---
title: "STONY PATH OF DEATH"
type: "speech"
published: "2018-06-20T05:39:41+01:00"
updated: "2018-06-20T05:39:41+01:00"
source: "/blog/2018/06/20/stony-path-of-death.html"
speechYear: "1980"
categories:
  - "Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1980"
tags: []
---

<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
<h3 align="CENTER">April 27, 1980<br />
Belvedere<br />
Translator &#8211; Bo Hi Pak</h3>
<p>What is this stony path? That is the road of providence or dispensation. No one in history or in the world today readily volunteers to walk the stony path. No individual, family, society or nation would like to walk a stony path, for they want to have a smooth road instead. People would rather drive on a highway in a scenic area instead of a desert. In the Oriental concept, man&#8217;s life is compared to a journey, and people think of life in terms of a happy and peaceful, or unhappy journey. Why are some people destined to walk a stony path? The reason is quite mysterious.</p>
<p>This desire is not limited to man, but includes nature. Grass wants to grow in fertile ground with lots of sunlight and nice rain, and birds look for a comfortable dwelling where they can be at peace. All of nature wants to live in peaceful circumstances.</p>
<p>But what about God? He also would like to have a peaceful existence. It is man who sets himself apart from nature in his suffering and struggles. Why? There have been many great and righteous people in the past. What kind of life pattern did they have? Usually they lived in tears, toil and hardship. Did they volunteer for that life or was it forced upon them by circumstances? Though they did not volunteer, their environment brought a hard life upon them. They lived a life of difficulty in order to overcome unhappiness for man. Those who pioneered the righteous path in history did so in tears and sweat.</p>
<p>Where does true happiness begin? Where does true peace or the ideal begin? Do true peace and righteousness begin after a life of toil and tears, or before these things? Why are they only found beyond that hill? Something went wrong. That something was the fall. Religion came into being in recognition that something was broken down by the fall. Without the recognition that there was some deviation from the original world, religion could not exist. The fall reduced mankind to an abnormal and unhappy state. Religion tries to overcome that unhappy state and bring man back to normality. Therefore, religion is on a collision path with man&#8217;s unhappy state, trying to shatter it into pieces.</p>
<p>Is religion based on the charismatic personality of its leaders, or on God? Religion must be based on God. Is God, who has to drive man onto this path of collision with unhappiness, a happy God? Man has only a limited life span, and in that brief time he has to go through much hardship and toil to overcome his unhappy state, but God has had to continue that struggle for thousands of years. Can you imagine His grief and misery in having to do so?</p>
<p>The fall of man is directly connected to the sorrow of God. Today we see people who live from day to day for fun and entertainment, but if they truly want happiness and righteousness they cannot continue that way; they must collide with their surroundings and rise above them. The first step in a life of religion is recognizing the tragedy of the fall, and trying to remedy that state. The fall brought misery not only to mankind, but to God. He has been living continually in struggle and unhappiness, but no man has recognized this.</p>
<p>Does the solution begins with man or God? If it is only man&#8217;s problem then we don&#8217;t have to worry about God, and if it is only God&#8217;s problem then we don&#8217;t have to worry about man. But the problem is equally serious for both man and God, and thus the solution must be structured in such a way as to include them both. Because the fall brought tragedy to both man and God, they must think along the same lines if they are to bring a solution. If God is crying then man cannot be laughing; if God is struggling over hills then man cannot skip over flat ground. Man always looks for three meals a day and a good night&#8217;s sleep. Is God looking for those things also? Is God confined by man&#8217;s calendar of years and life on this planet?</p>
<p>If you are sorrowful and someone comes to comfort you, will your sorrow automatically go away? You have heard the fable about the ant and the grasshopper, in which the ant worked hard during the summer while the grasshopper enjoyed idle time. Could the grasshopper understand the ant&#8217;s experience? The ant worked so hard that his waist became as thin as a thread, and he was exhausted with fatigue. Could the grasshopper comfort the ant if he never had experienced hardship himself? But the father of the ant could understand how the ant felt because the father had worked even harder than his son.</p>
<p>This analogy applies to man and God. God has worked hard, like the ant, while man has been like the grasshopper. In America people eat, drink, and disco. It&#8217;s a grasshopper&#8217;s life. How could such people say they understand God&#8217;s suffering? Would God be comforted by them? The only way truly to comfort God is to work harder than God and understand what He has experienced. Then God might be comforted by you.</p>
