Sermons of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon
Volume 4
Chapter 1: The Whole Universe is Searching for the One Day of Love
I Corinthians 13:1-13
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 16, 1958
Prayer
Father! We are ignorant of the original heart with which You created humanity. We know we have failed to feel Your love, which can drive away our sorrows. We must find the love of the Father and restore the original relationship with You, even if it means we have to sacrifice everything we have.
Father! Please allow Your sons and daughters who have gathered here to open the gates to their hearts and seek Your heart and love. Please let them open their ears to hear Your voice. Please allow them to open their eyes so that they can see the Father who is searching for the sons and daughters who can receive the grace bestowed by Heaven.
Based on that, please allow us to see, hear and understand the hands of the Father who has been exerting Himself for us. Allow us to experience that heart of perseverance. We know a little bit about the heart of the Father who toiled and persevered for us, so please govern our minds and bodies in this hour today as completely as Your own.
If there are sons and daughters who have become enslaved inside the realm of death because of their ignorance, Father, we sincerely hope and wish You will allow this to be an opportunity when You can extend Your hands of grace and provoke the whole works of creation. We hope it can be an opportunity for us to relate with the original heart of appeal and become harmonized before the Father’s heart.
We have come to realize the will of the Father for which You have poured out all of Your heart. We have come to realize the course of history in which You walked the path of heavenly love. We know that this was fulfilled only through people who searched for the system of values that could connect and relate with Heaven.
If the mission lies with us to uproot the origin of all historical sins, and the sins of the age and all sins of the future, then please let the Father’s direct work of love emerge which can provoke in us the desire to offer gratitude for the Father’s love. Let us not be dragged about by sin and a deep sense of guilt.
We know that our minds today are not moving centering on us, and our bodies also are in action without us. If our minds have left us and our bodies also, then we can feel the heart of the Father, who must use us to carry out His dispensation. We have come to understand that the time has come when we must work through the truth and character of the heavenly principles and the love of the Father.
Father, we earnestly wish You to allow the words emerge that can introduce the Father’s love to all of humanity. Please let the person of character who can testify to Your love appear before many citizens of the last days today. Please allow us to prepare our hearts and lay the foundation to follow that truth. Father, we ardently wish that the day everything becomes clear before the will of the Father will soon emerge in history.
Father, please allow us to become people who can experience the aching heart of the Father, as Paul said. Allow us to experience the Father’s heart of love that He could not feel. As Jesus died on the cross, please help us become the children who can become the sacrifice before the people and build the altar of the whole. Please allow us to be one with the Father’s heart of love.
Father, the path that leads to the heavenly principles is one path; the path that can liberate Jesus from all toils is also one path. The path to remove the grief of the deaths of the prophets and patriots is also one path. Therefore, Father, we earnestly pray that You will let this be a time when we can hold onto this one heart and offer the sacrifice of redemption before the Father on behalf of heaven and earth.
Now we have entrusted everything to You, so please govern us. Please let me convey the words You want to convey. Please do not let the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener become disunited. Let this hour be a time when our minds and bodies can move when Heaven moves. Hoping that You will eliminate Satan and govern everything, we offered all the words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
You probably know that in the Divine Principle there is the term cosmos (chun-joo). You probably also know that this term refers to the combination of the invisible world and the visible world. Both the Creator, who created the world, and all things created by Him have been searching for the one day of love.
The Necessities in Human Life
If there is something that is most urgently needed and important, it is possessing God. The next most important thing is becoming a true person who has a true mind and body; next is possessing true material things. What could be after these things? It is the love we must have as human beings. These are the important things that are absolutely needed for the fallen people of today to live on.
When we look at ourselves, one cannot deny that we need God to be a true person and to have material things of true goodness that are centered on us. Furthermore, we need the one relation of love that can bring all things together centering on us.
Do you know where resides the God you need? Do you know where you can find the true person and the true materials you need? There is no one who can confidently give a clear and well informed answer to this question.
Therefore, if you who have gathered here have something of which you can be proud, you must step forward with a new heart and a new concept. The time has come when you must do this. In the life you have lived until now, you probably felt that because we have not obtained all the elements we need today, we cannot lead a peaceful and comfortable life and cannot feel the love of God, which can connect with the eternal ideology of creation. We cannot sing a song of our lives.
You cannot deny that the time has come when we must mourn over the fact that we do not have anything we can boast about before all things of the cosmos. This is the reason St. Paul vividly confessed that this is the sorrow of Heaven, the sorrow of human beings, and the sorrow of all things. You must never forget that the responsibility to resolve all of this sorrow is given to you. It is your life course, you who are living inside the realm of the fate of restoration, to shoulder this kind of responsibility.
Therefore, now if you feel any sense of sorrow over yourself, you must worry about the history connected to you. You must worry about the era connected to your practical life. You must worry about the future.
However, if there are those who are struggling without any thought for the things they should be worried about, they are the most miserable people. When people, who have the mission to get rid of the conditions of lamentation left behind in heaven and on earth by the fall, do not realize their position and emerge in a shameful way before all things, then how would God feel as He looks upon them? You must realize that you are shameful ones who have added to the torment of God.
The Ultimate Hope of Humanity
Where is the loyal person who can go beyond this contradictory environment and step forward confidently to take responsibility for the sorrow of the whole universe! If there is hope for humanity, it is in becoming this kind of loyal subject.
What must we do to become this loyal subject? We must represent God, a true person, and all true things that we need today and unite them into one. We must be able to discuss love with God.
You must understand that although until now we have been offering various kinds of prayers and have been serving the will while we were passing through the course of providential history, there is no one who went so far as to be able to liberate the grieving heart that lies deep inside God and discuss love with Him. Although Jesus came to the earth, because human beings could not form a substantial relationship of love with God through him, he has to come again.
Although Jesus came with the mission to bring the 4,000-year history of restoration to perfection, if we were to ask, “Have human beings formed a relationship with the love of God?” no one is in the position to say yes. Because we are in this situation, we are most pitiful, and there is nothing more sorrowful than this.
What do you have today that you can brag about? Do you have knowledge? When compared to the principles and rules of all things in heaven and earth, the knowledge that you have is extremely insignificant. No matter how much twentieth century civilization has developed, it remains in the realm where it cannot establish the one absolute principle and rule. Therefore, even if we do have something to brag about, you have to sense that the time is coming when we must reexamine that.
Heaven found you while looking at the historical fortune and the fortune of the age, while worrying about the fortune of the future. If you want to establish yourself before this Heaven and boast of yourself, then you must first become the people who possess Heaven. You must become true people. Moreover, you must become people who can relate with all true things. This is an important issue.
You must clearly understand that the highest purpose of God, who has been guiding the dispensation until now, and the highest standard of Jesus, who has been toiling until now after establishing the will of the dispensation, is that you earn the qualifications of the ruler, which were expected of Adam and Eve. They were told to rule all things of the universe after God created them. You must be able to say, “We know that this is what You have longed for, with what You have blessed us. Please allow us to form a bond with Your heavenly love.”
Has humankind arrived at such a situation at present? It is because of the human fall. Because people today are the descendants of the fall, there is no one who is living without a fallen shape and form. When fallen lifestyles on the individual level are joined to form fallen nature on the world scale, there must emerge one principle that can shatter this on the world scale to indemnify and eradicate it. You have to remember that before the principles appear that can guide people to the opposite direction of the fall, no matter what ideas of goodness or doctrines are promoted, they will not be able to connect us to the hope of human beings or with fundamental joy.
What must we do, we who are fallen descendants who cannot escape from the wheel of fallen history? We must become the true person who has the character that can represent the ideology of the whole universe and the value that can govern all things. Moreover, if we long for the love of God, there is something we must not forget. We must not forget that we have inherited the fallen lineage.
If you sense that the original fallen natures are occupying your heart, then you will come to realize that something new is emerging that you could not think of or fathom until now. Now you must go before God as people of character who represent all things, the whole creation, and appeal, “I am a person of the fallen lineage.” If you have never offered this kind of prayer, you cannot escape from the realm of sorrow that remains before the cosmos.
The Things That Were Lost Due to the Fall and Faithlessness
What does the fall of Adam and Eve signify? It signifies that they abandoned God, lost the original, ideal human nature, and lost the environment of good dominion. In other words, they lost God, true personhood, and true material things. Next, they lost the words of God and the love of God. This was the fall. Human beings cannot overcome these results.
Now we must fight to settle and pioneer all these from the opposite direction. If you do not become this kind of fighter, you have to realize there is no way for you to escape from the historical realm of sin and the realm of Satan, who has been opposing the dispensation of Heaven.
People have left the bosom of God due to the fall. They have lost the original true human nature and left the realm of the true universe. The history to restore all this is the history of God’s re creation and the dispensation of God, who has been exerting Himself until now.
Grief was caused when the first Adam fell. What then did the second Adam, in other words, Jesus, who came as the restored Adam, have to do? First, he had to let God come into his heart. He had to possess the will of a true person in his body and become the true lord of dominion. Jesus came to this earth as the one subject, the embodiment and testifier to heavenly love. He was to testify to human love and to the love of all things and was to unite them all into one.
Therefore, Jesus promoted the Kingdom of Heaven within the mind. He asserted his oneness with God, saying that God lived in his heart. Moreover, he said he was to govern the whole universe. Holding up the motto of love toward all of humanity, he said, “I am God’s son, and you are my friends and brothers.” You must understand that the value of Jesus as the Messiah is contained in those words.
Jesus had the mission to move the family, the society, the people, the nation, the world and even the cosmos, centering on himself. The Israelites betrayed him, the church betrayed him, the chosen John the Baptist betrayed him, and his family betrayed him.
You probably know well, from the Principle, that because of this, Jesus established his own apostles. Using them as the foundation upon which to stand, he tried to form the second Israel and realize the ideal of the restoration of Canaan on the world level. Because the Israelites, who were organized into twelve tribes, opposed him, the form of the twelve tribes was broken. The result of that was that the foundation Moses had laid was lost. The foundation that Jacob had built, centering on the twelve sons, was lost. Therefore, Jesus had to take twelve disciples.
Although Jesus should have stood at the forefront as the founder of the second Israel, since the twelve apostles who were like the twelve sons of Jacob were losing their faith, he had to create the form of Noah’s family. He took the three disciples that corresponded to the three sons of Noah and wandered in the garden of Gethsemane. However, when even these three disciples could not become one with him, Jesus was forced to fall down to the position of Adam at the time of the fall. Christians today do not understand this. Moreover, they are not aware of the prayer Jesus offered for the ignorant people nor are they aware of his tormented heart.
As the hero who governs the world, Jesus should have been able to introduce the heart of God to the humanity of the world. He should have ruled over all things, but he was ostracized by John the Baptist and his own family.
Consequently, Jesus became a pitiful person and lost the foundation of the world and the people. Jesus was put in the same position as Adam, who had lost his bride because of the fall of Eve.
Jesus came as the True Parents to humanity, who had lost the true, unfallen parents. Yet he lost his family and the three disciples he had set up as his children. Therefore, he was put in the position of Adam who had lost Eve. Therefore, Jesus left behind the concept of the bride and bridegroom on this earth. You have to understand that Jesus was in this heartbreaking situation.
Jesus could not finish revealing the words that could unite the world, the words that could unite Christians, the second Israel on the world level, and the representatives of the twelve tribes of Israel. He could not finish revealing the words concerning individual laws, social ethics, and the institution of the family that could bring people to the heavenly principles. This was the greatest grief of Jesus.
However, people today do not realize this historical fact. Moreover, even Christians who claim to believe in God do not understand this. How much would God mourn as He looks down upon these people? Because God’s plan to bless the Israelites, as the second Israel, at the time of Jesus and build the second Canaan was shattered, God’s sorrow was greatly increased.
The Things Which the Returning Lord Needs
If Jesus comes again to this earth, who will he come as and where will he come? Jesus cannot immediately come to the fallen human world. Because he has to go through the course of restoration, he has to pass through the stages of Noah’s family and Adam’s family. In the environment of the people of faith today is the course of the historical fate to take charge of the situation of Jesus and move forward to the world level. However, the people of faith today are ignorant of this. If they are not aware of this, then no matter how much they believe in Jesus, there is no way for them to receive him.
The returning Lord comes as the master of the world. However, the returning Lord needs first a family, a tribe, a people and a nation centered on Heaven. Only then can he become the master of the world. This is the basic principle.
If Christianity today wants to represent the ideology of the Lord who is trying to restore the world, it must first think whether there is a family of God centered on Jesus that can become a foundation on the world level. If the heavenly tribe and heavenly religion are not prepared centering on Jesus and the transcendent foundation on the world level is not firmly laid, then who can say that he will not become the Jesus of sorrow when he comes again to this earth? You must never forget that historical fact is testifying to this.
The fortune of Heaven and earth is passing through you, whether you are aware of it, whether the people are aware of it, and whether the nation declines or prospers. All kinds of vicissitudes are passing through you.
What was the will of God, who has been working throughout the course of the 2,000-year history since Jesus? The will of God was to set up the one center through Jesus that could represent the whole heavenly ideology and materialize true love on earth. However, because that will was not fulfilled when Jesus died on the cross, the mission to fulfill that will remains with people on earth.
What must you do now? We must appeal to Heaven that since we have lost Jesus, Heaven must send the true person that belongs to the side of Heaven, the true leader who can possess all true things.
Because Jesus who came as the second Adam was killed, human beings again need the Lord who comes with the words that are hidden inside God’s heart, the Lord who comes to construct the kingdom of Heaven with the character of the kingdom of Heaven, the Lord who comes with the qualifications to rule over all things. This is the hope of humanity.
Now we must learn to be dignified before God, who is working His dispensation through the people He raises; otherwise, even if Jesus comes to this earth again, we cannot meet him. Next, you must remember that when Jesus came to the earth, those who were supposed to attend him caused his death and lapsed into the position of having fallen for the second time. They abandoned God, the Kingdom of Heaven, being true people, and they abandoned the whole universe. Therefore, you must always believe in the Lord and attend him.
The Things Which the Leading Actors of the New Age Must Do
What must faithful believers do today? The most important thing is to build the Kingdom of Heaven through the love of Jesus. Where does the Kingdom of Heaven begin? It begins from understanding the love and character of Jesus and understanding the realm of dominion over all things in which Jesus can govern. Those who are ignorant of the love and character of Jesus and the realm of dominion over all things will not be able to find God.
When we look back at the 2,000-year history since Jesus, we can see that many Christian believers have carried on the movement to find God again. Therefore, the Roman Empire, which had severely persecuted Christianity, finally recognized it publicly. By eventually building the Vatican in Rome, their politics revolved around the Vatican, and in the end they formed feudal society.
However, during the Middle Ages, the Vatican became corrupt, and humanist thought infiltrated Christianity. After the Middle Ages, Christians lost God. In other words, many people were lost to humanist thought. Through the Enlightenment, historical materialism was born.
This is based on the philosophical thought of rationalism and empiricism, which emphasize human reason. Therefore, because of the trend of capitalist thought and historical materialism, the world has deteriorated into a place where materialism, which stresses the value of materials, is flourishing.
Jesus shouldered the mission to unite the whole dispensation on behalf of the will of Heaven. He came to this earth as the second Adam. Because our ancestors ostracized Jesus, we cannot escape the course of the history of sin. Therefore, we could not find God, true humanity and true material things. Accordingly, no matter how hard we struggle to find the true person, we cannot.
Who caused the destruction of the feudal social structure of the Middle Ages? Heaven destroyed it. God wanted to fulfill the Will centering on the Roman Vatican, but because the Vatican was becoming corrupt, He dismantled it. Because the people who believed in God were closer to the position of betraying the will of the heavenly principles, God elevated humanistic thought and struck them.
In the midst of all this, God carried out the Religious Reformation through Luther, the one person who was concerned for Heaven, to safeguard the base of the dispensation. God carried on a dispensation that on the one side shattered things and on the other side built things up. After having Christianity go through the form of the second Israel, and after bringing confusion upon a generation through the Renaissance, God conducted the dispensation in a way that confronted the Enlightenment, which was centered on humanist, rationalist philosophy.
Leaders of the Enlightenment like Voltaire, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and others thought Christianity would be destroyed. However, upright people came out of Germany and inspired mysticism, insisting upon actual, internal experience with God. This passed through England, and the Wesley brothers began a revival movement. The sect of the Quakers also came into being, and they had mystical, internal experiences.
On the other hand, people forgot God loved them. Forgetting even human reason, which they loved, they went so far as to espouse the trend of materialistic thought. Because even fallen human beings must certainly return to the original position, there will come a time when the trend of thought based on material things will be struck.
The Middle Ages, centered on the deity, have passed. The period when the world was dominated by rationalist philosophy has also passed. Materialism and the trends of thought and the systems it instituted in the eighteenth century are also losing their light. In the world of the future, human beings will not obtain satisfaction even if they love material things. They will not be able to make a breakthrough in their practical problems even if they follow the teachings of the historical personalities of the past. Therefore, there is no way that one can govern the world with communist ideology, which promotes the prosperity of society through the power to produce material things.
Therefore, pivoting around the 21st century, we will usher in the age of atomic power and break up the materialistic civilization’s dominion over the world. There will come a time when we can pursue and enjoy love. To walk confidently before all things of the universe in the era of love that is to come, you should wisely cope with your mission as the central people who bring together all historical values.
Because you have to walk through the course of fallen Adam and Eve, you must understand that, although each of you has to inherit the mission of the period of the second Adam, you are not qualified to do that. Furthermore, you must understand that history today is the history of searching for God, true people and the true materials lost because of the human fall.
The Cause of the Fall and the Ultimate Purpose of the Progress of History
How did the fall of Adam come about? It took place when Adam and Eve were tempted by the illegitimate love that God did not permit, which entered from the sides. They destroyed the heavenly principles. In our life, many archangelic forms appear that unfolded in the Garden of Eden. Now we are passing through the era when what is not right is pretending to be right, so there is no way to avoid the era of the confusion of love.
The dispensation of God walks the opposite path and is working through the opposite way. When we look back at the 6,000-year history, we can understand that the Old Testament era was the era of finding material things. In other words, it was the era when people could go before God by using materials as the sacrifice. The New Testament era was the era of offering Jesus, the true Adam, as the sacrifice.
In the Completed Testament era of the future, all human beings will become substantial sacrifices before God. It will be a time when, by going past the standard that can unite all things, they can govern love.
However, Christians today do not know that the dispensation of God appears in the form of striking and destroying the external aspects of the world and of establishing the internal aspects. In other words, they do not know the nature of God’s internal dispensation that strikes the external aspects of history and embraces the internal aspects.
What was God trying to find throughout the 6,000 years of God’s dispensation? He was trying to find the words of eternal promise that stand before God and humans. Those words seek to form the true relationship between parent and child and unite them.
Through the Principle, you know that the cause of the human fall was an illegal and illicit sexual relationship. Therefore, you who are living in the last days must be careful. Any man, if not careful, will easily associate with two women, and women will easily be pulled into this.
The time of material civilization based on unlimited power is coming. The very first era for humans was that of eating raw food. It was followed by the era of eating cooked food. Next will come the era of “water food,” in other words, the time when we take nutrition from water. The time will come in the future when scientific food can serve well to maintain our health. The era when human effort is needed will pass.
At such a time, what are we going to do? What will remain then will be the culture of art. We will seek the path of beauty and love. This is a good thing.
However, if humanity deviates from the laws of the heavenly way and is struggling to find it, where will they eventually end? What will happen to them? This should be cause for concern among the people who believe in religion today.
The present civilization came to the point where it no longer needs religions that do not comprehend the true situation of the world and are at a loss. Therefore, religions today shoulder the mission to point out to humanity the path humans must take. When we look back over the 2,000-year history, there were many revolutions. You have to understand that while going through the course of revolutions, humanity has been aiming for the one world of unity.
The World of Emotion, Centered on the Love of God
When we consider that humans have intellect, emotion and will, we know that the Creator, who exists as the main master of all things of the universe, is the subject of the intellect, emotion and will that can connect with the higher laws of the Principle. When we examine history, we can see that it is expanding out from the level of the individual to the level of the family, from the family to the tribe, from the tribe to the people, the nation and the world. Moreover, passing through this kind of external form, we are entering the era when internal thought and concepts are upheld as most important.
An individual man heads toward the internal, spiritual dimension through the external dimension. Since the spirit assumes leadership, we can establish the one value system only when spirit and thought are united. When this is done, we can walk on the right track toward the unified purpose.
The same holds true for the world. Because there is a world concept, there will emerge a world structure that can tie the world together for the sake of the unification of the spirit, which is the one unifying point. This is the situation with the confrontation between democracy and communism today. You must understand that at this time God, who created the spirit world and the cosmos, is trying to actualize the ideology of the unification of the cosmos. Therefore, the ideology of the spirit world and the ideology of the physical world are in contradiction and will collide.
Through the historical course of conflict between superior people and inferior people, the world is moving toward one world centering on the one world perspective. In the future, there will come a time when all the spirits of the spirit world will return to the earth. When this takes place, great confusion will unfold on earth and all kinds of confrontations and conflicts will take place. When this happens, you must take the leading role to guide all of them to conclusion in the direction Heaven wants. To do that, you must first become qualified to represent the heart of God and the ideology of the heavenly principles. This is the hope that God has in the end of history. He cannot fulfill this hope solely with the Christianity of today.
Although there were countless revolutions in the course of history, there was never a revolution on the issue of human emotion. Throughout the ages, when revolutionary elements were budding, all the systems of the society and nation could not drive them out, but were revolutionized and
destroyed by them.
Concerning this emotional problem, have you become true parents who can stand before Heaven? Have you become true couples? Do you have true children? If not, then you are violating the heavenly principles.
Jesus came to this earth with the love of God. Introducing that love, he said that he was the son of God. The relationship of love that formed between God and Jesus could not be severed by anyone, from that day to this. No matter how strong the forces of Satan were on this earth, they could not sever it. Moreover, they could not undermine the proclamation of Jesus, “You are my bride and my brothers.”
Because of this kind of foundation, Christianity could progress throughout the course of history. Thus, Christianity could become the backbone of the Kingdom of Heaven. It has been progressing through the course of history to realize the form of a family that can represent the heavenly love that comes through the one personality.
No matter how much power one possesses or what high, prestigious academic degree one has, one who has not formed a relationship of love with Heaven is miserable. Thus, those who understand this basic principle must be grateful to Jesus. If Jesus had not insisted on this, what would have happened to the human world? It would have turned into a world of darkness. It would have turned into a world of faithlessness and conflict, antagonism and discord.
Therefore, only when the emotional aspects of humankind become one, centering on the love of God, and the new world of substantial love is built on this earth will the time of peace and harmony finally come. Accordingly, you who are living in the last days of the universe must not be self centered on issues of sexuality. Beyond that, you must love the people, the nation and the world more than you love your own family. You must love the universe more than the world. All the human principles and the heavenly principles which were pursued, until now, in the course of history must be combined 100 percent in this end of time.
Therefore, the time has come when you must abandon all the emotional problems you have had until now and hope for the good news, based upon which you can have a new beginning. The words Jesus spoke, that people must love him more than they love anyone else, must again appear in the last days. We have passed through the era when human reason was worshipped. We have passed through the era of materials. Now the era of love will come.
Therefore, we now need the words of Heaven that can solve the problems of human emotion and love. Such a time has come.
To Give and Receive Love with God
Until now humans have only pursued a plus ideology throughout the course of history. This is not acceptable. God is like the plus and human beings are like the minus. Therefore, religions teach that people should not be arrogant. They also teach that men should not love themselves. They teach us to deny everything, even to strike our bodies. The reason for this is that since God is plus, humans can engage in giving and receiving with Him only if they become minus.
Plus and plus oppose each other. They repel and push each other away. Satan is that which does not want to stand in the position of a minus, but wants to be a plus though God is in the position of plus. As I mentioned before, the life of the Way promotes the suppression of desire. The purpose for this is to strike the side of Satan, in other words, the plus aspect that belongs to evil, and transform it into the position of minus.
The purpose of striking the body is to strike that which should be in the position of minus but is trying to stand in the position of plus. It is to turn it into the position of minus so that it can engage completely in giving and receiving with Heaven. Accordingly, if you do not get rid of all conditions centered on your bodies, there is no way that you can stand as a perfect minus before Heaven, which is the perfect plus. You must not forget that the whole universe is longing for the one day of love when this kind of person can appear on the earth to give and receive love with God for eternity.
Chapter 2: Let Us Not Weaken Our Determination Toward Heaven
Genesis 19:18-29 I Corinthians 9:23-27
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
February 23, 1958
Prayer
We know that the one victorious day the Father desires has not yet occurred. We feel so ashamed when we think about how the Father has been walking a course of bloody conflict, until this hour, to attain the final victory.
We know that we must arm ourselves with the truth to safeguard the will of the Father. We know that to unfold the will of goodness the Father desires, we must offer all that we have and fight on. Please allow our minds and bodies to be mobilized. Allow the faithful people dispersed throughout this land and the heavenly soldiers and angels of Heaven to be mobilized. Father, we earnestly wish that You will allow the imminent arrival of the day when we can offer glory to the Father.
We know that although our ancestors, in the course of history, greatly yearned for the time of the Lord and exhausted themselves and suffered hardships to find this one day, the sorrow of not having realized it yet has pierced deeply into earth and Heaven because of us. Please allow us to understand that there is a bloody situation to go through to find the one day of glory for which the Father hopes. The Father has called upon us: inadequate, insignificant and incapable people. We offer gratitude for the grace of the Father. He has allowed us to make the resolution and determination to offer our minds and bodies to fight for the sake of the will. Father, please sanctify our minds in this hour and receive us as the sacrifice. We pray that You will separate us completely from Satan’s conditions of accusation and allow us to become the proud sons and daughters whom only the Father can claim.
Father, please let us fulfill the utmost loyalty toward the will that You desire with our minds and bodies. Let us feel new grace in our hearts in this hour. Please allow us to feel the Father’s glorious grace overflowing in our minds and bodies.
Now I am giving Your words. Please be with me so that the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the receivers will not be divided. We pray that You will allow this to be a time when we can connect with the heart of Heaven.
Please allow us to unveil before You the content of our lives and all our failures to fulfill the responsibility and to prostrate ourselves before You. If we recognize that the contradictory knowledge of contradictory human beings cannot replace the truth of the Father, then please allow us to bring out everything that we have before the Father and be immersed in Your love. This is our sincere wish.
Please do not let Satan invade during this hour. Allow it to be a precious time when we can receive the granted grace. Hoping this from the depth of our hearts, we pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
I will speak upon the topic, “Let Us Not Weaken Our Determination Toward Heaven.”
The Standard of the Value of Determination
There must be those among you, who have made some determination, who have gathered today. There might even be some people who can step forward before others and insist, “My determination is correct.”
However, you must now think for whom you have made that determination. In other words, you must reflect upon whether the determination you have is only for your sake or is for the sake of the people, the world and God. More than anything, you have to remember that the time is coming when you must meditate upon whether the determination you have is for the sake of Heaven.
The determinations that people have today come in all shapes and forms. The determination that “A” has is different from that of “G,” and the determination of a man is different from that of a woman. Moreover, just as one group is different from another group, all groups have different determinations.
For what purposes are the determinations that each of you have and assert you are going to fulfill in the end? When you objectively ask yourself this question, you will admit that you are in a position to completely give up hope.
When those who are living in the last days, humanity on earth, ask whether the determination that they have can influence the people, the world or the many millions of faithful believers in Heaven and even move God, they will have to confess that it cannot. If God has some desire of this kind toward us, then we must consider as most important above all else the question of what we must cherish in our hearts and what hopes we should hold.
Many people have been asserting a doctrine throughout the course of history. If the doctrines that they insisted upon cannot influence our minds today, then their assertions and the doctrines that the countless saints and sages have promoted in the course of history have no relationship with us whatsoever.
Why has human history progressed until now? If you know of the existence of Heaven, then you cannot deny that it has progressed for the sake of the happiness of humanity, for the sake of establishing the eternal ideology of humanity. As long as Heaven exists, you will have to introduce the garden of joy to human beings. You will have to build the garden of eternal bliss through human
beings. If God has been guiding His providence through the course of history to accomplish this responsibility, then there is an inseparable relationship between Him and those of us who are living in the last stage of history. Accordingly, those who have not secured the standard of moving when Heaven moves and stopping when Heaven stops will become people who trample upon history and betray the hope of God.
The Determination of God
The laws of the operation of the universe are designed to follow the rules of the heavenly principles. If there is some providence in that operation for the fulfillment of the purpose of the whole, then God also must work through those laws of operation. Humanity must work through those laws of operation too. Now we must set ourselves before these people and think.
Have you ever reflected upon the purpose of the will of God, who is working for these people? Have you ever wondered about the determination of God, who is trying to awaken these people? If you have not, then you have to understand that you will be in the position of blocking the people from being guided to the heavenly principles. If there is some cause for grief in our hearts today, then these people cannot fight on with a united mind centered on the one ideology to tread the path they must travel. You must realize that it is the sorrow of God and humanity that the humanity of the world has not stood united before the heavenly principles.
You must objectively analyze and criticize the position you are in today. Today Heaven is asking us whether we can confidently step forward before the people with the prepared foundation of heart to connect with the heavenly principles. If God has the greatest hope toward human beings, then what would that be? It is fulfilling His determination to realize the will of creation on this earth. Before creating all things in heaven and earth, God made a determination and created all things based upon that determination. Because that determination has not been actualized in the world of creation, God has been suffering through a history of sorrow.
Now we who are aware of this fact must find something even if we must search every corner of this universe. That something is none other than the determination of God. We must find that determination and materialize it on His behalf. By doing so, we alleviate God’s grief and sadness.
Therefore, we must have the determination and make the assertion that we will stand in the course of a great revolution centering on this kind of will. Only then can the sorrow of God be put to rest.
God has been walking the toilsome historical course of letting people learn about the will of His determination, even as we were ignorant of it. We must understand that this is the history of the dispensation until now.
The Savior who represents this determination of God must appear on the earth. He must confront all the forces of evil and obliterate them. Unless some representative who can carry out this mission appears on the earth, the will of God will not be realized. The determination of God and the standard of human hope must one day become linked.
One person was sent as the one central figure whose purpose was to accomplish on earth the will that God sought for the people. God had worked strenuously for 4,000 years. He made that person walk through the path of conflict in all kinds of difficult environments. That person is none other than Jesus, whom we believe is the Savior. Jesus came to restore God’s determination of creation that could not be realized due to the fall of the human ancestors, Adam and Eve. To put it another way, God sent Jesus to this earth to set up a second Adam figure in this sinful human world and to reveal His determination before the whole universe.
For this reason Jesus insisted, “God and I are of one body.” God and Jesus are not two, but one. You have to understand that, based on this, the condition over which God could be glad was set. Jesus had such a firm determination that he could say, “God is my Father. Even if some oppose and block this, no one can seize the core of the determination I have.” In other words, he was prepared to offer his life when making this bold proclamation.
Jesus’ purpose in the last 2,000 years has been to reveal the determination of God to many believers. We who are living on earth today must understand that God has been toiling without rest for 6,000 long years to send Jesus.
The Determination of Jesus and the Role of the Holy Spirit
Now if you have come forward facing Heaven, then God will ask you whether you have ever felt the sung sang of Jesus, who came forward with determination on behalf of the will of God, as your own sung sang.
After coming to this earth, Jesus lived through all kinds of unspeakably difficult ordeals for the thirty years of his life. In the end, he had to meet the misfortune of walking the way of the cross. Even then, he cherished, in his heart, the center of his being as something so rock solid that no one could shatter. By doing so, Jesus implanted his determination toward Heaven even in our hearts today. Even if death came upon him, even if the disciples who had followed him betrayed him, and even if the chosen people and the church betrayed him, because he knew the nature of the determination that the Father had from before the creation of the world, Jesus maintained an immutable position.
When this hero of determination came to the earth, what did he come to establish before human beings? He came to pass down to his beloved disciples the determination of God before the creation of the world, which he cherished. However, among the countless people of faith who have emerged throughout the course of history, how many of them similarly possessed the determination of God and tried to fulfill the will of God? When we meditate on this, it is clear that the source of God’s grief is not found among those who do not believe. It lies with the people who rely on the name of Jesus and claim they believe in him. We must realize that God is mourning while watching over the people of faith who do not have an unyielding determination to represent Heaven.
Jesus had to die without completing the will because he could not find the one object who understood his determination on the earth. Had there been people in this world who had the determination to represent Jesus and God, the fire of unification could have been ignited, and God could have performed His works directly through the heart of that person. Because there was no one with this kind of determination, the will of God could not be realized.
As a result, after the resurrection, Jesus still had the responsibility to raise a hero of determination on the earth, who could act on behalf of the purpose for which he had come. So he sent one person to whom he passed down his mission. You must understand, that person is none other than the Holy Spirit, who appeared before people.
In whom is the determination of God and the determination of Jesus going to bear fruit? God will again reveal His determination to people through the Holy Spirit. Humanity does not know that it is the will of God that this is conveyed by the hero of the will, and that this hero must convey it to the bride. Using this as the stepping stone, the hero of the will must come to this earth to convey it to one family, to the tribe centered on that family, the people centered on the relatives, the nation centered on the people, and the world centered on the nation. The people of faith today do not know this fact.
Can you confidently go forth with the assurance that you can believe in Jesus, you rely on Jesus, and you can go before God? Do you have the determination to represent the heart of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit such that you can push away whatever ordeals, sacrifices and temptations might come your way? If you cannot answer confidently that you have this kind of heart and determination to represent Jesus, then there is no way that you can avoid more severe judgment than the Israelites who betrayed Jesus and sold him.
Because there were people who could not uphold the will of Jesus, they made the Holy Spirit suffer. The Christians of today, the second Israelites who could not serve the will of the Holy Spirit, made countless apostles suffer. They also made many of our ancestors suffer. Because we have caused suffering, if we cannot possess the heart and determination that Jesus had, then there is no way that we can restore dignity before God. We cannot be dignified before Jesus and the Holy Spirit. Not only that, there is no way that we can stand proudly before the people of faith who have been building countless altars of sacrifice until now. You must understand that in the future there will come a time when those who could not fulfill their responsibility will lament in regret.
The People of Faith Must Possess the Determination of Heaven
As we approach the last days, God is making demands upon us. Jesus and the Holy Spirit are also appealing to us. You must feel deep down in your flesh and bones that God is longing, even in this hour, for us to become the victorious heroes who can eradicate Satan by becoming the embodiment of the Father and possessing His determination. By doing so, you must attain the qualifications to say, “Please allow me to inherit the determination of Heaven. Please give me the determination of the apostles, who persevered through the course of a blood-drenched altar.” The time has come when we must have a new realization of how wrong it is for us to want to go to Heaven without
having done this.
The responsibility to awaken Christianity rests with us from now on. If the determinations of God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit manifest themselves by becoming connected to us, then we will be performing works that can dominate history.
In the Bible verses I read at the beginning of this sermon, the aching heart of God, who had to bring judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah, is expressed. When God was about to cast down judgment upon those cities, there was Lot, the nephew of His beloved Abraham. God allowed Lot to escape from the judgment. He did not let Lot escape from the judgment because of his personal merit. Because God loved Abraham, He allowed Lot, who did not have any personal merit, to escape the judgment. It does not mean that the family of Lot understood the heart of God.
Although Lot and his two sons escaped to the place God directed them to, Lot’s wife did not understand the will of God. Because she turned back with more longing for the house and environment that she used to live in than she had concern about her determination toward the will of God or was fearful for Heaven, this became the condition for her to receive the wrath of God even before Sodom and Gomorrah did.
There is a path which human beings must walk. That is a path in which we must follow the will of the heavenly principles and be determined to face any kind of difficulty. This is the fateful path that all fallen people must walk. Lot’s wife died because she did not have the determination to step forward without regard for all the things that belonged to her. If she had believed in her husband, who obeyed the direction of Heaven, as the representative of God and had complied with his directions, then she would not have died.
In the course of providential history that God led, God raised someone who could represent His heart so that if the people could not believe in God, they could at least believe in his words and make a determination. However, those who cannot even do that will not avoid the judgment.
When we examine ourselves, we experience suffering because we are people of the fallen lineage. We feel in the back of our minds the desire to do our best for the great will of God and to offer our bodes and minds as the sacrifice, making a new determination and putting it into action. Yet the reason we cannot actually carry out this determination in action, though we feel it, is because we are members of the fallen tribe.
Adam and Eve would not have fallen if they had cherished, deep in their hearts, the words of God given at the time of the creation, “Do not eat of the fruit.” They should have realized that they had the substantial responsibility to make an unchanging determination based on the thought that they were in an inseparable union with the words and to govern all things.
The reason Adam and Eve fell is that Adam and Eve could not become one and because Adam could not become one with God. As a result, they divided into many directions. Because they were acting according to their own whim in the environment of free will and freedom, they destroyed the ideal garden of the creation. Even in the last days, if one promotes freedom without first securing determination centered on God, the free world will also be dismantled. This is the way the principles of the universe work. If Adam, who should have represented God, had the determination that no matter who tried to tempt him into violating the will, he would never violate it; if he had governed Eve and the archangel based upon this, then he would not have fallen. No matter how much Eve, who had fallen first, tried to seduce and tempt him, Adam would not have died. If Adam had not fallen, then Eve could have been easily re-created.
Because they betrayed Heaven, they became distant from the heavenly will. Because they did not establish the granted words and will as the one center of their hearts, Adam, Eve and the archangel divided and went their own separate ways. We who are their descendants are in the environment in which we cannot believe tomorrow the things that we believed today. We cannot believe in the next century the things that we believe in this era. We cannot believe in the last days the things that we can believe in the next century.
The Hero of the Determination to Liberate God
What is the concern of God? What is the sorrow of God? We have to understand that it is God’s sorrow that He does not have one person whom He can trust and to whom He can reveal the depth of His heart. There is no one to share the things that He could not tell the archangel in the Garden of Eden. He wants to say, “After My toils through the 6,000-year course of all kinds of hardships and tribulations, you alone have come seeking me. Now that I have finally met you, I can rest in peace.”
Although we claim that we are seeking the Father and are leading a life of faith, we do not possess the environment in which God can rest. For those of us who are in this kind of position, we cannot help feeling more anxious in our hearts. No matter how much we boast about ourselves, the closer we get to the last days, the more we cannot get rid of a sense of restlessness. In this way, we will be put in a difficult position on the individual level, the societal level, the national level and the world level.
Where is the person who can push away the fear and anxiety that plague us in the last days? Where is the master of determination who can find assurance, not in men but in the heavenly principles, and step forward? You have to understand that Heaven is looking for this kind of person.
Because God lost Adam’s family, He lost the original family of the creation who could connect with Adam. At the same time, He lost the blood relatives who could connect with Adam, the people who could represent the descendants of Adam, the people who were centered on Adam, and the citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven centered on Adam. However, God has been recovering all that He lost.
To find all people and the world, God has begun from one individual and has been trying to raise a family and a society. Using this as the foundation, God has been guiding the providence to claim back the people, the nation and even the whole world.
God fought on one side. He has been claiming all this back through the historical course of sacrifice. God has created the individual form and has been building the family, the relatives, a people, a nation and a world that represent Adam on this earth.
Therefore, the fact that Adam’s family is lost is not just the sorrow of Adam alone. In your own living sphere, you must also feel to the core of your bones the sorrow that has reached every member of humanity throughout the many generations, through the blood lineage of Adam. There are those who are longing for comfortable days and want to enjoy peace and pleasure even in these circumstances, but you have to understand that there is no way this kind of comfort and pleasurable lifestyle can be perpetuated. We have to understand that we are in the position to cross over the gates of fear that lie ahead of us.
You have to understand that to cast away this fear, God has raised one chosen person. Centered on him, He has raised a people. After that, to put these people at the forefront of the world, God has been working in distress even until today.
The people who can build the heavenly nation in the future are not a large population. They are not the people who are dominating the world today. God is conducting the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven in secret, in an unexpected place.
Accordingly, contradictory phenomena are occurring in which those who are betraying the will of God are living a good life and those who are serving the will of God are living a poor and starving lifestyle. Humanity’s history of conflict is continuing even today. The reason is that since human beings have lost their heart toward God, in order for them to be restored to the position where God can believe in them again, they must go through this kind of course. If so, then even if the hardships of the 6,000 years of God’s labors were to rush upon you at once, you must be able to overcome them. Even if you were to lose your life, you must become the master of determination who never yields and stand as the person whom Heaven can set forth as the representative.
The Ancestors Who Lived with Determination Toward Heaven
God sent Jesus as the representative on the world level who could do all of this. Many of our ancestors walked the path of suffering to raise this one person. To restore the family Adam lost, God chose the one person who, in place of Adam, drove away the faithless tribe and people and made the determination of faith toward Heaven. This person was none other than Noah.
Noah maintained his unyielding determination even when Heaven dragged him around for 120 years. This is what made him greater than Adam. We know that Adam fell when he had not yet reached adulthood. Because Adam betrayed God, to make it possible for God to believe in us again, we must exert ourselves more than Adam. Even if we are to suffer through toils hundreds of times
more harsh, we must be able to break through them.
We have to understand that Noah was not affected when his own self, his family, his relatives, his people and anything in the world put up opposition. Fixed on his determination, he clung to God and fought on for the 120 years of his life. This became the condition for him to be elevated before the humanity of that time, representing God.
The most important thing for Noah, who was inside the realm of the grace of God and escaped the flood judgment, was that he needed someone who could inherit his heart, which possessed the heart of God inside it. However, even Noah himself did not know this.
There was no son who could sympathize with the heart of Noah, who was deeply concerned with the heavenly principles, even while suffering through the 120 years of heartbreaking and distressful toils. No one could say to Noah, “Father, please give me any kind of order.”
If the eight members of Noah’s family had understood Noah’s determination to give all of his heart for God, then they should have stood in the position in which they could absolutely obey Noah, whether they lived or died. They should have obeyed to the extent that they would be willing to die if their father were to die. They should have liked things that their father liked. If they had done that, even if another insignificant bad condition was set, if they could have solidified their hearts centered on God, then they would not have had any problem. Ham should have listened to the words of his father, Noah. No matter what his brothers told him, if they were not in accord with the will of his father, he should not have listened to them. Because he did not listen to the words that he should have listened to and instead listened to words that he should have ignored, Noah’s 120 years of exertion were undermined.
It was the same for Abraham. It was not easy for Abraham to abandon his homeland and all of his belongings to embark upon the road toward the vast wilderness of Ur of the Chaldeans. After understanding the will of God, Abraham had to abandon all of his homeland’s mountains and rivers, as well as his relatives, because of a determination others did not know about. He had to embark upon the search for the land of Canaan.
If Abraham had maintained the same heart he had when he abandoned his homeland and had worried about the will of God, if he had kept to the altar with all his heart and energy, then he could not have made a mistake. While making the offerings, he should have understood that he was in an extraordinary position. By pouring out all of his faith and energy, he should have come forward with the determination to become one with God.
Abraham, who failed at making the sacrifice, needed the sacrifice of Isaac as a substitute for the offering in order to inherit the will of God again. In other words, he needed his son to unite with him and with Noah. This is the reason he searched for the place where his heart and his son’s heart could bear fruit in oneness.
The Value of the Determination Which Is Unchanging, Even in the Face of Betrayal
Abraham won the recognition of Heaven at the very moment he placed Isaac on the altar on the mountain of Moriah and was about to strike him with a knife. Isaac submitted before his father. Abraham also submitted before the Father, so they could head in the direction of the heavenly principles. After that, through Isaac and arriving at the time of Jacob, God was finally able to establish the standard that could substitute for Adam’s family and Noah’s family. Having done so, the seventy people, who were in the form of three generations of relatives, left the land of Canaan and entered Egypt.
On the foundation of achieving the shape of relatives in three forms on this earth through sons and grandsons, they could be sent into the satanic world and could enter Egypt. However, even after having created the environment from the individual level to the levels of family and relatives, they did not travel a smooth path. Those who represented the seventy followers again carried on the fight on the level of a people and stood on the stage of tribulation to form one people centered on God. You probably know that this is the 400-year period of ordeals in the palace of the Pharaoh.
The Israelites, who were chosen during this period of trials, should have felt remorse that their ancestors had held grudges against God and betrayed God’s will in the past. They should have returned to the heart of yearning for God again. The stronger this heart, the easier the way would have been for the Israelites to overcome the severe hardships in Egypt and unite to guide the 600,000 to the blessed land of Canaan.
Therefore, Moses, who was to guide the Israelite people suffering in Egypt, felt a deep concern that no one understood for forty years inside the palace of the Pharaoh. He was burning with the spirit of the people whom he loved. However, striking the Egyptian became the cause of his living a miserable life as a shepherd in the wilderness. Moses abandoned all the magnificent glory of the Egyptian palace. He had the determination that if he were to be confronted with a life of hardship in the land of Midian, he would maintain an unchanging heart and worry for the will of God, rather than love himself.
Moses was unshakably determined to break through the torment of suffering all kinds of ordeals and to cling to God, even if he were chased out by the people. Therefore, when the people experienced difficult situations and Moses entered that environment of affliction, the people could become united. God could work through Moses.
It is the method of God’s dispensation to raise a certain people as a chosen nation by driving people into tribulation on the world level and carrying on offensive tactics. Therefore, the Messiah, who is coming to construct the one nation centered on God, will face opposition before the chosen Israelites. This is the process of restoration.
In Adam’s family, Eve should have followed Adam, yet she struck Adam. Noah’s son, who should have followed Noah, struck Noah. Although the 600,000 Israelites should have followed Moses, they chased Moses out to the Midian wilderness. Because of this kind of historical experience, when Jesus came as the master, the chosen people rebelled against him, though they were in the position of a bride to him.
Jesus, who understood the laws of the heavenly principles, was hounded out by the Israelites and Judaism. Not only was he driven away by his own relatives, he was also driven away by John the Baptist’s group and the apostles who were following him. He was chased away by the three disciples who could not be traded, even for Heaven and earth. Who understood the situation of Jesus, who had to cling to them and guide them to Heaven? As Adam should have overcome any kind of wicked scheme and temptation of Eve from the same position as Jesus, Jesus was also in a position to win back the people. You should understand that in the same way that Moses led a sad life in the wilderness after being chased away by the people, Jesus would even be chased away by the world.
Jesus thought, “Even if the people and the religion betray me, no one will take away my undying devotion toward the Father. With the determination I have made, the betrayal of John the Baptist, the one chosen by Heaven, poses no problem. The betrayal of the disciples who are following me also poses no problem.” Furthermore, because he even had the determination that his body posed no problem, Jesus could not mourn even when his heart was broken. He could not express sorrow even when he felt sad. We have to understand that he had this fate of restoration.
Jesus had one determination toward God and asserted himself as an offering before the universe. He had the type of determination that could not be taken away, even if many millions of people of faith in the spirit world and Satan, who rules over the air today, were to be totally mobilized. This was the historical transition point.
Inheriting the Determination
The foundation of substantial victory must be acquired on the world level in this way. You have to understand that Heaven established the ideology of the restoration of the spiritual Canaan by passing down a second determination to the disciples, centering on the resurrected Jesus.
Jesus came to this earth for the sake of humanity. The people of the world are in the position of the son. In other words, they are in the reciprocal position before Jesus. Eve violated Adam. The Israelites drove out Moses. The burnt offering accused Abraham, and the son of Noah drove out Noah. In the same way, world Christianity cannot avert the miserable course of being driven out from every corner of the world.
The blessing of the second Israelites who are dispersed throughout the world today has not been fulfilled centering on Israel. Therefore, God has been trying to raise the Christians, whom He chose as the second Israelites, to fulfill His heart’s desire and to restore Heaven and earth. You have to understand that to accomplish the will of the restoration of the cosmos, God has been searching for one central figure, one central people and one central nation.
Although God has been working hard for the will for 6,000 years, because of the deaths of Jesus, Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Moses, all took on the form of failure. The providence of restoration could not be completed because of the death of Jesus. Therefore, the spirits who are in Paradise today have laid the foundation for the will of Jesus, who tried to restore the first Israel. Furthermore, they are the spirits who have set the condition of having spiritually accomplished the will of restoration. The chosen Israelites should have become the first Israel, but because the first Israel was dismantled, the second Israel was put on the course of spiritual restoration.
The grief of God when Jesus was lost is dissipated through the spirits in the spirit world who belong to the second Israel today. The will of God, who chose the first Israel, must be fulfilled by Jesus. This is the only way that the bitter and unfulfilled heart of God will be soothed. Therefore, now you have to understand that the time of the movement to restore the second Israel by mobilizing the second Israelites and the spirits of the spirit world is the last days.
What kind of time are Christians living in? They are in the period that corresponds to the forty year wilderness course of Moses. The 2,000-year course of history after the ascension of Jesus corresponds to the forty days of fasting and the forty-year wilderness period of Moses. Moreover, it corresponds to the time when the Israelites were anxious because Moses had disappeared.
What must this Christianity do when it greets the Moses who is to appear again? The Israelites in the wilderness should have upheld the words of the Old Testament, the Ten Commandments of Moses, but they failed to do so. Therefore, they could not become a people of joy. Although the people became traitors to Moses, we must seek the path Heaven wants. On that foundation we must seek the position of the third Israel. By winning the victory, we must achieve the ideology of the restoration of the world Canaan. To do that, we must be determined to receive the new words.
The determination of Moses should have become the determination of the multitude of 600,000. Since this people, who should have inherited the blessing of the second Israel, dispersed throughout the world, and the Christians have not inherited the determination of Jesus, Satan will play the same tricks that he played on the multitude of 600,000 Israelites in the wilderness during the time of Moses. We have arrived at the same kind of period today.
If blood is pounding in your body and if you feel something in your heart today, then you must exert your utmost. You must keep in mind that until the Israelites met Moses, they should have forgotten all about eating, clothing and sleeping. Because they could not do that, Israel lost Moses and the will was shattered.
In the same way, the 2,000 years after Jesus is the period of the wilderness. Christians must neglect eating and clothing and persevere through injustice and distress. Until we meet Jesus, we must restore through indemnity, in the opposite manner, the failure to desperately defend the footsteps of Moses. We must become the Israel who defends the footsteps of Jesus to the last. However, Christians today do not know that they are shouldering this mission.
The Phenomena of the Last Days and the Determination Which Believers Must Have in Their Hearts
Now that the time is nearing, in the course of making preparations for this time, the chosen people are to be handed over to a foreign nation. As you have learned, to usher in the preparation period for the coming of the Messiah, the Israelites went through the period of the Babylonian captivity six centuries before Jesus.
As early as six centuries before the second coming of Jesus, centering on the Renaissance, the worldwide offensive position to destroy Christianity unfolded. How must the Christians of the world today face this course of conflict? To thwart this, we must first make the right determination.
The reason the Renaissance appeared, between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, is because people tried to research the ancient Greek civilization and form a new ideology of restoration. In the same way that this revolutionary side of culture arose, the Christians who live in the last days today must reflect back on history and be able to experience the heart of Jesus 2,000 years ago. They must revolutionize their hearts by experiencing the heart of God toward Adam before the fall.
Just as there was an attack of the archangel upon Adam and Eve before they began to live for the will, a similar attack surfaced before Noah, Moses and Jesus, and will appear before the people of faith in the last days. This is the attack of Satan. First there will be the material attack, then there will be the emotional attack. This kind of era is unfolding before us today. When Christian history is propelled forward through a nation or people, this course will become the formal basic principles.
The era has turned out to be one in which worldwide Christianity is experiencing rebellion. In this period there will appear an Egyptian- type people like those who opposed the Israelites of the past. When there emerges a Moses-like person before the second Israelites, they will join to drive him out.
What must the people of faith in the last days do? In our surroundings, events similar to those in the land of Egypt will take place. The reality that we are living in today bears a close resemblance to the period of the Egyptian captivity. Not only that, in the sphere of thought, in substantial reality, in regard to faith and in all aspects, we are moving toward the situation where we will surely be invaded.
In the same way the Israelites clung to each other with the dignity of the chosen people and carried on the unification effort to push back the sorrows coming from outside, Christians today must carry on this kind of effort. Those who rely on their denomination or boast about their own church’s long history will become the Judas-type people. There were ten people who opposed Joshua and Caleb among the representatives of the twelve tribes who spied on Canaan under the direction of Moses. Who can guarantee that the same thing will not take place today? You must understand that this kind of era has come to our doorstep.
We must now forget all about ourselves. Moreover, to prevent a judgment similar to that of Sodom and Gomorrah, you must take the footsteps of the family of Lot and use them as your mirror. When Jacob returned from the land of Haran to the land of Canaan, he left everything behind him. Our footsteps must resemble those of Jacob. Moreover, in the way that the Israelites shook off all lingering attachments when they were leaving Egypt, we must do the same. In the same way that Jesus abandoned everything and walked the path of the cross by himself, we must also have the determination to walk that kind of path.
Are there those who have the qualifications to show this kind of determination and resolve to all things of creation? You have to understand that Heaven is looking for people with these kinds of qualifications. The process by which Protestantism, dispersed throughout the world today, is being driven away by Catholicism, is the phenomena which repeats the miserable course of Moses.
The Mission of Christians
Now there must appear a new person with a sense of mission who can pioneer this world, which is like a wilderness. One must not draw satisfaction just from being Christians today. The Israelites could not protect Moses during his life in the wilderness. The same thing was true at the time Protestantism emerged. That Protestantism could not win recognition during its wilderness life when it first emerged was similar to the situation of Moses. You have to understand that the will of God will unfold in this fashion.
Moses and Jesus were pitiful people from a humanistic point of view. When you think about Moses and Jesus, do you feel as if your flesh and blood are connected to them? If you have never thought in your heart about Moses and Jesus, who were struggling in their path as they could not even find a place to rest, then you have to understand that this is like being a traitor to the heavenly principles, a person who has sold the sorrowful tears that Moses shed when he was doing his forty- day fasting prayer on Mount Sinai. You will become like the Israelites who fell down in the wilderness.
We must experience the distressed heart of Jesus and accomplish what the first Israel and the second Israel did not accomplish. Do you know the sorrowful heart and footsteps of Jesus who came to fulfill these things? After raising us up, what does God want to achieve through us?
To realize the will of the universal ideology, you must possess the determination to say, “Spirits of the spirit world! I will fulfill all your wishes. People on the earth! I will become your sacrifice. Satans, who have taken control of the air! I will seize you as hostages and drag you up to the judgment stand of Heaven and press charges against you.” You must inherit the loyalty and fidelity of Jesus, who decided that he would not change regardless of whether the era changed or the world changed, and who was impervious to the assertions of human beings. If you have not laid the foundation of determination in your heart by transcending the concept of time and the ideology of life to connect with the ideology of the heavenly principles, then you have to unconditionally obey God. Otherwise, you cannot escape the judgment.
If the Israelites had unconditionally obeyed Moses, who had climbed up Mount Sinai, they could have entered the land of Canaan, where honey and milk were abundant. Moreover, it would have been like that at the time of Jesus and in the last days today. In the path that lies before you, the time is coming when you must determine to the extent of the whole value of life. You have to feel deep down to your bone marrow that the Father, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and our ancestors hope that we will go forward for Heaven with the mind-set to take responsibility for the will of God, even when we face death.
If we reflect upon ourselves with these facts, then we can see that our self-centered bodies and our self-centered families are the enemies. For Noah, his family was the enemy. For Jacob, his tribe was the enemy. On the national level, the world was the enemy. God traveled through this kind of historical course. Even now, as He experiences many tribulations, He has to repeat the process by raising other people if some central figures fall. You have to learn to add this to the prestige and dignity of God.
The will of God cannot be fulfilled solely with the power of the individual. God has been using the tactics of encirclement, in which He spreads Himself all over the world and develops the form of one people. Therefore, the time has come when He must raise individuals, families, tribes and peoples and attain the shape of a nation centered on God.
Therefore, today the time is coming when the Christianity of the whole world must form the twelve tribes again. In the same manner that the Israelites, who were dispersed throughout the wilderness, formed ranks, Christians today must also form ranks to carry on offensive tactics against Satan. Such a time is coming. You have to understand that the Christians who are ignorant of this will fall into the same position as those Israelites who were not aware of the direction in which Moses was leading them.
The Time When We Must Unite and March Forward with Force and Courage
Now we face the common fate that requires us to go forward holding each other’s hands. We are in the position where we might fall under the same destiny as the twelve disciples. Because of the one person, Judas Iscariot who sold Jesus, they were torn apart and Jesus was killed. Accordingly, the members of our church must take on the shape of ranks in which they can come for the sake of the will. We should say that another’s determination is my own and another’s heart is my own heart. We must understand that ahead of us there still lies our battleground where, crossing the Red Sea and the Jordan River, we must vanquish the seven tribes of Canaan.
Therefore, now we must shoulder the historical mission and restore this through indemnity. Although God has told us to make offerings on the altar up to now, from now on we must become the offering who can instead tell God, “Please receive us.”
The determination of the heavenly principles must manifest itself as the embodiment of the internal and external determination. Centering on this determination, we must confront our family to restore it, awaken the church, nation and people and restore them. That the family, society, nation, church and the world which we behold with hope, all consider us enemies is inevitable.
Today you are receiving persecution in the family and society. However, please do not rejoice just because you have overcome this persecution. When you are shaken by various difficulties in the period of the wilderness and the offensive is taking place, you must not fall down on that battleground. The fate of the heavenly principles is such that we must be hit once before we can overcome. In the course of restoration on the world level, Christianity will be hit. The time will come when it is hit internally and externally. Because the time is coming when the second Israel is mobilized, the spirit world is being mobilized now. The spirit world is mobilized to unfold the second Israel on the world level and to build the third Israelite people.
In the same way that the Israelites were struggling in the wilderness eating the food of life that no one else in other nations knew about or could even imagine, you must learn to eat the food, manna and quail, which Heaven is sending down today in this period. In the near future, the time of thirst will come. You will have to search for manna and quail.
Now the time has come for the construction of the garden of restoration. Even if our bodies are torn apart and our bones are ground to powder, we must be able say for the sake of the one will of the heavenly principles, “Father! The many millions of faithful people in the spirit world! Please work your miracles!” Although the Israelites could not mobilize the spirit world, the time has come when we must mobilize the spirit world. Help from the spiritual world will be with you. If our members call the spirits of the spirit world, they will come. Therefore, many spiritual phenomena are taking place today.
We must understand that we have the mission to raise ourselves and mobilize our families, our people and the world. We have the last mission to bring Satan to submission before the Father. However, the question is, When we will overcome the trial on the individual level, on the family level, on the church level, and on the societal level? Only when we have the determination in our hearts to overcome these trials can we complete the heavenly mission.
Just as God told Joshua and Caleb to be strong and courageous, now the time has come when we must also become strong and courageous. You must keep in mind that the time will come when you must hold hands and unite hearts to seize the victory in the fight against Satan.
Chapter 3: Let Us Experience the Sorrow of God
Romans 8:12-27
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 2, 1958
Prayer
Father! Please allow us to examine our hearts. Allow us to examine our bodies. Please guide us to become the sons and daughters whose minds and bodies can pierce into the heart of the Father.
We know that all the people of faith in heaven who served the cause of the providential will could not raise their heads before You and suffered great embarrassment over the fact that they were fallen. We who are on the earth have to bow our heads before You and make an effort to possess Your heart. Therefore, beloved Father, we earnestly wish that You will not let us display any impudence. Let our demeanor not be disrespectful toward the Father.
