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<h1 class="page-title">Category: <span>Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</span></h1> </header>
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<article id="post-1857" class="post-1857 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1987">
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<h2 class="entry-title">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/i-shall-follow-with-gratitude-and-obedience.html" title="Permalink to I SHALL FOLLOW WITH GRATITUDE AND OBEDIENCE" rel="bookmark">I SHALL FOLLOW WITH GRATITUDE AND OBEDIENCE</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:51:47+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/i-shall-follow-with-gratitude-and-obedience.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:51:47+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 25, 1987<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
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<p>The words “I shall follow with gratitude and obedience” are good words, aren’t they? What kind of people are we? What kind of work do we do? You say that we are religious people; what do religious people do? Well, the answer is rather simple: religious people are those who are heading for heaven. That is one definition of religious people. Therefore, those of us here are heading for heaven.</p>
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<p>In your wildest imagination, what do you think heaven would be like? One certainty is that once people get to the spirit world everything is revealed; nothing is hidden. People have many shells here on earth; so much is concealed under clothing and other coverings. But in the spirit world everything will become very visible. Would you find that fearful or interesting? Someone answered both!</p>
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<p>Imagine a person walking down the street completely naked; that is the kind of situation we will face in the spirit world. Our life on earth should prepare us for such an exposed existence in the spirit world where nothing can be hidden. We should expect all aspects of ourselves to be apparent to others.</p>
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<p>More is demanded of people in the spirit world than on earth. One reason is that, unlike earth, heaven is the home territory of God’s administration. God is in control of everything there. Heaven can be roughly divided into three layers, each with its variations of courtesy, language, manner of address and lifestyle. In the spirit world there are differences in ethics, beauty, language, and many such things and people are expected to uphold these standards.</p>
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<p>When people are elevated from earth to heaven, they are given no chance to modify themselves in preparation; they must go just as they are. Even at the most unprepared level, people should still be able to distinguish between good and evil. That is a primitive but basic human capacity.</p>
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<p>People on earth can be roughly divided into three categories: those who are committed to the good side, those committed to the bad side, and those who are in a position to choose either way. Heaven is for good people and hell is for bad people. Even on earth these distinctions between good and bad people are often apparent. They are visible in the United States, for example. Some people lead an obviously undesirable way of life; in any community you will find such people.</p>
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<p>It is obvious where violent people and gangsters are heading, but what about drug abusers? You might consider them in the middle, but if you are a bit more discerning you would call their way of life clearly bad. A person may be violent or part of the Mafia, but that affects mostly his generation. Someone in the next generation may change his path and become a good person. By contrast, drug abusers pass their burden on to their descendants; their children are affected regardless of what they do.</p>
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<p>Gangsters and bad people in general can repent deeply and be transformed. There have been many examples of such changes. But drug abusers hurt their bodies and minds and they cannot change so easily. Furthermore, no matter how much they repent they cannot erase their effect on the second generation. So their condition is worse. If some parents had not abused drugs, their children might have been born as geniuses and become great scholars or outstanding citizens. But parental drug abuse can inflict physical maladies and deformities on the children and make them very miserable. This is a serious crime to commit against one’s own children, and it can wash away the foundation of goodness of an entire family.</p>
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<p>When Satan wants to destroy something especially good, drugs are the most effective strategy. If Satan is devoted to destroying a country, the United States is his first choice. Drugs and drug abusers are rampant here, so can this be considered a good country? No, it is the worst country in the world in this respect. If drug abuse becomes out of control, God may withdraw His blessing from this country. Should such Americans to go to heaven or hell? You said hell. That is your own answer.</p>
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<p>Would you like to see the United States perish? Who can save this land? Conventional Christians can also become enmeshed in drugs. Even moral and ethical people can be drawn into that way of life, so who in the world has enough power to save them? Somebody has to do it. There must be some group that hates drug abuse and is indignant at drug abusers. Such a group must rise above indifference and recognize that drug abuse is the enemy of God and mankind. They need to rescue drug abusers by whatever means necessary. Can we expect today’s Christians to do that job? We need to be filled with enthusiasm and longing to take up this task; we need to save these people.</p>
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<p>But not everyone believes in the Moonies; not everyone feels Moonies can be trusted. Sometimes I feel that way too! Are you real Moonies? Do the real Moonies outnumber the fake or half-hearted Moonies? Upon close examination, there seem to be few real Moonies, few people deeply committed to the Principle.</p>
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<p>I have been bearing the burden of the United States and the entire free world; now I want to transfer it to your shoulders. Are you ready to carry it? Moonies are good at taking things; if someone brings something to you, you will take it. Moonies will do a little good-just a bit- but then claim to have accomplished it all.</p>
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<p>You may consider such an attitude ambitious, but it is actually thievery. A thief tries to take everything with little effort. If you closely study such a person, would you call him good or bad? If a group is like that, you would call it bad too. If I am the head of that group, am I automatically a good person or a bad person? When you pursue the question this way, you realize it is a serious issue.</p>
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<p>Let’s think about what constitutes a real Moonie. Are there many real Moonies? When a person ponders a given task, analyzes it thoroughly, and then-if he thinks it is feasible-slowly sets to work on it, is he a real Moonie? How about someone who responds to a new challenge by resolving to learn it quickly and then carry it out, is he a real Moonie? In your opinion, do religious people usually know what is ahead of them? Does a religious person know what he is going to do in the future? Can he predict his environment? No. A religious person trusts everything to heaven and carries on.</p>
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<p>A good example from the Bible is Noah. Did God tell everyone in Noah’s family and community what was going to happen? No, He revealed it only to Noah. Furthermore, God did not command him to build the boat on the seashore but on a mountain top. People might not have had so much difficulty believing in Noah if his shipyard had been by the sea, but anyone building a boat on a mountain top would be considered crazy.</p>
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<p>If Noah’s wife opposed her husband and called his work absurd, the children would most likely adopt her attitude. Why did God choose to work this way? Why doesn’t God explain things to everybody? When history is in transition to a new era, when mankind is being lifted up to a new world, people are first asked to deny everything. Without denying existing criteria and existing customs, no one can make the transition to the new world.</p>
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<p>John the Baptist dwelt in a wilderness and lived off locusts and honey, the wildest sources of food. Try to imagine how he appeared to people. His clothing was the bare minimum; it was never washed or mended. With so many holes in his garment, the wind passed through it freely. How many baths do you suppose he took in a year? How do you think he smelled? He didn’t have any apparent dignity.</p>
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<p>Not only was John’s appearance strange, but his message was unfamiliar as well: “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand.” People didn’t find those words in the Old Testament. John the Baptist was shouting out a message they had never heard before, a teaching with no biblical grounds. You can imagine that when he called out for repentance, his listeners would retort: “You repent. I have no reason to repent; I have been following my tradition. You repent because you are trying to go against the Bible.”</p>
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<p>Do you think it was easy for someone to remain a disciple of John for very long under those circumstances- or even to become one? His disciples must have eventually run away. People consider John the Baptist a great person now, but this is how he appeared then. It was extremely difficult for people to persevere in such an environment.</p>
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<p>Even Jesus seemed to be nothing more than a carpenter, and not even an independent carpenter at that. What authority or dignity did he have that people could respect and understand? Very little. When he said he was the son of God and asked for their full faith and trust, was it easy for people to follow him? No, it wasn’t.</p>
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<p>When you consider all the obstacles, whose circumstances might be most favorable to faith: those of Noah, John the Baptist, Jesus, or Reverend Moon? In the eyes of the world, at least I dress well and say reasonable things. People can test my words and discover that they are always reliable. Even then, people have not found it so easy to believe me. But compared to the three biblical figures, whose situation is more conducive to faith? Thank you for believing in me!</p>
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<p>Consider the importance of faith in these various examples. Of course, every demonstration of commitment is important, but the impact varies according to the circumstances. In whose time was faith most important: Noah’s, John the Baptist’s, Jesus’, or now? You say that faith has the greatest value now, but in whose time was it the most difficult to believe? Noah’s. Those who have the biggest faith receive the greatest reward in heaven, right? Those with the highest faith occupy the highest positions.</p>
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<p>Do Moonies have the highest faith? You say yes, but something is inconsistent. You said that faith has the greatest value now, but the faith of people in Noah’s time, when it was hardest to believe, must have been greater! Faith has its judges. If someone from Noah’s time were to evaluate today’s religious people and distinguish between degrees of faith, what would he say about the Unification Church members? How would he rank you in comparison to others? Would he assign you to the highest or lowest realms of heaven? Noah and the people of his time would not want to elevate you.</p>
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<p>Are you still serious about getting to the highest heaven? If so, you need something upon which to base your hope. What kind of grounds do you have for such a far-fetched hope? You might say home church, but first let us reason it out.</p>
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<p>Comparing Noah, John the Baptist, Jesus and Reverend Moon in understanding rather than faith, who understood the most about the future? Who was the most competent? Who knew God’s will thoroughly and had 100 percent confidence in it? Do you think Noah proclaimed that a big judgment was coming in 120 years and pleaded with people to have faith? Do you think even John the Baptist was exactly sure of what he was talking about? Do you think Jesus knew precisely what was going to happen in the future?</p>
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<p>If someone had placed Noah or John the Baptist in prison and subjected them to the kind of torture I endured, they might have been broken. They might have succumbed to temptation. But history records that I came here singlehandedly from the Orient, confronted the white people in this highly developed country, told them they were wrong and proclaimed the right way. And I have won. After returning from Danbury, I am even more confident of the need to change the current condition of this country. I am 100 percent certain, and I am working at it day after day.</p>
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<p>In Noah’s time, people’s knowledge and faith were only partial, let’s say 30 percent. But now when our knowledge is 100 percent, if you have even 30 percent faith, the total is still 130 percent! Your faith may be similar to those who followed Noah, but your additional knowledge raises the total that much. In Noah’s time, nobody but Noah knew much about what was going to happen; the others just carried on with faith. The same was true at the time of John the Baptist. His followers knew very little but somehow they trusted that John was correct and had faith in him. For Jesus’ disciples it was much the same.</p>
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<p>Now suppose you have the same faith as the people of Jesus’ time. Your degree of faith may be 30 percent, 70 percent or more, but still it can’t really be called faith because it varies from time to time. Once we gain confidence and make a determination, we must keep going, regardless of rain, sleet or even bullets.</p>
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<p>Jesus lived in a very small country; Judea and Galilee were not large at all. Israel was smaller than many states or provinces of modern nations. It takes only four hours to drive around that area today. Even if the whole world opposed Jesus, it was a small world. Our world today, however, is much more vast and has developed a high level of technology. When this world opposed me, the persecution was far greater.</p>
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<p>Our situation today is unique in many ways. I have been imparting to you maybe five times the knowledge available in the past, in addition to tremendous faith. I have carried out my mission, teaching each of you to do the same. I have shown you the how and why of everything. Now you should have a precise idea of what is going to happen.</p>
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<p>Don’t think of this as simply my words or merely advice from one of your contemporaries. Ask Noah about it. Put yourself in Noah’s position and see if you don’t gain a clearer perspective of today’s situation. The people of Noah’s day didn’t grasp anything, but here in the Unification Church you understand so much.</p>
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<p>On the other hand, none of you knows exactly what course I will take in the future. The president of the Unification Church in the United States does not know. None of the leaders know. In some ways, not even Mother knows where I am going next. Then whom should you follow? You say you will follow me, but what if I should make a mistake? This is a serious question.</p>
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<p>Today we have achieved almost everything; there are few areas remaining which require faith. Once we know everything, faith will no longer be necessary. We are reaching that point.</p>
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<p>Forty years ago when 1 announced what the world would be like in the future, people had a very difficult time believing it. Forty years ago I knew these things and I taught them; there was nothing I did not cover. I predicted the world’s situation today and what we would have to do. This means that we have truly come a long way.</p>
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<p>Do you think I made a sudden appearance on this earth? God spent thousands of years making preparations for this time. I can say this and you Moonies can accept my word, but others will gain this insight by observation. When people realize that the impossible and unimaginable things I foretold 40 years ago have become a reality, they will perceive that God invested thousands of years in preparing for me and has been continually guiding my path.</p>
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<p>Korean people understand me better than anybody. They heard my words and witnessed my deeds 40 years ago. Of course it was very hard for them to believe then, but now they see what those 40 years have produced. In Korea today great numbers of people who are not even our members believe in me. Whatever I predicted has come true and I am still going strong. Therefore, they feel it makes sense to agree with my words and expect me to carry out my promises.</p>
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<p>God labored for thousands of years to arrange my course in life and even my very birth. For 40 years before I came, God had been preparing America and preparing Christianity, reforming the Christian churches. America was ready and Christianity was prepared for the course I would take. Multitudes of lives were sacrificed during World War II. For what purpose was that foundation laid?</p>
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<p>We have come so far that now when I state publicly that America needs to be transformed centering around the Unification Church, people can nod and say, “Yes, that is probably right.” Not being members of the Unification Church, they do not know all the details, but they can understand the main point. People realize that when I announce something big, it eventually becomes a reality.</p>
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<p>More and more people will seek my advice. .N candidate for office may come and ask whether an idea he has fits into God’s plan. But I will never go to someone and ask him to help our cause. Who is the subject: the one who receives help, or the one who helps? It is the one who helps, of course. That is why I am the subject. I am glad to help, but I endured many hardships in order to reach this point.</p>
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<p>Do you realize that there are many other people who take religion and spirit world very seriously? There are sincere Christians who go to the mountains to pray, enduring much suffering to commune with God for long hours. They are praying for the savior to come to earth and for God’s will to be done. Do you know how earnestly they pray for the Second Advent? They have been waiting for a long time. This is the kind of foundation Christians have been laying over the centuries. Compared to them, how much have our members sacrificed on God’s altar?</p>
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<p>For hundreds of years Christians have been praying, but they never found the answer. Some people prayed for the Second Advent for 50 years and died without seeing it. Still their foundation remains. But you Moonies know the precise time! Where did that knowledge come from? Did you earn it? Did you work so hard and pray so earnestly that God revealed to you the precise time? No. I earned that knowledge and I gave it to you.</p>
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<p>This is a serious point. Even without accomplishing anything, you know so much. If you really understand this, you can connect directly to the topic of today’s sermon. How large is your basis for gratitude’? Could you buy this knowledge with millions or even billions of dollars? A century ago, or even as recently as 70 years ago, you could not have received the knowledge available today, regardless of what you did. Yet you have received this priceless treasure without paying any sum of money.</p>
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<p>Since you have been given such knowledge free of charge, you should maintain a proper attitude toward it. Something valuable should be treated with care, respect and devotion. My concern is whether you have adequately displayed these qualities.</p>
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<p>There are many Japanese members here. They came all the way to America without knowing the language and they suffer here with us. Did they come because Japan is a poor nation? No. Their only reason for being here is that they are following me. When I asked them to come, they came in obedience and faith. They feel tremendous gratitude that I trusted them enough to give them a very difficult mission. The more difficult the mission I give them, the more grateful Japanese members are to me for considering them great people.</p>
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<p>If I love you and if you want the maximum love from me, my expression of love is to give you the most difficult task to perform. Would you want an easy mission or a difficult one? When you ask for a difficult mission, do you mean it? The most difficult missions I could assign include witnessing to Kim Il Sung and Mr. Gorbachev, so that we can turn Russia upside down, or influence the important people of North Korea. These are very difficult missions. Even if it is not realistic for you to expect such a mission, still you should think seriously about it.</p>
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<p>You may feel these missions would be overwhelming, but how would they compare with a command to open the gates of hell? To liberate hell would be more difficult. When you see how great the challenge is, would you still be confident enough to do it? In order to open the gates of hell, you would need not only to approach hell but to enter it. In hell, people will kick you, scratch you, pull on you and do everything imaginable to you. In spite of this, would you persevere?</p>
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<p>Let’s make one more comparison. Which do you think is easier: to open hell’s gate or to create heaven here on earth? They have different levels of difficulty. Since Satan already has his kingdom here, you might say it is more difficult to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth. If I entrust you with such a mission, you must at least have the key to open hell’s gate and the blueprint for building the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth.</p>
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<p>You say you are willing to try to open the gates of hell, but I don’t think you have the key. How do you propose to do it? Likewise, do you know the blueprint for the Kingdom of Heaven? Do you understand exactly how to go about establishing heaven? You say yes, but the Principle doesn’t show how to carry out these tasks.</p>
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<p>Today you understand that the two greatest challenges are to open the gates of hell and to build the Kingdom of Heaven here on earth. These are the two most difficult missions. To accomplish them we need a qualified individual, a qualified family, a qualified race and a qualified nation. It actually takes a nation to carry out these missions.</p>
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<p>In selecting a country, would I choose the least developed country or the most developed one? The United States is the most developed nation, yet this country is on the verge of destruction. At least a third of the people seem paralyzed by drug abuse and immorality. If God looks throughout the land, can He find a person or family to dwell with? Very few places or people qualify. Everyone seems so individualistic. Individualism is what God hates the most and what Satan likes best.</p>
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<p>Actually there are no good alternatives to the United States. No matter what other country I may consider as a possible candidate for the task, my mind always comes back here. Even though the people are numb to evil and individualistic and all that, it still seems to me that this country is unquestionably the best hope. The United States is actually composed of the world’s elite. From Europe, Africa, Asia, and Latin America, the prime, Abel-type people have come and are investing their hopes here. The United States is the land of hope. Those who long to achieve something on earth still consider their best opportunity to be here.</p>
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<p>I have been studying every angle of approach for this country, searching for ways to bring Americans to their senses and revive them. I have been painstakingly exploring every means of awakening this country.</p>
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<p>When you go to home church, notice how differently you are treated now than you were three or four years ago. You find the atmosphere warmer, don’t you? I am getting attention; my words and actions are being noticed. People will tell you that what I am saying is good. That is why they are paying more attention to my extensions, you members. This is the first step toward understanding me.</p>
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<p>People are realizing not only that Reverend Moon is not bad, but that I am much better than what they supposed. People’s minds are turning. It is also becoming evident that those who hate me are violent, unethical people or are communists. The rest of the people welcome what I say and do. Young people on the campuses are becoming aware that the Moonies’ philosophy of marriage is really great. Students have a lot in common, whether they are Korean, Japanese, American or German.</p>
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<p>Germany, for instance, has barred me from entering it for the past seven years. It has been a very fussy country. But even though I have not been to Germany for the past seven years, I have made a foundation there just as if I had been present. Germans take the Unification Church very seriously now.</p>
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<p>There are three guiding principles for the world to choose among: democracy, communism and Godism. People throughout the world were inspired by the potential of democracy, especially in the United States. But the reality is that Republicans and Democrats continually fight among themselves. They are virtually unable to accomplish anything. It is clear that democracy as the United States knows and practices it cannot be the model for the world.</p>
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<p>People recognize that communism cannot do the job, either. Although democracy is inadequate, many people prefer it to communism because communism opposes God and is so oppressive. Intellectuals have recognized the accomplishments and shortcomings of democracy; they also know that communism is out of the question. Now that the fruits of communism and democracy are apparent, people are beginning to consider Godism as the answer.</p>
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<p>Over the past four years I have worked very hard and made an unshakable foundation. Scientists and scholars, theologians and philosophers have been mobilized toward one consistent goal: making an ideal world. I have outlined the blueprint for the ideal world and explained God’s will to retired military officers. Ministers have realized that Christianity is wavering and unable to do the task. Journalists, politicians and business executives have been told about God’s ideal.</p>
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<p>I have devised a model seminar that lasts three days; whoever goes through this program will start to focus on God. No one can change a person in three days by military or political power. The media cannot accomplish this. But I have established a course through which people can willingly and gratefully change in God’s direction. More than 200 political leaders have gone through it; they find the experience intense yet enlightening.</p>
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<p>A dramatic confirmation of the power of the truth took place a few days ago in Korea. People were demonstrating in Inchon against the government, accusing the military leadership of corruption and asking people to invite Kim Il Sung to come down and establish a communist utopia. One person was so convinced of this, he said he would argue his points with anybody. Policemen, professors and intellectuals came to debate with him and try to dissuade him, but he would not listen to any of them. He had absolute confidence in Kim 11 Sung and the communist cause. Everybody seemed to have given up.</p>
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<p>Then one member humbly approached the group and was given permission to speak, based on the reputation of the Unification Church for accomplishing things. For three hours our member spoke very intensely and the procommunist man responded, “I never heard such things. Where did these ideas come from?” Then he cried and acknowledged that he had been wrong. In just three hours not only that individual was saved, but people around him were affected as well. He said he had been to every school and university throughout South Korea, establishing programs and organizing demonstrations. He said there were many people who think like he did. “Godism is the ideology that can lead all people,” he concluded.</p>
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<p><i>(In English:) You </i>are standing on the foundation that can produce such phenomena. How grateful you should be for your situation. That’s true! Compared to all the sacrifices that have gone before you, your situation is so good. No matter how hard people worked in the past’ they could not reach the level you have attained. This is the reality. You didn’t know it clearly before. This is a most precious ideology, a most precious teaching. Our situation is so fortunate. How can we compare it to God’s situation?</p>
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<p>Until now, we did not realize how much we had. In reality, we have not been going a very faithful way. We must follow the timetable of history from a clear perspective, from a principled viewpoint, from God’s idea.</p>
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<p>You analyze too much. You say that America is different from Korea, from the East. What I am teaching is not a Korean or Eastern system. This is God’s system, God’s organization. He works through me. The point of origin is God, not me. You call things Oriental custom, but Oriental people have opposed me. For 40 years they have opposed me. If I were following Oriental custom, why would they oppose me? Because I do everything the opposite way, they automatically resist me. They have been divided into camps, one side against the Unification Church and one side supportive. They have been fighting for 40 years. Now it is different.</p>
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<p><i>(Translation:) </i>No matter what I tell people from other countries, they believe it. Compare this to the attitude of the American Moonies. You demand to know things clearly. With your attitude, do you think you can lead, teach and save the world? It is a very, very difficult situation.</p>
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<p>You have been giving God and me so much hardship. Is what I am saying true? You have to change your situation or you cannot approach God. You have to develop a different attitude. You are called Moonies, so you must be the same as me. For a long time I have been lonely, working every day to make a foundation. My situation has been so difficult. You didn’t know it. I have waited such a long time.</p>
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<p>You should be thankful and grateful. I have always been grateful to God, no matter what happened. You are here as a result of your ancestors’ dedication. This is the culmination of history. Millions of people have lived on earth and are now in the spirit world. You should live gratefully, with no complaint. A complaining attitude does not work in the spirit world. You will have to settle accounts for everything done in this world. Time is flying. Like an arrow that is shot from a bow, time goes out and disappears. You cannot stop its passing.</p>
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<p>Many ministers, priests and theologians have spent all their lives learning the Bible. They know Christian history thoroughly and they understand the situation of Christianity but they don’t understand the Principle. Likewise many scientists may be brilliant, but without knowing the Principle they are lacking the most wonderful theory and ideology.</p>
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<p>This is the best tool for building the ideal world. You cannot find such a teaching anywhere else. My whole lifetime has been spent on it. This knowledge brings power, spiritual power. Be brave. Go everywhere. This is your task. When you leave your house, there are no boundaries to limit you. The atmosphere of the world has changed.</p>
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<p>A lawyer has told me that he didn’t believe in me at first but now he confesses, “Father, you were right.” How about you Moonies? You absolutely need me. There are many things you do not know; therefore, you need me. God knows. I know. How much have you been grateful during my lifetime? You don’t know what will happen ( after 10, 20, or 40 years. You complain about your wife or husband, but think about the great happiness that could come after 40 years!</p>
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<p>In Moses’ era, things were ten times more difficult. When you are pushed into a corner, you can call out to God and He answers, “I am here.” Persecution is part of the indemnity course; God allows it to continue. I went through 40 years of persecution, 40 years of indemnity. You must continue in this way. You are my children: therefore, you have the same course as mine.</p>
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<p>If you say you don’t like home church work, you mean you are satisfied to go only to the lowest level of heaven. But everyone longs to reach a high level of heaven. Strive to be more grateful. Obedience is difficult.</p>
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<p>The principle of a single central figure is absolute. Looking at things from a normal perspective, two central figures might be more convenient, but when there is only one, no disputes can arise. God always chooses one key figure who has no parallel among his contemporaries. In Noah’s time there was only one central figure. In the 20th century there is only one central person, from God’s providential viewpoint. Who is it? Reverend Moon. God doesn’t want a second person, no matter how famous or powerful he may be. God wants just one person.</p>
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<p>God’s world is absolute, not complicated by many concepts. So you have to be obedient. You find obedience difficult because you analyze things too much. When you continually analyze things, you eventually come up with a different way. The way of obedience is less complicated, so it’s easier.</p>
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<p>I’m not only your father, I’m also your leader. I am learning English even though the only time I have for studying is after midnight. You are young people. At your age, I didn’t have this kind of atmosphere. Your situation is so hopeful. You should develop the attitude that the task is possible, not impossible.</p>
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<p><i>(After speaking in Japanese for about 10 minutes, Father asks the Western members if they understood what he was talking about. Then he continues in Korean.)</i></p>
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<p>Think about the courses of Noah, Abraham, John the Baptist, Jesus and me. You have to surpass all of them. There is no reason why you shouldn’t be able to do it because I have pioneered the way. The followers should be able to outdo the pioneer. Since you aren’t as tall as I am spiritually you should try harder, work harder, and accomplish more so that some day we can be together on the same plane. You don’t want to be ashamed in the spirit world.</p>
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<p>Harmony, not conflict, characterizes the spirit world. Its guiding principles are balance, gratitude, love and harmony. The reason we undergo such tremendous hardship here is so that we can live in harmony with heaven. You need to round off your rough edges here. You should learn to appreciate things. Thus your ears must be trained to recognize great sounds; your eyes need to cherish godly beauty, not worldly beauty. There are many things you need to learn to value.</p>
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<p>lf you are willing to take on this task, I won’t have to worry about your gratitude. If I started complaining about you, what would you do? The more grateful you can be the sooner the course of indemnity will be over. Actually, I felt like complaining but there are so many of you, I would have to complain in too many ways, so I decided to hush up!</p>
