) In those days, if an unmarried woman became pregnant she was killed. However, Mary accepted the Will of God with absolute faith, saying, "Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word." (Luke 1:38) Mary consulted with the priest Zechariah, who was her relative and was highly respected. Zechariah's wife Elizabeth, with the help of God, was pregnant with John the Baptist. Elizabeth said to Mary, " . .. Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb! Why is this granted to me that the mother of my Lord should come to me?" (Luke 1 :42-43) With these words, she testified to the coming birth of Jesus. In this way, God let Mary, Zechariah and Elizabeth know about the birth of the Messiah before anybody else. All of them had the absolutely crucial mission of following the Will of God and serving Jesus. Zechariah's family let Mary stay in their house. Jesus was conceived in the house of Zechariah. Elizabeth and Mary were cousins on their mothers' side. According to God's providence, they were considered sisters, with Elizabeth as the elder (Cain) and Mary as the younger (Abel). Mary received Elizabeth's help in the presence of Zechariah. Through this cooperation, Zechariah's family, on the national level, indemnified the lack of unity between Leah and Rachel in Jacob's family, and their failure in mother-son cooperation. This allowed Jesus to be conceived. For the first time in history, there could be generated on earth, free of satanic accusation and through a prepared womb, the seed of the Son of God, the seed of the True Father. In this way, the only begotten Son of God, the owner of the first love of God, was born for the first time in history. Mary had to achieve something that could not be understood by common sense, nor easily tolerated under the law of those times. Mary, Elizabeth and Zechariah had been spiritually moved. They followed the revelation that came from God, and unconditionally believed that it was the will and desire of God. Although the Son of God could be born on earth, he needed a wall of protection to grow up safely in satan's world and fulfill the Will of God. God had hoped that these three people in the family of Zechariah would establish that protective foundation. There are many points to consider with regard to how seriously the three had to dedicate themselves to protecting and serving the Son of God, and how long they were to have been united with each other. In the Bible it is recorded, ''And Mary remained with her [Elizabeth] about three months, and then returned to her home." (Luke 1 :56) After that, there is no biblical record of any further communication between Mary and Elizabeth and Zechariah. From the time Mary left Zechariah's house, difficulties began for Mary and Jesus. The family of Zechariah ought to have been the wall of protection for Jesus until the very end. A short time later, Joseph discovered that Mary was pregnant. How great must have been his shock at that moment! Mary, his beloved fiancee, without having had any conjugal relationship with him, had become pregnant after a three-month stay in another place. It was natural for Joseph to question Mary about who the baby in her womb belonged to. What would have happened if, at that time, Mary had explained everything candidly? If she had exposed everything, it could have been the end of a clan. So Mary simply responded that she was pregnant by the Holy Spirit. Mary's pregnancy began to show, and the people of the surrounding area became aware ofit. What would have happened if Joseph had declared that he didn't know anything about it? However, Joseph was a righteous man. He believed in the revelation of God and defended Mary, saying the pregnancy was his responsibility. Mary may have been ridiculed for becoming pregnant during her engagement, yet she avoided being stoned to death. Joseph, who loved Mary, protected her this way in the beginning. However, there was a great deal of anguish deep in his heart. Once Jesus was born, Joseph's suspicions about the father of Jesus only increased and his heart ached. As Jesus grew older, the two became more and more distant in heart. And because of this, family problems frequently arose. Jesus was viewed as an illegitimate son and, lacking the protection of Zechariah's family and the love of Joseph, he grew up with an indescribable loneliness in his heart. Jesus' solitary three-year course Jesus was aware of his path as the Messiah, and he lamented by himself these lonely circumstances and the serious obstacle they presented to fulfilling the Will of God. The Messiah is the True Parent. To fulfill that mission, however, he needed to receive his substantial bride. Jesus had to reverse, at the very root, the false love by which the archangel had caused the Fall of Eve, who was originally growing up as the sister of Adam. Consequently, Jesus, in the place of Adam as the Son of God, ought to have received as his bride the younger sister of someone in an archangelic position. That bride was to have been none other than Zechariah's daughter, the younger sister ofJohn the Baptist. To fulfill this in a world where satan plays the role of owner and lord, Jesus needed a foundation of protection formed by absolute faith. Tragically, the entire foundation ended up collapsing around him. This would not have happened if Zechariah and Elizabeth, who had received the revelation and spiritual support from God, had maintained absolute faith. If they had fulfilled their responsibility, Mary would have been in contact with them continually, even after her three-month stay at their house. God chose Zechariah's family as the foremost representatives of the entire world, so that even after the birth of Jesus they would protect, serve and witness to him as the Messiah. They not only would have served Jesus as the Son of God and Messiah with utter devotion, they would have learned the Will of God through Jesus and followed him absolutely. Also, John the Baptist was born to serve Jesus, and ought to have fulfilled his responsibility to guide everyone whom he led to repentance to believe in Jesus and receive salvation. Unfortunately, although Zechariah, Elizabeth and John the Baptist testified at first to Jesus as the Son of God, there is no evidence that they served him as such. The respected priest Zechariah was simply a spectator. John the Baptist stood separate from Jesus. These circumstances blocked the people from following Jesus and made his path very difficult. Once this family lost faith in Jesus, looking at him through human eyes, there was no room for them to help him receive his bride. We also need to consider the influence that Joseph and Marys relationship had on Jesus. Mary had to restore the positions of Eve and Tamar through indemnity, so she was supposed to have remained as only the fiancee of Joseph. Providentially, they could not be husband and wife. It was God's desire that they not have sexual relations either before or after Jesus' birth. Joseph still loved Mary after Jesus' birth, however Mary ought to have separated from Joseph and raised Jesus as the Son of God. The real circumstances did not make this easy to do. Even though Mary's original mind told her that she was not to do so, she had sexual relations with Joseph and they had children, which was a repetition of Eve's mistake. With this condition, satan established a claim on them. With the exception of Jesus, everyone who ought to have protected Jesus came under the dominion of satan: his father, his mother, his Abel-type brothers, John the Baptist and his brothers, and his Cain-type brothers, the children of Joseph. When satan influences someone, that person loses all spiritual support and inspiration. Trust in God, as well as any sense of gratitude to Him, is lost. One begins to see everything through human eyes. Mary did not help Jesus with the wedding he desired. She even opposed it. This was the direct reason that Jesus could not receive his bride, and could not become the True Parent. Ultimately, this compelled him to go the way of the cross. Jesus' words to Mary during the wedding at Cana, "Woman, what concern is that to you and to me?" (John 2:4), reveal a reproachful heart to a mother who helped in the weddings of others and neglected to help Jesus receive his bride, the most important requirement of the providence. With this perspective, we can now understand why Jesus asked, "Who is my mother, and who are my brothers and sisters?" (Matt. 12:48) Faced with the opposition of Mary, Zechariah, Elizabeth and finally John the Baptist, Jesus gave up hoping to gain their protection as he sought to fulfill his mission. Therefore, Jesus left his home in search of a new spiritual foundation to restart the providence of salvation. Now without a family and household, Jesus lamented, "Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head." (Matt. 8:20) Having lost his family-level foundation, Jesus sought to replace it. This was his threeyear course. The history of the providence of salvation from the viewpoint of the Principle In the end, as people disbelieved and the disciples lost faith, Jesus endured satan's attack and, as his foundation crumbled, he went the way of the cross. Originally, Jesus came to the earth as the Messiah to give blessings to his disciples and all humankind. He was to build the sinless kingdom of heaven. Because of the lack of faith in him, Jesus could not receive his bride, they could not become the True Parents, and he could not complete his mission. This is why he promised to return. The Lord of the Second Advent comes to complete the foundation of God's providence of restoration left uncompleted by Jesus. That is to say, he comes as the seed of the original true child to complete the ideal of creation. He comes to complete the ideal of True Parents, who are the origin of the true love, true life and true lineage of God. He comes on the victorious foundation of the fundamental providence of God's side up to the time of Jesus. He also stands upon the victorious foundation of Jesus' life and will find the bride that Jesus could not find. Together they become the True Parents to save all humankind. Through the marriage Blessing that passes on God's original blood lineage, the True Parents will be able to give salvation to all humanity. People will become true persons engrafting into the true love, true life and true lineage of God. Furthermore, the Messiah will establish a true family, creating the kingdom of heaven on earth. Thus, it is the international holy weddings that establish this new blood lineage when the Lord of the Second Advent comes in the flesh. On the level of the great worldwide family, the Lord indemnifies that which was lost in the family of Adam and restores the true eldest sonship, true parentship, and true kingship Adam's family was to have realized. He will transform this world into the kingdom of heaven on earth under the dominion of God, opening the kingdom of heaven in the spirit world for registration. Humanity will enter into the era of kingship both spiritually and physically centered on God, establishing a world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, and create the heavenly kingdom on earth and in the spirit world, which is God's ideal of creation. This is the "View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation." I hope that in the future all of you can also receive this joyous new marriage Blessing. Distinguished leaders of this nation and honored guests! I would like to express again my deepest appreciation to you for corning here this evening to celebrate the inauguration of The Washington Times Foundation. In particular, I sincerely congratulate those who are being honored as the first recipients of The Washington Times Foundation National Service Award for making a positive contribution to this society. Thank you very much. 9 • Liberation of God's Homeland July 13, 2001 National Assembly Building, Seoul, Korea Federation for World Peace and Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace Rev. Sun Myung Moon invitational lecture Respected guests from home and abroad, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the members of the National Assembly of Korea and the distinguished guests who have come to participate in this meaningful gathering despite your busy schedules. I am honored to have this valuable time to speak to you in this great chamber of the National Assembly, which, from the viewpoint of God's providential history, represents all the people of Korea. This year, which marks the beginning of the new millennium, I held the Enthronement Ceremony for the Kingship of God on January 13. Then, in the fifty-two-day period from February 25 to April 17, I successfully completed a fifty-state speaking tour of the United States, in which I addressed the public in fifty-two cities and also spoke before members of the United States Congress and at the United Nations. During this time I addressed more than one hundred thousand religious leaders, mainly from the Christian faith. I presented a course that is based on God's Will and that all people need to follow, those in the spirit world as well as the physical world. Furthermore, I visited Uruguay and, at a gathering of current and former heads of state and leaders from the nations of South America, I opened the South American headquarters of the Federation for Cosmic Peace and Unity. I also renewed and restructured the organization. For the purpose of realizing a world of peace, I educated some seventy thousand leaders representing all levels of society from one hundred ninety-one nations of the world, appointed Ambassadors for Peace in six continents, and returned to Korea after having prepared this international foundation for the reunification of our homeland. *** After my return, from July 3 to 12, I held the "Rally to Establish God's Homeland" in twelve major cities of the Republic of Korea. At the rally I proclaimed that the time has come to create God's homeland, where He can take root in this land He has chosen. I emphasized that we all need to step forward to become pillars for the reunification of the homeland. When I was sixteen years old, I met Jesus Christ in the early morning of Easter Sunday. Since then I have embarked on this path of God's desire in order to accomplish His Will and to liberate Him from sorrow. I persevered unyieldingly for the past eighty years of my life, even as I was subjected to all forms of misunderstanding and persecution. I exerted myself fully until now to realize a world of peace based on true, ideal families. In particular, in accordance with God's command, I went to the United States in 1971. I invested my entire being for thirty-plus years so that the United States could understand and fulfill its God-given mission as the Second Israel on the global level. During the past couple of years, through hundreds of conferences for United States leaders, I urged politicians and religious leaders to transcend their political affiliations and denominations to work together cooperatively for the sake of their community, their nation and the world. In addition, through the fifty-state speaking tour I strongly encouraged clergy to go beyond their denominations and unite in solidarity. In reality, through an association of churches formed by the American Clergy Leadership Conference, one hundred and forty-four thousand churches are leading a movement for world salvation. At the same time, I proclaimed at the United Nations the need for a movement to abolish all types of divisions between nations for the sake of world peace. This proposal is already being implemented vigorously. The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace is leading this movement, which has expanded rapidly across the oceans from the UN headquarters to all of the world's continents. The World Association of NonGovernmental Organizations (WANGO), a UN-affiliated NGO, is playing a central role in this effort. Ladies and gentlemen, we now are ushering in the era of a new millennium, corresponding to the seventh millennium in biblical history and the third millennium since the time ofJesus. Throughout human history God has longed for peace, and through religion humankind has also dreamed of an era of peace. Now is the time when this era of peace shall take root on earth. Human beings have been looking forward to the time when God's ideal of creation is realized. Starting with the appearance of an individual whose mind and body are completely united, with God at the center, we will see the emergence of a perfected family, society, nation, world and cosmos based on true love. Therefore, this era refers to fulfillment of the Completed Testament Age, when the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth is established, the covenant prophesied in the Old and New Testaments of the Bible is fulfilled, and the spirit world is perfected. The Completed Testament Age means an era in which all people receive the holy marriage Blessing at the original standard. Until now, everything created by God was unable to stand within the realm of the Blessing due to the Fall of the first human ancestors. God, however, raised numerous religions, focusing on Christianity, and educated people along the path of the providence of salvation. He gradually raised their spiritual standard to enable them to usher in the Completed Testament Age. In concert with this, all of us have become substantial fruits of faith, completing God's providence of salvation to restore the foundation for kingship on the cosmic level. That process began with kingship on the level of the true individual and expanded to kingship on the levels of the true family, tribe, people, nation and world. Eventually we were able to attain the position to hold the original Enthronement Ceremony for the Kingship of God. -This ceremony can be held on that foundation only when all people in heaven and earth form true families and nations, receive the Blessing and create one lineage, one human race with a single, united lineage. Ladies and gentlemen, if you consider love, life and lineage, which of these is most important to human beings? Many people say that love is most valuable. However, no matter how valuable love and life are, they are horizontal in the sense that they end in a single generation. However, lineage is vertical and is passed down through the generations for eternity. That is why lineage is most important. In the original world, had the Fall never occurred, a true family would have been formed with God at the center. A family of true sons and daughters, a true lineage, would have been established. To become a child of true parents, there must be a connection of lineage. It would be absolutely impossible to link the terms "parent'' and "child" unless they were connected by lineage. Once this lineage was established, not even God could cut it apart. Not even fallen satan could divide it. That is why the true lineage, received through True Parents' Blessing, can restore through indemnity the mistakes of the Old and New Testament Ages. By engrafting onto God's lineage, which is the original standard, even a field of false olive trees can go beyond the realm of life and death. Such involves becoming one in body, heart and mind with the lineage of the true olive tree, based on true love. satan cannot interfere with people who have determined in their hearts to transcend even the realm of life and death on the levels of the individual, family, people, nation and world, no matter what the sacrifice. Once you go beyond the national standard, you have already entered the realm of perfection, the realm of God's direct dominion. It then becomes impossible to enter into a relationship with satan. If Jesus had been able to marry, he would not have gone the way of the cross. No one would have been able to kill him. That is because he would have been able to connect with the realm of God's direct dominion under the ideal of being God's object partner. In terms of the Principle, he would have satisfied the standard of having completed his portion of responsibility. That is why he would have entered the realm of God's direct dominion, which is connected to God's lineage. There would have been no way for satan to sever this connection. During the process of growth, the first human ancestors were not able to reach the position of uniting with God's heart; they fell. That was the problem. If Adam and Eve had become a couple and engaged only in true love, they never would have fallen. satan would not have been able to tear them apart. Yet, in their course of growth, they represented fruit that had not fully ripened If you plant a fruit in the ground before it is ripe, its seed will never produce a root. It does not have eternal life and will be disposed of as if it were devoid of life. That place is hell. It is a place that is unrelated to God The parent-child relationship has to be connected with True Parents' lineage. It cannot simply connect to that lineage on its own accord. The lineages of a man and a woman have to be combined. Under the fundamental laws of the universe, human beings were created and are to be perfected when the inner nature and external form of their lineages unite as one. They can be perfected when the mind, representing the inner nature, and the body, representing the external form, rejoice together in love. Each family needs to stand in the position of substantial object partner of the perfected Adam's family, which is like a large and substantial tree. Then each family is expected to multiply and expand to form "branch factories'' that in turn will produce countless citizens of the heavenly nation. Thus, God in the spirit world and substantial parents on earth can live together on earth and cooperate in producing heavenly citizens, who can then form a united body living eternally in the spirit world. When the citizens of the heavenly world and earthly world unite, with the earth as the center, the ideal kingdom of God on earth and in heaven will be completed. Who will deliver that kingship to God? Who was the one who made a mess of the kingship in the first place? It was satan, Adam and Eve. Adam and Eve did not become true parents. They allowed satan to enter their relationship and did not establish the standard of true parents' lineage on earth. Due to the Fall, satan's lineage took root. Neither God nor satan can negate and reverse this completely. It is difficult for satan himself to destroy the nation he has been building until now. Nobody likes someone remodeling something that they made with devotion. It is the same with satan. God cannot reverse this lineage. If He could, He would not have lost Adam's family in the garden of Eden in the first place. There was no principle that allowed God to touch it. Then who can touch that which God could not touch? It is perfected Adam, in his original state before the Fall. The only family that can be in the position of the original, true family is none other than the family of the true Adam and Eve. The issue is the center. Can restoration be completed without a center? What is at the center of blessed families? Who gives the Blessing? It is the True Parents. Who officiates at the marriage ceremony? Who bestows the Blessing at that marriage ceremony, connecting your children, who resemble their parents, to God's lineage? Were it not for the Fall of humankind, all parents, who would have been in the position of true parents, would have given the Blessing to their children. Until today, someone in the position of the archangel has led weddings. Thus, a famous person or someone well known in society officiates at the wedding. It is like climbing up a ladder that is lying on the ground. These days, the order of marriage is a total mess. Marriage cannot be done randomly. It needs to be done in the proper order. Yet people do it in reverse and make a fuss about it these days. Restoration means to line up with the proper order. Originally the first son and second son were to marry in the order of their birth. Sexual decadence has now reached serious proportions. Incestuous relationships are proliferating. I am referring to fornication. In some nations a grandfather may live with his granddaughter or a father-in-law may live with his daughter-in-law. These kinds of incestuous relationships are spreading. People going into the spirit world do not know the central standard and thus live following their lusts. If this is not hell on earth, then what is? Who will resolve this entire mess? Even God was unable to intervene when Adam and Eve fell in the garden of Eden. He could not even interfere in the marriage satan conducted. Then would He be able to intervene at all in the Last Days? Eventually false love, false life and the false parents entangled everything into a false lineage. Therefore, the True Parents need to come and restore this situation through indemnity. In other words, they have to completely negate and reverse this situation and fulfill God's Will. The biblical phrase "those who lose their life will find it" means that until indemnity is paid, anything that lives in the world of death can remain alive only if it has the strength to live beyond death, to go through this world to the place of death. A person who is saddened by death or feels like running away from it will not enjoy the realm of resurrection for eternity. That is why the Bible says that those who try to make their life secure will lose their life, while those who lose their life will find it. It is the same in the case of God and True Parents. What about people who say they are going to the heavenly nation? Even God has to go to the place of death in order to save that life. Otherwise, it cannot have the support it needs to live. When using a rope to save someone who fell off a cliff, you need to pull that person up with all your strength. Only when your standard is higher than this can people and even God gain life. Don't people in the modern world talk about freedom? No matter how good the structure of the modern education system may be, your concept of freedom still lies within the fallen realm. You cannot understand the value of freedom from an individualistic perspective. What about the notion of freedom for the tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos? How will you help people understand the issues from the broader perspective? Rev. Moon has been teaching that we have to develop a holistic outlook toward the individual, family, society, nation, world, cosmos and God, and that we need to liberate God. I began from the lowest level and rose to the highest level of liberating God. How did I accomplish this? I began by uniting my mind and body. From the position of absolutely uniting your mind and body, you can advance to the levels of the family, nation, world and God. No matter how much you want to reach the higher positions, you cannot do so if you hold on to an individualistic perspective. That concept is your enemy. It is God's enemy, the enemy of the religious world, the enemy of the world of conscience and the enemy of the Kingdom of Heaven. It is the enemy of all because it is connected to the position of satan, the archangel. Promiscuity, homosexual love and drug addiction potentially lead to infection with the virus that causes AIDS. Drug abuse and AIDS are threatening to devastate humankind. It is reported that in Africa, AIDS is reaching dangerous proportions. If you consider the fact that the AIDS virus is dormant for eight to twelve years, it is not impossible to imagine that the population of a given area could be wiped out in two generations. Non-governmental organizations affiliated with the United Nations are burdened with many problems. If you asked them to do the most difficult tasks, would they present anyone to carry them out? Officials at these NGOs may point out many issues related to the current regimes and social ills. However, do they talk about the role of the UN or about digesting communism and humanism or other core issues, as I have done? You can debate with me only if you can address such high-level issues; otherwise, you cannot These organizations do not know how to solve problems such as the degradation of youth, family breakdown, drug addiction and AIDS, and they especially do not know how to establish a pure lineage. Leaders of nations and global institutions such as the UN do not know the solutions to such problems. They just say whether something seems right to them or not. Now that I have completed the Enthronement for God's Kingship, I will teach the world's leaders clearly about the steps that need to be taken. The problem until now was the problem of restoring the lineage. Lineage is the most important factor. Being a social organization, a government, or a school makes no difference. There are many nations in the world; none of them is connected to God's lineage. They are all under the dominion of satan. There is nothing they can do about this, except to follow the way of God and True Parents. If they do not, they have no center. What will you do now, in this era of the new millennium? Until now, God had not been liberated and True Parents had not been liberated. I tell you, do not fear. The liberated Parents of Heaven and Earth and their children have emerged through the establishment of God's kingship. Do not be afraid, even if you find yourself in prison. If there were people who wanted to go to God's kingdom quickly, what a blessing it would be if they could go when they were young! Would it damage anything? Why reject this opportunity when the entirety of the universe and heaven is in your grasp, with you as its owner? You don't have to worry whether you live or die. Do you know how to perfect your individuality? Do you know the path by which to unite the mind and body of an individual? The power of love that carries on satan's lineage from the Fall has been stronger than the power of the conscience. That is the problem. Whatever happens, do not obey the commands of your body. From now on, here is the ironclad rule you need to follow: First, at the cost of your life, do not stain the pure lineage that Heaven bequeathed to you. Second, do not violate human rights through erroneous personnel decisions. Men and women, whites and blacks are all equal. I am urging you not to exercise prejudice against others or violate their human rights. Leaders cannot dismiss a person just because they don't like that person. The mainstream guidance on human rights consists of becoming people who have true love, that is, people who live with love for the sake of others. God created heaven and earth based on that principle. Discarding that mainstream belief system is unforgivable. It is the second sin of all sins. The third rule is to not steal public money and to not use public money for your personal purposes. These are the three rules. All of these problems originated from fallen Adam as an individual, and his family. More than seventy percent of the people in jail are there for these very reasons. If you go to prison, you can confirm this fact The prisoners violated human rights or stained the lineage and were incarcerated because of problems in relationships between men and women. The next problem is that of money and power. In this regard, money, knowledge and power are your enemies. Those who received the Blessing belong to God's lineage and carry on God's true love and true life. Thus, you must not stain the lineage wot the habits you acquired while living in the fallen world. Can you protect the lineage? Whether you are a couple or a single individual without a partner, today can be the day that you resolve and pledge not to stain the perfect lineage. Article One of the constitution of the heavenly nation is "You shall not stain the lineage; you shall preserve its purity and eternally protect the pure lineage." Article Two is "You shall not violate human rights." Article Three is "You shall not embezzle public moneY." This constitution is absolutely necessary for all of you to maintain the kingship of the heavenly nation and become its people, a parent, a spouse, a child and siblings before that kingship. That is why you must not ignore your elder sibling. You must not ignore your younger sibling just because he or she is physically challenged. University graduates who believe they are knowledgeable may not disregard those who have only a high school diploma. That would constitute a violation of human rights. Destroying the public environment is just as serious as embezzling national assets. People who live like that will not receive heavenly fortune. No matter how hard they try, they will not be successful. The entire universe dislikes those who are indebted to others. If a person in a particular clan causes a problem, he or she will be driven out of that clan. When living according to God's laws, in what kind of environment and with what kind of people do you live in order to say that you are living well? It is simple. There are three ways: It is within a parent-child relationship, conjugal relationship and relationship between siblings. Siblings are children with common parents. The relationship between such children is that of siblings. In your family, you have a mother and father, a husband and wife, and brothers and sisters. Therefore, just as I have relationships with my siblings, likewise, through our parents our first cousins and third cousins of our in-laws are all related. That is why the fundamental relationships in a family are the parent-child relationship, conjugal relationship and sibling relationship. Once the parent -child relationship is established, relationships between siblings are automatically generated. If you cannot present your family as an example, you are not living in the right way. That is why, during your life, you need to set the example in front of your parents, husband and wife and children. Only then are you living well. What will happen when you are prospering in this way? The family model resonates with the models of the nation and the kingdom of heaven. We give an award to a family that has lived according to the ideal of the four-position foundation, where the three generations of the grandfather and grandmother, father and mother, and children have lived in that way. That is why no one can exclude a person from the heavenly nation if that person, when living as a subject partner, influenced and reconciled others under the joint responsibility found in the sibling relationship, or the relationship between children. From now, if you live while upholding this law, you will surely become part of the royal family of the heavenly nation and become a family endowed with freedom, unity and liberation wherever you go. That is why today I am designating this as the motto for commencing the third millennium. On the one hand, we have to take the lead in protecting the pure lineage, the standardization of human rights, and the assets of the nation. On the other hand, we have to become the model for relationships between parents and children, husband and wife, and siblings. If everyone in the village can say, "I want to follow that person;' and, "I want to emulate that person and live with that person." then he or she surely will become a citizen of the kingdom of God and one who is remembered in the heavenly nation. I, Rev. Moon, also am living in this way. I taught you three central and ironclad rules, the most important rules that were proclaimed at the Enthronement for God's Kingship. All people need to uphold these rules and thereby be public persons. These rules must never be violated, not in the family and not in the nation. You need to know clearly about the heavenly world at this time of the Completed Testament Age, when God's omnipotence, omniscience, full authority and true love are manifested directly on the earth. I pray that you will study diligently about the spirit world, receive the Blessing with God in the central position, form families of the true lineage, and prepare for eternal life through a lifestyle of living for the sake of others. People now have to know that the time has come for the establishment of the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven and the fulfillment of God's ideal. They need to invest their efforts to perceive the hand of heavenly fortune, which cannot be compared with our limited abilities. A person who walks the path of a filial son, patriot, saint and divine child, spreading Heaven's true love with warmth and humility in the presence of the living God, shall be blessed to belong to the kingdom of God. Ladies and gentlemen, the twenty-first century, with which the new millennium has commenced, is a time to eradicate the relics of division and conflict from past centuries and to realize the vision of one great global family of reconciliation and unity. I understood from early on God's Will in choosing the Korean people to establish a new world based on a culture of peace. Thus, for the past fiftyplus years, I have been investing my entire self in building a foundation for the reunification of the Korean peninsula, on the platform of a movement based on Head-wing Thought and Godism, in Korea and abroad. To this day I have been advocating Godism. This is the only teaching that will integrate the conflicting value systems of theism and atheism and, as it does, liberate humankind from secular humanism. This truth has already been validated by leaders of different nations of the world and by many scholars in the academic circles of philosophy and ideology. Honorable members of the National Assembly, ladies and gentlemen with the grand mission ofleading the Korean people to leap and soar into the world, let us all establish our value system with Godism based on true love, and rise up to empower our people with this teaching nationwide. Let us make this movement for the reunification of Korea as part of our faith, for the sake of ourselves the Korean people, and world peace. Let us become individuals and leaders who can spearhead this movement for the unification of the Korean peninsula, South and North, with true love so that we can live together with a heart ofloving even one's enemy! On the occasion of the era of God's kingship, let us all become partners in establishing the reunification of Korea, placing God at the center. Let us create a world based on the culture of God's heart that transcends nations and achieve the liberation of God's hometown and homeland. I pray that God's blessings may be with your nation and family for all eternity. 10 • The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity October 29, 2001 Hotel Riviera Yuseong, Daejeon, Korea Korea Rally for the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity Respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen: At this transitional point in human history, we have gathered as leaders from around the world who are concerned about the unification of Korea and world peace. The tragedies that took place in New York, Washington DC. and Pennsylvania on September 11 truly shocked the entire world. Along with our concerns over peace and safety, we have come to reflect upon fundamental and serious questions of modern civilization and the future of humanity. The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations held a timely and significant conference in New York on October 19-22. These two organizations, both of which I founded, brought together more than four hundred participants from one hundred and one countries. The participants included current and former heads of state, top leaders of major religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Buddhism and Confucianism, and representatives of academia and non-governmental organizations. The participants debated seriously on how to find peaceful solutions to today's crises. Our homeland, the Korean peninsula, remains a divided country and a trouble spot that, along with the Middle East, attracts the world's attention. In my opening address at the New York conference, I communicated my vision for lasting and fundamental peace. Again I would like to share my view with you leaders assembled here today. The title of my address is "The Nation and World of Peace Sought by God and Humanity." Throughout history, people have continuously aspired to a world of peace, but we have never realized that dream. Consider the end of the Cold War, which concluded a time of fierce political and military conflicts and struggles. Many people expected that the long-awaited era of peace and stability would arrive, supported by our highly developed science and technology. Nonetheless, we came to realize that the seed of conflict, hatred and selfish desire embedded deeply within each of us is still alive, and is creating ever more serious disasters in new shapes and forms. Violence against innocent people is certainly an inhumane criminal act, and it must be stopped. However, what can eradicate our inner conflicts and struggles and resolve fundamental human problems at their root? Where was the seed of hatred, conflict and struggle sown, and how did it come to be rooted so deeply within us? That seed was planted in the family of our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. The conflicts and struggles that resulted have continued from generation to generation until the present time. Then how can we resolve those conflicts and realize peace on earth? Historically, people have attempted to overcome conflicts and pursue peace through economic, political, diplomatic and military means. However, such methods obviously do not provide fundamental solutions, as we are still struggling with many unresolved problems. There is only one fundamental way to resolve these issues. It is clear and simple. We must restore the family that our first ancestors lost; that is, the ideal family with God at its center, the family that has achieved perfection in true love, both vertically and horizontally. God exists as the Original Being of true love and the invisible True Parent of humankind. Nonetheless, love cannot exist alone. It exists in relationships, and it bears fruit only through relationships. That is why God created us, as His children, through whom He would seek to realize true love. God's first blessing to human beings, to "be fruitful" (Gen. 1:28), called God's children to become the object partners of His true love by becoming true persons. When we love someone, we want our object partner to be better than ourselves. Thus God, as our loving Parent, wants His children to be better than He is. That is why God repeatedly invests Himself in human beings, His object partners of love; He forgets about what He has already given while constantly desiring to give infinitely more and more love. This is so because love has its origin in the desire to live eternally for the sake of others. God then bestowed the second Blessing, to "multiply" (Gen. 1:28). Our first ancestors were to have grown to maturity as the children of God. After reaching maturity and becoming one in heart with God, they were to be blessed as true husband and wife. Then they were to become substantial True Parents to their children, inheriting and passing on true love, true life and true lineage from God. God's ideal of creation was to perfect true love both vertically and horizontally, beginning in the first family of our common ancestors. Since God's love is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, that family also was to have been the absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal family, centered on true love. Human beings were to be the substantial embodiments of love, totally united with God in heart, and obtaining perfect freedom, happiness and the realization of all ideals. Then they would have become the lords of true love whom all beings in the universe would have loved and welcomed. This was God's third blessing (Gen. 1:28). This is the blessing to create a living environment in which we experience joy and happiness, having dominion over all of creation. This includes the care and preservation of the world's ecological balance as true stewards of the creation. Tragically, our first ancestors could not inherit the three blessings of God and establish the family of true love. That means they did not become true individuals, true spouses, true parents and true lords centered on true love. Because they disobeyed God, He expelled them from the garden of Eden. As fallen people, they became false spouses to each other with false love that had nothing to do with God's blessings. They gave birth to children and those children multiplied to populate the world of today. Since the Fall occurred at the very beginning of human history, people have not been born on the foundation of true love, in attendance to God. Instead, we have lived in a state of conflict, struggling between our minds and bodies. This conflict manifested in the tragedy of hatred and murder between two brothers, Cain and Abel, in the first family. This was the miserable reality in that family once it departed from God. A family built on human relationships alone cannot become a family of the original ideal of creation. An ideal family must connect to God vertically and have a true person as its axis. Only under the true love of true parents, and among siblings who have and share a common axis, can a family enjoy relationships of ultimate harmony and peace. True love is experienced within an ideal family that bears good fruit. The family is the original and best school of love. Neither power nor knowledge can create true love. Honorable leaders! What do you feel when you look at the reality of our society and the youth in our contemporary world? Do you feel hope for a bright future? I believe that you must agonize over the increasing rates of crime, violence, drug abuse, immorality, corruption, teen pregnancy and so forth. These arise out of a confusion of values, and portend greater darkness enveloping our youth. How did we arrive at this point? Better school systems and social improvements might have delayed the onset of these problems, but would not address their fundamental cause, which is the breakdown and loss of our families. This breakdown is a product of the time we are living in, a time when humankind is harvesting the fruit sown when we lost the first family of true love. It was that family's failure to realize true love that has led to phenomena associated with family breakdown, including individual breakdown, as well as countless problems on the national and worldwide levels. Of particular concern is the emotional instability of youth, which leads to diminishing life goals, spiritual aimlessness, and unhealthy, self-destructive lifestyles. World leaders who are concerned about the future have to be very serious in order to solve the real problems of young people avoiding marriage, rampant divorce and so forth; trends that destroy the fundamental foundation of families. Having lost the first and second blessings, humankind does not understand the importance of completing one's individual growth, which is the foundation for sacred and eternal conjugal love. Most of our young people are not aware of the importance of keeping purity before marriage and reaching personal maturity through true love. This is why they do not understand the value of true love, which is the fundamental root of joy, happiness and all ideals. The tendency to make light of trust and fidelity between husband and wife and to ignore the sacredness of marriage is an internal cause of indescribable disasters and tragedies for humankind. True love has been driven out by the so-called free love culture, in which people seek only sexual release as the cardinal yet momentary pleasure. The rapid spread of HIVAIDS and sexually transmitted diseases threatens the very existence of the human race. It is said that there is no safety zone against the AIDS virus. A greater terror than the terrorism from which the entire world has been trembling is before us. Once contracted, its victims must give up their dreams for happiness, ideals and life itself. Unless we resolve this catastrophe plaguing our planet, how can we consider ourselves leaders? Nor have we taken responsibility for the third blessing endowed by God, to "have dominion over the creation." This requires that we take care of all creatures with true love. What would happen if the natural world were to rebel against the abuse and misuse it suffers at the hands of human beings who lord over it? Are not those symptoms beginning to appear? Before the natural world punishes our intolerable arrogance we have to stand before nature in true love as people of restored integrity. Respected leaders, in order to examine today's problem at a more fundamental level, I would like to consider the relationship between the true "I" and the true "we" in the context of God's ideal of creation. As a result of the Fall, human beings did not achieve the position of the true "I." For this reason, God has never been able to use the word "we." That is to say that God has never been able to stand within the realm of the consciousness of His ideal of creation and establish a relationship that would allow him to say, "This is my creation" or "This is my child." So our present concept of "I" has no relationship with the original ideal of God's creation, and it is for this reason that we have to deny ourselves absolutely. God has conducted His restoration providence so that He could establish true men and true women, that is, His sons and daughters, whom He could freely include within His concept of "we." Because God is the subject partner of love, life and lineage, He sought true sons and daughters who would live eternally with a complete and unbreakable standard. To achieve that, we first have to perfect our individual character through uniting our mind and body and, on that foundation, to build a vertical parent- child relationship with God. A vertical relationship by itself, however, is not sufficient to bring the word "we" into being. We also need to create a horizontal relationship in harmony with the vertical. To do this, man and woman must form a true husband-wife relationship through a Blessed marriage, bear children, build a true family and form a four-position foundation involving three generations. Only then will God use the word "we" with reference to a family unit. How, then, can we advance to such a position? God created all things from a position in which His mind and body were completely one. His creation was an act of total investment involving absolute love and absolute faith. There was no possibility that He would consider His own interests or situation. This was the fountainhead of love that seeks to give one hundred percent and then still continues giving. This is true for God and it is true for our families as well. Parents, who stand in the position of God, have to invest themselves completely and absolutely with true love. In terms of the logic of origin-division- union, they give birth and rear children from the position of the origin, thus establishing a vertical axis for the concept of"we." If the husband and wife, who stand in the position of division from the origin, become one with each other based on true love, they will establish the horizontal axis. Then the children, who are in the position of union, will align themselves automatically with the vertical and horizontal axes and become one; they will establish a new axis reaching from front to back. There will be an original family that accomplishes this, substantiating the concept of "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally and front to back. This is the reason the family is so important; it is the most valuable gift given to us from Heaven. If the environment we call the family did not exist, how would we establish this absolute standard of "I?" If not for the family, we would never even dare to think of a "we" that is complete vertically, horizontally and front to back. The cradle of love, peace and happiness is nothing other than this family. How, then, do we establish the true "I?'' This is possible only through a life of true love for the sake of others. The person who denies him or herself completely, to the point of selflessness, and lives for the sake of the family, for the sake of the nation, for the sake of all humanity and for the sake of God, will automatically establish the true "I." We must never put ourselves forward arrogantly and use the word "I" in a casual manner. God has worked, steeped in grief in the back alleys of history, to push forward His providence of restoration. His only desire has been to establish children who could speak of the true "I." Anyone who knows this heart of God can never claim the word "I" for him or herself in a casual manner. When we establish God's original ideal for world peace and the ideal families for which God has been waiting for tens of thousands of years, we will have the starting point for the kingdom of heaven on earth. Beginning there, we will be able to resolve the grief of the pitiable God. I would like to call upon everyone here to join with me. First, let us work to establish the true "I" that can look at the sun without shame, look at the ocean with a clear conscience, and have nothing to hide before nature. Then let us establish the family to which God will refer as a part of His "we." In this way, we must establish a relationship of true parents and children between God and ourselves. Furthermore, God, who is the True Parent of humanity and the origin of love, life and lineage, is the ancestor of humanity and the true King who reigns over all. God lost the positions of ancestor and King as a result of the human ancestors' Fall in the garden of Eden. In accordance with the progress of the providence of restoration, I declared the return to the ocean, to the land, to the cosmos and to the realm of the heart of the fourth Adam. Then, on January 13, 2001, I performed the historic "Enthronement Ceremony of the Kingship of God." Adam's family, as the first human family, should have become the godly ancestors of humanity and set the foundation for the institution of the family. Originally, the king of the family eventually would have inherited the positions of king of the nation and king of the cosmos. Only in that way was humanity to have connected to the heavenly realm of the original ideal. We can institute the king of the nation because the age of indemnity is ending and we are entering the age of settlement through the process of family registration. This will develop further into the kingship of the world. This is why, on the occasion of True Children's Day, 2000, I declared that the Parents of Heaven and Earth now reign as King of the family in the Unification Church. This means that we are now able to enter the age in which families that have been registered can attend the Heavenly Parent as our King. Thus, each Blessed family must be aware of its responsibility to establish the tradition of humanity attending the King of heaven and earth. This is the reason that the age of the church has ended and the age of the Family Federation has begun. The entire universe is linked as one connected body centered on one nucleus. Each one of our families must stand in the position of this nucleus, nurture the creation and love all creatures that God created in love. By loving God's creation, which exists in His love, we can stand in the position of true owners. If you can feel that your family is like one body that constitutes a realm of true love before God, your family can stand as a cornerstone of the place of settlement where you can attend the King and the Parents of heaven and earth. This is how you become a blessed family and inherit the realm of victory. Respected leaders! Now is the time for humanity to voluntarily repudiate all pride, ignorance, selfishness and hatred. Let us follow the laws of heaven and be humble before God. Ever since God called me at the tender age of sixteen, I have committed myself totally to the realization of world peace, which has been God's deepest wish. At this time, I would like to set forth several crucial steps that are necessary for bringing peace to the world. First, live for the sake of others. A self-centered life not only causes discomfort, it also violates the laws of heaven. Living for the sake of others, on the other hand, is the way we can resemble God. Loving our family, our community, our nation and the world is the way to inherit God's true love and it is the way to live in accord with the fundamental order of the universe. Only through practicing true love can we become true individuals, true parents, true teachers and true lords. Only then can we finally become the leaders who can bring about peace on earth. A life of living for the sake of others opens the gate to peace. In this sense, the path to peace ultimately must be based on Godism, or head-wing thought. This is the teaching that can reconcile and embrace all sides in a conflict from the seed to the fruit, by dealing with the starting point of conflict in the relationship between Cain and Abel. How can we break the chain of hatred and violence that we perpetrate against one another? Returning hatred in response to hatred only leads to more hatred, terror and destruction; this is certainly not the path to peace. We can touch, educate and reconcile the conflicting parties only by true love. True love that places God in the center disregards national boundaries; therefore it is international. True love transcends the high walls dividing religions and races; therefore it is interreligious and interracial. True love centered on God's ideal of living for the sake of others can generate the power to touch a person's heart and spirit. Only by true love can the various reasons and causes of conflicts on earth be overcome, whether the confrontation is between right and left, front and rear, above and below, or inner and outer. Only by true love can we establish a world of eternal peace. Second, the family is the fundamental unit for building peaceful nations and ultimately a peaceful world. As I already mentioned, the root of conflict originated in the first family. Therefore, until the family of the True Parents appears, it is impossible for us to enter the era of world peace. The international Blessings that I promote worldwide are not the wedding ceremony of a particular religion, they are a movement to save all nations and the world. We teach youth to keep their purity before marriage and, when they reach adulthood, to marry with the Blessing of God. However, as a condition to receive the marriage Blessing, they first pledge to their spouse that they will maintain absolute trust and fidelity. Thus, the Blessing is a holy movement to build true families and lift up each couple as true parents who live according to the standard of true love. Families built upon such an ideal and such an education have no need to feel threatened by the AIDS virus. For them, preventing AIDS is easier than preventing a cold or flu. If we educate the youth of the world in this vision and practice it, we will completely eliminate the AIDS epidemic and also eliminate the scourge of family breakdown. Further, these families of true love will serve as the cornerstone for peaceful nations and a peaceful world. In particular, if individuals of enemy nations, who have lived in discord throughout history, come together in true love as in-laws, their reconciliation will bring nations and races together. It is a high wall to overcome. Nevertheless, here is the supreme formula for bringing true peace to the world: bring together children from enemy families and nations for the "exchange marriage Blessing." These interreligious and international families can build a realm of Blessing, perfecting true families of true love that both heaven and earth desire. From that point, the world of eternal peace that God and all humankind have desired will begin. Third, interreligious reconciliation and cooperation is an essential condition for world peace. I have campaigned tirelessly for interreligious harmony and dialogue. We have always devoted a far greater proportion of funding to that purpose than for the growth and development of the Unification Church. Do you think that practicing such sacrificial love with an unchanging heart is easy? By no means! However, we cannot expect world peace unless religious people reconcile and cooperate. World peace is the original ideal of God; therefore religious leaders and believers need to be the guides who lead people to peace. If religions only emphasize narrow-minded denominationalism and fail to teach true love for God and the universe, we will never free humankind from the horrors of war. In the face of this global crisis, religious leaders have to practice true love, humbly following God's Will, walking hand in hand beyond the perimeters of their own religion. The inner power of religion touches our hearts and can recreate us as citizens of peace. It can cultivate our ability to practice self-control from within and it can overcome historical hatreds and resentments among us. This is the root from which true peace and stability arise. If religions demonstrate love for each other, cooperate with each other, and serve each other, putting the higher ideal of peace ahead of their particular doctrines, rituals and cultural backgrounds, the world will change dramatically. Fourth, I once again emphasize the proper role of the United Nations in realizing world peace. As a representative organization for world peace, the UN has made many contributions. Last year, I presented my proposals to solve the fundamental problems plaguing this world, given that its circumstances have changed and the complex situations in which nations find themselves today are unlike those at the time of the UN' s founding. One of these proposals was to establish a special body that would discuss and evaluate the religious, spiritual and moral dimensions of world problems. The UN must serve the world and God's ideal of creation effectively. To do so, it has to transcend the power of politics and national diplomacy, which reflect the motives of nations ruled by self-interest. Only then can it truly protect the human rights of all peoples and nations and build world peace. This is not limited to the United Nations. Maintaining order in the world and protecting public prosperity and peace will be impossible as long as political sovereignty operates on the principle of national self-interest, and ignores and undermines moral and spiritual values. High-level leaders have to ground themselves spiritually and morally upon God's ideal and govern according to universal principles. No political power or earthly authority stands above God and the laws of Heaven. Moreover, the UN has to listen to and embrace many of the views of the non-governmental organizations. This is the reason we established WANGO. I encourage all NGOs, while not losing your original founding spirit, to dialogue and cooperate with one another. I request that you continue to be of service to the world, to be unselfish, and to stay free of corruption. Respected leaders! A person who only talks about world peace without practicing it is not a true leader. Given the current world situation, we cannot leisurely sit back and wait for the arrival of world peace. It is a time of urgency. Each of us, the ambassadors for peace and everyone else, has to hold back nothing for the creation of world peace. Let us all take active roles as leaders in the movement for peace. I wish and hope that, centered on the peace embassies, all international organizations including the United Nations will participate actively in the movement for world peace. It is our historic quest. Let us be united in mind and heart. Let us become pioneers for world peace, by first building ideal families of true love and living for the sake of others. May God's hand be upon you and bless you forever. Thank you very much. 11 • With Heartfelt Love and Thanks February 15, 2002 Hilton Hotel, Seoul, Korea World Culture and Sports Festival 2002 and General Assembly of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (True Mother's speech) Distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: I am very happy to welcome you to the opening ceremony of the 2002 World Culture and Sports Festival in my homeland, Korea. I have witnessed many miraculous changes taking place in Korea throughout my life. I hope those who are visiting Korea for the first time will be able to experience Korean culture and see with your own eyes how it has developed in leaps and bounds. We began the new millennium with the expectation that, if we utilized all our modern technology, surely we could bring about a world of peace and prosperity and end the violence and pain of the past. However, in reality, a series of events that occurred last year demonstrated otherwise. Even though we are enjoying incredible comforts and benefits from a remarkable material civilization, we are still unable to resolve the serious conflicts that persist due to moral confusion, as different cultures are based on different value systems. Today's world is troubled by moral and ethical relativism. My husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon, has dedicated his entire life to teaching the world about absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God, as well as absolute sexual morality based on the true love that all humanity and all of creation have hoped for. I believe many of you already know Rev. Moon through the projects and activities he has been promoting throughout the world. However, today, I would like to introduce another side of him that only I know. I have been married to him for forty-two years, and I believe that only God knows my husband better than I do. A life dedicated to the realization of world peace What do the absolute values that Rev. Moon teaches have to do with his life? I see him living for the sake of others from early morning until late at night every day, working to break down all barriers in every sphere of human activity, for the ultimate purpose of breaking down the barriers between God and human beings. When I met my husband for the first time, the world was divided into two camps, with opposing military powers facing off along one national border. The Cold War between East and West had led to the tragedy of the Korean War, which divided Korea into North and South. In just a few years the war destroyed almost everything in this country. My husband built his first church from discarded boxes and mud bricks. Even in that situation he believed, beyond the shadow of a doubt, that God would fulfill the promise of new hope He had bestowed upon this land. Rev. Moon never prayed to God to help him, even under the most difficult circumstances. For example, he escaped death several times while enduring severe torture in prisons under the rule of the North Korean communists. In addition, he endured imprisonment as a result of false accusations from leaders of other Christian denominations in South Korea. Rather than defend himself, he would endure persecution in silence while consoling God and promising to himself thousands of times that he would, without fail, achieve world peace, which is the Will of God. No matter what difficult circumstances he encountered-when he was on the verge of starvation, or when Christians and the media conspired with the government against him- his love for God and sympathy for humanity only increased. Like God's prophets throughout history, he did not submit in the face of opposition. Instead he proclaimed the message of truth ever more intensely. Rev. Moon has set us an example of absolute faith in Heaven. At the age of sixteen, he received a revelation from Heaven and came to understand that he had been chosen to fulfill the mission of leading humanity into a world of purity, freedom and happiness, a world that God has longed to see since the beginning. To fulfill his mission, my husband had to expand the scope of his life from the level of the individual to that of the family, tribe, people, nation and world, on the foundation of absolute faith in accomplishing God's Will. The path of sacrifice and absolute obedience Ever since he received his calling from Heaven, Rev. Moon has taken a path of total sacrifice, accompanied by indescribable suffering and pain. Most painful for him is that those he has endeavored to save have ridiculed and falsely accused him. Nevertheless, Rev. Moon has not once compromised or hesitated in the course of accomplishing the mission that Heaven bestowed on him. He has taught us the way of absolute faith in God by setting the example himself. Most important of all, what my husband has taught about absolute love is second to none. Many religious leaders and scholars have dedicated themselves to building their religious denominations or spreading their doctrines. Some have worked on a bigger scale, through charity or humanitarian projects. Yet from the beginning, my husband was different. Even when the Unification movement was small and beset by financial difficulties, he always taught that we needed to devote more than twothirds of our resources to the service of others before taking care of ourselves. He has devoted hundreds of millions of dollars to supporting interfaith work, seeking to bring all religions closer together, because he knows that this is God's desire. He has spent far more on interfaith efforts than he ever allowed the Unification movement to spend on itself. Students at the Unification Theological Seminary, which he founded in 1975, are required to spend far more time studying other religious traditions than their own, and to engage in dialogue with scholars and clergy of other religious denominations. When the United States government unjustly prosecuted him and was in the process of sending him to prison, my husband founded The Washington