Please allow us to have the desperate heart that recognizes we are sinners and longs for the heart of the Father, waiting for the compassionate and loving hands of the Father and bowing our heads low. If we still possess the root of dark sins, then, Father, we wish ardently for You to remove it.
Although many people have come together in this hour, please allow us to become one in heart. Even if our bodies are many, please allow all of them to become one. By doing so, please work through us so that we can pioneer the new path according to the directions of the Father, who is directing us at this moment. Beloved Father, we sincerely hope that You will allow us to receive new power to possess the original power of Heaven and produce new actions.
Please protect us in this hour now. Please do not let Satan find room for invasion. If we have some theory, some doctrine, assertion or concepts, then, Father, please allow us to forget them and have the heart of a child who longs only for the Father. Please allow us to silently offer all that we have in our minds and bodies before Your altar. Sincerely hoping that You will create and mold us with new words, we wish ardently that You will let the direct works of re- creation emerge here so that we can be embraced in the Father’s bosom of love.
Father! Now we want to convey Your words, so please do not let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners become two. We know that the greater the gap between the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener, the greater the opportunity for Satan to find room for invasion.
Father, please allow us to experience Your anguished heart. By doing so, Father, we hope that You will allow us to become sons and daughters who can alleviate the worries of the Father and return joy and glory to Him. Requesting and wishing sincerely that You will lay the hands of compassion on the congregation gathered here, we have offered all the words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Today I will speak briefly on the title, “Let Us Experience the Sorrow of God.” No matter how joyful and glorious a person’s life on the earth might be, when he examines himself deeply, he will always find sorrow. This kind of situation exists not only for individuals, but also for families. Furthermore, we must understand that we can find sorrow even inside God Himself, who created society, the nation, the world and the universe based on an ideology and who has carried on the providence hoping for the one day when His will is accomplished. If there is sorrow in your hearts, then you must feel that this sorrow is not limited to yourselves, but that it transcends your environment and influences the whole environment.
The Relationship Between God and Humankind, Centering on Sorrow
The time has come when you must feel the amazing fact that, although we are extremely insignificant people, the sorrow we feel is not limited to us. Rather, it transcends the people, the world, the heavenly principles and nature, and is connected even to the Creator Himself. If there are people who understand that they are suffering grief on behalf of the people, the world and Heaven and earth, then although they might seem miserable, in actuality they are very close to Heaven.
Although we have been struggling to resolve our sorrows with our own power, we have not been able to do so. If there is a Heaven and we have a relationship with that Heaven, and if there is the will of God, who is working through history, then we must take our own sorrow and view it as the sorrow which represents the course of history and the sorrow of God, who has been guiding the providence. Although those people are sorrowful, they have many friends. Although they are lonely, they have a historical background. They are the representatives of all realistic environments and also of the will of the heavenly principles of the future. We must understand that the time has come when we must seek our own position.
Now if there is some grief deep inside your heart, where would that grief come to an end? Your sorrow must be provoked so that Heaven and humankind can mourn over it. Furthermore, there must come one day when the whole world must be able to mourn over it and when God can also mourn over it. However, your sorrow has been self-serving. Not only that, it has become an obstacle before humanity, the world and the heavenly principles. You have failed to manifest grief on earth as something that can respond before Heaven and earth in the same circumstance and environment. Accordingly, the way is blocked for God, who possesses greater grief than humankind, to pass through the world, the nation, the people and the family to reach to the individual and be felt.
What is the greatest sorrow we might have? We have to feel today that the most grave sorrow is the situation in which God cannot mourn with us when we are mourning, the family and all humanity on the earth cannot mourn with us when we are mourning.
When we are mourning, what must we do to feel the grief that Heaven and all humanity on the earth can share? If we lament, centering on ourselves, there is no way to seek this position. If we feel grief now, then we must learn to leave ourselves behind and mourn for the sake of the family. Transcending the level of the family, we must learn to mourn for the sake of the people, the world and even for Heaven. When we do that, God’s sorrow and grief pass through to the world, the nation and the family. Finally, it reaches us.
As He was guiding the providence, what has God caused people to believe in? In other words, before He embarked upon the history of re- creation, what did God make us experience first? It was not joy. First, He caused us to grieve for ourselves. He then inspired the heart which can mourn for the sake of our family, society, tribe, nation, world and the heavenly principles. Only when this is done will the way open through which we can go before God. This is the basic principle. For this reason, the Christian truth is such that believers must move forward in tears of sorrow and pass through a course of repentance.
When will we see the alleviation of the sorrowful feelings planted deep inside the heart of God since the fall, after the creation of the world? This remains as the fateful task that all humanity, the cosmos or the heavenly principles must resolve. Accordingly, before we can eradicate the root of this grief deep inside God, there is no way to come up with the solution for the fundamental grief of human beings.
Although God has created all things and has been governing the 6,000- year providential history until now, He has not been able to possess the one day of joy when He can remove all sorrows and appear as the Being of glory before the world of creation. You have to feel that there is this kind of sorrowful situation in Heaven.
Jesus and Liberation from Grief
In our hearts we try to feel the heart of God, but the evil elements and the social environment, our surroundings, cause our bodies to take the course which is opposite to our minds. In this way our minds and bodies are often in conflict with each other.
When we look at ourselves, we can experience two dimensions of grief. There is the grief that one feels as one adores goodness. There is also the grief one feels for one’s own desires. In other words, one can grieve for the sake of one’s own heart’s desire or one can grieve to satisfy the desire of the mind.
If we are fallen human beings who will feel anguish no matter what, then which grief must we feel to escape from this realm of the fall? We must feel the anguish that can reach even to the heart of God. Otherwise there is no way that we can liberate ourselves from the realm of all this anguish.
However, people who are living on this earth cannot stand on the side of God on their own, become connected to the situation and heart of God, and create the environment in which they can mourn with God. Therefore, God sent one person, Jesus, who could represent the sorrow of God, and had the people believe in him. The Jesus you believe in came to cut people off from the sorrowful bonds of the satanic world and to raise them to the position of objects of God, who feels their grief.
What did Jesus bring to the earth? He came with love. However, to establish this love, he had to cross over the hill of sorrow. Yet Jesus had to conclude his thirty years of life without being able to cross the hill of sorrow. Jesus possessed a heart that no other understood. He shed tears for the sake of the people and out of concern for Judaism and Heaven.
Therefore, even if fallen humans want to understand the heart of Jesus, they cannot do it in the state they are in. When we serve Jesus as the Lord, from the position of having taken responsibility for his heart, will and mission, he who had penetrated through all the elements of sin that had tainted the 4,000 long years of history, we can finally feel his grief. Accordingly, the believers of Judaism who had average faith, the Israelites who boasted about their rights as the chosen people, had nothing to do with the sorrow of Jesus.
The reason that Jesus felt anguish after he came to the earth was because he agonized for the sake of God. He prayed not for his own sake but on behalf of the ideology that could stand on the side of God. Although Jesus prayed only to soothe the lamenting heart of God, longing to build the garden of God’s love, there was no one, among the people of the time, who listened to the voice of those prayers. No one could realize the center of the Gospels Jesus talked about. Thus, though Jesus should have created the environment in which people could feel his agony and sorrow on behalf of God, because this will was not transmitted to humankind, Jesus felt deep pain even after he went to the spirit world. Accordingly, we have to understand that the sorrow of God still leaves its marks on the course of providential history because the purpose for which Jesus came was not achieved.
Now you must experience the sorrowful heart of God and the sorrowful heart of Jesus. With the sorrowful heart you have experienced, you have to learn to become a true person who can worry for Heaven. However, although you agonize in anguish, centering on yourselves, you do not yet agonize in anguish representing the heavenly relationship that gives us new life and pioneers the course of restoration. Therefore, if you forsake every worldly sorrow you feel and shed tears while feeling the anguish of Heaven, then you will be able to make a new beginning of hope. You have to understand that if there is one true person who can cling to the sorrow of God, shed tears unbeknownst to others, and get rid of sorrow on behalf of all people, then the fortune of the earth will move centering on where that person stands.
The people who cannot feel sorrow on behalf of God will perish. The church, family, society and nation who cannot feel grief on behalf of God will be doomed. If this nation had united from the top to the bottom, and from the rulers to the common citizens had clung to the altar of the heavenly principles and shed tears as a people and mourned, then they would not have become as they are today. The time has come when we must now make a new determination.
True Tears
Christianity is a religion of tears. Therefore, when we feel the true heart of God, we will not be able to look at the people, the nation, the world or Heaven without shedding tears. Although people should stand in this kind of position, they are not shedding tears of inspiration. Not only that, they are impudent before Heaven and act rashly and thoughtlessly toward the heavenly principles.
True friendship in the world is formed on the basis of tears. How then can there be no tears shed when fallen people experience the heart of the heavenly principles? There must come a time when you shed endless tears as you believe in Jesus and realize that you are sinners. You will feel so totally ashamed as to be unable to find a place to hide. You will feel that you deserve to be punished many thousands of times. You will not be able to raise your head before Heaven. You will feel embarrassment to such a degree that you will not be able even to find your place. You must genuinely lament and shed tears. Otherwise, the path that you are walking on, as an individual, will be blocked. You must form the family that holds onto the will of Heaven and worries; otherwise the path, which your family is walking on, will also be blocked.
Fallen humankind is becoming more divisive as their sorrow increases. When they grieve centering on themselves, they will experience division, which is the nature of evil people. When they grieve for the sake of goodness, that which is divided will become united. In other words, the divided minds and bodies become one to form the point of unity with the heavenly principles.
Why must we walk the course of such a miserable fate? When humankind fell and lost the ideal garden in which they could feel the love of God in their lives, it caused infinite sorrow in God. In other words, because people caused the sorrow that tore apart the heart of God, they must travel this kind of course.
What kind of period is today? Because this era is the last days, the time when we shed tears for individuals or for the family has passed behind us. Moreover, the time when we shed tears for the sake of the nation has also passed behind us. Now is the time when we must shed tears for the sake of the world. Now you must not only shed tears for the sake of the world, you must further shed tears for the sake of the heavenly principles and the spirit world. You must be able to shed tears for the sake of Heaven. You must feel the joy of God as your own joy and feel His distress as your own, too. Only when you can become such people can you step forward as the sons of the Father who created all things in the universe, the ones who are qualified to govern the whole world.
To cross over this hill of sorrow on the world level, individuals, churches and societies have been sacrificed. However, in this age now, we must pass through the course of sacrificing for the sake of the world. From now on, we will pass through the course of sacrifice on the world level. That one day, that one time, is none other than the last days that Christianity is talking about today. The purpose of the last days is to eliminate all who do not understand the internal sorrow of God in one generation.
When we think about these things, what kind of environment are we in today? What kind of position are we in? Jesus, whom we believe in, transcended the individual level and walked through a life course that represented the heart of the heavenly principles. When we consider this, we can understand that we have not shed as many tears as God has shed for humankind. We are debtors of tears before God.
Therefore, you must not just sit idly. You must feel the unconscious explosion of sorrow in your heart and build the altar of tears for the sake of this people, the nation, the world and the cosmos. You must forget all your own sorrow and pray with a heart concerned for the will of God.
You are in a position to pray, “God! Please alleviate your sorrows through me.” You must comfort God and Jesus. Yet you have not been able to offer this kind of prayer. You have prayed only for your own sake. Therefore, you must understand that you have the responsibility to overcome this.
To Attend the God of Sorrow
Now you must throw away all your sorrows before Heaven and become the people who offer everything they have to Heaven. Only when you do that will you finally come to realize that God is shedding tears for your sake and for the sake of the world.
Only after you understand that the Father clings to you and sheds tears over you like this can the Father become your Father and Jesus your Lord. If there is someone who lives in this kind of situation, then he will come to understand in what kind of environment God is shedding tears for us.
If humankind had not fallen, they would not have been born out of the lineage of sin. They would not be eating all things that are mourning. Moreover, they would not have died shouldering the sorrow of Heaven and earth. However, because human beings fell, they came to bear all conditions of sorrow on their shoulders. Furthermore, they were put in the position where they must get rid of it by themselves. Although Jesus died falsely accused of being a sinner, his heart of love toward humanity remained unchanged. Similarly, if there is someone who clings to God and mourns, not for personal but for public reasons, then God would want to save that person from sin.
Until now God has had no other choice but to agonize over humankind who is eating things soaked in sin and wearing things soaked in sin. You have to feel that God is lamenting over the fact that you are in an environment where you can be invaded by Satan like this. Therefore, the Israelites purified all things for three years in the land of Canaan. In the Bible there is a record concerning the circumcision of the mind and the body. This means that the environment has still not been realized on the earth in which God can claim even one minute thing as His own.
What this means is that God does not have sons and daughters whom He can freely embrace and love. You have to understand the sad situation of the Father who, even if He could love them, must have Satan standing on both sides as He loves them.
Sons and daughters, who are receiving the love of God unconsciously, do not want to eat food that is not appropriate. Moreover, if there are some unacceptable clothes, then they do not want to wear them. The same thing will take place when they live in an unacceptable place. This is because God is working through our minds and He does not want this. In the same way, God is concerned for people in the background, but they are unaware of it. This is the sorrowful situation of God.
Now we must become someone who can experience the heart of God. As it is expressed in the eighth chapter of Romans, we must become the sons and daughters who can freely eat the things given to them and rejoice in an environment outside the realm of lamentation where all things are mourning.
If you possess certain things, then you must understand that they are things which must indemnify sorrow on the world level. Not only the things that belong to you, but everything in the world where fallen people live is in the same situation. In other words, your things are not your own. Your bodies are not yours. What is the origin of life and material things? It is none other than God. Therefore, you have to understand that all that belongs to you can be recognized as yours only after they pass through God. Accordingly, you must be able to sacrifice all of your minds and bodies for the sake of the will of Heaven.
The Path of Public Interest and the Path of the Heavenly Way
The people who have struggled to walk the path of public interest have forsaken all that they had and spent their life with a heart that seeks only to live for the sake of the whole. In other words, if what belonged to them turned out to be some condition of sorrow before Heaven and humanity, they courageously eliminated it. You have to feel again that the path on which you are exerting yourself, to eliminate unrighteousness and sin, is none other than the path of the heavenly will.
Although Jesus came to the earth, there was no apostle who truly believed in and attended him. Thus, the only thing he possessed was the one body that God recognized. The Israelites, centered on Judaism, should have been at the forefront in believing in and attending Jesus, but they could not. The world and all things had to bow before Jesus.
What do you have today of which you can be proud? Do you have the confidence to represent history or transcend time to assert that something is your own? You are weak people and cannot. You do not have anything you can call your own today. Today this land has lost its master, and the people have also lost their master.
What must you do in this situation? You must never pack to leave, for your own sake, to avoid this course of sorrow. If you possess the heart to govern the universe, then you can forsake that kind of thought and go forward. If you want to live, then you must offer your life. If you want to win the victory, you must step above death and rise. When you walk this kind of path, because you are human, you cannot prevent sorrow from seeping into your heart, even without your being aware of it. However, people must overcome this hill of sorrow and offer all of their minds and bodies to the Father. They then may go in search of all things.
Now we must learn how to offer material things, everything we have, to the Father and fight with Satan on behalf of Heaven. When your minds and bodies are offered totally as the Father’s own, Satan cannot make false charges.
God comes seeking us as individuals, but He wants to find the family, the society and the world centering on these individuals. The course of the providential history of Heaven has descended all the way down to the earth while seeking us. Now it must go toward the direction of Heaven again centering on us, but that path has been blocked. The people who are pursuing goodness have cut off and denied all worldly things until now. They have tried to seek the way through which they can establish the original things lost before God, but we must understand that this way has reached its limit.
Until now, our sorrow has been for the sake of finding God. What kind of sorrow remains in the end period of all religions? What remains are the sorrow that seeks to attend God and go to the end of the earth. Therefore, you must go forward with the determination to realize the will of God with the notion of having received a royal summons.
You must feel the grief of God. You must experience the grieving heart of Jesus. You must feel substantially the fact that for 6,000 long years, God has been groping in grief to seek each of you.
Even in this hour, God is concerned about people and the many future generations and is exerting Himself, wishing for an eternal kingdom to be built on the earth. However, today people have been completely neglecting this fact.
We Cannot Behold God Without Shedding Tears
The people who are experiencing the heart of God in their lives as He works amid the historical sorrow cannot behold God without shedding tears, no matter where they are. When you are aware of the will of God and are fighting to become His sons and daughters, if you have a comrade with whom you share the same cause, God will come there and shed tears.
Where is the source of God’s grief? It is inside us. At the same time it is inside this nation, this world and all things. We must bring an end to this and carry on the movement to restore the joy of God. The center of life for us is experiencing the grief of God.
The problem is whether we have set the standard to mobilize the spirits of the spirit world, of which people are not aware, and have them bear witness. The spirit world is also demanding this. Because the spirit world is aware of the heart of God, if there are people on the earth who make such an appeal, then the spirit world will mobilize the spirits to help in the affairs of the earth in seeking to realize the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven.
What is the reason that the spirits in the spirit world cannot come to this earth? It is because this earth is made up of barriers of lamentation. If the environment we dwell in is free of the conditions of lamentation, if through our bodies we can become free from the conditions of sorrow, and if we have entered the realm of peaceful rest in which we do not feel any fear when we are threatened by Satan, then God will help us. To cling to the people who mourn, worry and shed tears for the sake of the Father, Satan must stand in the same position. The forces of Satan will then be fundamentally dismantled.
For this reason, you must experience the sorrow of God, who has been guiding the providence for several thousand years. Taking responsibility for all of heaven and earth, you should be able to say, “Please take us as the sacrifice and make us into the bombs that can explode Satan! Please uproot the sorrow of God.” Jesus came with this kind of heart.
In the same way that Jesus could become the bomb that could produce the resurrection of new life and could perform the works of re- creation by walking the path of Golgotha, you must also produce these kinds of works. After experiencing the heart of God, who has been guiding the providence until now, you must become the people who have the determination and the resolution to offer your minds and bodies for the sake of this world. God is seeking these sons and daughters, one family, one nation and one world.
If you experience this heart of God in your daily life, you then will grieve infinitely over God. God immediately senses the presence of such people. Therefore, you must become such people. If you have failed to become thus, you then must bow down before such people.
Those who can bow down before such people must become the true sons and daughters. Only after that is done can you inherit the great work of the creation of the heavenly principles. Are there such sons and daughters on the earth? You have to become such people. You have to remember that if you fail to do so, you will become sinners who cannot dare to raise their heads before Heaven.
The ears through which you hear, the eyes with which you see, the mouths through which you speak and the feelings that you feel today exist for what purpose? They exist to fulfill the will of the heavenly principles. However, if they deviate from the will of the heavenly principles, they then will surely be confronted with the day of judgment. Since you have come to understand these facts, you must first judge yourself; after then judging the surrounding environment, you can step forward. In other words, the path of the cross is making the judgment upon yourself. You are to first judge your life and then judge your death. Only after passing through the day of resurrection in this manner can you finally become the true sons and daughters which Heaven can recognize.
The Mission of True Sons and Daughters
Now you must examine your minds. If members have made some mistake, then you must consider it your own and shed tears. If the people have made some mistake, then you must become those who can take responsibility and shed tears. If there is such a person, then even if the people decline, he will not. If a person sheds tears for the world and represents the heart of God, then even if the world perishes, that person will never perish. Furthermore, you must clearly understand that if a person sheds tears for the sake of Heaven, even if he is in a sad situation because he is living for the sake of God, he is then living in blessed grace.
Accordingly, when you shed tears for God, you must perceive God’s eternal love and fulfill the mission as God’s representative. The people who are immersed inside such a heart do not need prayers. They do not even need the notion of faith. Before they pray, they are already feeling the heart of God.
Therefore, you must experience the sorrow of the heavenly principles. Stepping above the lamentation of all things, you must become true people who can connect directly with the situation of God. If there are such people, though it might seem that they are declining, they will never decline. Even if they are mistreated and chased out, their heirs will always emerge.
You are walking a path different from that of others today. Ladies and gentlemen, do not hold grudges against anyone. Rather, you are to receive the benefit of indemnity through the tears you shed for their sake. Today you are enjoying the privilege of experiencing the grief of God and shedding tears before anyone else. However, you have to understand that Heaven shed tears for you first. Moreover, you must not forget that all people are members of one family.
If there is one flock on the earth who holds each other’s hands and worry for the will of God and the heavenly principles and bow their heads in tears and great awe, then even Heaven will bow before them. Because they are the one visible sacrifice, all people will bow their heads before them. Although the sacrifice Abraham offered was small, Abraham and all of heaven and earth bowed their heads before that offering of sacrifice.
Therefore, when you stand in the position of offering , you must think what kind of condition you are going to set. Are you going to set the condition of offering for the sake of the individual? Or are you going to set the condition on the level of the family, the society, the nation or the world? The heavenly value will be determined based on the condition of offering you have made.
What then is our wish, we who have come forward after having pioneered the difficult environment? There is no other hope than that of becoming the true sons and daughters who experience the grieving heart of Heaven and bow before it.
You must always pray, “Father, please let us feel the sorrow that penetrates deeply into Heaven and earth. On that foundation, let us become the sacrifice for all people.” You must shed tears and mourn. You must become the members of unification who can connect with the heart and situation of the Father. You must go forward holding up the flag of war to alleviate that grief.
You must feel the grief of God in your life in order to eliminate the universal grief that has remained to this day and restore all things which are overcome by the conditions of lamentation. Moreover, you must understand that you have come forward as the pioneers who are fulfilling this will. You have to keep in mind from this time today that you must become a new person.
Chapter 4: Oh, Father! We Welcome You
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 9, 1959
Prayer
Beloved Father, please watch over us. Although our minds are in all kinds of conditions, please allow Your nature to be manifested in our lives. Allow us to become the righteous embodiments who can move when the Father moves and halt when the Father halts.
The Father knows that we have knelt before Him and are facing Heaven. Therefore, even if our bodies have been captured in some vulgarity and are blocking the Father’s grace, please allow us to manifest Your hyung sang through our minds and bodies by subjugating every vulgar thing. Father, please perform Your works so that we can feel in our minds and sense in our bodies that this providential will, this providential grace and providential love, are linked to You.
Our minds are dashing toward absolute goodness today, but our bodies try to seize vulgar things and are making endless attacks upon our minds. Father, please allow our minds and bodies to become one, centering on the Father’s will. On that foundation, Father, we ardently hope that You will break down the gap of heart that exists between the Father and us so that the foundation for the activities of Satan within us can be completely uprooted.
Even though Heaven wants to cling to our bodies when they are centered on our minds and wants to love us, until now we have failed to manifest ourselves as perfect objects of beauty before the sung sang and hyung sang of the Father, filled with true feelings. We know that this is the sorrow and lament of history. Our minds and bodies have no choice but to kneel before the Father’s knees. We are tainted by sin and unworthy, yet we desire the abundant grace of the Father. Please do not allow us to have anything that we do not rightfully possess. Please cling to our whole minds and bodies. All that You have given us is not ours but Yours, so please be with us and govern us.
Please allow us to return joy before the Father’s Sung sang and emerge as people who can respond to the Father. Please allow us now to set the standard of hope for which the Father has been longing for 6,000 years. Let us kneel before the solemn presence of the Father and return glory to Him. Beloved Father, we earnestly wish that You will allow this to be a moment when we can manifest Your Sung sang so that You can rest in peace.
We know that all doctrines, assertions and authority that human beings have will disappear. Please let us enter the basic position where our minds and bodies can exist eternally in order to attain the newly exploding power in our hearts and the eyes of resurrection. Father, we sincerely wish that You will guide us to forsake a self-centered lifestyle and return to the lifestyle centered on the cosmos.
Father, please allow us to represent the people. Allow us to represent the humanity of the world and all the things of creation. Beloved Father, we ardently wish that You will allow us to bow our heads before the Father and alleviate the bitter heart which has been bound for 6,000 years. Allow us to become sons and daughters about whom the Father can boast before Satan.
Father, please bless the countless altars who have gathered today, because they long for Your solemn presence. Please show compassion toward these people, lamenting in misery. Though these people do not understand the Father’s will and are enslaved in the realm of death, there are many who belong to the altar of life. Father, please grant grace upon them. Beloved Father, we sincerely pray that by constructing the one victorious garden and realizing the will of the Father, You will allow the day of rejoicing for the whole universe to come quickly.
We offer everything we have to You. Father, please receive it with joy and govern us as Your own. Centering on the words I want to give, please allow the grace of re-creation. Please let the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners not become divided. We understand that the will of the heavenly principles centering on us is urgent. Please be with us so that our minds can move naturally to fulfill the will of God in an efficient manner.
Beloved Father, we sincerely wish that You will allow this to be an hour when we can feel the mind of the Father as if it were our own and experience the heart of the Father as if it were our own. We have entrusted everything to You. Please do as You will. We offer this prayer in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The title of the speech I want to share with you today is, “Oh, Father! We Welcome You.” I will speak upon this topic.
The Original Garden of Eden and God
We know that the garden without the fall is the garden where God can freely contact all things and visit people freely to discuss things with them. This is the garden of glory where not only people, but also all the things of creation (which were created for people) can serve God. It is the garden of joy where man can consult with God. However, we also know that, with the birth of the term “the fall,” people could not relate with God nor could all things rejoice with God.
God created all things of the universe. He created people as the center of all things, so that He could dwell with them eternally. Therefore, we must come to a new realization today that all the things of creation should have revealed the glory of God through people and returned joy to God through them. Yet because that garden of creation did not come about, God set the day this can be accomplished as the culminating point of history, the one standard of hope. He has been guiding the providence based on that.
What kind of garden is the ideal garden that is sought, yearned for, and admired by the countless people of today who have inherited the lineage of the fall and cannot escape from its kinship? That garden is the place where you can call God, the Creator of heaven and earth, “Father.” It is where you can attend the Creator and feel His joy with Him. Not only that, it is a garden where this joy can be sent to all things through us. If this garden is not materialized, then the whole ideology of the creation of God will turn into a failure. The providential will that humankind has served during the course of history also will come to naught. You have to experience the day when you sense deep in your bone marrow that if this takes place, then even all things, which have looked up to humankind, will return to the realm of anguish.
Our minds must be moved by this heart and our bodies must feel it. Only in this situation can we face Heaven and long for the Creator. Only when we attain the original beauty in regard to all things can we become the resurrected embodiment whom the Father can work through. In this kind of position, there must be a moment when we can unveil ourselves before the Creator and all things of creation, and analyze ourselves. You must understand that if we do not experience this, then God’s heart cannot seep into us, and the sorrow of all things cannot be liberated through us.
Originally, people should have attended God in their lives. All things should have attended God and rejoiced. However, we have lost the Father who created us, the Master who should rule us. Therefore, we have become pitiful people, much like orphans. From the moment we realize this, we can seek the new providential will.
When have human beings ever called the Creator whom they lost in the Garden of Eden “our Father”? When did we feel that the garden of goodness we lost in Eden is where we were originally supposed to live? Although several thousand years have passed, such a time has not yet emerged in the human world.
The Mission of Humankind
As we are today, we cannot represent the absolutely unique goodness of Heaven. Realizing that we are descendants of the sin of the fall, who can dare to face the Father? What must we do? What must we do after we raise ourselves up? We must find the will of the Father. Even if we are to lose and sacrifice all that we have, we must be able to say that God, the Master of the ideology for which our ancestors yearned, is our Father. Only when we manifest God in our living sphere can we stand as God’s sons. We must understand that if we cannot usher in the day when we manifest God in our living sphere and before all things, then the course of the dispensation that our ancestors walked during the historical course will come to naught.
What must you fulfill after you awaken your sleeping heart? Toward what will you dash after raising your body? You must fulfill the desperate and sincere heart that God had toward Adam and Eve. You must be able to feel the heart of the Father in the substantial realm of time. He wanted to taste the beauty of creation in all things and rejoice while relating with people. If you do not have this kind of heart, then even if that garden of ideology was to come, even if the day comes when the Father can reveal Himself on the earth again, it will have nothing to do with you.
Who is going to close the gap between you and God? Who is going to bridge this abyss of grief? Today, we feel that this is the historical agony and grief of humankind.
Who created this gap between God and us? The sinful lineage begotten by the fall of the human ancestors created this. Therefore, it is your mission to forge a relationship with Heaven with your minds and bodies, by rising above it to receive the lineage of Heaven, and build a relationship between the family, the society, the nation, the world and the cosmos centered on you and Heaven.
When you reflect on your past today, you probably cannot help but feel that you have inherited the lineage of sin. This is the reason that God and all things have been in agony. We have to understand that until now, God has traveled through a history of toil for the sake of saving fallen people.
Now you must put yourselves on the line and climb over all the internal walls. You must be able to pray on behalf of the hyung sang of Adam before the fall who could face God and say, “Father! We welcome You.”
God has been seeking the ideal garden lost when He forged a bond of restoration with fallen people. The providential history of salvation and restoration that we are walking through today is how God is working to restore fallen humankind, to build the garden of joy of Adam and Eve before the fall. He is constructing the world ideology based on the joy of Heaven.
Accordingly, you who are walking through the course of restoration today must make yourselves stand before the course of the heavenly principles and make self-criticisms. You must reflect upon what position you are in, in what situation you are struggling. You have to understand that because of the love of God, who wanted to teach that position and direction to humankind, the religion which can represent humanity has been founded today.
Therefore, promoting the term “faith,” God has been searching for humankind in the course of history centering on religion. Until this hour today, God has been exerting Himself without rest, wishing that He could live with people in the human world.
God has transcended time and space to search for the people who betrayed Him. Yet when we consider that, in spite of this, there were not many people who received God. When we consider this, we deserve to be whipped before Heaven from the position of fallen descendants. Nevertheless, God has taken on the toil of guiding the providence for 6,000 years.
We ourselves are lone individuals and only one out of thirty million people of this nation. Yet if we can become the children who can attend God and make it possible for Him to descend to this earth, then we will become more valuable than the thirty million. We will become more valuable than the 2.4 billion people of the world. You have to understand that the Father has been working hard because He wants to relate with us as people with this kind of value.
The Heart of God Longs to Become One with Humankind
In our lives today we too often neglect the value of the important part within us. When we think that Heaven has come seeking us throughout the course of history and is always working in our surroundings, when we understand that Heaven wants to reside with us, we have to bow our heads before the historical course and the providential will of the period.
Although people should bow their heads before the will of the heavenly principles, they have neglected the providential will. Forgetting their dignity and honor, they have failed to find the direction in which they must steer. You have to feel the anguished heart of God as He looks down upon such people. You have to understand that the time has come when you must become concerned about this will of God’s providence. If we outwardly say that we want to attend this Creator as the subject of our faith, but in reality conduct our faith centering on ourselves, then we have nothing to do with Heaven.
When we look at ourselves, we can see that, although each of us is merely one part out of the 2.4 billion people of the world, God is trying to believe in us and love us as the ones who have the value of the whole cosmos. He wants to live with us. However, people today cannot imagine this heart of the Father, even in their dreams.
God is relating with us with infinite hope, but we are facing Heaven with limited hope. Who is going to be responsible for bridging the gap between this limited and unlimited hope? We have to understand that the greater this gap, the more Satan will accuse us before Heaven.
Therefore, you must recognize that you have come into this crisis, the realm of historical sin, and we must lower our heads before the heavenly principles. We must possess a heart of repentance and become like clay and water, which can be molded again. Nonetheless, many people today disregard the heavenly principles because of their own assertions and beliefs. You must understand that their movements and actions do not remain with one individual, but connect with the whole world, the whole cosmos.
To whom is Heaven going to entrust this task? You must take charge of it today. You can take charge of this task in the state you are in and fulfill your responsibility before the providential will. You must be able to attend God. What must you do to fulfill it? First, you must know the standard of God’s hope. You have to understand the heart of the Father, who rejoiced while creating humankind. You have to understand the ideology of the creation in which God wanted to rejoice.
With what heart did God create this world? God created this world with a heart that longed for all things to become worthy of His infinite trust. He longed for human beings to become worthy of His infinite trust. Accordingly, inside the realm of the uniform ideology in which there is no need for such a term as “faith,” you must form such an inseparable mind-body relationship and unity with Heaven that even after many years have passed, you remain unchanging. God tried to believe in people, that they could stand in the position of oneness and not even have a sense of the word “faith.” The heart of God, who tried to have such eternal faith, was left behind due to the human fall.
God wanted to inject His eternal life into humankind and to raise them as immortals on the earth. Because of the fall, though people lived, it was as if they were dead. The foundation of God’s love, where God and people become eternally one and are immersed in the uniform ideology, the foundation on which all things of the creation can be in harmony, was shattered because of the fall. Accordingly, people became such that God could not believe in them, beings who bore no trace of God’s life. Consequently, God’s love could not take root, and our ancestors were chased out of the Garden of Eden.
The Results of the Human Fall
However, this did not just affect human beings. All the things of creation fell outside the realm of God’s trust. The signs of the life of God could no longer be found in all things. They could no longer express the stimulation of beauty in relationship to the love of God.
Therefore, centering on God today, we must become the true parents who are invulnerable to the invasion of Satan. If the human ancestors had attended God and become true parents, then their descendants would have realized the ideology of the family that would allow them to attend God eternally in their lives. However, because humankind fell, they have inherited the lineage of the fallen parents and have been carrying on a life of attending Satan, instead of God.
You have to understand that because our ancestors destroyed the garden of goodness God wanted, we the descendants inherited the unfinished work of sin. As a result, we were invaded by sin. In the end, we have come to believe in things we must not believe in. We have experienced joy that we should not have enjoyed. We are engaged in love that we must not engage in.
When we think about ourselves from this perspective, we can see that Heaven cannot trust us. We have not become the beings of life with whom God can relate. Not only that, we do not possess the heart of love with which we can stand before God. The people of succeeding generations who have fallen parents cannot rejoice with God eternally in Heaven. The people who should have possessed the eternal life of God and attended God joyfully in their lives, inside the realm of God’s eternal love, could not do so. When the human world became a world of sin, people believed in things they should not have believed in; they possessed a life they should not have possessed. They lived a life of love of which they should not have been a part. Because this incredible kind of world came into being, an incredible course was left behind. This is hell in the spirit world and hell on the earth.
You have to understand that the contradictory state of these two worlds is measuring you in the balance. On the one hand, the faithlessness of hell is appealing to you. On the other hand, the love of God is appealing to you. In other words, on the one hand, the realm of the deathly love of the world is appealing to you. On the other hand, God is appealing to you to develop eternal faith and eternal love. You will be able to feel that you are in this kind of situation.
Because of the fall, our bodies are forced to grow by taking nutrition from all things of the creation, which are inside the realm of God’s sorrow. If we analyze our bodies, which are in the realm of God’s sorrow (in the realm of sin), we will discover that there are more evil elements than good elements within us. Therefore, in our entire life course, in our course of faith and in our course of love, this evil is operating most strongly.
The purpose of the Creator in creating this world will be realized centering on humankind. However, you can probably sense that some wound was inflicted deep inside the human heart due to the fall. You are probably feeling that some trials are about to confront you.
No matter how evil a murderer and robber a person might be, he will feel guilty in his conscience about the evil action which he has committed. This is the original nature of man. Because this is the way of the laws of the heavenly principles, when people violate the laws of the heavenly principles, there is no way for them to escape. When people violate them and commit evil deeds, they have to feel guilty.
There are many people today who cannot believe in anything on the earth. They cannot depend upon anything on the earth nor feel any love on the earth. They are mourning and holding grudges against the whole universe. However, there is no one who craves the love of eternal trust and gladness, sheds tears and feels agony at the same time.
Heaven is trying to realize God’s will through the people who are concerned for the sake of the will of goodness. When we compare goodness and evil from this position, we can understand that evil outnumbers the good many times over. Looking down upon this situation, God is filled with desperate grief, even today, as He seeks to find the goodness that can replace the grief of humanity. You have to understand the anguished situation of God, who cannot believe in humanity although He is in a position where He must.
Originally, people were to be worthy of trust and love, worthy to become embodiments of the life of God. Yet there is no way God can believe in people, no way He can share life or love with them. You have to understand this sadness.
The Relationship of Life and Love
You must look toward the earth and lament, “This earth where the sorrow of God is! Humanity, who is building up the wall of God’s sorrows!” At the same time, you must note whether in the last chapter of history one person appears who can mourn for God. If such a person does not appear, then God’s history of toil will be in vain. The conditions for Satan’s accusations will remain. We will have no choice but to live in the world where the conditions of grief caused by sin remain.
Today we forget that we are sinners. Unable to feel what is blocking the path before us, we want to have hope in this frustrating situation. This is why the heart of Heaven is in more misery looking down upon the situation.
We have inherited the lineage of our ancestors, who have betrayed God in the course of history. If we are the fruit of this sinful blood, how are we going to propel our bodies to remove the sins? You have to become new people now. You have to become the brothers and sisters of Heaven with a new ideology, new faith, new life and new love. You have to reflect upon whether you have become someone who can feel the urgent heart of God seeking to find us and can cry out, “Father, we welcome You!”
Our ancestors came to the earth to take charge of some mission in their era on behalf of the will of God, but all of them were demolished. You have probably learned through the Divine Principle that this repetition has been the history of restoration until now.
God, who feels the deep grief of restoration, has been persevering until now with an anguished heart. In other words, even as He was ostracized, God endured. Even while being betrayed, God endured. Have you ever felt, deep in your flesh, bones and blood, the situation of God who has raised us and maintained hope in us until today? You have to sense in your minds and bodies that the Father, who has been working until now, is truly our own father who has toiled for our sake.
Even if our Korean people do not own anything and are miserable, if someone appears among us who responds to the hope of Heaven, who shares the concerns of God and possesses God’s heart of faith, if we can make that kind of gathering or become that kind of people, then who can say that we cannot inherit the powerful feat of Heaven? These miserable people have no one to depend on, nowhere to rest our hope. What is the hope that we must now possess? We must possess a repentful heart toward sin. We must possess faith, hope and love toward God. When we do that, we can become the children of the Kingdom of Heaven. In other words, we can dwell inside the new Garden of Eden and become a new people who can represent the purpose of the ideology of creation.
God’s nature is such that He cannot forsake fallen humankind, who should be forsaken. Rather, He tries to claim them back. Yet what kind of relationship existed originally between God and humankind? We had the bond of life and the bond of love. What then must we claim back by mobilizing the humanity of the world today in these last days? We must find the life and love that connect us to God. Humanity is struggling to find this today.
God has been working until now because He wants humankind to form the one world in which He can eternally trust them. He wants them to form one eternal family and wants to be able to converse with them eternally. Although we are fallen, God has been seeking us.
Who Was Jesus?
In the Garden of Eden, our ancestors could not become people who could be trusted for eternity. Who had the standard for the heart of eternal trust? God had it. They should have become people who had the standard of heart for eternal life, but because they betrayed God, God possesses this standard. Although they should have become people who had the standard of heart for eternal love, because they fell, God also kept the standard of heart for that love.
If we ask who came to point out to humankind the elements that could guide the ideology of the Garden of Eden, it was none other than Jesus. Although God toiled throughout the long course of history to find the one standard on earth which could represent the faith, life and love of God, He could not find it. Although He tried to find it through Noah, Abraham, Jacob and Moses, He could not find anyone with this standard. Jesus was the person He could finally raise after 4,000 years of toil.
What kind of person was Jesus? He was not one with worldly powers. He did not have worldly knowledge. He was cornered and driven out as the traitor of the era. He was the representative hero who was driven out into this sinful world on behalf of righteousness.
The reason Jesus was mistreated was not because he was not precious or because he was lacking somehow. It was because the whole world was a land of faithlessness. He was ostracized because the world did not have life and love. What kind of representative was Jesus? Because of the fall in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve could not become trustworthy parents. Jesus thus came as the substitute for Adam. He came as the hero of faith in whom one could not help but believe for eternity. He came as the representative of the love of God to reconnect the bond of the life of God, which was lost in Eden. He came to connect the love of God, which was lost in Eden, to human minds.
What kind of person is Jesus? He is the Messiah of faith, the Messiah of life, and the Messiah of love. In other words, he is the Savior of faith, the Savior of life, and the Savior of love. During the 4,000 years when God governed human history, He hoped to fulfill the standard of heart for His life and love. This was actualized through Jesus. Consequently, the providential history of God finally had another beginning on the earth and the new will of restoration was realized.
The people of that time should have had substantial faith in Jesus, who came with this historical will. They should have become one with his ideology. Jesus came as the one incarnation in which God’s formless ideology of faith, His formless ideology of life, and His formless ideology of love were expressed.
However, there was no one who testified, “Oh! You are the fruit of the faith of God, who has been exerting Himself for 4,000 years in search of us. You are the embodiment of God’s hope and life that He has been seeking for 4,000 years. Oh! You are the hero who comes with the eternal love with which we can rejoice in the garden of God’s ideology.” No one welcomed him. No one probed into his heart and revealed his secret words to the earth. This was the second cause of the sorrow of humanity.
Jesus came to the earth for this reason, but he passed away without testifying to the faith, life and love of God as His one embodiment. Therefore, the faith, life and love which are one with the spirit of Jesus became far removed from humankind. If we were to reflect upon it closely, the fact that Jesus became the hero of spiritual faith, spiritual life and spiritual love is not a joyful thing. You have to understand that the deep-rooted sorrow of Heaven lies in that fact. In other words, God wants the embodiment who represents His ideology on earth. Jesus, as the embodiment of God, came to the earth with the faith, life and love of God. Because humanity destroyed that embodiment, God became a God of tears.
The Sorrow of Jesus
When God comes seeking humankind, He seeks an embodiment through the spirit. Through that embodiment, He seeks all things. However, people have failed to become qualified for the faith that can connect with that embodiment, for the life and love that can substitute for that incarnation. Instead, we feel these things only spiritually. In other words, humanity today is seeking the ideology of spiritual salvation, spiritual life and spiritual love.
We know that it was for the providence of the salvation of Paradise and the providence centered on the New Testament that God exerted Himself for 4,000 years. This was so that people could attend the one substantial person of glory on the earth and create an environment in which they believed in him eternally, enjoyed eternal life with him, and shared love with him for eternity. However, there must come the time on earth when the belief, life and love, for which the spirit world hopes, will be manifested substantially on the earth.
The ideology of Eden is not only attending God after achieving unity between the mind and body centering on God; it is attending God after becoming one with all things as well. Because these are the basic principles, God has been trying to become one with you through the historical course of toil. You have to understand that these kinds of agonies have taken place.
Had Jesus actualized the concrete temple when he came, had he realized the substantial family that could represent the ideology of God and begun to attend God on that basis, today we would not have any need for the idea of a kingdom of a thousand years. There would be no need for the idea of a second coming.
If you can connect with substantial faith, substantial life and substantial love centering on Jesus, then as a substantial couple you can obtain substantial children. When this takes place, you can become people of substantial faith toward God. You can attain substantial life and become people of substantial love. However, it is God’s sorrow that this kind of foundation has not yet emerged on the earth.
This is the reason Jesus said, “The Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” The Kingdom of Heaven first comes to you from your heart. After that you must be able to say, “The Kingdom of Heaven is inside me.” In other words, only when we can assert that the Kingdom of Heaven resides within our substantial body, can our bodies and spirits finally become one and call God “Father.”
This is the sorrow of Jesus. Although he formed the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven that can represent the Kingdom of Heaven in the heart, he could not create the substantial Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore, he has to come back. He faces the fate to pray for the sake of humankind on the right hand of God during the course of history. Therefore, the people who are living today in the last days must have substantial faith. When we think about our own course of faith until now, we find that our minds and bodies have turned away from God’s will. Therefore, you must find a relationship with God’s eternal life of love and be able to say that you have embodied it. To do that, you must always pray, “Father! Please allow us to become Your embodiment.” If you cannot become this kind of people, there is no way that humankind can pay off the debt of history and restore the lost ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven.
For this reason, God has been concerned about humanity until now. He is especially concerned about those of us who are living in the last days. He is seeking us. Accordingly, we have to become the people of one hope who can represent the substantial body of Jesus Christ who came 2,000 years ago.
The Standard of Faith Which People in the Last Days Must Have
You must always be able to frankly reveal to the Father whether you are living as the expression of hope in faith, life and love. You must live with the mind-set, “Yes, Father! I will believe in the Father. Even if the Father cannot believe in me, I will believe in the Father. Even if the Father abandons me, I cannot abandon the Father.”
Is there a hero who would not betray the Father even if the heavenly principles were to change or even if Heaven was to betray him? Is there a hero who would believe when no other in heaven and earth could believe? God has been guiding the providence until now, longing for the one day of hope when He can find this kind of person. Are there, however, any who understand this sorrowful situation of the Father? Is there such a church? People are pitiful beings who are ignorant of this.
Those in the world who cherish the will of Heaven in their hearts will be rejected. At the time of Jesus, everyone was his enemy. Those who are not rejected, those who are not enemies of the world, are false. After coming to the earth, Jesus lost his foundation in his family. He was ostracized by John the Baptist’s group, whom God had chosen and prepared. He was ostracized by the religious sect God had prepared through 4,000 years of toil. He was persecuted by the chosen Israelites, by the blood kinsmen of Abraham. He was persecuted by the whole of humanity. He was abandoned, even by the spirit world. He was abandoned, even by God.
This is the reason he had to die in a miserable situation as it is recorded in the Bible verse, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” or “My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) You must not forget that the one who suffered this kind of torment is our savior, the savior of humanity and our leader. You must connect to that heart of Jesus.
When Elijah was ostracized by the Israelites and being driven away, he appealed to God, “Father, I am the only one who remains.” Have you ever connected with that kind of heart? You must be able to say, “I will not abandon You, even if all of the thirty million people were to turn away from You. Even if the 2.4 billion persons of the world and all spirits were to turn their backs on You, I will not.” Those who have experienced this kind of heart cannot go to hell, even if they try. They will not perish on the earth, no matter what. They cannot be destroyed by anything.
You have to understand that Jesus’ heart of appeal, “Father, if it is possible then please let this cup pass from me. But do not do as I will, but as Thou will,” (Matthew 26:39) became the central point that allowed him to step over the realm of death and rise above it. Jesus was ostracized by the people, the church, his tribe and by Satan of the invisible spirit world when he came to the earth. In other words, Jesus did not even have one friend. The question is whether the people at the time even entertained the thought that this kind of Jesus would appear as the Savior of humanity.
When we consider it from this perspective, we can see that Jesus set the standard for the creation of a new history. Jesus possessed the eternal and unchanging heart. He had the attitude that the Father was the master of his faith, his life and love. Because there was no one who could cut off the faith, life and love of Jesus, Christianity did not falter, no matter who attacked them. Instead, Christianity progressed.
If you who are coming to the Unification Church today want to live for the sake of humanity, then you must possess the kind of faith Jesus had. In these last days, you must possess the standard of faith with which Jesus could confront the path of death and offer his life. You must possess the standard of faith by which Jesus could sacrifice even his body. Heaven is longing for this standard of faith to be found among the people of faith in the last days.
God Is the Substantial Hero Who Shares All Pain and Joy with Humanity
We must be saved and must pursue eternal life. To be embraced inside the love of the Father, we must overcome all kinds of hardships and wounds. Even if our family, our society, our nation and the world all oppose us, we must step over it and stand in the position of Jesus, who came forth clinging only to the will of God. We must become the elite soldiers of Heaven who can march toward the historical tribe of death.
How would Heaven come seeking us? God, who exists as a spirit on the heavenly throne, waited 4,000 years after the creation of the world to raise Jesus and tried to reach out to humanity. After Jesus, He exerted Himself for 2,000 more years in the spirit world, which represents our minds. He has been seeking us through 6,000 years of the footsteps of toil until today. However, do you have the heart of filial children who are determined to alleviate the grief of the Father, who has been working to find you, and say, “Father, we are sorry. Father, we are so ashamed. Father, what can we do?”
If you have become the sons and daughters who have this kind of mind- set, then in the same way Jesus clung to the heart of the Father and produced the miracle of resurrection, with a heart of compassion and love amidst tribulation, you must also have the same heart and step above the realm of death to produce the miracle of resurrection. If you cannot become such people, then there is no way you can rise above the realm of death and live in the glory of resurrection.
You must clearly understand God in your minds and bodies now. The time has passed when you could comprehend God through your brains. You are not to comprehend God in your heads; you are to understand Him in your hearts. Now is the time when you cannot understand only in your minds. You must understand also in your bodies. Accordingly, the era of conceptual faith has passed. The time has come when you must believe in your minds and experience in your bodies.
The last days is the time when we seek after the embodiment of unchanging faith, when we are trying to raise the reincarnation of eternal love. When this substantial embodiment emerges, then the term “faithlessness” will disappear from our bodies. Therefore, you must now become sons and daughter who can demonstrate concern for the heart of the Father and attend Him. Otherwise, you will become pitiful people. If you do not know that God exists, then it is a different story; but if you do know, then you have to understand that the God who has been exerting Himself to seek us is not someone whom we should attend only as the hero of our minds.
We must form one body with God on earth eternally. We must live with Him. He is the substantial Master who can share all pain and joy with us eternally. He is the origin of unchanging love and the reincarnation of eternal hope. Before this God, Jesus could forget himself without any pretense or excuse. He was willing to do anything for the sake of the Father’s will. You must become sons and daughters who inherit the footsteps of Jesus.
Jesus gave us the words of the Gospels during the thirty-odd years of his life. When he met starving people as he was going around with his disciples, he fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes. He gave everything he could. He introduced faith, life and love. He introduced all that humanity could demand.
Have you ever received the words of Jesus as his substantial body? Have you ever felt through the words of Jesus that he is the embodiment of God’s eternal faith? Have you ever felt through the words of Jesus that he is the embodiment of eternal life? Have you ever felt through the words of Jesus that he is the embodiment of eternal love? If you cannot feel this even after you have heard Jesus’ words, then Jesus’ heart will be torn.
The Hope of Jesus and God’s Request of Humanity
When Jesus was walking through the thirty-odd years of his life course, as he was being chased around from this village to that, he said, “Foxes have holes, and birds in the air have their nests, but the son of man does not have a place where he can rest his head.” (Matthew 8:20) The people of that time did not know that the words of Jesus, who clung to the lonesome heart and felt the torment, were words which represented the culmination of 4,000 years of the heavenly principles.
The Israelites did not know that Jesus was the embodiment of the life of re-creation and eternal life for which God hoped. They did not know that he was someone who was to realize the will for which humanity had hoped for 4,000 years.
Who is going to clear up and cross over this hill that could not be crossed over because of the lack of recognition toward Jesus? Even if you today are a pitiful group who is being chased around and have no place to rely upon, I hope that you will become the heirs who inherit the will of Jesus.
Now the time has come when we must appear before the people with the attitude that we are walking through the historical course of Jesus with a lamenting heart. Only when we can appear before the people and the world with this heart can we prevent the history of betrayal by Israel, the history of betrayal by Judaism, and all that the blood relations of Jesus blocked. Only then can we prevent the betrayal of the apostles and disciples. In other words, we have to be able to resolve all of this within ourselves.
Jesus distributed bread among many people on an empty hill near Beth- saida 2,000 years ago. Why did the people who ate the bread all perish? Why did the people who heard the words betray Jesus? Why did the disciples who followed Jesus through all the hardships of three years betray him? The reason they betrayed him was that they thought his words were only for the sake of that day. They thought the bread he gave out was only to fill the stomach for that moment. They did not know that the words Jesus gave should have been conveyed to the ends of the earth through them. They did not know that the bread Jesus gave out should be shared with the humanity of the world.
Because the words and the bread that Jesus gave were his substantial embodiments, his intention was for them to give out his mind and body to the neighbors, the people, the nation and the whole of humanity. They were doomed, because they did not know this.
Now when you stand before the Lord or before the Father, you will feel the request, “Oh, my beloved son! I am giving you these words, so cherish them and become God’s beloved son!” Some of you will also feel, “Oh, my beloved sons and daughters! Become the substantial temple in which the Father can dwell during your lifetime!” Accordingly, you must feel that only the Father is the origin of your life. Only the Father is the origin of your love.
Do not despair because you do not have any friends, family or companion. If you have become someone who, as the substantial body of the Father, is immersed inside the heart of the Father’s love and life and who lives according to the will of the heavenly principles, please do not despair, because the words of the Father are with you. Even if we suffer many ordeals as we are driven about today, we must persevere. This is because we endure our hardships for the sake of the people and for the world.
Now if there are those who, feeling the torment of heaven and earth, pray and overcome the hardships that pierce into their bones, then they will become the friends of Jesus, friends of the people, and friends of the world. In this way they will become the masters of this world.
The problem is whether we stand inside God or outside God. God wishes to fulfill His hopes through our hearts. Therefore, everything in our lives, every place that we reside, all the injustice we suffer must be done for the sake of the Father. Even if our love is cut off, even if we are deprived of material things and friends, if we have the relationship that is for the sake of the Father, then we will not have any worry. More than the love of the earth, the life of the earth, and the people of the earth, if we have the faith of the Father, the life of the Father, and the love and hope of the Father, then no desire of ours will go unfulfilled. If all that belongs to the Father is with us, we can become substantial sons who can represent the many lives on this earth.
We Must Feel Our Oneness With God
More than anyone else, you are shedding tears for the sake of the people. You are leading a life in which you must look back and shed tears. However, since you now have come to understand the will of the Father which asks you to stand as the embodiment of His hope, faith and love, you must fulfill this mission. These Korean people do not have friends among themselves whom they can trust. Moreover, they do not have the one true family where they can settle down for life. What must you leave behind for this people? You must leave faith for the people who cannot believe, a family for the people who do not have families and love for this pitiful people who have no one upon which to rely.
When you possess this kind of heart, you will feel that Jesus’ situation in the Garden of Gethsemane is our own situation. In other words, his situation is our situation today, and it is the situation of our ancestors who lived through the course of history for the sake of the will of the heavenly principles. Therefore, you must now receive historical persecution and overcome it. No matter what kind of Satan you fight with, you must triumph 100 percent.
You must overcome whatever realm of death you are in. Crossing through that world of death, you must be able to head toward the blessed land of Canaan. You must be able to cling to the Father and share with Him the sorrow of His 6,000 years. You must clear up the mistakes of Adam and Eve. Possessing the heart of Heaven, you must be able to receive glory on behalf of the Father. God has been traveling the path of sorrow, determined to pass through the path of thorns. When you are driven out, you must endure through it by beholding the Father, who is concerned about you. You must be grateful to Him for giving you a day when He embraces you.
The time when we can believe in our heads has passed. Now you must become the incarnations of faith who can believe with your minds and bodies. You must understand Jesus, who has come alive, but the time when you understand with your head has passed. The time has come when you must understand through your minds and bodies. You must comprehend through your minds and bodies that the substantial body of Jesus represents the faith, life and love of God.
Therefore, if you say “Left,” then the providential history of God, which represents the history of the heavenly principles, should be able to say “Left.” If you say “Right,” then God’s life should be able to say “Right.” If you say “Stop,” then God should be able to say “Stop.” The grief of God is having lost the person and the family who can bring this to pass.
You must not shed tears over your own sorrow. One day you will feel God wiping the tears off your eyes. Do not complain that you have suffered injustices. God probably already knows about that, too.
Contrary to your assumption that the Father has left you, you are standing in front of the Father. Contrary to your assumption that you do not know the love of God, your body is already deep inside the love of God. When you come to realize that, you will feel that the Father is your father. The Father that you will come to know is not the God of faith who is bound to concepts. He is your real father whom you can experience substantially, whom you can experience in the sphere of your life.
In the same way that Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, please let this cup pass from me. But not as I will but as the Father wills” (Matthew 26:39), you must stand in a serious position and feel that you have become one with the Father.
When you do that, the faith, life of hope, and love of hope will become harmonized in you. When you move, all things will move. When you go, all people will follow you. When you enter this state, all things will feel joy from you. You will hear what others do not hear, see what others do not see, know what others do not know, and experience what others do not experience.
To Become True Sons and Daughters Who Can Attend the Father
This is the way that people who are to attend the Father in the original Garden of Eden should be. However, you have to understand that we are fallen people who cannot sense this. Thus, we must represent the 6,000-year history, the 2.4 billion persons of humanity, and the countless lives of the many generations. Placing yourself before the Father and clinging to His heart of agony over 6,000 years, you must pledge, “We will take responsibility for the distressed heart of the Father. Please entrust to us all Your worries, sorrow and pain. We will become the filial sons and patriots who can comfort the Father, who has exerted Himself for 6,000 years.” Have you ever called out to the Father and appealed to Him with this earnestness and urgency? If you have not, then you have to repent.
When we look back at our own life of faith, we can see that although God came seeking us, He did not look for us as individuals. You have to sense this. God loved us not to love only us, but to love the whole of heaven and earth. He called us not to benefit us centering on ourselves, but for the sake of heaven and earth nor was His trust merely for our own sake. His loving us and trying to raise us up as the embodiments of life are not for our own sake; it is for the sake of the whole universe. Therefore, you have to realize that your minds and bodies are not eternally yours.
Have you ever offered gratitude before the will after receiving the grace of Heaven? Before you rejoice, you must first shed tears. “I am happy, yet how are all the people on the earth? I am rising, yet the glory of Heaven is not being revealed. How will this glory of Heaven be revealed before all people?” You have to think about these things. You are not to rejoice or be merry alone. You have to understand that the universal providence of God remains, and revolves around you as the mediator.
When God relates with us, He completely forgets His own dignity as the Master of heaven and earth. God is associating with you, who are inside the realm of Satan today, with the faith, life and love of heaven and earth. You must not forget this. You must understand the wishes of God and bring to pass the will of God’s faith, life and love. By doing so, you must cause the flame of eternal love and life to be ignited. You have to be able to sense this each moment in the realm of your life. You have to realize that the mission to attend the Father and pioneer the path of ordeals rests with humankind, who came from fallen descendants.
Therefore, now after you fight all battles and defeat all enemies, you must offer bows of victory to the Father. Your bodies and minds must become His peaceful resting place.
Having done this, you must rekindle the memory of having caused sorrow to the Father at the time of the creation of the world and be able to say, “As You relate with me, please feel the joy that You would have felt if You were relating with unfallen Adam. Father! Please claim back the will that You lost because of the fall of Adam.” You have to remember that only when you can do that can you become sons and daughters of the Father who can say, “Oh, Father! We welcome You.”
Prayer
Beloved Father, You have sought us out by sending many righteous prophets and patriots and by sending Jesus. You have built a foundation in our hearts. Now we know that the unfinished will calls us to realize the will of the Father with our bodies. We ourselves must fulfill the will of the Father through our families and must establish all things before the Father. Father, please be with us.
We know that the construction of the Kingdom of Heaven, where You dwell in us, is not the whole of the Father’s will. We know that we have the responsibility to also build the substantial Kingdom of Heaven, where the Father can dwell inside the realm of all things. We realize that when the Father sees that those of us who must take charge of this universal responsibility are still inside the fallen world, He feels worried and anxious about our future path. Please guide us, inadequate and weak as we may be, so that You can hold onto us and allow us to have eternal life.
If the Father guides us, we will not despair. We will not collapse. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish that by allowing us to defeat the enemy Satan for the purpose of possessing the life and glory of the Father, You will guide us to become the brave soldiers of Heaven who can build the individuals, the church, the nation, the world and the Kingdom of Heaven that the Father can direct.
Now we ardently wish You to guide us to become sons and daughters who, feeling the heart of the Father in our hearts and sensing the life of the Father within our bodies, can establish the realm of all things before the Father. Requesting earnestly that You will allow the happy news to be heard by the countless numbers of humanity today, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Chapter 5: To Whom Do You Belong?