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<p>If you resolve to be obedient, I won’t have to worry about obedience. If you follow even in difficult circumstances, Satan will become very unhappy and will limp along. If you complain, however, Satan will dance and rejoice. The only way to defeat Satan is to be obedient. All the outside world will admire you if you do that. Now you understand the theme today, “I shall follow with gratitude and obedience.”</p>
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<p>Our motto for 1987 is the <em>Unification of the Fatherland</em>. That is a very difficult task. It is not just a concept. It is a real activity with tangible results. The only way to accomplish it is through gratitude and obedience.</p>
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<p>Suppose I ring a large bell in the World Mission Center at 3:00 am, calling everyone together, no matter how tired they are. Would you assemble without complaining? Well, let’s wait and see! Actually, your obedience has usually been rather restrained. You need to learn absolute obedience. I have often heard Americans mention the word absolute. Let’s have absolute gratitude and obedience. I don’t like a mediocre or half-hearted response. My desire for 1987 is absolute obedience and absolute gratitude.</p>
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<p>Those who can say, “Yes, Father, I may not be so capable, but I can agree with your wishes and I will work to fulfill them,” raise your hands. Thank you.</p>
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<article id="post-1855" class="post-1855 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1987">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/lifestyle-of-prayer.html" title="Permalink to LIFESTYLE OF PRAYER" rel="bookmark">LIFESTYLE OF PRAYER</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:51:18+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/lifestyle-of-prayer.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:51:18+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON<br />
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January 18, 1987<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Sang Kil Han</h2>
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<p>Our title can be loosely translated as <em>Prayer that we Develop Daily</em>, or <em>Living Prayer</em>.</p>
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<p>In school, who are the best students? They are those who think about studying all the time. Always their studies are foremost in their minds, with no room for extraneous thinking. If you compare their attitude to a color, we might say it is white. It is not red or black or a mixture of colors, but rather clear and white. Such a student is always focused, consciously or unconsciously, on his goal. If that student is majoring in a foreign language, then he relates everything he thinks and does to the equivalent words in the foreign language. He is very involved in it. All his thinking is occupied with his subject.</p>
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<p>The same is true with business people. A good businessman always thinks in terms of the business he is engaged in. Everything he sees and hears, he immediately relates to his business. When he reads something about business, he feels it is connected to him. He always appreciates new ideas that can help his company.</p>
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<p>The same goes with a researcher. If a person is entrusted with the mission of scientific research, everything he thinks and does is centered on finding the solution to the problem. In other words, it blends with his life. His life is a continuation of his research.</p>
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<p>If we say, “He’s a good friend of mine,” how do we define that? A friend is defined by how much he thinks of you or how deeply he cares about you. To that degree you say he is a good friend. Good citizens or patriots are those who care and think about their country to a great extent.</p>
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<p>If you think a lot about something, your actions will be influenced. What you do depends on what you think and how deeply you think. If you are a good influence on your environment or school or country, then people will call you a good citizen, a good family man, a good member of society, and so forth.</p>
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<p>We can think about the cosmos in a similar way. The cosmos will look at a person and evaluate him according to this criterion. If a person really thinks about and loves the universe, then the universe will say that he is good. If he cares about the universe all his life and assimilates that concern into everything he does, the universe will say, “That person is a universally good person” The same is true for a good wife and a good husband.</p>
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<p>We can draw the same conclusion about God. We can ask, “What is God’s personality?” God is the center of the universe and there is only one God. He is somebody who is not replaceable. He is an absolute being with absolute love. What is God’s wish? Since He is an eternal being with eternal, absolute love, He would want someone who can be with Him in love for all of eternity, not temporarily, but eternally and without change.</p>
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<p>There are many different world religions, including Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism and Hinduism. Among all these religions, which one is the best, according to God? If a religion stresses love as most important and teaches and practices eternal love, then that is the best, most superb religion for God.</p>
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<p>What about the Unification Church? What kind of religion is it? God most loves the religion that respects and loves Him and teaches people how to practice that love forever and ever. Are those of us in the Unification Church like that? Are we truly unified and thinking in one direction?</p>
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<p>What is a son of filial piety? He is the one who discovers what his parents love the most and always tries to care for them, doing what they like the most. The parents and others can call him a child of filial piety. The one who centers his deeds and thoughts on his parents, focusing on the love he can give to them is a son or daughter of filial piety.</p>
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<p>Then what is a patriot? The patriot is a person who has a loving mind towards his country. Wherever there is a problem, he thinks about it most seriously and wonders how to solve it and contribute to the good of the country. He does not create problems for the country but works to solve them instead. There are patriots on the world level, as well, whom we might call saints. Their love is not confined to a country but extends all the way to the world. Such a person thinks all the time about how to make the world better.</p>
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<p>The thing that pious sons and daughters, patriots, and saints have in common is their concern for others, the world, and the earth. Then let us turn our eyes to God, the center of all the universe, earth and heaven. Is there any person who loves and thinks about God, centering on a positive and loving relationship with Him? Such a person does not confine his thoughts to earth but also thinks of eternity and invisible things like the spirit world. This person would love God and care about the betterment of the entire spirit world, as well as the earth. His thoughts and everything he does would be aimed toward that goal. This would be an ideal person before God.</p>
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<p>If members of the Unification Church are asked, “Do you want to be a patriot, or a saint, or a holy child of God?” We unanimously say “holy child.” No matter what color of skin we have or whether we are tall or short, there is nothing else that we want to be. It is easy to say you want to be a holy child, but do you think it is easy to become one? Everyone would want to be one initially, but in time, like in a school course, many would drop out. Not everybody will make it to the end.</p>
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<p>What do you predict? On the average, how many people would get less than a fifty percent mark? What percentage of people would make more than fifty percent? Put your imagination to work and, in view of the difficulty involved, what percentage would make it? We are reminded of Abraham in the Bible who prayed to God to save Sodom and Gomorrah if He could find two or three righteous persons, not holy sons but just righteous persons who were standing on the right side. Of course, we know that God destroyed those cities.</p>
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<p>What would be the exchange value for one holy son or daughter? If you had one holy son, would you exchange him for ten thousand righteous people? You’re right. He is priceless and there is no exchange. To God, one holy son cannot be exchanged even for millions of righteous people who might be living on the face of the earth.</p>
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<p>Then we realize that Jesus Christ had this value, equivalent to the rest of the world. You know that this is a down to earth concept and not just a theory about Jesus’ value. Would the holy son look different from other people, from righteous or not-so-righteous people? He would have two eyes, one nose and one mouth in the proper positions. He would not really look externally different from others.</p>
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<p>Do you think you could distinguish Jesus in a large crowd? He ate food, didn’t he? Then Jesus probably ate often with his hands, since he didn’t always have eating utensils. Can you imagine a holy son eating with his hands? How could Jesus be a holy son? He had no manners! Maybe he appeared to be a barbarian! Do you think in Jesus’ time there were bathrooms and indoor toilets? Were there sinks for people to wash their hands after they went to the bathroom? Well, if there were no such things, where would Jesus go to the bathroom? Most likely he just went outside, don’t you think?</p>
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<p>Jesus was a carpenter. Do you think he had nice clothing like some of us are wearing now? No, he probably had a ragged appearance and his clothing was unwashed. You can imagine how coarse his mode of life was. If you had lived closely with Jesus, would he have smelled pleasant? Perhaps not, but can you still call him a holy son? Indeed, he was a holy son of God in spite of all these really undesirable external things.</p>
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<p>Let’s compare ourselves to the situation of Jesus. Don’t you think we are much better off externally than Jesus was? What is the difference between us, then? It is what Jesus had inside. There is a world of difference between a holy son and someone who is trying to become a holy son. What he had inside was totally different from what he looked like on the outside.</p>
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<p>Anyone who has a valuable possession will try to hide it in a secret place, the place most difficult for other people to find. Isn’t that true? Can you look into other people’s minds? Minds are invisible, aren’t they? There are five billion people on earth, but no one can steal something stored deep inside of your mind. Why? First, because it is not visible. If you cannot see it, how can you steal it? So where would you want to hide the most precious thing that you own? You would like to store it where no one could steal it, where no one has access.</p>
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<p>God is an invisible being and so is His mind. Can God see His own mind? What is your guess? God is a mystical being in the sense that there are some areas that you cannot know or see so quickly. Even God, who is almighty, would like something to be mystical. If you know everything, it is not fun, is it? It would not be exciting or stimulating. In reality, I have experienced that even in the spirit world, I could not see God. I could hear Him and feel His presence, but I couldn’t see Him. So all people living in the spirit world are searching to understand God more and by doing so, come to love Him more and more. Everyone is trying to better themselves and get nearer to God. This is true. I know it as a reality.</p>
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<p>Where do you find the most precious thing? If God has something most precious, don’t you think He would hide it in a place that would be most difficult to find? If you were God, you would probably do that, wouldn’t you? God would hide it away so well that even He sometimes would have to think, “Where did I put it?”</p>
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<p>What God would value the most is not money. He can produce any wealth He wants. Likewise, He has all the knowledge and power in the world. What He cannot have without us is love. We know that. Can we see love? No, love is not visible. We are talking about true love. The more you experience it, the more mysterious and precious it seems. The more you find out about it, the less you seem to know about it.</p>
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<p>Where can God’s love be found, in Himself alone or through other things? Yes, it is true, we need someone to respond to, someone to have interaction with, and so does God. Love cannot be experienced alone. There must be a circuit. Who is the object of love to God? It is man and woman.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon is the biggest “heretic” in today’s religious world, especially Christianity, because what he teaches is that God and man can unite into one. Many ministers jump up at that and say, “No! Where did you get that idea? God is holy and men are not!” They just fiercely oppose that idea. But this interrelationship of love between subject and object is so simple and undeniable. The simple truth is that you cannot have love without an object. You simply cannot form a love relationship. That means we human beings are no exception. We must stand in the position of an object of love for God and His love as the subject. Is that true? Do you really feel that you stand in that position?</p>
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<p>Who do you think feels more mystified, man or God? People feel that God is a mysterious being. But in looking at you, does God feel that you are also a mysterious being? What do you think, is our side or God’s side more mysterious? This is a subtle question, but it is an important and serious question for man.</p>
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<p>Imagine that God could be so fascinated by human beings that He would completely forget we were His own creation. Looking at a woman, for instance, the way her eyes move and how crystal clear they are, He would be fascinated. He wouldn’t get tired of looking at her all day, the way she talks, the way she smiles. Since He is fascinated, don’t you think that God would like to touch that person with His own hands? Then He would feel so fascinated with her nose and eyes that He would not only want to touch her but to kiss that nose and those eyes.</p>
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<p>If something is fascinating and mystifying, there is no limit to exploring it. You want to look at it from the outside, from the under side, and in the darkness at night. It is just unlimited. God would really like to possess such a mysterious person. Don’t you think so? He has an overwhelming urge to make someone His.</p>
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<p>If God wants to possess you but you say no, what would God do? He is so strong, could He force you to be His? No. God would probably try to win your interest by showing you something you would also be fascinated and mystified by. He could bring money, or maybe power or knowledge. But we know that one gets tired of money after a while. It is not something we want to die with. It is not a mysterious thing.</p>
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<p>We need something that we can own, but then we want to own it further. We want to touch it and then feel satisfied, but soon we want to touch it again and again, going deeper and deeper. You see it in the morning and you want to see it again at noon. Then you want to see it again in the evening, when it is even more beautiful. You want to have it today and you want to have it tomorrow.</p>
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<p>That which induces this kind of attraction is nothing other than love. Can you name anything more fascinating than love? It is truly priceless. Can a man alone have that love? Where can we find that kind of love? Yes, you said it, with your spouse. For a man, it is his wife and for a woman, it is her husband.</p>
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<p>Are men that important to American women? Maybe you just need him in order to have him run errands. You want to keep him around like a servant? If a man really brings you the priceless gift of love, then he is priceless too, isn’t he? Love is priceless but that man is equally priceless. Yet how many American women think that a man is not very valuable?</p>
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<p>Imagine if there were only one man and 2.5 billion women. Then how valuable would that man be? Have you really stopped to consider that your husband is a priceless being who brings you that best mystifying gift of love forever and ever, not just for a few years? Have you ever thought about the value of that person? More than half of all American marriages end in divorce now. Think about the cause of divorce. Only the women can answer this question: Who is more likely responsible, women or men, for this high divorce rate and breakup of the family? It is women. So, now you know how to behave. You have to think, “Oh, since I am a woman, I must be careful.”</p>
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<p>You are American women. Do you think the average American woman would be like you, so docile, sitting on the cold floor early in the morning listening to Father’s words? When I scold you or pound on your head, you sit so nicely and obediently. Can we find even one American woman like that out in the secular world?</p>
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<p>Let me continue the line of questioning: Do more women or more men go to Heaven? We have to be candid and frank about this. After all, the first condition before we can go into the Kingdom of Heaven is to be frank. Absolute love needs to be stored in an absolute vessel. Women are more changeable, so they often cannot contain unchanging love as well. Therefore, it is likely that there will be more men than women in Heaven because men can better contain absolute love. There are some who are not satisfied with this!</p>
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<p>Each and every one of us, no matter how humble or ugly we may be, is absolutely essential to God. If someone wanted to erect a human museum of typical people, do you think there would be a beautiful woman in the showcase or a homely woman? What is your guess? If there were a beautiful woman, then certainly there should be a homely one as well because there should be some contrast. Contrast gives beauty to all things.</p>
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<p>Did you know that it is a common rule that beautiful women have less blessing – very thin blessing – while homely ones have greater blessings? A beautiful woman might be compared to shallow water and an unattractive woman to deeper water. The beautiful woman shows off everything that she has, but a not-so-beautiful woman’s expression is more subtle. A beautiful woman adorns herself with earrings and jewelry and all of that, but a less attractive woman doesn’t pay so much attention to what she wears. She thinks, “Well, if people pay attention to me, fine. If they don’t, that is also fine.”</p>
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<p>God has this invaluable, priceless love which is much more precious than any treasure. If He wanted to store it in a woman’s mind, which would be the more appropriate place, a beautiful woman or a not-so-beautiful woman? You see, a beautiful woman usually shows everything off all at once. Father will look at her and know about her instantly and that is the end of it. She might have no mystery. But what about a less attractive woman? Everything is hidden inside of her. The longer you associate with her, the more her good qualities come out. So wouldn’t God like to store His treasure in a not-so-beautiful woman?</p>
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<p>This is not a man’s imagination, this is such a clear and obvious thing. The offspring of beautiful people are often on the decline. They can even become beggars. But a plain woman will have offspring who achieve great heights. So women, what do you want to be from now on? Do you want to be beautiful or not-so-beautiful? Father asked a clear question, so you have to answer it in a clear way.</p>
|
||
<p>I am always thinking and I am always very busy, so I do not speak nonsense. I am talking about an important point. If you American women look in a mirror and your heart sinks because you feel you are not beautiful enough, raise your hands. One day I would like to find, by what criteria I don’t know, the ugliest woman on earth and put her picture in the human museum. When you look at things the way I explained them, you can see that God is really fair.</p>
|
||
<p>For Western women especially, which is more interesting: one flying butterfly or butterflies in pairs who are sitting quietly on a bush? Which butterfly is more representative of the Orient and which is more Western? Westerners who see an Oriental person for the first time may wonder what’s going on in his mind. You can’t tell if he is happy or unhappy. Which does God choose: the way of showing off or the quiet way? When you let others know you quickly and immediately, is this really desirable? The one who advertises himself can never be chosen as a master of things. A master does not show off or make himself visible so much, but he is the center and the master.</p>
|
||
<p>This morning I want to make the point that no woman should worry excessively about her appearance. Never think that you are ugly. Remember that God will one day look for the most homely woman and show her off in a museum. Some woman might have a big nose which is a source of misery for her. But I see her and think, “That is a beautiful nose. A person with that kind of nose has a certain blessing guaranteed.” In fact, this is true. I am immediately attracted to someone with a big nose. While I am talking, my eyes go there again and again. Don’t ever be disappointed about the way you look.</p>
|
||
<p>Today’s topic is prayer. I’m not talking about setting aside a little bit of time each day to pray, but the type of continuous prayer which you do while conducting your daily affairs. I’m talking about one consistent prayer, a lifestyle of prayer. In such case, your mind is focused on your prayer even while you are eating, while you are walking or talking with other people, your ultimate desire is your prayer.</p>
|
||
<p>We all have to experience this kind of prayer. The first step is to rearrange our mind, our thoughts. Since our thoughts are subject, they have to be stable because our body responds as the object to our mind. So first we have to have a firm goal. What is our goal? Because God is our subject, we want to carry out everything according to what God wishes, not what we ourselves prefer. Our purpose is to do whatever God wants to achieve. This is very important.</p>
|
||
<p>When we pray, for whom do we pray? What would be more appealing to God: to pray for the sake of oneself or for the sake of God? If we pray for the sake of God, “I come on the scene only secondarily. First it is God, then me as God wishes me to be. My preference is always to be on the side that God is on. If God is on the east side, that’s the side I want to be on. But if I pray and find out that God wants me on the west side, I must say, “Yes, I want to go to the west side” If we think, “No, I want to be on the east side no matter what You think,” then our prayer cannot succeed.</p>
|
||
<p>God has a purpose for us and God is the main theme of prayer. You should never forget this. You don’t have to pray too much about yourself. Those who pray for themselves will decline, and those who pray for God and the rest of the world will rise.</p>
|
||
<p>Most Unification Church members know that the restoration of the world is the ultimate objective of prayer. All day long you think about the world and maybe for a few minutes you verbalize it and pray, “Heavenly Father, please help me work today for the sake of the whole world and for You!” That prayer is more powerful than a prayer for small things. Small prayers are like leaves and twigs on a tree, whereas the other kind of prayer is like the trunk.</p>
|
||
<p>Many times while Father was in Danbury, Mother and many church members thought, “We miss Father so desperately. We cannot replace him.” But I thought of it a different way: “Think of how the world is going to be after I come back from Danbury. That’s what matters, not my going into Danbury and suffering for the time being.” Now every one of us can see the result so clearly.</p>
|
||
<p>It has been only one year since I was released from Danbury, yet during this time more things have changed in our favor, or in God’s favor, than during our previous ten years of intense suffering. Even after that ten years, the people persecuted us and misunderstood us more, but after Father came back from Danbury, that misunderstanding has dissipated and the persecution has quieted down. People are trying to understand us with an open mind. Imagine. Ten million Americans signed in the CAUSA signature campaign, which shows their desire to support what is righteous. How much of a change this is compared to ten years ago!</p>
|
||
<p>God’s ultimate goal is world salvation. Contrary to the belief of most Christians, their denomination is far less important than the world, and the individual is even less important. The salvation of Christianity is important, yes, but God would sacrifice even this for the salvation of the whole world. This is not rhetoric.</p>
|
||
<p>After the Americans won the war in 1945, a period of confusion began. By the 1960s, when President Kennedy was assassinated and Dag Hammerskjöld was killed, America was clearly declining. The country really started to plummet when it began to drastically cut its foreign aid because that was against God’s will. Until then, the world had looked up to America with hope, love and respect but after that, people around the world were saying, “Yankee, go home!”</p>
|
||
<p>When America and established Christianity both failed in carrying out God’s dispensation, the Unification Church took over and became the sacrifice in their place, totally taking responsibility for God’s will. Do you thoroughly understand the root of the Unification Church? It is Reverend Moon of course. Actually, to describe me is not that difficult. Simply speaking, I am a person who thinks like God. I’m on God’s side.</p>
|
||
<p>The main theme of the Unification Church is not Reverend Moon or the church itself. The ultimate theme is God. Whatever God wants, I will do. God has to restore the entire world, and to do that He needs a central person and a central group. Through Reverend Moon and his work, God is trying to restore the whole world.</p>
|
||
<p>Therefore, I have an unmistakably clear view of what the world will be like in the future. What I predict comes true because I clearly understand God’s formula through which He works His dispensation. God is the center of our prayer. Therefore, we have to understand His formula so we can pray in accordance with His desire.</p>
|
||
<p>First, we need to establish a firm understanding of the relationship between God and man. In all other religions except the Unification Church, this idea is unclear and ambiguous. However, we know that the relationship between God and man takes place on eight levels: God and the individual, family, clan, race, nation, world, and cosmos. God has an image of what the races will be like in the future, what the nations will be like, and what the cosmos will be like. From the very beginning you were taught that you have to go through each level. You are clearly going through that path in the wake of my pioneering.</p>
|
||
<p>The primary thing you have to understand is the relationship between God and yourself. You can pray for your own sake, but it must go through the proper sequence. You can pray, “Heavenly Father, I know what You desire of me, but I find it so very difficult. Please help me and my family to do what You ask of us.” Don’t just throw words away and hope they will be listened to. Not at all. Rather, you have to be consistent and go along with the order of all things.</p>
|
||
<p>You should say, “Our Father, my goal is even beyond my family. My goal is saving this country, but before that can happen, my family has to be unified. We are having a problem of unity in our family. Please, God, I will do whatever You want me to do, but please help us establish our family in Your way.” You have to see yourself not through your own eyes but according to the order and sequence that God looks at you.</p>
|
||
<p>Secondly, we have to understand responsibility and indemnity. If the fall hadn’t happened, there would be no purpose for religion. Everyone would already be living joyously with God. But that is not the case. Because mankind fell, we must be restored and fulfill our five-percent portion of responsibility. The individual has a certain responsibility to God, the family has a certain responsibility to God, and so on. Step by step, we have to come all the way up to the place where God originally created mankind to be.</p>
|
||
<p>Because of the fall, Satan came into being and he does not want to let mankind go. In order to shake loose from Satan, we must do something he cannot do, that is, pay indemnity. Without paying indemnity, we cannot fulfill our portion of responsibility and it is only by fulfilling our responsibility that we can reach the world of love. Thus we have to pay indemnity, separate from Satan, and fulfill our portion of responsibility, in that order.</p>
|
||
<p>Anyone in the indirect dominion must fulfill his responsibility before he can go up to the direct dominion of God. If we are accompanied by Satan, God certainly cannot accept us. We have to know this clearly or else we cannot go the path.</p>
|
||
<p>In the original ideal of creation, we wouldn’t have had to restore anything. We would have just lived as we were designed to live. But because of the fall there is a tremendous gap, an insurmountable wall between us and the ideal. We have to go over that wall. When we pray, we shouldn’t pray vaguely or ambiguously. We must pray, “Heavenly Father, I know the original ideal of creation, but I am not that way, nor is the rest of mankind. I need to be restored to the original place and be an object to You. You have to help me.” We can have a really powerful prayer this way. God cannot deny it because this is the Principle.</p>
|
||
<p>Of course it is painful to pay indemnity. It can never be really enjoyable. Joy is not a word associated with indemnity. We may enjoy ourselves and be happy in the presence of Satan, but that happiness is part of the satanic world. That is not our goal. Most American members still seem to have an ambiguous idea of happiness. They complain, “Why can’t I be happy in the world while treading along God’s way?” However, while paying indemnity we cannot feel happy. If we are always happy, there must be something wrong. Only <i>after</i> paying indemnity can we be truly joyful for the accomplishment.</p>
|
||
<p>Why is the Messiah necessary? Why can’t you reach perfection by yourself’ Well, it wasn’t you who fell in the beginning, it was your ancestors. The Messiah makes up for what your ancestors did. After he does that, you can fulfill your portion of responsibility, which is far less than what the Messiah has to do. Only a true family can go to the highest level. Fallen individuals and families have no qualification to go there. To gain this qualification, you have to go through the Messiah.</p>
|
||
<p>Looking back at history, we can see a clear pattern. Only after Jesus came could God’s dispensation of salvation and restoration actually begin. The first attempt at recreating a true Adam and a true father-son relationship was made at that time. We know in great detail to what extent Jesus accomplished his mission and why Jesus has to come again. He must come in both spirit and flesh. In the same way, we need to be restored in both mind and body by fulfilling our portion of responsibility.</p>
|
||
<p>The third thing we have to consider is the Cain-Abel relationship. Cain is still working in the world today and still occupying the elder son’s position. Today the democratic world is on the Abel side and the communist world is on the Cain side, but neither side understands God or His dispensation. Therefore, somebody has to teach the democratic world about this relationship and help it in its task of digesting the communist world. Digesting means clarifying the problems and solving them. The Cain-Abel relationship is restored on eight levels: the individual Cain-Abel relationship, the family Cain-Abel relationship, and so on. In restoring this relationship, we have to go through a similar process of indemnity.</p>
|
||
<p>The fourth main point is the transfer of lineage from the false to the true. We have to transfer our lineage on the individual level, the family level, and all the way up. The world should be of the proper lineage, not the satanic lineage. Accomplishing this is the Messiah’s chief role. For any individual to change his lineage, he must have the right ancestry. The Messiah must become the new root and establish this ancestry.</p>
|
||
<p>Each fallen individual is destined to go through restoration and become the true object of God. He needs to do that, but he is helpless by himself. He doesn’t have the right ancestry; thus the Messiah must come and help him. The Messiah restores the individual’s true lineage, helps him to resolve the Cain-Abel relationship, and teaches him to fulfill his portion of responsibility. After that, there can finally be a normal relationship between God and man.</p>
|
||
<p>During these many years, I have been working so hard to make a foundation for people following me. Now, the dispensation has advanced to the point where the spiritual fog is lifting. Now the doctrine of Godism, the real, true philosophy, is visible to everyone. A few years ago no one understood it, but now many people do. You see, the dispensation went exactly according to this formula. These are the most essential points in man’s restoration history, yet until now there was no human being on earth or in the spirit world who knew about this.</p>
|
||
<p>If Christianity had followed God’s will in 1945, God’s plan would have been accomplished within seven years. But that didn’t happen so I had to reindemnify in a span of 40 years the entire 4,000 years of history since the time of Abraham. This is what the Unification Church is all about. The seven years from 1985 is the time allowed to reshuffle and reorganize everything and to reach the world level. The roles of the free world and the communist world, what position they should be in and how they should conduct themselves, will become more and more apparent. Everyone on both sides will come to know this within these seven years.</p>
|
||
<p>Now we are in a period of transition into a completely new world; it is not merely an extension of the old. First we must know what is going on in God’s timetable, and then we have to pray according to God’s plan. Otherwise our prayer will be insignificant.</p>
|
||
<p>You have just listened to the real crux of the Principle. You must clearly have this chart, this formula, in mind when you pray to God. You should get rid of all other thoughts, and replace them with this chart. If you think about this every day and live it, then you don’t have to pray formally so much. Your life should be a prayer.</p>
|
||
<p>Your role as the children is vastly less burdensome than the role of the parents. I did what I did amid fierce opposition and indescribable persecution, and all you have to do is believe my instructions and carry them out. What I am giving you is priceless, yet free of charge. You are going to accomplish this without persecution, in a free environment. Don’t ever think it was this way from the beginning, never. This is the first time we have seen an environment with so little persecution.</p>
|
||
<p>Every prayer I have ever dedicated to Heavenly Father has been according to His plan, that I might do what He wants me to do and be what He wants me to be. I have never prayed for anything else. When God told me, “This is the way I want it,” I always carried it out. You must do exactly the same thing. You know the standard of my lifestyle, so you must pray to follow me.</p>
|
||
<p>You are historical individuals. Therefore, you have to think as God thinks. What are God’s thoughts centered on? Nothing else but people. And what is God’s real desire? He wishes that His own spirit could be manifested into everything. You will be having your own children and very soon you will stand in the True Parents’ position. You have to understand the value of the four position foundation. This is one inseparable unit.</p>
|
||
<p>Today men and women love each other on some level, but the average American couple never thinks about God and many cannot trust their own children. The divorce rate is sky-high. You can see how cruel Satan has been yet how successful. Everybody has become individualistic. It’s easy for some people to think they have achieved their life’s purpose. They think, “Yes, I’m happy. I did what I wanted to do in life” Then a person on God’s side just smashes their concept and says, “No! This is God’s ideal.”</p>
|
||
<table>
|
||
<tbody>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252"><b>Relationship between<br />
|
||
God and Man</b></td>
|
||
<td width="220"><b>Responsibility and<br />
|
||
Indemnity</b></td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">8. God</td>
|
||
<td width="220">8. God</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">7. Cosmos</td>
|
||
<td width="220">7. Cosmos</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">6. Physical World</td>
|
||
<td width="220">6. Physical World</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">5. Nation</td>