Times to help America put an end to the Cold War and fulfill its providential role for world peace. AB you know, he financially supported many world media organizations and even now he is increasing their budgets rather than investing in the publications of the Unification movement. I am certain that his way of living for the sake of others before looking after himself, as well as his indomitable spirit, come from God's unconditional love. I believe that this is the true meaning of love, which is the solution to breaking down the walls existing in today's world. Setting the example of absolute love Rev. Moon teaches us by setting the example himself. Absolute love between a couple does not allow for infidelity or divorce. This kind of love is the only true way to prevent the sexually transmitted diseases that are so widespread in today's world. There have been people who misunderstood his unwavering and sacrificial dedication to practicing and teaching his ideals through the way he lived his life. Sometimes, because of his absolute standard, he was falsely accused by people who were jealous of him or misunderstood him, or who would have rather taken an easier path. However, as time passed, more and more people came to understand that there is no negotiation or compromise in matters of right and wrong, or good and evil, and that there is no yielding when it comes to devoting our lives and love to God. The time that he might have spent with me he almost always shared with others. We weren't even able to enjoy a honeymoon as most people do. Nevertheless, I can say honestly that I have received greater love from my husband than any wife has ever known. His love for our family and his devotion to education have yielded remarkable results. He has taught us to become as absolute in our dedication to God, and as universal in our love for humanity, as he has been in his daily life. Although we never took an ordinary family vacation, our thirteen children and more than twenty grandchildren live with gratitude for God's grace and blessing. Rev. Moon: True Husband and True Parent When we moved to New York, we lived with hundreds of Unification Church members. My husband was eager to learn how to use the riding lawnmower, and he would mow the lawn with the heart of wanting to present a beautiful lawn to God and to the people. He learned how to lay a carpet, and as he nailed it down, he poured that same heart into each nail. Our life has not been like the lives of others. I see the result of his lifelong sacrifice: the millions of families that have begun to follow this same tradition, and their children and grandchildren. I know that God is truly proud of His dedicated son, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. I cannot suppress my joy over this opportunity to introduce my husband to you this morning. I am happy to publicly express my overwhelming love and gratitude to him for the first time. Ladies and gentlemen, please join me in welcoming the founder of this World Culture and Sports Festival, a true son of God, a true husband, a true father and a true teacher, my husband, Rev. Sun Myung Moon. 12 • God Is the Origin of Peace August 10, 2002 Shinyang Park Hotel, Gwangju, Korea Realm of Life speaking tour in Korea (True Mother's speech) Respected peace-loving American dignitaries, ladies and gentlemen, I extend my warm greetings and gratitude to all of you for coming here this evening. You are now joining more than seventy million people worldwide, including seven million in Korea, and seven hundred million Blessed couples in the heavenly spirit world who have participated in these gatherings for peace. We are living in a truly historic and providential moment. This is a time of great heavenly fortune, the time when we will build the ideal world of peace that heaven and earth have longed to see for six thousand years. It is time to build the kingdom of God in heaven and on earth. Throughout providential history, God raised up various religions to accord with different historical periods and regional cultures. Working among these diverse traditions, men and women of faith have made continuous efforts to achieve a world of peace. Yet even today, human beings groan in travail, because we are still unable to free ourselves from all manner of unethical and immoral behavior. People everywhere are dismayed by the truth that a seemingly unstoppable tide of immorality is now rushing in with the power of a surging storm, threatening to sweep us all away in its turbulent waves. This is the tragic portrait of modern human beings. Yet this does not mean there is never to be any hope. My husband, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and I have dedicated our lives to conveying the Word of God. Our prophetic messages have been proven to be a true witness that transcends the earthly limitations of this age and our environment. Creation of humankind and the Fall Today, once again I come before you with a message from Heaven. You can decide whether to believe or not to believe it, however I stand here firmly resolved to act in God's stead to convey His message to the world in the time of the Last Days. The title of this message is, "God Is the Origin of Peace." I sincerely hope you will open the doors of your heart. I encourage you to humbly receive Heaven's warning to all of us living in the Last Days. In this age of ignorance and confusion, we need to be wise in this way. In the beginning, human beings were created to live centered on God in the garden of Eden and to live in freedom and peace for eternity. However, as a result of the Fall of our first ancestors Adam and Eve, the vision of this originally intended world never became reality. Instead, from the day the Fall occurred, a history of suffering and sorrow unfolded on this earth. God intended human beings to live with His true love and true ideals. However we were unable to grasp those ideals and did not even comprehend what true love is. He wanted for us to sing songs of freedom and peace, to possess the complete happiness of becoming one in heart in the presence of the Creator, and to return glory to Him. He intended for us to live in an environment of perfect joy; however we lost the garden of happiness. Tragically, we have not been able to become a holy people. satan invaded the human family, defiling the relationships of true parents, true family and true brothers and sisters. satan corrupted our true tribe, true society, true nation and true world. That is not all. satan is the one who has driven God to spend the past six thousand years in a state of suffering and struggle. The Fall marked the beginning of the history of spiritual death. From that day on, the earth became a world of suffering instead of a world of peace. No matter where in the world we live, we have been doomed to the way of conflict and struggle instead of peace. Within the individual, there is continuous conflict between the mind and body. There has been conflict within families that has expanded into conflicts within nations and throughout the world. Today we find there is no place on earth free of conflict. We have to come to terms with the fact that we are responsible for this history of sin. I repeat: all conflict is the result of the Fall. If the whole world had originally grown from the good seed of a good tree and in a good environment, then without doubt the world would today be a world of peace, a world of hope and a world with a secure future. However this was not the case. We live in a world in which good and evil are tangled together. Even a good seed has difficulty bearing good fruit when surrounded by an evil environment. The same is true for human beings. For humanity as a whole to be good, it is first necessary that each individual be good. However for such individuals to bear good fruit, we must create a good environment in the nation and world. Just as the natural world passes through four seasons, human history needs to continue eternally by revolving through cycles that are like spring, summer, autumn and winter. Because of the Fall, though, our world has never experienced that first moment of hope in which all humanity could take delight, the joyous springtime when we could greet the day of glory. Cain and Abel, the children of our ancestors Adam and Eve, were not born out of God's love. Adam and Eve were to have created God's true lineage. They created satan's false lineage instead through the act of the Fall. So the children they bore were not truly God's children, they were actually children of the devil, satan. Adam and Eve became the sinful ancestors of humanity, and the Bible records that they were chased out of the garden of Eden. That is why in John 8:44 Jesus scolded the people, saying, "You are from your father the devil, and you choose to do your father's desires?' Without the Fall, Adam and Eve would have received God's words of blessing. He longed to tell them, "My beloved Adam and Eve, I created you in order for you to build a world fulfilling the purpose of creation and to live in a garden of love. You are my children and will be the masters, the parents and the king and queen of peace and happiness?' Our ancestors Adam and Eve were destined to stand as the everlasting true owners, true parents and true king and queen of both the earthly world and the heavenly world. We have the responsibility to liberate God Then what was it that pushed human beings onto the tragic path of the Fall? The Fall of Humankind took place when human beings embraced self-centeredness instead of obeying God's Word. Today the fruit of the Fall is seen clearly in the extremes of selfish thinking and behavior that rage around us with impunity. I am speaking of the reprehensible behavior of people routinely seeking their own benefit and convenience regardless of others. I refer to the shameless attitudes of people trying to save themselves without concern as to whether others live or die. Such behavior stems from that which brought about the Fall. This is certainly not the type of conduct envisioned by God at the time of the Creation. God did not desire to bring about such a world, and we never wanted to be born into such a world. Therefore God has set His purpose to clear away this tragic, sorrowful and painful history and build the world of peace, happiness, freedom and goodness that He originally desired. He is working to set this fallen world right. This is the path of restoration and the path of the providence of salvation. As the descendants of Adam and Eve, all human beings are fallen. However within each of us there still exists an original mind and a conscience that directs us back toward the originally intended world. This is why people throughout history have always desired and longed for the world God originally sought to create. This long-cherished desire remains today as an ideal that cannot be extinguished or ignored. God has carried out His providence again and again, in each historical period, so that He could inspire fallen human beings to return to His ideal with a new heart. Finally, we need a Savior, for if no central person capable of moving heaven and earth with this ideal appears, then true freedom, peace and all other ideals will never come about. Humanity will be fated to endure an endless path of sorrow and indemnity of astronomical proportions. In these circumstances, God cannot appear to us in glory, peace or freedom, and the path of restoration cannot be an easy one. God appears in the midst of difficulties, and to meet Him we must first make ourselves a sacrificial offering. This is because the path of restoration is the way of indemnity. This means that until we are able to wipe away the sorrow in God's heart and dissolve all the grievances there, we cannot hope to accomplish peace among humanity, much less see God's ideal of creation bear fruit on earth. Since God's pain was caused through the Fall, we are responsible to liberate Him from the burden of grief that weighs like a massive stone on His heart. Yet who among us is truly thinking like that today? Even the most devout believers in Jesus are blind and deaf to this truth, thinking they will simply be forgiven. However, as fallen human beings, we need to return to the state before the Fall. Having lost God, we must go back to the state of grace we would have enjoyed had we never lost Him. Having lost the True Parents of humanity, we must return to the position we would have held had we not lost them. We must return to live in a garden of peace centered on God and True Parents, as their children. What strategy does the omniscient and almighty God use to change this hellish world into a world of peace? We need to be reminded that in order to accomplish this purpose, God has endured a history of sacrifice and bloodshed and has suffered through so many wearisome religious rituals and rules. This history is referred to as the providence of salvation or the providence of restoration. Originally, if human beings had not fallen, our mind and body, being centered on God's love, would not contradict each other. Because of the Fall, however the mind and body came to stand in opposing positions. Therefore even if it were possible to somehow be transported to an ideal world, without each individual solving this mind-body problem and establishing a true standard of heart, living in such a world would not be ideal. The Absolute Being, who is the Lord of creation, created the entire universe in order to share love and oneness. He formed humans, the highest among created beings, to stand in the position of lords of creation. To do this, we must be able to incarnate God's heart. Becoming one with God's heart does more than establish the parent-child relationship between God and ourselves. It is also the link connecting humanity with the rest of creation. In restoring the ideal world of peace, the world of the original ideal of creation, it is first necessary to establish certain conditions. We must go through the process of restoration through indemnity. What is meant by restoration through indemnity? Whenever something or someone loses its original position and state of being, it cannot be restored to its original position and status without first paying a certain price. The setting of such conditions is referred to as restoration through indemnity. If there were only God and us in heaven and earth, we would not need the word "indemnity." It exists because of satan, who caused our first ancestors to fall. If satan and the world of evil did not exist, there would be no need for indemnity. There would also be no need for the phrase "unity of religions;' which we now proclaim with all our might, nor would we need expressions such as "the liberation of God" or "the liberation of humanity." The Fall brought about the degradation of human life and turned history into a record of anguish and failure, a chronicle of war. In order to wipe away this history and unravel all of humanity's fundamental problems, God needs to establish anew the original starting point of human history. He does this through a person who can live a life of true love for the sake of God, humanity and all creation. This is the mission of the Messiah. What did Jesus do when he was on this earth? Although he was persecuted and died on the cross, he truly loved all humankind. Jesus left this world giving the supreme example of love through the cross. Throughout his life, Jesus never said he wanted to receive love. Rather he said he came to serve, and that he would love even his enemies. Without that kind of love, we cannot find the origin of peace; and without the origin of peace, we cannot establish a world of peace. The world of peace can never come to exist as long as we focus only on receiving love. In the realm of true love, our physical parents are not our only parents, nor are our physical siblings our only brothers and sisters. Even our own biological children are not our only children. Once we become people of true character, we will come to feel that every person is our parent, sibling or child, and we will want to treat them as such. We will not be able to see all the people now wandering in the world of death without tears filling our eyes. With such love, when we see young people thrashing about in a quagmire of drugs and debauchery, we will feel compelled to devote our full heart and soul to saving them, as if they were our own children. This is a manifestation of the love that unconsciously and naturally seeks to give rather than receive. Unity is a prerequisite for freedom and peace Unity is another prerequisite of freedom and peace. Consider the life of a husband and wife. If the two have not become one, how can they enjoy the freedom of husband and wife in a true sense? If a husband and wife are not one, then there is no hope for harmony in the family. Peace in the family will be an impossible dream. A person blasphemes God if he stands before the unchanging God and says he will vacillate. We blaspheme love if we stand in the presence of His unchanging love and practice a vacillating love. The foundation for peace begins in our own heart when we share both sorrow and joy with God. From there, we can expand the base of freedom and happiness in the world. For this reason, a religious movement must arise on this earth that teaches us to achieve complete mastery over the body and is able to unite the people of the world. Jesus started such a movement. Please bear in mind that these words are a warning from God proclaimed to human beings wading through the muddy waters of a corrupt world in the Last Days. We are all called to fulfill this task of restoration. It is our destiny. We can never escape our destiny, which is Heaven's absolute mandate. I think everyone at some point in life searches for the origin of peace and happiness. Yet from where do peace and happiness really come? They do not originate from America or Korea or the United Nations. The crucial issue is how we human beings, whose minds and bodies are in conflict, can come to embrace a true view of the universe and find peace and happiness in our own hearts. In our own hearts, the remnants of six thousand years of war between good and evil continue to flare. The First World War was horrendous, as was the Second World War. Such wars, though, were relative skirmishes in a much larger conflict, and neither lasted more than six years. Yet the struggle between mind and body that goes on within each of us is the worst kind of war. It is a war that seemingly knows no end and whose inevitable result speeds us to ruin. Everyone feels the torment of this struggle in his or her own life. The confrontation between mind and body is a fierce battle of good versus evil representing the prolonged struggle between God and satan. Because of this conflict, the ideal of the true human potential has been hidden away in a dense fog and trapped behind a high fence. We must generate a wind of truth and love that is strong enough to sweep the fog away. We must tear down the mighty fence between our mind and body that stands so high as to pierce the sky. The course of overcoming this struggle is our destiny. To win this battle, we must overcome the desires of the body, such as for sleep, money and unprincipled sexual satisfaction. When he set out on his course decades ago, my husband, Rev. Moon, declared as his personal motto, "Before seeking dominion over the universe, first control yourself." And that is how he has lived throughout his life. We must be honest about the state of the world and of our nation today. The Bible says that in the Last Days the hearts of men will grow cold, and that the world's people will live like orphans. It also predicts that nations will flounder in confusion and despair. Have you ever experienced true peace in your heart, even for a moment? And does our nation have a true leader? Where are the true patriots who truly love this country and its people to the extent that they are willing to offer their lives to bring about peace? Who can put forward a philosophy or teaching with the power to save the young people of this country, who are morally sick and spiritually declining? Their plight is truly pitiful, and we cannot help feeling intense grief for them. All this goes back to the fact that each of us has been unable to establish a standard of one heart, one body and one thought within ourselves. Without individual mind-body unity, how can we hope for harmony in the family or peace in the country or the world? Throughout the ages, our original minds have longed for peace, happiness and unity. The problem has always been our physical body, which is at war with the desire of the mind. Yet our flesh is the container that holds our mind, so we cannot just discard it as we wish. The important thing is how we govern this physical body, whose impulses and directions change minute by minute. After the Fall, the human body became satan's dwelling place. As the apostle Paul laments in Romans 7:23-24, "I see in my members another law at war with the law of my mind, making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death?" When we look honestly within ourselves, we can all see elements of good and evil. Our mind or conscience is oriented toward good, and our body pulls in the opposite direction, toward evil. If we cannot resolve this conflict of mind and body, then sin will indeed torment us for eternity. This was true even for so great a saint as Paul. Perfection of character through the unity of mind and body Ladies and gentlemen, what is the true way to world peace? War cannot be the answer. Neither is wealth, power or knowledge. Nor can peace be achieved through the political or diplomatic power of the United Nations. Nothing really can be expected from the forum of the UN as long as its fundamental concerns are the desires of factional individuals and the national interests of each member state. As long as fallen nature remains within us, history will always be riddled with struggle and turmoil, and this will be the case no matter how much we may sing of our ideals or cry out for peace. This is why we conclude that we will not find the path to peace until we have pulled out this fallen nature by its root. The way to world peace does not lie far off at the ends of the earth, rather it will be found only in the place where each of us is able to unite our divided mind and body. The wider the gap between someone's mind and body the greater the struggle and the stronger the resulting pain. The mind is God's sentinel, while the body is satan's vanguard. We need to narrow the gap between the mind and body and finally unite them entirely. To pull out our deeply rooted fallen nature that was inherited from our false parents, we need True Parents. They alone are able to free us of satan's false lineage. We must meet the True Parents, and achieve mind-body oneness and unity of thought by learning from them how to practice true love and how to live a life for the sake of others. Ladies and gentlemen, look at the world. There are so many problems. They begin with struggles between mind and body and husband and wife and go all the way to conflicts and wars amo~g nations. They can be traced to countless causes. However, if we dig down to the root cause we will always arrive at the problems between mind and body and man and woman. The history of human suffering began with a false relationship between a man and a woman. Disharmony within the family quickly developed into a multitude of problems in the society and then the world. If we could just resolve the problems involving men and women in every family, every society and country, and on the worldwide level, and establish one model family, then the world would be able to unite as a world of peace. It would become the ideal world of the original creation. God originally wanted a world of true peace to take root on this earth centering on our first ancestors Adam and Eve. If they had not fallen and had grown according to God's Will and developed a mature character, they would have received God's blessing, formed an ideal family and built the ideal kingdom of heaven, free of evil and suffering. That would have been an eternal world of peace. From generation to generation, human beings would have enjoyed a life of happiness. We would have been able to communicate directly with God as His direct sons and daughters and to commune freely with our ancestors in heaven. The world would have become a place in which good would have had absolute dominion and people would have been incapable of sinning. Human history began on the wrong foot, yet our Heavenly Father did not forsake us. Instead, for six thousand years, God has devoted His heart and soul for the sake of finding His lost children. Not once has He regretted that He created human beings. He has never been discouraged in the face of satan's ability to have his way. With single-minded devotion, God has worked with true love and forgiveness to carry out His providence of restoration. It is not by mere happenstance that we are able to study and learn a little more deeply about God today than we could before. We need to be grateful for Heaven's grace and thankful to our ancestors who guided us to this truth. Our utmost task is to perfect our character through the oneness of our mind and body, to set right the families that have splintered under satan's rule, and to establish ideal true families. God's hope is to dwell eternally with a family that is united through three generations. The greatness of true love is that it enables us to become God's object partners and also enables God to become one with us. The ideal family attends the grandparents as they would attend Heaven, shows absolute obedience to the parents, and creates children through the absolute relationship of a husband and wife who raise their children in purity and without sin. When we do this, our families will attain a unity of heart with God and become the birthplace of eternal happiness and peace. Ladies and gentlemen, human beings were originally created so that our mind and body would respond to God's true love and unite into one. Many people on the earth today, however, live in ignorance of the role of the mind They do not know that the mind actually is the basis upon which we can develop the character that can find peace centering on God's love. There is enough room in every human mind to embrace God. Any person who comes to have such a righteous mind will immediately yearn to bring all people into the palace of peace. Because human beings are God's children created in His image, we all possess the potential to be free of mind-body conflict and to establish the origin of true unity in ourselves. We need to heed God's final warning There is no possibility of contradiction or conflict within God, the Absolute Being. His divine character is reflected throughout creation and in the dual structure of mind and body and male and female in human beings. God exists in a state of absolute and total unity within Himself So it stands to reason that human beings, who were created to resemble God, the great King of all creation, have the ability to achieve the full unity of mind and body. Yet as a result of the Fall, human beings lost the standard of harmony and unity between the mind and body and live instead in a quagmire of struggle and contradiction. In a world in which the forces of evil are rampant, it is nearly impossible to live a life where the mind h_as complete governance over the body. This is why God in His wisdom has permitted necessary and appropriate religions to arise for the sake of saving fallen humanity, giving consideration to every age, culture, regional environment and circumstance. Throughout history human beings have tried to follow the teachings of religions and to steadily pioneer the path of life centered on the mind. We have learned the path of self-denial and how to place our hope in the eternal world and not be attached to the present reality. In Christianity, for example, we are taught to focus on God's kingdom and His righteousness, not this world. The scriptures warn us not to be selfish or to seek to live lavishly. Christianity has always emphasized the peace that originates in the world of the mind and heart. A good illustration of this is Jesus' teaching, "The kingdom of heaven is within you." This concept of the kingdom of heaven has nothing to do with worldly affluence or power, and is echoed in many other faiths. Buddha's declaration, "In all of heaven and earth, I alone am the honored one." can be understood in the same way. Methods may differ from one religion to another, however the mission of all religions is to strengthen the internal hope and aspirations of human beings. They guide us to examine ourselves and to live a life where the mind governs the body. In this way, God has carried out His providence for human salvation through religion for six thousand long years. The fact is, up to the present no religious leader or sage has been able to show us how to completely overcome the conflict between mind and body and bring about eternal unity and lasting peace. No one could teach us how to subdue the body once and for all by centering on the mind. No one could show us how to find true peace. No one could bring us to that point of complete unity where parents become eternally one, and husbands and wives, brothers and sisters, parents and children and the extended family can eternally unite as one. Now, however, the time for peace has come! Heaven's long wait has ended. We are living in the final moment of the Last Days of human history. Heaven cannot extend or allow any further delay of the providence for human salvation. This is because the True Parents, whom heaven and earth have hoped would come and have longed to see, are now on this earth. They are taking all responsibility upon themselves and are successfully completing the providence of restoration. In a world entangled in chaos and debauchery, they are establishing an order of true love. Ladies and gentlemen, it is said that those who believe will be blessed. My husband, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, and I, who are bringing this truth of Heaven to you, are standing as the True Parents. The teaching and thought of True Parents revealed to Rev. Moon is a truth that promises peace to humanity. Both communism and democracy have tried and failed to bring peace. The thought that will prevail is "Godism." which is the philosophy and tradition of "living for the sake of others?' Only this sacrificial way of life based on Heavenly Parentism is capable of leading us to eternal life and peace. In this way, we will come to the amazing realization that, as God's reciprocal partner of love, we will come to possess a value even greater than God's. We must praise God for this. This love is the only way that we can at last connect to the eternal world of peace. It is the starting point of eternal life in the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. The counsel of messages from the spirit world In our capacity as the True Parents of humanity, my husband and I have already united the entire spirit world. We are receiving messages of support and unity from the founders of the four great religions centering on Jesus, including Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad, and from one hundred twenty major disciples of each of these leaders. They sent these messages after having studied our teachings in the Divine Principle and Unification Thought seminars in the spirit world. These leaders are filled with hope and feel immense gratitude toward the True Parents. Even communist leaders in the spirit world, beginning with Marx and Lenin, have completed the Divine Principle seminar in accordance with True Parents' direction. They too are sending tearful messages of repentance and deep lamentation. All these people in the spirit world now have only one hope. This is that their representatives and followers on earth will accept the teachings of the True Parents as quickly as possible, work for peace, and prepare themselves for their eternal life. Their messages implore us not to waste our precious, fleeting time on earth, instead to prepare wisely for life in the spirit world, where all people will live together for eternity after casting off their physical bodies. What does this mean for men and women now living on earth? First, it means that all people, men and women, young and old, rich and poor alike, must believe in the unequivocal fact that God is actually alive and is working His Will. We ought not think of Him only conceptually. God is watching our every step and every act with eyes bright with expectation. God is waiting for the day when all human beings, who left His bosom and went to satan, repent and return to Him. Long ago, He painted a picture of what it will be like when the prodigal child, who once left Him, returns to the Father with tears of repentance. Now His urgent request is that we actually do this. AB a first step, God wants us to comfort and attend the True Parents, who still remain on earth and who walk the path of blood, sweat and tears for the sake of human restoration. God's desperate hope is that we will receive the warning He gives in these Last Days with an earnest heart, correct the errors of our lives, and live in a way that we will not regret later. Second, we are being warned that we must accept as fact the existence of the spirit world and live every aspect of our lives in accordance with heavenly law. God is sternly telling us to discover our higher selves, grow our spirits, and establish a world of peace on this earth without delay. God is watching us. Tens of thousands of wise men and women, together with all our ancestors, are watching our daily life. When we realize this for certain, how will you be able to go against heavenly law? Soon you too will begin having spiritual experiences. The time has come when your ancestors will directly observe and guide your life and even your thoughts. Numerous Unification members who believe in and follow the True Parents' teachings are already experiencing this. Ladies and gentlemen, thank you again for coming here this evening. You are truly blessed, because you are able to live in the historic and providential age when the Messiah, the True Parents of humankind, has returned to earth. This is the time when North and South Korea and all other nations will be unified, not by guns and knives, but with love and truth. This is the time when all the religions of the world will become one under the guidance of the True Parents and when all the sages and ancestors in the spirit world will come down to earth to live with us and communicate directly with us. I would like to conclude this address by urging all humanity to fulfill the responsibility to which we have been called by uniting to build a world of peace that transcends race, belief systems and national boundaries. I pray that God's boundless blessings will be upon your family and nation in abundance. Thank you very much. 13 • God's Homeland and One World October 16, 2002 Unification Church Central Training Center, Guri, Korea Rally for Harmony and Unity in Heaven and Earth Leaders of religion, politics and academia who have gathered from around our country and renowned ambassadors for peace: Today you have assembled here with hopes for a peaceful world. In this meaningful venue, as the founder of the International and lnterreligious Federation for World Peace, I would like to convey a message concerning God's original ideal, "God's Homeland and One World." People who are living on the earth in the present day are unable to find the kingdom and the righteousness that God promised. God's kingdom and God's righteousness have been the hope of people who have lived throughout the course of thousands of years of history, and they remain our hope today. Then how is it that the hope still remains as our final objective, and why wasn't it accomplished in the beginning of human history? It is because human beings fell. Due to the Fall of our human ancestors, human beings, who could have become the center of God's kingdom and God's righteousness together with God, found themselves unable to form any sort of relationship with God. In other words, they were degraded so that they became ignorant of the Father, the family and the nation that are the center of God's kingdom and God's righteousness. Therefore, God has been working hard in the course of history up to this day to enlighten all people who have been groping in darkness, to teach them about Father, the family and the nation. Therefore, seeking and establishing God's kingdom and His righteousness have remained both our hope and our objective. Presently numerous nations exist in this world. However, even among those many nations, not even one can be truly beloved of God. So the goal behind God's dispensation of six thousand years to this day has been that we deny this fallen world and create a new nation of God. This is why God has carried out the providence of seeking a nation throughout history. It is because God's Will to restore human beings cannot be realized without the cooperation of a nation. There must be a true nation centering on a true religion. Thus, God sought a particular nation at a particular time. That was the history centering on the chosen people of Israel, both their nation and their religion, Judaism. What kind of nation is the nation that you hope for? It is not like the nation you are living in today. This kind of nation eventually must say its farewell. We still do not have a nation of God. People without a nation have no permanent address. Without a nation, there is no nationality. That means that there are no grounds on which you can have your name entered into a national family registry. Therefore, what we need to do in this current world is to find that nation. We must form the heavenly kingdom and, with that nationality, we must live on this earth as the victorious sons and daughters who have inherited the lineage of true and good parents who love their nation and their people. As such, we must lead our family and our clan so that we can enter the kingdom of heaven in the heavenly world. That is the Principle. Only when we have a nation will we have a tradition that we may peacefully leave behind for our descendants for all time. Only then will all our efforts of shedding blood and sweat remain. Only then will a commemorative tower appear on the earth to congratulate God for His hard work. Only then will traces of all glory remain on the earth. If we cannot establish a nation, everything will be for naught. Please understand that seeking and establishing God's nation is the most important issue. Always have the conviction that, "Our family is a family that protects the nation that can receive True Parents' love. Therefore, I must become a dutiful child of True Parents and fulfill the duties of a patriot to the nation." This means that you have to receive God and True Parents' love. However, you cannot receive God's love freely without a nation. This is because the heavenly nation's establishment takes place after satan's kingship has been defeated. We admire God's nation. That is because it is a place where there is love. It is not a place of momentary love; it is a place of eternal love. It is a place where each person can be raised to fulfill their potential and each person's value can be acknowledged one hundred percent. In other words, it is a place of eternal happiness. Therefore, people long and yearn for the heavenly kingdom. The path that we have to traverse is a path that we truly want to walk, and the nation that we have to seek and realize is a nation where we truly want to live forever. Our possessions belong both to the cosmos and to ourselves, they belong to this age and to the past, and we must make sure that we can guarantee them for posterity. And we need to have the authority and knowledge that will move heaven and earth to cry when we cry, and to rejoice when we rejoice. It will be a world of one heart, where God's love and His truth are actualized through His children living as a one family under God. This is the greatest desire and hope that fallen people can realize in the current age. Every person must live in his or her own nation. That is an absolute condition bestowed on each one of us. Each nation would exist in harmony with all other nations, and every person, without exception, would live a righteous life full of hope for the sake of God's kingdom. I am saying that we have to long for the ideal hometown and establish the rules of righteousness through our lives as we live for the sake of God's kingdom and His righteousness. Do you have that nation? Since you do not, wouldn't you seek to realize it? What kind of nation did I say it would be? It would be a nation of our ideal, a nation of unity. It would be a nation that all people could go to. There can be no exceptions in realizing this nation. Families will cooperate, as will tribes, peoples and the entire world. Thus, individuals can be united and, moreover, families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world can be united. God certainly must realize His providential Will on this earth. Then what will be the result of His Will being realized? It will be that all the people of the world will be saved and God will be able to govern them. God's providential Will is rooted in His desire to see this day. If you are unable to completely restore the nation on the earth during your lifetime, then even when you go to the spirit world, you will not have the value of someone who is a part of the heavenly kingdom. I am saying that you must go to the spirit world with the record of having been governed within God's dominion, because that is the original standard of God's creation. Ladies and gentlemen! I have nothing to envy in this world. I have no interest in the things of the world. My life's wish is only this: "Can I die in a nation where God can protect me? If I don't live that way before I go, will my life not have been a miserable one? Therefore, before I die, I have to seek that nation and live within that nation, even if only for a single daY." I am going forward with the mindset of investing the sacrifice of thousands of days for that one day. I am going forward, even if you who do not understand are resting. If you cannot do it, then I have to inspire foreigners to do it, and if this nation cannot do it, then I have to use the strategy of encircling this nation with other nations. Ladies and gentlemen, what is the goal of our faith? It is to become a citizen of God's nation. If we cannot become citizens of that nation, the path to freely express our pride to all people and to the natural world and thus be loved will not emerge. A person without a nation will always be attacked. They will stand in a pitiful position and can easily be caught helpless. Therefore, the question is, "Where is the nation of God's desire?" In other words, where will we find the nation that God can use as His foothold? The reason that we shed our blood and sweat for this nation and for this people is, in the end, to realize the eternal heavenly nation, the beloved community that every generation of our descendants will praise forever. There is no question that it will be a nation where children of direct descent will uphold God's divine commandments. In other words, they will govern the nation whose order and kingship represent God. There will be neither democracy nor communism there. Once the nation has been formed, it will remain as an eternal national system. When you think about these matters, don't you feel mortified that you have not become citizens of such a nation? You need to lament that you do not have a single such nation and bemoan that you cannot live in such a nation. We need to repent that we do not have this single, unchanging sovereignty. People have established nations throughout history in order to build their sovereignty, nation and land. We know that in the process, numerous people died, numerous patriots were sacrificed, numerous nations perished and numerous sovereignties were replaced. Among those countless people who were sacrificed, there is no doubt that those on Heaven's side, the people who were sacrificed for the sake of Heaven's Will, want such a nation and world to be realized. There is no question that history, since the Fall of the first human ancestors, has been governed by satan and not by God. God originally was supposed to be the master of this world. If a tribe, nation and world had been realized centering on a true family, composed of children directly descended from God, bound in love with Him, it truly would be a world that God could govern, a nation that God could govern, a family that God could govern and individuals whom God could govern. However due to the Fall, everything, starting with the individual and expanding to the family, tribe, people, nation and world, came to oppose God. You must understand this history of the Fall and this world of the Fall. If God leaves this world as it is, He can never realize the world of eternal love of the original ideal of creation. & the Absolute Being, if God cannot realize the original ideal of creation, He cannot recover His original authority. Therefore, with that position as His target, God deals with the evil world and guides us to the original world of His ideal. This is God's providence concerning the fallen world. Although on this earth there have been many nations with sovereignty stemming from the Fall, there has not been even one nation of God's desire. In order to establish the nation that could realize His Will, God has been moving through the ages of history unknown to human beings. God created Adam with the desire to govern a family, a society, a nation and the world through that one individual being, and He raised Adam toward maturity with that desire in mind. However, through the Fall of Adam, the history that began with one was divided into fours and fives. The providential history of salvation has been God's work to repair and heal those divisions. Adam is the ancestor of all people, so the loss of Adam, in effect, was the same as the loss of all of humanity. Therefore, God has to call and establish that one individual being again. The person who will be established again has to be someone who can let go of and forget his tribe, his people and his nation. In other words, he has to be someone who will move forward in complete devotion to God's Will and God's Will alone. Ladies and gentlemen, all religions have the ultimate common aim of realizing God's Will. Let's examine the history of Christianity, a good example of which you may be well aware. Although Noah may have been placed in a social environment, he did not desire to be under its sway, and although he belonged to a national environment, he was not tied to it. Instead, he sought out the nation of his own desire. In order to seek and establish that nation, he had to pass through untold trials and hardships. Noah had relatives and a people that he could call his own, and he pursued God's Will more than that of his relatives and his people. God's hope was that Noah would seek out God's kingdom and righteousness while subjugating his own personal environment. Can you imagine the ordeal that Noah had to endure, without skipping even one day throughout the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter, for one hundred and twenty years? Even his own family members ignored him. Yet Noah took all the arrows that came his way and broke through in his decades-long course. Noah was well aware of the principle that he would have to pay indemnity if he enjoyed eating and drinking before he sought for God's kingdom and righteousness. Later, God chose Abraham and Sarah and had them depart from Ur of the Chaldeans. They did not know that the place where they were heading to live was the land of Haran. They just followed the path as God guided, with unconditional faith and the heart of obedience. Sarah never complained or resented Abraham, even when he let the Pharaoh take her away. In this way, their minds, which were pursuing the nation of their hope, did not change even in the face of extraordinary trials. Their grandson Jacob had the strong conviction that the nation and people of his hope were promised within the blessing he received, so no one could break his spirit. In this way, the Will expanded from the individual to the family to the tribe, and the prophets gradually went forward presenting hope for the entire world. Due to disbelief and persecution in Israel, Jesus became a wanderer and could not realize completely both the spiritual and physical dimensions of these hopes. However, the Messiah is the person who comes with the mission to break down all the walls of heaven and earth and to unite everything into one. The nations founded on philosophies of this earth may perish. However, the nation founded on the belief system that is demanded by the moral laws of family relationships must be established without fail; that is God's Will. God's hope for Adam was not focused on him as an individual; His hope was that from Adam would come a family, a tribe, a people and a nation. When the people of Israel failed to unite with the Messiah or to support him in leading their nation, Israel collapsed. Thus, the returning Lord has the responsibility to perfect Adam and to complete the mission of the Messiah. I tell you that he has the mission of perfecting Adam and then perfecting Adam's family, tribe, people, nation and world. Although God has advanced the work of establishing one absolute nation by sending His beloved sons and daughters to the earth, at each point in time there was no base through which a nation could be restored. Because that work has always failed, God has had to continually send people of Heaven to this earth to manage the work, to push it ahead and to accomplish it. This is how the history of the providence of restoration has been unfolding up to the present day. We ought to be grateful even if God were to sacrifice us as individuals, and we ought to be grateful if God were to sacrifice our family, tribe, people or nation. It is only when we can have that attitude, and when a nation with that attitude appears, that the world can be changed through that nation. However, no matter how much an individual may sacrifice, if that nation is not established, the sacrifices of individuals, and the sacrifices of families, tribes and people, also will have to continue. It is under that principle that God has pushed forward the providence to find a nation during the course of history. Therefore, whenever there was an individual who could think of such a nation and benefit that nation, God used the family that had inherited the individual's tradition of sacrifice for that nation, and God had tribes and peoples inherit that family's tradition so that they could sacrifice for the nation. In this way, God has pushed forward the providence to find that nation. Ladies and gentlemen, what was the purpose for which we were born on this earth? It was so that we could love that nation. The purpose of God's providence up until now was also to love that nation. A person without a sovereign nation to call his own is pitiful indeed. Therefore Jesus said, in consideration of this: "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matt. 6:31-33) Did Jesus say to first seek a son or to first seek God's kingdom? He said to seek the nation that God is seeking. God's hope to establish His kingdom and His righteousness is not realized apart from us and the things of creation. Rather, it is realized through us. God's hope is that true people will serve as the center of harmony between God and all things. Therefore, God sent Jesus to this earth as a substantial being that represented Him in front of fallen people, as a person who could represent the lineage of Heaven. In other words, Jesus was the very first person who came to the earth to realize God's historical hope. He was the first Son of God, established in such a position after four thousand years. Jesus was the Son established on the earth as a seed within one nation, centering on Judaism, in the family of Joseph. At the time, satan already had established nations through which he was attacking Heaven's side. Therefore, Heaven's side also needed a national standard as a perfect foothold. Therefore, God worked hard for four thousand years in order to form a nation. God's achievement would have been crowned when the Israelites accepted Jesus and become a global foothold so that the entire world would center on God and Jesus. However, due to Jesus' passing, that world was realized only spiritually. In his three-year public course, Jesus tried to restore through indemnity everything that had been lost centering on Judaism. However, when Jesus died on the cross, the Israel that God had established as His foothold nation and as a substantial entity on this earth was broken both in spirit and in flesh. In the end, through the death ofJesus, Christianity had a national base in a spiritual sense. Moreover, the Israelites became the outcasts of satan's world, a people forced to wander in isolation without a nation. As a result, no nation embodies Christianity in both spirit and flesh. The returning Lord must restore the providence of God that established Israel based upon four thousand years of preparation, which was lost due to ignorance and disbelief Ladies and gentlemen, Jesus came to the earth to find a nation. He came to establish a single nation. However, while Jesus was unable to establish a nation of both spirit and flesh, he did establish it spiritually. Therefore, the Christianity of today does not have a substantial nation on the earth. This means that there is no nation or people on the earth of whom God can say, "This is my beloved nation; this is my beloved people." It means that there is not yet a foundation for God's nation on the earth. If Israel had become one with God's Son, Jesus, at its center, in his time, that nation would have become God's nation and God would have restored the world centering on that nation. However, the death of Jesus, in other words, the loss of the substantial being, meant that the base upon which God wanted to connect to the earth in spirit and in flesh was restored only in spirit. Until now the church has had neither a nation nor sovereignty. Thus saintly believers have been killed wherever they went. Christianity developed through the shedding of martyrs' blood. Because Christianity was planted that way, its development could not have been otherwise. Now that the era requiring persecution with bloodshed has ended, Christianity is not supposed to die out. Instead, based on the belief that the Messiah will return, people need to eagerly await the Lord and revere the lost ideal of the substantial nation that must be sought and realized globally, centering on the spiritual foundation of Christianity. Even Jesus said he is waiting in paradise. I tell you that he could not approach the throne of Heaven. Jesus was supposed to establish a national sovereignty for God, govern that nation and create a nation that would have the authority to connect people directly from the earth to the kingdom of heaven. Jesus could not make such a nation, so he cannot stand directly before God. Paradise is a waiting room on the way to the kingdom of heaven. The kingdom of heaven is a place that one cannot enter alone. If the Fall had not happened, the kingdom of heaven would have been the place that blessed families would have entered centering on Adam and Eve. We must enter there together with our sons and daughters. In order to restore that through indemnity, Heaven fought for two thousand years and made the base to connect with the world up until now; yet on this earth without a national standard, who will inherit the national base? God has prepared to fulfill this purpose by gathering many holy people through a new religious movement centered on Christianity. Respected leaders, now, as we enter the third millennium after Christ, we are the beneficiaries of new heavenly fortune. All religious people ought to join together in one accord to act upon the proposal that a council representing all religions become an upper house of the United Nations. The loftiest achievement the United Nations could accomplish would be to recover a universal human spirituality based on God's true love. What could be greater than that? Therefore, I have been selecting responsible people from all areas of society, the religious sphere and the political, philosophical, economic and cultural spheres also, and teaching them about true love, about "living for the sake of others." On that foundation, I already have appointed many tens of thousands of ambassadors for peace. These people now are carrying the flag of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, which I founded, in all parts of the world, and are doing their utmost to realize the peaceful world that God and humanity have desired for so long. The Will of the all-knowing, all-powerful and absolute God will be realized soon. In conclusion, I want to express my hope that all of you leaders in attendance today will re-establish your families and nations with true love and become stars who realize a true and everlasting peaceful world beyond borders. I pray that Heaven's blessings will be with you and your families. Thank you very much! 14 • God and a United World of Peace December 27, 2002 Sheraton National Hotel, Arlington, Virginia, USA Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace Conference for Clergy Honorable current and former heads of state from around the world, eminent religious leaders, peace ambassadors from various nations, representatives of all areas of society, respected ladies and gentlemen: I would like to thank you for participating in this profoundly significant conference, where we will explore fundamental issues regarding the realization of a world of peace, which is a common ideal shared by all humanity. At this time, when the need for peace and security is more acute and critical than ever before, we who are leaders in our various fields share a grave responsibility to resolve issues related to discord, war, and the evil and unhappiness rooted in the world's behavior of keeping God at a distance. God is the Parent of true love In accordance with Heaven's Will, I have offered my life to investigate the difficult issues facing humanity, and I am offering a plan to implement fundamental solutions. Today I would like to speak about a portion of this plan. I have not derived these words from theological research or any books. Rather, I am articulating some fundamental principles I have learned through experience, as I overcame all forms of difficulties and communed directly with God and the spirit world. The path of following Heaven's Will in a state of empathy with God is not one that many people can find through common sense. I would like to tell you, however, that a person who opens his or her original mind and exercises keen insight can discover a new consciousness by which to perceive the spirit world and the Will of God, who is alive and carries out His work in the world of reality. This conference will not analyze humanity's afflictions and areas of despair, nor the symptoms of crisis in the modern age. Rather, it will investigate the foundation for the ideal of peace. We need to identify and treat the root of the disease. For this purpose, we have to understand the original relationship between God and ourselves, a relationship that lies at the foundation of the universe, and enlighten ourselves regarding the Will of God, who lives and carries out His providence in history. God is the original entity of true love. True love has the attributes of unconditional giving and giving again; investing, not remembering the investment and then investing again; and living for the sake of others time and time again. The reason righteous people and evil people alike are allowed to breathe the same air in the atmosphere God created is that God, though He is all-powerful, is the original entity of true love. This is also the reason good people and sinners alike are able to carry on their lives by tilling the fields and enjoying the blessings of nature. Exercising His almighty and absolute power, God could pass summary judgment on sinful humanity at any time. However, He has embraced the world of sin with true love throughout these long years, enduring the pain and waiting for us to repent. God, our Creator and Parent, has been subjected to all types of insults from those who refuse Him, betray Him, and go so far as to claim that He does not exist or is dead. In spite of all this, He has endured with an unchanging heart. Since God knew that love is perfected only with a partner, He has been working to build a world of love through His love partner. Respected leaders, have you ever heard God complain? Have you ever met a God who gave excuses? In the beginning, God established true love as the absolute standard, and He took the lead in demonstrating absolute obedience to that ideal as He manifested His creation and carried out His providence. Just as the ocean takes in sewage and garbage and then cleanses itself, God, as the original entity of absolute true love, cleanses the human world that deviated from the principles of His creation and works to bring this world to complete goodness. God is the absolute True Parent, absolute True Teacher and absolute True Owner, with His focus on true love. Therefore, God needed an object partner to whom He could give His true love. This was His motivation for creating. God's creation was a necessary act. The creative ideal of true love cannot be realized by a being that exists in isolation. This ideal exists so that God can share with human beings the joy of His exalted and righteous Will. When we have a correct understanding of the God of true love, it becomes self-evident that this unhappy world of sin and strife was not His original plan. God carried out His creative act with the utmost sincerity, dedication and investment. He established the standards of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and then invested absolutely. All created beings are the object partners of love that God produced by investing with greatest sincerity. God created human beings, the most precious of all beings, to have the closest relationship with Him, the relationship of child and parent. God is our incorporeal True Parent and we are His sons and daughters, or His substantial object partners. In the world of true love, there is no difference in value between large and small or high and low. To be united in true love is to form a single harmonious entity marked by generosity, with no bad feelings about the distinctions between upper and lower or different strata. The unity produced between true subject and object partners will exist forever without interruption. So in true love, subject and object partners share a common value, with joint participation and a common residence, and they share the right of inheritance. Thus human beings achieve completion within God's love and inherit His position as true parents, true teachers and true owners. In this way, God's plan is to have His children, human beings, perfect the true love ideal and become one with Him, residing with Him and inheriting all that is His. True freedom and equality, true peace and unity, and true ideals and happiness can exist eternally only within true love. So true love is the fountainhead from which springs the power and life of all beings in creation, and it is the fountainhead of joy and happiness. True love is the absolute element that brings happiness, hope and peace. People often view the relationship between God and humanity from the perspective of God's majesty and holiness, and we usually conclude that God and humanity will exist in dramatically different dimensions for all time. Certainly, the Creator occupies a level that differs from that of His creation. Yet, the original relationship that is most central and meaningful is the true love relationship between parent and child. True love makes it possible to achieve unity in the relationship between internal character and external form, and between male and female. The ideal family and the Fall God created us to become one in heart with Him, to share His value in true love, and to experience an inseparable parent-child bond with Him, enabling us to relate with Him through our strongest emotions in daily life. God's ideal of creation, which entails this perfection comes with the perfection of human beings, who would be His partners in love as sons and daughters. This elevation is the accomplishment of the ideal of true love. To summarize, God's purpose in creating the first human ancestors Adam and Eve was for them to establish a family of goodness that would fully ripen the fruit of God's true love, true life and true lineage. On the foundation of their family, Adam and Eve were to nurture the heart of children, heart of siblings, heart of husband and wife and heart of parents. In this process, as discrete manifestations of God's dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity, they were to proceed step by step to master the ability to express God's love, bringing it to perfection at a place of safe settlement. If Adam's family had fulfilled the true love ideal in this manner, with God in the central position, it would have been the first family of the kingdom of heaven. Starting from this ideal family, with Adam and Eve as True Parents, the kingdom of heaven would have naturally expanded in scope to produce tribes, peoples, nations and the world. The tradition of the family of true love would have become the tradition of the world. In this ideal world, the incarnate True Parents would be at the single central position. They would resemble and inherit all the attributes of God, the spiritual absolute True Parent, absolute True Teacher and absolute True Owner. In the kingdom of heaven of true love, the incarnate True Parents, who are united with God, would create the vertical axis. Keeping this axis at the center, all relationships between created entities, occupying positions such as upper and lower, left and right, front and back, and internal and external, would be in harmony. Thus, all of creation would dwell in freedom, peace, unity and happiness. When our life on earth in our physical body comes to an end, our spirit self transitions into the spirit world, which is the ultimate world. It is an extension of our life on earth and also a place where we are to perfect the ideal of the kingdom of heaven. If this ideal had been fulfilled in the beginning, there would have been no need for God's salvation providence through religions or the advent of the Messiah. Unfortunately, as a result of the Fall of Adam and Eve, God's intended ideal of the kingdom of heaven in Adam's family was not realized. This was because Adam and Eve became false parents when they indulged in false love with satan in the central position. Without receiving God's Blessing of marriage, they formed a false husband-wife partnership and a false family, and they bequeathed false life and false lineage to their descendants. They left God in grief, because the enemy, satan, had altered their original lineage. In this way, they lost God and did not establish their bodies as temples by which they were to have lived in attendance to God. In fact, their bodies became the den of satan's devils, and their spiritual desire to seek absolute values was shut down, rendering them incapable of knowing about the spirit world, the ultimate world. Because the first human ancestors deformed themselves, their descendants and all people never came to know that God is our True Parent. We inherited satan's selfish desires and lived unrighteous, self-centered lives, parading our fallen nature. Unaware that God created us as brothers and sisters who would live in attendance to Him, we lived in sin, strife and dispute. We do not even know that to kill another is to kill oneself, and so we live in unhappiness. The world has inherited the tradition of Adam's family, in which Cain killed his own brother, Abel. The outcome for us, the descendants of false love, is the unhappiness, sin and ruin manifested in family breakdown, the moral degradation of youth, and diseases such as AIDS. Consider the world's situation. The acute crises of the modern age are manifested in struggles between our mind and body, the confusion of values, criminal activities, drug abuse, the breakdown of the family that holds humanity's future in the balance, destruction of the environment, conflict and hatred, terror and war, and even conflict among religions and civilizations. With each passing day, these crises turn more serious, more complex and more pervasive. We can no longer stand by and do nothing as the world careens along this course. There is no time left. Who can take responsibility for this world? Where is the leader who will present a fundamental plan to solve the world's problems? At the same time that we lost God, we also lost true love, peace and happiness. Throughout history, we have tried to liberate ourselves from unhappiness and achieve peace on our own, excluding God from the process. Such efforts have been fundamentally flawed. We cannot defuse the crises by human effort alone. True peace and happiness have their origin in God's true love, true life and true lineage. God is absolute, so His Will for the creation is also absolute. This means that God is working to reverse what went wrong as a result of the Fall and return us to the original state. Thus, God's providence of salvation is a providence of restoration. Its purpose is to recover the original world that existed prior to the Fall. In other words, God's intention is to establish