John 15:1-27
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 16, 1958
Prayer
We know that the ideology of creation does not seek only certain specially chosen individuals; it seeks all humanity. Father, You have been working hard, seeking the humanity of this earth! When we think about how the providential will remains to establish the whole universe upon the ideology of goodness, we pray that You will allow us to become the fertilizer for the fulfillment of the will; that we can give even a little bit of help to the Father.
Please allow us to understand in this hour that the sorrow of the Father was not caused by the things created on the earth. It is because there is no person who can realize the Father’s ideology of creation on His behalf. Please allow us now to pour out all of our heart and effort to fight for the sake of the will. Please allow us to understand that You are the Creator who made all things of the creation. You have been toiling infinitely for our sake.
Please allow us to understand that those who cannot comprehend the heart of the Father cannot comprehend the life of the Father. Those who cannot experience the heart of the Father cannot understand the situation of the Father. Beloved Father, we pray ardently that You will allow us to come to that realization, even in this hour today. You are sad as You look down upon those of us who cannot accompany You in our hearts.
Please allow our hearts to become totally one with the Father’s will. Guide our lives so that we can live like the Father’s friend and become someone whom the Father can govern.
We know that Jesus was the person who emerged with the will of God in his heart, for the sake of the chosen people. Please let us realize that, although people are the way they were when they were created and all things are the same as when they were created, the anguish of the Father is not being able to find substantial people in whom He can reside. Beloved Father, please sanctify our minds and bodies so that You can dwell within us. Allow us to become that kind of person. Loving Father, we ardently wish that in this way You can guide us to become the forerunners of the new era who realize the ideology of creation.
We know that You work with the same love today as at the time of Jesus and will do so in the future. Father of love, please allow us to experience, at this moment, the grieving heart of Jesus. Moreover, Father of love, we earnestly wish that You will allow us to possess the heart of love which has the capacity to love everything on the earth. Allow us to take after the nature of the Father, who can embrace and love all of humanity.
Father, we know that even now there are many children of Yours who are scattered all across the countryside, being driven out and chased around. Please take care of them. Help them to possess the heart that can deny everything they have and struggle for the sake of the will of the Father alone. We sincerely wish that the Father will lead us with love, so that we may become sons and daughters who can penetrate through any path of sorrow or path of the cross and march forward on the path of life.
You are the one who caused us to possess the tormented heart that others do not understand. Father, please comfort our hearts, and counsel us through our bodies. In this way, Father of love, we hope that You will let us become the sons and daughters who can defend the last battlefield of the last days and receive the full submission of Satan after winning the victory.
Although the individuals who have gathered here may all be different, we know that their hearts toward the will must become one. Their bodies must become united for the sake of the will. If there are some elements in us that violate the Father’s will, then Father of love, please liquidate them.
I am going to convey the Father’s words now. Father of love, I sincerely wish that You will allow the listeners to become the sons and daughters who can reveal everything frankly before the Father’s heart and repent after analyzing themselves.
Father, in this hour, people have gathered with many different wounds in their hearts. Father, the ruler of hearts, please soothe the wounded ones. If there is something unacceptable in our hearts, please cleanse them. Father of love, we hope that You will help us to always reflect upon whether we have some condition for Satan’s invasion. If there are some such conditions, then please protect us with Your consuming eyes so that we can remove them.
Father, I want to convey the words now. Let the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener not become divided into two. Even in this hour, Satan is looking for a gap. Father of love, please allow this to be an hour when we can move and be in harmony like one group of friends centering on the will of the Father.
Father, please have pity on the thirty million people and all humanity upon this earth. We sincerely wish that You will claim back the indemnity conditions of restoration that all spirits in the spirit world demand.
Sincerely requesting once more that You protect the lonesome members throughout the countryside with equal grace, we pray all the words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
In this hour I will speak to you on the topic “To Whom Do You Belong?” All the people who live on earth claim that they are living for some purpose. On the surface, our life might seem to begin and end centering on us. However, if we think again, the life that one seems to live for oneself has many trials, agonies, griefs and sorrow. You have probably experienced this in your own life.
Moreover, you have probably felt in your own life that when someone lives only for the sake of himself alone, his life is filled with sin and sorrow. When someone forgets himself and lives a life of denying himself, he can overcome any kind of difficulty.
The Condition of Existence for All Living Beings
If we delve more deeply into the sphere of the original nature, we will not be able to deny that our minds and bodies are not our own. The things of creation might seem to be the masters of the whole world of creation and the universe, but if you think more deeply, you cannot deny that they belong to the Creator.
For example, it is easy to think that the owner of this earth is the earth itself. Yet no one can deny that this earth belongs to the universe. Although it is easy to think that all existing things on the earth are their own masters and came into existence on their own, no one can deny that they cannot exist outside their relationship with the earth.
Similarly, when you examine all existing things, you will find that from the big things to the small things, all are in inseparable relationships. Even when you examine the earth, you can understand that this earth cannot exist by itself. In other words, when it operates according to the laws of nature based on inseparable relationships, it can then obtain the conditions to exist as the earth. If we acknowledge that there is a cause, the Creator, then we cannot deny that this universe came into being because of the Creator God, the earth came into being because of the universe, and all things that exist on the earth came into being because of the earth.
Who is the ultimate source of all things that exist on the earth today? In other words, who is the parent of humankind? You will not be able to deny that it is the earth. Who is the parent of the earth? You will not be able to deny that it is the universe. Yet it is a fact that there is still no explanation for the question of who is the parent or ultimate cause of the universe.
Although all things exist as the fruits of a causal process linked to a parent-like relationship, they attain satisfaction only in the world of results. This is the historical and practical contradiction.
Should there ultimately be some solution for all things in the universe and for you who are in this situation? At the end of history a person must appear who can give answers to all these questions, a person of character who can go forward toward the universe after becoming the one substantial embodiment who can represent the ideology of the Gospel. You have to understand that if such a person does not emerge, we cannot conclude that God has been leading the providence, centering on humankind.
If you feel you are the ones who are governing this visible world of all things today, the so-called masters of all things, then this is a misunderstanding. Your bodies are not yours. Your minds are not yours. If someone asks you what evidence there is that they are yours, you will be stuck and will not be able to answer.
If this problem is solved, then this will become a historical beginning point. At the same time, it will become the solution point, based upon which all problems can be solved. However, humankind on earth today has completely forgotten this problem, as they casually go about their lives.
God mourns more grievously over the fact that people have become like this, than He does over having lost the universe. Therefore, if there is someone who can feel and experience the heart of God, then the fundamental providence of religion will begin from that person. You have to understand that the path to find God again will be pioneered from there. In the same way that all earthly things consider the earth and Heaven, the Creator, as their parents, your existence is not limited to yourself either.
Have you ever felt that the earth is your parent? Our bodies have been constructed with all elements of the earth. We cannot deny that the earth is our origin. However, people often forget the earth is embracing them. Now that you have learned that the earth is the parent of materials, you must go one step further and understand that there is a parent who gave you birth as a being of character.
The Structure and Value of Human Beings and the Standard of Life
What were human beings created as? The reason that God created men with soil, water and air was for the sake of establishing us as having all material elements. We are the substantial hyung sang who can represent the ideology of Heaven. Because people have been created through this ideology, if there is no element within human beings that can harmonize them with the divine nature of God, then according to the principles of creation, there cannot be any ideal, hope or desire in people.
When God created man, He molded the physical body as the combination of the material elements that can connect with all materials. Into that physical body, He blew the spirit that would govern the physical body.
In the same way materials have relationships that link them to the earth and the universe, to manifest the nature of existence, people also have to recognize and believe that the earth is their parent. Furthermore, they must realize that Heaven, the Subject of all ideology, is the ultimate Parent. You have to understand this clearly.
What is a human being? A human being is one who was created and molded as the one body in which the substantial body which represents all material (physical body) and the substantial body which represents all spiritual relationships (spirit) are joined. Because human beings have this kind of value, they can rejoice before the Creator; they can offer a full bow to the Creator and sing praise to the Creator. Similarly, although people themselves are extremely minute beings, they have a universal value that can reveal the glory of Heaven on behalf of the whole universe. Moreover, God longs for them to become perfected in this value. Therefore, you must not have the desire to elevate yourself and assert something about yourself. If you make assertions when your body is not yours and your mind is not yours, history will not forgive you. You probably know well that in the past, such individuals, races and nations came to ruin.
Because you must inevitably walk this path, God has been revealing the way of goodness and pointing out the direction of goodness. He has been guiding history in this way until now. In the era of the clan society, people lived centering on the customs of the clan. In the national era, they lived centering on nationalism or the doctrine of the nation. Today, transcending the level of the nation, they have been living centering on an ideology on the world level.
This is not to end here. Ultimately, people must live for the sake of the providential will, centered on the heavenly way. Those who pursue their own doctrines or the doctrines of their nations will surely be shattered.
When you think about this, where can you find the realm of stability? You probably will not be able to easily find the realm of repose, where you can feel joy and satisfaction on your own. You will not be able to find the realm where you can step forward before the world of creation as the representative of God. However, this is the common goal which humanity has been pursuing.
Your minds must face the heavenly nature and your bodies must face all things. Have you ever entered the realm where you can confidently say that all existing beings belong to you? Can you say, not only to the people of the earth but also to all the spirits in the spirit world, that they belong to you?
When you think about this, indemnity will fall upon those who are arrogant and boast about something they have when this is not really the case. Those who elevate something about themselves in order to brag or assert their own doctrines will surely perish.
If you cannot deny these facts, then the question of what standard you should base your life upon will become important for you.
The Teaching of Religion for the Sake of Restoring the Parent-Child Relationship
Originally, if human beings had not fallen, they could have stood in the object position to Heaven, possessing the value of goodness. However, because of the fall, the relationship with the good Parent has been severed. After that, people traveled the path of sorrow. Even if they must climb over the hill of death, they must restore this severed relationship.
How will they forge the tie? This relationship is not bound up with some doctrine or assertion on the world level; nor is it bound up with some national ideology or with some institution in society. It must be inside your mind. Therefore, you must understand that if your mind is not connected with the True Parent, even if this world was to become a world of happiness and goodness, it would not have even the slightest relationship with you.
However, your desires today have transcended themselves and are moving toward the nation or the world. Although it is probably precious to have this kind of desire for possession, what is more important? First, recognizing that you belong to the eternal and unchanging subject. Next, you must satisfy the universal desire. If there is such a person, there will not be any power or authority on earth that can strike him. However, people today have failed to think about this. What use is there for people who cannot insist upon their genuine value to attain all things and rule the universe?
If there is some doctrine or assertion that reveals the universal ideology, it is religion. There is no doctrine or assertion that surpasses religion. Religion began based on the relationship in which we can say that the invisible Creator is our Father and that we are His sons and daughters. It began based on the inseparable parent-child relationship and its value. Accordingly, true religion does not remain only in the state of merely having dominion over people. It looks ahead toward the nation of the future, the world of the future, and the cosmos. It has been progressing toward the purpose of unity, which the earth and humankind, created by the ideal of the Creator, have been trying to attain through the relationship of the four position foundation.
Because religion sought this in order to restore it, religion has stressed the master-servant relationship until now. Moreover, it has been building orderly relationships based on such things as which is first and which is last. This is the way of the heavenly principles.
Where, then, does evil begin? Evil began by escaping from the orderly relationships centered on the heavenly principles. Thus, to establish the one standard based upon which Heaven can say that you belong to the whole universe, to the Creator and to yourself, Heaven has been working hard until now.
Do you want to become the center of the future? Any center in the human world which has been established without relationship to God cannot last. Do you want to become the center of the people? Even if you have become the center of the people, because you are fallen, you will one day be frustrated. Even if you once stood confidently before the world, you will be frustrated. This is the reason that all those who are trying to walk the path of religion, the path of the way, are taught to abandon everything. However, it will not always be thus.
As fallen people walk the course of goodness, they have to pass through unspeakable vicissitudes and a course of revolution and conflict. Because people must pass through this kind of course, God told them to abandon everything, because He knows that anyone will be destroyed if they lean toward some doctrine and are bound to it.
This is the reason that when Christianity emerged on this earth, they received indescribable persecution. In every period, individuals and people raised by Heaven were unwelcome. When Jesus went forward with the Gospel of the New Testament, he was harassed on the national and world levels. Furthermore, from the time of Jesus until now, there has not been a people who did not persecute Christianity. To establish the Christian ideology on the earth, God did not tolerate it when some policy or ideology of a nation was not in accordance with what Jesus advocated.
The Individual, Family, Nation and World Which God Must Possess
Because Jesus could not possess the people, the nation and the world that he should have, God has been exerting Himself until now to claim them back. Who is going to accomplish that will? Heaven and earth will not accomplish it. You must do it yourselves.
Because God could not at once claim back the whole universe, He first worked to find one person. This was the effort to find Noah during the 1,600-year period after the fall of Adam. Although God had to raise Noah due to Adam’s mistake, because Noah could not fulfill his responsibility toward the will either, God’s will was prolonged for 400 more years. Through Abraham and Isaac, at the time of Jacob, God found the one individual and family.
Centering on that family of Jacob, God led the Israelites through the course of Egypt. God lifted up Moses to lead the Israelites. However, when Jesus came to recover the nation of Israel centering on the people, he could not claim it back as his own and died without establishing it as Heaven’s. What then happened to the chosen people of Israel? They became scattered all over the world. God worked to establish the course of the New Testament providence, from the time of Jesus’ death until today. He tried to construct a people and a nation centered on God, which Jesus had tried to recover. He tried to build a world where the ideology of cosmic heaven could be in full operation. Because this kind of foundation was not laid, the Christians who believe in Jesus today still must find and establish the ideology of a nation. However, they are ignorant of this.
What does Jesus demand in today’s era? Because the Israelites, whom Heaven raised through 4,000 years of toil were lost, Jesus hopes that Christianity today can cope with the mission of the second Israel, representing the Israelites. However, you must realize that Christians are ignorant of this.
When you think about yourselves, as you are moving toward the heavenly nature, you will discover that you are miserable. Because people failed to convey the way of the heavenly nature correctly, there is no family, society, people, nation or world that can connect with the way of the heavenly nature. You must reflect upon being in this kind of situation.
Because restoring all of this is your ultimate purpose, Heaven has hoped that before you achieve it, you will not rely too strongly upon something else. In other words, He does not want you to put yourself under some group or doctrine. Therefore, it is your fate to take this to heart as you move forward.
When you ask whether your body has become capable of representing the earth, the people and eternal life, you will not be able to answer in the affirmative. Therefore, you must not assert that you belong to yourself. As Jacob had seventy relatives centered on his twelve children, you must form a family in which God can dwell. Your family must belong to the nation over which God can rule, and that nation must belong to the world over which God can rule. Furthermore, even all the spirits of the spirit world must belong to the realm of ideology that God governs.
Clearly you must understand from what position and situation you have been chosen. You must reflect upon the position from which you have carried on your ideology, desires and actions. By doing so, you must clearly understand what situation you are in before the whole will of the heavenly principles, before the whole providential will of the creation.
God’s providential will for Christianity is for the sake of finding individuals who can bring joy to God; finding families God can govern, and forming a heavenly people by joining those families together. The chosen people of Israel should have completed the responsibility to realize this will, but when they were torn apart, God mobilized the Christians of the world and has been building the second Israel. Therefore, the Christians of the whole world must unite into one to usher in the one day they can take the offensive toward the evils of this earth, the day of the last judgment which Christianity speaks about.
To Become the Possession of God
Those who have become completely united with the heavenly will and have won the recognition of Heaven, and those who have had mysterious experiences probably understand this. They will feel God recognizing that they are His. At the same time, they will see all things bowing their heads toward them. Human beings today do not realize that on the day that all things of the creation recognize that you are the son of God and the possession of God, the countless spirits of the spirit world, as well as all things of the earth, will bow their heads in praise. If God and all things can recognize someone, then those with a true conscience can also be in harmony before them.
You can have the sense of your position and existence, but you must abandon all sense of possession. You must think that you will represent the will of all things, the will of humanity, and the will of the heavenly principles. Those who realize that they are marching forward with this ideology are the so-called enlightened people. To walk that path of enlightenment, you cannot possess all the things you want on earth, do all the things you want, and enjoy all the things you want in your life.
If you truly want to establish the value of existence based on the heavenly principles, you must first be able to deny yourself mercilessly. You must be determined to go forward with the enmity to mercilessly fight against your family, society and this sinful world. That does not mean you are to use brute force. You must attack sin with service and sacrifice. Traveling through this kind of course, Heaven has been battling silently for the long period of 6,000 years.
Now that you have come to know that God, the Creator, has been working hard to reclaim human beings in this manner, what must you do? You must become someone who can be in harmony as the possession of the universe, all people, and all things of creation. You must be taken as the possession of God. What must you do to become the possession of God? You must first learn to feel that God, the Creator who created all things, is our Father. By doing so, you must understand that the Creator God is our Father who, as the eternal, unchanging and Absolute Being, has been exerting Himself to restore the inseparable parent- child relationship since the time of the creation of the world.
If our physical parents gave us flesh and blood, then what kind of parent is the Creator? He is our eternal and unchanging spiritual True Parent. He is the Parent of our minds and the True Parent of our spirit, who gives us eternal life. Human principles have taught us, until now, that we must look up to and be filial toward our flesh and blood parents. Because there has been no law concerning the Creator of the heavenly principles, the human principles and the heavenly principles have been going their own separate ways. Therefore, there had to be someone who advocated the way of the heavenly True Parent, the Creator God, who can represent both the human principles and the heavenly principles. This person is Jesus.
When Jesus came to the earth, he said that the Creator was his Father and that he was one with Him. He advocated this with the content of the unity of couples and the unity of parent and child. Advocating the way of sons and daughters of filial piety toward the heavenly principles is greater than any other advocacy.
The Reason Jesus Could Become the Messiah
You who believe in Jesus today are living in the last chapter of history. However, countless courses of revolution have been passed through to reach this far in the process. The norms and customs centered on individuals or clans were shattered when a greater group of people came onto the scene. The course of history has been such that individual nations have been absorbed into bigger and stronger nations by the providence which pursues the unification of the whole.
There is only one earth, there is only one human race, and there is only one God, so God has been toiling to realize the one day when these three can sit together and rejoice. God’s intention is not to give directions with the authority of a leader nor is it to predominate, based on His personal desires.
God has been relating to humankind for 6,000 years with a heart that surpasses that which parents have toward their children. God’s history of toils in relationship to humanity has been His attempt to find the one day when people can demonstrate filial piety toward Him, which exceeds that which is given to physical parents and call Him “Father.” However, people today are not aware of this fact.
If you pray with this kind of thought in your heart, you will not need many prayers. With the words “Heavenly Father!” alone, you can feel the heart of the Father who has been working for thousands of years. You will also feel that God traveled through the course of conflict, throughout the 6,000 year history, for the sake of finding you.
Therefore, if God wants to call you “My beloved son,” you must be able to relate to God as a Father. You must feel the heart God possessed at the time of the creation, His broken heart due to the fall, and His heart which longs to save all the people of the world.
You are not to be satisfied and happy while looking at the providence of God toward you. If you feel the heart of the Father who is concerned about humanity confronting the evil left on the earth and reaching the destination of Canaan through all kinds of tribulations, then if you call out to the beloved Father, that one word can penetrate through the whole historical will.
When you pray today, you frequently call out, “My Father who is in heaven,” yet in this world there are many people who are defiling that Father’s name. We have to understand that contained in the word “Father” are the cries of the prophets who have come and gone through an altar of blood over these 6,000 years. Contained in that word is the crucifixion. We have to understand that the infinite agonies and the miserable historical bonds of the prophets and patriots are manifested in that word.
Therefore, if you have come to realize that this Creator is the Father who has an inseparable relationship with you, then no matter how powerful Satan might be, he can never snatch you away. No matter how scary the fires of hell might be, such a person will not be melted.
Why did Jesus become the Messiah? In the same way that the conviction of the rightness of filial piety can represent the history of human principles, Jesus was determined to represent the heavenly principles, even at the cost of abandoning the human principles. Unconcerned about whether he perished or prospered, not thinking about his own honor, Jesus served God, the Creator of all things, as his Father.
Jesus was not welcomed in his family, and he was mistreated by his relatives. He was not welcomed by John the Baptist’s group, and he was ostracized by the religious leaders. The Israelites charged him as a traitor. However, because he understood his mission to alleviate the Father’s bitter heart of grief, bound up in history, Jesus abandoned everything. Even if people turned their backs on him, he did not despair. This is how Jesus became qualified to become the Messiah. Jesus had a heart that no one in the history of humanity had ever possessed; the feelings of his heart for the sake of God pierced more deeply into his flesh and bones than his feelings for his own relatives.
Therefore, when all people were opposing Jesus, as God stood in the position to end the 4,000 year history, He forgot all about His dignity and was able to shed tears, clinging to Jesus. Although countless prophets and patriots had come in the 4,000 years of prior history, Jesus was the only one who truly understood the heart of God.
Jesus showed humanity the laws of the heavenly principles in his life course. When Jesus stood in the position where his body and blood were linked to the heart that could call God “Father,” and when he perceived that all things long to make a heavenly relationship with people who are searching for God, Jesus felt indescribable torment.
True Children of God: the Heirs of the Heart
Therefore, humanity today must feel the heart felt when Jesus and God met in one moment in time to bring an end to the 4,000-year history. Yet humanity today is not even thinking about this. When Jesus was praying in the garden of Gethsemane in blood and sweat, his heart was unspeakably sorrowful as he thought about the betraying people and the faithless altar. He tried to represent the worldwide dispensation.
As you can see, because Jesus’ heart of love toward God was greater than the opposition of the religion, the people, the nation and the world, he could possess all the heart that one can feel as a human being and all the heart that God possessed. As a result, he could walk the path to Golgotha with confidence.
Therefore, if you pray today with the same heart as that of Jesus who prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39), none of you will go to hell. However, there was no one who understood Jesus’ heart of love. Consequently, Jesus left behind the terms “bride and bridegroom” on this earth.
Why is Mary Magdalene remembered in Christianity? Why is it that her name has been passed down through many generations in memory? Jesus said it should be so. At that time, who would have tolerated a lowly woman pouring 300 denarii worth of aromatic oil on the feet of a bachelor and wiping it with her hair? Why did Jesus say that the name Mary Magdalene would be remembered wherever the Gospels were taught? The disciples laughed at him, Judas Iscariot protested, and everyone opposed him on this. He spoke these words because, more than his beloved disciples or countless other people, the actions of Mary Magdalene in that hour set the condition of having offered all of her heart and effort.
When Jesus died on the cross, the disciples who had followed him all ran away. However, Mary Magdalene and the mother of Jesus went to visit Jesus’ tomb. They had families, a husband, and the Jewish customs centered on the peculiar Old Testament mentality. However, disregarding all of these, unconcerned about social dignity or honor, they went to visit the tomb of a deceased bachelor Jesus. This is how Mary Magdalene could meet the resurrected Jesus.
Where will the heavenly judgment be determined? You should not brag because you have made many contributions and efforts for Heaven. It is not decided by that. The only thing that counts is when the heart of God and the heart of Jesus are experienced in your body and bear fruit. When this becomes an inseparable relationship with God and Jesus, this alone will be the condition of eternal immortality.
When you consider this, what should humanity do today? Although it is good to pursue the words of truth that can link you with God and pursue spiritual experiences, more important, you must build a relationship of love through which you can dwell deep inside the heart of God. You must build a relationship of heart and love with Jesus. When you do that, you can stand as the bride of Jesus and the sons and daughters of God.
Today, however, we are a sad people. The thirty million Korean people should become the Israelites, but we have failed to do so. No matter how many churches there may be in this society, there is no church of God. No matter how many people of faith there are, we have come to realize that they are not the sons and daughters of God. Therefore, what must emerge on this earth? There must emerge on the earth the sons and daughters of God who can save this people. There must be a church of God. A people of God must emerge. Accordingly, if a way opens on the path of tears and the path of abandonment, through which we can become the sons of God, we must offer gratitude for that.
In the 400-year period of the Egyptian captivity, the purpose of which was to build a people, the Israelite clans set the one standard and ideology centered on Heaven. By uniting as a people, they passed through a period of unchanging faith. Only after that were they finally able to usher in the one day of hope. Similarly, you are in the same position. You must feel deep in the core of your bones that you are living in a land similar to Egypt today. Therefore, you must now possess the heart of Moses. He carried on the battle, with a heart of enmity, toward the palace of the Pharaoh that overlooked the chosen Israelites. Moses did not change his determination for one day, even as he was struggling through the forty-year course in the Midian wilderness.
The Responsibility Toward the Three Great Parents
What must you do to endure through a long period of time? It is not enough with some truth or some doctrine. You must look upon the people representing the heart of Heaven. You must possess the heart of Jesus, who prayed for the sake of the people and the church and for the sake of reversing the decline of the nation of Israel. Having done that, hand-in-hand like the early church, you have to forget your situation and dignity and go forward on behalf of Heaven. When you do that, the people will come alive.
Although Jesus wanted to curse the opposing Israelites, because he sensed the heart of God, who had been persevering for 4,000 years in His providence, he was able to wish them blessings instead. In other words, he was able instead to shed tears and pray for the sake of his enemies in the garden of Gethsemane and on the hill of Calvary, the hill of the cross.
How could Paul who had Roman citizenship and abided by all the customs and laws of that nation abandon his reputation, the Judaism in which he believed and all of his knowledge, and stand in the position of being driven out? This was because Paul understood Jesus’ great heart of love. Therefore, though he did not have any place upon which to rely, no place to rest his body and, even when he was being swept around by a strong storm, he forgot his own comfort and spread the words of Jesus.
The apostle Paul did not fulfill his portion of responsibility by virtue of his character. You have to understand that he had the one standard which others did not possess, the one standard which could link him with the heart of Jesus Christ who appeared in place of God’s love. Therefore, he could become the apostle Paul. No matter how much knowledge and money one has, these cannot achieve it. Therefore, you also must live centered on the heavenly laws. Your minds and bodies must move toward that direction.
We cannot escape our relationships with the three great parents of Heaven, the earth and people. How are we going to pay back the debt for their grace? Until now, humanity, people and citizens who were in debt, all perished. Because the providence to seek and establish this ideology remains, material fortune on the world level is coming toward humankind today. The time is near when all things will strike humankind. The reason is that humans have forgotten their position and committed sins before all things, before the world, and humanity in the last days. Therefore, the will of restoration through indemnity remains.
Consequently, people must emerge who can step over and rise above material suffering. Apostles must emerge who can connect with the love of God, as in the early days of the church.
The advanced nation of America is operating according to democratic ideas; but if it advocates the supremacy of materialism, then it will be struck by materials. The time has come when we must think about a way to use these materials for the entire human race. Nations like America must assist other nations. However, if they help others for the sake of attaining some selfish benefit, then the heavenly principles will not tolerate it.
To realize this ideology, humanity has passed through a democratic economic society and is progressing toward an economic society of the original material culture. Accordingly, people must set the substantial standard that can advocate the original value of materials and represent the original ideology so that they can attain the form where materials, humankind and Heaven can join as one.
The Tradition of the Citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven
As we fathom all the lives of faith today, clearly we must not have faith that is subordinate to material things. If there is such a religious group, then God will mobilize people of conscience to revise it. Such a time is approaching. We are entering the time when we must correct the mentality of those who neglect the heavenly principles and are insisting on their own way.
Because the earth is one, it must also have consciousness and a purpose for existence. Because the earth is a created thing, it must have one master. This one master is none other than God. Therefore, as long as God exists, the world that can operate under the one ideology will surely be accomplished.
There must emerge a unified perspective on the universe which can dominate all thought. If the ideology centered on the actual existence of God cannot govern the human world and cannot build the parent-child relationship with humanity, then this amounts to God failing to fulfill His responsibility as the parent of this earth and humanity. Therefore, there must come one day when all things revolve around the one center, when the earth revolves around the ideology of the universe, and when humankind moves centering on one doctrine.
Today many people are boasting, “I am such and such a person,” or “I am a citizen of such a nation.” Americans today are bragging that they are the citizens of a great nation. However, this will not last forever. America is existing for its own sake; it does not know that it must live for the sake of other nations. This is the same as the Greek civilization of the past that did not realize it existed for the sake of Rome nor did Rome know that its international civilization existed for the sake of modern civilization through England. Therefore, the American people must understand that they must work not only for the sake of their nation, but also for the sake of other nations. Nonetheless, most Americans are ignorant of this. Even in this situation some of the people have the mentality that the situation in which they must work for the sake of the heavenly principles is a fortune among misfortunes.
Therefore, you must now represent the heavenly nature and go forward toward the providence of the world with new weapons. Although material civilizations have dominated humankind and doctrines based on human reason have dominated the world, this is not the end. The time will certainly come when a doctrine will appear somewhere on earth that can connect with the heavenly nature, Jesus and the heavenly ideology.
However, today we do not have any doctrine, and our nation is not an advanced nation on the world level. However, if this people can offer the cosmic heart of God, which will remain until the end as the possession of God, if they can feel the ideology which the whole of humanity depends upon and hopes for and can be manifested as Godism, then you must not despair.
You who have gathered in the Unification Church today, although you are sitting in a small church here, if you have felt the heart that when this is expanded, it can represent the world and the heavenly nature, then all problems will be solved. You can resolve anything. Because you are the children who must represent the will of God, you must become citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven who attend God as the master of this world. You must remember that you cannot deviate from the will of God in any place or time.
In the Bible verse that I read there were the following words: “There is no greater love than loving your enemies,” and “Pray for the sake of your enemies.” We must establish the laws Jesus advocated and the traditions in which the people of the eternal Father must take pride. What Jesus advocated is not limited only to that time; he advocated the laws of the heavenly principles which are needed for the restoration of humanity. Accordingly, if you want to become the sons and daughters of God, you must feel and possess the love of God. To do that, since God has been enduring for 6,000 years and has been fighting until now to find the sons and daughters of love, you must also carry on the fight.
The Nine Fruits of the Sacred Spirit
If you want to call yourself Heaven’s own, you must first enter the position of God, who sheds tears. You will feel what God has experienced through the tormenting course of history, and you will also shed tears. The same thing is true for the ears that are listening. You will not be able to swallow even one spoonful of rice you are eating. If you have become the people who can connect with the distressed heart of Heaven in this manner, then this people can live on. You have to understand that God is seeking this kind of person.
In the Bible, it is recorded about the nine fruits of the sacred spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. (Gal. 5:22-23) These nine fruits of the sacred spirit are the standards of the nation that Heaven advocates, which God is constructing and trying to establish. They are the system of that society and the ideology of life. Have you ever felt this deep inside? If you have such a deeply felt conviction, you will feel the heart of Jesus, who had to close his mouth and persevere while clinging to the rock and facing Jerusalem, though he had many things he wanted to say.
You have entered the Unification Church today. You must not desire the Unification Church for your own sake. You have to understand that the reason we are here is for the sake of the people. The reason the people exist is for the sake of the world. The reason the world exists is for the sake of Heaven. Moreover, although you will exert yourself for the sake of this will and offer something before the altar, you have to understand that God is happier about someone worrying about the will. You have to also understand that, more than preparing a comfortable place for Jesus to sleep in and more than conducting a big and generous banquet for him, God and Jesus are happier about someone who is worrying about the heart of Jesus and shedding tears while holding onto the world.
Jesus wanted the twelve disciples to love the chosen people, forgetting themselves, more than he wanted them to serve him. The same thing was true of Moses, and it is also true of God.
Therefore, you must become filial sons and daughters, loyal subjects, and women of piety who feel a great shame which gives you no room for any excuses. You must feel how inadequate you are for not being able to insist that you will do something, and you must feel apologetic toward Heaven. You must carry on the battle so that you will not become the possession of the Father. If you can become this kind of person and go forward, then history will pass through the people, the nation and the world to cross over into the era of the cosmos.
Who can guarantee that the time will not come when Heaven will play the leadership role? As long as there is Heaven, there will surely come a time when Heaven must play the role of a leader. Because the one standard of human principles has not been set until today, the heavenly principles could not interfere. Yet on the day that the dignity of the heavenly principles is restored before humanity, humankind will have no way to escape from its commands and laws.
The time like this is coming, yet people are ignorant of this. They must reflect upon themselves again. Having done so, passing through the gates of God’s love, you must become capable and confident people who can say, “We believe in God absolutely,” and become the true sons and daughters who can serve the Father.
Chapter 6: The Heart of Jesus Who Must Restore All Tasks
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 23, 1958
Prayer
Father, we have come to know that the historical course of fate lies before us, requiring us to fulfill the will of God no matter what. Therefore, please extend Your powerful hands.
Please let only the will of God fill our bodies and minds. If there is someone who is in charge of some heavenly mission on the earth, please let him not apply mere humanistic thought to understanding the will of Heaven. Please allow us to become sons and daughters who act only according to the flow of our minds. Please let us not become those who move their bodies first. Beloved Father, we earnestly wish and pray that You will allow this to be an hour when we can feel the glorious heart of the Father through our minds and bodies.
We have learned that when the laws of the heavenly way and the Father’s ideology of resurrection come into a relationship with us, we can experience the heart of the Father, who has been guiding the providence throughout the course of history. Please allow us to possess the heart of love that can link us with the heart of the Father. Please allow us to understand the Father’s heart of restoration.
Based upon that, please allow us to understand the heart of the Father, who is concerned about the earth. Beloved Father, we hope that since we are inadequate, You will grasp hold of us and awaken us in order to raise us as Your people.
Although we are as pitiful as beggars, we are trying to feel the Father’s hands of infinite love and sing His praise. Therefore, Father, please direct us and work through us.
Today, we want to offer this hour to the will of the entire dispensation. Father, please get rid of our inadequacies. We sincerely hope for this. Having done that, please allow only the heart of the Father to settle in our minds. Please allow us to experience, through our bodies, all the historical hearts of the Father, so that we can shed tears of sorrow before You and be guided to attend You with utmost sincerity.
We immature ones who have been living inside the bosom of Satan will cut off all connections with Satan’s environment. Therefore, Father, please look upon us with compassion in this hour. Moreover, please embrace this hour to express the power of love and resurrection. Father, please manifest the concealed words to the sons and daughters who have gathered in this hour. Beloved Father, we ardently wish that, by casting aside all conditions of doubt, You will allow the grace of life to be expressed according to Your desire.
Beseeching You not to let the heart of the speaker and the heart of the listener be divided, and beseeching You to personally perform the works to make this an hour of grace, we offer all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Today, in this hour, I will speak briefly upon the topic of “The Heart of Jesus Who Must Restore All Tasks.” As you have learned through the Principle, the 6,000 years of the providence of God was the history of restoration. You are also well aware that the purpose of the dispensational history of restoration is to find the people and the world of creation that were lost.
Moreover, you know well that this one purpose is for the sake of saving people. The reason the universe has value is that it has the potential to accomplish this one purpose.
The reason fallen people want the ideology of the Kingdom of Heaven is because they are created that way by nature. When we look at ourselves, we can see that fortune and misfortune crisscross in our lives. Even in the infinite and eternal world, the Kingdom of Heaven of joy and the hell of misfortune all coexist because of the fall of humankind.
The Anguish of God Toward People and Jesus
You know that the coexistence of the desired Kingdom of Heaven and undesirable hell is inevitable during the restoration of fallen people. God has created all things, and among them He molded and created humans in the image of His hyung sang. Accordingly, as God is eternal, people can enjoy eternity. When God feels joy, people can also can feel joy. People were made to rejoice when God rejoices and mourn when God mourns. Yet among you today, there are many who are not even sure whether God exists. There are many who do not even think about when God is happy or sad.
Moreover, those who have lamented and toiled for Heaven and offered themselves as sacrifices have been enduring pains of indignation and injustice, even as they sacrificed themselves. People living on earth today cannot even imagine these things.
Who understands the heart of God, who could not abandon people even as He endured through the long history? It was not just once or twice that people betrayed Heaven. Humankind betrayed Heaven many millions of times throughout the long period of 6,000 years. Therefore, we, the descendants of these ancestors, are so shameful before Heaven we cannot even raise our heads; yet those who feel this are few indeed.
The agony of God since the fall of man has been how to allow people to experience His actual existence and His historical heart. Therefore, God chose Noah and Moses and raised them. Furthermore, God finally raised one person, Jesus, after passing through 4,000 years of a historical course. Jesus was the one person who could reveal the internal and external situation and heart of the Father, who had been clinging to the will of the providence of restoration and had been exerting Himself.
Jesus was someone governed only by God. He consulted with God alone. He was the one who understood the internal love and heart of God most clearly. What situation does the fall of humankind refer to? The fall was not understanding the situation of God. The fall was not understanding the heart of God. Therefore, God has been searching for the one individual who can be connected to His situation. He has been exerting Himself to search for the individual who can connect to His heart.
God finally found and lifted Jesus, the one person who could fathom His situation and share His heart. However, it was not to end there. It was God’s ardent desire that He could make His situation and heart known to humanity through Jesus. The Israelites had this very mission, to fulfill this intense desire of God, but when they turned against Jesus, a historical tragedy took place. You have to understand that historical success and failure, prosperity and decline, crossed paths here.
Accordingly, today we must walk the path connected to the situation and heart of God. We must possess the heart and love of God. Inside the glory of God, people can rejoice when God rejoices and be glad when God is glad.
You know that the one who came to the earth on behalf of all people as the true person, the one of the heavenly lineage who had the original nature of creation, was none other than Jesus. Because Jesus came to facilitate a relationship between God and man, he represented the situation and heart of God.
Therefore, if the people of that time had become one with Jesus, not only would they have been able to know the heart and situation of God, they would have also been able to become friends of Jesus. They failed to do that. You have to understand that, although this has traveled down through history, it has not been accomplished even now.
The Chosen People Did Not Understand the Heart of Jesus
What was the heart of God, who grieved still more over the death of Jesus? God did not send Jesus, after 4,000 years of hard work, to let him die. He sent him to save humanity. Jesus was not sent for spiritual restoration alone. On the contrary, God sent Jesus to usher in the day when all people on the earth could understand the situation and heart of God through him and live in joy with Jesus. However, because of the faithlessness of man, Jesus had to bear the cross, and God had to suffer the tragedy of seeing His will frustrated. Because of this, God sunk into even greater sorrow.
Although countless people are living on the earth today, their situations and hearts are all different. For every thousand or 10,000 people, their living environments are all different. However, we are not to head toward thousands of different destinations. We must head toward one place, Heaven, according to the laws Heaven has set down. Jesus gave up his own situation and heart to represent the heavenly situation and heart and build the nation of God. He came before humankind with one ideology, one situation and one heart. However, they related with him based on their myriad situations. These people all met their doom and fell away from him. God sent Jesus after 4,000 years of exertion. When he had to die on the cross, God sent the Holy Spirit. In this way, the Holy Trinity has become one and has been toiling for the sake of claiming back those who have become united with the will of Heaven.
From this perspective, it is clear that, although Jesus Christ who came 2,000 years ago was only one individual, he was the hero of Heaven who could represent the past, the present and the future. The people then did not know this. Although Jesus was just one individual, he was the fruit of the 4,000-year history. He was the living sacrifice who could resurrect the whole world. He was the medium of blessing which would be passed down to thousands of generations. Nonetheless, who on earth understood this? Although God sent Jesus before humankind to introduce the heart of Heaven, there was no one who understood. Although they were the people who should have understood the situation of Jesus and God, it was just the opposite. They said, “Jesus, please accept my situation. God, please understand my situation.” We must understand that this was an act that caused lamentation and blocked the course of Heaven’s dispensation.
If the people then were linked to the situation and heart of Jesus which represented God’s and had the heart of Jesus become the heart of the Israelites, then Jesus would not have died. Moreover, Jesus would not have needed to pray, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39)
Yet who understood that the anguish of 4,000 years was inside the heart of Jesus? There was no one who, even for a moment, recognized the heart of Jesus who came to alleviate the aching heart of all people. You have to understand this.
Today you believe in Jesus, yet you brazenly pray, “Oh! Lord, we welcome you. You have called us friends.” However, you must not merely pray like this. You must pray, understanding the heart and situation of Jesus, who actually represented the entire history of the providence of restoration. You must be able to hear from Jesus, “Your mind is my mind, your body is my body, and your situation is my situation.”
If there had been someone who fathomed the heart of Jesus like this at that time, then even if Jesus were opposed by the Israelites and the religious sect and ignored by his followers and apostles, Jesus would have been able to fulfill everything through that one person who comprehended. However, because there was no such person, Jesus could not comfort God’s situation and heart on behalf of the earth.
The Different Anguishes of Jesus
Jesus could not speak all that he wanted. However, he did not live only for his own purpose. While he was doing various difficult things, such as the work of a carpenter for thirty-odd years, he silently traveled the course of sacrifice for the sake of the will. From the moment he began the three-year course of his public life until the moment he died on the cross at Golgotha, there was no moment when Jesus lived for his own sake. He did not forget, even for a moment, that he had the historical mission to introduce the situation and heart of God to the earth. Jesus wanted to unveil this heart to the people of that time.
When he was beholding all things, Jesus felt them saying to him, “Please remove the bitter grief caused by the human fall.” Because all things also left the bosom of God when humans did and remained inside the realm of agony, they were desperately longing for the one person, Jesus. He could feel all things crying out to him in appeal, “Oh! Lord, please liberate us.”
Not only that, Jesus understood that for 4,000 years, countless spirits in the spirit world had been moaning and waiting for the appearance of the Messiah who could liberate them. He also knew that he was the only one who could fulfill their wishes. Furthermore, when Jesus looked at the humanity of that time, living in the hell-like earthly world, the many lives who were imprisoned and struggling fiercely inside the iron chambers of death, impatiently awaiting their liberation from the miserable environment, his heart burned in an indescribable way.
We must understand that the Jesus whom we now believe in shed tears for the sake of all people of the earth and the spirits who are moaning inside the hell of the spirit world. He shed tears while fathoming the historical situation and heart of God.
When Jesus was looking at a person, he did not consider that person as just an individual. Jesus looked at the person as someone who represented history and the ideology of the whole universe. You must learn to sense that the greater Jesus’ hopes for humankind, the greater his desperation became.
Jesus lamented while listening to the struggling voices of the opposition, but he was not sad for himself. Jesus knew that this scene could remind him of the opposition that Satan had put up against God for 4,000 years. In this way, Jesus could feel the sorrow of God through that scene. When he had to listen to the shouting voices of the people, Jesus felt the sorrow of God. Thus, Jesus came to comprehend the unspeakably miserable situation and heart of God. When Jesus came to understand that God, who had exerted Himself for 4,000 years, was in the position to feel joy and be comforted through him, he felt incredibly sad.
Although it is easy to believe in the Jesus that the disciples bore witness to, it was difficult to believe in him when one was facing him directly. It is easy to trust in Jesus who was judged most highly in the ensuing generations, but it was difficult to believe in Jesus who was hanging on the cross and being charged as the traitor of Israel.
Where was the sorrow of God bound as He watched over Jesus? You have to understand that it was bound in that scene, when he was driven out and nailed to the cross.
The people then only wanted to listen to the words of Jesus and did not want to establish the words. There was not even one person who tried to put the will into practice, from the depth of his heart, in his actual daily life. When you consider this, you must sense that Heaven is in the same position of sorrow now as it was then. Now when you suffer persecution in the name of Jesus, you will learn about the tormented heart of the Father.
The Filial Piety of Jesus Toward God
When Jesus saw that the three disciples failed to stay up with him through the night as he was praying alone in the garden of Gethsemane, why was he unable to chastise them? It was because he realized the heart of God, who could not chastise or judge, though there had been many people who had opposed Him in the 4,000 years. Similarly, you must experience the heart of Jesus that his disciples could not experience.
When Jesus was being whipped and bearing the cross on his shoulder, he could have held grudges against Heaven. Because he knew that God had been overcoming crises more difficult than his in the 4,000 years of restoration, Jesus could not become resentful. He did not even have room in his mind to think about anything but God.
When he was being nailed to the cross, when the nails pierced his hands and feet, when the crown of thorns was forced on his head and a spear was thrust through his side and extinguished his life, Jesus did not hold any grudge against the faithless people. On the contrary, with an intensely urgent heart, he bowed his head toward Heaven and felt deeply apologetic. This is the reason Jesus could become the Messiah for all humanity.
What did Jesus feel on the cross? Jesus could experience the tormented and sorrowful heart and situation of God over 4,000 years. In that moment, the heart of God and the heart of Jesus became one. Moreover, this oneness of mind and heart with God was fused forever. This is where Jesus stepped over the providential undertaking and the spirits in the spirit world in the formation stage dispensation could produce the resurrection of the growth stage dispensation. This was not simply a revolution on the level of the people; it was a revolution on the level of the universe. In addition, the people on the earth, who had hitherto believed in the Old Testament and had tried to hold fast to rituals and actions, could make a great transformation to conduct based on faith and belief.
Because the mind of God and the mind of Jesus could become one incarnation in the actual world of substance, God could forge a direct relationship with Jesus. Because Jesus could possess the same heart and enter the same situation as God on behalf of the earth, the works of God could have been performed directly centering on human beings. You have to recognize once more the Jesus that came as a substantial human being with this kind of cosmic mission.
Now you must pray with the same heart with which Jesus prayed in the garden of Gethsemane. Although people today deserve to be sacrificed more harshly than Jesus was at Golgotha, if they have done some work for God they pray, “Oh, God, please accept our labors!” If they suffer even the slightest sorrow, they pray, “God, please take charge of my situation and comfort me.” When we see this, we can understand that the heart of God and the heart of human beings are so different in orientation.
There are many people of faith who are in this kind of situation. The same situation existed at the time of Jesus. The disciples, who followed Jesus, thought that Jesus would be satisfied with just them. They thought their wishes were all for which Jesus wished. Israel foolishly thought that the will of God could be realized only through their people. However, this is not how Jesus thought. Jesus’ ideology of restoration was such that after fulfilling the will, he wanted to transcend the people and go beyond the world to reach the eternal world. The twelve disciples who appeared before Jesus wrongly thought that the will of God could be realized only through them. You have to understand that this was the cause of historical misfortune and sorrow.
The Faithlessness and Ignorance of the Disciples
Jesus knew that he had the mission to transcend himself and restore the family, society, nation, world, and even the infinite spirit world. Therefore, Jesus sought individuals in order to find a people. He sought a people for the sake of finding the world. Jesus has made effort for the 2,000 years since his death to find the world and transform the whole of heaven and earth into a place God governs. Accordingly, there was no way that he could reveal the deep content of the heart and will of God to the people who came before him and were supposed to fulfill this cosmic plan. You have to understand that Jesus was in this kind of miserable situation. This is why Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now. (John 16:12)
Jesus tried to fully accomplish the duties that loyalty toward Heaven called for because he was burning with a sense of cosmic mission. He wanted to represent the providence of God, which had to restore all things of the whole world. Yet the people were ignorant of this.
How about you today? Are there those among you who assert, “I have believed in Jesus for several decades. I am a minister. I am an elder. God will certainly recognize me”? If there are such people, you must bow your heads before God and shed tears. Who would have ever thought that the Israelites who had boasted of their status as the chosen people for 4,000 years would perish? Who would have ever thought that even the disciples, who had shared all joys and hardships with Jesus during the three years of his public life, would betray him? No one knew.
How did this history of contradiction come into being? It was because the concepts and hopes of Jesus were different from the concepts and hopes of the disciples. This is why the disciples betrayed Jesus.
Have you ever shed tears feeling the tormented heart of those who heard the struggling voices of all things at the time of Jesus and prayed, “Please liberate them”? Have you ever heard the shouting voices of the many millions of the spirits who are mourning in the spirit world? Jesus heard them. Jesus shed tears because he knew about the whip of judgment that in the last days would pour down fire and brimstone. Have you ever felt the situation of Jesus, who could not speak in his own defense, even as he was being dragged here and there under miserable circumstances?
In the last days of this period, when we must guide the fate of Christianity to a new direction, it is right for us to possess nothing. Ladies and gentlemen, the only problem the only thing that matters, is that even if your body is torn and trampled upon, you must be able to represent the situation and heart of God. If there is no one among you who can die to represent the heart of God, the whole universe will shed tears. If you have forged the inseparable relationship of tears that represents the heart of God and experienced that heart of tears, you will not hesitate to face even death. When Jesus came to the earth on behalf of this sorrowful heart and fell down, the whole of heaven and earth became darkened. This shows that heaven and earth could understand the heart of Jesus. However, human beings did not. Consequently, Jesus could not deflect the way of the cross.
Therefore, before you pray for your sons and daughters today, you must first pray for the sake of the historical ancestors who exerted themselves. You must have the heart that wishes for the humanity of the earth to lead a prosperous life before you lead a prosperous life. Before you dance, you must first turn your eyes toward all people who are inside the realm of sorrow and become concerned for them. Moreover, you must possess the heart that can represent the situation of Jesus, who could not express joy when he was happy. Today, in the last chapter of the history of humankind, there must appear one such person on the earth to avert the sorrow of God and Jesus and the agony of the universe.
The Hope of Jesus
Now, even if you are driven out and mistreated, you must say, “Okay. Our Lord and bridegroom silently passed away on the cross after he declared, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) From now on, there will no longer be any need for signboards and denominations. There will come a true ideal world where it does not matter if people are different.
The hope of Jesus represented the ideology of the whole cosmos. The mission of Jesus was the mission to restore all things of the universe. You now understand what the apostles did not understand. Only if you comfort the heart of Jesus as the first Israel failed to do, can this people emerge as the second Israel. Although Jesus was looking for an individual whom he could eternally believe in, he could not find such an individual on earth. Therefore, God sent the Holy Spirit to the earth. Centering on the Holy Spirit, God has been searching for those He can trust through Christianity. Therefore, the time of attaining salvation only through the name of Jesus has passed.
Ideology can connect all people, but a substantial body can only be linked to one person. Therefore, there are many people of faith who say that they believe in the ideology, but there will not be many who claim they are embodiments of that ideology. What I am saying is that there is no person of faith who can say, “God’s mind is my mind, my mind is His. His sorrow is my sorrow.” Have you ever felt Heaven’s heart of grief that has been bound until today, the heart so sorrowful it feels as if your bones are melting? You must realize that no matter where Jesus went, he spent thirty-odd years on the earth with such an intense mind that he was constantly on the verge of losing consciousness and fainting.
Therefore, it is your fate today to pass through the gates of judgment centering on the one day. Who is going to guarantee this path? Jesus does not guarantee it. God cannot guarantee it. Neither Jesus nor God could guarantee the path of Israel in the past. Just as the chosen people met their doom, Jesus cannot guarantee the path that the Christians are walking in the last days, even God cannot guarantee it. You have to understand this clearly.
Who then will obtain the guarantee? Only when you can become connected to the situation and heart of God and can feel the lonely heart of Jesus as he tried to embrace the whole of humanity, can you finally obtain guarantees from God and Jesus.
Those who believe in Jesus today think that salvation takes place and the entire Kingdom of Heaven that they demand is built at the level of their faith, but this thinking is definitely wrong. When one goes to the spirit world, one will find that this is not the case. When those who boasted that they were the best went to the spirit world, they found themselves in a miserable situation. What is the cause of this? Although you might think you are walking the correct path while heading toward the last destination of eternal life, if you are off by two strands of a hair’s width at the starting point, in the end you will have deviated many millions of miles.
What then can connect this? It is not our logic, knowledge or assertions. It is the heart that can love God. You must be able to say that the heart of God is your heart, that your heart is the heart of God. There must be some force of the heart that pulls You closer. Only then will the last center of the heart of God become linked to the center of our hearts. This is the alpha and omega of which God spoke, centering on love.
Today is the day we must fulfill the wishes of Jesus by offering our lives. Jesus was ostracized because no individual emerged who could alleviate his grief. Similarly, because such a family did not emerge, he was ostracized in the family. Because such a society and nation did not emerge, he was ostracized in the society and the nation.
However, you have to understand that even as he was being ostracized and driven out in this manner, Jesus transcended the individual, the family, the church and the nation and has been trying to fulfill the will of Heaven on the worldwide stage. Therefore, from the beginning of its ministry until now, Christianity was not welcomed by any nation or people. This is because the path Jesus walked was the path of ostracism.
What We must Understand, Experience and Restore
You might think you can go to Heaven if you hold the Bible at your side and sit comfortably singing hymns and praying, but this is far from the truth. The reason you can receive the grace of Heaven, even in such a position, is because of the effort God has made in seeking you, even as He was ostracized, trampled upon, and has had to circle repeatedly. You can receive the grace of Heaven because of the merit of the many ancestors of faith who have suffered much persecution to raise us. Therefore, the Christians today who are living in the last days, must realize that they have the mission to restore the world, even if they have to sacrifice themselves. You have to sense this.
Even if you are not aware of all the minute details of the course of history, the one thing you should have is the heart of Jesus, who came restore all things of the universe. You have to have the determination to cling to the world and fight, after understanding the heart of Jesus.
The reason God endured even when all things He had created in the six days were being violated by enemies is because God had the heart to embrace the enemies. By enduring for a long, long time, He has walked through the 6,000 years of history. Until God completed the period of the six days of creation, He endured and embraced.
Humans, created on the sixth day, fell. God has been exerting Himself in tears of sorrow for 6,000 years until the day He could find one person and love him. In other words, God has been enduring until today, wishing for the one hour when the person who can receive His love emerges and removes the historical bitterness.
However, the one person who can receive the heart and will of God and can cope with them has not emerged on the earth. Therefore, although 2,000 years have already passed since Jesus left, Jesus is still fighting in Heaven on behalf of the 6,000-year history. The day the person who can represent the heart of Jesus appears on the earth and forges a relationship with God on behalf of humanity is the so-called day of the Second Advent.
In the future, when all things are shackled to grief and cannot escape the realm of judgment, you will hear the shouting voices of humanity. You will hear the voices of supplication, “Oh, please save me. Please remove from us the grief of restoration.” In addition to all things, the 2.4 billion people on the earth will hear these screaming voices.
Furthermore, you should be able to hear the prayers that the many billions of spirits of the spirit world are offering: “Oh, brothers and sisters on the earth, please unshackle us from our historical bitterness.” In this way, you have to come to understand the situation of God, who has been exerting Himself in search of His children for 6,000 years.
What must you restore now? You must restore all things that are inside the realm of lamentation. You must restore all of humanity and restore even the spirits in hell. What then must you restore? You must restore the sorrowful heart of God with a glad heart.
Who has torn apart the tormented heart of God, afflicted with wounds for 6,000 years? The critical issue is who can heal the torn heart of the Father and become the sons and daughter who can become objects of the love of Heaven. This should be none other than you. Humanity has wounded and trampled upon the heart of God for 6,000 years. Therefore, you have to understand that even in this moment, Jesus is appealing for humanity to alleviate the grief of the heart of Heaven. The good people on the side of Heaven have lived with an unspeakably sorrowful heart, reaching out toward all things and the tormented, torn heart of God. They clung to the will of Heaven while enduring hunger. This is the way Jesus led his life 2,000 years ago.
Become Brave Soldiers of Heaven Who March Forward with the Determination to Die
When Jacob ran away from Esau and was on the way to the house of his Uncle Laban to lay the foundation for Israel, there was a time when he slept in the wilderness with a stone for his pillow. When he was living as a shepherd in the house of Laban, what kind of mind-set did he have? Jacob tried to have the same heart of love with which God loved his relatives. He tried to inherit the heart of God who had loved and worried about his relatives for 2,000 years. He tried his best to soothe Heaven’s heart of grief, bound up in sorrow. As you can see, it was a period of hardship, the purpose of which was to allow Jacob to inherit the tormented heart of Heaven.
Please do not despair because you are suffering through a course of hardship. Because the Israelites opposed Jesus, the foundation of blessing laid over the 4,000 years has been handed over to the people of succeeding generations who believed in Jesus. Opposition will fade after a while, and the blessing of the opposition forces will be transferred to you. Even when Jesus came to this earth, the false tried to harm the true, but in the process the former was shattered and eventually disappeared. There is no example in the course of history when victory was won by striking what is true.
Therefore, you must now carry on your life of faith with confidence in your minds and bodies and with conviction in your actions. If you do that, then God will comfort you when you are in pain. Moreover, you will be able to feel the true love of God.
No matter how great the powers of Satan might be, they cannot engulf or digest God. If they try to digest God, the moment they fail to do so, the situation will be completely reversed. If no one puts into practice the ideology and conviction centered on God and swallows the forces of Satan, if such stagnation occurs, then this world will be turned over to Satan. This is how Jesus prevailed. Because there remained on earth enough conditions to prevent Satan from swallowing Jesus, Jesus was resurrected. Now sons and daughters must appear who can absorb even the ideology of the cosmos. After understanding the heart of Jesus who must restore all tasks, we must not yield even one strand of the root of a tree on earth to Satan.
Our bodies and lives belong to the Father. All the material things we have belong to the Father. This nation, this world, and heaven and earth belong to the Father. Only if you become the brave people of Heaven who can reclaim what the Father lost due to the fall can Jesus Christ then act as king on earth for a thousand years.
Now you, the members of the Unification Church, must make the determination that no other people of faith can make. You must be prepared to die as you march forward. If you have come to realize all the historical providential will while marching toward Heaven, then it is not enough to merely make the conditions of doing something in an easy environment. You must set the condition of having done it in an impossible environment. Today we must do what others cannot do, so that the people of future generations will not fail to fulfill the will of Heaven because of some condition we left.
In the same way that the uplifted staff of Moses struck the Red Sea, Jesus longed for the appearance of a people who could feel something deep about his life and become his staff. The reason he endured the hardships and ordeals that caused blood and tears to pour down his face was because he was concerned about the will of Heaven. It was for your sake, and to set conditions of which he could be proud for many generations. When he looked down upon the people who opposed him, his heart was so tormented that it felt as if it was being torn to pieces.
Therefore, now we must take charge of all that Jesus has been concerned about on the world level for 2,000 years. By doing so, we must decrease those concerns gradually and completely fulfill the will of Jesus, who tried to govern the world. Further, we must usher in the one day when Jesus can think about himself, when God can finally think about Himself. More than living for the sake of humankind, we must possess the day when we can lead our lives with God and Jesus. Human beings today are ignorant of such a historical hope.
Ladies and gentlemen, you who have sought after the path that others despise and deny, you who have stepped over high barriers and opposition, it is all right for you to not own anything now. The question is whether God recognizes you or not.
You have the responsibility to bring peace to Jesus and God. You must make it possible for God to rest peacefully and call Him, “Father!” By confronting and obstructing Satan, who is accusing man, you must become qualified to make others get rid of the original sin and say, “Father, please take a rest now!”
When you then say, “Lord! We welcome you. Father, we welcome You,” He will finally come. The conditions of testing must be overcome before God can come and rejoice with humankind. The environment of fear is unacceptable. The purpose of creation was to be intoxicated in an environment where you can rejoice based on the ideology of creation; it is humankind living in that garden with God. Accordingly, you must invite God to that place and attend Him. You must become someone who can represent the entire providence of God. All people must become like this. You must keep in mind that only then can the whole cosmos move toward complete fulfillment, centering on that kind of person.
Prayer
Father, we thought that Jesus came to the earth to seek each of us, but that was not the whole story. We thought that he came for our families, but that also was not the whole story. We thought that he came only for the chosen Israel, but that also was not the full picture. He did not come only for a certain sect.