<p>Did God begin the universe in joy or sorrow? During the process of creation God felt joy and said that His creation was good, but did He feel the same joy at the fall of man? God&#8217;s joy would have been complete if man had become perfect in the object position, but that never happened. Therefore, human history started in misery, and God&#8217;s history was also miserable. There was no sound of joyful laughter, only tears. The echo of those tears has resounded throughout history down to the present day.</p>
<p>The sound of tears began history, continued through the centuries, and will be the future agenda of history unless we bring total change. This is the universal atmosphere surrounding our life, so if you are trying to be happy all by yourself it is futile. You are swimming in waters of unhappiness and it is impossible to get out by yourself. Does God have reason to grieve or not? His grief begins in the realization that if things had been different He would have been embraced in joy, but instead He is surrounded by sorrow. Is God&#8217;s situation clear to men?</p>
<p>Is it understood why men toil and sweat in tribulation? People know they have restless, unhappy lives, but they don&#8217;t know why they struggle so much for so little. Do you Moonies know why you are here and what you&#8217;re going to do? You are here to make controversy, aren&#8217;t you? Or just to fund raise? To be problem children to society? I don&#8217;t think you are treated like royalty here, with good food and nice clothes. The women don&#8217;t wear makeup; your only cosmetic is the water you wash your face with.</p>
<p>The world is in total darkness and people don&#8217;t know why it happened or how they can resolve it, but still they continue to struggle. Would God guide mankind along a flat, beautiful, scenic highway to get out of this situation? God knows that bringing a solution to the situation won&#8217;t be easy, so will God want you to forge ahead, or would He be lenient about allowing you to continue your past lifestyle?</p>
<p>Could God work out a solution in a happy way or a difficult way? God&#8217;s direction is to bring the solution by following a stony path, but religious people today shun the cross and ask God for blessing and money instead. To God&#8217;s ears such prayers are worse than seeing the lazy grasshopper-kind of man. Not only do such people not comfort God, but they want to steal something from Him also. Religious people don&#8217;t realize that they are driving one more nail into God&#8217;s back each time they pray that way. Instead of comforting Him, it causes Him more pain. On the other hand, if there is a group of people who can say they understand God&#8217;s situation and who want to take care of His sorrow, will they be closer to God?</p>
<p>Americans like pets, especially puppies. If one day there is a big fight between a husband and wife and the husband throws his wife out of the house, just by licking her hand and wagging his tail the puppy will give her more comfort than her husband. The relationship between men and God is somewhat the same. Man and God have been in conflict, with man defying God and demanding to know why he should go a stony path. God really needs the comfort of even a little puppy, but He doesn&#8217;t even have pets.</p>
<p>White people are telling God they don&#8217;t want to be bothered with a stony path in life, and black people are saying they have already suffered enough. Protest comes to God from all sides. Should God side with the white or black people in that case? It is a big problem.</p>
<p>I invited all our Ph.D. candidates to come this morning, and it is good for them to hear this. What kind of scholars are you going to be? Maybe you think you have bigger things to do than bear the cross, but anyone who thinks in that fashion is a thief. My reason for sending these people to study is to prepare them to go to the highest academic level and bear God&#8217;s sorrow there, not just to become snobby scholars. I want to grab their neckties and say their lives will be thorny and tearful. What will you say when I tell you that&#8217;s your mission? Are you ready? The snobby scholars thought that it is much better to say yes than no this morning!</p>
<p>Are you serious about God? How serious is your yes? How broad and hard is your yes? If you close your eyes and say yes, no one will trust your answer. If someone plucks your eyes out, will you still say yes? How much do you need God? The intensity of your yes is the key point here. The problem is whether anyone can stop you from saying yes, even if they chop your head off.</p>
<p>When you look at your own life, your yes gets smaller and smaller as you suffer through all the persecution and criticism and hard work. Even one of my orders is hard to carry out, but sometimes you get one dozen orders a day. You have a hectic schedule selling papers, witnessing, fund raising, plus meetings at night, and then you also want to squeeze in time with your fiancé. Initially you shove your fist in the air and shout yes, but after several days go by you are not so sure. When you hear me you become different people, all electrified and bright-eyes, but within a week after you go back to New York you are like melted chocolate.</p>
<p>A pig has always lived a certain way in his pigsty, so because he knows he cannot become a bird, he says, &#8220;Why should I change at all?&#8221; Are you determined to change? Your eyes can see what is good and your mouth knows the taste of good food, but in the meantime you have to go in the opposite direction, and it is painful.</p>