|
||
<td width="220">5. Nation</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">4. Race</td>
|
||
<td width="220">4. Race</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">3. Clan</td>
|
||
<td width="220">3. Clan</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">2. Family</td>
|
||
<td width="220">2. Family</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">1. Individual</td>
|
||
<td width="220">1. Individual</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
||
<p>I have just explained the historical task of the Messiah, which is being carried out here in the most advanced country in the world. This is not centered in Africa but in 20th-century America, where people’s minds are full of trash. God has introduced the truth right here, and He wants to teach it to the American people. That is our goal and we are at the final stage of that goal.</p>
|
||
<p>You must pray to know what God’s ideal and dispensation are. Pray to God that all this, centering on the True Parents, will be accomplished correctly. You can’t pray about this just once or twice a day. You have to pray this from early morning until you go to sleep at night-even while you sleep, 24 hours a day. This is a lifestyle of prayer.</p>
|
||
<p>We are going to repair all the precious relationships of the four position foundation. Then we will go out to the satanic world to teach the people and urge them to follow. Everyone of us must go all over America, telling people, “This is it, this is what we have to do!” If you do this, you don’t have to go off and pray by yourself because you are enacting your prayer, living your prayer. Then God must give us His help.</p>
|
||
<p>Father paid indemnity with a real physical body. In the same way, you have to pay indemnity by making the proper condition. There is no way you can do what I did, but if you devote everything you have to the task, it will be equivalent as a condition to what I did. Your condition is home church. By your accomplishing home church, God will consider it as world restoration. Do you understand?</p>
|
||
<table>
|
||
<tbody>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252"><b>Cain / Abel<br />
|
||
Relationship</b></td>
|
||
<td width="220"><b>Change of<br />
|
||
Lineage</b></td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">8. God</td>
|
||
<td width="220">8. God</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">7. Cosmos</td>
|
||
<td width="220">7. Cosmos</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">6. Physical World</td>
|
||
<td width="220">6. Physical World</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">5. Nation</td>
|
||
<td width="220">5. Nation</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">4. Race</td>
|
||
<td width="220">4. Race</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">3. Clan</td>
|
||
<td width="220">3. Clan</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">2. Family</td>
|
||
<td width="220">2. Family</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
<tr>
|
||
<td width="252">1. Individual</td>
|
||
<td width="220">1. Individual</td>
|
||
</tr>
|
||
</tbody>
|
||
</table>
|
||
<p>This chart may be too complicated for some people, but what you should not forget in your daily life is that you are part of the True Parents’ family. You are part of the four position foundation with me at the top. You, as the offspring, should clearly establish that father/son relationship; then go out and set the condition of doing home church. What will happen if you do? You will have the privilege of following me wherever I go. This is not abstract at all, but a clear formula and rule.</p>
|
||
<p>All the elements are there in home church: the transference of the true lineage, restoration of the Cain-Abel relationship-everything. All will be accomplished when you do home church, and you will become a true extension of me. In other words, as the director of your home church area, you can even give the Blessing to the people of your 360 homes. You can direct the matchings and the Blessings because that is what the True Parents do. How can I go out and perform all these ceremonies physically? It is impossible.</p>
|
||
<p>This is the time. Evil is still strong, so you must always pray while you work, keeping all these things in your mind. Hold onto me tightly every minute of the day. Think of nothing else except uniting with me and doing home church. This is the work for America.</p>
|
||
<p>How is the Cain-Abel relationship restored? I am in the Abel position and you are in the Cain position. When you completely surrender and become one with Abel, then you have accomplished restoration of that relationship. This is the real core of salvation. If you forfeit this Cain-Abel relationship with me, then you are in great personal trouble, aren’t you? There is no other way. Indemnity and one’s own portion of responsibility have everything to do with the Cain-Abel relationship. If you fulfill your portion of responsibility, then the Cain-Abel relationship is already fulfilled. Thus the Cain-Abel relationship is absolutely essential. Restoring this is almost synonymous with the solution of human history.</p>
|
||
<p>In the American government, the Democrats and the Republicans are locked in a Cain-Abel relationship. The relationship between the communist world and the free world is the same. They are divided because of the fall; division was not original man’s desire. Unless the Cain-Abel relationship is brought into the right order, we cannot say that man’s portion of responsibility has been fulfilled. Your portion of responsibility can only be fulfilled as a result of the other three conditions.</p>
|
||
<p>You may have felt that I always speak randomly, jumping from one topic to another like a spiritual being moving all around the cosmos. But I am actually very consistent because I am the master of these principles. I am never lost. My greatest historical achievements are described right here in the four columns of this chart. This formula portrays the essence of theology. If you understand this, you are a number-one theologian.</p>
|
||
<p>All mankind has searched for these things. Until now, no person has ever established clearly what the relationship between man and God is. If someone asks you, “Who is God?” you can answer, “God is our Father, and we are His sons and daughters” That’s it. It is so simple, yet so profound.</p>
|
||
<p>A son can inherit everything from his father, no matter how mighty or noble the father is. That is a son’s right for he is the heir. No matter how humble your position, I can bequeath everything to you. Since I have completely fulfilled my portion of responsibility, I am in Adam’s position. When the fall is totally indemnified, Satan, who has been persecuting and slandering Adam, will be shaken loose. He will have to leave Adam instead of clinging on. Only by solving the Cain-Abel relationship can we inherit the world from God Himself.</p>
|
||
<p>The world is in the second son’s position, not the first son’s position anymore. When the proper position of the first son is established, the transfer of the blood lineage will be almost automatic. Once people get married with the right lineage, they will automatically be on the True Family’s side.</p>
|
||
<p>Who has done these things for you? True Parents. You can only inherit all this if the father/son relationship has been established. Where can we inherit this? In home church. No matter what you do in your daily life, always have this in your mind so that your daily life becomes a prayer. If you live this kind of life in your home church area, all will be accomplished.</p>
|
||
<p>Then what will happen? You can live with True Parents forever and ever, not only here but in the hereafter, and eventually you can also live with God. You won’t be in the indirect dominion as now but in the direct dominion. Isn’t that what the Principle says? By doing home church, you will experience this. Your experience will affirm that what you are doing is right.</p>
|
||
<p>All I am concerned about is doing God’s will. I want to liberate mankind from ignorance and hell to the original lineage. You too must join with me completely. When you witness to a person, you shouldn’t think about anything else except: “I am going to save him by this formula”</p>
|
||
<p>I am thinking about how to educate mankind now and how to reach the American people. How can we help the American people to elect the President according to God’s will, someone who will guide America to fulfill her role in the world? Many are running for the Presidency at this time with a very serious attitude, but Father is far more serious than any of the presidential candidates. There is no personal profit for me in this endeavor. The only thing I am working for is the fulfillment of God’s will-to liberate mankind from ignorance and restore the original lineage. Do you understand?</p>
|
||
<p>You must join completely in this endeavor. When you witness to other people, remember these points. Nobody can ever replace you as an individual. Whether you are great or humble, still you are the children, the sons and daughters. If you are crippled or ill, still you are the sons and daughters.</p>
|
||
<p>I have been working so hard lately that I caught a cold, which is unusual for me. My voice was hoarse last night and Reverend Kwak said, “Let me report to the congregation, Father” Also this morning, Mother said, “Father, why don’t you rest today and speak next Sunday?” But I couldn’t do that. This is the third Sunday of the 1987 and my determination was, “For the first three Sundays, no matter how difficult it might be, I must give the sermon” Satan attacked my body with a cold but I just pushed myself forward. I am doing this for the sake of America and mankind and for God. I have absolutely no doubt about my mission, therefore I never want to rest from it. We must keep going. How can we rest in the midst of this historical time of the conclusion of human history? That is my feeling. Do you agree with me?</p>
|
||
<p>So we must have a lifestyle of prayer. Judged by what you know from listening to me today, your life in the past was outside of the Principle. Sometimes you went here and sometimes you went there-total inconsistency. Even though you were taught the Principle, you just let it remain a concept. Sometimes you felt it and sometimes you didn’t feel it. Sometimes the Principle didn’t occupy your mind at all. This is really a tragedy. You thought fulfilling the Cain-Abel relationship just required listening to your Church leaders, but now you must know clearly that I am your Abel.</p>
|
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<article id="post-1853" class="post-1853 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1987">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/gods-providential-course-and-the-course-of-human-life.html" title="Permalink to GOD’S PROVIDENTIAL COURSE AND THE COURSE OF HUMAN LIFE" rel="bookmark">GOD’S PROVIDENTIAL COURSE AND THE COURSE OF HUMAN LIFE</a>
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</h2>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:50:35+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/gods-providential-course-and-the-course-of-human-life.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:50:35+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 11, 1987<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>God’s providence can be divided into two courses: the indirect and the direct. We can also say that one is the providential will of creation, and the other is the providential will of restoration. After the fall of man, God had to pursue a restorational course in His providence. In other words, we are dealing with a God whose will is the restoration of mankind.</p>
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<p>Many people nowadays don’t even know if God exists. However, the Unification Church is a group which lives realistically with God. Not just those within the church but also those working on strictly economic missions are living with God’s presence. We feel every day the real presence of God, so we are actually linking two lives-the life of faith and the life of reality. Commonly in the religious tradition, there has been a gap between one’s life of faith and daily life. But in the Unification Church, the pattern is different: our life of faith and our everyday reality are one.</p>
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<p>Traditionally, a person could only grow in his spiritual life by separating from the secular world. Thus the tendency of religious people has always been toward “otherworldliness” But in the Unification Church, on the contrary, we feel that our accomplishment must be within the real world, the secular world. It is there that we must achieve God’s will. Always the problem lies in the difference between God’s will and our human interpretation or understanding of that will.</p>
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<p>As you know, there is no possibility for God to fall; He has no relationship with such a thing. God existed always – before the human fall and after it – but there was a difference in God’s mind after the fall. He became totally concentrated upon the restoration of fallen humanity. Today God is working in this fallen world, but He never compromises Himself or comes down to fallen humanity’s thinking. His mind is always centered upon one thing: achieving His original purpose of creation. His providential will has always been to bring humanity back to that original place.</p>
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<p>People have a tendency to remember only joyful things and to forget or ignore unpleasant memories. That is part of our original nature. Good things must be good not only for ourselves but also for our family, clan, tribe, nation and world. Ultimately something good should also be joyful for God. Another original human tendency is to limit any sort of tragic or dreadful experiences to oneself We don’t want to expand bad things to others.</p>
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<p>The original mind is always trying to engender good things, good elements, wanting to increase good all the way up to the level of almighty God. What is the ultimate aspiration of the original human mind? It is to see a joyful universe and joyful God. As an American, you don’t want to see just your nation joyful. You would like to see joy for your own nation linked with the rest of the world. We want to see the joy of the world and God.</p>
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<p>There are two minds within each person: one is the self-centered, fallen mind and the other is the original mind, which is a portion or reflection of God’s nature. Those two minds are always in conflict within each person and this is truly the human problem. Why is our mind divided like that? Why do people have both an altruistic mind and a selfish mind? Throughout history, philosophers have tried to answer this question and solve the problem, but they could not.</p>
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<p>Without knowing the truth about the &11 of man, many people have concluded that we have two conflicting minds because the original cause also has two minds-that there are two origins, in other words. The greatest contribution of religion throughout history has been to explain that there was a fall of man in the beginning which caused two conflicting human natures to arise. Where did religion itself come from? It came from God. If we did not have any understanding that there had been a human fall, we would have no way to begin to solve human problems.</p>
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<p>Think about it: human nature became tainted in the first human beings, the first ancestors of humanity. Because of the multiplication of humanity from those first parents who fell, the entire population of the world has been tainted with that fallen nature. No one could escape from it. Everybody is born with it and it pervades the entire world.</p>
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<p>If one could see the residue of fallen nature which has been accumulating throughout history, it would be higher than the Himalayan mountains, deeper than the Pacific Ocean, and more vast than the Sahara Desert. But people simply do not realize this. We do not see this incredible burden of sinfulness and we do not realize how severe it is. Would you be willing to pay any amount of money to cast off that burden from your shoulders? Have you ever seriously thought, “Yes, I am truly burdened by this sinful nature of fallen man”?</p>
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<p>Even though people are crushed under this heavy burden of fallen nature, the original human mind never dies and is always struggling to be free. It is always ready to seize any opportunity to revive and express itself. Of the two minds within you, which would you prefer to be connected with- the original mind or the fallen mind? Certainly, you prefer the original mind. It is easy to say that, but can you imagine how beaten, broken and kicked around that original mind has been throughout history? It is virtually covered with scars.</p>
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<p>Think about it. Picture the original mind as a baby’s face-precious little nose, mouth, ears, and so forth- completely covered by scars. In St. Paul’s lamentation in the Bible, he describes his sorrow over the struggle within himself: “Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from this body of death?” This is a vivid description of the struggle. Who shall liberate that original mind which is yearning to be free from the bondage of the sinful mind?</p>
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<p>You know that you are important and that you love yourself. But then, which self do you love-the original self or the fallen one? The original mind wants to go in a certain direction, but the body is like a slave to the fallen nature. Such separation exists between the original mind and the body. Imagine the feeling of someone who goes to the spirit world and can see very clearly the existence of God as well as the course human beings should walk, but he is incapable of going that way. Even though he can see it clearly, he won’t have a physical body anymore, so he won’t be able to do it. There is no greater tragedy than to see the goal clearly but to be unable to move even one inch in that direction. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>Do not look for heaven and hell elsewhere. It is all within you. Just from the guidelines I have given you so far this morning, you can determine whether you are heading for heaven or hell. This is the reason the path of religion has always been to deny oneself. Anything the body enjoys, you must learn to deny. Something your physical eyes like to see will often be disliked by the eye of your original mind. What the body wants to do, the original mind doesn’t want to do. When we really look at this situation, we realize the incredible paradox within man. Everything within you is contradictory.</p>
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<p>If someone explained clearly how that contradiction came about in human nature, his would be the greatest of all contributions to humanity. Furthermore, if there were some prescription, some method of eliminating that contradiction, that would be a truly priceless gift. Each person can feel the contradiction within himself and his own behavior. The original mind wants to do one thing but the body doesn’t want to do it. However, the original mind is not God’s will itself; it is a sensitive agent which can detect the will of God. You can see how far we have deviated from the original course of God’s will.</p>
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<p>As we said, we always try to retain and dwell on our good memories. What about God? Do you think He has enjoyed going down this path of restoration? God doesn’t even want to remember that the fall of man took place, or what He has had to do to restore man. Is there any parent who would be happy if his son were imprisoned and waiting on death row? In a way, the heart of the parent would be more grieved than that of the son in prison. Even to think briefly about his son would cause him agonized suffering.</p>
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<p>Imagine: if even the fallen human parental nature suffers like that, how much more so does the universal Parent, the pure, unfallen, perfected parental heart of God? How much suffering has God been enduring because of the human fall and the degradation of human behavior? The broken heart of God lies behind all human tragedy.</p>
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<p>God has been implementing His providence through the religious world. He raised up new religions in history and then He had to allow religious people to make sacrifices, one after another, in order to advance the course of humanity. Each time, God’s heart was broken all over again.</p>
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<p>Do you think God could become discouraged or disheartened? What could He do? The choices God has faced were very limited. There is no way He can just give up on humanity. At the same time, He can’t say, “I don’t care” Compare your own situation with that of God-which one is more miserable? You say it is God’s, but you have to feel that to your very bones. God’s broken heart is far more pained and suffering than anything you have endured. Once you taste God’s agony, you will feel, “I want to become the champion of God and help to alleviate His suffering. Please count on me”</p>
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<p>When you walk down the roads of the major cities of America with this kind of heart, virtually everything you encounter is the enemy of God and the enemy of life. You can see people pursuing alcohol, drugs, having parties and dancing-people just trying to have a good time and enjoying their lives-but they are actually an affront to God. Once you realize the suffering heart of God, then you feel, “No matter what, I cannot be a part of this fallen world. I have to get back to God at any price” How seriously have each of you been thinking like that? How deeply have you ever felt that searing pain within your heart? Of course, you might say, “Oh, after all, God is love and He loves me” We may talk a lot about God, but how far away from understanding His true heart have we been, like foreigners!</p>
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<p>The original mind, which is so beaten down, must be brought back to life. You should feel that you want to take that battered, wounded and scarred original mind, wrap it gently in a silken cloth, comfort it and try to revive it. How many times have we been thinking like this? Once you really touch the realm of the heart of God, your only expression is deeply bitter tears. This is the reason the turning point of a life of faith is always repentance. Through true repentance you come to the poignant realization that you have been wrong and in an entirely different world from God.</p>
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<p>Even though we may know the Principle, we have been so lacking in the true desire to comfort the suffering heart of God. We have been so apathetic, like people with numbed feelings. You should say, “Even if I cannot liberate the suffering of God throughout the world, at least I can liberate Him from suffering because of me” How many of us have even come to that limited realization? Don’t even worry about the salvation of the whole world and the suffering of humanity-first think about one individual, one self. It is virtually laughable if you cannot even solve the problems of your own self and your own house, but then go out there and say, “I want to solve the world’s problems!”</p>
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<p>Therefore, our way of life should truly be a tearful path, always thinking, “How inadequate I am in the sight of God. But since I know His suffering heart, I want not only to liberate God from worrying about me but I also want to help my neighbors as much as I can. I want to reduce the suffering of God and alleviate His sadness” The work of salvation must start from yourself; then you go to your immediate neighbor-your own children, parents, brothers and sisters. They are in the same bondage of sin, so you should want to liberate them. You can pray, “Almighty God, do not appear to me with Your restorational will. Don’t worry about that anymore-I am already restored to Your will, so please appear to me with Your creational purpose. Please show Yourself with Your original appearance”</p>
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<p>The same thing applies to me. Once I came to the poignant realization of the most aching and broken heart of God, nothing could stop me. Whatever persecution the world might give me, it didn’t matter. I was only able to concentrate upon one thing: how could I bring comfort and liberation to my Heavenly Father? My constant, ongoing attitude is, “I want to renew myself today and go further to the goal of totally liberating the heart of God” I am still practicing that way of life. How much more so should you who are following my path and tradition?</p>
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<p>This morning, as you can hear, my voice is virtually gone because of a cold. Mother told me, “Why don’t you let one of the leaders take over the sermon and rest your voice?” That was her loving recommendation, but then I told her, “No, my Father in Heaven doesn’t rest, no matter what. How can I?” This is a very serious aspect of life. Who shall unburden Him? Know the truth and the truth shall set you free-you know the truth now.</p>
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<p>Let us talk a little bit about the spirit world and about God’s original ideal of creation. God is almighty, omnipresent, and omnipotent; He is the King of all things, reigning over the entire creation. Can you imagine God without any creation? Suppose He decided that He was totally self-sufficient and trouble-free by Himself. But what kind of fun could God have if He had nobody to communicate with? By Himself in spirit world, God would have nothing to worry about-He doesn’t have to worry about food, shelter or money or anything like that. But suppose He wanted to have an outing, perhaps go flying around the universe. If nothing were created, there wouldn’t be any place for Him to visit. God can be anywhere at anytime, but what if He had no universe to go flying around in?</p>
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<p>Original human nature comes from God. We want to find stimulation and excitement. We also like to possess precious things, putting them in a special place where we can go and look at them at times. That gives you pleasure. Don’t you suppose that somewhere a giant star exists composed entirely of diamond? The earth, with all its elements and substances, is a microcosm of the entire universe, so there must be all kinds of elements out there, such as diamond and golden stars. God can make all of those things. Almighty means all-capable.</p>
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<p>Let’s say God has a diamond star. What kind of fun could that bring to Him? If God went to visit that huge diamond star, He would enjoy looking at it the first time, but by the second or third time He would just feel bored. It wouldn’t have any special meaning for Him. Then God would naturally start to think, “Even if it was a lot of trouble, I would still like to have someone around. I could shake him or hit him if necessary, but I need somebody to have give and take with”</p>
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<p>You women, imagine that you were the most beautiful woman on earth but you had to be alone all your life. In that case, you would start to look at your face and feel it was ugly. You would say, “So what if I’m beautiful? I would rather look like a pumpkin if I could love someone and have someone love me” What excitement can you feel from being alone throughout your life? You can’t get excitement from a mirror. Furthermore, you don’t want another woman to tell you, “You are gorgeous” You want a man to say such things to you. By the same token, God wouldn’t find stimulation if another God showed up, saying, “You look great” In human relationships we need both a subject and object, so you can imagine that the same principle applies to God. God needs His object, too.</p>
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<p>Your eyes are your instruments of vision. If there were nothing else out there, no object of their vision, what good would they be? Your eyes want to fulfill their role, so if they looked around and there was nothing to perceive, they would become discouraged and dim. The eyes are shiny and lively because there are objects in the world for them to perceive.</p>
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<p>What is your nose good for? Its purpose is to smell things. What about your mouth? It wants to speak and say lots of things, but there needs to be someone to receive those words, someone to listen. If there is nobody around, the mouth just has to stay closed. Imagine a mouth with no lower lip, only an upper lip. That would mean there could be no interaction between the lips, and therefore the mouth couldn’t function properly.</p>
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<p>According to these illustrations, doesn’t it seem that God also needs His own object? Put yourself in God’s position, thinking about creating an object. Would He decide to create someone smarter and wiser than Himself; or perhaps someone more beautiful; or someone with greater power and capability? Are those the kinds of things He would be looking for in an object? God is the God of wisdom, therefore He needs an object who can give Him an intellectual response, not some inanimate thing like a flower vase that just sits there. He needs an object that is like Himself, something that can respond to Him in kind.</p>
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<p>He would also want plenty of variety. If every one of His objects had blue eves. soon He would be tired of them. So God also likes to see brown eyes, green eyes, maybe yellow and red, too-all kinds of eyes! What about you do you enjoy seeing only blue eyes all the time, or don’t you enjoy variety? Here in this audience we see a lot of variety. Look at this brother here with black curly hair, black skin, and then his eyes are very white and bright. There is quite a contrast between his dark skin and the whites of his eyes. That is visually exciting.</p>
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<p>We can observe a certain order to the creation. Everything in the universe is a symbolic expression or extension of some aspect of human beings. Where do human beings come from? We are expressions and extensions of God Himself. That is the way the creation has been organized. God created everything within the subject/object framework, so there is no creation without an object. God knew that if He had created things differently, say as neuter, neutral beings, they would accuse Him, saying, “You need objects, God, so why did You create all of us without objects? We have nothing to have give and take with”</p>
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<p>Therefore, the greatest feature which God employed within His creation was the pair system. You want to be a part of a pair yourself. This concept came from your Creator. All the aspects of a human being are in the pair system just as all the aspects of the universe are in the pair system. When men and women experience the give and take of love, it teaches us how to relate with the rest of creation. Man is wild and cruel when he doesn’t know love; many people can kill animals or crush insects thoughtlessly. But once a person begins to know the taste of love, he doesn’t want to do such things anymore.</p>
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<p>Love only functions in the pair system because it requires a subject and object relationship. Male and female, plus and minus-the whole creation is organized like that. The ideal is for the lower pairs of life forms to serve and support the higher pairs, reaching higher and higher all the way to the top. Ultimately there is God and right below God, human beings. Why do we exist? It is in order to reach out and fulfill greater love. Each lower form of creation is reaching out for greater love, moving upward all the way to human beings. Then human beings can reach for greater love by going to God Himself. When the lower elements are absorbed by the higher, it brings fulfillment to the lower elements.</p>
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<p>According to Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution and the survival of the fittest, only the strong survive. The weak will be demolished and only strong species will continue. Purely from an external point of view, evolution describes this upward movement of life we were talking about. Thus there is nothing really wrong with the theory of evolution on the external level. But where does the theory of evolution come to a deadlock? Darwin didn’t consider the aspect of love. If his theory were completely true, then man should have continued evolving to a higher being; the process should be continuing. The original mind should be improving and becoming something greater, but is the original mind changing like that?</p>
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<p>All creation has the internal desire to reach the top, to be absorbed by higher and higher beings, and eventually to reach the love of God. Let’s look at a little worm, like the one I am drawing on the blackboard. What is that worm’s ultimate desire? He wants to be absorbed by a higher being; then the higher being wants to be absorbed by another higher being. Going higher and higher, they will all become the elements of a human being. That is the worm’s ultimate goal-to become part of a human being because by doing that, he can be in touch with the love of God. When the human being is united with the love of God, that worm also fulfills the love of God. In other words, the worm reaches the love of God indirectly.</p>
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<p>Therefore, if you sacrifice yourself in order to reach for higher love, it is not a tragedy. It is the order of creation to sacrifice oneself to reach a higher level. That is the glory of all the creation. Even human beings can sacrifice themselves for the sake of a higher love; that is actually the noblest and most glorious thing someone can do. You naturally want to do anything for the sake of true love, you will even suffer joyfully for that. That is the common denominator and the law of nature which works on all levels.</p>
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<p>Certain primitive religions used to make human sacrifices. Sometimes the sacrifice was a virgin, sometimes a child whose blood was shed as an offering on the altar. Such religious rituals were very primitive and a perversion of the ultimate human desire-to reach out to the love of God. By making those sacrifices, they wanted to bring down the love of God to humanity and they thought they could do it in that way.</p>
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<p>Everyone must be willing to sacrifice himself for the sake of the fulfillment of true love. That is actually the law of nature. It has been with us ever since the creation. The noblest thing for human beings is to be able to sacrifice oneself for the fulfillment of greater love. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon is also following this universal formula precisely. My attitude is always, “If God needs it, I am willing to give up my life for the accomplishment of a higher goal” Even the glass of water can say, “1, too, want to be able to reach out toward the love of God” How can that water do that? Actually, all the plants and the creatures are willing to be consumed by any person who truly embodies the love of God. That is the way they can come in contact with God’s love.</p>
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<p>You love Father, don’t you? You love me even though I push you out to work hard. Why is that? Simply because of this formula. When you are sacrificing for my sake. You know that is a way you can reach closer to the fulfillment of true love. That is why you are willing to do that.</p>
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<p>There is no exception to this law, even for God. He always wants to sacrifice Himself for the sake of love. He gives His love for the sake of human beings. As you can see, one formula is working for everything and everyone in this universe-from the tiniest life form all the way up to God. Therefore, nobody in the universe has the right to complain. Do you think God wants to give and sacrifice for Reverend Moon’s sake? That means Reverend Moon is a very happy and fortunate person. Where does the rejection and hatred of Reverend Moon come from? It is from the evil world which doesn’t want to see him succeed. They despise him and want to tear him apart.</p>
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<p>The universe is like one house. The name of that one house is “Moon house” If anybody is looking for true love, they have to go to the “Moon house” In Korean, we have such a word as “Moonie” and it has a wonderful meaning, actually two meanings. According to one meaning it is embroidering a certain pattern. The other meaning is dialogue or discussion, give and take of words. Those two meanings are in the Korean word “Moonie” and those are certainly not bad things.</p>
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<p>The flowing give and take of love follows the natural law. As long as you live by this formula, you will not get sick. No disease can invade you. This is very important. Nothing can conquer true love, not even death. Everything is under its dominion. Even Almighty God behaves in absolute obedience to true love. That is its power.</p>
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<p>Think about God’s joy after creating man. We can understand God’s heart by looking at a parent who is beholding his first baby. That is the same kind of infinite, overflowing joy God felt when He created man. When a woman becomes pregnant, the entire focus of the couple is on that pregnancy. As soon as the wife feels the baby move for the first time, they are so excited. That is like the period when God was creating-He felt a lot of excitement. Why does procreation of new life engender such great joy, not only for the couple but also for their parents, relatives and friends? Everyone feels the joy of a new life on the way because there will be one more object of the true love of God. That means God can move closer to that family. When you see great geniuses and talented and virtuous people coming out of a family, you know that God came close to that family.</p>