We have come to the realization that Jesus came on behalf of the hope of the entire world of creation and at the same time for all values. Therefore, Father, what kind of mind do we possess today before Jesus, who has the mission to restore the whole world? Please lead us not to become people who cling to our families and die. Please do not allow us to become people who cling to our people, our nation and our world and die.
Please guide us so that if we live, we do so on behalf of Heaven and earth. If we die, we die on behalf of Heaven and earth. In other words, allow us to carry on our lives beyond the issues of life and death. Beloved Father, this is our ardent hope.
Father, we earnestly wish that You allow the will of the restoration of all creation to be fulfilled so that there will be no screaming voices of lament. If some remain, then please get rid of them through us, so that we can become true sons and daughters, who can reassure Jesus and the Father and forge eternal relationships with the Father by connecting to that heart.
By doing so, please help us alleviate all historical grief and feel the comfort of fulfillment. Allow us to move forward together. Ardently wishing that You allow us to become true sons and daughters of filial piety who can forget all of our own affairs and offer praises to Heaven, we pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Chapter 7: What Is God Going to Do with Exiled Humanity?
Matthew 10:16-42
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
March 30, 1958
The subject upon which I wish to speak is “What Is God Going to Do with Exiled Humanity?” I will speak briefly upon this topic.
The Actual Situation of Humankind
Among those of you who have gathered here today, there is probably not even one person who can boast that he or she is happy and joyful. Each of you will admit that although your mind and body seem to be your own, you cannot really claim them as your own. In other words, your minds do not stand in the position of being eternal, and your bodies have failed to become the eternal dwelling places for your minds.
If there is someone who can say that he has lived confidently, centering on his mind, that person will be extolled as a successful person in life. However, there has been no one in history who could assert this, reassure others of it, or have the conviction that they did everything according to their heart’s desire.
You know very well that your minds should make a relationship with something, but have failed to do so. Moreover, you probably feel that you not only do not possess the environment that enables you to believe in and understand your own minds and bodies, but also your family, your society, the world, and heaven and earth are not really yours.
When you consider this, you cannot deny that all people who have ever lived on the earth are exiled and harassed. In the past our ancestors were exiled from the bosom of God’s love because they committed sin in the Garden of Eden, where they were trying to build the garden of love. You must feel that the situation of being exiled from the bosom of God’s love has not been altered, though 6,000 years of history have passed. People are still being exiled and harassed even now.
Therefore, people have been establishing order among themselves through the laws of human principles. Because this was not enough, they have sought religion and advocated living according to the laws of Heaven.
If we were to ask whether there is someone in the world who has completed perfect righteousness, indivisible and immutable for eternity, who has formed a relationship with justice of which he can be proud before heaven and earth, it is no exaggeration to say there is no such person. Moreover, when we ask whether, after finding a religion, people have attained the self that will not deviate from the eternal way, you cannot confidently answer in the affirmative. You are not in a position of integrity in which you can become eternally united with the heavenly principles, indivisible from them.
Justice, propriety and the heavenly principles have left the human world. What you believe in your minds and seek with your bodies can neither replace them nor represent humanity.
You will then ask yourself, “For whom do I exist? For whom am I living? Who will ultimately possess me? Why am I struggling to find the one love, one life and one ideology?
The more seriously you consider these questions, the more you will discover your own situation. When you discover all this from a serious perspective, there is no way you can avoid the pain that seeps into your minds. If you want to understand all problems of the spirit, all the ultimate problems of life, the relationship between life and the heavenly principles and realize the value of your life, then you must make the firm determination that you will fight without fearing death for the sake of this revolutionary task. If you make this kind of determination and put it into action, then the providence of Heaven will start a new chapter.
What Will Happen in the World of the Future?
What will happen in the world of the future? In other words, what will happen at the end of time, which is nearing? We can see from the words of truth that in the last days there will be no justice in the world. It will be a time when there is no sense of propriety. The heavenly principles will be ignored. You have to understand that, although this is true, Heaven will still drive people toward the heavenly principles.
Who can receive all that in the last days and stand, holding firmly to the heavenly principles? Who are the people who can hold onto the way of Heaven and stand firm? Who are the people who can hold onto justice and stand firm on behalf of human principles? You must ask yourself these questions. If you sense that you have no such confidence, you must frankly unveil before the heavenly principles that you are a sinner.
When you realize that you are a sinner who has committed unforgivable sin before the heavenly principles, when you realize that you cannot be forgiven before the way or the human principles, what must you do? If you do not admit that you stand in this kind of position, there is no way that you can climb over the hill of judgment. This is not all. In the future, your life might be chased out of the earth. There will come a time when the doctrines and assertions that you have had until now will be tested.
Because humankind betrayed the heavenly principles through the fall, in the end of the human era, individuals as well as the world are moving toward the position of betrayal of the heavenly principles. If people betray God, then God has no choice but to abandon them. You have to understand that you will pass through this historical course.
When Adam was exiled from God’s presence, he was not the only person exiled. Because he was exiled, humanity has been harassed for 6,000 years. Therefore, there must come a time when the humanity of the world is restored. To restore all of humanity, people will be chased away from justice and propriety. You must overcome. You have to realize that when this takes place, you have to establish true justice, true propriety and true heavenly principles on the earth.
These will be driven out by individuals, by the family, the nation and the world. All order on the earth will come into a state of confusion. It will not end there. There will come a time all this is chased out of the world, away from the heavenly principles, and out of the whole universe.
This is the reason that, even as we seek the course of faith and justice, we cannot possess them for eternity, as it is written in the Bible. Even if we go seeking the way of propriety and the heavenly principles, we cannot stand as an eternal being before Heaven. Accordingly, people face the situation of being compelled to find someone they can trust and be trusted by. You must have someone who can believe in you and whom you can believe in, but you have to understand that in the end that person will be in the position to strike you instead. Therefore, after passing through the historical course, we have arrived at an era when you cannot believe even your beloved parents, children, brothers and sisters, friends, society, church, nation or the world.
Although in the concluding period of the world people must attain a universal ideology, not an individual one, God does not allow them to attain this but drives them from the individual level to the societal, national and world levels. How are people going to face the situation in which they cannot believe on the individual level, the family level, the societal level, and the national level? This is a great problem about which humanity must now be concerned. This is the position we are in today.
The Reason for Transitions in the Era and the Providence of Exile
Why is God conducting this kind of providence? It is because the faith, propriety and human principles you believe in cannot stand before Heaven eternally. This is the reason you must pass through a course of outright revolution. When we examine the Egyptian civilization of the past, it was struck down after its mission was completed. Opposition forces came forth and struck them. After that, when Greek civilization emerged, something new emerged to strike at that.
Rome emerged. Through being struck when it entered Rome, Christianity inherited the Roman Empire. This is the way Christian feudal society came into being. However, after that, because Christian feudal society could not maintain its own eternal power, it was struck down.
Thus, it passed through a course to revolutionize it, and it confronted scientific civilization based on humanistic thought. Those holding the signal light of the revolution of new faith in England were chased to North America of the present day. Those who exiled them thought their own future was bright, but people do not realize that those who are chased out inherit all the blessings of those who chase them out.
Now, if they fail to fulfill their responsibility, there will come a time when God will strike America or other nations within the democratic sphere. When their mission cannot represent the world mission, then that will not be enough. Therefore, when Heaven cracks the whip again and drives them out, something new must emerge.
However, if something new does not emerge from within, there will emerge some form from without to manifest God’s will. Communism is the one that came forward with this mission. However, the same rule applies to communism. If it fulfills its mission, then it will certainly divide into two or three. Until the day that the one ideology of the unification of the universe is actualized, Heaven will drive this out relentlessly. However, the human beings who have passed through this kind of historical course of being exiled are aware of it only by looking at the result. You have to understand that there is considerable lamentation then.
You will find that this is true when you look back at the historical course of God’s providence centering on Christianity. When God was trying to raise one person, Abraham, God drove him out on the individual level from his family. He told him to abandon all that he had and go to Ur of the Chaldeans. To raise someone before Heaven and to establish something new on the foundation, Heaven puts them through the fate of being exiled.
Although Abraham was in an environment of exile, he did not hold any grudges. No matter what kind of persecution and difficulties came to him, he possessed a heart stronger than that of the persecution and difficulty. He established unchanging laws of justice on behalf of Heaven. Not only that, he founded the laws of propriety that represented Heaven. Because he knew the God who could represent the heavenly principles, he abandoned everything and left for Ur of the Chaldeans.
On the foundation of Abraham, God could begin the second providence. The individual standard that could establish the ideology in a new form was set. Yet, what happened on that foundation? Because Jacob had the will to inherit the mission of restoration on the family level from Abraham through Isaac, God exiled Jacob to the land of Haran, where Laban lived.
How did Jacob, who was chased out and rejected by his relatives, overcome the difficulty? It was because, not forgetting the blessing received from Heaven, he had unwavering faith toward Heaven. No matter how the world might change, he vowed he would not change. Jacob demonstrated the faith that, even if Heaven did not believe in him, he would make his family believe in him. By fulfilling the unfinished task of the blessing given to him, he would lay the foundation upon which heaven could conduct the providence. Therefore, because Jacob had the desire to inherit the will of the heavenly principles that God had tried to establish through Abraham’s family, he could form a family of faith and return in 21 years.
The Course of Faith of the Central Figures and the Problem Humanity Faces
Next, Moses had the mission to expand this family-level foundation to the scale of the people. He was then exiled from the people. God made Moses pass through the fate of being exiled. However, even if Heaven and the people drove him out, Moses’ heart of fidelity, earnestness and hope, which represented Heaven, did not change. He was able to lead his life as a shepherd for forty years in the Midian wilderness with an unchanging heart toward Heaven. You have to understand that only after that was the standard set to pull the people out of Egypt.
Since the standard of a people had been set, the time had to come when the standard of the world had to be set. The person who came with this mission was Jesus Christ. When Jesus appeared before the people, he faced the fate of being chased out when he stood in a position contrary to the thought and faith of the people. The people then drove him out. Not only did the people drive him out, humanity also drove him out. You know very well that this is the reason Christianity has progressed to the position where it can influence the whole world today, having passed through the fateful course of being driven out.
What will happen to Christianity, which is moving the world today? Since the ideal world of Heaven will certainly come in the last days, when that time comes, God will surely drive Christianity out.
Where will He drive them out to? Since He drove them out to the world stage centering on Jesus, now the time is coming when He will drive them out to the world of heaven and earth, centering on the entire world stage. In other words, there will come a time when one cannot stand firm only with a horizontal world ideology. No matter how much one boasts of the scientific civilization of today, it cannot cause the happiness of humankind. No matter how logical a system that a philosophy might have, it cannot solve all of humanity’s problems concerning life and ideology.
Consequently, after all fields are studied, scientific research will show that what is contrary to their expectations will strike them. Further, they will see that science has failed to save humanity. Although they are hoping to secure the peace of humanity by researching the enormity of atomic power, in the end, there will come a time when the world must throw up its hands in defeat.
Therefore, even if some scholar today dedicates his life to a field of study he loves, the question is whether that study can guarantee solutions to the problems of eternal life and eternal ideology, representing the heavenly principles. Now is the time when the very field one has been studying will drive one out. If it is philosophy, then philosophy will chase humanity out; if it is science, then science will chase humanity out; if it is religion, then religion will drive humanity out. When we consider this, we must realize that human beings today are in a precarious position of holding onto their faith in the midst of a desperate struggle.
Thus, scholars today are fighting over academic theories. The religious world is also fighting. Politicians are fighting among themselves, and families are fighting centering on families. Because people cannot formulate the foundation for Heaven that enables them to have faith, they cannot move forward, and they cannot turn back. The powers of darkness are blocking their path. Similarly, all of humanity will be driven into the position where they are completely hopeless, where they can do neither this nor that.
This seems to be a decline, but it is not. The time has come when humanity today must understand that it has been the will of God to step over the ideology of the horizontal world and connect humanity with the infinite spirit world. Because God is carrying on this kind of providence, in the last days, the last era, the whole world has sunk into the realm of fear. No matter how advanced a nation of the world may be, it is also shackled in the realm of fear where they cannot believe in themselves.
Nothing in this realm, not even religion, can put us in a position of blessing. Therefore, wherever we turn, we find an environment in which we are frustrated, we cannot believe, justice is shattered, propriety and law have disappeared, and the ideology of the heavenly principles cannot be secured.
Jesus proclaimed after he came to this earth 2,000 years ago, “In the end, your parents are your enemies, your children are your enemies, the beloved members of your family are your enemies.” Why is this so? It is because only when people cut themselves off from all the things that they have believed in and hoped for can they build a relationship with the new providence of Heaven.
The Meaning and the Will of God Who Said, “Love Me More than Anyone Else”
To allow people to avoid the time when they must cut off their relationship with everything, God has given the news of blessing. This is none other than the words of the New Testament, the Gospels that Jesus proclaimed. However, contained in those words was the amazing statement, “Love me more than anyone else.” Those words were intolerable at the time, but Jesus said them because he understood that people who walk the path of the heavenly principles must abandon all at once.
Jesus also knew that they must abandon all again 2,000 years later and he understood that those who abandoned all 2,000 years ago would obtain heavenly value and could bring on its effect again for the second time 2,000 years hence. Thus, Jesus made a proclamation that seemed contradictory to reality.
Do you have some friends today that no one can separate from you, friends with whom you can exchange a show of loyalty which represents history? Do you have such spouses, parents and children? Although people are supposed to believe in and rely upon each other for eternity, this is not so. Instead, the foundation upon which they can eternally believe in and rely upon each other is crumbling.
What would be our problem here? Is the providence of God to destroy all human justice, propriety and the laws of the heavenly principles? Although it might seem that way, the good heart of God who cares for humans, lies dormant in the background. Because Jesus understood this, he predicted it and stated, “Love me more than anyone else.” He also made the paradoxical statement, “Those who seek to gain their lives will lose them; those who seek to lose their lives will gain them.”
If this is not the truth, why does humanity have to believe it? If it is the truth, then there will come a time when those words will fully manifest their value. You have to understand that because today is such a time, the words written in the Bible will be realized as they are written.
Thus, today parents betray children, children betray parents, spouses betray each other, brothers and sisters betray each other, and friends betray one another. These are the kinds of individuals, families, societies, nations and world that have come into being.
Was it God’s will to create this kind of world? No, it was not. God wants to create a world in which parents can believe in their children and children can believe in their parents. He is trying to build the world in which spouses, brothers and sisters, and children can all believe in each other. Not only that, it is God’s hope to secure the foundation upon which people can find a comfortable place and, forgetting everything, rest there because they can eternally believe in their friends, society, nation and world. However, today the world is very far away from this hope.
Why is God putting the world in a position to be judged? It is because God has realized deep in His heart that no matter what He does, people cannot be trusted, the world cannot be trusted, and the doctrines of the world cannot be trusted. It is the will of God to awaken humankind that they must not center themselves upon anything on earth.
Accordingly, those on the earth who have trusted people a lot will be gravely wounded. Those people on the earth who have cherished many hopes in their hearts will be greatly disappointed. This is the actual situation human beings face today.
The Providence of God and the Activities of Jesus to Solve this Problem
God is not conducting this kind of providence to destroy everything. People today are trying to mold this world to their own desires and are stubbornly insisting on their own doctrines and systems. Yet if they are just allowed to do what they will, the human spirit cannot resurrect. As a result, they will be cut off, one by one, on the worldwide scale. Today we witness that we are put in a position in which we cannot have faith on any level, from the world level to the individual level. If people can correct their hearts in this kind of horizontal position and can look toward the eternal God or if they receive stimulation from some condition of faithlessness, God is teaching them the one path through which He can come seeking them with the same intensity as that stimulation.
When we look at the corruption in our society, how are we going to cleanse it? God has been working arduously throughout the historical course to raise one true person who can solve these problems. When we examine Christianity from this perspective, Jesus was the one who was chased out by individuals and humanity and driven away by Heaven.
Why was he in the position of being harassed most harshly in this world when he was the only begotten son of God the one who was to share life and joy with people eternally? Moreover, why did God neglect him? Why did Jesus appeal to Heaven, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) It was because people betrayed the heavenly principles. Jesus had the mission to restore the betrayal of Adam through indemnity. Therefore, Jesus was forsaken by Heaven on the individual level. However, though Jesus was abandoned, he had a grateful heart. He prayed, “nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39) Because Jesus wanted to become one with God and digest death and whatever hardships confronted him, no enemy could dominate him. You have to understand that because Jesus remained unchanged even in the position of death, when Heaven and humankind turned their backs on him, the door to resurrection was opened.
As Jesus was ostracized on the individual level, the disciples who were called were also ostracized. Because the disciples were ostracized, Christianity was persecuted by the Roman Empire on the national level. However, although the Roman Empire drove them out, in the end it had to submit before them. Moreover, when the Papacy became corrupt during the Middle Ages and Luther initiated the Reformation, he was exiled. Yet the Reformation philosophy of Luther spread to the world in a more widespread manner than that of the Papacy.
Accordingly, even in this world today, which is centered on democracy, there will be the invasion of communism. At the same time, there will come a time when Heaven will take the offensive position against it. It is then necessary that we reflect again on the course of history to understand what must emerge, and be exiled by the world and the church. Although people have been exploited in history until now, in the last days today, the outer form has expanded out to the level of the world. Yet internally the time is approaching when God can hold onto the world. You have to understand that while externally the shape of the world of the unified ideology is forming, on the other hand, the spirit world is approaching ever nearer to this earth.
Even if you consider this, centering on yourself, clearly you must receive opposition comparable to the 2,000-year providential history of Christianity. Externally, all conditions of this society will stand in opposition against you.
What kind of person can rise above all this? It must be someone who is determined to live and die for the sake of the heavenly principles. Only with this kind of determination can one overcome all conditions and rise above them. This is the reason it is written in the Bible, “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33)
Therefore, even if Heaven were to turn away from you, you must be determined to cling to the Father and attend Him until the end. You have to realize that only then can you enter the realm of the blessing of resurrection that Jesus Christ left behind.
The Hope of God and the Path the Korean People Have Traveled
We who are living on the earth now must rectify justice through the human principles and clarify the heavenly way through faith and religion. You stand in the position where you must establish the heavenly principles that can fulfill the eternal hope. You must realize that not only do you need to be connected to propriety and the way of the human principles; you also need the one hero to whom you can entrust your life and in whom you can rest your heart in peace the hero who can represent the heavenly principles.
To establish the human principles, you need the original way and to establish the original way, you need the heavenly principles. Centering on what, will the heavenly principles emerge? They will appear centering on absolute love. What will the original way center itself on when it appears? It will appear with the authority of life.
When we ask what justice will emerge centered on, it will emerge centering on eternal faith.
Do you have the desire to face the heavenly principles? If you do, then you have to have a friend whom you can trust with the utmost sincerity in place of God. Furthermore, you have to have brothers and sisters, parents and spouses in whom you can believe in place of God. This was God’s hope. However, God drove people from the individual situation and put them in a situation where they cannot believe. Cutting off all hopes of the human world, He induced them to believe in Heaven. In this way, God hoped that the people with faith could come together: brothers among brothers and friends among friends to forge bonds that would allow them to believe in each other in place of God. This is the last hope of Heaven.
Furthermore, Jesus tried to realize the one family through Christianity today by establishing the way of the human principles, centering on the love that represents the heavenly principles. To put it another way, Jesus tried to raise one family, one friend, and one parent centering on him.
Therefore, because you today are following the way and the heavenly principles, you are to abandon everything of the world. Before you rejoice, centering on the family, you must first feel the ideology of the family centering on the ideology of Heaven. Rather than loving your own children, you must love the children of those who live for the sake of Heaven more. Furthermore, this must also be true among friends, and in the church, the nation and the world. Relationships must be forged under this kind of ideology.
When we view the Korean nation today from this perspective, this is the way of Heaven’s providence and the course of history. We can see that although during the Shin-La dynasty and the Ko-Ryo era, Buddhism had the dominant influence, the people chased this Buddhism out. In addition, during the Yi dynasty, Confucianism took control of the society, but the people again drove Confucianism out. When we examine this course of history, the question arises, “If this people chase Christianity out, then where will they go?” The time has come when we must become concerned about the people. The last days have dawned upon us now. The time has come when the people must obtain the world fortune and universal aid in order for the Christianity of the whole world to pass through this era of the new ideology. Therefore, there will come a time when the people will be struck.
Therefore, if it is the providence of God that this people must emerge as a pitiful people before the humanity of the world, then it will be harassed more severely than any other people of the world. Until now, the Korean people have passed through the course of history in which they were trampled upon several times in a century centering on the sovereignty of the nation. This nation has passed through an unbelievably miserable course. This people have not been able to live as they would in peace, and they are now being swept up in the two great trends of thought and are being pushed here and there.
Although it is a small peninsula, when we look at it from the religious perspective, Korea was dominated by Buddhism, Confucianism and now by Christianity. Three great religions have dominated it. However, you have to be aware of the fact that, currently, the two great systems of thought have caused confusion, and the people are in a state of chaos.
The heavenly principles do not intend to destroy the people. Because this is the way history has flowed, in the last days, there must emerge, among these people, the phenomena in which faith and trust are shattered among the people. This is the time when Jesus comes again. Therefore, I am praying to the Father that there will emerge a group from among this people who can be persecuted on behalf of Christianity in line with the way Heaven has been controlling history.
To Become a Victorious Abel
If the doctrine of the world cannot swallow these people, who are being trifled with before the world fortune, then this people will swallow the world. What must it swallow then? It must swallow the doctrines of the earth. If this people can thereby have the magnanimity to digest the heavenly principles that represent Heaven, then they will dominate the world.
Therefore, you who are living in this society now, please do not despair! Do you have the desperate heart which can call out toward Heaven brokenly, “My Heavenly Father!” as you look upon the unbelievable situation of the society? If you do, then you will live.
Although Christianity was mercilessly massacred in Rome, in the end, it swallowed Rome. Although people thought that the proud Roman Empire would swallow Christianity without any hesitation, because Christianity possessed a more powerful three-dimensional force than the empire, it conquered Rome. Whatever it is, if it cannot completely devour and digest its opposition forces, it will be engulfed by a force more powerful than it.
Ladies and gentlemen of today, you have spoken through your own mouths that you have a great mission to fulfill on behalf of the people. You are assured that you will cope with that kind of mission. If this is indeed true, then though you stand in the position of being opposed by the world, you must stand in the position where at least Heaven cannot forsake you. You then will never perish.
No matter which country it entered, Christianity passed through a course of shedding blood for the sake of that country, with this kind of conviction. Accordingly, today we must also possess the same conviction and create the environment in which we can trust each other and live and die together. Therefore, today is the time when we must seek a gathering that has this conviction: that unless God changes, they will never change. Where is this kind of gathering? Where is this kind of church? This is what we must search for.
This kind of church does not exist. Therefore, God has been straining Himself to establish this kind of church on the earth, to find and raise an individual who can form this kind of gathering. However, because this is Satan’s world where the authority of Heaven cannot reach, God has conducted the providence of taking away from individuals. This is none other than the history of Cain and Abel that you have learned in the Principle. Although evil is supposed to strike the good first, in the end, the good suppresses evil and wins the victory. In other words, good has always been hit in the process.
What kind of man was Jesus? He was hit by individuals. He was also struck by the disciples, by the church, by the nation and by the world. However, he did not submit before any of these. He did not submit before an individual, a church, a people, a nation or the world. Thus, you have to understand that, even after passing through the historical and internal circumstances, because he had an unchanging heart of loyalty toward Heaven, Jesus could produce the miracle of resurrection.
We can survive by becoming a people who will not divide, even in many millions of years on behalf of humanity, centering on truth. Therefore, even if we are living in an environment where we do not have trust in each other, we must become people who can offer our lives centering on justice and can cling to the church that represents the heavenly principles and fulfills all obligations of loyalty. You are to manifest this kind of will today.
Standing in the Position of Being Driven Out and Inheriting Blessing
If there is a place where such a will is manifested today and can represent the heavenly principles, you will hope for that place with the utmost sincerity. Furthermore, if the will, centered on the way of the heavenly principles, is to be manifested, then you must be determined to offer your lives for the sake of that will. Accordingly, now you must become the same as Jesus, who forgot all kinds of love in this world and led his life intoxicated with the love of Heaven. He stood as the embodiment of the love of Heaven and the bridegroom of all humanity.
You wish that such a will would be manifested to the Korean people. However, if this will manifests itself before this people, you will be driven out on the individual level, and later on the world level. However, I believe that the period of suffering will not be long.
Therefore, now you must understand that the reason you are in the position of being chased out is not to bring you to ruin, but to let you inherit the blessing. Furthermore, you are put in this kind of sorrowful position so that you can inherit the blessing on the world level connected to the family, the society, the church, the nation, and the blessing of the heavenly principles kept inside the cosmos. Accordingly, if you have the desire to step above the laws of the heavenly principles and stand before the will of God in the last days, you must have the determination to overcome life and death.
Why did Jesus wish blessings upon his enemies? If the heavenly side wishes for the blessing of the enemy Satan, then Satan must hand something over to the heavenly side. Although Satan betrayed the heavenly way and tried to replace God by asserting his own authority, though he should have attended God, because Satan is fundamentally demolished when people display the magnanimous heart that even loves their enemies, Jesus wished blessings upon his enemies. In other words, though Jesus was betrayed on the individual level, the societal level, the national level and the world level, he did not condemn them. On the contrary, he had a loving heart toward them. This is the reason Jesus cried out that we should love our enemies.
Why did he speak those words? He spoke those words because he wants to take back, even the enemies who are inside the realm of Satan. Because Jesus could raise his hand on behalf of Heaven and wish blessings upon his enemies, even as they struck him, even they could become the place of rest where Heaven could dwell.
Because this is what the spirit of Jesus was like, Christians who believe in Jesus today have to be able to endure indignation on a one- on-one basis. One cannot go to the Kingdom of Heaven alone. If one cannot endure the cross and persecution of the family, then one will go to a Kingdom of Heaven smaller than a family. Accordingly, you have to clearly understand that only when you can overcome the persecution of a society, a nation and the world can you enter a higher realm of the Kingdom of Heaven. Thus, Jesus died on the cross to introduce this to the humanity of the time and to the faithful people of future generations.
Which state is your mind stuck in today? Today, because we are the founders of a new universe, it is not enough to only deal with the old. We must have something new. We must become one in heart with this kind of conviction. In our life, we have to have the conviction that what we speak is not for ourselves; what we eat and drink is not for ourselves. It is for the sake of the 2.4 billion people of humanity.
If there are many people who have this kind of will, they can turn this world upside down. Because God has transcended the world and is conducting the providence with this kind of universal ideology of unification, if there is a people who have this kind of ideology, then God will raise them as the foremost people of the world.
The Base upon Which We Can Build a Relationship with Heaven
You must not expect that you will forever possess the materials or honor you possess now. You have to understand that philosophy, politics, economics and all these things will cause great change. If what Jesus talked about 2,000 years ago is not the consensus, then nothing today can be maintained as part of the new age.
Therefore, if you cannot represent the universal ideology and the entire providential will of God as a citizen of Heaven, you will not be able to stand as the bride of Jesus who is to come. Accordingly, today you must not stand in the position of satisfying your own individual desires and live only for the sake of this people. You must become someone who can shed tears for the sake of the people, the nation, the world, and beyond that, the cosmos. God has been conducting
the providence until today to raise this kind of person.
Therefore, God has been guiding the providence to sacrifice the individual to claim back the family, sacrificing the family to claim back the people, sacrificing the people to claim back the world. Therefore, everything until today must become fertilizer. If you cannot become the spearhead for the construction of the new history, you must at least become the fertilizer that can provide some strength for the fulfillment of that will.
Moreover, for you to become this kind of fertilizer, you must have some element that enables you to be absorbed by life. In addition, you have to be infinitely absorbed into it. Only then, can you help revive life. Those who cannot endure the injustice and indignation that they suffer will face a miserable situation. We have to realize that, although God is calling upon individuals and families, He is doing that after having made all the preparations for us to carry on our lives. He calls us from the point where the foundation for the ideology of the unity between heaven and earth has already been laid.
Therefore, countless lives have been shedding the blood of sacrifice and have been persevering to fulfill this will. Do you have the conviction that you can reach that place of hope after inheriting this will and build a relationship with God? Do you have that kind of perspective on faith?
The believers today will be driven from behind through the ideology of Heaven. Those who do not move in the direction in which they are driven are traitors before the providence of the heavenly principles. Such people deserve to be ostracized by the world, and they cannot exist on this earth. They will be taken away to the other world. Therefore, they will be lifted in the party in the air that Christianity is talking about.
Today, when an individual is driven away from a world point of view, the way for the society to tolerate him will open. When he is driven away from the nation, then there will open a way that the world can tolerate him. This is the way the world has progressed. What will happen now if one is driven away from the world of the future? Heaven’s cooperation must take place.
In the last days, on the world level, where are we going to head? What must we prepare, those of us who must head toward the new ideology of escape through a great leap? Even if we are chased out of the world, where can we realize the one base where we can forge a relationship with Heaven and the spirit world? Because such a will is crossing our path, there will be one day of judgment in Christianity. There will come a new era of hope.
Since this is the way of the historical, fateful course, in the course that you are now traveling, you must be able to endure any kind of persecution on the individual, family, people and world levels. No matter how great that persecution might be, you must overcome it. However, there is no one who can drive you out on the world level. A human being can only live seventy to eighty years. Therefore, as long as people of faith hold onto Heaven, there is no one on the earth who can drive you out for eternity, even on the world level. Because Jesus knew this, in the life of conflict that lasted for 2,000 years, he did not yield but exerted himself.
Please do not abandon your faith. Do not turn away, even if you suffer distress and injustice. One who does that does not understand the will of Heaven. Such a person, from the viewpoint of the history of the world, will be driven out by humanity or the evil world. They will not have a place to settle. Therefore, those who have resolved to walk the heavenly path must be determined to be expelled from this land. Only then can you win the last victory centered on God. You have to understand that in addition to the enemies on the earth, there are also enemies in the invisible spirit world.
The problem is how you are going to take care of this situation. You have a momentous task that you must make a breakthrough in by yourself. The world in which you will confront this kind of problem will surely come. Now the period of the offensive of the spirit world is approaching. Today, on the earth, many strange phenomena that we cannot understand are taking place in great numbers. Therefore, you must obtain your spiritual power here. Those of you who fail to do so will be pushed aside. Those who are pushed aside will automatically face judgment. You have to keep in mind that this is the period of the great judgment.
Chapter 8: The True Shepherd and His Flock; the False Shepherd and His Flock
John 10:1-21
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
April 6, 1958
Prayer
Father! We know that although You chose the Israelites 2,000 years ago and tried to let them experience Your heart throughout their minds and bodies, that will was not fulfilled. We have no choice but to intuit that the Israelites could not distinguish right from wrong. Please guide us to lead our lives determining right from wrong with certainty, centering on the words You have granted us. Please allow us to go forward after connecting to Your heart.
Although we are trying to connect to the Father’s heart and follow the words in our hearts, now please allow us to perceive that we have failed to live according to the will of God. We know that when the Father chose us, it was not just for our own sake; it was for the sake of the people and the world. Please guide us according to Your will.
Father, we thank You for having endured as You watched over the fallen and faithless social environment and circumstances. Thank You for being concerned for the world and having chosen us so that we can stand before Heaven, even as the world becomes more evil. We cannot help thinking about the situation of Jesus Christ, who had to suffer in sorrow because of the faithlessness of the chosen people. We know that he spoke on behalf of the sorrow of Heaven. We also know that his actions were based on faith and centered on the Father.
In the last days today, please guide us to restore the sins of humanity through indemnity. By connecting with the heart of the Father, let us attend Him in our hearts and minds. Although there are countless people of faith on this earth, Christianity must represent the new Israel today. Yet Christianity does not understand the will of the Father. Just as there was no one among the Israelites who sincerely followed the Father, Christianity is unable to take charge of the entire will of the providence. Father, please allow us to fulfill that will. Guide us so that we can respond to the royal summons of the Father and be remembered for eternity. If we can possess the one life the Father expects, even by being beaten, torn and persecuted, Father of love, we earnestly wish You to guide us to persevere until the end and bring victory to You.
We know that many fell faithless, and there has been no one who possessed a heavenly life that could link with the providential will. Though Jesus tried to manifest the life of Heaven when he came to the earth, he had to depart alone because no one followed him. Beloved Father, we sincerely wish You to guide us, to become the lantern light for all humanity today, to inherit the mission and will of Jesus.
Please allow us, Your sons and daughters who have gathered here today, to reflect upon whether we have sincerely come forward for the sake of the will of Heaven, fathoming Your situation and cherishing Your will. Beloved Father, we earnestly hope that You will guide us to accomplish the historical will by offering our minds and bodies for the sake of righteousness. Let us become the masters of life by taking the situation of the Lord to heart.
Father, please let this hour be a precious moment when we can pledge to connect our hearts with the heart of Heaven and fulfill the will of the Father. Please allow us to take responsibility for the will of the Father with love. Allow us to experience the heart of God and follow only the way of the will. We sincerely wish You will allow us to live, centered only on the will of the Father. Let us cling to the Father whether we are dead or alive, and let our hearts and bodies search for the path of Your life, according to Your will. Please allow Your sons and daughters, who have gathered here to uphold the words and will of the Father, so that we can resurrect the whole of humanity and offer hearts of loyalty and filial piety before the Father. By guiding our hearts, we wish that You will let us follow the will of the Father without regret.
Now is the time to convey the words of truth, so please do not let Satan invade us. Please do this by removing any gap between the heart of the speaker and the hearts of the listeners. Please let the true life that seeks to restore the original garden of the Father come to life. Sincerely requesting that You dwell in us to grant grace and love and that You allow us to live centering on the will, we offer these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
I will speak to you briefly today on the topic, “The True Shepherd and His Flock; the False Shepherd and His Flock.”
What Kind of Being Am I Before Heaven and Earth?
When you, who are sitting here today, look at so many people wondering how to lead their lives, you must feel that it is difficult to help them unite their minds and bodies and guide them in the one direction. Even when you look at yourselves, you are probably aware of the fact that unyielding determination and effort must be made to unite your bodies with the direction your minds are pursuing.
You must clearly realize that it is a historically great, and extremely important, task to push our bodies to rely on and follow our minds, and vice versa. No one is deliberately trying to carry out actions that run counter to our minds in pursuit of our desires. In the course of history, achieving unity between the mind and body in action has been the ardent hope of humanity and what Heaven and earth have been pressing for. Although this is fortunate for humankind, the fact that the situation has become like this is something over which we must grieve. Even if someone commands authority and glory in society, if he cannot unite his body with his mind, he must realize he is an unfortunate person.
We cannot deny that our minds are connected with Heaven, and our bodies are closely linked to the visible earth. You are probably able to feel that although we ourselves are extremely small, the minds and bodies we possess are connected to an extremely large and vast world. Similarly, although our minds and bodies are infinitesimal, because they are linked to infinitely large things, our surrounding environment is urging our minds to build a relationship with the world of the heavenly principles and is pushing your bodies to build a relationship with the historical ideal world to come in the last days.
As you become aware of this situation, you must think, “What kind of person am I before Heaven and earth?” You need to think about this. Even if there is peace and joy in your heart, to make these qualities eternal, each of you must create an eternally joyful and happy environment in heaven and on earth. Yet you have failed to accomplish this.
Now you must make a breakthrough in these difficulties, and allow your minds and bodies to become one. Relying on the ideology of goodness that your minds desire, you must search for the joy that can connect with the ideology your bodies desire. If you can do that, you are entitled to eternal blessing after you go to the spirit world.
The problem is how to build a relationship with the center of the heavenly principles, so that the center of our minds can relate with the heavenly principles. You must solve this problem. God is always worrying about this.
Now where must your minds head? First, your minds and bodies must become one to represent Heaven and earth. Even if you have that skill, it is not enough for you to celebrate your own joy. You must also celebrate the joy of the whole. If you have failed to do this, you must repent over your past and criticize it. Moreover, you must also analyze yourself in regard to the future.
The Person of Universal Accomplishment
Centering on ourselves, we must reach the one standard where our minds and bodies can become one and fulfill the providential will. If you understand this kind of path and are living according to the providential will, you will feel joy. Only when our bodies follow and reflect our minds can we claim to represent the heavenly principles. If you can be recognized as this kind of person, you can become happy and form a relationship of love with God. Your minds and bodies can relate with Heaven and earth, centering on the heavenly principles.
Therefore, by uniting your minds and bodies centering on your minds, you must possess the power that can overcome any conflicting element you may encounter. In this way, no matter what kind of situation you are in, you can stay in a safe place. You must understand that it is God’s will to bring these kinds of people together to form a family, a church, a nation and the one united world. They are then to form a relationship with God Himself.
Therefore, this is not the time for you to mourn because you do not have money, prestige or authority. These external conditions can never bring you eternal happiness. If you look back on the course of history, you will find that although there have been many people who have shed tears and put their lives on the line to attain these external conditions, there are not that many people who have shed tears and put their lives on the line for the sake of internal conditions.
What kind of person was Jesus? He was the person who blocked and balked at these external conditions. To establish the internal conditions, he shed tears and fought with his life on the line.
When you believe in religion, what you sense first is that a conflict arises in your minds. In this conflict, your bodies are your enemies. One can become one with the heavenly principles by winning the victory in this conflict, centered on the individual. If you have come to possess a body united with the mind which is centered on the heavenly principles, you will be a person of universal accomplishment.
The heavenly laws of God are unchanging, so if your minds can be in harmony with these laws of the heavenly principles, and your bodies have become united with your minds on that foundation, then there is no being on the earth who can cause changes in you. You are an incarnation of unchanging heavenly law.
If we who are living on the earth today have been carrying on an unspeakably fierce struggle to set the external conditions, there must also be a struggle for the sake of setting the internal conditions. They are the centers of the external conditions. If this is so, you must realize that in the providential history of restoration, without a fierce conflict that far surpasses the external conditions today, there is no way to initiate an internal revolution to modify all these external realities. What we must be concerned about is not the external world, but the internal world.
However, until now we have searched for a leader, have sought external friends, and have tried to establish our ideology in the external environment, all in an attempt to find external conditions. Yet none of these can be eternal.
You have to understand that, although each of you is an individual, you are in a position of contradiction between the two worlds: the world which pursues external conditions, and the world which pursues internal conditions. You must understand that because Heaven is already aware of this, God has been pioneering the course of history in which you must stand in a sorrowful situation and avert the path that others like. You must walk the path that others despise for the sake of all people. Although each of you is an individual, you are not just an individual. You have to understand that this is the reality found within you.
Have you experienced the day when you have achieved unity between your mind and body and can make a request of Heaven? This is what Heaven will ask you.
The Attitude Which the People of Faith Should Take in the Last Days
Since you are trying to set internal conditions in a world where external conditions are set, you cannot avoid passing through the historical course of being chased out of the world. Accordingly, now in the last days, you will be swept away by the era of fear in the end of time.
The reason these phenomena are taking place is to strike the external center and make it become harmonized with the internal center. To do this, the social conditions, the habitual conditions, the mental and conceptual conditions, will be threatened by the internal conditions. You must forsake them mercilessly. Therefore, you will be overwhelmed by a fear you do not even understand.
At such a time, what does Jesus demand of the faithful people of the last days? He is stressing that they impede the external conditions and establish the internal conditions. If you have some friends or teachers in the world, you have to examine whether they are centered on the external ideology or the internal ideology. Moreover, in the church, the nation and the whole world, you must pay close attention as to whether their direction is heading toward external relationships or internal relationships.
Having arrived at these last days, you must not seek your original mind before you seek a religious leader. Christian people have been pursuing the heart of God by cutting themselves off from all external things through prayer. In Buddhism, they have been seeking the original human mind for thousands of years through meditation. You have to understand that the very fact human beings must do this is a historical tragedy.
You who have come here! Are there any among you who are making assertions centering on the body? Such people are traitors before the heavenly principles. The reason is that there has never been a time when people could join their minds and bodies together and boast before the whole universe. In other words, there has never been a moment when minds and bodies have become one and people have become one with the Creator. As people who have failed to unite their minds and bodies and failed to become one with the Creator, how can we dare to be proud before Heaven? Heaven can never tolerate that. Those who boast about things the heavenly principles do not boast about will be judged. This is because according to the principle, we must first cultivate the true minds and bodies in which Heaven can take pride. We can then become people of which all things of the creation can be proud.
You say that you have come forward today in search of Heaven and the path of truth. However, even if there is some truth which represents Heaven and earth, for you to build a relationship with that truth, you must first unite your minds and bodies. When your minds mourn, your bodies must also mourn. When your bodies are sad, your minds should shed tears. If you cannot experience this in your life of faith, you will never be able to stand before the heavenly principles. Now that the time approaches when we must fulfill the will of the heavenly principles, people feel, without conscious awareness, some sense of urgency and craving in their minds because they are connected to the will of the heavenly principles. Therefore, no matter how wealthy are the economic and social lives of the people of such nations as America, the number of those who commit suicide, because they feel unrest and urgency in their hearts, is increasing astronomically.
Centering on your minds, what must you seek? If you feel some sorrow in your minds without a clear reason, you have to realize that this is your teacher. You are feeling sad without a reason because your minds can sense the judgment of the last days as it draws near. Accordingly, if you feel lonely and urgent in your hearts, then you have to make the effort to develop a body that can become a friend of that mind. This is true, not only in regard to individuals, but applies to whole races also.
If there is a people on the earth who can represent the will of the heavenly principles, then that people will experience the phenomena of being driven into an environment more miserable than any other. This kind of person must emerge on the individual level. You have to understand that you are in that situation. When you view the situation centering on yourself, as these kinds of phenomena unfold on the worldwide level you will find that there will come a time when you must strike your body three times, centering on your minds. However, fallen people are ignorant of this because their five spiritual senses have become dull. However, Heaven has the mission to reveal the time of the heavenly principles to humankind. Heaven has the responsibility to reveal it at least three times through the hearts of people or through revelations.
However, the human body stands opposing the human mind. The mind is internal, and the body is external. There is no one who will say that the mind is false and the body is true. Therefore, only those people who have struck their bodies and overcome them, centering on their minds, can experience the world of the new ideology. This is not unfolding just in yourselves. It is also taking place in your churches.
The Ideology and Hero Who Can Make These Two Worlds into One
Although there are many churches in the world, there is none which can conform completely to the will of God. If there is a heaven, then the truth will be made the center. Based on that, relationships will be built with the internal and external dimensions. Moreover, as phenomena of the end of time, there will be conflicts among the religious groups. For any religion or group, this will begin on the individual level and expand to the family, church, national and world levels, in that order. A nation also has the two dimensions of the internal and the external. The world is divided into the left and right sides. These must become one.
You who yearn for the original world and wish for the ideology of Heaven, must never ruin history. You cannot overcome the difficulties you face, no matter what kind of environment you are in or how other people persecute you. You must become united, centering on the heart, to first lay the internal foundation and then seek the external foundation. By doing so, you must transcend your individual self, centered on God, and seek the family, the society, the nation and the world. Furthermore, you must go in pursuit of Heaven and earth. What is the most crucial issue for human beings, who are searching for the one world and one ideology? It is not the ideology of the nation and the world, which will disappear after a transitory existence. No matter how much authority you have and no matter how high your position is, these are not important. The important thing is the ideology and the hero who can bring the two worlds into one.
When we look at human beings, we find that there is the internal world centered on the mind and the external world centered on the body. In the same way that this world is divided into two worlds, the spirit world is also divided into the good realm that Heaven dominates and the evil realm Satan dominates.
Do you know that the point of the culmination of the 6,000-year providence of God is inside your body? Those who have not fulfilled the one principle that can unite mind and body cannot lead or govern humanity. This is a serious problem. The problem is not that there is no God or that Jesus is not here. The foremost problem is that you yourselves have not become one.
There are two paths lying before any person. One heads toward the world; the other forsakes the world and heads toward the heavenly principles. Reflecting on this situation, there is the materialistic view of history that advocates an external ideology, and there is the spiritual view of history that advocates an internal ideology.
When will these two perspectives on history merge into one? Where are we going to make the adjustment to bring these together? This is a great feat.
When God was creating this world, He was dealing with the two worlds. God was dealing with the world of the mind and the world of the body. Similarly, we have to understand that God is yearning for the appearance of the one person who can bring the providence of God, the two separate directions, together into oneness.
God also has something that He demands through the internal and external dimensions. Yet you have to understand that the purpose of God’s providence is to usher in the one day when the world of internal aspects can absorb the world of external aspects to unite these two worlds into one.
Therefore, the more revolutionary is the religion that is upholding the providential will today, the more it has been developing. The more it is hit, the more it collides with the accepted society, the more it has been prospering. This is God’s history of restoration through indemnity. First, it is heavenly principle that the one who strikes first will lose. In World War I, the side that struck first lost. The same thing happened in World War II. Accordingly, in World War III, the side that strikes first will also lose.
People in the world often like to hit others first. However, Heaven does not tolerate those who strike first. Even in our religious world today, people like to curse and criticize others. Heaven will never tolerate those who strike first.
Why must the Lord Come Again?
Today there are many who are concerned about the world, but only a small number of people are worried about the fact that an individual cannot unite his body centering on his mind. Members of the Unification Church who have gathered here! You are, of course, to worry about the nation and the world now, but first you must be concerned about the fact that your minds and bodies have not become one, centering on your mind. The real desire of God is to form a nation and a world based on a gathering of people whose bodies have united with their minds. If this is the hope of God, then even with respect to being concerned about the world and nation, God wants this kind of person to gather and worry about them. This is the true attitude of people who believe. Jesus came to fulfill this task, but since he left without completing it, he must come again.
What must the Lord come again and fulfill? Is he going to judge the world with fire when he comes? No, that is not true. The judgment by fire can be carried out by God alone, without the coming of Jesus. Why then is he coming?
Jesus comes as the center who can conduct the internal and external providence of God in His place, to prepare the one point of unification and to forge the horizontal relationship. This is why he is coming again.
Today we have arrived at the last age of the end of time. If you have come forward taking responsibility for this will of God, then just as human minds have been trampled upon by human bodies and people who pioneered the internal realm were trampled upon by external things in the past, you too will be struck. If the doctrines you advocate move forward for the sake of the world, you will be struck by the world. If they move forward for the sake of the nation and the people, you will be struck by the nation and the people. If they move forward for the sake of a religious group, you will be struck by that religious group.
It is the nature of the fallen world to easily drive out those who shed tears for the sake of the world. When people shed tears for the sake of the nation and the people, the nation and the people do not hesitate to drive them out. It is also easy for religious groups to chase out those who are shedding tears for their sake.
The person who unites this internal world and external world and brings with him the form of the original world is called the Lord of the Second Coming in Christianity. He is called Maitreya in Buddhism and a true man in Confucianism. In each religion there is a different term for this person. However, in truth, all these religions are talking about the same Lord of the Second Coming who is to come.
What kind of person was Jesus? From the perspective of the individual, he was the representative of Adam. From the perspective of the clan, he was the representative of Jacob. On the level of the people, he was the representative of Moses. From the perspective of the world, he came with the responsibility to represent all humanity. Furthermore, he came not only for the sake of the world; he came possessing the sorrow of Heaven in his mind. Who then is the person who will spend his or her lifetime shedding tears on the individual level while clinging to the miserable Jesus who passed away? Jesus will look for this kind of person. God also will look for this kind of person.
It might seem that when fallen humans are born, they are born in joy. Yet when they die, they go in tears. However, those who shed tears while clinging to the pitiful people will receive the blessing of the people. Those who shed tears while clinging to the pitiful church will receive the blessing of the church. Those who cling to the world and mourn will receive the blessing of the world.
From the division at the time of the liberation of the Republic of Korea until now, these miserable people have longed for unification, but it has not yet been achieved. On the contrary, a relationship of distrust has developed. These pitiful people are not aware of the time of judgment when they will fall like the autumn leaves. What must we do at such a moment? We must look for the root that does not change, even during the autumn. Its colors and its every aspect will differ from those we have seen in the world until now.
To Become a True Lamb
What must you become? You must become God’s flock of sheep. For the last 6,000 years, God has been calling for and looking for a flock of true sheep over whom Heaven and earth can rejoice. Moreover, He is seeking that flock of sheep today. He will seek them tomorrow too.
Where is the flock of sheep God and Jesus can rejoice over? If you want to become a true flock of sheep, you must be able to discern the voice of the true shepherd. In the same way that there are two worlds representing the internal and external ideology of God, there is an appeal for the truth which represents the internal world and an appeal for the truth which represents the external world.
How do we know if we have become the sheep to which the true shepherd can relate? It depends upon whether you have heard the voice of the shepherd that comes through your minds. The question is whether you have heard the voice of the flock of sheep in your minds.
The religious group, people and world who meet the true leader without tears will be doomed. It is a basic principle that they will be doomed. Although Jesus clung to the sect and mourned, he was chased out of it. Although he embraced the people and cried, he was betrayed by them. Although he shouldered the world and cried in blood and sweat, the world did not recognize him. The true shepherd is this kind of person. A true friend and a true teacher are also this kind of person. If you have found the true shepherd, you must listen to his words with all your heart and be able to pour out all your mind and body.
God sometimes has to create the unified form of the internal and external ideology and promote it on behalf of humankind. Accordingly, when such a time comes, you must manifest the internal voice into an external form. Moreover, you must forget your minds and bodies. Tying the whole into one, you must be prepared in your heart to offer them all. You must offer yourself without any condition and meet the one shepherd on the earth upon whom you can depend, upon whom you can rely without ever being separated in your heart. You must find assurance in him, even after entrusting everything to him. Those who have failed to do so will never understand the heart of Heaven. Putting this in terms of a direct relationship, it is the relationship between parent and child.
Human beings have parents internally and teachers externally, but due to the fall, they have not been able to possess true parents or true teachers. Therefore, you must find the true shepherd to whom you can entrust your minds and bodies in place of your parents and teachers, and whom you can attend with all your heart. When Jesus was passing away, he wished blessing upon his enemies. Only when you can meet the shepherd on the earth who has the same heart as Jesus can you attend God on the earth. You have to understand this.
Because the people have not emerged on the earth who can bring together the internal and external standards of the heart of God and manifest them, you do not have any place to entrust your heart. There is no way your body can rely upon something. Therefore, in the end of time, there must appear one person who can connect to the heart of God and represent the internal and external standards of God’s heart. You have to understand clearly that such a time is the day of the Lord of the Second Coming. The one who is to come is the true shepherd and the returning Lord.
Chapter 9: Let Us Become Someone Who Can Hold Jesus’ Body and Mourn
Matthew 27:1-56
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
April 13, 1958
The title of the sermon I am going to give is, “Let Us Become Someone Who Can Hold Jesus’ Body and Mourn.” You must feel once again that Jesus, in whom you believe, was sent as the great prophet of the heavenly principles, with the mission from Heaven to restore all things. He is the center of hope for which all things, human beings and Heaven have longed.
Jesus Is Needed by God, Humankind and All Things
Jesus, who came 2,000 years ago, is not someone who was needed only by the Jewish people at the time. He was needed by humanity, throughout the 2,000-year course of history after that. He is not only someone you need today. He is needed for the construction of the garden of peace which God desires on the earth. Consequently, all people and all things are still yearning for the time when all can become one, centering on the returning Jesus. Appearing before the throne of the Father, with the song of victory, they will offer a glorious welcome. In other words, Jesus is an essential person for Heaven, for human beings on earth, and for all things of the creation.
You must be able to manifest the will of God, the historical ideology, as the standard of victory centering on you. However, if you cannot do that, there is no way you can unshackle humanity from the torment and sorrows they have suffered through the 6,000-year history of conflict until today.
Many people in history have believed in Jesus. Jesus has been fighting against Satan for the sake of the earth, all people and all things on behalf of the will of Heaven. You have to understand that because Jesus could not fully accomplish the purpose he desired for Heaven and earth when he came, he has been fighting in the spirit world with a pained heart even to this moment.
Accordingly, unless that conflict ends, the fight of Heaven will not end nor will the fight on earth. Unless we can accomplish our hope, the things of creation will not be able to have a day of hope.
When we think about the Lord you believe in today, the Lord that all people of faith must serve as the bridegroom and true father, you must compare the standard of Jesus with the life you are leading. The crucial question will be to what extent has the life you are leading become one with Jesus, from the position of representing the whole will of history and religion.
Jesus came for the sake of humankind on the earth. He also died for them. Yet when we ask if someone on earth has become one with this Jesus, inside the realm of one ideology where one rejoices eternally with God and Jesus, there is no such person. Jesus does not have anyone whom he can rule over and trust eternally. Accordingly, you know very well through the principle that God also has failed to find someone centering on Jesus with the one standard upon which He can rest eternally in peace.
What was the hope Jesus had toward the chosen nation of Israel when he came to the earth? He hoped that the will of God, who had been guiding the dispensation for 4,000 years, would be accomplished through them. This is why Jesus proclaimed the new Gospel: to construct the place of rest and happiness where all people of that time, and their future descendants, could be happy.
Jesus came, on behalf of the 4,000-year history, to actualize the new ideology of Heaven. Therefore, although Jesus was the son of a carpenter and a simple young man without much education, God hoped to accomplish all the will of the ideology and hope of Heaven through him. Yet no one among the people of that time was aware of this. When Jesus emerged before humankind as the fruit of all history, the central being of God’s providence, what did he hope to feel through his mind and body? First, he hoped to appear with feelings that could connect with Heaven and with human beings, and relate to each accordingly.
The Heart and Sorrow of Jesus
You have to understand that the more Jesus felt that all things of creation in heaven and earth are bound by the bitter grief of the fall, the more he realized God’s sadness, in looking upon this situation, pierced into all things. He then became more serious. Growing up as the son of a poor carpenter, unable as yet to emerge as the Messiah, he led a life of silence, making preparations to proclaim the will of Heaven. Even as he did that, he possessed an unchanging, singular heart toward Heaven, a heart that reached out to all people. The more intense became his heart of love toward Heaven and humanity, the more concern he felt, which he could not express to anyone. No one then realized that he bore such great concern alone. The members of Joseph’s family could not feel this determined heart of Jesus as the distress of Heaven, the heart which yearned to save humanity.
However, even in this environment, Jesus had the mission to reveal the words of the Gospel to the Israelites and have them lift high the signal light of a new revolution. Therefore, he needed someone who could become one in heart with him. Jesus had to point out the direction of the heavenly principles and re-establish the way of the human principles centering on Judaism. More than any other factor, the fact that Jesus did not have anyone who could represent the heart of Heaven and the historical heart of humanity is the crucial reason he could not fulfill the providence of the restoration of God.
The faith of Israel which God had elevated through 4,000 years of toil should have become the indispensable altar for Jesus. In turn, he should have become the chief priest this altar could not do without. Yet Jesus and the chosen people finished divided. Jesus tried to step forward holding the signal light of the new providence of the New Testament centering on the faith of the chosen people, the fruit of the Old Testament. However when this foundation which God had prepared to uphold His will could not become one with Jesus, Jesus’ sorrow was indescribably great.
You must feel again in this hour that Jesus did not have even one true friend in his surroundings, with whom he could share his situation and interact, no matter how hard he looked. Because he was in such a lonely situation, he could not rest in a comfortable place like other people. Jesus understood that if he were to suffer sadness, the humanity of future generations would be punished for it. Therefore, he became dead serious when he witnessed the opposition of the very people who had been chosen for the accomplishment of the will.
Although this was the situation Jesus faced, he could not show sorrow like others. He knew that if he were to be sad, it would bring greater sorrow to Heaven. In other words, there was no one who understood the heart of Jesus then, grieving because he knew that his own sorrow would remain in history. You must comprehend the sorrow of Jesus. No one in the course of history has ever understood this sorrow. You must comfort the lonely Jesus whom the Israelites chased out. You have to understand that this is the only way you can alleviate the sorrow of Heaven for Jesus and allay the sadness of Jesus that has stained history.
Ladies and gentlemen! What are these eyes looking at? What voices are these ears listening to? Which direction are these hearts facing? Which direction are these bodies moving in? The time has come when you must coldly, objectively reflect upon yourselves.
The Correct Attitude Toward Jesus
Therefore, we must not see Jesus as the figure of a bygone era. We must seek and attend him as Jesus of the present reality. When Jesus was going around to different villages and being persecuted, he found enemies everywhere he went. His path became more perilous and rough. Among the people God had been grooming for 4,000 years, Jesus could not find even one friend who welcomed him gladly. You have to feel this situation of Jesus in the present.
Although many sects, countless people and priests had waited for the Messiah, when he actually appeared there was no one who welcomed him. How would God have felt observing this situation? If you were living in the age of Jesus 2,000 years ago, how can you guarantee you would not become like the Pharisees and Sadducees? You have to reflect upon yourselves.
If the Jesus who came in the past is the Jesus of the present and the future, then only when you can fathom and be connected to the heart of Jesus of the past can you welcome the Jesus of the present and of the future at the time of the new world. However, today we believe that, after coming to the earth, Jesus merely led thirty years of a sad life course and then died on the cross. Yet we have come to the realization that this is not the case. Accordingly, you must now awaken the ignorant people who think that Jesus had to die when he came to the earth. Although we want Jesus of 2,000 years ago to come seeking us, he is not supposed to. On the contrary, we are to rise seeking the Jesus of 2,000 years ago. In other words, you must understand the sad and lonely situation of Jesus 2,000 years ago. There must be no gap between you and the reality that Jesus faced. When you can hold onto Jesus and cry, then the Lord who is to return will never forsake you.
Those people who have an attitude of faith desiring Jesus to come looking for them 2,000 years after his death, although we are the ones who killed him, will never meet the Lord who is to come again. The question is how many Christians are on earth who can climb backwards ten, one hundred, 2,000 years and cling to the tormented Jesus, shedding tears.
Now the time when we cling to the deceased Jesus and shed tears for Heaven has passed. The time has come when we must comfort the living Jesus with tears of joy. However, where is this living Jesus? It is the grave mission of Christians today to find and support this Jesus.
Have you opened your mouths and called out to Jesus in Heaven? No matter how much you call out, you cannot easily build a relationship with him. Nonetheless, because Jesus is the Savior of all people, the Savior who died for us, we must forge an eternal relationship with him. However, when we consider whether we have seen Jesus with our eyes, heard the words of Jesus with our ears or spoken the words of Jesus with our mouths, we can sense that the distance between Jesus and us is still very great.
At this time, when we must penetrate through and overcome the fateful work of holding onto Jesus, this unfortunate pass, what must you do? You must develop the relationship based upon which you can testify to him, as the Jesus of the present reality in your life. If you cannot do that, you have to understand that the toilsome will of God, who has worked strenuously for 6,000 years, will not be related to you. You cannot usher in the day of peace.
Now you must think about Jesus. You have to understand this Jesus, who stepped forward holding onto the Gospel for the sake of pioneering the providential will involving all humankind. This is the Jesus of the 2,000 years of history since his death; this is the historical Jesus who persevered through a course of persecution he could not share with anyone. You must understand the tormented situation of Jesus, who was ostracized by the chosen people.
You are not to view Jesus as some fixed fact of the past, but as one who is living in this era today. You have to keep in mind that only by experiencing and sensing the sorrow of Jesus in your own life can you finally grasp him.
Therefore, we must not see Jesus as the figure of a bygone era. We must seek and attend him as
Jesus of the present reality. When Jesus was going around to different villages and being persecuted,
he found enemies everywhere he went. His path became more perilous and rough. Among the
people God had been grooming for 4,000 years, Jesus could not find even one friend who
welcomed him gladly. You have to feel this situation of Jesus in the present.