a couple in the position of restored Adam and Eve, or True Parents, practicing true love. God wants to give them the marriage Blessing and have them form a true family, which will be the point of origin of true tribes, peoples, nations and world. Peace movement carried out amid misunderstanding Respected leaders, going through indescribable hardship to follow God's call, I have established the foundation for peace to settle in various fields of life. More than thirty years ago, I founded the Unification Thought Institute and began to guide the field of philosophy. Since 1972, I have sponsored nearly thirty global meetings of the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, for the purpose of exploring absolute values and creating harmony and unity among the various fields of learning. I have founded and continuously supported a movement for peace transcending individual nations. This movement for peace includes the work of the Professors World Peace Academy, the Summit Council for World Peace, the International Federation for Victory Over Communism, CAUSA, the Federation for World Peace, the Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, the Federation of Peninsular Nations for World Peace, the Federation of Continental Nations for World Peace, and the Citizens Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland. I have also promoted culture and the arts, fostered peace through sports, and developed elementary, middle school, high school and university level educational institutions. I founded and supported the Women's Federation for World Peace, various media organizations for the purpose of bringing about responsible and ethical journalism, the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, the Youth Federation for World Peace, the Pure Love Alliance, international conferences on the environment, the International Relief and Friendship Foundation, Service for Peace, the Religious Youth Service, the voluntary service organization Aewon, the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations, and the Holy Marriage Blessing and true family movement. In addition, I have supported efforts to renew the United Nations for the sake of achieving God's desire for peace. These are some of the initiatives for national and worldwide salvation that I have instituted around the globe. I have pursued these efforts continuously, without funding from any government or corporation, even in the midst of unsympathetic public opinion and outright persecution. As I worked to lay the foundation for the establishment of the ideal world, all I had was my determination to fulfill the mission of humankind's True Parent that God entrusted to me, and to accomplish God's Will. In bringing about the ideal of peace implicit in God's true love, it is most important for the various religions to achieve harmony with one another and provide a model for the world. Withstanding the cold-hearted attitudes and persecution by narrow-minded religious bodies in various countries, I have placed my greatest emphasis on creating a movement for unity and cooperation among religions, nations and non-governmental organizations (NGOs). I have offered all kinds of sacrifices in doing everything I could to build one world in this area. For example, I founded an inter-denominational seminary, the New Ecumenical Research Association, the Council for the World's Religions, the Youth Seminar on World Religions, and the Assembly of the World's Religions. Besides supporting conferences promoting harmony among the world's religions, I commissioned the publication of World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts, and I founded the Interreligious Federation for World Peace. Taking these efforts a step further, I founded the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP), to serve as an overarching structure for unity and world peace. This organization is intended to go beyond the goal of harmony among the world's religions to embrace leaders in the fields of academia, politics, journalism, finance and NGOs, which are areas where I have already laid the necessary foundations. Since the founding of IIFWP in February 1999, we have appointed tens of thousands ofleaders in a wide variety of fields from one hundred and eighty-nine countries as ambassadors for peace. In line with my philosophy of peace, these ambassadors are practicing true love by living for the sake of others and engaging in activities that help break down barriers between nations, races and religions. Their practical activities range from AIDS prevention and service projects to the development of true family values, the education of youth and leadership, and the improvement of the environment. My philosophy is known as head-wing thought, which is based on Godism. This thought places God, the standard of absolute values and our True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner, in the absolute center. We can therefore call it the "three subject partners principle." During our life on earth and in the spirit world, we have to live in accordance with this thought, being God's object partners and attending Him as our True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner. We will then be creating the kingdom of heaven, the place where true love is practiced. We have to surpass atheistic and communist philosophies that deny God and the spirit world, as well as the secular humanism and moral relativism that ignore the importance of absolute values and the vertical standard. It is also time to rise above the hypocritical faith that uses God's name and lacks true love, and abandon all selfish works that violate original human rights and result in injustice. The head-wing thought that I propose transcends right-wing and left-wing philosophies, resolves the conflicts between countries, races and religions, and brings about wide-ranging harmony and unity, with the absolute God at the center. This task will be carried out with the help of both heaven and earth. We are in a period of great transition, and during this time the United Nations and the nations of the world need to unite and cooperate with one another. Modern society lacks an understanding or philosophical system based on absolute values. There are no absolute values that we can consistently apply to individuals, families, societies, nations, the world and the cosmos. This is the reason our thinking is confused, human relationships are disordered, and human society is chaotic. In the face of unreflective pluralism and modernization, and in the absence of a fundamental guiding axis in their hearts and daily lives, people in the modern age suffer due to an ever-worsening confusion of values. We are endlessly tempted and live enslaved by our physical appetites, drifting aimlessly through life. I need to tell you that we must never turn away from a life based on values. Absolute values form our vertical axis. At the center of absolute values is God's true love, expressed in living for the sake of others. Substantial ways of realizing a peaceful world Respected leaders, peace is not something that is realized only in the external world. It is realized initially within each individual. First of all, it requires individuals to achieve harmonious unity within themselves. As a result of the Fall, conflict arose between our mind and body. To control us, satan uses our body as his stronghold. He has turned us away from our original nature and spiritual nature and toward the attempts to satisfy our selfish and individualistic desires. The only path to escape from satan's dominion lies within God's lineage of true love. If you live unselfishly for the sake of others and work for the sake of others, satan will not be able to follow you. This is because satan is essentially selfish. This is why fallen human beings can transform their character and recover their spiritual nature through the practice of God's true love. Our faith cannot be in a conceptual God; we need a true faith that connects us to the living God. Because God originally created us as the object partners of His true love, we can practice this true love naturally. Values such as truth, goodness and beauty appear in the practice of true love. People whose minds and bodies have united based on God's true love are individual embodiments of truth, happiness and tranquility, satisfaction and peace. Such people become subject partners of character; they serve as prerequisites for a world of peace. Second, no institutions of power, materials or knowledge, nor any other external factors, will bring about a world of peace. Only true love, involving living for the sake of others, will accomplish it. True peace, unity and happiness cannot be found apart from a loving relationship of living for the sake of others. This is the basic principle of God's creation. Unconditional giving, investing and living for the sake of an object partner, is both the cause and purpose of God's creation. God created us in His image, as beings whose purpose is to live for the sake of others. It is only by living for the sake of others that we become central beings, subject partners of peace and unity, and the eternal owners of love and ideals. Only through a life of true love, or living for the sake of others, can we find the path to meet God, our absolute True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner, receive His inheritance, and then ourselves become true parents, true teachers and true owners. On the path of true love, different parties overcome conflict and division naturally. True love harmonizes and unites us with one another and our environment. This is not conquest through struggle. Instead, it is a path of natural subjugation leading to eternal unity. Third, the basic unit of the world of peace is not the nation; it is the peaceful family. The basic unit is the family formed by a man and a woman who have the character to attend God, a man and woman who have each accomplished harmonious mind-body unity and are joined by God through His holy marriage Blessing. These are the first blessed families in history, established through the True Parents. These are peaceful and happy families. True love joins their members in harmonious unity. When these families multiply, they will bring about a world of peaceful tribes, peoples and nations. In God's original ideal, humankind is one family under one God and the cosmos is one family, with true love in the central position. The place where the problems of the family can be resolved, with True Parents at the center, is the foundation for the world of peace. In the ideal world of blessed families based on true love, there can be no barriers of nationality, race or religion. Respected leaders, we have to find God and cast away our ignorance concerning our spiritual True Parent. Living within the eternal and profound order of this universe, which manifests His omniscience and omnipotence, we shall never again make the mistake of being ungrateful to our Creator for His magnificent accomplishments. Fallen humanity is to rid itself of the arrogance that makes us think we are the owners of our own life. Instead, we will nurture an enlightened spirituality in the presence of the absolute nature of God's true love. Let us follow the tradition of the Parents of Heaven and Earth God is our True Parent. It is time to discover the living God, whose heart to invest greater true love is unchanging, absolute and eternal. We need to know the Heart of God, who created us as object partners, completely inheriting His absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal true love, true life and true lineage. In this way we will establish God - the absolute True Parent, True Teacher and True Owner- as the axis of absolute values for our individual self, our family, nation, world and cosmos. This will form the basis for our life as individuals, families, nations and the world. We will have the unchanging desire to follow eternally the path of tradition set by the Parents of Heaven and Earth, the path of living in true love, which is for the sake of others. If we do that, we can resolve all problems, whether of the family, society, race or religion. We will arrive at an age in which God and humankind live together as one in the original ideal world, the world of heart. We will arrive at an age in which we realize that living for the sake of others holds greater eternal value than living for ourselves. The blind age of self-centered life will pass away, as we build an other-centered world of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. For this purpose, let us attain accurate knowledge about God and the spirit world; let us lead humanity on the right path by testifying to the world about God's true love, true life and true lineage; and let us build the universal family of heaven and earth in God's homeland on earth. Let us completely establish the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven through absolute love, unique love, unchanging love and eternal love and seek to live for the sake of others, and offer heavenly kingship to God. May God bless you, your family and your country. Thank you. 15 • Declaring the Era of the Peace Kingdom March 23, 2004 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC, USA Coronation Ceremony for the King of Peace of the Third Israel and Ambassador for Peace Awards Ceremony Respected members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, religious leaders from around the world, distinguished guests: I would like to express my sincere gratitude for your presence here this evening in such large numbers, in spite of your busy schedules. Ladies and gentlemen, The starting point to unravel the problems humanity faces today is in knowing God, with certainty, as the Parent of all creation and on that foundation the building of true families that live in attendance to God. This calls for us to establish and attend God in our families, conceptually and as the substantial Parent of us all. To do this, we have to first clarify the relationship between God and humankind. God is the original entity of true love, true life and true lineage, and God is the True Parent of all people. Perfected human beings automatically go to heaven If human beings had not fallen, we would have reached perfection in God's true love as true children and lived in attendance to God as our Parent. God's plan was for perfected human beings to bond as true husbands and wives, bear and raise true children so that they would live in the kingdom of heaven on earth, and then live together eternally in the heavenly world as families in the kingdom of heaven. Think about it for a moment. If your father went to hell and only your mother went to heaven, what kind of heaven would that be? If your parents were to go to hell and only you children went to heaven, how could that be called heaven? The kingdom of heaven is where the whole family lives together in an eternal peace kingdom.. On earth as well, God will reside where a whole family has established a kingdom. of heaven. In such a family, the world of God's original ideal, the kingdom. of heaven on earth, takes root. The path to realizing family heaven on earth How, then, are we to bring about this family heaven on earth? First, each member of the family has to complete his or her individual character. Each person has to shed the fallen nature that has passed from. the Fall down through the generations, and achieve the perfection of his or her character. Each person has to become victorious in the struggle between mind and body. Then the world of harmony will bear fruit in each individual's perfected character, a state of one heart, one body and one thought. Fallen nature, which causes jealousy, envy, greed, hatred and all other evils, will never again take root in a person who has achieved this state. Shedding one's fallen nature is not easy. The reality of fallen hum.an beings is that we vacillate even when trying to break habits like smoking or drinking alcohol, which are formed during the relatively short span of a few years or decades. We cannot expect, then, that it will be easy to cast off fallen nature, which we inherit through lineage going back thousands, even tens of thousands of years. This is impossible by hum.an effort alone. We need to stand on the foundation of absolute faith, and strive our entire life to establish God as our vertical axis. Even then, it is a difficult fight. We cannot think we will gain victory unless we enter a state of absolute love for God, loving God even more than we love our own parents and children, and attending God as our True Parent. We cannot hope to win this fight without a foundation of absolute obedience, following God even at the cost oflaying down our lives. Herein lies the reason why religions consider practicing spiritual disciplines such as fasting, sexual abstinence, sacrifice and penance to be of utmost importance. We can be born again, recast as new persons in whom. Heaven can reside and with whom. the spirit world can cooperate. In such a state, we will not have anything of which to be ashamed, even if our entire life and being is exposed before all of God's creation. We need to be people of upright character, of "high noon settlement." casting not even the slightest shadow. When we achieve this, satan will flee from our presence for eternity. Perfecting the four realms of heart leads us to the heavenly kingdom Individuals who achieve maturity of character come together to form true families, and the members of these families work together to establish what I call the "four great realms of heart." Such families resemble an individual who has accomplished the complete oneness of mind and body. The kingdom of heaven is a place we enter family by family. Not every family, however, is qualified to enter Heaven automatically. You need a foundation to be a true family and to complete the four great realms of heart. A true family that can enter the kingdom of heaven is composed of true individuals who have each engaged fully in the four great realms of heart and whose lineage centers on God. What do I mean then by the four great realms of heart? I refer to the heart of parents, the heart between a husband and wife, the heart of children, and the heart of siblings. This is found in a true family bound by God's original true love, true life and true lineage through a pure three-generational lineage of grandparents, parents, children and grandchildren. Here, the love between parents and children establishes the vertical relationship between upper and lower; the love between the husband and wife establishes the horizontal relationship that brings left and right into definitive oneness, and the love between siblings establishes the relationship between front and back. In this way, God's ideal of creation is no longer a mere concept or dream. It is perfected in reality through the completion of the four great realms of heart centered on true lineage, family by family. The realm of parental heart is acquired naturally as parents go through the process of bearing children and then raising and educating them with true love. In other words, it is the heart that enables the parents to own true love with respect to the children. With no relationship to children, no one can own love as a parent. Next, the realm of conjugal heart is the love relationship that extends true lineage. In this, husband and wife each are grateful for the other having established them as an owner of love, and each learns true love through giving and receiving with the other. They learn and experience true love when the husband lives for the sake of his wife, even if it means sacrificing his own life, and the wife attends her husband with the heart of attending God. The perfection of the husband-wife relationship is possible only on this basis. The moment a bride and groom share love with God's blessing on their wedding night, they inherit the palace of true love, true life and true lineage. The wife, through her husband, receives God's ideal son, who is also Heaven's older brother, Heaven's husband and Heaven's parent. The husband stands in the corresponding position in receiving his wife as Heaven's older sister, Heaven's wife and Heaven's parent. When the realm of conjugal heart is perfected, the relationship between the hμsband and wife also becomes absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, because God is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. The notion of divorce will become obsolete. Theirs will be a life of happiness, filled with only blossoming flowers of mutual respect and love. Three generations of true love is the model of heaven Next, how can we describe the heart of children, and how is it obtained? Parents are the center, in God's position in the family, and it is impossible for a child to be born without parents. The relationship between parent and child is established not by human morality, it is established by a heavenly morality. Thus the parent-child relationship is a vertical relationship, not horizontal. It is not a relationship that exists as destiny, by which I mean that human effort can change it. It is a relationship of absolute and eternal fate. Children experience and learn the heart of true love as they attend their parents in daily life, placing their parents in a position higher than themselves. Through a natural process, they come to understand that the love, life and lineage that they inherit from their parents originate in God. Children who watch and learn from their parents in this way will grow up to become husbands and wives who have no fallen nature, and who ultimately obtain the position of true parents themselves. The cyclical and spherical motion of the family unit that continually repeats the three-generational pattern in this way is the basic model for building the kingdom of heaven. Lastly, the realm of the heart of siblings is realized through brothers and sisters who live as a family in attendance to the same true parents. The heart among brothers and sisters establishes the relationship between front and back. True parents are a husband and wife living in truth, and children who attend such parents will naturally learn to live according to heavenly morality and ethics among siblings. It will be a beautiful sight, where a younger brother or sister attends and reveres an older brother or sister and the older sibling looks after his younger sibling with a loving heart. The older sibling represents "front" and the younger sibling represents "back." The older sibling represents the father, while the younger sibling represents the mother. The perfection of the realm of heart between siblings is the foundation for all people to live for the sake of others through love and service. The importance of establishing a true family Respected guests, as the number of "true peace family kingdoms" that have perfected the four great realms of heart increases, "true peace tribe kingdoms;' "true peace nation kingdoms;' and ultimately the "true peace world kingdom" will appear. This will become the original world of God's ideal, the kingdom of heaven on earth, the eternal kingdom of peace on earth. I am declaring this here and now. Humanity has lived without knowing that to establish true families is the most serious and foundational commandment of Heaven. A new era has arrived today. The number of people around the world who have received my teaching and are standing resolutely for the sake of building the kingdom of peace is growing by leaps and bounds. Heaven and earth are shaking with the cries of bright young people who are determined to build true families even if they give their lives in order to protect their purity. Already, we find hundreds of millions of Blessed families around the world. They are turning the tide of a world in which ethics and morality have been rapidly washing away. That is not all. The spirit world is one step ahead of us in breaking open the age of the peace kingdom. Starting with the five great saints-Jesus, Buddha, Confucius, Socrates and Muhammad- more than one hundred twenty billion Blessed families are working day and night to cooperate with us on earth and prepare for the day that is to come. According to the Principle of Creation, God's ideal world has to be completed first on earth. God's homeland and carrying out the revolution of true love Although people today are descendants of the Fall, God's unending love and the spirit world's cooperation now allow us to understand the nature of the heavenly kingdom. Please recognize that it is time to accomplish a true love revolution of overwhelming proportions, taking as our example the miraculous transformations in the spirit world. The time has come for you as well to open your hearts and receive the secrets that Heaven is disclosing in this age through me. In one sense, I am a human being living with a physical body like each of you. However, in the context of Heaven's providence, I am God's ambassador, sent to earth with full authority. I am sent to accomplish God's command to save the world's six billion people, restoring them to Heaven with the original goodness in which they were created. The five great saints and many other leaders in the spirit world, including even Communist leaders such as Marx, Lenin and Stalin, central to all manner of barbarism and murder on earth, and dictators such as Hitler, have found strength in my teachings, mended their ways and been reborn as new persons. Emperors, kings and presidents who enjoyed opulence and power on earth, and even journalists who had worldwide fame, have now placed themselves at the forefront of the true love revolution. Together they have sent to earth a resolution expressing their determination in the light of my teaching of the true family ideal. They have declared to all heaven and earth that Rev. Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity's Savior, Messiah, returning Lord and True Parent. This resolution has been announced on every comer of the globe. Respected guests, it is now only a matter of time. Look at the world. Do you see anything that gives you genuine hope for the future? Sooner or later, we have to give what we have to our descendants and leave this world. "What gift would be more precious than that of completing the family ideal in your family; so as to guarantee eternal peace and happiness for your children? Surely no one who has such an opportunity hesitates to take up the task of building the peace kingdom on earth, for which God has waited thousands of years. I have reached the advanced age of eighty-five years, by the Korean way of counting. All the same, I will continue to work harder than anyone else until the day the earth overflows with God's true families, guns in the Middle East fall silent and give way to fireworks of peace and joy; and shouts of eternal victory celebrating the unification of my homeland Korea echo across the Pacific to be heard in America. I hope that you leaders, representing the world's six billion people in this ceremony, will join hands with me. I call you to take the lead in building what is God's original ideal and the desire of all humanity, the peace kingdom on the earth. Thank you. 16 • Let Us Build a World of Peace through Living for the Sake of Others September 16, 2004 Little Angels Performing Arts Center, Seoul, Korea Invitational banquet for US finance and business leaders Distinguished financial and business leaders from the United States! Respected political and financial leaders from the Republic of Korea, and ladies and gentlemen: I welcome you with all my heart to this banquet. As a person who has lived my whole life following a standard of absolute values centered on God, I have prepared this banquet to invite your interest in some recent projects. Upholding the decree of heaven, I have persevered my whole life for the realization of a world of peace. Recently, I have begun the development of a large-scale tourist resort, inspired by the ideal of harmony and unity among all people, in the district of Hwayang-myeon, Yeosu City, South Jeolla Province, which has been designated as a part of the Gwangyang Gulf Free Economic Zone. I would now like to tell you a little about the fundamental spirit behind my doing this. The human desire to achieve the ideal of peace has been consistent throughout history. Yet eternal peace has never been manifested. This is the problem. Human beings have lived in ignorance, chaos, division and strife. To this day, we have been unable to establish an absolute value system that can be shared by all people. An absolute value system cannot arise from human beings who harbor internal conflicts and are always changing. The root of this system can only be found in God, the Absolute Being and the Creator. God, who is the essence of love, created human beings to be the recipient of His absolute love. One cannot claim for oneself the status of owner or master of love, and that is true even for God. Only one's partner grants that status. This is a fundamental principle. One needs to live for one's partner and neighbor. This absolute value system of love stands above any political ideal or principle of economics. It is the heavenly law that transcends all ages. What kind of being is God who created this universe and the heavenly laws? God has manifested Himself in the universe as the quintessence of living for the sake of others. Though He is the King of knowledge, He does not ask us to come to Him through knowledge. Though He is the Owner and King of power, authority, money and material, He does not view these as conditions to come before Him. God says that anyone can come to His side as long as they live for the sake of others. Only those who live for others can become the counterpart of the center, and stand in the position of a central figure. God is not an egocentric dictator. Rather, God invests Himself for humankind's sake. Thus, for tens of thousands of years our original minds have sought to follow God. All beings must exist for the sake of other beings in order to maintain their place in this universe, as governed by the laws of Heaven. The principle of living for the sake of others has been valid throughout all ages and in all nations. An egocentric and self-centered way of life will bring about evil, while a life of living for the greater good will bring prosperity. All things can be brought into harmony by living for greater goodness. This opens all doors to individuals, families, tribes, races, nations, the world and heaven. The self-evident truth of the benefit of living for the sake of others must be put into practice on the path of a true life. This principle is valid no matter where you may be. It is unchanging and eternal. If God were to appear before such a sage as Buddha, Confucius, Jesus, or Muhammad, and ask them what he thought about this principle, they would surely reply that this principle is true. Do you feel the same way? Please keep in mind that this is the law of the universe, which is needed for men and women to live in their truest form. What standards set by people in history do people of today aspire to reach? Only the standards of people who lived for the sake of others with a spirit of sacrifice remain as something worth striving toward in the world today. Those who set such standards are remembered as saints, great men and women, patriots and children of filial piety. That which was accomplished through a spirit of self-sacrifice is remembered. Sacrificial effort benefits the greater good. Please think about this. The reason my teachings will emerge as the dominant thought of the twenty-first century is that I have been espousing a world where people live for the sake of others, which is the direct opposite of a world where people live for themselves. Consequently, the hope of human beings can be found in the Unification movement. You may think that I am being overbearing in saying this, but please understand that I take full responsibility for such an assertion. The world of the future, for countless years to come, will follow in the footsteps of this group, which chooses to live for the sake of others rather than for its own sake. The world does not follow those who live solely for their own sake. The world doesn't like such people. How will we achieve harmony and unity? It is not achievable through force, money, power or knowledge. Everything can be resolved based on love by living for the sake of others. We can conclude that by living based on true love and for the sake of others, we can restore the world of hell into the heavenly world. You will see for yourselves. Is there anyone here who opposes me? In the past, individuals, families, nations and the world united against me. And now there is no one who does not acknowledge me, because they can see the results! They can see the results in the heavens, on the earth, in the people themselves, and in the winds of peace. Please don't be offended by the conclusions I'm expressing. The way for someone to come to your side is not through struggling with that person, it is by thinking of them as if you were his or her parent, teacher or supervisor. That is the way. I ask you to live sincerely for the sake of others for three years. Then you will come to understand what I am saying. You must be aware that action in line with the principles of the universe is what moves someone's original mind. Please live more for the sake of others. Those who do so can be entrusted with responsibility. If there are ten people, the person who loves and lives most for the sake of the other nine will become the central person. All nine will go to that person. In general, people think that living for others entails loss, and is not beneficial to one's self. However, you must know that the truth is otherwise: this principle enables you to become the owner, the central figure and heir. This is how heavenly law works. Distinguished guests, renowned leaders of Korea, in my lifetime I have been able to create a global foundation that transcends race, religion and nationality in one hundred ninety-one countries, despite constant misunderstanding and persecution, and God, the spirit world and the earth have recognized me as the True Parents of Humankind and King of Peace. The reason for this is that I have practiced the heavenly way of true love that calls one to be the first to give, and to live for others. I did not ask to be made the King of Peace. This title was given to me. Harmony and unity can be achieved and the ideal of peace can be realized only when we are motivated by genuine love to live for the benefit of others. I have guided humanity under this practical principle of true love, true parents and true families according to the heavenly way. The ideal family movement, which is based on the marriage Blessing ceremony and peace initiatives that transcend nationality, race and religion, are aspects of the true love movement. This movement calls us to live a personal, exemplary lifestyle by investing ourselves to the advantage of others. The various educational institutions established in a number of nations worldwide were created through my sacrificial investment in an effort to manifest the founding ideals ofloving heaven, loving humankind and loving one's nation. The global media institutions within News World Communications, including The Washington Times and The Segye Times, were created for the sake of guiding the world in true love through a responsible, just and fair press. Interreligious peace initiatives, education in life's philosophy, projects showcasing culture and arts, the promotion of technology transfer, activities of education and science that bring people together across religious and national divides, service activities, guidance for youth, the women's movement, the cultivation of sports, and all the other projects I have founded are grounded in the principle of true love. I act with a clear sense of purpose and direction under the ideal of the interdependence of all human beings, based on absolute values that are above the pursuit of personal gain. Men and women must walk the path of the truth and true love in accordance with heavenly law. The path of true love is the fundamental root that takes priority over any human activity or undertaking. No matter how great your fortune or power, without the foundation of living for the sake of others, all those things are transient and are destined to disappear. On the other hand, a life of giving and living for the sake of others automatically enables a person to become the subject and central figure. If you go beyond self-interest and focus your work on the macroscopic ideal of peace, and further on reconciliation and peace on the Korean peninsula, then I truly believe you will be able to attain something of greater value than just material benefit. In accordance with God's principles for the providence of re-creating His original ideal, the Era Before the Coming of Heaven that was shaped by egocentric lives has passed away, ushering in the Era After the Coming of Heaven, which will bring about the ideal fruits of this absolute value system. People who say they will live self-centeredly will remember their words when they cross the dividing line between the era before and the era after the coming of Heaven. All barriers will be eliminated in the era of God's eternal kingdom of peace, as people who live with true love become the owners and central figures of that age. Conflicts arising from narrow-mindedness and self-centeredness, over differences of skin color, language, customs and geographical territory, will disappear. Now is the time to build the ideal world in which we can live for one another together, based on a system of absolute values. In conclusion, I pray that God's eternal blessings will be with you all as you engage in your work in the spirit of altruism in accordance with the heavenly principles. Thank you. BOOK 2 God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom 1. The Background and Significance of the Founding of the Unification Church 2. The Foundation of the Future World 3. In Search of the Origin of the Universe 4. The Cosmos Is Our Hometown and Our Homeland 5. The True Land for a King 6. God's True Love and Restoring His Relationship with Heaven, Earth and Humankind 7. To Realize the World of Peace 8. God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom 9. Fifty Years on the Providential Path to Realize God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom 10. God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom Are Built on the Foundation of the Realm of His Liberation and Complete Freedom 11. Our Mission in the Last Days of Providential History 12. Complete and Perfect Restoration of Cain andAbel Brotherhood and the Ideal World of Creation 13. The Restoration of Our True God's Homeland 14. Establishing the Kingship of Original True Love from the Self to the Cosmic Level 15. The Value and Significance of the Family Pledge 16. Advance without Ceasing 1 • The Background and Significance of the Founding of the Unification Church July 15, 1970 Unification Church Headquarters, Seoul, Korea Visit of seven religious leaders of the Association of Religions in Korea I would like to praise the recent establishment of the ecumenical and interdenominational Association of Religions in Korea. Through the Association of Religions in Korea, I hope all religions will achieve greater harmony and so form a strong spiritual foundation for our people. In addition, I would like to thank those of you who have founded the Association of Religions in Korea for having included in your group the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, in the spirit of mutual cooperation. I sincerely thank you for visiting our headquarters in spite of your busy schedules and challenging circumstances. I sincerely ask that the Association of Religions in Korea vigorously pursue activities that go beyond denominations; furthermore, that it will be an axis that can play a central role in Korean society, and that by standing in the vanguard of a new and beneficial movement it will contribute to the renewal of that society. The Unification Church was founded according to the Will of God Now, what I would like to briefly tell our guests here is how the Holy Spirit Association was founded. I believe the force behind my founding the Holy Spirit Association came from the Will of God, or the Divine Will, more than merely from human will. As you well know, human society today and in history does not advance based just on the will of people. On the contrary, society advances toward one goal that is based on a greater Will, which is centered on God. From that viewpoint, if the Holy Spirit Association were founded only by the will of human beings, I do not think it would contribute much to the world, to the future or to the flow of history. Accordingly, I founded this new religion based on the Will of God. Religion, I believe, is the institution that is able to combine the Will of God and the will of humanity. Religion not only has to have God at its center, it has to embrace everything all people are longing for. Then, what is the Will of God? The Will of God is not focused on any particular society; it goes beyond societies and nations. We cannot complete the Will that God desires unless we adopt such a viewpoint. We can understand this by looking at human history. In this sense, the will of humanity also must not be focused on any individual's will or single group's will. To be one with the Will of God, it must be put into a greater context at the world level. I believe the mission of religion is to unite these two wills internally and externally. Then what is needed in order to bring God and humankind into oneness? There must be something that is able to unite the love of God and the love of human beings. The love through which human beings can become one with God is not centered on a particular individual, a particular society or a particular nation. Rather, people have to achieve a bond of heart that loves humankind and the world, going beyond particular nations. In this sense, the Will of God and the will of human beings must be bound together in the form of a religion, and the center of this religion must be love. This love must be a love that is not exclusively for any particular society or nation; rather it must be a love that goes beyond the world and beyond everything. Without this, a religion cannot be true and will lack the foundation to have a global presence. This is why until now history has moved forward with saints at the center. These were people who took their stand in relationship with the Will of Heaven and not just the will of human beings. Their goal was to benefit not only a certain people, but the entire world, and even beyond the boundary of the world. It is the task of saints to teach this way of life. With this duty at its core, religion can connect the Will of Heaven with the will of human beings. So the saints established the standard for binding the human way to the foundation of heavenly law. However, only teachings that transcend the boundaries of the world can be called the teachings of the saints. Based on these ways, human beings today have established the way of humility and morality. God longs for a global family of love When we look at things from this perspective, if God and human beings want to become one, then what is the central point where the two can come together? What is the decisive center that can connect the love of God and the ideal love for which humankind hopes? If God exists, it can only be the place that is closest to God. The base to make contact with the love of God is not a base of love centering on the individual. Unless it is a base of love that can embrace the world, the love of God and the love of human beings will not be able to connect. Then, where is the most intimate place where the love of God and the love of human beings can bind together? It is the place where God's Will is at the center and the will of human beings follows it. That is to say, it is the place where God's love is at the center and the love of human beings adjusts to it. When we seek the position that can be the most intimate, with the love of God at the center, it would be the position of becoming a true son of God. If there were a true son of God like that, with that son at the center, a true daughter of God would be needed. Then with that son and daughter at the center, it would be necessary to seek a true family that God can love, a true tribe that God can love, a true society that God can love, a true nation that God can love and a true world that God can love. With this understanding, I started the Unification Church of today based on the issue of how to unite the relationship of love between God and human beings on a global standard. The love of God is surely realized only after going through a historical course, and we know well that the saints pioneered that course at the cost of their lives. So the saints have been guiding humankind until now with the teachings of God, which are centered on the heavenly way. Then until now who would be the greatest saint among all the saints who have come and gone in history? Of course the teachers of the Confucian classics would be important; but more importantly, we need a religion that teaches how God and humankind can be the most intimate. So which religion teaches that content? When we consider the religions that have endured until today based on this question, it seems to me that Christianity was introduced from a dimension higher than other religions. So the Unification Church was started based on Christianity. Let us examine Jesus in the context of this question. When he related with God, he did not relate with a nebulous Being; he related with a tangible being who was an intimate part of his daily life. So when Jesus related to God, he called Hirn "my Father." In the realm of affection, there is no position higher than a father. So Jesus opened the way for the relationship between God and human beings to be that of parent and children, and he laid the foundation of heart to be able to bind them together. This tells us that in order to realize a world united by the love that God desires, there must surely be a foundation of affection, and this foundation of affection must be even beyond the parent-child relationship. This is why Jesus called God, "my Father." He called out, "I am His only Son, who had to come. In the whole universe I am the only person who can receive His love." In view of this, Christianity more than any other religion is based on the heart of God, gives concrete guidance and envisions God clearly and intimately. Jesus said, in effect, "I am the bridegroom; you are the bride." More than in any other religion, I consider that this illuminates the best starting point for developing the relationship of oneness with God. In addition, the first-century Christians who followed and believed called each other brother and sister. It was a new religious concept that all people are brothers and sisters. The world of love that God is hoping for cannot be realized without absolutely achieving this standard of love. The world of love, the final goal, must be established through individuals whom God can love, through the family composed of such individuals, through the tribe composed of such families, through the society composed of such tribes, and through the nation composed of such societies. Without having that kind ofloving foundation as a base, the world cannot be bound together in love. This surely has to happen in the course of history. Restoring the original relationship between God and human beings History has advanced through the guidance of the saints and righteous people. Therefore, the question now is how today's societies, which represent the world and human history, are aligned with the teachings of the saints. If God exists, He would have had a purpose at the beginning, He would have gone through a process to achieve that purpose, and that process would head toward realizing one world. If Heaven is behind that providence, then we cannot help but think about the issue of how to unite God's purpose with the historical course of humankind, who must follow that providence. This being so, how can we build the relationship God originally intended to have with humankind? And how can we bring human affairs to have God's love at the center? We have to consider how we can unite our worldview with the Will of God and with the overall relationships in the affairs of individuals, families, particular societies, and particular cultures. We formed the Holy Spirit Association with this original motivation. We will not just deal with those affairs; we will also bring it to the context of understanding that God is our Father. The issue of whether we have the intrinsic power to unite the world into one depends on bringing the world to the position where it can receive Heavenly Parent's love, centering on this teaching. In a family, there are parents, husband and wife, and children. With these it becomes a base for happiness. The purpose for God seeking human beings is certainly so that God can find His own happiness. Accordingly, when God seeks happiness, it can only be found in a place with human beings. Only when God and human beings establish a relationship can there be a point of unity. Just as we feel happiness when we possess all the emotional content from our family, God too feels happiness when He dwells in such circumstances. With this awareness, Jesus asserted Christ would have to return. For two thousand years Christians have embraced the ideal of the Second Coming and have been waiting for the time when Jesus would come again. What is the centerpiece of the Second Coming? This can be considered to be the Marriage of the Lamb. Then, what is the Marriage of the Lamb? It is left vague, yet it is no less than the beginning of the love that is to unite God and human beings. From the human viewpoint, it is a man and a woman becoming one. These two people are bound together as one and head toward the ideal world. Without preparing the foundation in this way, where humankind can go forward searching for the love of God, the goal of a world centering on God's love cannot be realized. Therefore, when Jesus comes, he must establish the family that God is hoping for, and that family must be a true family. Until now, human beings have sought true love. False love must not be present in the family or society. Therefore one true family must appear that has at its center the love of God that all people can share, a true family whose core is the greatest love that all human beings are longing for. Without such a family of love, the tribe of love cannot be formed. If such a tribe is not formed, the society of love cannot emerge, and without such a society, the nation and the world of love cannot be realized. Therefore, in the providence of salvation that God has bestowed upon humankind, I consider that the highest level human beings can experience and the highest ideal level God is seeking for is in the family. Thus, in the Unification Church we have the terms "Blessing" and "holy wedding ceremonies." I am sure you have heard these terms many times. Then, through what principle is a true family bound together? A true, original man and a true, original woman must be brought together centering on God. The Unification Church is teaching this kind of concrete concept. Such a family does not center on the individual. Instead, its focus widens to represent and encompass the world. Families with that kind of focus and accomplishment in the realm of daily life have to be established on this earth. Unless this is done, a new society, nation and world cannot be established. Because I believe this, the Unification Church has become the church that is being talked about so much today. It is finding a starting point to make a new beginning for the world, with the love of God and the love of human beings at its center. The religion the world needs There have been many disparaging rumors recently. However, I would like to tell you clearly one thing: the Unification Church will not fail. That which is humanistic will not succeed. If a religion secures the love of God and the path of the heavenly law of Heaven's Will, it will not fail. For there to be truth, there must be a strong ideal. That is to say, the value of truth appears through content that is undeniable and useful in forming relationships. Until now, religions have had as their goal the salvation of the individual, and they have taught how to save the individual from evil. However, the world does not need a religion that places the individual at the center, but one that is able to prepare a foundation for family salvation. The salvation of the family begins when it can receive and secure the Will of Heaven and be recognized by the will of humankind. If a family appears that can endure any trial, from the position of having combined the love of Heaven and the love of humankind, the religious movement based on it will spread throughout the world. This movement would not have any particular place or any special society like Korea at the center. It would be a movement that has the concept of the family at the center and goes beyond the society and nation. A religion carrying out a movement like that will be absolutely necessary for the future. As you know, the United States has taken a leading role in this age of history based on democracy. America was established by the Will of Heaven. If it was established as a nation and called to exemplify and propagate democracy, that call could not have been for the sake of America alone. America is a part of the world, and God cannot allow the form of democracy as practiced by that specific people to lead the world. If America had gone forward taking spiritual responsibility in the democratic world and had stood in the position of helping weaker nations through its politics, economy and culture, it would be able to rise to today's challenges on the world level. If it had stood in the position to save the world even at a great cost to the American people, America would surely be leading the world. However as you know, America put forth the "Nixon Doctrine" and implemented a policy of retreat. It took the position that Asian problems ought to be left to Asia. Because this position did not go beyond the limits of democracy and was a retreat, America will not be able to avoid the world's mistrust. It is the same for communism. Russian communism has erected an enormous system to dominate the world, with the Slavic peoples at the center. Undeniably, this communist ideology stands in the position of evil. Nonetheless, its system could eventually surpass democracy. Although the communists have their eyes on the people of the world, they have yet to present the realm of the ideal of communism. This being so, what is the way of Heaven and the highest good we can hope for humankind? If a religious body appears that has a new view of the world that goes beyond the nation and beyond any society, then centering on that teaching, from our individual lives up to the global level, we would have principles for daily life that are one with the heavenly way. For this reason, ifl may take Korea as an example, it must have a mission for the entire world. Hence, Korea should be able to live for the sake of the world. At this point in time, when the entire world is corning together and intermingling in the realm of our daily life, what is it that Korea, America or even the world is looking for? A nation that does not attain the standard of existing for the sake of the world, or that insists on its own ideology, will not be able to deal with the great global tide that is bringing changes in this era. We surely need a system of thought able to lead the world to the Will of Heaven. Many nations, many religions, many societies, many tribes, many families and many individuals will have to be incorporated into that world. I feel the time is coming when we need a movement with the teachings that can do that. Then is this possible? Can all of this be bound together? In the future, if you have a chance to study about the Unification Church, you will come to know the answer. What is the problem that prevents this world from being saved? Society itself is not the problem. It is human beings that are the problem. The world consists of individuals, like each of you, whose minds and bodies are fighting against each other. Therefore, it is inevitable that materialism with its view of history based on matter, and idealism with its view of history based on mind would emerge worldwide. Such a time is called the Last Days. What is different about the Unification Church? At this point we need to come up with something new in order to realize peace and unity. Even in the world that is to come, the issue is ultimately each of us. We are the cause of the problems. Then, the question is, how can we plant within ourselves the base of an unwavering, self-confident heart by which we can overcome any obstacle coming from any circumstance, and resonate with the incoming tide of the new history? Also, how can we apply this understanding to our own life? The problem we run into every day is the battle between our mind and body. This battle is not limited to ourselves; it also affects the family. If we look at our individual self, our mind and body are in conflict, and if we look at our family, our spouse is the same, so it is as though there are four people there, not two. If there are ten people, and all ten are mind-body conflicted, there are going to be divisions. Only love can bring people together and bring the heavenly way and the human way together. I have been struggling for many years to practice this way of love, analyzing how it can be substantially learned by experience, with the Principle at the center. In the future, what is the teaching that will remain in the world? Is it teaching that works for one's particular society? No, it is not. The leaders of the Association of Religions in Korea have gathered together here today, but if each of you were to develop the association just for the sake of your own religion, the association will not succeed. Rather than honoring your own religion now, you need to pursue a greater love that is able to embrace many religions and is able to connect nations and unite the world. If God exists, if He had the choice of saving either Korea or the world, which would He save first? Although He needs both Korea and the world, and although Korea does need to be saved, His Will would be to cast Korea aside and save the world. Taking this as our standard, the way of human beings who wish to follow the way of goodness or faith is the same. Do not approach things focused on your own self. You must give yourself up. In this way, when you live beyond the society, you become a loyal patriot. The person who is able to live beyond the nation, in their spiritual work and in daily life, both inside and outside, becomes a saint. In this sense, as Korea seeks to be a new leader as we the approach the Pacific era, if it pursues policies only for the sake of Korea, it will not succeed. Korea has to pursue policies focused on the good of Asia. On the foundation of those policies, Korea has to pursue policies focused on the good of the world. Actually, the world only needs one nation, if that nation's policies, religion and everything else were going forward in that spirit. The reason the Unification Church has developed is because it understands that for the individual to be happy the world must first be happy, and that for the individual to be truly saved the world must first be saved. This is different from the established religions. If there is something to be learned from religious beliefs, it is that instead of making our perceptions conform to our own concepts, we ought to establish a relationship with the emotional side of the Will of God, focused on the world. I know you have heard rumors about the Unification Church. However those rumors are not the problem. Today, if the thirty million people of Korea or its many religious groups could prosper by striking Reverend Moon of the Unification Church, then they ought to strike me. What I am hoping for is not the salvation of Korea; it is the salvation of the world. If God's Will is to save the world, Korea must make itself able to save the world, and the Unification Church must make itself able to save Korea. Then the Unification Church and Korea will prosper. Religion must be able to save the nation and the world What is evil? It is acquiring things centered on oneself. What is goodness? It is surrendering one's self and giving boundlessly. Only a person of goodness can stand in the ranks of the saints. If we look at history, many great men and women dedicated themselves to the nation. If we look at Korea, people like Admiral Lee Soon-shin were clearly in the ranks of greatness. When we see that he dedicated himself to just one particular nation, Korea, we realize that although he was a great man, he could not be a saint. One cannot become a saint without dedicating oneself to the pathway that is taught on the foundation that is God Himself. As you know, the more that religious leaders embody the way of the saint, the more they will transcend their particular society and nation, and even transcend the world. That is the way of the saint. It is living each day of one's life from that perspective until one has lived one's whole life from that perspective. I started the Unification Church from the perspective that if one lives like that, one will triumph. The Unification Church in its history has suffered the persecution of three governments. As we grew, we were oppressed by the Liberal Party, the Democratic Party and even the revolutionary government. Furthermore, as you know, we have been oppressed by the established churches. Even the leaders of the new Association of Religions in Korea who have come here today have considered the Unification Church doctrine a heresy. Why was the church deemed heretical and why was it censured by society? There are rumors that Rev. Moon, the leader of the Unification Church, is a dictator. And people say, "He works only for the development of the Unification Church." I formed the Federation for Victory over Communism, set in motion major national initiatives_and large-scale social activities, yet even those were criticized as self-serving. The slander circulating among the general public says, "The Unification Church is only publicizing its own sect; the Unification Church is working to promote its national ambitions." It is this attitude about the Unification Church that is the problem. If we cannot become a religion that can save Korea and the world, we will end up losing in the end. If people hold the concept that, "That denomination cannot be trusted." it will fail. I hope you understand that the essential question for the future is how to recover the tribe, society, nation and world, starting from an ideal family, through a united movement of religions. I founded the Unification Church with the purpose I have described. I know very well that as a new religion we are in many ways inexperienced, and so we receive criticism from society. I think that everything you can criticize has already been criticized. But I would like to point out that this person named Moon is not the kind of person you think he is. We had our own problems when started this group, but as time passed we have reached a new level that can be seen today. Finally, one thing I would like to tell you members of the Association of Religions in Korea is that the Unification Church is not a religious body that will be indebted to the Religions Association. The Unification Church also will not be indebted to Korea, nor will the Unification Church be indebted to the world. On the contrary, it is my conviction and the conviction of all the members who are actively working to achieve our purpose, that we will be a religious body to which the world, Korea and the Religions Association will themselves be indebted. Despite this, I must say there may have been many times when people focused on statements we made that were misunderstood. From now on, if anything like this happens, I hope you will please relate to us as brothers and sisters and work with us, understanding the good intentions of this organization, so that together we may contribute to the nation and the world. I thank you for giving your time in this way, and I will now conclude my greetings. 