<p>There is no hiding place for me. When I get on a plane, people give me dirty looks and start whispering. I rode on the subway once and people started pointing and whispering there too. That has been the pattern of my entire life, in Japan, Korea, England, every country I go to. What is that good for?</p>
<p>Did that happen because I don&#8217;t know how to be diplomatic and get accepted by society? I have complete confidence that I could be the king of gangsters if I wanted. I could be the biggest swindler. I am a born fighter, and I never scale for second place in any battle I fight. Is that your image of battle manhood?</p>
<p>I could live my life comfortably and peacefully if I chose to, but right now I have absolutely no freedom. After all these years I still wonder whether I deserve any nice food that I eat, and check with God whether it&#8217;s acceptable for me to wear nice clothes. There is no night when I can go to sleep and forget about the mission. No one is asking me to do this, but my mind is completely bound by my purpose. Is that a happy life?</p>
<p>Not only internally but also externally I have no freedom. Everyone looks at me as the founder of the Unification Church, so I must act appropriately. I cannot just act freely and go anywhere and do anything. God would remind me that my enemies would be happy at that behavior, and He would not like that. BY worldly standards I must be a very unhappy person. At home I have no freedom even to reprimand my children the way most parents do, by spanking or yelling at them. There is a certain standard to meet and the world is watching. When I am frustrated do you think I could just explode and have a big fight with Mother? The entire universe is watching me.</p>
<p>Of course I get frustrated, and my fist might shoot out, but always it misses the target and returns to my side. Why should I live like that? That&#8217;s no fun. The only reason is to uphold God&#8217;s way. I know the true, suffering, anguished God of tears, and the only way to comfort Him is to bear His burden and uphold His honor. I know I am the only person on earth who truly knows God and can comfort Him.</p>
<p>I have been living in that awareness every day and I am determined to continue until I die. God has now said I have done enough and He told me to relax because He has been comforted by me, but that is the one command from God that I am defying. I cannot rest and I want to go on until I die. Will God send me to hell for that disobedience? Usually God punishes a person for disobedience, so why would God like this disobedience? Will such a person go to hell or heaven? Does that principle apply only to me or to everyone? The attitude of total sacrifice, of not wanting anything from God, is the key.</p>
<p>If God finds such sons and daughters then for the first time He will be comforted and wipe away His tears. A different kind of tears will be shed-tears of hope and joy. So far God has never shed tears of hope, only tears of despair and sorrow. But as He sheds more tears of hope He can gradually be liberated from sorrow and become happy. God is the emperor of heaven who has shed the most miserable tears, and God sent Jesus so He could shed tears of hope. But then God had to plan to send one more son so He could shed tears of hope and happiness.</p>
<p>Unless we go over that hill, there is no way to extinguish God&#8217;s tears of sorrow. My way of life and ideology is to change God&#8217;s tears of sorrow into tears of happiness. That is the crusade I have given my life to. Looking at the entire planet, there has been no place God could find hope, but in me He has found hope for the first time. God has to cling to that hope, no matter what the rest of the world says.</p>
<p>The secular world is against you, but the heavenly world will embrace and welcome you. That&#8217;s the side I choose. You have to shed tears; your eyes should not be dry, for there is no such thing as a true religion without tears. You do not know how much I have shed tears in prayer, like a stream flowing down. You have to cross that creek of tears to meet God. If you shed tears out of self-pity, there is no way God can connect with you, but if you shed tears for mankind and the sorrow of God, He will be linked with you.</p>
<p>The pioneering religious path is one of tears. In order to pioneer, step by step, the individual level, family level and national level, many tears were shed, so to inherit that tradition you have to inherit His path of tears. Those who want to become religious so they can have ease and peace are thieves and hypocrites. If you are trying to be comfortable in a religious life, it cannot work. Those who study God will suffer more if they are to close to God. Is that way of life closer or more distant to the heart of God? Would intellectual Americans agree with that thinking, or am I dumb for thinking so? Will you think that way?</p>
<p>I want my flag to be big enough to cover the entire universe so everyone can see it. Is your flag so small that there isn&#8217;t room to write &#8220;Moonie&#8221; on it? When people ask you who you are, do you hesitate to say you are a Moonie? You can say, &#8220;Don&#8217;t you recognize that I am a Moonie? I am clean cut and don&#8217;t wear any makeup. Only Moonies look like this.&#8221; Don&#8217;t you wrap up the title Moonie in a dirty handkerchief and keep it out of sight? Maybe you think you love me but you don&#8217;t like to be called a Moonie. Are you proud of being called a Moonie?</p>