Although many sects, countless people and priests had waited for the Messiah, when he actually
appeared there was no one who welcomed him. How would God have felt observing this situation?
If you were living in the age of Jesus 2,000 years ago, how can you guarantee you would not
become like the Pharisees and Sadducees? You have to reflect upon yourselves.
If the Jesus who came in the past is the Jesus of the present and the future, then only when you can
fathom and be connected to the heart of Jesus of the past can you welcome the Jesus of the present
and of the future at the time of the new world. However, today we believe that, after coming to the
earth, Jesus merely led thirty years of a sad life course and then died on the cross. Yet we have
come to the realization that this is not the case. Accordingly, you must now awaken the ignorant
The Heart of Jesus Who Loved Humanity, the Mind of Jesus Who Suffered at Humanity’s Hands
What kind of person was Jesus? When we behold him, his were the eyes that observed the sung sang of God, who had passed through 4,000 years of history since the creation. His eyes watched over the many spirits who were in hell because of the mistakes of humankind. His were the eyes that looked with a sense of responsibility to alleviate the bitter grief of the spirits in heaven. Moreover, when Jesus was looking at the land on behalf of God’s sorrow, when he saw how the chosen Israelites and all humanity opposed him, Jesus’ gaze represented the sorrow of God, who had been mourning for 4,000 years since the fall of Adam and Eve.
The chosen Israelites should have received the blessing of God; they should have taken the position of a family by living with Jesus for eternity. Why did they oppose him? You must become friends of Jesus, who could not hold the recalcitrant Israelites and speak to them. You must be friends of the Jesus who held onto the temple and mourned over their ignorance. Have your eyes become the eyes for which Jesus hopes? Jesus’ eyes looked in place of the sorrowful sung sang of God; they saw the situation in which he had to fulfill the restoration of Paradise and the earth. They surveyed the situation in which even hell was to receive benefit from him.
Are your ears pierced with sorrowful voices? The ears of Jesus heard the voice of God coming from Heaven. He heard the unfortunate, crying voices of countless spirits. You must understand that, when he heard those voices of sorrow and screams crying out for him, he could never be at peace. When he was looking at the earth, he heard the screaming voices of the people, who not only brought evil upon themselves and trampled upon goodness, but also betrayed Heaven. Therefore, you must realize that Jesus felt a sense of mission to allay the bitterness of Heaven and bring the opposing forces to repentance.
What did he speak with his mouth? Jesus spoke new words halfway between Paradise and the fall. In this way, he guided the spirits of Paradise into the Kingdom of Heaven and spoke in defense of the spirits in hell. He spoke to send the spirits in Paradise, the invisible world, into heaven. In other words, he spoke to resurrect. Moreover, he spoke in defense of the spirits in hell, even in defense of Satan. Therefore, the words he spoke were the words of condition that fulfilled the heart’s desires of the spirit world. They were the words that could liberate humanity on the earth, which was shackled to Satan’s realm of death.
These words of liberation should have been welcomed on the earth without hesitation. On the contrary, all they met was opposition. How could that be? This is the reason those on earth could not forge a relationship with Heaven.
What were Jesus’ hands and feet like? His hands were healing hands placed upon the sick. They were hands that gave life to the dead. They were hands that gave bread to the hungry. Moreover, his feet left footsteps full of prayer for the sake of his enemies, even as he was being harassed by the opposing Israelites and Satan from this village to that, from this valley to that. They were hands that wished blessing upon his enemies, hands and feet that were hung on the cross and pierced with nails.
What about Jesus’ body? His body could not enjoy one day of rest, no matter where he went. Since what he saw and heard before him was not at all in accordance with the heavenly principles, he was driven out wherever he went. You have to understand that because of this, Jesus could not find a place to rest his head. He could not enjoy a day of rest when his heart could be at peace. Jesus was not welcomed anywhere. Therefore, though he had many things to say, he did not say them all. He could not speak words about Heaven to people who could not even understand words concerning the earth. Meanwhile, Jesus was charged as the traitor of the people. Neither the people of faith nor the authorities of the time welcomed him.
However, Jesus carried out a strategy to become one with all the multitudes. God has been carrying out such two-pronged strategies. Therefore, although it might seem that He is retreating from the front-line, eventually He can bring such results that, in the end, even Satan works for His sake.
Consequently, in the history of the world, those who struck first were defeated more than eighty percent of the time. At the time of World Wars I and II, the side which struck first was defeated. When we realize this principle, we can immediately come up with the answer to the question of who, among the two camps today, is on the side of Satan. We can discern at once when we observe for whose sake they are carrying on their activities. Satan’s side does not live for the sake of the whole; it lives for the sake of itself. It tries to sacrifice the whole for its own sake.
Jesus Is Responsible for the First Line of Offense, the Holy Spirit Is Responsible for the Second Line
What kind of person is God? It might seem that we have become a sacrifice, but God is the One who has become a sacrifice for us. When people live for the sake of Heaven, Heaven hands the whole ideology of the universe over to humanity. In the satanic world, when you live for others, your life will be taken away; in the end even the ideology that you have given will be taken away, and you will be dragged into eternal hell. However, if you carry on the fight while you are being accused by Satan, this will become a gain for the side of Heaven. Therefore, the group that goes to Heaven has come into being. Because Satan stands in the position where he cannot return, the more he moves forward, the sooner he will face a situation where he has to yield.
Jesus had to fight in all directions. However, because he failed in the first providence, he had to establish a second and carry on the providence centering on the altar of sacrifice and service. Therefore, even now, as he is being chased and driven out, he has been building Paradise. In the last days, this will become the front-line of Satan and the front-line of God, causing such confusion, people will lose discernment. It will become a chaotic world. Accordingly, you have to learn to search for the first front-line of God.
Only when you can possess the authority of Heaven and can dismantle Satan can you make a beginning there as the new front-line. Because Jesus passed away without fulfilling his responsibility, God had to send the Holy Spirit. What is the Holy Spirit? She is the one who came with responsibility for the second front-line. The Holy Spirit is the one who comes with the responsibility of the truth of the cross. Who is responsible for the first front-line? Jesus is responsible for it, while confronting Satan. Accordingly, when we can bring these into oneness by following Jesus and the Holy Spirit, they will form a new battlefront. Therefore, only after we today form a new second battle line in place of the Holy Spirit and attain the power to block Satan can we become qualified to be an elite troop. We can then be victorious over Satan and unveil his identity. Not God, Jesus nor the Holy Spirit can do this.
When this happens, people of such qualifications can become the friends of God’s heart and the friends of Adam before the fall. They can become qualified to rule over the archangel and all things. You have to understand God is seeking these kinds of people. You must fulfill the tasks you have been entrusted within your own position. God is calling for people who can stand as the true sons of God in religion, science or any situation.
In the last days, one cannot say this and that about others. Because one is standing on the crossroads of life and death, the crucial problem is where to go to attain the recognition of Heaven. Therefore, if people of consciousness come together and form one race who can build the castle wall and say, “We will fight on behalf of Heaven,” then this race can become a nation that can represent the entire sovereignty of God.
Please do not envy such nations as America. Please do not envy any great civilized nation. The problem is how much relationship we have built before Heaven and earth within the realm of the heavenly principle once we understand them. No matter how good the external conditions are, there will come a time when we must cleanse them once and for all. Although God’s heart feels intense indignation, He does not only have a heart of indignation. Deep within His heart of indignation, there is a foundation of righteousness Satan cannot fathom. The reason Satan can submit is that there is a heart of indignation and the standard of righteousness. This is why he submits in the end.
Our Responsibility
This is how the human mind is. Today people are infinitely swayed and confused by the sinful world in which they live. However, by becoming one with the foundation of history and the foundation of the future in your hearts, you must establish the one principle that will never change. Moreover, when your internal standard and the standard of life confront some unfortunate reality, you must be able to overcome it and move forward. By doing so, you must become one with the heavenly works, one with the practical providential will and the providential plan for the future. Moreover, only when you can become a person who is qualified to cope with everything, centering on this, can you finally understand the heart of God.
When Peter met the deceased Lord after longing for his appearance, he forgot everything and was swept into his heart. You must forget all the historical heart of misfortune and experience the sorrowful heart with which God has been mournfully guiding the providence. From that point on, the new work of Heaven can finally be unfolded.
God is relating with people with an infinite heart, but people have only fathomed one aspect of it. In other words, they only comprehend the angle centered on themselves, and they have mistaken this for the entirety of Heaven. In other words, they have mistaken this small angle for 360 degrees.
The time when this difference is recognized is none other than the time of judgment. Moreover, one reason Jesus became the Messiah was that, even as he passed through the course of all the vicissitudes of history, he stood on a straight line connecting to Heaven and attended Heaven with unchanging loyalty.
How would the love of Heaven be manifested on the earth? The one passionate ideology and our minds must become eternally one and never diverge. In this way, we can circle 360 degrees for eternity. When we can become one within the realm of the one, indivisible ideology, God can rest His heart in peace. You have to understand that the will of the second providence can be manifested on the earth at such a time. Accordingly, today we must take the responsibility to step over this sinful world and rise above it. We must construct the second world of creation which can connect with the heart of God, in other words, the world of love.
Now you can abandon external, worldly desires and represent only the internal heart of God. Whether you are dealing with a thousand or 10,000 people, you must be able to feel the heart of God through them. To put it another way, you must become someone who can look into the heart of God through any person.
If you really want to be this kind of person, then even if you suffer the greatest sorrow, you must be able to overcome it. If you suffer great injustice, you must overcome indignation that surpasses the size of heaven and earth. Moreover, when the heart of indignation toward Satan explodes in you, you must think that you will one day liquidate that satan, and you must endure for the sake of securing one more person, one more comrade. Furthermore, you have to understand that when you go before Heaven with this kind of mind-set and pray, Heaven can transcend the history of sin and forge a relationship with you from the position of the new ideology.
Chapter 10: Let Us Understand the Heart of the Resurrected Jesus
Mark 16:1-20
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
April 17, 1958
Today is the day of resurrection, the day when Jesus resurrected 2,000 years ago. Although there have been many Christians in this world, they have not understood this day. When you consider this, you begin to fathom how pained and sorrowful the heart of Heaven is as it looks down upon people who are ignorant even about this day of resurrection.
The Heart of Jesus Toward Heaven and His Desire Toward Humankind
At least you who are here should celebrate this day no one understands on behalf of Heaven and all people. You should become the internal and external friends of Jesus Christ, the ones who feel his heart in this hour. You should sense that the place that you are sitting is a precious place where the attention of Heaven, earth and all things is focused. Thirteen years ago on this day, I remember when Jesus appeared before me and revealed to me that this was the day of his resurrection.
What kind of person did Jesus want to be? What kind of person did Heaven want him to be? Although Jesus came to the earth as the bridegroom, people on the earth did not receive him from the position of brides. Therefore, the bridegroom and the bride had to be separated. If you understand this reality, you will then also realize that Heaven wants you to become the bride who can feel the inexpressible heart of Jesus for the sake of all people.
Jesus knew he had the responsibility to fulfill the purpose of the 4,000-year providence of God, and the enormous mission to pour out all of his heart and strength to pay indemnity for the sins of humanity, which had piled up for 4,000 years. Therefore, he led a life of internal and external ordeals and sorrows, surpassing anyone in history.
Jesus wanted the restoration of the world of creation. The objects of his words were the people of the earth with whom he was to accomplish the task. This is why Jesus unveiled the urgent heart of God to people and appealed to them to fulfill that will. Yet the people of that time neither received nor understood him. As a result, those who received the words of Jesus were limited to certain spheres. He could not speak freely, even within those limited spheres. We must be able to console and mourn over the heart of Jesus, who was trying his utmost in such troublesome circumstances.
The time came when, after persevering through these hardships for three years, he should have been welcomed by all people. Yet not even one person received him as the son of God who represented God’s will. Not even the family of Joseph and his relatives recognized him, although they certainly should have. The Jewish faith and the Israelites who should have recognized him did not. The world not only did not recognize him, it opposed him.
Even as he received opposition from all fronts, Jesus looked upon the unfaithful land and comforted the deep sorrow of Heaven. He still had to be concerned about the earth. Even the moment he died on the cross, facing the faithless people, Jesus had to bless them. You have to understand the heart of Jesus.
If you sincerely want to become the bride of Jesus, you must understand the heart of Jesus, who came and died in this manner. You must single-handedly pay indemnity for the sins of all your ancestors and become someone who can cherish the heart of the Lord in your heart and live it in your daily life.
If there is no one in this land who understands the sorrow of God and Jesus and possesses this mind-set and heart, then you who are here must try your best to do so. If there is someone today who possesses the heart Jesus exhibited on the earth, that person will be overwhelmed by deep grief and will not know how to face Heaven. Although there might be a 2,000-year gap of time between Jesus and that person, such a person can still become the bride who can comfort the heart of Jesus
If you understand this situation, then you must compare your life with that of Jesus. If your life and the life of Jesus differ too much, you cannot become a friend or bride of Christ.
The Disciples Should Have Inherited the Will of Jesus
What then must you do? You must at least possess the apologetic and awe-stricken heart of Peter after the resurrection of Jesus. You must try to take after the heart of Mary Magdalene, who was groping and struggling to find him. However, until the moment Jesus shouldered the cross, he did not have even one such friend or comrade.
What was Jesus’ heart like right after his resurrection? His heart after the resurrection was sorrowful, and he felt compelled to offer a prayer of disgrace before Heaven. When he was facing the Father and the countless prophets and patriots who had been toiling for 4,000 years, he felt both gladness and endless sorrow. He shed disheartened tears. You have to fathom this heart of Jesus.
Although the people of faith in Heaven were joyful, Jesus was sad. Even God felt both joy and sorrow. Among the people who are living on the earth today, there is no one who understands this heart of Jesus. However, having learned this, you must make a new determination in your hearts.
What kind of determination are you going to make? The cause and the original reason that Jesus met such a fate was not because of the people or because of Heaven. It was because of Satan. Jesus emerged to seek the apostles who had been lost and trampled upon by Satan. When we consider how the apostles, who had once pledged their lives, let evil people guard the corpse and tomb of Jesus, we can see that if Jesus had been an ordinary person, he would not have come back looking for them.
However, because Jesus only felt burning indignation toward the enemy Satan and had unwavering determination to find the disciples, and the people who were suffering inside Satan’s bosom, he came looking for them. Moreover, when he beheld the Father, who had repeatedly persevered through the burning anger He felt toward traitorous human beings for 4,000 years, Jesus renewed his heroic resolution to win back the pitiful people and went in search of them. You have to possess this heroic determination today.
After Jesus secured the determination in the remaining apostles to again fight against Satan, he could stay with them no longer. As Jesus watched over the disciples who had to inherit the will and scale the long course of history, who had to walk a bloody course and go over the pass of the crucifixion, Jesus felt sorrow and pain in his heart comparable to what he felt when he was dying on the cross. Moreover, when the forty days were over and he had to leave his beloved disciples among enemies, he felt deep agony.
What kind of mind-set did the apostles have? After Jesus left, they should have understood his sorrow in coming and going, but they only mourned over the fact that their beloved teacher had to part with them. When Jesus observed this, he felt a piercing agony in his heart which cannot be described in words.
When we consider the question of what kind of heart you must possess, you must inherit the tasks which remain after the departure of Jesus and come to possess an unchanging heart of steel, of rock, which will never yield an inch, even in a life and death battle. By doing so, you must directly experience and allay the heart of concern Jesus felt, even as he passed away.
If the apostles at that time had been united in heart and determined to be hung on the cross together with Jesus, God would have not resurrected just one person. If that had taken place, all the apostles would have been resurrected, and Christianity would not be in the state it is today.
You must inherit the mission these apostles left behind. You must feel the indignant heart of Jesus toward Satan as if it were your own. You must consider the determination of Jesus, who overcame the crucifixion, as your own. By doing so, you must become the second apostles who do not die on the cross but who survive it and emerge resurrected. On that foundation, you must become the apostles who can vanquish Satan in one day, the one who has been afflicting God for 6,000 years. With heroic determination, you must win in the fight against Satan and leave traces of the victory, even if you must walk the path of death.
The Great Mission of the People of Faith in the Last Days
You who have gathered here! Have you become such that your every cell can reach harmony with God? Only when your mind and your very cells can become one with God will God come seeking you, as Jesus searched for the apostles after the resurrection. These apostles must gather to search for the humanity of the world. Up to now, apostles have made heroic determinations based on the conviction that Jesus came to die. Therefore, you who understand that Jesus did not come to die must make an even more heroic determination.
In the past, Peter could not keep his pledge to follow Jesus even at the cost of his life. He paid indemnity for it later by making a second pledge after Jesus’ resurrection. It can be said that Heaven has been working through the providence until today using this as the condition. Therefore, you are not to make a pledge before Jesus now and you are not to make a pledge to Jesus after his death as Peter did. Further, you must make the pledge to Heaven, earth and the Lord. In this way, you must fulfill the pledge that Peter could not fulfill before his death. When this is done, it stands as the condition to alleviate the bitter grief of the cosmos.
You must fulfill the children’s position before God and the position of younger brothers and sisters before Jesus. The apostles of the past had a teacher-student relationship with Jesus, but today you have a brotherly relationship with Jesus. Thus, you must behold God and Jesus from the position of brothers and feel a sense of responsibility to pay indemnity for their distress. You have to understand that, in the same way Jesus persevered through agony in his course, you have the great mission to battle against hardship. Therefore, you must always pay attention to the voices you hear in the last days. Fathoming the wishes of Heaven and earth, you must realize those wishes. When you can do that, you can stand firm as the sons and daughters of God.
Chapter 11: Let Us Become the True Sons God Wants
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
April 20, 1958
In this hour today, I will speak briefly to you on the title “Let Us Become the True Sons God Wants.” When you try to seek the true, you must have such a mind that can find it. If you want to find the truth over which Heaven and earth can rejoice, you must set the true reciprocal foundation, based upon which your bodies can become true on their own initiative.
When we think about this, we find that although the ways of existence for the true God, the true truth, and true human beings are different, they are moving in the same direction from an internal standpoint. In other words, God and truth exist eternally, while heading in the same direction.
The Agony of People of Faith
As we look over the land in which we live today, everyone is lamenting over the fact that this world has not become a true one. Moreover, as we reflect on ourselves, we mourn over the fact that we have not become true selves. As we walk the path of faith, we want to find the true God, yet we lament over the fact that we have failed to find Him. You probably know well that this is the agony of people of faith.
When will the ideology emerge that we want to discover, the ideology that can reveal to us what kind of being God is, what the truth is, and what must be done to become true human beings? When you realize you are caught inside a labyrinth today without clear understanding, what should you wish for? Before you contemplate something and assert it centering on yourselves, you must first examine whether it represents your true selves. You must first examine whether you yourselves are in a true position. Furthermore, you must examine whether you stand as true persons before God, who created all things of the universe.
When we consider this, we find that although we want to live in a true world today, we cannot enter such a world. Although we want to become true persons, we cannot do so. Although we pursue the true God, we cannot find Him. You must sense that this is the sorrow of human beings today and their greatest misfortune. If you cannot sense this important fact, then there is no way you can forge a relationship with the true person, the truth and the true God. Everyone knows well that the world today is fallen. They know very clearly that it is a vulgar and sinful world. Therefore, human beings have been struggling desperately until this moment to find the world of goodness and the one true person who can bring eternal harmony, the one hero in whom they can believe eternally. They want to divide and obliterate this sinful world. You must never forget that the nearer the approach of the last days, the nearer is the time when we must abandon this sinful world and embark upon the search for a new one.
When we examine ourselves in this situation, we learn that on one side, evil is trying to dominate us, and on the other, good is trying to rule over us. However, while we may feel today that we have failed to escape the dominion of evil, as our conscience becomes more clear, we will keenly sense that goodness is trying to guide us from the other side.
Therefore, everyone who is trying to transcend the dominion of evil and embark upon the search for the world where the ideology of goodness rules will pass through this course of anguish. When we look at the verses in the Bible, we can see that all human beings today are the descendants of the fallen Adam and have inherited the lineage of sin. This is the way it was 2,000 years ago, 4,000 years ago, and 6,000 years ago. Since the creation of the world, since the fall of Adam and Eve, all human beings on earth have been living in a Satan- dominated environment. You have to understand that not only you as individuals, but your families, your society, your nation and the world are all in these circumstances.
The Land and History Are Stained with the Blood of Goodness
Considering the question of to what extent the dominating powers of evil have reached, you have to realize that if the God of creation exists, the powers of evil have reached to just below the knees of that God. If there is a heavenly throne, Satan is trying to manifest his powers even behind that heavenly throne. Since the time in which the disaster of sin took place, God and human beings have been suffering from the agony evil causes. If there is some providential will of God toward human beings, in what direction is it moving? You have to understand that it is heading toward the one day when God can cast judgment upon evil, the one day when people themselves can judge evil.
Why are billions of people today suffering under the dominion of sin? The cause lies in the fact that Adam failed to inherit the eternal ideology of God inside the realm of God’s love and pass it down to all of his descendants as his great feat. You must never forget that, because of this, the world has become the opposite of the will of God. Until today, humanity has been living out a history of death.
The day the history of death began, this earth became a land of suffering, not a land of peace. From the day death expanded, everywhere on the earth, wherever human beings went, they experienced the historical course of conflict, never peace. You have to understand that on the individual level, there were individual conflicts; on the family level, there were family conflicts. These conflicts enlarged in scope to become conflicts on the level of the people and the world. There was no place in this world, during all of history, where there was no conflict.
Who were the people who were driven out, torn apart, and made sacrifices in this historical course of conflicts? They were not the people who pursued evil on earth; they were those who followed the truth.
You know this very well through the Principle. When we consider the historical course this earth we are living in has taken, we must experience indignation and enmity toward the evil that fills this earth, which is perpetrated through our bodies. When you step on the land, have you ever thought that the land is not stained by the blood of evil, it is stained by the blood of the good? Such occasions of thought are rare indeed.
You probably know very well that the sacrifices who should have been offered during the historical course of conflict centered on Heaven should, of course, have been the people who belonged to the side of evil. On the contrary, however, those who were sacrificed first were the downtrodden ones who were searching for goodness.
What happened to humankind as the result of the crime of the one person, Adam? Humankind could not prevent the flood judgment of Heaven that was cast down at the time of Noah some 1600 years later. Although God caused the flood judgment, because the root of sin was not cut off completely in the family of Noah, the sorrow of God could not be fully eradicated.
Consequently, after the judgment of Noah, God called upon Abraham and Jacob. He made them walk a course of pitiable sacrifice on the earth. Moses also passed through the course of a sacrificial life. Jesus, too, walked the course of a sacrificial life.
Therefore, those people who were trying to build the world of goodness based upon an admirable idea, be they individuals, families, a society or a nation, all had to walk the course of sacrifice first. Now the time has come when the conflict of Adam’s family, centering on Abel and Cain, must emerge on the world scale today. Therefore, in the conflict which is now unfolding between good and evil on the world level, the sacrificial offerings for the sake of goodness will be those who are seeking goodness.
You should meditate deep in your heart upon the fact that those who built the altar of tears for the sake of humankind, those who wanted to live according to the heart of Heaven, forgetting everything of this world, fought on even when they were mistreated. If you have never done so, there is no way you can become connected to the will of the goodness of God as He clung to the providential will.
The One Person God Sought
Evil has dominated the world until now with powers that have manifested themselves externally. However, just as there is a mind in a human being, so too there is a mind for the history of the world.
Although the direction of history might seem to be heading toward evil, this is not true. In the same way that human beings restrain their bodies centering on their minds and determine the direction that they will head in with resolution, history does not progress by itself either. You must understand that it has passed through a process in which God, who exists in the background, intervenes and dominates over certain times and periods.
If we were to examine this focusing on one era, when the will of Heaven and the will of the earth joined, and the will of Heaven manifested itself on earth, a hero appeared who represented Heaven and earth. Furthermore, when the time is ripe in history to connect with the providential will of God, the hero produces a revolution of the era. This expands to the stage of revolution on the world level. Thus, history develops into the stage of universal revolution.
When we reflect upon fallen human history, we can understand that evil has dominated the earth. As recorded in the Book of Genesis, God created all things of the universe in six days, yet these created things have not found one day of peaceful rest. Therefore, this day of peaceful rest has remained as a hope before all human beings until now. Because people could not possess this one day of rest, the day of God, the whole substantial world of creation has been traveling through a historical course of conflict, until now, in search of it.
Human beings destroyed the ideology of the creation of six days. Therefore, this history, in which human beings were trampled upon and have yearned for God’s substantial feats of goodness, is the providential history of God. Although the number six has been lost to Satan, there remains a condition for God to intervene somewhere. Even if one era is decadent and everything is corrupt, through the passage of different eras, this corruption is struck down, and a revolution arises that points the way to the new providential history. What has been the fate of those who have upheld this providential will and pursued goodness? You have to understand that invariably they became sacrifices.
After God created Adam and Eve, He blessed them to become the lords of all things of creation and rule in place of God. Although this concept of heavenly blessing has been given to the human world today, there is no one who has yet realized this idea in a substantial way. Therefore, the course of history until now has been seeking the dominant and subjective ideology that can rule this universe. Heaven has been working through this kind of history in each period, from ancient times through the Middle Ages, until the present era.
When Heaven gives the responsibility of this providential will over to the people and puts them forward, He raises a central figure. He raises a particular central figure so that he can dominate the whole period in which he lives and link it to the realm of Heaven’s ideology. What has God been searching for through the periods and centuries, through the process of history? God has been searching for the one person who can represent the era, the whole world, and the century. Furthermore, God is seeking the one heavenly person who can make assertions on behalf of Heaven and earth.
If the whole of humanity today is living in the last days, what kind of time is it? When we view it as the historical providence of God, now is the time when human ideology is moving forward, toward the future world and the cosmic providential realm on behalf of the era, the providence of the world and the universe.
If there is something then that Heaven demands of those of us who are living under the shadow of evil rule today, what would it be? You probably ask yourselves this. The questions are whether you who live in the last days can qualify as the representatives of the historical course or era, whether you can emerge as the one true person who represents this world. Furthermore, you must ask yourselves whether you can become qualified as a redeemed person before Heaven and earth, who can unite the spiritual world and the physical world. If there is a person of this calibre, God will surely seek him or her out.
We call our current period today the last days. The day of judgment, according to the Christian ideal, the last days, has come to our doorstep. What is the last days? You have to understand that the day of judgment is the day when the one person who shoulders all missions in the end of the world and cries out toward Heaven, unites the individuals, the humanity of the world, and even Heaven and earth.
The Great Indignation and Sorrow of God
When we pioneer the ideology that can bring joy to everyone in the sinful world in which we live, God performs His works. What must we, who were created by God, do to remain inside the heart of God? It is possible only when we unite our minds and bodies, can assert ourselves before God and emerge as the ones who have perfected the blessing given to Adam. In other words, we must be in harmony with God as a second Adam figure. If you cannot accomplish this, you cannot forge a relationship of heart with God.
In the last days, God is looking for the one person who possesses the laws of God, who has not been invaded by fall, and has no connection with the sinful history. What does this world ultimately desire? What do human beings long for? It is to become the true children of God. In other words, our wish is to become the true people who possess the love of Heaven. What we must do to become true human beings is the question upon which we must reflect.
There must have been a purpose for which human beings were born and a purpose for which they must live, a purpose they must fulfill. However, human beings do not know what they must do and for what they must live. Therefore, if there is a God, He will surely feel great indignation. God has never rested at any one period or moment and has been longing and searching for the one person who can represent Heaven and earth. Because people are ignorant of this, they have become negligent, though they should sense how great their sins are.
When we look at human beings, who are still relating shamelessly with Heaven, we must realize that because not one person has appeared who can become the seed on behalf of God, the providential history of God has been prolonged, even as God longed to bring the judgment all at once.
Sacrificing many people in the historical course, God has been using this as the condition to search for the one true person. Yet people have related with Heaven with shameless hearts. God could not love the people He created. Accordingly, as He was working through the providence of restoration, He tried to accomplish the will that He envisioned without fail. Because what should have multiplied from goodness multiplied from evil, God has been working to narrow this through the opposite course to make the one base of goodness and connect it to the point of fruition. What is the sorrow of God? God’s sorrow is not having the one true person who can represent and possess the ideology of creation with which God created all things of the universe, and also can appear before God with the governing authority of that ideology. Those who offer prayers on a divine level will hear the voice saying that the wish of God in the last days is to raise the lost hero of goodness.
In the course of history until now, there has not been perfect goodness. Although there were those who acted according to what they called goodness in a life of meditation or faith, they did not have any relationship with absolute goodness. Although the course of history until now might appear one of conflict between evils, there has been a different internal, invisible conflict going on. The life of meditation or faith today is not a way of life that can introduce people to the goodness that can guarantee eternal victory. It is the way of life of indemnity in which good is sacrificed in the face of evil.
Jesus Did Not Assert Himself or Boast of Himself
Jesus could assert his internal ideology through his path of suffering throughout the thirty-odd years of his life on earth. Yet in the dimension of daily life, he could not fully rectify goodness. Confronting evil in the satanic world, he introduced the notion of goodness through the sacrifice of indemnity. Nonetheless, because no true man has emerged, Jesus has been praying in Paradise until this moment for the sake of fighting evil. Please do not boast that you have accomplished something. Although the good that you have performed can serve as a condition to indemnify evil, it cannot become the eternal foundation for the goodness of the world. No matter what kind of authority you wield or what kind of position you occupy in the world, you will not be able to boast.
Although Jesus came as the imperial prince of Heaven, the master of the entire universe, the king of all kings, he did not brag about himself. Nor can you boast about yourselves until the time when the battle against evil has ended. You have to understand that the reason Jesus did not brag about himself, and the reason he persevered was for the sake of one day completely establishing the laws of Heaven.
Although Jesus lived in a world where evil predominated, he knew that the world of ideology centered on goodness would emerge in the future. Therefore, knowing that the world of goodness could be found deep inside the evil world amid those who had been abandoned, Jesus said, “โฆ and the poor have good news preached to them.” (Matthew 11:5) Because a poor person upholds his conscience, he can sense the mourning of Heaven more easily than others. Accordingly, you have to understand that the reason Christianity has passed through the course of history in which they were abandoned and built an altar of blood was for the sake of the one day in the last days.
Because there was never a time when God or Jesus has ever fully commanded a religious group, those who take pride in their own ideas or assertions or who cling to their church and boast of it as if it were their own possession will surely be shattered. Neither God nor Jesus has ever completely ruled Christianity, which was established through the crucifixion. Therefore, God has made His way through a path of excruciating suffering and ordeals and has been toiling in hopes of the one day when He can completely rule all human beings. Therefore, those who assert themselves during this process will certainly be destroyed. The heavenly principles indicate the basic orderly principles and rules. If God created all things of Heaven and earth, then only after God rules all things of Heaven and earth can human beings govern them. Human beings cannot disregard this kind of order and rule them first.
If it is our inevitable fate to be met with destruction, then, after finding the destination through the course of conflict, what must we do? We must create the second ideology of goodness. This task is necessary today. People today must understand this. However, because they are unaware of this, they have been leading their life of faith subconsciously yearning for it. The day that this will is realized will be the day of resurrection of faith or the day of the second coming on the world level.
God has been claiming back what was lost, not because He did not have the ability to govern humanity. God has been battling on while being bombarded with the false accusations of Satan, not because He lacked power and capability. He did it for the sake of establishing the basic principles and rules. God let Satan go in front of Him and has been rectifying what Satan accomplished. Satan cannot make accusations against the correcting of that which he dominated first. Therefore, the most wise person is the one who can raise Satan and use him. If there is such a person today, he will become the ultimate victor. Although Jesus came as the leader who was supposed to rule the world, he stood at the very bottom and tried to let all the other people go before him. Although he might have seemed like a straggler, in reality he possessed infinite wisdom. He has been correcting what Satan carried out first. God let Satan stand in the front and fight on the very first front-line, and He has been bringing a conclusion to the battle from the rear. This is the strategy of God. Though Satan can possess the one-sided ability to be the spearhead, he cannot possess both sides.
Therefore, if at that time there had been even one person who could attend the resurrected Jesus and guide the path, unlike the disciples, including Mary Magdalene, who was rejected by Jesus, a person who did not die but who resurrected for the purpose of establishing the foundation to govern the world, then we would not be holding onto the Bible today, which is full of mysteries. We would not be groping in a world of faith full of unknowns.
The True Person Who Pays Indemnity for the Historical Debts and Alleviates the Grief of Heaven Although the toilsome efforts you have made until now have been to attain your own salvation, they are not what God can rejoice over. There has not been even one person among the historical figures of the satanic world who has toiled in such as way that God could rejoice over it.
What kind of person can indemnify all the historical debts, alleviate the grief of God and comfort Him? They are probably the spearheads of the new history who can say that in all their actions they have worked only for the sake of the will of goodness inside the realm of Heaven.
The nation that has many such people will be able to possess the ideology of God’s almighty power and dominate the world.
Although Jesus walked the path of the cross for the sake of saving humanity, he has never realized the will of salvation, comforted God and rejoiced with Him. We in the last days must accomplish this while we possess our physical bodies.
What does Jesus yearn for from the faithful believers of the last days? He wants us to become the people who can go seeking the internal heavenly standard and comfort God, who has been comforting us for 6,000 years. He wants us to become the people who can work for Jesus, who has been toiling for the sake of humanity for 2,000 years. You have to understand that only when you become such people can you finally stand confidently before Heaven as the worthy ones who have paid indemnity for all the debts owed to Heaven.
Jesus could not speak all he wanted when he came to the earth. This is why he said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12)
Therefore, in this period of historical transition, God wishes for the emergence of true people who can pay indemnity for the great debt of the whole and who can give the blessing to the humanity of the world from a position of joy and glory. God wishes for those who can bring the blessing to this people, bring the blessing to this church, and bring the blessing to individuals. Further, they must bless the countless spirits in the spirit world.
Accordingly, you must realize now that you, such an extremely small person, have this great karma. You must become the people who can step forward as a unified sacrifice before Heaven and earth. Only then can you finally become the people who have set the condition of having paid indemnity for all the historical debts. You must keep this in mind.
Chapter 12: Who Will Eliminate the Debt of 6,000 Years?
Matthew 18:15-35
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
April 28, 1958
There should come a time when you feel you are carrying a historical debt within yourselves. When we are born on earth, we first receive the blood and flesh of our parents. After that, our lives are benefited by the earth. Going further than that, in our minds, we begin to realize that eternal Heaven has formed a connection with us and has protected our lives thus far.
Although people of all sorts and conditions appear outwardly to be in a happy position, why are they unable to feel happiness in reality? The cause resides not in those people themselves. It is because they have a reciprocal relationship with something, yet are not able to comprehend it.
The Cause of Human Misery
What is the cause of human misery? Humankind has been using the word “happiness” without experiencing even one moment of complete enjoyment and happiness, having shed light upon the cause of human misery. Through the experience of history, we know very well that, though we have used the word “happiness,” in reality, we could not experience a happy life.
Why, then, could humankind not attain happiness and satisfaction? It is because we have incurred an remarkable debt. This is the crux of the matter. Unless we clear away the burden of debt, happiness eludes the individual, the church, the state and the world.
You know very well that the history of unimaginable sorrow and struggle developed long before you were born. From the point of view of our own lives, we know very well that we live at the intersection of limitless conflict between our minds and bodies. As we come to consider our situation very carefully, we realize that we are not aware of the fact that we owe a remarkable debt before Heaven and earth. For that reason, many people, who find it unthinkable that we could indemnify the burden of that debt that our ancestors left before Heaven and the earth, conclude that we are beings of sorrow who are doomed to live with the inherited blood lineage of sin and evil.
While Heaven is struggling and striving to lead us to an ideal world, what should we do? We should acknowledge that we owe a debt before Heaven and the whole creation. We should lift our hands in supplication. We must also concede that there is no way for us to clear away the debt incurred. When we analyze ourselves, we realize that our minds and bodies, even our families, are not our own.
When will the day come when we can boast that these are ours? When can we boast before all things in nature that we are beings of immutability? This is a matter of historical importance which the whole of humankind must resolve under a common ideology. We bear a debt to our three formative parents: we owe the debt incurred to the parents of our flesh and blood; we owe the debt incurred to the land that gave our body its composition; and we owe a debt incurred to the life connection received from Heaven. Man cannot be free of the relationships of the three formative parents. When we analyze our life, we owe debt to the land in the aspect of materials, we owe an unspeakable debt to the parents of our flesh and blood, and we owe a great debt to Heaven. Have you people, today, ever keenly felt that you owe such a debt?
When you think of this, there should be times when you realize you must bow your heads to the land. When you think of the debt incurred to your parents, you should be able to bow your heads before them also. Our minds are cloven with the debt that resulted from Heaven’s struggling and striving to help us seek the eternal ideology centered on such a shimjung.
For that reason, Heaven will ask you if you ever bowed your heads and were awe-stricken by the effort Heaven has made for you. Our parents, who raised us, will ask the same. When you come to be in such a situation, the issue is whether you are ready to appear with confidence saying, “I have come forward after having cleared away all the debts that were left to me and my posterity.”
Today, we should be aware that we carry such an environmental debt. Moreover, you should know that God has been toiling to awaken a person who can clear away all the historical debts that humanity bears.
Jesus Came to Clear Away the Historical Debt and Comfort Heaven
Today, you neither know nor realize that you must pay off the debt you are carrying. However, to let humankind clear off the debt they bear and be able to move forward in one direction, God, the Creator of humankind, has unfolded a providence throughout the long course of history. He has done this though humankind does not think of or even dream of having such a concern. If you come to understand God’s providential dispensation as such, you should examine yourself in a probing manner to determine with what attitude of mind you should express your appreciation.
We thought Heaven was unconcerned about us. We loved ourselves and made frantic efforts for the sake of our own pleasure. Yet since the fall of Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, God has toiled continuously for the long period of 6,000 years to guide humankind to break away from the history of sin and evil thrust onto us through the blood lineage and surrounding us in society. You should understand this. Because many ancestors in the course of history betrayed and rejected Heaven, God is in the position of having to chastise and punish humankind. However, on the contrary, God has been subjected to the sorrow of receiving rejection from humankind. Besides that, God could not relinquish His hold on humankind for even a moment, so He has toiled for us.
Why did Heaven go through the toilsome course of history for the benefit of humankind and for the sake of our ancestors? The reason was that if God could not help humankind restore the burden and debt through indemnity, then the efforts made by God in the toil of 6,000 years would be in vain.
The ideology of the truth that humanity had been seeking would have come to naught. If God had not put His hands to it, no one would know the result, but now that He has put His hands to it, God will surely find the person who can indemnify and clear away the historical debt humankind has incurred on this earth for 6,000 years.
God will make an effort, today and tomorrow, to enable humankind to indemnify and clear away the historical debt. Having raised a chosen people and having laid a bridge, as He endured the several thousand years of history up to this point, God tried to clear away the historical sin and debt. For that reason, God is now seeking one race of chosen people. Furthermore, God is seeking one church. At the same time, He is seeking one individual. You must feel in your minds that God is like this.
God was to govern the whole universe, intoxicated with happiness and glory. Because of whom, did His position change into one of such intricacies as these? Of course, this happened because of humankind. As you realize this, you should hold onto God and console Him. However, comforting Him from the individual dimension will not console His mind. Without having the mind that can connect to the shimjung of historical grief and the body and mind that can experience the whole dimension, you must realize that you cannot liquidate the historical sorrow and the realistic sadness that have pierced God to the very marrow.
There is a historical standard by which, one way or the other, Heaven cannot help raising one person equipped with such a mission as this, who can represent the church and the race. That is why God has toiled to seek and raise such an individual. The figure that He sought and raised up after toiling for 4,000 years was Jesus Christ.
For that reason, though Jesus Christ was only one individual, behind him was the historical connection, the connection of that period, and the connection with the future. Jesus’ course was fraught with all of this, yet no one knew that. Jesus did not live for the sake of his own happiness and pleasure. He did not hope for the sake of his own glory. Departing from all such things, Jesus worried about how to clear away the historical debt that humankind had incurred over the 4,000 years.
By shielding humankind from Satan and from Satan’s conditions of ridicule, Jesus attempted to seek and raise people by becoming the one triumphant figure before Heaven. You must understand that Jesus stepped forth to clear away all of that historical debt, staking his life on it.
A Point of Difference Between Jesus and the Chosen People
For that reason, though Jesus spoke for that era, he also spoke for all the people who had come and gone in the history of 4,000 years, billions of spirit people. The word that Jesus transmitted was the word for the descendants of countless numbers of generations throughout eternity in the future. Jesus spoke the word with such a conviction.
Nevertheless, though Jesus was propagating such a word, no one wanted to become a friend through connecting to Jesus’ shimjung. The Israelites could not find the path they had to take. The elected chosen people, who were to be embraced in the bosom of Heaven, rejected his words. Therefore, Jesus was faced with a shimjung of unspeakable grief.
Jesus shed tears of grief which represented the shimjung of God, who had toiled for 4,000 years. Jesus was the substantial embodiment of the hope the many prophets had cherished over the course of 4,000 years. He stood in such a position that if he shed tears, the many prophets who had gone to the spirit world could not help shedding tears with him. As we think of this, we can begin to understand that our ancestors could not fulfill their responsibility before Jesus. We must realize that the historical mission to fulfill that responsibility has been left to us today, their descendants.
Jesus’ viewpoint of the universe was not only to connect with the 4,000-year history, but also to be linked with the viewpoint of the world then. He was also connected with the future. However, the people of that time, who were following Jesus, tried to live with a self-centered view of life and a self-centered world view. There was a great disparity between Jesus and the way of life and thought of people of that time.
Jesus labored to indemnify all of humankind’s sins and debts.
Nevertheless, he could not form a close relationship with the people who owed that debt of sin. For that reason, Jesus came to be in a grievous position, such that he could not help feeling the painful shimjung of God, who had been toiling for 4,000 years concerning the Israelites. Has this extremely difficult situation been resolved between Jesus and humankind? No, it has yet to be resolved. The one hour in which Jesus’ shimjung of pain can be concluded, along with our shimjung, is the hope of God, who has labored until today. It is the hope of Jesus and our hope today. For that reason, you today must feel that the historical sorrow dwells in every cell of our beings. What is more, because we are beings who cannot ignore time identity, the sadness of the period in which we live lurks in us. Furthermore, the responsibility to resolve the resentment of the future lies within us. You must feel this.
Jesus came to this earth and shed tears to indemnify the debt of humankind. Because of that, Jesus could not help elbowing his way through the path of tears, the path of betrayal, risking his life. In addition, even after his resurrection, Jesus could not help continuing to work for the sake of humankind on the earth. Born into life on this earth, Jesus tried his utmost to alleviate humanity’s historical, sorrowful shimjung.
What did Jesus wish to leave behind? Jesus tried to leave behind people who could become God’s sons and daughters, people who would have resolute determination to bear the responsibility to clear away all the historical grief by putting their bitter shimjung on the line. They were to have experienced in their own bodies the traces of the tears of good people who were violated by Satan before the presence of Heaven, earth and Satan. Jesus knew that unless such true sons and daughters of God emerged, God could not help staying in an eternally miserable position. Jesus wept, knowing that the disciples who were following him and others would walk the path of martyrdom, the bloody path of Golgotha for 2,000 more years and be miserable.
The Right Attitude of Life for the One Who is Responsible for the Future
Who is responsible for the future? It is each of you today. God cannot be responsible. If God had been able to take responsibility, the long period of 6,000 years would not have been necessary. God does not carry out the responsibility and mission fully. We must carry them out today.
For that reason, Jesus came to this earth representing humankind. Centering on the soul and body, he had to liquidate all the debts of 4,000 years of history. There was not to be any debt subject to the ridicule of Satan after the time of Jesus. However, since Jesus died without being able to fulfill the will, many human beings have inherited that debt again as an unpaid burden. As you look back on this, you must realize that Jesus could not lift up his head before God and has built an altar of atonement, praying.
In this kind of situation, no matter how much one cares for oneself and tries to enjoy wealth and honors and revel in peace, he will not be able to feel happy. No matter how much one tries to satisfy himself, he cannot be content. You should know that the billions of faithful believers in Heaven and all humankind on this earth are anxiously longing for the one day when all of them can rejoice together.
Accordingly, each of you must realize that your hands cannot become tired. Behind your hands the blood which was shed in history has left its trace. What is more, even if your body may feel quick with life, you must know that this body is blotted with demerits and has been repeatedly torn. You should not just feel happy because there is something to feel happy about personally. Instead, you must know that your happiness was generated by the merit of the historical sacrifices made. On top of that, you must substantially feel that the tears and blood which Heaven shed, in the course of sacrifice, could fill the valley of this land. It all came into being because of you.
If we cannot alleviate the grief which overshadowed Jesus’ life, who then will be responsible for the historical sadness that pierces the depth of God’s heart? The more humans pursue the way of truth, the more awe-stricken they feel before Heaven. Because we are in a position where each has to pay off the debt individually, you must give for the sake of the individual. Furthermore, you should be able to give for the sake of Heaven. Such a course is left to you.
Accordingly, you will now feel your mind pointing you in a direction to expand further and further. The human who restrains such a mind and tries to move and live for his own sake or solely for the sake of his own family will not be forgiven. The person who moves forth, putting his own nation first, will also be struck down. That same result will apply in the case of the state. Therefore, the direction we have to take today is to become individuals who center on Heaven’s ideology and expand to the level of the family and the state, and even to the level of the world. Therefore, you must now live beyond your own level as an individual, for the sake of the tribe, the people, the state and the world. Going further, you must live for the sake of the resentment which has festered during the history of the 6,000 years. Heaven seeks this kind of individual, family, nation and state.
What is the reason? God, Who created the whole of Heaven, earth and all things, is the leading character who has to govern the whole of Heaven and earth. He is not a being who merely controls one province. For that reason, to become God’s sons and daughters who can call God their Father, you should at least give a thought to the world God is pursuing. You can make a connection with God only when you do that.
The many doctrines and thought systems up to this point are going through transitions. Once a united ideology is formed on the earth, this must build into a form of cosmic thought that can unite with God, the original being of the universe. This remains as the inevitable historical unifying point.
The Person Whom Jesus Will Seek
Jesus prayed at Gethsemane, “not as I will, but as thou wilt” (Matthew 26:39) The “will” in this case included not only the ideology of the past, the present and the future; it also included the ideology of the creation.
Whenever an individual tried to stop Jesus from giving, he would cut that individual off. Whenever a family tried to stop him, he would cut off that family. If society stopped him, he cut off that society. If the state stopped him, he cut off that state. Accordingly, when the time comes when Jesus wishes to give for the sake of Heaven and earth and there happens to be something that stops him from doing it, he will cut that off.
We have stepped forth indemnifying the comprehensive will of Heaven today, hoping for the world of the ideology of Heaven. As Heaven has raised us up and loved us for 6,000 years, we must become people who possess such a mind also. We must remember that Heaven wishes each of us to become such a person.
The principle of the world is the law of give and take. Accordingly, the people of a nation who cares for the world will govern the world. When you come to the end of your life, in that fatal hour, what kind of word will you leave behind before you die? Dying on the cross after having been crucified and hounded as a heretical ringleader, Jesus said, “It is finished.” (John 19:30) As Jesus fought with Satan at the risk of his life, he worried about the people of the world. Accordingly, each of you should become a person who can pray on the day you breathe your last breath, “Father, it is finished.”
What kind of person will Jesus seek on this earth? He is seeking one leading character who will inherit his mission, crying out, “Father! Jesus!” who can say, “It is finished.” We should open our minds and become people who do not worry for the sake of today’s people of this nation, but for the sake of tomorrow’s people of this nation. We should step forth as people who worry not for the sake of today’s world, but for the sake of tomorrow’s world. We must go a step ahead.
What is the reason? Since we have come to know the will of Heaven ahead of others, we should seek the one worldwide ideology that men on earth do not know. Accordingly, one figure has to appear who can have such a mind and step ahead, surmounting the reality. Only when he can indemnify the realistic sorrow of Heaven and tread over all things that are historically inconsistent will he be able to set up the conditions to indemnify all the perplexities of history and liquidate them. For that reason, once you penetrate the mysteries, you will come to realize that Jesus in Heaven is envious of the faithful believers of the last days. The billions of believers in the spirit world, including God, are envious of them. Besides that, this land and all human beings in the course of history are searching for this kind of person, transcending time and place.
Therefore, you must now discern if this is the time for the providential dispensation for the world or for the individual or for the people of a nation. You must also discern if it is time to live for your own sake or for the sake of something else. When you can live pursuing the cosmic heavenly kingdom ideology beyond the world and you call for God, God will then bestow the blessing of the whole world upon you. Yet because they have not scaled the hill of creating a new world, making great strides, human beings today are still under the control of history and the habitual environment leading to the present.
Who has the courage to cross over that? We do not mind walking the path of crucifixion, the path of tribulation. We should go over any kind of path. We should cross the path that Jesus Christ left, the last path of Golgotha, without dying. You should not become a person like Mary Magdalene, who was rejected when she tried to seize the resurrected Jesus. If there had been one person who could guide the way, clinging onto Jesus at the time, if there had been one true disciple on earth, we would not have found the Bible so difficult to understand. We would not have struggled in the unknown world of faith.
Be a Sacrificial Offering for the Sake of Clearing Away the Debt
You have toiled, up to this point, for the sake of your own salvation, not for the sake of God. There has been no one to date who completely indemnified his sin and about whom God could feel happy. What kind of person will he be who can comfort God by having indemnified all of his historical debt? He will be a person who toils of his own accord while belonging to the realm of the goodness of Heaven. He will not let the Father be concerned over his sin. In that sense, the more such vanguards of the new era emerge amongst the people of a nation, toiling for the sake of the will of Heaven, the better chance the people of that nation will have to take possession of Heaven’s ideology of absolute authority and educate the world.
Although Jesus went through the path of crucifixion to fulfill the will of salvation, he could not comfort God completely and succeed in fulfilling the will of total salvation. For that reason, we who are faced with the last days have to attain that while we wear this physical body.
Jesus wishes the faithful believers of the last days to seek and attain the level of such a heartistic standard. He also wishes them to become people who can toil in his place. You must know that only when you become such people will you, for the first time, be able to stand before Heaven as the qualified ones who have indemnified all debts incurred throughout history. Jesus left without being able to say everything he wanted to say after coming to this earth. Jesus said, “I have yet many things to say to you, but you cannot bear them now.” (John 16:12)
Today, in this transitional period in history, Heaven wishes to see people emerge who can, not only indemnify such an enormous debt as this, but bless the individual with God. Filled with delight and happiness, holding hands, they can bless the denomination, the people of the nation and the humanity of the world. Going further, they can bless the many spiritual beings in the spirit world. You must know this clearly.
Accordingly, you must now realize that you, the infinitesimal beings of today, have such an enormous connection with Heaven. You must also know that each of you must become a person who has the confidence to step forth as the one sacrificial being who has cleared away all the debt left before Heaven and earth. You then will meet the requirements of having indemnified all historical debts for the first time.
Chapter 13: The World of Ideology Which We Seek
I Peter 1:18-25
Former Church Headquarters
Seoul, Korea
May 4, 1958
Prayer
Father, since we have life, please allow the motivating force of that life not to be limited to ourselves alone. Since we have the power of the word, please allow that word not to come to a standstill on the individual level in us. Furthermore, Father, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us to make that word and that power of life into an influence that can move Heaven and earth, going over the nation and sweeping over the world. Although we have tried to receive Jesus from a position of ease and have sought Jesus in peace, we know that we cannot help seeing Jesus appear as a figure covered in blood.
We who stepped forth seeking the Father did not know that the Father is not only the Father of glory, as we might have thought. He is also going through the crisis of the crucifixion. There are many people who wait eagerly for the Lord of glory today, but since there is no one who has the true will to follow the Lord of tribulation, Father, please forgive pitiful humankind. If we ever happen to meet the Lord of glory today, please guide us to think of the Lord who was hung on the cross and to be able to take charge of the body of the Lord who suffered that pain. By doing so, Father, I earnestly pray that You will allow us to receive the protection of Jesus, who stepped forward carrying the cross on his shoulder, after being rejected and pursued by the people of his nation.
Please guide us not to become like the foolish disciples who had nothing to do with the Lord of resurrection, though they had wished to be joyful by meeting him. Please allow us to be sons and daughters who can comfort Heaven by welcoming the Lord of resurrection. Father, I also pray from the depth of my heart that You allow us to be sons and daughters who can more than fulfill such a mission.
Father, please be present with the unworthy throng of people gathered here today. We are the group of people who should cross the hill of sacrifice now. As we come to understand that the Father has made remarkable effort to come seeking us, we begin to feel that we cannot help walking this path.
We are entrusted today with the comprehensive mission of indemnifying all historical debts, even if we are inadequate. Therefore, Father, please allow us to be able to do away with all that and carry out the mission with which we are entrusted.
Please allow us to be able to establish the people of this nation, first, before the Father for the sake of this nation, the world, Heaven and earth. Father, I also sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be sons and daughters who can do more than that.
We hear the howling sound of sin and evil left during 6,000 years of history. We are aware that we are to cross into the position of the ancestors of goodness, after having passed through the position of Adam and Eve. Therefore, Father of love, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You will raise us as the pillars of Heaven who will tread and step over all things in reality and build a new world.
Although we have sought the Father until now to receive consolation, please allow us instead to be the people who can attend the Lord from now on, he who represents the Father who comforted us. Father, I also sincerely wish and desire that You guide us so that all the strength and ability with which we strive to carry out this mission can be sustained until our hope is attained.
Please allow all brothers and sisters gathered here today to be able to experience the fretful shimjung in the bosom of the Father. By doing so, I sincerely wish and desire that You allow us to be sons and daughters who can comfort the Father with the shimjung of a person who has experienced everything. Ardently soliciting this, I pray all these words in the name of our beloved Lord. Amen.
The title of today’s speech is “The World of Ideology Which We Seek.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.
God’s Ideology of Creation and Reality
You are leading a life today, forming a connection with society and the world based on your individual self. Yet when you come to think about yourself, you come to realize that you have a mind and a body. Further, you begin to realize that there is the land on which we live, as well as your mind and body. On the basis of this, are the courses we have to walk and the environment we seek prepared? No, they are not. Our mind wishes to follow in pursuit of a higher ideology. If you attach importance to the body, you will experience that the body is also moving toward a certain ideology which runs counter to the mind. Next, if you look carefully, getting away from yourself, you know very well that this land is also moving toward a certain grand ideology.
Will everything end with this? No, it will not. Furthermore, since Heaven, earth and human beings exist, though they may seem three different things, they are all moving toward one goal within one realm. Since God, who created all things in the universe surely exists, they all belong to God; yet Heaven is presently in a position that has nothing to do with “me.” I myself am also out of synchronization with my own ideology. Furthermore, this land is not in a ready state where it can attain Heaven’s comprehensive ideology. We can see this very well as we look at today’s reality in society and the world’s trend of thought.
All things were originally part of the ideology of the Creator. They were to take up a united action and direction on one unified course and move toward one goal. Because such a will could not be attained, this has remained an issue human beings have to resolve today. The vast majority of people cannot think like this. For that reason, as we live our day-to-day life or as we seek ourselves, we feel that our mind and body are wandering about seeking that something in their respective ways.
In addition, when you look at the world today, this world is also gasping for breath, seeking that something. You are experiencing this fact within your realm of life. Can all be resolved with the visible things belonging to human beings on this earth? Things are not made that way. God the Creator moves, having put forth one certain grand ideology in relation to human beings and the created things. You know this already.
When you look at yourselves today, what lies ahead of you? The world of ideology God has been seeking, the world of ideology that is centering upon your mind and body, lies ahead. You cannot help acknowledging you must proceed toward that world.
As I look at myself today, I realize that I relate to Heaven and to the earth. In view of the comprehensive providence concerning this land, each of you today must reflect upon whether your mind can honorably relate to Heaven and to the one Unificationist ideology, according to the heavenly principles. You might not be able to respond with confidence that you can.
Since God exists, the unified world of the comprehensive ideology, for which God wishes, should also exist. Since God has carried out the providence until now, there must come a time when the Unificationist ideology is attained on this earth. This is a logical consequence.
If that is the case, with reference to the goal of the ideologies of Heaven and earth becoming one, the important issues are what kind of position you are in, what kind of environment you are in, and in what position is the life you are leading today? Yet the human mind tries to depend on Heaven without realizing it. The body tries to rely on the land without knowing it. For that reason, though I appear whole, I am striding forth on a forked road. This is caused by the human fall.
Therefore, you must now become one with the ideology of the heavenly principles. You must equip your body with the qualifications to become one with the Unificationist ideology the world seeks to attain. That is the reason ideologies emerged as introductions in the course of history. When we come to look at the present countenance of the world, we can easily see that the world is moving toward becoming Unificationist in form or shape. Following such a trend, our mind is also entertaining a yet unknown worldwide will. Our mind is always responding to the grand ideology of trying to live together as one individual, as brothers and sisters and members of one family.
The Vital Problem Which Man must Solve
Is this merely some conceptual cognition that comes from delusional thinking, something we cannot possibly actualize? No, that is not so. Today’s tendency of mind surely cannot be caused by my one individual self. Yet without my awareness, the grand will of the providence of the heavenly principles is operating to make a connection with my mind. Because this affects the people on earth today, no one can help but be guided forward by the heavenly principles. People’s consciences differ. Their emotions differ. There exists a world that the body desires and another world that the mind desires. Which is closer to Heaven? Which should be the master and which should be the servant? This is the vital problem humankind has to solve today. Unless each human being solves this problem, no matter what ideology is attained in the world, even if the will of the heavenly principles is attained on this earth, it will have nothing to do with that person.
The battle of this difference cannot be resolved unless the body puts the mind first in importance. The body must adapt itself to being in accord with the mind. Once the mind and body become united into one, the body should be able to be put first too. The mind and body that can do so stand with considerable merit. Unless you become such people, even if the providential will and the ideology are attained on this earth today, you will have no connection whatever with it.
Now the time of judgment is coming near. What will we have to do to cross this age of judgment? If God exists within this ideological realm and some supreme ideology exists on the earth, my mind and body should experience the one form in which God and the supreme ideology on the earth are united. My own individual self should possess the one center with which I can stand honorably facing Heaven and earth. Unless you become such people, you will not be able to avoid the judgment day.
God has been moving the consciences of human beings until today. Yet there has been a great disparity between the direction God pursues and the direction of the conscience. When God moved a hundred percent, the conscience could not stand in a hundred percent objective position. Human conscience is controlled and has been influenced by the age in which he lives, by habits and cultural conditions. Therefore, the result varies according to the level of control and influence it has been under. The conscience we have is not necessarily congruent with the ideological world of the heavenly principles. The ideological world that the conscience pursues may seem to have taken the same direction as the heavenly principles, yet there is a wide difference between the two. For that reason, when you seek and step onto the path of truth, know that you are placed in a position where you cannot help carrying on the fight to subjugate and strike even your own conscience before the will of God.