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<p>In America today many families are breaking down because the thinking of the husband and wife-primarily the wife-is so narrow. They say, “l don’t want the burden of bearing a baby. I want to be free!” It is truly blind thinking to reject having a child. When they do that, they have no family base and many problems will afflict them. Compare the parents who have only one child with those who have ten. When each child comes along, a new aspect of God’s love can be realized within that family. Many American women do not recognize the true beauty of a woman in her forties, even fifties, who is holding and breast feeding her baby. That is the most beautiful and fulfilling moment for a woman, but many American women do not realize that.</p>
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<p>Any mother who has raised a lot of children simply could not be an evil person. No one could be evil after the many challenges and experiences of raising children. This is the way God intended-that people experience giving birth, loving their children, and then expand that loving relationship to the society and all of humanity. God wants us to experience His true love in that process. And it doesn’t end here on earth; it continues in the spirit world, expanding throughout eternity to all of humanity.</p>
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<p>Mother, for example, has twelve children on the earth now. In learning how to accommodate and care for those twelve different personalities and character types, Mother learns how to harmonize with the twelve different types within all of humanity. When you are ready and willing to harmonize with twelve different people, you can harmonize with virtually anybody in the world. When Mother looks at any of you church members, she can see that you fit into one of the twelve categories of the True Children. She might think, “Oh, I see. Your way of talking is like my second son, or my third daughter,’ and so forth. In that way, she can immediately feel an affinity and a loving and close relationship with you because you are linked with the True Children. Thus she feels the desire to buy you things and give you gifts. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>After all, everything is part of the textbook of life. God is almighty, omnipresent and omnipotent. Therefore, He knows everything and is the King of knowledge and wisdom. Think about it: the first man knew nothing. Man was ignorant and totally in the dark, so God could always have fooled man if He had wanted to. But do you think God would say, “This is the law of the universe: you have to love Me unconditionally and do everything I ask” Do you think God would be selfish and say, “You are My servants”?</p>
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<p>God was the first one to engender the philosophy of living for the sake of others. He has always practiced that way-living for the sake of human beings, serving them, loving them, teaching them, and caring for them. That is the original concept of the creation. The ideal is achieved only by the interchange of give and take within the relationship of love. God exhibited a loving heart and a giving attitude toward man first, then He wanted man to freely respond to Him. Then man could live for the sake of God just as God lived for the sake of man.</p>
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<p>This is the universal formula of God, what we call the Principle. Even though God’s enemy came into being, God could not hate him. God’s formula was to try to melt the enemy with love. In your case, if you are loving your enemy but still he continues to oppose you and work evil against you, what happens? When we read the Bible, we see the simple words, “Love your enemy” When you understand the universal formula, that is the most natural statement; it is not an abnormal thing. You must even love your enemy; you can’t help but love him. Without doing that, there is no way to save the country or the world. This is why the Unification Church formula is to live for the sake of others. In that way you can always become something bigger by continually serving a cause that is greater.</p>
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<p>Let us ask, then, what is it like in the Kingdom of Heaven? Unless someone is completely trained and disciplined under the universal formula we have discussed today, he cannot enter the Kingdom of Heaven. What about you? Are you confident that you can enter that Kingdom? Some say yes, but then you laugh. If you were truly confident, you wouldn’t laugh. It is only through Reverend Moon that this teaching has come. Who is God? He is the lover of the entire universe and all of humanity. Thus if you want to become one with Him, you must take on His characteristics and love humanity and the entire world.</p>
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<p>What will you do once you enter the Kingdom of Heaven? Only those people who lived a life of service and love for others will be there. Within such a realm in spirit world, everybody would only wish to live for the sake of others. Can you imagine such a society? When you live for the sake of others, the entire universe belongs to you. The person who lives only for his own sake is isolated from everyone and everything else; nobody wants to have relationship with him.</p>
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<p>Do you think you have to worry in spirit world about three meals a day? Or perhaps you have to acquire lots of clothing and comfortable surroundings? How about housing? It’s all there. You don’t need to work on those things. In spirit world, you can surround yourself with lots of flowers if you wish. As long as you enjoy them and want them around, they will be there. But the moment you say, “I’m tired of flowers now,’ they will disappear because you don’t want them anymore. Then if you feel like enjoying a great meal, all you have to do is think about it and it will appear before you. How convenient that is!</p>
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<p>When you live in that world, you don’t have to worry at all about what to eat, what to wear and so forth, but you have to live there for eternity. That’s a long time. How would you spend all that time? You’ve got to do something. In that world, the effort of everyone is concentrated on one thing: how to come closer to the love of God. The occupation every day, all day long is getting closer to God and receiving more of His love. How can you do that? You have to learn how to love the world and humanity here on earth. You must live with that kind of spirit so that you are already eligible to be the recipient of the love of God. Then His love will reach out for you.</p>
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<p>Without the fall of man, where would Adam and Eve be today? Would they be separate or together in spirit world? They would be together. What would they be doing, man and woman together? Normally, one might feel encumbered to have someone always following him around, so why is togetherness desirable for Adam and Eve? Why should two beings always want to come together?</p>
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<p>Let’s say there is a pipeline that taps into the well of love. Man is on one side and woman is the other side. Each has a straw into that pipeline upon which they are sucking, and sweet honey is coming out. Adam and Eve are sucking on the pipeline from both sides to get that sweet honey taste. When the pipe becomes empty, amazingly, another pipe will come down from heaven and the vertical supply line will continue to pour honey into it. What a good deal! So actually, they are sucking on the love of God.</p>
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<p>This vertical pipeline would not supply any honey until the two sides were drawing on it evenly together. If one is not drawing on it, the supply won’t come. The husband and wife can say, “We are both pulling on God’s love harder and harder” They will be sucking from both ends and coming closer and closer because they want to work together. Then they will find themselves directly under the vertical line. Plus and minus meet right there-God as plus, and united man and woman as minus. This is the ideal.</p>
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<p>That is the way husbands and wives should be and this is the reason for the Blessing-to fulfill this “pipeline ideal” You mustn’t forget this. Some people take a very secular viewpoint and start to judge and criticize their husband or wife. When a blessed couple is experiencing the give and take of love, you are actually bringing God into your life. Thus the method to occupy God is by truly loving each other. The ultimate human goal is the occupation of God.</p>
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<p>God created all the beautiful things in the universe-the diamond stars, the golden planets, and all of that-for the sake of human beings. As God’s children you are meant to enjoy this universe. Then you can go to God and say, “Heavenly Father, thank You for all these wonderful things You have given to us” At that point, God can take delight and chuckle and say, “Heh, heh, now you know what I have done, my son and daughter” You feel so grateful if someone gives you a small thing like a diamond ring or necklace, but think about what God has given you: diamond and golden stars. How much gratitude you should feel! When you show your gratitude, God will laugh and rejoice, saying, “Finally you understand what I did for you, my child”</p>
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<p>I have been speaking about the ideal of God, and I know God well. Yet God is much greater than these ideal words of Reverend Moon. You be the judge of this: does Father love Mother more, or does Mother love Father more? It’s a very difficult question, but go ahead, give me an answer. There were many things Mother didn’t know that I had to teach her, but one thing is sure: there is total oneness between us. There is no way we can ever be separated. If we were, it would bring terrible consequences-division between God and man and all kinds of division. The man who has the happiest wife must be the happiest man. Do you think Father is the happiest man, then?</p>
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<p>The same logic applies to you. Become happy sons and daughters of God and then God can be a happy Father in Heaven. Isn’t that right? God created men and women because He wanted to distribute love along that special pipeline. Men and women inherit the universe together. God didn’t say, “The universe is all Mine” Instead, He would like to hear you say, “This universe is mine” Then God would respond, “That’s perfectly all right. Yes, it is yours because I created it for you”</p>
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<p>If an elderly couple is about to depart from the physical world, which of their children would they like to give their largest inheritance to? It would be to those children who love them the most, those who really have heartistic connection with the parents. God feels the same.</p>
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<p>You blessed couples, raise your hands please. Oh, too much! What do you think-because of you, is Father the happiest Father and God the happiest God? That means you are all united couples and perfectly happy, sucking on the sweet honey? When you say no, that means Father and God are unhappy because you are unhappy. Isn’t that true? Don’t forget that men and women are meant to draw on the love of God together through the pipeline of love.</p>
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<p>Those who have had the experience of kissing, raise your hands, please. Suppose when you go to the spirit world, the first thing they ask you is, “Have you ever kissed someone?” You must be able to shout joyfully, “Yes!” Why should you hesitate now? If you want to practice how to answer in spirit world, you can do it now in front of me. Those who have had kissing experiences, raise your hands, please. Is that all?</p>
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<p>When you kiss, do you push each other away? No, you embrace and pull closer together. Actually, there is no shame in that at all, as long as you are a husband and wife of Principle. To God, passionate kissing is not ugly. It is truly beautiful, like ten thousand watts of electricity shining and sparkling. In the give and take between husband and wife, their loving sounds are beautiful. God would like to broadcast those sounds of love to the entire universe so everybody could hear them. Then all the things of creation, the entire planet earth, will start to dance to the greatest music of all-the sound of love.</p>
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<p>Do you think God can dance and laugh? When God laughs and smiles and begins to dance, the entire universe will begin to dance with Him. Now you know what is the Kingdom of Heaven. No one can enter it without the experience of true love. That is certain. Many Christians have lived with an incredible lack of foresight. They isolate themselves in this life and then they think they can enter the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven, but that is not true.</p>
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<p>You might think that Reverend Moon is telling you a lie, but you must feel that it is a most tasty theory. Even if it were a lie, you would like to live by it! But guess what is true. It is the truth of truths, the core truth of the universe. Right now, the one who is listening most attentively to this sermon is God Himself. He is saying, “Reverend Moon is really speaking on My behalf now. How did he know all My secrets?” If God is listening attentively, what about you? Are you apathetic and distracted? With this kind of understanding, you feel great excitement and look forward eagerly to your marriages.</p>
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<p>We have spoken so far about God’s providential course. What about the human course? It has been functioning absolutely opposite to God’s way. Instead of living for the sake of others, everyone seeks after his own interests first and foremost. That is what we see in the families, clans, societies, and nations. This is our incredible challenge. The Moonies are the first pioneers who understand the truth. Therefore, we are responsible to teach it to the rest of the world. We are the first ones God has revealed the truth to, so if you do not pass it on to other people, you will be accused in spirit world.</p>
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<p>As we have said, in spirit world people don’t worry about what to eat, wear and so forth; they only care about reaching out for more of God’s love. How can we duplicate that attitude here on earth? How can we concentrate on only one thing: the love of God? This is our incredible challenge. How can we transcend our physical considerations and concentrate on reaching the love of God and practicing His laws here on earth?</p>
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<p>This is why Jesus told people 2,000 years ago, “Do not worry about what to eat, what to wear and where to dwell. Those are the things the Gentiles worry about. You must worry only about justice and righteousness and the Kingdom of Heaven” That was the clear teaching of Jesus because he knew this truth well. The spirit world is the realm of love. Even if you are greatly attached to your material possessions, you cannot take even one small item with you on the day you go to spirit world.</p>
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<p>Suppose each person had a certain quota of material substances he could consume here on earth. Suppose you were allocated this big circle, but you said, “No, I don’t need that much. I only need this small part in the center” In that case, all the rest of the circle of material wealth which God allocated to you would be transferred to your children and your posterity. Any people or nation with this kind of attitude will prosper.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/our-posture-on-the-new-year.html" title="Permalink to OUR POSTURE ON THE NEW YEAR" rel="bookmark">OUR POSTURE ON THE NEW YEAR</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:50:04+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/our-posture-on-the-new-year.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:50:04+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 4, 1987<br />
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Belvedere<br />
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Translator – Sang Kil Han</h3>
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<p>Looking back through history, we see that the direction of God’s dispensation and the orientation of those people who worked to realize it had to be united or else the dispensation suffered setbacks. The objectives of God and our posture have to be in unison; otherwise, even if we are moving, we are going in a zigzag rather than a straight line.</p>
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<p>For example, throughout God’s dispensation He has always sought the restoration of the elder son’s position. He called the Israelites, centering on Jacob, but we can observe clearly that there was often a discrepancy between God’s direction and the attitudes of the Israelites. A big difference existed between the standard God expected of them and their actual response to Him. The term “Israelite” denotes a victorious person, an individual who has won the victory. The Israelites, then, should be the individuals, family, and nation that have won the victory.</p>
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<p>Victory on what level? The victory which gave the Israelites their name was only a condition on the individual level to recover the elder sonship. The elder sonship was not actually recovered at that time, but a condition was made for it to be restored in the future. Once that condition was successfully established, twenty years passed before Jacob and Esau, successfully and substantially in person, victoriously united the Abel and Cain positions.</p>
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<p>Even after successfully establishing the right condition, Jacob went through twenty years of pain in order to actually inherit the elder sonship. He had to endure continuous hardship for that one goal. It is a firmly established formula that in order to win the victory substantially-the real victory-we have to persevere through and surmount much difficulty, environmental as well as personal.</p>
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<p>Look at Noah. After it was revealed to him what was to happen, he had to endure hardships for 120 years, overcoming difficulties on the individual as well as the societal and environmental levels. As he persevered, enduring ridicule and uncertainty for such a long time, he really struggled to uphold his standard.</p>
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<p>Then Abraham was called and he was no exception to this formula. Every person who won a victory had to go through suffering. Abraham surmounted many difficulties in his father’s family, that of Terah the idol maker. He really had to suffer before his promised victory was later won.</p>
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<p>Moses’ situation was the same. The promise to Moses was not instantly fulfilled; the victorious position was not immediately established. After being selected and prepared for his mission, he had to endure incredible difficulty during the forty years of leading the Israelites through the wilderness.</p>
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<p>John the Baptist was another good example of this formula. He had to surmount his environment, especially on the family level. All kinds of responsibilities were given to him and he had to live with them successfully. There was a time duration that he had to go through and apparently many difficulties, because he was not successful in fulfilling God’s dispensation for him.</p>
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<p>Jesus himself not only had to go beyond the family and environmental difficulties, but also he had to suffer through persecution and adversity on the societal and national levels. The Israelites’ clear goal given by God was the world, but it was always very difficult for the Israelites to reach or maintain the standard God desired of them. They were meant to go beyond Rome and reach out to the world.</p>
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<p>Carefully analyzing all these persons and events, we can clearly see a certain pattern of dispensational figures always having to go through difficulty. Both aspects of life are involved-the external and the internal. Their families, clans, and close relatives were the real crux of internal difficulties. The rules and regulations set up by society, such as the legal system, presented the external difficulties. The country or nation, the external entity, set up laws which were not always consistent with the direction of God. Thus, the one who was responsible to fulfill the will of God always had to cope with this discrepancy.</p>
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<p>We can clearly identify the problems Jesus faced. He desperately needed the support of a family that could follow God’s dispensation, but Jesus’ family was anything but ideal. In fact, it was completely the other way around. Jesus as an individual had the tremendous handicap of being a fatherless son in Joseph’s family. Because Joseph didn’t trust him and his family failed him, Jesus had no choice but to take an alternative course of working with the Jewish leaders. He tried very hard to fulfill God’s will in that way. On the foundation of the Jewish faith, he could then cope with the problem of the nation and leading the Israelites.</p>
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<p>Now history has progressed to the time of the Unification Church. We have a tremendous amount of experience and information from the past for which we must be grateful. This year, we have as our goal and motto, “Unification of the Fatherland.” The unification of the Fatherland is a very concrete goal, not just an abstract motto. We must think in real terms about the lessons and experiences of key figures from the past. The unification of the Fatherland refers not just to a nation but beyond to the world and even the cosmos. When our concept is elevated to that height, then we really feel the seriousness of the idea of a Fatherland.</p>
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<p>The purpose and role of the Unification Church have been explained many times over by the True Parents. For the sake of the larger goal, the smaller goal should willingly be sacrificed. Thus, the individual has to be the sacrifice for the family, and the national goal has to supersede the family goal, and so on. This is the way we have learned and the way we have lived. To put it in simple terms, in order for an individual to become successful, he has to make the family level successful. Once that happens, the individual will already be successful. In order to establish the family goal, the national goal has to be accomplished.</p>
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<p>The first level of difficulty is the conflict between mind and body. That struggle has to come to a successful conclusion before we can continue to a further mission or goal. Likewise, before we can advance our goal to the nation, our clan level problems have to be resolved. Before we can succeed on the clan level, the family level problems must be resolved. In other words, in order to progress, unification within the lower level must be well established. Then and only then can we advance to the next level and hope to have unification there.</p>
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<p>What level are we talking about in this year’s motto, “Unification of the Fatherland?” Is it the national level or any level lower than that? No, it is above the national level. We have to confront and completely solve the problems at the national level and make unity there before we can ever hope for the unification of the world. The world is certainly a higher level than the nation. So internally, we have to unify the nation, solve its problems and bring it into complete harmony.</p>
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<p>When we are talking about heaven, we are talking about none other than the cosmic level. Heaven must be on the cosmic, not just the national level. First, we have to solve the problems and establish heaven on earth before we can think about heaven in the spirit world. This has always been the formula. Nothing has ever been fulfilled by abstract thinking alone. The accomplishment of heaven is such a difficult and complex process that you must follow me in every detail. We can only be successful by following very carefully and faithfully.</p>
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<p>Always in the past, individual concerns have been in conflict with larger-level concerns. Much difficulty has resulted from this disharmony. We must not only successfully cope with our individual problems, but also reach beyond to resolve the national level difficulties. Those of us who represent the dispensation have to bring that level into harmony. This is what we are about to do.</p>
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<p>Why is this process difficult? The standard God desires is really different from the standard of “me” or “my family.” Both God and man are confronted by an environment which is also different from God’s standard. The Unification Church, for example, is not limited to one race or one nationality; we are from every nation and every race. The goal of the Unification Church and its members is to go beyond racial and national boundaries. Everyone else may be content with those boundaries, but we aren’t. Transcending them, however, is very difficult and requires tremendous effort.</p>
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<p>Let us just reflect upon ourselves. Sometimes after American members have completed much good and successful work, they forget that they are working as representatives of God and as citizens of God’s Kingdom Without even being conscious of it, they start thinking of themselves primarily as Americans rather than as heavenly citizens.</p>
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<p>Are we always firmly standing on the foundation of the Principle? We may be at one moment but day after day, especially when it is difficult, somehow the standard gets eroded. We lose our heavenly perspective and start thinking like any other worldly citizen. We must be very careful in our thinking and our daily conduct to judge things and act according to the Principle. As time goes on and difficulty continues, our standard can easily get diluted and we are guided by “common sense” or the average standard rather than by the absolute standard of Principle.</p>
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<p>When inspired, we can determine ourselves to keep God’s standard. When we are really elevated and cleansed we feel, “Each move that I make is for the specific purpose of fulfilling God’s will and broadening His influence,” and we work with this perspective. But then one day passes, a few weeks pass, a few months and years go by and we lose such awareness. We no longer have the conscious attitude that the purpose of our life is for the sake of fulfilling God’s will and expanding His influence.</p>
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<p>Let us imagine, “If I were God, how would I do things and how would I feel?” We know that whenever God does something, He always has His goal in mind. If we were God, that is how we would be, too, not only on the individual level, but also on the family level. God would lead His own family to achieve the goal of the next highest level – the racial or clan level. Always, whatever He does, He has a clear direction. Not even for one second is the goal forgotten. No matter what level He may be working on, He is always directing the destination of that level toward the next higher level. Such progress happens only with great difficulty. After the clan level, God has to push through incredible difficulty and challenge to reach the national level. He never forgets the goal of the nation, but most importantly, He never forgets that His ultimate goal is that of the cosmic level.</p>
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<p>Suppose there is a certain person entrusted with a special mission. Let’s say he is an agent in enemy territory doing some secret work at a very high level. He has to make plans and really work carefully. He cannot jump right to the goal, but first he has to do simple things to make his foundation in his own surroundings. From there he can proceed step by step to higher levels. By the same token, although God’s purpose is to restore the world, He does not move to do that overnight. He has to plan carefully for individual restoration, family affairs, the nation, and so on. But He is always consistent in His goal and never forgets it. He constantly thinks about how to reach the goal successfully. Coping with difficulties is secondary for Him, whereas by the time we have dealt with difficulties, successfully or unsuccessfully, we have usually forgotten about the goal.</p>
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<p>How we live makes a lot of difference. When we live for the sake of the goal, we can overcome the difficulties that arise, with the help of God. Sometimes we may not be successful. In that case, we have to feel willing to die for the sake of the goal. We should not be defeated by the circumstances. We should not think, “I am surrounded by dreadful problems, and I cannot cope with them successfully. Therefore I am dying.” Even though this may look like the reality, it should not be the case. We must be as God is – living and dying if necessary for nothing less than winning the goal.</p>
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<p>The perfect example is a martyr, who gives up his own life to sustain and protect God’s will and His foundation. Are all martyrs successful-are they all in Heaven? Think about this. Suppose one person is being severely persecuted to the point of death and he thinks, “I will be faithful to God so I can be lifted up later and recognized by others.” If a martyr dies with that kind of self-centered attitude, he is actually a failure. But if someone in the same situation has faith and wants to give his life for the sake of humanity and the ultimate fulfillment of God’s will, then he becomes a true martyr. The two situations are identical externally but very different internally.</p>
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<p>One’s internal posture or attitude makes that much difference. Even though we may be working incredibly hard, if later it turns out that we worked for the sake of everything except the ultimate fulfillment of God’s will, then our work becomes almost meaningless. God looks at it this way, make no mistake about that. What about Reverend Moon? I view it that way, too.</p>
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<p>There are many bright people here this morning, brothers and sisters who are really working hard. With God’s abundant help, we know they will become successful. America really has turned toward great hope now. Then if the American brothers and sisters are proud, thinking, “I’ve done it,” and become complacent, this is wrong. Rather, we have to start anew for the sake of the next goal-bringing the new standard to the entire world. If we don’t do that, then we are really in the same position as having done nothing. This is God’s view. A person may be successful up to a point, but then if he fails to immediately connect with the next level of the goal, he will be drifting away from God’s main line without even knowing it.</p>
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<p>Look at the Washington Monument condition. That was most successful, so everybody was virtually intoxicated with victory for a short time. Then I immediately proclaimed the rally in Moscow, knowing it was the next step. For more than ten years we have been preparing for that purpose. Then after Moscow, where? We move up to the cosmic level. Can you say, “As far as I’m concerned, my goal is fulfilled. Whether this world is made into heaven or hell is beyond me”? This attitude will not succeed.</p>
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<p>After our victory in Moscow, we know that the spiritual darkness will be expelled from the whole world. After that, we must reach up to God in heaven. Do you understand? This is clearly God’s goal. We must remember that no matter how hard we work or how good a result we may bring in, we have to immediately think about and connect to the ultimate purpose, rather than settle for where we are.</p>
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<p>How many levels are we working on? We are going from the individual to the family, clan, race, nation, world, cosmos, and God. The internal and external aspects can be very simply explained as follows: In the beginning, the individual level is the internal level-it is for “me”, and the next higher level, the clan, is the external level or the environment. When the clan is won and the family and clan achieve perfect unity, their union becomes the internal level and the next level-the nation-becomes the external level. When the national victory is won and the nation is unified, that becomes the internal level and the external level is the world. Do you see?</p>
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<p>This follows one straight, horizontal line from the individual to the family, clan, race, and nation. Only after the national level sovereignty is established can we reach up to heaven, to God’s domain, on the vertical line. Until this highest level is reached, there is no settlement possible for us. We have to live like Gypsies, always on the move. No matter how successful and hard-working we Moonies may be, if the government and the environment are firmly determined to come against us, then we will have to move to a different place.</p>
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<p>If the individual has one standard, the family has another and the nation has yet another, either better or worse, that will never do. The standard has to be consistent. We can test Unification Church members on this point. Speak to brothers and sisters on the West Coast and then speak to those on the East Coast and from the South and North. If they were all one, there would be no problem. But the East has its certain flavor and the West has its own.</p>
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<p>If America continues the way it is going, it will be a great failure as a nation. The center of this country is not stable. Look at the White House-it can sway with the wind and is inconsistent in its policies. Comparatively, the Unification Church is ideal because we are consistent, no matter where we go. Regardless of the color of your skin or your cultural background, your purpose is always the same. If you go to a foreign country, you’ll be amazed at how well you can perform. When the Japanese members come here, they may not speak the language but they act and pray according to the Unification goal. We have to aim constantly toward our final or ultimate goal, no matter where we stand.</p>
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<p>You cannot all have a different goal and direction. God and Principle cannot exist in a world like that. The situation of the Unification Church not only in America but in every country has progressed up to the level of race. Now the nation becomes the external influence, and we have to work to influence the national governments. We are on the national level not only here but everywhere.</p>
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<p>In the original world, Adam contained everything, didn’t he? The unfallen Adam was a God-centered individual, family, clan, nation and world unto himself. Now, to restore the fall of this single man, we have to proceed by levels classified as individual, family, etc., and it is a bitter fight against the satanic world each step of the way. The days of national persecution will end. How soon is not certain, but eventually this opposition will fade away.</p>
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<p>No matter how large a country may be, it cannot behave unjustly against a small country with impunity. Look at today’s diplomatic scene. If a small country is treated unfairly by a large country, then immediately the ambassador of the small country can protest to the president of the large country and the media around the world will publicize the event. The smaller the country, the more publicity it receives in order to protect it. Sovereignty is that important.</p>
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<p>When we are on the national level, everything up to that level is part of the internal situation. We can usually cope with internal problems better than with the external ones. The world will be our external problem from now on; therefore, all levels below the world will be internal and the one above it will be external. After that, there will be no more external level. From the individual to the cosmic level, we form a horizontal line. Then God will cross this line at a sharp, vertical, ninety degree angle. Here the vertical relationship becomes possible.</p>
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<p>Can such vertical relationship happen if nobody does anything? First, someone has to form this line. Will God do that? No, mankind must do it. Human beings fell, so they must fulfill their responsibility to stand upright before God’s grace can come upon them. In other words, the left wing and the right wing-the Cain and Abel positions-must come into complete harmony and unity before we can expect the vertical line to extend all the way down and form a perfect sphere, which is the whole purpose of God’s dispensation.</p>