<p>We can make the Moonie flag so big that it can cover the entire United States, and everywhere people turn they cannot avoid seeing that flag. Everything you do comes under your Moonie flag. Your makeup consists of washing your face in the morning, and your walk is a Moonie walk. Do you carry that kind of flag in your heart? I haven&#8217;t been able to trust you before today, but maybe your yes today is real; I&#8217;ll forgive you for everything up to yesterday, but from today you must be a proud Moonie.</p>
<p>When you hear me you feel good, but by the time you get back to World Mission Center the title Moonie is back in your pocket, isn&#8217;t it? When you leave here your pride should blossom even more. Those who are really proud in your hearts of being Moonies, raise your hands. Is your title in your pocket, or in your shoe? If you can really believe in the blessing and tradition of being a Moonie, God will bless you exactly as you believe. When you stand in front of the largest crowd you should feel that you represent God and that you will shame everyone into being heavenly people. You should not feel that your witnessing is for yourself or the Church, but to bring blessing to them. You are bringing the message for the sake of God, humanity and that person, not yourself. Why should you feel ashamed or embarrassed? There is no reason for it.</p>
<p>From today on be proud Moonies. Some people will be unkind and hostile, but don&#8217;t back down. Confront them and demand to hear what they actually know about Moonies if they have no facts or first-hand experience. One thing is sure. God will never dwell with a coward. He wants nothing to do with such people. I fight with a big sign up saying that we are Moonies. I will confront the Congress, State Department, and IRS with my flag flying.</p>
<p>If I am doing this do you want to hide and be meek? So far you have been unsure and weak and not spoken out. We have described how God is heartbroken and tearful, and we have to liberate Him and change His history once and for all. Can you accomplish this goal by hiding your Moonie flag in your pocket? Even Mafia thugs have pride in being part of certain mob families; even the pickpocket boys on the street are proud of their skill. Why shouldn&#8217;t you be proud as well? Being Moonies is the most honorable and distinguished thing in the world.</p>
<p>Even God is advertising and promoting Moonies, along with the whole spirit world. But you are hiding your title. How ridiculous that is! I am uncompromising with such people. Even some leaders say they should be diplomatic and slowly reveal who they are. That is no good. When the CARP movement has a demonstration, they have big signs saying who they are. The words victory and Moonie fit together very well. Moonie; Victory. Victory; Moonie.</p>
<p>God really wants to promote Moonies. Even if you are a simple fund raiser or witnesser, at least you should have pride to go out with guts and fly your flag. God will smile at your courage. The kind of person who doesn&#8217;t want to be known as a Moonie won&#8217;t last very long. There is an advantage to becoming well known even if later on you want to retreat, you are too well known to drop out of sight or contradict your own reputation. If you have testified a lot about me then you can&#8217;t go back on your word and be different. Your testimony is actually like a safety belt.</p>
<p>Some members don&#8217;t even have the smallest flag, and though they are in the Church they never think of themselves as Moonies. Have you been that way, or have you been proud Moonies? You know that persecution will come when the world hears you are a Moonie, but let me ask you-if you think you will wait until times get better, when would you like to be proclaimed a Moonie?</p>
<p>Imagine that you do a lot of service work in your area, helping old people and cleaning up, but you just tell people you belong to a church. Sooner or later first one person, then two and three, and finally everyone will know you are a Moonie. Then they will look at you as a hypocrite and a coward. They will see that your good deeds had a shady side. People will say that you are sneaky and have some secret plot so they will be wary of you.</p>
<p>Many people have thought that a subtle tactic would work better, but in many cases that is why the Unification Church is being persecuted today. If they had squarely said they were Moonies, even though they were persecuted initially, much future persecution would have been prevented. But because you have been cowards, I am bearing the burden of it.</p>
<p>What color flag would you like to have? A spotted flag is one that you show when it is convenient, and hide when it is not. The Moonie&#8217;s flag has a white background, with letters in red. Red represents heart.</p>
<p>From now on it will be more difficult to hear me because I will speak less frequently. It is a rare privilege to come on the morning when I speak, and there are many mornings you come when I am not here. Maybe you think I have given a long enough sermon now. Normal Moonies favor short sermons, but in time you will want longer sermons and wonder why I speak only a short time. The time will come, however, when there are no longer any sermons at all. In time you will be guided directly by spirit world, so you really won&#8217;t need to hear a long sermon from me. I will tell you to follow your guidance from spirit world, period.</p>