The Reason God’s Ideology and Man’s Conscience Cannot Be of One Accord
Although God is moving toward the ideology, and our human consciences today also seek that ideology, this forking into two cannot continue in a unified way. There is an unavoidable reason for this. Though my conscience wishes to go as God tells it, it cannot. This is because one hill of fear remains for humanity to cross. Accordingly, unless you become able to penetrate and cross the hill of fear, you will not be able to make connection with the eternal ideology of Heaven. In order for the relations between God and my mind to be set up in the center of God’s will, my mind and body must form such relations. My mind and body must stand in the center of the will. Centering upon my mind and body, such relations must be formed with the ideology of the will.
Once your conscience has become one, your conscience and your body have become one, and your body and the environment have become one, you must unite all things into one. Further, you must stand representing that center. Whether it is the heavenly world, the world of conscience, and/or the position of the body, you should be able to stand confidently. The fate remains of seeking those who can do so.
Therefore, human beings today are destined to go somewhere, even if they do not know where it is, even if they do not know for what they are to search. That is why the human mind tries to move toward the heavenly principles and the body tries to move toward the earth centering on itself. Heaven changed the earthly tendency of the body into pursuit of the heavenly principles, by driving many people into sacrifice throughout the long course of history. Now Heaven has come forth to lead the body of all humankind into one world of unification. Furthermore, striking even the conscience that tried to go forth in many different directions, Heaven has guided it to go in one direction, toward the one world of the ideology. Yet the people on earth today do not know this. Therefore, centering on the mind, a fight with the will of God will take place to rightly set up that direction. That is the fight between Satan and God, to seek one ideology centering on the conscience in the invisible world. It is the struggle between the Cain side and the Abel side in the visible substantial world. History has flowed on throughout this internal and external fight.
Since God is a being of personality with intellect, emotion and volition, He also has all feelings. God will certainly have one unified ideology of creation. That ideology will be one for the sake of Heaven, for the sake of all humankind, and for all of creation on this earth today.
Unless this turns out to be an inevitable fact, God’s ideology of creation will not have anything to do with us. God created so that He could enjoy Himself in relation to such a comprehensive ideology. At the same time, all created things could not but enjoy themselves.
However, because of the fall of humankind, such a world of ideology has not yet firmly taken root in today’s humanity. Such a fundamentally directive world of ideology has not yet taken firm root in relation to the body either. That is why God is driving today’s humanity to the path of the conscience internally, and into the closing of the age on a worldwide level, after having sought and set up an external doctrine. Today your mind pursues something. It drives and pushes you to direct your steps toward a certain place. You find that humankind today has no choice but to go to a certain ideological world in connection with me.
Although you who are placed in such a situation today feel insignificant, you are not small at all. You are very important. You are absolutely necessary for the creation of a new history of the universe. First, my mind takes such a position, then my body takes such a position, then the surrounding environment, in which I live, is in such a position.
For that reason, God has been pioneering a lonely path up to now to realize His will through a person’s internal conscience. God tried to consummate the will of the providence through one certain base point in human conscience, but humankind then lost the base point of that conscience.
However, since God’s will was to establish the truth for the sake of humankind and have humankind seek that lost base point, He has been making effort until now, through many prophets and sages, to link humans to the base point of that conscience, taking pains Himself. Because that effort is being made in the invisible, limitless world, the heart of the original character of humankind is moving toward it without us being aware of it.
As the last days approach, the person who has not completely established the standard of mind will not find his mind at peace, even if he is possessed of many good conditions. You must know that the world of reality is faced with the situation today where a change of direction must take place. That is why, after establishing the truth, God commands us to disconnect all self-centered authority and self- aggrandizing ideologies.
The Meaning of God Telling Us “Give Up”
Why did God introduce this contradictory condition to humankind? Although the minds of human beings want to seek and establish one standard, it is impossible for the mind and body to settle in all at the same time. That is why God has taken such a direction until now. Consequently, the world of ideology relying on the mind must appear in history. That ideology is the operating principle for all of humanity. Accordingly, until the center of that ideology is settled, we must go through a history of giving up things. When this has passed through a certain course, it will be transposed from a giving-up history to a seeking history again.
Therefore, Christianity started on a path of tribulation. Although Christianity started from a position of being abused and hounded on all sides, it came to establish a nation while giving up everything. This extended to form a state. Furthermore, the time has come when Christianity can have a world-level form. That is, today is the optimal time for God to establish that will through one certain center. Accordingly, today we must raise a standard with which we can recoup the material lost. For that reason, all states today have to go through an age of allied power through a world-level ideology. After passing through the form of the allied and associated powers, this cannot but go into the world of one Unificationist ideology as three great blocs.
God directed humankind to rely upon their own minds and to discard the world’s external conditions in the last days. Why did He say that? He said it to make those things completely ours. He did not mean we would always have to give things up. Faced with the last days on this earth, humankind must restore, all at once, the things our ancestors gave up in the past. God has been toiling because the will of the providence to return that which our ancestors gave up remains unfulfilled and because all creations on this earth are to be sought and raised. You should know this.
For this reason, a democratic state centering on one doctrine is being formed. The time is coming when this doctrine can appear as a world- level trend. Therefore, the world-scale material civilization and the system will get tied together, centering on this doctrine, and will move forth equipped with one Unificationist form. Similarly, as all these external conditions proceed toward a unified form, we ourselves who are to seek this world should also be able to go forth accomplishing the unification of mind and body at the level of ourselves. This will be in accordance with the trend of the providence.
Because such a time will surely come, a fight will break out in your mind and body. While the mind desires to run toward Heaven, the body is running in an erratic direction toward the world. While the mind tries to go in joy toward the ideology, the body tries to run away.
You should march forth in this fight, clinching a victory, fixing eternity as the standard. When that happens, the lost will of God will be your God for the first time. You will restore your lost mind and body as a unified body of victory, the mind and body God desires. Not only that, you can build one world of creation in the position of yourself. When can we welcome the time of the ideology for which Heaven wishes, the ideology for which our consciences and bodies wish and the ideology for which the spirit world wishes do not take separate directions? They return toward one goal, one direction and one result. This is the last goal we must seek.
Humanity’s Self-Examination and the Self-Restoration Movement
When we think about ourselves, we who must march toward this goal, where did the existence called “I” come from? From whence did he come and where is he headed? How far does he have to go? These are the problems we must resolve without fail.
Where did God’s ideology start? Where is it headed? How far is it going to go? Where did my mind come from? How far is it going? The same questions apply to my body and to this land. What are the cause and effect with reference to that historical problem? The cause and effect are one. We have not seen the day when we can establish one standard by which our minds and bodies are utterly united. The day must come when it is possible to connect through my body and mind to the world. Heaven has been longing for the day when this world and all the fortune of Heaven and earth can revolve together in unison.
Yet when you set yourselves up before such a will today, your minds and bodies are in a position where they must encounter criticism before the will of God and the ideology of the world. Since Heaven has the responsibility to resolve all historical conditions and humanity has the responsibility to consummate that will, Heaven has established religion. Accordingly, today you must understand that your total lifestyle must not transgress the bounds of truth. Only then can the ideology of the world be united with your own ideology.
How can you know that Heaven and earth have been there since before you existed? How can you know about all the historical facts that took place before your own time? Humankind today shuffles this off to the side as something of which he is ignorant.
How can we perfectly represent Heaven and the earth from a position of ignorance? How can we stand before God’s essential ideology? We cannot. To reveal our position today, we must know the cosmic and historic origin. This is a logical consequence. The time of the worldwide movement, when you seek that and present the self- restoration movement, must come. It does not begin centering on some doctrine or ideology. One doctrine has to come with which one can present his own position and lead the self-restoration movement. If you stand in a position where you do not know the cause, even if the effect of that cause is actualized, you will not be able to manage it.
What must we do, we who must walk the course of such a life? Have we become the people who can participate in the self-restoration movement? My life today is not a sudden existence that came into being out of coincidence. You must understand that the one individual being “I” came into being to introduce the cosmic inevitability, the worldwide inevitability and the futuristic inevitability.
The people of a nation should stand before the tradition of the history of that nation. They must follow the legal conditions of that age. Now we must leave something new before the worldwide comprehensive ideology of the future. This is the reality in which we live. If that is the case, the same principle applies in going forth seeking the cosmic world ideology today. Accordingly, we must start from the extremely small task of restoring “me.”
Not only that, since the worldwide problem mentioned previously lies before us today, it is important to solve my problem first. While solving one’s own problem, since the resultant world appears before us now, I must form a relationship with it. Accordingly, we must seek and establish one base point that can solve this as well as that; that is, an ideology which connects with Heaven and earth and with the mind of humankind. By doing so, you must understand that person will become a person who can boast before Heaven and earth and the whole of created things. We will forget the history of sorrow and the grief of the current period. We will raise our hands in triumph over all the fear in the environment.
Solving the Ultimate Problem
The world that tried to lead people to make effort to solve the origin of the ideology of God, the Creator of the universe, was the world of truth. However, though many ascetics have inquired closely into that cause, history has flowed on and no elucidated center has yet been presented before humankind.
The history that has come down with that original unsolved problem is the history you have inherited today. Therefore, if we cannot solve this problem today, then the human history of bitter resentment will remain until later generations. Not only that, after the present time, God will not be able to solve this problem.
What am I, my one self, today? I as an individual am the very being who can block the way of the world of ideology God desires.
For that reason, before we start taking steps toward the future, we must go back to the past and think about what conditions cause the impairment of loyalty to the heavenly principles. We must rethink the course of history in contradiction to the heavenly ideology.
How many faithful believers are there on earth who, having laid grievous conditions in the past, fight to their last breath to set up a condition of indemnification before Heaven? There are many people who wander around seeking the ideology of the future, having forgotten their own past. There are many people who wander about seeking the truth of the origin of all rooted evil to solve it. However, there has not yet appeared a historical person who can stand on the truth and pursue the more original, causal condition.
As long as the ideology of the future world does not change, people’s thoughts about the future world cannot change. You must know that you cannot evade the fear during the close of the world as it drifts along in confusion. The people who are only intoxicated with the new ideology of the future cannot be perfect idealists. The ideal world is attained only after stepping over the stage of the close of this world. What is judgment day? It is the day everything stops. Up to this point, humankind has emerged passing everything, embracing the doctrine, the thought and the ideology that he has kept.
If there were not some condition for humankind, God and the heavenly principles to dissolve the causal impairment of loyalty with all created things on this earth, everything would have to fall. All doctrines and thought would disappear. The trend of thought that steers and serves the future also would disappear. The condition that can unify cause and effect will have to be sought and established. By doing so, “I” the individual can unify that original cause and effect. Only when that happens, will I for the first time become a testimonial, substantial sacrifice who can represent the history of the 6,000 years.
What should we do today? We should be able to make a clean separation from today’s real world. We should be able to deny the whole thing. In other words, the questions become: Have I become the one who can make a clean separation from all desires until now? Can I unite everything and act accordingly? Our origin does not reside in the future. We have to pass the barrier of judgment in the future. The key to our being able to restore ourselves is in solving the cause of all vicissitudes woven around God, humanity and the creation.
For that reason, you must become people who have ears that can hear the sound of the mind. Even if you pray, saying, “God! Please attain the will of compassion on this earth for us. God! Please let this world enjoy peace,” that prayer will not be heard no matter how hard you try, unless you have a peaceful mind.
You must delve into the Bible now and elucidate the cause of the fall of Adam and Eve. In addition, you must reach the stage where you can shed light upon the internal heart of God, the Creator of all. You must come to have a three-dimensional relationship that can accompany the heart of Jesus 2,000 years ago and God 6,000 years ago. Though you live in today’s reality, you can experience their hearts those thousands of years ago.
Although history has elapsed for 6,000 years, today you must bear such a heart. When you do that, you will seek and reach the shimjung of the vicissitudes of God and Adam and Eve and you will understand. Later, you can enter that realm in which you can call God “Father.” When that time comes, that 6,000-year history becomes your history. This is the seat of complete harmony where you become one with the 6,000-year history. In such a stage as this, the clue to solving all the problems of today’s reality will be found. This is the world we can comprehend through spiritual experiences.
To experience the spiritual world means to connect to the four- dimensional world. When that happens, the prophets and sages who have come and gone can communicate and form a relationship with me today. In other words, in the realm of time of today’s realistic life, I can experience and feel their sensations through my own skin.
The Path of the Courageous Person Who Brings God’s Shimjung to Light
Humankind today believes in all kinds of religions: Buddhism, Confucianism, Christianity, et cetera. However, he must not rest content with the religion he believes in as such. He should not believe only in the central figure of motive, who made him believe in a religion, or the word of the truth that appeared with him. He must tread and step above that word and understand the internal shimjung. You must dissect it to see what the internal shimjung is that is hidden inside the present state of things. You should not just set up the words of scripture as the standard of absolute salvation. This is the problem today. God’s fundamental problems will not be solved with that. Accordingly, God is seeking courageous men who can penetrate this and go over it.
Therefore, today we should not be controlled by conservative thought or by some founder of truth. You must penetrate and climb over that and reach direct negotiations with God, who set up the founder of the truth. By doing so, you should resolve the contradictory problem in the truth itself and seek and establish the standard of God’s internal shimjung. God is still seeking, asking the question, “Where is the group of people who can establish such a standard and step forth?” If there is such a group of people, God will not turn His face away from them.
The time has come to rake up and re-identify all the things of the world. You should re-analyze the religious classics and theological works. Find out what is the one standard that can be found through experience. Find out about Jesus’ internal shimjung and God’s internal shimjung. You must know that God has hoped for faithful, courageous men who could clarify the working out of the intricacies of the providence this way.
Only when this gets resolved can we, centering on this principle, find the point of solution of the comprehensive principles. In the last days, this will be established again as the second principle and recognized as the second ideology. The will of God’s providence regarding the earth is for the sake of this. Therefore, to prove this, you must now cross the deadline that you cannot help crossing.
To walk this path, you must step forward, leaving all behind, including your friends and your parents, no matter how close they may be. For that reason, you must know that you are standing in a lonely place where you cannot ever accompany anyone. You are on the course where you have to run ceaselessly to the place where limitless fear sweeps.
If you are unable to seize upon one center that runs endlessly like this, at some point in time you will end up being expelled to the invisible world of this universe. Such a time will definitely come. In religious terminology, such a thing means “going to hell.”
Jesus who came 2,000 years ago was so proud and dignified. Why could he not boast of the future and the reality? It was because he was not able to find the perfect point of solution that was in accordance with the principles, the historical point of solution. Therefore, he could not boast of the reality then nor in the future.
Now we Christians must demonstrate the Jesus who can boast of the current reality and of the future with a greatly indignant heart. The time to receive the Jesus who can boast of the future has to come. Why is it not coming? The conditions of historical ups and downs have made it this way. The fight Jesus carried on was a fight to liquidate the course of history. It was not to resolve the current reality. The battle of present Christianity is not a battle for the sake of the future alone. It is the sphere of battle to solve the historical condition. This is the real position of today’s Christianity.
The Faithful Believer Who Can Boast of Jesus’ Future
Throughout the toilsome course of his thirty and more years of life, Jesus took a change of direction to pioneer a new path, different from all the historical conditions of the prophets and sages which were split and infiltrated. In the process, misunderstanding took place. Because he could not succeed in pioneering that new path on earth, he has sought that new path in the spirit world and has come forth connecting it to the world of reality.
For that reason, Jesus went to the spirit world and sought the realistic and futuristic ideology. He has since unfolded, through the history of 2,000 years, a dispensation of intricacies for the sake of the earth today, through a second course. Although Jesus received rejection on this earth, the spirit world welcomed him; but Jesus should not be welcomed only in the spirit world.
When will the Jesus of the current period and the futuristic Jesus come to this earth? You must understand that is the Lord of the Second Coming for whom we are waiting today. To seek the futuristic Jesus, you must first go seeking the historical process. You should experience the realistic process of the second age where Jesus was welcomed in the spirit world through the historical cause. By doing so, anticipating the one day of hope that Jesus cherished, we should become selves who can represent the reality of which you want to boast and the shimjung of the future of which you want to boast. To do that, we should become selves who can find their own positions today.
Chapter 14: At a Field Service
Matthew 17:1-18
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
May 11, 1958
Once he came to this earth, Jesus was pierced with anxiety on behalf of the chosen people and the spiritual beings of the spirit world. He embraced the heart of Heaven, which others could not know. Although there were many people at that time who had made preparations to receive the Messiah, there was no one who welcomed the Messiah who came.
Although the religious leaders at that time and the chosen people cherished a great desire, they were in fact very distant from Jesus, the consummation of that desire. They were also distant from God. Because of that, Jesus could not help leading an unspeakably sad life. Not only that, Jesus could not find even one comrade or disciple to whom he could reveal his heart.
The Lord Wandered About, Seeking a Quiet Spot
For that reason, Jesus went around seeking secluded places like the garden of Gethsemane, the Mount of Olives and the top of what became the Mount of the Transfiguration. As we think about this, we cannot help being sorrowful. What is more, we should become people who sympathize with Jesus, who went up to the tops of mountains like these and looked upon the country and the people with sorrow and an anxious mind.
Jesus went up to the top of the Mount of the Transfiguration with his disciples, not to see glory, but to have final negotiations, having put down the cross in front. He came to discuss with Moses and Elijah the matter of his imminent crucifixion. At this time, the beloved disciples should have understood the fact that God was in an infinitely grievous situation as He watched the chosen people being unable to perceive Jesus’ shimjung.
Rather than being intoxicated with bewitching glory, you must become people who can experience the fretful shimjung of Jesus. The fact that we today have an enjoyable environment like this is because Heaven has toiled for several thousand years to accomplish it. You should never forget this.
The person who is joyful and contented in the realm of this environment of the present period today is one far away from Heaven. Rather than enjoying the good environment given to you, you should first realize that before that enjoyable environment could appear, there was the unspeakably great, worrisome, toiling shimjung of God. The person who has become a disciple should earnestly pay attention, not to the fact of what took place at the top of the Mount of the Transfiguration, but to the piercingly sorrowful shimjung of Jesus, who had to stand at the crossroads of cosmic negotiations. We should not become like the disciples who rejoiced in the external environment. Rather, we should become true sons and daughters who can comfort Jesus’ and God’s hearts.
We are Heaven’s elite soldiers who must fight as Heaven’s vanguard in the national domain. Therefore, we must have the determination and resolution Jesus had at the garden of Gethsemane.
Although the three disciples did not know the internal heart of Jesus, Elijah and Moses knew it. When Jesus was deciding to go through the crucifixion, a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my Son, my Chosen; listen to him! (Luke 9:35) When Heaven suggested that Jesus go the path of the cross, Jesus bowed his head down with an overwhelmed and awe-stricken heart. If the three disciples had felt the heart of Jesus and Heaven’s internal heart, at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, Jesus would not have gone the path of Golgotha alone. We must not become such successors as Peter, John or James at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration. We should be the successors who inherit Jesus’ heart, situation and life. Today the time has come for us to repossess the determination Jesus had at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration.
Although it is easy for us to express ourselves when we encounter a happy occasion or a difficult task in our lives, Jesus did not express his joy or sorrow centered on himself. When faced with difficulty, Jesus took on the responsibility by himself, without shunting that difficulty off onto Heaven. The ancestors of succeeding generations did so also. Feeling ashamed of himself before Heaven, though he was the son of God, Jesus worried more about Heaven than about going the path of death. The person who, in marked contrast to Jesus, tries to take glory centering on himself, will be separated from Heaven when facing a difficult task. You must know this.
The Disciples Did Not Know Jesus’ Heart
Jesus did not enjoy himself at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration. It must have been a tragic scene. You today should not perceive this fact centering on yourselves.
Seeing the figure of Jesus shine with luminescence, at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration Peter suggested that Jesus stay there forever, saying, “Master, it is well that we are here; let us make three booths, one for you and one for Moses and one for Elijah. (Luke 9:33) Although the three disciples tried to enjoy themselves in the environment, Jesus’ heart was not like that. Although the environment that appeared at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration was a good one, Jesus’ heart in that environment was pierced with the internal historical sorrow and the grief of the future. However, the three disciples were not far-sighted enough to know that the heart of Jesus was overcome with this kind of grief.
All of that took place unseen. Steeped in the historical sorrow of the past, you must go beyond that to where in the end you can hold onto God through the mediation of Jesus and reach negotiations with Him. You must also realize that behind this grieving race there is a set of people who on behalf of the race are pouring out their souls, having built a hidden altar.
The person who sheds tears on behalf of the denomination is performing the duty of a high priest. Jacob offered prayers that no one knew about for 21 years, because he knew that God’s providence was linked from Abraham through the next three generations. He walked the course of indemnity for the sake of the race in silence. Moses also carried out his forty years of life in the palace of the Pharaoh and forty years of prayerful life in the wilderness of Midian for the sake of the race.
If there is a denomination that says sorrowful prayers and a man who sheds tears in relation to the race, they have already been given the duty of a high priest. When Heaven asks you if you have ever uttered a prayer of negotiations before Heaven with a pressing heart, what kind of answer can you give? You must become the capable workers now who can take responsibility for the last days with determination.
Even if you are not in such a good environment, you should still carry out the responsibility in the environment you are in. When many believers assume responsibility for various regions, who are like Jesus at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration, and come forth, then and only then will Christ’s resentment be dissolved. Today we must become the true children who can alleviate the sorrow of Jesus’ and God’s hearts by comprehending more than the three disciples in the old days.
Although then and now are a far distance from each other in time, when you become a successor with a direct connection to Jesus’ heart who can comfort him, you will then be able to alleviate his great indignation. If such a person emerges, the glory of the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration will be handed over to that person. When Heaven’s elite soldiers fighting Satan become Peter, John and James, representing the race, the denomination and the tribe, and a state is formed with a race composed of such people, the one will of God will be accomplished.
This gathering of ours today is not coincidental. Knowing that we have come forth upon the altar of the meritorious service of Jesus and the prophets and sages who toiled in the course of history, we must possess a mind of devotion greater than that of Jesus and the three disciples. Heaven is searching for such a gathering.
Regardless of whether we are being driven out and harassed, we must become champions who act for the good of the nation and the world, rather than for our own salvation. You never know if the three disciples and the spiritual beings in the spirit world are watching our gathering today. If there is a person who, centering on God, has a historical and universal resolution, the will of Heaven and earth will be handed over to this person. God will attain His will through this type of individual. Because Jesus established an immutable central standard before Heaven, Heaven could not abandon Jesus.
A Truthful Friend of Jesus
Each of us today is inexpressibly precious. For that reason, if one person goes wrong, the trace of bitter resentment will remain with posterity for eternity. Therefore, we must become qualified in accordance with the central standard that is unchanging throughout history and eternity. By inheriting the will Jesus cherished, we should become testifiers to history, the current age, and the future. Furthermore, you should become people who attest to the fact that Jesus came forth forming relations of victory, no matter what kind of age or environment you are in.
Have you ever moved your hands, body and feet on behalf of the people of the nation and the world? Looking at the Christians of the world who are like the Israelites wandering about in the wilderness, we should feel again the heart of Jesus 2,000 years ago. We should realize that God feels more sorrow because Heaven sees all sides. Sorrow and adversities are not the issue. You should become people who can connect the present to the future, not disciples who run away when they have to decide whether to live or die. If the command at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration is upon you, use it as a blasting fuse of life to accomplish the will of the limitless world in the aspects of real life. Today we must become the historical vanguard who will be responsible for life.
If the heart of Jesus at the summit of the Mount of the Transfiguration had appeared here, the flame of revolution would have come about. In other words, the issue is whether the heavenly heart has been set up within the realm of life. Now we must pray, but we must pray with concrete content. When you feel Heaven’s limitless heart, sorrow and limitless mental suffering, you will be able to relate with the administration of history, the current age, and the future.
The fact that Jesus could gallantly mount the cross was because he understood the sorrow and anxiety of God. Because of that, he could ask God’s blessing for the sake of the people of the nation, the whole of humanity and even for Satan. Although many people have wandered about seeking God’s heart, only one person, Jesus, understood. God cannot give up the ideology of history, the age and the future. For that reason, today we must indemnify all the historical characteristics of sin and evil.
If we today come to know God’s hidden internal heart like this, even if you cry continuously for a month or a year, the tears will not stop welling up. We should experience the heart of Heaven in such a manner.
The time has come when we have to fight a decisive battle before the people of the nation. The persons who actually do so will be blessed representing the people of the nation. You must realize that your mission is that huge.
When you form relations with the limitless world, Jesus and God will work through you. All of the creation must go through our hands. Therefore, you must attain the blessing bestowed upon Adam and Eve by God, who took delight in creating. Each of you should become a friend of the Jesus who agonized at the top of the Mount of the Transfiguration and received tribulation at Golgotha.
Chapter 15: Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance
Matthew 24:1-14
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
May 11, 1958
Prayer
The time now is similar to when the Israelites were in confusion 2,000 years ago. It is the time when the Messiah must come. We know that in such a time as this it is difficult to distinguish between the true and the false. There have been many teachers who toiled in the course of history in the past. Men have attended many leaders. However, today we are losing the center of mind which we can rely on.
Since we know that the Father knows humankind is in a state of confusion today, Father, please allow us to get our lives under control. Let us get our minds straight and make our ideology clear. Let us live relying upon our innate disposition. Thus, we shall attain happiness. Although many people are seeking that day, there has been no one yet who could say, “I have found it.”
Although many people attest to that day, the people who truly make the Father happy are extremely rare. Please allow those of us who live in this confused world to be able to attest to the ideology that our minds and bodies should establish and express our gratitude. By doing so, I pray from the bottom of my heart that You allow us to receive praise and blessing as the sons and daughters the Father desires, the sons and daughters who have completed the mission of restoration.
Father, please supervise our minds. Our minds know better than anyone the path we have to take. Our minds wish to walk the true path of the original nature. Father, by granting us the truth and the religion that can materialize the hope of our minds, please guide us to attain the will of the providence of salvation.
Beloved Father, please look at this pitiful nation with compassion. Please look with compassion at Your sons and daughters who have lost their way and are wandering about. Please look with compassion at those of us who are marching forward toward that victorious day. Please be with us that we may accomplish the Father’s will.
Now the time has come for us to accomplish the Father’s will, even if we encounter difficulties. Please allow us to equip ourselves with a mind and body that behold the Father’s glory, going beyond those difficulties. Please guide us so that many of Your sons and daughters can come forth who are concerned about the Father’s heart, who have built a hidden altar about which others do not know, having overcome the difficulties alone. Let us offer everything to resemble the Father’s mind, to experience the Father’s heart. Father, I pray all this from the bottom of my heart.
For this great purpose, our religious order, our denomination does not matter. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to realize that the secret of the truth and the whole of the truth is to go forth having the internal heart that the Father can sympathize with, the ardent shimjung which can experience the Father’s mind. Since the whole religious world is in chaos, having divided into many denominations, Father, please look upon us with compassion. Are there sons and daughters of the Father who are being pursued by enemies? I trust that You will give encouragement to them. Please allow us to attest to the Father’s will by experiencing their heart. I ardently wish and desire that You allow the day of happiness to come to this earth as quickly as possible, the day when the lonely group of people can stand together as the Father’s true sons and daughters.
Father, please look with compassion at Your beloved sons and daughters who are gathered now. Since You let them gather here, Father, please be responsible for them. Please take in our unchanging minds. Allow each of us to feel in this hour the impulse of devotion, in our minds and bodies, which is being felt through the Father’s heart of the original nature. Beloved Father, I pray from the depth of my heart that You allow the Father’s direct works to be unfolded, so that we can find the way of our own accord.
Please allow us to be the sons and daughters who can feel the appearance and manner of Jesus who came 2,000 years ago and sympathize from the bottom of our hearts with his sorrow. Father, I sincerely wish and desire that You will allow us to become the Father’s true sons and daughters by having a childlike shimjung. Let us feel the sorrow that is in the Father’s mind from the bottom of our hearts. Let us feel happiness, too, since happiness is with the Father.
We earnestly hope and desire that You will allow this to be an hour when we reveal before the Father all the doctrines, opinions and conventional conditions that we hold. With a childlike shimjung, we ask for the Father’s love.
Please allow the mind of the deliverer and the minds of the receivers not to become two. Since we know that Satan always watches the gap in minds between the deliverer and the receiver, please allow us to be equipped with the appearance and manner of a little lamb, and according to the will for which You wish, let us receive the grace of being re-created according to the word of the Father’s command. From the beginning of the hour to the end, we pray with a most sincere heart that You alone will rule. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The title of the sermon today is “Let Us Be Persons of Forbearance.”
God’s Heart Toward Fallen Humankind
There are premonitions of the last days in the Bible. The fact that it is difficult to lead a life centered on faith in the last days is thus recorded. Therefore, to become a champion in overcoming this difficult period of confusion, each of you must become a person who forbears to the end. I pray that this may be the hour when, knowing this fact yourselves and feeling it from the depth of your hearts, you may receive the blessing.
We may easily think of God as the master of glory. We may also easily think that since God is almighty, He should be in control of all the activities of humankind. However, even after having gone through 6,000 long years of history, God has not yet realized one day of glory. He has not had even one day when He could practice His authority in governing humanity. When we think of this, we must remember that God has deep apprehensions, deep sufferings and deep pains that no one can ever comprehend.
All of the creation throughout heaven and earth was created for the sake of God’s glory and for the exercise of His authority. However, human beings, who were to manifest God’s glory and to stand in the object position in reference to the exercise of His authority, could not stay in that position. Therefore, God could not gain glory nor could He exercise His authority. Meanwhile, you know very well that He has been unfolding the dispensation to accomplish such a day of hope until now.
God was pleased with having created Adam. However, when He came to look at the fallen Adam, more sadness than you can possibly imagine came upon God’s heart. The greater the vision God had in establishing the ideology of creation centering on Adam, the greater the disappointment in His heart due to Adam’s failure. Besides, there was no one who knew how God’s internal heart was deeply pierced with solitary grief because He could not communicate with anyone. He could not be in a responsive relationship with anyone.
God stood in a position where He must endure the pain and hardship added to this sadness. God had to go through unspeakable pain and difficulty. Similarly, you must know that God, who must unfold the providence of salvation for humankind even in His sorrow, is placed in a situation where He must feel a heart of double pain, unimaginable to us.
Although God kicked fallen Adam out of the Garden of Eden, we today must remember that the reason God extended the hands of love again and did not desert humankind was because He has a heart of love. What do you think God’s heart was like when He came forth embracing the second hope again centering on the family of Adam and Eve, the ones who had destroyed the ideology of creation and the heavenly principles? You must comprehend this heart of God. If someone has abandoned a wrongful child yet cannot sever himself from his lingering attachment to it, he could understand God’s fretful heart. He could really understand God’s situation.
God Has Endured with Patience
God had no choice but to hold onto Adam and Eve and start the providence of restoration. For that reason, God chose Cain and Abel and Noah. By electing and establishing many other families, God has unfolded the work of the providence of restoration. The heart of God as He led the dispensation of this providential history was fretful beyond description. Nevertheless, controlling His feelings, God has endured with great patience.
Yet how many people on this earth today feel the fretful heart of the enduring God and seize God and shed tears? If there was a man on this earth who knew God’s heart like this and shed tears, he would be able to understand that while God rejoiced at the time of the creation of all things in Heaven and earth, God’s grief due to man’s fall encompassed all of the creation in heaven and earth.
If a man were to appear on this earth who represented God’s heart, who endured with patience, a man who could cry with God in sorrow, God would shed copious tears, forgetting all about His dignity as the Creator. He would forget all His glory and power. You must know the heart of God, who was pierced with such a situation as this.
God could not help but unfold the providence after raising the betraying Adam. He raised Noah and Abraham with such a distressed heart. You must understand the heart of God who was unable to desert the enslaved Israelites as they moaned in tribulation and adversities. He led them into the blessed land of Canaan by having raised Moses.
God has developed the history of the providence by electing many prophets and sages and letting them go through a sorrowful course. When 4,000 years of history had elapsed, having developed a new history, God sent Jesus Christ to this earth to work off the grief and the resentful grudge of the 4,000 years. Yet even then Jesus was captured and killed on the cross by the chosen people. Where was the person who knew of God’s sorrow when He had to work out a providence, unable to leave the chosen people? Where were such a church and a race? God wishes for such an individual, such a church and such a race to come forth.
One may seek and step onto the path to Heaven, expecting it to be good. Yet the more he penetrates the heart of God, the more he will find a hill of tears. You may have thought that God’s mind is deep in glory and that God is a being of influence and authority. Rather, God is a being with elements of sadness. You must know that God is in a situation like this.
We today must become Heaven’s sons and daughters who grieve in God’s place. Even if you have some difficulty, are pursued by the surroundings, and receive the rejection of those around you, you must be able to comfort God’s sorrowful heart. Forgetting our feelings of impatience and taking after the will of God, who has come forth enduring with patience until this time, we must now march forward bearing God’s sorrow and pain.
God has endured for our sake, for the benefit of the church and for the good of the betraying nation and the betraying world. The faithful believers in the last days today must emulate God’s heart with tears in their eyes and comfort the mind of God. You must become true sons and daughters in this fashion.
The reason Heaven endured with patience for 4,000 years was that God wished the chosen people to believe in Jesus Christ when he was sent. When the chosen people crucified Jesus on the cross, God’s hope went up in smoke. The people could fulfill the will for which God wished. They were in a position where they could pledge to uphold the heavenly principles. Yet they captured and killed God’s most beloved, only begotten son.
You must now understand that the God whom we call “Father” is the one who has come forth enduring a sad and grievous course with patience for 6,000 years. Moreover, the Father who endured with patience for 6,000 years is not a Father in name only.
Jesus’ Victory of the Cross
Although God has endured with patience for 6,000 years, the land He can rule has not yet been restored. Therefore, you must now restore the whole land through indemnity. You must create a new history and go forth seeking a new ideology. Accordingly, you who are placed in a situation like this must endure with more patience than anyone else.
You must then step forth looking for a truthful religion. You must step forth looking for the truthful sons and daughters of Heaven. You must find a man of faith who endures with patience and be in his service. You must wander and seek the denomination that knows how to endure with patience. You must know that the people with faith who march on toward Heaven today are entrusted with the mission to seek the race and nation which know how to endure with patience.
All religions until today have been established by people who endured with patience. Even in the future, the religion that endures with patience will guide the world. If you review human history, the person who endured with patience achieved victory. It happened not only in Heaven, but also on the earth. For that reason, you must understand that this land still laments, waiting to welcome someone who can care about God and establish integrity.
Christianity today has become a worldwide religion, because Christianity endured more with patience. When Jesus came to feel God’s heart, who had endured for 4,000 years, and when he came to think about all humankind enduring with patience in history, Jesus could not help but have patience even as his body was being crucified at Golgotha. That was why even when his hands and feet were being nailed to the cross, Jesus could pray for the sake of the people, “Oh, Heaven, please look at them with compassion.”
God showed the shimjung with which He had endured with patience before the presence of all humankind and Satan. Therefore, Satan, who could not be patient and could not endure, could not help but succumb. This was the standard path of enduring with patience that Jesus Christ showed us. Moreover, not only people on this earth but also every creation has demonstrated patience for 6,000 years.
In addition, because man fell, the effect was felt in the spirit world and in the angelic world. Therefore, you are left with the mission to be responsible for the lamentation that has pierced as deeply as the spirit world and that of all of creation and God, who demonstrated patience for 6,000 years.
Accordingly, you now must possess a resolution and determination to endure with patience, bearing such external worries and the cosmic responsibility in mind. Unless you can have such a resolution and determination, you will not be able to participate in walking the course of Heaven.
For that reason, you today must first comfort the bruised and sorrowful heart of Heaven before wishing to receive Heaven’s blessing and Heaven’s glory. Although God’s patience can more than embrace the whole universe, we today live in sinfulness in a sinful and evil environment. In a situation like this, we cannot be filial to God, who came forth enduring with patience for the sake of the universe. That is, we cannot show devotion to God, who has performed the providence of the 6,000-year history.
Therefore, you must now understand the heart and the will of God, who came forth ruling history until today. You must be able to be filial to God. You must possess the heart with which God endured with patience, during the unfolding of the dispensation for 6,000 years. That is, you who are faced with the last days are entrusted with the mission to welcome God in your mind and bear witness to Him before all humankind.
Who will be the true sons and daughters who can attend God and offer comfort to Him by resembling His patient heart of 6,000 years? God is waiting for these very sons and daughters to come forth. God exists, He who came forth enduring for 6,000 years to save humankind. He did not abandon those who betrayed Heaven and fell into the temptation of the archangel Satan. You today must understand the heart of that God.
You who are going forward today! Do you have the will to save this nation? Those of you who are gathered here today, do you truly have the mind that yearns for the bosom of Heaven? You must become figures who can shoulder the pain of the nation. That is to say, you must be resolved and determined to endure with patience under any tribulation and suffering. You must realize that unless you become a person who endures with patience, you will not be able to bear the responsibility for the nation.
As long as you have the will to save the world, you must first have the resolution and determination with which you can endure with patience, bearing on your body the sadness of the world and the world’s difficulties. If you do not have such resolution and determination, you will not be able to leave Heaven’s ideology in any part of the world.
God Performs the Providence Centered on the People Who Endure with More Patience
God can embrace the satanic world and even hell. He has the mind to forbear with patience even there. Therefore, the satans in hell will bow their heads before His presence. Therefore, if you desire to become champions at the last, the Father’s sons and daughters at the last, then you must feel God’s patience as your patience and God’s endurance as your endurance in your minds and bodies. Because Christianity taught the way of patience and endurance, it became a worldwide religion.
The descendants of the chosen people live on the earth today. Since the chosen people betrayed the will of God, why cannot God forget them? Of course, these people went the side path, but it is because they had an unchanging mind as the chosen people God had elected. Although they are in a situation that is contrary to Heaven, once the time comes when they go in search of God, they are the people who can take upon themselves, more that any other people, the task of God’s patience and endurance.
If there were a people that stepped forth holding onto providential history for the sake of Heaven even under any hardships, that people would govern the world. As long as their resolution and determination were for the good of Heaven, even if they once went against the will of God and ran errands for Satan, if they marched on with integrity and forbearance, Satan would eventually succumb.
Satan never has patience and can never endure. If Satan could be patient and enduring, he would not have offended the 6,000-year history by rejecting God. If the people of a nation centered on God assert themselves as Heaven’s chosen people, those people will not disappear from the world even under any adversity. You must understand that there is some element of truth in that Jewish people today retain substantial economic power in the world and can exercise control in many other fields.
The same principle applies to the course of history. In any period of the past, when faced with chaos and confusion under adversity, the people who connected their patience to an eternal ideology developed a new history. We know this very well. The same thing happens in a nation, in history, and in a religion.
What then is going to happen in the last days? You must know that in the last days there will come forth a central nation from among nations, a central religion from among religions, and a central history.
God said, “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.” (Revelation 22:13) In the last days, the religion that endured more with patience will stand forth among the religions. The denomination that endures more with patience within Christianity will reap the victory. The race that endures more with patience will be victorious among races. Heaven has guided forth the new age seeking the people who endure more with patience. You must know that such a principle exists.
God sent Jesus to this earth to fulfill the will of providence for which He had chosen the Israelites, full of fire and devotion, and guided them for 4,000 years. Yet Jesus could not stand in the position where he was admired and respected in the same way Christians have trusted and attended to him throughout history. He died being called a heretic and a traitor to the nation.
The Mistake of the Chosen People and the Mission of a Nation
Why did God have to put Jesus in such an environment where he had to endure with patience as he tried to establish a new providential ideology? That was because human history began with the fall. Jesus had no choice but to conclude fallen history. There is a remarkable difference between Jesus in the Bible, the written history, and Jesus at that time. If the religious people then had believed in Jesus as much as the Christians today believe in him, Jesus would not have died on the cross.
The people who felt remorse after having killed Jesus and sought him were fallen people. Those who rejected Jesus have gone to hell. Although their followers have stepped forth, boasting that they were the chosen ones who represented the truth, history has revealed that Jesus, who did not look like a truthful man, represented the truth and that those who rejected him were in a non truthful position. The actions of Heaven have flowed down in the course of history in a seemingly contradictory fashion. Although the chosen people knew the ideological truth centered on Jesus, they were distanced from the substantial truth.
If some adverse fate comes to a nation today, if the people of that nation do not feel sorry about it but rather endure with patience, united, understanding the providence of the heavenly principles, that people will not perish. The Old Testament foundation, which God established through the Israelites for 4,000 years, should have become the sacrificial offering for the sake of carrying out the internal mission of Heaven. Instead, that foundation had become corrupted and had degenerated into formalism. Although there were many people who lamented deeply and felt sorry over this at the time, still there was no one who followed Jesus.
God forewarned us that the last days are coming. He warned us that humankind would not be able to avoid the day of judgment. When we analyze God’s providential history, why did we have to go through such a historical, providential course? It is because God goes forth enduring with patience in a position that is contrary to Satan’s. When the satanic world changes to Heaven’s side, a new history will be created by going through the process of enduring with patience in an absolute way. For that reason, the offspring of a loyal subject will not perish and the children of a faithful woman will not perish. A filial son and a dutiful daughter will not be destroyed.
Therefore, this people, the Koreans, must survive historically. Though this people has a long history of 4,000 years, this nation does not have unique national characteristics. When you think of the providence regarding this nation, what do you think this nation will have to do? What would it mean when it is said that this nation has an opportunity? Since this nation stands in a situation where it receives suffering from the same race and before the world, this may become the foundation of happiness for these people. This is the situation with which our people are faced.
Therefore, you must now become large-hearted. Many people from different countries came and sacrificed for the sake of Korea. What is more, this country is still receiving foreign assistance. Therefore, you must have a heart that can pray for blessing upon them, extending your hands over their heads. You must not be disappointed, complaining that all God’s internal conditions for the sake of this nation are not getting connected to the people. Rather, you should have the heart that prays for blessing upon them from any direction, regardless of whether it is front or back.
If you become such people, centering on a new ideology, a new providential history will be developed through this nation. The same principle applies not only to this people but also to Christian society. For that reason, we must become the people who are able to be harassed before the world or before the universe. In reality, these people will be harassed in the future before the presence of the 2.4 billion people of humanity.
When Jesus was being crucified, the thief on the right was sympathetic toward Heaven. The thief on the left took the position of distrusting Heaven. Similarly, the world today is divided into two big worlds. One is the right-wing world, which resembles the thief on the right. The other is the left-wing world, which resembles the thief on the left. That is why the left-wing world has become ignorant of God.
What must you attest to in such a world? True love. For that reason, just as we have witnessed relying on Jesus’ name until now, a country with a religious foundation that marches on seeking Heaven will have to appear in the future and attest to true love. Although Jesus’ own ideology has not come out yet, it should come out now. For that reason, something new will definitely have to come out in the last days.
What is it that all of humanity wants? It is not the truth Jesus emphasized. Rather, it was something that transcends truth. Therefore, in the last days that truth must come out without fail. That will be the age of worldwide ideology. Such a time will surely have to come. The men who stick fast to the Bible and defend it to the last, the people who insist only upon their own unique thought, will be struck.
For that reason, today you must become the people who pray, “Father, please allow us to be the group of people who are being harassed before the whole world. While we would like to be the group of people who die holding onto the Father, please allow us not to give up on the Father.”
Let Us Be Heaven’s Elite Pioneers Who Endure with Patience to the End
Now let’s not speak ill of others, saying that we family members have become the target that is being harassed. The people who have slandered others by mentioning their demerits and attempted to obtain their own profits thereby have perished. For that reason, today you should not lament over not having truth in your mind and body. You should not sigh for grief, saying that you do not know anything or have anything. You should not heave a sigh, saying that you do not have authority and influence. You should be able to pray, “Father, even if we are dispossessed of everything, please allow us to become Heaven’s elite pioneers who can defend the path of Jesus to the end. Please allow us to be the instruments of victory at the last.”
Jesus lost even his parents. He lost his relatives. He lost his own denomination and all the people whom he was to govern. Though he lost everything, he did not sigh for grief. Embracing the bigger heart of Heaven, emulating God’s patience, he endured even in the face of death. Although the souls of the martyrs have gone to the spirit world, the martyrs who died only wanting to be saved themselves did not reach a good place. However, the person who said a sinner like himself deserved to die a million times over ended up being in a high place in Heaven.
For that reason, when the world comes to be blessed, the person who persevered only for the sake of the world, will fall off upon reaching the world of the cosmos, beyond the world. Accordingly, today we have the responsibility to shake the world centered on this small land of Korea, after developing a new start with a new mind. This is neither a futile argument nor a foolish imagining.
Jesus could have harbored vexation against Satan and vexation against the distrusting people. However, because he knew they were the people God loved, he did not. When you face such a situation, when a resentful feeling rises in you, stepping beyond that, you must become the people who pray for the others. By doing so, you must become the family members who again set up the religious order that our ancestors who fell down tried to set up. You must move these people. Furthermore, you must reform worldwide Christianity. This is our exact mission.
Young people today, what will be your place when you die, after setting up conditions before Heaven? For whom have you lived until now? Ideologically, in your consciences and in your life, whom have you relied on? If you have lived until now only for the good of yourself, you should reflect on your past and bestir yourselves.
People who are centered on an eternal ideology will not perish as long as that ideology does not disappear. Jacob endured contemptuous treatment and neglect from Laban for 21 years, holding onto the one will of God. Embracing the one will of God, not forgetting the will of the Father’s blessing, Jacob lived the 21 years as if it were one day. Abraham did the same. Moses endured with patience, worrying about the chosen people for forty years in Pharaoh’s palace and another forty years in the Midian wilderness. So did Jesus, you must know this.
What then is going to happen if, faced with the last days, we unfold a crusade today to save pitiful humankind, which has been embraced in the satanic world and is the condition of God’s sorrow? If there is a person who gets sacrificed to save humankind in this endeavor, God will build his tomb and reveal his footprints after his death. You who are confronted with a dead end road must remember the Bible verse, “Whoever seeks to gain his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life will preserve it.” (Luke 17:33) The people who betrayed Jesus after setting up satanic conditions all perished. The same happened to our nation under Japanese reign. The people who sold out their religion by worshipping at a Shinto shrine to avoid being in a disadvantageous position have all perished. The religious order, the nation and the world that are without tears will all perish. For that reason, you must know that this nation is endowed with God’s hidden will of the providence to be moved more quickly by God’s providence than any other nation.
Therefore, if you understand Jesus’ situation now and represent God’s position, when the age of God’s ideology arrives, you will be able to become the sons and daughters with Heaven-granted life who inherit the second Christian gospel. You must remember this.
You have the responsibility for the nation and for the many religious orders. When you eat meals, wear clothes and go to bed, have you ever worried limitlessly for the sake of this nation or for Heaven and earth? If there are sons and daughters who worry for the sake of this world and for the sake of Heaven and earth, such people will become the central figures of the new age. You must understand this for certain.
When we consider the course of providential history carefully, we cannot stop the flow of tears. However, you must not stop there. Learning from that, not becoming losers in today’s environment, enduring with patience, you must become people who can be raised as Heaven’s sons and daughters in whom Heaven can take delight.
Chapter 16: The Forsaken Jesus
I Peter 2:1-10
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
June 22, 1958
These Bible verses metaphorically describe Jesus as a stone. They also describe how the stone which the builders rejected became a cornerstone. We can see that this situation was not recognized by Jesus family, his religious order, the Israelites nor even his own beloved three disciples.
God drew out the chosen people from among their enemies. He raised them for salvation. Through this people, He tried to accomplish His great will. However, although the Israelites saw this will of God from the viewpoint of an ideology or history, they still could not live up to that will.
To seek one person of hope, God came through a toilsome course. God toiled so that each individual might experience His will. In other words, through 4,000 years of toil, God had reached as far as the realm of life. However, though the people had longed for the Messiah to come in their minds, when the Messiah actually came, no one welcomed him. There was no one who understood.
Throughout her life, Anna had eagerly waited for the Messiah to come. She did not leave the holy temple, and she fasted. However, when the Messiah actually appeared, because she could not attend him even after bearing witness to him, she too finished distanced from the will of Heaven. This was Heaven’s sorrow.
Jesus came as the fruit of God’s providential dispensation of 4,000 years. If Jesus’ parents or relatives at that time had known Jesus was the Messiah who was to save their own nation, they would not have allowed Jesus to be born in a stable. Had the chosen people known him to be the Messiah, they would not have let him be harassed from this village to that, during his thirty years of private life as the son of a carpenter and in the course of his three years of public life. When He saw this, God felt sad and so did Jesus himself.
Since Jesus was driven out as a traitor, God’s will and the hope that the chosen people had cherished could not connect. God could not form relations with them. Consequently, since the gap between Heaven and the people could not be made up, Jesus could not help worrying again about the eternal connection of the past history of the nation to the present and the future. Because no one knew Jesus, that is, because no one could attend him as the Savior of the nation and the Messiah, among all things of the world of creation and all humankind, no one could form a direct relationship in any way with God.
As Jesus whittled at a piece of wood in his carpentry work, he imagined he was shaving off the sins and blots of the people. His words and deeds and meditations during his life were done as preparation to establish the heavenly ideology centered on goodness. Yet no one understood the situation and heart of Jesus then. For that reason, even if Jesus had wanted to talk, he came to be in a situation where he could not talk openly to anyone. Even his family could not understand his will, and therefore they rejected him. Finally, he left home. At this time, Jesus sought and entered a religious order, but then again, he came to receive rejection from the religion which could not understand God’s heart and will. In the end, Jesus came to be driven out as a traitor of that nation, but because he knew that there remained for him the path of Golgotha that is even bigger than the nation, he resolutely determined never to separate from Heaven.
Only those people who form relations with God and the universe will be granted cosmic value and worldwide value. Because Jesus felt that he was connected with his family, the religion, the people, the earthly world, and even the spirit persons in the heavenly world and hell, he was undaunted in spite of the rejection of his family and church. Although the chosen people expected that everything would end due to Jesus being crucified as a traitor, because there was a flame in the remaining set of people, including the twelve disciples, Jesus could work through them. Consequently, Christianity could expand worldwide as it has today.
In the last days, we must above all become the people who comprehend God’s mind. Humans have the three elements of intellect, emotion and will. He is left with the mission to attain emotional heavenly compassion based on intellect and will. Because the love of God flows, and there is a heavenly providence concerning us, an ardent passion and loyalty and piety toward Heaven must flow more strongly from the heart of the Korean people than any other race.
We do not need any leader to know God’s heart and truths. At the time of his crucifixion, Jesus cried out, “Why have You forsaken me?” Due to this one word, you must realize that a new point of transition in history began to develop.
After Jesus’ death, the whole universe was mobilized by several women who could share his blood and flesh as their momentum. For that reason, we can see that although the Korean people do not have anything, we can and should own the core of God’s deep heart. Even if the Korean people are deprived of everything, we must become the people who do not lose the heart of God. By doing so, if this nation becomes the altar of spraying blood for the sake of Heaven and earth, and if we can cry for the sorrow of all humankind and all things in Heaven and on earth, there is a way to live here.
God is a Being who sheds tears even as He lifts the whip in a rage and strikes. He who delights in seeing this will fall victim to the condition of judgment. Therefore, you must now find Jesus again whom you abandoned in the past and become his friend. Only then will you be able to stand as the bride before Jesus who comes again.
Chapter 17: Let Us Become Survivors
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
June 29, 1958
As He is eternal, God created all things with an eternal ideology. Because individuals, races, all humankind and all things failed to become beings of eternity, God has been seeking them with grief until today. In other words, though God lost the ideal garden of creation because of the human fall, He did not abandon hope for the created world. He fought relentlessly with Satan throughout a long history to fulfill the vast ideology of creation. He has been persevering until today.
The Inheritor of the Surviving Hope and Ideology
God has this great hope. His agony lies in that He must start with the smallest thing. This great hope was to be fulfilled in the individual, but because the individual fell, hope for the whole was lost. Consequently, before the hope of all humankind and all things could be accomplished, God’s hope had to be fulfilled in a single individual. This was God’s situation. No one knew about this. To fulfill this hope centering on an individual, God set up Cain and Abel. When that providence failed and 1,600 years passed, He set up Noah’s family. Yet Noah’s family also failed through the mistake of Ham. Therefore, the providence was prolonged after Abraham and Moses until the time of Jesus.
Before Jesus came, the many prophets were to fulfill God’s ideology within the individual. Yet they could not, and this hope was transferred to Jesus, the only begotten son. Jesus came as an individual, but he was not just a common individual. He was the fruit of God’s 4,000 years of constant perseverance, His longed for ideology, and His shimjung. He came carrying with him all the hopes of the prophets who had died during the 4,000 years of human history. As the fruit of 4,000 years of goodness, Jesus came on a level surpassing the individual, racial, national and world levels. He came on the cosmic level. He came with an ideology that was to eradicate the resentment of Heaven.
Accordingly, the people of Jesus time were not supposed to allow Jesus, who came with God’s awesome ideology, to have an ideology that remained only with himself. Instead, they were supposed to implant this ideology within the whole Israelite nation and from there reach each person of humanity. Yet because they did not know and accept the ideology, that great ideology of God stopped with Jesus. Moreover, because Jesus died, that vast ideology could not survive as an ideology of the physical world and remained only as the ideology of the spirit world. Consequently, the people of the physical world had to wait for the ideology that could survive eternally in the physical realm. Jesus was forced to come again to re-establish this ideology in the physical realm.
Where and when will the individual, the family and the people who possess this ideology, those people for whom the physical world has been longing and who will survive eternally, appear? We must know the place and time.
When Jesus passed away, he left behind his word and his hope, but he did not leave behind his ideology. Thus, this ideology has to appear.
In the last days, what kind of person can possess Jesus’ ideology? That person should first acquire Jesus’s hope and will. Beyond that, he should possess a mind that can retain that ideology and a grieving heart of knowing the course of human history. Accordingly, he should be able to experience God’s ideology for the creation. When Jesus preached the gospels in the physical world, he sincerely challenged people with the directive to love him more than anyone else in the world. (Matthew 10:37)
Was there anyone who understood the profound meaning of Jesus’ words and practiced them? No, there was no one. Even among the disciples who followed and lived with him, there were none who practiced Jesus’ words completely. Jesus also told people to love their brothers. After his resurrection, he appeared to Peter and asked three times, “Do you love me more than these?” When Peter answered in the affirmative, Jesus said, “Feed my lambs,” (John 21:15-17). Moreover, Jesus told his disciples that they must prepare and wait for him, for he would come again. If you select important words of Jesus from among the words he spoke, these can serve as a summary of them.
Jesus’ Sincere Request
Who can fulfill this earnest request Jesus left behind? The person who fulfills this word can escape judgment in the last days and meet Jesus. Have you ever loved Jesus in your lifetime? Can you say that the intensity of that love was greater than your love for your parents, your spouse or someone else in the world? You must re-think this point. The sincere desire of Jesus in Heaven is that someone will appear who can love him more than they love anyone else. If there is such a person on this earth, that person probably knows and deeply cares for God’s ideology of the creation, God’s 6,000 years of labor, and Jesus’ painful heart.
Jesus represented a value based upon God’s Principle of Creation. He is within the lawful realm of Heaven’s creation, without any contradiction or conflict. Because Jesus was in this position, his mind and body were one. Though he was separated from Adam by a distance of 4,000 years, he could exist, transcending time and space. This is why Jesus could perceive immediately that God’s ideology of creation was embedded within Adam 4,000 years ago.
What kind of mission did Jesus have? Humankind, who was to connect with God’s eternal love, did not connect with it. Jesus had the mission to connect humankind with God’s love. He also had the mission to tie a knot of love between humans and all things. Because Jesus came to complete this kind of mission, he told his disciples to love him, the representative of Heaven, more than they loved anyone else in the world. At that time, however, there was no one who loved Jesus that way.
When we examine the course of human history from this viewpoint, we know that we are individuals who have inherited a lineage of sin. We do not possess the ideology of creation. We have not attended Jesus from the position of a bride. Because the people of Jesus’ time entered a situation where they could have loved him but did not, in the last days people in the physical world have to love Jesus more than they love anyone else on a worldwide level. From the position of a loyal subject, were you ever intoxicated with a love that could surpass any in history toward Jesus, the king of kings and your bridegroom? If not, you cannot claim that you love God more than others.
God came to ignorant sinners by abandoning everything that belonged to the 6,000 years of history. If I do not receive this God with love, this ideology of God that comes to me will be suspended because of me.
Thus, when you pray for your family at this time, you should pray that they will be people who love God and Jesus more than any other. When you pray for your nation, you should pray that there will be people in your nation who love God and Jesus more than any nation. When you pray for humankind, you should pray that the Christians of this world love God and Jesus more than the followers of any other religions. If you yourselves cannot love God and Jesus more than all others, you should at least pray this much.
What does all creation desire from humanity today? They desire for someone to appear who can fulfill this earnest request of Jesus. His wish that someone would love him more than they love any other person. Though all things wish this, that kind of person has not appeared. That is why all things and Heaven are lamenting. You must know this clearly.
Love God and Jesus More than Any Other
What kind of grief is that lamentation? In the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve were supposed to connect with God’s love and His ideology. Yet through the fall, they failed to make that proper relationship with Him. The lamentation of all things is the lamentation that longs for humans to recover this situation and connect with God’s ideology and love. Consequently, a person who cannot liberate this lamentation of all things will be judged in the last days.
What kind of person will survive this judgment? The person has to know God’s and Jesus’ heart more than any other, and love them that much.
By knowing this heart of God, a person can connect with God’s ideology through that shimjung and thus possess the power to drive the enemy out of this universe. The reason Jesus could bless his enemies, even when he was on the cross, is that God’s heart constantly and powerfully boiled within him. This is how Jesus could stand firm even in the face of death.
Jesus referred to a bride and a bridegroom. What are the bride and bridegroom? In the 2,000 years from Jesus’s death until today, there was no bride who loved God and Jesus more than they loved any other. Many people talked about Jesus and about history arising from Jesus, but there was no one who knew Jesus’s grief at not being able to show God’s ideology of creation to humankind. It is important to talk about Jesus and the history arising from him, but it is more important to deeply experience his heart. Accordingly, in order for us to be able to represent God’s ideology and survive in the last days, we must unite our shimjung with Jesus’.
Jesus loved his disciples more than he loved himself. If there is a grief of Heaven, what could that be? To leave behind God’s ideology of creation in the physical world, Jesus loved his disciples more than his own body. Yet the disciples ignored the heart and circumstances of Jesus who was loving them. They thought of other things when following Jesus. They failed to receive and cope with Jesus’s love while he was alive. Thus, the fruit of his love was not produced. This is Heaven’s grief. The disciples felt Jesus’ love for the first time only after he passed away, only then did they understand the intent of Jesus’ words.
What kind of people was Jesus hoping to find? He hoped to find people who despised and abandoned themselves. Jesus was looking for those people so he could love them more than any other. Therefore, the person who can meet Jesus in the last days is a person who gropes for Heaven with a heart of love, even at the cost of despising and abandoning himself more than anyone else. The people of the world long for Jesus to come back. Yet we must not just hope for Jesus to come back but must seek him. To do this, we ourselves have to go over the hill of sadness that God experienced within human history. We must go over the hill of hardships that Jesus went over, carrying the cross. In this way, we must shorten the period of providential history and transcend time and space to deeply experience the painful heart Jesus experienced 2,000 years ago.
Who went to Jesus’ grave? It was Mary Magdalene, a person considered insignificant. It was Mary who loved Jesus most: Jesus, who was chased away from one town, cursed at in another, and ridiculed wherever he went. Jesus appeared in his resurrected body to Mary, who was so sincere. This is a symbol that shows the course that Christians of the world in the last days must follow.