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<p>Where does God reside? Of course, He is right at the center. When all individuals, families, clans, races and nations are centering on God, then everybody will welcome having a point of unity. All force, all power must go through this one point or else it cannot exist. History has progressed through this formula for unity. Nothing progresses meaningfully without it, as the Cain and Abel relationship implies. It may seem complicated, but broken down simply we see that the individual self is divided between mind and body. Satan occupies the half of the self which is the body. The mind is always trying to bring the body into unity with it because without realizing unity, the horizontal line is not formed and one cannot stand straight. Unless we realize this straight horizontal line, we cannot expect the vertical line to cross.</p>
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<p>We must know where we are now. To what point has the Unification Church come? We are working hard like we did last year or like ten years ago and it may seem just the same, but we have progressed. We are not just miscellaneous people gathered here. Instead, each and every one is legitimately representing his own country, like athletes in the Olympics. We have people who represent the big countries, like America and Russia, and those who represent the smaller ones, including Korea and Japan. They are all competing with each other to see who will be more faithful and who will bring greater result to fulfill God’s will. Even though we’ve come successfully to the world level, this is not the end. Our work beyond the world level is to liberate hell on earth and in the spirit world. Conquering hell on earth and in the spirit world is what it means to fulfill on the cosmic level.</p>
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<p>The individual body operates in great harmony, like an orchestra. The eyes, nose and mouth have very different functions, but they are all directed toward one goal-the well-being of the individual. We have two eyes, but one eye never looks at one thing while the other looks at something else. Instead, they work together in order to focus. Behind the eyes is an optic nerve connected to the brain, making a four position foundation. Why do we have two nostrils? Why not just have one and simplify it? It always takes two for perfection, never just one. This is a manifestation of the duality of God and of His Principle. The Cain and Abel relationship is also a duality, although it was not part of the original ideal. It exists because human beings fell and had to be restored, but it follows the same pattern as the original pattern of creation.</p>
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<p>To prove that the individualism of a great nation like P> America is wrong, look at any natural being. All exist in the pair system, all are in couples. Do you think individualism has anything to do with God? God always creates everything in twos, in pairs. Godism never includes individualism. To live for the sake of the whole is God’s ideal, so individualism is actually a very foolish way. Trying to live in this God-created universe asserting individualism causes one to meet difficulty anywhere one goes. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>We must always remember that we face both internal and external difficulty, no matter which level we live on. I have explained very clearly why difficulties arise. This understanding of the source of the difficulties and of what is external and internal can provide the power to surmount these difficulties.</p>
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<p>Was everything in conflict while it was being created? There was no conflict. Satan’s main effort has been to separate, while the main effort of God and God’s people is to unite. How do we unite? We must perfect the internal standard and, centering on that standard, bring the external standard up to that level. Does history teach us any lessons about this? Yes, it is a very cruel lesson with one credo: persevere, endure, sacrifice yourself. Turn the other cheek. It works, even though it is not very sophisticated. Although it is hard, if you persevere this way, you will go over the difficulty somehow. Only through this principle can we advance very surely, steadily and quickly. There is no other way we can separate ourselves from Satan. We have heard this series more than one thousand times: from the individual level to the family, clan, etc. You can recite it in your dreams, without knowing how it really works, but it is this detailed principle that never fails.</p>
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<p>Cain and Abel are very easy to distinguish if you have one rule, one yardstick. Let’s say that between two Unification Church members, you need to decide who is in the Cain position and who is in the Abel. The one who is more dedicated to the cause and willing to sacrifice and persevere more than the other to fulfill the goal is Abel. God always finds this Abel-type person and will be on his side. He will encourage and help him to realize his own goal which is for the largest good, whereas Satan will take the other person’s side and work with him.</p>
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<p>When I went to Danbury, I immediately made up my mind, “Well, this is the way it ought to be. Traditionally and historically, Abel suffers more until God’s will is done. It is not done yet, so the fact that I must suffer more is only natural.” I never lamented or complained, inside or outside. I had only one thought: “How can I penetrate this hell? Once I do that, the world will be elevated to a new level.” I knew this. The American people do not yet know about Reverend Moon, so they are indifferent. Once they know, they will all bow down for what he did for their country when they were not even aware of it. No person can go to God without going through Father. No one. Even in heaven, before you can go higher and higher, you must go with Father. Nobody advances ahead of him. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>We must work for God’s sovereignty, inspiring the governments to act for the sake of God and humanity. Korea’s President is Chun Doo Hwan. That is a fact, but walk into Korea and ask anybody, “Who is better equipped to solve the problems and save the country, Chun Doo Hwan or Reverend Moon?” Many Koreans will say Reverend Moon. In Japan, the most powerful party is the Democratic Liberal Party, but many people will say that the VOC has a stronger influence. Then if you come here to America and ask the average American where to look for the best solution for the future, pretty soon they will say the Unification Movement, rather than any political party.</p>
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<p>One thing is sure. The satanic world has already exhausted its possibilities. There is nothing more for it to try. America’s position and Father’s position-compare them now. We have surmounted all the internal problems and we are about to solve the world problems. This is where we are now. From this point along a straight line to the past includes all the days of indemnity and suffering. But from here to the future, it is the path to victory. When God anoints America’s president, the struggle of the entire world will end, then and there. There will be nothing more to do, really, because God is there.</p>
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<p>We are clearly on a different path. We are like high priests bringing offerings to God. When we bring an offering, we’d better not have the attitude, “God, I am offering this to You, so please take care of my family. Please, do what I want.” Instead you should say, “As a small, humble being, I dedicate this for Your sake and for the sake of the whole of humanity.” We have to dedicate our offerings like that, not with ourselves in mind. What if your family stubbornly opposed you and begged you not to go this way? Then we must push our family away and continue to think about our nation. Is what I am saying to you right or wrong?</p>
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<p>In the business world, can you keep all your money in your pocket and expect to make a profit? No matter what sort of opportunities come along, the first thing you must do is risk your money. You have to be ready to cast away what you have and take a chance. Then the profit can come. By the same token, we must give everything we’ve got or else God cannot give us something great in return. Giving something small to get a large return doesn’t work. It defies the rule of all things.</p>
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<p>The Chinese character for endurance or patience includes two portions. The character on top represents a sword or knife, and below that is a character representing the mind. So even though a cutting, sharp sword is in your mind, don’t budge, don’t move. Don’t even express the pain; pretend nothing is bothering you. That is the meaning behind “endurance.” Therein lies the great difference between Oriental and Western people. For example, the Chinese have a staggering population of one billion. The Chinese have endured and endured for centuries and you know what the Chinese nature today is like. They are famous for rarely showing emotion, either good or bad.</p>
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<p>If an American has a Chinese roommate, within three days he will have told virtually everything about himself to the Chinese. But even after ten years, the Chinese would have revealed very little to the American. Who is the most shrewd and able diplomat at the negotiating table? It is the one who doesn’t speak much. The more eloquent you are, the more you give away. The champion at making the other people speak will be the winner. Chinese are very adept in this way.</p>
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<p>Sometimes the differences are dramatic: Westerners usually dress their best at the diplomatic table, while the Chinese couldn’t care less. They don’t even wear fresh clothes, maybe even three-day-old clothing. They just keep sitting there day after day saying almost nothing, so the Westerners think they are dumb. But after a few days, they find out that the Chinese remember every word that was said.</p>
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<p>By listening carefully, the Chinese make assessments: “That diplomat is no problem. I don’t need to pay any attention to him.” Or, “This issue I don’t have to worry about, but that one I do.” He doesn’t reveal what he is thinking; you only realize it later. Then he focuses on two or three people at the most to work on. This method never fails. Nixon flew to China in a big plane with a grand style and a lot of beautiful words, but today looking back, nothing so much has been achieved for America. Meanwhile, the Chinese have gradually been progressing and improving.</p>
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<p>Actually, I have some characteristics of the Chinese. I do not speak as much to my own family as I do with you. Even Mother often does not know what I am thinking. But when the time comes, I tell Mother, “This is it,” and she thinks, “How in the world did Father think of that?”</p>
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<p>Let me ask you a question, especially you American women: If a knife were stuck in your mind-would you keep quiet? No, you would probably shriek just at the thought! (Father imitates a feminine scream.) Such a person should learn a lesson from the Chinese. As Unification Church members, we must learn that deep area of human character: silence. Silence is really an expression of one’s confidence and sovereignty. In other words, the sovereign people are the ones who are in complete control of themselves and who can keep silent.</p>
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<p>When I was criticized and persecuted, I never retaliated. I didn’t even respond. Instead, I kept God’s goal foremost in my mind; I had no time to be bothered with anything else. We have not yet achieved our final goal. If someone persecutes or criticizes you, do you immediately respond to it and try to retaliate? Why is that necessary? You should think. “Let’s talk about this twenty or thirty years from now.”</p>
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<p>After World War II, in 1945, a knife was really stuck in my mind. The world had separated Korea in two, though it had no right to do that. In essence, the United States gave one half of Korea to the satanic domain and meddled with the other half. The Korean Christians went against God instead of following His will. I was deeply hurt by this, but I didn’t speak. I thought, “Let’s see what happens after forty years,” and for forty years I waited. I went to the hell of prison and to every difficult place conceivable, but I never said anything or expressed my feelings about my course. Today it is time to talk about this. Now, what was divided forty years ago, we are going to unite.</p>
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<p>We have been speaking about the new year and our posture. Do you know what posture is? It is the mind’s attitude. What kind of attitude should we have? We must say to anyone who is trying to bother us, “Don’t distract me. I am busy doing my mission to comply with God’s will.” By yourself, you cannot do this kind of a mission, so you must cling very closely to Father. Even if I try to shake you loose, still you have to hang on. Otherwise I will never be able to lead you in the spirit world. I will go higher and higher and you will be left behind if you can’t hold on. If we cannot do it here, certainly we cannot do it there. We learn from the Principle that returning to earth spiritually to resurrect oneself is very difficult. Because I know this, I do what I do-push you incredibly into suffering.</p>
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<p>Unlike the past years of paying indemnity without much visible return, from now on there will not be so much payment of indemnity. Whatever we do will become our own property, so to speak. I wish all of you to realize the change of time and do your utmost best to go over this stage to the time of victory. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>Therefore, we must have no complaints, no words, no comments. What good does it do to make comments? Two days ago, we made some big changes. I told some people, “You must go to Africa.” They responded, “Which country in Africa? Why Africa? When Africa?” All that kind of thing. But why should anyone speak like that? When Father says “Africa,” then you should pray, “Yes, Africa it will be.” and that will be it. It is very simple.</p>
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<p>Why so much noise about everything? You make everything so complicated. You are too talkative! It’s true. We must run silently. That is all we have to do. We have a big goal ahead and much to do to reach it. If somebody says something bad against me, so what? What I must do, I must do. Be confident. Time doesn’t wait for you. You must catch up with time.</p>
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<p>Now you understand that by posture I mean attitude. Though “attitude” can be a very abstract concept, let me specifically describe what I mean. Let everything that happens around you in your daily life remind you of unification. When you pray, think, “My left hand and right hand are uniting as I pray. This is the way it ought to be. God waited for this a long time.” When you look in your mirror, think, “I have two eyes and they are not wandering in different directions. They are united.” When you breathe in, you can think, “My two nostrils are working in unity and I am glad. Therefore I must make unity in the world.” If you walk for a long distance without falling down, say, “I am glad my feet are in unity and enjoying harmony with the rest of my body. This is why I do not fall. If my mind and God’s can become harmonized, that is even better.”</p>
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<p>If we are standing and embracing the vertical center, there is only one point, not two. We must harmonize with God’s will, we must harmonize the environment and we must harmonize with everybody. Sometimes we experience discord with other people, don’t we? Then we must go to the person we have quarreled with and apologize. Satan will leave at that moment. Satan will follow you as long as you have a grudge or a hard feeling toward somebody. But when harmony is realized, Satan has no place to stay, so he leaves instantly.</p>
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<p>Blessed couples, raise your hands and keep them up. Those who have never fought with their spouse, lower your hands. All of you are confessing that at one time or another you have fought against your husband or wife. I will try to be the judge now. Which side-the man’s or the woman’s-tends to speak more, on the average? Then the fault probably lies on that side-the woman’s. That is statistical. It is no accident. Woman fell first and women are often the source of the problem. To surmount that, women need to be trained twice as hard as men; then they can survive. Also, I know this is true by my experience. More women came in the early days of the church and professed their faith to me. They promised this and that but now, many years later, I do not see those women anymore. The men did not say so much or promise as much to me, but most of them are still here. Once again, why should we speak? Be silent, remain and persevere. Do you understand my point clearly now?</p>
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<p>You may be doing the right things, but inside you may be carrying a grudge and thinking, “Why should it be like this? Can’t it be another way?” This attitude doesn’t suffice. Nobody is begging you to do this. It is our work, not somebody’s else’s; therefore we do it. I teach you how to conduct yourselves but it is up to you to do it. There are certain things that you have to do for yourselves without complaint. Now you know clearly why we must be silent and keep going.</p>
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<p>At the onset of the new year, it is important to remember this hard-won truth which Father has given you. Now do you know how to conduct yourselves? Then promise this to God and Father by raising your hands. God bless you.</p>
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<article id="post-1849" class="post-1849 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-speeches-of-rev-sun-myung-moon-1987">
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/day-of-the-victory-of-love.html" title="Permalink to DAY OF THE VICTORY OF LOVE" rel="bookmark">DAY OF THE VICTORY OF LOVE</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:49:28+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/day-of-the-victory-of-love.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:49:28+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 2, 1987<br />
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World Mission Center – Grand Ballroom<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>As you already know, there are certain requirements in the process of fulfilling God’s restoration course. This is the law of indemnity. As you also know, after World War II the United States had the opportunity to unite with the entire world, especially the Judeo-Christian societies, in order to facilitate the final fulfillment of God’s dispensation.</p>
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<p>During World War II, America was in the position of the Adam nation on the heavenly side, while England was the Eve nation and France was the archangel nation. On the satanic side, there was Germany as Adam, Japan as Eve, and Italy as the archangel. Why were Great Britain and Japan in the two Eve positions? They are island nations, which is a more feminine posture than a continent, which is larger and therefore more masculine. Furthermore, the United States is like a son to Great Britain, the mother country. This ties in with the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah through the body of a woman, or through a mother’s womb.</p>
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<p>The fall of man took place between Adam, Eve, and the archangel. According to the law of cause and effect, that lineup on the worldwide scale would again have to occur in the last days. Thus we now have the Adam nation, Eve nation and archangel nation. World War II was the ultimate war to fulfill the final chapter of the human dispensation. There was no nation untouched or uninvolved in that war; people of many nations shed blood.</p>
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<p>Another important rule has worked throughout history: Satan always initiates attacks. World War II was no exception; it was initiated by Germany and Japan. At that time, the nation of Korea was under Japanese occupation, so in a way, as the Eve nation, Japan gave birth to Korea. When I was born, Korea was suffering under the rule of the Japanese imperial government. Japan, on the satanic side, did its absolute best to do evil to the future Adam nation on the heavenly side. During my birth year of 1920, Korea was in the midst of a most difficult three-year period. The country was in the grip of a terrible famine. Furthermore, in 1919, a powerful independence movement rose up in which a great number of Korean people rebelled against the Japanese rulers. But they failed and suffered terrible punishment; much blood was shed. 1919 was the first of the three most difficult years. I was born in 1920. 1921 was the third year of that period.</p>
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<p>My family suffered for a period of more than just three years. They were prepared for seven years for that most extraordinary moment. Many of my relatives had fled to Manchuria in order to help wage the war of liberation against Japan. This independence movement had been centered in the Christian churches, which at that time were very patriotic. In the years 1940 to 1944, Japanese persecution against the Christian churches reached a climax. The liberation of Korea by the Allies took place on August 15, 1945. If that had been postponed even three more days until August 17, there would have been a much greater bloodbath in Korea-more than 170,000 Korean Christians would have been exterminated. The Japanese rulers were in the midst of their most terrible bloodletting against the Christians at that very time.</p>
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<p>You can see that God always allows Satan to do his utmost before the turning point comes. Upon the liberation of Korea on August 15, 1945, God intended to initiate a new chapter of dispensational history. At that time, I was working with the underground movement. I had discovered the Principle and was preparing for the momentous beginning of that new dispensation. Immediately after the liberation of Korea, the United States set up a military provisional government. The people who were placed in official positions were primarily those who had studied abroad, particularly in the United States and Japan.</p>
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<p>The Korean Christians who had fought against Japanese occupation had been underground, and had not been linked in any manner with the imperial government. Those people who had been outside of the country and who became the main leaders of the provisional government tended to be tolerant or even friendly toward the Japanese. Those were the people who came in to take over the Korean provisional government.</p>
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<p>Korean Christianity was divided into two camps, the Cain and the Abel. God’s dispensational will had been for the Abel camp of Christianity-those who had stayed in the country and fought against Japanese rule-to take prominence over the Cain camp-those who had been abroad. The Cain camp should have united with the Abel camp and worked together toward their common goal. That would have been an important turning point for the new dispensational era.</p>
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<p>But the Cain and Abel camps were accusing each other. Those of the underground considered themselves the only “pure” Christians and looked with scorn upon the “heretics” of the other side who had had an easy time, who had compromised with the satanic forces. Those people who had worked outside of Korea felt that the Christians who had stayed behind had become heretical because they were so spiritually-oriented. There was a great deal of spiritual activity at the time. People were receiving many revelations about the Second Coming of the Messiah. The two camps were mutually accusing each other as heretics.</p>
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<p>At that time, I was in the position to bring harmony between the two camps. But one difficulty was that the Unification Principle is so revolutionary, including the statement that the Messiah will come as a man in the flesh. Because of the situation in Korea, I came to be strongly accused by both Christian camps as a “super-heretic”</p>
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<p>When the United States military government was established, they sided with the Cain camp of Christianity. Most of those could speak English, but they were, for the most part, very relaxed in their observation of Christian rules. Christian missionaries from America were also in a position of influence at that time. They could directly communicate with the U.S. military government and they were united with the government. They were largely responsible for pulling in those people who had been studying abroad in the United States and Japan.</p>
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<p>Because the military government sided with them, the Cain camp became the most powerful and influential group. Within the Abel camp, some Christians sensed a change and felt they wanted to ally themselves with the more powerful people, hoping to gain some benefit. What does that mean? The ungodly side, the satanic side, was taking power within the country. More and more, righteous Christianity was in the position to be accused and persecuted.</p>
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<p>God’s dispensational will was to use the momentous victory of the Abel camp in World War II as a launching pad for the movement of the Messiah. However, the United States military government, working together with the Cain type Christianity, took that chance away, and moved more and more toward the satanic side. So my position became more and more difficult.</p>
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<p>Under those circumstances, I was quietly approaching prominent religious leaders who had had spiritual experiences. I knew there were such people and I was trying to find allies among them. There were some Christians who had received spiritual messages directly from Heaven and who truly tried to know the will of God through the Bible. Such people became my supporters. Thus I was pulling those jewel-like people from both camps-the spiritualist groups as well as the traditional Christian denominations. Those groups began to think that Reverend Moon was taking their flocks away. Thus they began to persecute me, wanting to shield themselves from me. The confrontation started during the earliest days-right after the Korean liberation. So the two groups had one purpose in common: opposing Reverend Moon, this new “super-heretic” They could unite upon that.</p>
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<p>They were able to utilize the power of the military government because it is easy to turn political power against a new religion. In this way, God’s great expectation after World War II-to launch the new dispensation-was thwarted. Because of the failure of Christianity and the United States, that new beginning was taken over by the satanic forces.</p>
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<p>If nothing had been done then, both North and South Korea would have been completely turned over to Satan. That was Korea’s destiny at the time. The 38th parallel was already the dividing line and North Korea was in the hands of the communists. They were planning to bring South Korea under communism as well. The U.S. military government was naive and could easily have become the prey of the machinations and conspiracies of the North. Luckily, however, the president of the South, Sungman Rhee, understood the situation and strongly opposed the position of the military government. He completely detached South Korea from the North and in 1948, South Korea declared its independence. The Republic of Korea was created.</p>
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<p>Thus, the division of the Korean peninsula into North and South was established. The North proclaimed its own communist government while the South declared its independence, under the protection of the U.S. military. That was the difficult beginning point of the world dispensation. Korea was like a microcosm of the world with a very complicated situation.</p>
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<p>The major portion of the new Korean government under Dr. Syngman Rhee was a hand-me-down group from the military provisional government. That means they were mostly Cain-type Christians. Such people remained in the positions of power. For that reason, Reverend Moon’s dispensational position became even more difficult and narrowed down.</p>
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<p>The reason I am giving you this important explanation of the genesis of Korea is this: according to the will of God, the messianic movement must begin upon a national foundation. In the time of Jesus, it was supposed to be the nation of Israel. In the twentieth century, Korea was chosen as the nation, with Christianity in the same position as Judaism 2,000 years ago. Upon that foundation, the messianic movement was supposed to be launched. However, just like 2,000 years ago, the Korean nation-that newly independent nation-took the position of Cain. Furthermore, it was run by the Cain-type elements within Christianity. Thus the government united with Cain-type Christianity in persecuting and trying to destroy the messianic movement. Unless you understand this particular situation, you cannot know how certain things happened within the Unification movement-such as how it started and why it went to the worldwide scale without establishing the national foundation in Korea.</p>
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<p>The reason I entered North Korea voluntarily right after the liberation, knowing that it was a communist, satanic nation, was that I had to set the condition of trying my best to restore it to God’s side. Naturally, after I went there I had to suffer to an incredible degree. In Jesus’ time, the disloyalty of the twelve disciples brought about incredible indemnity conditions. Jesus set the special forty-day period to bring all his lost disciples back. By the same token, in the new Jerusalem, the third Israel of Korea, half of the nation had been given away to the satanic side. So I had to go there physically and try to restore that part of Korea back to God.</p>
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<p>As you know, the capital of North Korea is Pyongyang. That city was once known as the Jerusalem of the East. It was really the Mecca for Christianity within Korea – the most devout and ardent Christians had been there. Therefore, I had to go and preach there trying to bring some of those people out of North Korea. In the name of Jesus’ twelve disciples, I had to try to restore those devout Christians to freedom rather than let them become the prey of communism.</p>
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<p>I began my work in the midst of the communist regime in Pyongyang, and gained many disciples. When I was thrown into jail, I preached to the people there and I won more disciples. Inside the jail, I had an incredible network of communication among those devout Christians who had been waiting for the coming of the Messiah. Amazing spiritual phenomena occurred during those days. Many people had been told, “The Messiah is coming” Some were constantly receiving messages about who I was and they were given my cell number as well as the best method of communication.</p>
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<p>As you know, the Korean War began in 1950. For several years preceding that, the communists in North Korea were preparing with desperate determination to take over all of the South. It was during that time that I was working in North Korea, primarily in prison. General MacArthur directed the Inchon landing and broke through the enemy lines, allowing the U.N. forces to move north all the way to Hung Nam and to open the gates of the prison where I was being held. Truly that was a holy march to the north.</p>
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<p>Because of the devastating effects of the Korean War, the foundation of the new independent government was demolished. Many rich people in Korea fled the country when they saw the war coming. Likewise, Christian ministers wanted to get their families out of the country. Thus the leadership inside of Korea was full of confusion. This chaotic situation gave the Unification Church an opportunity for a new beginning. It was a chance for us to make a new foundation, even to the point where we could have an impact on Christian society and the government. Thus the confusion and chaotic situation of Korean society at that time could be utilized by God. It was the opportunity for the heavenly dispensation to be launched again.</p>
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<p>By 1954, I was able to lay sufficient foundation to organize the official church under the name of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity. Still there was incredible opposition and persecution from both the government and established Christianity. Two thousand years ago, Judaism was supposed to be in the Abel position and guide the Israel nation and the governmental power. That was the original lineup. By the same token, the Unification Church was supposed to be in the Abel position and guide the Korean government and influence society. That was what was supposed to happen.</p>
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<p>By the time 1960 came along, persecution and opposition were at their most rampant and climactic point in Korea. For God, however, the year of 1960 was the turning point for the beginning of the new era. Until Satan has done his utmost, God’s turning point will not come. God has to allow Satan to do his absolute best, then he will have to give up.</p>
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<p>The climax of persecution came in this way: the American missionaries, who were primarily Presbyterian and Methodist, had been working in Korea and had built some universities. One of them was Ewha University, a women’s university, and the other was a men’s school, Yonsei University. A large number of students from those two schools joined the Unification Church at that time. Thus the government, as well as the Christian missionaries, saw this as a dangerous thing and they began to pursue and develop their opposition against the Unification Church. One day those two universities announced the expulsion of all the students and professors who were members of the Unification Church, which caused a big uproar. Then they recruited some former members of the church, twelve in particular, to join with the Korean government and work in opposing us.</p>
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<p>Under such circumstances, the heavenly dispensation was to celebrate the Holy Wedding of the True Parents, as well as the first twelve of the 36 Couples. The Blessing of the 36 Couples was accomplished in the midst of such incredible turmoil. Those couples were being pulled away from the satanic camp and brought over to the heavenly side. This was the historical beginning of the Blessing-first the 36 Couples, then the 72 Couples, the 124 Couples, the 430 Couples, and so forth. All along, society and the government were resisting. Meanwhile, God was opening up and expanding the territory of Heaven.</p>
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<p>During this period, a new reputation came to be attached to the Unification Church and Reverend Moon. People began to realize that only with the same quality of commitment as the members of our church could they hope to win over communism. Furthermore, they saw that the only truly powerful patriotic organization was the Unification Church. That sort of consensus developed. By the time we launched the first celebration of God’s Day in 1968, the Unification foundation was firmly laid. It was obvious that no one in Korea could take away that rock-solid foundation.</p>
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<p>At that time, we were able to launch a powerful opposition against communism; the Unification Church was the only organization with a truly winning strategy. In 1969, all the blessed couples of Korea were mobilized for three years. Some of them even put their children into orphanages and then took off for unknown destinations, dedicating themselves for those three years. At that time, there was a great deal of criticism in society and among the parents of the blessed couples, saying, “What Reverend Moon is doing is unreasonable. He married my son and daughter to live well and have children, but now he is forcing them to live like beggars, even throwing the children into orphanages as they go out on this mobilization” But my position was that our primary goal had to be to save the country. Unless the country is saved, there can be no secure family or individual. Therefore, all the blessed couples were mobilized for the sake of the salvation of the country.</p>
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<p>Some couples knew they could not take care of their children at that time, so they gathered up their belongings and took their babies to their parents’ homes and left them, sometimes, even without the permission of those parents. They thought, “If my parents take care of the baby, good; if not, he will die” From a purely human point of view, there were many tragic scenes. Many of the children were old enough to know their parents and capable of talking. When the parents tried to leave them behind, some of the children cried out, “Mommy, where are you going? Don’t leave me!” Those mothers were weeping, saying, “l have to go in order to save the country. l must follow the will of God. He will protect you. You must stay and I must go” They fervently prayed and told God, “My children are in Your hands. I go according to Your will”</p>