<p>Those who have experienced tears during your prayer, raise your hands. Which kind of tears did you shed, sad tears because you were tired and felt you couldn&#8217;t go on? Have you shed tears for God? How do you know God has shed tears? Your experience with God has been indirect. How can you relate to God? How can you change and be linked directly to God?</p>
<p>The key word is Father God. Even at the time of Adam and Eve God was invisible, but Adam and Eve were created to be the visible form of God. They were like the body of God, and God was like their mind. In spirit world as well Adam and Eve would have been the visible form of God. God created man so He could manifest Himself in a visible form; He wanted to have a visible form to communicate with. Second, God created man to fulfill love. God is our Father. Man is the temple of God, and inside the temple dwells a mind which is a microcosm of the infinite God.</p>
<p>How far is God from you? He is as near as your mind, for that is His dwelling place. God knows good and evil, and your mind also knows what is good and what is evil. Your mind knows whether you are headed for heaven or hell. Your mind is a proper guide, but the problem is whether your mind is strong enough to pull your body toward the goal. If the body fails to obey then you go to hell. You resemble this infinite God because you possess all the elements of that God. In order to be His child you must be like Him.</p>
<p>All of history hinges upon one word-restoration-because Adam and Eve never became God&#8217;s dwelling place. Right now your body is always pulled in the satanic direction, so your mind has to be anchored to God and be able to conquer your body. Your little mind must become big in order to do that job. Right now there is a race between the two, and when your mind overwhelms your body there is no chance your body can go astray. The person who can discipline his body most will grow fastest. You have to make it a habit to subjugate your body to your mind, a process that takes about three to seven years.</p>
<p>Therefore, you should do whatever your body dislikes. The body always goes in a satanic direction, so you should do whatever it doesn&#8217;t want to do. Whenever it wants to sleep, stay awake. This is why we do many things our bodies don&#8217;t like. Our bodies don&#8217;t like to fund raise or fast or witness, but that&#8217;s what we do.</p>
<p>Those who are trying to hide the fact that they are Moonies don&#8217;t have their mind and body united. It is as though they put on makeup to go to the outside world, but make their faces black when they go before God. Tell the world that you are in the image of God and you resemble Him, and that thus you can bring salvation to the world. That is the only way the world can be saved, and that should be your pride.</p>
<p>Do you go the flat path or the stony path? Have you ever imagined how rugged the stony path is? You women want to be blessed with handsome, elegant men don&#8217;t you? You are so silent all of a sudden! Your eyes are cunning in a way because they recognize when a man is handsome and tall, and then you hope he might be your husband. But you must deny what your eyes see and what your body wants. Ask God for the ugliest possible man so that you can look at him as being in the image of God and serve him. People always say, &#8220;Yes, yes, yes, except for one thing.&#8221; That &#8220;except&#8221; is always the problem.</p>
<p>It is my experience that God is the champion at disguising Himself. He tries to give you the utmost love, but in order to ensure that you are qualified for it, He will disguise that love in the form of the ugliest person. When you truly love that person as you love God and give God your thanks, then God will slowly reveal Himself through that person. If you get a handsome husband or beautiful wife, you should think that something must be wrong that God gave you such a person.</p>
<p>A beautiful face always receives more temptation and always gives more temptation; when a handsome person says that you shouldn&#8217;t have to suffer by living a Moonie life, it is always more tempting. There is always temptation behind a beautiful face, so watch out. Goodness dwells behind the ugly facade, and furthermore, no one will look at that person except you!</p>
<p>Some of you may think I say this because I already have a beautiful wife. But actually I really asked God to give me the ugliest, fattest woman in the world. I was totally ready to receive a 250-pound wife because I thought God might want me to appreciate His bigness. If you have a small wife then you can think God wants you to enjoy His charming side.</p>
<p>You have to overcome what your eyes are telling you. There are many conspiracies and plots being planned in the world; do they use beautiful or ugly men and women to carry them out? If you have a beautiful face you should think you must be careful that Satan does not use you. But if you are ugly then you can think that you are on God&#8217;s ground and there is no problem. Black people can think they are lucky to be black because it is the safest place in God&#8217;s heaven. White people are more arrogant, while black people have no room for that. You can thank God for bringing you closer to Him.</p>