What kind of life did Mary Magdalene lead? Because she loved Jesus, she forgot clothes and food, and lived only for Jesus. Her path of life transcended life and death and forgot any reputation. This is the course that the saints in the last days have to go. If there is a person on this earth today who has the same heart as Mary Magdalene, his eyes will be filled with tears, moved by the 6,000 years of God’s dispensational history. He will realize that he is infinitely indebted to God.
Moreover, he will know he cannot pay back the love he has received, even if he commits his body to the flames. He will know he has to walk the road of death. Have you ever had this kind of heart at any moment? That kind of person will know the heart of God, who has sought us from the time of the creation, throughout the past, the present and the future, abandoning everything. That person will not be able to raise his head in front of God because he knows that he is infinitely indebted to Him. The kind of person who feels this shimjung and gives up everything he has to follow God can survive the last days.
Therefore, a person who wants to believe in Jesus but be comfortable at the same time can be a messenger for Jesus, but can never be his friend. Moreover, even if a person believes in Jesus, if he does not know his shimjung, he can be Jesus’ friend but never his bride. Both God and Jesus want a bride, not a messenger or friend.
The Person Who Can Survive the Last Days
Jesus cried out to God after fulfilling the qualification to become the substantial being who has gone through the ideology of creation by loving God and humankind more than any other person in history. There was an instant when God forgot the dignity and position of being the Creator and clung to Jesus. No one knows this. Furthermore, God confronted Jesus with a shimjung of wanting to raise him to a position even higher than Himself, the Creator. Nobody knows this either.
Jesus was rejected and driven out by the chosen people, but because he knew the shimjung of God, who had persevered for 4,000 years, he had to endure. In addition, Jesus knew that God had sacrificed everything in the 4,000 years of history to find one son. Therefore, Jesus realized that to find a bride, he also had to endure his hardships, no matter what kind of sacrifice and rejection came upon him. Therefore, he did not curse the people who confronted him as if he were their enemy.
Mary Magdalene knew at least a little bit of Jesus’ shimjung. However, when she tried to touch the resurrected Jesus, he told her not to. This meant that as long as the person who has the qualification of being a bride does not appear, attending Jesus on earth completely, the shimjungs of Jesus, the Holy Spirit and God’s sorrow cannot be dissolved.
Therefore, in the last days you must find one being who appears in substance representing God. You must love him more than any other person, and you must be able to be his substitute. Furthermore, there must appear a church where those kinds of people are gathered and a nation. This church, this nation and humankind should be fulfilled centering on the heart of God. Yet as long as the people of today do not feel the heart of God, they will not survive the last days.
At this time, you should realize that you are a historical sinner. You should know about and pray about yourself before slandering and criticizing others. You should think of and pray for the nation and humankind. Subsequently, when you confront humankind, which has to fulfill the world of God’s ideology of creation, humankind will infinitely welcome you. When you confront all things, they will know that you have sacrificed and have been rejected and will comfort and welcome you. Moreover, when these people appear in front of God, He will wipe away their tears and comfort them. Only these people will survive the last days. God, Jesus and all things long for these people.
Chapter 18: Jesus Who Came with the Destiny of Restoration
Acts 3:13-24
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
August 3, 1958
There may be many people who come to church on Sundays as a matter of course, through habit or as an established custom, thinking that because this is Sunday, they should come to the Father’s temple and attend a service. You must understand that this place in which you are sitting should not be taken so lightly. This gathering materialized through some unknown background connection of which you are not aware. From the viewpoint of your individual being, as the center, your position and connection relate with the front and the rear and the left and the right. It is also a connection related to above and below. You must deeply remember this.
The Background of Jesus’ Coming and the Result of the Chosen People’s Disbelief
The fact of the emergence of the one person Jesus within history was not a chance accident. It was the result of the predetermined will of the heavenly principles. That is, Jesus came to materialize the connections of history, the current age of that time, and the future. If there had been a person who understood this fact, Jesus would not have died on the cross.
Though Jesus was merely one individual, if the connection Jesus carried had been extended to the whole and extended further from there, the historical connections of human beings would have been drawn together, even the connections of that age and the future would have been drawn together. No one knew of this at the time. Besides that, no one knew that Jesus was the figure who came with the central mission to mobilize the billions of faithful believers in Heaven and on earth and even Heavenly Father, based on the connections Jesus had with them.
In their ignorance, the chosen people were not aware of this. They thought highly of themselves, believing that they stood in the midst of God’s will and promise. However, because they rejected Jesus, they deviated from the will. Although they came forth having built a historical religious order, they ended up being placed in a situation where that religious order could not belong to Heaven. In addition, the Israelites had the national hope that the promised blessing of the last days would be materialized centering on them, and they boasted about the privilege of being the chosen people. Yet because they did not recognize Jesus, who was the subject of the macrocosmic ideology, they ended in a position of being soundly ruined. The people did not know in time that Jesus countered the great tragedy that was unfolding in human history with sorrow-filled tears and the blood of sacrifice.
The words Jesus cried out were the words of truth, overflowing from his earnest heart. The thirty year life course Jesus walked was not spent to fulfill his own individual desires. He did not hope for his own benefit. The chosen people should have known this, but they did not. Only Jesus, who tried to accomplish the will of Heaven forgetting himself, knew it. Now this sorrow has become the root of our grief today. We must know this. Further, from the position of a man of faith, you must realize that the steps Jesus took were steps “I” have to take. The garden of ideology for which Jesus longed is the garden of ideology that “I” must accomplish.
Jesus yearned and hoped for the one ideology of the bride and bridegroom who could live in the realm of God’s blessing. Besides that, Jesus wished to embrace the crowd of 144,000 people centered on the banquet of the lamb that could consummate God’s blessing. With these people, he wished to return songs and the glory of bliss before the presence of the Father. This was Jesus’ earnest desire. However, because of the chosen people’s disbelief, Jesus could not materialize such an original hope and instead was crucified on Calvary. The prayer Jesus offered, shedding blood and sweat in the garden of Gethsemane, was a prayer that represented God’s earnest and intensely sorrowful heart. That earnest prayer was not meant for the sake of solving his own problem. It was for the good of the ignorant, slumbering people of that nation. It was for the beloved three disciples.
Jesus bore the responsibility to lead the ignorant people, embracing God’s hope. What would the heart of Jesus Christ have been like when he had to pray to Heaven asking for the hands of forgiveness to be extended again, in spite of the heavenly ways being violated? What was his heart like, trying to stop the chosen people from becoming a people of betrayal who deserved judgment? When Jesus pleaded earnestly, “Please do not lay their sinfulness to their charge,” he was facing the enemy in a crowd of people while walking the course of the tribulation on the cross. What kind of relationship did he wish to form with humankind, with the course of the providence or with the heart of heavenly nature?
We today should be able to go back into history and delve into the heart of Jesus. To that heart, we should bow our heads. By walking the steps the Lord took, following the traces the Lord left behind, and rendering devoted service to the altar for which the Lord died, we should become the people who can embrace God’s grievous resentment in His place. Further, we should reflect upon ourselves to see if we can seize Jesus’ heart, which represented the whole of humankind and the historical ties holding onto heavenly compassion. That is, we should ask ourselves whether we can become true friends of Jesus who can represent Jesus’ historical relationship, the relationship of the age, and the relationship of the future.
Awakening to One’s Own Worth
There is nothing one can do all by himself in this world. You can never shed light upon what kind of being you are if you put aside your relationships. The same principle applies to God’s providential restoration. If there is one, two will appear. If there is a gathering of one, it will by nature connect with front and rear, left and right, and top and bottom. By doing so, when that one being comes to be equipped with one subjectivity that can pass through the characteristics of history, the current age and the future, a new history can be developed from there. You must understand that as fallen humankind was falling further away, more and more, going further down, God has been unfolding the providential dispensation of pulling them up and up, transcending time and space.
When asked by others how long you have believed in Jesus, you easily answer that you have believed for “ten years,” “twenty years,” or “such and such number of years.” Yet looking carefully at the history of the relationship, you must realize that you are standing in a position where you must add to it the 6,000 years of history. You must be able to locate the position of your faith.
Because humans cannot escape from the history of relationship, you today must become the people who can confidently say that you have the center of faith that is absolutely necessary in the realm of relationships for the age. Going further, the descendants of many thousands of generations should be able to model themselves on the foundation of faith you start building now. The matter for concern is how you can move forth with the foundation for such future relationships from your present realm of faith.
Therefore, you who stand in such a position today must have faith with which you can appear proudly before God in substitution for the 6,000- year history and say, “My Father, who has labored for 6,000 years.” The Father has endured with patience, unconcerned about having to go through a course of toil to embrace the 2.4 billion people of humanity in His bosom today. You must be able to call this Father “My Father.” Going further, you must stand before Heaven with a faith and a determination that can touch the hearts of posterity’s billions of generations through the appeal of your faith. Only then can you call God, who operates His providence according to eternal law, “Father.” Therefore, now the matter of concern is whether I have become a person who can reveal myself, or be revealed by another, before God as having consolidated the present and the past, after taking in the future.
Only after 4,000 years of history had elapsed could Jesus come for the first time to this earth to pioneer the realistic course of such a mission. Accordingly, you today must not have an ideological faith. You must not have a faith that cannot free itself of ideology based on knowledge that became known through history. Since you are stuck in history and your way is blocked, you must realize that the time has come to review the course of history and re-evaluate it. Many churches that passed through the path of faith until today, many religions which boasted about their ideologies, have their paths blocked upon arriving in the last days. This proves that they are in a situation where they cannot form a historical relationship, a relationship of the current period or a futuristic relationship of hope.
Truths and the Mission Toward the Central Figure
What kind of man of faith are we looking for today? We are looking for a man of faith who can form relations representing the historical, periodical and futuristic relations. Yet today we are guided by our five senses. Would there be any truths that could encourage the world of the mind through those five senses?
Such truths may seem to have nothing to do with our living environment today, but that is not so. They are truths which tally with our lives one hundred percent. They are the truths we will need when we forget the ideology we have cherished with hope and are in a condition of clouded consciousness. That is, they are the truths which will guide us when we come to be placed in a situation where we are blocked by the wall of darkness and cannot think seriously upon the center of our mind.
For that reason, you today must penetrate into the future and, by every means, find the truths that connect to the past. Accordingly, today you must remember that you have a worldwide mission to find such truths and plant them in this land which stands in defiance of any of our toilsome efforts, sacrifices and tribulations.
The word of that one person, who has come and formed such relationships, is really the good news of good news. When you come to think of this, you must pursue the truths Jesus asserted. By doing so, you must equip yourselves with the historical relationship of blessed faith.
Have you become one with a historical relationship that is flowing out of Jesus’ shimjung? If you have not, you must realize that you are sinners who have violated the relationship with Jesus, who inherited the historical course and has come forth connecting with us until today. You must become people who can bow their heads unconditionally. You must also understand that you have violated the thirty or more years of the life of Jesus, who transmitted the words of the gospel in substitution for the periodical relationship and walked the practical course to fulfill the periodical responsibility.
The person who cannot comprehend the words of the gospel Jesus introduced through this kind of relationship is a man very deeply in debt. Jesus Christ is connected with God, and the truths of Christianity are connected through Jesus Christ. We today must realize that we are indebted to those truths. You have to realize again that, until Jesus stepped forth before Heaven, God had to make toilsome efforts for 4,000 years. Those truths are covered with God’s shimjung and blots of the blood of numerous ancestors within history.
If you now anxiously long to find the relationship of ideology and have the mind that wishes to obtain your own position according to that relationship, have you ever felt the weight of the great debt you owe on the front and in the rear, to the right and to the left, and on the shoulders of both sides? Although the laws of relationship and the laws of the heavenly principles urge us into the field, we are staying at a level of individual relationship centered on one person: ourselves. If you live tied up only with such a relationship and are not able to free yourselves from that relationship, heavenly compassion will compel judgment. The blood of the many sages who died for their belief in the course of history will make an appeal.
You must understand the heart of Jesus, who could call Heaven “Father” even within such a sphere. Jesus’ mind and God’s mind could make a connection. The whole heart of the Father who had toiled during history could be consoled by Jesus. What was more, one person, Jesus, could substitute for God’s comprehensive hope for the future. Jesus was such a unique, awe-inspiring being that he cannot be compared with any one. Yet no one at that time knew this.
Consequently, although it was God’s will for men to alleviate the historical sorrow, they were ignorant about it and marched forward in a way which would bring glory and happiness. On the contrary, it became sadness and an altar of the cross. With what can you then alleviate the shimjung of the Father who was watching this? This is the greatest matter of concern. That is why spiritual restoration history ever since Jesus is being turned upside down during our spiritual restoration. You must know this.
We Are to Be Responsible for Jesus’ Sorrow and His Hope
In the field where men have to fulfill the macrocosmic mission of relationship, the spirit must be united, let alone the relationship between top and bottom. Just as one cell of my body is moved by the unified shimjung, it should be possible for my mind to connect to the historical course.
What kind of relationship do you have with Jesus, who cried out bearing the historical responsibility; with Jesus, who thought only of God’s will; with Jesus, who died on the cross? This is the important matter of concern. You should be able to say, “Father! Though I am feeble, please allow me to be responsible for even one part of Jesus’ burden.” You must have a tragic shimjung that can cry with Jesus, feeling the fretful heart with which he cried, unable to discuss his own grieved heart with anyone. With such a mind, you must take charge of even one part of Jesus’ difficult situation.
In your life of faith today, to not fall into ruin, there should be at least three people who pray all night in the church, clinging to Jesus. Such a church, such a religious order will not perish. Although the gospel Jesus transmitted has been propagated on this earth and many religious orders have formed, when we look at how Christianity has strayed from the will of Jesus, we should reflect on ourselves today and become the people who can follow in the footsteps of Jesus as he struggled hard during the three years of his public life.
Having connected with God’s shimjung and the historical shimjung, Jesus had a commanding mien and was full of confidence when he appeared before the people. Yet when he was not facing the people, he would quietly shed tears. When he saw people straying from the righteous way and from the ties of God’s heart, believing mere formalities and ceremonial functions, in his heart he felt like lifting a whip and striking them.
Now we should restore Jesus’ mind that can connect with our heart and the ties of our life. We should also search for a group of such people with Jesus’ mind. Since we do not have such a mind, we should consider to whom we have to hand over this task as an unfinished work.
Since we are placed in such a position as this, we must bear all the historical mistakes perpetrated in the past. Going further, it is not enough to know the grief of the days past. Going beyond that, you must know even the shimjung that cherishes a hope for the future and be able to say, “Since I will be responsible for all this, please take a rest.” Since no part of your life has been aglow with this kind of passion, you must repent.
Toward what kind of age is this world today moving? The present time is the age where we fight centering on materials, but in the future, there will come an age of struggle centering on thought. That is, stepping beyond the age of materialism that can affect the body of a human being, the age of an “ism” based on thought, representing the mind, will emerge.
In a human being, there is the body and the mind. Above the mind, there is the soul; above the soul, there is God. Therefore, only when the human being unites completely into one with God will he or she become perfect. Each person is one mere, small, independent entity. However, he or she represents the whole of history and all relationships of the future. Therefore, he or she possesses macrocosmic value. Why has human history been flowing down until now? What did our many ancestors and the prophets and sages come forth wishing for? Because they were fallen human beings, they have been seeking the center, after having connected from afar. That is, we have been coming forth from the age of the clan to that of the tribe, through the age of the race to the age of the state and the international age, through the age of a worldwide federation. Heaven has been searching for the one person who can be a representative, linking God’s heart on top of the foundation of having combined the historical relations, the current period relations, and the futuristic relations. You must remember this.
Therefore, the time of World War I was a time of struggle centered on materials. In other words, all people in this world tried to obtain materials. There was a time when the world cried out for materials.
Life Centered on the Mind
Will this be true of every age? No, it will not. In looking for the relationships of his or her life, an individual has to go forth with attendance of his or her mind in front. This is the iron rule of the heavenly principles. He who does not obey the command of the mind will be struck by Heaven. Heaven has told human beings in the course of history that they must live in accordance with their consciences. They must belong to the good side, centered on their minds. They should not get caught up in some materialistic condition of evil.
Is the human conscience then able to accept the heart of the heavenly principles one hundred percent as it is? No, it is not. Rather, it is blocked by many fences. Before the Cape of Good Hope for which you wish, that is, before the boundary gate of Heaven, there lies the gate of turns and twists. Spoken in Christian terms, this is the checkpoint of the judgment. The trend of thought today sees a period of fear, uneasiness and confusion. In other words, it is the age when you cannot take hold of the center.
Today you should not keep many material things. Why? When creating man, God breathed the soul into the body. A person is made of soul and flesh, and the soul is the center. When this world moves in a unified way centered upon materialistic power, what kind of period of struggle is going to come about? A period of ideological strife will come about. In reality, such a phenomenon has been conspicuously presenting itself since after World War II. The age of ideology centered on the mind will then appear.
What kind of thought should that ideology be? It should be thought that penetrates material things and the mind and centers on the soul. To go forth seeking the age of ideology centered on the soul is the restoration course. Humankind is still stopped in the state of having lost this and is moored in a state of having lost the harmony between the soul, the conscience and the body. Such has happened symbolically in this world. That is, the world today is the battleground between the major powers of the democratic and the communist worlds. This fight is also a showdown between God and Satan. It is a fight in which individuals struggle against one another, centering on religion.
Therefore, if in the future a tribe tries to move the world, it will not be able to control the world with its own ways and means only. Today’s domain of thought is two in the present state of things. However, in principle, it should be four instead of two. For that reason, just as the nations in the Third World, today, are holding hands with the left-wing camp, with religious formalities that are on the satanic side, something has to emerge in the democratic camp which can hold hands with the people of the world, having equipped itself with a new religion. I personally foresee that in the future a worldwide religious movement centering on Christianity will come about.
In other words, because Christianity falls within the purview of the realm of the conscience within the democratic camp, a push from the opposite side will be expected. Just as there are two minds in us and they fight against each other, I see that there will be a conflict between two worlds. What humankind wishes for is one starting point, a starting point in which two unite into one. That starting point is the beginning of relations, the synthesis of relations, and the result of relations.
For that reason, you must set up an inward standard that can link the subjective ties and live making it the center of life. By having realized such a stage of life on the earth, finding the common value that connects to the whole of humankind’s shimjung, all problems will be resolved. The world will then usher in the time of judgment. Accordingly, the young men and women who are put in the process of such an urgent history as today must set their resolution in good working order and proceed afresh toward Heaven.
When we look back at the modern history of the world, ever since the political revolution in France, after the Renaissance and World War I, material civilization has developed to the highest degree. What caused the Industrial Revolution? It was because man began to understand the power of steam and gasoline. The Industrial Revolution was realized on the foothold of steam and petroleum.
Since then, as it came into the first half of the twentieth century, it transformed into the electrical civilization. Although water and petroleum are substances, now the age of electrical civilization uses power that is invisible. What came after the stage where substance was acted upon to cause light to be emitted? The age of the energy civilization came, that is, the atomic age. This is the last age. Similarly, human history has passed through three stages of similar revolutions.
What this Age Demands
If there exists a nation and a people that can create some stimulative momentum that can have a big influence on the economic systems that have appeared in history until now, that nation and people will control the world. England today has borne such a mission. However, England was not aware of it.
As the material civilization of today developed, who would have known the fact that a movement of one person would come along which could carry out the mission of a small flame to break through each age, which could mobilize the world? No one knew that. Today, in the last stage of material civilization, atomic power has come and radiates one flame. The important question now is who is going to inherit that flame.
After the stage of substance, what stage are we going to? We go into the stage of thought. The providence is to search for and go into the mind. Therefore, centered on the trend of thought after the Renaissance, with the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries as a turning point, we have experienced an age of drastic change until now. The two great doctrines of left and right have materialized, as of now, after many crossings of thought.
In this age, which is the last days, what would be required of these two doctrines? That is, just as atomic power emerged in the place where the material civilization was being praised and threw out a flame, a new doctrine that can be the flame for this age must emerge in the arena where democracy and communism are both boasting about their respective superiority. If there are young men and women with serious minds that wish to seek a new doctrine which can be such a flame, they will be unable to sleep until they do.
Since the fight is on one way or another, we are put in a situation where a judgment has to be passed. When a great doctrine came out, it ruled over substance. When the mind reached its perfection, it ruled over the body. In the same manner, the time has come for the ideological doctrine to be resolved and sweep away the worldwide economic power. For that reason, although America continuously prospered economically until World War II, because now is the time to find a doctrine of thought, she has been struck in a material sense. Upon thinking about it, we can feel grateful for this. When you discard something, do it in style. That means to discard determinedly, like a state that knows how to discard things, without mentioning aid and so forth. This is the issue we must bring up in the future age.
What is the matter of concern in democracy? Where will the strength to spew out the flame of thought come from? Suppose that strength is welling up in our minds. From where will the flame that can explode shoot up? These are the matters of concern. These kinds of matters cannot be solved by your mind. Only the soul can solve these things. Accordingly, if there is a person who starts a revolution that can create a spiritual flame, he or she will be more precious than any ascetic who labored for the sake of the will of Heaven in the past, more precious than today’s doctrines, assertions or any worldwide ideology.
Therefore, I mean to suggest that by throwing out the flame of an economic system centered on the soul, we can take in the world’s economy. What is more, by throwing the flame of spiritual thought and doctrine, I suggest that we can move the world. The world appears to have been divided into two different paths. While communism is self- destructing by having centered on the search for material things rather than discarding what is to be discarded, democracy, to be grateful, must proceed to look for God. Similarly, you must understand that the two worlds are standing at widely divergent crossroads.
Because humans are in the course of restoration, the body is to succumb to the mind, the mind is to succumb to the soul, and the soul is to succumb to God. Because this is the law of absolute relations that the heavenly principles have set up, no one can exist while going against this law.
Do you have the courage to subjugate your conscience which pleads with you? You do not succumb to the mind now, but you will succumb on the day of your death. Humans are born this way.
Korean People Are the Ones Who Must Start up the Flame of the Mind
You should now reflect upon yourselves to see if you have become the people who can sweep aside material things. Because until today it has been the age of doctrines, everything was okay since you lived according to your conscience. Today, the people leading a religious life are failing. There are also people who think and live saying, “Regardless of any religion, as long as you live according to your conscience, it is okay. Heaven and such are useless.” The principled course of a human being is not that way. After going through doctrine and thought, when the mind strikes the body with the right power of mind, where will the power of the mind appear? The day when the dominion of the mind falls, you can never demonstrate again the power of the mind with any worldwide doctrine.
Most men of faith today are stubborn. Because their mind has the ideological condition that it will succumb only to the soul, they do not listen to anyone. Do I then have the authority to grab hold of such a person and have dominion over him? No, I do not.
Where will the flame that can revolutionize that mind come from? Do you have the guts with which you can protest, raising your mental horizon and going over the race, the world, the religion and ecclesiastical authority? The person, who knows how to bow his or her head upon listening to one word that makes the mind cry rather than the ten million sermons that reach your ears, is the truthful man of faith. People today believe that salvation belongs to Heaven, but it does not. Only when you can show it through your mind can you come to create the history of a true salvation. Just as the doctrines today are then unable to locate a place to settle, our mind also wanders about, unable to locate a place to settle. It should not be so. If there is a person who sleeps comfortably bearing this kind of mind, he or she will then wind up the very last.
Today is the age of awakening, when you are to save your own lives and the lives of your ancestors. Upon thinking about this, the one self “I” is not a being who is to freely move around and live in this manner. Within the cosmic sphere of relations, you should feel substantially that this whole world of existence is yearning to establish “my” value of existence. Not only should you feel with your mind and with your head, you should proceed to where you can feel it emotionally.
Going further, even if someone gives you a mountain of gold and treasures, you should be able to valiantly give them up if they are not the things your mind wants, saying, “They are too pitiful, Father! However, we are aware of the fact that You have the responsibility to give material things to people of conscience and the will to have dominion over the body of a person who has a true mind. We know as well that the true soul itself has to be under the Father’s dominion.” The question is whether you can also step nimbly over great material suffering. Accordingly, since the value of my body is bigger than the cosmos, when my mind subjugates the body, my mind surpasses the cosmic value.
All the religious problems today originate from here. Looking at Buddhism, it too is a religion that focuses its efforts on attaining the mind. “He who brings his mind to light is the master of all laws.” This is the summary of Buddhist doctrine in its totality.
The material things that are being connected today are the things that used to build a wall of historical sins. Accordingly, you should not bow your heads before those material things. You must know that Heaven demands a group of people who can mercilessly cut them off whenever their mind does not want them.
Although these Korean people are pitiable, when viewed in the light of principles like these, we come to have one hope. We are a people who are lacking in material things. If there is a chance for us to live here, we should now unite our minds. For that reason, Heaven wishes for a group of people to emerge who embrace their minds and struggle complaining of the hunger of their minds. The time is coming when, binding with this mind that starved and strived, the spiritual flame must break out. That is why this nation, this people, is experiencing poverty economically and inwardly.
What then must we be concerned about? It is whether we can find God and cause the spiritual flame. All problems will be brought to an end there. The first Christian believers could laugh in the face of death where blood was splashed and flesh was being torn in the age of confusion in the past. They caused the worldwide revolution by having thrown out a new flame. You today also must cause a new history by throwing such a spiritual last flame.
As the last, you are left with the mission to push away all, including the doctrine you have believed in and the contents of your faith, and be able to cause a revolution of the mind. That is, you have to bring about a new flame. If there is a last cry here, that will be, “Please grant us the eternal flame that Heaven can throw in this dry garden of the mind and body.” The day when that flame saves this nation is the day when the whole world will soon bow its head to the man who caused that flame.
If such spheres of relations appear, a contradictory phenomenon that humanity has not seen throughout the ages of history will take place. At that time, an unknown mysterious event will happen. Our mind cannot solve that. The solution has to be that which can cause some new impulse that can make us say no, even if somebody takes our life. That has to be a three-dimensional action, rather than a horizontal action.
The Laws of Restoration
How then has God come through this kind of historical course internally? Before Jesus came, God went through the age of indemnity through material things. In order for man, who lost his body to sin, to step forth before the Father, first he has to go through the age of bringing material things before the Father. That is, he has to go through the age of sacrificial offering.
Jesus was born as the fruit of the age of sacrificial offering. Consequently, since the spiritual flame centered on Jesus has been accomplished, history has been unfolding as a form of an ethereal doctrine centered on Jesus ever since. It once appeared in many forms, but today it is being gathered again into two parts. Furthermore, centered on Christianity, the world now will see a unification movement taking place.
For that reason, the providence to offer something new that makes us feel the heavenly emotion we could not imagine and enables our conscience and body to form harmony is left to Christianity today. At first, a rise and fall of small-scale movement will happen repeatedly. Later, it will gradually happen in a bigger way. Consequently, you must know that the time when you have to unite the rearward sort of cardinal point and the futuristic cardinal point in the center is the completion age for the restoration of ideology, the completion age for the restoration of history, and the conclusion age for the providence of restoration. For an individual, it is time to connect the external world view and the internal providence to him or herself. Because humanity went off base in a world of principled relations, he will surely have to liquidate that.
A human being has a soul, a mind and a body. In the surroundings, there are living circumstances, all creation and the land. Incidentally, the land was formed first. All creation came about next, and humankind lives by eating that creation. For that reason, the body grows, the mind grows, and the soul is raised. After that, man is to meet God. This is the law conforming to the Principle. Regardless of whether people started revolutions, there has yet to be one who has not deviated from this law. We have set up a condition of being related in a straight line, without aberration.
Therefore, now you must find the world. Do you have such a desire? All of you may have such a desire. To try to make this land mine, to try to make the whole of all creation mine, that is not greed. That is a principle. That is because if we become true sons and daughters of God, what God has is mine. For instance, if your father is a rich owner of wealth, that wealth will automatically become yours.
In addition, having analyzed the whole world of existence, we can see that man is behind material things, and God is behind man. Accordingly, only when we reach such a standard can we find the worldwide ideology and the worldwide material things. Meanwhile, we must first find a worldwide person. For that reason, Jesus developed a movement to find a worldwide person. After finding the worldwide relationship, he then tried to establish macrocosmic relations. In other words, the heavenly providence is going higher step by step. Accordingly, you must understand that humanity cannot escape from this restorational fate.
The Flame of a New Mind and I
In a time when the doctrine, the providence and history have unfolded in this way, what do you have to do? Since communism is materialism, it will surely break down some day. As the democratic camp has to seek and climb to Heaven, centered on whom will it climb? This is the field of our mission to resolve. Accordingly, you must be able to demonstrate the true love and the value of the ideal of the doctrine and thought which have existed up to this point.
After overcoming material things and going over the soul, we must proceed as far as the front of God. Viewed from the worldwide angle, now is the time of entering into the spiritual age of going beyond the mind. Therefore, many insane people will come out in the streets these days. Such a phenomenon occurs when the spiritual world attacks and reaches the people whose conscience is keen and try to live according to their conscience. Above the conscience, an evil spirit rules. Just as the body is in Satan’s dominion, if my conscience steps over one stage, above it the evil spirit rules. Therefore, the last spiritual problem is to defeat the evil spirit that controls my body and to manifest a good spirit in its place.
For that reason, many mentally deranged people will come out among conscientious people. Many kinds of phobias will occur. For that matter, a world-level phobia is being broken up. The matter of concern at this point is whether I have the burning passion with which I can fight against that phobia centered on my conscience. The person who has settled down with such a center cannot be controlled by a revolution in the world, unless it is a heavenly revolution that can put Heaven and earth in motion.
Accordingly, the determination that such people have is an eternal determination. Not even an atomic bomb or a satellite can make an orbit that makes heavenly law change. For that reason, centered on an immutable conscience, having set up one principle, you should be able to connect with the ideology of the principles of the rule of Heaven. By having that value stay within the mind and body substantially, you should then form relations on a straight line with Heaven. By doing so, if you can put everything of that value into practice one hundred percent in the living arena, you are the very person who has found it, the person who possesses everything. We are entrusted with the mission to go forth with this purpose.
What then is the problem here? Even if there is some doctrine that shouts to the world, unless it relates with me, it has nothing to do with me. Even the flame of some mental revolution that unfolds throughout the world, unless it connects with me, it has nothing to do with me. For that reason, you must form such relations. When you recognize your own value as cosmic and as hundreds of thousands of times more valuable than anything in this world, you will then become able to dissolve all grievous resentment on this earth. Furthermore, only when you can embrace all humankind and set all of their mental standards right can you can call God “Father.”
That is why Jesus said, “For what will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and forfeits his life? (Matthew 16:26) Although it has reached the age of the cosmos today, nothing can reach the world of the mind. You must understand that man is to make this the ideology of the land and live rejoicing.
Now, when you emerge after having gone through the providence of such mental relations, even God, let alone Satan, cannot do anything to you. No matter what is said in evil, regardless if it is a piece of stone or a piece of iron, you can digest it. No doctrine or thought can swallow you. Accordingly, you should recognize the value of the goodness of an individual with relations of this magnitude. You should lay a bridge that can end in that value with that great relation. Having laid a bridge from yourself, by connecting to the parts of the small number of the units left in the past, you then should establish the value of the whole. This is going to be the decisive standard. For that reason, you must now form a great cosmic relation going beyond your own individual relations. You then have to drop it to be in keeping with the reality; that is, you must make it a zero. Only when you do that will you, for the first time, come to stand as one godly being. God of the whole cosmos also will come to stand with you. Consequently, the world in which the big God and the small god can sing together of the heavenly value is the world of relationship completion, the world of the heavenly kingdom on earth that we desire. You must remember this.
Chapter 19: Let Us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals
John 10:31-36
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
September 14, 1958
Prayer
Father, we have realized that without the desire to serve and humbly bow down to You, we can have no relationship with You in the other world of eternity. We long for the day when our heart opens to feel Your shimjung in our center, so that our body follows our mind as the subject. Please guide us to regain our lost bodies today by hearing Your voice from the depth of our hearts. Let us realize Your suffering course to find each of us and humbly bow down to You. Guide us to feel a deep gratitude toward You.
We thought that You, Father, come to us only in glory. In fact, You came in sorrow and suffering, with a face stricken with misfortune. Since we did not know this, we wanted to lay our sorrow, our sufferings and our misfortunes upon You. Please forgive us.
We should realize that we are a fallen race who cannot call You Father. You have come through such sorrows and sighs in history. We should relieve Your burden of 10,000 years. I sincerely pray that no one will be ignorant of Your path of sorrow.
You have called us today, but do we deserve it? I sincerely pray that those who are gathered here can resolve Your situation and that their hearts are filled with such matters. Please embrace us at this time. Restore Your lost grace and remove our sins. I sincerely pray for and desire this.
Father, please take dominion in this service. I am giving a speech today. Do not let the hearts of the giver and receivers be divided. We know that the one who attacks on this point is not us, but Satan. We do not want our secular minds to communicate with Satan. Therefore, please guide us to believe in Your will alone. We repent before You. Do not let us follow this path with a heart different from Yours. If there is such a heartistic gap, even to a small degree, I pray that we may all work together seriously to overcome it.
Today is a holy day. Bless those who do not yet realize Your will, the pitiful thirty million people of Korea. Bless Your children everywhere who bow down to You for the sake of the nation on this day. Have mercy on the people who are screaming and fighting, and broaden their hearts to be able to tolerate and accept one another.
Now is the time to cry with the earth for the sake of Your situation. I believe You will take those to Your side who possess Your shimjung. Please forgive our baseness. Please forgive those pitiful people who follow the enemy while professing to follow Heaven. Please forgive those foolish people who take as enemies those who are not, in fact, enemies and persecute them. Who can preserve their life? Who will shed light on their path? I earnestly pray and desire that they can truly receive Your word.
Father! We know Your heart agonizes over the fate of the nation. Father, who worries about the future of the nation, have pity on this nation, which is cornered all around by the world. Please remember those who are piling up conditions before You, as representatives of the nation. Guide us to able to plead that the whip of judgment does not descend upon this nation in the last days. I sincerely pray and desire this.
Now we have realized that we have the responsibility to, first, call upon You and then proceed. If we live, pray and plead to Heaven, and make You the center of our lives for the sake of this responsibility, we know that necessarily Your will shall be fulfilled upon the earth. Thus, I eagerly pray that You will place these people in that position.
Please come and rule over this time. We pray all these words in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Today I will speak upon the topic, “Let us Become Beloved Children and Receive the Seals.”
God’s Hope and I
Everyone, who has hope, desires to be at the center of hope. If God has a hope, you desire to be within this hope. The same mentality exists in a family, where all members desire to dwell within the master’s heart. It is the same with a country, the world and the will of the Father, who has been restoring the creation. Thus, you should be remembered in the heart of your leader. If you are religious, you should be remembered in the heart of the religious leader. Furthermore, if there is a God, you should be remembered in the heart of God.
Instead of being remembered by God momentarily, if one is remembered eternally, taking God’s hope, situation and shimjung to heart, God will tell him all His stories. Moreover, He will try to unconditionally give all the blessings He has gathered through the 6,000 painful years of the providence. You must understand that this is the Father’s shimjung.
Although you were born as single individuals through your parents’ lineage, you are not isolated. Heaven has ruled over religion throughout history. The world follows Heaven’s way, the nation follows the fate of the world, the family follows the law of the nation, and I follow human norms. Thus, there should be a smooth relationship from Heaven to the world, from the world to the nation, from the nation through the society to the family, and from the family to me. No one can deny the existence of such a relationship. For whom are we moving now, we who stand in such a position of undeniable relationship? Where are your families going? Where are this world and this nation going? These are crucial questions, requiring our serious consideration.
We know that God has been sorrowing in regard to humankind ever since the fall of the first human ancestors. Where do you think this sorrow is flowing to? Where does it long to stay in the end? Through what historical course, what nation, and what clan, to whom has God’s pain been transmitted? Through what historical course and for what relationship has God’s hope been moving? It is not the world, not a country, not a family; it is none other than me. You must know clearly that God’s hope is realized from me, the single individual. Therefore, if there is no foundation in me acknowledged by Heaven, no matter how good Heaven is, I have no relationship with it. If there is no standard in me, though a world-renowned theory may appear, it will bear no relationship with me. Have you ever felt such a fact thoroughly through your shimjung, body, bone and flesh, that the historical sorrow, suffering and difficulty are determined centered on “me”? If not, your ancestors will accuse you, for they have gone through the path of death with blood and tears.
What a Person Should Feel and Find First
We have the tradition and connection left behind by the believers in history. If anyone forgets this, it would be an ungrateful betrayal of the universe, which incorporates the heavenly way and the human way. Now is the time to realize this.
In the internal life of faith, what is the first thing you should feel and find before the heavenly way? It is not joy, happiness nor glory. Since humanity has brought sorrow to Heaven, the first thing to find is heavenly sorrow, which has been ruling the earth. You should know that despite time and place, the seekers of the truth are the ones who are carrying the cross and establishing the altar of heavenly appeal under unjust oppression to remove the heavenly tears.
Why does Heaven drive its beloved children out to the path of the cross? It is so that the heavenly connection may reach me, through the world, the country, the nation, the society and the family. It is so that the connection of the world directly reaches us. Thus, you must feel God’s shimjung, which must have you experience in your single lifetime the sorrow of 6,000 years to establish you as God’s children.
When God created the Garden of Eden, He wanted there to be eternal happiness, but the blessing of Eden totally disappeared due to the fall of man. Thus, God became a God of sorrow, rather than one of happiness. He has been trying to regain the country and the entire blessing of the universe while being persecuted by the country and people. Since God’s bitter course throughout history is entangled with human tragedy, His sighs and His situation are deeply related to you. Since this is the responsibility of humanity and Heaven, in seeking God, man must know God’s sorrow. We can defeat the myriad satans with God’s anguish, sorrow and grief. You must realize that without experiencing such an historical shimjung, you cannot fight against the enemy.
Certainly people agonize over lost property. Some mourn over lost children. Though there are many who bewail a loss of earthly valuables, there is no one who bewails a loss of the self and of God. Few indeed grieve over the loss of the self, which cannot be exchanged even for the universe, and of God, who is more glorious than the universe.
For the seeker of truth, sorrow is not in losing material property. It is in having lost the self and Heaven. The path of the truth, which is to find God, is the path of finding sorrow. That is why Jesus said, “Follow me with a cross on your back.” Therefore, we can stand before the Father only when our sorrow, anguish and anger can replace His. The Father’s footsteps have been such in the 6,000 years. In order for you who are connected with the historical providence to make the connection with God, the center of the historical providence, you must be able to bear such sorrow, agony and grief.
This is the way of Heaven. Although the historical ages are strewn with sorrow, God has been walking this path to fulfill His will: that is, to find all things, all people, His children and God’s own self. God is not operating fully as God because He lost Heaven and earth through the fall of man. He lost power, dignity and authority. The movement to restore this is the standard of human norms and the heartistic standard of the seekers of the truth. By all means, we must regain the lost universe.
The Situation of the Present World and the Task of the Children
What then must I do? I must resolve God’s sorrow by restoring myself, my family, my society, my country, the world and the universe into being acceptable to God. In this way, I should dominate all things with God’s authority and serve God. This is the crucial task you should pursue throughout your life. If you cannot relate to God this way, you will have nothing to do with God, even when God comes to the world, the country, the society or the family.
Throughout history, all the ideologies moved according to the way of Heaven. Many ideologies have merged, and now we have a world of one global ideology. By principle, when two ideologies fight, one is inevitably crushed. We should know that now is not a time for a two- dimensional battle centering on humanity. It is a time for a three- dimensional battle centering on Heaven, and this time the spirit world is waiting to attack us. That is why there are many phenomena of the last days all over the world. For instance, there are many mental patients and nervous phobias. Just as Adam had intense fear right after the fall because of the sin of betraying Heaven, this world is filled with people suffering from extreme fear.
This world is losing its guiding ideology. It is useless to insist on one’s own way. You are in the last days of the universe, in which everything is swayed back and forth in chaos, without the center. At this turning point of history, what should you do? What should you do, beholding the world and the nation, which are falling down? To be the one God can proudly present before the nation and the universe, I must make a father-son relationship with God and follow God’s ideal to dominate the creation.
However, we are blocked in front. In the back, it is incomprehensible. There are enemies on either side. Wherever we go, there are enemies who try to destroy us. We must protect ourselves at this time, protect Heaven and the heavenly way, and deflect the satans. Heaven, the master of the universe, and all things must have an ideal and want to realize it through one person.
For those who have gone out to find Heaven, there is no happiness in the process. There is no satisfaction. If there is satisfaction, he is not genuinely searching for Heaven. By Principle, agony and sorrow should come first. That is, joy will appear only after one experiences sorrow, pain and grief. That is why Christianity refers to the day of sweeping away the history of the 6,000 years as Judgment Day.
Why does Heaven come to us with sorrow, pain and grief? It is not to ruin you. It is to make you children of Heaven. A child shares blood and flesh, ideology and the ideal. You should move forward on that reciprocal base with Heaven.
The Two Sorrows of God
Who shattered our father-son relationship with God? Sadly, this relationship cannot be restored with heavenly strength or with our strength alone. There must be nothing that provokes your anger more. We should be the children who can feel the sorrow, pain and grief of losing the loving Father and being unable to serve, meet or follow the parents who should be served eternally. Coming down the road of misfortune, God has been trying to find people who could share joy as His children, but we knew nothing about His sorrow. We are unable to be called children of God due to our fallen lineage, though theoretically we are sons with an inseparable blood relationship. In real life, we have countless elements of the enemy within us.
Thus, God has two kinds of sorrow. One is having lost the son and the other is not being able to regain the relationship. We should feel that we are the sinner of sinners and the debtor of debtors to have generated such woe in God. We must repent and work hard for having put God through 6,000 years of toil.
The relationship of father and son is based on shimjung, which can never disappear from the heart, even with all the denials and unworthiness of being called a son. The relationship centering on eternal love flows on as the affectionate shimjung that even God cannot deny. The tragedy is that even with such a shimjung, God cannot freely call us sons and daughters.
Our sorrow is nothing compared to that of God. Do not rejoice over having much money. Having good external conditions does not gladden the heart. You should know that the more material affluence you have, the more indemnity conditions you will incur, which will bring you down. Is there anyone on the earth who can confidently say, “I can be a child of God because I have given up everything”?
Looking at the sky, we should be able to feel the grief of humankind, which prostrates itself and cries out before the tears of God. We should be able to feel the woe of all things, which scream out, pierced by God’s tearful shimjung and sighs. We should also experience the Father’s sorrow and pain. We must know the mistreatment He has suffered. Only when we dominate the earth with the ideal of Heaven can we fulfill His will.
Since this world is fallen, you cannot meet God. Since there is the heavenly principle of creation and the cosmic heavenly standard, God cannot come directly to man, ignoring these principles. Thus, in the Old Testament Age, humankind and animals were connected through sacrificial objects. In the New Testament Age, Jesus was the sacrifice. Through Jesus, humanity and all things and humanity and Jesus were to make the connection. Heavenly blessing was attained by Jesus, the son of God, going through an extremely sad situation. This made the connection between Jesus and humankind.
Now what needs to be established is the relationship of father and son. For this, the father must be struck for the sake of the son. This way, the connection should be made from all people to the subjects, and from the subjects to the son, and from the son to God. This is the law of God, who is restoring happiness, glory and the ideal.
To Become Children Acceptable to God and Achieve Complete Restoration
Where should this relationship be made? This relationship should not be made in the spirit world, but on the earth. That is why it is emphasized that Heaven is the groom and the earth is the bride. This is an undeniable connection. The shimjung by which humanity feels this never changes. No one can transcend this shimjung, regardless of whether he lived thousands of years ago or lives 10,000 years from now. The groom sets up one absolute standard. By establishing the bride’s name as a condition, he spreads the connection toward sons and daughters. He then regains the earth, subjects, the substance of children and parents. This is restoration.
Thus, to make the connection between humankind and all things, all things are offered as a sacrifice. To make the connection between the subjects and the son, the son is sacrificed. To make the connection between the son and the father, the father must carry the cross. Looking at such a process of establishing the ideal, since we have the responsibility to restore this historical process through indemnity once and for all, now is the last day of finding myself through the Father.
In the Old Testament Age, salvation was possible by sacrifices centering on the priest and keeping the law. In the New Testament Age, salvation was attained by believing in Jesus. From now on, however, one must believe in God, our Father, to whom we are connected through an eternally undeniable standard, undeniable because it is rooted in our blood and flesh.
In this woeful course that repeats the 6,000 years of history, when sons and daughters appear whom God can acknowledge as His own, not only in mind but in body, they will realize God’s tears which were shed for the world and teach the ignorant people. They will understand the tearful situation of God, of which people have been unaware throughout history.
Who will be the one who understands God’s shimjung, representing all people, Heaven and earth? It will be he who knows the distance- transcending and unlimited heavenly shimjung. It will be the one who knows a parent’s loving, eternal heart toward the children, who says, “Father, Your sorrow is mine. Your agitated shimjung is my shimjung. Give me the cross.”
Do you know the plight of Heaven, who has to take up the painful cross again? We should be able to feel God’s shimjung toward the nation and all the historical shimjung of the ancestors who struggled for the sake of God, the earth, the subjects and the son.
In agony, Paul sighed and said, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?” (Romans 8:35) This means that Paul was aware of God’s love in Christ. Jesus is also a bride before God. Jesus, our groom, even needs God’s love. The position of the bride and groom is external. Complete restoration starts with all things and ends with the restoration of the children. Thus, one must meet the Holy Spirit and Jesus through the position of husband and wife. He then must move on to say, “Father, bless me in place of the lost children of the Garden of Eden.” We must become the children who, without a speck of the fall, can become the true ancestors of humankind and receive the blessing, free of the bitterness of the fall.
What would be the grief of God? It is the fact that though He cried with the earth and the subjects, He has not shed tears of joy with a victorious son. In other words, God’s sorrow is that there is no one who can be acknowledged as a victorious son. Moreover, there has not even been one person who has cried with God, who has wandered about tirelessly to find the lost children.
Children Who Can Receive the Heavenly Seals
When one is trying to find his lost child, even if he is the prime minister of a state, his dignity is not in consideration. He will burst into tears, clasping his hands and body, ignoring his reputation and dignity, not caring even if he is a beggar. The fact that such a scene has never occurred between God and humanity from the time of creation is the sorrow of God, all things and humankind.
At the time of sacrifice, humanity ascended through sacrificial objects. At the time of the national providence, he ascended by following a leader. Following a leader was the sacrifice. Next he ascended by believing in Jesus. From now on, he must believe in the True Parents. In other words, he must become a true son or daughter of the True Father. Now you must struggle on your hands and knees to follow the path.
The ideal of the 6,000 years is now to bear its fruit on earth. When will the leader appear on earth who can cry with the earth, with the people and with Jesus? Humankind desires that the substantial being appear and join the history that was separated stage by stage. Humankind wishes that a substantial being appear who represents the ideal of the entire universe and touches the heart of the Father and the bride and groom. Humankind desires a leader to appear whose shimjung can connect to all people and arouse and preserve the heart that can cry with the earth. We should serve this one person in place of Heaven, Jesus, all people and the earth. Like him, we should become able to cry with and love the earth, people and God. Thus, God’s grieving shimjung should turn into a joyful one.
In this way, you should receive approval from the Trinity, from all the saints, and even from satanic people, as well as from the Father. By zealously fighting to resolve God’s grief, representing the historical shimjung as a child long sought with sighs for 6,000 years, you must be established as the son who took revenge upon Satan and be confirmed as God’s beloved child. Only then can you receive the seal.
Christians talk about the 144,000. Words are easy. The heavenly children who set up the conditions for restoration and manage the heavenly providence and receive the seals, do Christians quite fit these words? The one who can receive the heavenly seals must have the shimjung to cry with theearth for Heaven. In other words, to receive the seals, you should be able to cry with the people, endure suffering and mistreatment for the sake of Heaven, heal the historical sorrow of God and all the inequities of man, and overcome all trials.
From where should we receive the seals? We receive the seals from God. We should receive it from God’s shimjung, from God’s situation, from my family and from society. We should clearly know that we can receive the seals only when we find the unifying point of God’s historical shimjung.
Prayer
Father, shall we say that our path is long and rugged? Please guide us to realize that our hearts cannot compare with Your aching shimjung. Our mistreatment cannot compare with Your steps through the formidable satanic realm. Amid our tribulations, grant us a seething desire to take responsibility for Your will. Amid our sorrows, make us Your children who can befriend and accompany You on Your woeful journey of history. Make us friends of Your shimjung who suffer because we feel the historical anguish with You. Make us Your eternal objects of joy who can befriend You in Your anger and Your internal and external sorrow.
We realize that, above all, we ourselves, who wander after blessings, are the problem. We have realized that if one cannot find sorrow in his heart, he can never find happiness. If he tries to avoid inevitable pain, he can never escape from the pain. For those who have lost the patience to overcome anger and grief, help them realize that without patience, they cannot avoid pain. We have understood the heavenly principle by which the blessing of the day comes only after going over the hills of sorrow, pain and bitterness. Now grant us the ability to say in tears, holding onto the Father’s shimjung, earth and all things: “Father, Your sorrow is my sorrow, and Your pain is my pain. Give me all Your burdens. You stand in the place of happiness.”
Since we know that there is the inseparable relationship of father and son in which both agony and affection can be shared, make this a time when we can be accepted by You. We know Your shimjung, which desires to use victorious sons to restore the universe. Guide us so that we can appear carrying that shimjung. Make us Your children who can gratefully keep Your way, whatever sacrifices we make or whatever road of death we tread. Make us those who will fulfill Your will, by all means, without ever betraying You. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Chapter 20: Let Us Possess the Everlasting Love of the Father
Matthew 22:34-40
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
October 5, 1958
Today I will speak briefly upon the topic of “Let Us Possess the Everlasting Love of the Father.” No person or created thing can maintain existence separated from this world in which they exist through relationships. Thus, you should know that in this world of relationships, nothing can exist apart from motivation and purpose.
Several Attempts to Explain the World of Relationships
Since we cannot exist apart from the world of relationships, we should clearly know that in our maintenance of life and our struggle in our life courses, everything moves within the world of relationships. We know that science has been trying to explain this world of relationships through experiments. Philosophy has tried to explain it through logic. History has tried to explain it through facts.
How has religion been trying to elucidate this world? Until now, religion has sought to discover the motivation and purpose of the Absolute Being. Thus, it cannot be denied that though your individual selves are extremely small, you are seeking an ideal of enormous value. Also, you can never deny that your original mind desires a greater course of life, a greater ideal and greater love and affection. This tells us that we have the common standard of relationship.
We should then re-examine ourselves, searching for a greater life although we already have a life, for a greater ideal, although we already have an ideal, and for a realm of greater affection than we feel daily through our shimjung. How did it come about that we demand a greater life, greater hope and a realm of greater affection?
It is undeniable that the earth, on which this higher demand occurs, is itself engrossed in relationships. It is also undeniable that there is a certain greater being of life that is the source of our life. There is a certain greater being of ideal that is the source of our ideal. There is a certain being of affection greater than our own affection. When will I see the day when my energy of life extends forth and pierces all things of the universe? The desire of my ideal is to dominate all things according to heavenly law, but when can I be a being of hope who can do this? When can I regain the power of shimjung that can melt even God? You should reflect upon these issues again today.
The force of my being will exist tomorrow; that is, it will exist eternally. It is the same with the force of my ideal and shimjung. There is surely a being who makes that possible. Someone determined the motivation and purpose centering on relationships. We should be beings of eternal value who fulfill this motivation and purpose centering on relationships. If you are aware of becoming such, your force of life, your ideal and shimjung should make an inseparable relationship with the ideal, shimjung and life of the Absolute Being. If there is someone who has no such relationship, although he may appear to have the value of life, he has no value in this world of relationships. Humankind does not understand this.
The Common Problem of God and Man
What must finally be explained to everyone through science, philosophy, history and religion? It is the common problem of history, the current age and the future. This is also a problem for God. You should know that the cosmic value of your life and whether you can be proud of it depends upon whether you can establish the standard in your life of an inseparable relationship with God in which you move with God and halt with God.
What is the common problem of history, the current age and the future? Since all of humankind, past, present and future, commonly possesses the desires for life, the ideal and love (shimjung) a truth or ideology or person must appear who will enable us to feel all these simultaneously in the daily process of our lives. History and religion are all thoroughly mobilized to address this problem.
Do you have the force of life by which you can live and the automatic force by which you can move toward the whole world of existence? There should be a source that brings connection and the stimulation of hope to the world of relationships. Do you have such a source? You should also ask yourself whether the power of life springs forth from within the relationships you have with such a source.
You should bring the ideal of the entire universe to your shimjung and the whole ideal of creation to your hearts. You should have the shimjung, feeling and intuition which say that since Heaven is moving in such and such a way, no existing being or thing can be neglected. If you do not have this, you should rethink the hopes you are pursuing today.
You long for the love that deeply touches your heart. It is not humanistic love, pursued by man. It is heavenly love, desired by the original mind. You are longing for the kind of love that can sing for eternity and penetrate and move the eternal ideal and life. Thus, the whole of your thinking and movements should express the shimjung of love. You will, thus, be the greatest victor of life if you can make the connection with such a realm of love, which embraces the environment and universe in which you live and can even embrace God.
As for theistic believers, though they acknowledge that God is the absolute and omnipotent Creator, why has their love for God and for absolute goodness become weaker than the love of secular people? This is why God sighs today. God’s sorrow is that while God’s love is greater than human parental love for a child, He cannot love humanity this much. How does God relate to humankind?
Through love. We want to receive God’s love within the realm of our life and forget everything through the shock of His love. If we connect with the power of love that can melt all the grief in our heart, we can never betray Heaven. We would have no need to teach goodness then.
The Reason Man Has Not Made a Relationship with Absolute Love and Goodness and the Result Thereof
Why could God not make man have a relationship with absolute love and goodness? I have struggled a lot with this question myself. Was God like this from the beginning? No. God is a being such that, without the fall, we could feel Him even before we thought about His existence. We could feel His existence inside us as the substance of hope even before we had wishes. He would appear even before we longed for Him. However, the fall means that humankind has not reached such an emotional, ideological and living standard. Everything was lost through the fall. You should know that this is the sorrow of humankind.
Now we are wandering about, searching for truth, life, the ideal and God’s love. With our ultimate power of life, the ideal and the standard of shimjung, we cannot help loving God and cannot help thinking that God is the center of the whole ideal and the cosmos. If you carry such feelings and make the connection within your life with the source of such a stimulus, God’s eternal life will become your eternal life. You will move and halt as God moves and halts. You should know that this is the hope of the Creator of humanity.
Throughout history, humankind tried to control the world through the powers within their possession. There once was an age in which they tried to move everything through the power of life, but this age has passed now. What kind of age is today? Now we are coming into an age in which the philosophy which inherits the ideal of Jesus controls the world. What kind of age will then come after this? It will be the age in which the unifying central person appears before humankind, the one who can connect to the love of the Absolute Being beyond the power of life and ideology.
History so far has been limited to merely introducing hopes and ideals. Thus, it has not been able to find the heavenly kingdom of love in which new creations, resurrection, hope and the power of love can arise through the individual shimjung of human beings. What is the final standard of hope to which humankind aspires? It is the loving view of history, life and the cosmos. That is why Christianity expresses this in one word and says that the center of the scriptures is Jesus. The center of Jesus is love, and the center of love is the bride and groom. You should know that this is the most valuable good news for suffering humankind. When this shimjung fills the world to the full, and the root of the hereditary sin is revealed through your blood and flesh, then humankind can truly and fundamentally hope for peace.
You have forgotten that the love of the parents for the children, the love of the husband for the wife, and the love of children for the parents are connected through the ideal and motivation of those relationships, though they are not yet ideal. Moreover, you did not know that the greater principles of the love of parents, the couple and children are originally connected to humankind. Thus, Christianity called the unity of God and humanity a marriage. The kind of love religious people seek is not simply the ordinary love of parents for children. It is the love that can move a greater and higher life and harmonize with a greater ideal. Thus, the day should soon come on the earth in which we can see the power of life, hope and love that can transcend time and embrace everything. You should know that, at that time, we will see the world where evil is absorbed into goodness and follows goodness.
Jesus Is the Substance of God’s Life, Hope and Ideal
When we ponder God, who exists as an Absolute Being in the world of relationship, and cannot deny the reality of His existence, we should feel that God has the same movements of life, ideals and affection as ours. This is because we have all of His attributes, since we were born of Him. Thus, we should know that our form reflects God’s.
Though God should appear to us as the subject of life, hope and love, He does not. This is the cause of humanity s sighing and sorrow today. To remove this, God maintains an inseparable relationship with humanity. To resolve human suffering, God has sent a substantial incarnation as the master of ideals, justice and life. This is Jesus.
Though God is invisible, there must be an intuitive cosmology and world of principle that can be felt directly. Through what can God’s absolute realm of life be felt? It cannot be felt through science nor philosophy. This is not something that can be felt through any field of human knowledge. Since God has the responsibility to clarify this with man, however, He has been explaining the motivation and purpose of the Absolute Being by establishing religions and cultivating the foundation of the human mind centering on relationships. Yet this motivation and purpose cannot be explained by logic. You cannot explain power through logic. One can only partially explain an ideal through logic. Love cannot be completely explained in this way. One cannot establish a view about life. One tries to form a view on life, history and religion in vain through logic alone. Nor can logic provide a view on love.
Since we cannot have a view, we cannot have a relational stance from which to explain everything nor can we establish the condition of explanation that can provide the relational stance. Thus, a certain viewpoint is required that precedes every view and explains everything. We talk about intuition today. Intuition cannot be understood by the world of the five senses. Through what does intuition move and come to be felt? It does not come through perceptions and feelings that come through our five senses, from outside ourselves. It comes through perceptions and feelings that come through the mind. That intuitive perception can instantly elucidate the motivation and purpose, transcending time, and feel the presence of a certain substantial being. God’s presence can be explained in this way. Thus, today we can solve those problems centering on our minds. That is, we can grasp them only through supernatural and lawful intuition or feeling.
The problem is the tie and relationship between God and humankind. This tie and relationship are in the process of pursuing a certain purpose with a certain motivation. This process is concerned with history, the current age and the future. You should know this. We experience and learn all such feelings through religion. However, the religion which is worthy of our faith should be able to arouse in us a stimulation of power that is like the attributes of God’s life, ideal and love. We should find such a religion today. With regard to the tendency of relationship, such a religion surely exists. Another problem is how we can experience it and learn.
The Greatest and Foremost Commandment
Today you exert enormous efforts through religion, seeking the infinite world of being. Why do you fail to find it? Why are you unable to recognize the world? From the standpoint of relationship, it is because the motivation and purpose deviate and you cannot make a relationship with the resulting value. All entities, individual, family, national, country and world, have their own wishes and purposes in their own situations. When the purpose of an entity differs from the heavenly purpose, it can hardly feel the eternal world of being. Heaven helps humankind feel this world through religion, not through intellectual conditions. This world is felt through ultimate emotional issues by holding up the standard of love.
Thus, God comes to us only with love, and we can meet God only with love. You must first know that God has been trying infinitely to reach out to us, giving hope to those without hope, giving life to those without life, and giving love to those who cannot be loved. You should know that God thinks of us before we think of Him. He existed before we existed and moves for us before we move. You should feel in your hearts that a Being exists who is greater than the value of our existence, ideal and affection, and He moves before we do.