2 • The Founding of the Future World February 1, 1990 Olympic Fencing Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea True Father's Seventieth Birthday Celebration I thank you for gathering here today, in spite of your busy public and private schedules, to create such a grand occasion in celebration of my seventieth birthday. I am particularly grateful for your heart to celebrate the fact that my life has been centered on the Will of God. Seventy years with God as my motivating power Many distinguished speakers have praised my work generously. Today's occasion would have little significance, however, if its sole purpose were to applaud my past accomplishments. The substance of our celebration ought to be determined by the degree to which my work up to now is reason to have hope in the future, the degree to which my work can brighten the future of humankind, and the degree to which it is related to the providence of God, who governs the entire cosmos. Throughout my life, I have been running at full speed to pioneer a course never before traveled by anyone. It is already widely known that on an external level, I have been continuously buffeted by opposition arising from a lack of understanding. Within the realm of my heart, however, I have been in a constant state of tension, fighting every minute and every second to stay focused on how I can accomplish God's desires during my lifetime. My life has been so intertwined with God that I can never speak of it without reference to Him. Because my life has been directly connected to the fate of the nation and the world, I have shared every aspect of it in a deep give-and-receive relationship with God. As I now recall how I shared with Him my deepest sorrow, iny greatest pain, and my most exalted joy, I offer my deepest gratitude to God, with a heart that perhaps cannot be fully shared with anyone else. All the glory of this day I offer up to the living God, my Father. It is true that the foundation I have laid around the world is an astonishing accomplishment. However, I take less pride in the external and visible aspects of this foundation than in the fact that no part of this foundation has been established centering on myself. Each part is geared more to the future than the present, more to the benefit of the whole than the individual, and more to the larger purpose than the narrower purpose. The value of this foundation lies in the fact that God was its motivating force, and that it was established under God's protection even under the severest hardships and most turbulent vicissitudes. A life dedicated to others My seventy years have certainly not been an easy course. I had no friends in the world and no mentors. I traveled this course alone and survived many treacherous moments. Time and again I persevered even when death seemed certain. The only reason I did not lose courage under such circumstances was that I maintained a deep communication of heart with God. The content of the conversations that took place in that profound realm are beyond anyone's knowledge. I can only say that God always softly whispered His advice to me, and that He was the motivation for my life. He was even more than that. He was life itself. He was the source of my life energy. I never had the time to lend my ear to what others were saying about me. I never had the time to take my gaze off of God for so much as a second. I was never concerned about public opinion of me. I had no thoughts other than those of the earnest desires of God. With every cell in my being in unity with God, I lived with an almost fanatic determination for the purpose of bringing His ideal of creation into reality. Ladies and gentlemen, what do you suppose is God's earnest desire that I have dedicated my life to fulfill? Had it not been for the Fall, God would have been the invisible Heavenly True Parent and all people would have been His children. Each person would have become a true life form, receiving love and a lineage of goodness from God, the Parent of vertical true love, and Adam and Eve, the parents of horizontal true love. Also, by practicing true love, people would have been able to transmit the seed of life to their descendants. The Fall occurred when the first human ancestors were unable to fulfill horizontal true love under the auspices of God's vertical true love, allowing instead an invasion by the archangel, which led them to false horizontal love. Consequently, God lost the children He loved, and people were placed in a position where they had no alternative except to be born into the world as dysfunctional life forms, embodying a contradiction between their minds and bodies. satan has used the condition of horizontal love as a curse to unjustly control people on all levels, from the individual to the world. God, on the other hand, in an effort to return all people to their original state, has been carrying out His salvation providence. In accordance with the Principle, He has been working toward the natural subjugation of satan, and He has been working through the Messiah to engraft humankind into His lineage. I know that God has been investing Himself fully into the providence of restoration, which is actually a course of re-creation. In doing so, He has been totally investing His true love, just as much as when He sacrificially engaged in the original act of creation. I have therefore followed His Will and have offered my entire life to putting into practice these basic principles of true love and living for the sake of others. I have led my life thoroughly in service to others within the Will of God, investing myself fully and continuously. The foundation I have now achieved is a result of these efforts. Advances in modern technology have already led to tremendous changes on the planet Earth and are likely to bring about even greater changes in the future. As a result of these advances, we are faced wi~ an acute emergency that requires us to pool our wisdom to find solutions. Contemporary civilization now stands at a major turning point. To deal with this situation, we first need to transcend national, racial and religious boundaries, so that we can make cooperative efforts on a global scale. This is necessary because today's problems, such as environmental pollution and overpopulation, are global in scale. Second, today's social ills, particularly the deterioration of ethical and moral standards and the deterioration of our humanity, including threats of racial and religious wars, all have their roots in human nature. Thus, solutions to these problems need to be approached from the perspective of bringing about a revolution of human consciousness and of renewing human nature. It is not a matter of simply making changes in social institutions and structures. Practicing the teaching that the world is one family Ladies and gentlemen, all the activities I founded around the world are models of movements that transcend national barriers, work to tear down the walls between races, and are interreligious in nature and global in scale. Unificationists around the world carry with them a new worldview that is the result of a revolution of consciousness, with God's true love at its center. They are already living as one human family. The only place in the United States where there is no racial friction or barriers among races is the Unification Church. Here, blacks and whites rise above their historical hatreds and struggles. Missionaries from Japan, the United States, and Germany went to their mission countries without knowing anything about their partners. Once in those countries, they dedicated themselves together for their mission work. As you know, we have been investing our financial resources generously to convene annual conferences that foster unity within and between the major religions, such as Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Buddhism. Eminent leaders of various religions have commended me highly for these efforts. Also, we can point to situations such as that of a Korean man in a farm village who received, through the international Blessing ceremony, a Japanese bride who had graduated from a famous university in her country. His entire village held a feast to congratulate him. Every gathering sponsored by the Unification Church, wherever and whenever it is held, is devoid of racial conflict or prejudice. The church members, regardless of which part of the world they are from, have undergone a transformation of character by following the philosophy I teach. They no longer live in a self-centered manner. Rather, now they live for the sake of others. They are exemplars of citizenship in the ideal world. On a quantitative basis, the Unification movement is less than adequate. Nonetheless, what we have accomplished until today has profound significance in the history of the universe. Have not the teachings of many saints and sages in history sought to achieve such results? Are not many people of good conscience in today's world trying to find guideposts that will enable them to lead lives of goodness? How many young people today are wandering in search of new possibilities and dreaming of a brighter future for the world? And how many young people like that have become discouraged in their search and have broken down in frustration? I invite everyone to come and see for yourselves. Come and observe without prejudice. Examine for yourselves this foundation that is motivated not by human concerns, but is built with the intimate presence of Heaven's Will. Design for yourselves a brighter tomorrow. Build for yourselves a wholesome system of values. Observe the members of the Unification Church around the world. See how all of them, young and old, are filled with joy even as they each navigate their courses with total dedication. See how, in particular, the young people of the church maintain the highest ethical and moral standards even in the midst of a corrupt society, taking pride in what they do. I see the young people of the Unification Church as representing the hope of humanity and the hope of God. I will follow the path of service all of my life Let us think for a moment from a viewpoint that goes beyond narrow sectarian and religious interests. If the Korean people could undergo a transformation of character according to the philosophy I advocate and begin to live their lives dedicated to others, how would that affect the future of the nation? Would the unification of North and South Korea be a difficult task under such circumstances? And if all people of the world could accept this philosophy, would that not guarantee a peaceful and prosperous world? My philosophy ofliving for the greater purpose is not meant to bring about the development of the Unification Church for its own sake. God and the world do not exist for the sake of the church. It is the church that must live in service to God and the world. Even now, I continue to seek the way of service, and I intend to dedicate my entire life to this path. Thank you again for your congratulations. I hope that today's occasion will be much more than a celebration of my seventieth birthday. I hope it will be an opportunity for you to learn of the universal path of righteousness that requires us all to live for others. I pray that God's blessing will be upon your work and your families. Thank you very much. 3 • In Search of the Origin of the Universe September 15, 1996 Olympic Fencing Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Establishing the Family Federation for World Peace Speaking tour in 185 Nations (Given on True Father's behalf) With the end of the Cold War, new hope for peace and justice has spread rapidly across the globe. Leaders unable or unwilling to acknowledge the new international realities are being swept away by the tidal wave of change. As we stand at the threshold of the new millennium, I believe it is time to review our traditional patterns of thinking and boldly seize these new opportunities. Thus it is my great honor to share with you my lifelong advocacy for world peace and true family values. God is the origin of the universe and love In this world there are two kinds of human beings: men and women. Can they decide to exchange positions? Was your birth as male or female based on your personal desire? Or were you born that way irrespective of your personal preference? The sex that we are born with is an absolute and is not a matter of choice. We did not plan it or choose it, yet we were born of a specific gender without knowing the cause or process. Thus it is undeniable that no matter how great a person may be, he or she is not a causal being but a resultant being. Therefore, the first causal being must exist. Who is that causal being? Is it male? Is it female? You can call that first causal being God or by any other name. However that causal being has to exist. Some of the most famous people in the world are gathered here today. You might say, "Where is God? Show me, and then I will believe." However I counsel you not to deny the existence of that causal being. The topic of today's speech is, "In Search of the Origin of the Universe." If we go deeper and deeper in our search for the origin of the universe, we arrive at God. We come to know that God possesses the dual characteristics of masculinity and femininity. How did the universe begin? Let us set aside our discussion of God for the moment and consider humankind. It is clear that humankind is composed of men and women, who relate as subject and object partners. In the mineral kingdom, atoms and molecules are composed of positively charged atomic nuclei and negatively charged electrons. Flowering plants reproduce through the union of male and female reproductive cells produced in the stamen and pistil. Animals exist as male and female, and human beings, as men and women. When we examine created beings, whether in the mineral kingdom, plant kingdom, or animal kingdom, we observe that beings with plus and minus characteristics on the higher level exist and develop by incorporating beings with plus and minus characteristics from lower levels. Why does this phenomenon take place? It is because the existing world is responsible for perfecting human beings, who are meant to be rulers of all creation. In the mineral kingdom, plus and minus characteristics, functioning as subject and object partners, unite guided by the ideal of love, thereby enabling inanimate matter to exist. Likewise, in the plant kingdom, stamen and pistil generate reproductive cells that function as subject and object partners. When they unite guided by the ideal of love, a seed for a new plant comes into existence. Current research in microbiology shows that even bacteria exist with plus and minus traits. How do beings with plus and minus characteristics unite as subject and object partners? By kissing? Love is not a concept. It is a substantial reality. Where can love actually settle? Gathered here today are famous presidents and distinguished guests, but there is something that all of you need to bear in mind. You need to be aware of what characterizes a man as a man and a woman as a woman. The answer is, the sexual organs. Does anyone here dislike their sexual organs? If you like them, to what extent do you like them? Until now you may have thought that it is not virtuous to appreciate the sexual organs, but from now on you need to appreciate their value. The unchanging laws of the universe What will the world be like in the future? If it is a world that absolutely respects the value of the sexual organs, will that world be good or bad? Will it prosper or perish? This is not a joke. When God was creating human beings, into which part of the body did He invest the greatest creative effort? Was it the eyes, the nose, the heart, the brain? All these organs eventually perish, do they not? What is the purpose of the Family Federation for World Peace? If all people were to look beyond the traditional categories of what is virtuous, religious or normative by human standards, and absolutely respected the value of the sexual organs, they would earn God's warm applause. Then, what kind of world would it be? When we are born as male or female, who is the owner of our sexual organ? Actually, the owner of a husband's sexual organ is his wife, and the owner of a wife's sexual organ is her husband. We did not know that each person's sexual organ is owned by a person of the opposite sex. This is a simple truth that we cannot deny. Even after history has progressed for thousands of years, this truth will not change. Every man thinks his sexual organ belongs to himself, and every woman thinks her sexual organ is her own. That is why the world is perishing. Everyone is mistaken concerning the ownership of their sexual organ. We all think that love is absolute, eternal, and dreamlike, but when we come to understand clearly that the ownership of eternal love lies with the opposite sex, the world will not remain in its present condition. There are numerous scholars and people with Ph.D. degrees, yet not one of them has thought about this. Can any of you deny this point? If you ask your parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, the first ancestors, and even God, who is the origin of the universe, they will all agree with this. It is a universal law. This truth will remain no matter how many billions of years the universe exists. The natural conclusion is that when you stand before God, He will judge you as righteous or unrighteous according to this immutable law. Even the Fall of Adam and Eve originated with the violation of this law. Both Adam and Eve erred by thinking that their sexual organ was their own possession. Think about it. Would God chase Adam and Eve away because they ate a literal fruit? God is not such an irrational being. God chased them out because they did not meet the most basic criterion by which the universe operates. Owing to their mistake regarding the original point of love, they could not be acknowledged anywhere in the universe. In the mineral kingdom, plant kingdom and animal kingdom, the positive and negative traits, or the male and female sexual organs, are reserved for the sake of the complementary partner of love. Adam and Eve were unaware of this. Then why do the sexual organs exist? They exist for the sake of love. Male and female exist in order to find love. God and humankind are in a parent-child relationship What are the characteristics of God? God is absolute, unique, eternal and unchanging. Then who is the owner of love? The owner of love is not man or woman. The owner of love is God. On the foundation of love and through love, God and human beings can unite. This is because both God and human beings absolutely need love. Then, what kind of love does God need? God needs absolute love. What about you? It is the same for you and me. Just as God needs absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love, we too need absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal love. Apparently, we all resemble God. God Himself has masculine and feminine characteristics, or positive and negative traits. Human beings, who were meant to be the substantial object partners of God, were created as men and women. When a man and a woman get married, they become substantial plus and minus partners, and together they represent God. God's Will is that when we get married, we need to unite completely on the horizontal plane, with God's vertical love as the center. The human body, representing the earth, operates in the horizontal dimension. On the other hand, the conscience always operates in the vertical dimension, as it seeks the higher perspective. Thus human beings irresistibly seek the point at which they become one with the vertical standard of God. That point needs to be the center, and man and woman have to meet each other at that point. Thus when a person, born from that center, grows up experiencing the love of a child, the love between brothers and sisters, and conjugal love, that person's mature body represents the earth, and that person's mature mind centers on God. At this ultimate point, mind and body become one vertically and horizontally, thereby establishing a base for happiness. God, the Absolute Being, will rejoice only in that place, with absolute love at the center. In that place, husband and wife, who are love partners, will rejoice as well. When the relationships of parent and child, husband and wife, and brother and sister, representing north and south, east and west, and front and back respectively, achieve perfect unity with that single point as their center, an ideal, spherical shape is generated. Thus, people in the East have an adage that parents and children form one body. Furthermore, they consider husband and wife, as well as brother and sister, as forming one body. What is the basis for that traditional wisdom? All of that is made possible when the three types of relationships form a sphere, extending in all directions, with true love as their center. Those relationships need to form a sphere with a single center. There must be only one center. Unification is possible because those relationships share the same center. The relationship between God and us is a parent-child relationship. Thus, we need to become one with God, with true love as the center. God and human beings in unity Ladies and gentlemen, how lofty is human desire? Your mind wants to reach higher than God. No matter how lowly a person is, he or she can desire a world even greater than that of God's desire. As a beloved son or daughter of God, if you say to God, "Father, please come;' will He not come? No matter how plain a man's wife may be, if he really loves her, he will naturally go to her when she calls. With unity founded on true love, the husband will respond to his wife's beckoning, the elder will follow the younger's call, and the younger will follow the eider's call. None of them will ever want to separate from the other. If God were alone, would He feel lonely or not? How can we know that He would feel lonely? Ladies and gentlemen, do you have love? Do you have life? Do you have lineage that comes from sperm and ova? Do you have a conscience? You affirm all these things, yet have you seen love? Have you seen life? Have you seen lineage? Have you seen the conscience? Have you ever touched these things? You are aware of their existence, although you cannot see or touch them. You know them only through your intuition. By the same token, even though you have not seen or touched God, you cannot say that He does not exist. What is more important, that which is visible or that which is invisible? I am sure you realize that the invisible is more important than the visible. You can see and touch money, however you cannot see or touch love, life, lineage and conscience. We all have them, so why can we not see them? It is because they are one with us. When your mind and body are in perfect balance, you do not feel them. Do you feel your eyes blinking? Try counting the number of times you blink over a period of three hours. Do you count the number of breaths you take every day? Touch the left side of your chest with your right hand. Do you feel something beating? You can feel your heart beating. How many times each day do you hear the sound of your heart beating? Through a stethoscope, your heartbeat may sound like the booming of a bomb going off. Yet, when we are busy, we can go for weeks and months without feeling it. Think about it! We immediately feel a small fly sitting on our head, yet we cannot feel our heart beating, although its movement is a hundred times greater than that of the alighting of a fly. It is because we are one with our own body. You may consider it rude if I share this with you, however I would like to give you some unusual examples. You use the bathroom each morning. When you defecate, do you wear a gas mask? This is not a laughing matter, but a serious one. If you are near someone else defecating, you will quickly move a good distance away. However, when you smell your own feces, you barely notice it. This is because the fecal matter was one with your body. Therefore, you do not experience it as offensive. When you were young, did you ever taste the dried mucus from your nose? Does it taste sweet or salty? It's salty, right? Since you can answer that, you must have tasted it! Why did you not feel that it was dirty? That is because it was part of your body. Reverend Moon has figured out something that no one else in the world has known. When you cough up phlegm, you sometimes swallow it, right? What about you who have gathered here today? Have you ever had that experience? Be honest. Why do you not feel it is dirty? It is because the phlegm was one with your body. We all eat three meals a day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. If you go about twelve inches down from your mouth, there is a fertilizer factory. By eating three meals a day, we provide raw materials for that fertilizer factory. After knowing that, can you still put food into your mouth? We know that there is a fertilizer factory in our stomach, yet we live on without feeling its presence. Why do we not feel it? It is because it is part of us. God's purpose of creation In the same way, we have love, life, lineage and conscience, and because they are one with us and in balance, we do not feel them. Likewise, we do not feel the pressure of the atmosphere that surrounds us. God too has love, life, lineage and conscience, and like us He cannot feel them by Himself. Because they are completely in balance, God cannot feel them. That is why God also needs an object partner. We can appreciate the necessity of an object partner from this perspective. When one is alone, one cannot feel oneself However when a man appears to a woman or a woman appears to a man, the stimulation of love and lineage will erupt like lightning and thunder. You have to be fully awakened to this. We have been living without knowing this truth. We have not understood that God absolutely needs a partner of love. Then who is God's love partner? Is it a monkey? We are resultant beings, but can monkeys be the beings that caused us? Can monkeys be our progenitors? Don't even utter such nonsense. For life to begin from an amoeba and reach the human form, it would have to pass through the gates of love on thousands oflevels. Does life progress automatically? Absolutely not. It is the same with all animals. The division of species is very strict. No one can infringe on the separation of species. If materialists who believe that monkeys are our ancestors try to crossbreed a human with a monkey, do you think they can create a new life form? They will fail, no matter how many thousands of years they attempt it. Why will it not work? You need to think about that. Then what would God need? What part of your body would God need the most: your eyes, your hands, or all five of your senses? Within Himself, God has both masculine and feminine natures, although to exist as Father, His being is that of a male subject partner. With this in mind, would we say that God needs a love partner? Then who or what within God's creation could be His love partner? Would it be a man by himself? Or can a woman by herself become God's love partner? What kind of partner does God want? Does He need a partner with great wealth, or knowledge, or authority? No, none of these things matter. God wants a love partner. Thus, God wants to appear and meet us at the place where husband and wife unite through their sexual organs. Why is that the place where man and woman unite, with God at the center? It is because love is absolute, and that is the place where man and woman have the absolute desire to unite. From a horizontal perspective, a man, who is in the plus position, approaches that center, and a woman, who is in the minus position, also approaches that center. In God as well, the masculine and feminine characteristics, or plus and minus aspects, are united as one. That union in God, as a bigger plus, becomes one with a bigger minus, namel~ the union of man and woman. The question turns to the conditions by which that larger union can come about What is marriage? Why is marriage important? Marriage is important because it is the road to finding love. It is the road to creating life. It is the road on which the lives of a man and a woman unite into one. It is the place where a man's lineage combines with a woman's lineage. Through marriage, history emerges, nations appear and an ideal world begins. Without marriage, the existence of individuals, nations, and an ideal world has no meaning. This is the formula. Man and woman need to become absolutely one. Parents and children need to become absolutely one with God, loving God and living and dying with God. When they die and go to the spirit world, the place to which they go is called heaven. However, no individual, family or nation has fulfilled that ideal. The world and humankind have not established that ideal, and for that reason the kingdom of heaven that God desires is empty. All people who died until now fell into lower realms, even into hell. No one entered the kingdom of heaven. From this perspective, we can see that even Jesus, who came as the Savior of humankind, could not enter the kingdom of heaven. Instead, as the Bible says, he went to paradise. (Luke 23:43) To enter the kingdom of heaven, he would have needed to form a family. That is why Jesus said he would come again. Jesus needed to marry, form a family, serve and live with God in that family, and then enter the kingdom of heaven with that family. He could not enter the kingdom of heaven by himself. Thus it says in the Bible, "Whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven." (Matt. 18: 18) We have to solve our problems on earth. Since the disease was contracted on earth, it has to be cured on earth. The truth that can overcome the fallen world Human beings descended from the Fall. Therefore we dwell in the realm of the Fall and cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without making a foundation to rise above that realm. No matter how difficult the task, human beings in the realm of the Fall have to overcome that realm. Thus Jesus said, "Those who find their life will lose it, and those who lose their life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 10:39) In order to traverse this road of death, we have to penetrate it and rise above death at the risk of our entire lives. Your families are in the realm of the Fall. Your tribes and nations are in the same realm. Therefore, you have to engage in the struggle and win. The Fall occurred in Adam's family. Did Adam and Eve have children before or after they were chased out of the garden of Eden? They had children after they were chased out; they created their family without any relationship to God. How can you go to the kingdom of heaven without knowing that? It is inconceivable. You cannot achieve the ideal through ignorance. This is my warning to you. Pray to find out whether Reverend Moon's words are true. No one knows how much hardship I endured to find this path. Although I committed no crime, I suffered through imprisonment on six different occasions to find this path. Through this truth, I am able to educate precious young adults and transform them in the matter of an hour. Some say that I am brainwashing people, but in fact I am enlightening them with logical truth. Before my explanation of the existence of God in scientific and logical terms, atheists are silent. On the other hand, Christians try to entrap and destroy us, crying "heresy" because our doctrines differ. Nonetheless, this so-called heretical cult is on the side of truth. satan hates whatever is on God's side, and God hates whatever is on satan's side. Has anyone in the world liked Reverend Moon? You came here only because you know about what I am doing. You did not come without knowing that. Youth in the former Soviet Union also saw and learned of what I am doing. Living in an ideological vacuum, they are now equipping themselves intellectually with a Unification perspective, using comprehensive ethics texts in middle schools, high schools, universities and even prisons. Three thousand six hundred schools in the former Soviet Union are using these texts. They believe that my teachings provide the only way to overcome the corrupting influence of the decadent Western culture of homosexuality and free sex. They are proclaiming, "We have to surpass America, which opposes Reverend Moon!" They want to move ahead of America in supporting the work of Reverend Moon. Illicit sexual relationship is the root of sin Ladies and gentlemen, do you love God? Would God enjoy watching Reverend Moon engaged in these activities? Can the teachings of the Vatican harmonize with the teachings of Reverend Robert Schuler, who also attended the inaugural convention of the Family Federation for World Peace? Their teachings differ. Then ask God whose teachings are true. What does it benefit me to tell you that your understanding of Jesus and Mother Mary is wrong? However you need to understand one fact very clearly: without being loosed on earth, it will not be loosed in heaven. Reverend Moon, who knew this at an early age, has devoted his entire life to walking this path for liberation. Was Jesus supposed to have married? Yes, Jesus was supposed to have married. Is Jesus a woman or a man? Would Jesus not have wished to marry a daughter of God? During the creation of Adam and Eve, God granted them their personal sexual organs. Why did He do that? Would not God have blessed them in marriage when they reached maturity? The problem lies in their Fall. Due to the Fall, their blood lineage was transferred from God to satan. Therefore, God chased them out of the garden of Eden. Originally, Adam and Eve were to have become God's body, in the position of God's bride. The Fall, in a sense, introduced a disease into God's body and ideal, as Adam and Eve behaved as God's enemies. Can you imagine how much God's heart suffered as He watched this taking place? The human Fall opened the grave in which people buried themselves. It was an act of expropriation. It was the root of free sex and the origin of individualism. What kind of nation is America today? It has become a nation of extreme individualism, a nation whose people are excessively pursuing their private interests, over-indulging themselves, being gluttonous, and practicing free sex. Does God favor these things? What is the outcome of the lives of such extreme individualists? They abandon heaven and earth, the world, their nation, their society, their extended family and even their grandparents. Beyond that, they lose their parents, and brothers and sisters. Therefore they live as gypsies and wander around like vagrants, with no place to go when it rains and snows. So they are driven to end their lives by suicide. That is the result of extreme individualism. The original mind does not want to protect this extreme individualism and exaltation of privacy. The original mind wants to live receiving love from the universe, the nation, our village and our parents. However, because people walk the opposite path, their conscience becomes dysfunctional and they feel a contradiction with their own original mind. Thus more and more people would rather die than live, and they commit virtual suicide by taking drugs. We are witnessing the truth of the proverb, "You will reap what you have sown." What seed did Adam and Eve plant in the garden of Eden? It was the seed of free sex. Can we deny that? It is the reason they covered their lower parts after the Fall. Do not even children know what they need to cover up, for example, after they have eaten some cookies hidden by their parents? This is how human nature functions. If the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil were a literal fruit, then Adam and Eve would have covered their mouths or hands. So, why did they hide their lower parts? I am an intelligent man. I am not doing what I am doing because I am inferior to you. We cannot deny that the Fall was an act of fornication. To restore the Fall of Adam and Eve, it is logical to say that we have to take a path one hundred eighty degrees different from that of the Fall. Owing to the Fall, we inherited a lineage that leads us on the path to hell. That is why the Messiah has to come. The returning Lord has the mission to raise up true families The Messiah comes as the owner who forms a family in the garden of Eden as originally intended by God. We need to understand this dearly, based upon logic. The Messiah needs to first create a family that serves God. Through this family, he has to establish a nation. Therefore, the family is the key. On the foundation of the Messiah's family, there needs to be an engrafting process. The problem can be stated as, "Who can save me from this world of death?" That is why we need to take a path in a direction opposite to that of the Fall. Consider the Old Testament era. To indemnify a wrongdoing, the principle applied at that time was, ''.An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." (Exod. 21 :24) Now think about Rebekah, the wife ofisaac, who had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Did she not help Jacob steal the blessing by cheating her elder son, Esau, and her own husband, Isaac? Why would God love such a woman? How can we have faith in such a God? Until now, no one has been able to answer these questions. I am the first person to provide the answers, because I am the only one who knows all of God's secrets. Now, let us discover the dividing line between heaven and hell. Is it up in the air? Where is it? It is your sexual organ. 1his is a serious matter. The sexual organs turned heaven and earth upside down. Who can deny it? The Divine Principle, the teaching of Reverend Moon, explains this issue in the chapter on the human Fall. If you doubt this explanation, ask God. You cannot reject the Divine Principle, which includes content beyond your wildest dreams systematically presented and logically explained. If you are wondering whether Reverend Moon will go to heaven or hell, you will find out after you die and go to the spirit world. And if you feel upset by my talk tonight, just go there to find out. You have to realize that I overcame death hundreds of times in order to find this path. I brought God to tears hundreds of times. No one in history has loved God more than I have. That is why, even if the world tries to destroy me, I will not perish because God protects me. If you step into the realm of the truth I teach, you too will gain God's protection. If you use your sexual organ as if you are wandering aimlessly and without direction, it will undoubtedly lead you, as its owner, to hell. By the same token, if you use your sexual organ according to the standard of God's absolute love, you will be led high up into heaven. That is a clear conclusion. Today, we face a serious youth problem because Adam and Eve, during their youth, planted the seed of free sex in the shade, through their Fall in the garden of Eden. In the Last Days, which is the time of harvest, we see the worldwide phenomenon of rampant free sex among youth. satan knew that the Lord of the Second Advent would come in the Last Days with the strategy to save all people, who are in the realm of the Fall, by lifting them up to the realm of absolute love with God's true love as the center. satan, who is an archangel, cannot present any standard of love other than free sex, which he introduced in the garden of Eden. Therefore, we see that through free sex the entire world is being stripped naked and shoved in the direction of death. All people, as the archangel's descendants, are being forced to walk this path in the Last Days. Because all men and women are descended from Adam and Eve, who fell under satan's dominion in the garden of Eden, satan can boldly claim in front of God the right to do whatever he pleases with them in this world. God knows what satan wants. Through free sex, satan wants to stop every last person from returning to God. In other words, satan wants to destroy all human beings and solidify hell on earth. Is not the world in which we live today hell on earth? Therefore, we will find the road to heaven by going in a direction that is exactly opposite the direction leading to hell on earth. When the Lord of the Second Advent comes, he will lead us to heaven by showing us this reverse path as the way to save the world. Then what is the road that is the exact reverse of the way of free sex? The path of free sex was laid because of the false parents. Therefore, True Parents have to come to lead us on the right path. God cannot intervene. No authority or any military, economic or political power can do it. False parents caused it. Therefore, it requires the scalpel of True Parents to cut it open. True Parents have to operate with their scalpel; that is the only way humanity can be saved. The one who sinned has to indemnify the sin. It was in the family that a false marriage took place, which corrupted the lineage at an angle one hundred eighty degrees opposite to the true lineage. Therefore, in order to open the path to heaven, True Parents have to come and bestow marriage that is in exactly the opposite direction. Realizing a peaceful world through pure love and the true family movement Then, what did God expect from Adam and Eve? God expected them to unite through "absolute sex." You world leaders gathered here tonight, please learn this truth and take it back to your home countries. If you start a campaign to secure absolute sex in your country, your families and nation will go directly to heaven. Where there is absolute sex, absolute couples will emerge naturally. Words such as free sex, homosexual and lesbian will simply disappear. Reverend Moon has lived his entire life overcoming a suffering path to initiate this global movement. Now is the time when I should sound a fanfare of victory and move the entire world. Therefore, I am grateful to God. The family builds the road to world peace. The family can also destroy that road Adam's family destroyed the foundation of human hope and happiness. Therefore, when we establish the Family Federation for World Peace, the road going in a direction that is one hundred eighty degrees opposite to that of satan's world will be opened, and for this we can only give thanks to God. Without following this road, there is no freedom, happiness or ideal. I wish that you would appreciate the central value of the sexual organ. When it is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, you can use it as your foundation to know God You need to realize that this organ has to become the foundation of love, life, lineage and conscience. You also need to realize that the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven will begin on this foundation. If all men and women acknowledge that their sexual organ belongs to their spouse, we will all bow our heads and be humble when receiving our spouse's love. You should receive love only from your partner. There is no real love other than love for the sake of others. Remember that we can find absolute love when we absolutely live for the sake of others. When you return home, please plan to wage a war against satan's world. Wherever you may go, try to spread Reverend Moon's message through television or other media; it won't harm you to do that. What force can turn around this world of hell? It is impossible to achieve this change unless human beings use their sexual organ in accordance with an absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal standard centering on God's true love, which is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. God is the original owner of our sexual organs. Let us all go forward together for this common cause. Let us become the vanguard that will actualize God's true love. This is the very mission of the Family Federation for World Peace. Now, please return home and affirm with your spouse that your sexual organ is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal. Proclaim that your sexual organ truly belongs to your spouse, and the organ that your spouse has protected so well until now is truly yours. Also, please pledge that you will live your life with gratitude and in eternal service to your spouse. God will dwell eternally in such families and, with them at the center, will multiply a world-level family. I sincerely hope that each of you will participate in the upcoming marriage Blessing ceremony of 3.6 million couples. By doing so, you will form a true family that can register in the kingdom of God on earth. Thank you very much. Amen. 4 • The Cosmos Is Our Hometown and Our Homeland February 2, 2000 Cannon House Office Building Caucus Room, Washington, DC, USA Second American Century Awards Ceremony Respected members of the United States Senate and House of Representatives, members of the diplomatic corps, recipients of the American Century Award, whose contributions help make this country the most blessed by God, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude that so many leaders from a wide variety of fields in American society have gathered here today to celebrate faith, freedom and family. As founder of The Washington Times Foundation, I commend all of the award winners. All of you are champions who through your service have made significant contributions to improving the quality of life for all Americans. I also want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for recognizing my life achievements and congratulating me on my eightieth birthday. I am particularly grateful to God, who has been my constant companion and protector, and to Him I offer all glory and honor. I have lived my entire life with the earnest desire to solve the many problems related to actualizing God's ideal of creation. When I came to America in 1972, I saw this country was facing a severe crisis that affected the world. On my first evangelical tour of all fifty states, I declared that God has three major headaches: the threat of communism, the lack of cooperation among religious people against evil, and the moral crisis afflicting youth. Our responsibility as human beings requires that we meet God halfway and fulfill what God has asked us to do in the areas of freedom, faith, and family. Because God loves America, I initiated many organizations, including The Washington Times, to respond to these challenges. I devoted myself because I know His heart I am grateful that God gave me the opportunity to serve America, because American-led United Nations forces, in the process of saving my country during the Korean War, liberated me from a communist concentration camp where I had been imprisoned for preaching the word of God. Since receiving God's calling as a boy of 15, I have delved into the meaning of God's Will and fought against tremendous odds to fulfill the providence of restoration for the sake of human salvation. I came to realize that God does not sit on a throne of glory and grandeur. Instead, God is a God of deep sorrow and profound suffering, who endeavors to save His children, who fell into hell. As a result of the Fall, human beings fell into spiritual ignorance. This meant that humanity was fundamentally ignorant regarding God's existence, the meaning of human life, and the entire universe. People did not understand how they needed to live their lives during their time in this world while they have physical bodies. They did not understand that there is a spirit world and that life in the physical world must be lived so that it would properly prepare them for the spirit world. Knowing God's Will and heart, I worked with single-minded determination as I devoted my entire heart and energy for the accomplishment of God's Will, without regard to the time of day, changes in the seasons, or the environment around me. As I look back on the eighty years of my life and all the difficulties and persecution I received, I realize I would not be here with you today were it not for the help that God has given me throughout the years. I have spoken publicly on some ten thousand occasions in many places around the world. These speeches have been published in a series of more than three hundred volumes. On this very significant occasion today when I am meeting some of the most distinguished leaders in the United States, I would like to share the essence of the guiding principles in my life and work under the theme, "The Cosmos Is Our Hometown and Our Homeland." The cosmos was created as an enormous house where human beings would live as the masters. Human beings, who are at the center of the universe, live in the context of relationships, fundamentally those of parent and child, husband and wife, and between siblings. The parent-child relationship can be described in terms of a vertical axis between above and below. Since a husband and wife are on an equal level, their relationship can be described in terms of a horizontal axis between left and right. We can say that sibling relationships are on a third axis between front and back. Every individual exists within the sphere created by these three axes. If the ultimate points on these axes are numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6, then God exists in the seventh position, at the center of the sphere. This is how God can guide us in our daily lives, even while existing at the central position that cannot be seen. The ideal model of existence and true love Since the Fall, human beings have existed in satan's realm of bondage and suffering. With God's help, people can be set free. They can mature as true sons and daughters, meet their mates, and become true husbands and wives. They can go on to have children and become true parents. This should be the normal course of human life. Thus, we cannot reject the concept of true children, of true husbands and true wives, or of true parents. To do so would be to violate a fundamental principle of the universe, thus destroying our own existence. Each of us has to participate in building a true family consisting of true parents, a true husband and wife, and true children, which is the model for the ideal existence. In the context of the family, people need to fully receive the love of true parents and of a true spouse. Then, they need to fully receive the love of true children. Money, knowledge, power, or physical force cannot bring such human relationships to their completed form. Only the true love of God, which brings balance to the world, can do this. True love is a force that invests and gives completely. It is a giving force, not a force that only receives. True love is total giving, to the degree that we ultimately reach a point where there is nothing left to give. Reaching that "zero point;' enlarges our capacity to receive, much more than we gave. This process of giving and receiving will achieve a balance that continues forever. Relationships of giving and receiving produce a world where people live for the sake of others, centering on true love. All beings in heaven and earth exist in a mutual relationship with other beings so as to form a world of true love through giving and receiving relationships. In mutual relationships every giving force causes a returning force, and this is what gives eternal stability to the central point. God exists in the central position of true love giving balance to the entire universe. It is the position of the "lucky" number seven. Heavenly fortune advances by the process of receiving God's true love and returning it. Within such relationships the flow takes the form of circular motion, as love, air, water, and light go round and round and return to their original place. The homeland of faith, peace and unity is the hometown and homeland Ladies and gentlemen: What makes someone a good person? We can answer this in many ways. We could say that a bad person is someone who takes whatever he is given and keeps it for him or herself. A good person is someone who adds to whatever he or she is given and passes it on to others. No parent wants his or her child to grow up to be something less than that parent. We all want our children to be better than ourselves. Also, a husband would like his wife to be better than himself, and a wife wants her husband to be better than herself. Further, an elder brother and younger brother would each want the other to become better than himself. We all want to give back something more than what we receive. This is our fervent wish as parents, as husbands and wives, and as children. It is also the fervent wish of all things in nature. Ultimately, it is the fervent wish of the entire universe. Moreover, those whose hearts are so wide that they can say, "the cosmos is my hometown and my homeland;' will be welcomed by the cosmos. We can conclude, then, that in order to become God's true sons and daughters we have to be welcomed by individuals, by families, by nations, by the world, and finally by the cosmos. That being the case, where would you most like to go and live? I think you would like to live in the original homeland where you were born. Broadly speaking, our original homeland refers to the planet Earth within the cosmos, and wherever God can be found. God is the founding Parent of our homeland. Our homeland is the earth as God originally intended it to be - a place where parents, siblings, and children who did not commit the Fall would live together. This was to be a place where black people, yellow people, and white people would live together in harmony. Who is the parent of all these different races? There is only one parent. The God who is with us wherever we go in the universe is the Father of humankind. Thus, it would be a mistake for anyone to think that white people, black people, or yellow people are the masters of America. God is the master of America. Differences in skin color are nothing more than the result of our ancestors having had to adapt to different climates and environments in different parts of the globe. In areas with large amounts of snowfall, we find mainly white people living. In places such as Africa where the rays of the sun are particularly bright, we find mainly black people. Fundamentally, though, people are the same. The color of our blood is the same. Our flesh and bones look the same and we all have the capacity to love. Thus, there must be no discrimination based on race. This is why the Unification Church has been working through the international holy marriage Blessing ceremonies to create unity and harmony among the races. In accordance with the natural principles of universal love and equality for all people, we have performed many interracial marriages. When a black person and a white person marry, it is like the North Pole and the South Pole coming together in unity. When a yellow person and a black person marry and have children, both parents contribute their good attributes and their descendants are better as a result. Where there is love, there can be no strife. We come from many different hometowns and homelands. Yet we can all agree that our homeland of faith, peace, and unity is the world of God's true love. True love, true life and true lineage are crucial Nothing is more important in the human world than true love, true life, and true lineage. True love leads to true life and true lineage. True love cannot be fulfilled unless it results in a true lineage. Love without true life is false love. True life is conceived within the context of true love and true lineage. Thus, true love, true life, and true lineage open the way to eternal life. God's ideal for creation is for each of us to become true individuals and pass on true love, true life, and true lineage to our descendants. God is the ideal being and the Owner of eternal true love, eternal true lineage, and eternal true life. Those who resemble God become His true sons and daughters living in the kingdom of heaven. Why do men and women get married? They do so to link together the past, present, and future in the tradition of true lineage. Before the Fall, Adam and Eve could relate to God freely and directly, however this was no longer possible after the Fall. Likewise, because of the Fall, Cain and Abel, the children of Adam and Eve, could not inherit God's blood lineage. They inherited satan's lineage instead. This is why Jesus said in John 3:3, "unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God." People need to know that they have inherited a false life through a false lineage, which originated from a false love relationship. God feels pain and sorrow when He sees the promiscuous sex and homosexuality that are so prevalent in our world today. When people realize that they have inherited the position of the enemy of love, life, and lineage, they will be filled with shame. God's nature, though, is to love the sons and daughters of His enemy even more than His own children. God has invested himself completely without expecting any return, and will continue this process until all the children who were taken from Him have been restored. This is God's providence of salvation. For God to bring a fallen person back to life, He must provide a life force more powerful than false life. How grief-stricken God must be, tormented by the misery of each baby brought into this world through the false seed resulting from the Fall! Such children have multiplied to the point that there are now six billion fallen human beings in the world. Human beings are created to pass through three stages of life: in the mother's womb, on earth, and in the spirit world after death. The planet Earth, where the physical body lives, is similar to the mother's womb. In the same way that a fetus grows by receiving nutrition through its mother's womb, we grow on earth by eating food taken from the creation. That is why we have to love the earth as our mother. In the spirit world, light as bright as the sun shines continuously. If a person were in space somewhere in the solar system, the sun would shine on him or her continuously. That is the way it is in the spirit world. The light of love in the spirit world is constant and unchanging. Love does not change, whether it is day or night, at the North Pole or the South Pole. The spirit world is the world of love filled with the true love of God. The spirit world is also like a storehouse in which the fruits of our hard work on earth are stored Our life in the spirit world will reflect our accomplishments on earth. The returning Lord comes as the True Parent During the course of God's providence of restoration, Jesus was the only one born with true life directly connected to God's true lineage. Accordingly, no one among fallen humanity has ever entered God's realm of direct dominion, either on earth or in the spirit world. That is why God has been alone, leading a lonely and sorrowful existence. Hence, the world became a place where people and all of nature are sad. God has been searching for one person whom He could trust, one man who could purify the fallen lineage of humanity and transform it into true life. That man is the Messiah. He inherits God's true love and brings liberation to all humankind. The Old Testament Age after Adam's fall is the history of the people chosen to receive the Messiah. God's Will was for Jesus to come as the Messiah to the chosen people of Israel, for all people to be grafted on to Jesus' family, and for this family to expand to encompass the world. However, due to the disbelief of his contemporaries, Jesus died on the cross, leaving this process as an ideal to be accomplished at the time of the Second Advent. The returning Lord stands in the position of the True Parent of humankind and recovers the position of one who embodies God's true love. When he fulfills the position of the Parents of Heaven and Earth, this will bring God's providence of salvation for all humankind to completion. The Messiah begins by forming a family that attends God more gloriously and with greater filial piety than the family that Adam and Eve would have formed had they not fallen. The Messiah is the head of the family that represents the core of the ideal for a new humanity that begins by linking to the lineage of true love through the life of true love. The Messiah connects blessed families to the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven so as to expand and complete the kingdom on earth and in heaven. Therefore as the True Parents of all humankind, the coming Messiah must renounce the love of the fallen satanic world and fallen human ways. The Messiah must establish the path and tradition of a perfected man and woman, perfected family, clan, people, nation, world, and cosmos linked to God's true love. All humankind must receive the new Blessing through the love of the True Parents and inherit a family with a new lineage. There is no way to do this except by true love. This is how the hellish world of satan's dominion can be supplanted and overcome. All humankind has to go through the following eight-stage process of restoration and recover their positions as God's sons and daughters. Everyone will restore eight stages: the periods of gestation, infancy, siblings, fiance and fiancee, husband and wife, parents, grandparents, and finally king and queen. We need to understand that we were born with the ultimate purpose to become princes and princesses who inherit everything in the kingdom of heaven. Becoming completely reborn Ladies and gentlemen, it was originally intended that each man would meet a woman as his wife and become a king, and that each woman would meet a man as her husband and become a queen. As a prince and princess of heaven, they would inherit everything in heaven. To restore the kingdom of heaven, every person must start at the bottom of hell, and work his or her way up through an eight-stage indemnity process until unity is established at every stage. This is possible only through the Blessing of the True Parents, who come as the Messiah. Therefore, blessed couples have to become "plus couples" who contribute for the sake of others in the world. To become completely reborn, we need to practice absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience centering on God. I have personally practiced this throughout my life. When God created the universe, He acted with absolute faith. God created us to be His absolute partners of love. Absolute obedience means that we invest ourselves completely to the extent that we give up all self-centeredness. Furthermore, we totally forget about the investment we make and invest all over again. We continue this process until we reach the zero point, having no concept of self. Since God poured out all of His faith, what is left is zero; since God poured out all of His love, what is left is zero; since God poured out all of His obedience, what is left is zero. Nevertheless, Heaven's true love is such that the more it is invested the more it grows. We must come to resemble God in this way. Even if our love is rejected, we must continue to love more; even if we invest everything that we have, we have to continue to invest until we can make our enemy voluntarily surrender. Our Heavenly Father walked such a path, and the Parents of Heaven and Earth walked such a path. The person who invests love continuously without expecting a direct return becomes a central person, who can inherit everything. He or she becomes the person of greatest filial piety. In a family of ten people, including a grandmother and grandfather, the one who lives for the sake of others the most will become the central person. The same principle applies with respect to patriots in the nation and to saints in the world. The more one invests without expecting a direct return, the higher one can rise as a patriot, a saint, and a divine son or daughter of God. Since the beginning of human history, God has lived more for the sake of others and invested Himself more than any being. God has continuously invested without expecting a direct return, and God will continue to do so for eternity. God is the King and Ancestor of all those who live for the sake of others. The reason the Unification Church could become a worldwide religious group in such a short time is that its members have worked hard according to this principle. When I reflect upon my life totally committed for the sake of humankind, I can testify that it truly has been the focus of opposition from billions of evil satanic forces in both the invisible and visible worlds, as well as from num~rous religious leaders and many governments. Yet because I lived for their sake, I eventually came to stand at the center. I lived for those who opposed me due to their inability to understand the truth, and I invested myself for their children. I lived for the sake of governments that persecuted me. In time, they came to respect me. From this, we can learn God's strategy, in contrast to that of satan. God's strategy is to take the blow and initial loss, then regain everything in the end. satan often is the first to strike, however he loses in the end. The significance of the large international weddings Under this principle, I blessed many millions of young couples from all continents in the international Holy Blessing ceremonies, as a means to save all humankind and establish one world under the one God. When the West and the East come together in marriage, the greatest cultural conflicts in the world will be overcome. When an American and a German marry each other and become husband and wife, perfect harmony will be created between those two nations, even though they were once enemies. I gave the Blessing even to those now living in the spirit world. In order for the kingdom of heaven to be realized on earth, the cosmic realms of the spirit world must also be liberated, and only True Parents on the earth can do that. The first human ancestors, Adam and Eve, sowed sinful seeds as false parents. The Messiah must liberate humankind both on earth and in the spirit world, by coming as the True Parents. Even God alone, although omniscient and omnipotent, cannot untangle the problems brought about by the wrongful blood lineage of humankind. If God could accomplish this alone, He would have saved His children a long time ago. In fact, God would not have allowed the Fall to occur in the first place. However, God is a God of Principle. This means He cannot interfere in the responsibility given to human beings. Accordingly, the returning Messiah, who comes as True Parents, must give rebirth through true love to humankind, whose blood lineage was defiled by the original sin. When viewed from this perspective, the international Blessing ceremonies are not being conducted simply to bring young men and women together as husbands and wives. They are holy ceremonies through which people are reborn as God's true children through the original seed of life from God. The principle is that restoration requires indemnity, and we have passed through the stages of individual indemnity, f~ily indemnity, tribal indemnity, people's indemnity, national indemnity, worldwide indemnity, and universal indemnity. Now, finally, we have arrived at the time ofliberation for both the spirit world and the physical world. The world is divided into tens of thousands of ethnic groups. Relationships are broken between parents and children, husbands and wives, and brothers and sisters. Even the religious world was divided into the four great cultural spheres of Christianity, Buddhism, Islam, and Confucianism. However, we have now entered the age of cosmic unification. This is because, having passed through the Old Testament Age, the New Testament Age, and the Completed Testament Age, which is the era of completion, we have now entered the age in which to establish the realm of the fourth Adam. In other words, we no longer live in an age dominated by nationalism, or even in an age of globalism. These have already passed. National purpose and global concerns still exist, of course, but we now live in an age when the universe is to be united with the one God. By becoming the hometown of blessed families, the planet Earth will become one with the spirit world, and the kingdom of heaven will come about on earth and in the realm of eternal life. The cosmic expansion of true love is the completion of the new millennial kingdom Ladies and gentlemen, with the arrival of the new millennium, at midnight on New Year's Eve, I proclaimed a message for the New Year entitled, "The Cosmic Expansion of True Love is the Completion of the New Millennial Kingdom." "Cosmic expansion of true love'' means that heaven and earth must become a "house'' of true love. The new millennium is a time when we complete the building of God's kingdom throughout the world. Since the cosmos originated from God, families, tribes, peoples, nations, and the world have to work to complete this "house'' of love, which stands as a partner to God. They can do this by each establishing their own houses of love according to the Principle formula and by becoming one with each other. Nations need to be houses of love where all families can enter, and the cosmos needs to be a house of love that embraces the world. The family of true love is particularly important, because it is the core of the cosmos, which is our enormous house in the kingdom of heaven. Within the family, the husband is the house of love for his wife, and the wife is the house of love for her husband. The parents are the house of love for their children, and the children are the house of love for their parents. God's kingdom is the place where the ideal of true freedom blossoms, and where humanity's hopes are fulfilled. It is a place inhabited by true families that are the fruit of true love, true life, and true lineage. Its establishment marks the beginning of the millennial kingdom, overflowing with eternal true love and true happiness. I have promoted true family values, because the family formed by a union of a true man and true woman where God can dwell is the center of the cosmic realm where heaven and earth can rest. This is the garden of Eden mentioned in the Bible, and it must be realized on earth. The new millennium is the time to complete the six thousand year history of the providence for the salvation of humanity and build the original heavenly kingdom centered on the ideal of creation. It is the Completed Testament Age, when the promises of the Old and the New Testaments will be fulfilled. This means a new heaven and new earth, where "he will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, and neither shall there be mourning nor crying nor pain anymore." (Rev. 21:4) It means a time of unconditional true love, when all people will be able to drink the water of life that is as clear as crystal. When God's kingdom is established, it will be a time when the spirit world and the physical world will be open to each other. The direct dominion of the living God is to begin through restoring the right of the eldest son, the right of parents, and the right of kingship. This will open a new era of God's transcendence, imminence, abundance, and sovereignty. The earth is the hometown of all humankind, and the spirit world is the eternal homeland where all people will eventually arrive. Finally, the time has come for the global family ideal to be realized on the planet Earth centered on the Heavenly Parent. This will move us beyond "One Nation under God" to "One Cosmos under God." Please understand that the fundamental relationship between God and human beings is that of parent and child. On that foundation, please take an active role to transform the cosmos, that is, the spirit world and the physical world, into "our hometown and homeland." Once again, I thank all of you distinguished American leaders for your presence here. I would like to conclude by expressing God's desire that people of the world of all colors and races will come to live as true brothers and sisters and build the new millennial kingdom of love, peace, freedom, and righteousness. I believe that God prepared America for this very time to help lead the world into this new era. May God's blessing be with you and your nation. Thank you. 5 • The True Land for a King February 17, 2002 Olympic Fencing Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Commemoration of True Parents' Birthday Distinguished leaders from around the world and honored guests from Korea: So many have come here to congratulate my wife and I on our birthday, and I would like to express my sincere gratitude to you for coming. On this meaningful day, I shall speak on the topic, "The True King." I will convey to you an image of how God originally intended that we live our lives, based on the ideal by which God created all beings in the universe and from the standpoint of God's Will. "Living for the sake of others" is the root of how all beings in the universe are organized. God, who is the king of wisdom, created all beings to exist by the principle ofliving for the sake of a partner. God established this as the basis of the heavenly principle and the key to creation. The world of true ideals, true love, true happiness and true peace is not just God's ideal for His creation. It is also the fervent desire of humankind. The path that leads to the realization of this ideal is none other than living for the sake of others. True love emanates from people who live their lives for the sake of others, and it is only among such people that true happiness, true ideals, and true peace are brought to reality. So the source of ideals, the source of peace and the source of happiness and love can be found only in the place where life is lived for the sake of others. People cannot become one with each other when they say, "I exist for my own sake." Without achieving oneness with others, there can be no peace, happiness, ideals, or love. When members of a family each live with an attitude that they exist for the sake of the other family members, peace and happiness will live with that family. Let us examine first the relationship between husband and wife. What characterizes a true husband? If there is a husband who was born for the sake of his wife, lives for the sake of his wife, and dies for the sake of his wife, then that husband would be a true husband. A true wife, likewise, would be a wife who lives for the sake of her husband according to the same principle. If a true man and true woman who seek to live for the sake of the other come together as husband and wife, then that couple would be an ideal husband and wife. Such a husband and wife would be the first truly happy couple. Such a couple would be capable of becoming the subject partners of eternal and unchanging true love. In addition, such a couple would be able to receive God's love directly, to live with each other as partners in the peace of God, and to be God's ideal substantial object partner. What about the life of parents? The heavenly principle is that parents rear and educate their children with a spirit of sacrifice and service. They live for the sake of their children and die for the sake of their children. It is only natural that such parents would become true parents. The children, then, would take after such parents and follow the path of true children, that is, the