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<p>Yesterday I spoke about the life of sacrifice and said that every member of the Unification Church, whether blessed or not, is in the position of an offering or sacrifice on the altar of God. By 1970 there were many blessed couples, but still the life of the Unification Church members was an absolutely wandering life, always moving, living out of suitcases. Each year on my birthday, I did not celebrate with a feast but rather, I would fast That was a condition for our members for many years. I began this road myself from the very bottom-from the laborer’s position-and climbed up, step by step. I climbed once to the highest and most glorious position, but that was lost, so I had to go all the way back down to the very bottom and make a new beginning. Step by step, l had to make the restoration.</p>
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<p>I never wore formal attire, a tie or a nice suit as I do now. A workman doesn’t dress up every day to go to work and I always dressed like a workman. Until 1970, I even wore humble and coarse attire to Sunday Service. I preached in such clothing. I’m sure you find it hard to imagine such a time. Likewise, I never ate my meals at a table. I would just eat humble things like rice balls and radish, picking them up with my hands, not even using a spoon or chopsticks. That was part of the road of indemnity.</p>
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<p>By 1970, the blessed families were in the midst of a total three-year mobilization for the salvation of the Korean nation. Now there is one chapter remaining: the total mobilization of the blessed couples for the sake of the world. After that three-year mobilization in Korea, public opinion was turned around and virtually everyone recognized the quality of dedication of the Unification Church members. They knew that only with such devout and dedicated activities on the part of the Korean people could their nation be preserved from communism. l want you to understand that those who sacrifice the most are the ones who will inherit the blessing of God. That is the cardinal rule of the heavenly dispensation. In Korea at that time, the Unification Church sacrificed more than the government or any of the people in society, including the established Christian churches. Therefore, God had to pour out blessings upon the Unification Church.</p>
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<p>By the end of that three year mobilization period, in 1972, there was open public recognition that the truly patriotic organization in Korea was clearly Reverend Moon’s organization. I had been rebuilding our foundation since the loss of the earlier one in 1945. By 1972,1 had laid down an even stronger national foundation, stronger than any previous Christian base. Therefore, that national victory is now linked to the worldwide level.</p>
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<p>This is how difficult the indemnity course is. As you know, while I was laying that base for victory on the national level, I was already setting the conditions for the international foundation. l made my first worldwide tour in 1965, when I dedicated Holy Grounds in many different countries. Also we held an international Blessing in order to prepare for the full-blown international dispensation. I came to America with a special mission given by God, through a revelation, landing in Washington, D.C. on December 18, 1971. That was the time to link the victorious foundation in Korea with the United States, knowing that this country was the center of the dispensational will of God.</p>
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<p>When I first came here, I received a warm welcome from virtually every quarter of the nation. I launched a nationwide tour in 1972 to awaken the country, beginning from Lincoln Center in New York. That went on for three years- 1972, 1973, and 1974-during which time I visited every state in the country and every major city, not only once, but two or three times. During this period, I was wholeheartedly welcomed by officials of the cities and states. I received tremendous numbers of honorary citizenships, keys to the city, proclamations, and so forth.</p>
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<p>Thus this Christian nation of the United States welcomed and embraced me initially. By virtue of that, the failure of Korean Christianity-their opposition to me- could be forgiven. Thus the opposition by established Christianity in Korea was indemnified by Christianity on an international level. That enthusiastic reception by the United States-both on the governmental level and in established Christianity-was a condition of victory. Then I had to bring that victorious foundation back to Korea and link them. This is why, in 1975, I created the International One World Crusade and brought them back to Korea-to link up that victorious foundation which I had made in America.</p>
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<p>At that time, the political situation in Korea was very dangerous. Judaism and the nation of Israel 2,000 years ago were in the position of Christianity and the Korean nation of the present day. The Roman Empire of Jesus’ era was like the United States of today. The crucifixion of Jesus took place because of the combined efforts of those three powers-the Israel nation, Judaism, and the Roman Empire. That failure of 2,000 years ago had to be indemnified during the Second Advent. This time, the Korean government and the United States opposed the position of established Christianity, so those two and the Unification Church were able to unite together to lift up the movement of the Messiah.</p>
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<p>Because of the Crucifixion, only spiritual salvation has been possible; physical salvation was lost. Father had to establish the foundation for both types of salvation. In order to lay this foundation, that failure of 2,000 years ago had to be restored. That restoration was achieved by my victory in the United States and the fact that the Korean government and the Unification Church were able to suppress the opposition by established Christianity. That foundation was a physical one-I was alive and able to win that victory. Thus I could lay the foundation for physical as well as spiritual salvation.</p>
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<p>In a way, Jesus’ dispensation which ended in the Crucifixion was restored and a new beginning was made, moving into the realm of spiritual and physical salvation. This is total salvation. That new era was opened up upon this victorious foundation which we laid. Do you understand?</p>
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<p>Then I returned to the United States a second time and had to wage a battle against the United States government and international Christianity, which is represented by American Christianity. Established Christianity can only bring spiritual salvation, so it has to be united with the foundation for total salvation from God. When I returned from Korea, we stepped up our crusade, beginning at Madison Square Garden and then on to Yankee Stadium, culminating in the September 18, 1976, rally at the Washington Monument. That was the climax, the final assault, so to speak.</p>
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<p>Again, God gave a wonderful new opportunity to the United States. On October 4, 1976, the Day of Victory of Heaven was declared. At that time, there was a great deal of scandal and turmoil still brewing over Nixon’s Watergate problem. During the Watergate period, nobody had a real solution, but I declared the solution to the nation. I was invited to the Oval Office in the White House where I had a face-to-face meeting with President Richard Nixon. I made a most incredible recommendation to him. If he had heeded my advice at that time, there would have been a possibility for great progress.</p>
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<p>What happened? Because the President did not heed that advice, Watergate pulled him down and he was driven out of office. Then Gerald Ford came in, and was defeated in the next election by Carter. Under President Carter, a miserable situation developed in America. In the next election Ronald Reagan was the victor. Who really elected him? It was God-the dispensational will. However, the Reagan administration did not have enough courage and did not stand firmly enough on principle. Instead, they allowed me to go the route of Danbury. You can see that the world’s destiny- the rise and fall of individuals and nations-is truly in the hands of God.</p>
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<p>Many people thought that once I was put into Danbury, it would be the end of Reverend Moon and the Unification Church, but they were totally wrong. In a way, I went to Danbury to indemnify the failure of America, especially President Nixon’s and Carter’` failures. Someone has to pay the price for such failure before God. If President Nixon had not failed during the early 1 970’s and he had sailed smoothly through that difficult period, there would have been no setback. The dispensational victory could have gone forward all the way to the end. However, because of Nixon’s and Carter’s failures, Satan could get a hook upon Reverend Moon and demand that I set another condition. Otherwise, I could not have gone on to another stage of the dispensation.</p>
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<p>One more victorious foundation had to be laid there because Satan was holding that hook over me. Thus I returned to Korea in December of 1983 and mobilized the entire nation in the rallies for Victory Over Communism. That was, in a way, the final point of the showdown between Satan and me. Public morale in Korea had been very low, but during that month of December 1983 the entire country was buoyed up. Every district and region felt that change.</p>
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<p>Satan could not invade me directly at that time-it just wasn’t possible. So what did he do? He invaded my family. That was the day of December 23, 1983, when I was completing our final rally in Kwangju. At the same hour of that rally, Heung Jin was involved in his accident.</p>
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<p>There had been persistent failure-accusation and persecution by established Christianity in Korea, as well as in the United States. Symbolically speaking, the nation was on the father’s level and the church was on the son’s level. There was failure on certain levels of the government. All these had to be indemnified, so a great ransom had to be paid; an extraordinary sacrifice was required. For that reason, God allowed one of the precious sons of the True Family to serve as that sacrifice.</p>
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<p>The failure of Christianity, especially, had to be paid by someone. Otherwise, the souls of Christians in spirit world could not be linked to the physical world and could not come down to assist the dispensation. Through Heung Jin’s noble sacrifice, that particular debt was paid. From that point on, the entire Christian population in spirit world was released to come down and freely assist here. They could come down through Heung Jin, who is the bridge.</p>
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<p>Those Christians in spirit world could have no real connection with the True Parents before. There had been no way for that connection to take place. The utmost desire of the men and women in spirit world was to make a heartistic connection with the True Parents-that is the ultimate salvation for them, too. Because they could not do it physically, they wanted to have True Parents’ own son, their flesh and blood, come to spirit world and link them. Because of the establishment of this bridge through the sacrifice of Heung Jin, Christians centered upon Jesus in spirit world were all perfectly released. They could come freely to the physical world and unite with Father’s dispensation.</p>
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<p>Today we are celebrating the Day of the Victory of Love. What is the meaning of this day? As you know, we have two periods of growth-a time of indirect and direct dominion of God. Because of the fall of man, direct dominion was lost. The laws of Heaven do not allow people to just go freely to spirit world. All men and women are supposed to go through the gate of the True Parents. But because of the fall of man, everybody has been going there without any true gate. People were going to spirit world without any order, just randomly. But if they want to come down to the physical world, they have to go through this gate. Otherwise, if they come down at random or according to their own way, they could not serve any purpose. In isolated cases, spirits would come and make contact with people here, giving them certain revelations, and have limited contact and then leave. That would not help their spiritual growth. They could only make that vertical contact but they could not encompass the entire horizontal world. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>This horizontal world is under the dominion of the True Parents, so this is their territory, in a way. The children of the True Parents also have the right to dominion over this territory. Therefore, by sending one of the representatives of the True Parents’ family to spirit world, it opened up the gate so that all the people there could pass through and come here into the True Parents’ territory. Once they pass through the True Parents’ gate to the physical world, they can stay and continue to work. In the past, when good spirits came down and did a little bit of work and then left, what happened? Satan could come in and take the results away. But in this case, the good spirits can come down through the True Parents’ gate and work here on earth indefinitely. This is how the satanic world can be pushed out. They will have no room or opportunity to come in to reclaim the result.</p>
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<p>Because of the fall of man, true love was lost and replaced with illicit love. At that point, the realm of death was created. However, by reactivating and restoring true love, the realm of death could be demolished. In other words, death was conquered. The True Parents are the posts of the gates through which spirit world can come and go freely. Now no one can block this Rate because of the sacrifice of Heung Jin.</p>
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<p>Furthermore, Father made a very special prayer during the Ceremony of Unification. Because of that, no one has the power to block the True Parents’ gate. My own human inclination was to feel great sorrow at the death of my beloved son, but I knew I could not shed tears from that human perspective-not one tear. Actually, during the time of Heung Jin’s ascension, I was doing this work of creating the gate, setting the condition through which to send him to spirit world. This was in less than three days’ time.</p>
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<p>This morning at 1:18 a.m., it was exactly three years since Heung Jin’s ascension occurred, on January 2, 1984. When Jesus ascended into spirit world, he was escorted by 120 spirits. By the same token, when Heung Jin ascended, 120 kings and queens from nations in the spirit world assembled. They could come down and begin to exercise their influence and power for the benefit of Father’s dispensation. After this event, there were many spiritualists who testified that in spirit world Jesus is known as the old Christ and Heung Jin is known as the young Christ. This is how the spirit world and the physical world are linked now. They are becoming one and will enjoy free communication.</p>
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<p>In 1984, two of the greatest sacrifices in history were made. One was the ascension of Heung Jin, which indemnified the failure of Christianity and allowed all the good Christians in spirit world to come down freely. The second was my stay in Danbury which indemnified the national failure so that we could move up to the international level. Thus, a new era has dawned. A new dispensational history can begin upon this great foundation.</p>
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<p>The victory of Danbury was culminated on August 20, 1985. The following years-1985, 1986, 1987, and 1988- are the years of victorious physical presence, or dominion, of the True Parents. After Danbury, I immediately returned to Korea in order to restore a particularly dramatic situation there. Then I worked on the Japanese situation. The presence of Father had an important impact there. I returned to the United States once again in order to achieve the same victory in this country.</p>
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<p>So far, the Abel power has been overshadowed by the Cain power-that of the left-hand side. But during these three years, l am pushing the Abel power upward, coming toe-to-toe with the Cain power. Next, the Abel power will go over and take dominion. Do you follow? As I said yesterday, this year is the total mobilization year for the blessed couples and all the members of the Unification Church on the final level-the worldwide level. Just as I mobilized the Korean families in 1970 for the national level, this time I would like to mobilize everyone for the worldwide level in order to gain the final victory over the Cain world.</p>
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<p>Actually, Danbury was a voluntary act on my part. I did not have to return to America when I was in Korea at the time of the indictment. I did not have to go to the courthouse for the trial. I am not a citizen of the United States and this government had no power to arrest me in Korea. But I did return to America to face the trial and go to prison, if necessary, for the purpose of restoring the national and world level dispensation. I accepted the sacrifice of Heung Jin in order that the failure of Christianity could be indemnified. After the death of my beloved son, how could I retreat in the face of the court battle? I stepped forward and returned to this country as the front line soldier to save this nation and the world.</p>
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<p>While I was in Danbury, I was working to unite Christianity in the United States by recruiting 7,000 ministers, the remnant. After restoring that Christian foundation, the national foundation comes next. While I was in prison, the Cain churches established Christian churches-became united with the Unification Church. After the victory of Danbury, we moved up to another level where the unification between Father and the American nation became possible. Very complicated and confused situations persist in Korea, Japan, and the United States. There is only one solution remaining to all those countries: follow the Principle taught by Reverend Moon. There can be no other prescription for the sicknesses that beset those three countries.</p>
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<p>I made every possible effort to support Ronald Reagan as President of this country. But President Reagan has rebelled, in a way, and this is why his power is dwindling. He may not end his term gloriously because of his lack of courage to testify to us. For that reason, God will work again to guide the selection of the next President.</p>
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<p>The importance of this time period, according to God’s schedule, is comparable to forty years ago, right after World War II. At that point, God gave such a great opportunity to the nations of the world but it was not heeded. Instead, it was squandered and ended in failure. So I have been laboring for forty years to lay the foundation again, all by myself We have come once more to a great opportunity to save America and the world.</p>
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<p>Communists know clearly that the most fearful person in America is not Ronald Reagan but Reverend Moon. North Korea is the most closed, regimented society in the communist world. They have special textbooks that they begin using with children at the age of seven. Those textbooks say that the worst enemy of communism and the communist utopia is the man who calls himself Reverend Sun Myung Moon. Thus even the seven-year-olds in North Korea know the True Parent’s name.</p>
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<p>All the activities of our movement are progressing, such as AULA-Association for the Unity of Latin America. There are 400 million people in Latin America. That movement has involved many former, as well as current, heads of state. We are working in many other areas as well, including PWPA and ICUS, the Media Conference, ISC, as well as the CAUSA movement. All have been done for one single purpose-to save the nation and by doing so, to save the world.</p>
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<p>Today is the celebration of the Day of the Victory of Love. As you can see, this means the ultimate victory of true love. While I was in Danbury prison, the evil forces of the world began to exhibit a decline. Red China declared their swing away from absolute communism and Marxism. The Soviet Union also realized that they have to adjust their course; otherwise, their Marxism/Leninism will not work anymore. The United States is declining into secular humanism.</p>
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<p>Both the right and left camps have been declining. The hands keep drooping down, like wilted wings, but there is still a center, a head. That head is Godism. The time since Abraham and throughout the four thousand years of Judeo Christian history has been indemnified during my past forty years of work. That was a forty-year struggle during which I laid the international and worldwide foundation. Now we are seeing the emergence of Godism as the center. Because of that, both the right and left wing camps are drooping down, losing their position. There is no reason for them to exist anymore.</p>
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<p>The first opportunity for the restoration of the world came in 1945. The succeeding seven years were supposed to have seen the fulfillment of God’s will. That dispensation could have been consummated by 1952, but it ended up in failure, as I explained today. Then forty years later-in 1985-a new foundation was erected. Upon that, these seven years until 1992 will see the true opportunity for the fulfillment of the dispensation of God. Do you understand? You can see God’s timetable now. Within these seven years, the first three are the most crucial-that is 1986, which we finished yesterday, l 987, and 1988. Thus these next two years are going to be most pivotal.</p>
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<p>1988 is such a dramatic year, even from an external, political viewpoint. Everything is aimed at 1988. In that year, Korea will hold its most significant elections. Japan, the United States, and Germany will all have changes of government in 1988. France is going to hold presidential elections in that year, as well. If the U.S. President is elected from the current ranks of the Democratic Party, I can see that this country will be plunged into another most difficult era.</p>
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<p>No one knows this secret: Reverend Moon is caring more and worrying more about this nation than any other religious or political leader of the country, including the President. When you have been resting, sitting idly and doing nothing, l have been totally focused on this situation. There is not even one minute that I am separated from these problems. I am glad to see that the missionaries from around the world have come to hear my message on God’s Day. You need to know God’s timetable.</p>
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<p>Now you must realize that the course is set for 1986,1987 and 1988. This nation and world cannot sway any other way than the way of God. Upon the victorious proclamation of the Day of Victory of Love, the realm of death was conquered. Satan’s forces have become dejected. As soon as you seize the spirit of this Day of Victory of Love, you will proclaim yourself to the world boldly and strongly and the satanic forces will keep retreating. You will be a winner. This is the moment we are living in now. It is the opportunity you have been waiting for. It is true that unless nations and individuals follow the Principle taught by Reverend Moon, no one can have hope.</p>
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<p>In conclusion, many times you have heard about the victorious foundation that Father has erected, but for whom was this foundation laid? It was not for Father, but for the sake of you Unification Church members in America and the world, so that it can become your launching pad. It is for the sake of all of humanity, so we cannot look at this as just the Unification Church’s foundation. Ultimately the Unification Church has to take off our own sign. “Unification Church” is not important. The important thing is the salvation of humanity and the fulfillment of God.</p>
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<p>One sovereignty-God’s sovereignty-must reign over all of humanity forever. This is the will of God. All religions, including Christianity, have been working to see this goal realized. Our stage is the world, so the existence of the Unification Church is immaterial. The important thing is to do God’s will-reach to that ultimate goal which Father has given you.</p>
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<p>These three years are such crucial years. 1986 is over. During these remaining two years, 1987 and 1988, I would like to mobilize every force possible within the realm of the Unification Church and move the nation, move the world. Everyone-the Unification Church, all Jewish people, Christianity, all of humanity-is waiting to enter the new Israel, the ultimate Israel. That is the victorious, God centered, chosen nation and the beginning of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.</p>
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<p>This is the formula you must remember: 1945 plus forty years equals 1985. Three more years brings us to 1988. Forty-three years are the historical equivalent of 430 years of the Israelites in Egypt, the sojourner’s land. In a way, the Unification Church has been dwelling in the worldwide Egypt-the sojourner’s land-for these 43 years. Then the Israelites made their Exodus and entered the land of Canaan. By the same token, the Unification Church has come to the time of our Exodus and we shall go into the land of Canaan.</p>
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<p>The Israelites suffered more than 400 years in captivity in Egypt. They were supposed to be in the position of kings and queens, like royalty, but they were captured by the enemy and made into slaves. By the same token, Father is in the king’s position and has been captured by Egypt’s power and has been given a slave’s work, in order to restore those 430 as well as the 4000 years of human history. The time has come now that we can get out of Egypt. The shackles of slavery have to be cast off. We must go through the Sinai desert successfully and enter Canaan. We are not going out alone but we are also taking the American people-the nation and government-with us into the land of Canaan. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>1988 is, therefore, a most crucial moment in the dispensational history. Not only ourselves but also the American nation as a whole shall be focused and dedicated to God’s victory in 1988. We must mobilize the spirit world. Without that, no great crusade can be successful. Each one of you must be good enough-you must set enough conditions- that the spirit world can come down and assist you.</p>
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<p>During the time of the great plagues upon the land of Egypt, the Israelites were instructed to protect themselves by putting lamb’s blood on their door pillars. By doing that, the Angel of Death passed over their houses and they were spared, but all the first-born sons in every other home throughout Egypt were killed. The Israelites were saved by that condition of the lamb’s blood. By the same token, you must set a similar condition and post the lamb’s blood in a symbolic way. In that way, the power of death can skip over you.</p>
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<p>We are going to set this condition this year. I have instructed that a special poster be designed. These posters should be put all over the country-on every large tree and building in every town-so that the power of death can pass over. Blessing can come to those places because of you. This time you can drive everywhere-town to town, city to city-in order to cover the entire country.</p>
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<p>Within these next six months every village will be visited. Your car should have a sign in the top right-hand corner of the windshield that shows how many towns you have visited. It should read “U-25” or whatever. “U” stands for Unification, or United Nations. We are launching a most spectacular patriotic movement this year to lift up this nation to a new wave of patriotism. We are going to create posters that say, “Let’s unify the land,” and “One world under God” When we are moving around the country, it is almost like a Unification army covering the country everywhere.</p>
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<p>From U-1 to how many? It’s up to you. 200? 500? 1,000, 2,000, 10,000? It’s entirely up to you. Detailed instructions have been given to the regional directors and the campaign will begin from January 4. This will invoke the power of spirit world-incredible assistance will come to the towns where the posters have been put up. The people of those towns, even without knowing why, will feel uplifted and inspired to do something to help the country. We will mobilize such a booming spirit that truly God-centered people can be chosen in the next elections for the Congress, Senate and White House.</p>
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<p>One major difference between you and Father is that you don’t understand the dispensational time factor. I have an absolute awareness of where we are on God’s timetable. Gradually, we are coming to the point where any political leader who is aspiring for the White House will have to be approved by God.</p>
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<p>In seventy days, CAUSA had the power to get the signatures of 10 million Americans. You will have to buy a bugle so you can blow it after you put up the posters. Blow the horn and declare to the world, “Come and hear! The time has come for unification. We have to make this one world under God!” When you blow the bugle, those ten million people who signed the CAUSA forms will hear it. You can say, “Now Reverend Moon is launching this campaign and you should join with us. Go out and poster your own villages, churches, neighborhoods. Bring your relatives and friends, too” You can assemble people in the towns and make moving speeches about patriotism. Inspire the people so that they can commit themselves to the cause. Then you can organize them and push them out to do the same as you do. Do you understand me? Shall we do it, or not?</p>
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<p>The ultimate goal is to enter the worldwide land of Canaan. After the Israelites went into Canaan, they suffered tremendous difficulties. Why? Instead of setting a new tradition and living a God-centered way of life, they succumbed to the influence of the surrounding satanic culture. They became part of the society which already existed there. They were supposed to love and promote a God-centered nation first, then they would have been free to enjoy material goods. But they put themselves first, rather than the nation.</p>
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<p>You can imagine how much suffering Father has gone through to erect the foundation for these last forty years. It was most incredible. When you consider that I want to pass on this foundation to you, how can you say, “I am not willing to be mobilized. I don’t want to go the road of suffering”? Actually, I have suffered because of you-and your relatives, parents, and ancestors. Also, I have suffered because of your nation. I paid indemnity for them; now it is your turn. I walked this road of suffering for forty years and I am asking you to walk it within seven years. Then you can inherit my foundation. 1985 plus seven-already 1985 and 1986 have passed and we have five more years until 1992.</p>
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<p>I laid this foundation under unbelievable opposition, including incarceration in prisons on many different occasions. How can you say you cannot do this when there is a more welcoming atmosphere in the world today? Anybody who wants to inherit this victory without fulfilling his share of responsibility is like a thief. You are following Father, so you must follow my example; you must walk my path. But your job is actually simple because I have already done 95% of the work. All you have to do is continue during these next three years. How can you say you won’t do it?</p>
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<p>Today is the Day of the Victory of Love. Today’s significance is the defeat of the realm of death. Love has won. True Parents have won. Upon this foundation, you will bring the victory. Shall we do it? Thank you very much and God bless you.</p>
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<p><i>Dr. Pak: Father has asked me to recognize someone. This significant day celebrates the sacrificial victory of Heung Jin Nim, who was a true son of filial piety and a wonderful representative of True Parents’ family. In order to allow the free flow of communication between Heung Jin Nim and this earth, a permanent family was secured for him. As you know, on February 20, 1984, the True Parents gave the Blessing to the spirit of Heung Jin Nim and his physical bride on the earth He can work more freely as the commander-in-chief of the young people in the spirit world and also in the physical world Hoon Sook Nim was the bride chosen that day, so at this time Father would like to ask her to be recognized.</i></p>
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<p><i>Now Hoon Sook Nim has been given the mission by True Parents to restore the artistic world, particularly the world of ballet. For that reason, the Universal Ballet Company was created two years ago, with headquarters in Seoul, Korea But eventually it will come to Washington, D. C., creating a new tradition. Thus ballet, which is one of the highest artistic forms, shall be guided by this model, the Universal Ballet Company. That particular project has been designated the Heung Jin Nim Memorial project Furthermore, all the proceeds from that project will go to a scholarship fund for young people. Again, we are most deeply grateful to our True Parents for this.</i></p>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:48:47+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/gods-day-2.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:48:47+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 1, 1987<br />
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World Mission Center Grand Ballroom,<br />
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New York City<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>How many God’s Days have been celebrated so far? From 1968 to 1987 is nineteen years, so God’s Day is nineteen years old. Next year, 1988, God’s Day will be twenty years old and will be moving into a new era.</p>
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<p>As you know, among the laws of the dispensation, the most important one is the law of indemnity. In order to consummate the law of indemnity, three major elements are necessary. First, there must be a person or central figure to set the condition. Second, there must be a conditional offering or sacrifice; certain things have to be offered on the altar of God. Third, there is a time element involved.</p>
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<p>From the standpoint of the dispensation of the Unification Church, Father would be in the position of central figure, or subject. You are in the object position, which is that of the conditional offering. The time element is our dispensational period. Therefore, in front of Father, the members of the Unification Church are in the offering position.</p>
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<p>The position of the conditional offering should not have any complaints or reservations. For example, you should not say, “You are Father, an Oriental. We are Westerners and we do things differently, according to the American style”</p>
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<p>In a way, three elements are necessary in the assortment of sacrifices. Thus there are three races of mankind. That which is chosen as a sacrifice is supposed to shed blood; however, we cannot do that because we will die. Therefore, we must shed something else: our tears and sweat. When do you shed your tears and sweat? It is when you are most sorrowful, when you are deeply heartbroken. In order to fulfill the role of the sacrifice, you must be able to say at the most sorrowful moment, “Yes, Father, I want to go this way. I am grateful and I have no complaint”</p>
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<p>The Eastern and Western cultures treat suffering and hardship very differently. Here in the West if you complain, “Oh, I’m suffering so much! I think I’m going to die!” other people will most likely sympathize and agree with you. But in the Orient if you make the same complaint, others will probably say, “Oh, you can still go on” Therefore, Oriental people are better fit for this kind of sacrificial role. That is why a person like Reverend Moon came from the Orient. Father was the first one to be chosen to sacrifice by God.</p>