How does God find humankind with the condition of love? As in the passage we read, God allowed us a commandment: “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment.” (Matthew 22:37-38) You should remember that God kept this commandment before humankind did. Thus, you should clearly know that this is the first commandment a fallen person must keep.
When listening to the word, if you think that the word originates from you, it is a serious misunderstanding. You should feel that to bring this word to humankind, God, who is the subject of human life, ideals and love, has gone through a historical course of exerting all His mind and will for the sake of humankind. In other words, before humankind kept the commandment, God loved humankind with all His heart and character. God could establish it as a commandment because God kept it Himself. Thus, in our search for God’s ideal of life, before we love God, He approaches us with great love, ideals and life to find us, to love us, to save our lives, and to establish us as beings of the ideal. You should remember that God has been reaching out to us, upholding the first commandment. God toiled for 4,000 years trying to present His will to humankind, but it was not fulfilled because of human ignorance. Thus, Jesus was the one who appeared to substantially perfect the word and establish the way of the commandment.
Jesus Exerted All His Heart and Will for God
Before Jesus told others to invest their hearts, he first invested his heart for God. Before he told them to exert their wills, he did it first. Before he told them to love God with their utmost effort, he practiced it first. Thus, he became the substantial incarnation of the commandment. Jesus, who appeared on the earth with God’s mission for humankind, witnessed to God’s great power of life through words. When they went unheeded, he used miracles to witness. He introduced the ideal of the world and the cosmos to a nation who wished for their own happiness. The Israelite nation understood God’s ideal as being individually and nation-centered. Jesus showed God’s love to them through examples. He demonstrated a love which embraced the gentiles beyond the limits of the nation so that they could actually see and hear it.
Who received the stimulation of life from Jesus? Those who overcame death received it. Who felt the great power of hope? The same ones. Who felt the great power of love? Again, it was those who overcame death. They should have believed in Jesus when he was alive. They should have received the power of life to overcome death and attained the power of love. Only after they let Jesus die and saw his resurrection did they realize that he was their substantial ideal of life, ideals and love. Thus, they boldly went over the hill of death without fear.
What then is your position now, you who believe in Jesus as an object of hope? We should not be like the disciples, who did not recognize Jesus even when he appeared as the original incarnation of the ideal, love and life. If you become like them, you will commit the historical crime again and become the object of God’s sorrow. God has worked for 2,000 years since Jesus. Thus, in place of Jesus, who comes as the hope of believers, you should be able to dedicate your power of life for the sake of the past, present and future and to sacrifice your life for God. Where are the people who have such determination? This is the big question. You say you have faith, but the question is what standard of faith you have.
After meeting the returning Jesus, receiving the infinite stimulation of life, seeing the ideal world of creation, and feeling the infinite power of love, we have realized that the footsteps of Jesus were not for his own sake. Rather than complaining against his enemies, he produced the fire of love to melt them. When he received persecution from his enemies because of their excessive desires, he embraced them with greater love and exploded with the shimjung of a greater ideal and life. The whole world then came whirling into his bosom. If there is life, an ideal and love in God, what should we do centering on them? We should become original substances of love and life who can unify all the people of the world, whether on the brink of death or in the realm of life. You should know this.
Thus, the fact that Jesus came and we can follow him is a word of blessing or gospel for humanity. Knowing this, you should not think centered on yourself. You should, first, feel the fact that God totally invested His heart, will and character for us. You should also feel the fact that there has been a substantial person who thoroughly exerted his heart, will and character for us. That was Jesus. The footsteps Jesus left were loving humankind with all his heart, will and character. The question is if you have the shimjung which can experience this directly without explanation. You should know clearly that the existence or absence of such a shimjung determines God’s decision whether He can make a relationship with you.
The Day of the Messiah and the Age of God’s Love
The world of shimjung transcends time. Thus far, no one has been able to revolutionize the parents’ loving heart for their children. Its essence has remained unchanged throughout the vicissitudes of the ages. This happens in the world of love. When a beloved child is leaving the parents, no one, not even a powerful authority, can block the movement of the world of love. The movement of the world of love can transcend the hurdles of a giant mountain and the entire cosmos. Thus, to have an experience of shimjung, we should connect with the standard of the heart. Only in the world of shimjung can we establish the condition by which we can receive Jesus, who came to save us 2,000 years ago. Thus, in calling upon God, we should go beyond the situation and see the shimjung behind it. A parent’s love for a child transcends life. Love itself is the complete answer and complete motivation.
The day when we receive the Messiah as the subject of life, the ideal, love and the center of humanity is the day when God, the universe and humankind will all rejoice. It is the day when humankind finds the lost God, God finds the lost human and the earth. On the day of the Messiah, three conditions will be simultaneously restored. The real world will be created in which everything moves and halts through one heart. It is the day of hope for God, humankind and all things. What, then, is the standard of hope? It is the love that represents all.
Now the time is approaching in which I, standing at the end of the 6,000 years, must establish myself and possess God’s love, life and ideal. When is God’s age of life, beyond the age of the life of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? When is God’s age of the ideal, beyond the age of the ideal of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? When is God’s age of love, beyond the age of the love of Jesus and the Holy Spirit? This is the question. Thus Paul says, “For I am sure that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 8:38-39) Jesus, too, came for the love of God.
Believers today think that love in Jesus is the ultimate, but it is not. God’s love is linked based on the love of Jesus. One can know the love of True Parents only when one comes through that process of love. You should know this clearly. The fallen parents on earth, namely, our physical parents, are not True Parents. We all have parents of the fallen lineage. No matter how polished one’s appearance is, he belongs to the tribe of the fallen lineage. Therefore, people do not know that the original love of True Parents before the fall is the last fruit of love God has prepared for fallen humankind. Jesus departed without introducing this love. After feeling this love, one needs a certain principle. The principle is that children come after the parents. They grow up, become husband and wife, and become parents in turn.
What is the ideal of Christianity today? What is the ideal of husband and wife? It is to find and establish the love of True Parents. Only when we grow up in a blood relationship with the love of True Parents can we become true husband and wife and have true children.
God’s Course to Restore the Children of the Direct Lineage
If God has a grudge about the earth, it is that there are no true parents, true couples or true children. This is why Heaven is sighing. Thus, Paul said that fallen people would be saved as adopted sons. No matter how excellent one is, he is only an adopted son. What then is God’s sorrow? It is the fact that His real children became adopted children. Thus, history has been a bitter process of restoring the direct children. Only one who knows God’s woeful shimjung of history can serve God closely. The parents who produce and raise children can feel God’s shimjung through loving their children. Thus, the ones who feel the true love of husband and wife must be able to feel God’s original love through this. It is the same with the children’s love for the parents.
When such a standard appears on the earth, we need an ideal of goodness. Though we are original bodies of goodness, we only have a relative view of life around that center. Only within the loving shimjung of the True Parents can we become the center of value, life, the ideal and love. We can then stand as the subject of all. You should know this clearly.
God tries to create this with fallen humans, but they all have different situations. These situations are not simple. They are historical situations. You know that with these situations, history has been filled with bloody strife and tragedy. What is this situation? In order for God to take you back, He gets hit by Satan as hard as your value. God takes back the world after being struck as much as the value of the world. He pays for what He regains. This has been God’s strategy and situation.
To stand a person in the place of life, God made him first go through death. If there was a dying person, God went through valleys of death to save him. With hope amid infinite frustration, He went over innumerable hills of sorrow and suffering. We should be able to feel that God came through 6,000 years of tearful history to introduce the ideal of love I desire. He fully invests His heart, will and character today to make a tie with my individual being. When you can feel such a heart, you can resonate with the situation and shimjung of historical saints like Noah.
Though we are a distance from the life of Abraham, the world of shimjung transcends distance. I can make connections through my shimjung. It is the same with the ages of Moses and Jesus. Therefore, you should make a connection with the shimjung of God today through Jesus and the Holy Spirit, who worked for 2,000 years. Thus, when one establishes the returning point of shimjung, Jesus can install him as his bride. You should remember the fact that Jesus said to such people, “You are not servants but my brothers and sisters.” When you know this, you will feel that when you are sad, God has experienced sadness before you. When I was angry and oppressed, the Father was angry and oppressed first. When I was frustrated, the Father was frustrated before me.
To Stand as God’s Direct Children
From this standpoint, we should be true sons and daughters and say to the sorrowful Father with the proper attitude of children, “Father, please be happy and not sad with me.” When I get mistreated, it should be for the sake of the Father. We should have the shimjung of true children, which seeks to console the Father, who is saddened on behalf of our mind and body. If you have such a shimjung, even when you are on the path of the cross, you cannot dare to say, “Father! The pain of death is severe. Please help me avoid this path of grief.”
Although it looks as if Jesus prayed to avoid the pain of death or was surrounded by fear, this was not true. When Jesus experienced God’s shimjung, who had suffered for 4,000 years to find Jesus, his own death was not a problem. Jesus prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt,” (Matthew 26:39) for God’s and humanity’s sake, not for his own. You should know that God’s will can be realized with such a shimjung.
Members of the Unification Church, do not cry over your own situation! Despite our various situations, we should be able to cry only with the Father’s shimjung. Be filial sons and daughters who can console the Father with tears, since He cried for us first. Just as Jesus received the grace of resurrection by saying, “Not what I want but what You want,” we should go over this hill too. You should go over the realm of resurrection with a living body. Only when you can love all people in the substantial world for the True Father, and they serve you for the Father will we see the conclusion of the ideal with which God created the world, a conclusion of the providence for humankind. We will then see the conclusion of our hope and of the providence for my love and life. Only when such a world is realized can we understand God’s shimjung, He who suffered and went through mistreatment, anger and sorrow, all to find “me.” We can also understand the Father’s love, which cried for us in our distress. We can know His joyful, loving shimjung.
However, the love with which God sought to complete His ideal on earth with Jesus and rejoice in has not appeared yet. Though countless people in history came forward holding onto the hand of love to appease God’s sorrow, the scene has not appeared in the human world in which the Father and the children can hold hands, sing, dance and share love together having established the original garden of flowers. How can we understand the sorrowful shimjung of the Father? We have to be in a similar place. You should clearly keep in mind that only those who feel God’s joyful and sorrowful shimjung can occupy the everlasting love of God and stand as the direct children of God rather than as adopted children.
Chapter 21: The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain
John 8:31-47
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
October 12, 1958
Prayer
Father! Do not abandon Your sons and daughters who prostrated before You. Guide us not to hesitate in offering our entire mind and body to You. We have many points of dissatisfaction before You, but we dedicate our minds and bodies, relying upon the historical shimjung with which You worked hard to find us. Please have dominion over us. I sincerely desire that at this time, You will burn our shortcomings with the fire of the Holy Spirit and consecrate us so that we can dedicate our minds and bodies as a whole and acceptable offering to You.
Father! Your sons and daughters have taken the trouble-filled steps to this place instead of Your tearful course, filled with sorrow and stabbing pain. Please take note of our determination and actions. Lead us at this time to Your deep and loving shimjung, and let no one fall into Satan’s accusation.
We know that You want to spread the new word to the nation through us, but we are anxious that we may fail our responsibilities due to our disloyalty and shortcomings and bring sorrow to You. Father, I earnestly pray that You look at the faults with which we have served Your will and fill them with the power of Your life and love. Bless us so that we can take on any mission and responsibility. There is a myriad of satans in our path. Father, lead us so that our determination remains intact and we become an offering of life before You, enduring until the end without losing to Satan. I sincerely pray that You will guide us to proceed with our initial determination and fight for the sole purpose of revealing Your glory.
Have pity on Your children who are gathered here, and lead them to Your loving heart. Remove all elements of darkness. Allow us to serve You with the authority of life and as one body. Let us sing glorious hymns and show gratitude for Your blessing of glory. Keep Satan away from this gathering from the beginning to the end, and reveal only Your glory through our mind and body. We pray in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The title of the sermon I want to reflect upon with you is “The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain.” I will speak briefly upon this topic.
The Place of God and His Hope
I will speak about “The Freedom, Liberation and Unification God Seeks to Attain” from the standpoint of faith. You think that God is omnipotent and nothing is impossible for Him. God has so many abilities. Yet if one asks, searching deep down in his shimjung, whether God’s heart is free, I cannot say it is. If one asks if God is amid the joy of liberation with a promising providence in front of Him, that is not true either. Moreover, if one asks whether the activities of man and all things are motivated by God’s shimjung, that is, whether they are in a unified position in which they move with the movement of God’s heart, we cannot but discover that this is not true.
It is the original character and original shimjung of God to want to be free. God also is the Father who should dominate the universe from a liberated position. The fact that He cannot do so is the grief of God, all things and history. Although He should bind the created world with the unifying ideal and dominate it, He cannot do that. We cannot but acknowledge that this is God’s sorrow, pain and grief.
When God first created the world, the original ideal was the garden of freedom, liberation and unification. Yet you cannot deny that there was a reason God’s ideal was not fulfilled. That became the source of sorrow for God, humankind and all creation. What was this source of distress? We know well that it was the fall of man. In restoring humankind, God must have an ideal for this society, and we must also have that ideal. What is the standard of this ideal? You should know that freedom for the sake of God’s shimjung, liberation centered on God’s situation, and unification centered on God’s ideal are God’s hope, our hope and the standard of the ideal.
It is written in the Bible, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.” (II Corinthians 3:17) The Father is a spirit of freedom, liberation and unification. How can the shimjung of freedom, which transcends any trials, be instilled in your shimjung, you who serve such a Father? How can the point of liberation be found which can overcome all the walls of suffering? When will the peaceful moment of total unification be found, which our center of ideals desires? These are questions you should seriously consider.
Since God is not free, liberated and unified, the freedom being advocated on the earth today is not true human freedom. The liberation being proclaimed is not complete liberation, and the unification being promoted is not complete unification. Humankind has progressed from a clan, to a tribe, to a nation and a country, but such partial unification is not true unification.
The Standard of True Freedom, Liberation and Unification
Since we were created by God, the complete freedom, liberation and unification which we desire can be realized only when God becomes free and becomes the master of liberation and unification. Thus, we cannot deny from a logical standpoint that God’s freedom, liberation and unification are the standards for the freedom, liberation and unification humanity desires.
Looking back upon history, freedom, equality and love were promoted centering on humanism after the Middle Ages. Original freedom, equality and love are the attributes of whom? They are God’s attributes. If the Christianity of the Middle Ages had stood centered upon God in the position of freedom, liberation and unification, through which they could connect with the heart of God, words such as revolution or reformation would not have been needed on earth. Since Christianity did not achieve complete freedom, liberation and unification centered on God, the movement for freedom, liberation and unification was transferred to the outside world. This is what we now call the Renaissance.
Afterward, the ideology of freedom revolutionized monarchies and fought against imperialism, but all eventually became shattered. Though they brought revolution to find freedom, they did not completely overcome imperialism and finally collapsed. Afterwards, there were many ideologies and political ideals, but they are all being dismantled.
People, who long for freedom, insist upon external freedom, instead of seeking and possessing the perfect ideal of freedom. They lose true freedom by that. Though they call for freedom on the levels of the nation, the society, the family and the individual, they have repeated the history of losing true freedom. The kind of freedom being advocated now is not a freedom that can be eternally enjoyed by the original mind. Those who call for freedom often become excessively individualistic and isolated. You cannot deny this. Thus, it is clear from the trend of the present age that, unless the complete and unchanging ideal of freedom is established which can connect with the heavenly ideal of freedom and resonate with the freedom desired by the universe, the more one seeks freedom, the more one moves toward the dearth of freedom.
Thus, the question is whether there is the shimjung of freedom in our hearts which can harmonize with all. If we stood in God’s freedom, our shimjung of freedom would be at the level at which we could rejoice with all the people of the universe. Today, people do not stand in such a position of freedom. Though they proclaim freedom, they form a view of freedom within the boundary of themselves.
Freedom that departs from the Principle is not true freedom. Freedom that avoids responsibility is not true freedom. Freedom that produces no results is not true freedom. Thus, any act of freedom must be within the Principle. It must carry responsibility and produce results. If one seeks freedom without these conditions, naturally he will become far removed from the heavenly way. Thus, imperialism appeared after the Middle Ages only to fade away. There will soon come a time when all the ideologies hitherto presented will collapse upon the advent of the true ideology of freedom. This trend is gradually touching individuals. With a focus on your individual self as you work for freedom, you will feel the need to transform society and the family. The flow of history is such that it now separates, even my mind and body.
The Freedom Pursued by Man and the Essence of True Freedom
Democracy takes its ideal from Christianity, while it is saturated in science-centered individualism in regard to daily life. Thus, though democracy is based on freedom, it is fundamentally opposed to Christianity. When Christianity calls for freedom, it calls for the freedom of the whole universe. When Christianity pursues liberation, it pursues liberation of the whole. When it demands unification, it demands unification for the sake of God’s shimjung, that is, from the standpoint of Heaven’s rejoicing with the world. Since the people of the democratic world understand freedom based upon individualism, when they insist upon freedom, they eventually wind up denying their country, society, organization, and even their families and conjugal relationships. Eventually, they fall into a situation where they even deny the center of their heart. What will remain for them then? Loneliness.
When loneliness reaches its peak, they will become people of distrust, unable to trust either the other or the self. When the self becomes lonely and suspicious, it will be swallowed by cosmic fear and finally will be destroyed. This is the trend of current history.
Therefore, when we proclaim freedom, it should not be the irresponsible freedom advocated in the past and present. It should be true freedom, which is accompanied by God’s love and ideal which connect to shimjung. It must lead to the world in which it operates like an unchangeable iron rule along with your power of life. It should follow free law, which must make motion.
Where is the original spring of happiness which all people desire to possess? With this they are assured of being delivered from sin, and they can experience the joy of liberation. At the end of history, we have never possessed the ideal which should surely be possessed. You should know that unless you search hard for the ideal, you will have nothing to do with the world of the ideal and the garden of freedom, liberation and unification to be created at the end of history. Since this is our hope, we believe that God’s hope is also like this. When will God’s and our hope be realized within myself? When will the heartistic foundation to represent God’s shimjung be prepared so that I can discover within myself the freedom, liberation and unification that God feels and hopes? You should realize that, unless you discover this, you will generate historical sorrow and become a victim of judgment.
Until now, humankind has been struggling to build the world of freedom. We have been fighting to attain freedom. God, however, did not use the kind of strategy that makes sense to humankind. Though God had to go through strife for the sake of liberation, His method was different from the bloody battles of the nations of the world.
What Kind of Person Is the Master of Freedom?
While achieving freedom, God never used the method of striking others, though He struggled against certain sovereigns to liberate and save the individual. In human history, the quest for freedom involved an individual attacking an individual, a nation attacking a nation, and a country attacking a country. God takes the opposite way. In restoring the individual, before hitting the individual, He allows Himself to be hit first. In restoring the nation, before striking the nation, He personally walked the suffering road to liberate the nation. In restoring the world, before striking the world, He personally walked the arduous path.
What kind of person can be the master of freedom in the future? He is the one who can serve God. To find the ideal of freedom that resonates with God, one must follow God’s strategy. That is, in restoring the family, he must strike himself as hard as the value of liberating the family. In restoring the nation and world, he should be able to hit himself as much as its value. For the sake of Heaven, again he must hit himself the corresponding amount, and he should be able to rejoice while being hit. You need to know that only those who possess such a shimjung of freedom will necessarily remain in the last days of history.
Without the master of freedom, liberation and unification appearing on the earth as a substantial being, as God desires, God’s freedom, liberation and unification cannot be connected to humankind. Jesus came as a substantial incarnation of freedom, liberation and unification representing Heaven. Thus, with Jesus, you should feel the valuable shimjung which grasped the freedom deep in God’s shimjung and realized liberation and unification. Without the shimjung with which one can be delighted simply with Jesus even without any worldly things, one cannot reach the realm of freedom, liberation and unification in which God can rejoice with humanity.
The freedom sought in the world today and that which is sought by God have different directions. In the world, nations attack nations, and sovereignties struggle against sovereignties to gain freedom, risking their own lives. Heaven, however, extends to the whole, willingly being smitten, voluntarily taking responsibility, and finding solutions on its own. You should know that this is God’s secret for reclaiming freedom.
Focusing on yourself, if you have the heart of freedom such that you can rejoice even when you have to give up your life, you can be regarded as having the highest freedom. Considering this in light of the providence of restoration, there was a liberation movement in the spirit world at the same time there was such a movement in the physical world. Since God cannot treat a human directly as a child or His representative, the human has to ascend from the position of a servant through the position of a child until he can directly relate to God. Such an historical course has been pursued.
In the Old Testament Age, God built the garden of freedom and liberated the Kingdom of Heaven by using angels as servants. To enter the realm of grace in which one is liberated as a son of God from the position of a servant, one should be able to feel joy even when losing one’s life. You should know that only those who have such a shimjung of freedom can go beyond the position of a servant and take the position of a son. Thus, the ancestors who have until now served God’s providence had the shimjung of freedom to rejoice even in death. They could boldly overcome all trials and even death. With the establishment of such a standard of shimjung, there could be hope for transition from the position of a servant to that of a son, and from the age of the servant to that of the son. With such a standard established, God could send His only son. Jesus had to rise from the position of a son to that of a father.
Achieving True Freedom, Liberation and Unification
When Jesus came to the earth, he could freely choose between life and death for the sake of God until he was acknowledged by the Father. He could complete the eternal and never-changing ideal of the only son. Thus, before all people, he has been liberating those in the servant’s position into children. You must know this well. Because Jesus overcame the suffering course of death and set up the standard of oneness with God’s internal shimjung, we can receive the benefit of going to the position of children by believing in Jesus.
If in your heart you desire the freedom, liberation and unification God seeks to connect it to you, you must voluntarily pursue the course from the age of the servant to that of the children and from the age of the children to that of the family in which one serves the parents. You should know that this is determined by the principle of freedom. This is not achieved under a certain command, restriction or by coercion. Only when we overcome the question of life and death and can share a free and joyful shimjung, thinking of God and Jesus, can we make a relationship with God’s ideal.
The history of the providence of restoration repeated the history of liberation. One pursued the course in which he was liberated from the age of the servant through Jesus and the Holy Spirit and became a child, but now we should become God’s sons and daughters centering on God’s love, children who can receive God’s inheritance as God’s family. If you want to establish the living standard of an eternally inseparable relationship with God, you should be able to freely control even death. Only then can you have the authority to receive your inheritance from God as His sons and daughters.
Today this earth wanders around searching for freedom. God also carries on the providence searching for freedom. Just as Jesus fought for God without regard for death, God worked for Jesus disregarding greater difficulties. You should know clearly that if those in the servant’s position live with the shimjung of freedom and transcend death for God, God comes to them with the shimjung that can freely overcome the valleys of death.
If you establish the standard of freedom by which you can overcome any hardship with joy, even without God’s presence and dominion, you can defeat any previous fear, anger, grief, sorrow and mistreatment, and turn the realm of death into the realm of God’s life. Only when the fundamental issue of rebirth is resolved can we freely love God, and God can freely love us. When we become one with God, God’s shimjung of freedom and liberation and the ideal of unification will turn into our shimjung of freedom and liberation and ideal of unification.
Though Jesus gave his life for God, there is an area in which Jesus cannot communicate with God. Though Jesus freely went to die for our sake, there remains an area in which Jesus and the Holy Spirit cannot unite. The reason is that since Jesus is in Heaven and the Holy Spirit is on the earth, there is a distance that keeps them apart. We are also distant as we proceed toward the position of children centering on Jesus and Holy Spirit.
The Starting Point of Freedom, Liberation and Unification
To remove this distance between Jesus and God, God should be able to love all humankind as His children and freely hold them. Only then can all the walls between God and Jesus be eliminated at once. Our desire to follow Jesus and freely pass through death for the sake of God should not simply be a concept. A standard of overcoming any toil and a liberating standard of forgetting the pain of death should be established by us. This is because only then can the relationship of freedom, liberation and unification start to be made with God. As we strive for God’s will, within God’s ideal realm of freedom, liberation and unification, we should be the masters of freedom representing God. We should liberate all the people for God and accomplish unification.
To do this, you should be free individuals who go over the hills of death with a deep and eager heart toward Heaven, not taking suffering as pain, sorrow or grief. Heaven can hold up such a person, disregarding His own pain and suffering, even giving up all His authority and dignity. Only in such a situation can God be our God and we His sons and daughters. Among the many prophets after Jesus, no one was exempt from suffering. Though God has the level of heart by which He can go beyond all His dignity, suffering, ordeals and sorrow for the sake of regaining His beloved children, He has never met anyone who has the same level of shimjung. You should know that this is a condition of great lamentation for God.
The power of love, the grace of liberation, and the principle of unification, which are generated when we pass through the realm of death with the assistance of God, can become the standard for freedom, liberation and unification for the entire world of existence. In this stage, though the son God searched for might be one individual, he would have indemnified all historical grief and death. His value is higher than the entire cosmos. When will such a connection be made between Heaven and earth and between God and us? Without this connection, Jesus cannot stand in a state of freedom and liberation nor can the ideal of unification be realized. Thus, even in the spirit world Jesus has to pray constantly.
Only when such a standard is established in today’s Christians can we establish, as an unchanging standard within you, the principle of love, the principle of liberation from all evil and death, and the principle of unification, all of which are deeply cherished in God’s shimjung. With such a standard, you can look upon the world with the shimjung with which God looked during the 6,000 years of the providence and with which He endured innumerable sorrows, pain and ordeals to find His beloved son.
When such an individual appears and forms a family, a society, a nation and a world, God’s garden of freedom will be created within your daily life. You should know that the garden of liberation and the world of unification desired by God starts from such a standard.
So far, the world of Satan persisted with the sovereignty of false freedom. It looks like freedom, but it is not. It looks as if it is unifying the individual, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world, but in fact it is separated from the principles of freedom, liberation and unification.
The Current of the Providence and the Proper Human Attitude
The more freedom, liberation and unification one has based on a worldly standard opposed to God, the more anxiety, dissatisfaction and fear will swallow one up internally. One may look successful externally, but he is collapsing internally. Externally, he appears unified, but internally he is disintegrating into pieces. How then can such an internal crumbling be compensated for? God is the one who works to compensate this. Without Him, humankind today would be frustrated, would give up, and would finally expire in the realm of death.
As for people like Americans, they have no parents, no children and no relatives. Because of this, many people even desert their country. Furthermore, many people follow a religion purely for their own profit and abandon it when there is no more to gain. Since the world is created, not for the individual, but for the whole, those who live only for their own profit will suffer before the world, which exists for the worldwide ideal. They will suffer in proportion to how selfishly they lived.
Therefore, the society in which individualism and selfish lifestyles are prevalent will finally become a society of isolation, distrust and fear. It will finally give up and destroy itself. You should know that we are entering the age where such a fate sees its historical conclusion.
Looking upon this state of affairs, we should have the ideal of freedom, liberation and unification. Where can we start? If you start from your old ideology of individualism, you will lose the world unawares and inevitably be rejected by the world. Unless something appears which can unify humankind and return man to the original individual, family, society, country and world, it is a big problem for God and humankind. In this age of the last days, God has the responsibility to accomplish freedom, liberation and unification with humankind. Therefore, although the external world has been disintegrating, God has installed in the world one force of the root of the heart and has worked to establish the standard of the absolute principle of freedom, liberation and unification. This is impenetrable by death. God has worked to establish an individual with such a standard, and a family, a tribe, a country and a nation.
Consequently, the Bible describes Jesus as the king of kings, the master of our lives, and the master of the cosmos. He is also depicted as the subject of life, the ideal and love. Thus, until I make an eternal relationship with the subject, Jesus, and that relationship advances into an eternal relationship with God, we cannot fill the gaps between God, Jesus and us. If you have the power of life such that even when distrust, loneliness and fear sweep society, you confidently and freely overcome it, your life will not be destroyed, no matter what world of judgment and destruction comes into being. As long as such a standard remains, you will not be a victim of judgment in the fearful realm of death.
Why God Worked Hard for 6,000 Years
Such a standard should not be established simply as an ideal, but with the substantial unity of mind and body. Whether you will be preserved in the future will be determined by whether you can possess that ideal. Only with this am I entitled to serve God with my life, as God comes to us investing all He has with His life. Only then can God institute a free way of life after restoring me and establish the ideal of freedom, liberation and unification. If you have such a qualification, as long as God exists eternally, we have nothing to do with the power of death.
Now looking at your own self, are there a free shimjung, free life and free ideal in your heart which can rejoice centering on true life?
This is the question. When you have such a shimjung, life and ideal, you will be qualified to freely digest and pass through any path of death and suffering and restore the elements of life. In this way, you can live forever in God’s world of freedom, liberation and unification.
However, there are trials and sufferings in the quest for freedom. What can block the ardent shimjung of love from God and the spurting shimjung of freedom? No one. It cannot be shattered even when everything else is. No matter how strong the realm of death may be, it cannot suppress the shimjung that rises. When a living connection of eternal unity between God and you is formed in your life, God’s eternal freedom, liberation and unification are established in your heart. Without such a standard in your heart, though the freedom, liberation and unification which are aspired to as ideals may be realized, they will have nothing to do with you.
What is the reason God worked so hard for 6,000 years? It was to find one individual who could carry, feel and establish with God the freedom, liberation, and unification desired by God’s shimjung. You should know that just as God is eternal, only when an eternal and unchanging standard is determined can such a world of the ideal come to you. Without such a standard of heart, no matter how well the external world is formed, no matter how it may appear externally that the world of freedom, liberation and unification is realized, it will not be the world of complete freedom, liberation and unification.
Today the power of life, the ideal and love are leaping in our hearts. Unless the firm standard of this leaping force and the standard of the efforts of God, who suffered for 6,000 years, are established in yourself, you will be swept away when the power of darkness and death comes to envelop your life. This power has fought against God for 6,000 years. When you possess the power of your life, ideal and love at the stage of relating to God’s love, the freedom based on this foundation is complete freedom. The liberation based on this principle is complete liberation. The unification based on this principle is complete unification.
Without such a standard, when the world is swayed by chaos and fear, you will not be able to prevent it. What can move it is the power of life, the ideal and love. You should clearly know that without the standard of going over this, no matter how hard God has worked in the history of the providence, the freedom, liberation and unification that God has sought to attain through the history of the providence cannot be found.
Prayer
Father! Have pity on humankind, who has lost the garden of freedom, liberation and unification. We thought that all that was lost could be regained in the external world, but now we have learned the sorrow of history: that even with a certain external standard, there have been internal divisions. Let the power of life, love and the ideal of God overflow in us so as to take back the internal world of freedom, liberation and unification so that the standard of shimjung that can laugh at death and overcome pain and sorrow can be planted in our hearts. Help us realize that in the world of shimjung we can feel the freedom of all the saints, feel the whole circumstances, and move with the life of the whole.
Father! Looking at the historical world, it proceeds centered on the material, instigating divisions within and putting on a deceptive form of unification without. Internally, on the contrary, we realize that history has been flowing to avoid poverty of the spirit, life and love. Now that we have arrived at the time when we should reinforce the time of life, the time of the ideal, and Your love, please give us the heart that can rejoice even in crossing the line of death. We should attain the loyalty of heart to be able to call You Father. We should know that You had worries and battles for us. Help us realize that only when we have a change of heart and feel that Your hard work comes to us with a value 10,000 times greater than that of our death can the power of life emerge which can replenish the deficiency of the spirit.
Father! Today not only material famine and urges but also spiritual death and thirst are arising in the hearts of the people on earth. Grant us the fire of the Holy Spirit, Your life and Your love, which can fill this emptiness. Grant us Your shimjung of freedom, liberation and unification which can digest all attainable internal life at the place of its explosion, and the ideal of freedom. Father, we know that You are driving all, from the individual to the whole, to such a place to find us. We also know that from the world, the country, and the nation to the individual, they are driven out to that position in Your name.
Today, when things are flowing toward the final moments, we do not have the standard by which we can eternally keep Your power of the whole and by which our contradictory selves can be connected to the world. Grant us a greater shimjung that can find it and make the connection. Let Your existence, Your life, Your ideal, Your love and true freedom, liberation and unification be realized in my one being as they have been moving internally. We have learned that only then can we have the qualification to call the distant kingdom of God ours, the distant Kingdom of Heaven our kingdom, and the shimjung that can connect with the distant ideal our shimjung.
Since only those who have such a shimjung in their hearts can possess the heavenly kingdom and fulfill the ideal of the Kingdom of Heaven, the Father told us, “I am in your heart.” Jesus also told us, “I am in your heart.” I eagerly pray that we will see that everything will find resolution only with the heartistic standard that believes that the Kingdom of Heaven is in our hearts. I eagerly desire and ask that we understand and feel Your shimjung as more valuable than my body, my freedom and my life. I pray that we may restore one shimjung that can deplore Your sorrow more than the death of the whole world, and we can stand before You as individuals who can understand it.
With Your toilsome historical course of searching and wandering before us, let Your shimjung explode in our shimjung. Guide us to prepare the foundation of shimjung such that we can realize freedom, liberation and unification based on Your life, ideal and love and fulfill Your desire, saying, “Father! Please receive consolation now. We know Your heart.” Guide us to be Your sons and daughters who, singing of glorious life, the ideal and liberation with You, will soothe Your heart which led the movement of freedom to resolve the sorrow, pain and lamentation of restoration. Let the whole of humankind gather around and sing of freedom, liberation and unification with You.
We learned that if we have the shimjung of freedom and liberation, even a hundred million satans and enemies cannot harm us. We have also seen that an ideology cannot restrict us. Once our shimjungs unite with You and move forward based on freedom and liberation, Heaven and earth will automatically unite, harmonize and move. Therefore, grant us such a standard in our hearts. I eagerly desire and ask for it. For the sake of this life and hope, guide us to establish the standard of uniting with Your shimjung, even risking our lives. Save us from the ridicule of our enemies until we receive You in our hearts. Keep us unchanged until Your shimjung is settled in our hearts beyond the persecution of our enemies. Make us Your children who can overcome all fear. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
Chapter 22: Who Will Become the Friend of Golgotha?
Luke 12:26-43
Former Headquarters Church
Seoul, Korea
October 19, 1958
Prayer
Today we have gathered before You again. We are afraid of not being able to return glory to You in Your distress. We are afraid of revealing reckless falsity before Your will. Father, if we are unworthy, at least grant us the sincere heart to be able to humble ourselves and wait for Your mercy. Without Your care, how can we see Your glory on the earth? Without abiding in Your shimjung, how can we see the garden granted to us? Father! We have desired from the beginning and pursued the will to become those who can abide in Your heart, harmonize with Your shimjung, and live with You.
We sang about You when we first experienced Your shimjung. Yet along the way, many of us have been wounded in the heart. Please have sympathy with our plights. We have learned through the process of restoration that the initial determination we made before You must remain in the last garden of restoration. We know too well that the Israelites who did not fall in the wilderness were those whose ardent shimjung toward You was unchanging from the time of the departure from Egypt throughout the forty-year course. Those who had the shimjung of loyalty toward You received the blessing of the second Israel. At this time, guide us to question whether we are now able to obey Your commands after having pledged and determined before You.
We know that You are lamenting because the last days are approaching, yet there are none who can take responsibility for Your sake. Although we seek You, we behold Your glory, and we call ourselves Your sons, we know that You are grieving because no one appears to take responsibility for any area in Your will, providence and battle course. Father, allow us again to set up the altar of repentance and shed tears of deep regret. We know the Israelites fell in the wilderness by desiring comfort and complaining against You. Since we have gathered here to hold Your hand and not become like them, lead us to participate in Your glory. I eagerly desire and ask this.
Father, have pity now on the thirty million people. Father, have pity on these people. Since the many altars set up for the nation may be far away from the nation and Your will, as long as the providential will is to be accomplished through them, please intervene with them directly. If they do not listen to Your advice, teach them their path even by using whips. I eagerly desire and ask this, loving Father. If there are people who remain to the end, shouldering the responsibility to
awaken this sleeping nation, Father, allow even one more life to come into harmony with Your loving shimjung. You have mourned for 6,000 years. I eagerly desire and ask, loving Father, that we may become Your sons and daughters who can repent before You, obey You and fight against Satan.
In spite of Your work of the providence, human mistakes brought sighs and grudges. Pacify Your grief with us. Father, we are trying to find Your ideal garden, so please work with us directly and with an eager shimjung. I earnestly desire and ask, loving Father, that You will consecrate whatever needs to be consecrated so that we can offer it to You as a glorious sacrifice and keep Your altar clean. As we are now looking for Your sons and daughters who will work hard for the earth, let us not simply hold onto ourselves before You. Loving Father, I sincerely desire and ask that we can feel our own shortcomings for ourselves. Please protect the path of Golgotha to the end. Although we are unworthy to appear before Your altar, let us remain on this course until the end.
Father, although the allowed will and time should be fulfilled and manifested through us, we are worried that if we become unable to serve the will, You will install another prepared people and put us to shame. Father, manifest the day of glory and soothe Your grieving shimjung through us. Establish one day of joy, and let us participate in Your joy. I eagerly desire and ask this, loving Father. Although we want to appear before You, we are worried that it may deeply disturb You. Therefore, Father, I eagerly hope that we can go forth for the will of Your desire without hesitation and move according to Your command, so that the day comes soon when we can comfortably trust each other.
Since we are anxious that we may not possess Your shimjung and may simply become objects of Your sorrow, let our hearts resemble Your heart. Let our situations converge with Your situation. Let our hopes resemble Your hope. Father, I eagerly desire and ask that You guide us so that in life and in death we live, centered on You, as Your possession. We leave the rest of the hour up to You. Please rule over us as You please. There are righteous people throughout the country who are offering ardent prayers. Please spread over them Your hand of grace and bless them with admonition so that they can experience the heavenly glory. We pray all this in the name of the Lord. Amen.
The title of the speech I would like to reflect upon with you today is “Who Will Become the Friend of Golgotha?”
Jesus Brought the Truth, Life, Love and Ideal of Heaven
As you well know, Golgotha means the place of the skull and thus is the place of death. To become a friend of Golgotha means to become a friend of death. Christians believe in Jesus of Golgotha. Golgotha reminds us of the cross of Jesus, and the cross reminds us of his internal character. His internal character reminds us that God grieved over his death. With the dying Jesus, Heaven was stricken with sorrow and the earth took delight. Jesus came for the sake of the earth and Heaven; yet only Heaven understood him as he died for Heaven and earth. We should know that this is the sorrow of history.
If the chosen people had understood Jesus as God did, human history would not have become so deviant. Jesus came as the representative of truth, life, the ideal and love. Yet the truth, life, ideal and love he proclaimed were centered on Heaven and not on humanity. They were the truth a fallen person had to find to find hope, the life he had to possess, the ideal he had to find, and the love he had to possess eternally. Although Jesus came with truth, life, the ideal and love, when he died none of these, for which humankind searched, could be found. We should realize that for this reason humankind could not help roaming about.
So far there has been no one who possesses the word of truth which emanates deeply from the shimjung of Jesus. No one has the life which deeply grasps the bone and flesh of Jesus. There has been no one on earth who possesses the ideal to which Jesus aspired with his united mind and body and the love which enabled him to bring people together and run toward one purpose. Jesus, who came with the heavenly truth, life, the ideal and love sought to fulfill God’s ideal and will of love centering on earthly people and to fulfill the unifying purpose of the Creator God. Because of the lack of faith and the betrayal of our ancestors, however, in the course of history the truth, life, ideal and love God tried to find have vanished.
Thus, buried in fallen ties, humankind has had to wander around looking for the true word, life, ideal and love. Therefore, there should come a time when in the last days humanity can go through the woe-stricken process of battle in history and find one life. In other words, there should come a time when the common purpose is achieved, with a movement of one life directing the world and one ideal embracing all humankind. The sages who have come to serve God’s will have hoped that humankind would harmonize into inseparable oneness. In the last days, the unifying movement of love occurs which can melt anything. We are in a desperate time when humankind is living in the last period of history in distress, bitterness and fear. We must feel again how the sages have been struggling, disregarding death, to achieve such a day.
Though Jesus died on the cross, it does not mean complete ruin. Rather, his truth, life and love remain after his death. How then can humankind find this remaining word, life, ideal and love? You should know that this is the final question man should resolve.
The Ignorance and Distrust of the Chosen People
What then is the sorrow of Jesus, who came with God’s will? What were his mistreatment and anger? What was his utmost pain? You should know that the greatest sorrow for Jesus was the shimjung he had when he could not complete what he wanted to say, give life completely, leave behind the joyful ideal, and share heavenly love. He knew he carried the heavenly word overflowing with life, the ideal and love.
Throughout the thousands of years of history, God tried to have our ancestors assist Heaven, but they betrayed Him in every age. Thus, we should feel and know that since we have such ancestors, we in the last days are standing at a great crossroad in which we may easily become historical and cosmic betrayers again. Jesus was sent to the Israelites as a promise, after thousands of years of effort from Abraham to Moses. The Israelites were chosen as the center of the word, life, the ideal and love. Yet the chosen people, who had waited and prepared for the Messiah, standing on their historical merit, were unable to serve him. Jesus was to be served as the hero of history, for whom countless ancestors had hoped. Yet there was no one to serve him.
We should not allow Jesus to be born in a stable. At that time, there was a prophesy that the Messiah would appear in Bethlehem. Yet there was no one who waited for the Messiah, who might appear without warning, with even a small hut prepared. When Jesus was born, the whole of Jerusalem was in commotion. The rumor spread quickly that Messiah would be born in Bethlehem. Yet no one prepared for his birth in Jerusalem or in Bethlehem.
Today’s Christians should think again that Jesus, the prince of Heaven, the Messiah, was pitifully lying down in a stable. Since the chosen people did not recognize Jesus as the Messiah who would speak about and witness to Heaven, today they cannot stand before Heaven. The Messiah needs clothes to wear and a house to live in on earth. Among all the religious believers at that time, especially the Pharisees and Sadducees, there was no one who even prepared one room for the Messiah.
We should be deeply sad looking at the sin of our ancestors, who followed Heaven so recklessly. To not repeat the historical error, we should listen to the worries in our heart and plead with Heaven. After 4,000 years of preparation, who would have imagined that what happened to Jesus would occur! Where did the 4,000 years of effort go? The chosen people and Jerusalem were deep in sleep, aware of nothing, when Heaven sent the only chosen son of the promise. They bragged about their religious order and wished it could replace the sovereignty. The fact that Jesus appeared to such a people is a story that stands between humankind, who has to face God’s will, and God, who is carrying out the providence. You may not know this.
True Faith in Jesus
Jesus was a carpenter until he was thirty. If someone has had a holy, spiritual experience, he would know a part of the thirty years of Jesus’ life. If there is someone who knows, his heart will be torn with sorrow when he eats a good meal, wears good clothes, and lives in good circumstances. God was with Joseph when he took Mary, according to God’s will. Growing up in Joseph’s family, however, Jesus was treated disdainfully as a stepchild. As the children of Joseph became many, Jesus became more isolated. Thus, without being able to share his situation and feelings, he spent the thirty years of his life humbly, making other people’s doors with a saw and plane. Who knew his situation? No one. At that time, he could not appear as the historical Jesus as you believe in him now nor as the Christ with the historically acknowledged character.
Who are the ones who will receive the Messiah when he appears in the last days? Not the one who serves the historical character of Jesus. You should know that it is the one who serves the character of Jesus of the age. You should know that though Jesus carried the way of Heaven in his heart and worried about the earth, he suffered the sadness of not being recognized by his parents, and brothers and sisters.
Now we should believe in this Jesus. Our Unification members should believe, but believe in this Jesus first, know this Jesus first. We should know that, though we know Jesus as having taken the path of the cross and death, in fact he came to live. We should hold onto the deceased Jesus and cry.
Jesus was in a wretched situation. He could share his feelings in preparing for his death with no one. He could share his shimjung, stricken with the worries, sorrows and grudges of Heaven and earth, with no one. If there had been people who could cry with Jesus, understand his situation and befriend him, they would have become his disciples. Why Peter? How could Peter, fishing at the shore of Galilee, become the chief disciple of Jesus? This was to be deplored. What happened to the prepared religious figures and the chosen people? How could Peter and the fishermen, who were not even in God’s plan, unexpectedly become the disciples of Jesus? Jesus must become indignant. Jesus grieved because there was no welcome from the chosen people.
Thus, as you believe in the Lord today, do not simply believe in the deceased Jesus. Believe in Jesus as he worked when he was alive. Believe not only in Jesus who died on the cross but in Jesus who worried over the will of Heaven for the thirty years of his life. You should know that the course of his life was one of sighing for the sake of the will. It was one of a sorrowful shimjung, culminating in the sadness of the cross. Where is someone, on the earth, who understands Jesus’ suffering shimjung at Golgotha? Where is the one who can be his friend? Jesus needed friends in his family, friends among his brothers and sisters, friends who could represent all the fathers and mothers, and friends who could represent the church. He needed friends who could carry the cross in his place. Jesus needed friends who could tread the worldwide path of the cross and Golgotha in his place. There is no one now who knows this will and believes in Jesus thus.
Jesus, who appeared in the flesh with the historical will, was brought down after working under adverse circumstances. Those who have walked the historical course following the will Jesus left behind also have found themselves under the miserable circumstances of the ages, and they cried out for Jesus. When Jesus carried the cross at Golgotha, the whole universe was at stake. We should understand the heavenly shimjung, which therefore roams around to find a friend of Golgotha. That is, Heaven is looking for the friend who can understand the shimjung of Golgotha.
Human History, Present and Future, Considered from the Standpoint of the Struggle
Historically, as evil grew strong, the good became weak. When evil was too strong for the good to guide it, history went on with evil conquering the good. Amid this, however, a small goodness sprouted forth, formed a greater goodness, and proceeded toward the purpose of goodness. You should know, then, that the historical course thus far has moved through the process by which goodness rises. Thus, history flows from the individual through the family, and with a social character. Through the form of the collective clan, the tribe, and the nation and country, it comes to the stage of the world. Furthermore, history will not stop at the visible world. It will extend toward the spirit world of the universe.
Human history has been going through the ages of goodness centered on the individual, the clan, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world. In this way, a small goodness in history has been developing into greater goodness. Thus, the individual battle turned into a family battle, the family battle turned into a clan battle, the clan battle turned into a social battle, the social battle turned into a national battle, the national battle turned into a worldwide battle. If the spirit world exists, there will be a battle between the spirit world and the earth. If God exists, only when the war between God and the countless evil spirits of the earth is over will the age of peace come to this universe. You should realize God’s situation, who is working through such a process of the Principle. The age of cosmic peace will come only when God resolves all the problems after a clash with Satan and the evil hordes on the earth.
Now that the battle is growing from the individual to the clan, the tribe, the country and the world, what will happen to the world from now on? If there are a spirit world and Heaven, we must fight against the spirit world. How can you avoid the fear that creeps into your mind in the last days? There will come an age where you will feel greater fear than that of the atomic bomb. That is, not only the external terror of the atomic age will attack you, but a wave of dread will come in your mind. Thus, people these days have much fear. Mental patients are growing in number. This is because they are faced with spiritual combat with Satan. We should finish this fight, become one with God, and take responsibility for the Father’s war, sorrow and pain. The day on which to assign the responsibility for the Father’s pain, sorrow and mistreatment is the day of the returning of Jesus and the day of the great judgment upon man. This is the way of God’s providence.
After this historical process, what will happen then? Now the age of the national struggle is passed. It is the time when democracy and communism are waging a worldwide struggle. They will eventually become one. Why, then, has Christian history gone through this process? The form of the right-hand and left-hand thieves at the time of Jesus’ crucifixion is making a worldwide appearance today. The right-hand thief appeared in the form of worldwide democracy representing God, and the left-hand thief appeared in the worldwide form opposing God, centered on man and material. What will appear next? The crisis of resurrection with the death of Jesus will come. That is, the left-hand thief started as an individual, and this led to a family and a clan. It formed a tribe, a people, a country and a world. On the other hand, the right-hand thief also formed a world. The result of Jesus’ being sown as a seed in the ground has come down to this in the last days.
Now what we should be worried about is in what position democracy stands. You should understand Jesus’ shimjung at the time of death so that you will find yourself and rejoice upon the arrival of the kingdom of God. We should know what the conclusion of this democracy will be, since it does not possess God’s ideal, which can represent Jesus’ shimjung. Today, those of us on the side of democracy should at least become like the right-hand thief, who could cry for the death of Jesus while taking his own death as a matter of course. Now is the time you should become like this.
Peter and the Twelve Disciples Should Have Become Friends of Golgotha
To examine worldwide phenomena from the Christian viewpoint, they are a result of history. You should pray to find out what historical process God has gone through to cause this result. This way you should realize that the prayer you inevitably came to offer, “Father! Let this nation receive the worldwide blessing as the chosen people. Send judgment against those who failed in the past and punish the unfaithful rebels,” was also an option for Jesus.
Yet, what anger did Jesus harbor upon death? The chosen religion of Israel tortured his heart and the chosen people nailed him to the cross. This was his anguish and lamentation. Though Jesus personally had great sorrow, however, he could forget his death and pray for them. He thought about the situation of God, who had walked through blood and tears for 4,000 years and about the people of Israel, whom God had chosen and raised for 4,000 years. Today’s Christians of the world should think about this again.
If Jesus had not prayed for them, the chosen nation and the religious believers would have received the judgment first. You should know that Jesus gave them blessing because he thought that if only there were some room granted by Heaven, they would follow in his footsteps and come over to his side. When I see Jesus’ words about the right-hand thief, tears unconsciously come out. The people did not know that God’s sorrow of 4,000 years was embodied there in Jesus. Only a thief recognized it. This was a sad scene. There were countless people in front of Jesus. It was the religious believers and chosen people who were to move and halt with the blood and flesh of Jesus, but they failed to do so. They should have shed blood together at the cross with Jesus. How preposterous that there was no one, but a murderous thief, to accompany him! Although Jesus was the Savior of all, he was in a pitiable position. It is extremely shameful that the only one who accompanied Jesus in his death was a murderous thief.
Had Peter been a friend of Golgotha or any of the twelve disciples, God would not have had any grudges. Jesus would not have died. If the twelve disciples had united and resolved to die with Jesus, a miracle would have occurred and Jesus would not have died. Jesus grieved for 33 years looking at the chosen people, and he shed tears for the three years of his public life, for the sake of the people of the earth. Yet where did the people who had put their hopes in Jesus go? Where did the religion go which had been watching? Where did the disciples go, who had shared joy and sorrow, and followed Jesus for the three public years? When they saw advantages to it and joy, they said that they were friends and disciples of Jesus. They tried to stand in the position of Jesus more than anyone else. At the end, their path had nothing to do with that of Jesus. As this formed the root of the beginning of a new history, history developed in this shape and has reached its end today.
Who received the blessing of Jesus? It was not the twelve disciples who had followed him nor the religious leaders, who had believed in Heaven, nor the Israelites, who had been chosen through blessing. The right-hand thief, who shed blood with Jesus and died on the cross with him received the historical blessing and went to Paradise before the chief disciple. This is the tragedy of tragedies. If both of the thieves had failed to participate in the death of Jesus, the providence of salvation would have been thwarted. You should know that Jesus could resurrect to appear again on earth and meet the unfaithful people again because the blood of the thief could establish with heavenly fortune the condition for building Paradise on earth.
Since there was one person who received Jesus as the bridegroom in the place of death, through this foundation, the fruit of goodness will surely appear on earth. It will appear for Jesus. No matter how strong Satan’s power is, he cannot demolish and eradicate the seed of goodness. If there is a faithful person who not only stands in the situation of death and sacrifices for goodness, but also collapses while holding onto goodness, goodness will multiply many-fold simply because of this. This is the ironclad rule. Those who opposed Jesus thought he would be wiped out once he was put to the cross. Since there were no followers, they thought that Satan took away all. Christians do not know that the history of resurrection arose with the thief on the right as a condition.
The Path of Golgotha Which Must Be Gone Over
Satan struck Jesus and the right-hand thief. After the death of Jesus, he struck the twelve disciples. Heaven gave even the twelve disciples to Satan. Why did he have to hit like this? Though the course of Jesus was an individual course to Golgotha, because of it the twelve disciples, the chosen people and the nation of the Israel also had to go through the course of Golgotha. Today all the Christians of the world and all humankind must also go through the course of Golgotha. Today’s democratic world does not know that it has to go over the worldwide hill of Golgotha, centering on democracy. Jesus tried to go over this worldwide hill of Golgotha. As you know, the reason Jesus prayed, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46) was not because he mourned his own death but because he was worried that if he died, humankind would have to go through the course of Golgotha. That is why he prayed, “My Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt.” (Matthew 26:39)
If Jesus had not gone through the course of Golgotha, there would not have been the worldwide course of Golgotha. However, once Jesus went through this path, carrying the worldwide and cosmic mission, the individual course of Golgotha remained to his followers. The family course of Golgotha remained in the age of the providence centered on the family. When the providence expanded from the family age to the stage of society, the social road of the cross also remained. In the providential age of the country, in which a national providential will is served, the paths of the family cross, the social cross, and the national cross had to be trodden. Thus, if the worldwide Christ comes on the earth, he has to carry the crosses of the world, the country, the society, the family and the individual. Today’s Christians do not know that such a hill of destiny remains.
What kind of Lord do today’s Christians want to receive? If there is Heaven, where would they meet Jesus? They would meet him in the place of resurrection after going over the hill of the cross. This is the resurrection of the second advent. For this reason, in the historical course after Jesus up to now, the path of Golgotha has been followed by the individual, the family, the society, the country and the world with many struggles. Now is the age when the democratic camp gets smitten by the communist camp. How, then, can we go over the worldwide Golgotha? Just as Jesus did, one must have a desperate shimjung for this nation, and the whole nation must be able to move as one body.
Until we become such a people, the tough worldwide path of Golgotha is blocked for us. Therefore, only when we find and establish one root or fruit of goodness in an extremely evil situation does the road open in which sinners and good people can become one. We should restore the twelve disciples relying on the authority of the risen Jesus. At that time, individuals and the twelve disciples should have received persecution for Jesus. Most of the twelve disciples were killed, however, because they could not do this. When the twelve disciples took the road of death, there was one person they pushed out, and this was the apostle John. One thief stood in the position where he was pushed out by the religion and people of Israel and the rebellious twelve disciples. Among the chosen people, God installed Jesus, and after his resurrection, He established the twelve disciples again. Furthermore, in place of the disciples, God installed a controversial figure. This was Paul.
God’s New Providence Centering on Paul
Today Christians say that Paul loved Heaven and knew the will of God. At that time, Paul was being persecuted by the twelve disciples. Though he conveyed the gospel as an apostle, he was persecuted by the twelve disciples. Paul met the risen Jesus and received the heavenly mission. Thus, in the position of an apostle who did not betray Jesus, Paul went to a foreign country, Rome, and spread the gospel under persecution. Since Paul sought the Lord in place of the martyrdom of the twelve disciples and the death of John, the focus of the providence shifted to a foreign nation. Do you understand? In this way, Paul entered Rome and received persecution alone.
Just as Jesus had gone the way of Golgotha with the cross of humankind, according to the one will of the providence, Paul persisted, no matter what persecution he received from Rome. His attitude of proceeding for the sake of Heaven, regardless of death, resembled that of Jesus. Thus, Christianity moved, centering upon Paul, and developed through the forms of the family, the tribe, the nation, the country and the world. Just as Jesus took the way of Golgotha, Paul volunteered to take the path of Golgotha for the twelve disciples, against the world of Satan. He went through the extreme persecution of Nero and was killed.
The individual sacrifice of Paul aroused groups such as the tribe, the twelve disciples and the Israelites. Since they united and fought beyond death, they could conquer Rome. Therefore, for the next four centuries, Christianity prospered. In the Middle Ages, centering on the Pope, Christianity had its heyday. The whole world was dominated by Christianity. The Roman Catholics had the mission to go beyond the national course of Golgotha and explore the worldwide stage. However, when they neglected this and preoccupied themselves with the desire for the national ideal, God struck them. This happened through the Renaissance. Through the Reformation, the stale consciousness was shattered and the papacy was fundamentally challenged. It gradually went downhill.
Among Christians, a new force of renovation appeared. This was the Protestants, centering on Luther. While attacking the old faith, those who were being persecuted formed a new faith centering on Luther: Protestantism. The Puritans, who inherited this spirit, went to America and created a new continental culture. They built the worldwide Christian kingdom. Although world history has moved this way, from now on, God will strike the world. We should consider where are those who are being hounded among people. We should find those who are most oppressed and the nation that is most miserable in the democratic world. Just as the thief became the friend of Jesus on his bloody cross, in the worldwide course of Golgotha, there will appear one group and one nation who differ from the betraying Israelite nation. Considering the historical providential viewpoint, it is right that such a group and nation must appear.
God Works Centering on the Oppressed People
In today’s world, however, there is communism, which does not believe in God. They claim that God does not exist, asking where He is. The right-hand thief appeared and befriended Jesus at the time of his death when Jesus was being smitten. Communism today commits massacres to fulfill its ambition. You should know that this massacre serves as a conditional sacrifice for being on the side of the democratic camp. Now that all humankind is driven to the course of the worldwide Golgotha, what should Christians who should go over this path do? They should first volunteer in front of the world to take the path. There have been those who were oppressed on the front-line of Christianity: Paul, who was persecuted by the apostles; the thief, harassed by the people; and the Protestants, denounced by the Papacy. Today we should always look around to see whether a people will appear who are being persecuted as a worldwide reformist movement. This is proven by history.
Now our Unification members should be oppressed by all the twentieth century ideologies and philosophies as a new reformist religion. We should be persecuted in this world of democracy and religious sectarianism. If there also is a country with the worldwide ideal, it should bleed before the world like the thief. Thus, Korea shed blood when the right and left clashed, with the fate of the world at stake through the June 25 War [the Korean War]. Considering this, it cannot be said that the Golgotha course of today’s democracy is dissimilar to the situation of the thief.
If the Korean people have sorrow, what should they hold onto? It is not time to fight with the ideology of the Lord. Carrying Jesus’ shimjung of Golgotha and the shimjung of being betrayed by the people, history and the world, we should be willing to take his part lest he suffers again. It seems that if this nation has a shimjung like the right-hand thief’s, who wanted to praise the glory of Jesus, this nation will meet Jesus who resurrected from death at Golgotha and enter the glorious age of resurrection.
So, Unification members, do not be distressed. You receive blessing. As you receive more persecution, you will understand Jesus’ shimjung. As you meet Jesus, you will understand his shimjung at the time when he eagerly prayed at Gethsemane, faced with Golgotha and death. As Jesus, at the extreme of persecution, united with Heaven and brought the grace of resurrection, a new history can start at the place of your persecution.
As we possess the worldwide ideal, only when we persevere through the persecutions of the world, the country, the church, the society, the family and the individual can we become the original heavenly sons and daughters who will pass beyond the cosmic trail of Golgotha in the age of universal resurrection. We will receive the power of resurrection as a bride before the coming Lord. You have been wandering to find a true friend, a true family and a true teacher. You have been looking for the true ideology, the country and the world, but in vain. You should know that, from the standpoint of Jesus, you have lost the position to achieve the purpose. Thus, if I want to find a true friend, I should be a true friend during my friend’s Golgotha. If I want to find a true family, I should take responsibility for the family’s Golgotha. Furthermore, in the national and worldwide course of Golgotha, you should take responsibility for the path of Golgotha with a shimjung like Jesus’. You should clearly know that to be a friend of Heaven in the worldwide course of Golgotha, you should be able to handle the eternal questions of life if everyone entrusts you with them. You should be able to handle the problems of the world.