path of truly dutiful children. What kind of a child is the truly dutiful child? He or she is the child who is born for the sake of their parents, lives for their sake of the parents, and is ready to sacrifice his or her life for the sake of their parents. When people live their lives believing in and practicing the principle of living for the sake of others, families will become families of peace, families of freedom, families of happiness and families of love. Societies will become societies of peace, freedom, happiness and love, societies that accord with the original ideal. The same is true with the nation and world. It is God's principle that freedom, peace, happiness and love will come to us naturally and spontaneously if we are unwavering in our practice of this standard all the time, everywhere, and in every action. Even in the context of a life lived for the sake of others we need to consider the priority in the relationship between subject and object partners. If we examine God's creation, we see that God stood in the position of the first subject partner and invested everything. In order to carry out the creation God took the position where He lived for the sake of others. God, who is the King of wisdom, applied this great principle even from the beginning in order to establish the original standards of peace, happiness, ideal and love, which are based on investing and existing for the sake of others. When the subject partner gives everything to the object partner and presents the model of a life lived for others, the object partner will automatically be willing to offer even his or her life for the sake of the subject partner. Love comes from the object partner. Without an object partner, there can be no happiness or peace. These categorically come to us through our object partner. The love and the ideal that a person receives from his or her object partner is more precious than their own life. He or she prepares in humility in order to receive this precious love. In other words, when living for the sake of others we need to be humble. Then there will be eternal life and prosperity. By thus living for the sake of others, the heavenly principle will be operating in their lives. It does not matter how many religious scriptures are extant today. The single phrase, "live for the sake of others;' stands tall above the teachings of all scriptures. The sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments, too, are ultimately crystallized into this one phrase, "live for the sake of others." That is the reason Jesus said, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12), "Many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first" (Matt. 19:30) and "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15: 13) In these words, Jesus was explaining the value ofliving for the sake of others. He was saying that through such a life, the kingdom of heaven is manifested, God is manifested, God's love is manifested, and God's peace, happiness and ideal are manifested. If we consider the relationship between a man and a woman, we see that neither man nor woman was born for their own sake. Each was born for the sake of the other. Each was born so as to exist for the sake of the other, live for the sake of the other, and if necessary die for the sake of the other. Look at this world, in which men and women live only for their own selves! How can we say that a world where men mistreat and look down upon women is a world of freedom or a world of peace? How can we say that a world where women shun men and say they will not bear children is a world of happiness? A husband and wife are meant to share in a life of true love, living for each other's sake and loving each other no matter the circumstances. This is the ideal and purpose for which God created men and women. A dictator who imposes on others can never bring about freedom and peace. Think of how many people were sacrificed so that that one person could establish himself as a dictator. The life of a dictator is that of sacrificing others for his or her own sake. In other words, it is the direct opposite of a life of true love, of living for the sake of others. That is the reason that all dictators throughout history begin in unhappiness and ultimately end in unhappiness. This is a fundamental truth of the universe. Respected ladies and gentlemen, we all need to follow the heavenly principle of living for the sake of others. Please consider this when you look at what is going on around you. In a family, the person who lives for the sake of all the family members and dedicates his or her life for the family to a greater extent than anyone else will naturally become the center of the family, even if he or she is the youngest member or most distant relative of the patriarch. If a difficult situation arises, everyone in the family will want to discuss it with that person and gain his or her support. This teaches us the heavenly principle that the person who lives for the sake of others to the greatest extent becomes the central figure. He or she becomes the responsible person. This is also true for a society or a country. If there is one person dedicated to the organization or the country, who serves its members or citizens more than anyone else does, then the other members need to show a certain humility that enables them to attend that person as they would attend the Lord and as they would attend God. When you go to the spirit world, you will see that because God, as the central existence, lives for all beings in heaven and earth, you will willingly submit to Him. Even after tens of millions of years, you will still want to remain under God's dominion. In fact, the state of submitting to God will be the state of your greatest happiness. You don't need to take my word for it; when you die you will see for yourself. Humankind today is ignorant of this. People live without knowing that when they submit to the One who truly looks after them, they enter the realm where they enjoy true happiness and peace. Let yourself feel, "The all-knowing and almighty God is my Parent. He exists for me." Let yourself believe that the true love of God, the highest form of love, exists for my sake. Then you will find a serenity that you have never experienced before. When we expand this principled formula beyond locality and nation to the standard of the entire world, without a doubt we will find ourselves in a realm of heavenly love, an ideal world of peace, the world of happiness that humankind has desired. Such a world can be called the kingdom of heaven on earth. Ladies and gentlemen, I have said that those who live for the sake of others will be under Heaven's protection and will become central figures. My life is a good testimony to this fact. People around the world refer to my wife and I as the True Parents. The path that led us to this point was not an easy one. I completely dedicated my life to Heaven and humankind. Even though I was opposed by my parents, my relatives, the church, the state and the world, I never lost hope. I never stopped living Heaven's teaching, living for the sake of others. The path that my wife and I have led as the True Parents has been a lonely path that went from one extreme to the other. Yet, as a result, the "true love movement." reflecting the image of how I have lived, is spreading like wildfire across the world. Millions of families, by living for the sake of others, are being reborn as true families of peace and happiness. Families that live in attendance to the True Parents are increasing in number around the world. It is my hope that everyone gathered on this precious occasion will also practice the true love of "a life lived for others." which is the heavenly principle revealed to this age. In that way, Heaven will bless you as central figures and responsible persons, and you will experience eternal peace, freedom and happiness. Thank you very much. 6 • God's True Love and Restoring His Relationship with Heaven, Earth and Humankind February 6, 2003 Jamshil Indoor Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Commemoration ofTrue Parents' Birthday Respected current and former heads of state, leaders from the religious, political and academic worlds, representatives of one hundred and eightynine countries, family representatives, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to truly thank all of you who have gathered here to congratulate me on my eighty-third birthday, and my wife, Hak Ja Han Moon, on her sixtieth birthday. Above all else, I would like to return all this glory to God, who has protected and looked after me until this day. You cannot explain my life without God, and at this truly meaningful occasion I am speaking to all of you today with gratitude to God in my heart. The title of my talk today is, "God's True Love and Restoring His Relationship to Heaven, Earth and Humankind." A new understanding about God Throughout human history, all people have talked endlessly about God, the Absolute Being. They have praised Him and worshipped Him in many different ways. Others have felt free to evaluate Him. Some have even declared that there is no God or that God is dead. However, there has not been one instance in which God Himself appeared directly saying, "This is how I have lived." There have been many people who have prophesied that, with the development of science, the population who believe in God would dwindle. However, the number of people who believe in God in contemporary society is not diminishing, for God is the living origin of all things, the Creator, the True Parent of humankind. The God I have been teaching about is not just some vague or obscure God. Ever since the time I first truly experienced Him at the age of sixteen, when I was anguishing about the meaning of life and the universe, I have lived my whole life in communication with Him. The living God's promise and my absolute faith in Him are the driving forces that have preserved my life during times of suffering, even when I was at the brink of death. I searched every corner of the spirit world. There I met the five great religious founders and many other saints and sages, and I received their official recognition of my mission. Ladies and gentlemen, God is the most decent and modest being, and He is the True Parent of humankind. He is the origin of all our lives, and He is the Being with whom all people need to establish a relationship. Also, the one thing you all must know clearly is that the spirit world, the world where we will all go someday, does exist Do not doubt the existence of the spirit world, and do not settle for merely a vague belief in God. I have set a record in sponsoring many "God Conferences." something with no parallel in history. The first three conferences that I held in the 1980s were attended by representatives from each religion and denomination as well as by outstanding theologians and scholars of religion. They caused a great sensation. There were three main points I wanted to teach through these conferences. First, although each faith has its own special and unique character, religions actually have many more points in common than differences. Second, the conflict and disharmony that exist between religions is due to the narrow-mindedness of believers, and it is definitely not the intention of the Absolute Being. Third, God desires the realization of true love rather than any emphasis on doctrine or ceremony. The papers and discussions presented at these conferences are still being used today as a textbook in the top theological seminaries of each denomination. From that time forward, a spirit of sincere dialogue and cooperation among all denominations began. Before this time, the high walls erected between them had blocked such dialogue and cooperation. Since then I have invested a great deal of resources each year to expand the International Religious Foundation and the Interreligious Federation for World Peace in each country and throughout the world. For three days, beginning on December 26 last year in Washington, DC, I held a God Conference on a different level. During that time, under the theme "God and a World of Peace." 312 participants gathered, including religious leaders from all corners of the world and also representatives from politics, academia, the media, business, culture and the arts, and from various NGOs. God is not just the God of believers. He is the God of all people. Especially at this time, we are living in an age in which God stands before the world not just as some vague and abstract Being, but as a God with a definite purpose and Will. It is an age of great change, when all people need to awaken to this God. All people need to awaken to the fact that the contemporary world is being sucked down into a maelstrom of individual, family, national and world-level problems, which we will never solve if we ignore God. At this conference, the 312 participants adopted a resolution declaring the following: First, that they would recognize God and True Parents as the True Parents, True Teachers and True Owners, and establish them as the vertical axis of absolute value for the individual, the family, the nation and the world. Second, that they would cooperate with and follow the resolution of the five religious founders, and all the saints and sages in the spirit world, to join together and help people on earth bring about the completion of God's Will. Third, that they would actively support and participate in the movement to realize true love, the movement to reform the United Nations, and with other initiatives of the True Parents to realize the ideal of world peace. God's Will is the completion of the ideal of creation The ultimate purpose of religion is to recover the original Parent and the original homeland. The word "religion" does not have humankind as its prime object. Rather religion is the teaching in which God, the Parent, is established as the center. Then there is a certain course through which we establish a relationship with God and mature in a life of following God. Holy men and women have to support the Will of Heaven and proclaim what Heaven has preordained. True religion has to teach people about God. True religion must not espouse vague ideas about God; it has to be able to give a clear picture of God so people can understand Him." Any religion that compromises the relationship between God and humankind cannot be called a high-level religion. Such a religion ultimately will decline. True religion has to teach people how to know God clearly, how to become one with God, and how to build the original world of creation. The purpose of religion is to bring about a world without sin, the ideal world where we make original relationships with God. God is not seeking a religious world. He is seeking His ideal world of creation. The purpose of religion is not for religion itself; but it is rather to realize the world of God's ideal. So we have to think about the original purpose and ideal of creation. God created the world, so it is necessary to explain His ideal of creation. What do you think God's Will is? It is to complete His ideal of creation. What do you think God wanted to achieve through creating our first ancestors, Adam and Eve, in the garden of Eden? God, who is the essence of love, created human beings because He needed a partner of love. We were created as the true sons and daughters of God so that He could realize His ideal of true love through us. The original pair was created to grow into a true man and true woman, become husband and wife, create an ideal family, and then build an ideal nation and world. To repeat, centering on the true love of God, they had to perfect the ideal family and expand it to build the ideal world. However our human ancestors fell, and this destroyed God's ideal of creation at that time. Accordingly, the purpose of religion is to find a true person, a true family and a true nation, and build a true world where all people can live together in peace. This is the purpose of God's providence for this world. Religion is seeking a world of goodness. However, a world of goodness cannot be realized without first establishing a country of goodness. And for a country of goodness to appear there must first be a good society, and before there can be a good society there must first be a good tribe, and before there can be a good tribe there must first be a good family. And before there can be a good family there must first be a good man and a good woman. After the Fall of Adam, there ensued the four-thousand-year history of Israel. What was its purpose? Regardless of the world's external developments, internally the sole purpose of this time period was to find one true Adam and one true Eve. God's deepest grief and resentment was that due to the Fall, there was not one son or daughter who could inherit life and blood lineage centering on His love. Owner of love, life and lineage The Savior whom God sent to this world is the person whom God made to be the owner of true love, true life and true lineage. According to different points of view, this person has been called the Savior, the Messiah, or the Lord. He comes as the Savior to rescue all people in this world from poverty, suffering, war and evil, and, centering on the Absolute Being, pursues God's Will for salvation. He is the mediator who will connect all religious people to God's way of life. He came to the First Israel as the Messiah. Now, he comes to the Second Israel as the Lord of the Second Advent to complete God's providence of restoration. The terms Savior, Messiah and Lord of the Second Advent have all been used centering on the course of salvation and restoration. Fallen men and women are born and live in conflict and sin because of their connection to the false parents, the false ancestors. To restore them to the position they were in before the Fall does not mean that everything is accomplished. The Will of God, the original hope of humankind, is for each human being to become the ideal person of God's originally intended world of creation, and to complete the ideal world of creation. This means that after a man and woman achieve God's ideal as individuals, they will then become a husband and wife of true love and then true parents. In order for this to happen, God absolutely needs the True Parents as the source of His true love, true life and true lineage. So in order to complete God's providence of salvation, it is not enough for one man to appear as the Savior, the Messiah, or the Lord of the Second Advent. The True Parents have to appear as husband and wife, who resemble God completely and who have completely realized His true love. In the same way that God first created Adam and took a rib from him to make his eternal partner, Eve1 God's son must first appear as the restored Adam, and then restore Eve. Then after recreating her, he has to realize the ideal of true love with her, so that they perfect together the role of True Parents. True Parents established the connection of humankind's true love and true life to the Source. They are the model and ideal of all true husbands and wives and all true parents. Humankind's sin and suffering originated from the false love of fallen ancestors, who themselves were born as the fruit of the first false parents and false ancestors. Therefore, people can only be liberated from their connection to the Fall and complete the ideal after the coming of the True Parents. People have sought eagerly for the original ideal of humankind through religion. That ideal is the True Parents, who come to fu1fill God's ideal of love. The goal of religion is the re-creation of human beings We can say that a religious life is a course for remaking people. If there had been no Fall, religion would have been unnecessary. A religious life transforms people whose minds and bodies are in conflict due to the Fall into peaceful people who live in harmony and who will be God's substantial object partners for eternity. It is the course that enables fallen people to change into original people of true character, resembling God. When we look at our mind and body, the body is largely the base of the evil spirit satan, and the conscience is the base of God. Generally speaking, the body directs the mind. Religions provide ways to weaken the body's control over the mind. Religions teach that we need to deny our body. Thus, religions urge us to fast, to serve, to sacrifice ourselves, to go the way of suffering and even to offer our lives for the sake of righteousness. This is the logic behind the seemingly paradoxical teaching of the Bible, "Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life." (John 12:25) If you live only according to the desires of your body, you will go the way of death into hell; however if you deny your body and enter the realm of a liberated conscience, you will have eternal life and be welcomed in the kingdom of heaven. The person who is unable to bring his or her mind and body into oneness, and who allows this struggle to continue, will be unable to adjust to God's ideal world of love, where there are no boundaries. Usually people say that in order to go to heaven or paradise, you have to believe in their particular religion. I tell you that heaven is the place for God's children whose mind and body have become one centered on His love. The love of the fallen world is usually a love centered on the self, a love fixed not on the mind but on the body. The body is the devil's nightclub. Originally, your mind is supposed to take the subject position, representing God, but instead your body has become a stronger subject and plays with your original mind as with a puppet. This is what you have to change. Religion is the repair shop that God made to fix this. It is the repair shop that remakes people into completed individuals of true character, whose mind and body are one for eternity. Religion teaches us not to rest but to pray unceasingly. The devil doesn't rest; he uses the body as his horizontal stage twenty-four hours a day. As God is in the vertical position, He can only work through the vertical mind In order for your horizontal body not to be controlled by the devil, you need prayer and devotion to make your mind stand in the vertical position. By doing this you can receive power from God three or four times greater than the power of your body. And if you live a life of sincere prayer and devotion for three to five years, you can liberate your mind from the body's horizontal and habitual influence. Religion is the means to fulfill the providence of restoration Respected leaders, ladies and gentlemen, leading a religious life is not something you can prefer to do or not to do. Fallen men and women were born with a connection to fallen parents through fallen love that is centered on satan. Therefore, without exception all people absolutely need to pass through the repair shop of religion, meet the True Parents and establish a connection of true love and true life with them. There is one important point you need to know. When you go to the repair shop, you cannot stay there forever. You need to come out reborn. While the religious life is the required course for all humankind, it is not the basic purpose or whole purpose of life. The ultimate purpose of human life is to graduate from the religious life, a life of restoration, and live as a men and women of the original world of creation. Religion came about only because of the Fall. Hence, does it make sense to say that the sole purpose of life is to live buried in a religion? If there had been no Fall, how would men and women originally have lived? Human beings are originally the children of God Thus we are destined to live with true love, realize a true family and establish one world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness. We are supposed to live in the kingdom of heaven on earth. God did not originally create men and women to have them break down so that He could repair them as His children reborn through religion. Do any parents want to see their children suffer in conflict, while endlessly repenting of their sins? Do you think the original Will of God the Father, the omniscient and omnipotent Lord of creation, was that His children suffer in sin? This fallen world is not the world God originally planned. The first ancestors' disobedience prevented God from realizing the world He had originally planned. However, God is absolute, and His Will is also absolute. Thus God will realize His Will as He had intended in the beginning. This Will is for complete recovery to the original state. This is why God's providence of salvation is the providence of restoration, the providence of re-creation. Religion is the central means for the providence of restoration, however people are not just supposed to meet True Parents and go through the course of a religious life. They are supposed to become God's children, establish a Parent-child relationship with Him, attend God, and build a world where the values of faith are inherent in their daily life. No one in history revealed this precious truth, namely, that people must graduate from religious life. Knowing this truth from an early age, I did not want to create another sect or denomination. Background of the founding of the Family Federation It was because Christianity, which was the central religion of God's providence, did not accept my teaching of Heaven's way that I had to create the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Although it was an association, not a sect or denomination, the Christian world continued to deny, to persecute, to label us heretical, and to turn its face away from us. As our movement grew, the world began to call us the Unification Church rather than use the long official title. That is how we became the Unification Church. For many, many years I have lived in hope of seeing the day we could take down the church sign. I even prophesied about that day. Finally in 1996 we took down that sign and started the Family Federation for World Peace. This was a very important event in the history of humankind. It was the beginning of a new world. It marked a change from the old world, where people lived with the burden of sin inherited from false parents. They were living in suffering and conflict, practicing a life of faith in which the only way to find God was through prayer and repentance. But with this event, the world changed. From then on, people could be reborn by receiving the Blessing from the True Parents, and go forward reporting to God about what they were doing. No one who knows the course I had to take to follow the command of Heaven and fulfill my mission as the True Parent. In order to give the grace of the Blessing freely on earth and in heaven, I had to break down walls in this world and in the spirit world. I had to contend with satan, the being who throughout history has been acting as the false master, controlling people and disobeying God. Do you think it was easy for me to bring him to complete surrender? I could not establish the position of True Parents without first gaining satan's formal surrender. But now that it is done, the privilege of the Blessing can reach all the people in satan's realm of death, including everyone in the spirit world, according to the will of the True Parents. Now all people on earth are able to cross over into true love's realm of life. This miraculous age has begun. We should live as true children of God Ladies and gentlemen, let us unite with Heaven's blessing that has come to us. I call upon humankind to graduate from the religious life, receive the Blessing of true love, establish a true family, and keep the standard of a true child throughout their lives. Those who receive the Blessing on this earth and live a life of true love can enter the eternal homeland of the ideal world, namely, God's nation, the kingdom of heaven. What do you take with you when you go to the spirit world? Is it money? Power? Do you take your knowledge or reputation with you? These things belong to this world, and you must leave them all behind when you enter the higher realm. They have absolutely no value in the eternal, original world, and you cannot take them with you. The spirit world is the world of love. The true love you experience and share on the earth, having received grace through the Blessing from the Parents of Heaven and Earth, is the most precious thing and the only thing that counts in the spirit world. Please study more deeply about the spirit world, and, through your life as a blessed couple, become children of God who perfect true love. What I teach is not based on any human teachings. And I do not educate by giving moral lessons, or in any conventional way. I am instructing you by speaking frankly, with words of life based on God and the heavenly way. If God has given the mission of True Parents to me, you have to understand that the relationship you have established with me today is most precious and meaningful. Please keep my words today deep in your heart May God's blessing be with you and your families, and may He be with you in your public life. Thank you very much. 7 • To Realize the World of Peace February 6, 2003 Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea True Parents' Birthday Congratulatory Banquet Respected former heads of state, religious, political and academic leaders who have gathered from around the world, honored guests from the diplomatic community, and esteemed leaders of Korea: I would like to begin by congratulating you on the results you have achieved for world peace through the Summit Conference, and I wish to convey deep appreciation for your many expressions of congratulations on this occasion of President Hak Ja Han Moon's and my birthday. I offer all this glory to God, who has protected us until today. On this meaningful occasion, I would like to share with you my convictions about realizing a peaceful world. In view of our hope for world peace, there has never been a time when understanding between religions and reconciliation between religious people were more urgent than they are today. The precious teachings of our religions are the source of the wisdom that has brightened human history. However, believers of all faiths tend to have three weaknesses: one, they tend to be unrealistic and oriented largely toward the hereafter; two, they can be narrow-minded and sectarian; and three, they can be extremist. True religious leaders, however, have to be able to embrace all people with open minds. The real duty of all religious people is to overcome the lines of division crippling the human race, in particular the walls between religions. Religions must not exist for the sake of their own success or for the salvation of their believers alone; they need to exist in order to accomplish the Will of God Religious people should never be narrow-minded or seek their own gratifi. cation. When one lives with a loving heart, all walls break down. The great founders of all the religions understood this and tried to accomplish this ideal. God is the origin of true love. Because the fundamental character of true love is to unconditionally seek to live for another, true love always seeks a partner for relationship. It is from this point that we can properly understand God's motivation and purpose for creation. God brought forth the created world as His partner for relating in true love. And in all the creation, God set human beings apart as His closest partners of love, His very children. The significance of the first person, Adam, was not just as an individual; he was also to have been the origin of the family, tribe, people, nation, world and cosmos of true love. God's ideal of creation was a world of harmony and unity, in which each person would live for his or her partner in a realm of true love. Nonetheless, before this ideal of true love could be realized, the first ancestor of humankind disobeyed God during his time of growth to maturity and fell through false love. Due to the human Fall, strife ensued between God and human beings. Confrontations and conflicts ensued between God and satan, between people and satan, and among people themselves. The fact that there have been so many different nations and so many conflicts in human history bears witness to this. We can begin an ideal world only through a movement that is able to overcome and go beyond the origin of these myriad conflicts. And the only way to resolve these conflicts and struggles is through altruistic and sacrificial love, that is to say, through living for the sake of others. The realization of the ideal nation of God begins with individuals determined to love their enemies. The way to win over enemies is not through superior strength. It is possible only through the power of true love, by which we can embrace them. If you plant soybeans, soybeans grow; if you plant red beans, red beans grow; and if you plant the seeds of red flowers, red flowers bloom. In the same way, if you sow the seeds of satan, which contain the germ of revenge, a tree of revenge will grow, and if you sow the seeds of goodness, which contain the germ of loving the enemy, a tree of goodness and of loving the enemy will grow. If a nation arises consisting of people who have a mind to love their enemies, it could become the ideal land that God desires. It could become the model for humankind to follow. For the last thirty years in America, I have been devoting myself completely and without resting to solve such problems as the breakdown of the family, sexual immorality, the decadence of youth, the decay of ethics, and the decline of Christianity. In spite of my many efforts, Americans, including many Christians, misunderstood me, persecuted me and eventually even imprisoned me. The negative attitudes and vicious slander against me continued unabated. Yet, I refused to be caught in negative feelings of hatred or resentment, and I continued to live a life of love, giving consistently to those who persecuted me. No matter what my situation, in my heart of hearts I consider God's love and Will to be the most important things of all. Because of this, as time passed more and more Americans, and especially Christians, realized the value of my teachings and life, and I can see they are changing their way of thinking about me. In a public speech, I directly told them, "Christians must respond to their mission to realize the Will of God, who is their true root. Christians must change their attitudes and their ways of life." The founder of Christianity taught, "Love your enemf' If Christians cannot fulfill this basic principle, the only way left for them will be one of continued decline. If that decline persists, it will be because they abandoned the sacred teachings of Jesus that give us true freedom. If, however, the Muslims and adherents of other religions are able to realize a higher level of love than Christians in terms of morality and living for others, their enemies will be subjugated through the mighty power of true love rather than through material strength. I have always told the leaders of the Western world that they must not disregard or overlook the 1.3 billion Muslims and the 3.4 billion followers of the Indian and East Asian traditions, as well as the people of other religions throughout the world. If America fails to understand the meaning of the existence of these parts of the great human family, how can we expect that America will be able to build a better future and realize a world of peace for our descendants? For the same reason, how can the Islamic world or the people of other religions look down upon or overlook the importance of the Christian culture? If we scorn each other, there will be no hope. All religious leaders must become leaders in a worldwide movement to realize a higher love that embraces other religions and societies. This is the lofty ideal implicit in the teachings of the founders of all religions. What is the direction of God's Will in history? The ultimate ideal of God is a world that is peaceful and unified through true love, a world transcending religion, race and nationality; in other words, one family of humankind. The goal of God is not the victory of one religion or one ideology; it is the realization of a world of love in which all people live in peace, unity and joy. In view of the tendency of contemporary society toward merely external unification through technology and economic development, it is the responsibility of religions to lead the way to internal harmony and unification. Religions must take the lead and provide the example in this work. History is calling for the harmony and cooperation of the religious world. This cannot be delayed. It is the holy Will of God. If we do not accomplish this, religions will decline. I know this because throughout my life I have taught based upon my direct experience of the heart of God and the Will He hopes to accomplish. What I teach is not speculation or theory. God is alive and working in history. It is just that due to the Fall, human beings lost their original position, and without being able to relate with God perfectly, they have lived in sin and strife. Although God is omnipotent and perfect, when He has no appropriate partner with whom to relate, He cannot fully express His omnipotence. After our first ancestor disobeyed God, God lost the foundation of goodness to which He could relate. Accordingly, His goodness and absolute power could npt be expressed, even as history nonetheless continued. God is carrying out the providence to restore His position and fulfill the heavenly Will by working to restore human beings to their original state. To restore the ideal of true love, true parents and true family that Adam, the first ancestor of humankind, could not accomplish, God has been carrying out the providence by entrusting key figures with the missions of second Adam and third Adam. God called me early in my life, and my mission as the True Parent is connected to such providential plans of God. Respected leaders, I would like to ask you to pay close attention to the prophecy I am about to make. Humankind is at a turning point. In the past, the invisible God seemed almost powerless and nonexistent. However, the time has come when the power of God will become manifest in our lives. We have entered that era, a time long-awaited by humankind. The absolute power of God, who is the Lord of the sacred order and laws that really do exist in all things and in the universe, will manifest in amazing ways and be experienced by people in their daily lives. This is a miraculous era that is possible only because a solid foundation of goodness has been established through the sacrifices and unconditional love of God, True Parents and righteous people throughout history. From now on, people will gradually come to perceive God and to understand the spirit world and the works of spirit people. People will become conscious of their internal person, their spirit self, and their spirituality will develop. In this way, people will naturally experience the laws of the universe and become true people, having undergone a clear change in their character. In the course of this change, people will learn that God made the existing order of the universe and the relationships among human beings. He made them not to be centered on the self or self-interest, but for an altruistic life ofliving for the sake of others. People will come to know that God's ideal of peace in the creation, as He originally intended, is an ideal of unity. God made the existing world for the ideal of partnership. It is based on the premise of harmony and unity. Hence, no ideal of peace can be realized by neglecting or harming the other. When human relationships extending above and below, front and back, and right and left, all realize harmony, unity, and the ideal of true love by living for the sake of others, complete peace will be achieved throughout the spirit world and physical world. God will attain joy, and so will His partners, human beings. Furthermore, God wants the individual purposes of all created entities to be realized as part of a larger purpose, the greater good. God established the order of the entire universe so that through the connection of these dual purposes, individual and public, a great harmony and unity can be achieved. However due to the Fall, human beings, betrayed God and fell into ignorance. They flouted the order of existence that God originally intended, and lived dominated by selfish greed, which is fallen nature. People have been living more for their private gain than the public good, more for their own private goals than public ones. The result is self-evident. This way has not ensured unlimited freedom, peace and happiness. Self-centered people who pursued hedonistic satisfaction or who, hungry for power, engaged in struggle and confrontation with others, are now bogged down in misery. Now is the time when people must reflect on their lives and listen to the voice coming from Heaven. Through the benefit of His providence, the living God is now drawing near to us. From now on people will have many spiritual experiences they could not have had earlier. That is to say, they will communicate with the transcendent world. Through these frequent spiritual experiences, people will be influenced directly and indirectly. Especially those who experience the inspiration of God and good spirits will develop their spiritual senses centered on God, and they will experience major changes in their character. People who change their character to fit the way of Heaven are the true people of God's hope. We all need to practice the true love that liberates us to love our enemies, become true persons who properly understand the spirit world, become true parents and establish true families. This personal transformation is the starting point of the world of peace. This is the starting point of the ideal nation and world God desires. For the person who is not able to become an embodiment of true love or establish harmonious, ideal family life, there can be no ideal world or ideal nation, overflowing with songs of peace and joy, in which he or she can live happily. The ideal homeland God desires will be realized by loving one's enemies. It will be realized when we establish the tradition of loving our individual enemies, our family's enemies, our tribe's enemies, our nation's enemies, and the enemies of the entire world. Many people are hoping that the United Nations will solve the problems of the world and will be able to establish world peace. However, the UN operates under some handicaps. The biggest of these is its inability to recognize the importance of religions and spirituality altogether. Thus it chooses a path that compromises its influence. The result is that in engaging with and trying to solve present-day problems of the world, the UN has been one-sided. If this continues, it will not be able to realize its founding purpose, and its relevance will gradually diminish. In order to realize the ideal of world peace in a fundamental and comprehensive manner, I once again advocate that the United Nations establish an assembly consisting of representatives of all religions. These representatives need to implement the central ideal that their founders implicitly sought to realize, and they must do it with wisdom. They must exemplify true love in their attitudes and behavior and serve as a model for everyone. I hope many leaders will take this matter seriously and continue to strive to establish an assembly of global religious and spiritual leaders within the UN. I have worked without ceasing my entire life for the sake of realizing the one world family in heaven and on earth that is the Will of God. During that time I have taught leaders, not only of the religious realm but also in the areas of politics, philosophy, academia, business, media and non-gov7 ernmental organizations, that we have to live for the sake of others. I did not teach concepts alone; I led the way and provided the example. On that worldwide foundation, I established the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and appointed ambassadors for peace throughout the world. This was in order to cultivate leaders who will realize a world of peace and harmony by overcoming the barriers that cause conflict and struggle and by serving as living examples of altruistic true love. In addition, I am building "peace embassies" in every nation of the world as bases for our peace movement and our service movement, and as educational centers to teach and accomplish the vision and wisdom that IIFWP advocates. I earnestly implore you to re-create your families and nations through true love. I hope you will support and help to accomplish the vision of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, which is working so hard to establish the true, everlasting world of peace that God desires, a world without divisions between nations. I now conclude my address, with the hope that this conference has provided you with productive and inspiring experiences that will lead to the world of peace being realized even sooner. Thank you. 8 • God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom January 27, 2004 Jamshil Indoor Gymnasium, Seoul, Korea Commemoration ofTrue Parents' Birthday Respected current and former heads of state, distinguished world leaders, ladies and gentlemen: I would like to convey deep appreciatiop for your many expressions of congratulations on this occasion of my birthday, which is also my wife's birthday. However this is not for us; I would like to offer all glory to God, who has protected us until today. Early in our lives God called us, and we have devoted our entire lives to fulfilling His will. Therefore I cannot accept your congratulations without including God in this celebration! For my address this evening, I would like to talk about "God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom." God's homeland lost through the Fall Ladies and gentlemen, what kind of world would have been realized if Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, had not fallen? Adam would have become the patriarch of God's family, the chief of God's tribe, and the king of God's nation. From that ideal of Adam, the world that would have begun would have been Adam's world, having the tradition, language, culture, and lifestyle of Adam. Both God and Adam would have been able to dwell in that world as their homeland. Unfortunately, human history began with the Fall of the first human ancestors. Our world was reduced to slavery under the dominion of satan. It was a world that had nothing to do with God. Humankind was originally meant to establish and live in a peace kingdom for eternity, with God as their True Parent. Instead, the human race enslaved itself to satan, the source of evil, and has lived in a world ridden with sin and suffering ever since. This has brought immeasurable and constant anguish to God. Please think about this in the context of your own life. Contrary to the will of the Creator, your mind and body are in constant struggle and conflict. Has there been anyone who has completely unified his or her mind and body? Among the six billion people of this world today, is there anyone who has lived according to the original, ideal mind-body relationship, where the body is in complete submission to the mind? What about the societies and nations of today's world? From the conflict and selfishness rooted in the individual's mind and body come the barriers that have transformed societies and nations into impregnable fortresses. Human beings were supposed to live as one family of brothers and sisters, yet we see interracial strife. It is a crucial problem threatening world peace. Each religion began with a mission to revive human spirituality, thereby accomplishing the will of God by bringing humankind back to Him. However, religions abandoned their original mission and became mired in the swamps of prejudice and conflict. This escalated to the point where we see religions being misused as tools for bloodshed and war. The original mind of humankind leads to the world of peace Where does our original mind lead us? In the core of our heart, do we desire to live oppressed within the walls and boundaries that surround us? Certainly not! The world that we desire is a place where there are no artificial barriers or boundaries. It is a world of freedom and peace. All people long for that original homeland. It is the homeland that God has sought to establish for thousands of years. It is the homeland that humankind has longed for throughout history. Of course, when we talk about a homeland, a particular nation may come to mind, yet we cannot compare any nation of today's world to the original homeland. To establish a nation there needs to be sovereignty, people and territory. History records the rise and fall of nations and countless transitions of sovereignties, accompanied by the sacrifice of a great many lives. Among them were countless martyrs who died in the hope that the original homeland would someday appear. The homeland these people longed for does not refer to the United States, or Korea, or any other nation. The original homeland is not a place based on democracy or communism. In it there is no need for any religion. It is a world that does not commit the folly of measuring the value of a person by the color of his or her skin. It does not allow any form of artificial boundary or national border, including the barrier that divides the mind and body within each individual. These barriers bring pain to everyone. Ladies and gentlemen, the planet earth is our home, and the entire globe is the homeland that humanity is longing for. For tens of thousands of years, God has longed for this homeland. Humankind has the responsibility to establish a global nation congruent with God's values, as well as to banish evil from this earth by judging satan, who has been the archenemy in front of heaven. This is how we will build the heavenly kingdom of peace on earth, on the foundation of goodness. Please remember always that this has been God's desire, Jesus' desire, and the desire of our ancestors who walked the path of martyrdom in the course of God's providence. True lineage and true love lead to the ideal The ideal world is not created automatically. Nobody can build it by just wishing it into existence. It is impossible to attain unless we, the offspring of the Fall of the first human ancestors, receive a new lineage through the marriage Blessing and practice a life of true love. What is a life of true love? In essence, it is living for the sake of others. It is living for the sake of others before you even think about the other doing something for you. It is a life of giving to others and dismissing the thought that you ever gave. It is not giving in hopes of receiving something in return. It is a life where you give and give, so much that you will never regret that you didn't give more. Even as you give, you bow your head in humility. Thus, Jesus said, "Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends." (John 15:13) He also said, "For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted." (Matt. 23:12) Even our almighty Creator, God, does not engage in creation and destruction at whim. He abides by the principles of creation that He Himself established. For this reason I have been conducting the marriage Blessing providence throughout the past several decades. Due to the Fall of the first ancestors, humankind inherited false life, false love and false lineage, and had no choice but to live a false life. Therefore my wife and I began our God-given mission as the True Parents. Throughout our lives we have walked a lonely path to carry out this heavenly decree to eliminate satan, the devil, through the marriage Blessing providence and, as the True Parents, to bequeath true life, true love, and the true lineage to humanity. We discovered that God by Himself could not reverse the false blood lineage, because the false parents planted it. Having fulfilled all the necessary indemnity conditions, my wife and I stand victoriously as the True Parents. We have been expanding the true lineage by separating humanity from the lineage of the false olive tree and engrafting them to the true olive tree. A false olive tree will remain a false olive tree, even if a thousand years pass; the lineage can change only when it is engrafted to the true olive tree. Ladies and gentlemen, the bright age of Heaven is dawning. Please receive my message with hope. The history of the marriage Blessing began with just three couples in 1960 and has now reached 400 million couples around the world. Furthermore, there are more than 120 billion blessed couples living in the spirit world. The field of the true olive tree has now overwhelmed the field of the wild olive trees. All these blessed families are united in living for the sake of others. The life of these true olive trees, embodying the true lineage, is now quickly spreading throughout the entire world. They will realize God's homeland and peace kingdom. It will be a nation full of joy and happiness, a global nation of freedom and equality without walls or national borders. Building the kingdom of peace under the banner of the Peace UN To fulfill this heavenly providence, on October 3, 2003, I founded the Peace UN in New York City to develop initiatives that will revolutionize heaven and earth. We are building God's homeland, our homeland, by educating all six billion people on this planet, giving them the marriage Blessing, and making them see the entire globe as their home and our home. Our goal is set. The flag of the Peace UN is already waving high. Shouts of victory are erupting across the world. Victories are being won in America, Europe, Israel, Palestine, Japan and Korea Nothing is impossible with God, and the numerous martyrs, patriots, saints and sages in spirit world who are with us. It is said that those who have faith will be blessed. On this significant day, I would like to ask you to engrave this message deep in your heart. I pray that you may receive the grace of the marriage Blessing and create a great revolution oflineage. I sincerely hope that you will become brave soldiers of Heaven, courageously standing on the front line of God's providence in order to build God's homeland on this earth, so that the peace kingdom may prosper for all eternity. Thank you very much. 9 • Fifty Years on the Providential Path to Realize God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom April 30, 2004 Marriott Hotel, Seoul, Korea Banquet on the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) Respected guests, distinguished leaders from 191 nations, ladies and gentlemen, and beloved members: Fifty years ago on this memorable day, May 1, 1954, as I walked the path of upholding God's Will, I founded the official organization of the Unification movement. The path I pioneered for half a century is a path no one has really understood. God alone has been my driving force as I walked a lonely path of persecution and suffering, stained with my blood, sweat and tears. The Unification movement that I have been promoting is entwined with God's desire. Therefore, for the past fifty years, rain or shine, I have not once forgotten my mission nor my responsibility in this time and going into the future. The motivating force behind the Unification movement is God. On this significant occasion today, I would like to reveal the fundamental purpose that God had in its inception, its destination and its goal. The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) was not created as another denomination or sect. I am fully aware that God never desired it to be so. Fifty years ago, the Unification movement began as the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity; in other words, it began as an association with the4 purpose of creating unity. Selecting this name, which signifies the unity of global Christianity, the unity of religions, and unity of the spirit world, was fraught with risk. The development of the Christian tradition and the formation of its cultural sphere were achieved through the faith, sacrifice, passion, and searching of exemplary Christian saints, leaders and scholars. Despite this, Christianity has splintered into numerous denominations, some of which are in conflict with one another even today. Under these circumstances, unifying Christianity is no easy task. Unifying religions and, further, unifying the spirit world, are even greater tasks. The concept of unity that I set forth does not just denote superficial unity or unity merely in form. It denotes fundamental and complete harmony and unity according to God's ideal. First, this is achieved through the work of the Spirit. The unity among religions and unity in the spirit world cannot be achieved by force or authority, or by any other external condition. The power of mobilizing the Spirit lies in God and the spirit world, but it can only be utilized when we lay the foundation that allows God to work on earth and when we meet the conditions sought by the saints in heaven. However, the actual power to spur good spirits into action lies with God and the spirit world. The spirit self, the inner person of a man or woman, is originally an entity that would respond to good spiritual influences. However, fallen people have dysfunctional spirit selves and have lived in ignorance of the spirit world's existence. Once their spirit selves are repaired and purified, all people will naturally be able to experience these good spiritual influences. Thus, we must all be conscious of the spirit world, and the time is coming when we will be. Throughout my life, I have been promoting the Unification movement, which supports God and the spirit world. It is supporting God's spiritual work on earth to achieve unity between mind and body, unity among people, unity between the spiritual and physical worlds, and unity between God and human beings. Second, unity is achieved through truth and love. I have revealed that the relationship between God and humanity is that of a Parent and child bound by true love. I have also revealed the fundamental principles of life and of the universe, the true nature of original sin, the principles of restoration, the truth of the spirit world, and the history of God's providence. In my life, I taught about true love and put it into practice. True love is investing oneself for the sake of others. In true love, I cease worrying about whether others recognize my own good qualities, and instead I focus on drawing out the best qualities of those whom I love. By investing and investing again in my object partner, he or she will become greater than I am. True love means investing, forgetting that I have invested, and continuing to invest still more. It means sacrificing all of my interests and even my status. Genuine unity can only be achieved when I give them up. Therefore, the greatest obstacle to achieving unity is a self-centered mind. For the past fifty years, I totally gave of myself as an individual. I sacrificed my family, my clan, and my nation. To better devote myself for the sake of the world and all humanity, I have offered the Unification Church. Even now I am investing tirelessly. All of this has been to achieve the ideal that God intended at the time of the Creation, which is to achieve complete harmony and unity based on true love. God's desire for us is that we live in ideal oneness with Him through love. The lofty vision that humanity longs for, of freedom, peace and happiness, is possible only when we achieve harmony and unity within true love. The Unification movement is the movement to spread true love to the whole world. God, the invisible True Parent, created us, as well as everything else in existence, in order to establish His object partners of true love. In particular, we, who were created to be God's children, are the beings most precious to the heavenly True Parent, who is the Subject Partner of absolute love. Our first ancestors were to be the invisible God's body and holy temple, and the substantial object partners of God's true love. Originally, Adam and Eve were to mature into people whose character manifested true love based on God's true love. They were to become a true couple and multiply true children in order to become true parents. If they had done so, they would have completed themselves as the substantial entities of God's true love, true life and true lineage. If Adam, Eve and their children had completed a four-position foundation of true love with God at the center, God would have been able to have descendants related by blood through true love, and the ideal family of humankind would have settled throughout the earth. An attribute of true love is that it compels those who experience it to invest more in their object partner of love than in themselves. People were created as the object partners of God's love; therefore, the very idea that they might sin and suffer in hell was unthinkable to God. It was entirely the result of our first ancestors acting against the nature of true love and falling. Our first ancestors were expelled from the original world and could not bear children of true life and true lineage under the blessing of God's true love. People are born without a relationship with God's true love, true life, and true lineage. They are thus destined from the moment of birth to need a savior and need salvation. Salvation means recovering one's original state, that is, restoration. It means returning to the original state before the Fall and restoring the relationship with God that was lost. Fallen human beings must inevitably go the path of restoration through indemnity. Therefore, in each era and in each region of the world, God has raised religions and has led humanity along the progressive path of restoration. Religion is a training center and an educational institute to remake dysfunctional human beings and return them to their original state. Religious teachings are not for the sake of religion itself. Religion is the means to realize God's will, which is to educate and recreate us as God's children. It is impossible for God to be contained within the limited doctrines and rituals established by religion. The mission of religion is to cultivate our character through a life of faith that embraces both enlightenment and personal growth, so that we can attend God in our everyday lives. We can graduate from school only after completing a prescribed course of study. In the same way, all faiths need to attach greater importance to educating and training individuals to perfect their character than they do to merely bringing people to their faith through witnessing and sermons. Humanity was not originally created to relate to God through religion and a life of faith. In the original garden, religion did not exist. There was no need for the formalities of ritual in the original relationship between God and human beings. It was to have been a relationship of true parent and true child living as an ideal family, intoxicated in the bliss of true love. I have tried to teach and offer guidance on this heavenly law and principle through the established faiths, in particular, through the Christian foundation that God had prepared for me. Unfortunately, due to ignorance, self-righteousness and denominationalism, God's central providence could not advance. Instead it met with persecution. Under these circumstances, I was compelled to establish the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. As I had no desire to establish a separate religion, I have, from the early years of this movement, promoted ecumenical and interdenominational activities. The world has come to call us the Unification Church in place of our full name. Many years ago, I said that I was looking forward to the day when we could bring an end to the Unification Church. That is because the mission of the Unification Church has been to restore and recreate the ideal of God on earth. The ideal kingdom of God is the original world that He envisaged at the time of the creation. This can only be realized when the mistakes of our ancestors, who betrayed God, are completely eradicated, and when the supra-religious, supra-national realm ofliberation and complete freedom is perfected. This is to realize the original realm of love, the four-position foundation ideal. To accomplish this transcends the mission of any one church or denomination; it means perfecting the family ideal of true love. Yet the focus of churches and religions has been on individual salvation. No religion until now has ever put emphasis on the salvation of the family. Crucial to the salvation of the family is receiving and maintaining the Blessing Ceremony of marriage, through which people receive the blessing of God's true love. Because our fallen ancestors failed to achieve the ideal of true parenthood, we their fallen descendants on our own cannot attain it. It is only possible through the Savior sent by God, because the Savior is the True Parents, the true ancestors who can replace the fallen ancestors. Fallen men and women can be likened to wild olive trees that multiplied the false lineage that they received from the first ancestors, which has no relationship to God. Engrafting into the True Parents, who come as the true olive tree, restores fallen men and women. The ceremony for this is the Blessing Ceremony of marriage. On the foundation of pure love education and the true family movement worldwide, I inaugurated the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification on July 31, 1996, in Washington DC, the capital of the United States of America. Four thousand people attended, including many heads of state and high-ranking world religious leaders. On that day I officially announced the end of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. With the inauguration of the Family Federation, the providential age has begun in which families may receive salvation that transcends the boundaries of religion, nationality and race. The Old Testament Age and New Testament Age were not ages for realizing the ideal family. Those ages belonged to the providential age for the salvation of the individual. Then the main focus was on individual salvation alone. The age of the salvation of the family is the Completed Testament Age. When families combine as a federation, they move into the age of the providence for the salvation of clans, and beyond that, to the salvation of nations. The Blessing ceremony eradicates the fallen lineage, which had been the inheritance of fallen humanity, transfers ownership of the lineage back to God, and brings about a transformation of heart. Indeed, there is no greater grace than this! Heaven does not come under the banner of a particular religion. God transcends religion. Heaven is the place where people who have regained the parent-child relationship of true love with God, attend God and are intoxicated in God's true love. People who receive the Blessing, create families of true love, and live in attendance to God can enter heaven along with their clans and nations. Throughout history, people have sought and cried out for their own liberation and salvation. What about God? Is God not in need ofliberation? Does God exist intoxicated in joy? Was it possible for God's heart to be filled with the joy of liberation when, as the Parent, God had to watch His children groaning in sin and suffering throughout history? That was never possible. God's heart can be liberated and enjoy complete freedom in accordance with the degree of the completion of the ideal family and ideal kingdom on this earth and in heaven. Only then can people be liberated and completely released through .a family life of true love. In turn, the creation, and further, the spirit world, can be liberated and completely released through us. Heaven can be likened to a palace of true love. There, we as God's children, who live centered on the living God the origin of true love, can share joy with God and respond to God's heart. The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification has promoted the true family Blessing movement worldwide with the purpose of substantially realizing the kingdom of heaven, which is beyond religion, race and nation. Respected leaders and beloved members, throughout history, humankind has dreamed of heaven, an ideal world, yet what is the reality that we see today? Society today has become the kingdom of free sex and individualism amid family breakdown and the loss of values. In such an environment based on fallen human beings, it is impossible to have the correct view of life and values, let alone a correct view of the world and the universe. We therefore cannot hope to create or perfect harmony, either within the individual or as a whole. In the past century, many people placed their hopes on utopian movements under the banners of communism and equality. The communist movement created a stir and shook the world. However in reality, the only thing people in the communist sphere experienced was inequality and exploitation, misfortune and fear. That movement ended in failure. At the same time, others built a system that placed democracy and freedom as the highest values and ideals. It was based on a dream, but what was the result? This system spurred individualistic, self-centered desire for pleasure and brought about decadence and corruption, imbalance and disorder. The future of democracy is also unclear. Some have called for the construction of the ideal world through secular humanism. Others have promoted the North Korean Juche ideology, which dehumanizes people and drives them to become like animals. There are also those calling for globalization, however those who promote it often have a self-centered perspective. All these have failed to establish the absolute, vertical values that God desires. Hence, people now struggle horizontally, beset