<p>God is very fair. Can you overcome what your eyes tell you? You weren&#8217;t given eyes so you could look at the world in a secular way, but so you could shed God&#8217;s tears. That&#8217;s the most precious way to use your two eyes. You like to hear sweet words, don&#8217;t you? You have to cross over the hill of your ears also. Maybe your husband is not only ugly, but every day he grumbles and complains. What would you say? In order to separate your thoughts from Satan you have to think that the grumbling is sweet music from God. When your husband keeps snapping and nagging, give him his breakfast and tell him to nag afterward. At night tell him to sleep and then nag tomorrow. Do that for forty days, and then he will say it is no fun nagging because there is no response from you.</p>
<p>Your nose is very sensitive. Mother likes and dislikes certain smells, but I know the day will come when she likes the smells that she dislikes now-such as a toilet smell, or the body odor that some Westerners have. Overcome the hill of all your senses. How many exams have you passed? You can always come up with excuses. Some people might say they can&#8217;t get up early because their hips are too small and they don&#8217;t have strength in their back. Another person might say her hips are so big she can&#8217;t carry them early in the morning! Your body always makes excuses.</p>
<p>Your hand knows what your body wants, so your hands reach for the nicest food before anyone else gets it. You should tell your hand to reach for the things other people don&#8217;t like. A woman&#8217;s body offers a certain temptation and has a certain craving to be touched, so women have to cross the hill of hips and bosom. Men also have their own hill to cross. You have to transcend temptation and not do what your body wants.</p>
<p>There are seven tests to go over: eyes, ears, mouth, hands, nose, legs, bosom and hips. Keep a list and cross off each test as you pass it. But denying temptation is only the beginning. Then you must utilize all these organs to cry out in understanding God. Have you ever experienced having not only tears running down your face, but saliva drooling and your nose running as you cry in prayer? If someone tries to talk to you at that time, you don&#8217;t hear them, and if they touch you, you don&#8217;t feel it. Furthermore, with that heart you want to shed every drop of blood for the people. God wants to see your whole body dripping sweat as it works for humanity.</p>
<p>That is because Adam and Eve fell in sorrow and shed tears in sadness. Cain shed blood when he killed Abel. They shed sweat in tilling the land. How do we know Adam and Eve shed tears? They recognized that they were fallen and separated from their Parent. That was the beginning of history. Cain shed Abel&#8217;s blood and began the first war between brothers. Finally, the children of Adam and Eve shed sweat. In the satanic world the early pioneers on God&#8217;s side shed sweat.</p>
<p>This is the way history has been sown, by individuals, families, tribes, nations and the world, so it must be harvested on all those levels. History began in the wrong way, so we must turn it over and cross the boundary to a new level. Can you shed tears without crying? You must become the king of crying heavenly tears. You can only overcome historical tears by shedding tears on all levels of restoration</p>
<p>God has been shedding tears all these years, not for Himself but for humanity and the world. Therefore, we shed tears for God and humanity, not ourselves. The secular world sheds tears, but heavenly tears should be greater than those tears. I knew that dispensational path had to be walked, so I never cried for myself, or my family and parents. I cried more than anyone else on earth, but my tears were for God and humanity. My tears soaked all my clothes, even my thick winter clothes.</p>
<p>That&#8217;s the only way I could inherit God&#8217;s kingdom and lay the foundation for the Unification Church. Those tears are the root of the Unification Church. I would like to change the tears of sorrowful people into heavenly tears shed for God&#8217;s circumstances. Just as Adam was kicked out of the garden, so I was kicked out of my own home, family and nation. Neighbors and brothers tried to kill me by sentencing me to a prison where prisoners were worked and starved to death slowly. But I shed tears and overcame death; furthermore, I shed more sweat than anyone who ever lived.</p>
<p>Even in prison I never complained. I never explained how much pain I endured. My only worry was that my blood and sweat were shed for God&#8217;s sake. You have to cross over and make restitution for all historical debts through your sweat, blood and tears. No one can compete with me in shedding tears. In my life I have set the record for shedding tears, for suffering the most, and working hardest.</p>
<p>I did that to pay the historical debt and cross all hills to lay the bridge that all mankind might cross over. Fallen mankind has been burdened by a debt of blood, sweat and tears. If you ask God to tell you some of His experiences since the fall, there is nothing else He can tell except a story of sweat and tears and blood. He has no other history but that. Today&#8217;s Christians truly don&#8217;t know what God is all about. They imagine Him sitting on a glorious throne enjoying life, but that is not true at all.</p>