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<p>Without knowing why it should be done or how, Father, with God’s help, had to search for the right method and find the way of restoration. Your job is entirely different: I have taught you the Principle, the reason why and the way to fulfill your role. If you cannot do it with this much information, you are unworthy of anything. Even though you have been taught plenty of truth by me, many of you are still unsure, not wanting to commit yourself, saying, “I will wait to see if someone else does it first” Or perhaps you say, “I’m an intellectual and cultured citizen of the United States. Indemnity and those kinds of things belong to primitive people, not to our society” Do you think Reverend Moon must be a foolish man, then? When you look at me, do I appear to be the King of Wisdom or the King of Fools?</p>
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<p>God is recruiting people who will serve as the champions of sacrifice. Now the recruiters are out, the posters are out. Will you say yes, or will you say, “I’ll just think about it for the next couple of years” Perhaps you would say, “I am the son of a millionaire. I’ve got everything- two cars in the garage, a yacht, plenty of steaks in the refrigerator. Why should I join the Moonies and volunteer to suffer?”</p>
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<p>My principle is that anyone who comes to the Unification Church has to go through a training period, even if he has a Ph.D. degree or is a math genius; everyone has to start by fund raising in the street. Even those ministers who come to us have to go out and do fund raising!</p>
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<p>The Principle is like a railroad track-you’ve got to go along every inch of it. There is no way you can go at random or according to your own whims. You can’t say, “I don’t like this part, so I’ll just skip over it” That is just not possible. Think about it. You said that I am a wise person; you know I am not dumb. If there was any way to jump freely into the Kingdom of Heaven, I would have found it and I would have done it long before any of you did. But you’ve got to follow along every inch of the way. Even if your hip goes out and you fall to the side or to the rear, still you have to take another step. If your head feels fatigued and about to fall forward, you have to hit your head and just move forward every step of the way.</p>
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<p>How many years have I been living that kind of Principled life? One year? Two? No, my entire life. Do you know how old I am? I am really an old man-I’m sixty-seven years old. But you think I am younger than you are and you always want to push me further. That’s my problem! I get no sympathy! Last night after midnight I spoke for two and a half hours. Now it is nine o’clock in the morning, but even before you were assembled here, I held another ceremony at seven o’clock, where I also spoke. Now you are here, just beaming from ear to ear! You don’t care if Father suffers or not! It is an amazing thing that during our Unification Church celebrations such as God’s Day and Children’s Day the only person who truly suffers is Father and the only people who truly enjoy it are you. Who is the sacrifice, then? Father becomes a sacrifice every holiday, but I don’t complain, no matter what happens.</p>
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<p>Even today, Mother told me I should limit my message to not more than thirty minutes-one hour including translation. Before we came here we had breakfast upstairs with all the True Children. Mother asked me to give them a family sermon on the meaning of God’s Day. Afterwards, they asked many important questions, so I spent a little extra time answering them. That is why I was a few minutes late this morning, not because I was being lazy.</p>
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<p>What do you think, is it a blessing or a curse to be chosen on the altar of God? More than anyone else, I, Reverend Moon, know the Principle very well. I chose to go this route of sacrifice my entire life, without hesitation. I have been in and out of prisons in different countries, including the United States, where there is supposedly religious freedom. Under normal circumstances, a person who has been incarcerated will do anything to try to avoid that again; but I have never shied away from my work and have been willing to go again and again-six times all together. As long as the will of God directs me, I will go anywhere and make any sacrifices for that purpose.</p>
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<p>In the meantime, has Reverend Moon declined? No, during this course of suffering I have consistently prospered; now the whole world knows the name of Reverend Moon. Do you think it is necessary to become a sacrifice for God? You say “Yes” easily, but to actually do it is not easy. Anyone who wants to offer himself will encounter a lot of resistance. For example, your parents will say, “No, no, don’t go that way. Come to us” Or your brothers and sisters, your wife or husband will pull on you, as will your children. They will say, “No, no, you don’t deserve such a difficult and suffering course. Come home to us, relax and be comfortable”</p>
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<p>But when you persistently follow the road of Principle year after year, you will realize that the world has changed. Even now I am sure that many of your friends tell you, “You are a special and admirable person. I respect you as a man of God” That is the kind of reputation you have been earning all these years.</p>
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<p>Sometimes classroom teachers have said negative things about the Unification Church and have asked church members, “How did you ever become a Moonie?” trying to ridicule them. Now, however, such teachers are realizing that they made a dreadful mistake and they are apologizing to our members. Likewise, brothers, sisters and parents are coming and apologizing to you. This is exactly what I have talked about-natural subjugation, not by force or violence.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon came to America to save all the people. Therefore, the greatest VIP from the American point of view should be Reverend Moon. But instead of welcoming Reverend Moon, this government put me into prison. History will reveal the truth in the future and the American government and people will realize what an evil thing they did. What will they do then? They will bow down-again, that is the way of natural subjugation.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon is never proud or boastful of himself. Always I bow down in front of God. There is absolutely no room for arrogance within me. This is the most dramatic way to live. Once the victory is won, it is a perfectly clean victory. I never go out and wage war against anyone, but one day the time will come when representatives from each field of endeavor will come to me and say, “Reverend Moon, you are our champion; you are victorious” This will happen in the areas of academics, technology, as well as art and politics. This is truly what we call a natural subjugation and it is the most dramatic way of life anyone could live.</p>
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<p>I am not here to make you suffer; this is the most noble and glorious life for anyone. Because I love you, I invite you to come with me on that path of glory and victory. Now we have a problem, in a way, because the time of persecution is nearly over. No one will be giving you a hard time anymore, so I decided I have to do that myself. Then the American people will say, “Reverend Moon, please be easier on them,’ but I will say, “No, I’m going to be harsh” You must be able to follow steadfastly, whether I am harsh or gentle.</p>
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<p>In a school classroom, what kind of teacher is the best? Is it the one who picks up the chalk and sternly demands your attention, not giving even one minute of relaxation, one who gives you lots of homework? Or is a good teacher one who doesn’t demand much of you, doesn’t even give you a lecture, and lets you take naps in class? You know that the good teacher is the first one. But even though you know that, you don’t like to be in the harsh teacher’s class. That is a contradiction within yourself; we have to straighten out that contradiction. Either the teacher or the student has to change-which should it be? You know it is the student. Would you like me to be a very easy teacher or a stern one? Thank you for saying stern.</p>
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<p>1987 is a harsh year. Even if you are whipped, do you want to pass or flunk the course? You say you want to pass, but I think your mouth didn’t really want to say that! You want to be a real person rather than a fake one. There are many fake things in this world.</p>
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<p>Can you say, “I shall become an offering on the altar of God”? If so, raise your hands and show me. Thank you very much. I want you to understand one cardinal rule: there should be nothing you are unwilling to do for the condition of indemnity. You must feel like doing any chore joyfully, even though that indemnity is always harsh and difficult.</p>
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<p>God told Reverend Moon, “You will go this course and you will go up and down, but you will end up here” God pushed me down to the pits of hell and allowed me to struggle but then when the time was right, He raised me up and gave me His blessing. I came to America fifteen years ago and received nothing but persecution, culminating in my incarceration in Danbury-the bottom point. But at that point, God resurrected me all the way up to the top. This is God’s formula, without exception. Whether it is on the individual, family, society, clan, national or worldwide level, this is the formula to follow.</p>
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<p>My way is to bring all the Moonies throughout the world over here to America, letting them learn the Principle by struggling and gaining the victory. What do you think: if I give a certain instruction and you fulfill it, are you eligible to share in God’s blessings? Once Father gives you “homework” or a goal to reach, and you achieve it victoriously, what then? Let’s take the example of a schoolteacher who gives his students an extremely difficult test. If you can pass that worst test with a mark of one hundred percent, then the teacher doesn’t have to teach you anything more. He can say, “You are free to go from my class” Furthermore, that teacher might say, “I’m so busy today, would you please come and take over my class for me?” In that case, the student is really participating in the glory of the teacher. Do you want to participate in Father’s glory? Therefore, I must give you difficult tests and hardships. I will give you hardships to such a degree that you might say, “What kind of a teacher is he? He is impossible. I’m finished!”</p>
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<p>Think about this. We have approximately twelve hundred people gathered here in this auditorium today. I want to pick the one best champion, so an easy test will not do the job. I have to give the most difficult task, so that most of you will be eliminated. There will only be a few finalists and then in the end only one will prevail-the champion. Let me see how many of you want to be candidates for that number one champion. Raise your hands. There are so many candidates. I welcome that, but in order to eliminate everyone but the champion, I must make the obstacle course extremely difficult.</p>
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<p>The founding fathers of this nation, such as George Washington, will look at the patriotism of that champion and say, “I simply cannot compete with that person. His standard and achievements are far greater than mine. He would have deserved to be the first president instead of me” In fact, George Washington would look at such a champion and say, “You are the son of God” Even Jesus will look at him and say, “This person is amazing. He even challenges my standard. He is indeed the son of God”</p>
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<p>What do you think, did Jesus or Father suffer more? Actually Jesus’ death on the cross took only a relatively short time-a matter of less than three hours. But to bear the cross for more than fifty years, throughout ones life, is a more difficult course. The suffering of Reverend Moon is inconceivable to the ordinary mind. For that reason, when God Himself looks at Reverend Moon’s suffering, He cries out. God Himself cries. You would never hear of such a thing normally. Can you believe this? There is no person in the religious realm, including all the saints, who can compare his suffering with the conditions Reverend Moon set in the sight of God. Therefore, they all want to come and receive teaching from Father.</p>
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<p>In order to receive the greatest blessings from God, you have to go down to the bottom of hell-lick the floor of hell-and then the time will come when God will be able to resurrect you. That is the road of indemnity-it is that difficult. When have you walked this way? You don’t realize God’s timetable; your knowledge of the dispensational schedule is faulty. An amazing thing about Reverend Moon is that he does know God’s timetable. In the past many people predicted that Reverend Moon was finished-many different times, people said that, but Reverend Moon has never been demolished.</p>
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<p>Some of the most eminent scholars in the world have been attending the ICUS conferences year after year and they have been studying Reverend Moon. At first they found me incomprehensible, but now they know me well and are following my directions as closely as you. How do those educated professors compare with you less educated Moonies? Between the two, who shall win the race along the indemnity course?</p>
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<p>The difference between those scholars and you Moonies is this: scholars are primarily intellectual and they always evaluate things in that way. They ask, “Where am I going? Am I getting any benefit out of this?” They tend to set themselves up as the center. But Moonies are different; they don’t consider first whether they are getting any benefit. They say, “Father says do this, so I am going to do it, no matter what” You have been going this way unconditionally, day in and day out. The scholars want to figure out the smartest way to do something, but they outwit themselves in many cases.</p>
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<p>Do you truly and unconditionally follow Father? Then you will follow all the way to the end? Who is the one to say, “Yes, you have paid the necessary indemnity. You finished the course”? Father is the one who has to say that. Therefore, following unconditionally is the smartest way to go. Once you get to the destination, you will see that you came the quickest possible way. Therefore, you are not dumb at all; you are really the princes and princesses of wisdom.</p>
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<p>If I said to you, “I want to meet you at such and such an hour at Pier Number 6 in San Francisco, two days from now. I win not give you any help in getting there,’ would you show up at that particular hour? Would you also say, “Meet you in prison? Sure, okay”? You say yes, and that’s what makes you different and so great. This is also why many people in the secular world fear me. They think, “Look at those bright young men and women who are following Reverend Moon. He is even matching them in marriage; I can’t believe anyone but a fool would allow that. But they are not fools and they are accepting Reverend Moon’s matchings, living together and having children and prospering. This is incredible!”</p>
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<p>Who is great, Reverend Moon or you? Father may be great, but you sons and daughters are great, too. We are a great race, a different race of people. In the secular world, people could never do what we do. What do you think-if tomorrow I decided, “All the Moonies should move to Africa,’ what would you do?</p>
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<p>On this first day of 1987, do you feel good or terrible? Why do I speak about indemnity? Because it is God’s Day. It is an incredible thing that almighty God has to perform His dispensation through indemnity. Why is it necessary for God to walk the road of indemnity? Why did God have to allow His son Jesus to be murdered? Why does God have to allow Reverend Moon, His loving son of the twentieth century, to go the path of suffering as he has? All of this is because of the fall of man, and the emergence of Satan. All of this suffering is in order to isolate and separate Satan from absolute good.</p>
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<p>If you look at the history of religion and the leaders of religious movements, one thing cannot be denied: Reverend Moon received in his lifetime more persecution than any other religious leader. In 1976 the dispensation came to a worldwide stage, a culminating point. Since then, the era of persecution has been gradually ending. We are winning incredible friends now; we have supporters among scholars, politicians, social leaders and journalists. Such people are realizing that Reverend Moon’s movement is proposing the only real hope for humanity.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon is right in the eye of the hurricane, the center of the most severe persecution. Why did I volunteer to go into that circle? I had to pit myself against the worst kind of test possible. Anyone who wants to defeat me is invited to come and challenge me. Whether it is the government, a social organization, military groups, or religious organizations- come and test me and try to defeat me. That has been my position. What has happened? Father was never defeated. One by one, those challengers are moving away.</p>
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<p>Even God Himself kicked Reverend Moon to test him. He said, “Reverend Moon, I don’t know you! You are a heretic, so get out of my sight!” But the incredible part is that I had already grabbed onto the coattails of God and I told Him, “Heavenly Father, no matter what You say, I know You can’t reject me. You need me!”</p>
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<p>One day, God said, “No, I reject Reverend Moon. He is a heretic and he is not my son” Then Jesus, Buddha and Mohammed, as well as all the saints in spirit world, said, “Yes, Reverend Moon, you are a heretic!” For forty days, this kind of confrontation went on. They said Reverend Moon would have to change his position or they would not accept me. But throughout those forty days, I did not change one iota. I was steadfast as a rock. Then they saw that Reverend Moon would not change, even in 400 or 4,000 years. Heavenly law was such that the showdown had to be over in 40 days. What happened? On the fortieth day, God declared, “I have tested my son, Reverend Moon, and I can now declare before heaven and earth that he is the greatest victor in all of history”</p>
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<p>Think about it. During that 40-day period while God was testing Reverend Moon, all the satanic forces and surrogates for evil were celebrating. They were all shouting, “Mansei</p>
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<p>for Satan’s kingdom!” and they thought they had won a complete victory. On the fortieth day, at the final moment, God stepped forward and declared, “I have been testing Reverend Moon during this time period to see how strongly he believed in the truth. Now he has proven that he upholds the truth, no matter what”</p>
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<p>What was the result of that? Who is the higher champion between Jesus and Reverend Moon, then? People in the outside world say, “The Unification Church places Reverend Moon higher than even Jesus, so they are satanic” and much persecution has come. But who decided the champion? God did, in front of Jesus and everyone. At that very moment, Jesus became the number one supporter and united totally in heart. Buddha, Mohammed and Confucius became our friends as well. These religious leaders are sending their influence down to earth to urge people to join with Reverend Moon.</p>
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<p>Therefore, I look at the major religions of the world as one big family. When there is a squabble going on in the Moslem world, I work to help the unity of the Moslem world. Likewise, I support the unity of the Buddhist world. Have you ever heard of a religious leader who supported other religions? We have given financial support for that purpose. This is not because we want to manipulate those people. We know that spirit world has already declared the one unity of world religion. Therefore, when we initiate some action along those lines, that unity can be expanded into the physical world. If that condition had not already been set in spirit world, we couldn’t do anything to bring that unity about.</p>
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<p>If Reverend Moon is truly working on the earth with such authority, then who has the authority to declare God’s Day? If I declared to God, “My Father, I want to ask You to come to our celebration of God’s Day,’ would God come? Yes, He would. Why is that? It is because God has declared that in the dispensational realm, Reverend Moon is the number one champion. At that time, God granted the authority to Reverend Moon to establish such a thing as God’s Day. For that reason, God rejoices and wants to come to our celebration.</p>
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<p>God alone cannot fulfill His dispensation; He needs a partner. He needs human beings. This is why God’s Day has been declared-it is one day in which God can rejoice over His own victory. We have set aside this day for celebrating God’s victory. What causes God to rejoice the most? What God likes the most is to fulfill His ideal and His will. The fulfillment of that ideal is the fulfillment of His purpose of creation. What is that purpose of creation? It is the consummation of true love. That is the essence of the purpose of creation.</p>
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<p>Love cannot be fulfilled by anyone alone, not even by God Himself alone. Even though God is almighty, can you imagine Him dancing around all by Himself, saying, “I’m totally in love with myself!” Me would be a crazy God, wouldn’t He?</p>
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<p>When God’s true love is consummated, we call that the fulfillment of the heavenly four position foundation. This is an absolutely clear sequence. The heavenly four positions are the love of God, love between husband and wife, and then love of children and parents. Thus the Unification Church celebrates four major holidays each year: Parents’ Day, Children’s Day, Day of All Things, and God’s Day. We are heading toward the perfection of all people, all things, and the perfection of the joy of God.</p>
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<p>If you ask someone in the traditional Christian world, “Do you know why God created all the universe, as well as humanity?” he would most likely answer, “Well, He didn’t have anything to do, so creating was His hobby” They do not understand one critical point: God created the world and mankind for the purpose of fulfilling His love. All creation is in the objective position to God’s love. He created an environment in which He placed human beings so that He could initiate a reciprocal love relationship-give and take between God and man. God created Adam and Eve to be His Love King and Love Queen.</p>
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<p>When the time was right, the Love King and Queen were meant to be united into one, centered upon God’s love. Centering upon true love, Adam and Eve are like East and West. Division between East and West, as well as North and South, came about because of the fall.</p>
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<p>Did Adam and Eve ever see God? Even when you enter the spirit world, you cannot see God. In spirit world, the visible God is Jesus Christ and in the future world, the True Parents will also be in that position. In I Corinthians 3:16, what is God talking about? Adam and Eve are the dwelling place of God, a holy place, a temple. The human heart is meant to be the dwelling place of God’s love. Thus Adam and Eve represent a walking and visible form of God on the earth. God is meant to dwell within them and through them to have dominion over all the creation.</p>
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<p>This is the secret of the universe; no one in history has known this. If there had been no fall, God would have fully loved Adam and Eve. They were the most holy temple and dwelling place for God’s love. But Satan took away that most holy place. This was the worst disaster of history. That is why the misuse of love is a cardinal sin in the sight of God; thus such places as Sodom and Gomorrah, in which immorality was rampant, were destroyed by fire and brimstone. Today America is receiving fire and brimstone indirectly. When the Roman Empire degenerated to a certain point, God allowed them to be smashed to pieces.</p>
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<p>If Adam and Eve had not fallen, their love relationship would have been sanctified and it would have glorified God. Through their God-centered love, they would have given birth to children. Who would those children have been? They would have been children of God, directly within His lineage, with God’s own blood running downstream from one generation to the next.</p>
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<p>But instead Satan invaded; he took away the most holy place. We might say that a servant took control of the children of the king. Once the lineage of God was stolen by Satan, all of humanity came to be born in the lineage of Satan, the root. This is what Jesus was talking about in John, Chapter 8, when he told the people they were children of the devil. The satanic blood is flowing through mankind’s lineage. This is why it is an absolute requirement for each person to be cut from the wild olive tree and be engrafted to the true one in order to get into the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
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<p>What can we offer to God on this God’s Day? Should we try to build Him a golden tower as high as the Allegheny Mountains? Would that make Him happy? What would make God happy? Only one thing: the emergence of true sons and daughters in whom He can freely dwell-people who can become God’s temples and with whom He can rejoice. Before that time, God could have no settlement anywhere on the face of the earth.</p>
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<p>In 1968, for the first time in human history, God found the base on which He could settle-the base of true love. That was when God’s Day could be established. True Parents could be installed upon the earth, representing God’s true love. Before this time, mankind only knew the parents of satanic lineage. I want you to understand that January 1, 1968, was the first day that God could begin His settlement upon the earth within the True Parents. This cannot be denied or negated, no matter what. Even though the whole weight of the established Christian world has come against us, even if 159 members of the United Nations come against us, it doesn’t make any difference. They cannot change what God has recognized.</p>
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<p>I want you to understand that during the past 2,000 years Christianity endured every sort of persecution, beginning with the catacombs in Rome and the martyrs being thrown to lions. But the Christian religion flourished and continued to expand throughout the world. However, since 1960, this same powerful religion of Christianity has been losing its influence drastically. Why is that? There is a reason. From that time, God established a new force on the earth.</p>
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<p>For the Moonies, the most important aspect of life is to live purely and morally, no matter what. Your body, particularly your sexual relationship, is your most holy possession and therefore you uphold its dedication to God. You cannot violate that law; you know how seriously God deals with a sin of such nature.</p>
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<p>A phenomenon of America for the past two decades has been free sex, with promiscuity, wife-swapping, blatant homosexuality, and so forth. Now the consequences of such practices are being seen in the form of widespread divorce, as well as the spread of diseases like AIDS, which is incurable. Why is that disease incurable? God always has mercy upon man, except for this one cardinal sin against love.</p>
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<p>You blessed couples, raise your hands, please. You received the Blessing even without realizing what a valuable gift it was. You are the custodians of the greatest treasure of all. You must not misplace it. I want you to understand that the four major holidays of the Unification Church include each most important aspect of our way of life, so any violation of love includes the violation of the meaning of those days. Don’t ever imagine that God’s Blessing to you is cheap. In order for you to receive that Blessing, God labored for tens of thousands of years and made multitudes of sacrifices. Therefore, you must preserve that Blessing or you will receive heavenly punishment. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>Now you know what God’s Day means. In order for the True Parents to be installed and for True Mother to be chosen, Father had to overcome incredible dispensational tasks. Only upon that foundation could the True Mother be installed. There were many occasions where even one misstep would have meant falling down into failure. Thus I have been deadly serious about the Blessing and the dispensational will. But then if you, the recipients of that Blessing, take it very lightly as if it were some cheap commodity, I cannot forgive that.</p>
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<p>Do you understand the meaning of God’s Day? As we said, this is the nineteenth celebration of this day. By now, unification should have been established on many levels. You should have a love kingdom within your home, within your family life, between you and your spouse, between you and your children, and you and your parents. You should be mature children by now.</p>
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<p>In one more year we will celebrate the twentieth God’s Day; a historical turning point will come in the year of 1988. In that year, not only the internally crucial turning point will come but also the externally crucial turning points will occur. Look at the chaos in Red China and the Soviet Union, which is crumbling. Look at the changes in the Reagan Administration, as well. But one thing is unchanging: the Unification Church and the Unification Principles.</p>
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<p>Today we must pledge before God and the True Parents that we appreciate being the recipients of the foundation of God’s Day. That victorious foundation was given freely by the True Parents. You must cherish the Blessing that you have received and lay your own true love foundation. We will bring a victorious year of 1987 and 1988-a victory of love to the True Parents and our Heavenly Father.</p>
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<p>If anyone, after knowing this great truth, violates such a great blessing, he shall be doing the worst evil under the sun. Satan will accuse you, “Look at you. Even after you knew the greatest truth, you couldn’t keep that law. You are</p>
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<p>really my child” You can never go to Heaven under such circumstances.</p>
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<p>On this great God’s Day 1987, we know now in greater detail the truth of God’s dispensation. All the blessed families will be mobilized to become an offering on the altar of God. We want to fulfill the will of God at any cost, so this year will become a victorious one. Amen!</p>
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<p>After Pledge Service this morning, I spoke to representative leaders and said that 1987 is the year of mobilization of the entire family. Together they must go out to the world, like the Israelites. Before they made their exodus, they declared their intentions. In the same way, we must declare God’s will and dispensation to the entire nation and the world. When the United States follows Reverend Moon’s way of life, the rest of the world will undoubtedly follow. So this is where I would like to create the model.</p>
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<p>Are we going to create the right environment in the year of 1987? Two more glorious opportunities are before you- the years of 1987 and 1988. No other opportunities like this will ever appear in the future. We are becoming the perfected Adam and Eve by the power of the True Parents. Adam and Eve were the God-ordained husband and wife, meant to center perfectly on the true love of God and then to create the human family of God.</p>
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<p>All the things of creation, everything, exists within the relationship of pairs. Birds, animals and even insects are part of the pair system. Likewise, the plant kingdom is a part of that principle. God wants all those things of creation to be able to rejoice when He rejoices, when Adam and Eve are rejoicing. Thus you should be admired not just by your neighbors in the human community, but also by the animals and even the insect world. They and the flowers will sing your praises. You have to become that exemplary.</p>
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<p>Do you think Father and Mother are living in such a relationship of perfected love? Mother’s role is absolute obedience and support toward Father. There is absolute trust and fidelity, as well as absolute purity; of course, those things are mutual. That absolute standard has been kept by both. All the children coming from such parents will be of extraordinary dimension on the worldwide scale. Do you follow?</p>
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<p>My children are handsome men and beautiful young ladies, aren’t they? God wants each of you, too, to go to Heaven. In order to do that, you must become the bearers of sinless children. What do we mean by sinless children? They are children of the family that Satan has no room to accuse because their lineage, their bloodstream, has an entirely different root. The important thing is that you have a different root. The fallen world springs from the satanic root, but under the True Parents, the world can have a new root. Anybody who joins with the foundation of the True Parents becomes part of their new root.</p>
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<p>Now your life is different; therefore, you are a new breed. That means your seed, your root, is different. One tree is a wild olive, while the other is the true olive tree. One is destined for hell and the other for Heaven. In order to understand true love, you have to know the parental, vertical love first and after that, true horizontal love. As a couple, you can experience the true love of God on the earth; then you are entitled to go to the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven. Anyone who experiences true parental love, as well as true conjugal love centered upon God, is entitled to be with God. Then you can say, “I know the love of God”</p>
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<p>If someone cannot love his own spouse or his own children truly, how can such a person understand the love of God? The American culture has a long way to go-true parental love is virtually foreign to this country. In a country like Korea, the family system is strong and it is easy for people to experience parental and conjugal love. Because they are living that way already, Oriental people only have to be taught once. But here in the Western world, this kind of love is so foreign that no matter how many times people are told, they still don’t understand. However, you have to go that route, so no matter how difficult it might be, I will push you so you can have your own personal experience. Then you will know, “Oh, this is it. Now I have experienced the true love of God”</p>
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<p>Today we are gathered together for the celebration of God’s Day. We have come here for a most serious purpose, not something frivolous. Let us pledge and recommit ourselves to go back to our communities and our missions and become exemplary people, bringing the fruits of victory in 1987. Your Father and Mother expect this, so can you make that pledge now? Let us pledge three times. Thank you. God bless you.</p>
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<a href="/blog/2018/06/25/unification-of-the-fatherland.html" title="Permalink to UNIFICATION OF THE FATHERLAND" rel="bookmark">UNIFICATION OF THE FATHERLAND</a>
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<span class="author vcard" >By <a class="url fn n" rel="author" href="#" title="View all posts by Fami1yfed">Fami1yfed</a></span> <span><time class="onDate date published" datetime="2018-06-25T04:48:18+01:00"> <a href="/blog/2018/06/25/unification-of-the-fatherland.html" rel="bookmark">June 25, 2018</a> </time></span><time class="updated" datetime="2018-06-25T04:48:18+01:00">June 25, 2018</time> <span class="bl_categ"> <a href="/speeches/categories/rev-sun-myung-moon-1987.html" rel="tag">Speeches of Rev Sun Myung Moon 1987</a> </span> </div><!-- .entry-meta -->
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<h2 align="CENTER">REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON</h2>
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<h3 align="CENTER">January 1, 1987, Midnight<br />
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World Mission Center – Grand Ballroom<br />
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Translator – Bo Hi Pak</h3>
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<p>The slogan for the new year of 1987 is <em>“The Unification of the Fatherland,”</em> represented by four Chinese characters- <i>Cho Guk,</i> Fatherland and <i>Tong Il</i>, Unification.</p>
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<p>Mankind was supposed to enjoy the Kingdom of Heaven- the unified fatherland on earth-from the very beginning. If there had been no fall of man, the entire globe would have been that fatherland. Whenever we speak of the global fatherland, then, we are speaking of the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.</p>