by confusion and conflict among relative values. Overall, humanity has been following the path of self-destruction, far removed from the path of one global family in which genuine happiness is possible. All these are a direct result of people having estranged themselves from God, the True Parent, throughout their long history. The most urgent task for people in the present age, who wander about unable to escape unhappiness and suffering, is to seek out and come to know God, to understand original sin and to know the spirit world. An individual alone cannot achieve the ideal of happiness. It is possible only when he or she establishes the proper relationship within the family, tribe, people, nation, world, and cosmos, and with God. It is the ideal of God's true love that can bring about the perfection of all these things. The future world in the new age will not be a world based on humanistic thought. It will be a world based on "Godism" the teaching of our Heavenly Parent, in which we attend God as King. Thus, the age of "True Parentism'' is dawning-the age of true love. The age of nationalism has passed. Even a superpower nation cannot exist on its own. The age of unilateralism has also passed. A new age is dawning, when conflict will disappear and we will live together harmoniously, beyond nation, religion and race. The core of this coming world will be true love; in other words, investing for the sake of others. Those nations that go against this heavenly law and persist in self-centered policies with the aim of enriching their own selves will gradually lose influence and perish in the end. In the future, religions will be the first to take down their banners, ahead of the political realm and secular worlds, and take the lead in practicing true love and compassion. All religions need to reconcile and cooperate on an interreligious level to promote the reconciliation and unity of nations and races. They need to have the heart of God and be examples in practicing true love. I created the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and promoted the true family movement worldwide while unsparingly investing all my resources and human power to prevent war and to realize a world of peace. The Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace was inaugurated in February 1999 as an integrated organization, and through this organization I expanded my endeavors for reconciliation between the faiths. These endeavors have spanned many years. Leaders in different fields, such as politics, economics, education, the arts and nongovernmental organizations, have participated in this effort. More than fifty thousand ambassadors for peace have been appointed in 191 nations of the world. I am promoting a movement for the revival of the United Nations, so that the UN can become an organization that is truly dedicated to world peace. In October 2003, I founded the Interreligious and International Peace Council, the Peace UN, and expanded its activities as the central organization for the realization of world peace. Not only that, in accordance with heavenly fortune and on the victorious foundation of devotions offered in the heavenly and earthly worlds, I offered God His kingship in January 2001. It was a historic event, liberating God as the eternal King, and the King of all kings. Based on this, God's sovereignty of goodness substantially expanded its territory to all corners of the world. Fifty years have passed since the launch of the Unification movement as an official organization. The first stage of the Unification movement was a period when it was active mainly in the religious sphere, dealing with individual salvation. The next stage was the movement to find and establish true families, the basic unit of heaven. The movement will continue on to work for the restoration of clans, and to have an impact in local communities, until all people on earth and in heaven receive the Blessing. The third stage of the movement, to build the ideal world of peace, has already begun in earnest. During the past year alone, I devoted my efforts to lead sixteen initiatives, large and small, for peace in the Middle East. The entire world is scrutinizing my activities, including the movement for peace and unity between North and South Korea, the UN revival movement or new Peace UN movement, and the peace movement of the fifty thousand ambassadors for peace worldwide. Distinguished leaders from all walks of life, the current era is a period of great transition in history. We will experience remarkable changes during this century. In particular, there will be a great awakening in the following thr~e fields: First, although the modern trend is exceedingly materialistic, humanistic and atheistic, there will be a surge of interest in and awareness of spiritual phenomena. This will enable us to experience remarkable works from the spirit world that will change the course of history. Second, along with these spiritual experiences, humanity will gradually come to realize the divine value and social significance of the family as the basic school of true love. This realization will arise out of the painful experiences of family breakdown and the abnormal transformation of the family throughout the world during recent decades. Third, on the foundation of the development of our spirituality, the hope and corresponding efforts for peace will increase markedly. Human relationships will not be limited by national, racial or religious boundaries. A remarkable change will come, whereby all people will live for the sake of each other and feel that they are all brothers, sisters and neighbors living together. These are all the providential works of the living God. God is developing people's spirituality and on this foundation is establishing families of true love. On the basis of these families, God is working to create an ideal world of genuine and everlasting peace. The time has truly come for us to build the ideal world that people long for in their original minds. The time has come for us to build God's homeland and the peace kingdom, where we can attend God, who is the basis of true love and the king of absolute values. In this time of tremendous heavenly fortune, I sincerely ask that you become builders of the peace kingdom in accordance with the ways of Heaven. I pray that God's blessing will be upon you, your families and your nations. Thank you. 10 • God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom Are Built on the Foundation of the Realm of His Liberation and Complete Freedom May 1, 2004 Sun Moon University, Asan, Korea Celebration of the Fiftieth Anniversary of the Founding of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (and HSA-UWC) Respected current and former heads of state, distinguished guests from around the world, leaders from all fields of Korean society: I am sincerely grateful that such a large number of you have taken time from your busy schedules to attend today's event. It seems only yesterday that, on May 1, 1954, in a humble dwelling known as the "three-door house'' in Seoul's Buk-hak Dong, a few disciples and I put up a signboard that read "Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity;' and offered a most serious prayer to Heaven. Today, this association has become the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, which continues its steady development and has mission headquarters in 191 countries. How could anyone describe this as anything other than a miracle of Heaven? I received God's call when I was a vibrant, sixteen-year-old youth, and started out on this path of Heaven with unbending determination. It has been a path of indescribable pain and suffering. At the pinnacle of each indemnity offering I had to make sacrifices, for which I shed blood, sweat and tears. It was the path of a lonely man. I had to swallow my bloody tears of desperation and conceal them deep within me in order to comfort the heart of God, even as God was grieving over the tragic situation of the Son He had sent forth. I have devoted my life of more than eighty years teaching the truth that I received from Heaven. To encapsulate what I have been teaching, I would like to speak today on the topic "God's Homeland and the Peace Kingdom Are Built on the Foundation of the Realm of His Liberation and Complete Freedom." We should clearly know about God and the spirit world Distinguished guests, everything I have taught can be summed up in one point above all else. It is that we must know God and the spirit world with certainty. It is not enough to have a vague concept of God in our heads, like the mathematical formulas that we once memorized. Rather, we need to carve His existence into our hearts, even into our bones. We have to know God's attributes and His relationship with us. We need to know about the ideal world that He desired in the beginning, and when that world will be brought about. We need to have the same degree of knowledge about the spirit world. The world after death definitely exists, independent of our will, and we need to have accurate knowledge of it, if we are to use our time in this world to prepare thoroughly for the next. Ladies and gentlemen, please quietly place your hand on your heart and think seriously. If everyone truly knew that God exists and always lived in attendance to Him, what would prevent us from solving the problems in today's world? I now declare to you very bluntly: God exists and He is our Parent. He is alive and carries out His work in each person's life. He exists without form. If you think of Him in terms of magnitude, He is infinitely large, however if you think of Him in terms of precision, He is also infinitely small. Every person has a mind, yet can anyone locate the mind with confidence and certainty? Energy clearly exists and sustains life, although energy is invisible. Likewise, God• absolutely exists and is eternal, unchanging and unique. However, He cannot be seen with the human eye, which is part of the human physical body. Because God is the original body of energy, we will not be able to see Him even in the spirit world. This is why we say that God is omniscient, omnipotent and omnipresent. Because He has no form, nothing can prevent Him from going anywhere He pleases in the world of existence. He can pass right through your body without your feeling anything. He can step on you as He passes by while you doze off, and you would not know it. Think of how convenient that is. What would you do if God were to appear and involve Himself in every little detail of your life? If you had to live with God visible to your eyes, what would you do? You probably would not last a single day before having a nervous breakdown. While you sit here, you cannot see the incredible amount of air that is passing thrpugh your body as you breathe in and out. So how could you possibly know how God, who is formless, passes through you as He carries out His work? Rather than foolishly saying, "Show me God and I will believe." we need to be grateful that God is invisible to our eyes. Leaders from around the world, do you have love? Do you have life? Do you have a lineage and a conscience? Have you ever seen love? Can you say that you have seen life, lineage or conscience? You clearly know that they exist, but you have to acknowledge that you cannot feel or see them. You know them only because you sense them with your mind. A similar logic applies to the question of whether God exists, or whether a person has or has not seen God. No one can say that because they have not seen God, He does not exist. When God enters a person's mind, the mind knows it. When the omniscient and omnipotent God is with you, if you call for saints who died thousands of years ago to come to you, you will be able to clearly see them, even if they are sitting behind a thick wall. When the eternal God enters your heart, such things are possible. Eternity cannot be grasped in the context of time, yet time exists within eternity. God lost through the Fall The universe in which we live is shrouded in mystery. The observable universe is estimated to be tens of billions of light-years across. A light-year is the distance light travels in a year at a speed so fast that it can go around the Earth about seven and a half times in a second. Then try to imagine the nature and personality of God, who created the universe and manages it. How large would He have to be, and how heavy? God is the great King of wisdom. By existing without form, He can go anywhere in the universe instantaneously, even entering the eye of a needle. When we search within ourselves for the best place to receive God, our greatest treasure, the natural conclusion is that our heart is the only appropriate place. No other place can be safer or more comfortable for Him. Our heart can stand in the position of God's object partner and exist for eternity by engaging in spherical give-and-take action. This is the reason why we can have eternal life. If the first human ancestors had not committed the Fall, we would have been born from parents possessing an original nature of goodness. Then there would be no argument about whether or not God exists. We would know God's existence naturally from the time we were born. An infant does not learn how to suckle its mother's breast while it is in the womb, although it naturally knows how to do so as soon as it is born. Likewise, people born into a world where the human Fall had not occurred would naturally attend God as their Father throughout their lives. When God created Adam and Eve as the first human ancestors, He wanted to establish them as substantial embodiments of Himself So He placed His masculine nature in the mind of Adam and His feminine nature in the mind of Eve, intending to keep them there for eternity. This did not mean that God was divided into two. Instead, while residing in the minds of Adam and Eve, He would have existed as a harmonized being of dual characteristics and as a unified being whose love would be in the central position. As a result of the human Fall, however, humanity lost everything. We fell into a false world. We appear to have sight, but in fact we are blind, not even knowing if God exists. What could be more tragic in the history of humankind? If Adam and Eve, created in the image of God, had grown to maturity without falling, achieved perfection, and acquired the position of the parents of humankind, all people would have been able to recognize the reality of God's existence through Adam and Eve. It would have been impossible even to imagine people arguing with one another, saying, "God exists" or "No, He does not." God would have lived with us and shared our emotions for eternity as the Parent ofhumankind. He would have been the center of our lives and the root of our existence. We can truly know God only when we feel Hirn in our hearts and understand the reality of His existence in the course of our daily life. We can know God's existence through experience. When we know the reality of God's existence directly from experiencing Hirn in our daily lives, we will be able to sense God's Will naturally from moment to moment. We will act in accordance with His Will without being told to do so. We will become people who cannot sin even if we wanted to. God, who is formless, intended to take on substantial form through human beings. They would have the character and stature of owners who would exercise dominion over all of creation, both in this world, the world of forms, and in the spirit world. This is why our highest priority in life is to know God with certainty. The world God desires to see Ladies and gentlemen, let us think for a moment about human life. We spend the first phase of our lifetime in our mother's womb. The time we spend there, as a fetus, is a period of waterborne life, bathed in amniotic fluid. Although we cannot speak or move about freely, it does not mean that our term in the womb is not part of our life. During this period, we clearly possess life given to us by Heaven, and we prepare for life on earth, which is the next phase. Even though we don't breathe through our nose, it does not mean that we are not alive. The human fetus in the womb cannot imagine what life will be like in the next phase, when it is on earth. It cannot imagine a world outside its mother's womb. It cannot imagine not receiving all its nourishment from its mother through the umbilical cord. Yet when the time comes, our life in the womb comes to a close and we begin life on earth. Whether we like it or not, this happens in accordance with the laws of the universe. Then, a vast new world that we could never have imagined appears before us. Once our waterborne life ends and our new life on earth begins, the months of life in the womb transition into an earthly life of about one hundred years. We then live in a wide variety of unique ways and prepare for the final phase of our existence, namely, in the spirit world, the world after death. A world that is eternal and endless awaits us; however we who live in a physical body are no more capable of imagining life in the spirit world than we were of imagining life on earth when we lived in the womb. Prepare in advance for life in the spirit world Our life of about one hundred years on earth will transition into an eternal world that transcends time and space. In the womb, we received nourishment from our mother through the umbilical cord, and during our time on earth we receive the basic nutrients of food, water, air and sunlight. Once we enter the spirit world, however, we will no longer need physical nourishment. Instead, we will breathe love as we live eternally. So human beings, without exception, live through three stages: about ten months in the womb, about one hundred years on earth, and an eternity in the spirit world. This is not something we do by our own choice. It is a blessing and grace given by Heaven. What blessing and grace could be greater than this? When I say you need to know the spirit world well, it is not enough to live with a vague faith in the existence of the spirit world. We have to know how to prepare for life in the spirit world, where we will live eternally, while we live on earth, and our preparation should be thorough. If a child develops a problem while in the womb, it may spend its entire life after birth in poor health. So too, if we do not recognize Heaven's Will during our short life on earth, and commit sins or perform evil deeds, we will eventually pay the price in the spirit world according to the principle of cause and effect. It means in the spirit world that our spirit self will have to suffer indescribable pain and be subject to indemnity. Once the physical body has been shed, it will be too late. When the physical body dies, it returns to earth as a handful of dirt. However do you think that our life, our mind, our heart, and our hopes are also buried? That is absolutely not the case. Our life of about a hundred years is recorded, photographed and automatically evaluated without fail in our God-given personal computer, called the spirit self. This is why all of us, during our life on earth, stop and check ourselves again and again, asking our unsettled mind and heart, "Where am I going?" Saints, sages and spiritual masters spent their entire lives wrestling with such issues. None of them, however, were able to present clear answers. It is true that their teachings have remained with us, allowing religions to form and sacred texts to be published that guide the lives of masses of people. It is also true, though, that we still lack the ability to have dominion over our own mind I have revealed the truth about true love I have toured the world hundreds of times to declare Heaven's truth and educate people. No matter where I go in the world or what kind of audience I face, I always ask one question. I issue a challenge, saying, "If there is anyone here whose mind and body are not in discord, please raise your hand." So far no one anywhere has dared to raise a hand. What does this tell us? It means that we are still slaves to the fallen nature we inherited from our first ancestors, Adam and Eve. We have not yet escaped that yoke. This is evidenced by the confessions of saints and sages, who spent their lives in fasting, practiced abstinence, and persevered on their paths despite incredible suffering. Their confessions that they could not root out the desires of the flesh before they had to leave this world remain as pitiful cries to their disciples, who nonetheless insist on following in their footsteps. The saints and sages are now declaring with one voice that I have brought for the first time from Heaven the truth of true love that they could not grasp, and that their followers and descendants on earth need to follow my teachings absolutely and practice them. We are receiving a flood of messages from people in the spirit world who regret that they could not meet me while they were on earth and attend me as the Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord, and True Parent during their lives. The resolutions they adopted in the spirit world now echo around the world. In the near future, all religious people will begin to receive revelations directly from the founders of their religions, and there will be a great migration of people who will be guided to attend me as the True Parent. They will gather as the clouds to learn from me the truth about true love that will enable them to unite their minds and bodies. Once they learn the way of the true family, they will with one accord sing praises of eternal happiness, parents and children together as one great family in heaven and on earth. The world's communists who insisted there is no God and passed away as sacrifices for the cause of materialism, the world's intellectuals and journalists who commanded an entire generation, and even dictators and emperors, who brandished the sword of absolute power at the cost of countless lives, have shed tears of repentance before me. Through their messages and resolutions from the spirit world, they begged for forgiveness. If you still cannot believe with certainty the reality of the spirit world, you may not be sure about whether to believe these messages. To you I say, "When you pass on to the spirit world you will see for yourself!" However, once you go down that path you can never return, no matter how much you may beat the ground in lamentation. Once in the spirit world, a person cannot do anything on his own about the sins he committed while on earth. So your ancestors are now observing your life in tears, waiting for opportunities to help you in ways that indemnify their sins. I am telling you clearly that thousands, even tens of thousands, of your ancestors' eyes are watching your every step and action, sometimes with tears of heartbreak and at other times with joy. Is there anyone who still cannot believe in the reality of the spirit world? Oneness with God in heart, body and mindset Distinguished guests, once we come to know God with certainty and know spirit world not just in concept but also in reality, our life can move forward as smoothly as a car on an expressway. Just as the car will reach its destination safely if the driver follows the rules of the road, keeps his hands on the steering wheel and doesn't fall asleep, so too we must align our life with the direction of our conscience, which is given by Heaven. This is how our mind and body can unite, and how our character can blossom to reach perfection and bear fruit. Going deep into the mountains will not perfect one's character, and extensive reading of the sacred texts and philosophy books that line library shelves will not unite one's mind and body. God is the great King of Wisdom. He did not place the path to perfection in some far-off place. Rather, He placed it where it is closest to us, in the place that is most private and safe. He prepared and placed that path within our conscience. Ladies and gentlemen, your conscience is your master. It is your teacher. It stands in the position of your parents. Your conscience is the first to know everything about you. Your conscience knows all your thoughts. It knows them before your teacher, your parents or even God knows them. Think about how much advice your conscience gives you throughout your lifetime. Day and night, every time you have an evil thought, it scolds you, saying, "That's not right!" It never grows tired as it works constantly to lead you over rivers and mountains. The conscience always stands as the true master, protecting you and trying to help you. Yet, how often have you gone against your own conscience? What will you do about your body, which thoroughly mistreats this precious, irreplaceable teacher that the universe bequeathed to you? Your conscience was given to represent the Parent who makes it possible for you to inherit original love. Do you intend to idle your life away, embracing only your physical body, enslaved by its desires, and allowing it to trample the conscience mercilessly? That is why I, too, as I began to pioneer the way of truth, set as my slogan, "Before I seek to rule the universe, I must first rule myself." I discovered that there is only one way to resolve the conflict between mind and body, and that is the way of true love. Unity between mind and body can be achieved only when the body sacrifices itself for the sake of the mind time and again, by living for the sake of others with true love. When you follow the path indicated by your conscience, your mind will come to embrace the universe. When this happens, you will be able to communicate with your heart. Whenever you start to do something, your conscience will immediately show you the effects of that action. This experience proves that God resides within your heart. The person who achieves this enters the state of oneness with God in heart, body and mindset. He or she will live in a unified, harmonious world. This is the ideal world, the kingdom of heaven on earth that God desired in the beginning when He created Adam and Eve. A life for the liberation God and humankind Respected guests, it is now more than eighty years since I began my search for such incredible secrets of Heaven and began to walk the path to lead humanity. It has been a lonely and pitiful path, as I pushed my way through suffering and overcame unprecedented difficulties that no one will ever repeat in the future. That path taught me the reality of the omnipresent God All of the six billion people in the world are blind. Although they appear normal, they cannot see even an inch in front of themselves. Despite their blindness, philosophers and theologians have pretended as if they could elucidate Heaven's truth, and this has brought grief to God throughout history. The providence of restoration, which sought people who would live for the sake of God and have compassion for God, never even got off the ground. I cannot count the days I spent in tears and lamentation after I came to know the world of God's inner heart. Who could even dare to imagine God as being grief-stricken? He created the first human ancestors as His children and tried to place them in the position of His eternal object partners of true love. However, they committed the Fall. Since then, He has been carrying out His providence of restoration for thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of years. After the Fall God was sorrowful and mortified. Anger exploded within Hirn. His heart overflowed with grief as He walked this course. God is the Father and glorious King, but the enemy satan stole His throne and usurped His position as Parent. Although He is clearly alive and carrying out His providence, people say "He is dead." and mock and mistreat Hirn. Still, He has persevered on the path with patient endurance, waiting for the day when people themselves would understand the truth. Please understand that God conducts His providence on a foundation of true love, which involves living for the sake of others, continually for eternity. For that reason, He did not just annihilate the universe and begin again after witnessing His children descend into the bottomless pit that they dug as a result of the Fall. With the power of His omniscience and omnipotence, God could have judged the world and satan at once, smashing them to pieces. Though He has this power, He has chosen until now to absorb all the contempt and accusation. He has placed Himself in a prison-like environment, because He is our Father. The course of self-sacrifice to teach all humankind Ladies and gentlemen, have you spent even one day before God our Father, shedding tears of sincere sympathy and repentance? Can you stand before God and close your eyes, to avoid seeing Him as He bites His tongue and endures humankind who inherited the lineage of satan and became his tool? Can you ignore God's impatience, as He waits for the day of His liberation and complete release? For this reason, my life has been more serious than any other in history. In walking this fateful course of restoration through indemnity, I had to go the way of perfecting my character to stand as the lord of judgment, determine the sin of satan, and judge him. I had to say goodbye to four of my young children, whom I loved deeply, as they went to the spirit world, and I had to watch as my remaining children struggled in the wilderness. I stand before you as one who has received Heaven's appointment as Savior and True Parent for the sake of liberating and releasing God and, on that foundation, liberating and releasing humankind. I am not here out of a need for money and power, or honor and fame. For more than eighty years, I have lived oblivious to morning or evening, day or night, weathering even the coldest winters and severest snowstorms and rainstorms, in order to move as quickly as I could along the heavenly path. Even in the torture chamber, where my flesh was torn from my body and I vomited blood, I never prayed for God to save me. Instead, my life has been that of a filial son, patriot, saint, and divine son of heaven and earth, shedding tears to comfort God's heart as He weeps at the sight of the tragic state of His children. I left my parents and homeland behind to follow the straight and narrow path to human salvation, that is, the path of true love that involves living for the sake of others. My life of never compromising and never acting in a cowardly manner may seem incredibly pitiful and bleak from a worldly viewpoint. No torture or punishment could make me compromise from following the heavenly path. Neither could six imprisonments stand in the way of the True Parent's search for his children. As I sat in a cold prison cell and watched drops of water fall from an eave, I pledged to myself, "Just as those droplets will eventually bore a hole through a boulder, the day will certainly come when these hot tears that fall from my eyes will melt the heart of God, frozen in grief, and liberate and release Him." That is how I have lived. It has been a sacrificial course, in which the love that I practiced meant I had to love the enemy more than my own children and offer everything to teach all six billion people in the world In following this course, I went to America in the early 1970s and announced, "I have come as a firefighter to extinguish the fire and as a physician to cure the disease." It is important to understand that, more than thirty years later, humanity has entered a new age. Finally, heavenly fortune is settling on planet Earth. The blood, sweat, and tears that I shed on the course of restoration through indemnity for the sake of human salvation are now beginning to bear fruit. The fire of true love under God's direct dominion In 2001, at the commencement of the twenty-first century, I dedicated the Enthronement Ceremony for God's Kingship, offering to Him the day of His liberation and complete freedom. This marked the beginning of the opening of the era of God's direct dominion. On that foundation, the "Coronation of the King of Peace" was held this year on March 23, 2004 in the Dirksen Senate office building of the United States Congress. World leaders of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and members of the United States Congress, gathered to crown me the King of World Peace. How could this possibly be a result of human efforts alone? Just as the French prophet Nostradamus had prophesied, and just as the Orient's greatest book of prophesies, Kyeog Am Yu Rok, clearly recorded, Reverend Moon has come as the one who has received Heaven's appointment and fulfilled the responsibilities of humanity's True Parent and the King of Peace. So now, leaders from all walks of life and from all over the world are surging forward in a giant wave to join the ranks of people working to build the peace kingdom on earth. They are acknowledging that peace cannot be achieved without my help. This is true not only on the Korean peninsula, the only place in the world where the conflict between democracy and communism still divides an innocent people and land, it is also true in the Middle East, which has become the most serious and bloody area of conflict threatening world peace. A true love movement enveloping the entire globe On April 10 of this year, I declared the complete freedom of the angelic world, the complete freedom of Cain and Abel, and the complete freedom of the Parent of the Cosmos, the Parents of Heaven and Earth, and the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. I am marking May 1 with the declaration, "God's homeland and the peace kingdom are built on the foundation of the realm of His liberation and complete freedom." I am thereby completing many levels of spiritual conditions that are needed for God to exercise His dominion and demonstrate His complete immanence, complete authority, complete power and complete transcendence. Based on God's liberation and complete freedom, a world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness is spreading across this land. In this respect, there is a special meaning to today's commemoration of the fiftieth anniversary of the establishment of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Heavenly fortune is with each of you present here today. Though our time together is short, you can become people of the kingdom of heaven simply by living according to what I have taught you today. First, live with the certainty of God's existence, to the point that you can feel His presence against your skin. Second, be certain of the reality of the spirit world, and use your life on earth to prepare for your eternal life in the spirit world. Third, live in attendance to your conscience as you would your teacher, your parents, and God. The flames of true love, fanned by the spring breezes of the twenty-first century, are spreading like wildfire across the earth. International marriages are becoming acceptable among young people belonging to traditionally enemy countries. Just as water, air and light will flow to fill the tiniest crevice, the movement of true love is flowing and covering the planet. Intellectually astute young people are now awaking from their sleep to inherit God's love, life and lineage and settle in the peace kingdom on earth. Eminent world leaders, I hope that you, too, will join the ranks of the owners of Cheon Il Guk, to ''establish His kingdom and His righteousness" (Matt. 6:33) and become a revolutionary army of true love. Please put into practice the truth that true love grows larger the more it is given. Thank you. 11 • Our Mission in the Last Days of Providential History December 13,2004 Marriott Wardman Park Hotel, Washington, DC, USA Coronation of True Parents as the King and Queen of World Peace Respected leaders from countries around the world representing all religions and nations, let us first gather our hearts together. Let us sincerely offer glory and gratitude to God, the True Parent of all creation and the Lord of true love. Let us make today a day of the greatest value, a day that will be remembered as providing a new foundation for America. Warning against immorality and self-indulgence The Cold War held humanity captive to fear and insecurity for half a century. The machinations and duplicity of the communists deceived people of faith and all humankind. That has subsided. We live in a new century. And yet, how secure and happy are we? Look at the world. Young people, now liberated from the yoke of communism, are enjoying their freedom to such an extent that they are in danger of running pell-mell off the cliff of debauchery. Instead of seeking God's ideal of creation, they embrace the perspective of selfish individualism and become slaves to free sex. This gives rise to all manner of social evils. Homosexual activists, for example, have hoisted the flag of the gay movement. They advocate marriage between people of the same sex. Put simply, this infuriates Heaven and is an offense to the human race. Imagine, for a moment, a world of same-sex relationships. Humanity would become extinct within two generations. Those who turn away from Heaven's Will dig their own graves in the soil of decadence and immorality. The evil of this age has its own punishing consequences, for example AIDS. Even as we sit here, is not this cursed plague infecting thousands, even millions, of innocent people? Is it not casting them onto the path of death? Another plague, known as divorce, is destroying families and hearts. It is throwing humanity into an unprecedented crisis. Millions of children suddenly find themselves separated from one parent and being raised by a stepfather or stepmother. In some cases, authorities even force these children into foster homes and orphanages. They are not at fault, yet their little hearts are left with scars that will never heal. Who will compensate them for the loss of the parental love that was snatched away? Then we turn our eyes to the conflict in the Middle East. What began as a struggle between religions is now inflaming the entire world in a crucible of fear over terrorism and murder. Meanwhile, the Korean Peninsula, my homeland, remains tragically divided. Its people still wait with deep longing for the day of its unification. By what means can we possibly save today's world, where morality and family values have been utterly degraded? The coming of True Parents Leaders from around the world, tonight I would like to convey a new message from God to the six billion people living in this age. It is both His commandment and a revelation. The title of this message is "Our Mission in the Last Days of Providential History." The Fall of Adam and Eve, our first ancestors, imprisoned us within the dungeon of false love, false life and false lineage. We are chained to a history of unfathomable misery and resentment. All people without exception have inherited satan's false lineage, with its accumulated sins over a history of thousands and tens of thousands of years. We are trapped by that history, with no choice but to lead checkered lives littered with falsehood and evil. This is humanity's fate. There is no escape from this predicament, regardless of human effort. Humanity has longed for the day when someone would save us from our fallen condition. People writhe in agony, engulfed by evil and falsehood, because due to the Fall of the first ancestors everyone is bound to the filthy and dreadful lineage of satan. Therefore, humanity awaits the coming of the one who is of the lineage of Heaven and has no relation to satan's lineage. This person is the True Parents. They are able to liberate us from satan's bondage. We need to understand that we have satan as our parent. In biblical terms, we are wild olive trees, separated from the true root. The True Parents are sent as the Savior and Messiah of all humanity with the mission to sever from satan all the wild olive trees that have been growing for tens of thousands of years and graft them onto the true olive tree. This represents the change of humanity's lineage. The True Parents come to complete this great revolutionary endeavor on an interreligious and international level. The True Parents do not appear on someone's whim, anywhere or at any time. They can come only in the providential Last Days. The term "Last Days" means the moment when the providence of restoration, which Heaven has carried forward throughout history, bears its final fruit. In other words, we meet the era of the True Parents, when humankind can be restored to its original state, only in conjunction with God's providence. The providence to save humanity is administered by Heaven, so how can you know at what point you stand in it? Only the True Parents, who come with Heaven's love, life and lineage, know the providential time. Knowing the providential time, they work in line with it to bring the providence to its conclusion. Only the True Parents come with the authority to govern the spirit world. By this authority they have rallied the founders of the four major religions and myriads of good ancestors in order to take responsibility for your eternal life. Leaders from around the world! Though you were unaware of it, humankind has entered a new realm of grace. The era of heavenly fortune has arrived. I openly declare to heaven and earth that I have received God's anointing and have been entrusted with the mission to be humanity's True Parent. We are now in the Last Days of God's providence. This is the era of the holy marriage Blessing, by which humanity's lineage is changed from satan's lineage to God's lineage. Now the Era after the Coming of Heaven is unfolding within the realm inaugurated by the Day of the Victory of the Number Ten Combining Two Halves (Ssang Hab Shib Seung Il). In the Era before the Coming of Heaven, those who pursued evil prospered and it was difficult to distinguish right from wrong. Now Heaven no longer has to endure that diseased and disordered world! Have powerful hope as you live in accordance with the path of Heaven. You can come to resemble God, who is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, and have His attributes. Practice a life ofliving for the sake of others, and you will go through a revolution of character. Following this path will enable us to establish the kingdom of God on earth, that is, the peace kingdom, where we all can live together in harmony. Heaven has longed passionately to see this come to pass. The mission of homeland liberation The term "homeland liberation'' may sound unfamiliar. You probably think you never lost your homeland, so you have no need to recover it. The homeland to which I refer today, however, is different from the one you usually think of. I refer to the original homeland, the kingdom of God on earth that was lost at the Fall of the first ancestors, Adam and Eve. What would the world have been like had the Fall not occurred? God would have blessed Adam and Eve in marriage. They would have become the True Parents, producing true, sinless children. This family would have served as the nucleus of the kingdom of God on earth. The children would have formed the realm of God's third generation. Centering on God, they would have established an eternal kingdom of peace on this earth. Adam and Eve would have become the king and queen of Adam's tribe, Adam's people and Adam's nation, which would have also represented a realm of three generations. Adam's kingdom would have continued eternally. This would have been humanity's eternal homeland, the peace kingdom. Unfortunately, history did not start out like this. The Fall of Adam and Eve orphaned humanity for tens of thousands of years. We lost our homeland and lived like vagabonds, drifting here and there begging for food. Humanity was to have attended God as the vertical True Parent. All the world's people were to have lived as one family in accordance with the principles of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Instead, we find ourselves divided from one another by all manner of barriers of the heart, as well as international boundaries. These were planted by satan. What then is the true meaning of homeland liberation? How do we begin to accomplish it? Homeland liberation means to transform this world into a new nation, the true homeland. We will not find this homeland anywhere in today's world. It emerges through a process of re-creation through love. God's new homeland has no divisions. It reflects the original creation that bears no relationship to the Fall of humankind. So homeland liberation begins with a life of true love in which we love even our enemies. If we sow soybeans, we will harvest soybeans, and if we sow red beans, we will harvest red beans. If we sow revenge, which is satan's seed, we will harvest an evil fruit, more bloodshed. On the other hand, wherever we sow true love by forgiving and embracing our enemies, trees of goodness will grow. This is the law of the universe, and it never fails. We find humanity's true homeland, the homeland of the true God, through the path of loving our enemies. This path begins with loving our individual enemies and extends to loving our family's enemies, our tribe's enemies, our nation's enemies and the world's enemies. This is how we establish the tradition of true love, true life and true lineage. As world leaders, what do you consider your mission? As long as satan's sovereignty dominates the world, you do not really have a country. I know there are some two hundred nations in the world, but has even one nation brought God's Will into reality? Is even one of them a true homeland for God and humanity? The world's six billion people, through no fault of their own, were born as satan's descendants, carrying the false lineage. Irrespective of whether you are citizens of the United States, Japan or any other nation, satan's love, satan's life and satan's impure blood still flow in your body. Unless you remove this stained legacy of the Fall from yourself, you will never realize the dream of homeland liberation. For this, you each need to experience a revolution of character, a true-love revolution. The three great revolutions of true love How can we accomplish a revolution of character and come to resemble God? Because we descended from the Fall and are born with fallen nature, each of us needs to go through three great revolutions in order to accomplish the perfection of our character. I call these 1) the revolution through making atonement, 2) the revolution of conscience and 3) the revolution of heart. The revolution through making atonement means to recover your internal and external right of ownership of true love by completely atoning for the past. After you have done this successfully, you then should live by a standard beyond that requiring any atonement. For this you must purge yourself completely of all the habits and thoughts accumulated during the Age before the Coming of Heaven. It is completed when you accomplish it in your individual realm, family realm and national realm. On this basis, you can create and perfect an ideal family, a family of true love based upon the absolute values that are the standard for life in the Era after the Coming of Heaven. In God's family ideal, people perfect these absolute values through the varieties of love in a family, in the relationships between husband and wife, parents and children, and among siblings. A husband and wife stand in the position of owners of true parental love only after the birth of their children. A man is able to own true conjugal love only after marrying and cherishing his wife. Similarly, the older sibling is capable of owning true sibling love only because of the presence of a younger sibling. Thus in any relationship, it is the object partner who makes the subject partner an owner of true love. To be an owner, the subject partner needs to live for the sake of the object partner, invest in that person with no thought of recouping that investment, and sacrifice for the sake of a greater purpose. This is how we create absolute values that are eternal and unchanging. In this way, parents and children, husband and wife, and siblings bring each other to perfection as owners of true love. By forming these realms of love in the family, the family can settle into an eternal realm of unity. They live according to absolute values, in interdependence and eternal communion with God. Also, each of us needs to take the revolutionary step of returning all our property and ownership rights to Heaven. Give up your lingering attachments. This cuts all your ties with satan's world and separates you from satan. In exchange, you will inherit all those things and more with Heaven's blessing. In other words, God will grant you ownership of Heaven's abundance, abundant wealth that is now separated from satan and over which satan can never again claim ownership. Second, what is the revolution of conscience? It is an inner revolution by which you become absolutely obedient to your conscience. You cannot deny that you endure an unending struggle within yourself. Your conscience, which tends toward goodness, struggles against the desires of the flesh. To bring an end to this shameful inner conflict, you need to clearly understand the conscience and its function. Your conscience possesses a detailed awareness of your every action, every step and every thought. It knows about these even before your teacher knows. It knows even before your parents know. It knows virtually before God knows. And it tells you the right action to take in every instance. What results from violation of the conscience? You feel guilt. Dust settles on your soul; it becomes filthy and scarred. The scars on your soul cannot be removed for eternity. They are fearful defects you take with you when you enter the spirit world. Therefore I strongly implore you to work in a revolutionary way to overcome your physical desires, accept the guidance of your conscience and live in oneness with Heaven's Will. Treasure the unblemished, clean and pure state of your soul. What is the third revolution, the revolution of heart? God created human beings as His children. What is the tie that binds you and God together? It is the true love and true heart that exist between a parent and child. If a parent and child do not communicate with true heart, how can they possibly maintain a relationship of true love and true respect? We have lived for thousands of years within the realm of the Fall. Our hearts continue to be enslaved under false parents, who passed on to us false love and false lineage. To remove this yoke, you need to live with true love, continually forgiving, giving and sacrificing. This is the life satan hates most. By doing this, you return to the realm where God's heart rules. If you still pursue the vainglory of the satanic world, with your heart still bound by selfish individualism, then you are on a dark and dismal path whose end is despair and lamentation. On the other hand, if you lead a constructive life, being the first to yield and give to others, then your heart will be joined in eternal oneness with God's heart. This requires that you first sever your heart's ties to the false parent and be engrafted into God's lineage through the holy marriage Blessing instituted by the True Parents. Through the True Parents, who are incarnations of the invisible God, you will secure the true love and lineage of Heaven. The mission of God's emissary Respected ladies and gentlemen, until today you have led fairly conventional lives. Now, however, I call you to take on a mission as God's direct emissary. As individuals, there are many differences among us. We are large and small, wide and narrow, tall and short. Despite our differences, God is commissioning us to become His direct emissaries. Let us be patriots who proudly uphold God's lineage of goodness. Let us stand resolutely, with Heaven's authority, and answer the call to liberate our homeland. How can you qualify for the mission of God's personal emissary? You need to desire the liberation of your homeland a thousand times, even ten thousand times more than you desire the present reality. You must be determined to liberate your homel~d even at the cost of your life. Eating or sleeping, coming or going, every action you take should be for the sake of establishing the peace kingdom. The Bible teaches, "Strive first for the kingdom of God and his righteousness." (Matt. 6:33) Go forward with confidence, because while your external situation may still belong to the realm of satan's world, you have been reborn with a true lineage. You are God's direct emissary for the purpose of establishing the homeland. Do you recognize God's plight? He is a Parent who lost His children in one instant and was then forced to suffer a history of mistreatment, blocked at every turn as He sought to fulfill His Will. You should become filial sons and daughters capable of understanding the sorrowful heart of God. How can you be leaders unless you know the truth and practice it? Leaders of the world, please think deeply about how you came to be here today. Did you simply come partly out of sincerity and partly out of curiosity, hoping to enjoy a Christmas party? Whether you like it or not, you have now received God's call. I myself suddenly received God's command when I was a young man of sixteen. I accepted His call, and ever since I have spent my entire life of more than eighty years walking a course of blood, sweat and tears. I did this to rescue humanity from satan's dominion and to bring God into a state of true liberation and complete freedom. Just as I did, you too can now accomplish the exalted Will of God for harmony and peace on an interreligious and international level. That is, you can complete the sacred task of establishing God's homeland. You and I are one, with the common denominator being absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. You as well as I are to be true parents, and kings and queens of peace. Today heavenly fortune is with you, as it is with me. We now have the opportunity to establish our homeland that will also be God's homeland. That homeland requires sovereignty, territory and godly people. God's lineage of goodness has to extend powerfully throughout that homeland. The pulse of God's providential history has to be felt there in a way that cannot be experienced anywhere else. If it is possible to build this homeland right now, how can you hesitate? Please complete the mission of being God's direct emissaries. Please live as prophets who have been given the promise of eternal life. Lead rewarding lives with no regrets Ladies and gentlemen, I recently founded the Mongolian Peoples Federation for World Peace, a movement to bring together people of Mongolian descent throughout the world. My intent certainly is not nationalistic. This is a comprehensive movement for peace. People of Mongolian ancestry are the descendants of Cain and Shem, the eldest sons of Adam and Noah respectively. God called Noah's family to restore through indemnity the historical errors committed by Adam's family. Now, in the final period of God's providence, Shem's descendants can accomplish their mission as the :firstborn among humanity. Thus it is a movement to comfort God's heart of pain over Adam's family, which lost Abel by murder and waited one hundred thirty years to establish Seth. It is a movement to make the world into one brotherhood and one family by tearing down the walls of the heart that divide us, so that all humanity might live together in a society characterized by interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. It is a providential step to hasten the establishment of God's homeland. We should return gratitude and glory to God and True Parents. They have enlightened us about the incredible providential age in which we are living. They have even bestowed on us the glorious mission to establish God's kingship as His direct emissaries. Through all eternity, we will gratefully glorify and praise True Parents, who have inaugurated the Revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven. Therefore today we offer this Coronation Ceremony of True Parents as the King and Queen of World Peace. It is unprecedented in history and will never be repeated in the future. True Parents have established the realm of true liberation and complete freedom. Just as the sun rises with brilliant light in the eastern sky, heavenly fortune is now shining upon all people. The curtain of darkness that shrouded us for tens of thousands of years is being lifted at last. The divine command to complete Heaven's Will is taking root in your heart. This is a path of destiny, and you cannot avoid it. Therefore, stand up courageously! We have the Era after the Coming of Heaven working with us. You can experience with certainty the meaning of Jesus' teaching that those who forsake their life will live and those who seek their life will die. Let us resolve heroically to do everything to complete the sacred task of homeland liberation and establish the peace kingdom, God's ideal of creation on this planet Earth. Please engrave the heavenly command you have received today deep in your heart. From this time forward, as a leader chosen by God to build the homeland, you must pledge to lead a beautiful and precious life. Everyone here without exception will eventually pass on to the spirit world. You do not want to carry with you any regret. Today I have conveyed to you God's message for the new era. I pray that as God's direct emissaries, His blessings will forever be upon you, your families and your mission. Thank you. 12 • Complete and Perfect Restoration of Cain and Abel Brotherhood and the Ideal World of Creation February 14, 2005 Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, Korea Birthday Celebration for the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind and Coronation of the King and Queen of Peace and Cosmic Unity Respected guests from home and abroad, ladies and gentlemen: This is the time of a great historical transition. At this moment, flowers of life and love are blooming for all humankind and all things in the universe under the bright sun of the fifth year of God's kingdom of Cheon Il Guk. God's grace and blessing are upon us. Ladies and gentlemen, I have consistently devoted my entire life of eightysome years to upholding God's Will for the salvation of humankind. After holding more than ten thousand meetings and public speeches to teach the words of truth, today my lifelong ministry is reaching its completion. Generally, we think of history in terms of people and events as they happen. However, there is another way to understand history, from the vertical perspective of God's providence. An unprecedeted coronation for cosmic unity Today you all have participated in the Coronation of the Peace King and Queen of Cosmic Unity. This was an event unprecedented in history. History will record this day for eternity. Today we are receiving God's abundant grace. We are beginning the second four-year course in the providence of Cheon Il Guk, which runs from 2005 to 2008. In commemorating this significant day, I would like to inform you about the heavenly laws that we are to know and practice in this age. The theme of my speech is "Complete and Perfect Restoration of Cain and Abel Brotherhood and the Ideal World of Creation." Ladies and gentlemen, if Adam and Eve, our human ancestors, had not fallen, they would have fulfilled God's original intention for them, which was that they perfect themselves and establish a realm of unity with God in heart. They were to have been God's children and God's absolute object partners, relating only with Him. Nonetheless, when they joined with satan and bound themselves to his lineage, they fell to a lowly status where they had no choice but to deal with satan as well as God. I am describing the situation immediately after the Fall, when Adam and Eve carried the original sin only and had not yet done anything else evil. They were in a midway position, where they had to deal with both God and satan. God then worked to separate Adam's family, caught in this midway position, from satan. God began with the children of fallen Adam, and their descendants. Based on the sequence of events of the Fall of humankind, He placed Cain, the oldest among Adam's three sons, on satan's side, and Abel, the second son, on the side of Heaven. God worked this providence of salvation based on the law of restoration through indemnity. Since satan had a claim on fallen Adam and Eve based on his connection with them by blood, God separated their children in this way. He had them set up indemnity conditions on their own, with the goal of restoring them both to the side of Heaven. satan, for his part, knew that God had a claim on human beings as their original Creator. Therefore, he could not just seize the fallen people for his side unless they made evil conditions that would allow him to invade them. Thus God and satan carried out an invisible struggle in the lives of Cain and Abel over the conditions they would make to restore the lineage of true love. This invisible struggle has expanded ever since through the history of Adam's descendants. We know from the Bible the tragic outcome. Cain, the oldest son, killed Abel, the second son. Cain should have submitted naturally to his favored brother, yet he did not. How intense was God's grief, and how bitter His sorrow! Here were His children, whom He had created based on His heart of original true love. However, now satan had taken them away. True love, the very principle of heaven, was removed from this world. God's lineage, which would have been passed down throughout the generations for eternity, was destroyed in one moment. God created as His children Adam and Eve. When they grew to maturity He intended to give them the marriage Blessing, so that they could establish the way of true love. God was longing for a family that He could love as His alone. However, to God's deep sorrow, He could not embrace His children, Adam and Eve, in true love. Nor could He embrace His grandchildren, Cain and Abel, in true love. God's sorrow over this has persisted throughout history. God, Adam and Eve, and their children were supposed to form a family of three generations. Had they established it, the Fall would never have occurred. satan, who has tormented human beings and ravaged human history for tens of thousands of years, would never have existed. The beginning of our tragic history Humankind was to be one great family. God was to be the head of every family, which would live as three generations. Nonetheless, by the end its second and third generations, the members of God's first family, Adam's family, failed to fulfill the conditions set for them. They failed in the limited responsibility that was given them as their portion in accordance with the Principle of Creation. Here was the beginning of humankind's tragic history. Yet God could not give up on His creation. He began His providence of restoration through indemnity in order to find His children, whom satan had abducted, no matter what the cost. God is a Lord of principles, fundamental rules, and laws. If God had abandoned the realm of three generations that was lost in Adam's family, it would have been tantamount to abandoning His entire work of creation. Accordingly, God waited 130 years after Cain's murder of Abel and raised Adam's third son, Seth, as a new central figure. Seth had to fulfill the responsibility that Abel did not, which was to establish the realm of the eldest son and also to restore God's lineage. From that time forth, God called descendants from Seth's lineage to establish appropriate conditions of indemnity as He advanced His restoration providence to separate humankind from satan. God was supposed to rule the cosmos with absolute authority as the true Father, true Teacher, and true Lord of humankind. Yet Adam's family trampled on God's ideal of creation and drove God into the back alleys of history. Today, all of you need to understand clearly how the history of separating good from evil centering on Cain and Abel has providentially affected human history. You must be aware of the significance it has for us, as we begin the fifth year of Cheon Il Guk. As the Lord of true love, God created human beings as His children based on the standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. This is the principle for all created beings. When God created, He completely and absolutely invested Himself, absolutely affirming His creation. This is why we human beings, as God's object partners, must offer our absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God, who is our Subject Partner. The same principle applies to the relationship between Cain and Abel, even though they represent the side of evil and good, respectively. It is a heavenly law that Cain, who stands in the position of an object partner, needs go to God through Abel. Cain must attend Abel as a father, master and teacher. Abel, for his part, has to maintain an absolute standard in the position to represent God. Like God, he must embrace and love Cain as he would his own child, with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. By possessing a character worthy of trust and respect, Abel should be able to induce Cain to submit to him naturally. This is the heavenly principle for resolving the countless Cain-Abel conflicts that have appeared in the history of God's providence. Whenever this path was not followed, the conflict, bloodshed and war only continued unabated. With each failure, God had to go through the ordeal of seeing His providence prolonged. The thousands of years of human history bear living testimony to this principle. I do not have time to explain the details of the events that have occurred in the history of the providence to complete the restoration of the realm of the eldest son and restore God's lineage. After Seth in Adam's family, a period of sixteen hundred years elapsed and then the providence moved to Noah's family. God called Noah as the central figure and worked through his family to restore through indemnity the mistakes of Adam's family. However, this providence also ended poorly, due to the mistake of Ham, Noah's second son, who stood in the position of Abel. God waited four hundred more years and then called Abraham. He was the eldest son of Terah, an idol-maker who symbolized satan's world. Abraham's life is a story of setting conditions to restore the realm of the eldest son and the lineage. Through the three generations of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, God worked a providence to restore in a short time the three historical generations of Adam's family, Noah's family and Abraham's family. Finally, Jacob established the conditions for the restoration of the realm of the eldest son and the lineage. By going into exile and suffering mistreatment, Jacob was victorious in achieving the condition of separation from satan. Based upon that success, Jacob triumphed in wrestling with the angel and was blessed with the name "Israel." The relationship between Esau and Jacob was the same as that between Cain and Abel. Through the principled way of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and the successful cooperation between mother and son, Jacob was finally able to recover the realm of the eldest son by bringing his father Isaac and elder brother Esau into natural submission to him. In Jacob's family, Joseph, who was the son of Rachel, Jacob's wife on God's side, entered Egypt and was successful in his course of recovery. Eventually he brought his eleven brothers, who stood in the position of Cain, into natural submission to him; thus he was victorious in the role of Abel. Having become the prime minister of Egypt, he brought Jacob's family to live with him. What if Joseph had also invited Esau's family to Egypt? Then the historical struggle between Cain and Abel would have come to an end. Later difficulties, such as the Israelites' forty years of wandering in the wilderness under Moses, would never have arisen. Upon the victorious foundation of Jacob's family, Jesus would finally emerge from that lineage, four thousand years after the failure of Adam and Eve. God united the ten northern tribes and two southern tribes into the nation of Israel, and prepared Judaism. God set up Israel and Judaism in another Cain and Abel relationship to create the environment for receiving the substantial Messiah. God raised Israel in the position of Cain representing the political sphere, and Judaism in the position of Abel representing the religious sphere. The relationship between John the Baptist and Jesus also resembled that of Cain and Abel. Iflsrael and Judaism had clearly understood the teachings of the Old Testament, which were given as a guide for the four-thousandyear providence of restoration, they would have united internally and externally. Led by John the Baptist, they would have attended Jesus as the King of kings and True Parent. Jesus would then have been able to build the kingdom of heaven, God's ideal of creation, within his lifetime. Furthermore, if John the Baptist had clearly understood and fulfilled his responsibility in the position of Cain, how could Jesus have died on the cross? Yet despite receiving direct revelations and visions from Heaven, and despite hearing Jesus' guidance that Jesus was himself the Lord and Abel, in the end John the Baptist could not meet the challenge ofliving by absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Jesus came as the second Adam Furthermore, Jesus came as the second Adam. His family was to have been the true ancestors of humankind, passing on the lineage that stems from God's seed of pure love and pure harmony. God intended to give Jesus His marriage Blessing, in order that he might form a true family that would become the root of God's true lineage for all the ages. However, with his death on the cross, once again God was driven to the darkest grief, His hopes crushed. God had sent Jesus, His only begotten Son, to recover