<p>Someone has to liberate God and He cannot do it Himself. The agony of parents, or of husband and wife cannot be solved by themselves alone. The agony of parents can only be solved by children; the agony of a husband can only be solved by his wife, and the agony of a wife by her husband. The only way to liberate God from His sorrow is by becoming a son of filial piety to take over His agony. Or by becoming like a wife who is taking over the agony of her husband.</p>
<p>Even if you are not the children of certain parents, or the wife of a certain man, if you serve those people more than their actual children or wife, you will actually be closer to them than their own family. The only way to help is to show more filial piety and genuine devotion than their own children or wife would do. If you show even more love and devotion to God than Jesus did, then you will be closer to God than Jesus was.</p>
<p>Do you think I truly love God? The same truth applies to you. If you give more sacrificial love to God than I do, you shall be closer to Him than I am. I suffered all my life for God, but if anyone of you can do better then certainly God will be closer to you. This principle applies to everyone. If God loves you more, will I be jealous at how you are doing better than I am? No, I will dance with joy that finally there are men and women who love God more than I do. That will be the greatest of all news, and then I won&#8217;t have to worry any more whether the Kingdom of Heaven will be reality and God will be liberated. I will be happy to follow such people.</p>
<p>God wants to follow anybody who has such love. If you shed your sweat, tears and blood all your life for God, then because of you God will be able to shed tears of happiness and hope for the first time. What other honor could you ask for? You won&#8217;t have to worry about going to heaven; God Himself will personally escort you to the highest place. The greatest path in history is the path of liberating God from His sorrow.</p>
<p>A true son of filial piety will move his parents&#8217; heart to tears. The true loyal subject will move his king to tears. If many subjects can give their lives for their king and queen, they will certainly be moved to tears. That is my goal-I am giving all my devotion to the task of liberating God from tears of sorrow and moving Him to shed tears of happiness. That is the root of the Unification Church.</p>
<p>Adam shed tears; Cain and Abel shed blood; Seth shed tears and they all passed these tears down to history. In order to make restitution, Noah shed sweat, blood and tears for 120 years in truly sacrificial devotion. That&#8217;s why God can use that faith to wipe out the world of tears, sweat and blood. When Abraham left his home he shed tears; his son Isaac was offered to be a sacrifice, conditionally shedding blood; his grandson Jacob really shed sweat. This is the pattern of pioneering the dispensation.</p>
<p>Moses was thrown out of the Pharaoh&#8217;s palace, and many times he shed tears. Jesus shed blood on the cross. The Lord of the Second Advent will shed the most sweat in finally building the Kingdom. It was sown at the time of Adam and Eve, and is reaped in this way through history.</p>
<p>Someone must liquidate the sorrowful blood, sorrowful sweat, and sorrowful tears of history, and then build a new history of joy in laboring for the kingdom. Because of rejection, tears, sweat and blood were shed at the time of Moses, Jesus and the Lord of the Second Advent. If there had been acceptance, they would have shed only sweat in building the kingdom. At the time of the Lord of the Second Advent restitution must be made totally; therefore, the Lord must be a king of sweat, tears and blood, paying the debt of all history.</p>
<p>All of history&#8217;s sadness must be liquidated. Therefore, this is the time of harvesting that sweat, blood and tears. The tears of the past were false; there was much blood shed in the past, but it was not the true blood shed unselfishly for God. Without going this path in the righteous way there is no way you can inherit the Kingdom of Heaven. Does this just seem to be true, or is it really true?</p>
<p>This is my path, and I have lived it triumphantly. Now it is your turn to do so in the same position, inheriting what I have done. You have shed tears in the past, but when you met me the meaning of those tears was changed into tears of joy and hope. Your tears of despair are now tears of happiness. When home church is consummated and you are really embraced by the people as being God&#8217;s messenger, then you shall truly have tears of happiness.</p>
<p>When that day comes and the people of the world can shed tears of happiness, I will shed tears of happiness to see it. Then, seeing me shedding tears of happiness, God will finally be able to shed tears of happiness. God is looking at this place, with five colors of skin gathered in one common love, for one common goal, shedding tears of joy and hope as parents and children, and that scene will bring God tears of joy and hope.</p>
<p>This is why Jesus said that he who would save his life would lose it, and he who would give his life would save it. We shall overcome the thorny path of death. Either you go over it, or you retreat in fear and trembling. If you can cross over it, the family, tribe, nation and world will all go over the thorny path of death.</p>