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<p>That particular Kingdom of Heaven would have been initiated by God and connected with Him forever. There would never have been a moment when God was separated from His kingdom. Mankind was supposed to have created the God-centered family of man on the face of the earth. All men and women were supposed to live in the fullness of life with God and when their time on earth was over, they were supposed to be elevated into the spirit world in which they would dwell for eternity. That world we can call the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven.</p>
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<p>Because of the fall of man, however, that Kingdom of Heaven on earth did not become a reality. For that reason, no one has grown to the level of maturity where he or she can qualify to deserve the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven. The Kingdom of Heaven in heaven has been empty – without any residents.</p>
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<p>The fall of man brought about separation on every level. First of all, it brought the separation in individuals between mind and body, then the separation in the family between husband and wife and parents and children. In every level of society we see the division which is the consequence of the fall.</p>
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<p>The Heavenly Kingdom is a unified kingdom, composed only of individuals who have achieved true unity. No one has been worthy to enter that kingdom of unification in heaven because of the fall and the separation that occurred. The fall brought separation from God and one another. People dwelling in the North, South, East and West created their own separate man-centered cultures, and all the different races came into being. In the North, the white race arose; the black race started in the South; in the East, it was the yellow race. Struggle and competition began to arise on every level resulting in a great deal of tragedy and war. Humanity has come to the present time, the twentieth century, in this way.</p>
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<p>Races and cultures have sought to compete with and dominate each other, producing continuous struggle and war. In order for one group to prevail over another with the strength of 100, it has to have the strength of 110 or 120. For that reason, groups have colonized other peoples, seeking to have a strong empire and to become a dominant power in the world.</p>
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<p>Human history can be said to be a history of numerous wars. Behind those many wars, however, there has been a far greater and more subtle struggle. That is the struggle between the forces of good and evil. Many people are ignorant about this struggle, but whether they realize it or not, everyone must eventually side with either the good camp or the evil camp. The people with good character will be drawn into the camp of goodness and those with bad character will be drawn into the camp of evil. This has been the way the forces of good and evil have manifested themselves on the face of the earth.</p>
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<p>After the fall of man, human beings developed the ability to change their character. People could not always uphold their own principles; sometimes they would join the camp of goodness but then they would change their position and join the evil camp. God, however, needs men and women of unchanging character. In order to build such unchanging character, God initiated religion. The good religions in the world are those that are creating men and women of unchanging character, capable of standing steadfastly upon their principles. Thus religion has been creating, in a way, soldiers for the side of goodness-the heavenly forces; that has been the role of religion throughout history. Religion engenders the power of endurance and the qualities of boldness and steadfastness. Through the activities of religions all over the world, God has created His kind of people- with unchanging, good character-and therefore the good forces could multiply.</p>
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<p>The world can be divided into major religious spheres- Buddhist, Hindu, Moslem and, of course, Judeo-Christian. Although their paths have been different, all the major world religions have been moving toward a common purpose and goal. The ultimate dispensational will of God is to create the unification of one fatherland for all humanity. In order to achieve that goal, there must be a movement which will unify all good religions under their common cause. Once this sort of unity has been achieved and the ultimate unification of the fatherland of God has been completed, there shall be no further need for religion. When history comes to an end-that means history has come to its chapter of consummation-the most important thing for humanity to know clearly is what is good and what is evil.</p>
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<p>Like God, the quality of goodness possesses unchanging character; it will always be on God’s side. Evil, however, is changeable and inconsistent; evil people change often for their own selfish benefit. Evil will slowly but surely diminish and eventually be demolished. Even though we have fallen character, we also have the original, good human character lying dormant within us. For that reason, whenever God’s truth and goodness come into contact with people, human nature is pulled as by a magnet to such spirit and truth. That is the hope for mankind.</p>
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<p>Originally, human beings were supposed to have perfect communication and give and take between mind and body.</p>
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<p>But because of the fall of man, a barrier or shield came into place that separated mind and body. What is the stage upon which Satan can act? It is the carnal body, while the mind became the stage upon which God and goodness could act. This is why the common principle of good religions has been to deny and control the desires of the physical body. Satan hates to see good people communicating with God, and he always tries to attack such people and turn them around.</p>
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<p>What is the most perfect base for satanic give and take within ourselves? What kind of character provides Satan the best base for his work? It is the selfish character, a self centered person. What is the definition of a good person and an evil person? The evil person is the one who centers upon himself and tries to sacrifice others for his benefit. This has always been the character of evil dictators and despots throughout history. A good person, on the other hand, sacrifices his benefit for the good of others. This is a simple definition of good and evil people.</p>
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<p>Who are the saints in history? They are those people who sacrificed to the utmost for the greatest goodness-for humanity and the world. Those are the people who make up the good forces of spirit world that prevail in the world today.</p>
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<p>How can we make unification within ourselves possible? There are only two ways to do it: one way would be to conquer and subjugate your body completely to the will of your mind, so that the body follows the mind absolutely. Another way would be to add tremendous, extraordinary power to the mind, so that the body would have absolutely no room for its own will. Religion does these two things; it teaches people how to subjugate, even to torment, in a way, their physical body. Also, religion gives enormous spiritual strength to the mind, so that the body will have to follow automatically. We can see by studying religious history that no matter how weak or feeble a person might appear, once he receives spiritual inspiration or revelation, he becomes completely ignited and filled with power. So religion works in two ways: to subjugate the body and strengthen the mind.</p>
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<p>What about the whole world? What method can be used so that the world can become united? What is the common base or the unifying point for all levels, including the individual, family, clan, tribe, nation and world? There is the one formula we can apply to bring about unity on each level. First we must realize or diagnose the manner in which Satan infiltrated us, how he came to dwell within mankind. We learn through the Principle that the human body became the recipient of satanic lineage; in other words, the bloodstream became the means of transferring Satan’s inheritance. Thus we received ingredients from the wrong root and that has been the cause of human evils.</p>
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<p>In order to cleanse our body of its fallen lineage, then, we have to subjugate the body or add extraordinary strength to the mind. According to the Principle of Creation, what is the most powerful unifying force in the universe? It is the true love of God. This is the only power that can bring about absolute unity between two or more entities.</p>
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<p>Because of the fall of man, each person is like a wild olive tree; the fallen world is like a forest of wild olive trees. God’s dispensational will is to send one true, God-centered olive tree to restore all the wild trees. Then what is the process of restoring them? All the wild trees must be cut and branches from the true olive tree must be engrafted onto the wild roots. This is a dramatic and revolutionary process; for that reason, there are always repercussions. When you look at the buds or the branches of the true olive tree, you cannot observe any external difference between them and those of the wild olive tree; they look the same. So when the branches are being cut off of a wild tree, the entire world, including the natural parents and the family, says, “What’s going on here? Why have you taken our child away?”</p>
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<p>In the Bible, Jesus said, “I am the living bread that came down from out of heaven; if anyone eats of this bread, he shall live forever; . . . Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in yourselves” (John 6:51,53, NAS). This is an exact analogy of what I am saying here. You were born as a wild olive tree and then you were cut, and the branch of the true olive tree was grafted into you. At that time you became a new person, no longer a part of the satanic lineage but joining the heavenly lineage. Thus Satan has no condition to attack you any further.</p>
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<p>The major religions of the world have always expected the coming of the ultimate one-the Messiah, in Judeo-Christian terms. All the major religions of the world have the hope that the time will come when God will grant to the world that ultimate one-the Messiah-who brings the pure lineage of God. Through engrafting onto that true olive tree, human citizenship will be transferred into the Kingdom of Heaven.</p>
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<p>Theology by itself cannot give salvation to anyone. The important question is, how can we get out of Satan’s domain? Unless we go through this grafting process, we are not entitled to Heaven because our lineage is different. Satan will always be able to claim, “This is my child”</p>
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<p>Our slogan, “Unification of the Fatherland,’ is most profound. It is not a simple or a merely external statement. The fatherland cannot come into being unless there is first an individual unified between mind and body, and then a unified family, clan, society, nation and world. That is what gives substance to the fatherland. Because God exists, it is human destiny to achieve the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.</p>
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<p>Satan is the expert in the effort to divide all levels of society. This world is divided into East, West, North and South, and Satan has used culture to drive a wedge between East and West. There is a world of difference between the two cultures of East and West, but they must come together and achieve unity. If they just move along together side by side, they will not achieve unity. One side must be turned upside down and on top of the other. Which side should be upside down, then? The American people. They see America as the center of the world, and the future center of the worldwide culture.</p>
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<p>There is a characteristic difference between the cultures of East and West. The Western culture is more materialistic, with a great interest in scientific development and technology. The Eastern culture, on the other hand, has been primarily centered on the mind and spirit. Therefore, the people have led a way of life that denies material values. The East had also been relatively poverty-stricken for many centuries because the Western world has plundered its wealth. People of the West thought they could plunder the whole world and put it in their pockets, but I want you to know that God would not allow that to happen.</p>
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<p>We see today that in the Western world the materially centered concept has come to the end of the road. It is as if materialists are standing on the edge of a cliff, unable to take another step. Therefore, they are looking for hope from the East; they are longing for some mystical sign from that direction that will save them.</p>
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<p>You can see that this goes along with the principle we mentioned earlier: the body must not control the mind. Because there is a God, the mind is supposed to control the body. Therefore, Oriental culture which is centered upon the mind and spirit, should take the subject role on the world stage. The time is coming when this mind-centered culture will influence the Western culture and unite with it. That is the hope for the Western world, and that is when the consummation of human history is possible.</p>
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<p>Each of you is a harbinger of this, a pioneer for the new culture. You were born and grew up a part of the Western culture-eating cheese and hamburgers-yet you have come to an Oriental teacher, Reverend Moon, seeking to receive spiritual well-being.</p>
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<p>The division of East and West is the first problem we mentioned. The second problem is the division between North and South, or the white versus black problem. This is very simply a problem of wealth versus poverty; the white people are well-offend the black people poor. There must be some extraordinary movement in which white people will give away all their wealth and try to help the poor black people of the world. If such a movement becomes strong, it will change the whole world situation. At the same time, black people cannot just sit and arrogantly demand that white people come and serve them. They must say, “It is not the fault of any one white person. We have to change and achieve harmony with the white people and create a truly international community”</p>
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<p>These two problems of East vs. West and North vs. South are a reality in our world. Besides that, we also have the problem of communism vs. democracy. Likewise, the racial divisions are everyone’s problem. These conflicts have become exaggerated during this latter part of human history. The differences between rich and poor, black and white, and Oriental versus Western have become very noticeable, virtually all at once. This is the sign of the end of the world; Satan can see that God’s dispensational will is working and thus he is doing his absolute, final best to multiply division in every possible realm.</p>
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<p>What is the key to world survival? All must meet in the center, so there must be a great circling motion-North coming to the West, East going to the South, South going North. We need to see that kind of change of position and turning. Throughout history, the world has had no true center. Where should that center be? It should be in God, and we should all come to that center and find safety in it.</p>
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<p>Why did God create this world? Was it just in order to see the faces of Adam and Eve? No, God wants to fulfill true love. Where is true love and what is its position? When the fall of man came, all the bridges were burned that connected man with true love and the character of a true father and true mother. The fallen generations have been like orphans- children without parents. The Messiah comes, in the position of the True Parents, to be the bridge for true love between God and men. That is the role of the Messiah and the role of the True Parents-to be the bridge of true love.</p>
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<p>Before we talk about unification of the fatherland and before we talk about anything else, the most important item on the agenda is to find that bridge of true love. Unless we go over that bridge of true love, no one-including kings and queens and presidents of great nations-can enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. They have to cross the bridge of true love, through the True Parents.</p>
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<p>Jesus came to the world in order to lay down that true love bridge. Could he do it alone? No, Jesus had to have an object of love in order to create that true love bridge and be installed as True Parents of mankind. For that very reason, Christianity can fulfill its destiny only with the second coming of the Messiah. The True Parents must come to mankind.</p>
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<p>Perhaps a great scientist, winner of the Nobel Prize, might claim that because of his qualifications he should be able to cross a single man’s bridge into the Kingdom of Heaven. Is that possible? You must know that we have to possess a key to open the Kingdom of Heaven in heaven, as well as on earth. That key is simply the true love bridge of the True Parents. Eternal life begins at the moment when True Parents come together and are completely one with God.</p>
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<p>Western people today have many fears. Some Westerners fear “yellow power”-that Orientals will gain dominion over them and cause great suffering. Another fear is that of communism, which is a legitimate fear. Actually, the Western people are totally in the minority. Asians number at least three billion in the world! What kind of a democracy do we have in the world now, with the white minority controlling the vast majority? If you stand by your own democratic principles, you are destined to lose.</p>
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<p>Look at Japan, that small island nation. Forty years ago, it was devastated by war; the Allied nations were triumphant as VJ Day was declared. Now, however, Japan is leading the United States and the West in almost every domain. This is the way history has moved-power has been transferred to the area of the Pacific Ocean and Asia. Japan became the instrument by which the Asian peoples’ potential could be shown.</p>
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<p>The question is, where can we get the energy to solve our two problems of East/West and North/South? Do you think the answer will come from President Reagan? Or perhaps it is the director of the CIA, or perhaps the Defense Department and the Pentagon? What about the power of science and technology? Where will the energy come from to solve the fundamental problems of the world? That power can only come from God Himself.</p>
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<p>Who is Reverend Moon, then? How do you know whether Reverend Moon is God’s son or Satan’s son? Reverend Moon cannot be Satan’s son because of the result of his work- look at this auditorium, as one example. In this place those two primary world problems have been resolved. Here we have unity between East and West; Orientals and Westerners all coming together as one. Likewise, the North and South problems are solved-white and black people are together in unity. Instead of just talking about the problems here, we have the solution: we are welding ourselves into one. We have the “true love bolt” that brings Easterners and Westerners together into one welded body. No matter how formidable any earthly power may be, including the power of the government, the CIA, or the military, nothing can break up this true fusion of love and unity between East and West.</p>
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<p>Suppose we have a black person and a white person trying to be close by standing back to back-that is closeness but it is not real, 90% unity. The Unification Church is the group which turns black and white around, face to face. I don’t know what is the mystery of the Unification Church, but one thing is incredible: black and white are marrying and creating families; so are Orientals and Westerners. Instead of running away from such matches, you are asking for them more and more.</p>
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<p>What is the color of true love? Is it white? Black? True love has no color-in other words, anybody who is color conscious cannot have true love at all. You’ve got to be color-blind. So you white people out there, when you look at yourself, does your face look white? Or black? Look at the doves-the white and black doves coo together; they mate and lay their eggs. The supreme creation of men and women must learn to coo like the doves to one another. We must learn true love.</p>
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<p>When God looks at you, He looks through the eyes of true love. What colors of skin is God aware of? He doesn’t see people’s skin color when He looks at them. God is interested in anyone who is doing dramatic and extraordinary things. Thus He likes to see black men working in harmony with white men and Eastern people working with Westerners. Those kinds of scenes give a great deal of joy to God. What else do you need, as long as God is satisfied?</p>
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<p>What is the Unification Church? It is the point of unity between God and mankind. Unification doesn’t come when people are back to back; that can only be an alliance, not true unification. One must be atop the other and it doesn’t matter who is on top-white or black-as long as there is true love unification, it becomes a delight to God. Without this kind of true love, we can’t even talk about unification. It would only be empty words, with no substance.</p>
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<p>We have the special power to solve the problems of East/West and North/South and with that power we can bring the unification of the fatherland. Today every nation is part of the world’s problems-the United States, the Soviet Union, and every nation. There is no solution or cure for the problems of the world except the love of God; that is the power the world needs.</p>
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<p>Look at the faces within this auditorium today. We are truly a rainbow collection. Some people might say, “The Unification Church would be a better place if this auditorium were filled only with white faces” Some might think, “Why should we have blacks in our church? Why so many yellow people?” That kind of thinking is where the problem lies.</p>
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<p>When matching time comes, I am in a difficult position because when I ask all those handsome, tall Western men “What kind of wife would you like to have?” they always reply, “I would like a Korean woman. If all the Korean women are taken, then give me a Japanese woman. If they are all gone, then give me any Asian woman” Then you Western women say, “Father, please give us Korean or Japanese husbands. If all those are sold out, then any Asian husband is okay” The Unification Church mass weddings have been scorned and spurned in the past, but now the world is re-examining our marriage system. They see some incredible power that can engender true love and peace, uniting our divided world.</p>
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<p>The Western culture, particularly the families, can learn a lot from the Unification Church culture. America’s most critical problems, such as drug abuse, immorality and racial conflicts, have no real solutions except those being proposed by Reverend Moon and the Unification Church.</p>
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<p>Everywhere-in every family, home, neighborhood and community-these problems are escalating. This is true not only in this society but also in every society in the world. It is as if a typhoon were blowing and breaking down every home, community and nation. There has been no solution for them, until the solution brought by Reverend Moon- and that is true love centered upon God.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon went to Danbury prison. This government and nation came against me, but Reverend Moon didn’t run away. I stayed here because I want to have mercy and forgive this America and bring down God’s compassion. I did not come here to be served by others; I came to save this nation. Until I fulfill that mission, I will not leave this country.</p>
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<p>Can you trust my word? You say yes most readily. That is why the outside world criticizes you as being brainwashed. But the verdict has been given: no matter which direction you come from, there is no other place for finding the answers except the Unification Church and Reverend Moon. Here we are not just posing the questions and talking about them, but we are living the solution. This is not just an opinion of one or two individuals but it is becoming the consensus of nations and even the world.</p>
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<p>Where did we lose the fatherland? When the world lost the position of True Parents, that was the moment we lost the true fatherland. The world is our fatherland, but we speak more specifically about the fatherland of our Unification faith-that is Korea. As you know, Korea is a peninsula nation which is quite small, but it has very different characteristics in the east, west, north and south. North Korea and South Korea share a common historical phenomenon-the eastern sector of the peninsula has been the dominant power over the western side of the peninsula.</p>
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<p>In the rest of the world the West has had influence or dominance over the East, but in Korea the east has influenced the west. Likewise, on a worldwide scale, the North has been dominant over the South, but in Korea, the northern part is poorer and the southern part is wealthier. These opposite phenomena occur because this is the restoration era. The problem is that on this one peninsula, Korea, no unification has been achieved. Who has the influence and power to bring all four sectors into unity? That is the Unification Church and the International Federation for the Victory Over Communism. This movement is spreading out, unifying all four sectors of the Korean nation.</p>
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<p>Unification is beginning in the South, influencing the entire population of 40 million. What Reverend Moon does or doesn’t do has become a focal point of the entire Korean population. Furthermore, in communist North Korea, Kim 11 Sung and his regime fear one individual above all others in the south, and that is none other than Reverend Moon. We are exerting pressure on North Korea, which has been virtually the most isolated and closed society in the world; now it is being forced to open its doors.</p>
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<p>Reverend Moon has already helped China in many different ways; the position of that country is crucial. I would like to freely share, without any hesitation or reservation, the highest possible technology we have. Major nations have become very selfish; America doesn’t want to share or give away any technology. Neither Japan nor the Soviet Union want to give away anything, either. But Reverend Moon says, “Open up. Let’s give it to them”</p>
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<p>Our movement has four major machine factories in Germany, utilizing the highest technology. For two years, the German government has been trying to find ways to keep Reverend Moon from coming into that country. Despite this, our movement has been able to obtain these important, sophisticated factories. Advanced technology has also been brought into Tong 11 Industries. As you know, a type of robot machine which does its work entirely independent of human beings has been created. Research centers in Germany, Japan, Korea and the United States have been established. Our movement has also developed the highest possible computer technology in Japan.</p>
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<p>Why do you think we are doing all this? We want to give it to the world. Many people, whether they are in the United States or Germany, have thought, “The world must serve our nation” But that is wrong. The right way is for the United States to serve the world; West Germany and every nation must serve the world. Reverend Moon is serving the world and that is the way God lives. Do you follow? Our way of life, including our marriage, is for the sake of the world. Nothing we do, nothing we eat each day, none of that can be just for our own individual sake but for the sake of the world. By the same token, the Unification Church doesn’t exist for its own sake.</p>
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<p>We have some guests here this evening who have come to listen to my talk; they are ministers of a particular denomination. I want to say to them that their denomination does not exist for its own sake; it, too, exists for the sake of the world. Anybody who tries to confine his denomination within narrow boundaries will be suffocated by them, and he will have no more power.</p>
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<p>The Unification Church must never think, even for one moment, that we are here to serve ourselves. We are here for the purpose of serving the world; we are sacrificing ourselves for that purpose. This is the reason Reverend Moon will never be destroyed; he will just become more and more popular and appreciated.</p>
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<p>In order to achieve ultimate world unification-the unification of the fatherland-there must be a model. When I look at the Korean nation, I know that it can become that model. All the four different sectors must be united under one true God-centered ideology. In that way, Korea is like the center for the entire world. If the small Korean peninsula can unite into one, the rest of the world would be able to move according to that same pattern and become united as well.</p>
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<p>Let’s look at it another way. In order to unite Korea, the work of world unification must also continue. In other words, without having major work done on the worldwide level, there is no way the Korean peninsula can be united. This year is a crucial one for the United States; God wants to accomplish certain programs here and also in Japan and Western Europe.</p>
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<p>In the heavenly dispensational schedule, the years from 1945 to 1985 were like the forty years of Moses’ wilderness period. The three years following that victorious period- 1986, 1987 and 1988-are going to be probably the most crucial in all of human history. The work Father is doing during these three years will create the environment and lay the foundation for the unification of the fatherland.</p>
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<p>Before the people of Israel went on their exodus from Egypt, they proclaimed to all of the people that they were going. By the same token, today the Unification Church must proclaim what it is doing to the entire Christian world. Nowadays, many American clergymen are going on pilgrimages to Korea; hundreds of people are going there every two or three months. Why are they going to Korea? To discover the roots of Reverend Moon.</p>
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<p>We shall create inspirational power here in America. We cannot trust the Republican or the Democratic Parties. It will be too easy for them to become the prey of communism. The Moonies are going to launch a most spectacular patriotic movement. For the last fifteen years, you didn’t know what I was up to and, for that reason, you often did not really cooperate with me. I forgive you, but only on the condition that during 1987 you truly follow Father’s principle and join in the launching of this most patriotic crusade in America. We must bring this nation around to God.</p>
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<p>Actually, within the United States the majority of the people are members of various minorities-approximately 65%. Thus the so-called majority is actually a 35% minority. When the different minorities come together, they comprise a majority. The 35% of the population are the ones who regard Reverend Moon as their adversary; they are the ones who pushed me into Danbury prison. But that confrontation is not yet over; we shall have a showdown to decide who is right and who is wrong. We shall see who is on the side of justice. Justice and truth cannot be buried for long.</p>
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<p>This year, our slogan is “The Unification of the Fatherland” This slogan has implications on many levels, both great and small. Unification by what? By fists and power? No, only by the injection of true love.</p>
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<p>What is America today? It is a wilderness, a desert of love. People here are starving for love. As soon as we can bring them some true love, they will be so eager to receive it – like a thirsty person drinking water. Do you have such true love to give them? Father actually has given you many true love injections. Also I have taught you how to use this “injection machine” It is very simple. People are always willing to receive the shot of love anywhere you can give it, whether it is in the hip, the neck, the foot, or wherever. When you offer that injection of true love, nobody will reject it. They love it!</p>
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<p>Go ahead and give out ten thousand true love shots during 1987. All the 240 million Americans will eventually receive one. How could you ever do anything better or more valuable than to restore the broken families of America? Look at the drug epidemic today. It is a sign of the hunger for love; people are so desperate for love, they take drugs in order to get an artificial high. However, once you teach them how to find true love, which is a greater high than anything artificial, people will begin to change. Their complexions, their eyes, their hearing, every emotion and every sense will work differently.</p>
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<p>Are you going to become that kind of true love doctor, giving injections all over the place? Raise your hands, those who want to do that! What are you going to accomplish? You will bring the unification of the fatherland. No other power except that of love can do this. What is true love? It is the love that cares for its enemy; it gives the ultimate gift and then forgets it. That is what Father has been doing for America-giving and pouring out sweat and material into this country, then forgetting it. I don’t even want to remember what I have given here.</p>
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<p>We are bringing Japanese people over here and they suffer; the Korean people come here and suffer and so do the European people. If they were working and suffering in their own country, that would be only for the sake of their own nation, so I want them to come here to work for the sake of the world, since America today represents the whole world.</p>
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<p>The property of the Unification Church doesn’t belong to us; it belongs to the world. By the same token, the people of the Unification Church belong to the world, not to the Unification Church. Ultimately, you belong to God; God will claim ownership of you, and will grant you heavenly citizenship. Your original mind wants to belong to God; that is an unchangeable aspect of you. Nobody can remove that.</p>
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<p>I am wearing a suit tonight. Never for even one moment, however, do I think, “This is mine,’ in regard to my clothing or possessions. They always belong to God first. That is even true of my own body-it belongs to God, not Reverend Moon. So when this body gets tired, I still cannot give up; God pushes my body to go forward. How can I complain or refuse to follow that order? God is more tired than I am, so how can I excuse myself from working? I cannot.</p>
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<p>The subject of your prayers throughout this entire year should be the Unification of the Fatherland. If you pray with this focus, then this most profound goal can happen more quickly. As soon as this crusade is launched, I need to get back to Korea because that country is in a dangerous position now. I have taught you many things. I have trained you and I have given you much love and guidance. Now the time has come for you to take over the leadership position.</p>
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<p>Since I came to America I have been just one man standing up to train all the members of the church. Think about it. Now you have come to resemble me. We all shall be the champions, workers and tireless fighters for the unification of the fatherland.</p>
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<p>On this first day of January 1987, the motto for the year has been given. Let us all march forward together. Do you understand? Thank you. God bless you.</p>
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