the lost position of Adam. God had given Jesus His seal as the second Adam, hoping that he would bring the four-thousand-year history of the providence of restoration to its conclusion. Instead, once again God's Will was frustrated. Once again, the core that God had established as the central axis of history was pulled out from its root. From that time on, God's providence of restoration began to intensify. God never deviates from the track set by the principles and laws that He established at the creation. He cannot lead the providence arbitrarily or capriciously. Consequently, after losing Jesus, who was to have become the eternal Abel for humankind, God patiently endured another two thousand years of history. During that time He prepared the environment and conditions that would no longer permit failure, and on that foundation God finally sent to this earth the person who is speaking to you now, with His seal as the Second Advent of the Lord. Even so, my life course has never been smooth. satan is a creature so shrewd and cunning that he could trample even on the heart of the omniscient and omnipotent God. For the past eighty-plus years, my life has run the gamut of ups and downs. Yet by establishing all the indemnity conditions necessary for each stage of the providence, I gained victory at the great transition point of the twentieth century. This was when the conflict and struggle between Cain and Abel that had begun in Adam's family had expanded into the global struggle between communism and democracy. On the foundation of overcoming that final level of struggle, in the year 2001, I was able to declare the era of Cheon Il Guk, the time of true love under the sovereignty of Abel, and to offer God His kingship. On that victorious foundation, in Jerusalem in 2003 I offered to Jesus his coronation as the King of Peace of the First Israel. In 2004, coronation ceremonies were held in America, the Second Israel, in Korea, the Third Israel, and finally on the global level. Thus, in my capacity as the True Parent of humankind, I was elevated to the King of Peace, transcending religions and nations. Standing upon these providential victories, now in 2005 the world's six billion people have entered the second stage in the three-stage process of building the kingdom of Cheon Il Guk. Today, humankind is mandated to fulfill three great goals. These are, one, to change our lineage in order to complete the registration providence; two, to transfer the realm of ownership; and three, to inherit the realm of heart. You know that a lamb is obedient to its master even at the moment he puts a knife to its throat. With the absolute obedience of a lamb you need to offer your life to the True Parents, who come as the substantial King and Queen of Peace and your eternal Abel. You must fulfill your responsibility and your course as representatives of the entire Cain realm. Let us consider where we stand today in the course of providential history. Though imperceptible to the human eye, we are at a point of great transition. Now that we have entered the third millennium, God's providence is moving toward completion with tremendous speed. Throughout the years, I have established many organizations and institutions to advance God's providence. Among them, I highlight the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and the Peace UN-the interreligious and international peace council that I founded recently. Their mission is to embrace satan's realm. In the position of Abel, they are to liberate the Mongolian Peoples Federation for World Peace, which stands in the position of Cain representing satan's realm. Thereby they are to bring the world into oneness, so that conflict and struggles between Cain and Abel will no longer stain history. America, which represents the sphere of the world's religions, needs to stand as Abel to love and embrace the United Nations, which stands as Cain. In this way, America and the UN will fulfill their responsibility for the cause of world salvation. Ladies and gentlemen, the True Parents are our ultimate Abel. It is God who designates a person for Abel's position. It is a destined position that cannot be evaded, even in death. Every Abel is called to plant the seeds of true love, even at the cost of his or her life. Every Abel has to take the path of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience before God. This is because the purpose of this path is to bring about a reversal by bringing Cain to natural submission. It is our destiny to live in attendance to the True Parents as our eternal Abel. They are the vertical axis, coming as the incarnation of the incorporeal God. The True Parents are the Savior of humankind, the Messiah, and the Second Coming of the Lord. They are the King and Queen of Peace in the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. The True Parents now are establishing the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. It will be the ideal kingdom, the ideal of creation, which God has longed to see since the beginning of the universe. It is the central kingdom of peace. It will complete the Era after the Coming of Heaven, which opened to humankind in the months prior to 2005, the fifth year of Cheon Il Guk. It is a world ofliberation and complete freedom. Here, all divisions and barriers that have set people at odds for tens of thousands of years are abolished, irrespective of the reasons and justifications for their existence. Here all humankind lives as one family transcending religion and nationality, and attends the True Parents as their true Teacher and true King. Now that you know you live amid such tremendous heavenly blessings, what are you supposed to do? How can you prepare yourself to receive these blessings? First and foremost, you have to thoroughly rearrange your life. Begin by discovering the absolute realm of unity between your mind and body. This is how you can perfect yourself as an individual embodiment of truth, unblemished, clear, clean and shining. Clear up all your debts. In other words, achieve a revolution through atonement. Next, you have to be able to live without any shame in your conscience eternally. This calls for a revolution of conscience. Practice a life of true love, ofliving for the sake of others, such that you do not feel indebted in heart before the True Parents or any other person. In other words, carry out a revolution of heart. The second thing you need to do is create heaven in your family life. The family is the palace of love. Perfect the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships in your family. Make your family a place that cultivates sons and daughters of filial piety, loyal citizens, saints, and divine sons and daughters. Let it become the paramount place where everyone deeply experiences God's heart. Let your family fulfill the promise of happiness that you and your spouse made to each other. Your ancestors will descend to your family and guide you on the path toward heaven. Turn your family into a blossom of true love and the very place where that flower bears fruit. The new heaven and earth where we attend God and True Parents Ladies and gentlemen, from this time forth your life will not be simple. Wherever you are, whatever you do, hundreds and thousands of your ancestors will accompany you. They suffered bitterly until now because they could not attend the True Parents on earth. Now, for the next four years, they will live with you in order to attend the True Parents substantially through you. They will cooperate with you, their descendants on earth, and support you as their Abel. Their goal is to enter heaven with you. Keep in mind that while it may be possible to deceive the six billion people of the world, you cannot deceive your ancestors. They will evaluate every aspect of your life. They will determine rewards and punishments based on Heaven's standard of good and evil. Whether you are joyful, angry, sorrowful or satisfied, please do not disappoint your good ancestors, who will be watching your every move with fiery eyes. The next four years will be a serious time. Jesus, Buddha, Muhammad, Confucius, all the good spirits in the spirit world and your own good ancestors are being mobilized to come down to the earth. They will devote all their efforts to build the kingdom of heaven on earth, in other words, to complete the kingdom of Cheon Il Guk. Let us fulfill our responsibilities as Cains and as Abels. With God above us and below us, in front of us and behind us, and to our right and left, let us live with absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, which is the standard that brought forth the creation. If we can unite and fulfill the way of embracing, forgiving and loving, then the Era after the Coming of Heaven will be the literal peace kingdom, where all attend the True Parents and peace and prosperity reign. Now, carrying with us this heavenly message, let us depart to spread the seeds. Each of us has to become the creators of this new world, as we go out to plant the seeds of true life and true love and represent Heaven's family. Do not be so foolish as to scatter your seeds into the air, to be carried off by the winds of secular vanity and immorality. Seek the hwnblest and lowest position. Plant your seeds in the deepest and richest soil. Break down the barriers between races, abolish conflicts among nations and propagate the fruit of cross-cultural, interracial marriages that go beyond religion and nation. Let us do mighty works to uphold God's true lineage eternally. The providence of interracial, cross-cultural marriage shall elevate the Mongolian race and all humankind in the true love of the eternal God. In the Bible, as Lot's wife was leaving Sodom, she looked back, disobeying Heaven's decree, and was turned into a pillar of salt. Today you have received the heavenly decree. The heavenly decree is always a double-edged sword, bringing both blessing and judgment. The choice is yours. Certainly I revealed tremendous secrets of heaven to you today. There is no turning back; the arrow has left the bow. There is no room for negotiation or compromise. The completion and perfection of God's providence alone awaits us at the finish line. Let us make every effort to recover the three generations of God's family that were lost at the beginning with Adam. Let us complete, on this earth in our lifetime, a new heaven and new earth, filled with true love and free from the struggle between Cain and Abel. Let us complete the peace kingdom, where we shall live as one family. Let us pledge to live in the eternal peace kingdom in attendance to the True Parents. Thank you very much. 13 • The Restoration of Our True God's Homeland March 4,2005 Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, Korea Korea Rally for the Realization of Cheon II Guk Beloved blessed families, today, in the fifth year of Cheon I1 Guk, we have entered a significant providential time. You are all opening the way to a new heaven and a new earth in the direct presence of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, who stand on the foundation formed by the success of the Coronation of the Peace King and Queen of Cosmic Unity. Today, with the cooperation of the spirit world, you have all been called here urgently as key leaders who have important roles in building the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. You have been gathered here to help to build the ideal world God intended at the time of the creation, in other words, a world of peace. We are here today in the third month of the fifth year of Cheon Il Guk at the Cheonseong Wanglim Palace, the original holy ground. At this important time in history I would like to speak about God's most earnest desire, the restoration of the homeland of our true God. You need to understand this message that I convey from God, and put it into practice in this age. A new spring is upon us, the Era after the Coming of Heaven. Please open your hearts and welcome this deeply meaningful spring day. Seeking God's kingdom and His righteousness Dear members, God has revealed to us His kingdom and His righteousness, yet the people living on earth have been unable to receive them. Nonetheless, God's kingdom and His righteousness remain the hope of humankind today and the hope of all those who ever lived on earth throughout history. This hope-filled kingdom, and the righteousness flowing from that hope, remain our final goal and purpose, yet why are these still unfulfilled? It is because of the human Fall. God and human being were to have become the center of God's kingdom and righteousness. Yet instead, because our first ancestors fell, God and human beings were alienated from each other, unable to form any relationship. Due to the Fall, human beings lost the heavenly lineage and instead became satan's children who inherit satan's lineage. The human race fell into ignorance: ignorance of the true parents and true families that were to be the center of God's kingdom and His righteousness, and ignorance of the true nation. For this reason, God had to labor throughout history to awaken humanity and teach us about the true parents, the true family and the true nation. Finding God's kingdom and His righteousness remains our ultimate hope and goal. Dear members, there are more than two hundred nations in the world today. Yet among these numerous nations, there is not one that God can call His own homeland and that can receive His complete love. For this reason, the purpose of God's providence, spanning more than six thousand years, has been to completely re-order this fallen world and re-create the kingdom of God. Throughout history, the purpose of God's providence has been to build His kingdom. Until that kingdom is established, God will not be able to complete His Will for the restoration of humankind. First, however, there must be a central nation based on a central religion. This is why during a certain historical epoch, God sought to establish a nation of His own. The Bible records this effort as the providential history of the chosen people oflsrael and Judaism. The nation of our hope What kind of nation do we yearn for? It is not like the nations any of us live in today. We will part with those nations someday. However we still do not have God's nation to live in. A person without that nation does not have an original hometown. A person without God's nation does not have a real nationality. A person without God's nation has nowhere to truly register his or her existence. Therefore our task in this life is to create God's nation. Only when we have God's nation will the tradition we establish live on through our descendants for eternity, and will the effort we have made while shedding our blood and sweat live on. That nation will be a monument celebrating Heaven's labors. In it, the evidence of God's glory will endure on the earth. However, if we fail to find that nation, everything we have done will have been in vain. For this reason, you need to understand clearly that today our most critical task is to seek and establish God's nation. You must live always with the conviction, "Our family protects the nation that True Parents love. Thus, I have to become a filial child of True Parents and walk the path of a loyal citizen of that nation." Let us seek the path that fulfills our true desire. On the foundation of God's nation, let us establish the kingdom in which we will want to live for all eternity. It must be a world in which everything we possess also belongs to the cosmos, a world in which whatever we have belongs not only to this age and to the past, but is also guaranteed to belong to the future. We have to envision this ideal hometown and kingdom in our minds, establish its righteous laws in our lives, and then live for the sake of that kingdom and its righteousness. Do you have such a kingdom? If you do not, aren't you trying to establish it? What did I say this kingdom is? It is an ideal, unified and peaceful nation. It is a nation where all six billion people of the world live as one family. It is the peace kingdom, where eternal peace and prosperity reign in glory. It is there we attend the Peace King and Queen of Cosmic Unity as our true lords, true teachers and true king and queen. All the world's families, tribes and peoples will offer their support to this kingdom. The entire spirit world will rally to it. The founders of the great religions and our good ancestors will observe and support every move we make to establish it. I say to you, if as individuals you unite your mind and body, you can unify your families, tribes, peoples, nations, world and cosmos. Heaven's Will begins on earth God must fulfill the purpose of His providence on earth without fail. What will be the result? God will save all the people of the world and reign over them as parents do over their children. God's Will and providence have yearned for this. If you die without restoring a nation on earth during your lifetime, you will not attain the value of a true person belonging to the heavenly kingdom. You need to go to the spirit world on the foundation of having lived under the reign of God while on earth. That is the original standard, which God has upheld since the time of the creation. Dear members, to this day I have lived without any interest in worldly things. My lifelong desire is summed up in the following statements: "Let me die in the kingdom that God protects. If I fail to live in that kingdom, my entire life will be miserable. Therefore I will seek that kingdom and live there, even if only for one day, before I die." I have walked this path with the heart to sacrifice thousands of days for the sake of that one day. I am marching forward, even while you have been resting unaware. If you do not rise up, I will have to mobilize people from other nations to accomplish this purpose. If this nation does not move to achieve it, I will have to resort to bringing in many members from abroad. No matter the cost, we cannot fail on the heavenly path to bring the fruits of the age of Cheon Il Guk. There can no longer be any compromise, delay or extension due to satan's interference. The literal completion and conclusion of God's providence has to take place in my lifetime. We are on the final leg of God's providence to fully establish the peace kingdom, which is the ideal God that has pursued since the time of creation. Think about the unfortunate situation of a people without a nation. They are always exposed to aggression. Helpless to defend themselves, they are subject to repeated attacks. Where can we find the kingdom that God desires? Where can we find the kingdom that can become God's resting place? This is the question. The reason we shed our blood and sweat for the people of this nation is ultimately to establish the eternal heavenly kingdom. In that kingdom, there will be prosperity for all. Countless generations to come will sing its praises, even unto eternity. The children of God's direct lineage, those who uphold Heaven's laws and commands, will rule the heavenly kingdom. They will rule on behalf of God, representing His kingship. The kingdom's political system will transcend both democracy and communism. Once established, it will endure forever. Considering these things, isn't it shameful that you have not yet become citizens of that kingdom? You ought to lament that we do not yet have such a kingdom. You must deeply regret that you are not yet able to live there. We all need to repent for not having established that unchanging sovereignty. In order to establish such a sovereignty, nation and territory, God established predecessor sovereign nations. We are well aware that along the way a great many people have died. Countless nations have perished. Myriads of people have been sacrificed and numerous sovereignties come and gone. Among those who were sacrificed for the heavenly cause were many souls on the side of Heaven who no doubt yearned for the establishment of that kingdom and world. We know that satan, not God, came to dominate history after our first ancestors fell. Originally God was to have been the master of this world. The children of God's direct lineage, having matured through a relationship of love with God, would have formed a true family. If this family had been established, the tribes, nations and world descended from that family would have constituted a world under God's dominion, a nation under God's dominion, families under God's dominion and individuals under God's dominion. Nonetheless, you need to understand that because of the human Fall, everyone from individuals to families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world, came to oppose God. This is our fallen world and fallen history. If we leave this world as it is, we can never achieve the eternal world of true love based on the ideal of creation that God originally sought to establish. God can only restore His original authority by fulfilling the ideal He originally intended at the time of creation. Therefore, God set this ideal as the standard by which He would put this evil world into order and lead it to become a true world. This has been God's providence in dealing with the fallen world. Today there are more than two hundred nations throughout the world belonging to the fallen sovereignty. Among such an array of nations, not one of them qualifies as a nation fulfilling God's hope. Unbeknown to humankind, God has been conducting His providence through history to establish one nation that could fulfill His Will. He created Adam and raised him toward perfection in the hope that through that one individual He could establish a heavenly sovereignty in the family, society, nation and world. Yet due to the Fall of that one man, Adam, history shattered into countless pieces. The history of the providence of salvation has been about restoring order and reconnecting the pieces. Since Adam was the first ancestor of the human race, losing him was tantamount to losing all humanity. To restore what had been lost, God had to call and raise other individuals. Each individual whom God called had to be willing to leave his or her tribe, people and nation in satan's world. He or she had to become a true person who could give even their life for God's Will. Jesus and the central figures of providential history Dear members, all religions ultimately share in common the goal of realizing God's Will. As an example, let us look at the familiar history ofJudaism and Christianity. Noah belonged to a tribe, yet he was not attached to it. He belonged to a nation, yet he put aside his concern for it. Instead he sought the nation of hope on his own. Noah went through all manner of trials and adversity in seeking and trying to establish that nation. Although Noah had relatives and belonged to a certain people, of greater importance to him was his pursuit of God's kingdom. God desired that Noah overcome his individual circumstances and seek His kingdom and His righteousness. How great were the difficulties Noah faced in surmounting that course of 120 years, as season followed season without a day's rest? Unsupported even by his family, and in the face of all the slings and arrows that beset him, Noah persevered all those years. He clearly understood the principle that if he yearned more for eating and drinking than for God's kingdom and His righteousness, he would have to pay a heavy price. God found Abraham and Sarah, led them to leave Ur of the Chaldeans, and then asked them to leave Haran. They journeyed to Canaan and then to Egypt with a heart of unconditional faith and obedience, not knowing where they were to live. When the Pharaoh took Sarah away, she did not bear resentment toward Abraham, nor did she betray him. In this way, their hearts were unchanging as they headed toward the nation of hope, even amid severe persecution. Let us take Jacob as another example. He believed in the blessings God gave him, and he believed in God's promise of a nation and people of hope. Nobody could bend his firm conviction. Through him, God's Will expanded from an individual to a family to twelve tribes. From them prophets would come forth, raising the banner of hope before the world. What kind of life did Jesus lead? Facing the disbelief of the people and persecution from the religious leadership, Jesus lived as a wanderer. In the end he perished on the cross, making himself a sacrifice, yet not even this could fulfill God's hope to save humankind both in spirit and flesh. The Messiah comes with the mission of breaking down all the walls in heaven and on earth and creating a unified world. God's Will is to establish a nation whose philosophy accords with the heavenly principles, transcending all the nations of the fallen world. When God created Adam, His desire was not just to dwell within Adam as an individual; it was to establish a family, tribe, people, nation and world through Adam. As the Messiah and second Adam, Jesus tried desperately to establish such a nation in Israel, yet he could not due to the people's disbelief. The consequences for Israel were tragic. Hence at the Second Advent, the Lord comes with the responsibility to become a perfect Adam and complete the mission of the Messiah. Once he becomes the perfect Adam, he is responsible to complete a family, tribe, people, nation and world in keeping with the role of the true Adam. Time and again in history, God sent central figures to earth and worked through them to establish one absolute nation, yet time after time the people were unable to succeed. Nevertheless, the history of restoration continues as God endeavors to find righteous people. He seeks people through whom He can administer, advance and fulfill this task. We must therefore be grateful to God, even if He has to sacrifice each of us, and even if He has to sacrifice our families, tribes, peoples and nations. Only when individuals and nations of righteousness emerge can a new world come into being. It does not matter how much individuals have sacrificed in the past; until God's nation is established, sacrifices on the part of individuals and even of families, tribes, peoples, nations and the world will have to continue. Our mission Dear members, what is your purpose for being alive on earth today? It is to love the nation and the world. God's purpose also has been to love the nation and the world. However if we remain citizens of a nation without sovereignty, we are pitiful. That is why Jesus said, "Therefore do not worry, saying, 'What will we eat?' or 'What will we drink?' or 'What will we wear?' For it is the Gentiles who strive for all these things; and indeed your Heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But strive first for the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well." (Matt. 6:31-33) God sent Jesus to earth as His incarnation, representing the heavenly lineage to fallen humankind. In other words Jesus was the first person to come to earth who could fulfill the hope God had nurtured throughout history. Four thousand years after Adam, God raised Jesus on earth as His, the true seed, who grew up in the family of Joseph, a Jewish family. Yet satan, having already established entire nations, was attacking the heavenly side. Therefore the heavenly side also needed a firm foothold on the national level. The fruit of God's toil for four thousand years was this one nation within the evil world. Heaven toiled to prepare Israel for that purpose. Dear members, Jesus came to earth in search of God's nation. He came in search of one nation, yet due to the disbelief of Israel and Judaism he could not establish that nation. He came to establish a nation on the physical as well as on the spiritual level, except he could only establish a spiritual kingdom. Therefore Christianity today still does not have a substantial, physical nation of its own on earth. This means God does not have a nation on earth He can call His beloved homeland. He does not have a citizenry He can call His beloved citizens. The foundation for God's kingdom has not yet been established on earth. Christians even now are a people without a nation or sovereignty. As Christians witnessed for their faith, wherever they went they were subject to persecution and martyrdom. Christianity developed through the blood shed by its martyrs. That was how Christianity began and how it grew. The days of persecution requiring bloodshed may be drawing to a close, however they have not disappeared yet. The Christian belief in the Second Advent of Christ arises from a deep yearning for a true nation. It anticipates that, based on Christianity's worldwide spiritual foundation, the Lord will restore and establish the substantial nation that was lost. Dearest blessed families, humanity has entered the Era after the Coming of Heaven, when we are receiving heavenly fortune anew. In front of the new heaven and new earth, The vortex of disbelief and betrayal that has troubled the earth is withdrawing. In the fifth year of Cheon Il Guk, spring is coming, and soon it will be in full bloom. The time has come for all blessed families to arise with firm resolution. Let us fulfill our providential responsibility to unite all six billion people of the world into one family. We shall do this by lifting up the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace, which stands in the vertical position of Abel. The Mongolian peoples, who are the root of some seventy to eighty percent of the world's population, stand in the horizontal position of Cain. Through the marriage Blessing, we shall them bind together as one clan. This will completely break down the walls between races, the barriers between religions and the conflicts between nations. In this way we will build Cheon Il Guk. God has given His full authority to me as the Savior, Messiah, returning Lord and King of kings. These titles are summed up by the terms "King of Peace" and "True Parents." Cross-cultural, international marriage Blessings is the only way to bring humankind together as one global family that transcends races, nations and religions. What other way is there to make one's enemy of yesterday into one's blood relative of today, and to make people of different traditions and cultures into one great family? Dear members, first and foremost I ask you to give the Blessing to your family and tribe and to establish your tribal Hoondok Church. The success or failure of the Family Federation, the reunification of Korea, and the creation of one global family depend upon this initiative. We must quickly break free from the customs and mindset belonging to the Era before the Coming of Heaven. Practice a life at high noon, in vertical alignment with God, casting no shadow of sin, and offer yourself in absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience to God and True Parents. You will then enjoy eternal peace and freedom as a citizen of Cheon Il Guk. Your descendants will pay tribute to you and take pride in your achievements for eternity. You will live eternally in attendance to True Parents, even in the spirit world. Please engrave in your very core the message I have given you today. As you depart, resolve to be the elite ambassadors of Cheon Il Guk, who will open a new heaven and new earth. Let the fire of true love ablaze in your hearts guide you. Have heavenly courage, and push forward on the path of a true owner, true teacher and true parent! I pray that God's blessings will be with you and your families. Thank you very much. 14 • Establishing the Kingship of Original True Love from the Self to the Cosmic Level May 1, 2005 Cheong Hae Garden, Yeosu, Korea Fifty-first Anniversary of the Founding of HSA-UWC Respected leaders of the Mongolian Peoples Federation for World Peace who have come from around the world, distinguished guests from Korea and abroad, beloved leaders and blessed Unificationist families: On this significant day fifty-one years ago, May l, 1954, I founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSAUWC) here in Korea. Korea had been ravaged by three years of war. At that time the vast dream of the Holy Spirit Association, to unify global Christianity and restore humankind's relationship with God by bringing all the religions and ideologies of the world into unity, seemed almost impossible. I was only sixteen years old when I received Heaven's call to take up this work The people of the world misunderstood me and gave me cold stares, yet I could not pay them any attention. My entire life's work has been dedicated to fulfilling God's providence in accordance with Heaven's mandate. Distinguished guests, human history began on the wrong foot, starting with satan's treacherous betrayal. God, the True Parent of all human beings, created Adam and Eve as our first ancestors. He wanted them to grow and mature to become His true son and daughter through their taking personal responsibility. Nevertheless, satan induced Adam and Eve to commit the Fall. In so doing, satan completely destroyed true love, which is God's most precious and noble gift to humanity. The Fall was caused when satan ensnared our first ancestors by an act of immoral love. It was the world's first and greatest tragedy. Please pay attention to the decadence that is raging throughout the world like wildfire. satan is the king and god of immorality. This fact is recorded in the Bible. The people of the world became slaves to satan. As a result they lost their sense of direction and have been struggling throughout the six thousand years of history. Now the poison of free sex has infiltrated even into your own living rooms in the form of wife swapping. For that matter, what shall Heaven do with the countless young people who reject their sacred right and duty to give birth to children, or who practice homosexuality, or pursue lives of extreme individualism? These actions are destroying the family, the highest and noblest institution, which was given by God. When a grandfather and granddaughter or a father and daughter commit incest, how can there be any atonement for that despicable crime? Today let us take an honest look at ourselves. Let us recommit to the noble duty of establishing true families, by which we can preserve and fulfill true love, true life and true lineage as given by God. The six billion people on earth have been degraded to their lowest point; let us advance the movement for restoring their status. Of first importance is to educate the younger generation to know and practice Heaven's Will. Our young people have to deal with a culture of extreme individualism, a culture lost in a swamp of free sex and homosexuality. For this reason, we have to teach them thoroughly about pure love, pure lineage and a lifestyle of purity. Dear guests, if we lose the younger generation, there is no way to guarantee the future of humankind. And yet we cannot carry out an educational movement of this kind by human teachings and human efforts alone. If we consider history, we can see that Heaven, in the background, has been guiding humanity to this day. God experienced unfathomable grief and lamentation when He lost His first son and daughter, Adam and Eve; nevertheless, despite His grief, He has pursued a course to save them. God raised central figures of His providence, only to watch as they made mistake after mistake and betrayed Him again and again. Yet, God has not given up on humanity and has continued to advance the work of restoration. God guided the history of separation from evil, beginning by separating Abel from Cain in Adam's family. Now, on the worldwide level, God is advancing the restoration of His lineage by bringing together and uniting the Cain-type realm, which represents the relatively evil side, and the Abeltype realm, which represents the relatively good side, heaven. A few days ago, I officially announced the "Finding the Original Root Movement." It seeks to establish the true love, true life and true lineage of Heaven, because therein lies the fundamental root of the human race. For tens of thousands of years human beings have lived as false olive trees. The True Parents came as the true olive tree. Now the human race can be engrafted through the marriage Blessing to the True Parents and be engrafted with the root of the true olive tree. This is a revolution at the providential level. In this context, I have designated the more than seventy percent of the world's population that has the Mongolian birthmark to represent the Caintype realm, and designated the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace to represent the Abel-type realm. I am having them explore the path to reconciliation and unification. This will constitute a movement to create a new heaven and new earth. Through the Blessing given by True Parents, humanity will be re-created as a realm of kinship consisting of families bearing the Mongolian birthmark and sharing the blessed lineage. Dear guests, more than half a century has passed since I first put up the sign of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. It was at the time when I first appeared on the earth as the substantial True Parent, having previously received Heaven's seal of approval. I have worked for the sake of fulfilling God's Will ever since, and only He knows how much blood, sweat and tears I have shed. Now, a new heaven and a new earth are emerging. The kingship of peace centered on God is starting. In this era, even satan, who had reigned since the beginning of history as the king of betrayal and falsehood, has surrendered to Heaven. We have entered a realm of restorative grace. Peace does not come about where there is conflict. Reconciliation and forgiveness are the prerequisites of peace and an ideal world. What we must do now, in order to find unity, is break down all walls and even abolish national borders. You need to remove the condition of conflict that divides your mind and body. The moral training of Confucianism and Buddhism can be a resource for this task. This means achieving the original state in which the body completely submits to the mind and you are freed from pangs of conscience. We need to end the conflicts in every field, the remnants of satan's work, beginning at the level of the individual and extending to the levels of the family, society, race, nation and religion. You are called to establish Cheon Il Guk, the peace kingdom on earth and in heaven, which is the ideal God envisioned at the time of creation. A year ago today, in this very place, I declared to heaven and earth that the Era before the Coming of Heaven had passed and the Era after the Coming of Heaven had arrived. Today, one year after that declaration, the world is going through many rapid changes. Countless leaders throughout the world are stepping forward in response to my call for a peace movement based on true love. The core of this true love movement is comprised of middle-school-age, high-school-age and college-age representatives of our second generation. It is spreading throughout the world under the banner oflasting love. satan, the evil power, has surrendered, so there is no one who can stop this pure love movement. Hundreds of billions of our ancestors in the spirit world have been mobilized to help us. It is only a matter of time before the eternal peace kingdom is built on earth. You all need to have hope and march forward with full force. The more effort you make, the sooner that day will come. Jesus said, "For whoever would save his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake will find it." (Matt. 16:25) You need to invest all of your effort to expand the realm of families having the blessed lineage, families who are in a direct lineal relationship with God. With solid resolve, let us race forward for another half century toward the higher ground of peace. Heaven will protect you all. You will be victorious! Today I am giving each of you Heaven's noble mandate. From now on, wherever you go, whatever you do, please remember that you are one true family, united around the central axis of God and True Parents. Please remember that Heaven will work through your conscience, and that you can mobilize your good ancestors by living an altruistic life of true love. May God's blessings be eternally with you and the true families you will create anew. Thank you very much. 15 • The Value and Significance of the Family Pledge June 13, 2007 Cheon Jeong Gung, Korea First Anniversary of the Cheon Jeong Gung Entrance Ceremony and Coronation Beloved blessed families: Today, on this meaningful occasion, I would like to explain about the providential value and significance of the Family Pledge. It serves as Heaven's most precious and blessed guideline, given to us to guide our lives. The Family Pledge: the guiding principle and constitution of God's kingdom The fact that we now have the Family Pledge is truly the greatest of all blessings. It came from Heaven as a gift to all humanity on May 1, 1994, the day when the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) was inaugurated. The Family Pledge was given when the Completed Testament Age was proclaimed, bringing fulfillment to the Old Testament Age and the New Testament Age. It is to serve as a milestone, a guiding principle that pierces through the darkness of the Era before the Coming of Heaven and opens a new heaven and a new earth in the Era after the Coming of Heaven. In this time, when we are to create a new heaven and a new earth, it is the blueprint for building of God's kingdom of peace and unity. The True Parents of humankind had emerged victorious from the battles they had fought throughout their long course of indemnity lasting forty years from the time I founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in 1954. On that foundation, we were no longer required to recite "My Pledge'' as individuals. Since then, we have been required to recite and practice the Family Pledge instead. We do so together as true families. True families are the basic units that can enter triumphantly into the kingdom of heaven. This Family Pledge is drenched with the pain and suffering of God and True Parents, and it needs to be recited with tears. It is something that people must recite forever, long after they discard the mask of religion in the fallen world and attain liberation. This is because the family is the basic unit of the kingdom of heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, have you ever heard the words "Family Pledge." anywhere in the world? It has appeared for the first time in human history. In the beginning, God lost the true family through the Fall of the first man and woman. He had created the first ancestors of humankind to be His children. That is the absolute standard for fulfilling His ideal of creation. Since God has the providential mandate to fulfill His ideal, He proclaimed and instituted the Family Pledge. It is God's blessing that you are the ones who can become models of all true families, of ideal families on earth, and return eternal joy to God. This is what you can establish with the Family Pledge. It is an essential tool for building the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven, where your families can live while directly serving and attending God. The precondition to properly recite the Family Pledge is first and foremost to attain a state of complete mind-body unity, which is the state of "one heart, one body, one outlook and one harmony." To do this, we have to reach the standard of perfecting our character by absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Our body needs to fully obey our conscience, which was given to us as our first parent, teacher and owner. Furthermore, all of our family members have to perfect the basic framework for the unity of mind and body, the unity with True Parents, the unity of husband and wife, the unity of parents and children and the unity among siblings, centered on God's Will. In other words, all of us are to perfect a sphere of unity in true love. Only then, can we recite the Family Pledge. That is why the Family Pledge serves as the absolute standard and the constitution for creating the kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and on earth, as we go beyond the Completed Testament Age. From now, people will succeed in life not only as individuals but also as families. This means that only true model families that acquire the recognition and respect of all people can stand in a position to lead the world. The perfection of the family is Heaven's greatest and highest blessing and a fearsome responsibility. It is the cornerstone for building Cheon Il Guk. Creating true families is the shortcut for acquiring citizenship in God's kingdom. Beloved blessed families, the Family Pledge is the greatest of all prayers. It is the record of True Parents' complete victory. It is the code oflaw that reveals the teachings of the Completed Testament Age, the age of "justification through attendance." At the heart of the Family Pledge is the true family, which exists within the framework of true love. The Family Pledge serves as a bridge connecting our lives to God. To recite it is like an explosion of true love that completely captivates God. The Family Pledge is the energy and wisdom that brings true love to the center of the connections between the vertical and horizontal, north and south and front and back, initiating eternal spherical motion. The Family Pledge is the key to the gates of the kingdom of heaven. No key made of gold or silver can open the gates to the kingdom; only the key of a true family perfected through true love can open those gates. That is why all eight verses of the Family Pledge have as a primary clause, "Our family ... centering on true love." Ladies and gentlemen, the age of justification by attendance means the time when we attend God in our daily lives. Doesn't the first of the Ten Commandments revealed in the Bible teach about loving God? In the Era after the Coming of Heaven, God is revealing Himself in front of all people through the True Parents. That is why the movement that attends the True Parents represents Heaven's authority and power and is superior to any force in this fallen world. We need to become people who live lives of attendance; this enables us to see the living God with our own eyes and experience Him with our own senses. Because of the Fall of our first ancestors, this is the first time history in which True Parents can govern. The True Parents have emerged as the original root, and through an inward relationship with them we are able to enter the new world. That relationship can bring satan to submission. It is the center that will liberate even God. You all need to offer thanks for the amazing grace of being able to live together with True Parents and directly receive their instructions. When you are completely one with True Parents, you will prosper. The same applies to your nation, people, tribe and family. The True Parents are the embodiment and encapsulation of all glory in heaven and on earth. Once you clearly understand their value, would you exchange the True Parents for all the money in the world? Their value is such that they cannot be replaced even at the price of your life. Explanation of each verse of the Family Pledge The first verse of the Family Pledge is "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to seek our original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation, by centering on true love." You should know that reciting this verse of the Family Pledge is proclaiming one of the greatest pieces of news in all of history. The "ideal of creation'' refers to the ideal world with God at the center. It was God's ideal of creation that humankind build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven. However, since that ideal could not be attained due to the Fall, we have to achieve it through restoration. Thus, centering on our original homeland, we must build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation. Because the family was lost due to the Fall, we need to build God's family through the course of restoration. This is not one individual's task. It is rather the task of families, the owners of Cheon Il Guk. This is what it means that by centering on true love, our families have to "seek our original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation." The "original homeland" referred to here is the homeland centered on families. That is why all of you have to return to your hometown and establish God's kingdom on earth and in heaven there. Once you restore your hometown, your nation and the world will be unified naturally. Then there will be nothing further for you to worry about. Once the kingdom of God on earth and the kingdom of God in heaven are one, people who have lived on earth in a united family centering on God's true love will continue living in that family in the heavenly kingdom. We no longer live in the age of individual salvation. Religions, Christianity in particular, speak to the salvation of the individual, however that will not suffice. God's Will is for the salvation of the family. Restoration has to occur in the family because the Fall destroyed the ideal for the family. Now for the first time in history all this can be resolved. The family has finally entered the era of settlement. It is as families that we must build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of God's creation. Because the kingdom was lost due to the family, we have to restore it as families. The original homeland is centered on families, not on a nation. That is why I tell you to return to your hometown. If you still have a family there, go back to your hometown and build God's kingdom on earth and in heaven there. Once we restore our hometowns, our nations and the world will naturally harmonize. We will establish the heavenly kingdom on earth and in heaven automatically. It will unfold centering on true families. "Our family ... pledges to ... build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation." Here we say, "build." Why do we use that word? It is because we must create God's kingdom; it will not come about by itsel£ We ourselves must build it. This current world is already hell on earth and it is connected to hell in the spirit world. We are to create a world that turns this world around 180 degrees. Again, it is the mission of all families who have received the marriage Blessing from True Parents to seek the original homeland and build the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, the original ideal of creation. We complete the building of God's kingdom not as individuals but as families. This is your first pledge as blessed families. The second verse of the Family Pledge is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth by centering on true love." "Our family ... centering on true love." The words "true love" refer to love that appears where there is unity between mind and body, between husband and wife, and between parents and children. If you do not practice this standard of true love, then you will surely be miserable when you go to the spirit world. That is how fearsome the Family Pledge is. You must live by it always. In your family, if the father violates even one part of the Family Pledge, then the mother and children become jointly responsible. Toe entire family would have to take joint responsibility for it. This is the significance of the fact that Eve's fall brought about the fall of Adam's entire family. This verse of the Family Pledge also states, "by attending God and True Parents." We human beings were originally to attend and honor God and True Parents; however we were driven away as a result of the Fall. Due to the Fall, we lost the value of our existence. By attending God and True Parents, we regain it. God is the vertical True Parent, and the True Parents, the perfected Adam and Eve, are the horizontal True Parents. We are to be born from the union of these two sets of True Parents. On the foundation of the two sets becoming one, we can also achieve unity and connect to God and heaven. By attending God and True Parents, everything can be accomplished. What kind of families "represent and become central to heaven and earth''? They are the ideal families that God envisioned prior to the fall of Adam and Eve. A representative and central family in heaven and on earth refers to a family that represents heaven and grows its relationship with God on earth in expanding circles through eight vertical stages and eight horizontal stages. What I mean is that the family comes to the position where it represents God in heaven and the True Parents on earth united at a 90- degree angle. You need to become the center in such a family by becoming a filial son or daughter. Not only that, you need to become a patriot who lives for your nation, you need to become a saint who lives for the world, and you need to become a divine son or daughter who lives for heaven and earth. "We pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of ... divine sons and daughters" means that each family member, as an individual, needs to attain the position of a divine son or daughter. When such divine sons and daughters gather together as members of the same family, they form a family of divine sons and daughters. This is what we are pledging to do. In pledging "to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents." our family needs to make a resolution that it will fulfill the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in the family, patriots and virtuous women in the nation, saints in the world, and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, everything that Heaven desires. We are saying that as parents we will educate our children, as citizens we will educate the people of our nation, and as saints we will educate the people of the world. By helping them qualify to become members of God's family in the heavenly kingdom in heaven and on earth, we become divine sons and daughters and constitute families of divine sons and daughters. That is why we say, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to represent and become central to heaven and earth by attending God and True Parents; we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of filial sons and daughters in our family, patriots in our nation, saints in the world and divine sons and daughters in heaven and earth, by centering on true love." The third verse of the Family Pledge is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to perfect the Four Great Realms of Heart, the Three Great Kingships and the Realm of the Royal Family, by centering on true love." Adam and Eve would have fulfilled the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships had they not fallen. If not for the Fall, they would have fulfilled these and become God's royal family. This part of the Family Pledge refers to restoring fallen people and making them into the royal family. Families who receive the marriage Blessing need to fulfill this mission. In the ideal, conjugal love should only take place among people who fulfill the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships. A man and a woman need to fulfill these before they share love with each other. Otherwise, it is not right for them to love each other. Yet during the course of restoration, conjugal love has been part of what was needed to establish of these realms and kingships. That is because man's need for woman, and vice versa, is absolute. You blessed families have to strive every day to fulfill the goals of this verse. However, you cannot fulfill them with only a theoretical faith. It is not enough to imagine that you will be able to fulfill these goals simply because they are set out in God's Word. You have to work toward them by dealing with practical situations that you encounter directly. God's ideal is the formation of a great cosmic family The fourth verse of the Family Pledge is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God's ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness, by centering on true love." God's ideal is that the world becomes one family or household under God. If everyone who recites the Family Pledge actualizes the four great realms of heart and three great kingships, they will not remain separate families; rather, they will become one great family under God. To establish one family under God is what it means "to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God's ideal of creation." To give you an example from nature, when there is a low-pressure system with a deficiency of air, air from a neighboring high-pressure system flows in and fills it up. Similarly; water in a high place will automatically flow down to fill up a low place. Balance, to become level, is the ideal. In the world today there are advanced nations and developing nations. In the advanced nations, people have an abundance of things and end up discarding leftovers, whereas people in developing nations lack many things, especially food. Many even starve to death. Twenty million people die of starvation each year. Do you think that is God's desire? When advanced nations do not give out of their abundance to developing nations, they block the universe's natural system of giving and receiving. If this continues, the advanced nations will not be able to avoid divine punishment. Heaven will not let this go unnoticed. Already signs of judgment are appearing in various places. One sign is the prevalence of sexually transmitted diseases; another is drug and alcohol abuse. Others are free sex and homosexuality. They are madness; the human race can go no lower. God detests such behavior the most; satan, on the other hand, praises such behavior the most. I have been leading projects to save the tens of thousands of people who are dying of starvation and malnutrition each day in the developing nations. I am calling the people of advanced nations such as the United States, who live in a consumer paradise, to willingly go without in order to restore balance. Despite all the disorder of the human race, the natural world is constantly trying to maintain balance. When we pledge to "build the universal family ... and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness." the word "freedom" does not just refer to the freedom of the individual. It refers to the freedom of all people as one family under God. The same goes for the words "peace." "unity." and "happiness." "Happiness" refers to a world where all people live happily. That is why we need to develop movements in villages, towns and cities throughout the world. As they build wealth, we need to inculcate their people with the ethical norm to share it with others. Ladies and gentlemen, a world of one universal family is a world filled with families who have received the marriage Blessing. When you go to the spirit world, you will find people living together from everywhere on the planet. There, all five colors of the human race are intermingled. Yet, who among those people has truly prepared themselves to live the family ideal that can unite the past, present and future? If you prepare yourselves in that way, you will become central leaders in the spirit world. That is why you must train for this while you are on earth. The basis of that training is mind-body unity. There are many people in this world who betray their conscience and act according to their body's desires. They hoard money, commit fraud, come up with schemes and defame others. However, the money accumulated in this way will eventually come back around to strike them, like a rod of judgment. Likewise, no matter how learned a person may be, if he or she gained that knowledge to use it for their own sake instead of for the greater good, that knowledge will come back around to strike them. In the spirit world, such people will make their way to hell. We need to live for the sake of the world upholding the ideal, God's ideal, of one global family. If we disregard the world and live only for our own sake, the world will judge us. I have not asked you to recite the Family Pledge centering on "my familY." You must offer your pledge centering on "our familY." Everyone is equal. I, Rev. Moon, make this pledge representing "our familY." that is, on behalf of all families. That is why we say, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to build the universal family encompassing heaven and earth, which is God's ideal of creation, and perfect the world of freedom, peace, unity and happiness by centering on true love." The fifth verse of the Family Pledge is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to strive every day to advance the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners, by centering on true love." When thinking about anything, we must first think about the spirit world. It is in the position of the subject partner, while the physical world is the object partner. Do you think there are more people living in the spirit world or on earth? The population of the spirit world is far greater than the population on the earth. The spirit world relates to the physical world as subject partner to object partner, and yang to yin. In the same way, the mind is in the position of subject partner and yang in relation to the body, which is in the position of its object partner and yin. The mind represents the spirit world and the body, the physical world. If we act in a way such that we do not recognize the mind and the world of the mind as the subject partner, we are bound to go to hell. If previously we lived by allowing our body to lead our mind, now we must live so that our mind leads our body and subjugates it. I am saying that such a time has come. In our daily life, we need to be aware that the spirit world is the subject partner. This means that our task on earth, the object partner, is to perfect ourselves so that we may establish the foundation for perfection when we pass into the spirit world. There is a direct relationship between the two worlds. The spirit world is linked to us every day of every year throughout our entire life. But only by perfecting ourselves on earth does it become our second sphere of activity and a place where we can peacefully abide when we go there. In other words, "the unification of the spirit world and the physical world as subject and object partners" means that the two worlds must constantly move towards oneness. To "strive every day to advance this unification'' means that we must help the two worlds progress toward this unity. We are urged to do it quickly. We must not stop. If we do, we are already backsliding toward hell and death. Stagnation leads down to hell, whereas pushing forward leads to development. When relating to God's providence, to sleep long hours and be lazy, gluttonous and self-indulgent are not acceptable. We must keep ourselves busy. Life is short. Run without resting, just as I do. Run even without sleeping. Only then can you be connected to the world that we all hope for. How can you be connected to that world when you are not even thinking about it? We need to always be busy and always concerned; this is how oneness is brought about. We need to think about both the spirit world and the physical world, for they are partners. The sixth verse of the Family Pledge is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges to become a family that moves heavenly fortune by embodying God and True Parents, and to perfect a family that conveys Heaven's blessing to our community, by centering on true love." "Our family pledges ... by embodying God and True Parents" means that your family is to embody God and True Parents. Families that embody God and True Parents are the families that mobilize heavenly fortune. When we say that we pledge to "become a family that moves heavenly fortune" and "conveys Heaven's blessing to our community." we are not saying that we want to be blessed by God and enjoy a good life just for ourselves. We are saying that God's blessing is for all people, so that all can ultimately become part of God's royal family. We are saying that everyone needs to become a citizen of God's kingdom of Cheon II Guk. We are making a vow to become a channel of God's blessing, sharing it equally with all the people of the world. The family of God and the True Parents is one family. Although there is only one set of True Parents, there are many blessed families throughout the world, and God wants all of them to become channels for sharing the blessing of God and True Parents with others. You must work to become such a family. This means that you are striving to bring everyone to receive many blessings. The seventh verse is, "Our family, the owner of Cheon II Guk, pledges, through living for the sake of others, to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, by centering on true love." In our path of faith, the most important point is not to defile the original lineage. That means your descendants must not stain their lineage, as Adam and Eve did when they fell. That is what is meant when "Our family pledges ... to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage." The world in heaven, the world on earth and the world of True Parents' heart are all meant to be one with the world of God's heart. That is what is meant when our family pledges, "to perfect the world based on the culture of heart." This is our ideal. The culture of heart cannot be two; it must be one. The cultures of the fallen world are complex and various. Without establishing the world based on the one culture of heart, there is no way for us to connect to God on all levels from the individual to the family, tribe, people, nation, world, and eternal world. Without establishing the culture of heart, the individual, family and tribe cannot be connected. Without a world based on the culture of heart, there is no way for us to make connections from the individual out to the cosmos. That is why the world has been going up and down in a zigzag, unable to reach the final destination even after thousands of years. However, in the world based on the culture of heart we can reach that destination right away. This is possible, because true love is there. Completing the realm of liberation and complete freedom The eighth verse reads, "Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, having entered the Completed Testament Age, to achieve the ideal of God and human beings united in love through absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience, and to perfect the realm ofliberation and complete freedom in the kingdom of God on earth and in heaven, by centering on true love." You have to make the royal family a reality in your family, by becoming a couple where both of you are united in mind and body. This is God's ideal for the creation, which is fulfilled in the Completed Testament Age. God's kingship begins in the family where man and woman are united in true love. Originally, Adam's family was to have been God's royal family. From there, God's kingship would have emerged in the tribe and expanded to the people and the nation. This kingship would have automatically continued on into the eternal spirit world. From its beginnings on earth, it would have connected with that kingdom for eternity. The words "Completed Testament Age' refer to our having advanced into a new age. The Completed Testament Age is the time when the world will unite and create a peaceful world that begins with the family and progresses to the tribe, people, nation, world, and even to all of heaven and earth. It represents the whole; it is not confined to the family unit. We could only enter the Completed Testament Age once we had gone beyond the level of the world to embrace the whole cosmos. Through becoming new families that perfect the four great realms of heart and the three great kingships, we can go beyond the realm of the world and achieve the model required for the Completed Testament Age. When this happens, the world will become one unified world, the ideal heavenly kingdom of peace. Ladies and gentlemen, the words "absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience" are essential for realizing God's ideal of creation. Based on absolute faith, God began creating all things. He initiated creating for the sake of His object partners of absolute love. Absolute obedience means that there is no awareness of self. It is a state of absolute zero, complete nothingness. When God empties Himself and returns to nothingness, a natural circular motion begins. Having given everything out and with nothing more to give, everything will return to you. This principle-that everything returns to you after you invest completely-is the origin of interaction in the universe. For this reason, do not insist on your own way. If you do, you will be giving yourself to the devil. Do not allow satan to use anything that comes into you through your five physical senses. Use your eyes, nose, mouth, feet and hands as if they were God's. Live your life based on this standard of absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. Then God will always have compassion for you and assist you. When you let go of yourself, God will be with you. Ladies and gentlemen, when God created you as His absolute partners of love, He totally invested Himself. He created you because He needed you as His genuine object partners of love. As long as God did not have a substantial form, either in the physical world or in the spirit world, He was unable to relate to His children. That is why He needed to acquire a physical form. That form is that of perfected true parents. God began His creation because He wanted beloved object partners on earth whom He could love. That is why God created human beings as His absolute object partners of love and granted us the ability to reproduce, so that we might live for eternity through our descendants. This is the essence of God's creation. God is the root of love, life and lineage and the root of the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. Had Adam and Eve not fallen, God would have entered their hearts when they married and realized loving oneness with them. God would have become the vertical True Parent and Adam and Eve would have become the horizontal True Parents. We would have been born with the flesh and blood of these two sets of parents. Our mind would have become the vertical self and our body the horizontal self, and that being so we would have led lives based on one heart, one body, one outlook and one harmony. By perfecting the unity of our mind and body, and achieving unity with God in love, we will become His sons and daughters. Once we are in this parent- child relationship, we will be God's princes and princesses. In that parent-child relationship with God, we will inherit everything from Him. When we, His children, become husbands and wives and unite totally based on true love, we will become a family that lives in attendance to God. That family is the foundation for peace and the ideal. When a man and woman, each being one half, unite together, they become the base for fulfilling God's ideal of love as His partners. Men and women are beings of infinite value. When they perfect true love, God also perfects true love and completes the world of His ideal, where His eternal, ideal love dwells amid the creation. In the relationship between God and Adam's family, God was to be the first generation, in the position of the grandparent. Adam and Eve, in the position of parents, would be the second generation, and Adam's children, their sons and daughters, would be the third generation. In the same way, when three generations are firmly secured in your family, your grandparents stand in the position of God in His kingdom. They also are in the positions of the king and queen of the original physical world and spiritual world. As parents, you stand in the position of the central king and queen representing the present kingdom of Heaven on earth. Your children represent the future; they are in the position of princes and princesses who will inherit the kingdom of heaven on earth and in heaven. Adam's family and clan were to live as the royal clan with God as its center. After their life on earth, its members were meant to go to heaven and live in the eternal world. We will be able to fulfill this purpose. When we live on earth and attend our grandparents, representing heaven, as if they were God, attend our parents as the king and queen of the present world, and love our children as the future princes and princesses, we will dwell together with them after we go to heaven. In heaven all our desires, hopes and happiness will be fulfilled. The eighth verse of the Family Pledge shows us the way to live in the kingdom of heaven on earth. It is a path that is possible only through a life of absolute faith, absolute love, and absolute obedience. At the time of creation, God totally invested Himself with absolute faith and absolute love based on the standard of absolute obedience. Ladies and gentlemen, your conscience comes first, preceding your parents, your teachers and even God. Many people do not realize its value because the body has been dominating the conscience. That is how it is in this fallen, hedonistic world, a world in which most people focus on experiencing physical pleasure and having fun. Those who depend solely on money will be lost. Those who live for pleasure end up in reckless love relationships that lead to ruin. We lost the true love that was supposed to be created by the unity of God and human beings in absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience. The first human beings were supposed to become perfect, having nothing to do with the Fall. They were supposed to create that realm of unity with God. Yet they lost everything. That is why we have to establish the realm where heaven and earth are in unity. We need to dissolve all the sorrow that we caused God for not having done so. Without releasing that pain and suffering, neither God nor human beings can be liberated .. I have been resolving all of this, internally and externally. That is why I call this the perfection of restoration. It is the completion of restoration. I am proclaiming this now, so that I can bring restoration to a conclusion in the right way. The constitution of your family is the tradition of heaven Beloved blessed family members! The question now is how you will guard the pure and true lineage that you have received from God. Even though garden of Eden was an undefiled place, still the Fall occurred there. How much more difficult it will be to protect the pure lineage in this evil and corrupt world of sin. So, the people born in this sinful world, no matter how much they suffer, have to take responsibility such that the children of future generations receive and maintain the marriage Blessing. It is their responsibility to create a pure and pristine environment that will never again be defiled. Consequently, your families must not engage in old worldly habits. What is the best way to live for the future? It is essential to live an exemplary life for the sake of your descendants. It is also necessary to thoroughly educate them. Despite difficulties during the wilderness course, the people oflsrael overcame the seven tribes of Canaan. In the same way, you have to gain victory in your own battles, no matter what hardships you have to endure. AB parents, you must establish the way of Heaven, even if you have to die doing so. If you live for the sake of Heavenly Parent and the True Parents, your children will be blessed with heavenly fortune and will naturally come to inherit the heavenly tradition. The people of Israel entered the land of Canaan, and later perished. Why? It is because they eventually succumbed to the prevailing environment and adopted its habits and customs. The Israelites were tempted by the extravagant lifestyle of the Canaanites, who ate better food and enjoyed a more comfortable life than theirs. The Israelites ended up coveting power and began to place their priorities on wealth and knowledge. They even began to marry Gentiles, as long as they were from rich families. In this way, they betrayed the spirit of the chosen nation and ended up losing the heavenly tradition. The lessons we learn from the Family Pledge come from universal, cosmic principles, not from any form of individualism. We must face the various hardships that befall us in our lives. We need to boldly break through our circumstances and gain victory. To do this, we need to strengthen our families with the tradition of the Family Pledge. It is not a task just for your family for a single generation. You have to establish a firm and solid heavenly tradition over at least three generations. Your mission is that of establishing a lineage that secures the tradition of the chosen people from generation to generation. You have to broaden your base of true love and unite the hearts of all peoples. Light a candle, offer incense and pray to become a family that will unite the hearts of all peoples. Live and die to create a bond of true love with all peoples and with heaven and earth. If you live this way, God will protect your family through all ordeals and tribulations. It is God's desire to plant His seeds of love in such families. Ladies and gentlemen, you have to establish the victorious tradition of a true and good family based on the Family Pledge. The life that you lead in this revolutionary Era after the Coming of Heaven must be one of a victor. The bright light from the Pacific Rim era is illuminating your path. God, the source of true life, true love and true lineage, is with you, whether you are in the homeland of the Korean peninsula or anywhere else in the world. True Parents, to whom God has given the Blessing of eternal value, are guiding you on your path. Be assured that there is nothing you cannot accomplish on the path ahead. May God's blessings be with you and your family for eternity. 