<p>What kind of life do you lead? Just live as I have. There is no other choice. Since you cannot deal with the whole world like I have, you have been given home church, where you will do as I did. By doing so you will be given the same recognition as if you had saved the whole world. You shed tears for home church, and suffer almost until you die, and be persecuted almost until you die. The Cain-Abel struggle is going on in home church and you might almost be killed, as I was almost killed, but you must overcome and conquer death there.</p>
<p>Until you overcome Cain, the stony path of death remains. You must be a pioneer and shed sweat as a living sacrifice. Until the time that your home church people will shed tears and sweat for you, you must keep going. But when you come that far then you are liberated, and you can shed tears of hope and happiness. Then God will say, &#8220;Amen. You have done it and truly you are my son.&#8221;</p>
<p>The stony path of death must be overcome. Your world is 360 homes, but in finishing that dispensation you will receive recognition just as if you had done it for the whole world. If you don&#8217;t like to shed tears or want to go to home church, then you have rejected your chance for blessing and you must inevitably decline. You want to go over the hill, don&#8217;t you?</p>
<p>Temptation is waiting everywhere to block you through your body. I am not just trying to convince you so you&#8217;ll work harder for me. This is the only viable principle, and it has been upheld by the entire universe and spirit world. Spirit world will be your judge. They know I am qualified, and now they are watching you to see how you are living. The Book of Revelations talks about the 144,000 who will welcome the Lord and be lifted up into heaven. If we have that many home churches here in America then we could almost cover the entire nation.</p>
<p>The time will come when there are so many people in the Unification Church that there won&#8217;t be enough homes for everyone to have 360 homes. Then the extra people will have to go to Africa and find 360 homes there. If you don&#8217;t do home church well then people won&#8217;t welcome you in their homes and will look for someone better to be their messiah. They will kick you out and get a messiah who practices what I am teaching.</p>
<p>We must jump over the stony path of death. How do you do it? By shedding more tears for home church than for your parents, your home or yourself. Shed tears, blood and sweat for your home church, period. If there had been no rejection at the time of Moses and Jesus then my path would have been easier, but instead everything was left on my shoulders. By myself I had to overcome it all, step by step, shedding sweat and tears for all of history. I have done it, and now I am asking you to do it on a limited scale, but still you will receive the same recognition I did. Isn&#8217;t that a good deal? That is your destiny.</p>
<p>You might die in the process of shedding tears and sweat, but don&#8217;t worry; you will not lose, but will be in the highest heaven. In that case you can make your own second coming. Jesus was crucified as a tribal messiah and was not able to complete the entire dispensation, so he came once again. In the same way, if as a tribal messiah you are martyred, your second coming is guaranteed, and on earth the people who inherit your mission will continue home church. There is no way you can lose.</p>
<p>We will create the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. God created the Kingdom of Heaven on earth, but Adam and Eve destroyed it, so we men and women will rebuild it. Shed sweat for God and humanity and cry out. Then you will know the tears of hope and happiness that are waiting for you. You will be like an Apollo 11 that takes off and lands in the bosom of God. That is exactly how I have lived all my life, and am still living. Since all these things are now prepared to leave to you, even if my life ended right this minute I would never be a failure. The dispensation would go on and the Kingdom of Heaven would become a reality.</p>
<p>So far I have preached many times about home church, but now it has come to the ultimate level. When you hear this you have to become crazy about home church. Your position is like Jesus&#8217;, that of a tribal messiah crying out in the wilderness. Just as God prepared John the Baptist to testify to Jesus, God will also send a John the Baptist ahead of you to testify about you. It is hidden now, but in your area there are people prepared, just as God prepared the nation of Israel.</p>
<p>Home church is the place where you overcome the stony path of death. This is the one subject you must consummate in your lifetime. Without it, there is no room to be accepted in heaven. When you want to visit me or my family in heaven, it will be impossible until you meet the standard of home church. That is your 5 per cent responsibility. It doesn&#8217;t have to take seven years; if you do well it could be done in seven months.</p>
<p>1987 is seven years from now, but you don&#8217;t have to take that long. Either seven months or even three years is adequate. If you fail to do it in seven years then it will be postponed for 21 years, and you don&#8217;t want that. If we neglect the time of the dispensation then you will have to literally shed your blood at the hands of communists. You know it, don&#8217;t you?</p>
<p>Shall we leap over? Those who can say they will then you will have to literally shed your blood at the go over the path of death, raise your hands.</p>
<p>Let us pray.</p>