16 • Advance without Ceasing September 17, 2012 Cheongshim Peace World Center, Korea Special Unification Church World Leaders Assembly for Victory on Foundation Day (True Mother's speech) Distinguished guests from home and abroad, and blessed families around the world: Today, we come to an exceedingly important turning point in God's governance of His providence. It is unprecedented, historic and revolutionary. My husband, the Reverend Dr. Sun Myung Moon, the returning Lord, Messiah, Savior and True Parent, who came as the root of the lineage of original goodness, has departed for the spirit world. Consequently, we now stand at a providential renewal point at which we have to inherit True Parents' realm of victory and build the ideal kingdom of peace, one family under God. Manifestation of True Parents After being with True Father my whole life, his ascension from our midst brings me indescribable pain and sorrow. I know it is the same for all of you. Moreover, we cannot begin to fathom how sorrowful the heart of God is over the passing of True Father, who is the original substance of eternal love and the True Parent of humankind. From another perspective, however, this is a time of hope. True Father worked in accordance with the heavenly laws, which God established at the time of the creation of heaven and earth, to conclude, complete and perfect the providential tasks on earth that no one in history had been able to fulfill. He is now transitioning to the spirit world to exercise dominion over both the spiritual and physical worlds and to initiate a new dimension of God's providence. No spoken or written language known to human beings can possibly express the flood of emotion we experience as we stand at this juncture in the providence. As you are well aware, Heaven led me to meet True Father in the pure and pristine years of my adolescence. By the providence Heaven had prepared, in the flower of my youth at the age of seventeen, I received the grace of the True Parents' Holy Wedding, which holds historic significance throughout heaven and earth. I became True Father's companion on the providential path, attended him throughout my life, and worked with him as we walked the way of the providence, which is governed by heavenly law. Although I was young when I set out on this path of the providence, I invested my entire being in fulfilling two primary missions. The first was to bring an end to God's providence of restoration through indemnity, which was rife with bitter sorrow, within my lifetime. The second was to attend Father throughout his life in order to complete the realization of the ideal world of God's Will. God's providential history of salvation has progressed continuously since the Fall of Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors. No one, however, could complete the providential course of restoration through indemnity, and humankind could only wait for the True Parents to come. True Parents' course began under desperate circumstances in God's providence at a time when satan reigned with full authority, exercising his sovereignty over the spirit world and physical world. What satan, the progenitor of evil who had maintained dominion for six thousand years, feared most was the emergence of the True Parents, who would become the progenitors of goodness. You can imagine how satan would fiercely and desperately oppose this and employ all manner of brutality in an effort to prevent it. Prior to establishing his position as a True Parent through our Holy Wedding in 1960, True Father passed through a providential course of immeasurable indemnity. True Parents were to come to humankind only once in history. Once they assumed their position through the Holy Wedding, they became the True Parents for all eternity. True Father began his providential public life course at the conclusion of the Second World War in 1945. Heaven had prepared Christianity, especially Korean Christian spiritualist movements, on a foundation of two thousand years of conditions that Christians had made. Christianity should have fulfilled the mission of the providential bride by attending and upholding the returning Messiah, whom Heaven sent as the bridegroom, and then should have opened the providence of attending the substantial Bride. However, Christianity was unable to complete this providential responsibility. As a result, Father lost the entire providential foundation, both the spiritual foundation, the two thousand year history of Christianity, and the substantial foundation, the victory of the Allied nations in World War IL Under these providential circumstances, fraught with immense difficulties and challenges, True Father had to act alone to once again carry out the providential course of restoration through indemnity, starting from the bottom of hell in the Hungnam Special Labor Camp. He endured and finally overcame satan's vicious attacks to establish a foundation of victory by separating from satan. On that basis, True Father established the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity as the providential bride, in place of Christianity, and on that foundation, he received me as the substantial bride and conducted the historic Holy Wedding. As a result, in 1960 True Parents' course could finally commence. True Parents' providential course Distinguished guests, beloved blessed families, how can we describe God, our Heavenly Father, as True Father has revealed Him? God is not an aloof monarch sitting on His throne of glory and honor. Rather He is a True Parent of true love and heart who has traversed millions of miles in search of His prodigal children who fell into a state of death due to sin. In his speech, "The Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, who, as God's Embodiment, Proclaim the Word;' which he so treasured during his time on earth, True Father explained God's plight: Ladies and gentlemen, do you have any idea how much pain God suffered the moment human beings, whom He created as His children and into whom He had invested His complete and unreserved devotion since time immemorial, fell and disappeared into darkness, becoming part of satan's lineage? Are you even remotely aware that our Heavenly Father, who endured tens of thousands of years of excruciating heartache so great that His bones shed tears and His flesh quivered, had to go through the long, dark tunnel of indemnifying the Fall in order to save His lost children? Have you shed any tears even for a moment, yearning to comfort our Father in heaven? That is how God is. True Father was the person who experienced God's suffering with his entire being. With blood, sweat and tears, he triumphantly completed True Parents' forty-year course, and finally in 2001 he offered to Heaven the Enthonement Ceremony for the Kingship of God. Distinguished guests from home and abroad, True Parents' forty-year providential course up to the offering of the Enthronement Ceremony for the Kingship of God was a path that crossed peaks of unimaginable misery. We were in a continuous life-and-death struggle against the satanic forces of the evil sovereignty. We were repeatedly struck down and had to gather ourselves up each time to continue the battle. It was a course requiring our ultimate resolve, a course for which we had to invest every moment. No words can describe how many times True Father voluntarily chose to go to the bottom of hell. In order to bring the wilderness era to a close, he followed a treacherous course of indemnity that led him to suffer hardship in prison at Danbury. But that is what it took to conclude the six thousand year history of the providence for the salvation of humankind. Despite being the long-awaited Savior of humanity, True Father led a life of constant indemnity. He endured imprisonment under the Japanese oppressors, North Korean communist authorities and the South Korean Liberal Party administration. What he said to me as he headed off to prison once more, this time in the United States, is still vivid in my memory. "Don't worry," he encouraged me, "a new world of hope will be waiting on the other side of prison." Despite True Father's optimism, these incidents brought me overwhelming sorrow. I directly witnessed his noble life up close and walked alongside him. So when he went to prison my whole world seemed to collapse around me. I could only think of his dire circumstances, imprisoned in satan's den with his life targeted by communists. I fervently beseeched Heaven to protect his safety and health. Only Heaven fully knows these circumstances in the providence of restoration through indemnity. The wilderness era finally ended in August 1985 on the foundation of victory established through True Father's suffering in Danbury prison and the loss ofHeung-jin, our second son who represented the True Children. With the Day of Total Victory as a turning point, a new providence began. True Father later met Mikhail Gorbachev and Kim 11 Sung, communist leaders who were central figures in satan's realm, and won their hearts with Heaven's love. On that foundation, True Father established the Women's Federation for World Peace in the position of the providential bride and placed me in the position of the first and only substantial bride in human history to attend the returning Messiah. I began to proclaim to all of heaven and earth the Second Advent of the Lord, the Messiah, the Savior and the True Parents. Based on this, I undertook the providence of mother-son cooperation for seven years while attending True Father, the center of the providence, and offered the successful conclusion to Heaven. Thus began the era of Cheon Il Guk, the nation of cosmic peace and unity. On May 1, 1999, during the Day of All True Things, True Father bestowed a great blessing on me. As he presented me with an award for being victorious in the era of mother-son cooperation, never to be repeated in history, he firmly embraced me and whispered in my ear, "Mother, thank you for your hard work. You have scaled the summit of a great providential mountain." I was immediately overwhelmed with emotion and began to weep. Memories of critical moments during those seven years, such as having to embrace Cain and Abel while contending with the opposition of leftist students on Korean university campuses, and of enduring all manner of dangers and concerns during hundreds of speaking engagements in one hundred eighty-five nations, flashed through my mind like a kaleidoscope as I received True Father's consolation and blessing. Respected peace-loving leaders and family members, I am so proud of you. Looking back, it has truly been an arduous course of restoration through indemnity. True Parents, however, brought a clean end to all of it. They have been victorious and have opened the gates to the era of Cheon 11 Guk, when the era of God's kingship, the era of God's direct dominion, takes root. True Parents moved up from My Pledge to the Family Pledge and brought us from the era of praying in True Parents' names to that of directly reporting to God in the name of our own blessed central family. They opened the Cheon Il Guk era, a new era of the providence, amid changes that previously could not have even been imagined. On the basis of the substantiation of the culture of heart, we also vertically and horizontally expanded the True Parents-centered system of the absolutely good sovereignty under God's kingship. Through the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony Opening the Gates of Cheon Il Guk and the Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families on the occasion of my sixtieth birthday in 2003, the heavenly sovereignty put down vertical roots. Since then, True Parents firmly established it throughout the world through the coronation of the King of Peace in 120 clans and 120 nations. With the inauguration of the Abel UN through the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), we offered to Heaven the Cheon Jeong Gung Entrance Ceremony and Coronation of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. For the first time in human history, we firmly established the foundation for the substantiation of the ideal envisaged at the time of the creation. With the victory of True Parents' fifty-year course, we ushered in a providential jubilee year and proclaimed the era of the heavenly calendar, marking 2010 as the first year of Cheon-gi (the Heavenly Foundation). True Parents' realm of victory During the past three years, True Father did not let go of for a single moment the script of his speech, "The Settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, who, as God's Embodiment, Proclaim the Word;' He treasured this text and would explain it during hoondokhae whenever the opportunity arose. The following is an excerpt found under the subheading "My final words for humankind": These are textbooks you will have to read and study even after you go to the spirit world. They are not just teachings that come from the mind of one person; they are textbooks and materials that teach the heavenly way that God has bestowed upon His suffering children for their salvation. Ladies and gentlemen, I have already mentioned that a life of vertical "high noon'' alignment casts no shadow. If our lives are shining, there will be no chance for the shadow of sin to be cast. Those who receive the light will be indebted to the light. I pray that we can now wipe away the tears of people in misery and poverty and lead an illuminated life of eternal true love that dissipates all darkness. The True Parents have achieved ultimate unity, and offered and proclaimed the era of God's full transcendence, full immanence, full authority and omnipotence upon the standard of their conclusion, completion and perfection. Who is True Father? Respected leaders of peace and beloved blessed families: At the dawn of this new providential turning point and new age, my greatest hope is that True Father's providential stature will solidify. Throughout his life, True Father treasured every second and every minute as he invested his entire being completely for the sake of God's Will. He relentlessly traveled to every part of the globe and even to the spirit world. It is my hope that his cosmic and providential achievements, the victories he accumulated with his own blood, sweat and tears, will become the eternal standard and example for all humankind. First, True Father is humankind's ancestor of original goodness, the True Parent. Adam and Eve, the first ancestors of humankind, fell and became our evil ancestors. As Jesus testified, they are the false ancestors. With the Fall of Adam and Eve, God lost the first created human beings. In other words, He lost His external form. God carried out the providence of restoration and sent True Father as the ultimate, returning Messiah. Through exercising his own portion of responsibility, True Father illuminated the truth, God's Word, and completed the providence of restoration through indemnity. Through the Blessing ceremony and the Seonghwa ceremony, he opened the paths of rebirth, resurrection and eternal life, establishing them for fallen people to walk in the physical and spiritual worlds. This enables people to inherit the original true love, true life and true lineage as they were at the time of creation. This inheritance can only come from the True Parents, the ancestors of goodness. Blessed marriage is the gateway for this inheritance. Second, True Father is the owner of the eternal truth, or the Word. God formed the whole of creation through the Word. The Word is the truth and the substantiation of God. God's love and heart are manifested in form through the Word. Adam and Eve, humankind's false ancestors, transgressed God's Word and committed the Fall. Hence, they were unable to substantiate the Word. Consequently, the Messiah had to search for the Word, the truth from Heaven, as part of his providence for the start of his mission. In response to such demands of the providence, True Father discovered the fullness of the Word through setting many intense conditions, gaining victory in separating from satan, and through receiving God's approval. Throughout his life, True Father led and directed the providence with the Word. Through the Word, he suffused the world with vitality and life. He lovingly nurtured with the Word while completing the providence of re-creation. As a result, during the jubilee years in True Parents' course, he completed the eight great textbooks and teaching materials and established the tradition of hoondokhae. This, in turn, allowed the pathway to open up to firmly establish Cheon Il Guk through the Word and through the love within our worldwide families. The authority of the teachings in the eight great textbooks and teaching materials is solely True Parents: and this must be preserved as the eternal tradition, which is absolute for all future generations. Third, True Father is the one who completed God's providence of salvation. As stated in Exposition of the Divine Principle, history is the providence of salvation, which is the providence of restoration. Due to the Fall of the first ancestors Adam and Eve, a world emerged under an evil sovereignty with the false ancestors as the center. Humankind's misfortunes, anguish, sin, alienation and war, caused by all manner of conflict and hostility, arose from the Fall of those first ancestors. God immediately began the dispensation to restore the world from one of sin and evil to the ideal world envisioned at the time of creation, in other words, a world of peace overflowing with happiness, altruism, service to others and love. This dispensation has continued throughout the course of history without ceasing even for a moment. Nonetheless, God had to repeatedly prolong the providence of salvation, which continued amid the recurring need for indemnity and restoration, because of the failure of central figures and groups of people to complete their portions of responsibility. Two thousand years ago, God's only begotten Son Jesus came as the Messiah. He was crucified because of people's faithlessness. He subsequently ascended, though not before promising that Christ would return. Two thousand years later, as Jesus intended and promised, True Father came as the returning Messiah and achieved victory in the providential course, paying all the historical indemnity during his lifetime. It is no exaggeration to characterize True Father's life as a state of ceaseless tension and suffering. He endlessly battled satan in life-and-death confrontations throughout the providence of restoration through indemnity. In this way True Father concluded, completed and perfected the providence through a forty-year course as the Messiah, a forty-year course as the True Parent, and a ten-year course as the Peace King, the King@fkings. Fourth, True Father is the Peace King, the King of kings. God's Will is the perfection of a peaceful, ideal world, a world where all people live as one great family under God. This refers on an individual level to personal perfection through mind-body unity and then the perfection of the family through the oneness of husband and wife, parents and children, and siblings. Expanding this concept, we are meant to create a world overflowing with love and peace, where our societies, our nations and the entire world come together as one. Since the Fall of humankind, conflict between good and evil has been unending, replicating itself from the level of the individual to the whole of creation. In the end, the divisions between races, nations and religions have brought unfathomable suffering to humankind. True Parents set as their lives' providential goals the liberation of God, the salvation of humankind, and the realization of a peaceful, ideal world. They completely invested their lives in order to achieve these goals. Along with religious activities aimed centrally at a revival of spirituality, True Father initiated a peace movement for all humankind spanning the fields of politics, economics, society, culture, the arts, education, the media and sports. He indicated that a true family is the smallest unit of the kingdom of heaven, and he opened the gates to the true family Blessing and to even bless marriages between enemies. He made the ideal of one great human family a reality through the cross-cultural and international blessed marriages, which aim to resolve all conflicts. As a result, we could hold a coronation ceremony in which 120 clans and 120 nations crowned True Father as the King of Peace and the King of kings. Humanity's dream is now becoming a reality. Fifth, as the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, True Parents perfected God's position, so that for the first time God could achieve on earth the perfection that He had envisioned at the time of the creation. True Father had begun the providence of restoration through indemnity from the position of a servant of servants. Each victory gradually eroded satan's sovereignty while increasingly elevating God's stature toward its level at the time of the creation. Two thousand years ago, Jesus revealed that God was our Father and that he was God's true Son. You are aware that because of this Jesus was accused of blaspheming God, and he suffered the ordeal of the cross. On the foundation of Jesus' sacrifice, True Parents substantially fulfilled restoration through indemnity on earth and restored honor and glory to God as the original Creator, in other words, as the True Parent who governs heaven, earth, and humankind. In the course of accomplishing this, True Parents' providential stature evolved according to the standard of the providence, and on that basis they achieved God's liberation and complete freedom. On the foundation of the successive levels of the Messiah; True Parents; the Parents of Heaven and Earth; the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind; the King of the Blessed Families; the King of Peace; and the King of kings, True Father proclaimed in 2010 the settlement of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind. That is, since God is the incorporeal True Parent of heaven, earth and humankind, True Father established True Parents as the corporeal True Parents of heaven, earth and humankind, who complete and manifest God's true and essential nature in substance. Beloved members, Heaven could assist True Father and I as we trod the providential course of restoration through indemnity, and the suffering we experienced on that course is beyond imagination. We even lost four children of the True Family, who became sacrificial offerings for the providence. Who indeed would dare to say they comprehend this painful course of restoration through indemnity? I have dedicated my very being to this work, sharing the joys and pains of life with True Father as his companion, overcoming innumerable trials and difficulties. On that victorious foundation, we, the True Parents, gained the right of equality in a providential dimension, the right to live together and the right to hold the same position, which Heaven bestowed upon us. Our future path Respected guests from home and abroad, beloved blessed families throughout the world, according to heavenly law, True Father will now make the spirit world his base and carry out the providence to expand Cheon Il Guk while freely traveling between the spiritual and physical worlds. True Father will come down to the physical world as the substantial being of the God of Night and shall preside over the providence in a state of oneness of heart, body, harmony and mind with True Mother, who shall continue to preside over the providence on earth as the substantial being of the God of Day. Through the victory of Foundation Day, Father will be with you in building the original garden of Eden on earth. There is no stopping Heaven's providence. At this new transition point in this historic providence, I want to make clear that I have inherited True Father's victorious foundation and shall stand in the forefront to lead the providence on earth. In doing so, I would like to convey the following to everyone: First, we must absolutely value the tradition established by True Parents as much as we value our own lives, and we need to pass this down to our descendants in future generations. True Parents established the tradition of love and heart, the Word and principles, the rules and regulations of our tradition, and the tradition of the culture of heart. The hoondokhae tradition of reading the Word, which is the crystallization of True Parents' course in the providence of restoration through indemnity, has to become the central practice in each family as well as in the churches and any gathering centered on Heaven. At the same time, we must go forward in building a new order on earth. Please always remember that the order and tradition of organizations also have to form a perfect solidarity centering on the True Family as Abel, who are in turn centered on True Parents. Second, we must realize the ideal of a blessed family, which Heaven has blessed us to be. The family is the cradle of true love, true life and true lineage and the basis for realizing the purpose God envisaged at the time of the creation. Based on the eight verses of the Family Pledge, you need to uphold through absolute faith the tradition of maintaining the lineage of absolute goodness. Our vision for peace revolves around pure love, happy families and a peaceful world. Children must be raised and nurtured with love and through the Word within a tradition of conjugal oneness, through parents who attend Heaven with absolute love. Through hoondokhae, you need to foster the firm establishment of the Cheon Il Guk order in your families and fulfill the ideal of the Blessing in which the tradition of heart can take root both vertically and horizontally under the standard of high noon settlement. Third, you have all received the benefit of being tribal messiahs. You need to work to fulfill that mission and responsibility until the time Cheon n Guk is completed on earth. Tribal messiahship is the greatest of all blessings given to you by True Parents. Fallen people could not be blessed and appointed tribal messiahs were it not for True Parents' foundation of victory in the providence of restoration through indemnity. That is why True Parents have consistently emphasized the tribal messiah mission during their lifelong governance of the providence. The physical and spiritual completion of Cheon Il Guk on earth becomes possible when tribal messiahs fulfill their mission: conveying the Word to each of their clans, officiating in the Blessing of their clans, all the while practicing living for the sake of others. Your clans will thereby establish the sovereignty of goodness and realize a world of peace, one great human family. A victorious foundation established in each clan will automatically bring about the establishment of the Abel UN, and complete the sovereignty of goodness. Fourth, all of us need to create a community based on the culture of heart and characterized by harmony and unity, centered on True Parents and the True Family. Each of you without exception found the path of God's Will because you were chosen by Heaven, based on the merits of your ancestors and because of your own character. You faced immeasurable persecution in order to follow True Parents until entering this realm of victory today. That makes us all a part of a single family, a community of heart centered on the one True Parents. Division and conflict continue to afflict the world, yet because we are one with True Parents, the Unification family can be brothers and sisters who can easily transcend race, national borders and any other barrier. If you can live an exemplary life of giving and living for the sake of others, this dream will surely come true. Especially as we are in this time of great transition in the providence, I ask that you bear this in mind and engrave in your hearts that we must become one with True Parents. Our resolution for the victory of Foundation Day Respected peace-loving leaders and beloved members of the Unification family, True Father in the spirit world is always with us. Existing without corporeal form, he is at our side, and will never leave us even for a moment. What do you think he desires from us at this time? It is to march forward without pausing. God's providence will continue until all people are centered on True Parents and a culture of heart takes root overflowing with love and peace, thereby establishing a new order. Let us advance further based on the victory of Foundation Day. The hope it brings is so great that it will continue far into the future, so let us instill this great hope in the world and offer great glory to Heaven and True Parents. Beloved members, I shall be faithful to True Father's life and tradition. He set the example for us and led by example his entire life, doing his absolute best to achieve victory in the providence. The requests I have conveyed to you today are True Father's last words as he was departing for the spirit world. I sincerely pray that you will engrave them deeply in your heart and that you will all become victorious. I pray that God's blessings and love will be forever with you, your families and your nations. Thank you very much. - - - - - - - - - - BOOK 3 The Mission of Religion in Achieving God's Ideal 1. One God, One World Religion 2. The New Future of Christianity 3. Today's Intellectuals and Religion 4. America and Religious Freedom 5. Let Us Bring Religious Harmony for the Sake of World Peace 6. In the Hope That You Will Participate in the Unification Movement 7. The Will of God 8. Dialogue and Alliance 9. The Fundamental Truth 10. Bequeathing the Tradition of True Love 11. Islam and the Establishment of World Peace 12. Religion's Mission for World Peace 13. Religion and the Creation of World Peace 14. Religion and the Ideal World 15. Understanding Life and Death 16. The Path ofLife for All Humankind 1 • One God, One World Religion February 3, 1972 Lincoln Center, New York, USA Seven-city speaking tour in the United States Ladies and gentlemen! I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude that so many of you have gathered here tonight in spite of the inclement weather. For decades I have thought about meeting with you. Now that I have met you for the first time this evening, I would first like to thank you all, and at the same time, I would also like to thank God with all of my heart. Does God really exist? The title of my speech today is, "One God, One World Religion." I believe that when the residents of New York hear the term God, they associate it with the belief that He is dead. However, God does exist, and if we say that He is dead, we are committing the gravest sin. It could even be that saying God exists, if in fact He does not, is better than saying that the God who actually exists is dead. With regard to the title, "One God, One World Religion." there would be no issue to discuss if people did not exist. However, people do exist. We have people and we have God. Therefore, a religion that works to bring those people and God together in oneness is necessary. If God is an Absolute Being and is all alone, we can imagine that the place where that God exists would not be a happy one. Even thinking of God all alone, if He were glad and delighted all by Himself, then that would not be what we call normal. On the other hand, if that God were to look upon something, regardless of how small, as His object partner and laugh, "Haha- ha." and delight in it, that would be normal. No matter how small that thing is, if God were looking upon it and laughing, and someone came along and said that this laughing God is senseless, then in fact the person who says that would actually be the senseless one. So, I first want to impress upon you the intrinsic value of the object partner. Words such as unhappiness and misery stem from the lack of an object partner. Then if God were to like an object partner, what kind of partner do you think God would like? Would it be something like minerals, which do not have feelings? It would not be minerals. It would not be plants either. He would show more interest in animals than in plants. By this line of thought, if you were to ask what the central entity could be, the one that could attract His attention the most out of all creation, even a kindergarten student could point out that it is human beings. Don't you think so too? Based on this viewpoint, we cannot deny the fact that human beings constitute the greatest masterpiece of all created beings. That is why we can reach the conclusion that, when God seeks after an object partner, He seeks out human beings. When we think about the destiny of the United States or the destiny of the world in light of the complicated circumstances of today, the question of whether we would prefer for God to exist or not is a problem that we have to consider seriously. It would be favorable if there were an Absolute Being who could deal with the truth as the truth and evil as evil. Without such a Being, the future of the world would be uncertain. That is why our hope is that such a God does exist rather than not. Then the question is whether or not God exists. God of dual characteristics We know that this universe exists. This is a fact that everyone acknowledges. We also know that in order for anything to exist there first must be energy. At this point, a question arises: what comes first, energy or existence? Without energy, there cannot be existence. However, energy cannot emerge without action. In order for energy to come into being, some kind of action is absolutely necessary. Moreover, for action to take place, subject and object partners are absolute prerequisites. This we cannot deny. When the subject partner and object partner engage in give and receive action, energy is generated for existence. To put it another way, before there can be energy, there first must be subject and object partners. Since the subject and object partners are in different positions, for them to engage in action, each needs to be in harmony with the substance of the other. Otherwise, they cannot be engage in action. For this reason, in order for the subject and object partners to interact with each other, there must be a common base for them to unite for the same purpose. Otherwise, they cannot engage in action. When anyone goes out for some reason, no one would do so in order to suffer a loss. Many people visit Times Square here in New York. Yet, I do not believe that even one of them would leave their home, thinking, "I am leaving home to incur a loss of at least a dollar." When you leave home, you always set out hoping for something that will benefit you and wish for something that will add to what you already have. When you meet your friends, or when you love someone, you never plan to get together with them in a situation where you would diminish each other and be worse off than you were before you met. When two people, A and B, come together, each envisions being better off than they were before they met; and then action takes place and they unite. In this regard, we can conclude that there must be a dual purpose. That is, in addition to their own individual purpose, the subject partner and object partner desire something that would add to the purpose of the other. Otherwise they will not unite as one; nor will they engage in action. For example, in an atom, electrons surround protons. Because these electrons and protons are also in a place where they can unite their dual purposes while giving and receiving, they can form an atom. In short, they are united in their pursuit of dual purposes, the purpose of the electron and the purpose of the proton. Looking at the big picture, God too is an existing being. In order for Him to actually exist, He too needs to engage in a subject and object partner relationship, based on the dual purpose, and stand in the position of total union. If He cannot do so, God cannot eternally exist. This ultimately means that God exists as the One Being in the union of the subject and the object partners within Himself. God's existence as seen through the action of the human conscience In the Bible, we read in Genesis 1:27, "So God created humankind in His image; ... male and female He created them." If we were to make an inference based on this passage, we could conclude that God is the united being of masculinity and femininity. Since such a God could not stay all by Himself, He needed an object partner, and it was inevitable that He create this world. Consequently, He created a man and a woman. When you consider a human being, you see that person has a mind and a body. This mind and body give to each other and receive from each other, and if something goes wrong while they are doing so, we feel pain. It is because either the mind or the body moves too far to one side or the other. However, when they are united and thus elevated, we feel joy. If someone has complete unity between his or her mind and body, he or she would be a perfected person. If there were an Absolute Being, what kind of a human being would He seek? He would seek a man whose mind and body were in complete unity. The same goes for the woman. If there were a woman whose mind and body are completely united, God would like to meet that woman, without a doubt. From the viewpoint based on the dignity of the Absolute Being, He seeks to meet the best man and the best woman. Heaven needs people who can stand tall, bold and fearless before Heaven, and we wish to be such people. When we look at ourselves, it is clear that we are not causal beings. Human beings are resultant beings. Can you freely determine whether to exist or not? You cannot. Since you cannot be the cause of your own existence, you cannot deny that you are in the resultant position. However, when the Cause is also absolute, even resultant beings can stand in the position of absolute partner. God's existence as seen through the mystery of the human body Ladies and gentlemen, let us take another moment to talk about whether God exists or not. When we trace our ancestry, we will eventually reach our first human ancestors. Those ancestors were born on earth. And let us now consider whether they knew of the sun before they were born on earth, and prepared accordingly, or didn't know about it at all. When they were born on earth, their eyes would not have known that there would be a sun. However, even though their eyes were unaware of the sun, their design is based on the knowledge that there is a sun in the sky and that they are to see its light. When you describe your eyes, you say that they are always blinking. This design assumes knowledge of the fact that the moisture in the eyes evaporates due to the dry heat on earth, and so they need to be moistened. Moreover, the design of the eyelashes is based on knowledge of the need to keep the dust away. In this respect, human beings were born based on knowledge of nature and astronomy. The eyes already "knew" that people would sweat. Since it would be a serious problem for foreign matter to enter these precious eyes, the breakwater of the eyebrows was created. The location of the eyes also shows that they knew that human beings would walk, standing vertically on two feet, unlike other animals. Now, look at your ears. They were created based on the knowledge that they would hear sound waves. Look at your nose. Why is the nose pointing downward? It is because it would be detrimental if sweat or rainwater entered the nostrils. Because of this, in addition to the breakwater above the eyes, the nose was made to point downward. Everything was designed on the basis of prior knowledge. Could all these things come to be on their own accord? As you can see, when we study the human body, it is a palace of mystery. It could not have been made as it is just like that. Based on these observations, a question arises: Though human beings did not know of such things when they were born, was there or was there not a Being who knew of them? We cannot say that we were born as we are just like that. And the Being who knew of all such things in advance is none other than God Himself. Original value of human beings as seen through their relationship with God Granted that God created humankind, let us now look into the matter of where God placed us, and what relationship God wished to form with us from the start. If God created human beings, there must be a reason. And if we were created for this reason, then our purpose would arise from that. The purpose of created human beings and the purpose of the Creator, God, cannot be two separate things. There must be a certain common ground. That common ground would be desired both by God and human beings. If there were a world-renowned president among the people gathered here, would there be anyone who would wish to be inferior to that president? Would you wish to be superior or inferior to that person? You would wish to be superior. In fact, you would wish to be in the highest position. Human desire is like that. By the same token, if you knew about a person with the highest position in the world, you would wish to form a relationship with him or her. Even if you became close to that person of high position, if there were a person in an even higher position, then you would wish to become close to that person as well. Everyone possesses such a heart. No matter how lowly a person is, he or she has such thoughts. Then, if there is a God, the Absolute Being who created heaven and earth, would you desire to form a relationship with Him or would you not? Even if you had taken possession of this God, if you still had not taken possession of His love, you would not feel at ease. After you have taken possession of God, only after taking possession of His love will everything feel right. On the day you have taken possession of His love, all His possessions become yours. Our conscience drives us toward this goal. We cannot deny that it is carrying out such work, and this is because we occupy the position of human beings' original value, and that compels us to do so. God is a God of love, and if God desires to love human beings, in what position would He desire to give His love? And in what position would human beings desire to receive God's love? Those positions would be wrapped up in the relationship between father and child, that is, the position of the father and the child, and no other. That is why today's Christianity calls God Heavenly Father. If God is the Father and we are His children, our relationship is a vertical one. On account of our desire as human beings, we can say we wish to be in the Father's higher position at least once. So God concerns Himself even about this point and says that He will permit us to rise to such a level, and that He will enter our mind, that is, the internal position, and place us in a position external to Him, so that we become like God's body. When this comes to pass, we stand on an equal footing with God. From the viewpoint of human beings, if our parents are precious to us, where can we possibly place our one and only Heavenly Father and take care of Him? We will not wish to have God stay far away from us. In short, we will wish to have God in a place where God is always with us, where we can meet Him and rejoice with Him alone. For this reason, we wish for God to be invisible. Our human desire is to place God in our hearts, where we can know Him personally. We cannot put God any other place. This is why God the Creator is saying that He will place human beings, His creation, in the same position as Himself. God intended to have human beings receive love in the position of His children and to place us in a position of equal status with Him. Since God has the ability to create heaven and earth, He wished for us also to have this creative ability. After having created and shaped human beings, God found us to be so charming and lovable that He desired that we also be able to feel such emotions and to get a taste of such pleasure. Since God is a Being who exists in the form of a perfected man and woman, to inherit this creative ability of God, man and woman, who were born as separate beings, need to become one as a perfected man and woman and have that one body become His object partner. By becoming His object partner, they can play the role of creator in His stead. That is why when a couple become one through conjugal love, they can substantiate their creative ability and stand in the same position as God by creating children. To make us realize what a joyful thing it is to give birth to children, God gave us the heart of love for our children. In this regard, God has bestowed the very best things upon human beings. God created us so that we could become one with the eternal love of God in such a manner and live in a peaceful Eden in happiness and contentment. By so doing, we would live as happy people who stand in the position of the eternal object partner before the absolute God, centering on His love, and who could not separate from Him even if we tried. We need to understand that this was the way we were originally meant to live. The mission of religion is to save the world It is an undeniable fact that the purpose of beings, created by the absolute God, is one with God's purpose. However, do you think there is even one human being on earth who stands in the position of absolute object partner centered on God's love? There is not. Even though human beings aim for the same purpose, because we were all created by the absolute God, when we look at ourselves we can see that we are standing on another path, a path whose purpose is diametrically opposed. Some people may consider this to be another relationship of subject and object partners within human beings, but that is not the case. If the conscience is an internal plus, selfishness is a different plus, and these two oppose each other. Such a predicament is the one we human beings live in on this earth. Human beings need to understand that we lost the ideal of love, the principle of absolute value that God endowed us with. We became miserable beings, living in mourning in a world of the opposing phenomena of good and evil. In other words, we became defective beings. Nevertheless, since the absolute God inevitably needs to relate to us as His children, He could not leave us the way we are. Thus, He has been leading the movement to bring us back to life throughout the course of history. That is, He established a repair shop. That repair shop is called religion. There are numerous religions in the world. In accordance with the standards of the different cultures and national backgrounds, God established religions to gather all people. Religions have the desire to save the world. God also desires save the world. Religions other than those that try to save the world do not last long. Ladies and gentlemen, the founders of the world's religions were not nationalists; they were globalists, and they were the people who purposed a global movement centered on Heaven. I know that we currently consider four people to be the four great saints: Jesus Christ, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad. Some people also include Socrates in that list; however Socrates was a philosopher and not a religious leader. You cannot save lives with knowledge. Only Heaven can save lives. That is why the four greatest saints are those who founded the great global religions. There is not one among them who did not serve Heaven. Ladies and gentlemen, we must not become people who esteem these saints and yet disregard Heaven. The central religion of the world is Christianity Given that religion is carrying out the mission of a repair shop, so to speak, if God is an absolute Being, we need to know which of the four great religions approaches Him most closely. When you consider Confucianism, it does not teach clearly about God. All it has taught is that when you do good, Heaven gives you blessings, and when you do evil, you receive punishment. When you consider Buddhism, while it recognizes the God of law, it does not know about the personal God. When you consider Islam, it is carrying forward aspects of the providence of Jesus. Jesus Christ, however, made substantially different declarations. He appeared and said, "I am the only begotten Son of God." In the course of human history, only one person, Jesus, has ever claimed that he is the only begotten Son of God. Next, he said, "Whoever has seen me has seen the Father." He also said, ''As the Father is in me and I in the Father, so I am in you and you are in me." He also went on to say, in effect, "I am the bridegroom;' and that he will return for his bride. In light of all this, if you ask centering on whom he tried to achieve all that he said, I would answer that he tried to do so centering on God. In other words, the purpose of Christianity is to help us become the son or daughter of God, to become one body with Him, to become united with Him as bridegroom and bride, and thus to form one, united family. Before he passed on, Jesus taught us that our position before God is equal to that of children, a position bestowed on us as our highest treasure. He taught of the origin of the family in which we can carry out the great work of creation and feel the joy that comes from creation, as I mentioned before. The limitations of Christianity However, even though Jesus was the Son of God and had become one in body with Him, he could not prepare the position of the bridegroom with a bride who could become his object partner. If the nation of Israel and Judaism had, at the time, become one with Jesus and helped him receive his bride, he would have become the direct object partner of God and built the basis on which he could be a co-creator with God. Sadly, he passed away before he could achieve this. If sons and daughters centered on God had appeared and formed families at that time, thus giving rise to a new tribe, people, nation and world, this planet would have become the heavenly kingdom. It would have become the heavenly kingdom centered on God. Jesus was crucified because the people and leaders of his nation and religion did not believe in him. If they had believed in him, he would not have been crucified. If, at that time, the nation of Israel and Judaism had believed in Jesus and made a new beginning, attending the bridegroom and bride envisioned by God, its people would never have been scattered, and tragedies such as the Holocaust would never have happened. Such things came to pass because the first person in history who became the object partner of God, totally beloved by Him, was not received on earth. There is no sin greater than that. I believe that many followers of Jesus are here today. However, the Christianity that you now believe in is insufficient. If it continues down its present road, its followers may well be scattered like the people of Israel were, two thousand years ago. Today's Christians, who are spread out across the world, need to unite as one centering on God. Since the Lord of the Second Advent comes with Jesus' mission, if Christians do not prepare the foundation to receive him, they may be exiled like the people of Israel were. If they do not fulfill this condition, I foresee that the future of this world will be bleak. The Lord when he returns will come as the bridegroom and marry his bride in a wedding ceremony. This is the Marriage Supper of the Lamb that is mentioned in the Book of Revelation. Because the first human beings fell, we came to have fallen, false parents. The good True Parents whom God had envisioned as the original model of His creation did not emerge. This plan that God had in mind will be realized in the Last Days. Unless the True Parents emerge and give rebirth to humankind, by engrafting them to bring them back to God, human beings worldwide cannot be saved. The Unification Church emerged to build the ideal world of love What is the mission of the coming Lord of the Second Advent? We human beings lost the True Parents, who were to have attained perfection, without having fallen, and remained in the position of the parents of goodness. Hence, the Lord of the Second Advent is the one who comes to achieve this. This will open the way through which humankind can be fully loved by God again, starting from the family of the True Parents who can receive love from God. Which would constitute happiness? For sons and daughters who receive the love of God on earth and then go to the kingdom of heaven as a family, or for a family to be divided, with a devout mother going to heaven and the faithless father going to hell? Today's Christianity believes the latter. However, I say that we need to enter the kingdom as a whole, from the parents to the children. Families need to enter together, tribes need to enter together, nations need to enter together, and the entire world needs to enter the kingdom of heaven all together. When a global family centered on these new Parents appears in the future, and a new culture and tradition centered on the ideal of love are manifested on earth, this complicated, sinful world of today will be transformed into the kingdom of heaven on earth. For this to come about, you must know that there are clear steps for you to take. Therefore, it is the mission of the Unification Church to teach you about such things. Having condensed such a vast amount of material into such a short presentation, I skipped many parts so I could elaborate more in other places. I thank you with all my heart for your understanding and close attention. 2 • The New Future of Christianity March 9, 1974 Hyatt Hotel, Birmingham, Alabama, USA Thirty-two-city speaking tour in the United States Ladies and gentlemen who have gathered here this evening: I thank you with all my heart. The title of the speech I wish us to consider together this evening is, "The New Future of Christianity." Please allow me to share with you for a while on this topic. As you may well know, when people talk about the United States, what often comes to mind is that this greatest nation in the world is based on Christianity. The Lord comes to fulfill God's Will What I am going to speak to you about is not something that can be learned and understood through today's life of faith or theologies. It deals with a completely new perspective, and so I believe that you Americans need to listen to it. This is the reason I am appearing here. Since the Last Days are almost at hand, it is important that we clarify crucial facts of history beyond any doubt. Since hearing the command of God to go to America and speak out to you for three years, from 1972 through 1973 to this year, 1974, I have stood on podiums in every corner of the United States. I hope you will understand what is happening here. I hope and pray that you will realize that you and I are in the position of brothers and sisters who are living for the sake of God's Will and working to fulfill His Will. I hope and pray that, with a tolerant heart, you will not make a judgment right away if what I say offends the faith you have lived and believed until now. I pray that you will make a judgment only after you have searched and investigated extensively through prayer and meditation. We know that for the past two thousand years and up until this day, Christian faith has called believers to wait for the Lord. However, now that the Last Days are almost upon us, the time has come to do more than just believe in him; we need to make preparations to receive the Lord who comes in the Last Days. I believe that it is unacceptable for us not to make such preparations. Even when we are planning to hold a small event, it is only when we have drawn up a program and taken steps based on the exact details of that program that we can bring that event to a satisfactory conclusion. This event of the coming of the Lord in this day is the greatest event since the onset of history, the most important in the course of human history, and so we cannot think that it could be carried out blindly and without preparations. I believe the time has come for us to know clearly the exact details of what is to come. If you came here on a train bound for Birmingham, all you had to do was to ride on that train at your ease. Now that you have arrived, however, you must understand clearly the new direction and purpose you need to follow. It makes perfect sense that, within the order of Christianity you have believed in until now, there must be a certain organization that is making preparations for the coming of the Lord. The Lord must come without fail. Then for what purpose does he come? He comes for the Will of God. Then what is the Will of God? We, the believers of today, know that God carries out His providence through a Will behind the providence of salvation. What we also need to realize is that there can be only one essential Will of God. This providence of salvation of today is something that was not necessary in the world of the ideal of creation, the world as originally planned by God. Because that original Will was not fulfilled due to the Fall of humankind, the providence of salvation emerged as the process of working to complete the fulfillment of the Will. We need to clearly know this. God cannot go against the Will He has set. Since He is the Absolute Being, only when He has perfected that Will can He stand in a position of authority and dignity. Because this is the truth, we need to realize that God cannot become the absolute God unless He perfects fallen humankind by lifting us to the standard He originally purposed. God's Will for salvation and the mission of Christianity Then, if Adam and Eve, the first human ancestors, had not fallen, what kind of a world would have been realized? If they had reached perfection under the protection of God's love, He would have called them and conducted their marriage Blessing ceremony. That was the reason for His creating man and woman. If this had come to pass, we would not have the fallen ancestors of humanity on this planet; rather there would be the sinless, perfected and true ancestors of humanity beloved by God. Adam and Eve would have become the True Parents. After that, the true bridegroom and bride whom God could truly love would have been on this earth. Moreover, instead of brothers who are each other's enemies, true brothers would have been born on this earth, who could cooperate completely with the Will of God, who would live in the midst of His love, and who would belong to Hirn. This would mean that a family centered on God would have been formed on the earth, where sinless parents would have given birth to sinless sons and daughters, who would in turn have formed a sinless clan, a sinless people, a sinless nation and a sinless world. Thus, the human beings living on earth would have been under God's dominion both in name and in substance, and God would have become the King of this world. Such is the conclusion we can reach. If all this had taken place, there would have been no need for a Savior. Neither religion nor prayer would have become necessary. We did not know until now that the reason we need a Savior, the reason we need religion, and the reason we need salvation is a result of the Fall. Salvation presupposes the Fall having taken place. When one is ill, one needs a hospital to cure the illness, and when something is broken, one needs a shop to repair it. What is religion? It is similar to a repair shop or a hospital. This all refers to salvation. You need salvation because you are ill. Today's Christianity has not set the standard based on this principle; it advocates believing in Jesus unconditionally, without an understanding of the true meaning of salvation. This will not be enough. Then let us find out through the Bible what kind of world we are living in. It is written in John 12:31 that the devil satan is "the ruler of this world." How could that evil satan, the devil, become the ruler of all humankind, who are beloved by God? It is because humanity fell. For this reason, God and satan are enemies. As a result of the Fall, we came to have fallen, sinful human ancestors. A false couple came into existence, and false brothers who killed one another came into being. That couple gave birth to sinful sons and daughters, and this sinful family expanded to become a sinful tribe, a sinful people and a sinful world. Consequently, satan, the devil, naturally came to stand as the ruler. From this evil world, we need to move to a sinless world, and this is what salvation is. This move refers to salvation, and we need to know that it is nothing other than restoration. The original Will of God did not include the process of salvation. Therefore, we need to return to His original Will. The purpose for the coming of the Messiah is to fulfill God's Will. What is God's Will? It is to save all people in the world from satan, the devil, and then to exile satan from this world. In the places where you live today there is the devil satan, who accuses you when you commit a sin. You need to exile him. Today's Christianity does not know what purpose they need to pursue. Saying, "I will be saved and will go to the kingdom of heaven'' refers to a trivial salvation. We did not know until now that it is the Will of God to save humanity, and that it is also His Will to eternally exile from the earth the devil, satan, who ruins and violates humanity. If the Messiah, 'Y'ho needs to begin such a world, comes as a lone individual before satan, satan will seize and kill him. That is why the Messiah was sent to govern the world only after God had laid the foundation of forming a nation, passing through the restoration stages from the individual to the family, tribe and people, so that the nation and the people could unite with the Messiah at his coming. However, the followers ofJudaism did not know that the purpose of their religion and the reason for them being called as the chosen people was to make preparations for the Messiah's coming. This resulted in God's providence being extended, but even when the Lord comes again for the world, Go